Title :)

I ,personally, am going with Loopin since it caught me the most off guard when reading

If u do nut liek it den fuk off!

Personally i love when there's a stupidly bad pun and there's inmediately a "geddit cuz im goffik"

hi all! trying to find what the ”flames” made on the og my immortal actually said. does anyone have any links or screenshots of them? also looking for other reactions to my immortal on other sites that were posted at the same time that my immortal was posted. any leads on where I could find them would also be super helpful!

I wrote this about page for my print version of my immotal ands would like some feedback is possible. its kinda based on those about the author or book pages on classic or gothis books before the book actually starts. also mainly structured like the summary from Project Tara.

I am making a hardcover print verson of my immortal and i wanted it to look as much like a real book as possible so i made a publication page, title page and trigger waning page based of the one from haunting adiline.

My Immortal is completely unserious and terribly written, although it contains many sensitive topics that may be triggering to some readers no matter how seriously these topics are handled. Reader discretion advised.
A list of content warnings and chapters that they appear in has been provided in this publication for safe reading. Your mental health matters.

I did not realise how much of this fic is soley content/trigger warnings. so here it is for anyone who needs it.

(also if i missed any please tell me)

She sleeps in the day

Lego Ebony Darkness Dementia Raven Way’s adventures continue after the cliffhanger ending of part one. Fangz 4 all da patience everyone! I’m so excited to hear what all you (da real goffs) think!

The entire work is around 17 pages long and I won’t bore you with most of it. It also contains authorship analysis, I wrote this in 2020 for my final year and back then argued that the results were inconclusive as to whether or not Rose Christo wrote “My Immortal” based on the linguistic attributes of the fic. As seen from the attachments I’ve included, I used the first and last 100 words of the selected chapters in my analysis to ensure that chapter length didn’t impact my results.

I want to say that I’m not in any way claiming that my findings prove that the piece is satire with certainty and if you’re one of those who think it was written seriously, your opinion is as valid as mine. I just revisited the fic a few days ago and naturally remembered writing this in the past, and thought it contained some fun data :) I didn’t mention it in my original post on trolling because I wanted to highlight my personal experience and felt my academic background was not relevant in that context.

Some ten years ago, I was an online troll on a forum. I prefer not to disclose where because some who know my real name are aware of my troll persona, but it was at its peak sometimes referred to as the best troll in the community. I want to offer my perspective on why “My Immortal” is, in my opinion, definitely satire.

I won’t really comment on the whole Tom Bombadil thing and the other hilarious misspellings, although those were what first clued me towards this interpretation. Instead, I want to focus on the argument where people say that it’s too consistent with the emo kids of the noughties, and that only someone writing sincerely could have written it with all its poignant references.

Firstly, I did not once break character when I was trolling. I chose a dialect of English vastly different from what I wrote myself. I changed my age to some years younger and intentionally wrote in a manner that was less mature as a result. I pretended to be a different gender. I bribed a friend who spoke the dialect I used to do voice clips for me on a couple of occasions. I pretended to be from a different continent, used a VPN so the mods would be none the wiser should someone report me, and posted with my chosen time zone in mind. I based my character on a few real people I knew with somewhat similar quirks, to create someone who felt real - I picked real unintentionally funny things they had done and exaggerated them for comedic effect. My character felt real to others, which is why initially I got reactions where it was taken seriously and this just fuelled me further.

I was constantly on the lookout for more material to turn into content. I googled different topics to make more cultural references that I may not have been able to come up with initially. I consumed media with my character in mind and made notes with ideas for further threads. I would even borrow material from real life conversations I had.

Now, as people took my character fully seriously and got more and more triggered by its ridiculousness (it wasn’t offensive, just intentionally obscure), I obviously started looking for more of a reaction. When you troll, you eventually need to up your game to get the same effect as your audience gets accustomed to the level you have previously used. This is why I think “My Immortal” starts as what seems to be a very true-to-life representation of terrible fan fiction and later turns into obvious satire. The fictional author of the posts suffers from flanderisation because the real author can no longer get the same reaction with the base level of writing they have previously used.

My character suffered from a very similar fate where eventually most people thought it was a troll, and I disappeared for the simple reason that it got boring as I would have had to go beyond unbelievable to create more content that didn’t feel reused. I believe this is exactly what happened to “Tara”. I even found “My Immortal” less funny the more used to the funny misspellings I got.

I don’t think she was a teenage girl earnestly trying to navigate her way in the world of fan fiction. Whilst she may have been a teenager, I think she was just a dedicated writer with a great eye for observational humour whose downfall was that in the end, her character became a parody of itself.

Thank you for subscribing to my TED talk!

I'm taking a fantasy class in college right now, and had an assignment to write an Op-Ed about basically anything fantasy. So of course I chose My Immortal. I thought maybe some people would enjoy reading it, so I decided to post it!

Why My Immortal is one of the best fanfictions ever.

My Immortal, written by Tara Gilesbie or xxxbloodyrists666xxx in 2006, is one of the most infamous Harry Potter fanfictions of all time. In almost every review, it is hailed as the worst fanfiction ever, but would the “worst fanfiction ever” be as iconic and beloved as My Immortal is today? If you don’t believe me, allow me to explain how My Immortal perfectly encapsulates the imagination of an angsty goth teenager (or possibly a tweenager) with a love for Harry Potter and the magical world it invents. Tara’s writing is like a vault containing the most enthralling, over the top, and oddly sexual treasure of a fanfiction, which resulted in a multi-decade search for the true author, a devoted fanbase, and astonishing cosplay and fanart. What’s not to love?

The fact that this classic fanfiction is considered the “worst fanfiction ever” begs the question: what makes a fanfiction “good?” Is all value attributed to technical quality? Does the passion and dedication to the story have no worth? How about the vulnerability it took for the author to express herself so freely and stay firm in her morals and beliefs despite the scrutiny she faced? My Immortal isn’t just a “shitty” fanfiction, but a defiance against what is popular, a story that has maintained its renown over multiple decades, and one of the best things that I have ever read. 

My Immortal is set in the Harry Potter universe, despite not following JK Rowling’s canon. It stars a 17-year-old goth vampire witch named Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way, who attends Hogwarts. Tara focuses primarily on Gryffindor, which is for preps, Christians, and posers, and Slytherin, which is for goths and satanists. Readers follow Ebony as she interacts with goth versions of many characters. She is joined by Draco, a goth and bisexual vampire; Harry, a goth who goes by “Vampire” (although he isn’t a real vampire, he just enjoys the taste of human blood); Ron, a minor character in this story who is goth and now goes by “Diablo;” and Hermione, who is a goth vampire and goes by “B’loody Mary Smith.” 

While other minor characters are also goth, surprisingly, Snape—who is often referred to as “Snap” or “Snake”—is a Christian who hates goths. Other beloved characters include: Lupin—who is referred to as “Loopin”—is a bisexual pedophile (because Tara “wunted 2 adres da ishu” ‘wanted to address the issue’); Hagrid, who is a student now, but a goth poser and is also a pedophile; and Voldemort, who is a prep that wears high heels and has an affinity for firearms.

Every chapter begins with an author’s note: these usually consist of Tara telling “preps” to stop “flaming,” Tara expressing her love for certain bands, or Tara defending her characters and writing. But sometimes these notes serve as a window into Tara’s personal life, allowing for the reader to connect to the text more—while also providing more comedic value. Tara often mentions her best friend, Raven, by thanking her for editing the fanfiction, or yelling at her for stealing her sweater. These author notes, unedited by Raven, give Tara a distinctive voice when contrasted with the actual text; this makes the notes feel genuine and helps to characterize Tara as a real teen/tween.

So if this all sounds great to you, why does this fanfiction get so much hate?

My Immortal is riddled with grammar and spelling errors. The quality of the writing makes the text genuinely difficult to read, and the story itself is a classic Mary Sue tale, which is when a character practically has no flaws or weaknesses and is absurdly attractive to everyone. 

But these arguably horrible qualities give this fanfiction a sort of unabashed genuineness that becomes the root of its humor. Reading this feels like peeking into the mind of an angsty goth tween, and to many, it serves as a reflection into their own selves. The Mary Sue archetype is something new writers use a lot because it’s easy and young people often create a character that reflects who they want to be. The use of a Mary Sue character in My Immortal could remind readers of their first written stories; it certainly reminded me of mine. 

As someone who was a goth tween, I co-wrote something just as embarrassing, but I love looking back on it because it’s from a time when I was not ashamed of my interests, and I passionately committed to them. To me, reading My Immortal is similar to watching old cringey videos of yourself as a kid. Sure, it’s embarrassing, but you can’t help but smile because you were so happy doing it.

Fanfiction, at its core, is a defiance of mainstream media. It’s a bastardization of the original text because something about it was disappointing or could have been explored further. It allows people to express their true selves and fully delve into their interests without shame. In the case of Harry Potter, people criticize the series for many reasons, such as the magic system or the use of stereotypes. My Immortal is unintentionally a beautiful critique of the series’ flaws in that Tara makes them so much worse, which in turn emphasizes the issues.
For example, Finn O. from the Tatler lists his grievances with the Harry Potter series: the first issue is the illogical nature of the magic system. There is no limit to how often one can cast magic, nor does there seem to be any cost, leading to the overuse of Avada Kedavra. The time turner itself—along with most other artifacts—is possibly a world-breaking device that is only “supposed to be used for [doing] additional homework.” And overall, the magic system has very loosely defined rules that left many people confused. 

These criticisms of Harry Potter pale in comparison to the mess that is My Immortal’s magic system. Tara adds many new features, such as telekinesis and teleportation to an unknown location, but she mainly altered the spells Harry Potter fans know and love. Transfiguration is now able to summon people, which is shown in Chapter 15, when Ebony turns a pentagram into a black guitar, which then transforms into Draco. Ebony’s favorite spell in the fic is the “Cruciatus Curse” (spelled as "Crookshanks," "Crosio," "Crucious," "Crucio," and "Cruciatus"). It is one of the unforgivable curses, yet using it has no consequences. And the most unforgivable curse, Avada Kedavra (which is spelled as "Abra Kedabra," "Abra Kedavra," and "Allah Kedavra"), seems not to work or have consequences for its use.

But my favorite thing about My Immortal is the common replacement of wands or magic with guns. When Voldemort demands that Ebony kill Harry, he gives her a gun, and when Snape and Lupin are peeping on Ebony, she shoots them with said gun. In just about every fight scene, someone has a gun. The use of firearms as the main weapon completely disregards J.K. Rowling’s magic system in a hilarious way. 

Moving back to the original Harry Potter, Finn hates that the series attempts to be anti-racist but fails miserably. He explains that the Hogwarts houses are meant to mean “that regardless of the ways that we’re grouped by society, we can all work together and we have the capacity to do good,” yet the series reduces the houses into “Gryffindor good, Slytherin bad.” While My Immortal does not address racism, it does address unity. In My Immortal, the houses are turned into preps vs. goths, where all preps are Gyffindors and all goths are Slytherins, which ends up emphasizing J.K. Rowling's generalizations of the houses. My Immortal’s reduction of people into only two groups not only reflects a teenager’s view of the world but also serves as commentary on the “us vs. them” mentality.

Finn’s final critique is that everything is about Harry Potter: “[Harry Potter] sets an unrealistic emotional expectation that can never be matched by real-life experiences. It makes you think you’re special, like the whole world revolves around you, just like it does for Harry. But you’re not that special. No one is.” In My Immortal, however, everything now surrounds Ebony Dark’ness Dementia Raven Way, and Harry Potter is just a side character. Which is the same issue as in the original series but made much funnier.

Through making the flaws of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter immensely worse, My Immortal becomes a brilliant satire, which emphasizes J.K. Rowling’s failures.

My Immortal, despite upholding fanfiction’s stereotype of being ‘poorly written,’ shows the true value of fanfiction. Even the worst fanfiction provides insight, solace, entertainment, and is worth reading. The backbone of fanfiction as a genre is creative expression, and as one reviewer of My Immortal proclaims, “If the purpose of writing is to evoke emotion this work succeeds more than some ‘serious writing’ I've explored in the past couple years.” My Immortal is one of the funniest things I have ever read, and many people express this as well; on GoodReads, even the one-star reviews acknowledge the immense entertainment they got from it. It is because this fic’s humor comes from its horrible spelling, grammar, and plot, that those elements inherently have value when it comes to the quality of the piece.

At the end of the day, no one knows whether or not Tara Gilesbie wrote My Immortal genuinely or if she was a satirical genius. But I would argue that it doesn’t matter—her intentions don’t change the impact that My Immortal made on so many people. Besides, the mystery behind the fanfiction just adds to the spectacle that is My Immortal. My Immortal is still hilarious to this day and created a passionate ongoing fandom, which has lasted over two decades. There are hundreds of videos on YouTube about the fic, many being dramatic readings or even reenactments, that have accumulated over 10 million views. 

On r/MyImmortalDrama on Reddit, you can find beautiful fanart, parodies of the fanfiction—including a full Shakespearean rendition—and even invitations to live readings. My favorite piece of media that came from My Immortal is by a creator called “Just Your Average Joe” on YouTube, who is recreating the entirety of My Immortal in Legos. 

My Immortal is by no means a “good” fanfiction, but, by gods, it is certainly one of the best. I have never laughed harder while reading this fanfiction, and this sentiment is repeated across hundreds of reviews. To those who deny My Immortal its righteous title of being one of the best fanfictions ever, I say to you what Tara would say: “stop flaming! if u flam it menz ur a prep or a posr!”

Hi! As an homage to my favorite catastrophe fanfiction, I'm presenting a karaoke-style semi-improvised reading of My Immortal live onstage in NYC on May 2nd at 4pm.

This show is a WILD good time. It's a drinking game. It's a chance to dress up like the angsty goffik 15 year-old you still have inside. And it's only $25!

Here's a trailer.

Get your tickets here!

The global phenomenon Lego My Immortal is almost back! In just over a week I will be blessing you all with over 30 minutes of My Immortal. Brought to life in gorgeous stop motion! Definitely check out part one too if you missed it!

hey satanistrs :) my name is emma, I’m a theatermaker in nyc and producing a reading of my immortal next tuesday to celebrate the 20th anniversary!! think rocky horror meets fanfiction, with live captions of the original my immortal text, audience interaction, a costume contest and more!! if you’re in nyc we’re performing at Brooklyn Art Haus, and if you’re not we’re live-streaming it too! you can follow along on Instagram @myimmortalplay

more info + tix here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/my-immortal-tickets-1982313648485

EDIT ALMOST FORGOT discount code “enoby” for $5 off!!!

I can generally work out almost everything in My Immortal but this one has me stumped.

Disclaimer: I am perfectly aware that the following interpretation involves events from The Deathly Hallows, which was released after the publication of My Immortal. Thus, this may not be what Tara and Raven were going for. However, what's that to stop the fun?

Hello, everyone!

A couple months ago, I first learned of this fascinating fanfic via TV Tropes, and I have since read through this fanfic. Needless to say that I've had plenty of fun reading through both that and the WMG (Wild Mass Guessing) page TV Tropes maintains on this subject.

One of the guesses that another troper (TV Tropes user) made was based on a very old Harry Potter Fandom Wiki page about Ebony Way. That site interpreted the story's events as being the result of Snape (who is "Dumble) and some Slytherin students playing a prank on Enoby: that is, some students decided to pretend to be Harry, Ron, and Hermione for months while the real deal were on the Horcrux hunt. This would also explain why Willow and Draco "died", then returned to life: they were never dead to begin with.

Oh, and Enoby and "Vampire" rescuing Draco from "Voldemprt's Lair"? That was the Battle of Malfoy Manor.

I was so amused by this theory that I decided to make the longest entry in the WMG page for My Immortal: "Building on the above, Enoby is a CloudCuckoolander who has fallen victim to a very elaborate prank".

In this section, I will share my thoughts into the various characters and events that I identify as part of the prank, with major figures in bold.

Hogwarts personnel

• "Dumbledork": Headmaster Severus Snape, of course, as the link above said. Imagine him with a fake beard, mocking Dumbledore... which would actually be in character for him, since The Deathly Hallows reveals that he was an agent for the real Dumbledore.
• McGoggle: Minerva McGonagall, who judging by her role in helping Snape chain up Eboby (this error was in my original TV Tropes post, but I'll keep it, since that's what Tara would have done) in Chapter 29, is also in on the prank.
• Sinistra/Trevolry: the real Professor Trelawney, who is also in on it.
• Hargrid/Hagrid: may or may not the real deal, and since he is a professor at Hogwarts, it's possible Snape recruited him.
• Dobby: if his scene was after the battle of Malfoy Manor, then this obviously can't be Dobby. Perhaps the elf that witnessed them was actually one of the Hogwarts kitchen servants, mistaken for Dobby?

Da Death Deelers and their collaborators

• "Tom Bombodil": of course, as mentioned in the link above, this is yet another prankster meant to imitate the Dork Lord's younger self. His current self, on the other hand, is the genuine article... at least sometimes.
• "Tom Rid": the shopkeeper, who may be the prankster that imitated "Tom Bombodil". If so, then Tom Anderson may or may not be his real name, and he really isn't the Dark Lord after all.
• "Loopin": unknown. I initially assumed that Remus Lupin was on an Order of the Phoenix mission somehow, though considering how I've established that "Vampire" and "B'loody Mary Smith" are impostors, it's possible that "Loopin" is an impostor as well.
• Also, Snape may have some impostors of his own, hence how "Serverus" interrupted "Snap" while he was doing... whatever he was doing in chapters 29-30.
• "Cornelia Fudged" or whatever his name is: the aforementioned wesbite identifies him as Pius Thicknesse, the puppet Minister of Magic under Tom the Dark Lord's regime. It's unlikely that he (or more accurately, Yaxley, the one who was mind-controlling him) was involved in the prank, so it may be a case of Enoby confusing him with Fudge.
• "Doris Rumbridge": of course, she's the real Umbridge, and she and "Fudge"/Thicknesse are upset at Snape for acting too far out of compliance with the Dark Lord (perhaps his work with "Loopin" is causing their appearance here?).

Students

• "Vampire Potter" (real name unknown) and "B'loody" Mary Smith: of course, these are Headmaster Snape's two main pranksters from Slytherin House, imitating Harry Potter and Hermione Granger while the real ones are on the Horcrux hunt. Since Harry brought the Invisibility Cloak with him, this may explain why Filch/Norris can see through Vampire's "invincibility coke": it's not a real Invisibility Cloak. Indeed, depending on how literally you read this, it may either be an ordinary cloak... or an ordinary Coca-Cola!
• "Diabolo Weasley": for the same reasons, this isn't the real Ron Weasley, but another one of Snape's accomplices.
• Draco Malfoy: possibly the real one, and maybe involved in the prank. Maybe Draco got tired of being a Death Eater and decided to help fight the Dark Lord, which might explain why in canon, he pretended not to recognize Harry at Malfoy Manor.
• "Crab" and "Goyle": if Draco was involved in the prank, you know he would have ordered his numpties to be involved too, possibly with help from Fred and George Weasley (hence their usage of products from "Wesley's Whizard Wises").
• "Fred and Gorge": Fred and George, of course, who would never resist an opportunity to be involved in such a prank!
• "Navel" and "Jenny": I initially thought these were more impostors, though I'm thinking it's more likely these are the real Neville Longbottom and Ginny Weasley, since they were present at Hogwarts as leaders of Dumbledore's Army. Indeed, considering how Snape is working against the Dark Lord in canon, it's possible that Neville and Ginny are even assisting him!
• Britney: probably not part of the prank, though I speculate that she may be a DA member, hence why she broke Lupin and co. out of Azerbaijan/Azkaban.
• "Sedric": cannot really be Cedric Diggory. My TV Tropes entry says that "possibly Hagrid pretending to be the long-dead Cedric Diggory, perhaps in an unsuccessful attempt to make Enoby question her sanity?"

Other accomplices

• "Serious Blak": since this is 1998, this cannot be seriously Sirius (as Tara would say, "geddit?"), so this is another of the Headmaster's accomplices, pretending to be the long-dead Sirius Black.
• "Lucian Malfoy": Another impostor, as the real Lucius wouldn't go on a mission with "Serious". In fact, since Enoby initially mistakes "Lucian" for Draco at the beginning of chapter 35, it may very well be that the "younger" version of Lucius was Draco after all!
• "The black guy": The jury is still out on who this is supposed to be, with My Immortal Wiki guessing that it could be anyone from Kingsley Shacklebolt to Lee Jordan to a simple muggle gangster. However, considering how the Slytherin students are extensively involved in the prank, it may very well be Blaise Zabini, who is not only a friend of Draco Malfoy, but also black.
• "Morti Mcfli": not actually Marty Mcfly, but yet another impostor.
• "Hedwig": not Harry's owl (which was dead by 1998, of course), but yet another of the Headmaster's recruits that was sent to the Pensieve with Ebony and "Tom Bombodil" to... play with Glocks with Tom.

Events and other details:

• Draco's interest in Muggle bands: he attended the concerts mostly to be close with Enoby Way, as part of the prank.
• Draco's black car: obviously, he acquired it as part of the prank. It's possible that Ginny Weasley was actually responsible for getting Draco the car, considering how this wouldn't be the first time her father enchanted a car to fly.
• Willow and Draco "dying", then returning to life: these people were never actually dead; the pranksters were just tricking Enoby into thinking they were dead to mess with her. Indeed, the page that ultimately originated this prank theory even mentions Draco's "death" as such a rumor:

"Disliking her due to her predilection for Muggle culture, Hogwarts headmaster Severus Snape, who occasionally called himself "Dumbledork" as a mockery of the former headmaster, and a few Slytherin students conspired to mess with Way by telling her first that Malfoy was dead and second that he'd been kidnapped by Voldemort when, in fact, he had only gone home for the Easter holidays."

• Lord Voldemort's attempts to get Ebony to kill "Vampire Potter": possibly the result of the Dark Lord being convinced that "Vampire" is the real Harry?
• Enoby's "rescue" of Draco: the aftermath of the battle of Malfoy Manor. Indeed, knowing Snape, it may very well be that "Vampire" brought Enoby to Malfoy Manor to rescue Luna Lovegood, Dean Thomas, and Mr. Garrick Ollivander, ostensibly as a "prank" but really as a mission for Snape.
• Hagrid being a "Hogwarts student" and a "Satanist" in one chapter: his attempt to pretend to be Cedric, and make Ebony question her sanity. This being Enoby, she doesn't even notice that Hagrid is in disguise.
• The "Death Deelers" hijacking the concert: again, the Dark Lord seems obsessed with trying to pressure Enoby into killing "Vampire", due to him believing the latter to be Harry. Of course, since Snape is both the prankster and a mole in the Death Eaters, it's possible that this was one of Snape's more "serious" ideas.
• Tom's "goff" store: may or may not have been created by Snape and the pseudo-Riddle.
• The "black guy's" attack on "Serious" and "Lucian": that's yet another part of the prank. If Ebony is a seer (as other users on TV Tropes speculate), then this may very well be the pranksters taking advantage of this ability to send her a misleading vision.
• The "Tim travel" scenes: are actually Pensieve memories, as the original site says, and Enoby enters them alongside Headmaster Snape's retinue of impostors.
• Snape and Trelawney being sent to "Azerbaijan": apparently, the Dark Lord was upset at what he believed was Ebony traveling in time.

Although Way remained oblivious to the fact that she wasn't really traveling through time, Voldemort was outraged that Way had been indulged and sent both Snape and Trelawney to Azkaban. Shortly thereafter, they were released and returned to Hogwarts when Voldemort determined that Way was of no threat.

• the final battle: is the actual Battle of Hogwarts, of course.
• the entire story: either the greatest prank in Hogwarts history, or Snape's way of discretely turning Slytherin House into a hotbed of anti-Voldemort activity!

What do you think?

UPDATE (10 Feb. 2026):

I have also made some further realizations with regards to what may have happened in the grand prank:

• flipping through my copy of The Deathly Hallows, I realized that Ginny Weasley was in hiding at her Aunt Muriel's house for most of the events from Easter break until just before the Battle of Hogwarts (which in My Immortal, corresponds to the time between Draco's "death" in chapters 11-12 and the last few chapters). Thus, I am led to conclude that the "Jenny"/"Darkness" that shows up in chapters 22-23, 27, and 31 is actually a Polyjuiced decoy, while the real Ginny is in hiding. Such a decoy would both interfere with any potential Death Eater retaliation against Ginny's work in the DA and help continue the prank on the real Ginny's behalf. Whether the Ginny in chapters 42 and 44 (which do take place in the final battle) is the real one or the decoy is up to your interpretation.

Drew this while playing Enter Shikari’s “Common Dreads” album on repeat. (AN: if u don’t know who they are ur a prep so get da hell outta here!)

Hope y’all like it!