Demystifying My Immortal

[@marlowmorbid8531]

My Immortal is officially old enough to have written My Immortal

[@darklord884]

Cue Inception base.

[@jeremypedersen6894]

Oh no. GOTH SKYNET. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

[@og-goji6613]

I legit forgot this fanfic existed.

[@imshook6565]

@@darklord884 My inception

[@darklord884]

@@imshook6565 My immortion.

[@mirthfulArtist]

Tara is the 21st century equivalent of all the women who came forward claiming to be the lost duchess Anastasia Romanov.

[@mirandabee2323]

Does that mean there's going to be an animated feature film about Tara that is adapted into a Broadway musical?

[@Goldman200]

@@mirandabee2323 I hope so

[@mirthfulArtist]

@@mirandabee2323 God I hope so.

[@theleagueofsupermushrooms5323]

@@mirandabee2323 that would be the dream

[@wareforcoin5780]

Only less money was involved, and it was trying to take credit for something shitty.

[@captainhowdy726]

"Hi my name is Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way" I mean who are we to tell her she's not

[@noname768397]

Im gonna quote this religiously

[@imperialfist2304]

That quite literally is the worst name I have ever heard in my life.

[@TheBUCfifty]

"Oh we are using our made up names, I'm Spiderman."

[@TubeHeader]

Oh, I'm in no position do deny that the person that named her is stupid and a bit insane. Because no reasonable parent looks at their child and says "let's name her after darkness, the disease that kills you by making you slowly lose everything that you are and know, and that road sign over there!" And no reasonable writer gives their character 6 names, all of which are immensely idiotic.

[@generalwashingtoad6516]

Are you an Alt of Scott the Woz? Just asking, cause that fells like a Scoot the Woz joke.

[@gravitygrace8585]

I think the author of My Immortal was actually so ahead of her time that she ascended astral planes and began living in a dimension where she was friends with Shrek and was dating the entire MCR band. Iconic, if you ask me.

[@venor2612]

Lmao

[@SovietArmyGuy]

Plot twist, jk aknowlrdge it and make it cannon

[@pixelpudding3914]

@@SovietArmyGuy *oh wait-*

[@yeeyee6529]

Why did I think that they were saying ncr the entire time

[@MaddieDeux]

Your likes are at a perfect 666

[@UltraThunderSurge]

You know, there's a kind of comfort in knowing that the author of "My Immortal" maintained anonymity after so many years, a symbol of a long dead era of the internet immortalized through a piece of fiction.

[@Mirro18]

It is kinda funny and also contradictory to what usually happens. When something gets famous that usually makes people find you. But because they kinda hide themselves decently well through it's peak and had that weird finish, they kinda spawned people trying to be imposters. And through all those imposters it kinda helped basically make it impossible to prove that you are the original author.

[@minhkhangtran6948]

@@Mirro18 Which prove that the best way to hide information, is to obscure the fact itself lol

[@zeddy2284]

[@thatoneguy9582]

hehe immortalized

[@sokkvabekkr5973]

"long dead"

[@imasupastar11]

Can you imagine being the author of My Immortal and just silently watching the internet lose their shit trying to figure out who you are and throwing all these wild accusations everywhere.

[@tatiana2696]

Entertainment at It's finest. If I was in "Tara"'s shoes I'd be literally rolling on the floor from laughter and a little bit of nostalgia. I'm definitely proud of her though.

[@azazel6342]

I wrote some fanfic when I was younger. It garnered some attention in the community it was directed at... I've since separated from that internet identity and cringe any time I hear my works names whispered. I.. I'm so happy I didn't write My Immortal I'd die from the cringe today xD

[@coffee_person938]

@@azazel6342 what's the name of your work, if you don't mind me asking?

[@azazel6342]

@@coffee_person938 I do mind actually. I've done a lot to get away from it lol

[@Joghurt2499]

I fucking bet you that she's in this comment section, watching.

[@amayanekonya]

"Why can't I have the fruit?" "It's for Biden"

[@alexandradautriche2221]

Bad bum psstt

[@lonniejones2525]

Hi dad

[@Really_Zahren]

It's ok, Biden is willing to share his "throbbing lavender man-fruit thing" with you

[@deltaknight2764]

Well, he IS the president now.

[@vogonp4287]

I honestly want a cringey Joe Biden Twilight fan-fic now.

[@emmawaters8380]

At this point the real author of My Immortal could come forward and no one would believe them lol.

[@XvXHaruhiSuzumiyaXvX]

my best guess is the real author did try, but got buried under the fakes so we'll never know

[@ChronicNOTAG]

"Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?" Fifteen men of varying ethnicities stand up. "I said the REAL Slim Shady".

[@kenzieduckmoo]

@@XvXHaruhiSuzumiyaXvX see, people thought the same thing of Boxxy, until she popped up on youtube, now everyone knows who she is (Catie Wayne)

[@MJTRadio]

That sounds like something the real author would say...

[@hya2in8]

I mean they would be able to stand out among all the others if they answered all the possible questions

[@vinx3078]

"I cried sexily"

[@itsclemtime2357]

“I jumped in front of the bullet SEXILY”

[@hiiragii]

“I changed my clothes sexily”

[@CharissaJordan]

"I ate macaroni sexily"

[@chikari123]

Me when I cry tbh

[@vaguelyexhausted]

@@chikari123 tbh me too lol

[@grappleberrycorn]

maybe the real author of my immortal was the friends we made along the way

[@sadvec6328]

But what if my friends are preps?

[@grappleberrycorn]

@@sadvec6328 no

[@itriedtochangemynamebutitd5019]

@@sadvec6328 i huld up mi medle fingur at dos preps

[@hllow3199]

The ending of one piece in a nutshell

[@catstrawford]

This is so beautiful!

[@Saturnfanboy]

Maybe, in a way, the real author was inside of us all along.

[@johnseymore4774]

Well if the real author is inside me, I want it out.

[@somerandomidioticnerd9769]

but you can't! It's to make sure all the disgusting preps don't get near you

[@YouW00t]

Maybe the real author were the friends we met along the way.

[@turkur4738]

The author's treasure was knowledge. Knowledge was their treasure.

[@connorbeith3232]

as well as the friends we made along the way

[@FireBirdTheEpic]

Another thing that points to it being a satire is that the author definitely did read the HP books. Professor Sinistra basically doesn't exist in the movie adaptations and yet she's a character in My Immortal

[@Nova-il8qe]

My theory is that it was written by an adult man

[@kupotenshi]

@@Nova-il8qe nah my immortal nailed how teenage girls from that time period behaved too much for an adult man to have written it

[@pamelavergara3771]

@@Nova-il8qe why not an adult woman?

[@lobeliaowl2482]

Well, just to play devils advocate, there's always the possibility that the author read other fanfics which mentioned a character like her and adapted it from there. Quite unlikely, but still a possibility, I think.

[@lazymansload520]

Likely. Though I suppose the author could have learned about the character from someone else.

[@UniGya]

My theory is that I’m Not Okay started as legitimate, then got after she got so much poor feedback she decided to go even more over the top to vent her frustration. After seeing how fun it was to write intentionally poorly she decided to lean heavily into it and had her fun.

[@drenandtarb]

I felt this way too!

[@chiqa2448]

Yup she became the most iconic troll

[@NA-AN]

That sounds pretty wholesome.

[@mekaylaowo1928]

okay yeah this is my theory too

[@emeraldkoala2]

Sort of like how Scott Cawthon got a lot of criticism that characters in his game "Chipper & Son's Lumber Company" looked like creepy animatronics, leading to him making Five Nights at Freddy's.

[@samwatson-tayler2805]

"These 14-year-old questions" The questions about My Immortal are now the target demographic of My Immortal.

[@ericlarson3133]

magnitude 7 bruh moment

[@fey0217]

the target demographic is *immortal*

[@apotheosis21]

Wtf, why did you do this to me.

[@thegreattotemaster]

It's like... poetry.

[@silvercandra4275]

I want to like this comment but it's at 666 likes and I'm not going to destroy this.

[@merkules6]

I want "I wrote My Immortal" to be the new "No, I'm Spartacus".

[@pyxella6020]

I do think of Tara Gilesbie whenever I see that scene, ngl.

[@devin5201]

No, I'm the real Santa Claus!

[@FlyingBunnycorn]

Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?

[@bugznbuttons]

i'M rAdiO rEbeL

[@dogmotel]

no, I'M radio rebel

[@casper3105]

Honestly Huge respect to the original author who managed to keep her identity completely hidden on the internet for so many years, i hope she's having a good life and sits on a comfy throne like an absolute queen she is.

[@dhsf5937]

Maybe the author died some time after finish write,what explain that he never said who he is until now,we don't know who is,so is possible that we wouldn't know that he died.

[@myhannah99]

Okay but let’s be really honest here if someone came out and said i wrote my immortal do you really think anyone would believe them without proof?

[@Marisu_Prada]

I mean for all we know it very well could've been a guy, anyone really

[@InternetDweller009]

@@Marisu_Prada maybe it could be the author of the harry potter book series...hahahaha it can't be..right?

[@hexogramd8430]

If this was done today, people would’ve doxxed her. Modern internet sucks.

[@hkazu63]

My Immortal was just J.K. Rowling’s first draft of Harry Potter that she posted to spite her publishers. You cannot change my mind. I’ll not let you. Never.

[@kalyteroo6179]

I totally agree. No mind changing here.

[@uselessshroob]

🔫 Your mind, change it.

[@megib901]

@@uselessshroob you mean "Your mind 💞😍🌸🧚‍♀️ change it 🔫"

[@TheDrexxus]

You really think JK Rowling would've been able to stop herself from adding to the canon of My Immortal on twitter? My poor, sweet summer child...

[@ziweiyuan]

You're wrong. The "Harry Potter" books are fanfic written after JK Rollins or whatever she's called read My Immortal. My Immortal is the original. Also, Evanescence named a song after the story.

[@pajamapantsjack5874]

If 50 shades can get a live action movie, so can my immortal. Make it happen people

[@alestrius]

I imagine there would be a problem of rights, since a) the author of My Immortal is unknown and b) it's heavily based on Harry Potter, so you may then also need JK Rowling's permission, and I *HIGHLY* doubt she would want to have My Immortal gain even wider notoriety than it already has.

[@mr.squiggles]

internet historian covered it 😂

[@sakimiyu4604]

@@alestrius there's an off-broadway show that was wildly popular and VERY obviously set in the HP universe and they survived, so there's potential for my immortal to do something similar

[@Vladix93]

shhhh dong give them ideas

[@og-goji6613]

Hey Pajamapants Jack how are you?

[@-THE_META]

Plot twist: Red Bard wrote My Immortal.

[@dankpikmingodwashere4158]

I mean what else did you expect?

[@RavenLotz]

THE META or superbutterbuns and red bard 🙀

[@T-Jex]

The rumor come out

[@dankpikmingodwashere4158]

@@RavenLotz yes

[@Gigagorillaz]

She is the ultimate troll

[@amelialee9702]

I’m usually not one to nitpick, but she’s definitely introduced as Enoby, not Ebony. I cannot stress that enough. ENOBY.

[@greenteapot9205]

eboby.

[@ichael3262]

Enoby

[@BeanKally]

@Edy enoby

[@TempestaDominus]

General Enoby

[@VaatiOfDarkness]

Well, she spells her name correctly in the first chapter. 'Hi, my name is Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way...'

[@rogercheetoofficial]

My immortal, much like the Bible, is going to be remembered forever while the authors will never be found

[@Sleepiestsheepy]

But out of curiosity, what would the conversion ritual look like?

[@rogercheetoofficial]

@@Sleepiestsheepy evanescence mosh pit at the hot topic

[@shonenbag6478]

... We actually know a lot of the authors of the bible, but y'know whatever

[@thanatoast]

The authors' names are literally the title of most of the books fucking what?

[@rogercheetoofficial]

@@thanatoast yeah, I probably should've assumed that instead of just thinking they all put fake names on the books, that was genuinely my bad

[@ruileite2634]

My favorite part is when she calls Sirius Black, Harry's "dogfather".

[@SorowFame]

I mean, they're not wrong?

[@siriuslywastaken]

Pogfather tbh

[@shiny9690]

Surprisingly clever, ngl

[@roseuhleeoak1311]

that's what made me suspect it's satire haha

[@hsmacaraig]

they have a point though.

[@Iridescence93]

"He took off my *cloves* sexily" is actually pretty goth lmao

[@Xehanort10]

With that she's basically saying she had garlic on her body when they had sex so they both probably stunk after.

[@Iridescence93]

@@Xehanort10 I was thinking of clove cigarettes but...TY for that image : :)

[@PeakeyTheBard]

No my cloves

[@smore-monster]

Ah yes, he took off my [Spice rack]

[@siriuslyconfused1]

But what if he takes OF your cloves, is it still goffik?

[@graysonelliott6115]

*frantically scribbles notes to make my “coming out as Tara” post as believable as possible*

[@mayac69]

I like to imagine that Ms. Scribe was Tara's mom. She got grounded for fan-fiction crimes.

[@thesinfultictac5704]

INCAHOOTS

[@MrSmithers]

Thats quite good. I like it.

[@cloud_and_proud]

All early internet urban legends exist in the same fictional universe.

[@myettechase]

Not grounded, sent to boarding school

[@cloud_and_proud]

@@myettechase in Dubai.

[@eastull]

God Dumbledore in My Immortal is the role SuperButterBuns was born to play

[@Circ00mspice]

Don't you mean Red Bard? (They sound the same, hint, hint.)

[@daltykun2577]

HONESTLY THOOO

[@DeadLastAndCenter]

@@Circ00mspice this is now my new conspiracy theory even though we know what they both look like and they look nothing a like

[@thanatoast]

We stan the Butter queen

[@starnight8819]

Hands of Asclepius indeed my friend indeed.

[@voivodadracula1936]

Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way is the ultimate Big Tiddy Goth Gf

[@onyxrose4349]

I think you mean Enoby. Or was it Eboby?

[@iwakeupandboomimarat]

no no no its TaEbony

[@danielbergonzi7319]

Eternity.

[@VainGuardian]

this is the worst comment i have ever read. i love it

[@voivodadracula1936]

@@VainGuardian thank you

[@mksabourinable]

As someone who was an early 2000s emo..... Some of those "spelling errors" aren't.... Errors. They're just..... That's how we wrote back then. I'm not proud. (Not talking about the "sequel" tbc)

[@omgnoi]

Same, I was this dumb lol

[@HotCoco_]

It gives me the same energy as early late 2000's to early 2010's "le epic memes" culture with all the people who would type as if they were in a lolcats image. "im in ur house, stealin ur foodz" and stuff like that.

[@BarkertheScrunkly]

@@HotCoco_ That's what I was thinking. Even stuff like Tom Bombadil and the part about Voldemort being called Darth Vader reek of the "Lol random" humor that was prevalent back then. Hell, Tara could have simply got Tom Bombadil from LOTR fanfiction, which was also popular at the time. She didn't even have to read the books.

[@AwesomeYena]

Lolspeak?

[@methamphetamineaddict5217]

BUT I AM PROUD

[@melodytheatre2887]

This is becoming a season of Gravity Falls, except it’s not “who wrote the journals,” it’s “who wrote the Harry Potter goth fic”

[@satsfallingdown]

If that means Red Bard is Dipper I'm absolutely here for it

[@mundanespecter4970]

Journal 4 contains the answer

[@Bighomie39]

@@satsfallingdown Then who's Mabel?

[@melodytheatre2887]

@@Bighomie39 Sarah probably, since they’re working together on this

[@asterlyons8564]

I took psychic damage when I heard you say "biblical fan fiction"

[@mizuamia827]

I think my brain short circuited but unfortunately it didn’t erase “biblical fan fiction” from my mind

[@bananasinfrench]

I mean.... Dante

[@RalinaPerene]

Also C.S. Lewis, whose Narnia books are AU Jesus fan fiction.

[@mizuamia827]

AtThatDaniels Really? I’ve never read the Narnia books so I wouldn’t know haha

[@LoneWanderer-by6tv]

@@mizuamia827 Yeah Aslan is pretty much Lion Jesus

[@Erin-io3fv]

Tara Gilesbie is the Zodiac Killer of fanfiction

[@firefox5133]

ted cruz wrote my immortal

[@juliepowersbbyg]

oh the irony

[@Mobysimo]

I think we know about the Zodiac than we know about Tara honestly

[@smartstudyingdoggo9031]

Except some Aussie dude worked out who the zodiac killer is, so we’ll wait another 200 years for some random Aussie dude to just find it out

[@seamusmckeon9109]

We found the zodiac killer.

[@nbewarwe]

How you can tell Wake Me Up Inside is a fake: The descriptions of the clothes are misspelled. In Tara's original fic, the only thing that was immune to spelling errors and grammar mistakes is her paragraph long descriptions of the character's clothes.

[@spaghettisauce1104]

Now you're onto something

[@coffeewolfproductions9113]

Do you think she copied and pasted the names and or descriptions of the clothes and that's why they're not horribly misspelled?

[@YOSSARIAN313]

That's not true there was plenty of spelling mistakes in those too. I read the whole thing after watching this video a couple months ago

[@VaatiOfDarkness]

actually, a lot of typoes come up even for clothes. I.e. 'stilton bo-ots' (stiletto boots), leather facets or jacksons, shirts being misspelt as 'shit' more than once, 'panamas' instead of pajamas...

[@Gugunet26]

The black leather bar tho

[@SilentTrip]

I wonder how the real author feels creating the most legendary masterpiece in the history of the internet?

[@pyxella6020]

Probably terrified, is my guess. Imagine you were the author of a fanfiction like this...

[@magicarp79]

Mission accomplished.

[@wspann1967]

But does it even compare to that smash bros fanfic that happens to be the longest piece of literature ever written

[@studytube1266]

No one really cares about the real author

[@SakuraChai]

In my opinion, I feel like the original author would be terrified to come forward and in a very weird way it reminds me of the story behind The Eye of Argon, one of the worst written books in a lot of people’s eyes. Perhaps it’s dissuaded her from writing ever again because she would forever be known as the author of My Immortal. Who knows for sure though.

[@johnmcdaniels9231]

"My immortal is equivalent to the Canterbury tales" is THE hottest take i have heard in a while

[@najpotenicewolf934]

I like to imagine that centuries later kids in school will analyze things like My Immortal and wonder what kind of language is it. :')

[@pussthepupanddonkeythedog5135]

Well Chaucer was a poor speller

[@johnmcdaniels9231]

@@pussthepupanddonkeythedog5135 To be fair so was everyone

[@Roosheo]

Can you please drop a timestamp? I think i missed it

[@BowserTheSecond]

My favourite quote from My Immortal will always be: “I luv u TaEbory.” he whispred sexily and den we fel aspleep lol. Yes, Tara half-typed her own name before her Mary Sue self-insert and forgot to delete it.

[@B-lockdown]

I love at one point she spells Dumbledore correctly and then immediately spells it dumblydore

[@iam16bits]

My favorite is "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU MOTHERFUCKERS!".

[@fuckinghelenlikewhatthehel2629]

“Snape gave me a gun”

[@Pallastronomy]

“It was..... Vlodemort and da deth deelers!

[@RedBardIsCool]

I have a lot of fav quotes, but my underrated fav is probably ""Snaketail what art thou doing?" called Voldemort. Then... he started coming! We could hear his high heels clacking to us."

[@autrinaes]

I feel like "Getting hacked" was Tara or whatever her name was looking back at the hellfire she created and thinking to herself "What the bloody hell did I write and why?" but I also know the more likely possibility is just _she got bored of it_

[@jackaufenhand5710]

As a former child of that era, I can safely say that it is definitely not outside the realm of possibility that this was an earnest piece of writing that, eventually, became satire. Back then, us goth kids would: - Type like that without any irony - Have attention spans about as long as an ant's nasty - Rebel against the preps (normies by today's nomenclature) - Write terrible fanfiction because we all thought we were special edgy artists that thought we could write I don't think it's accurate to call it full-blown satire, because I don't think the author(s) had a plan that concrete, but I don't think it's entirely earnest because there's no way the negative attention went unnoticed. Again, I can guarantee you there was no plan here. Just a couple of goth kids (or possibly just one) with an internet connection, microsoft word, and a whole lot of time to waste.

[@Conoert]

The tom bodil thing tho

[@21lizra]

The negative attention definitely didn't go unnoticed, she references the bad reviews and negative comments throughout. I think she would put it something like "stop flaming my story, preps!" Lmao. Hard to tell if that's just part of the character though

[@mksabourinable]

@@Conoert Could have been just a coincidence

[@Conoert]

@@mksabourinable I mean I guess but the chances are lower to be honest. I dont see what train of thought someone like the writer could possibly have to type tom bodil besides it being a joke.

[@wordart_guian]

@@Conoert didn't she mention liking LOTR in one of her profiles?

[@zombiesun44]

It brings me peace knowing that the author of this fic will go down in history as an unnamed god of a dead religion

[@coffeewolfproductions9113]

"An unnamed god of a dead religion" is a sentence that is way to metal to be in a discussion about My Immortal and I love it

[@DezzyDuggs]

Plot twist: Red Bard wrote My immortal and made this video to throw us off her trail

[@vogonp4287]

You may be joking, but that is actually a legitimate possibility.

[@hopscotch1049]

I mean yeah at this point anyone could've written My Immortal

[@kenzieduckmoo]

the people who wrote my immortal, later cleaned it up, reformatted some of the things, and published it as The Cursed Child

[@sifangwuhai]

​​@@kenzieduckmoothe cursed child has the same reputation as the pjo movies

[@notworethite4835]

😂

[@sofiaa1616]

As someone who was goth in middle school/high school, lemme tell you that we all had our preppy guilty pleasures. I, for one, LOVED the Lizzie McGuire movie. So I wouldn't necessarily take Tara's love of Mean Girls and Cinderella Story as on inconsistency with her character. If anything, I consider it to be evidence in favor of her being genuine when she wrote it. The Tom Bombadil thing, however, is pretty damning.....

[@sofiaa1616]

@Stuff She did. I guess what I'm trying to get at is that comes off as her being embarrassed of her guilty pleasures by doubling down on calling Hillary Duff a "prep". Again, this does all feel like something I would have done as a goth in MS/HS who secretly loved Lizzie McGuire.

[@tribalbabymum]

A parent could have read it to them?

[@BarkertheScrunkly]

She could have got the name from LOTR fanfiction. She didn't necessarily have to have read Tolkien.

[@biiianciii888]

maybe she just had a friend who was a lotr nerd who mentioned tom bombadil and she confused the two because honestly she doesn't seem knowledgable on harry potter anyways so it would have been plausible for her to just misremember the name

[@blueeyedwitch9840]

Confessions of a teenage drama queen was my preppy pleasure lol

[@ememem2952]

I still think that the most hilarious thing about My Immortal is that Enoby's middle name is Dementia, it is just so ridiculous

[@ezrastardust3124]

One line of dialogue states that Dumbledore has Alzheimer’s as well Coincidence? I think not!

[@littlepip4014]

Haha 😂 I think they meant demented but fricked it up. I fully believe this was a parody tho. At least…. I think 🤔 😅

[@greciabarraza4986]

@@ezrastardust3124 that is the best part of the whole fan fic, that and Ebony asking why satan had to make her so beautiful.

[@TomorrowWeLive]

And reason number 1 why it could not possibly be anything other than satire

[@SuperButterBuns]

mmmm that voice sounds familiar .......

[@liz_violet]

why must dumbledoor spook me so?

[@sarahheart7856]

I knew that was your voice.

[@SapphireDragonDX]

I can't believe that I never heard of the dramatic readings you were a part of until now. Man, it's a joy! **EDIT** Oh wait, never mind. Those readings were originals for this video in particular. Still, I'd love to hear ya do more dramatic reads in the future if ever you get the time. I'm betting the results would be hilarious. ^_^

[@barbatosistheone4581]

Read some stories for us. Please!

[@JohannahFaythe]

I need all of you guys to do a full dramatic reading of My Immortal. I never knew how much I needed that in my life until now.

[@Cocosama]

Everyone saying they were trolls have never met a teenage girl from 2006. This could have be written by any girl I went to middle school with.

[@ilexdiapason]

even "lonken prak"?

[@WolfCoder]

Or a really good writer. A lot of writers will create entire characters to play online, especially on sites like Reddit. I wouldn't call it trolling if the intent is to entertain the audience instead of anger them.

[@citrinestone]

Literally every time I look at my immortal I think about a friend from middle school that wrote an (entirely unironic) fic where Harry and voldemort were both twins AND lovers. It began with Harry deciding not to take anyone's shit because he got an emo makeover at the mall. I think it mostly got positive reviews too

[@Belgand]

I see that as the problem with claiming that Forbiden Fruit is related. Part of the reason it's hard to determine whether or not it's satire is because of how common these elements already are. Particularly in fan fiction, but even outside of it.

[@dunnotck1]

Back in 2006 me and my friends used to make horrible horrible sketches for class. They were absolutely cringey but we did it to make people laugh. They turned out to be nonsensical because we would all write bits without really bothering to read what the others wrote. So I can totally believe My immortal might have been a group troll project.

[@doxiekitten6526]

Imagine being the writer of My Immortal, you're a young teen and your cringy fanfic through your Emo/Goth phase got sensationalized over the internet and now you're just never allowed to live it down

[@LocalTorchwoodIntern]

I could only imagine her kids finding this video or the fic itself and go ask her about it. Kinda like MCR fans joke about Bandit finding all of the videos of Gerard on stage..doing things...

[@DanniBiersack]

if this IS a satire imagine being the absolute legend behind this all. over a decade and people still talk about it, all the fancfics it spawned and re-tellings etc. it's honestly quite the accomplishment lool

[@slevingarganera8375]

Anyone in the comment section could be the author of “My Immortal”.

[@MarsoftheStars01]

thinking about stuff like that is fun, like "you could walk right past a murderer on the streets and never notice"

[@nickelakon5369]

@@MarsoftheStars01 still get chills down my spine that a guy who drove me home from my first day of work murdered someone a few months later (allegedly I think).

[@that_dam_baka]

Me! I wrote it. I forgot what I wrote though 😂

[@MeansofIntrigue]

Hello.

[@MrSmithers]

It was actually my boss and lover *Charles Montgomery "Monty" Burns.*

[@landoflogic107]

I am mildly impressed with the fact that the author actually knew Billie Joe Armstrong had dyed blonde hair in 1989-1990. Could it be unintentional, most likely, but I give her the benefit of the doubt.

[@LocalTorchwoodIntern]

I could just imagine her googling (or whatever was the times search engine) and just finding a pic of blonde Billie and running with it intentionally or not

[@veepersjeepers]

Tweek Tweak google was deffo the times search engine. yahoo was a close second.

[@MrSmithers]

Billy Joel Armstrong*

[@caliscool_]

I feel like L trying to figure out Kira’s identity

[@janesullivan692]

Hmm... I think there's a 5 percent chance that you are xxBloodyTearz666xx.

[@Trollgaming1987]

L, Do you know mary sues of edgy fanfics hate preps

[@patrickracer43]

I have a theory: members of Hot Topic's marketing team wrote My Immortal and I'm Not Okay... especially since basically every canonical character got described as basically being powerbombed through a Hot Topic

[@callofkarrenboomerops3262]

Did it work though is the question.

[@patrickracer43]

@@callofkarrenboomerops3262 I went into a hot Topic a couple times before the virus

[@jbennett5634]

This is my new head canon

[@pixelpudding3914]

Hol up-

[@wannabehistorian371]

I’ve went to Hot Topic before; I was shocked to find the merch wasn’t as edgy as I thought. I brought a Sonic wallet there.

[@kingikizu]

As someone who has written TONS of purposefully bad fanfiction i can guarantee that it's definitely NOT "too much effort" to write troll fics with multiple chapters. Hell, when you're purposefully writing badly, it doesn't take nearly as much time as trying to write something that actually has quality. Especially if you've thought of the plot beforehand, you can absolutely write multiple chapters of typo-filled bs with no real effort or thought

[@Reepicheepchan]

Yeah, I had this same experience. Bad fanfic is insanely easy to churn out. If I had posted an intentionally bad fic and it got the traction My Immortal got I would gleefully pump out 50+ chapters lol

[@moviefilmstudios9828]

Do you have any advice on writing purposely bad fan fic? I'm currently writing a script for a short film that plays out kind of like one. I think I'm doing pretty good with the "aesthetic" but I don't know where to take the plot.

[@Reepicheepchan]

@@moviefilmstudios9828 The thing that makes badfic so easy is that plot flow doesn't really matter. Basically you can just string together a bunch of scenes without caring about where they're leading or how they contribute. Whenever I wasn't sure how to end a scene I had the protag dramatically pass out. It's sooooo much easier than seeing a scene through to it's logical conclusion lol

[@extremelylargecat]

They could have even been writing multiple chapters at one time and just staggering the releases. I used to write troll badfic, and you really can churn out like 10 chapters of that kind of stuff in a night. As well, many of the earlier chapters were very short. I feel like the author/s would probably sit down and write a few at a time then release them over the course of a month or two. Not a ton of work at all.

[@coatimundi69]

link the fics

[@ShaunCloudSwain]

I've said this before and I'll say it again: "My Immortal" is "Catcher in the Rye" if it were written by Vladimir Nabokov. Tara (character or not) is relentless in reminding you that you are reading a self-insert fanfic. However, despite how much it describes her feelings, her thoughts, her opinions, her interests, her outfit down to a thread, it takes great joy in the fact that you do not know a single thing about the author(s?) and never will. It's a modern-day "Pale Fire" that deftly lampoons early 2000's zeitgeist, goth counter-cultures, and rabid fan culture. The question of "is this real or is this satire?" is integral to the reading experience.

[@WardNightstone]

i read catcher in the rye in HS MAN was i pissed off i finished it in a couple days went to class and asked my teacher "why the hell was this banned the worst thing he does is hire a hooker and talk to her?" "oh poor me i got kicked out of another boarding school so i bought a hunters cap and bitched for 2 days" THAT'S THE WHOLE BOOK

[@lizziecastricum4382]

Shaun Swain Oh god I really want to believe that but I'm not sure that I can, I mean, having been pretty much the exact demographic for it at that time, there's a certain level of cynicism I have, but at the same time, that's pretty much the best take I've ever heard. In fact, my cynicism is likely just evidence for it, so once again this fanfic accomplishes its cosmic purpose and gives me an existential crisis.

[@manuolive]

dude...

[@universalperson]

@@WardNightstone Some adults are uncomfortable around edgy teenagers. Or possibly they don't understand the altered slang. "Saddler was sexy!" (IIRC)

[@tommenno]

I got introduced to Catcher at the wrong point in life and when that happens, instead of loving the book, it hits like sitting on a damp towel. I've given up on trying to understand how people find it a good book and just sort of nod along, pretending it's this cornerstone of an experience, when all I want to do is scream "Green Day did the entire point of this book in a three and a half min song!"

[@ghosttrain9022]

Things from My Immortal that will never go out of print: "Fangz Raven 4 da hlep" "Stop fleming prepz" "I cried tears of b'lood" "The next morning I woke up in my coffin" The clothing descriptions Professor Sinatra "She opened her red eyes" Everything else

[@gabrielavega1114]

"I gasp" "I said angrily" "Voldemort gave me a gun"

[@sammywxnchester]

"His red whites" ""You f*cking bastard!" i moaned" and (I couldnt find the exact writing sorry) Something along the lines "I ran suicidally"

[@mcdonaldsadmincourtney]

"voldemort gave me a gun"

[@nymphaea22]

don’t forget “a blak lonken prak t-shrit”

[@boiwhathellboi2724]

"I hath Telekinesis!"

[@ZILtoid1991]

This made me want to write a Joe Biden fanfic, called For-Biden Fruit.

[@CC-jd5fi]

"my name is Joe "dementia" Biden"

[@MixMasterLar]

Do it

[@lidijaaleksoska5559]

PLEASE DO IT.

[@LucarioandPichu]

Written by Tara... Reade

[@sweetasterium]

It would be like a car crash, horrific but impossible to look away from

[@thecuza9716]

My Immortal is actually a sentient cosmic entity that possesses writers in order to physically manifest in our reality as mind-bending pieces of literature. It's most recent known incarnation is the backstory of Old Man Henderson.

[@twinkiesmaster69]

Im stealing this

[@dionyxian2116]

I cant believe that my immortal is an scp

[@FireofGia111]

This is just Hermaeus Mora's books in Skyrim but irl

[@apollyon772]

can this be an scp please, forget all the others. this one tops them all

[@tahunuva4254]

HASTUR HASTUR HASTUR

[@strippinheat]

It's so consistent in its utter absurdity that it's clearly a product of a genius mastermind, but the REAL truth is that it was a viral marketing campaign for Count Chocula cereal.

[@Peregrina]

YES xD

[@PhileasLiebmann]

But seriously: the Tumblr My Immortal discourse is fucking prizeworthy. I specifically remember a thread that began after the emergence of the alleged second Tara account, where some seven or so people were all... idk accusing (I guess?) each other of having written it. Basically a Mexican standoff, but with goths/ex-goths on Tumblr. Fucking amazing.

[@dontpreorder2783]

Absolutely golden It’s like killing someone and then framing all the police officers that show up for the murder

[@Corviidei]

There is one impostor among us.

[@hanyuukawaiinanodesu]

latin standoff* :)

[@PhileasLiebmann]

@@hanyuukawaiinanodesu No

[@YOSSARIAN313]

According to Sarah z it was all one guy who argued with himself to create fake drama. Funny thing is he's the best candidate to have written my immortal as he's the only one with real connections to the original account.

[@christopherauzenne5023]

“Because I love the taste of human blood”- Harry Potter

[@Mobysimo]

I just picture him saying with the chirpiness a ten year old uses to talk about candy

[@KryingKermit]

*vampire

[@cradleofchaos4923]

the giggle after "throbbing lavender man-fruit thing." gets me so bad

[@nachgeben]

Counter-point: As someone who was actually writing fanfiction back then, yeah, there was an unbelievable amount of teen writers that lacked self-awareness. I was constantly getting messaged and requested to write people fics of their terrible ass Mary Sues and Gary Stus. Spelling errors and ridiculous descriptions abounded. It was honestly something I was constantly laughing over. Also, it's not unfathomable to see two friends having similar, if not identical, writing styles at that age. You'll typically see it in one mimicking the other. I had a friend who would mimic my style to a point it was shocking. The only difference was she would literally pull a thesaurus to write because she wanted to sound more intelligent. Because obviously using words like "golden-red hair" is better if you say "hair that was flaxen yet as auburn as the setting sun" and not just pretentious af. So yeah, don't set today's standards of visibility and writing to that time period. Generally, Mary Sue writers of today know they have a lot to prove, so even though that doesn't dissuade them, they will typically try to know how to string a grammatically correct sentence together, or get beta readers to help them. Back then, beta readers were very rarely used, and more people would 'round robin' fanfics if they were going to involve someone in it at all. Meaning, for those who don't know what that is, where you would write some, then pass it to the other person and they would write some, then pass it back or pass it to a third person, and the whole goal was to make it look seamless while still ensuring your own little flare was in there.

[@Reepicheepchan]

Eh, IDK dude, I spent entirely too much time on forums dedicated to finding and making fun of bad fanfic and I just don't buy it. Many of the elements are believable (the mall goth Mary-Sue, the clothing descriptions, the general poor quality, etc), but the little things like the Tom Bombadil reference and the weird way she goes out of her way to describe Hagrid as being a student are just gilding the lily, you know? Like, I get that she is supposed to have not read much less understood the books, but no other character repeatedly describes themselves as being a student so why would Hagrid? I agree that there are genuine works of fanfic from that time that are just as bad, but the funny details that made the fic entertaining feel fake to me.

[@robinchesterfield42]

Yep--I've read/encountered a lot of fanfic of that era and slightly earlier, and...what all you said is why I STILL think there's a chance that "My Immortal" could in fact be real. This video is very well-written, but...if you haven't spent time on old MSTing sites like "Web Site Number Nine", you don't KNOW how bad it could be.

[@azazel6342]

I was paid to write bad smut fanfic. Shits wild.

[@koyolionblaze3255]

i've seen my share of terrible fanfics, but i think it has to be satire when you look at I'm Not Okay, which sounds more like a bad fanfic than a satire.

[@youraveragemusicperson2176]

I legitimately got flashbacks when you talked about round robin fics- I was in my fair share of those and boy do I cringe at some of that stuff that I wrote as a 10-13 year old

[@DiegoAlvarezBeltran1993.]

The fact that this is a genuinely wonderful use of Schrodinger's cat philosophy is marvelous. Anyone could have written My Immortal but also /no one/ could have written it; it could have been a primitive word document AI for all we know -- the only way to know is to open the box but we can't because the box is locked and no one knows where the goddamn key is.

[@coffeewolfproductions9113]

Multiple people claim to have the key but none tried have worked on the box.

[@SephTheHuntress]

Maybe the real My Immortal is the friends we made along the way

[@DiegoAlvarezBeltran1993.]

@@SephTheHuntress The real My Immortal was the dead body out by the creek.

[@ParadigmRiki]

And honestly, at this point, if the real "Tara" or whoever was playing her character came out, the key wouldn't work on the box because of how many fake keys have worn the locking mechanism This is totally how locks work do not fact check me

[@DiegoAlvarezBeltran1993.]

@@ParadigmRiki Hmmm.... That does sound right.

[@pootoobaby738]

the greatest mysteries of all time: What was lost from the Library of Alexandria fire What happened to Jimmy Hoffa Did Atlantis actually exist Who wrote My Immortal

[@zangetsuCBA]

My Immortal is a transcription of atlantian scrolls, previously stored in the Library of Alexandria, made by Jimmy Hoffa. (?

[@ConscriptDavid]

Atlantis did not exist. Even Plato says it's an allegory. It's the platonic ideal of an... ideal society, essentially.

[@pootoobaby738]

ConscriptDavid issa joke kid

[@ConscriptDavid]

@@pootoobaby738 shhh lemme have my fun

[@tommenno]

We got Hoffa figured out already too.

[@RockmanX47]

It is honestly astonishing how almost accidentally the author of the My Immortal fanfic has managed to avoid the spotlight for nearly 15 years just thanks to the, "Boy Who Cried Wolf" factor that has plagued the mystery of the identity of this person/people as one unreliable source after one claim to be the writer. At this point, I highly doubt their identity will be revealed for certain due to how many oddballs have already tried to take the position of author that the masses will likely not accept a simple answer at the end.

[@MegaKaitouKID1412]

I think thats why Rose Christo tried to make it seem like people found her rather than just plain old coming out as the writer.

[@MushroomReaper]

“I went into the common room thinking of Satan.” As one does. I knew nothing about this Harry Potter fanfic and it hurts.

[@Crosshill]

you can enjoy a dramatic reading on internet historians channel

[@MariaThePotterNut]

Read it. Do it. It's so worth it. It's painful but not even dramatic readings can fully encapsulate the experience.

[@incognitoburrito6020]

I actually recommend dramatic readings over reading it with your own two eyes. Reading it normally just leads to your brain eventually shutting down out of self defense, which means you miss out on some of the glory. So stay up late, gather some friends, find an unabridged reading that pronounces the misspellings, and buckle up for the ride, my friend.

[@TerrorofDeathDGX]

Did I wake up today thinking "let's go get the deep lore on My Immortal?" No. Yet here I am. Excellent video.

[@the_sky_is_blue_and_so_am_I]

Same with me lol

[@emoyak8795]

Game Theory: Was My Immortal written by Tera and Raven from Teen Titans?

[@universalperson]

As long as it's not anywhere near the TT Go versions.

[@johnbuscher]

Teraven

[@playererror4044]

Shouldnt that be Film Theory for teen titans. (Guess whos pedantic)

[@bamshablam5977]

More like hornet is void lolx

[@JTSquirrel]

Valen ayyyy mossbag reference

[@sugarfrosted2005]

I seem to recall Dumbledore being spelled a different way each time, seems unlikely to be an accident.

[@fangsfrthmmrs]

My favorite misspelling of Dumbledore from my immortal would probably have to be Dumblydore. If I remember correctly, Mcgonagall's name was similarly butchered in a number of different ways.

[@zqfmgb4335]

On the last page he seems to be called "Dumbledark". DUMBLEDARK. I haven't read this thing though, so maybe it's not him. Could be a mirror universe edgy clone or something, you never know with fanfics. But still, DUMBLEDARK.

[@calemr]

And that's part of why I say it's got to be parody. The sheer Consistency of failure. She doesn't make the same mistake over and over. She doesn't get it right from time to time. She Always gets it wrong, in new and unique ways.

[@warcraftfan5]

Reminds me of another great fic, 30 H's (if you don't know, its basically the polar opposite of My Immortal, having better grammar, more competent writing and seemingly being written by a testosterone-poisoned teenage boy), same thing happens there to Scrumblegort's name being different every time.

[@TheMadTurtle]

@@fangsfrthmmrs It reminded me of how my mom used to call him Dumbledoriss... I miss her T~T

[@0hate9]

Somehow "she looked exactly like Hillary Duff" is the funniest line in any of the readings shown in this video

[@_-insertname-_]

Honestly I’m thinking that my immortal was never intended to be “truly” concluded, and that the unfinished cliffhanger as well as the authors inactivity is the actual real ending. It would fit into the idea of this story being a fanfiction-parody, since many fan stories abruptly end in the middle of the plot or shortly before the ending, usually without any warning or after the author says they’re on a small break and will write again later, only to be never seen again. Which is exactly what happened here.

[@solentsquared6719]

Cringe culture is dead and we should all just write our self-indulgent mary-sue fanfics

[@musict4379]

Hell yeah

[@W.H.V.]

I agree with this statement.

[@r_tten]

a fanfiction website but its just self indulgent mary sue fanfics

[@solsticechase8079]

You can pry my self-indulgent SIOC reincarnation fics from my cold dead hands

[@Grandpa-insect]

Fuck yeah,

[@ethansloan]

My theory: My Immortal was written by JD Salinger when he finally got an internet connection.

[@shalonanwar6882]

Tabitha Monaco no, the author of Catcher in the Rye.

[@epicremarc]

So it’s a precursor to Hollywoo Stars and Celebrities: What do They Know? Do They Know Things? Let’s Find Out!

[@Pilapuzzles]

I mean, he was the author of Catcher in the Rye and “others”

[@jeaddhist]

@Tabitha Monaco This is me when people mention JD from Scrubs. I immediately think of Heathers.

[@wormdoodles]

​@@Pilapuzzles Tbh, his short stories are actually pretty good. Check out A Girl I Knew, which probably makes my top ten favorite short stories of all time. And this is from someone who fucking hated The Catcher in the Rye.

[@somegirl4631]

my favourite live is still _"and than Voldemort give me a gun."_ to this day. though Dumbledore with a goth phase who flaw on a broom to save the day with his Avril lavigne clout really came in close behind.

[@somegirl4631]

@Mullerornis 😂😂😂

[@robinchesterfield42]

"Snap and Loopin were doing it...and Dobby was watching!" I saw a Sims 3 animation of (an abridged version of) the story first and as soon as it got to THAT part, my brain snapped and I knew I had to look up the original. XD

[@adrienbroditore]

I honestly don't want it to be satire, there's this weird part of me that loves the bizarre insane concept of this being real. I've had some amazing times with this fic with my friends, I'm just not sure I'm ready to let this weird hope it's real go away cause man, what a ride.

[@adamdawson6700]

Yeah, and at the very least I have to believe the writer was a teenage girl that had a fanfic and goth phase and not just like a man in his 30s that hates anything that appeals to young people

[@amoureux6502]

@@adamdawson6700 it strikes me as being similar to the sort of phase a lot of young teens online go through, where they recently realized their OCs and stories were cliché, "cringe," nonsensical, etc, and then they flip and start making fun of the tropes they loved literally last month. Also adds to why the Acidbath sisters seemed like such a plausible candidate, they were doing the exact same thing.

[@CErra310]

@@adamdawson6700 you can't write parody on this level if you hate the thing you're writing about. regardless of this was earnest or not, it was made by someone who was in the scene

[@austins9795]

Honestly, the author being a complete enigma is great because i feel like the “magic” of this fanfic would be lost if we knew who they were and where they are right now.

[@merrittanimation7721]

"Why has it taken so long for Red Bard to release a new video?" "Oh wow."

[@lulu1997master]

Actually she was also having some MASSIVE issues uploading the video. She talked quite a bit about it on Twitter; her internet reception was horrible, and only managed to upload it yesterday. The video had been done for over a week.

[@merrittanimation7721]

@@lulu1997master Still.

[@gothtarrare]

Can I just say, as a goth on world goth day, that I love the timing of this upload.

[@9intheaftern00n100]

I honestly thought it was planned for a second lmao. Too coincidental

[@webcores]

@9intheaftern00n100 I like to think it was intentional

[@mizuamia827]

Man, got hit with some nostalgia here. Back in high school, a friend of mine would read sections and chapters of My Immortal to me and another friend during our first period Entomology class lab time because cringe was way more interesting than bugs at 8 am.

[@shadowoftheday5736]

Those sound like really good days...come to think of it, My Immortal brought light to a lot of us, when I felt sad I used to read some lines of it and they immediately made me feel better. So grateful to the author

[@asmrtpop2676]

Said no one ever!! Bugs are awesome! Like why take entomology then!

[@vainpiers]

I did this with friends, but in history

[@Inhisnowhereland]

I like to think the person who wrote my immortal is now some successful business person who wants to erase this from the internet

[@lolathecat-0946]

this made me laugh, imagine if your cringey social media page from when you were 13 was immortalized like this 😂

[@OttoVonGarfield]

@@lolathecat-0946 *Sweats profusely...*

[@kirbyfanprime]

In this age of people digging into decade-old social media posts to discredit somebody, that's oddly one of the least far-fetched reasons I've heard so far.

[@jupita551]

"...they completely disregard the harry potter canon" well.. JK rowling does the same thing now....

[@Galvion1980]

...plus every and any moral lesson to be learnt from that series. JKR is cancelled, the fandom says TRANS RIGHTS!

[@panicontheargo7034]

Shots fireddd

[@jessec.3069]

"Now"? What do you mean "now"? I don't think she ever particularly cared for consistency, she just ran out of good ideas.

[@SEELE-ONE]

Oh snap!

[@taekawa6177]

i just hope that wherever the author is she felt happy when mcr came back

[@RedBardIsCool]

A few recent updates to this saga: 1. Todd reached out to Sarah Z (another KZbinr who made a video on MI in 2019) not too long after this video was posted. I reached out to Sarah, and upon learning that it was Todd who reached out to her, told her about how I believed that Todd was (secretly) operating several sockpuppet/alt accounts--including the one used for making the "BatMan" confession. We dug deeper down this rabbit hole together, and she posted a (fantastic!) video about our findings. Honestly, it's a story that's at least equally wild to MI's. Here's the video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/g4iomHdnhbt5hMk 2. Almost 2 weeks after the aforementioned video was posted, Todd reached out to me, and confessed that he didn't write My Immortal. You can see the email he sent me here: twitter.com/RedBardIsCool/status/1314944151050506241 3. Under the username of RavenIsAPoser, Raven, the Acid Bath Princess of Darkness, returned on January 2, 2021 to confirm to the internet that the bloodykiss videos were just trolling, and yet again, that she and Tara didn't write My Immortal. Raven is currently working as a professional dominatrix, Tara doesn't have an online presence, and Azer (NeutralOneder on Instagram) is a musician and uses they/them pronouns. kzbin.info/www/bejne/h5DUfKqJnrNni9k

[@FlorenceDays]

At this point, the whole Toby/Todd drama should be made into a film

[@Cassiel75]

I am trying to search out what this "My Immortal" is /-My only reference being The pop-goth song my immortal..

[@Cassiel75]

Re: I am not ok with this /-I f**ing love the soundtrack

[@thisisnotphysics1857]

This story is wild...

[@ikarikid]

@@FlorenceDays they have. It was Secret Window.

[@coolspider295]

It is kinda weird that we will likely never know the true author of "My Immortal". Humanity will grow to unveil the secrets of the universe, yet, will be denied this. The author will have seen the desperate scramble for this shred of knowledge, yet deny it from the world.

[@lupessreturns]

The biggest reason I had to doubt the idea that it wasn't genuine is...because I used to have friends and routinely write with people who had very similar writing styles and interests and...they were completely serious. Kinda tosses a big old monkey wrench into my brain interpreting these as anything but genuine.

[@maartje176]

I own some self published booklet thingys written in a similar way, I bought them at a con several years back. It’s a very strange thing for me as well, when I talked to the authors again after I read them they were like genuine about it? It was a strange experience, but they’re great when I want to have a laugh😶

[@galtenoble]

If it were genuine, then I'm surprised someone who was clearly pretty young was so resilient against all the hate they received. I know it probably wasn't current-day social media levels of hate messaging, but even one bad comment among dozens of positive ones can really bring your mood down for the rest of the day. Admittedly, I've never read My Immortal, so maybe she regularly expressed her frustrations in the author's notes, idk.

[@no-man_baugh]

@Galtenoble Two things 1: As soon as the third chapter, each chapter would start with an author’s note regarding the negative attention the fic was getting (e.g. “AN: stop flassing ok! if u do den u r a prep!”) so you ‘re on the money on that guess. 2: You owe it to yourself to at the very least watch Internet Historian & SorrowTV’s adaptation of My Immortal, even if it doesn’t include the time travel bit.

[@artsyscrub3226]

Idk i had a pretty bad edgy stage but it a part of me thinks at least some of it is genuine. Of course there's a leaked interview saying the author was genuine

[@galtenoble]

@@no-man_baugh I don't find 'so bad it's good' media enjoyable, so I will pass. But thank you.

[@HeckinBigBoi]

It's weird how this fanfic pops in and out of my life every 3-4 years ever since I found out about it. Like, just the other day, I was trying to tell some of my friends about this, and I couldn't remember the title, two days later this video shows up in my recommended, and tonight i'll be listening to some dramatic readings. After all that, it'll then fade right back into obscurity. Anyway, I'll see you guys in about 4 years.

[@xJackDarkStonex]

I think you underestimate preteens. The whole "diz is da laif" speak is absolutely something I would have written like on forums and stuff lol. And the bits of referencing Lord of the rings, ik I would often reference obscure shit I've never personally read bc I either knew someone who did, ran into a teacher that taught it to me or something else. Odds are, it was written like a story I wrote with my friends. Sitting around a laptop, narrating out loud, laughing at our own jokes but with a level of seriousness of like "this is *actually* cool. Badass and my comic relief is sooo gud" So not exactly self aware parody, but I can totally see someone writing this with mixed ideas of what the purpose is (funny or serious?). Objectives of what the tone of a story is likely a foreign concept for many people, and I could see this happening here. As for the "hacker", probably an attention seeking moment (like this whole thing was). This is my belief of the story. Maybe with time they started making it funnier after the attention it got, out of spite or because they thought it was "AWESOME". SO i think it's real.

[@firefancy9928]

I can attest; when I was young, I was on the internet scene between 2011 and 2013, and old meme culture and "derp speak" was common with kids around 12 and 15 years old, to try and be funny or to try and be a troll. There were users who were intentionally trying to roleplay as kids who only posted in "baby talk" too. Kids liked to have fun and be silly back in the day.

[@kupotenshi]

That shorthand way of typing was the norm during AIM/MSN messenger days. The fic sounds exactly like how you described it, two teenagers typing out a story together on a computer for laughs without any concern for plot or grammar. The attention they got would have been incentive enough to keep going, and then they got bored and stopped. The internet really made it bigger than it probably was to them.

[@SupaDupa97]

It was mcr's marketing team that wrote my immortal.

[@rmartinez5665]

The funniest part of all this is that Harry Potter doesn’t actually takes place on England, but rather Scotland

[@danstiver9135]

Well some parts ARE in London.

[@shammydammy2610]

Isn't Privet Drive in Surrey? Hogwarts is in Scotland, but.

[@newdivide9882]

Wait, really? I never knew that

[@KP-wj9ch]

Right! Hogwarts is somewhere in Scotland:)

[@TheWishDragon]

Wrong, there are parts in other bits in the UK as well, it's not all in Scotland.

[@CJMoody]

How would writing a bad Harry Potter fanfic help one find their long-lost sibling?

[@Liminal-Galaxy-System6819]

we will never find out 😔😔😔

[@antidave]

We will never know 😔

[@ale-xsantos1078]

Its the plot man!

[@tomasroma2333]

She claimed she wrote it so that it would become famous so that she could later write a book about it... I genuinely dunno why people bought this.

[@MyChannel773]

the publicity would give her a bigger platform to find him with i guess? a “do you know this person”-type post could benefit from that

[@ja-vishaara]

Whenever I see my girlfriend, my heart beats like a subway train

[@Arcademan09]

The best version of My Immortal is hands down Internet Historian's

[@tiffany-chan1235]

YES!! I love that version!

[@izzyraimi]

Oddly enough, my go to was LRMReading's readthrough, while also taking the piss out of it in an MST3K fashion. Check that out if you haven't!

[@ojshrimpson9184]

Ebony was waring a black laced crisscrossed mesh bra. Over that she was waring a black t shirt with Metallica over it. Along with a black blazer with a raven embroidered logo. She was waring black jeans that were cut off at the bottom...

[@beckc101ify]

You should check out Brendaniel's when you get the chance. He reads the entire thing!

[@geoleo965]

Preach.

[@sadvec6328]

This remind me when I was at Hot Topic with my friends back on 2008, I was wearing a skimpy black top with the MCR logo stamped on it on top of a black coweb bra, a teared skirt and high heels with red splatters that looked like blood and some knee high stripped black and purple socks, I used white foundation and black mascara, and my hair was dyed black with a red streak in it, I had pentagram shaped earings and an Invader Zim phone case for my motorola, that I just purchased on Hot Topic, ofcourse. And if you think that I'm being a weirdo, you're just a PREP

[@andrejg4136]

I can hear the My Chemical Romance from here

[@Goldenglare_thewindeater]

Andre Jg as well as evanescence, simple plan, and green day

[@shiny9690]

All I heard was Invader Zim phone case YAY

[@cartoonkelly7924]

I’ll never write anything as memorable as My Immortal... *sigh*

[@soroneir1260]

Almost no one will, if that helps.

[@rackoflambofgod4899]

Neither will I.

[@schufck5272]

Not with that attitude!

[@BagelBoyboss]

Then I will!

[@donzoday]

Don't worry, not even the most skilled writers will.

[@CloaksCosplays]

"Too much effort for a troll." That's like the bare minimum hours you have to put in for an obscure ARG. That's the community service hours of trolling.

[@angxldust3328]

It's definitely satire. They put so much effort into this because it was worth it, their fanfiction got very popular and writing new chapters was probably very fun. Whoever wrote My Immortal is a GENIUS.

[@jukmifggugghposer]

Talking about a mischaracterization of Dumbledore, I feel like the movies already covered that front... HARRYDIDYOUPUTYOURNAMEINTHEGOBLETOFFIRE‽

[@flyingspacewhalez]

"Dumbledore asked calmly"

[@GTdba]

“HARRY!!! DID YOU...” ***Slaps McGonagall*** “PUT...” ***Throws Flitwick out of the Window*** “YOUR NAME...” ***Breaks Snape’s Nose*** “ IN THE...” ***Sets Hagrid on fire*** “ GOBLET...” ***Disintegrates Mr Filch*** “OF...” ***Hogwarts Explodes*** “...fire?” Dumbledore asked calmly.

[@VaatiOfDarkness]

Maybe that's what Tara meant when she was talking about how it's not her fault if Dumbeldore swears since 'this is from the movie'.

[@saffronic3026]

In the game he just straight up stabs Harry and doesn't say anything

[@leafyisqueer7155]

@@GTdba Oh my god I didn't know I would ever need a youtube comment animated so badly, I literally flipped my chair over, laughing. (Side Note: I need a new chair)

[@vogonp4287]

Honestly, if I wrote it, I would never tell anyone. I would just sit back and laugh at the internet's obsession of it.

[@MorriganQueen451]

"it's basically alphabet soup. Here, let me go ahead and give you a taste" * starts speaking german *

[@fionafiona1146]

That's not how German works, ask my marks(dyslexic here).

[@MorriganQueen451]

@@fionafiona1146 i know, i was just trying to make a joke

[@fionafiona1146]

@@MorriganQueen451 I am worse at joking... And German.

[@papasscooperiaworker3649]

@@fionafiona1146 du bist nicht lustig ! ich mache witze

[@rafabuda0]

I just screamed "Vowels motherfucker, do you speak it!?" at the screen

[@sable7687]

the edgy usernames absolutely kill me, its insane how bad something like that ages

[@boga-tier6609]

"Meets two new friends." Me: Please be normal names, like Jack or Emma. "Elvira and Shadow." Me: OW!! THE EDGE!! IT'S SO STRONG!!!

[@NeoN-PeoN]

Best part of My Immortal is when Enoby shoots Voldermort off of his broom. He starts crying and begging for mercy and she goes "I felt bad for him. Even though I'm a sadist and I stopped." That part had me laughing for a while.

[@stevemclovin1566]

This takes me back to the good old days of fanfiction where kagome, naruto and Harry Potter was paired with everyone, was any character but themselves and people used to either kill kuwabara, call him kuwabaka or both.....god those were wired ass times.

[@tommenno]

the terrible.. TERRIBLE tenchi muyo fanfiction... My god.. the granpappy of harem anime took us to some dark places in fanfic land.

[@stevemclovin1566]

@@tommenno I'm sorry to inform you that naruro fanfiction has become its successor I think. I haven't really read tenchi muyo stuff.