The Witcher fans planned a boycott back in April with a simple enough motto—no hate watching. After two seasons, they'd finally show Netflix where it hurts just how tired they are of a show that has stomped all over their favourite fantasy series. Of course, that boycott lasted five minutes, and now the entire subreddit is back to angry posts and begging Henry Cavill for attention.
"The Writers Are Hacks that Just Wanted To Create a High Fantasy Series to Cash in on," knittingclub posted, inviting a swarm of comments to decry that the showrunners hate the source material and are like "religious zealots" with their political beliefs. But funnily enough, even other Witcher fans are getting exhausted by all the hate posting. "I swear you lot only live to complain about the TV series," SuperJoeUK commented. "Such original and thought [provoking] insight. Wow," OhNoMyOpinion said. "Didn't we all agree not to watch?" markielegend said.
Aside from hate, there's plenty of love for Cavill who is leaving this season, set to be replaced by Liam Hemsworth. But that love doesn't extend to the show, as many believe he was the only good part of it. "Since Cavil is actually a gamer and a lore guy and all that, i hope he actually somehow sees all the things people are saying here," DarkLord_2023 posted. "You're the perfect cast that got butchered by the writers.. i don't even have any words to say about where this show is going." Others in the comments echoed this sentiment, calling Cavill a "real fan of the Witcher [...] just like us" while asking if he has an account to tag.
Of course, digging a little deeper into the outrage, it's clear what's motivating these strong feelings. "Netflix still surprises me by how it manages to fuck up this show in new ways, this season had abysmal costume design, awful OCs and more race-swaps than ever (also whatever the fuck they did to Keira, fucking hell) but the dialogue has to take the cake for me," StaliNot said.
Race swapping is something that has outraged the fanbase for years now since the show first began, and the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher being more diverse is why we see claims like the showrunners being political "zealots". Because as we all know, if you're not white, you're political.
Aside from posts about bad writing, looking like a CW show, race swapping, wonky CGI, love for Cavill, and a boycott that is definitely working, there are several popular posts about Netflix's queer take on Jaskier who is now bisexual. As you'd expect, these aren't positive.
"This further hurts the Geralt and Jaskier purely platonic friendship (I can see it now…he must be secretly in love with Geralt since he’s now confirmed bi)," LozaMoza82 commented. "And it once again reinforces the idea that all men who have any flamboyance to them simply must be queer on some level."
Because queer men can't have platonic friendships, eh? The first volume of The Witcher's third season is airing now, and if you want to find a bunch of angry fans ranting about it ad nauseam, the subreddit lifted its Hexer-only rule. Have fun.