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Archived Discussion Fanfic / MyImmortal

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This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.

zeroplusalpha: Not to stoke the flames of debate here, but...I may be being naive in asking, but how is it even possible to write a Freudian slip any other way than deliberately?

She also uses 'ejaculate' in its other academically correct sense. I can't quote it off the top of my head, but somebody says something and then Snape says something else, "ejaculating menacingly". An ejaculation is an emotional outburst/utterance or a strenuous interjection. There are other similar cases, but I only remember this one in any detail. If this isn't accidental, then not only is the author not illiterate, he/she is quite well-educated. Or least possesses a more sophisticated vocabulary than is commonly attributed to him/her.

ama.rhyme: He guys, so you know, My Immortal is back on fanfiction.net!(cue insane laughter)I'm not sure how long, or how long it's going to last, but apperently X Hot N Heavy Goffz 666 X is tara's new account with her bf. I personally don't believe so as when uploading her story again, it included the hacked chapter, but the lulzy reviews are going to grow again! they added a sequal too, written in tara's style so i have a new theroy: Tara's account was never hacked, but she only pertended to because she was a troll all this time! She just took a break because 44 chapters of that has got to hurt the brain cells. but that would probably be better for wild mass guessing, if they have it for MI.

Inkblot: Is the article getting too mean? It's starting to sound like an inferior version of ED's article. Also, Tara did not write that Twilight fic. Read the writer's profile, which basically says "I'm not Tara, but thanks for the compliment."
Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: This fic will never land in Fan Fic Recommendations. Who in his right mind would recommend this fic? (I found it nigh-unreadable.) If it's already there, I apologize to whoever put it there... But this fic is notorious, so I see no reason to cut this page.
  • I'd recommend it. It's a fantastic parody of fanfiction.

Admiral_Kelly: I hear it is So Bad, It's Good - but since, as a general rule, any SBIG can be considered So Bad Its Horrible by someone else I support this article's existence as to separate it from recommendations (which should be for fanfiction with genuine quality).

Looney Toons: While I cannot speak for the other Cut Masters, I am not intending to delete this section. I will leave the cut list entries up for at least a week or two more to encourage further discussion, though, to see if consensus changes.

Inkblot: I agree. While this fic is very popular, it is most certainly not something one would recommend reading.

  • Anon: I would recommend it highly, actually. Whether anyone likes it or not, it's a cultural touchstone in fandom and so is worth reading for that reason alone. Besides that, it's obviously the work of a troll and is quite entertaining if you're in on the joke.

SpiriTsunami: Looking at it, by all accounts this fic goes against much of Fanfiction.net's TOS. So why does it still exist? Quite likely to serve as an example of "How not to write a fanfic''. I would recommend this for that purpose only, as an instructional guide of what not to do.

  • Correction: I guess they, against all odds, hadn't found it yet. My Immortal has vanished from the site. (As of about October 18th, 2008)

fleb: Which part of it goes against the Terms, anyway? I've heard it said that an incident involving "Girls Aloud" got all M-rated things banned from the site, but I searched the terms and can't the right clause, except for the whole "we reserve the right to remove anything for any reason."

Ethereal Mutation: The rules make a pretty big point out of stories having to be legible. This part is only visible if you make an account and try to post a story, though. In the "Writer's Etiquette" section, the rules are (emphasis mine):

  1. Spell check all stories and poems. There is no excuse for not doing this. If you do not have a word processor that has the spell checking feature, use a search engine such as Google.Com to find one.
  2. Proofread all entries for grammar and other aspects of writing before submission. 'Hot off the press' content is often riddled with errors. No one is perfect but it is the duty of the writer to perform to the best of his/her ability.
  3. Respect the reviewers. Not all reviews will strictly praise the work. If someone rightfully criticizes a portion of the writing, take it as a compliment that the reviewer has opted to spend his/her valuable time to help improve your writing.
  4. Everyone here is an aspiring writer. Respect your fellow members and lend a helping a hand when they need it. Like many things, the path to becoming a better writer is often a two way street.
  5. Use proper textual formatting. For example: using only capital letters in the story title, summary, or content is not only incorrect but also a disregard for the language itself.

Out of five rules, Tara has most definitely broken four of them repeatedly and unashamedly. She might have broken rule number four as well, but most of her antipathy is against the reviewers.

Inkblot: Her account wasn't broken because she broke the TOS. A jealous fangirl deleted her old account and is now holding her new one hostage. Read this and prepare to facepalm.

Ethereal Mutation: Nice of the "hacker" to not provide a link in the demands for reviews. Anyway, this is just so blatantly staged, it's unbelievable. The original Tara, I could realistically believe was a real person (or, at least, really smart in looking really stupid). This has basically just crossed the threshold into blatant showboating on the part of a total impostor. Odds are, this person just managed to finally get through to somebody to delete the story for its flagrant disregard of the rules (probably got fired for killing a big chunk of the traffic to the site... which is most likely why it was never touched before) and posted their own copy immediately after it went down.

Anyway, if this person seriously expects to get 10,000 reviews, they should probably keep in mind that a vast majority of the "reviews" of the original My Immortal were just spam. Definitely not the sort of attention any "good" writer wants.

Ethereal Mutation: We should probably put something on the main page that tells people to stop claiming that these "sequels" by imitators are the real thing. I don't even need to take any classes in textual analysis to see that they aren't.

Inkblot: Out of all the parodies of My Immortal, this is probably the one most likely written by Tara. It's the only one to claim it's by Tara and have a forum (which Tara also had), and what kind of troll would mourn Raven's death, or copy Tara's style so perfectly?

Also, I have to give Tara credit for one thing: She's one of the few people who understand what "Good Riddance" by Green Day is actually about.

SpiriTsunami: No, it isn't. It's an exaggeration of Tara's style. I read the original, and it was hilarious; it felt like it was meant as a parody. The sequel, on the other hand, is just painful. I couldn't even get through it, it was so bad. The author profile, and their "favorites" (consisting only of one fave story, the original My Immortal, and one fave author, the account it was posted with), seems to support the idea that it's a joke account set up by a particularly dedicated fan of the original.

Inkblot: Back in May, Tara made a post on the reviews for My Immortal that her account was hacked and she would try to get it back. Maybe she gave up and made a new account. Also, Tara's writing declined throughout the first book. Since about 16 months passed between Tara's account being hacked and Tara starting a new account, maybe her writing continued to decline during that time. Of course, both of these are just guesses and there's no way to tell whether this account belongs to Tara.

SpiriTsunami: Actually, she admitted that she wasn't the real Tara.

Sabre Justice: As an alternative to MSTing, instead download the 'Bork Bork Bork' language pack for Firefox and read the fanfic. It will change your life.
fleb: By 'parody fics,' does that mean troll stories for other series? Because I just got linked to a Fosters Home For Imaginary Friends "goffik"...thing, and the flames, they rage. [1] (ETA: ...Well now that's been taken down.)

SpiriTsunami: I don't know. Maybe. This fiction couldn't have possibly been written seriously siriusly. I think it should be recognized as something to read when you're in need of a laugh, because the sheer awfulness is overwhelmingly awesome. And it has incoherent non sequitirs like this one: "He took out a heroin cabaret and spiked it, and gave it to me to spork." I copied that line down because it was just so amazingly weird. I read this fic at the, er, recommendation of this site, because it sounded bad and I was actually a little nostalgic for the days where part of the fanfic-reading experience was correcting the vast multitude of spelling errors.

Inkblot: Heroin Cabaret would make a great band name.

SpiriTsunami: I've spent far more time than any sane man should researching the bizarre phenomenon that is Tara Gilesbie and have uncovered a "Tara-verse" that is too interesting to delete. I recommend keeping this page around. There have been too many knockoffs, imitators and impostors for this to just go away. "Tara Gilesbie", even if she isn't a real person (which is what I believe), is a notable figure on the internet, and if anything, there needs to be an expansion of this page to take into account all of this fallout. It has Canon, or maybe Fanon, and the opportunity for debates is rich.
Wascally Wabbit: Soooo....If So Bad Its Horrible is to be banished to the Darth Wiki, what shall we do with this?

fleb: So Bad Its Horrible was an unstoppable cancer of Complaining About Shows You Dont Like. This is just a So Bad, It's Good fanfic, which fits fine here in the Fan Fic/ namespace. If anything, a My Immortal Darth Wiki page should be a parody singing its praises.

Inkblot: Seconded.

fleb: ...Well now I'm torn. Sugar Wiki would be all for positive gushing, but Darth Wiki would still be receptive to the nonsensical angst, self-mutilation and "Stanism"...

Shay Guy: Have Darth Wiki gush and use Sugar Wiki for a politely worded description and Constructive Criticism.

Inkblot: The Drinking Game is getting too large. If there´s that many rules, of course nobody will make it to the halfway mark.

Ethereal Mutation: Pretty much, yeah. It's sort of becoming a "Plot Tumor" all its own.

Mystery Man 23: Could anyone be so nice as to seek out the "hacker" chapter of this story? Thanks.
Inkblot: Does anyone know where I can contact the author of the MI website?
Trouser Wearing Barbarian: A lot of the people editing this page don't seem to get that it's a parody.

Inkblot: Unless Tara comes out and admits it, there's no way to tell if it's a parody. And saying "it's too awful to be serious" isn't good enough. But I tried to remove some of the Natter.

Trouser Wearing Barbarian: Tara doesn't come out an admit it because the "Tara" persona is part of the joke. I've read plenty of bad fanfics, and "My Immortal" is a very, very obvious parody of them, and not just because "it's too awful to be serious."

Bad spelling in itself, for instance, would not be evidence that the story is a parody. The fact that the story often contains multiple mispellings of the same name in one sentence and constantly spells the Mary Sue lead character's name wrong while simultaneously spelling larger, more complicated words correctly, on the other hand, reeks of parody. Having a few bad fanfic clichés is one thing, but using almost every bad fanfic cliché in existance, making them even more ridiculous than usual, and doing it in a consistently hilarious manner screams "parody." Turning the characters into teenage pseudo-goth Possession Sues is normal badfic fare, but Dumbledore wearing a robe with Avril Lavigne on it is an obvious parody of the former. And so on and so forth.

Yes, many people take "My Immortal" at face value, but a lot of people also think that Landover Baptist is for real. Are readers so clueless that they need to see a "THIS IS A JOKE" disclaimer to realise that this story is intended humorously?

fleb: It's not about being clueless. Consider the fact that Jack Chick is dead-fucking-serious. Even when he says that gluons aren't real, because Jesus holds atoms together. The danger of declaring anything Stealth Parody is that there is always a chance, however remote, that an author is being completely serious, barring Word of God otherwise.

Inkblot: I think Tara admitted she had dyslexia.

Fermatprime: I'm with Trouser Wearing Barbarian. I've been involved in enough Internet trolling in my time that I can recognize some things as pretty obvious trolling hallmarks - the "Is it good?" at the end of Chapter 1, and the "BTW preps stop flaming ma story ok!" at the beginning of Chapter 2 <i>scream</i> troll, since even a fanfic as despicably bad as MI (and the first chapter was not as terrible as the rest, although it is still gut-bustingly bad) would almost certainly not get bad reviews that soon without someone closely involved spreading it around.

Occam's Razor, essentially, is what it is; the simplest explanation for the inconsistencies is that it's a troll.

Inkblot: Tara spread it around by posting it on the IMDB forums. And what about her perfectly ordinary Quizilla account? I mean, does this look like the work of a troll?

OneofFive: There was also a profile on FF.net for Raven, which had two stories posted. Both were much better than Tara's and quite long. I doubt a troll would go to such lengths to sustain her persona.

Trouser Wearing Barbarian: I'm not saying that Tara and Raven aren't real people, just that "My Immortal" is intentionally bad, and that saying "this is supposed to be hilariously awful" upfront would detract from the humor. And it's not like troll writers never try to spread their work around.

fleb: Don't think anyone's arguing she's definitely not a troll for those reasons. I'm arguing we don't know for sure she's a troll. She probably is. Like Shay Guy said in his edit summary, the article shouldn't take a stance.

Inkblot: Her Quizilla account is still active, which must mean she's still around. One of us should ask her. And I agree, the article should not take a stance either way for now.

Catdrake: Shouldn't this also have Draco In Leather Pants, since this is where it's from? I remember reading that article, and it matches the reference that story makes almost perfectly.

Totz the Plaid: I'm assuming that it's a troll for the simple reason that it is all but impossible for a story to be this insane without clear intent. It is meticulously horrid, rarely is a name spelled the same way twice in a row, for example, and the vocabulary is almost impossibly vast (though the more intelligent words are invariably mispelled) for the idiot character played by the real author. Consider also that the first 38 'chapters' were posted within an 18 day period before the account was hacked and the author claims not only to have been hospitalized TWICE for attempted suicide through the slitting of her wrists (which would take place over the course of more than 18 days in real time) but to ALSO have taken a vacation to Transylvania. There is also the fact that most of the bands referenced were either passe or completely ignored by the goff [sic] crowd at the time (in fact some, such as Good Charlotte were spurned viciously by them and accepted wildly by the preps and poseurs). In short: my theory is that the real life Raven WAS "Tara".

Inkblot: I'd like to change my position. If David Gonterman is So Bad Its Horrible, then Tara is definitely a troll.

Broken Chaos: Two words: Tom Bombadil. There is no way someone as illiterate as the author is supposed to be could even accidentally get that name in there.

  • Also Mr. Norris the janitor and his cat Filth, and Azerbaijan for Azkaban. Those are the kind of mistakes you only make on purpose.
  • The mentions of "Professor Sinister" and conflating him/her with "Professor Trevolry" might also qualify. Professor Sinistra is the professor of Astronomy, but she never appears in any of the books or movies, and is simply alluded to offhand once or twice. If Trelawney taught Astrology instead of Divination, I could believe that Tara was just reading off a list of teachers and got the two of them confused — but not when she switches back and forth multiple times in the same scene. That's an intentional injoke.

Totz the Plaid: Does anyone challenge me to either a) create a comprehensive list of every error in the story (which I'm approximating will be at least three times the length of the story itself) or b) rewrite the entire thing to remove every single error in it (and add an actual ending)?

OneofFive: I wholeheartedly support a list of errors. If you were to remove them, it wouldn't be a re-write - It'd just be another Crack Fic :)

Malchus: Just for sheer lulz, I had one of my English professors look at the spelling errors in his fic. He concluded that the errors are not the usual spelling errors frequently committed by someone with poor knowledge of English or by someone prone to typos. While some do take that appearance, most seem to be done on purpose. An example would be "spshcial" for special (Chapter 17). A more believable error due to lack of spelling knowledge would've been something along the lines of "speshal" or even "speshul." Both alternatives are spelled along more phonetic lines, which is usually how those who don't know how to spell a word initially try to spell it. The use of "sh" in place of "e" also suggests that this is not a typo, considering the positions of the letters in question on the standard qwerty keyboard. Basically, he says this is quite likely a Stealth Parody. Take that as you will.

Nettik: This fic really hammers home that Frued Was Rite. The author can't spell her own character's name, but she somehow spells "sexual intercourse" and "erection" correctly... Hmm.

Great Pikmin Fan: I don't remember any "bll ofda furchar" and I read all of the fic. Can someone please tell me what chapter it is in?

Inkblot: It's apparently from the unofficial sequel. We should probably delete that line from the article.

Inkblot: Snipped:

...
...
Darryl, why did you drill a hole in your forehead?

Insanity Prelude: That was kind of epic. Thanks for not nuking it out of existence entirely.

MaesterTonberry: Moved from main page

  • Christ, was this thing written by an Ork?!
  • She is a self-described "Goff"...
    • AN ork faction. My point precisely.
    • Dis iz why Ork Gurlz iz reely bad idea...
    • So wut u boyz iz trying ta tell me iz dat da way wez be getin moar boyz waz fiddled wit cuz of dis here fik?
  • Is "VIOWER" supposed to be viewer, or vowel?
    • Neither. It's supposed to be "voyeur".
  • Just warnin' uze boyz. 'ands off dis ting.
    • Tink we needz us sum Fikboyz. Dizz'd be a gud 'un ta study.
    • A fik dis painful needs sum Painboys! Now pass me dat bonesaw and we'll see wot makes dis fing tick.
    • Ahem This is giving us Orcs a bad name.
    • Dey'z not real Orks! Dey'z too sissy! Dey wouldn't take this 'ere writinz apart for no good reason, they'z not Ork enuff. Screw 'em! Da Boyz could take 'em on any day of the week!
    • Okay, now you all sound like Gungans. Just saying.
    • Hey now! There's no need to insult Gungans by comparing them to Tara!
    • Considering they have guns I rather think they could.
    • Some of da Painboyz thunk them waz gonna hav sum fun with da boyz an read this here fik. We be needin some new Painboyz an now da boyz wanta git stuk in gud an proper wit any git that be thinkin that dis be a decent fik. Me thinkin it be time fer a gud an proper WAAAAGH!!

Ashki: Must...make...movie...in Hollywood Mogul of this...

Allik: I just read the article & Character sheet, you guys maybe fucking exaggerating this shit no way in Hell it can be that bad I mean I was fucking cracking up but this seems too crazy to be that bad
  • I stand corrected
(random passer-by): It's derivative, I know, but I couldn't resist:

The crystal ball crackered: "NO, ENOBY, YOU ARE THE DEMENTORS." And then Enoby was a frog.

DKN117: ...I just had a "what if" idea. What if a computer-savvy Harry Potter himself (pretend this Harry's adventures took place in the 2000's instead of 1990s, or something; run with it for now and focus on the main question) were to somehow read the Trope Page for this fic. Not the fic itself; just the trope page. What do you think Harry's reactions would be? How 'bout Dumbledore? EDIT: The Main Trio. I can picture Ron laughing his ass off at the entire thing.
Cliche: Even though this fanfiction is a piece of shit, that doesn't mean our article has to be. This could probably do with some cleanup. (12/22/09)
Boxhead: I'm new and don't really know what I'm doing, but I wanted to bring to people's attention a possible contender to the trollfic throne. If you've got brain cells to spare after that awful piece, not likely, but just in case, I introduce Fa Ce Th E St Ra Ng E. http://xdallyx.webs.com/
I have a quick question about something from the characters section:

"B'loody Mary Smith (Theoretically Hermione Granger) Another one of Ebony's goffik friends. Often makes use of Gratuitous Japanese, particularly the word kawaii. She moved to Slytherin after she converted Satanism, which was presumably when she decided to name herself after a cocktail. OOC. (Note, her name is pronounced "Buh-loody")"

Is it really pronounced Buh-loody, like, 'loo' as in the toilet, or should that be "Buh-luddy"? Given the source, it really could be either.

McJeff Is there any reason to remove the picture from the article besides an admin going "I said I said I said so, dammit you guys Stop Having Fun!!!"?

Anonymous Mc Cartneyfan: Well, maybe they didn't want that exact quote Photoshopped in. Still, I did like that pic, so...

Falcon Pain: Personally, I can't think of a good reason for any fanfiction page to have a page image, seeing how they never had any visuals in the first place. (An exception might be made for fanfics with iconic visual presentations, such as Half Life Full Life Consequences.)

McJeff: If there's copyright concerns about the Dumbledore image (which I don't think there are, it should fall under FairUse/Parody, there's plenty of fan pics of Enoby that could also be used.

Muninn: Hey, to the user named Fast Eddie: Usually when things are removed from a page, people give reasons for why they do so. Just giving you a heads-up, we wouldn't want you to get banned for not knowing how things usually happen on a wiki. Please give a reason why you think the image should be removed.

Fast Eddie: The image is not from or about the work. Unnecessarily vulgar, too. Thanks for explaining to me how things work. Being an admin here for the last six years hasn't really left me in the dark about it, though.

DracMonster: I had originally posted it, though I just took it from Encylopedia Dramatica. "Not from or about the original work"? It's an exact quote!

Paradoxic Title: More to the point, why did we remove the multiple strikethroughs from the beginning? Stop being so mature, Fast Eddie! I think it's funny, and this article isn't meant to be serious. It is about the worst fanfic of all time, after all.

And you say that the image is vulgar, but look at the one we have up for Foreign Fanservice, among others. The point of the article is, in my opinion, to look lightheartedly at one of mankind's greatest mistakes. Why shouldn't we include the awesomest/funniest line from the thing?

Davis51: Added back the image and summary as best as I could, 'cause they are some of the funniest thing ever.

Daikiwixep: Is there really a need to lock this page, Fast Eddie? I call for an unlock. If you really want to have this page locked, though, then please edit and clean the rest of the article. Thank you.

Paradoxic Title: Yeah, we really need to clean this thing up. I'm on break, and would appreciate the chance to make this page on the fic not suck. It's overly mean, approaching the depths of the ED page on the subject, and some of the spelling is just terrible. Just unlock it, or clean it yourself, Eddie.

Fast Eddie: Okay, I'll unlock it. If someone biles it back up, I'll just cut it. We are not about bile and won't be about bile.

Paradoxic Title: Good. I always wanted this page to be more about appreciation of the incredible badness that is MI.

UPDATE: I have postponed it for too long - the edits begin! Here is my mission statement: "As a policy, we do not link to ED. It is full of bile and hate, which is exactly what Fast Eddie does not want on this page. On the main page of this site, it says "we are here to recognize tropes and play with them, not make fun of them." Rather than directing our hatred towards such easy targets, let's recognize the entertainment value that it can provide." And here are clippings that go in discussion, not the main page:

  • Alternate Character Interpretation
    • At the very minimum there's some form of Stylistic Suck, given the nature of the spelling errors. "Da" for "the" is nearly impossible on a normal keyboard.
      • Unintentionally yes, but you'd be surprised at how stupid people are willing to look in order to not type one extra letter.
billybobfred: Whenever you put the image back, Fast Eddie removes it and locks the page. Therefore, you should stop putting the image back. I am tired of trying to add trope examples and finding the page locked because classical conditioning doesn't work on the internets.

Muninn: Alternatively, we should try to find a better picture. When I see an article with no picture, I want to add a picture, but I'm much less likely to do so when there's already an image, and would never do it without at least discussing it. Can't speak for whoever's changing the image, though.

Are there any good images from the webcomic version? Technically, this page covers that too, just like every other adaptation that isn't radically different from its source material.

Fast Eddie: Take it up in the Image Pickin' forum.

billybobfred: Thread created. Discuss nao.

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