Albedo’s thigh has set the Genshin Impact fandom on fire

Hi, it’s me, Ana. The person behind the screen writing this post. As a culture writer at Polygon, I’m no stranger to covering and dissecting fandom. In the past, I’ve covered topics like Mario cum pipe memes and Sonic characters going to the mall. But now, the Genshin Impact fandom has given me the opportunity — no, the honor — of alerting you to news that we can now see a single inch of Albedo’s thighs between his tailored shorts and his thigh-high boots.

The blond, ponytail-wearing swordsman is known for his artistic abilities as much as his research skills as an alchemist. Albedo appears in the game wearing tall boots, long socks, and shorts. Usually, his socks cover the section of skin between his shorts and boots. But on Saturday, Hoyoverse posted official art on their Bilibili account to celebrate hitting 13 million followers. The art showed the alchemist sitting on a sofa without socks, thus revealing that single inch of skin.

That’s it. That’s the news. But the fandom has responded to the chalky inch of skin with unquenchable thirst. Albedo trended on Twitter on Monday, and his name exceeded 27 thousand tweets online as fans posted new fan art, cosplays, and even memes about his thighs.

Some people made fun of the fan response as well with cute memes. One Redditor likened the response to a Victorian man seeing an ankle, since all this thirst came from a single inch of skin.

The intensity of the response is ironic given that Hoyoverse dropped a lot of (arguably) bigger news over the weekend. The developer hosted a livestream on Saturday that revealed a ton of new information related to Genshin Impact’s big new Sumeru update, which will introduce a new region, new characters, and a new elemental power, among other additions. But honestly? Fuck that. Because all of that news pales in comparison to Albedo’s thighs.

One can’t help but feel that Hoyoverse has an awareness of what they’re doing, because this is far from the first time the company has released fan art that’s precipitated similar responses. Just last month, the company shared art of the the Anemo catalyst Shikanoin Heizou that depicted the detective sitting in a tree, blushing, with his mouth open. A few weeks before that, we got birthday art of Childe that showed him with his jacket unbuttoned, which once again prompted communal thirst.

Now all we need is for Hoyoverse to bring back Albedo’s banner so we can all wish for him.