The Genshin Impact community witnessed some rough moments in the last few days.Elliot Gindi, the English VA for Tighnari, was accused of grooming at least three different minorsduring the last year, and he later admitted to the whole situation himself, leading to a mass drama among fans.
It all started when one of Elliot’s former Twitch and Discord moderatorscame out of nowhere with a (now taken down) giant doccomplete withscreenshots, messages, and more evidence of his predatory behavior, which included things like sexually harassing minors, grooming, and emotional abuse. And we’re not even getting into the sexist and transphobic remarks yet.
The whole doc was later re-uploaded tothis site, complete with some histories from victims, screenshots of Gindi randomly being a creep, and such. In some of them, he achieved a whole new level of a disgusting human being, asking for a minor to “get tested so he doesn’t need to wear a condom”.
While the whole city burned down and fellow VAs expressed their disgust against Gindi, Genshin’s EN Voice DirectorChris Faiellaannounced he would personally deal with the situation and inform his superiors at HoYoverse about what happened.
Fast forward a few days later, and the company has finally given its position on the case, which you already know about thanks to the headline.
I personally would like to champion the ones who stepped forward and brought all of this to light. Trust that I am doing everything that I can, using what limited power I do have, to rectify this situation and will absolutely inform the folks at miHoYo.
Hoyoverse’s Stand on the VA Situation
The official Genshin Impact accounts have informed us thatthey have cut all ties with Gindi, and his previous recordings will be gradually removed from the gameas they find a new VA. See their complete statement below:
“Dear Travelers,
After communications with the voice recording agency, we hereby confirm that Elliot Gindi, the English voice actor for Tighnari will no longer be voicing the character in subsequent versions due to a breach of contract. At present, we are communicating with the voice recording agency regarding matters of casting and re-recording. We will gradually replace Tighnari’s existing in-game voice lines, and issue these updates in the corresponding announcements.
Thank you for your support, Travelers!”
The whole situation exploded on February 7 and they announced his departure nine days later. Not the fastest announcement ever, but still a win considering the perpetrator is not coming out on top at the end.
What Did Elliot Gindi Say About That?
Tighnari’s now former VA has made a tweet longer where he declares himself“deeply sorry for those he hurt”and that“it was never his intention to hurt anyone”. The same old “oh no, I was caught doing something illegal” discourse you’re probably tired to see at this point. His whole statement is still onlinethrough this TwitLonger link, where he also admits to the allegations.
He also personally apologized to some of the victims, but it’s much more of the same thing that no one’s buying at this point. We don’t know if the police are on the case or if there’s any chance of him being arrested soon, though. But as soon as new info on the case comes out, we’ll be sure to let you know.
Related:When is the Genshin Impact 3.5 Special Program Stream? – Answered
This is not the first time a Genshin Impact VA has been involved in such scandals.In 2021, it came to light that Li Yuantao, the Chinese VA for Fischl’s companion Oz, had committed adultery and abused his position to ask for sexual favors from his fans.His voice was later removed from the game and replaced byZhao Yuecheng.
But before that could happen,Fischl was quietly shunned from limited banners and events for quite some time untilthe 2.8 update, when Yuecheng finally debuted as Fischl got a new Outfit and had a huge event spotlight in compensation. She was still present on regular banners, though. She just didn’t get any rate-ups for a while, something that Tighnari doesn’t get regularly either.
And Who Will Voice Tighnari Now?
According to the HoYoverse statement, casting and re-recording for his previous Tighnari scenes is still on the way,so that means that no new VA was chosen yet. This process is not as quick and can take a while, so we’re most likely not seeing a new Tighnari voice by the 3.5 version. 3.6 is a possibility, though.
And to, at least, end this story on a high note, it’s not Chris Pratt. And why would it be him, you ask? Because two days before the whole situation came to the public, the AI-based Twitter account Genshin Anything Bot tweeted this:
Due to recent disputes with their original actor, Tighnari will now be voiced by Chris Pratt.pic.twitter.com/t6BVUYTdlc
Is AI becoming sentient? Maybe.
Should we fear it? Definitely.
Patrick Souza
Patrick has been working for Prima since 2022 and joined as a Staff Writer in 2023. He’s been interested in gaming journalism since college, and that was the path he took once he had his degree in hands. Diligently ignores his ever-growing backlog to keep raiding in Final Fantasy XIV, exploring in Genshin Impact or replaying some of his favorite RPGs from time to time. Loves tackling hard challenges in games, but his cats are still the hardest bosses he could ask for.
