History YMMV / TheWitcher2019

* SpecialEffectsFailure: The contacts Henry Cavill wears for Geralt's orange eyes have a tendency to make him look cross-eyed. Mercifully, this did not happen very often.

* AdaptationDisplacement: A very weird example. Most are aware that the series is based on the original books, but people seem unaware that the show likely won't ever adapt the games (which are essentially a high-budget FanSequel to the books), at least according to the showrunner. This is because the rights to the games are separate from the books, and would likely require a separate deal to directly adapt, though the show has clearly been influenced by the games's visuals, leading to some familiar creative decisions for the show. For example, Geralt's armor is clearly based on the one Geralt wears by default in ''VideoGame/{{The Witcher 3|WildHunt}}'' (just without silver trimmings, and it being all-black), while his voice is very clearly based on Doug Cockle's voice, the VA of Geralt in the games, with Henry Cavill being very baritone and retaining their vocal mannerisms, such as his "hrmms".

** More than a few ''Series/GameOfThrones'' communities welcomed this series, premiering roughly half a year after its controversial final season and both being highly anticipated television fantasy shows based on books. Also helps that there's some production overlap between the two; Creator/VladimirFurdik, who played the Night King in ''Game of Thrones'' and worked as stunt supervisor, also participated in this show as sword choreographer.

* MemeticLoser: The show's depiction of Vilgefortz has become saddled with this due to his lackluster performance at The Battle of Sodden Hill, from Yennefer taking the crucial role in the battle that he had in the books, to his embarrassing defeat at the hands of Cahir. Only time will tell if he becomes the powerhouse that he was in the books.

** Sabrina is well-liked for being a [[ActionGirl badass]] HotWitch. It also helps that she is [[AdaptationalHeroism nowhere as nasty as her book or game counterparts]].

* InternetBackdraft: Henry Cacill leaving the show after filming season 3 has not gone over well with the fanbase, to put it lightly.

%%** [[https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_witcher/s02 Season 2 experienced an inverse reaction]], with critics giving it a 95%, while the audience rating based on over 5,000 users gave it a 59%.
%% Per Administrivia/NoRecentExamplesPlease, do not add new seasons until one month after the release.

* CrossoverShip: Unsurprisingly, the biggest ship outside the show is Geralt and [[Series/GameofThrones Daenerys Targaryen]]. There were already shippers even before the ''Witcher'' had aired, but after, it gathered a decent amount of fans. The ship became popular for various reasons like the uncanny physical resemblance between Dany and Geralt, Daenerys' infamous demise, Geralt refusing to kill dragons, but the biggest reason is probably the fact that Creator/HenryCavill himself apparently is a fan of Khaleesi, as he declared half-jokingly on the ''Series/JimmyKimmelLive'' show that he made people call him ''Khaleesi'' or ''[[Creator/EmiliaClarke Emilia]]'' on the set, and modeled his acting a little bit after her.

* MoralEventHorizon: [[spoiler: Francesca Findabair crosses it when she murders every baby in Redania in retribution for the murder of her child. A mother's grief? Certainly. It becomes especially notable that it is MisplacedRetribution and it was Nilfgaard's Emperor all along who carried out. This is notably also Emhyr's MoralEventHorizon in the show.]]

** "Final season." [[labelnote: explanation]]Said about for Season 3 by many fans lamenting the departure of Creator/HenryCavill. Creator/LiamHemsworth is due to replace him in Season 4.[[/labelnote]]

** "Final season." [[labelnote: explanation]]Said by many fans of Creator/HenryCavill for Season 3, since Creator/LiamHemsworth is due to replace him for Season 4[[/labelnote]]

** Some reactions to the RaceLift given to various characters with reasons ranging from claiming it "impractical" for non-whites to appear in one of the only representations of Polish culture (albeit a fantastic one and there were canonically other non-white cultures/people too within the setting such as those from Zerrikania, although these were distinct ethnicities in far-off lands and not random Northern peasants and nobles in isolated settlements), to it "ruining the iconic appearances" of characters such as the redheaded Triss (although she was [[OlderThanTheyThink not actually red-headed in the books]], but still auburn - close enough) and green-skinned dryads (who also did have “assimilated” members in the books with completely human (albeit white/Northern) skintones). There are also those with solely and overtly racist reactions as well, with their vitriol regarding the presence of non-white characters even in the background.

** "Final season." [[labelnote: explanation]]Said by many fans of Creator/HenryCavill for Season 3, since he left the show and Creator/LiamHemsworth is due to replace him for Season 4[[/labelnote]]

** Since its airing, ''The Witcher'' spawned a few crossover memes with ''Series/GameOfThrones''. Brace yourself, the Witcher memes are coming.

* AbilityOverAppearance: An odd example where the apperance was within the actor's control. Henry Cavill's perfomance as Geralt has been universally praised, even by the show's harshest critics, yet many still wonder why Cavill chose to bulk up even more than his Superman role to play the lean, rangy, perpetually-broke Witcher.

*** A consensus among many longtime book and game fans meanwhile is that they aren't against the inclusion of non-white characters on principle, just that the series' [[BlackVikings casting]] clearly panders to US-centric "diversity" trends instead of expanding on the actual worldbuilding. The series already plays [[BroadStrokes fast and loose]] with the storyline and the main characters can teleport via Yennefer, so it wouldn't be a stretch for the story to visit non-European-inspired regions of the Continent, or have new characters from said regions visit the Northern Kingdoms. It's also notable that the series' version of Nilfgaard - a huge, Continent-spanning empire to the south which logically ''could'' feature characters of all different skintones - is still portrayed as almost uniformly white, and has been retconned from a sophisticated, well-organized, egalitarian superpower with a long and established history to a "primitive," "backwater" and "upstart" [[{{Anvilicious}} horde of mindless religious fanatics in phallic armour]].

* AbilityOverAppearance: An odd example where the apperance was within the actor's control. Henry Cavill's perfomance as Geralt has been universally praised, even by the show's harshist critics, yet many still wonder why Cavill chose to bulk up even more than his Superman role to play the lean, rangy, perpetually-broke Witcher.

** This also seems to reflect some of the storytelling decisions, regarding how certain story threads are adapted. For instance, the show doesn't bother to draw out the true relationship between Emhyr and Ciri (they're [[spoiler:father and daughter]]) because it was a major plot point of the third game (IE, the biggest instalment in the franchise prior to the Netflix series), so most viewers probably already knew it or had heard of it, or would likely learn of it before the series adapts the moment in the books where this reveal comes to light (which is the ''last'' book in the series). By contrast, the series decided to hide who Lydia and Rience's ManBehindTheMan is (in the books, its [[spoiler:Vilgafortz]]), only showing them once from behind interacting with them so they can't be identified as the character who is otherwise presented in the series as a seemingly benevolent figure, despite the character in the books being introduced as ObviouslyEvil and the fact the character is ''the'' BigBad of the series. Most fans aren't aware of the full details of the books, though, so this is information they ''can'' conceal as a twist.

** This also factors into some reactions towards casting, in regards to game appearances over the original books and their descriptions. For example, various fans have reacted to [[spoiler: Philippa]] as being inaccurate to how she looks in the books -- however, there she is only ever vaguely described as looking in her mid-30s and having black hair. Thus the so-called "accurate" appearance being referred to, is actually a game specific creation. It's also noteworthy that a lot of the backlash to the RaceLift seem to be due to changing the visual appearance of the characters from their game appearances (as book characters who had similar race changes like Vilgafotz have been far less controversial), but the books ''never'' specified character ethnicities outside of occasional vague descriptions about Witchers being unnervingly pale, and descriptions are mostly limited to describing hair colour and figure.

*** A loose consensus amongst many longtime book and game fans is that they aren't against the inclusion of non-white characters on principle, just that the series clearly panders to US-centric "diversity" trends in [[BlackVikings casting]] and advertising, rather than expand on the in-universe worldbuilding. The series already plays fast and loose with the storyline and the main characters can teleport via Yennifer, so it wouldn't be a stretch for the story to visit non-European-inspired regions of the Continent, or have new characters from said regions visit the Northern Kingdoms. It's also notable that the series' version of Nilfgaard - a huge, Continent-spanning empire to the south which logically ''could'' feature characters of all different skintones - is still portrayed as almost uniformly white, and has been retconned from a sophisticated, well-organized, egalitarian superpower with a long and established history to a "primitive," "backwater" and "upstart" [[{{Anvilicious}} horde of mindless religious fanatics in phallic armour]].

* AmericansHateTingle: The series has a particularly contentious reception in Poland, of all places. There are at least four distinctive groups, each disliking it for different reasons. First there is the books fandom, who end up having all their worst predictions about the BroadStrokes aspect of the adaptations materialised, and who had completely abandoned the series by season 2. Then there is the video games fandom, which could roll with the ever-diverging nature of the adaptation, but just couldn't stand the increasingly alien to them visuals. Finally, there are also people who genuinely like the early 00s, [[HomeFieldAdvantage Poland-made]] ''Series/TheHexer'' [[SoBadItWasBetter better]], since for them, for all its faults, it at least wasn't chasing after trends set by other series and was its own thing. Some of those groups can easily overlap, further piling reasons for the rather vocal dislike toward "the Netflix version".

* AmericansHateTingle: The series has a particularly contentious reception in Poland, of all places. There are at least four distinctive groups, each disliking it for different reasons. First, there are the people focusing on the color-blind casting. This is a big can of worms and is best left alone without further comment. Next there is the books fandom, who end up having all their worst predictions about the BroadStrokes aspect of the adaptations materialised, and who had completely abandoned the series by season 2. Then there is the video games fandom, which could roll with the ever-diverging nature of the adaptation, but just couldn't stand the increasingly alien to them visuals. Finally, there are also people who genuinely like the early 00s, [[HomeFieldAdvantage Poland-made]] ''Series/TheHexer'' [[SoBadItWasBetter better]], since for them, for all its faults, it at least wasn't chasing after trends set by other series and was its own thing. Some of those groups can easily overlap, further piling reasons for the rather vocal dislike toward "the Netflix version".

* AmericansHateTingle: The series has a particularly contentious reception in Poland, of all places. There are at least four distinctive groups, each disliking it for different reasons. First, there are the people over-focusing on the color-blind casting. This is a big can of worms and is best left alone without further comment. Next there is the books fandom, who end up having all their worst predictions about the BroadStrokes aspect of the adaptations materialised, and who had completely abandoned the series by season 2. Then there is the video games fandom, which could roll with the ever-diverging nature of the adaptation, but just couldn't stand the increasingly alien to them visuals. Finally, there are also people who genuinely like the early 00s, [[HomeFieldAdvantage Poland-made]] ''Series/TheHexer'' [[SoBadItWasBetter better]], since for them, for all its faults, it at least wasn't chasing after trends set by other series and was its own thing. Some of those groups can easily overlap, further piling reasons for the rather vocal dislike toward "the Netflix version".

** Henry Cavill's Superman from ''Film/ManOfSteel'' and ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' was criticized by many for lacking the character's trademark idealism and positive attitude, being depicted as a recipient of FantasticRacism by people who fear his power instead of a beloved beacon of hope, and making it difficult to see the contrast between him and Batman thanks to both being brooding HurtingHero types. Here, Cavill plays a brooding HurtingHero receiving constant FantasticRacism by people who fear his power, who's even ''more'' like Batman thanks to being a TerrorHero who dresses in all-black and is known by a number of scary monikers...and audiences absolutely ''love'' him.

** Eskel's [[spoiler:forced transformation into a Leshy and his subsequent death at Geralt's hands]] is meant to be presented as a tragic moment. But considering he spent most of his screentime being a {{Jerkass}}, especially to Ciri, meaning that audiences would find it hard to sympathize for a character [[WeHardlyKnewYe they barely knew.]]