Goth

The word goth (sometimes misspelled as goff) has had several different meanings throughout the centuries.

Historical people

Pretty damn epic.

The Goths were a collection of Germanic tribes who menaced the Roman Empire in its later stages. They are famous for dealing the Empire some of the most massive defeats in its history - including sacking the city of Rome itself in 410 AD - and being a significant factor in the Empire's fall.

Present day

Goth in its modern context is a subculture which originated from the late 70s/early 80s British post-punk scene, spawning a genre named goth rock with bands such as Bauhaus, Sex Gang Children, Southern Death Cult, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. Bauhaus' August 1979 single Bela Lugosi's Dead is commonly credited as the start of the subculture. The Cure are a notable influence despite only having a few goth albums.

Gothic literature and horror films influenced the music, while several fashions; glam, new romantic, the DIY ethos associated with punk; religious symbolism; such as crucifixes; and ethnic iconography such as Celtic and Egyptian styled makeup and ankhs, influenced the fashion.

In My Immortal

The goth subculture in My Immortal bears more resemblance to the emo/pop punk subcultures. This is evidenced by the music referenced, such as My Chemical Romance and Good Charlotte. However, in My Immortal, the cast is rarely, if ever, referred to as such (though Tara claims Raven told her Harry is "rlly emo in dis book", probably alluding to Order of the Phoenix). Tara Gilesbie and (as far as we know) Raven are both self-proclaimed Goths. Since they were both fond of self-inserts, essentially all the characters in My Immortal are goths. However, they are goths as presented by Tara Gilesbie.

Epic fail.

Goths in My Immortal (usually referred to as "goffs" and therefore "goffik/goffic/gottik") share the following traits:

• Males seen thus far are universally bisexual.
• Most goffs are either vampires or aspire to be vampires.
  • Vampire Potter's first conversation with Ebony implies that he is a human who wants to become a vampire, but later he seems to have become a true vampire.
• They are shown to have cavalier attitudes towards death, constantly slitting their wrists, attempting suicide, and feeding on innocent Hufflepuffs. At one point, Ebony's best friend, Willow, is killed by B'loody Mary. Loopin rapes her corpse, and Ebony and B'loody Mary share a moment of satisfaction over her death (these events are later retconned). Similarly, Draco's body is found, having committed suicide, but Ebony and Vampire find him alive and non-suicidal in the next chapter.
• All goffs are extremely concerned with appearances. This is reflected through incessant descriptions of Ebony's clothing, hair, and makeup (this may simply be a thing of Ebony). Ebony also describes her friends' and sometimes enemies' appearances in great detail whenever she sees them.
• Ebony claims to loathe the color pink, as it is a prep color. Ebony also violently rejects Hargrid's gift of a bouquet of pink roses before Hargrid reveals that they can be transfigured into a black flame. Therefore, it can be assumed that goffs dislike pink. However, Ebony often wears hot pink fishnets, and her coffin is lined with hot pink fabric (it may be because hot pink matches black well).
• Goffs are Stanists (Satanists). While it's unknown if all preps are Christian, Ebony once implies that all "Christinas" are preps.
• Goffs listen to a highly limited selection of "cool gothik bands" including My Chemical Romance (aka MCR, featuring Gerard Way, "a major f***ing hottie"), Good Charlotte, Evanescence, Green Day, Linkin Park, Simple Plan, Slipknot and Marilyn Manson.
• Goffs all belong to the Slytherin house. Preps are exclusively Griffindoors.
  • Likewise, goffs are presented as the good side. All goffs are good and all good people are goffs. Despite this, the only thing preps seem to do is stare and tell goffs to be quiet when they scream in public.
    • Goffs and prepz are mortal enemies. It isn't explained why; Tara just seems to think it is self-evident.
• As exemplified with nearly every protagonist in Harry Potter, name changes to something related to Stanism and other dark subjects are common. Harry becomes Vampire, Hermione becomes B'loody Mary Smith, Ron becomes Diabolo, Ginny becomes Darkness, and Neville becomes Dracola.
• Goffs are very cliqueish, mocking and beating up posers like Hargrid and preps like Britney. A common habit of Ebony's is to "put up her middle finger" at any preps in the vicinity (added irony is that stereotypical mean girl preps are like this without the violence).
• Goffs enjoy dark and scary goffik movies, like The Corpse Bride and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Clearly, Tim Burton's connection to German expressionism is Gilesbie's chosen method to represent the Germanic origins of Goths themselves.
  • The above is surely a more likely explanation than that Gilesbie considered those films hardcore horror.

It is unclear how one converts to being a Goth, as Tara states that merely knowing the MCR/GC lyrics, dressing and looking goff and stanist makes you a poser. It appears that knowing songs that are not singles from "gothic" bands and/or being able to change pink roses into a black flame are signs that one is a true goth. Otherwise a person would have to be kidnapped, have dead or murdered parents, be raped by a family member and/or attempt suicide in one's youth.

Although many people view real, present-day goths as similar to the goffs of My Immortal, most self-identified goths find "goffs" just as ludicrous as the rest of us preps.