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The toxicity of modern fandom is a sharply diagnosed phenomenon at this point, but few in its tone and etiquette resemble that of the Witcher fandom. The adaptation of the books by author Andrzej Sapkowski into video game form was heralded as an unapologetic celebration of European culture -with all the heavy racial content such a statement carries. Pushing for more diversity in subsequent adaptations was going to be a tall order, and sure enough, showrunner of the Witcher TV series Lauren Hissrich had plenty to prove in the face of potential backlash.
Prior to the TV show’s release, liking or hating it was already priming itself to become a culture war issue, wherein being skeptical of the final output correlated heavily with a particular kind of prevalent culture critique-it’s none other than Gamergate. The usual titles and thumbnails were made to protest the casting announcements, which when combined with the sheer force of harassment mobs, made Hissrich temporarily depart social media. After the show made its debut on Netflix, and despite reservations expressed by some of its critics regarding pace and structure, what Hissrich came up with was largely faithful to the source material, and even took liberty to…
