#Paragraph Taylor

[manifestiv]

2025, week 4 (1/2): Pai-anora, Studio Closeups, Frog Chase

[taylortruther]

idk how to articulate this, but i'm thinking about how some fans think taylor creates numerous sophisticated, subtle easter eggs/hints about her life - to the point where, if this was true, she would be going to an extraordinary amount of effort to be even more self-referential than she already is. planning every move, every outfit, every letter in every tweet, every tiktok like, every interview answer, every photoshoot, every jewelry name, every pap shot, every friend, every meal to mean something. and if that was in any way realistic (it is not), at what point would the taylor in their minds cease being a person and simply become a collection of easter eggs?

[trans-queen-administrator]

I'm 93% sure I made a post about this before, but Taylor using other people's powers better than they do is such a fun part of her character, especially since she seems to constantly be thinking "damn if only I got that actually useful power." Like, Lisa thinks Taylor would do better than her with her insight power, Taylor coordinates Cuff and Theo to make a lightning rod during Behemoth fight when neither of them had thought of that, Clockblocker with the string, ordering around like 10 people including fucking Eidolon to hold Behemoth still for Phir Se, she's always scheming and using people as chess pieces in such a way that they're not even mad because it's a learning experience. I think a large part of it is a want to be anyone but herself, which leads to her looking at other powers and considering their uses more than most people do because she just finds every reason to be jealous and justify her passive belief that she's inferior and weak. Also she's just so used to high stress fucked up situations that she performs well under pressure. She kinda acknowledges that in the chapter where she's like "what the hell why is Amy so stupid she should be using microbes to form defenses" because she realizes Amy has no experience in fighting, so she's never had a need to think about this. But Taylor is always fighting, even when she's finally safe she doesn't let herself relax, so she's used to this.

And as for wanting to escape her body and be someone else who's cooler and has a better power and isn't lame and worthless, if I recall correctly she comments more than once on how powerful Genesis is and how she would love her power, which honestly fits so well. She wants to have other people's powers because she doesn't like herself, and Genesis's power lets her create and customize new bodies that aren't her and can do whatever she wants. It's the perfect way for her escape being herself.

And then Khepri is thematically significant as always. She finally can use other people's powers, and damn she's good with them! She magnifies Sundancer's sun with Vista, she combines Ballistic and Foil, she uses every combination and interaction possible for an advantage. She can use other people's powers like she always wanted, and she stops being herself, just like she always wanted.

[heart-shaped-pupa]

call my Slash Jacked the way my bottom growth extends far beyond its physical limits

[brian-kinney-apologist]

dear qaf besties!!!

I have a present for you 🥰🥰 i finally did it!! i've actually finished AND published the chicken soup fic that i'd promised you (like 6 months ago 💀)!!! (here's the link)

(yes, it took me an embarrassingly long time to do so but still !!! i rewrote it a couple of times changing some things and i hope i made as little grammatical mistakes as possible and I hope you'll like it)

so please enjoy :)

[fritzes]

via The Athletic

[radish-club]

This girl ain't getting home is she lmao

It's so funny. Taylor was so single minded about saving Dinah and as soon as she does she starts exploiting the girls power to answer questions. And Dinah starts getting depressed because she can literially sense the probability of Taylor getting her home dropping.

[aslightaddity]

Ed isn’t a cold logician he’s just autistic.

I could leave it there but I have to expand on this if only to be able to explain why I resonate with him.

We’ve seen him referred to as cold or unfeeling since like the start, in the first few seasons it’s not even overtly it’s just implied that that’s how people view him. But he isn’t. He’s incredibly emotional in actuality, to a point where I could put him as a second place for Gotham’s most emotional character.

He only gets called cold because people don’t see how logical and factual his feels are to him, like the pier scene in season 4 or 5 where Oswald tells him that if he listened to his heart more than his head he’d understand, but in season 5 he even admits that he rarely ever harmed a person who didn’t wrong him in someway! When you stop the look at all his major moments in the show it’s all very clearly emotional. Season 3 possibly shows this the best after Ed finds out Oswald killed Isabella, with his violent fantasy where he stabs Oswald. Or when despite everything in season 5 he stays. Practically every major event per season for him is emotionally driven.

He’s seen as always taking into account every fact and detail he can and one of his most driving facts that isn’t mention is his why. His emotions are, to him, factual and are taken into account. Even if he can’t fully understand them, like in season 4 as we see with Lee, or denies them, like how he cares for Oswald, he analyzes them and uses them like he would any other factual thing. And the only reason others don’t see this is the fact that he expresses his emotions in a different way than other people and when he enacts plans that are based on his emotions he’s already gone through feeling them viscerally enough to cause anything that would show it so he basically seems emotionless during it.

And when we put his kind of emotional and juxtapose it against say Oswald’s kind of emotional, most would immediately point out how in this comparison Ed looks emotionless and cold but when you take a closer look it more shows that they’re sides of the same coin. They are cunning, dangerous, and motivated by their heart but act with their heads. For Oswald his heart is stronger than his head and it’s the opposite for Ed but they are both emotionally driven.

TLDR- Ed is very personally emotionally intelligent and a emotional person but people see him as cold because he’s autistic.

[sinnabunii]

stsg is so ridiculous because not only can i not look at any two black and white objects standing next to each other the same, but somehow every single song i listen to is them

[manifestiv]

2025, week 1 (4/4): north to Pai

[mylucayathoughts]

When will it be Taylor's time? He is a beautiful soul with a huge heart, he is always on the front lines supporting all the people he loves but I want to see him get the same back because it's not fair that he still has to stay in the corner supporting others who have wonderful careers while he struggles so much. I loved that article and his words for Nick but I'm honest that "I'll be in his corner, rooting him on, knowing the best is still to come" made me so sad, it's a beautiful phrase but it makes me sad .

When will his time come? When will they start doing the same things to him? To support him in the same way? To give him the same space? He is not just the Hollywood cheerleader for other actors and artists who achieve everything they want. I don't know how you cannot feel bittersweet with that article and I say this with all the love for both of them. I swear.

Hi.

I am gonna cut up part of your ask and answer them.

When will it be Taylor's time? He is a beautiful soul with a huge heart, he is always on the front lines supporting all the people he loves but I want to see him get the same back because it's not fair that he still has to stay in the corner supporting others who have wonderful careers while he struggles so much.

Success is subjective you know. It's kind of an oversight to say he is not successful currently. You should read Taylors Forbes interview where he says there are many talented actors he knows who are putting in the same amount of work but not getting anywhere. If you consider that, he is in a very very privileged position, which he obviously earned. He took a year off from work after Red white and Royal Blues success, to grieve his sister. He has started auditioning only recently. So, things will pick up from now. In the Emmys red carpet interview he already said that he several projects in the works. Plus he made so many connections in the industry over the years. Producers, directors, actors who follow him and commend him. Also, success doesn't come without struggle. Most of the actors who are successful now have struggled at some point or other. Yes, some had to put in more work to get to the same point, but that's just how everything in life is.

I loved that article and his words for Nick but I'm honest that "I'll be in his corner, rooting him on, knowing the best is still to come" made me so sad, it's a beautiful phrase but it makes me sad .

Being in someone's corner doesn't mean living in obscurity. It means supporting them, which is wonderful. Even though if Taylor wanted anonymity for himself we should respect that. So, unless you compare Nick and Taylor's careers, this statement shouldn't make you feel sad. It's so nice to know that he loves and supports Nick this way. You shouldn't assume Nick isn't doing the same for him just because there isn't a public article about it.

When will his time come? When will they start doing the same things to him? To support him in the same way? To give him the same space? He is not just the Hollywood cheerleader for other actors and artists who achieve everything they want.

Taylor says how he always had the support of a core few friends that he made earlier in his career, he also mentions his sisters. He does have a support system. Also, there is nothing wrong with cheering fellow actors in this industry even if they don't always show the same energy towards him, publicly. We don't know what kind of in person relationship they have with each other. Don't lose your mind over something you have no way of verifying. And Taylor has achieved far too many things for someone to reduce his role to that of a "cheerleaders".

I don't know how you cannot feel bittersweet with that article and I say this with all the love for both of them. I swear.

I think I have pretty much explained eveything above. I wanna end it with this following quote by Taylor.

"We are all kind of attracted to the industry, the movies, films, name and lights and I have done that all now and I realized how empty and hollow that dream was as a young kid. I realized that we are storytellers and we change the way people think and we make them think again and that is so much more fulfilling than just being a face on a poster or a face on a magazine, when you actually stand for something."

- Taylor Zakhar Perez, conversation with SAG-AFTRA

So it's obvious that Taylor loves roles and stories that are impactful and those aren't easy to come by. It may take some time for him to find THAT role and even if it doesn't bring him the kind of attention you're looking for, know that he will be content with it. And that's all that matters at the end.

[taylortruther]

also re: the racial component of TS/fan base, if you haven't you should watch Alex Avila's video on Taylor Swift, I think it was really well done

this is SO good. thank you SO much for this recommendation.

i really liked how avila noted how masterfully taylor blends authenticity and social normativity - "the reason taylor swift seems so authentic to young girls is because she's conforming to an image [of white patriarchal girlhood] that young women internalized from a young age." similarly, the popular feminism of 2014 (when 1989 was released) was flimsy and did not challenge patriarchal norms, and we see how she made feminism part of 1989's branding.

and he asks a question i often pose: is there anything subversive in idolizing the most popular cultural object? does poptimism (the critique of pop music as a serious form of art) simply reinforce existing power structures??

taylor swift and whiteness

understanding how someone becomes a legend and icon means understanding how they challenge, but also reinforce, the biases in society, which includes race, class, gender, and so forth. and "there IS something deeply white about [taylor's] image" (1:18:33). her image is cultural whiteness! taylor swift's relatability (which is and has always been part of her brand), her social capital, her social normativity, is directly tied to the neoliberal racial philosophy that, instead of calling whiteness superior, establishes whiteness as the norm (1:21:23).

millennials want celebrities to be morally pure. this is a mistake.

also - LOVE that he points out that millennials don't judge female celebrities by their sexuality or modesty anymore, but instead they judge based on political awareness, which is just another way of continuing the "patriarchal history of regulating narratives around women's actions" (1:42:39). avila focuses specifically on millennials here, cautioning us not to consider this a a sign of true political engagement from millennials. as he points out, systems of oppression adapt to our ever-changing culture. when we try to 'cancel' or 'hold a celebrity accountable' for their ideologies or missteps, sometimes it's because they're truly terrible, and other times it's because we hold women to "unrealistic standards of purity." ie, this isn't necessarily real political engagement, it is just another example of judging women. often it's both (pointing out missteps, and also being sexist.)

whiteness again

avila goes on to discuss how white women have long been held up as virtuous, moral centers of american families - and while this is a racist and sexist practice, given that woc aren't seen as virtuous, it also lays the foundation for why white women in particular dominate conversations about politics in the public sphere. it is an Event every time a white celebrity frames their political awakening as a personal, spiritual journey of self-realization. yes, this act is important, because women must learn about their own oppression, and talk about it, in order to educate others.

but when taylor (or any other famous white woman) frames politics solely through the personal, it relieves her of the obligation to critique systemic issues. her own political awakening is all that matters - she must prove her own political purity (instead of sexual purity, as before.) there is a deep problem in society demanding this, rather than larger systemic change, but we'll get to that later.

this personal political purity awakening earns her a lot of goodwill, but her resistance ends with herself. and this is a pattern that we see happen all the time, in what robin james calls "neoliberal resistance discourses" in pop: someone is damaged by oppression (sexism), she overcomes it brilliantly with an awakening (miss americana/lover/denouncing trump era), and she absorbs this goodwill into her brand. these individual damages and awakenings supposedly symbolize society's own awakening and resilience(!). (1:52:48)

🚨 some readers might be getting tired/annoyed at this; i can hear y'all saying "well, what do you even WANT from her omg!!!" just stay with me here. 🚨

she holds a mirror up to society, tho

what avila so brilliantly points out is that... this cycle of damages and resilience isn't helpful. it goes nowhere! and we are all at the mercy of the same patterns as taylor. it's not about taylor, it's about us, and how capitalism commodifies everything, including social movements! including personal 'goodness'! a neoliberal system wants individuals to care about their individual choices and looking like good individuals; it encourages the use of "purity tests" and "commodified algorithmic social movements" to discourage challenges to systemic issues (reminds me of the celebrity blackout situation earlier this year, and conversations we have about politics, well, daily on here.) and the pattern of a person failing politically as an individual is part of this machine. if we're too busy policing individuals for their purity, we won't ever organize together for shared material goals. unfortunately, unlike taylor swift, most of us are not extremely powerful, wealthy, and influential as individuals. she does have more power than us in this regard.

taylor as cultural hegemony

anyway, avila goes on to talk about how taylor had this musical renaissance with folklore, and became more honest about her masterminding her own career in midnights. she has shown herself not just to be a musical chameleon, but a cultural one as well, positioning herself as white teenage purity when the culture called for it (circa 2008-2010), neoliberal pop feminism (1989 -> lover), pandemic escapism (folkmore) - and the culture has become part of her brand, part of her music. music that is already heavily wrapped up in her own life. she is the brand she is the culture. of course she put the work in, and not just anyone could do this. but imo, her whiteness (which, again, gives her this "default" "neutral" background to work with) is part of this success. "sure, she's challenged the institution but all in the effort to become the new face of musical hegemony" (2:06:25.) she challenges systems to assimilate into them, or create them in a way that requires assimilation.

of course, this is all based on her REAL experiences, her REAL life. she is living her own life, and also living it in this metacognitive way that mirrors culture.

but we don't have to hate taylor, actually!

and MOST interestingly, avila closes out by suggesting: it's not actually super healthy to always be suspicious and critical of art (2:17:24.) yes, there is a long political history of "paranoid reading," of critique based on marx, freud, and nietzsche's philosophies. it is the basis of A LOT of our frameworks for thinking about the world, including art.

as i've said before, it's interesting to discuss taylor or celebrities because they hold a mirror up to society. but we can't just relentlessly critique ourselves - after all, the critique is supposed to protect us from being bad! the critique is what keeps us good! and it's why we project so much onto them (the celebrities, or "bad" people.)

this video dove into a term that may be new to a lot of people (i only learned of it recently) - "reparative reading." rather than relentlessly critique art or what-have-you, engage with it in ways that is "affirmative, creative, and caring." this does not mean you toss out critical readings - reparative readings can coexist, and give us hope, optimism, feelings of beauty/appreciation, and affirmation.

for example, it's why -while i enjoy critiquing taylor (or what she Represents) - i am also here to just... have fun. i don't want to linger 24/7 on her emissions, or what she hasn't done, or who she's friends with. it's also why, as a fan of color, i hate that she is often dismissed and minimized to "white musician making music for white women." i find affirmation in a lot of her music, regardless of her race; i find optimism and hope in the way women so deeply relate to her, and how queer fans (also like myself) relate to her! (which avila points out too 2:21:00.) it's why i stopped debunking stuff, because queerness - like any other aspect of the fandom - is such a critical, significant part of why her music is beloved. it's so important for people to recognize that she is more than just 'music for straight white heterosexual cisgender women.'

[kingofmyborrowedheart]

“But this mostly perfect life can feel a lot like being a tiger in a wildlife enclosure. It’s pretty in there, but you can’t get out! It’s peculiar to me that after all these years, I still get so anxious when I see a group of people staring, amassed outside my house, pointing, camera phones up…they could never imagine how much that feels like being hunted. And no matter how big my house is or how many albums I sell, I’m still going to be the rabbit. Because the hunters will always outnumber me. The spectators will stand by, shaking their heads, going “That poor girl.” But the point is, they’re still watching. Everyone loves to watch a good hunt. …They need to possess things. They need photographic proof that they were there. They need to then post that photo online so their friends can see it. So that they can spend all day checking the comments underneath. That level of possession worries me.”

-Taylor Swift, August 14, 2013

[mistresscitrusslice]

"I'm only cryptic and Machiavellian 'cause I care 🩷😘"

Mastermind is THE Meljay song from Mel's perspective. It's about time I did a song breakdown for Meljay bc honestly they deserve it. Truly an underrated overhated couple

"Once upon a time, the planets and the fates and all the stars aligned" Brings up the visual of the astral-looking magic that brought them together in the first place. Maybe fate didn't bind them, but their love feels celestial anyway.

"You and I ended up in the same room at the same time" I don't think Mel intentionally bumped into them in the hallway, but I wouldn't be surprised if she did. If that hadn't happened, I do believe she would have sought him out at a later date, maybe offered him her patronage under the table, but that's getting into fanfiction territory.

"And the touch of a hand lit the fuse" This could not get any more literal

"To assess the equation of you" THE NERDS ARE FLIRTING. wee woo wee woo They're literally so cute I'm fuming. Can we be certain this song isn't actually about them?

"Checkmate, I couldn't lose" I feel like Mel has this attitude about a lot of things. She seems like the kind of person who has at least three contingency plans for every situation and as a result is used to getting her way.

"What if I told you none of it was accidental / And the first night that you saw me, nothing was gonna stop me?" Mel certainly had her eyes set on Jayce from the moment of his trial. To an extent, even before the trial, from the moment she heard his name from Elora's mouth. Post-time skip, every one of her moves toward him was intentional to attract and mold him. Even before it becomes obvious that she fell harder for him than intended, she clearly harbors feelings and admiration for him as far as pre-time skip.

"What if I told you I'm a mastermind?" BECAUSE SHE ISSSSSS "And now you're mine" BECAUSE HE ISSSSS

"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" Something something Mel is a fox. She has to be because she doesn't want to be the pawn to her wolf mother. This is not something she can just turn off when it comes to her love life, but maybe she can learn to (or maybe they can make each other worse)

"I'm the wind in our free-flowing sails / And the liquor in our cocktails" Ship motifs, only loosely tied. (I think that line would work better for Melvik) The second line here works really, really well for Meljay, though. I'm specifically thinking of the opera scene where she hands him the golden flute of golden wine.

"What if I told you none of it was accidental / and the first night that you saw me, I knew I wanted your body?" Oh, she for sure wanted Jayce's body, but more than that, she wanted his mind. She and I can agree that nothing is hotter than reckless intelligence

"No one wanted to play with me as a little kid / So I've been scheming like a criminal ever since" Hmm something tells me Mel didn't interact with a lot of people her age as a child

"To make them love me and make it seem effortless" And she does it well too!

"This is the first time I've felt the need to confess / And I swear / I'm only cryptic and Machiavellian 'cause I care" This song plays it off in a joking way, but this is unironically Mel 😭 She cares about peace, she cares about not going to war, she cares about progress, and she cares about Jayce. The road to Machiavellianism is paved with sweet little arm kisses with your lover's head in your lap and soft finger brushes in the chilly night air.

"I laid the groundwork and then saw a wide smirk / On your face, you knew the entire time / You knew that I'm a mastermind" Jayce absolutely does not know. He knows that Mel is a political mastermind, but he does not know that that is also being directed toward him, the sweet boy. If he found out that Mel approached him partly out of ulterior motives, he would be mad, but it wouldn't last. They've both harbored feelings for too long not to repair their relationship. He can't stay mad at her and she has a way with words. Their character flaws have glued them together.

[ladyohdeath]

i wish i had the, like, talent and ability to really express the specific way that death talks. it's like she addresses everything with a faint sarcasm, but nothing about it is ironic or fake. the sarcasm's almost just like a tone instead, with exaggerated spacing out of words, it's like it's almost mocking half the time. but then underneath that there's so much darkness, too. i really like the way aubey plaza plays her in the sense that even when she's being serious, there's not like a sudden crazy shift, it's just always there. there's darkness behind her tone, pair that with her intense eyes and ever-shifting expression it's like, almost scary in some ways. you can't ever tell if she's fucking around or she's three seconds from pulling a knife on you

she's also just so expressive too, notably when she's really laying the sarcasm on thick and her eyes widen ever so slightly. i can visualize it so well but struggle so much to write it. and then that calls into play the idea that whenever she's engaging with someone in conversation, the difference between talking to her in human form or in death form. i'm not sure she's even aware of half the facial expressions she makes and how they translate. she might be completely serious but her voice doesn't sound that way, and i just think it all comes our sarcastic, sometimes not on purpose

that is, to say, not relevant when she's being super serious, in moments of connection or intimacy. i do think that there's still hints of it, and she can't even take serious moments as serious as she should, but again i am struggling to express that if that makes sense? like i just think her tone is so specific. and aubrey plaza has not thought about this as much as i have probably because i feel like i'm going crazy reading every little shift in her voice LMFAO

i still stand by the belief that her eyes say it all, and are the one consistency throughout everything with her. no matter how her tone or expressions shift it's the eyes you need to read, and they are never changing. all of her current feelings are there and she can't hide

clearly i'm going insane here, but i'm watching this tiktok on repeat and difference in the way she says "like you promised" and "and there was!" is such a, like, subtle shift and it just gives this vibe of like. she cant take anything serious but she uses that unserious, sarcastic, biting tone to speak to her power and strength and it's somehow more creepy than if she was just a straight up, power-hungry asshole all the time. it is very, very subtle and it's like she's just leaning on the creepy factor over the scary factor. idk i just feel like i am not accomplishing this well in threads but i want to

[starcollectorsilas]

it’s me again. new Taylor swift album. ssk thoughts?

first, i woke up at 4:30 in the morning to listen to this album the moment it came out. And I WAS going through it thinking about skk when I wasn't bawling my eyes out over certain lyrics that were personal attacks

I do want to take a moment to talk about the actual album itself on its own for a moment just because omfg i love it, and something I really liked with tpd in comparison to more of her recent albums, is the music seems very simple, with a focus on lyricism, which had always been a theme with her music, that the lyrics are more important, but it just. It's so well done here.

Also, there's a very nice mix between the synth pop of midnights, and the more acoustic vibes from folklore and evermore in this album, when i listened to the first song i thought the whole album was going to have that same vibe, and was very pleasantly surprised at the first piano track.

Also a lot of the lyrics are very reminiscent of her earlier albums, thinking speak now and fearless. it feels most obvious with i can do it with a broken heart and who's afraid of little old me- which by the way, based off the title I thought i would HATE whos afraid of little old me, but i actually really like it??? like it's a very 'cringe' phrase, it's made fun of mercilessly, but it works surprisingly well.

The songs all seem to have an earlier album they could tie back to, with the same vibes or styles of lyrics, and it's so nice to listen to while thinking of what it could possibly tie back to.

This definitely isn't my favourite album, i was expecting something different i think, but it's still really good, and there are quite a few really good songs on it. guilty as sin? and clara bow are my personal favourites i think :3

But I would like to direct your attention to the second song on the album, 'The Tortured Poets Department'

I LOVE a title drop in a song, it drives me insane for real, and i actually screamed. But more importantly, in reference to this, it is VERY skk to me, like I listened to it and instantly was thinking of how i was going to reference this song in an au some day.

But imo, this song is 100% Chuuya pov skk and well the autism is working overtime so I will be doing an analysis I'm so sorry this is what I'm using my time for but AUGH brainrot im sorry i have interests

'You left your typewriter at my apartment' - starting off by mentioning that this is what i thought of when considering references, because im a sucker for writer skk, and i thought a really cool thing would be Dazai leaving a typewriter behind when he left for some reason, and then Chuuya picking it up and eventually using it, especially with one of the following lines being 'who uses a typewriter anyway?', something he used to judge Dazai for then becoming something he does himself is just *polite clapping* i love it and I will be giving dazai a typewriter at somepoint

'But you're in self sabotage mode, throwing spikes down on the road' - Dazai is very mentally ill, and likely does self sabotage, ESPECIALLY if it were to be his relationship with Chuuya, his bandages are an allegory for the fact that he doesn't let anyone see below the surface of his personality, and that does go for Chuuya as well. He doesn't allow for that kind of vulnerability and in all likelihood, if he were to end up in a situation where he did need to be vulnerable, he'd self sabotage and try and fuck it up just to get out of that situation. However, there's also the next lines;

'But I've seen this episode and still love the show, who else decodes you?' - which is to say that regardless of the 'episode' dazai would be having in that moment, chuuya would still love him, and can decode him to understand what he is doing, which is a VERY skk thing, being able to decode what the other is thinking when they do things, and their intentions. He would be able to work out what was going on, and be able to work things out.

'And who's gonna hold you like me? And who's going to know you, if not me?' - skk have that insane bond that they don't have with anyone else, they know each other better than anyone else, and they both probably know it, regardless of whether they admit it or not, and (don't attack me im a multishipper) they're genuinely unmatched as a duo, there's not another team with either of them that are stronger than the two of them together. Nobody is going to know them the way that they know each other, it's just impossible given how close they had to be, and the environment they were in. The entire Dazai makes Chuuya feel human and Chuuya makes Dazai feel alive thing. As the post chorus says, nobody will do it the same.

'I scratch your head, you fall asleep, like a tattooed golden retriever' - rare moments of vulnerability my beloved, but my specific picking of this line is Dazai's constant insistence that Chuuya is his dog, while frequently behaving in a way(esp ada dazai) that would be more suited to a golden retriever. There's also something I want to say here about the comparison to a dog, by a person he loves. But it is canon that Dazai at the very least does not like dogs, and in fanon he is frequently portrayed as afraid of them.

Here, this could be translated as it being a metaphor, Dazai being vulnerable like a dog, something he is scared of/hates. He isn't just scared of dogs, he's scared of vulnerability in any form, and comparing him to a dog when he is like that would be to emphasise that point, that he hates them both. This also opens the implication that Chuuya is aware of both of these fears.

But he is like a dog, and being vulnerable, and in that moment, he would be exactly what he hates most, his is everything he hates. And Chuuya loves him anyway, despite knowing how much he hates himself. And he makes himself vulnerable around Chuuya, regardless of how much he's scared of it.

'Sometimes i wonder if you're gonna screw this up with me' - this lyric makes me think of concerns about Dazai leaving again after they reunite at 22, perhaps Chuuya's own concerns of getting too comfortable only for one of their many issues to come and blow everything up in their faces, like how in a earlier lyric the relationship in the song is referred to as a cyclone, the fear is that it gets out of control, even if they know what they're doing, or trying to do.

'But you had told Lucy you'd kys if i ever leave, and i said the same to jack so i felt seen' - oh boy toxic co-dependency time. skk are so co-dependent it's literally insane, their lives often genuinely rest in each others hands, not even mentioning whatever the fuck went on in mersault. From Chuuya relying on Dazai to nullify corruption, to Chuuya being the reason Dazai decided to try living a little in 15, there have been multiple instances in which if it wasn't for the other they would be dead. They trust each other with their lives, and could very easily end up in a state where if one were to leave, the other would make an attempt on their own life (moreso dazai than chuuya, but it really could go either way).

'Everyone we know understands why it's meant to be, cause we're crazy, so tell me, who else is gonna know me?' - Anything else aside, skk are fucking insane. they deserve each other just so they don't bring danger to literally anyone else they interact with. They're insane, especially around/about each other, and again, they're the only ones who fully understand each other. Dazai is the only one left from during stormbringer as well, which is think is important to mention. Dazai was there during sb and the dragons head conflict, both times that Chuuya's friends were killed, if anyone was going to understand how he might have felt after that experience, or what happened, it would be Dazai. They understand each other in ways others would never manage.

'At dinner, you take my ring off my middle finger, and put it on the one people put wedding rings on, and that's the closest I've come to my heart exploding' - skk are literally married guys. dating six years, married four years, divorced eight times and broken up 52, but also never stopped dating and are best friends who plan how to kill the other for fun. They're married, but they're also not, but also their souls are tied together in ways not made for the human brain to comprehend. This feels very much like domestic skk fic interactions and i'm 100% here for it.

Anyway, this song is very skk coded and I love it so much, tell me why i spent an hour on this. I don't think this was what you were looking for but... this is what you got. If you want me to go through any other songs like this then i'll do it. I love skk and taylor swift so much i can't even think like im afaifiegbi im pretty sure taylor has a tumblr account so there is like a 0.0000001% she would see this and that has me... panicking but anyway :D i have lots of thoughts all the time and thank you for indulging me with this ask i NEEDED to get this out of my system before i exploded!!!