#'if—god forbid—fate should step in / and force us into a goodbye' -> the storm.

[tuxedokit]

would yall kill me if i imagined della duck singing long live by taylor swift to her family while she was lost and maybe even trying to send a recording of it to them because she wants them to know how she loves them

[taylortruther]

I've been thinking about what you said about the topic of pictures/memories and being known and I think a good example of it is in 'seven,' 'dorothea' and the seven slam-poem in The Eras Tour.

'seven' is a song about childhood naivety. In the song, she's speaking to a childhood friend. I think a big part of the song addresses all of her childhood friends in Pennsylvania. When she says, "Please picture me in the trees // please picture me in the weeds" she asks them to remember her as she used to be. This is why she starts the poem with "Say you remember me standing in a nice dress" because both lines ask someone to remember a specific picture of her that is almost sacred. In seven she is asking to be remembered for her best moments when she was free and ferocious. In Wildest Dreams, she is asking to be remembered beautifully, despite the inevitable ending of the relationship.

Contrary to popular opinion, I don't think dorothea is about Selena Gomez. I think the song is a self-insert and it's kind of clear that 'tis the damn season is very personal. "If you're ever tired of being known for who you know, you'll always know me" is a great line and it's also a sentence I think Taylor would love to hear. In both seven and dorothea there is the topic of recalling childhood memories. In seven it is Taylor who recalls them and begs her childhood friend to remember her from these memories and in dorothea, it's the lover who recalls these memories and wonders if his old flame thinks about them too. seven is the question and dorothea is the answer. There are only a handful of people who actually know Taylor before she got famous (a handful compared to the number of people who know her now) and I think a big part of her longs for the ones who know her true self who hasn't been affected by fame.

Even Joe didn't know that Taylor. Their entire relationship survived the worst storm caused by her fame.

this is very beautifully written, thank you for sharing!

you are so right and wildest dreams and seven are companions. in wildest dreams, she's cynical about how long they'll last because of her history; in seven, she knows she can't return to those simpler times.

they're pleas to be remembered but, more than that, they are taylor's way of mourning and crying out that forces larger than her have changed her.

(see also: can we always be this close? + i wish i could brainwash you into loving me forever + if god forbid fate should step in and force us into a goodbye...please tell them my name)