YMMV / The Witcher: Blood Origin

• Bile Fascination: With the scathing reviews and audience scores in mind, a number of viewers watched it just to see how bad and far removed from established Witcher lore the series is.
• Cliché Storm: A common criticism of the show is how derivative it is of other fantasy works, with almost everything from its setting, characters, and plot being considered by-the-numbers with little that makes it stand out. This is especially a sore spot for many Witcher fans as one of the more notable aspects of the franchise is its deconstruction of the fantasy genre. The fact that, as quoted at the top of the show's main page, Jaskier brings up the possibility of this trope just stings all the more.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Many Witcher fans would like to pretend that this show didn’t exist. Not just for it’s poor quality, but also for the several new pieces of Witcher lore that have largely been critizced and rejected by the fanbase.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Jaskier's jokes about the show's premise having been "done to death" in the opening scene, considering that one of the main criticisms of Blood Origin is that its story and characters are bland and cliché-riddled.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: Many have cited the show being only 4 episodes long as a cause for many of its problems, such as the lack of development and depth for its most significant characters and its relatively bland storyline. Some argue that if the show were longer then a good number of these problems could have been avoided.
• Just Here for Godzilla: For all the poor writing and pacing, the final episode does two things right; it gives an epic re-telling of the cosmic event that serves as the foundation of The Witcher's Fantasy Kitchen Sink, and you get to see The First Witcher in action as an unstoppable Solo murder machine tearing the heart of an empire apart.
• Memetic Mutation: Humans with pointy ears.^note  A frequent criticism of the show is how The Elf civilization and culture is little different from the typical Human civilization of not just The Witcher 'verse, but of many fantasy works in general. As such many declare that the only thing that makes this civilization remotely elvish is the fact they have pointy ears. It's also frequently used to mock the creators lack of creativity and imagination over how much the show in general is such a Cliché Storm.
• Sequelitis: Or prequelitis in this case. The Witcher (2019) has generally received positive reviews from critics and audiences. Comparatively, Blood Origin has been largely panned by both, with a common criticism being that it lacks any of The Witcher's stand-out qualities (such as a more deconstructive approach to fantasy tales, interesting monsters and creatures, charismatic leads, a sense of humor or good acting) and instead comes off as an extremely generic and joyless high fantasy show, with poor pacing, bad acting and underdeveloped characters. Many viewers also feel it doesn't add much to the original show's backstory and barely has anything to do with The Witcher franchise at all (the parent show already got some flack for deviating from the source material, which is exacerbated here). To further underline this, The Witcher has an 81% critic score and 74% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, while Blood Origin only has a 30% critic score and a 13% audience score, and is reportedly one of Netflix's lowest rated shows ever.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: This is a story about how the once-tyrannical elves found redemption and freedom - mere moments before the beginning of their total collapse, as humanity takes center stage from a freak accident and almost immediately enslaves the newly-freed elven commonborn while relegating the next generation of elves to an era of genocides and stupidity. In short: Good is real - but it was born for the sole purpose of being raped by Evil. If this wasn't par for the course for the Witcher universe, it would be sickening to witness.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: The show seems to want to depict Empress Merwyn as an ultimately tragic figure, an idealistic princess whose desire for liberation and love for her people drove her to become a Knight Templar, but her actions are so frequently abhorrent that it’s difficult to consider her a complete victim of circumstance. She still eagerly participated in the massacre of Elven leaders (including her own family and subjects), callously abandons Fjall, and even attempts to co-opt Balor’s plan to create a multiversal Elven dominion by invading and subjugating countless realities, all while claiming she is still a guiltless victim. As such when Elie stabs her and she bleeds to death on the thrown. It comes off more as cathartic to viewers than a tragedy the show tries to portray it to be.
• What the Hell, Costuming Department?: In lieu of actual costume design, Empress Merwyn is dressed in a variety of off-the-runway Iris van Herpen gowns, some of which have actually been worn on red carpets by celebrities like Gwendoline Christie, Grimes and others. While the dresses themselves are stunning and befitting for an elven queen, van Herpen is an established designer with a very distinctive and recognizable style that throws any fashion-versed viewer out of the fantasy setting.

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