My Immortal (Harry Potter story)

My Immortal is a Harry Potter fanfic, originally published on FanFiction.Net by Tara Gilesbie under the username xxxbloodyrists666xxx. Tara was reportedly assisted by her friend and beta, Raven (bloodytearz666). Written in the presumed style of beginning amateur authors who try to pile everything on at once, it is the story of original character Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way, a vampire who attends Harry Potter's Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. 
My Immortal is extremely poorly written, with odd grammar and story elements. It is also representative of trends in internet culture and amateur fanfiction that were common at the time. The main character is generally regarded as a Mary Sue self-insert who is overly preoccupied with the emo style aesthetic. It showcases the "Mall Goth"/emo trend of the early 2000s, and Tara demonstrates the self-serious attitude of young people interested in the culture. 
The work includes sex, violence, and mature themes which are handled immaturely and unrealistically. The author seems to have a poor grasp of Harry Potter canon and often references other popular culture, and also reacted strongly to criticism in her author's notes. As a result, My Immortal gained notoriety as the quintessential badfic, and is one of the most infamous works of fanfiction in the world.
The work's quality is so poor and extreme that it is increasingly believed by many to have been written as an intentional badfic, crackfic, or parody. According to this view, all of My Immortal's badly written, odd, and extreme content is intentional lampooning of the kind of fanfiction written by pre-teen and teenage fangirls from an outside perspective. However, this interpretation of the work's true meaning and intentions are speculation without confirmation from the author herself. The actual identity of the fan behind the pseud Tara Gilesbie has also inspired much speculation, encouraged by people periodically coming forward to claim authorship of this work.
The work was apparently abandoned before completion, and was removed from FFnet for unknown reasons in 2008. Nonetheless, copies of the work are still shared and widely discussed. In recent years, My Immortal has been viewed fondly, as a notable story from an earlier generation of fandom. It is often a source of fandom nostalgia and has even been called a fandom classic.
==Contents==
===Summary===
The story follows Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way (frequently referred to as "Enoby"), an original character who is a 17-year old witch, vampire, and Goth (also known as "goff" or "goffic" in the story) who attends Hogwarts. Ebony is almost effortlessly beautiful, powerful, and popular, as is common for Mary Sues.
Ebony forms a romantic attachment to Draco Malfoy, an elegant Goth in the story, in spite of her concern that he has had a relationship with "Vampire Potter" and may still be interested in him. Voldemort, claiming to know of Ebony's relationship with Draco through "telekinesis," commands her to kill Harry. Various people confess that they love Ebony, while she often has sex with Draco. "Snap" and "Loopin" are both lovers and "pedofiles" who scheme against Ebony. Ebony begins to have precognitive visions. "Professor Sinister" tells Ebony that if Voldemort had ever had people who loved him he would not have become evil. Using a time machine, Ebony befriends the young Voldemort (a goth in a band) and gets him to reconcile with his ex, a bisexual man named Hedwig. Ebony then takes Voldemort to back to her time, accidentally making him evil again. The fic is apparently abandoned and incomplete, ending with a cliffhanger in Chapter 44 as Ebony shoots an "Abra Kedabra" curse at Voldemort.
Chapter 39 of the story was, apparently, written and posted by a self-described troll who explains that she hacked into Tara's FFN account for fun, accessed Tara's drafts, then edited and rewrote Chapter 39.An-Anon-Author-Who-Will-Silently-Not-Reveal-Her-Identity-Because-She's-A-Coward on the My Immortal Wiki The chapter takes a very different tone from the rest of the story, being better-edited and more coherant, disparaging My Immortal and Tara, returning the canon characters to normal (see Protectors of the Plot Continuum), and killing off Ebony. Tara's original draft of the chapter is provided for comparison. The hacker also posted Tara's draft of Chapter 40, unedited. Tara herself did not delete the hacker's chapters, only saying at the start of Chapter 41, "AN: 2 every1 hu kepz flaming diz GIT S LIF!!!!! I bet u proly odnt no hu gerod way is ur proly al prepz and pozers!!!!!!!!11111 neway sum1 hakked in2 mi akkount in November and dey put up my last chaptah but now der is a new 1," and apologizing for slower updates while she has been on vacation.
===Writing Style & References===
My Immortal is known for its abundance of poor grammar and spelling, exemplified by even the main character's name being frequently misspelled. There is also wide, seemingly random variation in the errors and lack of them, as well as errors that are obvious and extreme to the point of hilarity; this contributes to the speculation that the poor quality of the work is intentional.
The work include long author's notes from Tara, as was common on FFnet. These notes are even more misspelled than the story, an intentional typing quirk popular in some internet circles. Tara used slang and frequently reacted negatively to criticism, calling out haters, preps, posers, and flamers, demonstrating a similar attitude to Ebony. 
Characters from the Harry Potter series who appear in My Immortal frequently bear little resemblance to canon or are referred to by incorrect names, such as "Albert Dumblydore," "Serious Blak," or "Snaketail" instead of "Wormtail." It is unclear if the characters are OOC because the logic of the entire story is strange, or if the author genuinely has a poor grasp of HP canon. Readers often refer to the characters by their My Immortal misnomers while discussing the fic, acknowledging that they are twisted into almost new characters.
The work often includes long, detailed descriptions of outfits, usually Ebony's, which are invariably goth/emo/scene in style. Long descriptions of outfits are somewhat common in amateur fanfiction.
There are references throughout the work to various other fandoms and popular media. The most obvious include emo music such as Evanescence and My Chemical Romance; the work's title comes from the song "My Immortal" by Evanescence and Ebony's surname comes from Gerard Way. There are references to popular vampire media such as Twilight and Buffy The Vampire Slayer. There are also more obscure references; these range from complex literature to extremely obscure movies and media factoids."List of possible references on My Immortal Wiki, retrieved October 2020 These include Lord of the Rings, The Matrix, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and more.
===Quotes===
==Reception==
It's fair to say that at the time of posting, My Immortal was received negatively, as the writing was widely considered unskilled and incomprehensible. However, while the work was updating, the drama and conflict surrounding My Immortal had its own appeal that drew a large following. A significant factor was the author's notes, in which Tara increasingly railed at the flamers, haters, and "preps" who wrote critical reviews; many found Tara's comments as interesting as the fic itself. The earliest fan debates and theories began in the FFnet reviews section of the fic itself; readers recall the reviews on the site numbering in the thousands, A reader of the original fic on FFN, Kim, recalls "at least one post whose comments section contained more than 10,000 reviews". In The Bizarre, Unsolved Mystery of 'My Immortal,' the World’s Worst Fanfiction Story in Vulture, March 2015. though these were lost in the deletion. Discussion also spread to various other chat boards.
===Fan Activity===
My Immortal has inspired huge amounts of fan activity. It was well known in fandom spaces before articles about the fanfic appeared on several non-fandom news websites in late July 2013, following the announcement of a Youtube web series adaptation, (My) Immortal: The Web Series.Abraham Riesman, The Bizarre, Unsolved Mystery of 'My Immortal,' the World’s Worst Fanfiction Story in Vulture, March 2015.See The Atlantic Wire, Jul 29, 2013. See also According to The Daily Dot, 
Several (presumably) unauthorized print versions have been offered from time to time.; ; Dramatic readings can also be found on Youtube:; . My Immortal has also been translated into several different languages, a spectacular accomplishment as many do not believe the original text was written in English. There were also attempts at English translations. These differ from sites and users reposting the story in its original form. One such English translation corrected the spelling and grammar, and removed the unofficial Chapter 39, which already had perfect spelling and grammar thanks to, supposedly, the hacker.An English Translation of My Immortal on Wattpad by audiodelta0206.
My Immortal has inspired fanart, photo manips and fan comics. In 2010, the My Immortal Wiki was created, and currently hosts >300 files that include many examples of fanart and photo manips inspired by this work. Several fanfics imitating the style and tone of My Immortal have also been written in multiple fandoms. Some of them can be found in the My Immortal AU tag on Ao3. My Immortal's title character Ebony has also been the subject of cosplay.comment by u/redcommodore, r/HobbyDrama post Goffick Harry Potter and Fabricated Child Abuse: The Saga of My Immortal, Sept 2019. I cosplayed as Enoby. Only one person recognized who I was (at least she was really enthusiastic)
Beginning in 2019, some fans unhappy with J.K. Rowling's increasingly transphobic rhetoric began to credit Tara Gilesbie as the author of Harry Potter.Tweet by @LitteOverheard, Dec 20 2019. Wow I can't believe Tara Gilesbie wrote the whole Hardy Potter series. Accessed July 8 2020Tweet thread by @ShartiTheClown, Dec 19 2019.I love the real author of Harry Potter, Tara Gilesbie. Iconic. Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way would never do me like this. Accessed July 8 2020.The only Harry Potter author I respect is Tara Gilesbie by @TheLastGherkin, June 30 2020.
===Theories & Interpretation===
There are multiple questions about this fic and its author that remain unanswered. Fans still debate the intentions of the author, and fan communities often see renewed activity when people come forward claiming to be Tara Gilesbie. In fact, the fake Taras are often fans of the fic who were reading as it was been posted and are able to provide new information to this community. Rose Christo's claims of authorship were built on obscure details much of the fandom had overlooked. After admitting he was not Tara, xxxmidnightgoffxxx shared his observations of Tara's unique writing style with fans at r/MyImmortalDrama. 
It is unlikely that these questions will ever be answered, but within the fandom theorizing about the fic and its author remains a common fan activity. There are three main theories that fans ascribe to:
* Theory One: My Immortal was a genuine fic written by a young and inexperienced fanfiction writer
** Fans of this theory point to Tara's fannish activity prior to posting My Immortal, and believe the fic's style is consistent with young emo/goth fic writers.
* Theory Two: My Immortal was an intentional badfic or troll fic.
** Fans of this theory point to exaggerated and unbelievable inconsistencies in Tara's spelling. They also suspect the story was not hacked, and Tara was the author of the hacker's Chapter 39. Fans of this theory may also believe that Raven, Tara's friend/co-author/beta, was a sock used by Tara. 
* Theory Three: My Immortal began as a genuine fic, but after a massive negative reaction the author began to troll her readers
** This theory allows for Tara and Raven to be genuine young fic writers, and My Immortal's deteriorating spelling and increasingly incomprehensible story may have been an intentional troll of the fics' critics.
====Speculation about the author====
There has long be speculation about the identity of Tara Gilesbie, and whether or not she is the young teen girl she presents herself as. This speculation is related to the theory that My Immortal is an intentional badfic and parody - these questions cannot be definitively answered without the author's word.
Several people have come forward to claim authorship of My Immortal, or have been speculated to be Tara. Prominent suspects have been the AcidBath Sisters; Rose Christo, whom Buzzfeed claimed in 2017 was the true author of My Immortal,The Story Of "My Immortal" Is More Wild And Heartbreaking Than You Imagined on Buzzfeed (accessed 9 September 2017) and xxxmidnightgoffxxx (aka Tod/Toby/thebratman). No one has definitively proven that they are Tara. In fact, the AcidBath Sisters and xxxmidnightgoffxxx eventually came forward to say they are not Tara Gilesbie and did not write My Immortal. 
The identity of My Immortal's author is still in dispute/unknown. (See Tara Gilesbie for more information.)
While many fans are interested in the mystery of My Immortal and its author, many of them are also respectful of the author's privacy and right to anonymity. In 2020, and in response to recent fannish interest in Tara's real life identity, :/r/myImmortalDrama implemented a new rule:
====The Hacker====
There is speculation about whether or not the hacking of Chapters 39 and 40 was genuine. The two theories are:
* The situation is as the hacker described: She easily hacked Tara's account, accessed her drafts, and rewrote Chapter 39 as an insult to the author.
* There was no hacker: Tara wrote Chapter 39, and it showcases her true writing ability.
The main point against the hack being real is the fact that Tara acknowledged the hack only briefly and did not remove or edit anything the hacker wrote, despite it being insulting to Tara and My Immortal.
People who believe that Tara was the young, amateur fan she described herself as generally believe that the hack was real: a young internet user would likely have an easy to guess password and would not have been able to write with Chapter 39's correct grammar. She did not delete the hacked chapters because she didn't know how to or simply didn't care. Subscribers to this theory are likely to suspect that a hacker, either the same or a new one, deleted My Immortal in 2008.
People who believe My Immortal is a trollfic and parody usually believe the supposed hacking was another part of the writer's elaborate performance, done to create more drama and analysis. This would explain why the hacked chapters and insults were left up.
====Deletion====
Immortal was deleted without warning in 2008, to the disappointment of many. There were rumors the fic had been removed by Fanfiction.net staff. The question of who deleted My Immortal ties into the theories about the author. If a fan believes that the fic was intended as a troll fic, then the only possibilities are either Tara deleted the fic or it was deleted by FFnet.
There was an unsuccessful petition to put it back up, which received 2650 signatures.Keep My Immortal Online, archived link to the petition.
The fanfiction was available at the My Immortal rehost site, and is currently hosted at the My Immortal Wiki. However the reviews (comments) on this fic, were lost with the deletion of this work from fanfiction.net.
==Comments==
A fan, xXMidnightEssenceXx, posted the story to FanFiction.Net in March 2011, and included this introduction: 
Some examples of fans explaining the My Immortal phenomenon to those new to fandom, or unfamiliar with this story. 
From Encyclopedia Dramatica: 
Fan comments looking back at My Immortal fondly:
==Related & Inspired==
The Fan Creations of My Immortal is an infographic that gives a brief overview of the different types of fanworks inspired by My Immortal.
===Fanfiction===
My Immortal AUs
Full blown AUs often take characters from other source materials and choose an existing character to be the Mary Sue/Ebony Way stand in. Not all of these works are set in Hogwarts, but almost all works follow the same style and tone as the original My Immortal. 
* by nervoussurfer, It's a new year at Hogwarts, and Ebony Mari’nette Dementia Raven Dupain-Cheng Maé has come back to dominate one last time for her seventh year. A Miraculous Ladybug My Immortal AU. (2016)
Short fics/parodies
The first paragraph of My Immortal has inspired many short related works written in a similar style. Many of these are parodies and some are also a meta commentary on the source material they parody. 
* by Tumblr user sohotthateverybodydied (March 2018)
* an incorrect quote and photo manip that reimagines Rey as Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Rey, by sylars (Dec 2019)
* by Tumblr user edderkopper (September 2018)
===Fanart===
* by ChazieBaka
* by juliettecatherinedn
* an artistic fanbinding by runawaymarbles of the Renegade Publishing group formatting and typesetting project. The formatting efforts began in September of 2020, only a few months after the creation of Renegade Publishing, several months into the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and was finished in June of 2022. runawaymarbles' copy was completed in July 2022. Additional members who contributed, each of whom created at least one unique chapter design, are: sapphyblue, omgreylo, Aliyaregatti, mirilya, queenofzan, ve, marvinhere, LeonardDaQuirm, SherezadeS, and parsley.
===Translations===
* Spanish translation
===Podfics===
* by SamGabrielVO
===Meta===
* by thischarmingmothman (2015)
* by Stoneage Woman (2016) (Ao3 link)
* by Stormingtheivorytower (2017)
* by Sarah Z, uploaded to YouTube on November 28th 2019 and by Sarah Z, uploaded to YouTube September 29th 2020
* by Tumblr user myimmortalisimmortal (October 2020)
===Communities & Links===
* The My Immortal Wiki
* r/myimmortal and r/myimmortaldrama at reddit
* A quiz for the infamous fanfic, was created by BigKahuna55 on Sporcle.
==Further Reading==
* My Immortal at TV Tropes
* At Goodreads, where it has 437 comments/reviews
* discussion at MetaFilter, November 19, 2010
* The Daily Dot, July 29, 2013
* by Alexander Abad-Santos for The Atlantic Wire, July 29, 2013
* discussion at MetaFilter, December 21, 2013 
* The Bizarre, Unsolved Mystery of 'My Immortal,' the World's Worst Fanfiction Story, by Abraham Riesman, March 12, 2015
* by Mike Vago, December 18, 2017
* by Adi Robertson, July 20, 2020.
* by iwasonceafangirl, Reddit (2020)
== Notes & References ==
===Notes===
===References===
Category:2006 Fanfiction‎
Category:2020 Featured Articles