Jinzee · @PB_Jinzee
24th Dec 2019 from TwitLonger
The Witcher Fandom and why I'm leaving it.
Before the Witcher Netflix show was out, I was cautiously excited. I didn't want to get my hopes up too much just to protect myself from a possible letdown. Even so, I defended the show's casting choices as inconsequential if the actors could capture the essence of the characters. I was the minority then. Youtube videos with furious titles directed at Henry Cavill or Anya Chalotra were all the rage and I lost hundreds of subscribers by merely stating "Fringilla Vigo being black is fine".
Then the show came out. I didn't agree with many of the lore changes. I made a video on that because I'm a lore channel. I didn't make a video talking about the set pieces, the fight scenes, the actors' performances, the music or any of the other things that I enjoyed about the series. Because I didn't have anything much to say about them, I'm not a movie channel, I'm a lore channel.
I posted my opinion on Twitter first and for the first time in my life my inbox was overflowing with not just hate but threats of all kinds from self-proclaimed "Witcher fans". Never in my life had I seen this coming. I'd always had interesting conversations with other Witcher fans about my opinions or views on things. They very rarely escalated into threats or badmouthing in any way. But this time, no this time I had to die. I didn't praise the Netflix show so I had to die. I had to throw myself off a cliff and the world would be so much better off without me.
I sat behind my computer crying. Not just with sadness and hopelessness but with rage. I cried because I was angry. NOT YOU TOO! I screamed internally. The Witcher fandom was supposed to be a home to me like it always had been. But now that I had stopped falling in line and I dared to have an unpopular opinion, I had to die. So I cried and I spent most of my night like that. Sitting around, crying.
The people that sent me those messages are most likely still reading this too, laughing. They got what they wanted. Because I'm a human being with feelings just like everybody else and the Witcher is very close to my heart. Was I angrier and less coherent than I could've been in my reviews? Probably, but it was, as all my talking videos are, completely ad-libbed. Did it warrant the barrage of hate that followed? No, no one's opinion on a piece of media should.
And it didn't stop after that day, after I closed my DMs. Now everyone felt the need to call into question my "authenticity" as a lore enthusiast. Most of my comments were various versions of "you don't know what you're talking about" or "just enjoy it what does it matter". If it doesn't matter, why are you all so angry that I didn't like the lore changes? If it doesn't matter, why are you all going out of your way to be horrible human beings? You don't care about the show, you just care about being right.
I made it abundantly clear in each video that I thought people should give the show a watch but that isn't enough for you. You're either with us or you're against us. You disgust me. This is cult like behaviour and I'm done with it. This isn't the first time I've been targeted and I'm sure it won't be the last, but I'm done with the Witcher fandom. I'll be finishing up what I've started (the comparisons, the lorethrough, the podcast for my Patrons) but that will be the end of that. No more Witcher, the fandom has soured my love for that world enough by now. So before I start to thoroughly hate the Witcher purely by association, I'm leaving.
To all the wonderful people who have enjoyed my Witcher content over the years, I love you, thank you, I wouldn't even be alive right now if it wasn't for all of you which makes this doubly ironic. I'll still be making videos slowly, don't worry, but the Witcher will be a stream only, casual conversation topic from now on.