Season 1 Episode 1
The Witcher: Blood Origin begins with a big battle. Time suddenly freezes for everyone but him as the sword prepares to knock down and kill a coward who is, of course, Dandelion.
Jaskier's stunt double arrives and reveals himself. He's not Doppler, but his face suddenly turns into an elf face. He needs to read a story to come alive. In doing so, he demonstrates his udu. In particular, Seven needs him to tell his Story.
With that, we jump back 1,200 years to follow six oddballs bound together for blood. Fjall of the Hound Clan, a scholar of the Ghost Clan, Brother Death, the sorcerers Zacare and Syndril, along with Meldof. They are all led by someone named Lark. And with that very obvious opening, we jump back and follow Lark as he arrives at a village singing for all the villagers. That is, until the man is ready to be violent with the woman, and thus she quickly turns on the troublemaker and starts playing again.
Then she sits back (manspreading, of course, as is now the norm for female fantasy figures) and discusses her journey.
Further south, in the Kingdom of Xin'Trea, the newly crowned King Alvitir wanders the mean streets, where we meet Fjall and are reminded once again that he is part of the Hound Clan. He saves the royal family from attack and ensures the safety of the palace. And she also starts sleeping with the future Queen, Prince Mervyn, Unfortunately, she is discovered by several of her brothers, betrays her oath, and goes into exile.
When Fjall left, Mervyn's brother found her a suitable suitor. The king of Prissia is a widower and a marriage between these two kingdoms will succeed in signing him and ensure peace and a bright future.
Anyway, Lark's little stunt in the pub sees him locked out by the town watchman. There he finds Fjall for company, who is also captured. He's not happy, given that they have a history together after the fight in which he took his cousin's eye, but times have changed. Lark points out that he is now a Raven Clan bard and as we know Fjall is an exile.
However, the guards arrive and claim Fjall's freedom has been bought, and after a quick skirmish between the pair, he is released and confronted by Shen, who asks him to return as the King prepares to broker a peace treaty between the two. Kingdoms. Many consultants have concerns about this.
Lark manages to get out of the cell by picking the lock (Aren't there guards here?) and runs into her sister, who has been recruited to be part of this upcoming Peace Treaty and be with her mother, Cethlenn. He refuses again, not wanting to go the way of the knife. When he leaves, Lark finds himself with a prophetic message when the young barmaid is captured. It seems that a search for his name will save him and the tribe. Lark leaves, determined to make the best of it, and triumphs in his quest.
Fjall jumps in and saves Lark when a group of assassins show up and attack. When he kills his sister, Lark is understandably distraught, but there's more going on than meets the eye. It turns out that the attackers are actually Xin'Trean warriors allied with the Prisians.
As the pair march, we get some narration to inform us that with noble hostages exchanged between the warring kingdoms, the other monarchs sail to sign a treaty to end the 1,000-year war.
Hear the footsteps of King Midir and his Crow Clan warriors, Queen Neera and her Serpent Clan warriors, and the brave architect Alvitir. He makes a big speech about how they're all going to unite and urges the leaders to join him.
A giant CGI monster appears, enchanted by Balor, who single-handedly destroys all 3 kingdoms. The new "Golden Empire" is now under the command of Mervy, who has a lot of blood on his hands after killing many people. It seems that he was destined to kill all the officials.
Sure, she's played by Balor, as anyone with half a brain cell will understand, but it's easy to look past that because we know this woman is opportunistic and obviously vulnerable and evil.
Word of this cold-blooded act spreads throughout the Kingdom, where Fjall and Elie appear and are immediately searched by officials. Knowing that both of their clans have been destroyed, they set out on their own and try to think of what to do. They decide to unite and form a new alliance and take revenge on Mervyn and destroy the beast that escaped with him.
But why did Melvin do it? Apparently she did it because she didn't want to get married. Thank you then. Balor wants to use the gateways to conquer the worlds to civilize them and bring about a new beginning for them all. Balor's insatiable lust for power brings him into contact with higher powers, seemingly in another dimension in which he operates.
The imprisoned brilliant wizard Syndril is the reason it all started, as his work helped open these gateways. As Balor enters and thanks him, Fjall and Eile head off to find the Ghost Tribe Scian. They beg him to help take out Melwyn and his evil friends. He is convinced that they will not pass through the city gates and refuses to join. At least until he saw the pair working together.
Episode Review
As such, The Witcher: Blood Origin joins The Willow, Rings of Power, The Wheel of Time, Cursed, and countless other fantasy projects with no distinguishing features to help them stand out.
All of these shows have women acting like men and no discernible weaknesses, each has different tribes banding together to defeat an unstoppable force, and each deviates drastically from its source material. As a result, these fantasy shows feel like one big muddy, forgettable mess.
What's especially funny here is that the writers know this too. The opening dialogue between Jaskier and that elf is unique in that the former claims to have heard this story several times before telling it, which feels like a deliberate placeholder for us, the audience, to continue watching.
With Henry Cavill leaving the project and the writers actively mocking the source material for The Witcher, Blood Origin is a perfect example of not writing fantasy.
The editing is very convoluted, with unnecessary exposition introducing all the main characters at the beginning like the Power Rangers opening… before introducing each of the characters naturally within the story.
It's such a clumsy way to deliver an episode, and it shows that even outside of the story, this show has huge problems. Let's hope that future episodes will improve.
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