Genshin Players Accuse Honor of Kings Mascot of Copying Aranara — Only to Discover HoK Came First

Genshin Impact players just kicked an iron plate this time. Someone spotted that the new Yunmeng Ze mascot from Honor of Kings' latest season bore a striking resemblance to Genshin's Aranara, and immediately launched a plagiarism investigation — only to discover upon checking the timeline that HoK's mascot was actually released first. The copycat accusation backfired so hard that the accusers ended up as the clowns.

The original poster threw up comparison images, but after looking at them, most commenters were completely baffled — the post was so vague that nobody could tell what was supposedly similar. It wasn't until a helpful user in reply #10 zoomed in and circled the key details that everyone realized: the Aranara's facial expression was nearly identical to a small icon used by Honor of Kings.

However, a commenter in reply #2 fired back bluntly: "Honestly, these big-headed bobble characters with uniform top-to-bottom proportions all look the same no matter who makes them. But since it's miHoYo, suddenly it's a 'crime.'" The implication was that round-headed character designs are bound to overlap, but miHoYo gets scrutinized for everything. Reply #4 added that "the fact that the Aranara's expression is literally identical to HoK's icon is hard to defend" — while HoK's own later 3D models didn't even keep the same fixed expression.

Some dug up old receipts, noting that a similar controversy happened two years ago when the Aranara were accused of copying Zelda's Koroks. Reply #6 joked, "I saw the spinning propeller on the Aranara's hat and totally thought it was a Korok." Reply #14 clarified that the Korok comparison was about gameplay mechanics and lore design, not visual art style.

Reply #11 posted another set of comparison images with the cryptic one-liner "feels inferior to..." Reply #13 offered a different angle, arguing that compared to the Yunmeng mascot, Honor of Kings' other mascot "Yu Zai" from Yucheng — with its green head and leaf-shaped hair — actually looked more like the Aranara. Reply #15 instantly shot that down: if we're talking about characters with leaves on their heads, wouldn't that apply to Pokémon like Chikorita, Turtwig, and Petilil?

Reply #16 followed up with more comparison images, telling everyone to "look at the slim version." Reply #12 openly questioned the OP's motives, asking "are you a community manager sent here to troll?" Reply #17 noted that the Aranara "look dopey on the surface but are absolutely unhinged when they start moving in the story." Reply #18 delivered the killer blow: "Went out to patrol for plagiarism only to discover you're the clown." And reply #19 settled the debate with the most fundamental art-school logic: "Two dots and a line on a ball — you're gonna get roughly the same face no matter how you draw it."

In the end, this plagiarism investigation ended in a spectacular self-own. When a design element is simple and universal enough, visual overlap is practically inevitable. Rather than 'borrowing,' it's more like there are only so many ways to draw a cute round-headed creature — and every game ends up converging on the same answer.