fandomhigh_ooc | Spotlight on Fandoms: The Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood (Reply)

I have no idea what my availability is this weekend so I'M JUST GOING TO POST THIS NOW.

Okay. So all I ever say is that there is vampire Elvis in these books, and that the show has sexy vampires.

And really, that could be this whole post. But I'll say a little more. First of all, you should know that there are now ten Southern Vampire Mysteries books, and we're going into our third season of True Blood.

So, what's the premise?

Two years before the start of Dead Until Dark/the first season of True Blood, Japanese scientists developed synthetic blood. This prompted the "Great Revelation," in which vampires all over the world "came out of the coffin" in every medium possible -- on the television, on the radio, in person, and so forth. Since then, vampires have been struggling for rights in very similar parallels to how minorities have always done so in the United States -- they're debating registration laws, marital restrictions, voting rights. There's a lot of anti-vampire propaganda out there, and there's even a church that's a front for anti-vampire terrorism (the Fellowship of the Sun, har har.)

The vampires of this universe are fairly unremarkable. Their fangs are small and retractable, they have reflections, they can have their pictures taken. Most vampire myths are actually perpetuated by vampires themselves -- if a picture's taken of them, for instance, then they proved they were alive in...say, 1876, when they're still alive in 2001. There are good vampires and bad vampires, just like with any group of people, and there are laws in place to keep them from feeding on humans (unless the humans are willing.) The vampires that embraced the Great Revelation and choose to exclusively drink bottled synthetic blood (some of the brands include LifeFlow and TruBlood -- that's where the name of the show comes from -- and they come in a variety of blood types) are called "mainstreamers." And the official story of the vampires is that they all suffer from a virus that makes them appear dead during the day, gives them an allergy to sunlight, and a dependence on blood.

Yeah. It's a pretty stupid PR cover story.

Anyway. Fast-forward to two years later (the first book takes place in 2001; the first season of the show, 2008. We'll just handwave about that.) Enter Sookie Stackhouse, a telepathic waitress in Bon Temps, Louisiana. Sookie's -- as far as she knows -- the only telepath in her world, and she has no idea where it came from or why she's stuck with it. Her whole life, everyone she's known has tried to diagnose her with ADD, denounced her as crazy, or just thought she was stupid. And then enter Bill Compton, a Civil War vet who also happens to be a vampire. Sookie discovers she can't 'hear' Bill, and yes, they begin dating. Because she's now involved with a vampire, Sookie becomes drawn into their world -- she's a valuable tool to Eric, the vampire sheriff of Northern Louisiana, and between him and Bill, she becomes dragged along on a lot of vampire escapades.

I'm not going to go into more detail from there. Like I said, there's ten books, and two full seasons of the show. I won't spoil whether Sookie and Bill have their happily ever after -- though anyone who knows me knows how I feel about Bill. :D There's also shapeshifters, werewolves, witches, fairies (WTF FAIRIES) -- the list goes on.

The books are pretty good, and seem to know they're fluffy brain-candy for the most part. The show varies a bit from the book, but in mostly understandable ways, and also is fluffy brain-candy. Both are chock-ful of WTF -- including, yes, vampire!Elvis, though he's only a book character -- and tons of sex. The books get increasingly insane as they go on, and Charlaine Harris has a hard time keeping track of her own mythology, but they're, overall, insane and funny.

Season 3 of True Blood starts June 13, eee.

And who are the characters?

You would get pretty pictures, but Photoshop's being a jerk. It's okay, I'll make up for it in a bit.

Humans

Sookie Stackhouse: Our narrator and protagonist, Sookie's a twenty-five year-old virgin telepathic waitress when we meet her. Throughout the novels and the show, she's often the voice of reason, as sad as that is, and unlike some other vampire-novel ladies I can mention, it takes her a little while to adjust to their world and politics, and she never wants to become a vampire. Sookie's blonde, tan, and superficially, as sweet as honey. She's got a good head on her shoulders, though she does have bad taste in men, sometimes. Most of the stories revolve around Sookie, her work, her boyfriends, and her family.

Jason Stackhouse: Sookie's manwhore brother, Jason often has his heart in the right place, but his penis gets ahead of him and his brain's always about four steps behind. Jason's a womanizer who lets his id rule his life, and while he does have some serious protective feelings towards his sister, he usually acts on them in exactly the wrong way. He plays a much larger role in the show than he does in the books -- probably because Ryan Kwanten is effing gorgeous -- and in the show, he develops an addiction to vampire blood and then goes on to associate with the Fellowship of the Sun.

Tara Thornton: Sookie's best friend. Again, this is a character who plays a much larger role in the show than in the books. In the show, Tara is Sookie's sassy best friend who can't hold down a job because of her attitude. She comes from an abusive background and keeps everyone at a distance because of that, but at her heart, she just wants to be loved and accepted blah blah blah. In the second season, she's taken in by ~~the worst plot device I have ever seen~~ a strange and generous woman named Maryann, who has Other Things in mind, dun dun dun!

Lafayette Reynolds: Another one that was changed from book to show. Lafayette was a very minor character in the books, but on the show, he's actually a fan favorite. Lafayette is flamboyant, bright, and gay, and works as a cook at Merlotte's, where Sookie's a waitress. He's loud, sassy, and doesn't quite cross-dress but he definitely likes his fake lashes and eyeshadow. He's also a drug dealer, and goes through some serious and horrifying trauma in the second season. Let's just focus on the time he yelled at some rednecks that he wasn't going to give them AIDS by making them burgers, shall we? Because that was awesome.

Arlene Fowler: Book!Sookie's best friend, and they're still close on the show. Arlene is a 35ish quadruple-divorcee who has two adorable kids and who tends to be pretty close-minded, but adopts whatever viewpoints her latest man has. On the show, she starts dating Terry Bellefleur, a Vietnam vet, and it's kind of adorable.

Andy Bellefleur: The local deputy, Andy knows there's something wrong with the Stackhouses, and he doesn't like Sookie at all. He might hate Jason more, though. On the show he and Jason seem to kinda reconcile; in the books, he's still an asshole in the 10th one, so we'll see.

Vampires

Bill Compton: Sookie's first love, Bill is a Confederate veteran who was turned either on his way back to his family, or right after he got back from the war, depending on whether you take the show or book view of things. He was turned around thirty, has the most ridiculous way of speaking ever, and is generally hilarious unintentionally. He's very intense, and doesn't have a great sense of humor. He's really good with computers, weirdly enough and as the books go on, he creates interesting things like a vampire database and is actually kind of useful. Also, he's the reason we have "SUCKEH IS MAHN." Just so you know.

Eric Northman: The Sheriff of Area Five, Eric's a vampire who was turned back when he was a Viking. YEAH, I SAID VIKING. He's old as hell, very powerful, and also he can fly. He's very tall, very big, and has typical Nordic features. It's okay for me to have a crush on him because Charlaine Harris does, too. Eric runs the vampire bar Fangtasia, where humans can come to interact with vampires and try to get bitten. It's basically like a fetish club slash dirty nightclub. He's very political, very calculating, and becomes very fixated on Sookie for a variety of reasons. Also, he is hysterically funny. Much better than Bill. Ahem.

Pam: Pam is Eric's second in command, and her character translates fairly well from the books to the show -- the only difference is that Pam was turned as a teenager in the books, and on the show she's apparently in her mid-thirties. Pam is a total badass who was turned as a Victorian unmarried girl, and says herself that she suspects she would have been a terrible wife, but now she's a really good vampire. Pam favors both women and twin-sets, and tends to dress like Elisabeth Hasselback. If Elisabeth Hasselback had fangs.

Queen Sophie-Ann Leclerq: The vampire queen of Louisiana. We know almost nothing about her on the show, but this is really an opportunity for me to babble about vampire territories. Each state is a territory, and they refer to each other as the state names. It's super-hilarious, because there's a lot of "Tell Alabama I said hello," and so forth. Anyway, Sophie-Ann was turned...sometime around when Eric was, but in a different part of the world. She's French, as you might have guessed from the name, and she takes a liking to Sookie. DUN DUN DUN, INTRIGUE.

Bubba: Bubba is never explicitly called Elvis, because it upsets him to hear that name. Apparently, when the King died, one of the workers at the morgue detected just barely enough of a spark under all those drugs to bring him back -- but he was so far gone, and under so many different drug influences that he came back a little...slow. Bubba's sort of passed around from state to state, and occasionally can be coaxed to sing. But that explains all the sightings, right? He only appears in the books, TRAGICALLY.

Jessica Hamby: Jessica's a staple of the show exclusively. Basically, Bill fucks up and a vampire council makes him "turn" someone because he's never been a sire. So they find this nice little church-going girl named Jessica, who turns out to be this amazing pain in Bill's ass. She's a teenager in every hilarious way she could be, except she also drinks blood. During the third season she dates one of Jason's friends, Hoyt, and it's very sweet. And then it goes to hell.

Other

Sam Merlotte: Sookie's boss, and the first shapeshifter she meets. Sam's described as being kind, a few years older than Sookie, and he at least initially has a crush on her. Because Sookie is like catnip to supernatural guys, IDK. Anyway, he keeps Sookie as his second at the bar, and is patient (mostly), friendly, and a Bon Temps staple. He's seriously probably the most realistic person depicted in this entire series. Also, he is hot.

Alcide Herveaux: He's on the show this season (and he's Brad from HIMYM so excuse my LOLing), and he's pretty much awesome. Alcide is a guy that Eric hires to escort Sookie to Mississippi when Bill's kidnapped (idek guys.) He's big, tall, strapping, enjoys his flannel -- the men in these books are kind of the same, sometimes. Anyway, Alcide's also a werewolf, and a fairly prominent character when the weres and shifters start becoming bigger plot points. Also: hot.

I'm leaving off the fairies and anyone who doesn't make it through a season/book, just for simplicity's sake.

I feel like I already assured you of its awesome crackiness up there in the summary, so here, have some pretty and some YouTube clips.