Vampire academy: trailer vs book 1 | Chapters 1-5

So it's been literally ages since I read the 1st VA book. Actually, I read it only once, back in 2009 which seems like a million years ago. By now I remember only a couple of major plot points, which is kind of great as I've decided to re-read the 1st installment of the series. This decision was brewing inside of me for quite some time, and the teaser trailer was the last drop. I couldn't wait any longer.

There were some negative reactions to the teaser and that was one more reason to read VA again to see how true to the book the teaser (and that's merely 1 minute of hundreds of hours of footage) was. I managed to read 5 chapters yesterday and would like to give you some thoughts on what I've loved, what scenes we've seen in the teaser and establish some chronology of the parts of the teaser.

(Some quotes from the book and photos from the teaser are to follow.
BE WARNED: Beyond this point there may or may not be A LOT of fangirling involved)

So... here we go.

The first chapter starts with Lissa's dream which is followed by feeding.

Scene in the teaser - checked!
Probably it would be weird if the movie started with this scene, so I'm guessing they'll add some intense dark stuff at the beginning. The dream of the car crash? Or Dimitri hunting down and killing a strigoi - how about that? But, well, this feeding scene will definitely be one of the first we'll see.

Which brings us to the dialogue happening right after the feeding.

"You okay?"
"Yeah. I just need to sleep it off. I'm fine."
"I'm going to get you something to eat."
 As much as I love Richelle, we all have to agree - these line would be sort of boring in the movie. The actual "Umm.. thanks? -- What are friends for?" is an attempt by both girls to make the situation less uncomfortable and the line reminds me of something Christian said in Chapter 5.

"Of all the rumors I heard about you today, there was one that didn't come up very much. And in all of that, no one, no one ever questioned that stupid story that Rose told about there being all sorts of fringe humans who let you take blood. I've lived with humans. My aunt and I stayed away after my parents¡­died. It's not that easy to find blood. It was Rose, wasn't it? She fed you. Well. If that's not friendship, I don't know what it is."

 Sounds pretty similar, don't you think?

Moving on. Through the window Rose sees some guy (hellooooo, Dimitri! Stalker much?) and decides it's time for them to move to a sunnier place (which we'll actually see work out with different characters in Bloodlines series). Lissa uses compulsion on Jeremy and gets the keys to his CAR. The girls run.

Now, try to keep up with me.

Ahead of us, I could make out Jeremy's green Honda.

Ten feet from the car, a man stepped directly into our path. It was him, the guy I'd seen across the street watching me.

In the book Dimitri had almost a dozen guardians with him, and he was standing near Jeremy's car. Now, if you look at the picture below, you'll see Rose by the green car fighting some guys (I believe they are guardians). So we might assume that the movie goes slightly different: first Rose fights some poor vanguard team and only after that the Russian God appears.

Green car in the background.

Which makes me think that moviewise the following teaser parts will be shown somewhat after the feeding scene:
- motorcycle blowing up,
- Rose fighting two guardians,
- Dimitri making his grand appearance.

I'll try to explain why I think that's the sequence, based on some teaser footage.

1

Look at the guy in the pic.1 and at the guy on the left (falling near the car) in the pic with Rose fighting. Both seem to have a shaven head and might be the same guy.

Now exhibit 2.

2

To fight the guardians Rose wields a weird thing. But wait!

3

In pic.3 we see the handle of the motorbike, which seems to be Rose's weapon of choice. Mystery solved.

Now back to chronology. Here's how this part might go in the movie.

- Motocycle exploded,
- the explosion provides Rose (who comes to the car) the weapon
- with which she fights the guardians (they come to after the explosion),
- defeats them (go, Rose!),
- drops the handle and runs.
- ENTERS DIMITRI.

Seems pretty possible to me. What do you think?

(Now let's all swoon for a moment)

(Are you back with me? Okay.)

One more thing about this pic. In her interview Richelle said that this is one of the first scenes we see Dimitri in. Proves my theory.

Now on to the plane to Montana.
Wait.
Spotted a slight deviation from the book.
Rose tells that Dimka's hair's in a ponytail, which makes it possible for her to see his Marks. Does it mean that in the movie we won't see his Marks at this particular point?

He leaned forward to pick up something, revealing six tiny symbols tattooed on the back of his neck: molnija marks. They looked like two streaks of jagged lightning crossing in an X symbol. One for each Strigoi he'd killed. Above them was a twisting line, sort of like a snake, that marked him as a guardian. The promise mark.

You might think I'm the worst fan ever, but I actually was really confused seeing the promise mark on the motion poster, as I had absolutely no memory of the meaning of this symbol. It was only when Rose stated what kind of mark the "snake" is that I recognized the 3rd symbol on the left side of the shield. Yep, I noticed everything up to the 2 stakes behind the motto, but not the promise mark. Well done, Oksana!

Now the gates.

When we landed, Lissa and I had no choice but to let the commandos drive us out to the Academy. Our car stopped at the gate, and our driver spoke with guards who verified we weren't Strigoi about to go off on a killing spree. 

On the two pictures of the gate I see no human guards. They decided the protecting wards will do for the movie? Though that guy in the upper part of the pic below might be a patroling guardian.

On the way to Kirova's office Rose mentions Aaron.

Aaron. Poor, poor Aaron, who'd no doubt had his heart broken when Lissa left. He still looked as cute as ever - maybe more so now - with those same golden looks that complemented hers so well.

In the teaser we de get a glimpse of Aaron if you look reeeeeally closely =)

When I saw that Ed Holcroft is playing Aaron Drozdov, I was like, "Okay, Russian last name. Might be moroi. Adult moroi, whatever... He's gorgeous, though." It totally slipped my mind that Aaron is Lissa's ex-boyfriend. Now I can appreciate Ed even more.

(He has a great voice and is really talented. If you haven't checked his music yet, go check it right NOW! It'll be a great background to reading the rest of my post :))


 We also meet Mia (yet a nameless moroi girl to Rose).

...a Moroi girl who looked about eleven but had to be older. With plump little cheeks and blond ringlets, she looked like a porcelain doll. A very pissed off and evil porcelain doll.

(And Mia is a year younger than Lissa and Rose. Just for the record.)
 


That's the only look of Sami as Mia (well, at least as far as face goes) we had in the teaser, but boy, does she look fierce!

Later in the chapter we learn that most moroi and guardians are of Russian or Romanian descent, while Rose's mum is Scottish and her Moroi dad was Turkish (what's up, Abe, how've you been? Love you!).

In chapter 3 on their way to class Rose notices that
Alberta wore her hair in a short, pixie cut that showed her promise mark and molnija marks. A lot of female guardians did this.

and Dominique who plays Alberta has a mind-blowing haircut which works perfectly for the movie ans corresponds to the book.

In the gym we meet Mason for the first time. I pray that their dialogue from the book ends up in the movie.

"Hey Mason, wipe the drool off your face. If you're going to think about me naked, do it on your own time." "This is my time, Hathaway. I'm leading today's session."
"Oh yeah? Huh. Well, I guess this is a good time to think about me naked, then."
"It's always a good a time to think about you naked."

(Though the last line is said by Eddie who's not in the first movie, it'll still be nice to have this sweet moment between Rose & Mason)

Rose gets beat up during the training session, Mason promises she'll be dead after Dimitri's done with her in the extra practice (stay focused, no dirty thoughts, please))) - greatest pep talk ever, Mason! - and then we have Stan. Joking for a change.

"How'd you make sure she stayed safe? Did you use Carnegie's Quadrant Surveillance Method or the Rotational Survey? Ah. I'm guessing you used the Hathaway Glance-Around-When-You-Remember-To Method."

During lunch (Chr 4) we see and learn about Jesse Zeklos.

Ah, Jesse. I'd forgotten about him. You flirted with the other guys simply for the sake of flirting. You flirted with Jesse in the hopes of getting semi-naked with him. He was a royal Moroi, and he was so hot, he should have worn a warning: flammable sign. He met my eyes and grinned. "Hey Rose, welcome back. You still breaking hearts?" "Are you volunteering?"

Can we have Ashley maybe wearing this warning sign at some point of the movie? Please? And retain that sweet flirty dialogue between them. That's all I'm asking.

By the way, we actually see Jesse in the teaser. If you follow him on Twitter, he confirmed that info.





Jesse's the guy on your right.

In the end of Chr 4 Lissa goes to church, and Rose slips into her mind. And is being funny.

I had a standing arrangement with God: I'd agree to believe in him - barely - so long as he let me sleep in on Sundays.

 AND we finally have a Dragozera meeting. Which, Richelle says, is amazing. I do love Christian's answer to Lissa's question as for what he's doing in the attic.

"Taking in the sights, of course. That chair with the tarp on it is particularly lovely this time of year. Over there, we have an old box full of the writings of the blessed and crazy St. Vladimir. And let's not forget that beautiful table with no legs in the corner."

 And it goes like this. Staying close to sacred ground to prove he's not turning strigoi, pity party, luxury accommodations. Precious. If some of that makes it into the movie, I'll be thrilled.

Rose being really tacktful and subtle after leaving Lissa's head.

"You weren't here a few years ago. Were you even trained at this school?"
"No. I attended the one in Siberia."
"Whoa. That's got to be the only place worse than Montana."

 Disputing Dimka's divine nature. That's ballsy. That's our Rose.

...sprawled in a corner with a battered Western novel. Some god.


The 5th chapter also has a scene in the classroom where Rose tells about her prank at one of Karp's classes, which brings up a memory of Rose trying to sheak out of the dorm and being caught by Sonya.
I really think we might get a classroom scene followed by a flashback to Rose meeting Sonya outside the dorm. It makes sense to me. We'll see ;)


By looks of it, VA does have a lot of funny moments you might forget about when looking at the bigger dramatic picture of the book. But humor, sarcasm and banter are there. And the teaser showed a lot of that, which is okay AND true to one aspect of the book and the characters!

So keep calm and wait for further trailers!



That's it with chapters 1-5. More to follow.
Hope you found that long post not very boring and somewhat useful.
See ya
xo

Oksana

(Read part 2 - chapters 6-10)