#syndril blood origin

[lambden]

Syndril in Blood Origin (stills from the show, Tudum)

[grishaverse-oddity]

Jaskier: *singing about the conjunction and using specific names*

Everyone: “There goes Jaskier, making his characters again”

Vesemir (who knows the actual story of the conjunction and how Witchers were made): “bitch what the ACTUAL FUCK?”

[bluedillylee]

Fullmetal Elves!

Haha this probably wasn’t what they wanted me to focus on but when Zacare and Syndril talked about trying to resurrect their mother this was all I could think about

[l-watches-while-note-taking]

First thing I did this year was watch Witcher Blood Origin, I loved it, best start to the year I've had in a while! Elie and Fjall, her voice used to start a rebellion and also be an anchor, Fjall going through the first mutation and asking softly once everything was done to die, my emotions were messed with. And like everyone was a badass and I was vibrating. New year actually started during the mutation process, which interesting, don't know if that's supposed to say something about this year.

[djarinslover]

Personally I really liked Blood Origin, just wish it was longer so we could’ve gotten to know more about each character

[stromuprisahat]

Expectations were low, but Oh My God!

I intended to write down the dialogues that don't make much sense, but then I figured it's no use to copy/paste all the subtitles. There's rarely anything that isn't plain stupid. The Witcher: Blood Origins is amalgam of badly used tropes I've seen thousand times before. 

The Elves

Forget the beautiful, graceful humanoids with equally stunning culture. The elves here are dirty, rude and equally pathetic as humans. The only difference is pointy ears. Their architecture is massive and angular, their blades, proverbial elven blades, often look like a total amateur with zero skill forged them out of scraps.

Elves are also morally corrupt. Colonization is a huge issue we won’t learn much about, except they’re just as bad as humans will become in future. Given the context the point seems to be they had it coming... in case you were starting to feel for their race in present time.

REPRESENTATION!!!

Recently I’ve read a post about how little representation is in “source” material. Shocking, isn’t it? Slavic fantasy, heavily inspired by mediaeval Poland doesn’t include POCs (read: Blacks and East-Asians, because I’ve never seen anyone complaining about lack of Native Americans... in pseudoEurope...). The show creators obviously decided to fix that by ticking off the proper boxes.

You’ve got Black elves, East-Asian, gay gay, chubby deaf-mute... well, at least this time the different colours came from distinct nations. If only the stereotypes were avoided.

Tropes and patterns

Soft, slightly feminine gay, gullible disabled, wise older East-Asian mentor,  washed out hippie healer, abused genius, forbidden love between protector and his charge, soldier who was done killing untill the enemy wiped out his home, redemption = sacrifice = suicide, two characters arguing about who’s gonna do the sacrificing only for the one, who “lost” to go behind the other one’s back and do it...

... sprinkle some well-known terms and names: chaotic power, Xin'trea, Eredin, Avallac’h... aaand done! Brand new tale from a widely-loved universe is done!

Perhaps try writing less of what could people find cool, and focus on a good story.

Rah, rah-ah-ah-ah!

Four episodes don’t offer much space to develop many characters. Seven good guys, at least four antagonists... personalities, interactions, needless romance... it’s interesting how much can actors express in only so many interactions.

Zacaré and Brother Death are believable. 

Meldof and Gwen's story's tragic, but rather sweet in a way. (Tho they could’ve refrained from that rape aspect.)

Éile and Fjall, flat and boring. One of the unsurprising, disappointing turns of events. Zero chemistry. Made to fuck with the sole purpose of making a baby to artificially connect them to Ciri, one of the MCs in the “original” series.

The WITCHER: Blood Origin

You're telling me that the first version of a witcher was a badass elf? This is really gonna piss Geralt off.

One would hope for something different, after all this fuss, but no. First “witcher" is just another butch guy, only with pointy ears.

How do we know the turning potion's ew? It's black!

How do we know he's really WITCHER 1.0? Yellow eyes!

How do we know he’s not quite himself? Black eyes and veins on his face!

I'm sure this improvised ritual had the same effects as carefully honed procedure sorcerers spent decades perfecting...

Fuck the Coup, free The People!

The story starts with a coup, killing off three monarchs with their bodyguards. Corrupt, elitist leadership’s gone, the new rulers- army, magicians and overlooked princess- plan to invade new worlds to gain resources their world’s lacking. Sounds like a decent idea? Our heroes would disagree. The empress needs to be destroyed, because people suffer.

You changed nothing. You're just another boot looking for more necks.

... reproaches the great Éile new empress. When was she supposed to do that? In a week? Change takes time and resources, Merwyn had none. Am I supposed to cheer, because now it's faceless "people" in charge? Do they have knowledge to rule? The skill? Anything? Or are they expected to wing it? Rule isn't about putting new people to the wheel and hope it will all work out. Talk about freedom won't feed you, run trade, economy, agriculture etc..

The worst thing's we know the Empire is crumbling. We know there's no food to redistribute, even the leadership has barely anything and you can't let the head starve if you want to fix anything. Merwyn's unforgivable sin was being born into the ruling class.

- You've no idea what elfkind even is. You're just another spoiled princess.

~ I am Empress!

- You are a child ~given~ the reins of a warhorse. You don't speak for elfkind.

... the writers try to gaslight us. We’re introduced clever, idealistic, inquisitive princess, who wants to help her people. When she’s confronted with reality, she tries to learn more. She goes from her family’s pawn to schemer, who makes allies and plans, frees herself from role of figurehead and reminds others the most important task is to feed their people. That’s a character I’d love to watch. Not a dumb singer, who rallies a mob, destroys government, helps to cause cataclysm and fucks off to countryside.

The Story of the Seven

What did those fame-deserving Seven achieve? Did they solve famine? Did they end war? Did they offer better way to rule? No, no and no.

But they (unintentionally) caused the Conjunction, brought the monsters and humans into weak, starving, disorganized society. The rightfully forgotten Seven effectively crippled their own race and destroyed any chance for defense they might have had.

I don’t know who is Jaskier’s song about, but it’s not about these Seven.

[bamf-jaskier]

Blood Origin/The Witcher Season 2 Fix-it fic idea

my mind is full of ideas after seeing Blood Origin so I came up with a season 2 fix-it fic featuring the Blood Origin characters.

Francesca knows Nilfgaard's allliance will eventually turn against her and The Northern kingdoms are already out for blood. In this AU, instead of seeking out the Deathless Mother she tries to summon heroes of Elven past in a ritual. But she doesn’t have enough magic on her own which is why Fringilla and Yennefer were captured so they would participate in the ritual. And now instead of the Deathless Mother in S2 it’s The Seven who are transported to the future and the war between Nilfgaard and non humans and the North.

The Seven were taken from their timeline just before they headed to Xin'trea and since it's a ritual their original timeline still exists they are just now versions of themselves from that moment who have been brought to the future.

Unfortunately documentation of The Seven is very sparse and Francesca had no idea who she was summoning. She got them caught up on the war between Nilfgaard and the North and human oppression of Elven kind (and wow they don't even know what humans are so this is a trip for them). Francesca assumes they would join her in battle but once Eile talks to Fringilla and Yennefer she realizes they would also be helping Nilfgaard because Fringilla has convinced Francesca of an elven/Nilfgaard alliance and considering they were fighting against a similar empire in their time...yeah the Seven basically escape the Elven camp that night alongside Yennefer.

From here, they decide to split into two parties because they need to find out more about the future and what the Continent is like now. Syndril as a mage creates pendants with a glamour to hide the elves' ears so they can move freely.

Syndril, Yennefer, Zacare, Meldof and Callan all head towards Aretuza. Syndril, as an original creator of the monoliths is probably once of the best people on the continent to try and work out what is happening with them and why Yennefer lost her magic after Sodden Hill. In addition, Yennefer tells them that Aretuza holds many secrets about what happened after their time on the continent and what magic is like today.

Meanwhile Eile, Fjall, and Scian all head towards Oxenfurt since instead of focusing on the monoliths they need to figure out what the fuck a Witcher is and why people keep giving Fjall strange looks. Oxenfurt is their choice because Yennefer told them there is a masive library there and she heard there is a bard there who could tell them more about Witchers.

Obviously, the Oxenfurt crew finds Jaskier and him and Eile have a bard-off that turns into the sickest duet ever.

I could end up turning this into a whole S2 Canon Divergent AU if anyone is interested, who knows, maybe I will end up turning this into a whole fic.

[witchthewriter]

I just finished watching The Witcher: Blood Origin AND OH MY GOD. I’m not going to spoil anything but if anyone has seen it, please comment because I HAVE to talk about it. 

It changes so much about the Witcher?! 

   Also I’m going to have to write some fanfics because oh god the tropes, the relationships, the characters, the plot. It’s ... perfect. 

[lasaraconor]

[fandommenagerie]

Me, trying to figure out the ages of the Blood Origin characters:

[spilledbutter]

ah yes, the origin of

ye olde lore

[renfriscreyden]

The problem with Blood Origin

The biggest problem Blood Origin faces is that it was cut too short. Though Blood Origin presents an interesting cast of characters, and sets up the witcher universe, none of the events and emotions feel deserved. What once was a series with six episodes, has been cut down to four, forsaking a third of its origin plot and backstory. The characters presented are vibrant, interesting, and diverse, and their backstories, past, and personalities are used to propel the plot forward.

Yet, these backstories seemed to have been cut down so dramatically that none of the resulting action or emotions feel deserved. Éile and Fjall fight to avenge their clans, their previous way of life, and their family members, despite their flaws, yet none of the avenging feels vengeful enough. We barely know anything about these clans, which are so important to the story. We see them protecting, but that is all we know, no further depth. Then, we learn that the character’s relations to these clans are filled with pain and regret, too, which begs the question if they are worth avenging at all, though this drives part of the story. We get flashbacks in the misty marshes, leading up to the meeting with Zacaré and Syndril, suddenly fleshing out the characters, showing us there is much more to these characters than might meet the eye.

However, we never really learn much more than surface level details about any of the Seven. The characters feel incomplete. Much of the weight given to these characters and their bonds is unexplained. Little elaboration is given about Éile as the Lark, for example, which makes it appear as if her power to inspire rebellion is without base, though flashes of her power are shown in the episodes, they are rarely elaborated upon. Likewise, there is suggested to be weight to the name Brother Death, but this weight is only ever hinted at, never elaborated upon.

Similarly, many character relations are underdeveloped. Fenrick is supposed to be very close to Balor, literally being his heart, as he himself says, yet they are seen a handful of times together, and their relationship is glanced over quickly, without any focus or detail. Éile and Fjall, too, have an intense relationship, but it feels very cut and dry, their love mostly unexplored, going from tension to love in no amount of time at all. 

Many aspects of the society are unexplored, too. There is much talk about a lost elven culture, yet this is barely fleshed out, just shown via shimmering white architecture, and books, though the world, especially the war raging, reminds much of the Witcher, barely differentiating from the Continent we already know. There is SO much potential, so many interesting aspects to explore, yet nothing is fully fleshed out, leaving everything underdeveloped, nothing really living up to its potential, even the lore. The conjunction of the spheres just happens, and we only ever see its cause, but no detail as to what exactly unfolded. The concept of celestial twins is barely expanded upon despite its heavy use. Had the series been six episodes, much of the underdeveloped interpersonal relationships and worldbuilding would have been much better. 

For a series, there is little development, just the achievement of a goal: bringing down an empire. Such a lack of depth and development would have worked much better as a movie, for a problem, conflict, and resolution format would be much more satisfying for a two-hour movie than a three-hour series. The cutting of the episodes suggest a lack of commitment to choice: either to the format of a movie, with the showrunner admitting to cutting down the episodes to have the format be like that of a movie, or to that of a show, which requires more depth and development. 

Pace cannot be all, especially not in a production that has already been divided into four parts, slowing down the watching experience. Blood Origin should have been a movie, or stuck to the six episodes, but as it is now, it lacks in motivation and backstory, making the plot and lore superficial, and much of the action and emotions undeserved, without base. Rooting for characters is difficult when the characters are not fleshed out, when the potential is there and was there, but has been cut, leading to an action-filled show that lacks in its promise of lore and character. Not everything needs to be expanded upon in detail to enjoy a show, but the lack of detail leaves too much open to interpretation.

Had it been formatted as a movie, the lack of backstory and worldbuilding might have been excused, even though the show was meant to expand upon the lore of the world of the Witcher. Yet, as a series, Blood Origin lacks depth, development, and decision. 

[gigi-does-art]

The last member!! Finally finished the designs for The Seven. I decided to have Syndril and Zacaré designs match since they are celestial siblings; the celestial siblings concept should be used more. I want more content of Syndril, he was really intriguing and I want his character to be explored more.

[spilledbutter]

can't let this die in your tags bestie

i'm a pendulum wildly swinging between i could fix them and i could make them worse

running list of characters in blood origin who could get it, post episode one:

jaskier (the more wet-rat-looking the better. DOUSE that boy)

evil kermit jaskier shape shifter jaskier

shape shifter themself. i’m a sucker for a storyteller

éile could absolutely get it

💖 FJALL 💖 my masc elf king with a faramir complex.. that medieval henley really did it for me

against the odds.. eredin (even if every time i look at him i just think god i wish they would do eamon’s cahir hair like this). his gay little earring got me

MICHELLE YEOH

ket (i think). merwyn’s cute xintrean friend. ket if you’re free thursday we could have dinner on thursday if you’re free. sorry merwyn i’m just over my straight girls era.

ok literally as i typed this, the princess slit her guard’s throat so i guess she has some amount of swag

okay upon the development of the plot, merwyn (unfortunately) coukd get it but ONLY in her evil cunty girlboss era and only if she promised i would get exiled to get a much hotter gf right after, eventually helping my character development

syndril absolutely 1000000% smash

I NEED TO REITERATE HOW MUCH SCÍAN COULD GET IT. questionable face tattoos and all 🫶🙇🏻🥰

that’s episode one done!

[fangirleaconmigo]

As I watched Blood Origin I took notes. They are silly and disjointed bullet points and here they are:

(My full review is HERE)

Ep One

Shit, that's intense. My bard is having a bad time.

Hi Minnie Driver!

Wait. Why would Geralt hate that? (were they saying he'd hate an elf being the first witcher? V confused. Why would he hate that?)

So Fjall was too slutty to be a bodyguard.

Glad pretty girl didn’t get punished for helping the little girl.

Hmmm the princess doesn’t want to just be a baby factory. Word. I get it.

Michelle Yeoh!!!!

Wow the princess really flat out murdered her brother.

Girl, you don’t get a nation when you kill their king it’s not that simple.

MICHELLE YEOH I hope we get to see more of that.

Ep 2

Is she talking to her hammer? I love her already.

Fjall and Éile are they tied by destiny? How?

I juuuuuuuuust realized that sellswords don’t sell swords in the literal sense. I don't know why I thought that. This is all making a lot more sense.

I like the failed romance in the beginning. Hey folks, even if you fall in love with a brother murdering evil chick, life goes on. Second chances, etc. etc.

If they kill off Scían this fast I’m gonna be annoyed

Oh Hi Avallac'h. Avallac'h is like ummmmmm I’m regretting this shit (he is just a babby)

Merwyn is determined to survive, I like that. I like that in my evil women.

Eredin has a knife to a hotties throat saying 'you fucked me'(gaygayhomosexualgay?)

Oooooohhhhh

Actual real gay

Nice

Yes. Welcome to the family Eredin.

Brother Death called Fjall Square jaw-all the flirting! (Fjall is very flirt-withable imo)

Holy fuck Éile burning folks. That's hardcore, girl. Good thing that you ran away.

Winterberry and lilac CREEPY but revenge cool. Also, LILAC AND GOOSEBERRIES

Uh oh is Balor giving her those kids. That's rude.

I assume true sacrifice comes from within means Balor has to kill someone he cares about. If I was that girl with him I'd be pretty worried right now.

Eredin done in by the most obvious “spy” who literally ran right into him. He’s dickmatized or something. Himbo?

DONT TOUCH EILE YOU FUCKERS

Ep 3

Yesss love Meldof YET AGAIN

Poison a sheep and feed it to it, yes reference to the books.

Wow, girl (Zacare I looked it up) is throwing that “not really family” in his (Syndril, I looked it up) face fast ain't she. Found family gets lost fast when shit gets real.

Solryth? Is this empress chick talking to the brother she killed??? Girl? Do you think he wants to hear from your ass??? He's in the great beyond cursing your name.

Awww Fjall being protective

Even if you fell into a bucket of tits you’d come up holding a cock (is Meldof calling him gay?)

Ooooo no secret entrance?!?! Damn you Fjall. Just full of piss and vinegar barreling forward with nothing but guts and good cleavage.

Awwwww I love that the mage sees him as he is.

Éile sings

Such pretty voice Fjall is down bad.

As he should be, as am I.

Girl, he is not gonna let you be the first witcher. Not after you sang that. Please be real.

I love an 'end of the world about to die shag and party' episode.

We gettin a witcher, folks.

Ugh I hope Scían doesn’t betray them. I think she’s just getting them a way in tho.

Empress really thinks she’s gonna hit it again with Fjall? THIS CHICK. LMAOOOO She just has no concept of her actions having consequences does she.

She looks hella cool in her fancy armor tho.

She’s actually quite good at this. Making deals. Knowing what people want and offering it to them.

Yeah he’s gonna kill Fenrik I knew that from when he killed the kids

Ep 4

Avalac'h is a sad lil loser boy pobrecito

Eredin thinks he won’t risk Fenrik? You a dummy hunny

I woulda given Avallac'h more time rather than run back to Balor. I mean he's just a babby, he's gonna be badass folks.

Oh no he's hulking out. Look out empress girl.

“You’re a monster”

UH OH BETA RUN GRL BETTA RUN he kills those things now.

Why are his eyes black? Potions make eyes black?

OH YOU DUMMIES YOU THINK SCÍAN CANT TAKE TWO OF YOU?? FOOLS

Damn, lark. Éile really broke down the difference between a feminist and a girlboss to Miss Empress then stuck her. That was a clever way around making her badass but not 100% a murderer.

Balor killed that soldier for zero reason. This is just not a good person.

WOOPS HULK BOY Sun's gettin real low.

Wow Éile is pregnant? I thought that witchers were sterile. Maybe that's a thing the mages did.

I already knew Ciri was her descendant because people on twitter were shitting their pants because the actress is Black. I mean, don't they know how genes work? You can get a blondie in that span of time? Its centuries? And her child's already gonna be half Fjall, so idk, people cannot be normal about Black women I cannot fathom it.

And there's Mr. Joey again, we always love to see him.

The end. That was fun. Might watch again.

[bamf-jaskier]

Blood Origin AU - Witcher!Jaskier

that's right y'all I'm going back to my roots with this AU and shoutout to @islenthatur for vibing with me on this

In this AU, Seanchai summons Jaskier out of the battlefield in order to tell him the story of The Seven and the first witcher. But something goes wrong and Jaskier gets ripped through time and sent to the night before Fjall is given the Trials.

Since it went so wrong, Jaskier has new wounds on top of the ones he already sustained and is dying. Zacare and Syndril find him just outside the cave they are conducting the witcher experiments in as he is on the verge of death and decide to test out the process on him since he will either die due to his wounds or die due to the trials --- but if he survives the process his wounds will heal and he will live.

Since they can only do one trial at a time this means that Fjall cannot go behind Eile's back and take on the trials without her knowledge. They watch as Jaskier goes through the trials and wonder about who he is and what he is, humans do not exist on the continent yet. He ends up healed but in a coma and unconscious. The Seven leave him there under a stasis spell until they can return. They assume is is safe enough that Fjall or Eile would survive since this man came back from deathly wounds.

Of course, the two of them each insist they should be the one to go through with the trials so in this world they both do. Fjall and Eile both end going through the trials and become prototype-witchers. Fjall goes through them first and Eile helps him with impulse control and they have sex and then she goes through the trials as well.

The final battle happens the same with the added twist of Eile trying to control her impulses and managing not to transform the way Fjall did. Syndrill still sacrifices his life and the Conjunction occurs.

Because Eile also went through the trials she is terrified of going through what Fjall did, and this fear doubles after learning she is pregnant.

They release Jaskier from the stasis spell and this basically becomes a about Eile and Jaskier learning to manage becoming the first witchers and using their new abilities and trying to control them.

Zacare works on bettering the process so there isn't a risk of monstrous transformation like with Fjall. She ends up giving Jaskier and Eile a potion to stop this just before Eile gives birth.

I have more thoughts but this is getting super long so I will call it here.

Another AU I could easily turn into a long fic, but damn I can't decided which of my Blood Origin AUs I should jump into first. Let me know what you think of this idea.