The Witcher: Blood Origin “Of Ballads, Brawlers, and Bloodied Blades Review

 

“A tavern brawl puts Eile on a collision course with destiny, emotions get the best of Fjall after a close call, and a royal betrayal leads to bloodshed.”

 

Sometimes, you just need some time before getting back to series reviews. And sometimes they just fall into your lap and it's going to be something you like a lot. Until I looked, I thought that Blood Origin was a movie made by Netflix, like Nightmare of the Wolf. Instead, I found a limited series waiting for me.

 

Blood Origin is a prequel series set in The Witcher universe. It takes place thousands of years before the events of the main series itself. The first episode is all about introducing us to the people sharing the story, but also most of the players within it.

 

Let's talk about content warnings. It's something that tends to get overlooked in a lot of places. Gore, it's the Witcher. It's very well established something is getting gutted, burned, decapitated. Usually a fair bit and in multiple episodes. This series does not disappoint in that regard. Plenty of combat, and some “field medicine” is used. Nudity and sex. We've seen this before and you'll be seeing it again. Episode 1 is a bit tamer, nothing actually shown being a careful (and tasteful) close-up. But the act is there. Language is the final thing. Nothing surprising here honestly. Most of the characters are going to be cursing. Some quite a lot and they're the ones we're generally following too. A whole lot of f**k. Honestly, on par with the other parts of the Netflix The Witcher, so no surprises.

 

With all that done, let's start talking about the episode itself. We've got characters to be introduced, plot threads to follow, and plenty to just enjoy. Some spoilers are in this article, so it's still better to have watched the episode than just coming in here.

 

The inverted camera during the opening works very well. The dramatic music leads up to some perfect since when everything freezes around who we're following, Jaskier. He's pulled out of a bloody battlefield and thrown into a more “peaceful” setting. Someone/thing is asking him to bring a story back to life to help the world with them. This all takes place in the present time, just obscured. It has a great lead-in there. The Story Teller explains that they will share the very origins of the Witchers themselves, and how the elves used the Conjunction of the Spheres to bring humans (and monsters) to their world. Just seeing Dandelion being all giddy about being about to tell Geralt more about the Witchers than the Witcher himself knows. He does love being about to gloat to Geralt, even if Geralt doesn't generally care at all.

 

Fjall Stoneheart of Dog Clan, played by Laurence O'Fuarain. He starts in the Royal Guard. We meet him finding off an attempt of on the Princess's life. He's plainly been taking care of her as well as teaching her how to defend herself as well. During this ambush, he gives her a dirk to protect herself. She does end up killing someone in self-defense. It's also absurdly clear there's feelings involved on both sides. This leads to Fjall being banished/exiled from the capital at a bad time, by his father. Fjall I do appreciate. He's hot-tempered and can easily be goaded in a number of cases. He takes his assignments seriously but leaves thing well enough alone once he's exiled.

 

The Princess isn't completely off the hook, her brother Alvitir (Mark Rowley) sees her as means to an end. He's arranged a marriage between her and a widower king to bring the two kingdoms together. But she has her own ambitions and is working diligently behind the scenes. The Princess Merywn we learn wanted to stand on her own. How she got there wasn't too important. But she does see her own folly very quickly once everything had been enacted. She isn't above the biggest folly of falling into her own mystic and the glory of the power she “wields.” But she's also aware of her status and working on finding her way to real power. Lot's of potential for growth here. On top of that, she's got a lot of academic knowledge, but we're not so sure of her political savvy yet. Wouldn't surprise me to see her making more beneficial alliances in the future. She's going to be means to an ends for a while. It's just a question of what plans will be implemented first and which of those machinations yields the better result.

 

Scian of Ghost Tribe, played by Michelle Yeoh. Begins off in her clan's land. She's a mystic one, reaching through the veils of worlds to seek guidance. The problem is someone else's divinations are interfering with her own. She is a skilled warrior and someone who takes zero chances. The definitely let Yeoh play to the archetype she's best known for as a sword master. No wire-fu, but it's a very flowing style. She's the most mysterious character up to this point, with her in the mentor role to bring Fjall and Eile into synch and make them better fighters so all of them stand a better chance of their assault. I'm guessing she's going to stay more aloof throughout. She has her own goals to retrieve the clan's ancestral sword. She's also the most versed in divination rituals (and likely just a hint of other magic). I wouldn't be surprised if she is ultimately attributed with helping develop the fighting styles that the Witchers use. Side note, if you haven't seen either Everything Everywhere, All At Once or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, watch either, or better, both. Yoeh is amazing in them.

 

Zacare and Syndril are played by Lizzie Annis and Zach Wyatt respectively. Syndril we learned has figured out how to breach the border of worlds. Using ancient dwarven monoliths, the veil can be pierced. He also regrets it immensely, being held captive by Balor and forced to work to Balor's ends. We only see Syndril briefly and he's somewhere between that regret and an obsession with what he's begun to unlock. He still listens to Balor even though knows its not for anything good.

 

And then there was the leader, the Lark (Eile). She's played by Sophia Brown. It's clear she does work to better the world. She won't abide bad manners, and shows she's chosen a very different path, being from a protector clan, but still has a lot of the baggage tied to that. She and Fjall quickly come to blows over clan grudges when they're put in the same cell together. Even then, she's as resourceful as a trained warrior (and bard) should be. When we do get to see her fight, it's clear she's highly trained and more than capable. Right now, we know she left because she wanted to play music over fighting (there was more fallout too, and a bad choice at that).

 

We get a good idea of the factions as well this episode. The royals, the protector clans, and the military. The problem here is 2 of the 3 are killed off by the mid-point in the episode. It's important that people care about what happens with others, but it did seem callous and short-sighted to eliminate the existing structure of power. This changes a lot of the power dynamic and leaves a lot up in the air. The good news is that the main actors of the coup were ready and had the transition ready by the time the treaty was ready to be signed. The main actors of the coup, the seer Balor (Lenny Henry) and Eredin (Jacob Clollins Levy) are keeping a strong hand. While this puts their faction at the center it's also clear they united the important players under their banner. They also have their own agendas, and not likely to be united in purpose for the entirety of their alliance. Balor wants to wield more than just control of a united empire. He's been managing the mages and seers. Eredin is keeping the military and its factors in order. Eredin does seem content with his role so far and is trying to manage everything. These two are going to be big players, and are just as important as the Princess, now Empress Merywn to the series of events now in motion.

 

There is also the impetus that got Eile to be seeking revenge, and that was the vision from the little girl, Ithlinne. We get the cryptic version of everything that's going to happen with Eile throughout the series. We know that Eile's sister Niamh is dead from the ambush mounted by the joined army forces. This leads me to the question about the member Shen of Dog Clan that came for Fjall. What happened to him? Was there a line or something I missed. Was he on a different boat or was he ambushed like Eile and Niamh. For all I know this is addressed in episode 2 which I haven't seen yet. But this show has no problem introducing people and killing them off just about as fast. At least let me know when a named character dies! Cousin or no, Shen is still part of Dog Clan.

 

One last thing that does seem off is the conspiracy. It's likely Balor and Eredin had been plotting this a long while, neither seemed happy with the changes that the King Alvitir has made. Balor didn't like his reduced influence and Eredin likely has seen the diminished interest in the border fighting or lack of interest in conquest. Likely this event gathering all the heads of the nations was too good of an opportunity to pass by. They had all the structures ready to go when the time came for a “peaceful” transition of power. Merywn had the most to lose since she would be getting married off as part of the peace agreement. That being said, it would have given her a great chance to expand her knowledge base more, even if she did end up in a different gilded cage.

 

This was a good episode to begin everything on. The two main characters, Eile and Fjall have been introduced, given motivation, and begun the “epic quest.” The antagonists have enacted a major plan very successfully, and are working on consolidation now. It kept a good pace throughout the whole without really dragging anywhere. I do want to watch episode 2, they did enough for that. I do want to know if they succeed at getting me to episode 3 with interest (moderate chance at present because of the promised origin of the Witchers).