Fans And Critics Are All Saying The Same Thing About The Witcher: Blood Origin
Fans of "The Witcher" franchise have had quite a bit of bad news lately. Season Two of Netflix's "The Witcher" show had fans split after the massively adored Season 1, and Henry Cavill's series exit rocked fans in the worst way possible. Now, Netflix's prequel "The Witcher: Blood Origin" has unified the majority of fans and critics with how bad it is. While the Rotten Tomatoes critic score is abysmal at 33%, the fan reception was even worse.
For the majority of critics, the series had no substance to it. As Polygon's Zosha Millman said, the series was "so densely packed with meaningless exposition and toothless backstory." Darren Mooney from The Escapist also agreed, sharing the sentiment that the series was over-edited to the point of using pretty scenery as a way to force voiceovers to try and make the show coherent.
Both critics were upset with the characters because they had the potential to be great, but the series blitzed through them so quickly that the motivations of the main group didn't hold up throughout the show. Not every critic was as upset with the prequel, though. IGN's David Griffin enjoyed the series, pointing to the show's characters and scenes as highlights. Griffin's optimism was mostly vacant in fan reviews of the show, which took a much grimmer look at the prequel.
Fan reviews are bad but complex
When it comes to fans' reception of "The Witcher: Blood Origin," things get tricky. There are plenty of valid complaints and arguments about the at-best mediocrity of the show, which are mirror versions of the critic reviews. Fans pointed out that the fight scenes were lackluster, and the writing was just as bad.
However, despite critic reception being extremely low as well, many fans of the franchise and the miniseries argued that it was review bombed for a variety of reasons. Henry Cavill's exit, along with fans of the novels that "The Witcher" is based on feeling displeased with the show's trajectory, were two reasons many sites pointed to, such as CBR. Others are pointing toward reviews that spout homophobic, racist, and sexist reasons for disliking the show to argue that it was review bombed by negative people who aren't fans of the show's diverse casting.
The prequel wasn't what fans expected, just like "The Witcher" spin-off game from earlier this year. The best moments don't seem to outweigh the bad ones, and many point to it as a sign that "The Witcher" franchise may never be as great as it was.