History YMMV / VampireAcademy

* OlderThanTheyThink: Many people seem to think that the books are a rip-off of ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' mixed with ''Literature/HarryPotter'' when in reality Richelle Mead came up with the idea for and began writing the series before ''Twilight'' became popular.

* {{Adorkable}}: Natalie is a cute, dorky girl. Nice, plain, uninterested in social politics, with a somewhat endearing tendency to ramble on at length. Taken UpToEleven in the movie due to her portrayal by Creator/SarahHyland.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment:
** Early in ''Shadow Kiss'' during the guardian practice exercise, Rose wants Dimitri to have the opportunity to show that he could be a badass Strigoi. [[spoiler:At the very end of the novel, he ''becomes'' a very badass Strigoi]].
** In ''Blood Promise'', Rose notices that Sydney doesn't seem to eat much of her food, but doesn't think much of it, and actually steals some of her fries. It's later revealed that Sydney has fairly severe body issues.

* FanPreferredCouple: The pairings generally preferred by the fanbase are Rose/Dimitri, Sydney/Adrian, and Rose/Lissa.

* {{Adorkable}}: Natalie is a cute, dorky girl. Nice, plain, uninterested in social politics, with a somewhat endearing tendency to ramble on at length. Taken UpToEleven in the movie due to her portrayal by [[Series/ModernFamily Sarah Hyland]].

* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler:Victor Dashkov]], who is extremely close to the main characters [[spoiler:(to the point where one regularly calls him uncle)]], and yet zaps one with a compulsion charm that might have ended up with her being expelled and her mentor fired, and kidnaps the other, torturing her and ultimately forcing her into something that drives her closer to insanity. And then, for the rest of the series, continually screws with the protagonists - despite the fact he's ''in jail'' for most of that time. He only stops because he's killed in a burst of insanity on Rose's part.

* FanPreferredCouple: The pairing generally preferred by the fanbase is [[spoiler:Rose and Adrian]].
** Nope. Rose/Dimitri, Sydney/Adrian, ''and'' Rose/Lissa all beat out Rose/Adrian on Archive Of Our Own, and by Rose/Dimitri and Sydney/Adrian on fanfiction.net. The only pairing with a claim to being fan-preferred couple is Rose/Lissa, who dominate movie-verse fanfictions, though they lag considerably behind the canon ships for book fans.

* CriticalDissonance: Hit with an 11% score on RottenTomatoes, but the fans like it just fine, or even love it.

* CriticalDissonance: Hit with a 11% score on RottenTomatoes, but the fans like it just fine, or even love it.
* FandomRivalry: During the 2014 MTV Movie Awards, there were a rash of small fandom wars between the film and ''Film/{{Godzilla 2014}}'', after a Godzilla fan insulted Vampire Academy and it's fans when the vampire movie was beating Godzilla in the polls.

* HilariousInHindsight: In ''Spirit-Bound'', when Sydney gets in contact with Rose to query her about missing Alchemist records she tells Rose that Adrian is cute for an 'evil creature of the night'. [[spoiler:In ''Bloodlines'', she ends up falling in love with him]].

-->“Why didn’t you tell me?” She cried.

-->“You should have told me,” She repeated, “I feel like you don’t trust me.”

-->I shook my head, “I have to do this.”

-->The way she said it, the way she looked at me...oh God. A flood of memories flitted through my mind. We’ve been together since childhood. Inseparable. Bound.

-->“You’re supposed to be my guardian and go with me to college,” She argued, “You’re shadow-kissed. We’re supposed to be together. If you leave me...”

--->'''Lissa:''' [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments It's not like we were fornicating or anything. We just didn't have any feeders.]]

** To some, [[spoiler: Dimitri crosses this in book four by getting Rose addicted to his bites so he could keep her as his blood whore.]] Yikes. WhyWouldAnyoneTakeHimBack, indeed.
* NightmareFuel: It may be a YA series with soapy drama galore, but it doesn't shy away from the more unpleasant possibilities for vampire literature.
** Pretty much every interaction Rose and Dimitri have in ''Blood Promise''. [[spoiler: It starts off with a mourning Rose hunting her undead lover just weeks after losing her virginity to him. Then, when she finds him, he takes her captive, gets her hooked on his bites, and keeps her as little more than a SexSlave for ''months''.]] Even HarsherInHindsight once you reread and remember how horrified Rose was at the bare inference that she was Lissa's blood whore in book one.
** Speaking of Strigoi cruelty, the dhampir squadron getting captured in ''Frostbite''. They were just kids....
** Lissa snapping in ''Shadow Kiss'' and torturing someone with visions of spiders crawling all over him. Admittedly, he kind of deserved it, but seeing sweet, compassionate Lissa so cold and brutal is unsettling.

* PortmanteauCoupleName: Romitri (Rose/Dimitri) and Dragozera (Lissa/Christian). And for non-endgame ships, we have Rissa (Rose/Lissa) and Adrose (Rose/Adrian).

--->'''Lissa:''' [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments It's not like we were ''fornicating'' or anything. We just didn't have any feeders.]]

* PortmanteauCoupleName: Romitri (Rose/Dimitri) and Dragozera (Lissa/Christian).

** Also, you know the whole 'biting-gives-you-intense-pleasure' thing that most vampire fiction has? Yeah, this series uses it too, although with a fair side of deconstruction. And yes, there are scenes where Lissa bites Rose, and Rose's narration...doesn't really gloss over things like that.
** Interestingly, the bullies at the high school they go to do briefly shout insults about them being 'fags,' but Lissa and Rose just ignore them, and it's treated as a fairly common slur, with not much truth behind it. Later, the bullies switch to spreading more malicious rumors.

** [[spoiler:Victor Dashkov]] crosses this when he [[spoiler:
abducts Lissa and tortures her to make her heal him]].

* CreepyAwesome: Dimitri [[spoiler: as a Strigoi]].

* FanPreferredCouple: The pairing generally preferred by the fanbase is [[spoiler: Rose and Adrian]].

** Early in ''Shadow Kiss'' during the guardian practice exercise, Rose wants Dimitri to have the opportunity to show that he could be a badass Strigoi. [[spoiler: At the very end of the novel, he ''becomes'' a very badass Strigoi.]]

* HilariousInHindsight: In ''Spirit-Bound'', when Sydney gets in contact with Rose to query her about missing Alchemist records she tells Rose that Adrian is cute for an 'evil creature of the night'. [[spoiler: In ''Bloodlines'', she ends up falling in love with him.]]

** Given that Rose is only going to Russia so she can MercyKill her ex-boyfriend (who has been turned against his will into an evil, soulless vampire) that whole conversation really comes off as Lissa being jealous of how important said boyfriend is to Rose. And then, when Rose ''does'' leave, Lissa falls into this dark, depressed state where she completely changes her personality [[spoiler: (admittedly, most of that was because she was being brainwashed into doing so, but still)]] and starts drinking again, becoming a vapid party girl. It doesn't help that Lissa's own boyfriend tries and fails to bring her out of this state, but when ''Rose'' calls...

* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler: Victor Dashkov]], who is extremely close to the main characters [[spoiler:(to the point where one regularly calls him uncle)]], and yet zaps one with a compulsion charm that might have ended up with her being expelled and her mentor fired, and kidnaps the other, torturing her and ultimately forcing her into something that drives her closer to insanity. And then, for the rest of the series, continually screws with the protagonists - despite the fact he's ''in jail'' for most of that time. He only stops because he's killed in a burst of insanity on Rose's part.
* MentorShip: Rose/Dimitri, in canon.
* MoralEventHorizon: Moroi cross this if they kill a human/dhampir when feeding on them. They become Strigoi.
** [[spoiler: Victor Dashkov]] crosses this when he [[spoiler: abducts Lissa and tortures her to make her heal him.]]

* TheWoobie: ''Dimitri.'' [[spoiler: The poor guy gets forcibly turned into a Strigoi, his mind, his soul and his love for Rose become twisted and wrong as a result of said change, he kills hundreds (possibly thousands) of people and enjoys it, he horrifically abuses his lover Rose when she comes to free (read: stake) him from the state he never wanted and after her return to the U.S. hunts her down and endangers the Moroi he'd once been dedicated to protecting, including Lissa. And when he's brought back to life by Spirit, he realises just what he'd done (not just the immediate preceding events, but his treatment of Rose and the innocents he'd murdered) and it does not go over well with him. It's no wonder he wallows in depression and guilt straight after his change back into a dhampir and refuses to see Rose.]]
** Christian saw his Strigoi-turned parents staked by guardians after they'd tried to abduct him in order to awaken him when he grew older. He was only five years old at the time. The scandal surrounding his parents caused him and Tasha to be ostracized by most of the other royal Moroi families, and even some Moroi in the Ozera family wanted nothing to do with them because of their association to the people who blackened the Ozera name. In St. Vlad's, before meeting Lissa Christian is practically a pariah and a loner, and is considered a 'Strigoi-lover' who will probably become Strigoi like his parents one day. His sole reason to going to mass in the chapel is to convince the other Moroi that he isn't a Strigoi (because Strigoi can't enter hallowed ground). His life is like hell at this point, and, to make things worse, after he finds the one person who truly makes him happy he's tricked into rejecting her by Rose, who says mean lies about how Lissa sees him as she believes the rumours about him and believes that he's dangerous and unstable. Rose is extremely guilt-stricken when she finally learns the whole truth about Christian's life and realises that she's taken away the only happy thing that's ever happened to him in his life.
*** Even after he and Lissa become a couple, he still has to deal with haughty royals (including the ''Queen of the Moroi herself'') claiming that he'll never be good enough for Lissa because of his blackened family name and that he's only holding her back from realising her true potential as a leader of the Moroi and a member of the royal society. And not to mention the Queen herself actively tries to tear them apart by conniving to bring Adrian and Lissa together.
*** And then in ''Last Sacrifice'' he finds out that the one person who'd been like a mother to him for most of his life is a traitor to the Moroi throne and the true killer of Tatiana Ivashkov. He takes the news really, really hard.

%%* TheWoobie

* FanPreferredCouple: The pairing generally preferred by the fanbase is [[spoiler:Rose and Adrian]].

** Tasha also gets a lot of this. She shows some interest in Dimitri in ''Frostbite'' and asks him to be her guardian [[spoiler:which he refuses]] and has been bashed ever since. Despite the fact she's incredibly nice. [[spoiler:Though it is kind of justified when you get to the end of ''Last Sacrifice''...]]

** Early in ''Shadow Kiss'' during the guardian practice exercise, Rose wants Dimitri to have the opportunity to show that he could be a badass Strigoi.

* MagnificentBastard: [[spoiler:Victor Dashkov]], who is extremely close to the main characters [[spoiler:(to the point where one regularly calls him uncle)]], and yet zaps one with a compulsion charm that might have ended up with her being expelled and her mentor fired, and kidnaps the other, torturing her and ultimately forcing her into something that drives her closer to insanity. And then, for the rest of the series, continually screws with the protagonists - despite the fact he's ''in jail'' for most of that time. He only stops because he's killed in a burst of insanity on Rose's part.

* SpecialEffectFailure: The psi-hounds are laughably bad. [[spoiler:Also, Christian setting them "on fire" wasn't very convincing either.]] They appear heavily unfinished.

* UnfortunateImplications: A Dhampir woman's life choices boil down to "career" as a Guardian or "housewife" as a family woman, which is placed on par with being a whore.

* NeverLiveItDown: Used InUniverse, Adrian seems to get a lot of grief for Drinking and Smoking when he has an legitimate reason for doing so, rather than to annoy people.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: The books have an huge fan base in Australia.
* HarsherInHindsight: Early in Shadow Kiss during the guardian practice exercise, Rose wants Dimitri to have the opportunity to show that he could be a badass Strigoi.
** In Blood Promise, Rose notices that Sydney doesn't seem to eat much of her food, but doesn't think much of it, and actually steals some of her fries. It's later revealed that Sydney has fairly severe body issues.

* MagnificentBastard: Victor.