Legacy of Blood: The Witcher Without Fantasy

Nowadays, it's impossible to be a fantasy saga worthy of the name without having its derivative series.

A prologue preferably to the House Of The Dragon or the Rings of Power.

Launched in 2019,

, adaptation of the novels and the video game of the same name, did not wait to expand its universe.

On Christmas Day Netflix uploaded

, an adventure set 1200 years before the events of the main series, starring Henry Cavill.

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This appendix in four episodes promises to answer a burning question: how did the famous tutelary witchers, these monster hunters with superhuman strength, appear.

Legacy of Blood

depicts a world populated entirely by elves, not yet overrun by men and mages of all kinds.

The entry into the matter is made by a cliché that is certainly hackneyed, but proven: the constitution of a band of renegades determined to take revenge and overthrow the monarch who has reduced their families to nothing and is starving the people.

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The colossus Fjall (Laurence O'Fuarain) and Elie (Sophie Brown), a member of the royal guard, known as the lark because of his passion for music, are the leaders of a pack which also includes the master-at-arms of the young Scian woman, camped by a Michelle Yeoh.

Dynamic and superficial

From

certainly retains the bloody clinch and pulpy Conan the Barbarian, almost parodic where limbs fly.

As well as hectic twists.

But the writers don't care much about digging into their characters.

An impression of flight reinforced by the scenes of meetings and conspiracies in the palace.

Like the character of the Alouette, the soap opera questions the power of oral narrative and its transmission in the collective imagination.

“He who masters history masters the world,” insists one of the characters.

Dynamic and superficial at the same time, this canvas tries to expand the mythology of Andrzej Sapkowski and above all serves as a (minor) snack while waiting for the third season of The Witcher, announced for 2023.

Unfortunately, this origin story misses its biggest asset: Michelle Yeoh.

Knowing a prodigious resurgence of her career in the cinema (

), the actress is offered here a far too fleeting presence.

But the franchise will need to regenerate charismatic figures.

After 2023, Henry Cavill indeed hangs up the armor and passes the baton to Liam Hemsworth (

).

Without its aura, will the kitsch

still be able to charm the crowds?