Note: Before you start ripping through these next episodes, please know that I wasn’t taking notes for these, so a lot of what I’m going to cover is things I remember from episodes 1-4, so this got a little out of order. However, I got my hands on a notebook for the start of episode five.
On that note, let’s dive into Episodes 1-4.
In the show, we discover that the attack on Christian Ozera’s old high school was carried out by his parents in an attempt to find him. Christian’s mother sends him coordinates to meet him, and since Christian is an irrational person, he decides to meet her. In the novels, however, Christian’s parents are dead. They were hunted down and killed by Dhampir guardians after willingly transforming Strigoi. The telltale sign that someone has transformed Strigoi is the presence of a very thin red line around his pupils and his completely faded eye. Also, Strigoi don’t have a soul, so any love Christian’s parents had for him when they were Moroi, had turned into lust when they became Strigoi. The show kept this plot point, while adding a visual aspect to it: Strigoi resemble the psychological monsters they are in the show. In the books, although Christian cared about his parents, he didn’t justify their behavior. Despite the assumption that he would end up like his parents, he became one of the biggest advocates of fighting lessons for the Moroi.
In the show, the royal Moroi state that the Dhampir women must breed with the Moroi to keep the Dhampir population alive. This law was passed after recent Strigoi attacks in the Moroi community caused a lot of unrest. However, in the books, this was approached differently. There was talk of forcing Dhampir and Moroi relations to increase the number of guardians, but there was no separate law on this. The law that was passed stated that dhampirs would graduate to work at the age of sixteen instead of eighteen, as most people would continue to be tutors immediately upon graduation, despite age law. Queen Tatiana attempted to ban extremist groups who lobbied for the law passed by the Royal Moroi on the show.
On the push for more goalies, let’s talk about how Rose gets to where she is. When the Rose of the novel leaves the academy, she is gone for two years and therefore misses two years of training. When she returns, part of her “probation” is that she has to do extra training sessions with Dimitri to catch up with the rest of her class. Dimitri is reluctant at first: he pleads for the school’s Moroi headmistress to allow him to return, but since he pleaded for her, he is required to observe her training. When they start training, Rose is eager to do something beyond the basics, but Dimitri admits she’s not ready. Rose is still eager to compete on the show, but is desperate for more training. However, the whole point of Rose being exceptional is that if she had stayed in school, she would have been way ahead of her classmates. The show keepers seem much stricter in the show; they have more regulations and much more intense Rose pressure than in the books. They recognize that as their numbers dwindle, they need strong, talented goalies like her on the pitch. However, Rose’s record of doing whatever she wants, regardless of what anyone else thinks, often results in the threat of the guardianship mission she craves. In the show, she is much more docile.
This change shows a difference in Rose’s character. In the novels, Rose is strong-willed and extremely reluctant to easily conform to the rules. Often the only way Rose was willing to comply was if Lissa and Dimitri were her voice of reason. The Rose who is portrayed in the series has a bit more emotional vulnerability, whereas in the books she was much more determined to keep everything to herself. The character change affects the whole vibe the show gives off. Rose also had an extremely poor attitude that often got her kicked out of class or in trouble. This development happened when she started taking Lissa’s negative spiritual effects away from him. Although not as recognizable in the first book, he developed further during the third book. However, the show seems to pick and mix different themes and plots from the book, but the show has also gone rogue in more ways than one.
A common thread between the series and the book is the concept that Moroi has too much influence over the Dhampirs. Dhampirs cannot have children with other Dhampirs, nor can they have children with humans. The only way to have a Dhampir is if a Moroi has children with a human or if a Moroi has children with a Dhampir. Queen Tatiana’s vote to lower the age edict was meant to allow the Dhampirs to retain some semblance of choice. The Moroi want to keep the Dhampirs around to protect them from the Strigoi, and the Dhampirs would cease to exist without the Moroi. Although Dhampirs may choose not to be guardians, many of them choose to be guardians.
One important factor that the series neglects to highlight is the other group of Moroi who advocate for the Moroi fight. Part of the reason the Strigoi bond with the Moroi and Dhampirs is that the Moroi depend too much on their guardians. Tasha Ozera, aunt of Christian Ozera, and her group defend Moroi fights. From now on in the show, that idea is glossed over. The Moroi in the series are much more dependent on the Dhampirs than in the books. It also caused a lot of tension between Royals and non-Royals, with the trend being that Royals were ok with pushing the Dhampirs’ limit, while non-Royals were open to the idea of Moroi using the magic to learn how to fight. In both the show and the book, the royal council is divided and unwilling to consider new ideas. This is why their queen looked to André Dragomir to unite the Moroi. Now the Queen looks to Lissa, who no longer has any family to support her place on the Royal Council or to be Queen.
Stay tuned for part 3 of vampire academy…
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