The art team at Honor of Kings probably never imagined that a free skin poster would ignite a firestorm ten times hotter than the skin itself. The story is straightforward — players spotted what appears to be the infamous Korean 'pinching gesture' (斜角手势) in the promotional art for a new free Chang'e skin. This gesture, made by pressing thumb and index finger together while curling the other fingers, has become a widely recognized symbol for mocking male anatomy in Korean internet culture. One image, and NGA's gossip-hungry masses were absolutely feasting.
The controversy first surfaced on NGA's farming board (农版, the Honor of Kings subforum), but the original post quickly got locked. A determined player then reposted it on the gossip board (瓜版), complete with a fresh screenshot taken directly from the game's official website as evidence. The OP also dropped crucial context: this skin is a 'Brave-tier' freebie released alongside Li Bai's Supreme-tier skin event. Their take was scathing — 'They give out a free skin to calm people down so the Li Bai Supreme skin launch goes smoothly. And right at this moment, a gesture like this appears. I wonder if there's some hidden meaning here.'
The crux of the debate was whether the gesture was intentional. Multiple players in the comments section physically tried to replicate the pose from the poster, and the verdict was unanimous — it's extremely uncomfortable and unnatural. One commenter nailed it: 'The perspective is absolutely wrong, and they would've had to break the index finger and shrink it two sizes to achieve this pose.' Another added: 'I tried the pose myself — no way to defend this, it's deliberate.' Even more neutral voices conceded: 'This gesture is way too unnatural, there's no explaining this away.'
Of course, NGA's comment section never lacks for diverse opinions. Amid the chorus of 'guilty as charged,' some players tried to inject nuance. One user expressed genuine internal conflict, saying they've always resented how the Chinese words for 'comrade' and 'rainbow' got co-opted by activist groups. Their concern was about the slippery slope of policing everyday gestures — 'If every hand position gets assigned some political meaning, should we just chop off our hands?' They cited the July 2023 Limbus Company incident as a cautionary tale about how 'normal creative works get destroyed by infinite slippery-slope overreach,' while still declaring: 'If this gesture is unreasonably present, it definitely needs to be fixed.'
But this 'rational neutral' stance (理中客 — a derogatory term for people who claim to be objective centrists) wasn't exactly popular on the gossip board. One highly upvoted reply went straight for the throat: '6-post alt account, go farm some more rep first. The thing we despise most here is fence-sitters, ranked below Asian toilets.' Meanwhile, another commenter brought it back to reality: 'Douyin, Weibo, Douban — radfems everywhere use this gesture to mock men (郭楠, internet slang for ordinary Chinese men). No need to pretend this is a Korea-exclusive thing.' The implication was clear: this gesture's threat isn't confined to Korean gender wars — it's already embedded in Chinese internet culture.
On how Tencent (affectionately called 藤子 by the community) would handle it, the comments were surprisingly unified. One player noted: 'Tencent isn't like miHoYo — they won't play dead. If someone catches it, they'll fix it.' However, some were pessimistic about the broader Honor of Kings playerbase caring: 'I'd guess 99% of Honor of Kings players think this is making a mountain out of a molehill.' In other words, the drama might remain confined to niche forums, and the casual majority probably won't even notice.
One particularly hilarious comment captured the absurdity perfectly: 'No need to turn the Korean-region sword against our own people — I don't want to lose the panda-head pinching-finger meme that says "you're this close to getting smacked!"' Indeed, if this gesture gets blanket-banned, countless innocent 'grabbing something' reaction images would become casualties. And that's the core tension of this whole controversy — where exactly do you draw the line between real malicious usage and overzealous 'thought police' that turns everyday hand positions into political landmines?
As of writing, Honor of Kings has yet to officially respond to the controversy. Given that this gesture has already triggered a chain reaction across multiple game companies in South Korea (including Nexon — one commenter noted that 'Tencent has deep ties with the Nexon that's in hot water right now'), and with speculation flying about whether the poster was outsourced to Korean artists, the fate of this art design scandal depends entirely on how Tencent's PR team decides to play it. A free skin poster causing this much chaos — you could say it's the first truly bizarre spectacle of early 2024.
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