screw it. mega poll.

i just tried the russian black bread rose talks about in blood promise that elena belikova makes for her and SHE WAS RIGHT it’s damn good

the impact of blood promise by richelle mead though??? they don't make them like strigoi dimitri anymore, like when else am I gonna get my main character to go trek across the whole of russia to a literal manor in siberia to find her vampire boyfriend as a murderous mess and only to discover that he's not only now categorically evil and unhinged but the unkillable epitome of bloodlust and sexual tension

Rose: Did I do something to you? It seems like you're avoiding me.

Alchemist!Sydney: Actually I am avoiding you

Rose: Do I know you?

Sydney: No. That's how well its been working.

“You have no chance of running. No chance of hiding. “ Just a little drawing inspired by Blood Promise

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Rose Hathaway in the snow..

Dimitri Belikov in the snow..

Rose and Dimitri in the snow together..

Totally Awesome.

Ooh I knew Avery couldn’t be trusted!

<< PREVIOUS | NEXT >> Start from: Prologue | Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 Right-click and Open Image in a New Page to see it full size. NO. MERCY.

: Click Here For the Uncensored Version on Pillowfort :

I had to censor this update so Tumblr won’t nuke me out of orbit, considering how sensitive it is these days. The uncensored version will be in the final PDF file when the chapter is finished.

And with this double update, we reach page 100! *throws confetti* Believe it or not, this has been running - albeit on and off - since 2015 🥲

Considering how long it took to reach page 100 while still on chapter 6 of 36, it’s safe to say I’ll have to start being selective and starting cutting scenes from now on. The official graphic novels where completely done under 150 pages, now I know why. As much as I want to include everything, at this pace, I’ll be 90 and still halfway through XD

Thank You for coming this far with me!

Storylines from the other books that they used in just the first season of VA (or the first four eps at least)🫡:

Frostbite: literally everything, except that they went to the ski resort, but they got the whole Janine thing plus the black eye, the rising fear in Strigoi attacks among the Moroi, I bet my ass they’re gonna include the outing to hunt Strigoi too. They already got too close with Mason going after Christian, but this bts pic makes me nervous:

They’re literally the same people that got out of the wards (except for Meredith and I can’t tell if Mia’s among them) so I’m scared okay. But there’s basically no plot left anymore from this book… it’s all used up? Wtf? Adrian’s also getting introduced later on, so what’s the point of a season two?

Shadow Kiss: the benchmarks… I’m just really disappointed with how they handled that. They also included the Strigoi managing to break the wards by working together.

Blood Promise: nice little foreshadowing to Dimitri there during the attack in the chapel

Spirit Bound: the age thing of the guardians + kind of that conversation Rose had with the queen, a small variation of it

Last Sacrifice: Lissa’s whole becoming queen + the quorum thing… this is literally the final book in the series and they’re using half of its plot in the first fucking season of the series… I think we can all agree how ridiculous that is, right?

This just shows how incredibly fast they’re going. They’re focusing more on the plot than they do on character development and relationships and it shows. They’re handing everything to us without us having to actually long for it… I’m not really excited for Romitri as I was in the books. Christian and Rose have lost a lot of their snark. By grabbing so many huge plot points from other books, they lose the characterization that was such a big focus in the books too. It was one of my favorite things in fact to see how Rose slowly learns to be responsible, how Lissa fights her inner demons (albeit from Rose’s perspective). Now it’s all just politics and even though I love that in fantasy stories, this is not balanced at all. It’s 90% plot, 10% characterization if not less.

inputting the info into the timeline for blood promise... wow have I had to make some liberties

"Sydney—what’s going to make you feel better about creatures of the night? Easy escape on the first floor or distance on the second?”

— Rose Hathaway, Bloodlines: The Fiery Heart, Richelle Mead

“If your eyes weren't open, you wouldn't know the difference between dreaming and waking."

-Richelle Mead, blood promise

Blood Promise

Dimitri holding the spirit ring is the only time I like Strigoi Dimitri

The only thing I really did not like about the Vampire Academy show is how the Strigoi look… and I’m really only stuck on that because I have Blood Promise in mind. 😭

The Devil’s Bridge, Kromlau, Germany

This is the bridge that I imagine Rose and Dimitri fighting on in Blood Promise 😍

How important actually is Russia to the Vampire Academy series and its themes??

Brief rant about certain things that alarm me and make me question whether the people making that new Vampire Academy television show actually understood multiple aspects and themes of the Vampire Academy book series. I’m not assuming the worst of that new Vampire Academy television show, and no hard opinions have been formed as I haven’t seen it yet as it’s not publicly released as of rn, but these are just some things that I reckon could be questioning indicators.

Most of this is probably gonna relate to Blood Promise tbh.

Dimitri Belikov is Russian and that is an important part of both his character and the books in general. Ok. Apparently, that new television show isn’t going to have their interpretation be Russian. Why is that an issue? It’s definitely not racism, Russian is not a race. It could be a studio lumping all of Russia and Russian citizens in with the horrific and terrible actions of the Russian government, and wanting to avoid Russia altogether because of that, which, while not great, isn’t as bad as actual racism. Ok. Why is Dimitri being Russian important, at least on a thematic level? Obviously I love certain things like Dimitri’s Russian nickname for Rose, which while I personally consider extremely important, I know why production studios might not.

However, Russia does become much more thematically important in Blood Promise, where Rose goes to a foreign country in persuit of Dimitri. Part of the reason why Russia specifically is thematically, and plot-wise, relevant, is because it’s a distant land both literally and metaphorically to Rose at that time. It’s a place that Rose knows very little about, and the little that she knows doesn’t paint it in a very good light, and she repeatedly mentions throughout the 1st 4 books how before she went to Russia, she didn’t understand why anybody would want to live there, and how it seems like a cold and uninviting place. When Rose gets there, and especially once she meets and spends some time with Dimitri’s family in a town with a particularly bad reputation, she sees and experiences how beautiful, warm, inviting, and full of life it is. She learns not just about Dimitri’s family, or a foreign country, but a different way of life that can actually be extremely beautiful and fulfilling, and even considers staying there. It gives her a new perspective on the world, and also the world of Dhampirs, Moroi, and Strigoi, and opens up her mind to new ways of life and her worldview significantly changes and becomes more open-minded, and less judgementful, and more accepting. A place that she previously thought of as cold, uninviting, and had a bad reputation becomes a potential second-home for her.

I don’t think that those themes are easily substituted if you replace Russia with just any other country. It HAS to be far away, it HAS to seem inaccessible, and it HAS to have a bad reputation from the perspective of an American teenage girl (while Sisi Stringer is Australian, as am I, Vampire Academy is told through a very U.S.A. lens, and that plays into its themes and is self-aware of that).

Places like Italy, or England, or Spain, wouldn’t be able to deliver on those themes even close to as well as Russia, as those countries are romanticised, or at least doesn’t have the same bad reputation that Russia has from an U.S.A. - Americanised lens. An argument could be made for certain other countries possibly being able to deliver on some of those themes, for example some predominantly Muslim countries in the Middle East, and then they can show their culture as beautiful instead of the little to no positive representation in mainstream western media, however I highly doubt that they’re going to do that. Being from the same country and simply a different part of that country almost completely undermines all of those themes and elements, as well.

Also, I personally feel that a large part of what kickstarts Sydney Sage and Rose Hathaway’s friendship is them both being in an extremely foreign country together. They have some base level of understanding of each other that comes from both being from the same country while in an extremely foreign country. Sydney tells Rose that she’s from Utah, and Rose has thoughts and feelings about that because she’s at least somewhat familiar with Utah, in a way that only somebody from the same country but a different part of it would be. Rose is grateful for Sydney being able to translate Russian, not just the spoken language but also being able to read the Russian alphabet, and Sydney can guess what sorts of foods Rose might gravitate towards. Rose and Sydney both find amazing beauty in the Russian architecture that they see, although both for different reasons. Part of the reason why Rose stays with Sydney when they 1st meet is because Sydney can help her navigate Russia, both from a book-based knowledge, and also navigating that culture, and Dhampir, Moroi, and Strigoi hotspots. If there’s no Russia, then why do Rose and Sydney become friends??

These sorts of themes and plot elements and character elements actually are extremely important. If all it was was the loss of a beautiful nickname, and maybe an accent, then it’d suck but it wouldn’t be the same as losing such massive and extremely important and impactful parts of the Vampire Academy book series. Not including that, or not considering it important, seriously makes me question if the people who made those decisions really understood or understand the Vampire Academy books at all, even remotely.

Disclaimer: no hate to the cast. Also this is by no means an exhaustive nor complete list, and also feel free to re-read that 1st paragraph. It’s impossible for adaptions to be exactly like the original because everybody interprets the original in their own, different, way.