Who Were The Authors Of My Immortal?

[@STRANGEONS]

I FIXED THE TYPO IN THE TITLE OK SHUT UP PREPS!!!!!

[@STRANGEONS]

oh my god i wish it had been on purpose

[@FC_.]

we'll pretend it was on purpose, never forget my immoral though

[@nerveagent1905]

Get wrekt Strange

[@lethesadie2224]

@@STRANGEONS just pretend it was. its in character for this fic after all ^^

[@andrearupe8094]

I mean, this reaction is so perfect ✨️✨️👌

[@nintando]

I just can't imagine that there's someone out there who just goes about day to day life knowing that they wrote my immortal. or maybe they've managed to forget somehow? crazy.

[@juststatedtheobvious9633]

I used to judge amateur writing contests. The worst would go on rambling tangents with no paragraph breaks, forget important plot points, or write in the style of furniture assembly instructions. Even the "so bad it's good" stories have "so bad it's just boring" moments. I've never seen anyone accidentally be that entertaining that often for that long.

[@adamlambboy8332]

Imagine being a god amongst ants. I could never 😔

[@SharkyMcSnarkface]

I mean one of the Twilight actors forgot they were in it so it’s not farfetched that they could forget

[@TheSoundSpell]

I have the same feeling when I think about my little pony fallout equestria. That thing (or was is the spin off project horizons?) is bigger than all the Harry Potter Books combined, and is just a work of passion. Crazy what some people a capable of.

[@psychosomaticstatic]

@@SharkyMcSnarkface Lmaoo yeah Anna Kendrick

[@Zyxie_Zyxie_Zyxie]

I still can’t over that in the Hermione fic they made Luna, one the quirkiest not like other girls characters ever made and turned her into a prep solely because she’s blonde

[@genericname2747]

Luna deserved better

[@SeventhSilhouette]

i don’t know much about harry potter tbh (i wasn’t allowed to watch or read it and haven’t gotten around to it yet) but i was thinking this. i know luna is Weird^TM so it’s very ironic.

[@Zyxie_Zyxie_Zyxie]

@@SeventhSilhouette literally SAME that’s why I pointed that out

[@jasminak7342]

Also ironic that they compared her to Hilary Duff to make that point, when Hilary literally dated the lead singer of Good Charlotte. Edit: Jk I just got to the part in the video where she mentions this 😅

[@d.lan3y]

it may have been a combination of that and her optimism. raven doesn't strike me as the type to respect an optimist.

[@geralt0ftrivia775]

See, the thing is, in the story Harry says people call him Vampire because he likes the taste of human blood, but it's never explicitly stated that he's actually a vampire. He's just a lil freak

[@magentaspoon5319]

Yeah, Ebony is a vampire, I think it says Draco is a vampire, and B’loody Mary’s (Hermione’s) real parents were vampires so she might be one too. So it seems like all main goth characters are vampires, except the guy called Vampire. It’s so great!

[@Mila-Rosa]

What a poser

[@BigGayIncorporated]

If he liked to consume blood that much... bro would have rock solid poops ngl

[@aformofmatter8913]

@aya ! Big Gay Inc. does lots of state-of-the-art research

[@magnus6609]

@@magentaspoon5319 would this count as cultural appropriation or is it ok because he has vampire friends

[@rhadamanthus10]

Always thought the fandom perception of Slytherin as the “goth outsider house” was weird, because in the books most Slytherins we meet are rich racists. Malfoy is the ultimate prep.

[@VaatiOfDarkness]

Right? I find it funny that she never mentions Ravenclaw, which is probably the most Gothic sounding name. And Hufflepuff is mentioned once, as a disposable source of blood for Vampire

[@Lauren007E]

​@@VaatiOfDarknessfairly accurate depiction of Hufflepuff though

[@walmartian422]

Slytherin is the most gothic house and it’s indisputable Snape or Snap is an OG.

[@MollymaukT]

@@VaatiOfDarkness seriously, Rowena Ravenclaw is one of the gothest name to ever goth like, Ravencroft or something

[@m0ddotrar]

Yea really drives the point that it's just about the aesthetic😭 Ooohhh bad evil snake dark clothes dungeons ooohhh goth

[@anonymousposter6461]

My friend pointed this out, so I thought I might share with y’all. Dubya is absolutely a place - it’s used colloquially for the Dallas Fort Worth metropolitan area! Much how George W. Bush is referred to as “Dubya” among Texans, we also use it for the city of Fort Worth. When we want to be clear, we call it DFW. She may have been intentionally vague! There are many Hot Topics in this part of the country. And also a lot of seething resentment for country girl Swifties, Christian hardliners, and the preppy aesthetics thereof among the scene and goth subcultures here, which really tracks in tone with Tara’s posts. My friends said this and I was immediately convinced. And burst out laughing out loud. My cousin could have known that girl. It’s just hilarious to me.

[@leahnance1185]

As soon as I heard Dubya my ears perked up. As a tweenage wannabe-emo Texan in 2006, I would have also referred to the DFW area as "Dubya" and opined about how annoying the preps were.

[@johnwhatsittoya6374]

This right here is a fascinating development.

[@MikaelaCher]

It actually makes so much more sense than the Dubai theory because she talks about so many american things!!!

[@ratgirl4626]

I COULD KNOW THE PERSON WHO WROTE MY IMMORTAL

[@coolsenjoyer]

​@@MikaelaCher Dubai and UAE are kinda famous for having majority expat populations. Not that many Americans but possible enough for that theory to hold some water.

[@thesentienttoadstool9369]

Sure , if Tara writes a Mary Sue self insert fic she’s writing “the worst fanfiction ever” but if Dante does it, he’s “redefining Catholic canon.” Heaven forbid a women does anything.

[@princessjazmin6499]

Crying💀💀 This comment has truly changed my life

[@kagemarushun7378]

Wow, comparing Dante to this... Seems like a bait

[@honeycomb937]

@@kagemarushun7378 yeah, they're making a joke

[@Andrewbert109]

Honestly I feel like in 700 years My Immortal will also have redefined Catholic canon

[@zachcate7102]

@@kagemarushun7378 ig it could be bait if you don’t know how jokes work

[@JhericFury]

How much better would the world be if serious authors left in those authors notes. Imagining Tolkien and Lewis had like "fuck you and your lion, Lewis" in the actual text.

[@MackenzieNerdyEMT]

Hahaha that actually made me giggle.

[@genericname2747]

"Stop adding talking trees to your books Tolkien."

[@RisingSunfish]

Idk if this was intentional, but the examples in this thread are extra funny because Mr. “Cordially Dislikes Allegory” Tolkien really did find Lewis’s books kind of shallow; meanwhile, Treebeard is a good-humored parody of Lewis and his slow, booming voice.

[@sarethdarva]

Tolkien and Lewis actually were a part of a writer’s club called the Inklings, where they’d share rough drafts of the various books they were writing. Once, when Tolkien was about to share another LotR chapter, one of the other members groaned, “not more fucking elves!” So they were doing it too, long before the internet!

[@Quackervoltz]

Fucking crying

[@savannahweeks3383]

As a middle school teacher, I can 100% believe that this was a real and genuine passion project written by a 13 year old: misspelled words and all.

[@beeaggro2593]

Agreed. Holy shit lmao

[@Syd448]

I completely agree

[@natkatmac]

I remember intentionally misspelling things was trendy during this time too.

[@lucyla9947]

It sounds like what I'd have written at the time, just a whole lot darker, mine were mostly light (probably because I never got to actually writing the darker shit)

[@Tigerycat]

As an aspiring middle school teacher who’s spent a lot of time volunteering in middle school classrooms, same. Middle school kids act exactly like this.

[@justplainninja]

Dubya isn't a misspelling of Dubai, it's an extremely localized pronunciation and spelling for DFW, as in Dallas/Fort Worth in Texas. Holy shit. I was a teenager of almost the same age as 'Raven' when this thing hit the Internet. I might have seen the author of My Immortal at a mall or something and never known...

[@HamsterVormFenster]

And what evidence do you have that *you* didn't write My Immortal?? 🤔

[@irwo1]

@@HamsterVormFenster would you hold me as we freeze on a windswept glacier, separated from our camp and supplies in the storm

[@abidizzne892]

I’ve lived in dfw for a while and never heard it said that way (though if my ears are as southern as my mouth, they could be biased )

[@sicko033]

ikr!! i live near dfw and i can't believe i could have been so close to the icon herself

[@kray3883]

I think just any city starting with a W. We were right in the middle of the "Dubya" Bush years, so that spelling was floating around online a lot. A kid def could have picked it up and started using it in other contexts. (Also seeing "ne" for any took me right back.)

[@lisah-p8474]

My Immortal is like the modern Voynich manuscript: incomprehensible, an unknown author, the subject of years of scholarly debate. Gerard Way was there somehow.

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

damn TRUE lol

[@screwtapee]

Gway is in the Voynich manuscript?

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

@@screwtapee LMAO

[@JemuzuDatsWho]

this was a fun rabbit hole, thank you

[@lisah-p8474]

@@JemuzuDatsWho 🫡

[@owenrichmond2]

i was in gym class and i overheard a kid in the grade below me say out loud “I looked into his gothic red eyes (he was wearing color contacts)”. good to know that the kids are alright

[@andrewbrasfield1104]

I passed My Immortal down into my community theater full of middle schoolers that happened to include my little brother. After sharing a chapter with him, I very quickly started hearing goffik quotes strewn around every which way during rehearsals. It is glorious

[@clouddd8053]

@@andrewbrasfield1104 you’ve found the meaning of life

[@pigeoncat3786]

a friend of mine keeps trying to read it to every single person he knows. he's spreading the word.

[@tortis6342]

best thign I've heard all day

[@audreymcknight]

you're the kids

[@garfieldenjoyer2543]

I really love how your girlfriend could cosplay malfoy without even trying

[@qwertilicious2574]

For some reason, I had read “malfoy” as “Garfield” which was…… confusing to say the least

[@salem-01]

@@qwertilicious2574 what the fuck

[@marlyd]

@@qwertilicious2574 your brain fused girlfriend and malfoy into Garfield

[@WishGender]

@@marlyd I think they just saw the first person’s name.

[@lavenderdust7912]

WHO's the fucker who clicked the 667th like to your comment??? I it should have stayed a perfect 666

[@pl4net4ry]

My new kitten is named Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way. It's very silly but she just gets called Bonnie. She already has lore if anyone wants to hear it.

[@manilovefnaf_ch3rr1]

can i hear the my immortal cat lore please?

[@ms.fukawa-hanamura3754]

Pls we need the lore

[@crm1301]

need my immortal cat lore rn ‼️‼️

[@Eef123]

omg i need to know

[@zombiedoe3404]

kitty lore. gis it

[@sablebranwen2539]

As a certified writer of cringe, I have no reason to believe that these fics were anything other than genuine, and that's what makes them amazing.

[@hungry_and_confused]

Raven looked like she poured her heart and soul into I'm Not Okay, and I feel like the writing would have gotten progressively better if she kept writing.

[@Jeffrey_Tyler]

As someone that was the same age as these girls, into the same goth/emo culture they were, and terminally online like they were, I %100 believe this is genuine. I knew at least 4 of these girls in high school. Even dated one for 2 years and if it came out she wrote this I'd just think "yup, that makes sense".

[@kul2130]

At 14, even earlier actually, i personally had very edgy and just kinda naturally funny gal friends whos satire looked exactly like that. Like, genuinely people, its very obvious, yall are seeing things cause yall werent there and cause entertaining the thought of it being serious is... well, entertaining.

[@BubblegumPatty]

You know, hearing that the Author was supposedly like 14 while publishing My Immortal makes it seem really real and make a *lot* more sense. Some kid who hasn't really learned how to write yet, throwing things like self-harm and depression around bc it Seemed Goth and Cool with no idea what it actually meant, getting into petty internet scuffles, and just bringing up how Cool and GOTH she is constantly. It feels so very middle schooler who than got hit hard with genuine internet nastiness and got scared off.

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

i'm goff if you couldn't tell

[@rabidvampdude]

Yeah and that the friends fight and they put it in the fanfic xD

[@anname7373]

Yeah LMAO at that age I was writing characters who were evil because I could and it was fun.

[@ms.fukawa-hanamura3754]

Eh idk I’ve seen writing from people younger than 14 that’s much better than My Immortal.

[@anname7373]

@@ms.fukawa-hanamura3754 that doesn't mean every 14 year old knows how to write that well because some do. Most 14 year olds aren't going to be writing that well.

[@caleighd3960]

To me, it comes across as sisters, where one is a good bit older than the other. An older sister that shows her younger sister her favorite music and books and maybe tells her things she’s too young to hear. It sounds like it was written in earnest from both authors.

[@arcticg7644]

This makes a lot of sense to me! I’ve always believed it was a troll, bit that would make a lot of sense.

[@katelyn4358]

That would make so much sense - the heavy editing by Raven, sharing of clothes, and lack of creativity from Tara really point to a younger sister. What friend would be content continuing a story created by her friend, unless she really looked up to her? But...sisters often have that dynamic.

[@swimmyswim417]

Yeah, this reads a lot like the stories my little sister and I would make up when I started getting into horror stuff and she fell into it by proxy. It seems like a surprisingly logical explanation for the weird edgy-childish-ridiculous-earnest tone. Can’t tell you how many stories we came up together where stuff happened like Jason Voorhees took her self-insert OC to prom in a black dress with chains all over and sacrificed the student body to Satan. iirc the OC was a teen girl named Luna Slaughterhouse who could talk to the dead and witnessed both her parents get murdered. She also had a tendency to dash into traffic and get into car accidents, where her monster boyfriend of the week had to swoop in and save her. God I love my sister 😂

[@cosanchez124]

@@swimmyswim417 that sounds fucking awesome lol

[@emilyrln]

@@swimmyswim417 oh my god why isn't THIS a TV show? I need it 😂

[@ashley-xq2fy]

not only did i completely forget that my immortal was harry potter fanfiction, but i also never realized her last name was just Way... I thought it was Ravenway... literally never even made the Gerard Way connection

[@Matthy63]

Yeah, she's not related to Gerard Way, but wishes she was, because he's a major fucking hottie. AKA one of The best lines of chapter 1.

[@Onewingerdraven]

Same 😱

[@tortis6342]

Everyone always says it like that. Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven-way. Ebony Dark'ness Dementia sounds like three separate words, but the last two words are shorter and kind of blend together into one.

[@hungry_and_confused]

@@Matthy63 *Alabama intensifies*

[@sasha-is-eepy]

@@hungry_and_confusedRIGHT?? thats what im always saying!

[@mysideacc2770]

also to add to the "tara was real" argument- it makes A LOT of sense for her to keep quiet for all these years about being the author of my immortal if she wasn't just a persona or a troll. imagine going through all that at 14yo, having to deal with people hating you so much for writing bad fanfic that they obsess over you, hack you, try to pretend to be you, etc. she got embarrassed at her 14yo writing, or the entire situation got so upsetting by the time of the hacking that she refuses to have anything to do with my immortal anymore, or she's grown up and realized the internet is a scary place for people the internet loves to hate and she's much safer remaining anonymous.

[@sit-insforsithis1568]

The spelling proof she wasn’t real , we just went her to be real 😂

[@xXeatingtoastersXx]

@@sit-insforsithis1568 I disagree first off, she was young second off she could be dyslexic we don't know third off a lot of emo's typed like that in 2006

[@Jeffrey_Tyler]

@@sit-insforsithis1568as someone that was that age at that time, into the same culture these girls were, and terminally online like these girls, I can assure you that this spelling is %100 authentic. Unfortunately.

[@sit-insforsithis1568]

@@Jeffrey_Tyler I am the same and people spelling ebony as enoby not as a one time mistake but consistently nahhhh that’s faken

[@CitricZaelon]

It became a book. She literally got a book published with horrible grammar and infringing copyrights. She got lucky. Why would she be interested in its publishing if she knew it was bad?

[@abkl1]

The fact that Anna Todd got a movie deal but Tara Gilesbie didn't is a crime against humanity

[@RobinAlucard123]

One thing I like about My Immortal is that it subverts the love triangle through having the love triangle being an actual triangle rather than a corner. I can't think of any published books that do that. The whole "she got kicked out because she skipped maths" thing made me laugh when Arthur Weasley can't tell the difference between a 5 and a 20 on British notes. I mean they're different colours -

[@treacherous-doctor]

My god yeah. I think more books/fanfics should make the two main love interests in a love triangle be a little gay with each other. Just for some flavour

[@scarletempress2652]

@@treacherous-doctorCounter offer, make all three participants in a love triangle a lot gay

[@peyton4425]

If you’re looking for a published book that does that, check out Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao!!

[@hilary.c]

@@peyton4425 oh iron widow SLAPS i loved how it resolved the love triangle

[@doriangrayshusband549]

I hate how it's called a love triangle when most of the time it only connects in 2 ways?? Like the most common love triangle trope is Guy A likes Girl and Guy B likes Girl but that doesn't make a motherfuckin triangle- it's just an angle

[@jynxiejinx]

props to these two young emo girls for having the courtesy to share their fictional crushes and characters with one another- me and my little emo friends used to get at each others throats for “copying” like any of this shit actually existed?? We literally used to get SO pressed about the other liking our stupid fictional men

[@SJisReading]

Those were OUR men, we had to divide them amongst ourselves and stay in our lanes.

[@jynxiejinx]

@@SJisReading find your own fictional killer to fantasize about or PERISH by the wrath of this poorly cut fringe and this filthy black hoodie

[@RollerGatorsSwamp]

Which makes me wonder if this could have been a possible reason for Raven and Tara’s big fight (if these two were indeed actual “goff” teens). Assuming they are real, I can totally see Tara meeting Raven, thinking she was so cool and different, and trying to emulate her, which in turn would eventually get on Raven’s nerves. Tara may have had a sweatshirt and let Raven borrow it, then sometime after, they got into a fight and she didn’t want to give Tara’s sweatshirt back because she may have though Tara was just a “poser” and didn’t *really* like MCR, among other reasons she could’ve been mad at her. Tara’s interests are definitely not as dark and edgy as Raven’s, namely their tastes in music. Tara claimed to like more pop-punk music, whereas Raven seemed to like more emo music. I’m sure this will be explained in another video, but I did see one video mention that one of Tara’s favorite movies was A Cinderella Story, which has Hilary Duff and is NOT goff 🤔 so if that’s real, then I can see Tara being more of a “poser” and perhaps it got to Raven at some point. Reminds me of how my sister and I acted back then 😅😂 again, it’s just me speculating of course

[@spacedragon2853]

My friend group thought we were too cool for fictional crushes so instead we argued over who got to kin Pidge from Voltron

[@saltedbuttercups]

My friend group had to sit down and divide up One Direction crushes so we would each have different ones. Whoever called dibs first got to have that one. I didn't have a 1D crush so my friends assigned Louis to be my crush. I own one of those rubber bracelets that says "I ♡ Louis". I do not actually know which one Louis is.

[@safeink3103]

The opening to "Im Not ok" has so much of the same vibe as 'My immortal' its like listening to one of those videos of what English sounds like to a non-english speaker. I was shaking thinking I had somehow wildly misremembered the iconic opening of my immortal.

[@genericname2747]

I was losing my mind waiting for her to explain what cursed fanfiction she was reading

[@Caldella]

Same! It was like when cheap movies can't afford a popular song they want for the soundtrack, so get a knockoff sound-alike tune instead. You know what you're supposed to hear, but what you're actually getting is so close and yet so incorrect.

[@cultof12]

I was getting genuinely scared that this was a Mandela Effect🤣

[@ITR]

There's no way somebody writes "energetically lethargic" and "talked together in silence" as not a joke

[@sanguillotine]

You vastly underestimate how stupid teenagers can be

[@maddieb.4282]

Yeppppppp

[@nagaqueen8607]

What i love about My Immortal is that it managed to subvert a lot of fanfiction tropes for its time. Like many "mary sue" protagonists were those "not like other girls" girls who acted "quirky" for male approval. But Enoby is the complete opposite. She is not not like other girls, other girls are like her. She doesn't act like a boy for male approval, boys act like her for her approval. She manages to reject mainstream norms without rejecting femininity (two things that a lot of pop feminists treat as interchangable) and did all of that while wearing blak platinum leather boots wif "Joel" written all over dem sandly. B'loody Mary Smith is also an interesting character. In HP fanfics, Hermoine is depicted as either a snotty nlog that finds her female peers annoying or a 2000s male writer's perception of a "girly girl" (shallow, ditzy, boy-crazy...). But in My Immortal, she is part of Eboby's girl pose without being turned into a brainless (well relative to the fanfic's standards) bimbo while still managing to be the most studious of the cast: gets along grate wif prof. Sinister, has a time pensive and thinks that Willow being expelled is worse than her being murdered. And this happened because the other girls didn't treat her any different or bully her for being smart and bookish, on the contrary, they seem to come to her advise everytime there is a magic problem to be solved. Snape is another funny character. In fanfic he is the go-to dark, gothic and mysterious pretty man that all the fangirls like, yet Tara took a long look at him and said "clearly a griffindor christian pedofile" and hooked him up with loopy Loopin that is still to this day the most random ass ship in the fic.

[@Matthy63]

What do you make of Hargirid being a hogwarts student but also a Satanist?

[@Eightsixseven23224]

Is Dumbledore having a midlife crisis subverting anything?

[@lilyhatesgoogle]

I think you're right! And I think this is why it stood out the way it did. Bad goffik HP fanfic was and is a dime a dozen, but My Immortal seems like something you'd run across and get invested in just to see what insane thing happens next

[@TwoCatsInLondon]

Also, she also managed to create a love triangle where there are lines between all three characters. Sure Ebony didn’t like Harry but he liked her. The triangle was an actual triangle!

[@sasha-is-eepy]

@@Eightsixseven23224he also has Alzheimers, in case that matters

[@banannarama]

One of my non-tumblr coworkers once started a conversation with: “so my friend sent me the craziest self-insert fanfic last night, worst thing I’ve ever read.” Me: “like My Immortal levels of bad?” Coworker: “HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS THAT?!”

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[@ChageeyaSarang]

It's a rite of passage for self-insert fanfics lbh

[@socialjusticeworm3820]

ganymede..

[@banannarama]

This was in 2022 btw.

[@distanctive4768]

@@banannarama I want to be there so bad just to actually hear or see this lmao Pls… manifest for me

[@Revha2]

It always kills me in the best way that Harry's name is just straight-up Vampire Potter. You could literally not put less effort into a name for a character. I love it so much.

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

B'loody

[@ElliWoelfin]

B'loody at least has an apostophe for flair (or implies there's a beat or even a glottal stop, which would be very fun)

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

@@ElliWoelfin yessssssssssss

[@sadmeat8937]

*tips fedora* B'loody

[@transsexual_computer_faery]

@@sadmeat8937 WHAT IS YOUR AVATAR WHAT THE FUCK

[@youtubeuserremainsanonymou9022]

I wonder if Tara's goal was to have fun, not troll, but she was playing sincerely and then got uncomfortable when she realized the internet was mean and cringing at the silly story meant for joy

[@yuvalinbar1921]

I also feel like this was the case. A fun little parody of an internet phenomenon getting out of head

[@dr.rothotnik]

Nope. Look up Rose Christo - the name Tara was a Teen Titans reference. It was apparently a trollfic and the real story is actually very depressing, the drama is so insane that even if she 100% actually wrote it, her own brother even said that no one will ever believe her, which I think is worse honestly

[@beeaggro2593]

@@dr.rothotnik She didnt write it

[@d.tsukuyomi1869]

@@dr.rothotnik She didn't write it, her brother later came and told the truth. He told that she might be the true author as she was obsessed with bad fanfic for a while, but her story is very clearly false.

[@honoratagold]

This is my opinion. It was written by a genuine teenage girl, but it was supposed to be at least a little funny.

[@Rexdrinksredbull]

I appreciate how "I'm Not OK" features the main character saying how sad it made her that people judged her just because she's goth.....while also seeming to judge a group of people because they're "preps"

[@pantalaemon]

they spend so much time documenting all the preps staring at them that it makes me think that maybe... just maybe... they just want to be seen

[@ceasarsaran8573]

Because its satire.

[@mallarielove]

@@ceasarsaran8573i doubt that lol. teens are cringe

[@yomilemondragon1721]

As a teenage goth during the same time period: I actually get it. We didn't call them "preps", or really have a name for them, but I think I know the kind of people she's describing, and they 100% threw the first stone lol. If you wore alternative fashion back then you couldn't walk down a school corridor without people openly pointing at you, calling you names, sometimes following you around to call out insults and try to get a reaction...and they did all look a certain way (and it's probably location-specific, as I wouldn't describe the people who harassed me as "preps". Chavs maybe? But definitely not preps). It's hard to describe but you learned to profile the kind of people that were going to give you shit and they almost _always_ did. For some reason when you tell people this they don't believe it and tend to point out "but there were _loads_ of people dressed like you! You weren't different!" and like...yeah. We knew. Tell that to the complete stranger following me down the corridor chanting at me to go kms XD It was hard not to develop that learned reaction, and as a teenager without the self-awareness to articulate "I have noticed a correlation between people who conform to a certain aesthetic and who actively engage in antisocial behaviour and I can't seperate the two" it very easily manifested as prejudice.

[@maddieb.4282]

I think the irony is purposeful because the writers are clearly more sophisticated than their style would suggest

[@morganmeeves1286]

My Immortal is certainly one of the fanfics ever written. The characters are in it and the dialogue is words. The author is absolutely an author and the story is one of the stories ever written. It's a fanfic that exists.

[@cockyrocky9377]

"Reads like kids who are young and repeating things without the understanding the implications or consequences" As someone who was a teen in highschool in 2006/2007 (I was 15, 16) this is honestly how I remember it. I'm sure some of the people expressing their ideation were struggling with mental illness and don't want to minimize those people's experience in HS but honestly it was *disturbing* how trendy it was to self h*rm and talk about it and show off the scars for this weird emo clout when I was a teen.

[@RainWelsh]

Speaking as one of the kids who used to self-harm due to legitimate mental health issues, the whole “cutting yourself is so trendy” thing was infuriating. My self-harm was a natural progression from realising that punching things/slamming my head against things when I was upset made me less upset, to realising I could get the same effect much faster with something sharp. It was secret, shameful, but the only way I could vent any big negative emotions (which like, as a teenage girl with undiagnosed autism/severe depression, there were a lot of big emotions on the go). So to go into school and have to sit through shit like “see this, yeah, my mam shouted at me for staying out so I cut myself and told her she’d made me do it haha” and “Tom turned me down so I scratched his name into my arm so he’d know he fucked up” made me want to start chucking people through windows.

[@AM12399]

not sure how to word this but for me personally (as a person who has struggled w/ severe mental illness), if tara and raven were real teenagers i kinda hope the self-harm and the suicide of a friend were just complete lies for edgy "clout" (incredibly offensive as that would be), instead of being real struggles they were dealing w/ at the time. i have known people who lied about similar things and when the truth came out i was kinda relieved bc while it was a terrible thing to lie about at least it was better than the alternative :/

[@amandad8922]

Idk, self harm is pretty serious even if people are doing it to be trendy. Wouldn't that be its own cry for help if someone thinks they need to hurt themselves to be accepted by friends and peers?

[@Mothman_In_a_T-Pose]

I do remember it almost being fetishized in the alt world and in certain corners of tumblr. It's how I learned about it, and it's how I started. There's also this one book (Willow, I think it was?) that also contributed. It's fucking wild and a little bit sick that it was once seen as hip and cool, instead of dangerous and destructive.

[@cockyrocky9377]

@@amandad8922 idk how to properly describe the nuance "c*tting" had in the 00s to be honest. Look up some emo lyrics from the decade and youll most likely see an intense romanticization of self-hate/h*rm. Another commenter described it as "fetishized," which I agree, and i also agree with you in that said fetishization was definitely indicative of struggling with issues (even if struggling with ideation wasn't genuinely one of them).

[@starrynight5425]

Raven wrote an entire Harry Potter fic with barely any Harry Potter stuff in it. She was ahead of her time based on what J.K. Rowling has become

[@sockpuppy8811]

In hindsight, The world would have been better if Rowling had disappeared to never been seen again like Tara did at the end of My Immortal

[@bellepeppermint]

I like to think that, every time Raven and Tara almost forget about all this, another one of these videos is made and forces them to remember

[@jonunya6552]

14:30 my sixth grade self would like to say that Luna of all people would DEFINITELY not be a prep; in this emofied universe she’d probably be a scene kid

[@literallywhy6162]

Somewhere out there, Tara is in her 30s, working a normal job and living a normal life. We may never know what happened to her. There’s also an element that I don’t hear brought up as often that she was a *child* writing My Immortal. When I was Tara’s age, someone in my family found my fanfics and I had to delete them all. It’s entirely possible that Tara’s parents didn’t like what she was up to online and that’s why My Immortal was deleted. I don’t think she’ll ever come forward of her own volition, but at this point, if she does, she’d have to have a hell of a lot of proof for people to believe her. I hope if she sees how so many people are still talking about her, she knows that a great number of us *aren’t* laughing at her like the preps who flamed her story; we love her as an internet icon who made history! Everybody who’s ever written fanfic was a 14 year old who couldn’t write for shit once, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of

[@annoyingginger5077]

The true irony is that, since Hogwarts is in Scotland, Ebony wouldn't have been able to get to a hot topic, they don't exist in the UK and she can't legally get to America easily without taking a flight. The author is so obviously American, it's freaky. Edit: I can't remember where I found out about Hogwarts location on Great Britain, I probably guessed due to how the train left at like 9am and they arrived at Hogwarts when it was relatively dark, implying a long journey. Also 1.6k like damn boi

[@husky6732]

She's definitely more likely to be from the US than from Canada. We have hot topics here in Canada, but they're not very common, I'm not kidding, there's only around 30 or so hot topics in all of Canada

[@annoyingginger5077]

@@husky6732 England has 0, but we have a lot of independent stores that do similar styles, like "cool merch" who have two stores and do fandom stuff, shirts, hoodies, plushies and notebooks.

[@cheezbiscuit4140]

maybe there's a wizard's hot topic or something.

[@satapon4129]

I'm from England and DREAMED of going to America just for Hot Topic lol. It's maybe a possibility she could've been like me and thought the store was really cool without ever stepping in? (Though British highschool is from age 11-16)

[@PhoebeTheFairy56]

She obviously takes the corpse (because gothic) of the flying ford anglia to the nearest hot topic /j

[@StuffedCrows]

Hey Strange, the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas is often called DFW. Dubya is specifically a pronunciation of the letter W you would hear in Texas. Tara very possibly could have lived in Fort Worth or one of the surrounding suburbs.

[@gregorywiederecht]

That makes sense!

[@kaveh..]

oh my god you’re telling me i’ve possibly been living near the creator of my immortal

[@StuffedCrows]

@@kaveh.. It's a distinct possibility that we both have. Well not me anymore but still.

[@re3tro0]

my entire life i could've possibly been living near the author of my immortal

[@adhdlorde]

I can’t believe I might live near the person who put this blessed piece of fiction out into the world what a honor

[@mavericklysander]

The announcement of the next episode has the same vibes as “we are going be discussing three high profile impersonators of the grand duchess Anastasia”

[@fairycat23]

Tara Gilesbie is the 21st-century equivalent of Anastasia Romanova.

[@SuspiciousS.]

From '"I'm Not Okay", there's a half-vampire character named Darren. This is a reference to a book series called 'Cirque Du Freak" which, spoilers for the first book, is a human, named Darren, who became a half-vampire to save a friend and starts a new life with the vampire who runs Cirque Du Freak after faking his own death. This is a pretty niche book series and can be used as further proof that this is not a troll.

[@eiliscantsleep]

Wait I know those books. And it ties into my theory. The Darren Shan books are Irish. Tara was an EXTREMELY popular name in ireland during the 90s- I grew up with a few Tara's and it didn't even occur to me for a while that it was an edgy pseudonym like raven. Dubya could easily be Dublin. Now theres never been a hot topic in ireland, but as an edgy preteen wannabe goth in the 2000s, I knew the name. So yeah, I'm claiming My Immortal as a work of irish literature, up there with bram stoker and oscar Wilde!

[@constantlycomic1290]

I never read those books because I couldn't get over the fact that the author named the main character after himself

[@jessicalanger7599]

@@eiliscantsleep also i’m pretty sure there’s reference to a “mobile” instead of a cell phone at some point 😳

[@eiliscantsleep]

@@constantlycomic1290 I dont think that's the authors real name, (as in it's a pen name) but it does get bizzare and meta with the character and author being alternate universe versions of eachother. Honestly was a fun series.

[@eiliscantsleep]

@@jessicalanger7599 oh yeah, it's all coming together

[@panqueque445]

"It's been called both the best and worst fanfiction ever written" Both equally true statements.

[@user-jt4rz7rr6j]

You can't deny it's one of the stories ever written!

[@EllesHut]

I love this comment because I just can't tell whether you left out a word on purpose or not and that's just so fitting.

[@Tri-Goat]

@@EllesHut oh, its a popular joke format these days the usual format is: "This really is one of the (x) ever (made/written/etc)"

[@EllesHut]

@@Tri-Goat Ah ok, thanks for telling me! Don't think I've seen that before but My Immortal sure is one of the stories ever.

[@hihey229]

@@EllesHut Out of all stories written, it sure is one of 'em!

[@manilovefnaf_ch3rr1]

it sure is

[@irinakermong1217]

Wait. The first fic. "Heart beat like a subway train" is from Maria by Blondie. Okay, now I'm convinced more than ever that these fics were written by a troll making fun of bad HP fic. I don't see why an earnest emo kid would know about Blondie unless they secretly like their parents' music.

[@threeguesses4948]

Blondie was my first ever concert. I was 7. I was obsessed with them between the ages of 5 and 8 because my parents hated kids music and decided I should grow up listening to Blondie, Bon Jovi, the Mighty Bosstones, Doris Day, etc. Then I got a bit older and got into MCR and all that jazz and swiftly pretended I never liked any of that old stuff in the first place but you can bet I still remembered some of the lyrics, even if I wouldn't necessarily have been able to point out where they were from. It's possible that, if Raven is a real person, she had a similar experience. Or maybe she heard it in the background and latched onto the lyric because she thought it was cool. But yeah when I clocked that my immediate thought was 'oh aye deffo a troll' too.

[@chet_irl]

ah, my favorite fanfic, “my immoral”❤️

[@cadenceolivia6304]

It was certainly immoral

[@anusername8350]

I built my morals around it so more like My Moral am I right?

[@alisaurus4224]

I thought maybe it was an even smuttier meta-parody

[@garfieldenjoyer2543]

Minor spelling mistake

[@alisaurus4224]

@@garfieldenjoyer2543 or Freudan slip?

[@semogecarg]

i'm a big fan of the theory that tara had a crush on raven, and was playing into the goth and harry potter themes to try to win her approval. based on the petition and some of her other writings online, she does seem to be a genuinely insecure young teenager who was reaching out for attention and validation. i don't think this level of frantic desperation could be concocted by a troll.

[@malmao5275]

I am around the same age as Tara (presumably) and I also wrote a cringy fanfic about my fantasy crush with a friend who I had a couple blow up fights with at around the same time. Like Tara and Raven, there was also a disparity in our writing abilities and one of us (me) worked as an editor for the other. Like Tara and Raven, one of us was way more into the universe we were working with while the other mostly focused on one person in particular within that world. Unlike Tara and Raven, however, we never published it online, thank god. The point is that I do feel like I have a unique perspective when I say that I absolutely believe the author and the editor of My Immortal were 100% genuine. My friend and I were better with grammar, and we were definitely the preps those two hated so much lol. But a lot of the attitude and the heart and the general behavior on display are very familiar to me.

[@KanaG44]

Wow, your comment brings back memories. Although much later than My immortal I too remember writing a fanfic about a crush. We originally had to write a story for English class in 3rd grade 10y.o. 2014. I then got inspired and wrote a short fanfic about a crush and even published it somewhere. What I remember now thinking about it is really similar to My immortal, so I can corroborate the behaviour being similar.

[@ashbunny2645]

@Mal Mao, is this a low key admission of being Tara? ( or Raven). Imagine, they could be walking among us without us ever knowing.......

[@SomeRandomGuy1098]

PREPZ GO HOME !!!!!!!!

[@PhoenixRoseYT]

This reminds me so much of me and my middle school friend. She was really into Kingdom Hearts and made an OC that was supposed to get with Sora, so then *I* made an OC that got with Sora. I wrote a fanfic that was absolutely FULL of Evanescence lyrics that my character would sing in the story, like I wrote out all of the song My Immortal in there. This was circa 2005-2006 when I was 10-11 years old. Thankfully we didn’t go online in those days at my age so it stayed on my laptop. Truly, what a time to be alive.

[@localhearthian2387]

"Raven admitted to never reading the Harry Potter books" Ah, a woman of culture. And a true Potterhead as well.

[@beatricefalby6378]

honestly when you said "they need to share a brain for some reason" it made me think of those like, homoerotic girl friendships you have in hs before you're out of the closet that ends w a really huge blowout (like their friendship did)

[@Matthy63]

and they were gfs ("ew not in that way") Like, the homophobia is extremely on brand for the time period but it's also so funny to me that the author would write "gf" then scold the readers for "misreading" her rather than just, not writing "gf" in the first place? Or thinking "bi guys are hot" but going ballistic at Draco and calling him slurs? Like it's humorous in hindsight that the queer positivity is all over the place but not necessarily a troll thing idk genuinely I can think of people from 2006 who would both fetishize queer men and also be extremely homophobic.

[@hex0578]

Not to mention, in the chapter after raven and tara make up, ebony randomly starts describing how pretty willow is? Saying her boobs are big and that she's got a great body and stuff... Could just be Tara trying to make it up to her friend after insulting her, but still

[@colorbar.s]

this comment is about to make me realise something about an old friendship

[@shawnalynn5198]

Yupppp this is definitely on brand for someone who was having a bi awakening but in a bit of denial about it. Homophobia was really accepted at that time, sadly.

[@beeaggro2593]

@@Matthy63 Ah yeah the fujioshi insanity. You still see it around tbh

[@littlemsterious991]

y'know. i feel bad for tara. who found a way to express herself on the internet and be open and confident and cringey. only to then be bullied into obscurity. as someone who also was a wanna be goth kid and had no way to express that for so long (partly due to very limited internet access) i kind of admire her and her confidence.

[@EclipseDoesArt]

Ok but as someone who is actually learning Japanese that part is HILARIOUS. “Hajimemashite” is 100% NOT something you say when greeting a friend-it’s EXCLUSIVELY for first-time meetings! It’s much more “nice to meet you” than “how do you do”. Depending on the time of day, Bloody Mary would actually have said “ohayo” (or “ohayo gozaimas” if she wanted to be more polite), “konnichiwa”, or “konbanwa” to greet Ebony. Also, “kawaii” means “cute”, so Ebony probably meant to say “sugoi” to the news of Willow’s demise. I realize how absolutely ridiculous it is to correct the Japanese in My Immortal of all things, I just wanted to share because I think languages are really cool in general •w•

[@Matthy63]

Kawai

[@MimeThe]

This may have been 6 months ago but I find this interesting, thanks for sharing

[@EclipseDoesArt]

@@MimeThe I’m glad you think so!! :D

[@thelestrangelair]

I don't know. If someone told me someone I no longer like is no more I may reply with "Cute!" I mean yeah that's cute. LOL.. Bella L

[@EclipseDoesArt]

@@thelestrangelair you’d say “cute” as opposed to “awesome?” /gen

[@tobyf7383]

I remember a "My Immortal" roleplay forum existing. It was amazing and hilarious. Yes, I posted there. No, I have no regrets.

[@thelestrangelair]

OMG who did you play? LOL. That's awesome in the worst of ways!

[@mysteriousnonamegirl7685]

I'm so happy people are FINALLY getting into Raven's works. I have the printed out and on my bookshelf. Never forget Eternity/Goth!Raven!Hermione.

[@mysteriousnonamegirl7685]

Also the fight started cuz Tara stole Raven's Gerard Way poster, and so Raven was holding her sweater hostage.

[@chaoticallysewslidal]

No way. If this is true Thai is the best reason they got into a fight. I really wish these people are real cause they were comedic geniuses without trying

[@kaperjuice]

I remember when the first person to rise as the “The Author of My Immortal” was proved fake and it absolutely destroyed me. That’s when I learned when true intelligence is found only the fools will fight for ownership, as a true master knows that to hide his face within shadows is cunning indication of the greatest power: truth

[@bluekittyyoyo6592]

dude you did not need to go that hard, mad props

[@blueestarr16]

My immortal was the thing that showed you that the world was a cruel nest of lies

[@alexgrant7514]

I realised that My Immortal was also written as a way for the author to discover her own burgeoning sexuality and kinks (Draco being tied up and whipped). Its weirdly surreal.

[@TwelveBadgersInASuit]

What I find really interesting is that, outside of the actual My Immortal story (which was prezumably edited), Tara seems to misspell every word she types. Not occasional misspellings, not frequent misspellings, literally every word. I'm not sure what this means. Maybe it just points to her dedication to being different from everyone else. But it seems deliberate.

[@husky6732]

I wonder if she had dyslexia, I remember writing pretty poorly when I was 14 too, especially because I was trying to emulate internet/lolz speech, which was popular at the time. There's also the possibility that she was actually younger than 14, which might have contributed to the poor spelling. I can only speculate that she could of been 10 and had a 14 year old sister, who probably inspired her internet persona. But I think we'll only really be able to know, is if they eventually come forward, if they're still alive, because although they clearly had a romanticized view of mental health issues and self harm, something that wasn't particularly uncommon on the internet at the time, you can't really say she didn't have mental health issues or self harmed, since we really don't know anything about her. If she's still out there, I do hope I get to see an interview with her someday, because I would absolutely buy My Immortal merch, just to be able to own a legendary piece of internet history

[@Sam_on_YouTube]

For example, ne1 was a very popular way to write anyone. A lot of that shorthand developed because it was easier to text on a phone that didn't have a proper keyboard.

[@miglek9613]

The awful spelling could also be explained by the writer not being a native english speaker and just starting out with learning the language, not being good at grasping languages or having a bad instructor. I had a chance to text and speak to some people with high confidence in speaking but wobbly english skills and their english had a slightly similar feel to this - lots of spelling errors, very difficult to understand while they're speaking, slightly cutesy/kawaii feel to their spelling. Them being transferred between schools often thanks to their parents travelling for work a lot could have a major negative effect on their education

[@username-mk4qv]

Could *HAVE* been 10. Oh my god, like, are you like, five? flips blonde hair over my shoulder and trips over my slutty pink prep heels

[@gigitastic90]

As someone with a spelling learning disability I remember being that age and just refusing to use spell check for some reason. Like it was a point of pride. I looked back at my old Livejournal and its almost as bad tbh. It's one of the reasons I am so fascinated by this masterpiece.

[@xSummeraain]

Could've* not could of.

[@secretlybees]

If I could ask God 1 question, it would be "Who wrote My Immortal"

[@golwenlothlindel]

"Dubya" is a common pronunciation of the letter "W", particularly common in the American South. Tara's spelling is also consistent with a southerner writing phonetically: particularly someone from the upper South (notice "slettin" instead of "slitting" and the extra 'r's). To avoid confusion with Washington the state, many locals called Washington DC "W" or "Dubya": particularly in the mid-2000s since that was also a nickname for then-President Bush. That is also consistent with the idea that their parents traveled a lot: they were probably employed in government. Finally, I spent the school years 2002-3 living outside of DC. I saw the kind of cavalier attitude towards self-harm which you noted in Tara and Raven all the time among kids who lived in the city. Best guess: they were based in DC. Which yes, very likely means that the most popular fanfiction of all time was written by a black emo/goth girl. That fact may go some way to explaining her hostility towards JK Rowling and the lore of Harry Potter: a franchise that has a definite racism problem despite it's overall liberal politics and general anti-fascist message.

[@jinghuin7515]

YES!! A linguistic analysis!!! Idk no one has done this yet.

[@Tiny_Koi]

Honestly It would make a lot sense.... emo was birthed in the Washington DC area as well.

[@fairycat23]

+

[@Matthy63]

That is a fascinating theory, all the more so because Ebony's whiteness is so centered in her character descriptions she's like, super pale, white foundation, doesn't go in the sun or whatever. Idk what to make of that.

[@Matthy63]

And also like, not to be cringe but the term "ebony" as a poetic (best case scenario, right) synonym for "dark/black" almost universally implies "Black skin" and almost never "black hair" like in my immortal. Like it almost makes it feel more ironic and more trollish that this extremely white girl is called "Ebony" of all things.

[@sagekaley]

i never see people mention this but: people used to just make up friends and stories like this online, too. my one friend did it quite a lot. made whole people out of thin air, writing about parties she had with them, drama, etc. and she inspired me to try my hand at it, too. honestly not as hard as it sounds and we both did it around this time period. making accounts for them, their own emails, everything. it was something pretty harmless when you were just doing it to entertain yourself (and then you have things like msscribe that went super wild with it.)

[@GothGuitarDude]

😂 This is hilarious, if any of your old stories are still online I'd love to read them.

[@420Crows]

i hope raven and tara are doing well now and look back at these fanfics with the same sort of fondness we do, hopefully they also have a diffrent view towards self harm than they did when writing them, would be awesome if one day you manage to get the two of them to do an interview

[@tinnedteainsyrup8943]

My immortal content is truly fascinating...please keep researching every single thing about this mysterious and godly internet fanfiction.....yes...every time I read it I shed a single tear

[@lushfawn]

“my immoral” is a literature classic.

[@princekyle4132]

Dom’t u min “mah imbramble”?

[@lushfawn]

@@kawaiinekopink764 I AM NOT A PREP!!!! >:(

[@pohjanlepakko]

Honestly, I really love the way you talk about My Immortal with so much genuine excitement and also empathy and understanding towards the author! Like is it an absolute garbage fire of a fanfic? Yes, obviously. But is it possible that it was written by some young kids who just wanted to feel cool about themselves and were passionate about their interests? Also yes. Like idk something about the way a lot of people talk about the fic and everything surrounding it online doesn't sit right with me but i love all of your content related to it 🖤 Anyways it's 11pm in my country, my upstairs neighbours are having a party while I sit in my bed surrounded by christmas lights and darkness, watching a 40 minute video on My Immortal and trying to decide if I have enough courage to slide into the dms of a hot emo singer who's mutuals with me on instagram. I love being in my 20s and having just the wildest craziest friday nights, so cool.

[@Vd.alma.]

I must say, to me, a fellow antisocial 20 year old, it sounds like you are living the dream! And we definitelly need updates regarding whether the slide was a smooth and successful one or not.

[@emilyrln]

Do it! Straight up cha cha slide into their DMs!

[@underwaterfae]

Best of luck sliding into those dms :)

[@ashbunny2645]

Bit late but I hope your Friday night adventure proved positive!!

[@fedoramaster6035]

25:07 it cracks me up that corpse bride used to be emo asf. Maybe the emo aesthetic has just changed a bit, but every girl Ik who’s like “oh I love corpse bride” is just super sweet and adorable. Very traditional fem.

[@floettefavors]

I want to believe that Tara went on to become a fashion designer for hot topic and completely forgot about my immortal entirely. She never stopped being an emo girl and she still types and talks like that and is a menace to everyone around her. I want to believe so bad.

[@sasha-is-eepy]

sobs yes please give me that, if nothing else

[@RivenLove]

My Immortal was without a doubt written sincerely. It reminds me so much of the fanfiction my friends wrote in middle school

[@anironsidh]

Same, it reads like the first stuff I wrote back in middle school 😅

[@Mielikkiii]

Thank you for introducing me to the I'm not okay fic. Now I can torture all my Sisters of mercy-listening friends with the line "They stopped at a portrait. It was of a girl with pale skin, long black hair, and black nails. She was the splitting image of the lead singer of Sisters of Mercy."

[@AerinMoriarty]

No offense to Andrew Eldritch but if I were a teenage girl I wouldn't want to be his spitting image 🤣

[@heyitsheidijay]

I'm only halfway through this video but the reading of "Willow"'s death scene has me SCREAMING laughing oh my god "We talked to each other in silence for da rest of da moovie" took me tf out thank u Strange 😭😭😭😭😭😭 Edit: "KORPS BIRD" I AM IN TEARS OH MY GOD

[@daggergrl]

“b’loody mair shook her head enrgtically lethrigcly” had me dying 😭 like girl i dont think you know what those words mean 💀 she literally could not have chosen two words that were less opposite

[@emilyrln]

@@daggergrl i had a stroke 😂😂😂

[@Riokaii]

i think if you were in middle school around the late 2000's, you can probably think of 5 people in your high school class alone who could be the writer of this, and thats what makes it special, it has universal experience written all over it, either you were a person who spoke/wrote like this, or knew some1 who did.

[@Hyperbion7]

There's absolutely no way a troll could have written that. The cultural viewpoints from: a troll who's writing this, or a real (goth) teen writing this are galaxies apart. The voice could MAYBE be replicated, but the gaze is too sincere. A troll wouldnt write in "Luna wearing a pink mini and Gucci shoes like a prep."

[@lazyeclipse]

My guess: It wasn't a troll, but it wasn't serious either. It was two middle or high school girls who were laughing out loud over the keyboard while intentionally writing bullshit - and were veery good at writing bullshit.

[@ChroniclerAether]

It's weird to me that people think that "Dubia"/"Dubya" means Dubai, especially considering how many Americanisms they write into the story. It seems more likely that "Dubya" is slang for "W," which probably means Washington D.C. or Washington state (I'd guess D.C. if I had to pick, haha).

[@InfinityCatsPlease]

There are Americans who live in Dubai, and there were in the early 2000s (my mother and I were two of them)

[@JaylukKhan]

vampires do canonically exist in the hp universe but the terf never utilized them in the story. this is one of the many things tara did better

[@ardin1437]

you are so right

[@thequeenofcringe1585]

Vampires are simply too gay for the terf to handle.

[@JaylukKhan]

@@thequeenofcringe1585 she didn't become terf until after she finished the books though

[@thequeenofcringe1585]

@@JaylukKhan pretty sure she’s always been pretty terfy

[@JaylukKhan]

@@thequeenofcringe1585 she admitted herself that she was radicalized later in life

[@truebornseeker9767]

I’ve never heard anyone talk about Raven and I’m not Okay outside of the My Immortal explanations Knowing that I’m not Okay is better spelt and is more faithful and adoring of Harry Potter makes the whole thing more believable- The idea that two young (likely secretly) mall goth friends really exist out there, one being extremely genuine and the other just wanting to copy their bestie, even if they’re not the best writer, can barely spell, and barely cares about the source material Also I think Tara’s horrific spelling is probably a mix of being young, maybe having dyslexia, mixed with 2000s internet/L337 speak and trying to be cool by shortening words and using z’s, x’s and numbers. My theory for who Tara was has almost always been that she’s a wannabe edgelord who lived in a kinda oppressive and conservative country who just wanted to look cool to her friends and boyfriend by writing a long fanfic, saying she’s depressed and goth, etc, and eventually got tired of being the subject of ridicule and trying to keep up this long story about a series she seemingly didn’t care that much about, and then fully gave up after fanfiction . net deleted My Immortal. I’ve always assumed that most of what she talks about in her A/N about her life are either lies or exaggerations because she’s a dramatic teenager trying to look cool. I never thought about the whole ‘Americans living in Dubai for business and travelling for business’ but that also makes a lot of sense

[@bernderbernder3087]

I will never forgive the hacker for being the harbinger of the end and robbing us of the ending we deserve

[@mahbluebird]

I went down a whole rabbithole like this a few months ago, I was gonna go and make an entire video about it, digging up information on internet archives for days, only to realise: At this point, the people who wrote My Immortal would have come out and admitted who they were if they wanted to be known for it. And I'm not gonna dox two kids just because they had the audacity to be bad at writing. That being said, I saw enough that I believe they're real people, who wrote it earnestly because they wanted to. And that's all I think people need to know.

[@sageisnotaplant99]

I want more information 😭

[@salem-01]

At this point I love not knowing. The curiosity and wonder is half the fun

[@justsaying8041]

I mean to be fair if she was 14 in 2006, she would be 30 now so it's not like they are children you have to worry about and it is extremely likly they don't live in the place they used to as a child

[@RoseCityBBQ]

And everybody clapped

[@dr.rothotnik]

Oh I went down the rabbit hole too and found an ENTIRELY different story. Rose Christo is the most likely candidate because of how much of a pathological liar she was the level of derangement. I went through the WHOLE Kiwi Farms thread, from her brother’s standpoint it was 100% a trollfic and even if she is the one who wrote it, no one will ever believe her or take her seriously again. So I personally keep it a mystery for the fun of it XD

[@animecuteify]

I remember a theory that proposes Tara could've lived in (or near) a 'W' state, Washington D.C. or somewhere in Texas. 'Dubya' is the Texan pronunciation of 'W', but was also a bit of a nickname for George W. Bush who was the U.S. president at the time of My Immortal being written. Could've been Tara poking fun at the pronunciation or just memeing.

[@Cailarp]

My immortal is one of those old internet things that you just have to be there to get it. I was there, I've read the first chapter when it came and my brain chemistry changed forever, fanfiction changed forever that day, Tara wherever you are, my respects, nobody could have written such insane, honest, purely self indulgent fic at 14 yrs old, it's the teenage ego at its finest, the most indulgent decadence of loving something so much that you re- create it in a whole way, smashing their essence, and creating in a way that pleases only you, it's art babes! ✨

[@thelestrangelair]

You are OG, I love it! Thanks for posting this! Bella L

[@airohtheenby]

I always thought of My Immortal as a loving parody. Like people who were genuinely a part of the subculture, but knowingly made it over the top at times to playfully poke fun at how ridiculous it can be

[@VaatiOfDarkness]

The "I'm not joking this is it" i think is a leftover commentary note, for a long time the only way to find I'm Not Okay was someone's text MST version and they had their commentary in bold

[@cadenceolivia6304]

I swear every few months I get to learn something new about My Immortal. Truly the gift that keeps on giving.

[@zoinomiko]

Calling it 'My Immoral" in the title is PERFECT (even if it's probably a typo hahahaha)

[@dove6686]

The authors of my inmortal were the friends we made along the way

[@SkittleStorm]

Blink 183 had me crying, omfg. Honestly, I remember writing as terribly as this on forums back in the day because I was convinced it was very cool, so it wouldn't surprise me if it was all completely legit

[@liaf3iry]

unfortunate this isn’t being taught in history courses, I suggest we ban together and make our OWN school called Tumblr University!

[@tigersinlondon2152]

im not. im not strong enough. please.

[@purplebunn]

Uh oh

[@sasha-is-eepy]

not again

[@arachnidlupus7625]

"My Immortal" walked so "The Bible" could run

[@arachnidlupus7625]

The most important American literary piece in the 21st Century.

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

If any of the people who were claiming the authors of my immortal, they would have been capable of channeling thier teenaged selfs and write a perfectly, tonely matching ending to the My Immortal. Instead they're always like "trust me fam" and show off none of their gothic writting skillz.

[@AshleyVazquez2407]

We could literally find Raven and Tara by configuring a ‘My Immortal Ending Chapter Extravaganza’ by having everyone on earth partner with their friend, it HAS to be a friend, and they have to edit. Meanwhile the writer will have to read my immortal and write out however they think it would have ended. Once done, the editor will edit the chapter. And the judges of this competition are going to be collectively ALL of Tumblr, Gerard Way and Teya. And a copy of Evanescence’s Fallen album will host, since they ran out of funds to actually hire Amy since they would have to fly Out more than 7 billion people to the competition.

[@philiphunn194]

I knew I was old after someone on Reddit didn't know what I was talking about when I mentioned My Immortal. My ancient bones creaked as I explained the madness to them.

[@coyotix]

Unironically the random midsentence ANs are really fun, reminds me of infodumping to friends and stopping to explain something I forgot to

[@Breadothy]

THANK YOU I've been saying that my immortal reads like normal teenager writing for a WHILE now because it *is* one of those things I would have written when I was eleven or twelve and still figuring out how to write or how to exist on the internet etc. It felt genuine to me in it's badness because I WROTE a similarly horrendous fanfiction at a similar stage in my life, so y'know. Very much a thing children do

[@titaniawallace4223]

I like that we're getting a little My Immortal 101 course to get familiar with the material and the circumstances of it's creation before the full reading

[@monicaniblett9651]

She gives me very American vibes. I would also guess British based on some of the phonetic spellings of things ("fings," "goff") and colloquialisms ("maths"), but there's no Hot Topic in the UK so... not sure. Maybe just imagining what Hot Topic would be like since its so '00's classic GOTH. My theory is Dubya/Dubia is a phonetic pronunciation of "W", but then shorted to a nickname.So a city (or state) (..or country?) starting with the letter W. Wisconsin, West Virginia, Williamsburg, Wichita, Worcester, Wales.

[@satapon4129]

As someone who is British and typed like this in the 2000s, I think it may just be an internet slang thing/attempt to seem more cool? There's nothing here that feels British/familiar to me in a way that makes me think this person ever spent time in England. I remember dressing more emo and goth around this time (my family were big into emo so I was an emo child lol) and it was almost "cool"? Unless you were from a posh area, I don't think you would've been bullied for it really (though I am from the North so maybe I had it easier). I remember thinking Hot Topic was the coolest thing in the world, I wanted to go to America just for it and would watch vlogs of people going to it, and British kids very often have a "I want to be American" phase though.

[@gregorywiederecht]

I had the same thought about Dubya! Granted, I couldn't think of any cities that might be nicknamed as such, But my first thought was definitely not "It's totally Dubai."

[@satapon4129]

Oh! I forgot to mention that English high school is from 11-16, which kinda confirms it for me. Enoby would be in British college if she's 17 lol

[@pencildragon]

Re: My Immortal calling it maths, my older sister was a bit of a teaboo (and a big Harry Potter fan) in the 2000s and used surface-level, well-known-at-the-time British spellings or terms in writing. If maths wasn't just Tara 2000s interneting by pluralizing something not "normally" written like that, she could've just really liked Britain as an American envious of things like English castles and particular accents. Or it was just a typo and I'm ascribing way too much to one letter in one word in one fanfiction beyond modern understanding.

[@eyeballjay]

@@satapon4129 A lot of schools here have sixth form college as part of school though so most people just continue calling it "school", at least where I'm from

[@laurenk6365]

I always love hearing more on this absolute cultural phenomenon

[@girzarro]

the way they wrote luna in ghost of you as a prep as if she wasn't like, written as a very severe outcast in the books lol

[@alanisisamess8977]

The way Tara writes is literally how I'd write in my diary as a 10 year old so people couldn't understand it if they read it. By the difficulty Teya's having reading these posts I'm pretty confident my strategy worked 😭

[@tvvistedstitches5470]

This is my all time favorite Internet Thing that has ever happened, because of Sarah Z's video on the guy that reached out to her claiming to have written it. I sooooo hope that's one of the people you're covering in the next one!!! Love your videos!

[@RisingSunfish]

Yeah, I assume the three contenders have to be the Legion of Tobies, the woman who tried to pull the autobiography scam, and the Acid Bath Sisters (who didn’t actually make a claim to the story so much as have one thrust upon them, and at the same time still seem like the most likely candidates IMO).

[@tvvistedstitches5470]

@@RisingSunfish right!! Thanks for your comment, I knew that I knew the other two but had forgotten as it’s been a while.

[@exxplosion9276]

Gotta love the misread of luna as a character entirely lol

[@darlingbrookebooks]

i love the fact that teya goes into a deep dive for these videos. im honestly so impressed every time i watch these types of videos. i love her so much😭

[@emilyrln]

what you don't know is that his real name is Strange Æons 😜

[@KittyCatCoke]

I honestly feel like they might have been sisters. Because Tara really acts like a younger sibling who sees their older sibling doing something they view as "cool" and deciding to mimic it. It would also explain if it was like you said, with both of them having parent who traveled to Dubai for work and that's why they know more stuff about hot topic and being Gothic despite Dubai not really having a hot topic or much of a Goth community at the time. It would make more sense if they had the same parents rather then being friends who coincidentally both had parents move to Dubai for work when they both use to live in a country with a hot topic

[@ckat13]

There's a joke in The Good Place nearly identical to 'I'm not related to Gerard Way but I wish I was because he's hot'. I've always thought that maaaaybe someone on the writing team is a My Immortal fan. It's probably not true but I WANT TO BELIEVE

[@amandalynn4979]

WAIT WHAT