#Anti vampire academy

[vicontheinternet]

Vampire academy may be “diverse” but it is not good representation

[nikalaeva]

It's easier for me to criticize than to praise, but I'll try. And to make it more interesting, I'll compare my favorite fantasy romances with most empty waste of my time.

Your Feyre became High Lady by marriage, devaluing the title of Cursebreaker. She had magic of seven High Lords, but it didn't help at all in most important war, and she has no friends or allies of her own.

My Jude became Queen of Elfheim because the land chose her, saving from death. She outsmarted her father, the most cunning and cruel general, ruled in secret as seneschal, and made advantageous alliances.

Your Rhysand is supposedly the most powerful, surrounded by strongest fighters, his army is the best of all, but he couldn't protect his wife's sisters, fucked up with Book of Breaths and almost lost the war.

My Cardan is a pathetic loser twink, very young and almost always drunk. But he is cunning as hell, saved the woman he loved from underwater captivity, avoiding the war, pal up with her allies while being their prisoner, and created an entire island.

Oh, Jude is still human. And Cardan is a true fairy, not just a guy with pointy ears.

Your Feyre left the man she died for in a fucking message and married her rapist. My Rose went to a strange, faraway country to save her man, but to kill him if she couldn't. Not to turn into a bloodsucking killer to be with him forever - kill him.

Your Rhysand thought for a second that age gap between him and his wife more than between her and their son. My Dimitri was going crazy and pushing away his love because he was her teacher just several years older. He is more responsible than 500+ years old ruler.

Oh, and despite being coolest, Dimitri became a monster. And Rose had an "alternative" - Adrian, who wasn't turned into an abuser and asshole, to show how beautiful love with Dimitri is.

Your Feyre hasn't done a damn thing for women (or anyone), her "feminism" is to be proud of role as a thief, saboteur and half-naked toy of a powerful man. My Vasya Petrovna (I'll die and rip anyone's throat out for her) dresses up as a boy and defends her right to be a witch, challenges ancient monsters, and saves everyone she can with her brains, courage and unbending will.

Your Rhysand chose to die with his mate, leaving his son an orphan, and at 500+ years old he's an infantile sexoholic. My Morozko, the ancient god of death and winter, make a deal with his enemy, a monster of chaos, choosing to be an eternal prisoner without memories about his love, saving woman that he loved as he could.

Whoa, Morozko didn't rape her in order to "protect" her. And it wouldn't be Vasya who would have to change - he would have become a mortal for her. One PG-13 sex scene was hotter than all the sex in ACOTAR series.

Why am I only comparing to Feyre? Well, she's the FMC, three books were enough to show her. I just don't believe Nesta would go to HoW with Cassian, and not decide to die in slums or run away. Elain is so side character that most of discussions about her will be fiction, not canon. Rhysand and Cassian were not even close to any of the men mentioned above. They are not otherwordly, old creatures, not morally gray, but only insulting to women whom they supposedly love more than life.

Romance in ACOTAR is vulgarity, violence and gaslighting, feminism is a mask and illusion, and the characters are too "cool" and therefore boring and flat.

Respect yourself. Read books where authors give a care about the plot, worldbuilding and development of unusual, fairytale love.

[xdarkeningkrystals]

One of things I never liked about Romitri's portrayal in the show is how minimized their love is.

In the books, there is massive emphasis (and it continues into Bloodlines) on how they are Soulmates, In Sync and an Epic Romance yet this Rose is friends with Benefits with Mason and even considers a future with him instead while Dimitri is too frustrated and miserable with his shaky belief in The Moroi System that he hooks up with Tatiana, even though he hates her.

Even if Romitri was still endgame in the show, had it not been canceled, I just don't see these two on the same level as Book Romitri was suppose to be. If you are truly Soulmates, your heart wouldn't even want anyone else. Book Rose realized this with Mason and Adrian and Dimitri always knew, even when Tasha came back into the picture.

And you can thank Julie Plec for this since she loves convoluted drama to keep couples separated and therefore ruining their relationship dynamic.

[captainswanandclintasha]

Leo Woodall looks more like Adrian Ivashkov in One Day than he ever did in the show...

Fuck you, Julie Plec.

[gins-potter]

Let’s get something straight: Rose did say no/turn Adrian down multiple times and he continued to ask her out.

[kinaesthetiqueer]

(follow-up to this)

having grown up in atlas, weiss is very familiar with the academy's team anti-frat policy and gets very hung up on just how much trouble they could get in if anyone thinks they're dating.

(which they're definitely not doing. no, sir. absolutely not, sir.)

so better safe than sorry.

(except winter has eyes. and also doesn't care.)

[theeangeltimes]

Vampire Academy Books 1-3 Re-read Thought Dump

For the past several months, I’ve been working my way through a re-read of one of my favorite book series, Vampire Academy.

I first read it four years ago when I was 14/15, so it’s been a loooong time and I’ve forgotten quite a bit of it. Plus, now that I’m older and more intelligent/perceptive/critical, my opinions have changed quite a bit and I’ve picked up on more subtle things in the story this time around. In this blog (for my own sake, lol), I’ll be sharing some of the new stances I’ve developed on aspects/characters in the first three books of the series, Vampire Academy, Frost Bite, and Shadow Kiss (as those are the only ones I’ve re-read thus far). AND THERE WILL BE SPOILERS, so beware!

── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ⋅ ⋅ ── ✩ ── ⋅ ⋅ ──

• Lissa + roselissa’s friendship kinda fvcking suck.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of lissa and she honestly kind of always rubbed me the wrong way, but during my first read I never really thought too much about it and could never put my finger on what exactly it was that bothered me about her. But now I know!

Their friendship just feels so disproportionate in the sense that it feels like Rose would and has done literally EVERYTHING for Lissa, but Lissa wouldn’t do the same. Like Rose is literally training to spend her future dedicated to Lissa and risking her life to protect her. She also took Lissa away from the academy, putting her herself in jeopardy to keep Lissa safe AND even let Lissa feed off of her while they were out in the human world by themselves despite that being seen as utterly degrading by their society. And let’s not forget how she knew that Lissa’s use of spirit was wreaking havoc on her mental well-being and would probably drive her to insanity or even suicide, yet she let Lissa keep on using it just because it made her happy…

But when Dimitri was left behind in the cave after the mission in Shadow Kiss, Lissa wouldn’t even tell Rose that she would at least ATTEMPT to heal Dimitri or bring him back to life even though Rose was distraught and begging. And then she had the nerve to get mad at Rose when she found out that she and Dimitri had a relationship and Rose didn’t tell her about it. Like, what???

And there’s other ways she’s rubbed me the wrong way but I won’t mention them because I feel like I don’t have enough proof to truly support my argument, but I’m still right! ☝️

Lissa is also just sort of a bland character. And I normally like quiet kind smart girls, but there’s just something that falls flat about her for me.

And speaking of the bond…

• The use of the bond was a very clever storytelling device. So while I do find it mostly annoying, I also appreciate it.

• Adrian is a fvcking CREEP!!!

I truly, TRULY, do not understand how I liked or even felt bad for Adrian at all when I first read this series. He’s a creep, and the way that Lissa (see? another reason why Lissa sucks) and Richelle Mead try to gaslight both us the reader and Rose into thinking that deep down he’s some great guy pissed me off so much. And it makes me feel insane when I look at how the fandom as a whole tends to love him and defend him and act like Rose is this major evil bitch, because HOWWWWWW???

It’s bad enough that he is constantly flirting with Rose since she’s underage, but even if she was a grown ass woman, it would still be gross; Rose tells him over and over again to leave her alone and stop flirting with her, and yet he persists. And also makes sexual comments to/about her. And always tries to ~playfully~ coerce her into giving him physical contact like hugs. And also bugs her in her dreams even though, once again, she tell him not to. Like there’s no way she can escape his creepy ass and nobody steps in for her to tell him to fuck off and leave her alone. It’s blood-boiling to me.

And, spolier: from what I can recall, more layers of shittiness are added to his character as the series progresses and even more are added in Bloodlines (unpopular opinion, but oh well). The only good thing that mf has done is fund rose’s trip to kill strigoi Dimitri.

And speaking of her getting money from Adrian…

• I genuinely do not feel bad for Rose asking Adrian for money.

Like why in the world would I care that a woman does something kind of bad to her harasser? Especially when she’s a teenager who’s in a terrible space mentally?

The whole exchange reinforces how Adrian is a total creep. As I previously mentioned, Rose was not only in mental/emotional turmoil due to Lissa’s use of spirit, but she was also reeling from Mason’s passing, the strigoi attacks and their casualties, and Dimitri turning strigoi. And yet he was still bugging her about dating him.

• The dhampirs (especially the women and girls) are greatly oppressed and thus far no one has even really acknowledged that except Ambrose, and he doesn’t even truly relay just how bad their oppression is.

The Moroi (as a class) exploit the physical abilities of dhampirs and more importantly the fact that the dhampir race cannot go on without Moroi and coerce them into dedicating their entire lives to being their guard dogs. The only other choices that dhampirs really have when they’re adults other than becoming guardians is to become “blood whores,” single mothers who live on communes (which is pretty much always conflated with being a blood whore by most people in their society), or being alone and vulnerable in the human world.

And it’s completely normalized (the primary way that dhampir a are reproduced, in fact) in their society for Moroi men to have casual relationships with dhampir women, impregnate them, and then leave them to raise their children on their own while they go and settle down with a Moroi woman instead. PLUS, guardians having serious romantic relationships is looked down upon, so those are pretty much out of the question.

And what makes it worse is that they can’t even liberate themselves from Moroi completely unless they’re willing to have the dhampir race die out completely since interaction with humans is not a real option.

To make matters even worse, Moroi could have been fighting alongside dhampirs to protect themselves from strigoi, and the fire users can very easily kill strigoi without even coming into physical contact with them, but no. The moroi were too damn lazy and thought of themselves too highly to do so. Which is why I’m glad that Moroi have started advocating for Moroi to begin fighting as well and that becomes a big theme throughout the novels.

• Moroi (as a class) are evil oppressors, continued

The whole feeder system is very flawed and exploitative, in my opinion. The fact that we briefly see in the books a few times that the feedings cause a mental deterioration for the feeders after a while is the main reason why. In Shadow Kiss, the way that rose and Christian were sitting there calling Alice (the elderly feeder who seemed to be experiencing some sort of psychosis) ~craaaazzzyyyyyy~ yet Christian still proceeded to feed on her definitely made me side eye him.

Surely there could be a more humane system put into place, like age/service limits for feeders or something.

*side note: I don’t think we ever figure out how Alice knew about how the strigoi were coming? I could very well be wrong though, I’ll have to see if Richelle provides answers in the following books.*

• Despite how outspoken and confident and strong and brave Rose may be, she has ZERO self-preservation or self-worth when it comes to herself and the dhampir race as a whole.

To see her repeatedly talk about how it was both her and every other dhampir’s duty to protect and prioritize Moroi and become guardians and repeat that stupid “they come first” mantra and dedicate her entire life to training just to protect her friend has honestly been painful. Like, girl, STAND UP!!! None of you were put on this planet just to give up your life and be 24/7 bodyguards to some people that likely see you as inferior to them!

However, I do think this aspect of her makes her character more real and complex. Rose may seem like a rebel to the people around her because she often gets into trouble and is sassy and ran away, but in reality, she isn’t one at all. Her worldview is actually quite traditional. She has internalized all the norms in her society without a second thought and doesn’t begin to see things differently until she starts interacting more with the world outside of St. Vladimir’s and is upon the brink of adulthood. She even says herself “Why was everyone suddenly challenging something that I’d held as absolute truth my entire life?” in Shadow Kiss.

I’m very excited to see how both Rose and her world continue to evolve and grow with the next three books. I don’t remember the society and characterization of these books being so rich and complex, Richelle Mead did an amazing job creating a compelling and thought-provoking world. So while I may not think that these books are literary masterpieces like I once did, I appreciate them in a new, deeper way.

[stromuprisahat]

Natalie spun around. She was fast, so fast. But Dimitri was fast too and avoided her attack, a look of pure power and strength on his face. With an eerie fascination, I watched them move, circling each other like partners in a deadly dance. She was stronger than him, clearly, but she was also a fresh Strigoi. Gaining superpowers doesn’t mean you know how to use them.

Dimitri, however, knew how to use the ones he had. After both giving and receiving some vicious hits, he made his move. The silver stake flashed in his hand like a streak of lightning, then it snaked forward—into her heart. He yanked it out and stepped back, his face impassive as she screamed and fell to the floor. After a few horrible moments, she stopped moving.

Vampire Academy- Twenty-Four (Richelle Mead)

How training vs. brute power should work even in fiction (unless dumb luck or other unforeseeable circumstances are at play).

[whalehouse1]

Seeing pics from Titans Beast World, and, just at what point do Dickkori fans realize Tom Taylor and DC is literally just treating us like garbage. It’s like the creators of Avatar insulting Zutarians, actually no, it’s exactly the same thing, cause Bryke left the Netflix after they were told Katara and Aang’s actors wouldn’t kiss each other. And Taylor loves to block and blame Dickkori fans for criticisms he gets. No dude, Bryke at least made a compelling show with flaws in how they view relationships in media. You write pandering crap without growing characters and espousing white virtue without knowing the first thing about the things you say you’re against. You’re only afloat because DC gives you good artists, a beloved character and you’re only popular because you wrote a dumb zombie comic at the height of that zeitgeist and did Injustice, which shows your lack of understanding of human relationships and ethics. One person, just one days and that’s all it takes for Clark to snap? I may not be a huge Superman fan, but when I think you’re doing him worse than a Synderverse movie, get lost.

[blckthrns]

i know in my heart that simon and rose would be the best of friends

[screechwhisper]

I said what I said

[vicontheinternet]

Vampire academy said brown paper test? No this is the manela folder test if you darker then that your antagonistic crazy or a sage

[vampireacademyshow]

Peacock just shading the entire Vampire Academy fandom now.

[xdarkeningkrystals]

“I am the most nervous. I know you didn’t ask, but I’m going to lead with that for them to meet Dimitri because he is a far cry from the man described in the books,” Plec said. “But I am also the most excited for them to meet Dmitri because he is everything that I personally would’ve wished Dimitri would be in that he’s sensitive and he’s, he’s soulful and he’s fierce and he got so much love to give but doesn’t know how to give it. And he’s sexy and, I mean, he is all good. So, I’m excited about that.”

Friendly Reminder that Julie Plec, so-called fan of the VA books, believes Book Dimitri isn't sensitive or soulful or full of love but unable to give it or even Sexy so she had to rewrite his character.

So glad her show got canceled.

[captainswanandclintasha]

I hate Julie Plec but every time I remember she killed my boy Mikhail for nothing I hate her even more

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 5

The Eleventh Doctor is called the Anti-Squid. It means he is the Devil of the Space Squid Religion.

Kovarian taught the assassins she raised to refer to the Doctor as the Demon and the sound the TARDIS makes as the Demon's roar.

The Eighth Doctor has a tattoo of a man turning into a jaguar.

Grace Holloway eventually worked in a MI6 sponsored genetics lab to test the substance the Master had spat at her during the TV Movie in the hopes of creating a Time Lord-human hybrid capable of regeneration. Unfortunately, the Master had at the time been a Deathworm Morphant, and her associate became a Morphant-human hybrid. The Doctor chastised her for this.

Speaking of experiments involving regeneration, the Forge was an intelligence organization that did all sorts of experiments, including Project: Lazarus. This operation was designed to discover how regeneration worked.

Nyssa collapses in Four to Doomsday and exhibited psychic powers in Time-Flight. This is because Kwundaar, a pre-universe being who had originally created the Source, chose her for his manipulations because she was a Traken native who had left the union.

The Fourth Doctor took Liz Shaw on adventures for a little while.

The First Doctor also tried to kill the would-be dictator as a baby. While queuing up to see the baby at the christening, he dropped the knife he had been planning on using to kill them. Annoyed with his clumsiness, he left with Susan.

Runcible was a hall monitor in the Academy who had mutual bad blood with the Doctor and his friends. He would one day be literally stabbed in the back by the Master.

Borusa taught the Doctor when they were young to fear the regenerative process.

Clara Oswald's mother died on the same day as the Auton Invasion in the episode Rose.

Not all TARDISes are capable of flight.

While being affected by the Gommen Machine, K9 thought that he was a stuntman and that Nyssa was his daughter.

After Nyssa and the Fifth Doctor were splintered in time and trapped in a time bubble, they became something akin to psychic vampires, eating the memories of the villagers nearby.

Anzor was a school bully at the Academy who used a torture device called a galvaniser on his classmates. He would most notably torment the Doctor, using this device and making him do his navigational homework because he wasn't smart enough to do so. The Sixth Doctor was still terrified of Anzor, trying to hide from him when they met.

The Sixth Doctor believed that the Third Doctor had an unusual dress sense.

The Third Doctor was able to control his pheromones to communicate with the Builders, which resembled eight inch slugs.

The TARDIS kitchen restocks itself every morning.

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28