There was a bizarre event in the world of YouTube vlogging this week. Marina Joyce, a 19-year-old fashion vlogger from London, uploaded a video that concerned her fans.
https://youtu.be/FqhFUbtpiB4
At first glance, it seems pretty normal, but, as The National reported in an article, viewers apparently found an embedded help message, and found bruises on Marina’s arms that they believed signaled that she had been the victim of some sort of attack. The hashtag #savemarinajoyce began trending on Twitter, and things only got stranger from there, with all kinds of theories, including one that Marina’s viewers were being led to places where they would be shot.
Marina tweeted that she was fine, and the police even went to check on her. After that, people started talking about whether this was a publicity stunt, and, according to The National, Marina herself was the recipient of some unhappy messages. The situation seems to have disappeared beneath its own event horizon at this point, and finding out “the truth” is not something that this humble roundup is capable of.
In other news, the book version of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child was released this week. In fact, it was released on July 31st, Harry’s birthday. There were several events surrounding the release of the book, including a midnight release party in Brooklyn hosted by WORD Brooklyn, Hypable, and Villain LLC. Revelit posted an article about the party, where attendees were asked to share their favourite memories related to being Harry Potter fans. The memories are a fond bit of nostalgia, and they include everything from “Forcing my mom to drive me to Borders at midnight for every book,” to “Reading ‘My Immortal’ out loud on my birthday.” (That must have been quite the party.)
If you’re planning to order Harry Potter and the Cursed Child from Amazon, please consider making the OTW the recipient of your Amazon Smile donations. Every bit helps us continue to serve fans and fandom with access to and protection of fanworks and fandom history.
And if you’re also feeling the nostalgia of the Harry Potter fandom, why not write about it in Fanlore? Contributions are welcome from all fans.
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