It's been a long time coming, but...

MISS AMERICANA & THE HEARTBREAK PRINCE The Eras Tour — Houston, Texas (Night 1) | April 21, 2023

Waving homecoming queens, marching band playing. I'm lost in the lights.

UMM so cruel summer and a lot of other songs are making a lotttt more sense now that I’ve realized the “devil” that Taylor keeps referring to is actually the music industry as a whole thanks to @keepingsecretstokeepyoutk (see this post). “He looks up grinning like a devil” // “I would’ve stayed on my knees and I damn sure never would’ve danced w the devil AT 19” // “Dear reader if you aim at the devil make sure you don’t miss.” Do you remember the Top Global Artist vid that spotify released that had cruel summer as the background song and had a bunch of cruel summer references? Yeah go back and watch that again w this context in mind 😃 Taylor (the angel) has had enough of the games and is gonna end them once and for all which is very Katniss Everdeen of her—hello the archer 🏹 if any of you have read or watched the hunger games you know how the story ends

And you'll also remember that Katniss escapes the games twice by cheating--the first time w poison berries and the second time by destroying the arena itself (which was a clock) WITH itself using a lightning strike current at midnight that shot thru her arrow -> "And there was one prize I'd cheat to win." Not to mention Katniss was the mockingjay, a symbol of rebellion and resistance. And the fire symbolism in this trilogy was meant to represent how that rebellion can spread from a spark of hope. Snow lands on top but fire melts snow. Taylor is a huge hunger games fan so I wouldn't be surprised at all if these parallels were intentional. Also I'm not the first one to notice the hunger games connections, I saw some other gaylors point this out so I can't take full credit for that

“You play stupid games you win stupid prizes” // “Devils roll the dice” // "Baby let the games begin" // The scrabble instagram post // The mastermind chess board // "You see all the wisest women had to do it this way, cause we were born to be the pawn in every lover's game" // "No more keeping score now I just keep you warm. No more tug of war now I just know there's more"

I think it's possible Taylor knew that her masters were gonna be sold hence all the game imagery and songs abt heartbreak on lover

She's literally gonna take down the industry as a whole and expose everything. This is the reason for all the cryptic messages and meticulous planning. AND THIS IS WHAT THE ALBATROSS IS ABT TOO. “She’s the albatross she is here to destroy you.” They tried to keep her locked away in cages and towers and closets and tried taming her and pulling out her teeth but it didn’t work

“Devils that you know raise worse hell than a stranger” SHE’S the devil now and she’s abt to make their lives a living hell

“She’s the death you chose” i.e. the music industry chose to kill Taylor (which is why TTPD is a post-mortem album) so now she’s coming back to haunt them hence the ghostly Victorian attire. “We gather here we line up weeping in a sunlit room and if I’m on fire you’ll be made of ashes too.” THIS is the karma she’s talking abt that will happen at midnight!!

“You’ll see me in hindsight tangled up w you all night burning it down”

I am the APPARITION. I am the LINE OF POETRY. THAT’S TAYLOR. SHE’S THE GHOST WRITING POST-MORTEM POETRY

Literally feel like I am abt to explode from all the earth-shattering revelations I’ve just had

the whole school is rolling fake dice...

Hello! would you happen to have the ts eras tour intro audio, right before she comes out and play MAATHBP?

This is both the intro and Miss Americana together

Literally nothing in the world will top being at the barricade of the diamond for the eras tour opening. I just sob every time I watch it so I’m sharing my shitty quality video with you all 😭

MR. AMERICANA & THE HEARTBREAK PRINCE chapter three: all i know is a new found grace [3/15] | 4.1k] {ao3}

Eddie and Evan grow closer and maybe there really is a person under that milquetoast exterior.

Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince in Los Angeles, via idccarlos

combat, I'm ready for combat. I say I don't want that, but what if I do? → so yeah, it's a war, it's the goddamn fight of my life, and you started it → this is a state of grace, this is the worthwhile fight → this ultraviolet morning light below tells me this love is worth the fight → sit with you in the trenches → and I'll never let you go ‘cause I know this is a fight that someday we're gonna win → and you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars, and why I've spent my whole life trying to put it into words → tonight, we’ll stand, get off our knees, fight for what we’ve worked for all these years and the battle was long, it’s the fight of our lives but we’ll stand up champions tonight → the worst was over, my hand was the one you reached for all throughout the Great War, always remember uh-huh, we're burned for better I vowed I would always be yours ‘cause we survived the Great War → threw out our cloaks and our daggers because it's morning now → when I dropped my sword, I threw it in the bushes and knocked on your door, and we live in peace but if someone comes at us, this time, I'm ready

drop the first pic of taylor you took at the eras tour✨

maathp, captured by my mom…who somehow kept it together during the intro🥹😭✨so eternally grateful for that

I’m emotional, ily sm @taylorswift ..my life would be WAY boring without you🫂 @taylornation

@taylorswift @taylornation

miss americana // metlife n1

“THAT’S ME, MISS AMERICANA” - Karlie Kloss

Oh, really?

(x)

It’s really quite insane how much they have put out there and gotten away with 😏

#MAIKO: miss americana and the heartbreak prince

Seaside at Low Tide - Edgar Degas (detail) // Countryside in Bourgogne - Edgar Degas // Landscape of a Sandy Beach at Low Tide - Edgar Degas (detail) // Lake and Mountains - Edgar Degas // Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince - Taylor Swift // A House in Nebraska - Ethel Cain

what do you think Suburban Legends is about?

Oh boy oh man oh gee oh goly I LOVE THIS FUCKING SONG!!!! Buckle up!!!!! This is verrryyy long, part essay, part rant, so I apologize in advance 😘

The story begins with the subject repeatedly betraying the speaker, and her forgiving him for it. The entire song reflects on how and why this becomes a pattern, and the long-term consequences of that first moment.  

“You were so magnetic it was almost obnoxious, flushed with the currency of cool, I was always turning out my empty pockets” is one of my absolute favorite line in Taylor’s entire discography. It draws on the metaphor explored in Tied Together with a Smile and You All Over Me- love (or, candidly, sex/sex appeal) as a currency, specifically, a something cheap- pennies, change. The subject of Suburban Legends is rich, flush with currency- worth a lot compared to the speaker who doesn’t have anything. The sensual imagery in this part (slippery plastic summer, slide, flush, magnetic) makes me think a lot about the ways sex and love can be used in a relationship, and how formative our early relationships can be. Because of the title and imagery in the whole song, I feel strongly that this is “about” teenage relationships, and I think it exists in relation to the Betty/August/Cardigan story (I’ll leave it there…).  That first verse, to me, is a really meaningful exploration of why someone, often girls, might feel pressured to forgive their partner for something that really hurts. The explanation, I think, rests on how you interpret the empty pockets metaphor. The speaker feels so little self worth compared to the subject (who is magnetic, slippery, cool) that she forgives big transgressions quickly, perhaps against her better judgement. 

The chorus is sort of mysterious to me. I understand what “I didn’t come here to make friends” means, but it’s tricky in context. For me, it evokes reality game shows like Survivor or Americas Next Top Model- the person saying the phrase is a contestant fighting for something, and willing to stab people in the back to reach the goal. (Reminds me of willow) I don’t think the song requires us to take that entire symbol literally, so in context, I think it means that whoever is saying it has no intention of being friends, they intend to be ~more than friends~ (romantic or sexual or enemies, or all of the above, idk!!) and they’re willing to play dirty to achieve that. The next line, “we were born to be suburban legends,” is perhaps the goal. Suburban legends makes me think about small time legends; high school football champions who peak in 12th grade, cutest couple in the yearbook, childhood sweethearts who get married and live happily ever after in their suburban hometown. But it also makes me think about the way Taylor immortalizes her subjects. The songs she wrote as a teenager have entered suburban folklore. Everyone knows Love Story and YBWM, even if they think they don’t! Their relationship was fated to occur, and they were born to live the story that has become legendary among suburban, normal youths. If we take the perspective of how this experience has laid a pattern in place, these lines feel relevant to later adult experiences post-fame, too. Taylor Swift is a household name, along with some people she dated. The first lines of the chorus are also pretty darn flirty, which contributes to the ick factor, for me. It’s like a pick up line, or something that is being used as a consolation prize for not committing to a real relationship; we may not be exclusive, but we were born to have this ~arrangement~ and to be suburban legends, therefore everything is fine. Makes me think of Tis The Damn Season. 

“When you hold me it holds me together” goes back to the question of why someone would forgive their ~lover~ for cheating/stepping out or hurting them, and how easy it is to start seeing your worth as tied to the other person’s actions towards you. This line is the only semi-positive thing she has to say about this person in the song. Whatever the arrangement is, for better or worse, it holds her together. “You kiss me in a way that’s gunna screw me up forever” holds soooo much weight, and is a really crystallized way to convey how important those first sexual/romantic experiences can be, and how tied to intimacy they are. That line establishes that this story fundamentally altered the speaker’s life, and started a pattern of behavior that she is grappling with however many years down the road. The element of fate feels really important. Other songs that I think tie in with this are Ms Americana and the Heartbreak Prince, Betty, That’s The Way I Loved You, Mastermind. 

The second verse makes me feel kinda ill!!!! The sensual/intimate imagery continues, but with a lot more anger, disgust, regret, and public humiliation (fantasy, diaries, ripped out, the whole school). This verse again solidly places us in high school, which could be a metaphor but I don’t think it needs to be. Even if we take the language literally, it still can apply to situations throughout the speaker’s adult life because of how impactful the early experience was. Shame, humiliation, regret, embarrassment, wanting to prove a point, feeling tossed around by fate. 

I also am really interested in the tense use of Suburban Legends. I had the fantasy (back then) that you would be (in the hypothetical future) more than a chapter in my old diaries (past reality), with the pages ripped out (ambiguous, when did she rip them out? How long did she hold out hope? What was the last straw?). Whatever happened with these two was so upsetting that the speaker has tried to violently erase the experience from her own most private history. The speaker is experiencing extreme anger in the present about something that happened in the past, which is kind of unusual in Taylor’s discography! Usually her songs explore the moment she feels something, which this also does. I think this is a reason it stayed in the vault: there’s a lot of private shame involved in this story, and also anger that it’s still impacting her all these years later. “I can still see it now” is such a strong statement that roots the speaker in the present but is sensorily placed in the past. The theme of memory is common for Taylor, but that particular phrasing makes me think about All Too Well 10MV, dear john, would’ve could’ve should’ve, and Maroon (I wake with your memory over me that’s a real fucking legacy to leave). 

The next part about “I know that you still remember” and national treasures and getting back together make me think of WANGBT and All Too Well and how the present experiences of older relationships can really force a person to reflect on what led them down that path - what was the twist of fate that caused the tragedy to occur? I’ll leave it there!

The bridge, besides being catchy as fuck, is extremely sassy and sarcastic; “i broke my own heart cuz you were TOO POLITE TO DO IT!!” This line is so interesting and it captures exactly what it’s like to be in the midst of heartbreak over someone that was hurting you - the break up is what is breaking the speaker’s heart, not the asshole’s actions themselves. “Waves crash to the shore, I dash to the door” is giving August. The rest of the bridge is exactly like how a panic attack feels - it spirals out of control and has the repetitive pulse of ruminating thoughts. It’s the moment that the past experiences combine with the present, and everything compounds. The speaker’s life is ruined, it was ruined before, it’s ruined now, the subject has all the control in this situation to ruin her life by abandoning her, but she always knew it! SHE ALWAYS KNEW IT! She knew from the first time someone called him on an unmarked number and she let it slide!!!! It’s the ultimate dramatic tragedy- the hero’s own hubris ruins their own life!!!!!! And thus, the shame cycle is born. 🤮

(to be 100% clear, while I think the song is set up as a tragedy - that is, the hero is responsible for his own downfall - I do NOT believe that Taylor is at ALL responsible for how the subject of this song treated her. She, and anyone reading/listening to this deserve to be treated better!! Healing from wounds like this is so so hard, and a lifelong practice. We heal from relational trauma when we engage in relationships that contradict the initial wounds and allow us unlearn those messages of self-hatred that were reinforced by the initial experience. I love this song because it captures the feelings of shame that are so so so common and important to acknowledge when we first set out to reflect and heal from old shit, and are maybe still engaging in relationships that don’t contradict the past experiences 💜🦋. I think this will be a huuuge theme on TTPD…. 🤍)