#Vampire Academy books

[itmakesssenseincontext]

I'm rereading Spirit Bound and found this lovely little conversation between Sydney and Rose about Adrian.

Sydney, darling, eloping in Vegas with Adrian is your plot, not Rose's

#vampire academy #vampire academy books #rose hathaway #Sydney Sage #adrian ivashkov #Sydrian #its just so *chefs kiss* #Sydney you are gonna be falling hard for that boy and breaking all your rules and marring him in vegas #you dont even know

[m1a07]

The way I need Dimitri in the most sacrilegious manner. Not even a strigoi attack could stop me.

Rose isn’t safe either. I’d kill and die for both of them.

I just finished all 6 books and the tv show in 5 days so I’m very much feral rn.

Plz link any good fanfics.

#vampire academy tv show #vampire academy #vampire academy books #dimitri belikov #rose hathaway

[allaboutthedrama]

I know that I'm pretty late to the conversation, but I've just reread all of Vampire Academy and Bloodlines (possibly for The Untitled Jill Project) and it's the first time I've reread the VA series in years.

I'm just thinking about how, in my opinion, the quality of the VA series improved as we got into the last few books, and with Bloodlines, I think the reverse sort of happened. Spoilers for both series ahead. (Yeah, the last book came out nine years ago, but you never know.)

I think I hadn't realized how cohesive the ending of Last Sacrifice was. Details from as far back as the first book came up and were very relevant. The political plotline came together in a really tight way, Sonya Karp turned out the be Chekov's spirit user, we got more world-building details, the antagonists had complex and convoluted motivations, and even when there were plot threads left dangling, those actually served a purpose. I loved the part where Adrian pointed out to Rose that her actions had consequences and even though she had gotten what she wanted, not everything else was resolved, so people like Eddie and Sydney and Jill were left in bad situations, and she was partly responsible. It created a little more moral ambiguity, which I really enjoyed, especially since YA tends to like the very neat endings where everything winds up happily ever after.

The Vampire Academy books improved the deeper into the series you got. And, although I love Bloodlines, I do think that the first three books are much stronger than the last three. Which is a shame, because the series has so much potential.

I think Mead is at her best when she's writing something of a mystery. Last Sacrifice obviously comes to mind (they're solving a murder mystery, after all). Bloodlines had that, with the tattoos, Lee, and Keith being shady all building up to a really exciting climax. The Golden Lily wasn't quite as much of one, but the clues leading up to the reveal of the Warriors were well-placed. Indigo Spell went straight back into mystery territory, trying to find Jackie's sister. And then The Fiery Heart is where, in my opinion, things start to falter. There's a lot of interesting worldbuilding information introduced, with the new details about spirit and magic coming up, and it was fun to get into Adrian's head, but it definitely felt like this supernatural romance was shifting to become a lot more romance and a lot less concerned with the supernatural. But that's not such a big deal. It's the middle of the series, we're building tension, Re-Education has been a threat hanging over Sydney since page one of Bloodlines and we're finally seeing that fear pay off.

But then we get to Silver Shadows, and while I guess figuring out where Sydney is could be a mystery, it doesn't really resonate the way 'who killed the queen' does, in my opinion. Sydney's arc in Re-Education is great, and I do like the way the books deal with Adrian's mental health issues, but some of Adrian's chapters felt more like filler. And a bigger issue, imo, was that this was when we really started to lose the side characters. Some of my favorite parts of the first few books were characters like Jill, Eddie, Trey, and Angeline, and then the ensemble atmosphere was largely gone, because Sydney was in Re-Education and Adrian left Palm Springs. The final fight and flight sequence was really good, though, so I had high hopes going into The Ruby Circle.

The Ruby Circle is probably my least favorite of the books between both of the series, and I think that's a shame, since it's the finale. We'd just had a 'kidnapped character' arc, so I think there was less emphasis on describing everyone's reactions. We saw the biggest reaction from Eddie, but as a result, he got kind of flattened out from the really well-rounded character he'd been from the back half of the VA books and the first part of Bloodlines.

The Ruby Circle could have been a really good mystery, with lots of twists that tied up a lot of the lingering questions from the series. Except that a lot of threads from the rest of the series were dropped and didn't resurface. They never caught whoever was behind the assassination attempt on Jill. I don't think we even got an official resolution on whether Lissa managed to change the quorum law. The political plots that were integral to VA weren't significant in Bloodlines, despite it all starting because of a politically motivated assassination. We also never got a resolution on the rogue spirit user who turned Lee back from being Strigoi, or the spirit users who had been sent to the psychiatric facility in Tarasov (the prison from Spirit Bound). We never found Robert Duro. The bond itself was somewhat discarded, too, whenever it wasn't immediately useful for a plot point. Instead, we just got a scavenger hunt across the country, a few fight scenes where the protagonists were pretty much guaranteed to win, and a final showdown with a magic barrier that, as we learn after, would have dropped down on its own in a few hours for them to bring Jill food, anyways.

I obviously still like the series, since I'm rereading it and talking about it nine years after the fact. But I think that there were a lot of opportunities to continue plots from VA that were lost, even when they should have been brought back into the story.

If anyone has made it this far, I suppose I should throw in a pitch for The Untitled Jill Project, which will be my attempt to rewrite the Bloodlines series from Jill's perspective, because I think there's still a lot more story to be told. I haven't got it all mapped out, but I intend to at least tie up some of the narrative loose ends I mentioned that bothered me about the series in that story. I might write up another post here soon about how Jill's characterization also suffered as Bloodlines went on, if anyone's interested.

Anyways, if anyone has any strong opinions on what I said (agreeing or disagreeing) please let me know! I'd love to talk about the series with people, since no one in my real life has read it, and I'm curious to know what the rest of the fandom thinks about how the narrative progressed in Bloodlines.

#Vampire Academy #Vampire Academy books #Bloodlines (Richelle Mead) #Eddie Castile #Sydney Sage #Adrian Ivashkov #Jill Dragomir #Jillian Dragomir #Jill Mastrano #The Untitled Jill Project #Rose Hathaway

[vasilissadragomir]

remember when richelle casually dropped that there was a whole psychiatric ward in the most dangerous moroi prison containing tons of spirit users while rose lissa and eddy are attempting to break victor out of prison and then just never mentions it again for a whole book and a half of the series AND all six spin-off books

BECAUSE I DO

#I WANT ANSWers #why create lore if not to expand on lore #esp now that lissa is queen!!! #was that where they were holding avery??? #i must know #vampire academy #va book #va bloodlines #bloodlines #vampire academy books #rose hathaway #lissa dragomir #eddie castile

[randomthotshit]

Probably will be adding to this but I'm starting a thread of Strigoi Dimitri's OTT "I'm going to kill you, Love D" notes to Rose. It's just so... Anyways- Julie and Marguerite better put this in the show, along with that bridge scene from Blood Promise.

First one (from Blood Promise)

#2 Spirit Bound (he did too much with this one imo)

#vampire academy books #rose hathaway #dimitri belikov #romitri

[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.

#vampire academy #vampire academy books #ya books #rose hathaway #adrian ivashkov #lissa dragomir #anti adrian ivashkov

[rosemairebelikova]

“‘Shadow-kissed’?” There it was again, the same thing Ms. Karp had called me.

“You’ve been kissed by shadows. You’ve crossed into Death, into the other side, and returned. Do you think something like that doesn’t leave a mark on the soul? You have a greater sense of life and the world –far greater than even I have–even if you don't realize it. You should have stayed dead. Vasilisa brushed Death to bring you back and bound you to her forever. You were actually in its embrace, and some part of you will always remember that, always fight to cling to life and experience all it had. That’s why you're so reckless in the things you do. You don't hold back your feelings, your passion, your anger. It makes you remarkable. It makes you dangerous.”

I didn't know what to say to that. I was speechless, which he seemed to like.

“It’s what created your bond, too. Her feelings always press out of her, onto others. Most people can't pick up on them unless she's actually directing her thoughts towards them with compulsion. You, however, have a mind sensitive to extrasensory forces— hers in particular.” He signed, almost happily, and I remembered reading that Vladimir had saved Anna from death. That must have made their bond, too.

— Vampire Academy (Chapter 23, pg 317)

#vampire academy #va #vampire academy family #va family #vampire academy cast #vampire academy fandom #vampire academy tv series #rose hathaway #vampire academy tv show #sisi stringer #lissa dragomir #daniela nieves #dragoway #vasilisa dragomir #victor daskhov #vampire academy quotes #vampire academy peacock #vampire academy stan #richelle mead #vampire academy books

[spidey-loving-starkid]

Something something symbolism about how when Adrian 1st visits Rose in her dream, he puts her in a blue outfit, and realises that something’s not right about that, and then changes her outfit to red, and notes how that’s much more her, and even writes an impromptu poem about that, and then how the day in Russia that the book focuses the most time on while Rose is captured by Dimitri as a Strigoi and isn’t fighting back as much and is high from being constantly bitten, she’s wearing a blue dress, which was also brought for her from a guy trying to dress her up, which also happens to be the same day that Adrien visits her dreams again after their previous argument.

#Vampire Academy #Rose Hathaway #Adrian Ivashkov #Dimitri Belikov #VA #More about the symbolism of Rose being Rose. #Less about the Adrian and dream parallels. #Tess Speaks #Buffy Speaks #Vampire Academy books #Vampire Academy Book Series #my thoughts.

[mixedmediareviewspodcast]

So I just watched the Vampire Academy movie after watching the show and not reading the books. And, excuse me, what was that? They're from the same source material? How. I have so many questions. Like why. And which is closer to the books? And also, how did that movie get made? And why would they do that to Rose and Dimitri?

#vampire academy #vampire academy peacock #vampire academy movie #vampire academy books #tv show #tv #movie #bad movie #great tv show #hopefully the books are good #because what was that movie

[crows-and-cookies]

Let’s see how fast it takes me to finish all 12 (Vampire Academy and Bloodlines) Richelle Meade books.

It’s 8:58 PM on Monday, April 24th.

I have a 12 hour work day tomorrow but nothing will stop me.

#vampire academy books #Va #vampire academy #bloodlines #richelle mead

[simplisticpleasure]

i saw someone post about how maybe this season so far has been a prequel to book 1 (which i so hope is true bc it would help get over all the inaccuracies so far) but if it just further spirals away from the book will i stop watching? no. it’s great to have finally gotten a tv adaption, and i hope it gets renewed for season 2. i would like more faithful character depictions in the next season. give me the ozera and rose banter! or even tatiana as queen where in the books she was seen as a bitch yeah but her heart was in the right place for the most part, she wanted her people both moroi and dhampir to stay alive and be a fair ruler (and let’s not forget she was pushing for the moroi to fight alongside dhampirs in the books). but idk how tatiana in the show will be bc she is definitely a villain and she can definitely get jumped by rose. (also lissa noticing romitri in the show cuts the struggle book rose has of pushing down her needs and laying down her entire life for her charge. it makes her resentment and leaving lissa to go kill dimitri in the books all the more powerful and bittersweet). i hope that in leaving the academy with lissa in the season finale (if it happens that way) will allow her to fall back on training and become the heroine that makes her in book so relatable. that starting from zero and an instinct to fight for what is right to protect those she loves is what makes her rise to top guardian rank so wonderful to see as a character. the show just feels very unserious and almost like it wants to be a brigerton depiction of the books and the books felt much more grounded in reality and less focused on glamour.

also why do the strigoi look so utterly foul, i know my dimitri is not about to be this sexy strigoi rose let’s herself literally be USED by. they look like zombies, it is so painful!

#romitri #dragozera #rose hathaway #dimitri belikov #vampire academy #lissa drag okie #va show #va adaption #vampire academy books #richelle mead #rose x dimitri #christian ozera

[itmakesssenseincontext]

Am i talking about the books or the show? Yes

Somebody get these poor Guardians healthy coping mechanisms

#vampire academy memes #vampire academy books #va series #vampire academy #rose hathaway #dimitri belikov #eddie castile #they're all so traumatised #the binge drinking in the show makes so much sense #oops just had to kill a loved one #better get blackout drunk #somebody get them all therapy

[m1a07]

I just know Dimitri has had childish thoughts of being a dick to mason for fun.

I can imagine him seeing mason and rose being all flirty and having a flash imagery of tripping him up as he walks by.

#vampire academy tv show #vampire academy books #vampire academy #rose x dimitri #dimitri belikov #rose hathaway

[allaboutthedrama]

I'm curious about how active the Vampire Academy book fandom still is. Specifically, if anyone out there would be interested in reading a retelling of the Bloodlines series from Jill's POV? I've been rereading the books and felt inspired, but I'm not sure if there's anyone else who would want to read it? If you think you might, please interact with this post or send me a telegraph or something, idk how the kids are doing it these days.

#Vampire Academy books #Vampire Academy #Bloodlines (Richelle Mead) #Jill Mastrano #Jillian Mastrano #Jill Dragomir #Jillian Dragomir #Sydney Sage #Adrian Ivashkov #Sydrian #Eddie Castile #Rose Hathaway #Dimitri Belikov #Bloodlines

[vasilissadragomir]

Vampire Academy Tattoos Sims 4 CC

hi! i couldn't find the vampire academy tattoos anywhere online for sims 4 custom content download, so i learned how to make cc and made them myself for my VA saves. they're definitely not perfect since they're my first attempt at cc (the molnijas especially are a bit blurry), but i figured someone else might get use out of them and wanted to share!

in the file there's every variation of rose & dimitri's tattoos throughout the books, as well as a few other options. they include molnija marks (one strigoi kill), the zvezda mark (strigoi battle), and the guardian promise mark.

if you want me to make any specific to your saves or i've forgotten anything, just message me and i'll be more than happy to make them for you! i don't plan on making other cc ever again but if I figure out how to make them less blurry i will update the tattoos.

here's the link to download (lmk if they're not working): Google Drive

and some photos of the tattoos:

#sims 4 cc #sims 4 custom content #ts4 cc #sims 4 tattoos #ts4 tattoos #tattoos cc #vampire academy #va book #vampire academy books #rose hathaway #dimitri belikov

[randomthotshit]

My every growing list of things we need to see in the VA universe... Adorable ❤

#vampire academy 2022 #vampire academy books #richelle mead #dimitri belikov