Barring the presence of a very familiar bard, you could easily dismiss this mini-series as having nothing to do with The Witcher.
Since Netflix launched The Witcher onto our screens in 2019, there have been two seasons and 2 spinoffs that seem to have no goal but to milk the OG show's popularity. The latest is Blood Origin which is supposedly intended to show the origin of the badass witchers - except this show barely achieves its goal.
Spoilers ahead!
The Witcher: Blood Origin is set 1200 years before the arrival of humans in the elven world. It all begins when a foolish royal guard Fjall (Laurence O’Fuarain), is caught pants down shagging his charge, the princess (Merwyn played by Mirren Mack). Merwyn turns out to be not-so-innocent when she sabotages her brother's peace treaty and kills the ruling monarchs and their families with the help of a huge beast and a conniving druid, Balor (Lenny Henry).
Fjall, several miles away from the bloody event when he hears the news, sets out on a quest to avenge his dead family and clan. Soldier-turned-bard Éile (Sophia Brown) with a newly dead sister joins him on his quest for vengeance and on and on they go until a band of 2 becomes 7. This merry band includes a mage, Syndril (Zach Wyatt) whose very invention of monoliths (gateway between worlds) is what started this chaos in the first place.
Meanwhile, Merwyn's plan of becoming a conqueror and liberator is disrupted when she discovers she's but a pawn in Balor's game and his thirst for power. Merwyn makes a plan to break free, Balor makes a huge sacrifice to harness chaos magic and in order to reach Merwyn, man and beast are merged to fight Balor's beast from another world. And thus, Fjall, the first Witcher is made.
Or is he?
Because the Witchers in Netflix's The Witcher were seemingly an entirely human and arduous creation to protect themselves from beasts. But this first Witcher of Blood Origins, Fjall, is created by the mage Syndril who seems to love the word "merge " and is such a genius that every one of his cuckoo experiments work on the first try. The first Witcher of Blood Origins was an elven creation. A really easy one.
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Everything in Blood Origin seems a little too convenient - the gate malfunctioning for the first time to end up in a 2-moon world that has a magical beast they end up using to create the first Witcher. Maybe Syndril is really just that lucky as he also easily defeats a newly chaotic Balor and destroys the central monolith which leads to The Conjunction of the Spheres and crashes creatures from different worlds and times - including humans - into the elven world.
Or maybe Blood Origins is a pointless story with more threads than it can handle, dull lines delivered dully, barely rounded characters and a plot that never really comes full circle. While Blood Origin has the elements of The Witcher (magic, beasts, bloody battles and political scheming), the plot never really gets to that aha moment where you go "so that's what that was about" but instead by the time the credits roll, we're left wondering why Blood Origin exists at all.
A prequel that explains nothing and is disloyal to its Source material. The entire plot of this show could have been a 90-second explanation written in white calligraphy typeface and placed on a black background.
If you're looking for more connection between Blood Origin and The Witcher, Screen Rant's article explains the post-credits scene and theorizes that Fjall and Éile's love child is the beginning of Elder Blood but what we know of elder blood so far is a little different.
Spoilers ahead!
The Witcher: Blood Origin is set 1200 years before the arrival of humans in the elven world. It all begins when a foolish royal guard Fjall (Laurence O’Fuarain), is caught pants down shagging his charge, the princess (Merwyn played by Mirren Mack). Merwyn turns out to be not-so-innocent when she sabotages her brother's peace treaty and kills the ruling monarchs and their families with the help of a huge beast and a conniving druid, Balor (Lenny Henry).
Fjall, several miles away from the bloody event when he hears the news, sets out on a quest to avenge his dead family and clan. Soldier-turned-bard Éile (Sophia Brown) with a newly dead sister joins him on his quest for vengeance and on and on they go until a band of 2 becomes 7. This merry band includes a mage, Syndril (Zach Wyatt) whose very invention of monoliths (gateway between worlds) is what started this chaos in the first place.
Meanwhile, Merwyn's plan of becoming a conqueror and liberator is disrupted when she discovers she's but a pawn in Balor's game and his thirst for power. Merwyn makes a plan to break free, Balor makes a huge sacrifice to harness chaos magic and in order to reach Merwyn, man and beast are merged to fight Balor's beast from another world. And thus, Fjall, the first Witcher is made.
Or is he?
Because the Witchers in Netflix's The Witcher were seemingly an entirely human and arduous creation to protect themselves from beasts. But this first Witcher of Blood Origins, Fjall, is created by the mage Syndril who seems to love the word "merge " and is such a genius that every one of his cuckoo experiments work on the first try. The first Witcher of Blood Origins was an elven creation. A really easy one.
.jpg)
Everything in Blood Origin seems a little too convenient - the gate malfunctioning for the first time to end up in a 2-moon world that has a magical beast they end up using to create the first Witcher. Maybe Syndril is really just that lucky as he also easily defeats a newly chaotic Balor and destroys the central monolith which leads to The Conjunction of the Spheres and crashes creatures from different worlds and times - including humans - into the elven world.
Or maybe Blood Origins is a pointless story with more threads than it can handle, dull lines delivered dully, barely rounded characters and a plot that never really comes full circle. While Blood Origin has the elements of The Witcher (magic, beasts, bloody battles and political scheming), the plot never really gets to that aha moment where you go "so that's what that was about" but instead by the time the credits roll, we're left wondering why Blood Origin exists at all.
A prequel that explains nothing and is disloyal to its Source material. The entire plot of this show could have been a 90-second explanation written in white calligraphy typeface and placed on a black background.
If you're looking for more connection between Blood Origin and The Witcher, Screen Rant's article explains the post-credits scene and theorizes that Fjall and Éile's love child is the beginning of Elder Blood but what we know of elder blood so far is a little different.
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