You are in love❤️ true love ❤️ (via:kaylor_swiftkloss IG)
The visuals in this scene are clear references to a moment in Frozen 2 where Elsa makes a major transformation.
Elsa is singing the song "Show Yourself." The lyrics are very reminiscent of Taylor's "meet me at midnight" sentiment.
I have always been a fortress
Cold secrets deep inside
You have secrets, too
But you don't have to hide
The song builds and builds with the theme of meeting your true self.
The scene shows Elsa aligning all the jewels just right while singing "don't make me wait one moment more!"
And the entire world opens up
It is at this point that she transforms.
Show yourself
Step into the power
Grow yourself
Into something new
You are the one you've been waiting for
All of my life
All of your life
Oh, show yourself
So let's assume the sparkle represents Taylor's true self (as she's shown us again and again in other mvs) and the cloak references reputation (using a self made shield to hide your true self), then on floor 3 she removes the cloak and affixes larger colorful jewels directly to her body. When she enters floor 5, she's already super confident and dripping in diamonds.
My theory is that Taylor will transform herself in the public's eye during the Speak Now tv, to allow her to fully step into 1989 tv era with confidence, and as her true self.
right where you left me, Taylor Swift ♡︎
well, i've seen some people talking about this song and i had to listen to it again, since it's one of my favorite songs on lover and it also has to do with the theories and the meaning this song has to me.
i don't want to apply this to anyone so feel free to SKIP and NOT READ if you don't agree that this is a LGBTQIA+ song.
pure my own interpretation but you don't have to come to me if you don't like, she has a lot of songs and some of them are free for interpretations and they have different meanings to different people.
the first line it's:
“combat, i'm ready for combat / i say i don't want that but what if i do?”
this line to me has the deepest meaning and it comes along with the one in you are in love “and you will understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars” and in ivy “this is the goddamn fight of my life and you started it” and both songs are before and after the archer which makes the archer in the middle.
the combat she's (maybe) referring to it's about coming out being (still) the american dream and the woman everyone looks up to when it comes to pop music, she says she don't want it but what if she does? what if she want to fight for it, fight for who she is and who she wants people to see that she really is? it's a combat because you can't come out if you're not ready to start a war against the world.
“cause cruelty wins in the movies / i've got a hundred thrown-out speeches i almost said to you”
cruelty here, to me, it's about how cruel it is to not have the story of your life in the big screen, like, we grow up seeing the bad stories about LGBTQIA+ couples and it's always about how they didn't end up together or how bad they are treated. the “speeches i almost said to you" looks like something she was ready to say to us, her fans, and she didn't had the chance or she wasn't really ready.
“easy they come, easy they go / i jump from the train, i ride off alone / i never grow up it's getting so old, help me hold on to you”
when i first saw the miss americana documentary, i highlighted that part where she is trying to convince her father and the rest of the team that it was a good idea/good move to speak up about the politics and the situation of the trump thing. and it was very hard for me to watch because it was clearly a bunch of old men that grew up and still have in mind their conservatory concepts that goes against what taylor wanted to tell her whole life, they were just trying to silence her and she decided to do it anyway because she is a grown woman and she never spoke up about those things before the reputation era.
the easy they come and easy they go line goes for the fans, they are always in and out and sometimes some of them never want to come back and stay because in the first bad thing that happens to her it pulls them away. she jumps from the train and ride off alone, the train maybe is about her life that never stops and she takes a break from it, the media, the relationships, the image she has in front of the whole world and she ride alone because there's no one in the world that could understand her more than herself. she never grow up when it comes to being more mature when it comes to some things and having the capacity to speak her truth, she's asking us to let her hold on to us when things go harder and when everyone else has left her.
“i've been the archer, i've been the prey / who could ever leave me darling, but who could stay?”
i fucking love this line so much because when you are a LGBTQIA+ kid growing up, you always has to fight against being the bad person and the good person, you grow up seeing in the news that you will die young and that there's people out there that will try to tell you that loving someone of the same sex is the wrong thing to do. being the archer and also the prey is like haunting yourself until you realize who you really are, you have that idea internalized in you, the homophobic jokes you grew up listening and you're also the target and it's like both sides of a coin. who could ever leave her for being a (bi, pan, lesbian) woman? who could ever stay if she's a (bi pan, lesbian) woman? it's like “who could stay in the darkest of the darkest times here with me because it looks like i am lost and i don't know where to go”
“dark side, i search for your dark side / but what if i'm alright, right, right, right here?”
the dark side is not the bad side like people point out, the dark side of someone is like when the moon is half shown and half hidden, and you can only see the part that's out for the light. here the dark side of taylor is the one she haven't showed to us, and to me this line is not about a potential lover but about herself. and this song feels like a mirror, so to me, she's talking to herself and trying to find her dark side in front of her own image. the sequence “alright, right” it's like the dark side saying “i am here and it's good”.
“and i cut off my nose just to spite my face / then i hate my reflection for years and years”
this fucking line is the deepest for me, because it's like, she cut a part of herself to looks like someone who she wasn't made to be, it reminds me of having to hide your true side in despite of being hurt or left aside. how many LGBTQIA+ kids and teenagers has to hide from their parents? we change our way to see the world, we lie to everyone about our love interestings, we hide in the closet and we don't face ourselves because this is not who we are and then we spent the rest of our life hating our reflection because we don't recognize this person but everybody loves this version we created, it's easy, it's very easy to love a straight person but it's the hardest thing to let a queer kid feel loved. it's very easy to not tell a straight person how to be but it's the hardest thing teach a queer kid how to love themselves.
“i wake in the night, i pace like a ghost / the room is on fire, invisible smoke / and all of my heroes die all alone / help me hold on to you”
she's s ghost to the people who live with her so she's not seen, everything is burning and there's an invisible smoke that's where she fades in, and all of her heroes, probably the queer ones that are dying everyday all alone and the ones who died were left alone in their final days. again she's asking if she can count on us to keep going if things go hard.
“i see right through me / they see right through me / can you see right through me?”
seeing through someone means that you see their true version, like if you're looking at their soul and they're so open that you can read anything. it's understanding someone and knowing someone inside and out. just like the lover mv where she's inside the fish tank, it's a metaphor for a thing that can be seen by everyone just like a mirror. and the delicate mv where she's not seen until she enters the bar and sees a person. she can see through herself and people are seeing through her but not in the way she wants to be seen and then she asks (for the fans?) if we can see right through her. could we fight the wars with her? be the shoulder for her to lean on? stay even when she's about to face the fight the biggest war of her life?
“all the king's horses, all the king's men / couldn't put me together again / cause all of my enemies started out friends”
king's horses and king's men also align with the chorus and the universe of being the prey in a world of men. also it can also be the world of a society that lives inside a bubble and cannot accept diversity. not even the men, (her father, team, men she dated?) could put her together again after all that she have been through, and it matches with the “i cut off my nose just to spite my face”. all of her enemies once were friends which implies that she can't trust anyone and as the song goes as (in my vision) a LGBTQIA+ letter to her fans, she's saying that there's no one that could handle this secret and she already tried to tell them but it ended wrong.
that's it. to me this song has a deep meaning and i couldn't put everything i wanted to in this post. also i just want taylor to know that there's a lot of sapphic connotations in her songs and i will always stay.
all too well: “so casually cruel in the name of being honest”
mr. perfectly fine: “mr. casually cruel”
last kiss: “you told me you loved so why did you go away?”
mr. perfectly fine: “mr. looked me in the eye and told me you’d never go away”
how you get the girl: “when you left her all alone and never told her why”
mr. perfectly fine: “mr. never told me why”
I knew you were trouble: “no apologies, he’ll never see you cry”
mr. perfectly fine: “mr. never had to see me cry”
dear John: “long were the nights when my days once revolved around you”
mr. perfectly fine: “mr. everything revolves around you”
the story of us: “I used to know my spot next to you, now I’m searching the room for an empty seat”
mr. perfectly fine: “sashay your way to your seat. it’s the best seat in the best room”
white horse: “it’s too late for you and your white horse to catch me now”
mr. perfectly fine: “someday maybe you’ll miss me but by then you’ll be mr. too late”
What are the top three things that happened in the last year or so that make you so confident they are still together? No “sources”. No small coincidences. Real things that make sense. No eye theory allowed! Go!
ok anon, i’ll bite!
-taylor’s sudden and sustained use of baby, child, and father imagery and language from lover era through folklore and evermore and now. karlie has done some of it too.
i could list it all up but this post would get very long and it’s, you know, a touchy subject. but i think it’s been pretty noticeable if you’ve been open to it. plus idk, taylor creates a whole album about a secret love and talks about wanting to be her lover’s end game but somehow it’s not supposed to include starting a family? and if it does it needs to be done publicly?
-taylor’s continued use of the crest symbol (something kaylors identified far earlier than swifties)
beyond the Lover music video, we see it in the evermore album photos, and she’s now used it on The Vault. it’s the snake looking like an S and the butterfly looking like a K, for me. plus.. crests are made for *families*
-social interactions with mutual acquaintances.
for example, cara delevigne going to see taylors SNL performance and also publicly sending karlie bottles of wine. misty copeland dancing for taylor’s AMA performance and then also posting a pic wearing a LIKE A KLOSS tshirt to instagram. lily aldridge wishing karlie a happy birthday using a pic where taylor’s right there in the frame. the haim sisters hanging out both with taylor and with karlie on multiple occasions. etc. and then brandon maxwell adding taylor swift songs to his runway shows, and christian siriano often featuring pics on instagram of taylor in dresses he’s designed. all this while karlie hosted project runway with them as judge and mentor. if you believe taylor and karlie were ever together, these kinds of sustained moments should give you pause because they just wouldn’t happen if there was a breakup.
***
-taylor making the noticeable public pivot towards “fictitious songwriting” with folklore and evermore.
this isn’t so much a proof as something that i think really sets her up well for the future. for me, trying to wean the public off of searching for connections between lyrics and her real life is a way of protecting what she has. plus it has allowed her to write about a greater variety of things.
-the red rose dresses
i’m sorry say what you will about twinning being abstract (yes sometimes it is) but, this kind of thing is just obvious. what’s more, we can deduce that taylor started working on that video before karlie started designing her dress, and karlie then designed hers, debuted it, and taylor then went and did the video without change. to a similar extent you could argue a similar pattern with the yellow dresses in 2019 (elle cover/off-white runway) and the orange thing (yntcd/carolina herrera vogue cover/adidas/match.com) that went into 2020. there’s a pattern of one of them debuting a look, the other puts out a similar look, then it gets revealed the other was working on it earlier, etc… plenty of opportunities to course correct these bold primary color twinning moments if they didn’t want anything to do with one another.
-taylor continuing to wear the vsfs ring (which is undeniably a kaylor bat signal)
on significant days such as kissgate anniversary in 2019, while accepting an award in 2021, and at her birthday party just this month. honestly i could write a dissertation on other jewelry things (karlie wearing the cartier necklace through the pandemic onset and her pregnancy, the alison lou of it all… or the awe le duo necklace lolol, but the angel wing ring takes the cake)
moreover, it’s just all this and every other thing, in aggregate. they’ve both maintained my attention!
Howdy partner! this song is clearly a reference to Taylors roots in country music - but it goes deeper than that. It’s about Karlie, and how both girls have built their careers off of selling the idea of love, karlie through modeling and Taylor through songwriting. Both are super ambitious and focused, playing the game and driving their careers forward, but have rags (ok - not rags, but upper middle class normalcy) to riches stories, which makes them feel like the don’t quite belong in the celeb world.
And the tennis court was covered up
Several people have noticed that this could be a reference to Tennis Court by Lorde. The last time Kaylor was seen together was the below pic at Lorde’s bday. Reading the lyrics to Tennis Court, it almost seems like the same setting as CBM. Lorde’s song explores the dark side of fame, talking about not fitting in and being surrounded by superficial fame. She says “let’s go down to the tennis courts to talk it out” and then we have CBLM that starts in the middle of a sentence with “and”, and takes place at the tennis court, where the cowboys are trying to impress the rich folks, almost as if the songs are sequential.
With some tent-like thing
Here we’re already getting the theme of not belonging somewhere. Taylor doesn’t say canopy - which is what she is referring to and actually would fit both in terms of syllables and rhyme scheme - she says “tent-like thing” which is both dismissive of her surroundings and tells us that maybe she doesn’t quite know the right word for them.
And you asked me to dance
Let’s just take a moment to remember that 1) Karlie is a dancer and 2) kaylor started at vsfs2013 where they danced on stage together like this:
dancer karlie!
But I said, “Dancing is a dangerous game”
This references DWOHT - which is the ultimate Kaylor song and is all about dancing even though its dangerous, like in the lyrics “can we dance through an avalanche?”, “Swaying as the room burned down”, etc.
Oh, I thought This is gonna be one of those things
There’s a song called Just One Of Those Things by Nat Porter that you can listen to here, and it seems like Tay is referencing it here. The song lists great loves (ex. Romeo & Juliet) being cast aside and belittled as “one of those things”. This reminds me of people saying that being gay is a “phase” in order to devalue it. Specifically one line in Just One Of Those Things really makes me think about Kaylor - “If we’d thought a bit, of the end of it When we started painting the town We’d have been aware that our love affair Was too hot, not to cool down”. It expresses how they were so loud while glass closeting and had so much chemistry that they couldn’t just tone it down they had to go completely dark in order to keep closeting.
Now I know I’m never gonna love again
In many ways this references the theme of “right where you left me”, Taylor can’t move on because she fell too hard for Karlie and no love will ever compare.
I’ve got some tricks up my sleeve Takes one to know one You’re a cowboy like me
Taylor sees a lot of herself in Karlie. They know how to play the same games in terms of their careers and bearding, but because of this they understand each others vulnerabilities, etc.
Never wanted love Just a fancy car
They weren’t looking for love when they met, they were both just in the place they were because they were trying to advance their careers. However, as Tay has talked about before, the lure or riches and fancy cars isn’t enough to satisfy her. It also references this line in King Of My Heart, where Tay literally says that all the boys aren’t as good as her lover (Karlie) is.
Now I’m waiting by the phone Like I’m sitting in an airport bar You had some tricks up your sleeve Takes one to know one
You’re a cowboy like me
also:
Perched in the dark Telling all the rich folks anything they wanna hear Like it could be love I could be the way forward Only if they pay for it
Both Karlie and Taylor have built their careers off of selling the idea of love - Taylor through her music and Karlie through her modeling, especially with Victoria’s Secret. Both of them are capitalizing and cashing in on romance. They play the game of love to be valuable to the record labels, fashion brands, and industry overall, getting the “rich people” in the industry to invest in them and their careers. However, both are caught off guard when they encounter the real thing and actually fall in love.
You’re a bandit like me Eyes full of stars
Taylor talks about eyes a lot, but I think this has two meanings. 1 - both of their eyes are full of stars because they are surrounded by other celebs and so they are literally seeing stars all the time. 2 - the more conventional meaning would be that their eyes are bright and beautiful.
It also references two songs that are very much about Karlie: “Starry eyes sparkin’ up my darkest night” in Call It What You Want, and “The stars in your eyes shined brighter in Tupelo” in Dorothea.
Hustling for the good life
Again, Taylor brings attention to the fact that they are both really career focused and trying really hard to be as successful as possible. They don’t have the same type of fallbacks that celebs with famous parents and old money have.
Never thought I’d meet you here It could be love We could be the way forward And I know I’ll pay for it
Here Taylor knows that she’ll pay for her relationship with karlie in two ways, 1- she’s paying for it in that by falling in love and pursuing a relationship she’s on the “treacherous” road making her life much more complicated given that she’s choosing not to come out, 2- she is literally paying for beards so she can have a public muse for her relationship songs.
[Chorus]
And the skeletons in both our closets
Plotted hard to fuck this up
Here Tay is talking about closets again. This actually makes me think of two meanings.
1- it makes me think of the “skin and bones” line in treacherous (maybe because I was just talking about that song) and how tay has used that type of language to talk about her and her lover in the past. The skeletons in the closet could be a reference to the past karlie and Taylor being in the closet, when they were both really thin and Taylor was battling her eating disorder. In the past they were plotting so hard to cover their tracks and stay in the closet, which eventually messed everything up for them.
2 - The more obvious interpretation is that the skeletons in the closet are the people who were controlling their careers, who they have now moved away from, like SB2. These people messed things up by keeping them in the closet.
And the old men that I’ve swindled
Both karlie and tay have had careers that were mostly controlled by men who are older than them - VS CMO Ed razek, SB2, etc. These men thought that they were controlling kaylors careers, but kaylor is individually profiting as well.
Really did believe I was the one
This references The One, the first track on folklore.
And the ladies lunching have their stories about When you passed through town
Karlie has quite the rep for making people fall in love with her quite easily (see the klossanova video that @theprologues made here).
But that was all before I locked it down
Love locked down! for more details check out this post and this one, but basically Karlie posted and image with the caption “love locked down” on March 6, 2016, on the same day Taylor posted “one year down” with the picture of a locket. This was one year after their Vogue cover came out in March 2015. Because of this, it seems like they were celebrating their anniversary some sort. Hence the line “I locked it down”.
Now you hang from my lips Like the Gardens of Babylon
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon is one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world, known as very beautiful and an incredible feat in engineering (beauty + engineering are both things that describe karlie!). However, archeologists are unable to find proof of their location - therefore it’s unclear if the gardens “were an actual construction or a poetic creation”.
With your boots beneath my bed
This is a metaphor for sleeping together and is also referencing cowboy boots.
Forever is the sweetest con
It’s impossible to be with each other forever - when we say forever we know that we will actually be separated by mortality and factors we can’t control. However, Taylor is okay being “conned” with ideas of forever, because it’s understood that they will be with each other as long as possible.
And yet, this also references Hoax - it’s a different way of saying “your faithless love’s the only hoax I believe in”. Leaving us wondering if the love was real or a con.
[Chorus]
I saw your 1989 rewatch post and i was wondering about your comment: the New York story still continues.
I think in this side of swiftie fandom we can agree new york is karlie. However, I have seen so many analysis and lyric parallels of New York symbolism as proof of a kaylor break up.
I believe kaylor is still together, but I am having a tough time with what new york means after folklore and evermore. “I left a part of me back in New York” “she still is 23 inside her fantasy,” all of coney island paint at not so great picture compare to the new york of Lover.
What are your thoughts?
Sorry in advance if this sounds like rambling
She is still in New York regardless of how sad the songs sound. The story is still tied to New York.
I think there is this weird thing we tend to do when Taylor writes a sad song. We automatically assume it’s about a romantic break up and I think that is a product of her old reputation, sadly.
I think Taylor recognizes love is a lot more complex than Romeo and Juliet and it comes with ups and downs. We saw this on Lover. Riding the highs and treading the lows but all the while just hoping to get back to mundanity and normality. I think Taylor realized the lows and the highs make for a more entertaining story so she takes snapshots and zooms in on specific feelings and moments from her past and explores the stories that can come from them with new perspectives.
I also believe Taylor has been singing about her own personal journey and her struggles with anxiety. As well as her choices that led to a specific place or point in time and fighting her own demons while worrying about how someone could love her with her flaws. These concepts were on Lover as well.
Folklore and evermore honestly feel like purgatory to me, if that makes sense. They exist in a pocket dimension where Taylor is wandering around an old abandon town with no choice but to reflect on her past. She is forced to face her demons. She can’t hide from her thoughts. And sooner or later she realizes that the only way out is through and maybe if requires leaving all the baggage behind because you can’t leave the same way you came in.
“You know I left a part of me back in New York” means exactly that: She left part of herself in New York. (She had to leave something behind but she didn’t want to).
Conclusion:
The story is still in New York. Just on the outskirts of town. Coney Island is still in New York. It’s in Brooklyn. She did her photoshoot for the albums in Upstate New York.
She’s still writing the story:
“If the story's over. Why am I still writing pages?” - DBATC
“Pages turn and stick to each other” - RWYLM
I’m sorry again if this was rambly.
Just saw Miss Americana, was not prepared..
So did anyone else notice the girl with the red nails sitting in the exact spot in Miss Americana?? Taylor was sitting on the floor right next to her too and she also had red nails...
I cant get a screenshot off netflix.
Can anyone get the part im talking about?
nvm I found it
I'm new here so not quite sure if these ideas had been discussed before... just to write down and share. Happy reading!
On top of the LGBTQ+ related Easter Eggs hidden everywhere of the video, I think Tay also gave us lots of hints about the songs in the Lover album.
Devil roll the dice
He got my heart beat skipping down 16th avenue
https://forkloevermore.tumblr.com/post/652397567631572992/new-thoughts-about-yncd-video-part-2