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Is Hu Tao the 77th director?


Hu Tao is a popular character in the video game Genshin Impact. She is the current director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor in Liyue Harbor. Some fans speculate that Hu Tao may be the 77th director of the funeral parlor, but this has not been officially confirmed. In this article, we’ll examine the evidence surrounding Hu Tao’s potential status as the 77th director and try to determine if she truly holds this position.

Who is Hu Tao?

Hu Tao is a five star pyro character in Genshin Impact. She wields a polearm in combat and has unique abilities related to life and death. Some key facts about Hu Tao:

  • She is the 77th direct descendant of the Hu family bloodline.
  • She became the current director of Wangsheng Funeral Parlor at a very young age.
  • She has an eccentric and mischievous personality.
  • Her Constellation name is “Papilio Charontis” which represents a butterfly guiding souls to the afterlife.
  • Her specialty dish is called “Ghostly March” and the description references her being the 77th director.

So while we know for sure that Hu Tao is the 77th descendant of her family line, it’s unclear if she also holds the title of 77th director of the funeral parlor. Next we’ll examine the evidence surrounding this.

Evidence supporting Hu Tao as the 77th director

There are a few key pieces of evidence that suggest Hu Tao may be the 77th funeral parlor director:

She became director at a very young age

Most official descriptions of Hu Tao state that she took over as director of the parlor at a young age after the previous director passed away. Given that she became director so young, it would make sense for her to be the 77th holder of that title.

Her specialty dish references her director number

The description for Hu Tao’s specialty dish “Ghostly March” includes the line “The 77th Director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor seems to have added some strange ingredients into this dish.” This implies her director number is 77.

She is 77th of her bloodline

Hu Tao is specifically mentioned to be the 77th descendant of the Hu family bloodline. It would be a neat parallel if her director number matched her generational number.

Her Constellation name references guiding souls

The name of Hu Tao’s Constellation “Papilio Charontis” represents a butterfly that guides souls to the afterlife. This connects to her position as funeral parlor director which involves guiding souls of the deceased.

Evidence against Hu Tao as 77th director

However, there are also some counterpoints that suggest Hu Tao may not actually be the 77th director:

Lack of definitive official statements

There is no definitive statement from miHoYo or in-game lore explicitly declaring Hu Tao as the 77th director. Her age and number of predecessors is unclear.

Timeline ambiguity

Due to the ambiguous timeline in Genshin Impact, we don’t know exactly how long the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor has existed. There could have been 76 previous directors over a very long period.

Possibility of hereditary position

The director role may not be a numbered title but rather a hereditary position passed down within the Hu family line. In this case, there may have only been a handful of directors over the Parlor’s history.

Multiple directors may have served concurrently

There could have been multiple directors throughout the Parlor’s history that served at the same time. This would make numbering the position inaccurate.

Examining Wangsheng Funeral Parlor history for clues

To try to determine whether Hu Tao is actually the 77th director, we need to examine the history of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor itself:

When was Wangsheng Funeral Parlor founded?

The Parlor was likely founded sometime during the Archon War around 2,600 years ago. This is when Liyue Harbor was first established. The Parlor provides funeral services so it likely opened around the founding of the city.

How many directors have there been?

It’s not clear exactly how many directors preceded Hu Tao. Zhongli’s character story notes that Wangsheng is an “age-old establishment” so it could have had tens of directors over its long history.

What is the director selection process?

The previous funeral parlor director was Hu Tao’s grandfather. She seems to have inherited the position at a young age after he passed away. This suggests the role may run in her family line versus being numbered.

Speculative theories on Hu Tao’s director number

Given the limited information available, we can only speculate about Hu Tao’s director number:

She inherited an already high-numbered title

If the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor has existed for millennia, it’s possible there were already over 75 directors before Hu Tao. She may have simply inherited a high-numbered title.

The directorship was restructured recently

It’s also possible the director numbering started over more recently, say within the last 100 years. This would place Hu Tao as 77th of a newer numbering system.

The number 77 holds symbolic meaning

The number 77 may have been chosen symbolically by miHoYo to match Hu Tao’s generational number and underscore her connection to the afterlife. So she may not have literally had 76 predecessors.

Conclusion

Based on available in-game information, it’s not definitively clear whether Hu Tao is actually the 77th director of the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor. The title of 77th director is never explicitly stated. However, her young age combined with the number’s symbolism matches up with the theory. Until miHoYo provides definitive lore clarifying the Parlor’s history and Hu Tao’s place in it, the numbering of her director title remains speculative. Hu Tao clearly has a strong connection to the number 77 through her ancestry and design motif, but whether this extends to her precise role as funeral parlor director is still up for debate.

References

Key sources

  • Hu Tao’s character profile and story
  • Genshin Impact version 1.3 update content
  • Zhongli’s character profile and story
  • Genshin Impact world and lore guidebooks

Additional references

  • Reddit discussions and speculation by /r/Genshin_Impact community
  • Theories and analysis from Genshin Impact content creators on YouTube and Twitch
  • Posts and debate within NGA Genshin Impact online forums (original Chinese playerbase)