Here is an amazing reply from a Polish fan of the Witcher franchise asking the producers of the Netflix Witcher series not to cast Ciri as a BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic). And what impact it will have on the fandom and the lore of the story:
“I know you are bombarded by a ton of angry fans right now. And I know you said you just think they are big fans with strong opinions… But allow me to give you some context into why it is THIS intense. People underestimate the cultural significance of witcher for Slavic nations (Not just Poland, – Czech, Slovaks…). Back at the time (1992), there was a boom of fantasy works coming in. And we were bombarded by awesome novels from the west. All that DND stuff, and comics etc… The thing is. All of it was based around Germanic/northern mythology with some greek mixed in.”
“We liked it, and we wanted to give back something of our own. To share our culture and lore with the world. To prove we are cool as well. And then, like a summer storm – out of nowhere, came Witcher. It proved to us that we can do it too. That our own mythos and culture can be cool and badass. It became an instant hit and a cultural pivot point for entire east Europe. Many of us grew up on reading those books. Geralt of Rivia is a household name here. Everyone knows Witcher. When the Larping community became a thing as many kids wanted to be Aragorn as they wanted to be the White Wolf or Ciri or Yennefer
“And when CD project red (A polish studio!) made a game and it became internationally successful we were elated. A piece of our own culture, mythos.. a piece of us(!) made it to the world and the world loved it. And with every new game, more people in the west came to appreciate the books, the stories the lore. The monsters you meet there are things straight from our legends and fairytales. Grandmas to this day scare kids with “Polednice” (The noonwraight). And then came the announcement about the Netflix adaptation. We were worried. For the first time the Witcher, our beloved story, a part of our identity, was to be handled by an outsider.”
“And an American company no less. And you. You personally reassured us that there is nothing to be worried about. That you will adhere to the books and will try to portray the characters accurately to their very essence, And now, we’re here. We not only feel betrayed and lied to. We feel robbed. Because that casting choice is nothing else than a cultural appropriation. The story reflects us. It comes from our suffering as nations… and you would happily paint it over in American colors. You may feel that the girls at home in U.S. need some representation. That they need to feel included. And you may be right.”
“But this is not the place, not the story. Give them their own story. Here, they are not supposed to feel included. It is OUR story. One we entrusted YOU to bring over and represent to the rest of the world. Are the heavy themes of racism from the nations that lived through Nazi and Soviet occupations and the Holocaust not enough? Do you really have to make it about yourselves? I beg you. Think about it. Pause and think about what are you doing. The impact it will have. The implications, the effect your decisions will have on a bunch of small nations that had to struggle for survival against much bigger neighbors. Please, do the right thing.”