Do you think My Immortal is genuine or satire?

[KennethLopezJr921]

So I've been reading a lot of my immortal lately, along with watch readings on YouTube (specifically those that don't cut out the time travel plot and Marty Mcfly) and I've been having a blast. It doesnt matter how many times I listen to it, its still fucking funny! Though I have been wondering weather the fic was actually genuine or satire. Some of my friends think its satire and while Im personally on the fence regarding this issue, I like to think it was actually written by some goth 13 year old who only liked Harry Potter because she found the actors for Harry and Draco hot. I put emphasis on the age because even though her self insert Ebony/Enoby/Eboby/Tara is 17 in the story, the way its written and the way she describes things does not come off to me as someone who is almost 18 years old. And that her stupid fight with Raven wasn't entire resolved and she did edits less and less which explains the deteriorating grammar of the story. I'll be honest, I'm more inclined to believing its real because its a lot more funnier that way than someone writing it to troll people. But regardless of weather it was a serious attempt at self insertion by the author or a internet troll making fun of the emo culture of the mid 2000s, its still a great story XD. But what do you guys think?

[NickRowler]

The main character does really embody what a middle school girl at the time thought was cool. Added that a lot of alt-kids hated Avril Lavigne. I also remember being a teen and someone reading me their Harry Potter fanfic and it was just crack shipping and characters making out.

So yeah, there is a possibility that a bunch of adults were picking on, bullying, and dog piling on a child. There are probably fanfics now that are far worse but I think we realize more that adults should just leave kids alone and just let them be cringy if they want to.

[KennethLopezJr921]

When you phrase it that way, it probably would've been better if it was a troll. Though Im wondering how bad it would've been back then if it was, considering how small the internet. I interpreted the whole thing as mostly being centered around the fanfic side of the web, and Tara lashing out at the "preps" who were giving her genuine criticism and some actually hate comments but idk. There is a lot of mystery about what happened back then since it seems a lot of hints and clues pointing towards Tara being a real person have been lost to time. Actually now that I think about it, did My Immortal spread before or after it was deleted from fanfiction.net?

[midnightsun]

I don’t know if you’ve watched any YouTube videos on this subject but I really recommend this one:

It goes really in depth on the topic and honestly made me believe more than ever than My Immortal was not satire.

[ShidoDraws]

What even is an adult anyway? That's something I wondered when I became an adult, nothing really change, just that you need a job and cash. Besides that you can still do the same stuff you've always done in the past. Is growing up something you choose to leave a hobby behind? Or is that something that traumatizes you to change? Are people actually grown ups even if people say they have responsibilities?

Maybe it's just my experience but I feel like growing up just means a part of you died and it's replaced with bitterness or jealousy, or maybe even the feeling of "falling behind."

[KennethLopezJr921]

Interesting :0 Gonna give this a watch later while Im drawing or gaming

[NickRowler]

I feel like your comment is sort of off topic. When people were first discovering My Immortal, a bunch of people who were 18+ were trolling the author and even hacked her accounts.

Being an adult and liking "kid things" is OK. But being an adult and spending your free time harassing children online is creepy and gross.

[ShidoDraws]

Yeah, and nowadays people think trollers are 18- so I wondered if people thinks adults are just kids just because they are trolling. Maybe I encountered too many trollers or do have jobs and "normal" social media accounts. It always makes me feel uncomfortable when someone calls another a kid without knowing anything about someone online. One can call someone a kid one day and that same person could be a man who has four kids, at the end of the day social media is just as messy as it was 14 years ago. We just think we're better now but remember, even if your space of social media isn't like that anymore doesn't mean that isn't happening in other parts of social media. A child can change but adults will not change because they thrive on making people suffer.

[KennethLopezJr921]

Currently 11 minutes in but she does bring up another fact about My Immortal's editor Raven that I failed to mention that makes me think it wasn't Satire. The fact that she wrote her own self insert fanfiction very similar to Tara's (albeit much better written) raises a lot of questions for the troll theory. Did the troll rip off Raven's fic as a much more bad story to make fun of her? Are both fics written by the same troll? If so, why would they have one that's a competently written story and one which is word salad? Like if you look at My Immortal by itself, its a little easier to call it fake but when you factor in Raven's stories, it puts that theory into question. Great watch so far

[midnightsun]

I think Raven’s earlier fanfic is a good indicator that maybe this wasn’t satire. A lot of people think that My Immortal had to be a troll because of the many misspellings and grammatical errors, but Tara was typing like that on accounts outside of Fanfiction before My Immortal was even written. The fact that Raven wrote her own version without all the crazy word salad makes me think maybe this was a genuine idea shared between these two friends over a long period of time. If they were trolls they were dedicated, that’s for sure.

[KennethLopezJr921]

Just finished the entire vid and all I can say is that its probably for the best that we still dont know a lot about Tara and Raven to this day. Like, Im sure if they reintroduced themselves online right now, the response would be a lot more positive considering a lot of people now don't genuinely hate my immortal (if they do they're a....FUCKIN PREP). But I can understand why they wouldn't after what they went through.

Also scrolling through the comments, it seems Tara might actually be from the Dallas Fort Worth area and not Dubai because Dubia seems to be a slang term used by locals there to refer to that area. I am not from Texas so I can personally confirm if thats true XD

[midnightsun]

Wherever they are now I hope they’re living their best lives and I’m also glad in a way that’s it’s a mystery. It’s sad to think they faced so much harassment, especially if they weren’t trolls but I hope they’re doing better now.

I didn’t know that about dubia, I also always assumed it was a misspelling for Dubai but Dallas Fort Worth area is also a good theory. Tried looking it up and got roaches but maybe it is just locals who use the term lol

[KennethLopezJr921]

That and I think being an outspoken 'Stanist' in a very religious country like dubai would probably not be a good idea