Episode 82: Yaoyao

Our journey to learning about this long-awaited “little adult” starts with her Character Demo video and Collected Miscellany video. We quickly learn about Yaoyao’s sweet, caring personality and her love for all of nature. These characteristics are what first drew the attention of the adepti.

We first see Yaoyao in 2020 in the official Mid-Autumn Festival artwork, where she’s eating mooncakes with her BFF, Qiqi. This was nearly two and a half years before she was introduced in-game. We assume her wait involved introducing Dendro reactions as part of the play style.

Fittingly, Yaoyao’s appearance coincided with another important festival – Lantern Rite. When her playable character was released, we were given a sweet stop-motion animation of her and her bun celebrating the festival. More specifically, showing us how we can take part in the festivities.

Yaoyao is the disciple of Adeptus Streetward Rambler, more commonly known as Madame Ping. We can’t help but wonder which form Madame Ping took when she first appeared to this playful child. Was it the young, beautiful musician we see in the Guizhong cutscene (Echoes of the Heart) or the grandmother that first gives us our very own Serenitea Pot? Or does she also have an animal form like her other fellow Adepti?

Osmanthus is a familiar word for anyone who has been around Zhongli for 30 seconds since he never stops talking about his favorite wine. But as Feens points out, it is also Yaoyao’s constellation. This IRL plant is often used to make rice wine, ie, the aforementioned Osmanthus Wine. And is the symbol used on Yaoyao’s outfit. Feens also tells us that Pepsi makes an Osmanthus-flavored soda that is only available in China. Have any of our fellow travelers tried it?

Yuegui is Yaoyao’s faithful companion and fighting partner. Originally gifted to her by Cloud Retainer, she was told it was meant to help her in any fight as she continued her studies. However, Cloud Retainer also lets Madame Ping know that the yellow bunny has another purpose: If Ping ever needs to locate her disciple in a hurry, she can simply yell out for Yuegui, and her location will be shown to her. She also warns that it’s not a feature that should be used for too long, as Yaoyao should have her privacy as she ages. We can only imagine what Cloud Retainer has seen when spying on Shenhe.

Tif tells us about a post on Reddit by GlaiveW that discusses the theory that Yaoyao is a reference to the Moon Goddess in Chinese mythology. Not only does the theory tie in her first appearance in the Mid-Autumn Festival artwork, but Chang’e is typically depicted with similar braids and has a bunny companion. It’s a wonderful theory, and we encourage you to read the full post on Reddit.

We know Yaoyao and Qiqi are best friends, but we’ve also seen that Klee loves Qiqi just as much. We see this in the 2023 Lantern Rite promo video (Dream Upon a Lantern). Do you think Klee and Yaoyao are also friends? If Bee’s dreams of Yaoyao’s daughter taking care of Qiqi as a rite of passage come true, maybe Klee’s daughter would also join them on some adventures. Some bombtastic adventures.

Here are some helpful links if you’re unfamiliar with the pop culture references we mentioned during the episode. We broke into the ’90s hit ‘Creep’ by Radiohead, Feens mentioned Chicago’s ‘Cell Block Tango’, and Bee made an analogy to the smoke monster from ‘Lost’ during our mail segment.

Thank you to fellow travelers Azirim and Kimiko for writing in. We truly appreciate your questions and comments! If you’d like to send us mail via the Komaniya Express, reach out on our Instagram, X/Twitter, or email. We’d love to hear from you! And Kirara could use the work.