The Witcher: Blood Origin - Review

The Witcher: Blood Origin, a prequel that could have been great. So, this show was meant to be a prequel to Netflix’s The Witcher, taking us all the way back to the very first Witcher. In concept, I did like the idea. In practice, I think Netflix made a mistake.

 I felt if this was not associated with the Witcher it would have done better. Having the Witcher name attached lessens enjoyment. And I’d say it’s…bad. It doesn’t feel like a part of the Witcher world. Like, for example, House of Dragon is part of the Game of Thrones universe. It still FEELS like Game of Thrones, you watch the show and know exactly the world you’re in.

Not only is the show not very Witcher-y, they don’t want to follow the actual book lore. They changed so much of the books canon. While I don’t mind if a show wants to to do it’s own things, sometimes I find I like that better, it should be clear that they are intentionally ignoring the canon in favor of whatever thing it is they want.

And honestly, they had so much room to play around with, having only a few key points to keep canon, yet they still managed to change it in favor of their preferred story idea. Which would have been fine if they had marketed it that way. Instead of giving us the idea that this is what we’d find in the books, based on Sapkowski’s lore.   

I feel like the show runners of both Witcher shows have tried to claim a fan of the source material and that they are still keeping true enough to Sapkowski but that comes across as disingenuous when you actually watch these shows. They change key aspects of the lore when it was entirely unnecessary and did not improve anything.

 This plot doesn’t even make much sense and breaks their own changed canon rules and, again, doesn’t feel like the Witcher. They didn’t even keep the vibe of the Witcher. It feels like they wanted an HBO fantasy show but it turned out someone doing a not-so-great impression of an HBO fantasy show with the Witcher name attached.

Continuing with plot problems I think changing Ciri’s ancestry is unnecessary. Being descended from Elves and the first Witcher? To me, that takes away all Ciri’s hard work she does to train as a Witcher without the trial of the grasses. Not to mention the magic and alchemy that makes Witchers is supposed to make them sterile. It also changes her ancestry in general as she was supposed to be descended from both elves and humans. Which makes more sense if Ciri is to be our main hero trying to unite the Continent and stop war. And she maintains her agency and skills from actual training.

The writing wasn’t great, costuming and cgi seemed subpar. The acting, while not all great either, can only do so much with the script their given. For a Witcher universe production I just expected more. If this was marketed to me as a D&D campaign I’d probably have enjoyed this at least somewhat. It feels like a dnd story. But as it wants to use the Witcher name I was just taken out of the Witcher universe so much throughout. It just doesn’t feel like Witcher and that takes away enjoyment.

My favorite part of this show was probably the lady dwarf but that’s also because of the D&D vibes this show had, and she would make an amazing D&D character.

 I do wish instead of trying to do their own thing with existing material so much these days creators would try something new on their own. I love good adaptations but lately adaptations feel like they are made by people who don’t even care about the source they are adapting from. And instead, are just using the name of the source as a marketing tool for their own thing. When adaptations deviate from the source but are still good it’s when the creators still care and are fans of the source. You can see the appreciation even if it’s different. NBC’s Hannibal by Bryan Fuller is my favorite example of this. It’s a big deviation from the Hannibal books but the care and love of the books can be felt when watching. And that is a wonderful adaptation that deviates from the source. With Witcher Blood Origin you can tell that they didn’t have someone like Henry Cavill involved who does have care and respect for the source.

I’m not even sure I can give this more than a 2/10 biscuits.