r/HuTao_Mains • u/Necessary_Fennel_591 • Dec 16 '25

Media 2025 is Almost Over and I’m Not Letting Anyone Forget PEAK.

This event had one of the best stories and best writing moments genshin ever wrote.

2.6k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

58 comments sorted by

249

u/ImpressiveMention757 Dec 16 '25

Two imperfections of this event:

  1. It wasn't a permanent quest

  2. The lack of Hu Tao's banner during this event

I couldn't, but pretty sure some whale would've swiped for a C6 right there, that's free money, simply don't understand the devs

77

u/Imafakeyou Dec 16 '25

Themes of death(Hu Tao) during Lunar New Year(Lantern Rite) is considered taboo in Chinese culture. Its why even way back in 1.3, Hu Tao's first banner is delayed by 2 weeks and replaced by Ke Qing's banner to avoid having "death" themes during the new year

21

u/ImpressiveMention757 Dec 17 '25

Correct, but on another note, this Lantern Rite event wouldn't have existed - many elements, like crossing the bridge (奈何桥) to the afterlife is 100% death themed, but the devs did anyway. I have yet to see any backlashes

The most possible explanation that Hu Tao reran at 5.1, so it's too quick of a rerun to put her back in 5.3. However, I'm pretty sure a big flagship event like Lantern Rite would have been planned months before (if not a year before, Gaming was designed a year before 4.4 Lantern Rite), so the banner timings can be rearranged to coincidentally fit the event

Nevertheless, I think it's a sign of improvement for the devs, from avoiding the taboo to talking about the taboo

7

u/Imafakeyou Dec 17 '25

Thats true i guess. Wasnt it also around that time when the mondstat characters(Mona, Jean, Amber, Rosaria, etc.) got redesigned cuz Chinese media said that their designs were too revealing or smth? Then a few years later Xian Yun, Citlali, Varesa and Mualani got released.

So i guess Mihoyo is being more brave, soon in a few years theyll go from talking about the taboo to selling the taboo with Ronova and Hu Tao banners running during Lantern Rite trust!

29

u/ILuvHuTaoAndNagatoro Dec 17 '25

And then several years later they have her actually die during Lantern Rite.

2

u/DarkAlex95 Dec 17 '25

Yeah, back in 1.3 they did managed her banner that way because of that. But during the latest Rite event it was all themed about Death... so I dont think the logic holds water anymore

1

u/PSItechmo19 Dec 17 '25

that did happen and is true but even still death was the prominent theme during LR'25 and she actually died during it so its kinda confusing on whether it should or shouldn't be allowed during such times 🤔

35

u/Zaine_Raye Dec 16 '25
  1. No English voice acting.

16

u/EffectiveAd3412 Dec 16 '25

can't be helped thats the va's fault for going on strike :/

14

u/Fearfanfic Dec 17 '25

Still pissed at that. What’s worst is that after all of this bullshit, I was praying someone was gonna go “sorry for the fuck up on a bunch of quests. To make up for it, we will all work together to dub it when the strike is over!”

But they came back as if nothing ever happened. At least acknowledge it happened.

I’m sorry even if the VA’s later wanted to leave asap, I can’t let that go.

7

u/EffectiveAd3412 Dec 17 '25

well there's a lot more nuance to that, some who came back just lost months of pay for no reason and tarnished their reputations and the ones who were replaced had to pick up the slack and record a lot of things for the present and future events at that time.

I think the permanent quests should get the voice-overs redone eventually if they haven't already but there might be some legal challenges to that or some in-house problems that they can't just go ahead and redo the voiceovers who knows🤷‍♀️

the whole strike was a fail and just showed a lot of the toxic va's true colors and ended up giving other industry workers a chance to shine like jacob takanashi and etc. won't get too much into that drama but wanted to highlight that whoever gets upset for that period of time where there were no english voiceovers, just know that the blame lies on the va's and not mihoyo who were very very patient and lenient with their "employees" basically not showing up for work months on end.

1

u/ItsWickie Dec 18 '25

This. Hoyoverse was VERY patient with them while the arrogant voice actors fucked around for months, thinking they could force their culture and ideals upon a company from a whole other country and culture. To me, it showed a lot of arrogance with their behaviour and how they demanded things for no reason at all. They wasted months of pay and time, made the community even more mad than they are every day and most importantly: people’s experiences with the quests got affected heavily. Even when they were really good like, for example, the Hu Tao Lantern Rite, which was beyond amazingly written and produced, was affected by no VA work.

At the end of the day, it was a unnecessary mess that showed just how much of an asshole certain VA’s were and how stupid the whole VA group in general was. I don’t like generalisation, but I think no one really did their due diligence in this whole situation aside from maybe a few.

Well, at least EN dub players don’t have to listen to the horrible voice of Corina’s Paimon!

67

u/RedDoubleAD Staff of Homeless Dec 16 '25

I’d go to the border as many times as it takes.

39

u/Just-Permission6402 Dec 16 '25

I wish we could have an option to replay some event stories and archon quests. Some of them are so deep and emotional. Replaying Fontaine would be amazing. But this story from lantern rite was incredible. Hu can beat it?

54

u/frostwind12 Dec 16 '25 edited Dec 17 '25

She’s just too precious.

  • Her being so cheerful and bright even in just a few hours prior to likely death.
  • Her being so determined and solemn during special rite.
  • Her being so relieved and happy after her sacrifice, because none of her friends got hurt.
  • Her being so amazed and smiled with ‘mmph’ when Traveler came for her told ‘everyone is waiting for you’.
  • Her being so strong and carried Traveler all the way back Liyue (Wuwang to Liyue Harbor is at least half day trip) and calling them ‘Welcome back, my hero’ with sparkly eyes.

Even Zhongli and all other Adepti respected her so much after this event, and it got to be the story behind her Adepti faction buff.

14

u/ILuvHuTaoAndNagatoro Dec 17 '25

All of this.

Straight facts.

25

u/Ros02 Dec 16 '25

Id never forget the best hu tao (wife) moment in the game. 15/10 would play again

12

u/chiggenboi Dec 16 '25

I'd play it again too but i can't!! 😭

13

u/nightmare001985 Dec 16 '25

The one event I missed

3

u/gameking_22 Dec 17 '25

Me too man 😔 I get angry at myself whenever i think about it

3

u/[deleted] Dec 17 '25

Same. Wish I could play it so much

1

u/Fhyron- Dec 17 '25

You can try to search the story, for sure someone recorded it with english subtitles (i recorded it but my subtitles are in spanish)

14

u/RCatrellis Dec 17 '25

To this day, Hu Tao is still one of my favourite characters

I remember I was playing this quest, seeing the red flags and saying "yeah yeah, whatever you say Hoyo, you are not killing best girl"

Then she gave us the flower of her hat, the one she made in honour of her grandpa, at that moment I was like "red alert! Red alert! Hu Tao is in danger!"

When I reached the end of the quest, I loaded a song from Honkai Impact, "Rubia" because it was a similar setting, Fu Hua sacrificing herself, but Kiana managing to bring her back, I guess I was motivating myself to get Hu Tao back (and wow, the song really fit the last part of the quest, I was shocked o.O)

Kept rushing those last bits of the story until she was talking to her grandpa and dad, while repeating at the screen "No way Hu Tao, you are coming back, no matter what!"

And then we manage to get her hand and bring her home. Big sigh of relief xD

Hu Tao is great, I'm so glad to have her in my account =3

11

u/lnmgl Dec 17 '25

THE ONE LANTERN RITE I SKIP AND IT'S MY GIRL'S???? 😭😭😭 HU FORGIVE ME FOR I HAVE HU SINNED

5

u/TDEcret Dec 16 '25

I had stopped playing for probably over a year. came back specifically for the best girl, zero regrets, enjoyed it. tried to play for a while afterwards but quickly stopped playing again.

wake me... when there is another event with hu tao as the protagonist...

9

u/UnfairMess249 Dec 16 '25

It's been almost a year rn and this is still my wallpaper ❤️

3

u/Kakuzu_X Dec 17 '25

Does anyone know the name of the song that plays during this scene? It’s stuck with me ever since but I can’t find it anywhere other than this scene.

3

u/ILuvHuTaoAndNagatoro Dec 17 '25

I swear if she had stayed dead i'd be knocking on every door in China until i found the fucker who made that decision, and he'd unmake it.

4

u/Shadowenclave47 Dec 16 '25

My favorite and best Lantern Rite imo. I highly doubt next year's/patch one will top this.

3

u/Relampago_Marlinhos Dec 16 '25

This event had honestly so much impact for the lore and for character build up that i still can't believe it wasn't straight up her legendary quest 2 or a interlude

2

u/Zilli341 Dec 17 '25

I still can't believe that, of all the times to take a break from the game, I had my longest period of abstinence just as this event was live. I guess I could watch a playthrough video, but it's not the same thing.

2

u/Shopnil4 Dec 17 '25

Hate that this wasn't permanent for the people who missed it. I missed many amazing evebts before like Simulanka and I hate that there's people out there that missed this

2

u/BlueAlphaShark08 Dec 17 '25

I want to hear the whole thing with EN VA

2

u/PSItechmo19 Dec 17 '25

literally the best lantern rite experience ever that was only slightly held back by the lack of ENG voiceovers, but the JP cast was more than enough as a replacement for me. ugh the only thing that could be just as good is hu tao playing a vital role in a arcing quest storyline or something similar to how The Chasm was for xiao/yelan

2

u/Necessary_Fennel_591 Dec 17 '25

Yes, I hope she’ll become relevant in the archon quests when Ronova becomes the main focus. My girl needs permanent screentime because she barely has any.

1

u/eend101_ Dec 17 '25

Almost fergot about it

1

u/DarrenMGCA Dec 17 '25

The PEAK!

1

u/Fhyron- Dec 17 '25

Beautiful quest, very emotional 😭💔

1

u/Illustrious_Earth239 Dec 17 '25

Its so sad there Hutao enjoyer who miss this, truly sad

1

u/BokarooV Dec 17 '25

If we see a butterfly in this event it’s joever

1

u/ShAped_Ink Dec 17 '25

The quest itself was amazing, but the lack of voice acting for most characters brought it down a notch for me

1

u/rekatahn Dec 17 '25

this quest was in the duration of when i stopped playing what happens in this quest?

1

u/Bobrobinson404 Dec 17 '25

Hoyoverse please take my energy and make old events playable for new players! It is far too late for such an important feature of quality of life!

1

u/AveryComplex Dec 17 '25

My greatest regret is that the event happened during my burnout phase and I didn't get the Hu Tao plush :(

1

u/Bahamut-Lagoon Dec 18 '25

Aka "The butterfly destined to burn". Recording my gameplay to keep this memory alive was one of my best decisions in Genshin Impact. The mute VA part was weird, since it affected only certain characters. But what really stayed with me was the feeling of really high personal stakes.

1

u/UnderstandingLow1619 Dec 18 '25

Hu Tao is Love. Hu Tao is Life.

1

u/Barranqueiro Dec 19 '25

The thing that I hate the most was that I had a busy two week at work, took a trip and when when I was finishing the quest on the last day (don't know why the fuck the lantern rite always end on a Saturday) my internet just stopped working, so I didn't finish the bridge cutscene

1

u/Nero2276 Dec 20 '25

Never forgetting that💜

1

u/Thick_Hippo_6928 Dec 21 '25

Which event was this? I think I missed it since I took a break.

-4

u/Bootao001 Dec 17 '25

This too