Vampire Academy ~ Lost in Adaptation 

😂😂 that's _fantastic_ omg! 🤣🤣

Wow you just unlocked some deeply repressed memories 😆😆

"Do you know what it's like to be second best?" "No."

ok, this is hilarious

Oh yes, new anser for JW once I run out of Stargate quotes!

Yes cause and this show coming out like the vampire phase is gone tbh

Gonna fail tbh

I'm so glad that the books were a comfort to you. That's the dangers of pandering towards trends. By the time your film/book/TV show has been released, then what was once cool has now been long forgotten.

@@trinaq yes or gets compared to others like this book got compared to Twilight or Harry Potter

Succubus blues is so good!

Ditto, it's made me realise how many teen movies contain a cafeteria scene! 😂

If it is anything like my cafeteria scenes played out... Not much happened. If it is like the ones I pictured when going to other cafeterias at different schools... There is a good reason cafetorium sounds like crematorium.

@@trinaq Yes, it happens a lot, but it’s not really a trope. Essentially all high school students spend an hour of every school day there, and it’s where there’s the most opportunity for social interaction. It would be pretty much the same as saying ‘Here’s the obligatory kitchen scene’ when a character was at home. A trope would be ‘Here’s the obligatory scene where the new student can’t find somewhere to sit in the cafeteria.’, or something like that. Making the narration particularly inane and unnecessary in this case.

@@amymak93 yeah, scène à faire although in my case i can't help but think "ha! joke's on you, i ate in the library!"

@@shibuyaneko5741are you allowed to do that it’s seems like you wouldn’t be able to do that but I don’t know I didn’t even make it to Second grade

🤣🤣🤣🤣

... i hate that I laughed at this

@@DourdenAdam Yeah, it made me grin a little too.

🤔 Oh! 🤣🤣🤣

God damn you

Not so much an evil house but there is indeed a secret society amongst the royals in the books called Mana. However, it's merely a subplot and later machination of reflection on how the powerful stay as such especially once you get to the later books and spinoff series

HIVE is another that went differently. Sure, there were some bullies in the enforcer track, but that wasn't necessarily an indictment of the full track. The threats were from outside the school too.... mostly. I'd go into specifics, but it's YA worth a read. Imagine if instead of magic users, you have an academy for young Artemis Fowl types, IE supervillains.

As hilarious as it can be to see school bullies try to act like they're Real Villain Material, it is nice when the two groups are kept naturally separated.

Right! Ok, picture this, a pure blood student gets to school. Parroting all the propaganda adults in their lives, thinking this is how the world works. Only to see the truth and that half-bloods and muggleborns are just human beings. Capable of good and cruelty and being smart or dumb. The student begins to question everything they've been told. And as the war intensifies, they stand on the side of good. On the side of everyone is equal(magical creatures aren't, though? Seriously, the elves and goblins didn't deserve their treatments by the "good" guys.) You go against your family and who you thought were friends. To speak out against hate. How compaling would it have been if in the 6th book. Draco stuck to the idea of his life being filled with lies. Of him secretly helping the resistance where he could without getting caught? To have him fight in the battle, not on the side of Ol' moldy but on the side of the school? If I wrote it, one the kids would be diverse and challenge what they're taught more. And there would be Syltherins who were on the side of the good guys. . . . It really broke my heart, that my favorite author hates trans and gender nonconforming people so much. When she said all were welcome at the school. We all believed it.

is that a gender-swapped speedwagon?? because if so, i have to say, i love that!

We went from Gnorts, Mr. Alien! to Gnorts, Kcu Slien!

Neil Suckstrong, sounds like a porn star name XD

I guess they're preparing for the onlyfans exclusive adaptation of vampires in space.

Brian Lumley's "Necroscope" series managed to mash up vampires and sci-fi / space opera elements, although in a straight-laced-campy sort of way.

😂😂

wasn't suzanne collins also a teacher at some point? and both women have written YA series that stood out amongst the rest. now i just need a third one to conclusively declare a pattern, lol.

I assume something horrible happens to cats somewhere in the book. I'm thinking of actually giving this series a go but this might be a dealbreaker for me, I just cannot stomach any animal cruelty, especially to cats and dogs. Do you think it's still worth giving it a go?

@@SheliakDragon The movie has some animal cruelty in it, but they focus more on the emotional effect on the characters. The book is...a bit graphic. And there are multiple occasions of it. I'd say you don't see / read the cruelty happening in real time, but you see the aftermath and it's not pretty. If you're sensitive in any way to it, I might pass on it. However, it's really only in the first book and not the subsequent 5, if you wanted to muscle through it.

@@alexmooney7474 thank you for the warning, I’m an extreme cat lover. I want to read the books so now I know to read the first one on a good day, not when I’m already down

@@SheliakDragon I will say that this is a pretty good summary of the first book and all it's major events excluding one detail you could skip the first book into the second especially since it recaps things and it's really the tone for the series more so than the first one.

I Highly recommend anyone to Read VA. Honestly Rachelle Mead is one of those authors that plans out, how she wants her series to go. And it shows, cause she will have a throw away line in book and then that line comes back because it's a huge plot latter on. I still get chills when I finish the third VA book and a throw away line said in book 1. Becomes the whole plot point for book 4-5.

I don't recall any shipping heavily for them. Especially since they wouldn't work and kind often times are not seeing eye to eye plus there's such a heavy power imbalance.

@@abookishmess yeah, there were definitely shippers of lisa and rose, but i think for most readers their dynamics were too ... heavily platonic, if that makes sense? of course, in addition to the mentioned power imbalance, with rose being basically pre-determined to serve lisa as her guardian and whatnot, personally i always got the vibe that because of it, rose never really saw lisa on the same level? like, sometimes she placed lisa above herself, sure; that one's obvious for reasons. but also, other times she kinda puts lisa "under" her? in the sense of, "she's much weaker than me, she can't fight, etc etc." almost like she sees lisa as someone younger, basically. then, _on top of all that,_ i just think that their own respective love interests are well developed and interesting enough, so there's also that.

@@mophead_xu Agreed

To be fair, vampire bites were always seen as an allegory for sex. Even back when Dracula was made in the 1930s with Bela Lugosi, there was a studio note that Dracula can only bite women on screen so when he was about to bite Renfield, the film faded to black.

This is something I was upset was never addressed in the books. The moroi and dhampirs believe that strigoi are mindless monsters that don't even like to work together but we see time and time again that this just isn't true. You would think it would have ended up a plotline but it's never really touched on in the series.

@@yasminemixon9340 It sort of is and isn't where Christian is concerned, Christian is messed up because he saw his parents murdered before his eyes, his parents who didn't try to eat him simply because he was Moroi and they were Strigoi

@@yasminemixon9340 I do think that's kind of the point. Like it's easier to train to kill the idea of outright evil beings, and the higher up Morai didn't wanna make the problem seem as bad or complex as it is that would make them feel more unsafe and powerless. Also I think the book didn't so that they antagonist felt more real and less cartoony

​@@yasminemixon9340 Didn't the fourth book explore that a little bit? It's been forever since I read it, but I think there was like a group of strigoi who were working together, but it's also made clear they're only using each other and will gladly turn on each other and kill their own allies if it benefits them.

@@abookishmess same!! (also, hi again! hehe.) like sure, strigois _were_ the evil counterpart of morois, and even when we saw them organising as a group, there wasn't really a sense of genuine solidarity among them. but the reduction of them into mindless, blood-thirsty, killing machines, i feel like it was less of a plothole and more just ... an element of the world building. specifically, the more social (and, to some extent political) aspect of the worldbuilding.

Second book. I think it was like a chocolate mousse drink. You could probably make it with chocolate liqueur, vodka, heavy cream... And maybe even some sort of marshmallow whip or ice cream? And some version of added chocolate. Real chocolate would be best but chocolate mix/syrup would probably be okay. Mix it in a blender. It probably take a while to get the ratios right. It might need ice? But you could definitely make it. Trust me I know what you're talking about and I've been thinking about this for a while. 😭 There's a scene in the second book where they meet Adrian the rich guy who invites them to an underground spa. It's at the lodge in the mountains. That's what Rose was drinking when she got too drunk in the hot tub and ended up breaking up / getting into a fight. If that triggers your memory.

@@ashleeknowlton5805 Adrian 😭, he was done so wrong in VA. But omg does he get such a character development in the Bloodlines series. Someone I think leaked that he is going to be in the show but like comes in the final episode. Which I wish they would have just saved him for season 2

@@ashleeknowlton5805 Thank you🙂👍

Also, 17 is the legal age of consent so it's not that terrible

@@cooperminion825 not everywhere, yeah some states and countries, but here in Texas and I believe most other states the legal age of consent is 18

@@Captaincory1 The age of consent is 16yrs old in 31 States, 17yrs old in 6 States, and 18yrs old in 13 States...so, it's actually 16 in *most* States, but it's 18 in the State where I live too[ and I'm nowhere near Texas]. Lol The age of consent, so far as I can tell, is actually typically 16 in most other countries around the world as well. Although 18 is also a fairly common age of consent in a number of other countries too; although many places with 18 as an age of consent, actually allow consent even younger in certain exceptions, such as between individuals who are within a 1yr to 7yrs age-gap from each other(the exact gap allowable varies from country to country..or in some countries depends on the age of the youngest person involved)...just to name a couple of the most common exceptions. But a number of other countries actually have ages of consent set at 14 or 15, and even more rarely some countries' ages of consent is as low as 12 or 13. (I don't know why, but it seems like randomly 17 is a really uncommon age of consent, the whole world over.) Nevermind the countries that make it illegal to consent unless married[ although most of those have the legal age of marriage at 16 or 18 as well]-and neverminding countries where it's always illegal between same-sex individuals[ but most often esp. if male] as well. But most places prohibit consent between legal adults and legal minors, regardless of how young their local age of consent; although some places do allow some exceptions[ such as if the two individuals were within a certain/small age-gap or if they were already in an established/stable/ relationship together before the older individual became an adult].

@@jaginaiaelectrizs6341 🤣 girl let me tell you it's never a good look to know that much about consent. But jokes aside I do appreciate that in this book the age gap isn't downplayed and he spends little time with her and if alone it's always teaching. Bruh was actively trying not to 😩

@@abookishmess Lol 🤣🤣 ((I just have a fascination with the law, and how it differs &/or stays the same or similar from country to country, in general-I considered wanting to be a lawyer when I grew up when I was younger at one point, but mostly I just liked knowing when and what I was or wasn't legally allowed to do versus say what my parents could or couldn't legally prevent me from doing since(among other things) I'm a very willful person and my mother's the type that didn't even have a tv or allow watching Disney movies when visiting friends because of the "evil" magic use in them; I think I'd rather be informed than ignorant, especially since ignorance of a law rarely exempts anyone from prosecution for violating a law. But I'm also a writer, so I just have a fascination with cultures[/etc.] and how things work and are similar or differ & such in general too, the better to write stories set in other countries with &/or to borrow inspiration from to write new fantasy settings with.^-^)) But, yeah, I appreciated how the age-gap was handled in the VA books too.

Age gaps that the adult takes the time to stand back and say "I'm an adult, you are a child. Boundaries have been set and it would be highly inappropriate for us to do anything but be friends." Is I feel a excellent way to set up that there maybe something in the future when both of them are old enough to know what they're getting into. But it's not going to happen now because one of them is a minor with a child brain that hasn't fully developed as of yet. So I the adult will stop this in its tracks. Feel so much better, my and my girlfriend have a huge age gap, 31. 53. But we met last year when we're both fully developed adults and knowing our brains and wants.

Yes I like that he calls her out more often then not. He's telling her how immature she is and etc. A lot of these age gaps are gross because they're always trying push the "you're mature for your age" lines 😩. He was genuinely frustrated with her ass.

@@abookishmess yeah plus Rose never changes for him she never feels the need to not act her age to impress Dimitri which I really liked

If it’s handled well, honestly I would leave the inclusion of the age gap. I feel like it’s a good thing to show teen readers that this is how the adult SHOULD act, and that it’s not because there’s something wrong with them but because it’s not responsible. Showing that being the kind and romantic thing to do could be very good?

I think it should be left alone. It shows that while it's ok to have feelings for someone older/adult it's not ok for said older/adult to act on those feelings.

Oh Kozlovsky. I will never understand the appeal.

I wonder if it's the difference between Russian acting and western. I mean different cultures have different appeals. I mean I love K drama and C drama but it takes a little getting used to the different styles.

@@kellharris2491 oh, no. He's just not that good an actor. There is a reason all the reviewers tend to roast him. I think it's that he has a rugged pretty boy appeal and that's all the modern Russian movies seem to care about.

​@@adorabell4253 As a Russian I absolutely agree with you, Kozlovsky is a mess of an actor but, like pretty much every famous actor, he's got his fangirls (as well as haters of course). Another reason that most reviewers and movie critics make fun of him I think is his being conceited and arrogant. No one would roast his bad acting so much (after all there many mediocre/bad actors and actresses out there) if he weren't so full of himself, setting himself up as a genius actor

Also, loved your coverage of this Dom, as always, prime RU-vid entertainment provided with intelligence, charisma and wonderfully dry British humour ☔️🏳️‍🌈

As opposed to some: Looking’ at you, House of Night....

welp, you just sold me on giving it a try. Good on you, Anna.

yeah it’s not portrayed as a serious or severe thing in the movie at all. they just get really itchy for a bit when she goes too hard using her powers and it stops the next scene, with no mention of it being that bad, just mildly annoying

God I truly do hate people like you who try and give compliments by shitting on others. "disappearingly small population" my ASS. You ain't looking hard enough and I doubt you even tried to look at all. I swear to God, I can't speak for anyone but myself but honestly 'compliments' like that feel like backhanded-slap. Disrespectful.

I think it got a very limited theatrical release in the UK because I remember going to see it at the cinema in Aberdeen when I lived there.

You're so right about the white washing! Rereading as an adult it was particularly striking how much Rose's mixed race identity fed into the way moroi guys talked about her and sexualised her. I might not have picked up on it when I read them as they came out, but it definitely feeds into how "fuck the patriarchy and this system is racist" the vibe of the books is. It just smacks of someone not understanding why a text us meaningful to its central audience, and such a cowardly cop out to put zero effort into trying to cast a lead who isn't white.

She's half-Turkish?? I was uninterested but as a half-Turk starved for rep maybe I should give this series a try

Yeah, I was hoping he'd mention that! It's very frustrating.

@@EL-jq1sq same

Yeah, I knew nothing about the books but I enjoyed her performance.

Yeah-I was gonna say, her performance was NOT [in my opinion ]forgettable, at aalll!!!! # JusticeForZoey! 😅😅🙃😁 Lol She was the best part of the entire movie. (Also, Christian.^^)

It also has a TV show Shadohunters

And the film tried its best and the show started off that way then changed creators or something and those that followed decided to take a dump on Clary and Jocelyn and Isabelle (Isabelle making her addicted to yen fin and just getting over it you know the the drug that almost killed Jem in the infernal devices) I’m sure there is more shit they pulled but i never made it past season one (lack of interest then i learned about Clary and just went hard no)

@@user-xy4di3pd2m As someone not reading th books, its prtty fine once th romane ce rama isnt the center, and season 3 is pretty good.Through i ont know how loyal it is.

I remember being so upset that Clary wasn't a redhead and they casted such old looking people for Alec and Isabelle lmao. Imo the shadow hunters had a way better cast.

@@TiredLex same. The Shadowhunters cast I felt looked like they grew up as soldier, where the TMI looked like a bunch of people in a sort of uniform

Interesting. I only knew that it is what vampires are known as in certain Parts. Not sure whether it was in poland, ukraine or rumania.

My owl-loving middle sister would appreciate it!

Mystery science theater 3000's spirit lives on

I still remember a similar experience my family had at home with the Assassin's Creed movie. We turned it off halfway, but until then? Absolutely roasting it

It pays off in the 4th book, when a spirit user camouflaged as an air user.

@@MissDraco666 That's good to know! I don't think I read past the 3rd one so I'm glad that was actually leading somewhere

@@MissDraco666 and we see several characters use compulsion, though weakly, throughout the series.

@@ColastiaThunderfuck I highly recommend you finish the series. Idk how far you got in book 3. But without spoiling it a throw away line in book 1 becomes a huge plot point in book 4-5. Also once you finish it. I HIGHLY Recommend you read Bloodlines. The spin off Novel, cause I prefer Bloodlines to VA. But both are good

I love VA, but I have to agree. Bloodlines is absolutely perfect, for what it is. I love it so, so much. I've re-read it multiple times

Yup

Glad I'm not alone! It works well enough if you can switch your brain off for a couple hours, and I remember going back to it quite a bit as a kind of comfort blanket when I was about 13.

same, the movie is pretty bad but i love it, can’t stand to watch the leg breaking scene though

It's one of the so bad that it's good movie

Yeah, they shot themselves in the foot with that one, because trying to set up book 3 and skipping book 2 would make the sequel pretty incoherent

@@Hana9916 What's even worse is the cave full of Strigoi near the school, if I remember correctly, is literally meant to be a plot twist towards the very end of the book, so like, not only are you doing set up badly you're also potentially wrecking a twist

@@ameliebutler9104 Lol, they go to a ski resort due to the schools winter break. And since the Moroi can't travel without guardians, that's why it's a school trip for the kids to meet up with their parents and be safe. Also yes, I hated that they showed the cave. It gave away a big plot point for book three, it wasn't a major twist but one of the twist in book 3

Sounds like a great idea to me! I want to get started

Yes, that sounds like an excellent idea. It's been a few years since I've revisited the series.

You really should check out her "Dark Swan" books. They are amazing and like Succubus Blues aimed at an adult audience.

All of her books are 🔥

I agree. I saw a couple of trailers and thought, "are they making a parody out of this?" then decided not to even attempt to watch the movie. Considering all the serious topics that are brought up through the series, this movie was never going to start a franchise out of the books. The "comedy" comes from Rose's dry, sarcastic sense of humour, not the actual plot or themes.

I remember begging my friend to come with me. And I was so excited and like the books are so good overall. This movie was so embarrassing 😂😂

@@lauramartin7675 The trailers are exactly why I didn't watch this movie in theaters. I remember seeing one of the teasers where it was basically just the dance scene where Rose punched Mia and it had this stupid zoom onto her face and she deadpans her line. In that moment, I said "not for me thanks" and didn't watch it till it appeared on netflix in morbid curiosity. It was exactly as bad as the trailer suggested despite, like Dom says, having a lot of the plot remain the same.

Have you seen the tv show? I thought the first episode was a bit slow but the season as a whole was pretty fun to watch, also Dimitri in the show is wayyy better than in the movie

@@andrear4954 Hahaha, oh god, I'm going to sound like such a negative nelly but no. I refuse to watch it because 1) i saw the trailer and while i'm sure the cast is great, i was not happy with the changes she made with the story itself 2) bc i absolutely hate julie plec and everything she gets her dirty paws on, she ruins and I'm sure she's already ruined it. So, I know some of the story changes she made and she basically ERASED all of the most important story bits IMO and it just no longer feels like vampire academy. I have such a deep-rooted hatred for her, and it just PAINS me incredibly that she got this project bc well she's a TERRIBLE writer. I can only imagine what mess she made of my favorite books with this tv show. SIGH 😩

The first one is just called Vampire Academy

If you're thinking of trying the books again, don't let this trashy film stop you. They're pretty damn good, probably among the best teen supernatural books I've read.

Bloodlines is same universe with continuing timeline, but new story with new characters, not a rehash. I actually like it little bit better.

I prefer bloodlines over VA. I love Sydney and Adrian.

Bloodlines is in my opinion way better. She did that with that series. I wanted more Sydney 😭

From what I remember, Bloodlines does a good job at representing a character who is unlearning prejudice, which is not something I found very much in YA.

I love VA, but Bloodlines is vastly superior. You can definitely tell she grew as an author between writing VA and starting Bloodlines

That was the case with someone else I knew too. (It seemed pretty legit back then because though I no longer have it saved anywhere, they did show photos of the scars on their hands from the scratching. And yeah, they were pretty bad.) Whenever their anxiety was too much to contain they'd unconsciously scratch themselves until they left lasting marks on their arms. So, it can happen, but here it probably wasn't believably executed.

Did you like glittering court? It keeps popping up in my recommended.

@@ashleeknowlton5805 The first book was pretty meh, but the second one was really good! I actually never got around to the third one, but my friend really liked it

I like the initial story, but Bloodlines I re-read a couple times. I also have come to find the movie charming; first watch was disappointing, but it has its own chemistry.

What happend to the cats!!

I Loved Adrian and Sydney, honestly how their relationship developed was such a slow sweet burn. You can tell Sydney really truly fell for Adrian for who he was. And he just didn't know how deal with that, since he was so used to girls falling for him for his looks or his money. Sydney was like nah, I love your sensitive moody self. And as someone who has Bi Polar disorder with depression. That just spoke to my soul when I read Bloodlines

Yes! They don’t drink blood, but they are NOT human.

Also the strigoi cave isn't not accurate I guess?

Also a great cast for Mean Girls, no weak links there

I stopped reading the second book because the main character made a dumb choice for no reason (vs dating your teacher, which apparently was justified?)

Precisely, I abhor when teenage/adult relationships are romanticised by the narrative, when it's immensely disturbing in real life.

@@morganwentworth2041 I apparently agree with you because my notes say "Rose, the leading lady, is juvenile, impulsive to a fault, and has the decision making skills of a lemming."

@@trinaq I remember being okay with it in book one since, as the review says, the teacher only acts on it when magic is involved and immediately breaks things off afterwards, but apparently book two went for it if my notes are right and that's just eww. Especially since Rose is VERY much an idiot teen who isn't written as having a lick of sense.

They're supposedly making it less icky in the show but I'm not holding my breath

Have you read the spin off series Bloodlines?