If you know me, you know that I’m a big fan of Scaramouche/Wanderer/Hat Guy/[insert whatever you named him here] from the game Genshin Impact. I have so many pictures of him on my wall that I think he has more presence in my dorm room than myself. (See here.) (By the way, the collection of his likeness has grown since I took that picture.) For Halloween 2025, I literally showed up to my Friday 1pm lecture and sat in the second row, clad in a Scaramouche cosplay.

So when my English professor told us that we can make a creative project of whatever we wanted for our final class assignment, I immediately submitted Scaramouche fanart for a grade. Duh.

“Sinners, Saints, and Sexuality in Premodern Literature” is the title of En/VC 110, a very popular class taught by Professor Jennifer Jahner (who is also the Dean of Undergraduate Students). In my sophomore year, Professor Jahner went on sabbatical, so I knew I had to take any shot I can to take En 110 before I graduate because most classes at Caltech are only offered once a year and humanities classes fill up VERY quickly. I was absolutely elated when I got a spot in Spring 2025, along with a few of my good friends!!!

The class was graded on one essay, a presentation, attendance, and a final project. For the final project, you can either write a 10-page essay or a creative project with a 4-page artistic critical statement. The only requirements for the creative project are that the project must relate to the class topic in some way and it must have clear effort put into it. What happened next, I must credit my friends who were also taking the class for enabling me…

One of the art pieces we critically analyzed in class are medieval depictions of Mother Nature forging humans, and this instinctively reminded me of Genshin Impact’s Raiden Ei (also known as the Raiden Shogun) and her puppet creation “Scaramouche”. In fact, I even texted my friend about it…

(I got multiple likes in the discord server that I made for the class when I posted this proposal. Yay!)

Obviously, I could not disappoint the fans. I had to make fanart of Scaramouche and talk about him for 4 entire pages, complete with citations and MLA formatting. I agonized over the angle, the perspective, the color choices… everything! I’ve been fascinated with his lore and characterization since 2022, and I knew I had to do him justice and tell the world (or at least Professor Jahner) his story as accurately as possible.

I had a really fun time working on this project, and I like to think that my passion really paid off—I did get an A on the project and in the class overall, and I find it absolutely hilarious that my little poor blorbo meowmeow comfort character is the reason I did well in a CALTECH class. All of my friends found this class really rewarding, and they all had really fun and interesting creative projects of their own. I’m really glad I got the chance to take En 110, especially since it has been hyped up to me since before I matriculated into Caltech, and I would highly, highly recommend this and any class that Professor Jahner teaches to anyone looking for a humanities course to take at Caltech.

As a bonus, here is the piece that I made for this project. I call it: “The First Betrayal”, a nod to how Scaramouche has incredible PTSD over being abandoned by his own mom at creation. I’ll leave you, dear readers, with a final PSA: do not abandon your kids, folks!