Greetings, traveler. It's time to put down your controller, take a break from your hideous Oblivion: Remastered character and catch up on the best memes of the week.

The last full week of April has blessed us with a little something for everyone. There's a new waifu named Lapwing for VRChat fans, a new J.D. Vance meme for politics haters and a lot of backlash over the shortening of a Brawl Stars character for the outraged gamers out there.

Without further ado, here are five of the best memes from the past week that you need to catch up on.

Lapwing / Gosling

A VRChat avatar named Lapwing took Twitter / X by storm this week for her impressive face tracking software and waifu-ability.

The character has been available to VRChat users since 2023, but only just hit people's radar when a video showcasing her new face tracking software went viral. The tracking software is very impressive, especially with how accurately it seems to capture emotions.

However, many viewers found themselves more captivated with the model herself, resulting in a flurry of fan art and memes that have been just about inescapable by the average X user all week.

Most of the content centered on Lapwing is fan art, depicting her in a variety of styles and striking some of the emotions shown in the tech demo. Others are posting memes, including a lot of memes that refer to her as Gosling after Ryan Gosling.

Specifically, they're referencing the "You Look Lonely" meme as a way of wishing that Lapwing was a real woman. Keep dreaming, VRChatters.

Examples

J.D. Vance Killed the Pope

Pope Francis died early this week at the ripe old age of 88, and in an unexpected turn of events, people are pointing the blame at U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance.

According to reports, the Pope was pronounced dead not even a day after he was seen meeting with Vance. This got some people theorizing that maybe, just maybe, J.D. Vance is the antichrist, and it was this meeting that resulted in the death of Pope Francis.

The timing of the two events was just too juicy for people to resist, resulting in a massive wave of memes about Vance's death touch.

One viral example shows Vance with a demonic look on his face, brandishing a scythe. Another offers an alternative hypothesis that Pope Francis died of cringe after meeting Vance, which is a theory that can't be totally discounted.

Whatever the case, Vance just can't seem to avoid being a meme as those viral face edits continue to haunt him on the timeline alongside the Pope memes.

Examples

Oblivion: Remastered Character Creator

The long-rumored Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered was surprise-released this week and in true open world RPG fashion, its character creator is inspiring a whole lot of memes and abominations.

The remaster has effectively revived all the best memes from Oblivion's past, including everything from the adoring fan to horse armor. But the updated character creation tool has been churning out some true gold as players strive to create the most grotesque protagonist possible.

This is largely done by maxing out several of the tool's sliders to give your character absurdly large cheeks, a chiseled jaw, a Pinocchio-like nose and sausage-like lips. The results of the tool have been going viral across social media as users celebrate the remaster for keeping the same vibe as the original with some much-needed improvements.

Examples

Melodie Height Nerf

Supercell games made a bold choice recently when they decided to change the proportions of the character Melodie in their game Brawl Stars, resulting in an uprising from their most down bad players.

The incident is being referred to as the "Melodie Height Nerf," and although it makes no difference to the way the game plays, Melodie mains just can't stop complaining about the change.

According to Supercell, the change was made so that Melodie's height matches the other characters. Unfortunately, players had grown fond of her slightly taller model over the years, making the update feel like an unnecessary slap in the face to some.

From an outside perspective, the outrage over such an arguably minor change to the character seemed a bit overblown. In response, some Redditors began posting memes to unrelated gaming subreddits that mock the outrage.

These memes pretend a character from another game has been "height nerfed" and show the original model next to a slightly smaller, "nerfed" version of the character. Take notes, game devs: If you change your game's beloved waifu even a little bit, you should be prepared for some backlash.

Examples

Trisha Paytas' Baby Reincarnations

The death of Pope Francis didn't just give us a killer new J.D. Vance meme, it also revived a beloved old meme and humorous theory about powerful people being reincarnated as influencer Trisha Paytas' babies.

The meme originally went viral in 2022, surrounding the death of Queen Elizabeth. At the time, Paytas was set to have her first baby. While the due date didn't match up exactly with the queen's death date, it was close enough to inspire memes about the queen coming back in the form of the wee baby Malibu Barbie.

The meme made a big comeback in 2024 when King Charles fell ill. People assumed he was going to die and, coincidentally, Paytas was pregnant with her second baby that year.

Now, the meme is back thanks to the death of the pope and the fact that Paytas is pregnant with her third baby. Unfortunately, the meme is a little forced this time around, as the due date for baby number three is still pretty far off, according to Paytas.

On the other hand, that leaves people a good few months to find another dying monarch or holy person to link to the new baby.

Examples

the concept of the pope being reincarnated as trisha paytas’s baby pic.twitter.com/3hwWJTh4ie https://t.co/P1ozY6CKK4

— maui 🫧 (@meowymaui) March 6, 2025

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We'll be back next Friday with another edition of our Weekly Meme Roundup series, so stay tuned!

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