We managed to make a Cult Classic out of the most hated fanfic of all time, so SIT ON IT!
Draco: You're… Ebony, right?
Enoby: Yeah. Enoby Darkness Dementia Raven Way. I think it's Celtic.
First came My Immortal, the infamous mother of all bad fanfictions, with its somehow popular usage of the Mary Sue, an Out of Character "goffik" cast, and senseless plot.
Then someone decided to (loosely) adapt it into a live action web series. It's called (My) Immortal: The Web Series, and it's Better Than It Sounds.
The plot centers about Enoby Darkness Dementia Raven Way, who's a new student at Hogwarts and is "so much of a Slytherin and so much of a Gryffindor that the Sorting Hat just put me in both". She's somehow friends with Harry Potter (whom she used to date, and she calls him Vampire), Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, even though she's oblivious at best, and a terrible friend at worst, and also scores a date with Draco Malfoy. All is well… until a mysterious blonde girl appears at school.
The show debuted in 2013 and lasted for two seasons. It can be found on YouTube (here
) and Vimeo (here); their official website is here.
(My) Immortal: The Web Series provides examples of:
- Accidental Misnaming: Enoby can never get Voldemort's name right.
- Adaptation Name Change: From Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way to Enoby Darkness Dementia Raven Way.
- With Lizzie's introduction, there is speculation that the original Ebony is out there as Enoby's twin.
- Snap, Loopin and Hargrid are "replacements" of Snape, Lupin and Hagrid. Their names are based on misspellings in My Immortal.
- Affectionate Nickname: Enoby calls Harry "Vampire" and Ron "Diablo," despite asking her to stop.
- Alpha Bitch: All the Mary Sues to some degree, particularly Enoby and Lizzie.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Draco's father. Or at least, what Tom has to say about his high school years.
- Anti-Hero: To various degree, but the main cast all go happily along with most of Enoby's less-than-legal hijinks.
- Back from the Dead:
- Voldemort, technically, as Tom.
- Snap and Loopin.
- Battle Butler: Hargrid to Lizzie.
- Battle of the Bands: GoffikBloodyRose666 joins one in the second season, except they don’t know any songs. Not to mention, Ron can only play Wizard Drums, as opposed to Muggle Drums which Goths apparently only play.
- Tom also has a band (of darkness), with the zombies of Snap and Loopin. In this tortured plane of existence they are known only as... XBlakTRex. Are they good? Well... Think... darkness, but mixed with... shadows.
- Bodyguarding a Badass: Hargrid, most likely, since Lizzie is a Mary Sue.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Draco in the latter half the second season.
- But Not Too Gay: Averted as the most sexual scene played out in the series so far is between Draco and Harry. The most emotional kissing scenes tend to be between people of the same sex while heterosexual kisses are more often played for laughs.
- Canon Foreigner: Violet.
- Canon Immigrant: Snap, Loopin and Hargrid are all based on Tara Gilesbie's typos, and act as "replacements" of canon characters.
- The Cuckoolander Was Right: "nd den hairy wil have 2 kommit suicide so voldimort will die koz he will rilly be a horcrox!!!!!111"
- Daddy's Little Villain:
- Violet
- Lizzie is a subversion.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Played With quite interestingly throughout the series, especially in season 2, with the idea of the immortally conflicting Light Sue and Dark Sue.
- "Darkness von Gothick" Name: Called "Dark Appellation" by Ebony here.
- Draco in Leather Pants: Literally, this being My Immortal. The trope also plays out in Season 2 with Tom.
- The Dragon: Snap and Loopin to Voldemort and later, to Tom.
- Emo Teen: Enoby, although she thinks of herself as goth. Hermione is actually more knowledgeable on gothic culture than her (of course).
- Everyone Is Bi: Pretty much.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Everyone.
- IKEA Erotica: Enoby's idea of sex is "put your thingie in my you-know-what".
- I Love the Dead: Jury's still out on whether or not undead Snap and Loopin count.
- In Name Only: It adapts the spirit of My Immortal, since there was no real plot to adapt. It is closer to the Harry Potter canon than the original was, but still takes liberties as well. It all works out, though.
- In-Series Nickname:
- Enoby gives gothic nicknames like Vampire and Diablo to her friends. Only she uses them, though.
- Tom's friends call him Satan.
- It's All About Me: Enoby, true to the Mary Sue trope, tends to have everything need to be about her. However, this trope often gets subverted, particularly compared with the source material.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Several characters are aware of the existence of Mary Sues and of the relative importance of other Hogwarts students in the Harry Potter series.
- Live-Action Adaptation: A rather loose one of the infamous fanfic.
- Liquid Courage: In "Ron's Day," Ron says he has to drink some "liquid courage" in order to tell Hermione how he feels about her.
- Love Triangle: Between Enoby, Draco and Harry. Just not in the way you might expect. Unless you've read the original material. Also between Hermione, Enoby, and Ron in a way.
- Mary Sue: Takes the trope and runs with it intentionally.Loopin: Holy shit, she's a Mary Sue!Enoby: What? No I'm not!
- Manipulative Bastard: Tom, in both a very disturbing and very hilarious way, when seducing Enoby. This leads to some of his most absurd lines, whilst telling Enoby exactly what she wants to hear.Tom: In the beginning I was just an undead soul trapped in a book.Enoby: That’s both like my dream, and my nightmare!Tom: But when I heard what cool music was out here... I had to rise again.Enoby: You mean?Tom: That’s right, Enoby. I heard all the Marilyn Manson albums you were playing... H.I.M... Good Charlotte... Simple Plan!Enoby: Simple Plan! That’s the most Goffik band of them all!Tom: That’s right, Enoby. They are. So I had to come back from the dead... again. And now I’m... Double-Undead!
- The Nicknamer: Enoby.
- Not Even Bothering with the Accent: As has become tradition in US-made Harry Potter parodies, everyone uses their real-life American accents except the actor playing Draco Malfoy, to reinforce Draco's nature as an Upper-Class Twit.
- Out of Character: Zig-Zagged: Harry&co are closer to canon than they were in My Immortal, and some characters are "replacements" of canon characters based on Tara Gilesbie's misspellings.
- Overly Long Name: It's bound to happen. They're also shown on-screen for the audience to appreciate.
- Parody Sue: Enoby, Violet, and Lizzie; all three as a plot point.
- Pet the Dog: Tom has quite a few of these moments, almost enough to make him into a
Voldemort In Leather Pants, at least until the end, most notably with a guy who insulted Harry at the party. He confronts the insulter, only to end up hugging it out and bonding over their messed up childhoods. - Pretender Diss: Ebony tries to do this on Bellatrix and the Death Eaters only to accidentally expose herself as a poser in the process, having never heard of Goth staples like The Cure and Bauhaus.
- Race Lift: Hermione and Harry are black and Asian, respectively.
- Running Gag: Enoby forgetting Harry's real name.Enoby: I call him Vampire.
- Ron the Death Eater: Referenced in Season 2, where the Death Eaters literally say it's past time for him to become "Ron the Death Eater".
- Shout-Out: To fellow Potter parody A Very Potter Musical, when Enoby tells Draco "Maybe this year you'll hang out with a higher caliber of wizard."
- Stealth Pun: In the original, "Snap" and "Loopin" masturbated while watching Enoby bathe, infamously typoed as "masticating". In this adaptation, cut to Snap and Loopin chewing on candy bars while watching her. In other words, they were masticating while watching her.
- Super-Intelligence: Hermione describes herself as the "smartest person alive" and hasn't been proven wrong so far. It also reflects in her talents as a witch; see Took a Level in Badass.
- Tarot Motifs: Season 2 features the four "Demon Queens", who are named after the queens of the four suits of tarot; the Queen of Cups, the Queen of Pentacles, the Queen of Wands, and the Queen of Swords. Three of these are also episode titles.
- Title Drop: A surprising one in the series finale, when Violet reveals that Enoby is the anchor bringing her back to life in universe after universe and hence "her immortal".
- Took a Level in Badass: Hermione is the most badass person in the entire webseries. And in the world.Queen of Swords: I know Swordomancy.Hermione: I know everything.
- The Unfavorite: Ron, in the series, feels so much an unfavorite, that he creates a party celebrating him - Ron's Day - where people still manage to talk about Harry Potter.
- True Companions: Though they still fight and bicker, Character Development paves way for the group to become loyal friends much closer to their canon depictions.
- Will They or Won't They?: Draco and Harry, for most of Season One, until the Relationship Upgrade.
