#Anti vampire academy

[rin-u-pos]

Dimitri is like a mixture of the bat boys. Always belittling Rose and thinking he's above her even when she's proven to be his equal. Fuck that we can't be together bullshit because it will get in the way of our guardian duties to Lissa. Reminds me of Rice and his bitching about him not being able to have love because he has enemies out to kill him. Like bitch WHO? And don't worry Dimitri. Even if Rose is in danger, her plot armor is bigger than her own ego.

Let's not forget Dimitri's strigoi days when he drugged her via vampire bites, dressed her in beautiful dresses/jewelry and locked her up. Details are fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure he withheld sex as leverage for turning, too. Reminds me of someone's antics UTM. Once he came back and rightfully decided to leave Rose alone, he did it in the most cruel and callous way possible. Good thing Rose doesn't respect boundaries.

We can't see into his head, but I bet he sexualizes Rose all the time,too. He tries to be the pinnacle of morality, but he has no ground to stand on as a statutory rapist. One minute he's like "you're so mature for your age" and then he's like "your age is showing."

Rant over. I think I just have an issue with YA brooding dark love interests.

[vicontheinternet]

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

[loveoversense]

So maybe folks have seen it go around on Twitter, but Vampire Academy is being review bombed on rotten tomatoes with negative comments:

So first of all, please go leave a good review so we get season 2?

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/vampire-academy/s01

But also, anyone have any idea where this is coming from? As the tweets mentioned, this seems like a concerted effort by a smaller group or someone using bots and it just seems so unfair and stupid to work against the renewal of the show in this way? Would love to hear anyone's thoughts!

[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.)

[xdarkeningkrystals]

Don't bother getting too attached, Julie just can't keep a series going beyond Season One, anymore.

[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.

[rin-u-pos]

My burning hatred of Rose Hathaway and Dimitri Belikov has re-emerged.

[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

[witchqueenvisenya]

they really went ahead and turned rose and lissa into show arya and show sansa wrt their preferences regarding "feminine" activities....

book rose loves dresses, she just isn't able to wear them as much because of her being always on duty. book rose laments not being able to indulge in perfumes and nail polishes because one fight will ruin both these things. book rose and book lissa planned their weddings together. rose doesn't hate dresses, and rose never ridiculed lissa's fantasies of getting married. women can simulatenously like such things and be able to beat the crap out of people, and to generally prefer violence as a solution. stop treating female characters like this jfc

[captainswanandclintasha]

Shadow and Bone is the perfect example of how you can adapt a book to a tv show, change SOME things but still stick to the books and have a perfectly very successful tv show that keeps fans happy and attracts news fans. Sadly for Julie Plec and Vampire Academy.

[xoverworkedandunderpaidx]

Living for the begrudging attitude shift of the people that disliked the show and said they weren't going to watch it on principle and then episode six came out and they were all just like:

[mrs-n-uzumaki]

Sees vampire academy show drop: *clicks in*

*clicks out*