| Author | "XXXbloodyrists666XXX" (identity disputed) |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Harry Potter (non-canonical fan fiction) |
| Genre | Fantasy,drama,romance,young adult fiction |
Publication date | 2006–2007 |
| Media type | Fan fiction |
My Immortal is aHarry Potter-basedfan fiction serially published onFanFiction.net between 2006 and 2007. The story centers on a non-canonical femalevampire character named "Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way" and her relationships with the characters of theHarry Potter series, particularly her romantic relationship withDraco Malfoy, culminating in her traveling back in time to defeat the mainantagonist of the series,Lord Voldemort. The work takes its name from the song "My Immortal" byEvanescence.
My Immortal is popularly regarded as one of the worst works of fan fiction ever written. Since the work's publication, it has gained infamy for its numerous grammar and spelling errors, plot inconsistencies, and complete disregard for the originalHarry Potter source material. The story has been speculated to be a hoax designed to fool andtroll readers or tosatirize fan fiction, but others consider the work and the alleged online presence of the author too elaborate to fake effectively. Despite this, the series has also inspired multiple derivative works, including aYouTube web series, and is viewed by many with nostalgia for adolescent fan life.
The author's identity has never been confirmed and has been deemed "unsolvable". The author originally published the story under the username "XXXbloodyrists666XXX" and gave their name as "Tara Gilesbie". In September 2017, someone claiming to be the author updated aFictionPress account stating that she had created an activeTumblr account under her real name; an effort to locate this Tumblr account resulted in the account ofyoung adult novelist Rose Christo. Christo stated that she was one of two co-authors ofMy Immortal and had provided evidence of her authorship toMacmillan Publishers, but controversy over factual errors in her then-forthcoming memoirs led to doubts as to her authorship.
The protagonist of the story is Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way,[note 1] a seventeen-year-old vampire who attendsHogwarts (located in anAmericanized interpretation of England instead of the original books' Scotland) as a student in theSlytherin House. Hogwarts is depicted as being divided between two cliques, the "goffs" [sic] and thepreps. Ebony and all the sympathetic characters are part of the goth clique while the members of the prep clique are portrayed unsympathetically. Many of the main characters ofHarry Potter are given "goffik" [sic] makeovers which are so extensive that they bear little similarity to their original characterization.Harry, for example, has transfigured his lightning bolt scar into apentagram, moved to the Slytherin House, and now goes by the name "Vampire" because he "love[s] the taste of human blood". Similarly,Hermione Granger has changed her name to "B'loody Mary Smith" and lives as agoth vampireSatanist in Slytherin as well. It appears that Ebony and her classmates are depicted as attending Hogwarts in the mid-2000s instead of the 1990s, when theHarry Potter series is canonically set. This can be determined by the repeated references toscene andemo culture, which were experiencing a sharp rise in popularity at the time, such as references toMy Chemical Romance (including the fact that Ebony's last surname is taken from its frontmanGerard Way), who did not form until 2001.
The story begins with Ebony entering a relationship withDraco Malfoy, who is depicted as shy, sensitive, andbisexual. Draco invites Ebony to aGood Charlotte concert inHogsmeade. She agrees, partly because of her crush onJoel Madden, and the two fly to Hogsmeade together in Draco's black flyingMercedes-Benz. After the concert, they do not return to the castle, instead having sexual intercourse in theForbidden Forest. They are discovered by Hogwarts' headmasterAlbus Dumbledore, who yells at them and derides them as "motherfukers" [sic]. In a subsequent author's note, it is explained that this outburst occurred because Dumbledore was suffering from a headache.
Later, Ebony confronts Harry "Vampire" Potter, as well as an entirely naked Draco, in front ofSeverus Snape's class. She learns that Draco used to date Vampire via atattoo on Draco's arm. Ebony becomes so angry at this perceived betrayal, despite identifying as bisexual herself and professing a sexual attraction to 'sensitive bi guyz', that she runs crying into the Forbidden Forest, where she is approached byLord Voldemort. Voldemort, speaking in faux-archaic English, gives her agun and demands that she kill Vampire. Voldemort threatens her, saying that he will kill Draco unless she kills Vampire, but she refuses. When Draco later learns of this encounter, he is so angry that Ebony kept it from him that hekills himself by slitting his wrists.
In a subsequent scene, however, Vampire has a vision of Draco being held prisoner by Voldemort.[note 2] After rescuing Draco from Voldemort, Ebony and her friends attend aMy Chemical Romance concert in Hogsmeade. After some songs are played, the concert ends abruptly when the members of My Chemical Romance reveal themselves to be Voldemort and his "Death Dealers". Voldemort, who had been disguised as lead vocalist Gerard Way, proclaims his intent to kill Ebony and Draco for the former's failure to kill Vampire, but they are saved by Dumbledore, who had just given himself a gothic makeover. The next day, Dumbledore gives a gothic makeover to the Hogwarts Great Hall as well, but Ebony feels that he is aposeur and dislikes him greatly, a sentiment shared by her friends.
During this time, "Lucian Malfoy" and "Serious Blak" are inexplicably shot by a gun-toting "black guy" (likely meant to beBlade, given the work's vampire themes). In addition, Hogwarts groundskeeperHagrid is depicted as a teenage Hogwarts student andSatanist with a crush on Ebony, who is his bandmate in theirgothic metal band Bloody Gothic Rose 666. Similarly changed in characterization, Professor Snape ("Snap") and ProfessorRemus Lupin ("Loopin") are portrayed as perverts conspiring against Dumbledore. There is also a secondary plot point in whichProfessor Trelawney ("Trevolry") /Professor Sinistra ("Sinister"), combined into one character, has an addiction to a drug named Voldemortserum (probably based on the truth serumVeritaserum used in theHarry Potter universe).
Ebony begins having mysterious visions, which she confronts "Professor Sinister" about. After gazing into a black crystal ball, she is told she musttravel back in "tim" using aPensieve to stop Tom Riddle from becoming Voldemort by seducing him and retrieve a cure for Sinister/Trevolry's addiction. Arriving in the past, Ebony meets the young Riddle, who calls himself "Satan" and who is mistakenly referred to as "Tom Bombodil", "Tom Anderson", and "Stan". Satan is in a band withJames Potter (father of Harry), Severus Snape, Sirius Black, and Lucius Malfoy. Satan is depicted attending Hogwarts at the same time as the Marauders in what is portrayed as the 1980s, despite his canonically having attended decades before the others. The author points out a fewanachronisms in these scenes, telling readers to ignore them. There is also a cameo by a gothicMarty McFly, who gives Ebony a blackDeLorean time machine able to transform into aniPod, allowing her to travel forward in time.
Eventually, Ebony brings Satan forward in time, where he morphs into the present-day Voldemort. This leads to a confrontation between the forces of good and evil in the Great Hall in which Professor Snape threatens torape Draco if Ebony does not stab Vampire. The story ends abruptly and ambiguously with a shootout between Snape and Draco, Snape summoning Voldemort, and Ebony firing anAvada Kedavra curse, which is misspelled as "abra kedabra".
My Immortal is split into 44 chapters with author's notes, indicated by "AN", preceding and throughout the narrative prose. These notes are written in a largelyphonetic spelling andtext speak, characterizing the author as "standoffish" (for example, one author's note says "dey nu eechodder b4" rather than "they knew each other before"). As the work progresses, these author's notes become increasingly "defensive, impenetrable, and prone to mentioning suicide attempts" and defend the work's poor spelling and deviation fromcanon.[1]
Josephine Riesman ofVulture described the prose as having "awkward rhythm, strange digressions, and stultifyinglypurple prose" and noted that the work is "agonizing" to a regular fan fiction reader because of "all the hatedtropes" it employs in the opening passage alone.[1] Adi Robertson ofThe Verge observed that the quality of the prose declined after the twelfth chapter, when the work's editor had a falling out with the author and became temporarily uninvolved with the work; even after the editor and author reconciled, Robertson felt that the prose "never recovered".[2] Gavia Baker-Whitelaw ofThe Daily Dot noted the work "featured all the hallmarks of terrible fanfic: hundreds of grammar and spelling mistakes, a nonsensical storyline, and aMary Sue protagonist who was clearly a glorified version of the author" and pointed out the numerous descriptions of the protagonist'sHot Topic outfits.[3]
The work is characterized by misspellings permeating both the work itself and the author's notes to the point that the names of the protagonist and canonicalHarry Potter characters are frequently and variously misspelled.[1][3] A 2011 analysis of the text found that it contains far more spelling mistakes (approximately 5,200) than grammar errors (nearly 700). Although the work does contain many grammar errors, the majority of the sentences are technically well-formed and fairly complex in structure; "This contrast between [the author]'s grammatical talent and lexical disability makes the reader aware that the author is capable of writing well, but unwilling to do so." The spelling mistakes also include "provocative"malapropisms, replacing common words with unrelated and improbably rare vocabulary. For example:[4]
I have to tell you the fuckingperdition.
— Chapter 27,My Immortal (2006)
Perdition, here replacing the wordprediction, refers to eternal damnation of the soul inChristian theology. This fits in with the story's gothic and sadist themes.[4]
The work notably fails to adhere toHarry Potter canon. It features "an incredibly out-of-characterHarry Potter universe" where "at no point do any of theHarry Potter characters act even slightly like themselves".[5][6] References to "decidedly un-Harry Potterish bands" such as My Chemical Romance, and references to book-only characters fromLord of the Rings, have also been noted.[3]
Chapters 39 and 40, according to the author's notes, were written by a hacker; the writing in both chapters was a "much more controlled prose that read like a lampoon of the previous 38".[1]
Due to its "systematically terrible" quality, the work is often believed to be asatire orparody of fan fiction.[1][3] At the same time, the "exceedingly complicated" details of the work, including a series of related online accounts outside of FanFiction.net and the effort of writing a work of such length, led to a "consensus" among users ofEncyclopedia Dramatica — a website dedicated to cataloging "internet culture" — that it would be too difficult to fake and that Gilesbie was writing sincerely, a sentiment apparently shared by other online communities who mocked the author.[1] Brad Kim, editor ofKnow Your Meme, supported the work as genuine, citing his experiences with writing workshops onLiveJournal andXanga where he encountered similar works, as "these were the kinds of things that would be formulated by a high school teenager in the early 2000s".[1]
The true identity ofMy Immortal's author has become subject to wide speculation, and since the publication of the final chapter, various individuals have claimed to have written the work in jest or as a hoax.[1]
My Immortal was published onFanFiction.net under the username "XXXbloodyrists666XXX", with the author using the name "Tara Gilesbie" throughout the work. Author's notes in the story identified a friend nicknamed Raven, operating under username "bloodytearz666", as the work's editor andbeta reader.[1] The work was published between early 2006 and 2007, ultimately totaling 44 chapters and nearly 22,700 words.[1] The forty-fourth chapter was accompanied by an author's note explaining that the author was leaving "dubya [sic]", commonly believed to beDubai or a place beginning with a W, and the chapter would be the last until the author's return.[1][2] However, no further chapters were published. It was removed from the site in 2008, a few months after its last chapter was published. The complete text survives incopied-and-pasted versions across the Internet.[2][3]
In 2008 and 2009, a series of videos were uploaded to aYouTube account named "xXblo0dyxkissxX" in which two teenagers calling themselves Tara and Raven made fun ofgoth subculture. The overlap with the culture and style ofMy Immortal have led to speculation that they were the fan fiction's Tara and Raven.[1] They were found and interviewed for a 2014On the Media blog and claimed they were not the authors and that their real names were Sarah (Raven) and Rachel (Tara), with Rachel claiming she did not know aboutMy Immortal until after uploading the videos. They state that in their videos they were making fun of their goth phase and that they chose theirpseudonyms at random.[7]
Rose Christo, an author ofyoung adult novels, began writing a memoir about her alleged experiences as aNative American child separated from her brother in the New Yorkfoster care system. The memoir, entitledUnder the Same Stars: The Search for My Brother and the True Story of My Immortal, details the period of time during which she allegedly co-wroteMy Immortal.Macmillan Publishers allegedly hired a lawyer to verify Christo's claims over the course of three days; she claimed to have provided proof through the email address with which she created the FanFiction.net account and with aflash drive containing the first eleven unedited chapters ofMy Immortal.[8][9]
In March 2017, Christo quietly stated on herTumblr account that she co-wroteMy Immortal; however, the post gained little notice. In early August 2017, Christo posted an update to a previously unknown FictionPress account, seemingly related to Tara Gilesbie, that similarly received little attention.[10]
Later in August, anindependently published novel titledHandbook for Mortals came to public attention after it was discovered that its sales were artificially inflated to push it to the top of the young adultNew York Times Best Seller list, from which it was subsequently removed.[11][12] Writing similarities between the novel andMy Immortal led to speculation thatHandbook for Mortals author Lani Sarem was the author ofMy Immortal. Christo again updated the FictionPress account to say she was not Sarem. She also posted on FictionPress to state that her only social media account was on Tumblr, which operated under her real name.[13] An editorial assistant at Macmillan Publishers also stated that Sarem was not the author ofMy Immortal and stated that Macmillan was to publish the author's memoir.[10][14]
These statements sparked a search for the claimed Tumblr account, which was found as Christo's in early September. By September 5, Christo stated on her Tumblr account that she co-wroteMy Immortal and that she had provided proof to her publisherMacmillan Publishers, later reported byBuzzFeed,[14] and on September 7, BuzzFeed published her first official statement as the alleged author ofMy Immortal.[9] She said of her decision to publicly identify herself as a co-author: "I would never have come forward aboutMy Immortal if not for the fact that it coincided with the things that happened to me as a teen."[9]
Later that month, a forum post onKiwi Farms by Christo's brother (the subject of her memoir), verified as such by the forum operators, refuted many of Christo's claims in the upcoming memoir, including those of their Native American ancestry, shared childhood history, and ever having been in foster care.[15][16] The memoir was subsequently canceled by Macmillan after an investigation found factual errors in her narrative; Christo claimed that she had made these errors intentionally in an attempt to protect her family's identity, but had done so without the publisher's knowledge.[17] Christo's brother has additionally said that he does not know if Christo wroteMy Immortal and that she enjoyed ridiculing poorly written fan fiction.[15][16] Christo confirmed via Tumblr in October that her original name was Theresa Rose Christodoulopoulos, confirmed her brother's identity, and conceded that many of his revelations about her were true, but also disagreed with a few of his claims and reiterated her claim that she was one of the authors ofMy Immortal.[18] She closed the Tumblr account a few days later.Vox described Christo's authorship claim as one of the more likely claims she has made, though still in some doubt.[19]
Before its removal from FanFiction.Net,My Immortal allegedly gained between 8,000[2][20] and 10,000[1] reviews, most of which were negative and containedflaming.[2][20] The quality of the writing and the author's apparentgoth lifestyle also drew attacks and mockery from users onEncyclopedia Dramatica,TV Tropes,LiveJournal,Something Awful,YTMND andYouTube.[1]
Rob Bricken ofio9 described the work as a "masterpiece of weirdness" and a "masterpiece of literary disaster".[6]BuzzFeed calledMy Immortal a "work of comic genius" that is "oddly touching."[21] The work is often cited as the worst fan fiction ever written[1][22][2][5] or at least a "strong contender" for the title.[3] The work is considered "iconic" not only within theHarry Potter fandom but also within the larger fan fiction community.[3][5]Evanescence singerAmy Lee, one of the writers of theeponymous song "My Immortal", was initially introduced to it through her sister, but avoided reading it until an interview request withThe Verge. In the interview, she expressed confusion about the work's veracity, but noted that she was "laughing really, really hard at one point, just because of the nonsense".[23]Michael J. Nelson and Conor Lastowka read the story on their podcast372 Pages We'll Never Get Back in episodes 78–80, criticizing its bad writing and messy plot.[24]
Scott Alexander argued that the work can serve as aprojective test. He provided an example with a tongue-in-cheek argument that it mirrors the typical structures and tropes that medieval alchemists used to encipher their results.[25]
The infamy of the work is considered a "constant millstone around the necks of fanfiction enthusiasts who struggle to bring legitimacy to the genre".[1] Christo claimed in September 2017 thatMy Immortal is a work of satire, though any evidence of this is tied to her own claims of authorship.[8]
My Immortal inspired furtherfan works, includingfan art and further fan fiction. It was the subject of numerousYouTubedramatic readings intending to mock the work;[1] it later inspired a fifteen-episode web series satirizing the work.[1][3]
Problem is, myMy Immortal piece finds better parallels than any of the takes on canon do, and I know I'm bullshitting, so I assume they are too.
My postMy Immortal As Alchemical Allegory was intended as a satire to discredit overwrought symbolic analyses, not as an overwrought symbolic analysis itself.
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