Immediately before I set this public I realized that I accidentally used the wrong list for patron names at the end. Apologies for that, the issue will be fixed in the next video.
This is why new media is winning. Old media had minimal cozy book recommendations by women in jumpers and absolutely no book reviews by weapon waving men in Colorado.
James Tullos I'm canceling you, can't you see that the secret vampire headquarters is in Pennslyvania because it sounds sort of like Transylvania? It's like pottery. It rhymes.
@@lastexit1340 can confirm, I’m from Romania and I’ve read this before we did the US section of geography in school and I genuinely thought it was supposed to be Transylvania at first and that my edition was botched. It’s never not Transylvania when it comes to vampires
@@draftacriss The US habit of naming things after places they wish they had shooting them all in the foot. (Seriously whose bright idea was it to have so many Viennas in the US????)
As a Californian I can confirm that this is somewhat accurate. There’s a lot of vampire’s hidden here but we’re not all bad. You just have to ignore San Francisco and Los Angeles.
By origin, moroi and strigoi come from Dacian (present day Romanian) folklore, and are terms associated with ghouls that weren't granted a pass in the afterlife. Thus, they would haunt the living world in various animal forms, and only modern interpretations of the folktales specify that they feed off the blood of living beings. In essence this explains why the royal / elite families of moroi and strigoi are Romanian (or Russian), why they are orthodox-christians and so on. Lastly, the father being Turkish is a call back to Ottoman invasions in Romania between the 15th - 18th century, the time period in which those folktales were popularized in order to scare them. After all, the reference for Dracula, Vlad Țepeș was putting on a show to terrorize the Ottomans by claiming that he was possessed by a moroi and drinking the blood of his victims.
I never made the link with the popularisation of those folktales during Ottoman occupation !!! It's so interesting. I have read a 12th or 13th century chronicle, i can't remember if it was Mathew of Edessa, the Syriac Anonymous or Bar Hebraeus (i lean towards the last), wich told a story of a village scared by a rumor abt a recently decaesed person coming back from the dead to haunt them. there was a turkish soldier who heard the rumor and said something like "oh i know what to do !" and he showed the villagers (probably eastern christians or muslims, while the turkish soldier maaay have been muslim but not sure, at last he was from a very different culture than them) how to dig up the decaesed person, put a wooden stake in his chest, put stones in the tomb etc. so if turkish culture (although it wasn't ottoman but seldjukid in this context) already had those kind of stories, i guess ottoman autorities were quite receptive to those greek and romanian folktales during the 15th-18th century lol
And Dracula's son Adrian aka Alucard had to put an end to Vlad's genocide against humans-shit, wait, no. That's Castlevania. ...Any historical equivalent to the fictional region "Walachia"? 😂
@@tournesol5939 Turks did have (a lot of...) myths pre-Islam and some of them include "proto-vampires", called "ubur" and "ipir" (among other things). So yeah, the stake stuff and in general blood-drinking undead had been around in Turkish culture for a long time when they got to Romania.
@@tournesol5939 You're welcome! If you can find a way to translate them, I can recommend two books as starting points: "Türk Kültüründe Vampirler" (Vampires in Turkish Culture) by Seçkin Sarpkaya & Mehmet Berk Yaltırık, and "Türk Mitolojisi Atlası" (Atlas of Turkish Mythology) by Bartu Bölükbaşı. Have fun :D
@@athenajaxon2397 yeah but you can play 21 questions or something. "Have I met your killer" "are they a woman" "are they related to x". Power of elimination. "Can I find evidence that you know about?" "Is it in your chambers?" Literally days of time for countless questions and all she asks is "hey is this note clearly written by you, actually written by you?"
Mark from Russia tells her it's dangerous to summon ghosts for too long, she can go crazy. She's already risking it by summoning the queen for a few seconds.
I feel like Rose being negligent in her duty as a bodyguard is kind of par for the course when you force teenagers into a role where they are responsible for someone else's life
the vampire-by-olivia-rodrigo bit is kinda like the china beach bit in jenny nicholson's video about another teen drama with vampires and I love them both
2:09:40 [paraphrased] "all studies show that torture is a very ineffective interrogation technique" Even the Spanish Inquisition knew this, it's literally in their manual to not use torture execpt as a last resort and their founder refused to use it becuase it kept leading to false confessions
From how you described everything i thought it was setting up lissa and rose as the endgame couple, like they'd get rid of dimitri snd Christian, Adrian just wasn't it, and they'd sacrificed so much for each other and finally realized the true nature of their bond. But no, gotta have that creepy straight romance. Ick
@@ghostie-1313i’ll never stop wishing bella x alice was endgame. then it could have been a story about alice teaching bella to embrace life and find an actual identity. smh
Had to pause at 14:20 because whaaaaaat??? You're telling me an ancient family of vampire - including parents who could be hundreds of years old- died in a CAR crash????? Of all things????
Funny enough Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia convinced Harry his parents died in a car crash until Hagrid found him and informed him that the very idea was an insult, because they actually gave their lives fighting Voldemort and in doing so saved Harry's life (and all of wizardkind in the process)
dimitri was the BANE of my paranormal romance love interest infested adolescence, i hated him and rose so much 😭 not even bc of the morality of it, i just HATED him lmao. loved lissa and christian tho, my babies. also adrian, i loved him sm i was so genuinely upset when rose didn’t choose him 😂 i’ve been wanting to read his spinoff series but i can’t bring myself to revisit this universe
1:56:27 I'm not Russian but Czech so I'm also Slavic and I do speak Russian a little so I can tell you that you understand it pretty well. In a lot of Slavic countries the surnames can be masculine or feminine. The way it's differentiated is by changing the ending of the masculine version of the surname, usually by attaching for example -a, -á, -va, -vá -ova, -ová, -ska or -ská which really depends on the surname itself and/or the country (different countries have slightly different rules with which of those sufixes are applied and how). It's done in the east and west slavic countries, south Slavs don't really have the difference in the surnames. That's like an oversimplification of it - there are obv exceptions to this and other things that can play a part, it can get complicated, again depending on what slavic country we're talking about. But what I said is generally how it tends work ☺ Edit: I think the need for masculine or feminine surnames can be easily explained by the fact that slavic languages are gendered. So for most of us (again the south Slavs are probably a bit different in this ig) refering to a woman who has a surname with slavic origin and not changing it to the feminine form just sounds hella weird. One of the exceptions I mentioned would be if the surname originates in like german for example. In that case you could get away with changing it or not, it doesn't really sound weird if you keep the surname as is bcs the original version of the surname doesn't immediatelly tell you that the surname is masculine bcs it doesn't have the masculine ending. Or like in english with for example the surname "Smith" you don't automatically know from just the surname if you're talking about a man or a woman. But with slavic surnames - let's use Belikov as an example - you know right away that this is a man bcs it has a masculine sufix. So you naturally would need to change the ending for a feminine suffix to fit a woman. I hope that explanation made sense 😂
I forgot how gross Rose's and Dimitri's 'will they, won't they' is, I'm 24 the mere thought of dating a minor is so unnerving, I'm going to hate when Rose is 18 and they actually hook up. He should've been fired book 1
@Spidermonkey43 you see, I got to that part in the video and was grossed out, but blissfully forgot about it, but here you come and ruin my entire day all over again.
I view Vampire Academy as homework for the spin-off Bloodlines. I started the first Bloodlines book without knowing it was a spin-off and fell in love with it. When I’d finished the first 3 books waiting for the 4th to be published I read all VA books in a week. Felt more like required reading and I’m glad I did it bc books 4-6 of Bloodlines does tie more into VA than the first ones. Never re-read VA tho while I re-read bloodlines multiple times. Richelle Mead is a good character author: I’ve even read some of her, uh, ~adult~ books and while they bear the hallmarks of erotica with plot being secondary, the character work and voice remains strong!
Same here, I love Bloodlines so much more than VA. I got into VA in high school. Right around the time the 4th book was released. I loved the series for what it was. But Bloodlines is 100x better, and I loved how Sydney has a more logical approach to the way she goes about things.
For those who want to know how realistic a secret magic school in Montana is, the town slogan for my grandma's town is: "Welcome to Mor! Thank you for visiting!". THERE IS NOTHING IN MONTANA.
I'm loving this thing with you and the weapons. Just genuinely threatening your audience to sit through all of this. Jokes on you, we're into that shit
The spin off series, Bloodlines, is far superior. You should totally give it a shot. The last two books always have me on the edge of my seat no matter how many times i re read them
A lot of the Sydney/Alchemists stuff you mention as something that doesn't get any follow-up DOES get addressed in the sequel series, in which uptight fundie girl Sydney is paired with debauched fuckboy Adrian for maximum conflict ❤
4 hours!? I have never been more seated for a roast of my favourite series when I was in middle school 😂 incredibly excited to see if it aged as poorly as I think it has.
I am out here getting vindicated my toxic first boyfriend who is older OFC wanted us to read this series together for bonding, but even back when I was more of a fantasy girly, I just couldn’t get into it halfway through the first book with the humans that feed the vampires and whatever I was just like I’m not really into the see there’s transferable skills from slavery vibe bye
i had no feelings about rose as a character until she responded to someone saying "you screwed me over, took my money, and cheated on me. you victimize people" with "wow, you think of yourself as a victim? that's why i'm better than you, i help myself". and then i realized i hated her. he could've said "yeah, you help yourself -- by hurting others??" or, i dont know, pointed out that her rich dad and friends helped her escape prison?
Thank you for covering this series! I read most of VA when I was younger but ragequit somewhere around dimitri being brought back and beacause the relationship weirded me out. I do have good memories of reading it, this was a really fun listen
Thank you, James' Sister, for being the Angel of Content, you can have my firstborn child! Edit: Выпивала шот водяры кажды раз, как Джеймс пытался произносить фамилии по-русски, печень отвалилась спустя сорок минут :D
@1:52:43, they do follow up on the concept, the spin off is about the Alchemists and Sydeney/Adrian and the final book was so bad it was the worst finale I've come across until the GOT finale. The rest of the books are on par with Vampire Academy mostly, but get gradually worse after book 3. I would absolutely love your brief summary on them, it's been years since I've read them but the religious stuff was weird even when I was in highschool.
I read the first book in fifth grade and then completely forgot about it. I remember a vague feeling of “I shouldn’t be reading this.” Also ten-year-old me really shipped Lissa and Rose and I can’t remember why
so hyped about blue bloods mention. i was super obsessed with the first two as a teen because i was fascinated by the (at the time) different take on vampires. i tried rereading the first one as an adult but i had to put it down because of how jarring it was to remember the main characters are like. 14-15 at the start lol.
As someone who had never heard of this series, the writing here (though problematic at times) seems pretty intelligent at times rather than constantly feeding into the fantasy. Great video James!
I still really love these books. I read them when i was 17, and i really loved the rose/dimitri romance. Im willing to look past the issues with that particular dynamic in this series now simply for the nostalgia factor, but i wouldn't be able to read another book now at 27 with the same dynamic. The books are just fun. Rose is snarky and hardheaded but still likable, and i liked that they were from her perspective rather than lisa. The royalty dynamics were interesting too.
The jacket thing 100% exists. I sort of get it, if it’s a nice jacket. However that’s not NEAR the weirdest thing to get turned on by in a paranormal romance novel.
I haven't been able to watch for the past while because I was finishing my degree and everything that comes with that, but it's really cool coming back to see how much your channel has grown in both numbers and video quality/depth. Keep it up mate, you're killing it! I look forward to watching this over the next couple of days. It's great to see some more long-form videos, too
12 years since reading and at 1:56:16 I realised that in english version Baia is a fictional town (bc if you google the city + country, you get info about the book??) but russian translation changed it to Biysk, while it's not as well-known as Moscow, it's indeed a real town, I think some va fans from Biysk were proud to say they're from that city back then.........
The author for these books also has a series about a succubus who falls for a human, and there are angels and demons and nephilim and warlocks... i loved that series when i was like 13. "succubus blues" i think is the name of the first book. I actually read that one before reading vampire academy (i droped it after shadow kiss, so idk what goes on on the last 3). maybe i shouldn't have been reading something like that at 13 but i had unsupervised access to internet and it was like 18 years ago. it was the wild west, i guess-
this is my first time ever coming across this channel and was shocked to open the comment section to find no one commenting on the fact that he is waving a gun around for the entire video😭 this must be a common occurrence over here
Welp I'm 20 minutes away from finishing and although your gun suggests I was being held hostage this whole time, I have loved every minute of you explaining this absurd book series, well done.
I'm kinda glad to see you liked the books, mostly. It's nice to dissect it bc it was such a glass of water when we were thirsty for vampires and it wasn't the worse thing ever. There's just something about the books that kept me reading. Maybe look into the Covenant series by Armontrout bc it's almost identical to the first VA book. The scandal! But those books had a similar draw
I haven't gotten through the entire video yet, but Rose caring that training-to-be-a-fighter is going to make her unattractive or less-traditionally-feminine, does not make her vain. Out of all the scenes James discussed, this is the one he decided to focus on and pin-point _verbatim._ Give me break, man 🙄 First and foremost, at this point in the story, the girl is 17-years-old and as shocking as it might be to you, girls go through that kind of insecurity when they are that young and overly-concerned with their appearance. And I actually like that the book did this for another reason, mainly because most of the time, that kind of thing isn't ever acknowledged in fiction at all. Movies in general, just seem to ignore physiology. I remember, years ago, I was watching the second 300 movie back when it first came out, and during a fight scene, my suspension of disbelief got disrupted because Eva Green with her skinny noodle arms was locked in a sword-fight with a man three times her size and yet, nothing about the scene acknowledged the very real strength-differential that would exist between them if the fight was more realistic. Authors, especially fantasy authors always do this. They either completely ignore the differences between male and female bodies, or they ignore female bodies - *_period._* Women in fiction are meant to be these bad-ass fighters who can take down men twice their size but she hardly ever looks like that. The only exception of this rule I can think of is probably Luisa Madrigal from Disney's _Encanto._ But if you think I am exaggerating this issue, just look at what Imane Khelif had to endure with at this year's Olympics. I understand that there are many reasons for why that happened to her, f-tards like Elon Musk and JK Rowling using their platform to push a political agenda for one, but none of that would have happened to her at all at all if she wasn't a woman with a masculine physique. God forbid a woman trains to become the very best at what she does and it actually be reflected by her body. Steve Rogers gets the super serum and he turns into the massive blonde beef-cake that is Captain America but if a woman can throw down with a man? Science Fiction and Fantasy genre will make sure she retains her hyper-feminine appearance like Black Widow. Somehow, no one wants to see pre-serum Steve deliver a beat-down because for him to be able to do that while not looking like Captain America would be a complete break from reality but somehow when it is a woman it isn't 🙄 This just portrays the way women in fiction are written in a manner that perpetuates the misconceptions that men have about women and women's bodies. They fight in heels, they wake up in the morning fresh-as-a-daisy, with make-up on and salon blow-out. I'm sorry but I live in the real world, where these things take time and effort. And before you get on my case, I'm not blaming male-authors solely for this. I believe many female-authors emulate them and perpetuate these problems and in addition to that, unrealistic beauty standards affect everyone, even men. The last thing I want to say is that there is a lot of misogyny in the way beautiful women (in fiction & in real life) aren't meant to acknowledge that they are good-looking. Most of the time, they are meant to look like the kind of woman that most men would find attractive but if they are comfortable enough with their appearance to acknowledge that they're conventionally attractive, they get labelled as shallow or vain or just an overall shitty human being. Do you see the box that puts women in? It's almost as if the default is for women to be deeply insecure in themselves and their appearance or they get casted as arrogant or amoral. In my mind insecurity and humility are not the same things. A woman can acknowledge the fact that she's perfectly lovely while still owning the fact that she has flaws and physical imperfections that mean that she's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. This isn't how they're written though. Almost always, the beautiful female character thinks she's ugly 🙄 A male protagonists can be arrogant with a devil-may-care attitude and this often celebrated and praised but if a female character has basic self-awareness, confidence or security, somehow this is deemed unattractive 😅 I also despise how women in fiction are meant to be feminine, hygienic and perfectly put-together but at the same time, they can't show how much they care about their appearance. They are meant to just perpetuate this the myth that beauty is something that "just happens" - that it's "all-natural" which isn't the case. Even the most genetically blessed individuals put in time & effort or they have the resources to pay other people to do it for them. And for a woman to consistently look her best, it usually takes an overall dedication to aestheticism. It would be nice if the many aspects of womanhood isn't treated as too-real or too-icky and is instead given the respect they deserve. Because in my mind, the people who actually spend a lot of time around beautiful women? They know how much work goes into it and they approach it with understanding and empathy instead of disdain.
Honestly love the long ass video format! I may not watch it all in one go but its great fodder for of an evening when im playing games that dont require to much brain effort
you have got to read and share your thoughts on one of the more modern YA books (the ones that are “staple” in book communities) like the cruel prince, six of crows, legendborn, Stephanie garber books… 😅 I knew you reviewed powerless but that’s why i mentioned staple.
this book was my life in highshool lol. i loathe every bad adaptation that happened. all your questions will be answered in bloodlines to ruby circle (which is a more confusing series than VA). we dont always have to agree with the characters and what they do but, a compliment i can give richelle mead was that she was consistent with her character building. Rose aged and grew IN character throughout the books but it was a trajectory that was consistent to her trope. she doesn't change overnight or flip into what a main character should be to remain the mc. she was really flawed because she is a person who's flawed. there really is no other point. i guess the frustration borne out of that is best represented by Adrian by the end of LS. same with Lisa, when they're together or apart, she also maintained her own moral compass that was not dependent on whether rose (the book's main character) agrees or likes it. it felt faithful that the VA series ended with characters who felt like people i Know of, and not strangers who completely changed through 6 books. now read how adrian would do a semi flip (not a full 180°) at the bloodlines series. a series that is also 6-books but still felt so rushed and incomplete that you'll probably have more questions by the time the video conclusion part comes up. also the "Last sacrifice" is rose and lisa's spirit bond severing permanently, also Lisa swearing off spirit and going medicated 😂😂 i know, i know
As a Romanian, hearing James butcher „mână” to the extent he does (seriously, where did you get the y sound in there?) was... borderline funny, but mostly cringey
Very excited about ur review on this series. It was my favorite as a teen flaws and all lol. Its definitely got its issues but it holds a special place in in my heart. Makes me happy to hear u say its at the very least an Ok series just as long as its better than fourth wing
For the Russian pronunciation, unstressed O’s in Russian are pronounced like A’s, and most, but not all, stressed E’s are pronounced like there’s a Y in front. So a name like Belikov would be pronounced “BYEH-li-kahf”, and Kirova would be “KEE-rah-vah”.
I had no idea you read the whole series and not just the first book! This was my favorite series back in the day (haven't watched the video yet but will come back when I have time!)
I thought you weren't gonna ever do Vampire Academy so I read the entire series... n e ways I love ur long videos! Go Tullos! Can we be called Tullops? Idk i just think it's a neat fandom name
loving vampire academy to the core is my ultimate guilty pleasure in life. also, you probably won’t but I think you should read bloodlines (the spin-off) cause the series are so funny and entertaining and I think the main couple is actually better than rose and dimitri (I really love them too tbf)
As someone who was the target audience when these books were first published and is now older than Dimitri, I cannot for the life of me understand what he sees in a teenager. It's nice that Rose is a flawed and not entirely likeable main character, and her internal dialogue/actions are very believable for her age, but jfc the last half of the series does genuinely drag on.
One thing I really respect about your reviews is the knowledge you bring outside the book series itself. Talking about the difference between Appalachian accents and southern accents is a distinction that many people usually wouldn't even think about. Keep up the good work man
Immediately before I set this public I realized that I accidentally used the wrong list for patron names at the end. Apologies for that, the issue will be fixed in the next video.
oh dont worry, we all slip up and dont want to check stuff for minites to relessemstuff for the general public to enjoy
@@Nockgun
Wait...zar 1:50:13 ...so wait there was no 1912 revolution.
I always love the spectrum of book TH-camrs. It goes from "cozy recommendations by women in jumpers" to "man in Colorado waving a gun".
This is why new media is winning. Old media had minimal cozy book recommendations by women in jumpers and absolutely no book reviews by weapon waving men in Colorado.
@@fightthepowerman Agreed. The genre of armed media reviews must be expanded posthaste!
The knife lookung thing ariound is the classic thou
truly the 2 genders
This is exactly what it feels like to watch cari's vampire academy review vs. james' 💀
POV: you're the chief of police watching your head detective ramble about the vampires he's been tailing for the past 6 months
World of Darkness moment
Thank you, this enhanced my experience significantly
@@totallynotavoyeur6977 and all the vampires are malkavian.
i actually love this idea, someone should make a video with this.
James Tullos I'm canceling you, can't you see that the secret vampire headquarters is in Pennslyvania because it sounds sort of like Transylvania? It's like pottery. It rhymes.
Ah yes. Pottery in motion.
@@wyzasukitan I choked on my food laughing way to hard at this. Thank you for nearly killing me, it would have been worth it
@@lastexit1340 can confirm, I’m from Romania and I’ve read this before we did the US section of geography in school and I genuinely thought it was supposed to be Transylvania at first and that my edition was botched. It’s never not Transylvania when it comes to vampires
@@draftacriss The US habit of naming things after places they wish they had shooting them all in the foot. (Seriously whose bright idea was it to have so many Viennas in the US????)
As a Montana resident i can actually confirm the existence of vampires here. I think most people call them...Californians.
I’m from Utah and I saw a bumper sticker with the state of California under that sign they use for not smoking.🚫 it said “go home,”
As a Californian I can confirm that this is somewhat accurate. There’s a lot of vampire’s hidden here but we’re not all bad. You just have to ignore San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Off topic but Montana is a lowkey gorgeous state (I live in WA near the Seattle area)
By origin, moroi and strigoi come from Dacian (present day Romanian) folklore, and are terms associated with ghouls that weren't granted a pass in the afterlife. Thus, they would haunt the living world in various animal forms, and only modern interpretations of the folktales specify that they feed off the blood of living beings.
In essence this explains why the royal / elite families of moroi and strigoi are Romanian (or Russian), why they are orthodox-christians and so on.
Lastly, the father being Turkish is a call back to Ottoman invasions in Romania between the 15th - 18th century, the time period in which those folktales were popularized in order to scare them. After all, the reference for Dracula, Vlad Țepeș was putting on a show to terrorize the Ottomans by claiming that he was possessed by a moroi and drinking the blood of his victims.
I never made the link with the popularisation of those folktales during Ottoman occupation !!! It's so interesting. I have read a 12th or 13th century chronicle, i can't remember if it was Mathew of Edessa, the Syriac Anonymous or Bar Hebraeus (i lean towards the last), wich told a story of a village scared by a rumor abt a recently decaesed person coming back from the dead to haunt them. there was a turkish soldier who heard the rumor and said something like "oh i know what to do !" and he showed the villagers (probably eastern christians or muslims, while the turkish soldier maaay have been muslim but not sure, at last he was from a very different culture than them) how to dig up the decaesed person, put a wooden stake in his chest, put stones in the tomb etc. so if turkish culture (although it wasn't ottoman but seldjukid in this context) already had those kind of stories, i guess ottoman autorities were quite receptive to those greek and romanian folktales during the 15th-18th century lol
And Dracula's son Adrian aka Alucard had to put an end to Vlad's genocide against humans-shit, wait, no. That's Castlevania.
...Any historical equivalent to the fictional region "Walachia"? 😂
@@tournesol5939 Turks did have (a lot of...) myths pre-Islam and some of them include "proto-vampires", called "ubur" and "ipir" (among other things). So yeah, the stake stuff and in general blood-drinking undead had been around in Turkish culture for a long time when they got to Romania.
@@theuzi8516 i've been doing research abt it for the last hour, so interesting ! thank you for making this comment
@@tournesol5939 You're welcome! If you can find a way to translate them, I can recommend two books as starting points: "Türk Kültüründe Vampirler" (Vampires in Turkish Culture) by Seçkin Sarpkaya & Mehmet Berk Yaltırık, and "Türk Mitolojisi Atlası" (Atlas of Turkish Mythology) by Bartu Bölükbaşı. Have fun :D
As someone who didnt read the series, i think y'all were robbed of a great lesbian relationship (Lyssa and Rose)
As someone who loves the series (even though yeah it's kinda meh at some points) we were 100% robbed of a great wlw relationship.
It’s so obvious that they should kiss!
Nah it should have been rose and Sydney honestly (I read the books)
@@bashfulnath tbh Rose and Sydney would have been an interesting duo as well.
Agreed. In the first book, and slightly in the movie, a there's a rumor they're a couple
I like to imagine that you are holding us hostage just to explain 2010's book series
You are reaching KrimsonRogue levels of video length, Mr. Tullos.
We can only hope 🤞
My fav genre of video
I support this. Also Julian Greystoke. But her videos are broken up into episodes like Krimson used to do.
He's evolving
Cari Can Read is another one whos got pretty long videos
please please PLEASE make more long videos, i love to listen to these 2-5 hour rants while I work
@@bonbonzilla Damn, bro, you haven't even had time to finish this one yet.
It definitely makes farming for all of the souls in Aria of Sorrow infinitely less tedious
@@JamesTullos Those are odd celebrity choices you picked for the characters
Vampire academy is a terrible name I agree but I legit love Rose. It's so refreshing to see a main protagonist that's confident and funny
On top of her stupid attacks not coming at a COMPLETE detriment to the story
So, she's imprisoned for killing the queen, and she summons the ghost of the dead queen and asks her a question that isn't: Who killed you?
@@matthewmcneany if I remember correctly she can only nod or shake her head and there's only a limited amount of time she can talk to her
@@athenajaxon2397 Get another spirit user, and a fucking OUIJA!
@@athenajaxon2397 yeah but you can play 21 questions or something. "Have I met your killer" "are they a woman" "are they related to x". Power of elimination. "Can I find evidence that you know about?" "Is it in your chambers?" Literally days of time for countless questions and all she asks is "hey is this note clearly written by you, actually written by you?"
@@bye1551 yeah that's true but she only has like a minute or so and Rose is never the smartest character lmao
Mark from Russia tells her it's dangerous to summon ghosts for too long, she can go crazy. She's already risking it by summoning the queen for a few seconds.
I feel like Rose being negligent in her duty as a bodyguard is kind of par for the course when you force teenagers into a role where they are responsible for someone else's life
3 hours!?? I cant wait to put this in the background while I pretend to do my homework!
same lol
same here!
Same!
I have to scan a 587 page book, I know who my companion is going to be
18:40 reminds me of that song that goes "Tell your boyfriend if he says he's got beef
That I'm a vegetarian and I ain't fucking scared of him
Don’t Trust Me by 3OH!3
@@stellabee2026 [insert joke here about james and 3oh!3 both being from colorado]
the vampire-by-olivia-rodrigo bit is kinda like the china beach bit in jenny nicholson's video about another teen drama with vampires and I love them both
In the mirror of my mind…
@@everyonesfavoritesidechara3816 the series that brought women to the front lines
2:09:40 [paraphrased] "all studies show that torture is a very ineffective interrogation technique"
Even the Spanish Inquisition knew this, it's literally in their manual to not use torture execpt as a last resort and their founder refused to use it becuase it kept leading to false confessions
everyone say thank you James's sister
Thank you James’s sister
From how you described everything i thought it was setting up lissa and rose as the endgame couple, like they'd get rid of dimitri snd Christian, Adrian just wasn't it, and they'd sacrificed so much for each other and finally realized the true nature of their bond.
But no, gotta have that creepy straight romance. Ick
Its really bizarre because they have this very blatant romantic coding to the point it feels weird that nothing came of it.
So many infamous paranormal romances would have been soooooo much better if the endgame was a gay pairing (i.e. Bella and Alice from Twilight)
@@ghostie-1313i’ll never stop wishing bella x alice was endgame. then it could have been a story about alice teaching bella to embrace life and find an actual identity. smh
omg i thought you meant just the first book but you read the whole series. absolute legend
I appreciate you kept it brief. Could of been 12+hrs. Respectful.
Had to pause at 14:20 because whaaaaaat??? You're telling me an ancient family of vampire - including parents who could be hundreds of years old- died in a CAR crash????? Of all things????
If i remember correctly the moroi live closer life spans to normal humans in this book so theyre not very invincible
@killermermaids18 oooohhh, okay okay, fair enough. They're basically humans with magic that also drink blood? Interesting, thank you for clarifying!
Funny enough Harry Potter's Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia convinced Harry his parents died in a car crash until Hagrid found him and informed him that the very idea was an insult, because they actually gave their lives fighting Voldemort and in doing so saved Harry's life (and all of wizardkind in the process)
We must thank James' sister for this video (and the Red Queen one).
dimitri was the BANE of my paranormal romance love interest infested adolescence, i hated him and rose so much 😭 not even bc of the morality of it, i just HATED him lmao. loved lissa and christian tho, my babies. also adrian, i loved him sm i was so genuinely upset when rose didn’t choose him 😂 i’ve been wanting to read his spinoff series but i can’t bring myself to revisit this universe
The follow up series Bloodlines was always much better than Vampire Diaries was. Imo
He sounds like a tool. Seems appropriate though, because I feel like a lot of us fall for a Dmitri somewhere in our teens and twenties 🥲
@@Sheechiibiifacts!
The spin off is so much better!!!
Bloodlines is actually really good!! Sydney and Adrian are fantastic together and the storylines are actually pretty good
1:56:27 I'm not Russian but Czech so I'm also Slavic and I do speak Russian a little so I can tell you that you understand it pretty well. In a lot of Slavic countries the surnames can be masculine or feminine. The way it's differentiated is by changing the ending of the masculine version of the surname, usually by attaching for example -a, -á, -va, -vá -ova, -ová, -ska or -ská which really depends on the surname itself and/or the country (different countries have slightly different rules with which of those sufixes are applied and how). It's done in the east and west slavic countries, south Slavs don't really have the difference in the surnames. That's like an oversimplification of it - there are obv exceptions to this and other things that can play a part, it can get complicated, again depending on what slavic country we're talking about. But what I said is generally how it tends work ☺
Edit: I think the need for masculine or feminine surnames can be easily explained by the fact that slavic languages are gendered. So for most of us (again the south Slavs are probably a bit different in this ig) refering to a woman who has a surname with slavic origin and not changing it to the feminine form just sounds hella weird. One of the exceptions I mentioned would be if the surname originates in like german for example. In that case you could get away with changing it or not, it doesn't really sound weird if you keep the surname as is bcs the original version of the surname doesn't immediatelly tell you that the surname is masculine bcs it doesn't have the masculine ending. Or like in english with for example the surname "Smith" you don't automatically know from just the surname if you're talking about a man or a woman. But with slavic surnames - let's use Belikov as an example - you know right away that this is a man bcs it has a masculine sufix. So you naturally would need to change the ending for a feminine suffix to fit a woman. I hope that explanation made sense 😂
Thank you for the helpful explanation!
Wow I love linguistics
Russian here, can confirm, your understanding is excellent =)
Очень хорошее объяснение, я бы сама не сказала лучше =)
@@0rri0n Спасибо, я пыталася ☺
Nice potkat tu fellow čecha
I forgot how gross Rose's and Dimitri's 'will they, won't they' is, I'm 24 the mere thought of dating a minor is so unnerving, I'm going to hate when Rose is 18 and they actually hook up. He should've been fired book 1
They hook up when she’s 17….
@Spidermonkey43 you see, I got to that part in the video and was grossed out, but blissfully forgot about it, but here you come and ruin my entire day all over again.
3 hr 47 mins 19 seconds. Might need to watch this in multiple sessions thanks for the timestamps.
almost 4 hours long, this is what youtube was meant for
I view Vampire Academy as homework for the spin-off Bloodlines. I started the first Bloodlines book without knowing it was a spin-off and fell in love with it. When I’d finished the first 3 books waiting for the 4th to be published I read all VA books in a week. Felt more like required reading and I’m glad I did it bc books 4-6 of Bloodlines does tie more into VA than the first ones. Never re-read VA tho while I re-read bloodlines multiple times. Richelle Mead is a good character author: I’ve even read some of her, uh, ~adult~ books and while they bear the hallmarks of erotica with plot being secondary, the character work and voice remains strong!
Bloodlines was a huge favourite of mine. Much better than VA imo
Ooo I may have to read these now
Same here, I love Bloodlines so much more than VA. I got into VA in high school. Right around the time the 4th book was released. I loved the series for what it was. But Bloodlines is 100x better, and I loved how Sydney has a more logical approach to the way she goes about things.
For those who want to know how realistic a secret magic school in Montana is, the town slogan for my grandma's town is: "Welcome to Mor! Thank you for visiting!". THERE IS NOTHING IN MONTANA.
Mor? As in Death, Montana? 😂
@@saltiestsiren My mistake, it turns out it's Moore, not Mor! =P
Oh, I think we've just found the secret vampire town! @saltiestsiren
I'm loving this thing with you and the weapons. Just genuinely threatening your audience to sit through all of this.
Jokes on you, we're into that shit
18:35 That line literally made me snort my tea i was so taken aback. I will be quoting this for the rest of my LIFE
I totally fell for the title until I realised I was still listening 2hrs later 😩
The spin off series, Bloodlines, is far superior. You should totally give it a shot. The last two books always have me on the edge of my seat no matter how many times i re read them
Omg yes! I never hear anybody talk about it but it’s way better imo
A lot of the Sydney/Alchemists stuff you mention as something that doesn't get any follow-up DOES get addressed in the sequel series, in which uptight fundie girl Sydney is paired with debauched fuckboy Adrian for maximum conflict ❤
4 hours!? I have never been more seated for a roast of my favourite series when I was in middle school 😂 incredibly excited to see if it aged as poorly as I think it has.
I am out here getting vindicated my toxic first boyfriend who is older OFC wanted us to read this series together for bonding, but even back when I was more of a fantasy girly, I just couldn’t get into it halfway through the first book with the humans that feed the vampires and whatever I was just like I’m not really into the see there’s transferable skills from slavery vibe bye
i had no feelings about rose as a character until she responded to someone saying "you screwed me over, took my money, and cheated on me. you victimize people" with "wow, you think of yourself as a victim? that's why i'm better than you, i help myself". and then i realized i hated her. he could've said "yeah, you help yourself -- by hurting others??" or, i dont know, pointed out that her rich dad and friends helped her escape prison?
Thank you for covering this series! I read most of VA when I was younger but ragequit somewhere around dimitri being brought back and beacause the relationship weirded me out. I do have good memories of reading it, this was a really fun listen
It’s so nice to see you be positive about things. It’s why I love your channels, you give a fair and balanced perspective
Thank you, James' Sister, for being the Angel of Content, you can have my firstborn child! Edit: Выпивала шот водяры кажды раз, как Джеймс пытался произносить фамилии по-русски, печень отвалилась спустя сорок минут :D
I’m also giving my firstborn to James’ sister as thanks for her work
@1:52:43, they do follow up on the concept, the spin off is about the Alchemists and Sydeney/Adrian and the final book was so bad it was the worst finale I've come across until the GOT finale. The rest of the books are on par with Vampire Academy mostly, but get gradually worse after book 3. I would absolutely love your brief summary on them, it's been years since I've read them but the religious stuff was weird even when I was in highschool.
I read the first book in fifth grade and then completely forgot about it. I remember a vague feeling of “I shouldn’t be reading this.” Also ten-year-old me really shipped Lissa and Rose and I can’t remember why
I know these books are very silly and problematic but god i loved them. I remember crying a lot during frostbite. 12 year old me was very traumatised
so hyped about blue bloods mention. i was super obsessed with the first two as a teen because i was fascinated by the (at the time) different take on vampires. i tried rereading the first one as an adult but i had to put it down because of how jarring it was to remember the main characters are like. 14-15 at the start lol.
As someone who had never heard of this series, the writing here (though problematic at times) seems pretty intelligent at times rather than constantly feeding into the fantasy. Great video James!
I still really love these books. I read them when i was 17, and i really loved the rose/dimitri romance. Im willing to look past the issues with that particular dynamic in this series now simply for the nostalgia factor, but i wouldn't be able to read another book now at 27 with the same dynamic. The books are just fun. Rose is snarky and hardheaded but still likable, and i liked that they were from her perspective rather than lisa. The royalty dynamics were interesting too.
Almost 4 hours? We've been FED
just got out of a 5 year coma, why is james hot now?
Must be his incredibly deep voice that makes his nose itch
Got rid of that yee yee ass haircut
which one? 😅😂@@degeneratemale5386
The jacket thing 100% exists. I sort of get it, if it’s a nice jacket. However that’s not NEAR the weirdest thing to get turned on by in a paranormal romance novel.
Watching this while I blow dry my hair and I’ve throughly entertained
I NEED you to continue to the Bloodline series
I haven't been able to watch for the past while because I was finishing my degree and everything that comes with that, but it's really cool coming back to see how much your channel has grown in both numbers and video quality/depth. Keep it up mate, you're killing it! I look forward to watching this over the next couple of days. It's great to see some more long-form videos, too
12 years since reading and at 1:56:16 I realised that in english version Baia is a fictional town (bc if you google the city + country, you get info about the book??) but russian translation changed it to Biysk, while it's not as well-known as Moscow, it's indeed a real town, I think some va fans from Biysk were proud to say they're from that city back then.........
Dude what the fuck I was just about to do something
The author for these books also has a series about a succubus who falls for a human, and there are angels and demons and nephilim and warlocks... i loved that series when i was like 13. "succubus blues" i think is the name of the first book. I actually read that one before reading vampire academy (i droped it after shadow kiss, so idk what goes on on the last 3). maybe i shouldn't have been reading something like that at 13 but i had unsupervised access to internet and it was like 18 years ago. it was the wild west, i guess-
Omgosh yes! I'm so psyched for this, I remember being obsessed with the first book and movie but then loosing interest after like a week
brother this long form content is pretty gooooood
You know I’m going to bed to this one tonight, fellas (and lady-fellas)!
I've unironically never heard of this. I'm ready for a crash course. :B
Oh my god same! I thought I was going crazy cuz it seems like EVERYONE but me has some memory of this book💀
Sees brief in title. See a 4 hour video. I love you.
Bread and circus does longer.
Maybe a book a bout mermaid vampires riding dragons in a magic school should be the next craze.
this is my first time ever coming across this channel and was shocked to open the comment section to find no one commenting on the fact that he is waving a gun around for the entire video😭 this must be a common occurrence over here
Welp I'm 20 minutes away from finishing and although your gun suggests I was being held hostage this whole time, I have loved every minute of you explaining this absurd book series, well done.
Can’t believe you didn’t put Sonya Karp on the wall as Magikarp 😔
I live for the unhinged 3hr videos. Thank you for the content
I fucking loved Adrian. He was my favorite character. I’m glad we got to see more of him in Bloodlines! ❤❤
Victor played by Jordan Peterson….”the carnivore diet will fix that”
Literally gasped when I opened TH-cam and this video was out!! I Am Stoked.
I’ve never heard of this book series but I’m still going to watch the whole vid! We love long form content
oh man we are in for a treat with this. thanks !!
perfect video for a first day of a cold 🤒
I'm kinda glad to see you liked the books, mostly. It's nice to dissect it bc it was such a glass of water when we were thirsty for vampires and it wasn't the worse thing ever. There's just something about the books that kept me reading.
Maybe look into the Covenant series by Armontrout bc it's almost identical to the first VA book. The scandal! But those books had a similar draw
YESSSS 3 HOUR LONG JAMES TULIO VID WE ARE BLESSED
Tacos, beer and a new James video? Fuck yeah
rose is the epitome of no thoughts, head empty
I haven't gotten through the entire video yet, but Rose caring that training-to-be-a-fighter is going to make her unattractive or less-traditionally-feminine, does not make her vain. Out of all the scenes James discussed, this is the one he decided to focus on and pin-point _verbatim._ Give me break, man 🙄 First and foremost, at this point in the story, the girl is 17-years-old and as shocking as it might be to you, girls go through that kind of insecurity when they are that young and overly-concerned with their appearance.
And I actually like that the book did this for another reason, mainly because most of the time, that kind of thing isn't ever acknowledged in fiction at all. Movies in general, just seem to ignore physiology. I remember, years ago, I was watching the second 300 movie back when it first came out, and during a fight scene, my suspension of disbelief got disrupted because Eva Green with her skinny noodle arms was locked in a sword-fight with a man three times her size and yet, nothing about the scene acknowledged the very real strength-differential that would exist between them if the fight was more realistic.
Authors, especially fantasy authors always do this. They either completely ignore the differences between male and female bodies, or they ignore female bodies - *_period._* Women in fiction are meant to be these bad-ass fighters who can take down men twice their size but she hardly ever looks like that. The only exception of this rule I can think of is probably Luisa Madrigal from Disney's _Encanto._ But if you think I am exaggerating this issue, just look at what Imane Khelif had to endure with at this year's Olympics. I understand that there are many reasons for why that happened to her, f-tards like Elon Musk and JK Rowling using their platform to push a political agenda for one, but none of that would have happened to her at all at all if she wasn't a woman with a masculine physique. God forbid a woman trains to become the very best at what she does and it actually be reflected by her body.
Steve Rogers gets the super serum and he turns into the massive blonde beef-cake that is Captain America but if a woman can throw down with a man? Science Fiction and Fantasy genre will make sure she retains her hyper-feminine appearance like Black Widow. Somehow, no one wants to see pre-serum Steve deliver a beat-down because for him to be able to do that while not looking like Captain America would be a complete break from reality but somehow when it is a woman it isn't 🙄
This just portrays the way women in fiction are written in a manner that perpetuates the misconceptions that men have about women and women's bodies. They fight in heels, they wake up in the morning fresh-as-a-daisy, with make-up on and salon blow-out. I'm sorry but I live in the real world, where these things take time and effort. And before you get on my case, I'm not blaming male-authors solely for this. I believe many female-authors emulate them and perpetuate these problems and in addition to that, unrealistic beauty standards affect everyone, even men.
The last thing I want to say is that there is a lot of misogyny in the way beautiful women (in fiction & in real life) aren't meant to acknowledge that they are good-looking. Most of the time, they are meant to look like the kind of woman that most men would find attractive but if they are comfortable enough with their appearance to acknowledge that they're conventionally attractive, they get labelled as shallow or vain or just an overall shitty human being. Do you see the box that puts women in? It's almost as if the default is for women to be deeply insecure in themselves and their appearance or they get casted as arrogant or amoral. In my mind insecurity and humility are not the same things. A woman can acknowledge the fact that she's perfectly lovely while still owning the fact that she has flaws and physical imperfections that mean that she's not going to be everyone's cup of tea. This isn't how they're written though. Almost always, the beautiful female character thinks she's ugly 🙄
A male protagonists can be arrogant with a devil-may-care attitude and this often celebrated and praised but if a female character has basic self-awareness, confidence or security, somehow this is deemed unattractive 😅 I also despise how women in fiction are meant to be feminine, hygienic and perfectly put-together but at the same time, they can't show how much they care about their appearance. They are meant to just perpetuate this the myth that beauty is something that "just happens" - that it's "all-natural" which isn't the case. Even the most genetically blessed individuals put in time & effort or they have the resources to pay other people to do it for them. And for a woman to consistently look her best, it usually takes an overall dedication to aestheticism. It would be nice if the many aspects of womanhood isn't treated as too-real or too-icky and is instead given the respect they deserve. Because in my mind, the people who actually spend a lot of time around beautiful women? They know how much work goes into it and they approach it with understanding and empathy instead of disdain.
"brief"
@@espresseaux Hell yeah it is!
the books range from 300-600 pages, as brief as you can get
Honestly love the long ass video format! I may not watch it all in one go but its great fodder for of an evening when im playing games that dont require to much brain effort
you have got to read and share your thoughts on one of the more modern YA books (the ones that are “staple” in book communities) like the cruel prince, six of crows, legendborn, Stephanie garber books… 😅 I knew you reviewed powerless but that’s why i mentioned staple.
OH! BOY!
Soda
Popcorn
Pickled Garlick!
This is gonna be great!
Omg thank you so much for the audio I’ll be listening for my next 5 meals
I could honestly listen to you talk about books all day. It’s soothing. But almost 4 hours is wild. I’m not mad about it though 😁
Having only watched the movie I was 100% convinced Dimitri was Roses dad 🤣
this book was my life in highshool lol. i loathe every bad adaptation that happened. all your questions will be answered in bloodlines to ruby circle (which is a more confusing series than VA). we dont always have to agree with the characters and what they do but, a compliment i can give richelle mead was that she was consistent with her character building. Rose aged and grew IN character throughout the books but it was a trajectory that was consistent to her trope. she doesn't change overnight or flip into what a main character should be to remain the mc. she was really flawed because she is a person who's flawed. there really is no other point. i guess the frustration borne out of that is best represented by Adrian by the end of LS. same with Lisa, when they're together or apart, she also maintained her own moral compass that was not dependent on whether rose (the book's main character) agrees or likes it. it felt faithful that the VA series ended with characters who felt like people i Know of, and not strangers who completely changed through 6 books. now read how adrian would do a semi flip (not a full 180°) at the bloodlines series. a series that is also 6-books but still felt so rushed and incomplete that you'll probably have more questions by the time the video conclusion part comes up.
also the "Last sacrifice" is rose and lisa's spirit bond severing permanently, also Lisa swearing off spirit and going medicated 😂😂 i know, i know
Thank you James' sister
this video has been my to go youtube vid i watch during my lunch break for a week now
As a Romanian, hearing James butcher „mână” to the extent he does (seriously, where did you get the y sound in there?) was... borderline funny, but mostly cringey
Maybe he thought part of it was like how ñ is in spanish? Idk
Very excited about ur review on this series. It was my favorite as a teen flaws and all lol. Its definitely got its issues but it holds a special place in in my heart. Makes me happy to hear u say its at the very least an Ok series just as long as its better than fourth wing
1:29:53 AYYYYYYYY the origin of the term "sideburns"! Respect!
For the Russian pronunciation, unstressed O’s in Russian are pronounced like A’s, and most, but not all, stressed E’s are pronounced like there’s a Y in front. So a name like Belikov would be pronounced “BYEH-li-kahf”, and Kirova would be “KEE-rah-vah”.
Welp, time to strap in and grab some snacks, this is gonna be a ride.
I had no idea you read the whole series and not just the first book! This was my favorite series back in the day (haven't watched the video yet but will come back when I have time!)
i really loved the show, the budget was ten dollars and a dream but rose and dimitri had so much chemistry it was crazy
I thought you weren't gonna ever do Vampire Academy so I read the entire series... n e ways I love ur long videos! Go Tullos! Can we be called Tullops? Idk i just think it's a neat fandom name
I'm sick, and I'm reading a book. Now I can listen to this and I'm happy. Thank you
This is the first series that started my guilty pleasure of studentxteacher romance novels…
loving vampire academy to the core is my ultimate guilty pleasure in life. also, you probably won’t but I think you should read bloodlines (the spin-off) cause the series are so funny and entertaining and I think the main couple is actually better than rose and dimitri (I really love them too tbf)
As someone who was the target audience when these books were first published and is now older than Dimitri, I cannot for the life of me understand what he sees in a teenager. It's nice that Rose is a flawed and not entirely likeable main character, and her internal dialogue/actions are very believable for her age, but jfc the last half of the series does genuinely drag on.
Size😂
One thing I really respect about your reviews is the knowledge you bring outside the book series itself. Talking about the difference between Appalachian accents and southern accents is a distinction that many people usually wouldn't even think about. Keep up the good work man
Damn! This video is almost as long as the Synder Cut!