#if you need a hint to. what is happening in the end of her mv. it's going to be a little similar to akio's t2 mv ending

[linagram]

i try my best not to spoil things but i've finished writing aimi's mv description and song lyrics and. these lyrics being the last ones she's ever going to sing in milgram is so. ugly crying and sobbing and throwing up

[sophietv]

Everything you need to know : Failed Coming Out 2019

This is an answer to an anon I've received.

I typed it all and Tumblr said there was an error when I went and tried to published it. So I had to type it all again but lost the anon....

Here's the question: could you tell me more about her wanting to come out in 2019? sorry for asking again I'm new on the fandom!

Hi!

It will be my pleasure! This is such an important part of the Gaylor Lore to know and understand, especially when you are new in the fandom.

This theory has been confirmed, but we'll get to it in a minute.

Also, I'm so sorry because learning about what went down during Lover Era is a transformative experiece in the Gaylor fandom, in a very heartbreaking way.

So back in 2019 Taylor wanted to come out with the Lover Era.

June 30th during the New York City Pride wich was also the Stonewall's 50th anniversary, was supposed to be the day it happened.

This date might be familiar to you, because it's the date we learned at the same time as Taylor about her masters being sold to Scooter Braun.

So let's start at the begining of all of this. I won't go through ALL the details because my post will never end. But I'll cover the most important ones.

Right at the begining of the year, insiders were already talking about the fact that Taylor was planing to come out that year in podcasts and blind items.

Then in March 6th (Karlie and Taylor's anniversary)

Taylor does a post hinting at this new era. The very first lyrics we get (We got hints at ME back in February):

Daylight the song is about Karlie. But this line specifically means coming out.

Stepping into the daylight, and letting everyone see the real you.

(Also worth noting the lesbian filter)

Taylor started being really loud in the posts she made from now on. Flagging rainbow, lesbian and bi colors every chances she got.

And flagging Butterflies. Wich is very important thematically in Lover and coming out.

Side note on the Butterfly meaning:

Remembre how in reputation, snake was a really important theme?

And how in Lover it switched to butterflies?

More specifically it switched to Snakes transforming into butterflies?

There's a species of butterflies, that when they are in the chrysalid phase of their transformation into a butterfly, can look like a snake if they feel unsafe or attacked in order to protect themselves.

Then, after the average 13 days waiting period, they transforms into a beautiful butterfly.

Basically what Taylor was doing, protecting herself during reputation with that "personna" like she described.

And now, she was ready to finally transforms and have a new beginning.

Here's a description of what butterflies means:

A powerful beacon of growth and new beginnings, the butterfly signifies the power of transformation and the incredible feats we can achieve when we trust ourselves. We all have the ability to listen to our innate wisdom, guide ourselves through difficult times, and emerge better and stronger than before.

The ME! of it all:

Ok back into the Lover Era timeline!

So all those rainbow posts were leading up to the first single: ME!

Even Taylor Nation was pretty loud about this (number of rainbows = number of days leading to ME! release):

3 days before ME! release, Taylor performs at the Time 100 Gala and it's the first and only time she switched so very clearly pronouns in the song, multiple times:

She sings repeatedly : I want HER midnights

And she even seems to be getting more and more confortable as the song goes on and singing it louder and louder.

She also looks at the crowd while singing it.

Then she releases ME!

That was really the first part of her coming out.

And honnestly, she shouldn't have had to do more than this.

ME! was released on April 26th.

April 26th in 2019 was Lesbian Visibility Day.

And she captionned the release with: ME! Out Now!

A song about how she is unique as a Lover...

That is without mentioning the amount of rainbows everywhere in that MV as well as other references.

Worth noting that in 2019 Lil NasX came out in a MV with the rainbow tower and was annoyed that people didn't get it?

Taylor also probably deadass thought that she made it obvious:

May & June 2019 leading up to the big coming out:

Taylor continues to be as loud as she can.

She makes a very generous donation to GLAAD:

She sings ME! every chances she gets, while flagging the Lesbian Flag.

Taylor Nation also keeps on being really loud:

And releases a song and music video about homophobia and includes herself front and centered in the LGBTQ+ community (represented by the Trailer park, note how Ryan Reynolds, the only straight person in the MV is outside of this park, not in it like Taylor).

With a bi flag wig...

So yeah, she was trying really hard to make people see her.

Christian Siriano and the dress...

Back in April, we learned that Christian Siriano (a fashion designer) was working on a project for Taylor:

In June, he started teasing us about a mistery rainbow dress for an unnknown person:

It was heavily rumored that it would be the dress used by Taylor to come out at the end of Pride Month.

He kind of confirmed it with this post:

Then. June 30th.

The New York City Pride.

Taylor planned to come out at the event.

Employees on site, starts to be warned about this (you can find some comments online).

Taylor learns at the same time as us that her masters were sold to Scooter Braun.

She never makes it to Pride.

And Billy Porter ends up wearing the dress:

But. You can see that the dress was not meant to be worn by him. It doesn't fit well and the "nude" parts shows that it was meant to be worn by a white person.

In 2022, Christian confirmed it by dueting a TikTok talking specifically about this.

He deleted it right after but you can still find it on TikTok: (X)

Last minutes changes to Lover:

We now know that Taylor scrapped two songs from Lover: All Of The Girls You Loved Before and Need.

All Of The Girls is really loud and very clearly talks about a girl. Wich Taylor couldn't afford if she didn't want to/couldn't come out.

London Boy was actually written and added really last minute to the album.

Really interesting, because this is her loudest song about her loving boyfriend. Wich is a brilliant thing to do if you want to limit the public speculation after all the flagging that you did...

We know it was last minute, because Taylor sampled it on Cold War from Cautious Clay. (X)

He was called in the middle of the night and had to approve the sample right away.

Interesting fact: Cold War was featured in Book Smart, a movie Taylor promoted that year.

The song plays during a lesbian sex scene...

The intro to London Boy is actually Idris Elba in a interview where he was talking about a charity where he sold a date with him.

You know, people paid to date him...

The shift in the Lover Era:

After this, you can start to see a shift. Where it was colorful sequin and rainbows everywhere with colorful choreography.

She now dresses in black, is incredibly sad and sings mostly accousting song.

Like her BBC 1 performance or Lover In Paris:

Miss Americana:

Miss Americana was supposed to be her coming out documentary.

It has been confirmed by the director of the project that a lot of footage has been scrapped.

Also, the documentary was supposed to be called : Is It Cool That I Said All That?

This is why the documentary sometimes feels like something is missing and some parts are rushed.

They tried to switch her coming out approach by making it her political activism era.

Taylor confirms it in Anti-Hero MV:

She's pierced through the heart by The Archer.

Her queerness starts showing (she's bleeding lavender glitters).

She tries to cover it up by taking the table cloth.

Her wanting to cover it spoils the dinner for everyone and they leave her.

And while she sings : "Did you hear my covert narcissism I disguise as altruism, Like some kind of congressman?"

She covers her queerness with a sticker : Vote For Me, For Everything

Confirming that the political activism during Lover Era and mostly Miss Americana was in fact really to cover the fact that she was already one foot out of the closet when they had to backtrack.

With this. Take a look at the closing scene of Miss Americana. When The Archer is playing in the background.

It's a montage of Taylor talking to someone and Taylor on the release night of Lover.

Look at what Taylor says...

Queerbaiting Backlash:

This might be the worse part in my opinion.

Since she was flagging so hard to come out.

Sadly, most people didn't get that that was exactly what she was trying to do.

And medias massively accused her of queerbaiting.

And using the queer community.

I'm still so mad and heartbroken about this....

reusing an old Twitter post...

Even queer fans...:

Frankly, speculating about her sexuality would have been way less damaging than this...

Songs about this event:

Taylor wrote a lot about this failed coming out.

The Archer, was her song about her anxiety about coming out. And begging her fans to stay.

I'm not gonna do a full lyrics analysis because this post is already a novel.

But read those lyrics with that in mind and you'll see how loud it is, and heartbreaking.

"I've got a hundred thrown out speeches I almost said to you"

Also. Worth noting that after Lover was released and she was not able to come out, she switched one lyric in that song.

Instead of "Combat, I'm ready for combat" singular (coming out was the combat she was ready to face)

She now sings every time "Combats, I'm ready for Combats", because coming out has turned into multiple battles that she has to face now...

Hoax:

Noticed how she says that all of her heroes die all alone in The Archer?

Her fear that if she comes out, all her fans would leave.

In Hoax she says: "You know the hero died so what's the point of keeping score movie for?"

Because with her Master Heist and everything, she was not able to be one of those heroes herself... The hero that she wanted to be died in that moment because she was unable to come out.

Edit: I messed up the lyrics. But it's even more telling. Because the movie she's talking about is Miss Americana, once she was unable to come out.

Evermore:

This song is litteraly her looking back at what happened and how she managed to process everything and ultimatly heal even though it felt at the start like she would never be able to.

"I've been down since July" - June 30th = failed coming out

"Motion capture, put me in a bad light" - Queerbaiting allegations. And Miss Americana being rebranded.

"Writting letters, adressed to the fire" - Her hundred thrown out speeches that she almost said.

"I rewind the tape, but all it does is pause, on the very moment all was lost" - June 30th...

"Sending signals, to be double crossed" - Her flagging strongly on her way to come out, only to be accused of queerbaiting.

Right Where You Left Me:

The restaurant is a metaphor for the closet.

"Sitting in a corner I haunt, cross legged in the dim light"

Doesn't really feel like a restaurant, but her hiding in the closet.

"I swear, you could hear a hairpin drop. Right when I felt the moment stopped"

Droping hairpins is giving hints that you are gay.

She was doing this very loudly right before she was kept from coming out.

"Dust collected on my pinned up hair"

Her hair are still pinned up because she was not able to come out. And dust collected over time that she spent forced in the closet.

Anti-Hero:

AH is really The Archer 2.0, and talks about the same fear of coming out and being abandonned.

The fact that she decided to depict herself as the Anti-Hero is both really interesting and heartbreaking.

Because to her, the hero was the version of herself that was able to come out...

Listen to Change in the perspective of being able to come out and change the face of the industry:

"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"

They were the Champions.

Side note: she sang this song at the ACMA in 2010, two weeks before Chely Wright's coming out.

When we know that she has knowed and worked with Chely since about 2007.

Then Taylor wrote Long Live one month after Chely Wright's coming out.

Listen to the song with the same perspective as Change now.

"You held your head like a hero, on a history book page"

Chely Wright came out in May 2010. Taylor wrote Long Live in June 2010.

Look at the parallels of both songs.

And now, look at her choice to name that song Anti-Hero after everything that hapenned....

She also wrote Long Story Short and The Great War about that event, but this is for another post and it's about how this event affected her relationship with Karlie.

How she thought she was betrayed but ultimately found out it was not the case.

And how they both made it through.

Ok, I'm exhausted lol.

Sorry for writting a novel.

But this is such an important part of Taylor's history and I really wanted to do it justice (hope I was able to).

If you are still reading...Thank you for your question!

[kanmom51]

good morning. hibe released a note saying that BTS renewed their contract, and even made a donation to the Unicef ​​fund, however, when reading the note I realized that there is no extension date for the current contract, considering that the current one runs until 2025, and the note says exactly the same date. On the other hand, there are rumors that BTS has separated, there is a probable unrequited feeling of a member, who is supposedly part of the other ship, for JM, which has caused discomfort and dissatisfaction among the members and making this continuity impossible. I don't have concrete facts, but I analyzed some facts, including the visible discomfort of the hug between JM and Tae, at the launch of the latter's MV. This became clear, putting together the facts and JM's song that talks about breach of trust among other evidence, I would like to know your opinion on this. grateful

Hello @nut2019. I will give you my 2 cents on what you asked me.

Let's start with the contracts.

They have been renewed. Period.

There would not have announced it if this was not in the bag. RM would not have posted about it if it wasn't a done deal.

Well, the members that haven't enlisted yet have signed them, meaning RM, Suga, Tae, JM and JK.

Jin and Hobi can't sign at the moment given they are in the army, but again, this announcement wouldn't have been released if it was not a given they will sign as soon as they are released.

The current contracts are until end of 2024. These new contracts will come into effect starting 2025.

We are not given the deets about their content nor length, other than it was approved by the company board (which means there were terms there that needed special approval - this could be monetary but also have to do with freedoms given to them, like total creative independence and no company veto powers over their music or content - not me saying I know what is in the contracts, just mentioning several options that may need special approval).

Like I said, there is an extension start date - 2025. No end date. I am assuming they aren't releasing more info a. because there are still 2 members that need to sign, and b. just like their previous contracts, their contents will not be divulged.

Just answered an ask about rumours.

No rumours here.

I will just say one thing about the whole disbandment.

Bull.

As in bullshit.

How these rumours start and who spreads them (well, solos and antis)... but why don't you listen to the members? Why choose to listen to these utters of nonsense when you have every single one of them saying they can't wait to get back together? That the plan is to get back in 2025. That they want to be together on stage together. Each and every one of them. With all the success of their solo paths, they still want and even need that connection and each other's presence together on stage. And now you even have RM posting about it as well, like the announcement wasn't enough.

Listen to them, not to some unsubstantiated rumours started by people that have agendas that have nothing to do with the 7 members best interests.

As for your hints about Tae, man is in a relationship. Not with JK. Not with JM. Ooh, her name does start with a J though.

Anyway, the drama people are looking for, being bored and all with no actual BTS content as of late, yeah, it's not happening.

And Face off, btw, not about Tae. Read the lyrics. Not a break up. Not about JK. Not about Tae. These men, they do have other friend circles outside of BTS. Friend/s that might have used and hurt JM, you know. Fame comes at a price. And growing up you at times discover that not everyone that calls himself your friend is there for you and not their own selfish reasons (latching on to fame and money is a thing you know). Sadly, JM most likely learnt that the hard way.

As for that hug at Music bank. Won't deny it felt awkward. But there are many other possible explanations as to why, and definitely not to do with any kind of non existent romantic triangle.

[good-beanswrites]

I mentioned this in the AO3 comments, but:

What does Fuuta think about how Es treated Amane at the end of her interrogation? (Still not completely sure what happened)

And in trial 2, what does he think now that Kotoko has joined the ranks of "people who have been hit by Es" while he has not? (And Amane, if she didn't already count)

Yessss thank you :3 I always enjoy LCSyS questions (even if I take forever to reply to comments and things LMAO) Though, some details apply outside of the au too

Well. I don’t know if it really needs to be said for Fuuta, but yeah, he is pissed 😅 Even if she wasn’t directly hit, he would be just as riled up that she was treated so roughly. (Ah, I’m once again tempted to write up my mv machine post, but) basically I picture the machine itself locking the prisoner in place with sudden restraints. There were reactions of shock and fear, as if it were affecting them immediately,  and prisoners like Fuuta and Muu would definitely run from it if they could. So I believe that moment in Amane’s first interrogation is just Es standing over her and rubbing it in. There’s no direct harm, but the fact that they are so smug about her helplessness is just as psychologically painful. 

I don’t know if Amane would really go into detail about her interrogation (the others who were hit seem the type to come right out and say it), but she mentions it during the trial hiatus debriefing. Fuuta is furious: “why didn’t you say something sooner?? I would have kicked their ass right then and there!” His outburst is the very reason she doesn’t tell him that she was hit in T2. She knows he’ll get himself into more trouble, and she feels pressured to bear it on her own. She ends up pulling him aside and telling him during the second hiatus. He has to tone down his explosion a bit to focus on comforting her more than cursing Es. Though I don’t know exactly what will happen, the knowledge that she was hit drives him to stand by her side in T3 and defend her every chance he gets, affecting whatever changes we already are getting hints of.

He feels equally upset when Kotoko mentions getting hit, and Kotoko's nonchalance allows him to do a full rant. She doesn’t seem that phased, and admits it makes sense they would have an extreme reaction to her violence. She says that she deserved it, and Fuuta of all people stumbles over his words to tell her that she didn’t – violence does not deserve more violence. (He’s learning, folks!) In the privacy of his own thoughts, the poor guy is mortified. He would be grateful if he didn't keep comparing himself with the others who didn't get hit. “Do I look as fragile and girly as Yuno, Muu, and Mahiru?” “Do they not see me as a threat?” “Do they pity me or something?” He makes up his mind to be a big, manly threat in T3 and be taken seriously enough to get hit. (He can only learn so much at a time, folks.)

[purgemarchlockdown]

for character ask game! 👀

please, tell us more, I love hearing about Amane-chan

13, 24, 26, 30

I'd love too! Plus you choose some Incredibly Fun Questions.

13. Your favorite friendship they have

Am I allowed to say the Cat? It's her bestest friend in a sense and the layers of symbolism and metaphor make me love it even more.

If not it's 0308 it's always going to be 0308. I Love those two. It's kinda hard to explain why since their limited interaction in the Timelines have been hinting at Fuuta being indoctrinated by her (or atleast learning about her beliefs) but like- this is the Supernatural Hell Prison I'll take what I can get when it comes to friendships and those two Need Friends.

They seem to genuinely like each other's company too as Amane is the one who approaches him, unlike most of her other interactions and Fuuta asks her for advice not once but twice. It's very sweet I think.

(Sidenote: something I think about, if Fuuta gets indoctrinated will he like...try to find her outside of Milgram? Like...if both of them get out will Fuuta try to find her? And if so how will that go down? It's something that I think about- honestly someone give them as 2D Beat-Em-Up co-op game i think they deserve it)

24. What do you think is a secret they have that they never told anyone?

Which one?

That's partially a joke but also- which one? There's so many, she hides so many things for her own safety.

I'll go with her wanting to eat cake though, there's something so painfully normal about it I guess? Like, she just wants to eat cake, that's not a crime or anything, it's a normal dessert. She just...Can't Have It. It really hammers home how arbitrary the Doctrines of the cult Are, or atleast in the way it's enforced on Amane.

26. When do you think they were being "themselves" the most?

This is a very funny question to ask anon and you know it.

Anyway Purge March ending. It's the Purge March Ending, specifically when the line "You’re sorry? I don’t care!" starts up.

I mention sometimes that Amane is using the vow breaking as an "righteous" reason of sorts to murder her mother. If her mother didn't kill the cat Amane wouldn't have a "good" reason to kill her.

But by that line all "righteous" reasons are thrown away to give way to Amane's genuine want for her Mother to Fucking Die, because she never forgave her and Amane Won't Either.

There's a real subtle shift between "I won't forgive you for breaking your vow" To "I won't forgive you for Hurting Me." It's really great I like it a lot.

I think that genuine anger and rage and sadness coupled with how she stops hiding what she wants for a moment really sells it for me as the scene where Amane Momose is the most Her.

(If in T3 she turns into an Actual Creature in her MV I will rescind this btw. T3 Monster Amane manifesting-)

30. The funniest scene they had?

Hm...that one minigram where she gets soy milk and makes Jackalope her accomplice. It's not Exactly the funniest but all the other Minigrams, except for the hair one (which is a personal favorite of mine but not as funny as soy milk) are also nods to Horrible Things That Happened To Her which makes me sad.

[hot-take-tournament]

most of my theories are surrounding kazui because he's my favourite prisoner (if you can't tell)

right first off - his "sin". At first I assumed it was cheating from the half music video because, wow that was vague, but now with cat and his new voice drama I don't think so anymore. I have 3 working theories

1. He's gay and married to meet societal expectations

2. He's aroallo and married to meet societal expectations

3. he just simply never loved her and married to meet societal expectations

Ranked that in order of likeliness because tbh I feel like the last one wouldn't give as much of dept to his character as the other two and I think milgram has a running theme of "they did a bad thing BUT" blah blah blah with the prisoners and no.3 kinda just makes him seem like an asshole for not telling her sooner.

So: No.1 and No.2

Both of my reasonings for thinking so are very similar, the lyrics about acting and "why can't I be normal?" would fit for both. If he's gay/aromatic he'd be 'different' then what society expects of him. The apple = sin imagery (atleast that's how I've interpreted it) would fit for being gay, and the lyrics about how he "just wanted to touch and caress" could hint that he only wanted a physical relationship (or that he's aromantic) and kinda just dug himself into a hole so he could fit society's expectations (I could go alot more indept but I don't wanna bombard you)

Then there's the whole question of how his wife actually died, and again I've got two main theories

1. She hung herself

2. Kazui pushed her off a balcony

For No.1 the chair constantly appearing in Half could point to that, also the fact that based on his voice dramas it seems he never actually killed her with his hands but No.2 also has some evidence behind it aswell.

We know he's strong enough to defeat Kotoko, he probably wouldn't have a problem with pushing his wife in terms of strength. When Kazui is bent towards the chair in Half there's imagery of a balcony in the distance, and in Cat at the end when Kazui 'eats' the dove his wife immediately falls and the apple splats on the ground. If they were arguing after Kazui told her the truth and things got heated, he would be able to overpower her. Also right before his wife falls his shadow is standing behind her rather,, omenicingly (that's probably spelt wrong)

then I have two more kinda throw away theories

1. The line at the end of Cat - "Lick that sin and oppose punishment, until you can meet the king of the masquerade" kind of sounds like Kazui is asking the audience to vote him innocent/forgiven. If we "oppose his punishment", we'll see the true Kazui in his 3rd Trial? The "King of the Masquerade"?? Maybe.

2. Shidou's family died in a car crash he caused/ he was driving when it happened. This is definitely reaching but look his answer about driving in the Q&A's feels very off okay. It would kind of make sense too,, if someone in his family needed blood or an organ or something it could be reason enough in his eyes to purposefully fail surgeries (assuming that's his crime)

Thats all, I like to think about imagery and symbolism more than actually theorising (leave that to the smarter pros) so I don't have many. Good day

I know that after a discussion about Valentine's Day is by far the worst time to post this specifically, but I finally caught up and I don't want to leave this any longer, so before I forget;

(I know some of you aren't here to see milgram theories, so I'll tag it and hide it under the cut)

Now that I've finally watched Cat, I really wanted to put together a full complete theory I was pretty confident on, but I've spent hours thinking about this trainwreck of a man, and I still got nothing - here's how much theory I wrote on Kazui after watching Cat, and I still don't know shit

Everything about him is so contradictory; after Shidou's second MV I feel as though I have a theory that I think explains everything from both Trial 1 and 2 - his MVs, his voice dramas, all of it - so I'd really hoped I could do the same with Kazui, but he's such a hot mess that I've really been struggling to even wrap my head around everything we've seen so far.

Just from what we were shown in Undercover, I don't think that it's a stretch to assume that Kazui's wife took her own life by jumping from the balcony - but that's about the only thing I'm even remotely confident in.

We know that Kazui apparently spent his marriage - and most of his life - hiding some big secret that we don't know about, and there's a lot of evidence that would support the idea that the secret he was hiding was that he's gay; he talks about trying to live as himself, the 'way he was born' - even the title of his MV, 'Cat', could be a reference to how apparently in Japanese slang 'neko' can refer to a bottom in a gay relationship, as opposed to 'tachi', which means top.

But his second voice drama really threw me - it heavily implies that Kazui has a previous history of violence that he's potentially been trying to leave in the past, and if that was the big secret he was hiding, it would explain a lot of the things that don't quite seem to fit the 'Kazui is gay' theory - but Cat doesn't really support that idea, so I don't know how much water it holds.

And then there's the woman in Half, who, given that she has a detailed face, must be important to him - but she hasn't been mentioned since.

So yeah, I have no idea what to do with this man lol

I've also been thinking a lot about that line from Cat you mentioned - 'Lick that sin and oppose punishment, until you can meet the king of the masquerade' - and I think it's meant to be a metaphor comparing Kazui and Es (and by extension, the audience) to cats grooming each other; basically, like one cat cleaning another, we're washing away his sin to justify an innocent verdict, even though we're not even close to seeing the real him.

It's more or less the same sentiment Yuno expressed in her voice drama - because we (the audience) want to believe Kazui is a good person, we're manufacturing scenarios that let us be sympathetic to him, even though there's no evidence to base those theories on.

All in all, the only thing I'm sure of is that I'm terrified of how little we still know about Kazui.

(Though to be fair, I'm way more terrified by the fact that we're most of the way through Trial 2 and we still don't know where Kotoko managed to find a baseball bat in the magic murder prison.)

Anyway, those are my initial thoughts - either way, Cat's a jam and it's been living rent-free in my head all day <3

[skaruresonic]

I thought we'd already been over this with the MV arc. Just because it's darker doesn't mean it's deeper.

The delivery was so flat and uninvolved that it made it hard to care. We're told a bunch of stuff, characters act illogically, stuff just doesn't make sense, which becomes hard to overlook in a show that seems to put science on a pedestal over religion (I mean, hey, you do you, but things especially have to make sense if you're going to go down that route).

Admittedly the idea of a jaded old vampire sounds pretty interesting in theory, but the execution just made for boring viewing. Dracula stands around making grandiose declarations instead of doing stuff to prove he's for real. I felt like there was no establishing character moment for him in this episode, no real "calling card" to give you a concrete idea of what he was like beyond the archetype of "scary vampire." I'm thinking about Shadow in SA2 and how, despite sharing a similar backstory and reason for misanthropy, the game didn't introduce those elements right off the bat. Instead, it generated intrigue and mystery around him by making him act sly towards Eggman. The few times he grins in the game happen in those first few cutscenes, making us wonder what his deal is. As the plot progresses, the game gradually weaves in hints about his backstory. It's not just like, boom, dead Maria, do u feel bad 4 him yet audience. We need time to process these elements. By laying out Lisa's demise directly and letting us know the end of her story before it could even properly begin, all narrative tension the episode could have had instantly evaporated. Maybe it would have hit harder if her fate was left somewhat ambiguous until the end of the episode, or if Dracula had tried to save her and failed at the last possible moment. Maybe we could have cut between scenes of her life with Dracula and scenes hinting at an impending execution. Idk. My point is, the way the episode is structured doesn't do any favors for the 2deep5me story it seems to want to tell.

@beevean Out of morbid curiosity, I watched episode one of Netflixavania following a video explaining games lore (disclaimer: just the Classic era. There seems to be A Lot covered in this franchise). My first impressions are: = Despite being almost comically edgy, I really wasn't emotionally impacted by the writing. It almost felt like it was just going through the motions. We begin the show with the start of Dracula and Lisa's relationship, and yet we're told it was this great transformative love instead of being shown that. One minute she's convinced him to let her stay, the next she's being burned at the stake. Wow. The tragedy. Break out the tissues. Dracula says he loved her, ofc, but since we don't get to see their relationship in action, the show might as well shrug and be like "just trust me dood"

= It's really ironic that a show paying lip service to science conveniently forgets that burn stake victims were likely to die or fall unconscious from smoke inhalation before the actual burning. Meaning Lisa wouldn't have had the time to scream and plead for as long as she had.

= ...Is this another one of those "all religion is bad and I am smart for shitting on it" works? Because I had enough of that with Mists of Avalon lmao. Not that I'm the biggest fan of Christianity, but anti-Christianity tracts like these tend to be equally fucking obnoxious because they're always so one-note, disingenuous, and boring with how they constantly beat you over the head with "religion bad" and don't really add anything else to that particular thought

= Wallachia is portrayed as like, cartoonishly backwater. Women doctors existed in the Middle Ages. They were not all automatically burned at the stake because hurr durr technology is evil.

Some of them even treated kings; I recall reading about a medieval Jewish doctor who cured a young king's eye condition. somehow I get the feeling the writer of this show has not read A History Book

= I also found it funny how the priest named "strange weeds" in the list of Lisa's possessions, as if the people of medieval Wallachia were so backwards that they didn't know what fucking herbs were.

The absolute lmao. = I don't really know anything about Dracula other than he decided to oppose God due to the death of his first wife in the games, but even then, despite my sheer lack of knowledge, I still sensed something off about his characterization here. Given how the show practically has Dracula spell it out for us that He Really Loved Lisa More Than These Stinky Humans, I Swear Just Trust Me Dood at the episode's climax, I had the feeling that if someone like him had been told his wife was dying, he'd fly like the wind to go try and rescue her. Or, failing that, unleashing unholy wrath upon her killers. But no, he just broods to the old woman just to be Dramatique. no talk him, he angy >:c = crying blood. CRAAAAAWLING IN MY CRAAAAAWL, THESE CRAWL THEY WILL NOT CRAAAAAAAAWL = Alucard tells Dracula to go after the one who killed Lisa instead of condemning all of humanity to death, but he already fucking saw who did it so like lmao what kind of logic is this = The people of Wallachia were too dumb to live actually. And kinda had it coming tbh. Imagine you don't think Satan exists but one day he shows up out of nowhere in a cloud of hellfire and tells you to gtfo before he kills you all. And instead of getting the fuck out of Dodge that very night because holy crap Satan is real after all and worse, he's pissed off, you decide to stay. Like dumbasses. = oh is this just Hunchback of Notre Dame without the sexual repression? k cool. = I'll bet the animators really liked drawing all that gore. ow the edge = Why did we spend five minutes on a not-funny, prolonged bestiality joke? It did nothing but waste time. Is this what passes for humor on this show?

= Well. That just happened. Thought it'd be more interesting than that but nah

[stuckinapatriarchalbullshitland]

I’m here since May 2019 and I’d like to brainstorm with you about the Big Proof of Love post if that’s alright, Stuck.

I remember that ask too, but I never believed and I’ll tell you why. Not only L warned us about the circus: she also was on board with them. The NY Pride 2019 picture from a CS account was a huge tip that things were fine between the girls even with the PR in it’s beginning stage. We also had several other hints like it while L kept interacting with the Diva. For me this 2019 fight didn’t happen, because they were simply sticking to their own plans.

I was a huge enthusiast of your MOM theory, but now that the PR is over maybe we should take another look at it. I don’t think anymore that her plans were to leave Epic to be independent. The Diva was never the savior like DaBaby plays in the mv and Camila’s image may have been stained a lot the last couple years, but not to a point of making her less profitable. At least until 2025, that’s when I think her contract with her management ends, I don’t see her going independent. I remember lots of asks about how damaged her image was and how her fans were leaving, but they started to repair that image and the fans came back even before the PR breakup.

In my opinion, her plan could be to leave Epic for another label negotiating a better contract that gives her a little more control than she has now. For me C&L parted ways with the Diva and his team just before or right after the pandemic started. I remember L’s first attunement live when she said no one needs to be seen right now, just after the first yawnmila stunts. Since then she’s being hell of shady and always pointing betrayals and fake friendships.

About L leaving Columbia, I think C could’ve helped, but not the same way you think. When Prelude was out she was emphatic that going independent and owning her masters at such young age wasn’t something she was expecting and that many artists dream about it, but can’t at the beginning of their careers and how she was lucky to be able to do it. So it wasn’t something they planned, it was probably a opportunity that came along and they took it.

You see, usually a label pays in advance from six to seven figures when they sign an artist. It’s not a lot of money for them to pay back considering the money they make with sponsorships and other incomes, but take look at Prince’s saga with Warner. Despite having millions of dollars, the best lawyers that money could buy and a huge fan base even he couldn’t get out of his contract. He did get away with certain loopholes, though.

And that’s what I think happened with L, she found a loophole. As much money as the PR could have brought C, still would be really difficult for her to leave Epic, and here I think her management plays a decisive role against it, because sometimes it’s not only about money. Camila signed her solo deal with them late 2016/early 2017, but for how long or how many albums? With what specifications? It’s yet to be discovered. I have a feeling the her deal with them ends before the one her managers. Hopefully 2022.

Lauren on the other hand, signed with Columbia in 2018 and with RECORDS CO in 2019. Maverick in fact played a huge role in her signing with them and you can see it in that picture from when they signed the deal: we have Tara, Larry Rudolph, Lauren, Barry Weiss and others. So they were not fighting over her, they actually got her. And even signed to both labels somehow she managed to change her management from Maverick to Brenda and later to Elena and now to Chantal. Which tells me she learned not to sign long terms contracts with any management.

With all of this info I believe two things could’ve happened: she found a loophole/breaches in the contract or she managed to get really important information from the big sharks. In both cases she could’ve had enough cards to negotiate with them to go independent, own her masters, but still with the condition to have Sony as her distributor, something she would need as an independent artist. She could have chosen a distributor outside Sony, so I don’t know if this was something she wanted or agreed to.

Also, in my opinion all 5 girls image contracts with Xfactor are still active somehow, because the others keep postponing their debuts. If it was just a matter of money why wouldn’t Beyoncé or Rihanna, huge N supporters (or anyone else with money really), help to buy her out from RCA or whatever label she’s signed to? You see? Remember the rumor that A’s label dropped her due to 5H contracts interference? I do and I think it’s pretty plausible. So clearly it’s not just about money.

For me Milamoon deactivated is more related to her management than with her plans to go independent. I really don’t think she can take this route for now. Do you know that the bald man is the lead investor in Olipop, right? Not another investor: the lead one. So it all comes down to her being tied to the deals he pushes. Regarding the big proof of love, as much romantic as it is the idea of ​​C paying the labels for L to be free is not realistic, in my opinion. But she definitely could have helped L to find those loopholes in the contract and with the negotiations that ended up freeing her boo.

And without a doubt no matter how hard C situation may be right now, she has L looking for and trying to come up with something to help her too. Otherwise we wouldn’t have so many things happening that doesn’t fit the narratives they’re supposed to sell.

Link: https://thatgrapejuice.net/2019/04/lauren-jauregui-signs-new-expanded-record-deal-with-industry-heavyweight/?amp

Wow... the long ass ask...

Thank you so much for your thoughts my friend. You not only made me remember a lot of things that I forgot about what happened with the girls but you helped me to think about this twice and I really loved it despite that you didn't believe in my theory.

It's absolutely fine. It was my idealistic heart talking there, not my realistic brain and I needed that. A hit of reality.

I need to read all of this again in Spanish but thank you. This helps me to understand everything better 😊👍🏽

[multifandom-onigiri]

For the literal last two days all I have been thinking about is Muu and Haruka and how to defend Muu Kusunoki from the internet

[Edit from after I finished writing this at 8:12 pm: Ok I wasn’t expecting this to take this long to write but also god I hope this comes off well written even if it’s unorganized and really not I’m anxious LOL LOL LOL]

The fact that we’re all jumping on her when honestly, all she’s shown is expressing more of the arrogant and entitled attitude that is implied to her bullied in the first place. And it is funny to me because like. That’s our fault.

On Kotoko’s birthday, we got a brief conversation between Haruka and Kotoko, where Haruka wishes her happy birthday and Kotoko comments about how Haruka’s changed because he used to not be able to talk to her properly. Haruka reasons that it’s probably because the other prisoners, especially Muu, give him a lot of attention. Kotoko then guesses that maybe it depends on how Milgram (“we”) judge them and that it affects the prisoner’s mental state.

(Translation taken from @/MFancult on twitter)

And I don’t think it’s like anything *weird* Milgram is doing (other than I think the guilty people hear whispers? Please correct me if I’m wrong.) A major factor in how we’re seeing this prisoners change from their verdicts is most likely just the verdict itself and how these prisoner’s personalities are affecting how they react to these verdicts.

It’s pretty much outright stated that Muu comes from a wealthy family with parents who seems to spoil her. She has access to things a lot of people wouldn’t have. She can ask them for anything, and they’ll give it to her. It’s no wonder she ends up being arrogant and entitled, thinking that everything can be handed to her on a silver platter. And how we voted only helped to exacerbate that attitude. We’re the ones who voted her “innocent” which, in her perspective, tells her, “What you did was right. You’re not the one who’s in the wrong in this situation. We forgive you.”

And that’s probably what she’s been wanting to hear from the moment she started getting bullied. Why is this happening to me? What did I do wrong? Is this my fault? It can’t be! Because up until now, everything had been fine and gone her way, and now it isn’t in the worst way possible. And I don’t think her being bullied, given her attitude, would really change how she looks at her own actions, but rather gives herself a legitimate reason to portray herself as the victim. Because even if she is a self-centered jerk who needs to learn to grow up, she is the victim in this situation.

I think that’s why her new season 2 voicelines says to Es that she knew she could trust them (us) to make the right call and asks us to not question the decision we made, stating that she “did nothing wrong…right?” It’s not only a combination of her upbringing but also the effects of what being bullied had on her.

It’s been more okay on this app but it’s too unbearable on Twitter to go search up anything about Muu and see she’s getting the same amount of hate as the person who wanted to beat up the guilty prisoners and did beat up some of them. (And like I forgave Kotoko when I watched her MV and I do not regret my decision very much because that was a risk I was willing to gamble. I’m still open to hearing her out through her MV.) Like…she’s just showing more of her actual attitude that we’ve already seen hints of and how that’s affecting the ongoing friendship she has with Haruka.

(I am a heavy believer of the general gist of what happened to Muu did happen, but I am also firm in the possibility that some of it was exaggerated not out of trying to hide the truth but because I feel like she could be a pretty sensitive person.)

The latter is actually very intriguing to me and I have a lot of feelings about that but I want to make it a separate post because I love both of those characters very much. I’ve projected onto both of them for two years and I’ve WANTED them to be friends ever since I got into Milgram. And I think that was very *monkey curls its paws evilly* for Milgram to do, but also thinking about why it’s turned out like this makes me very nervous in a very giddy way, and very giddy in a very nervewracking way. They need therapy NOW

(also if you managed to read this all the way through thank you for reading LOL)

[linagram]

how do you write your vds they're always the hardest part for me 😭

I DON'T KNOW!!!! 😭😭

but like seriously, yeah, vds can be very hard to write especially now that i'm working on season 2 and it's like.. i'm kinda trying to talk about the lore of this ocgram, i'm trying to talk about the third guard, but i also need to talk about everyone's crimes, but i also want to talk about how they act now, but i also want to talk about their backstories and- yeah, basically, it's better to have everything planned out dhdjkskskl.

so, i kinda try to separate everyone's crimes into multiple parts and i think about what exactly i should reveal first.

let's take akio as an example. his crime is one of the easiest ones, so i don't have to think too much about it. let's separate his crime into parts: his victim, the murder method, his accomplice, his motive, what happened before, during and after the murder.

so, his first vd already reveals his motive, the fact that he had an accomplice and that akio is very protective of them and it also gives some information about the victim (though coming from akio, it's hard to take it seriously, since he just says that his victim wanted him to suffer). his mv also shows some of those things.

now, what do we have left? we have the murder method and what happened before, during and after the murder. we can also add more info about the victim and his accomplice.

so, we can slowly reveal everything in his second and third vds and also his mvs! there are also other ways we can reveal something, like for example, his undercover mv scenes or his interrogations.

the ones with crimes that are harder to explain, like kei or yurika.. yeah, i often end up relying on their mvs or interrogations djdjkskls. however, you still have to reveal at least something about their crimes! like yes, kei really doesn't want eiji and miki to know about his crime, so he tries to distract them by talking about his job, but he still ends up giving a hint in the end and yurika talks about her crime a lot, but the way she talks about it is.. kinda suspicious. and what's with her relationship with her manager? basically, you don't have to go "oh, they killed this person and that's how they did it" in the very first vd, but try leaving small hints here and there!

and about the actual writing process, i like to think about what my characters would say in certain situations, like what would eiji and miki want to ask those prisoners? how would those prisoners respond? what would they try to hide? what would they be okay with talking about? and then i kinda try to imagine the whole conversation in my head. and considering that it's season 2, i also try to show how my ocs have changed and what they think about their verdict.

[purgemarchlockdown]

I am BRINGING out my old propaganda for this I am NOT letting Magic die in vain.

----------------------------

There's a lot of fantastic bits and pieces to Magic. It's such a cheery and happy song but it's also noticeably Emotionally Subdued, especially compared to Purge March. The song is overall very even in tone and mood, even in the darker parts of the song. Creating this really effective sense of dissonance at the end.

There's a really fun detail in Magic that's easy to miss at the end right before the credits. You can actually hear another Amane singing the line again in the background, forlorn and exhausted. Highlighting this contrast even more. And it really is details like that, that make Magic one of the best MVs in this entire series to me! There's just so much to be found everywhere no matter how you look! And it's not even hiding anything!

Like look over here:

The Amane Cat Parallels were established even Before Purge March revealed that the Cat's injuries in Magic are Amane's and not its actual injuries.

There's also Amane's Admittance of her own inability to be a good girl in the Lyrics.

Only if, only if, only if I could be a good girl I hope, I hope everyone can be happy and smile Forever, forever together would be a dream

She never Says she's a good girl in Magic. Never in it! Only that she could be or that a good girl Would do that or that she could become better and the MV reflects that! Constantly putting her down and infantilizing her!

But it’s not scary at all, because it’s love I can actually think of it as a good thing, see isn’t it a great thing?

She's being too "sensitive," can't they see their just trying to help her?

And Magic throws another element into the mix, awareness!

Amane is Aware of the fictionalized nature of this world and the MV Also reflects that!

You know the super cartoony scenes in Magic?

They have a texture laid over it and consistently whenever there's a texture laid onto a scene in Milgram it reflects a level of disconnect/abstraction from reality that a character is Aware of (uh- most likely):

This artstyle is used in two parts: The transition scenes between the characters and the Cat and the punishments.

Before this all the punishments were shown in Extremely cartoony and comedic ways. Amane's pain is supposed to be Funny, it's not supposed to be taken seriously.

Yet the Cat and what happened was so deeply traumatic that it gets put into the cute felt-puppet storybook like art...and it still doesn't diminish the horror of the situation!

It's so Abstracted and Unreal and Still Just as Devastating and Emotional. No matter how hard she tries she can't lessen the impact it Has On Her.

AND THERE'S STILL MORE!

This stagelight is such a fantastical little detail. Your inclined to believe it's real because it looks real compared to everything else you've seen in the MV.

But with information gained by Purge March I'm pretty sure this is one of the few things in the MV that does not have a real world equivalent. A lot of the MV can be taken at face value, the cat was an actual cat, Amane did really get electrocuted.

But this real-looking stagelight seems to be a visual metaphor, and it makes sense because Magic presented itself as a show! The stagelight was Always part of Magic's visual library, a show needs something to light it after all.

The stagelight breaking (The cat's injury and subsequent death) is an intrusion on the vaguely peaceful reality of Magic. The set is Falling Apart. Rudely reminding both the audience And Amane that this isn't real.

It's also probably a reference to the Truman Show, since the stagelight breaking there is also a hint to the secrets of the life Truman was living.

I could go on forever- Magic is one of the most well-crafted MVs in this series and I refuse to let it go down without a fight!

MILGRAM Best Song Tournament, Round 2, Match 3 MAGIC vs. MEME

Propaganda for both options under the cut!

Propaganda for MAGIC:

MAGIC MY BELOVED MAGIC!!! Its one of the best MVs in the entire series, even including T2. Magic is visually stunning and has some fantastic art direction but also is very clever in how it conveys its themes and ideas. Magic doesn't really hide anything from you, not really. It's all symbolic but it Tells You Things. It shows you the abuse, it shows you the cat. There's a fun little relationship going on here where, In Magic. Amane's pain and suffering isn't taken seriously by the people around her and the Audience we are discouraged to take it at face value due to the fictionalized nature of Magic. It's so cool. I'm so fond of the song as well, it's one of the best in the series purely cause of the Layers in it. The implications of this Inability to be good is seeped into Magic. Amane knows this isn't reality, Magic knows it's a show, she watches it at the end. And it's so Sad to me that even in her fictionalized happy world she Cannot be a good girl. It's a standard completely out of reach for her and that idea is just conveyed so well visually.

Im not even talking about the goddamn cat yet- the cat symbolism goes Deep. That cat is HER it has the same wounds Amane has in Purge March. I- I cant talk about the intertextuality of Purge March and Magic here this is Magic propaganda only- I- there's so much good stuff to Magic. I Re watched it over and over again. It has some the Best Writing and Visual Communication in Milgram and I will Die on this Hill.

---

shoutout to magic for having pretty props AND being vague as fuck about the crime! diversity win!

seriously though amane looks SO cute in it! the mv has such a pretty and colorful style and even with that it's able to show the horrors of what amane went through.

adding onto my last point. that scene where the cat is hyperventilating and you see the camera shaking???? that scene where the mascots find amane helping the cat and they're all standing over her? CHILLS. im repeating myself but the fact that they were able to portray the awful things amane went through in a genuinely emotional way while still keeping the cute cartoon look is soo impressive

there are SO many layers to itill the entire cartoony style making it look like a tv show… utilizing the cartoony effects and bright colors to show amane downplaying her own pain… the transformation after she gets punished barely changing anything to show just how manipulated she was from the start… ueueueue

ALSO ALSO ALSO THE SCENE AT THE END WITH AMANE STARING AT THE SCENE? OHHH ITS SO GOOD it adds such a feeling of dread and reminds you on top of this whole thing that all of this is truly horrifying! something is going on here!

this song is so catchy it gets stuck in my head CONSTANTLY

"Dear wise one, Am I worthy? Is it ok to spoil myself?" AMANE... UEUEUUEUE

the little ding sound effects in the instrumental?????

amanes voice is ADORABLE

THE INSTRUMENTAL IN THAT PART WHERE SHES HELPING THE CAT HAS THAT GODLY TYPE SOUND YOUD TYPICALLY ASSOCIATE WITH CHURCHES AND STUFF AND I DONT KNOW HOW TO EXPLAIN IT PROPERLY BUT JUST RELISTEN TO IT AND YOU WILL KNOW WHAT I MEAN. ITS SUCH A NEAT DETAIL

i could go on about this mv for days but i am not a theorist unfortunately. just. magic sweep

Propaganda for MEME:

"MeMe is fantastic because it plays off the audience’s assumptions about Mikoto as a character and tells a “double story”. There’s layers to it and it’s deliberately deceptive in the way it presents the events out of order. Even the instrumentals themselves tell a story. The shift from piano in the second chorus climax is so good - and the way they combine in the last chorus, plus the addition of a violin culminates the song perfectly."

---

"For propaganda: I love meme so much because even the music alone tells as whole story. It goes from heavy metal to calm to heavy metal to calm and that happens a few times and then there’s an epic and creepy intermission with an amazing guitar and a scary of sound of Mikoto’s heavy breathing. And then the psychedelic music and BAM the final chorus. The final chorus of meme just gives me the absolute chills. Like it’s the calmer chorus we see earlier but with epic symphonic metal and an amazing build up and climax like it’s perfectly encapsulates a story through music alone I just love it so much. Also it’s literally called meme lmao."

---

"I could go on about the motifs in MeMe - like identity loss, living and dying, dreaming etc. It's a song, more than with any other character, about the inner self and what hides from the surface. Of the fear that comes with one's identity and place in the world being challenged and crumbling. The intricate designs on the tarot cards have so much depth to them"

[swimmingleo]

Changes: or to take the higher ground before it's too late

I'm going to be real here folks, I cry ugly tears to this song. Bad.

Changes is a song on Cam's album "The Otherside". It's country, it's folk and it's an album a bit influenced by changes in Cam's life (a change of label, personal life). She collaborated with Harry on the song Changes, as she opened for him on a venue and was already working with Tyler Johnson.

From what I gathered: Harry sent her the demo of the song, implying he made most of the writing on this one. What I'm basing this claim on is her interview for Rolling Stones (read it here):

I heard [the demo] and was just like, “Oh, this ache to outgrow something that you don’t want to outgrow!” It felt so good. I normally don’t take outside songs [...]

‼️DISCLAIMER‼️when analysing this song, I'm gonna go from the idea of it being written with a queer mindset (how surprising of me). Cam rendered the song beautifully and it is very much her own, but I believe Harry's input is consequential. After all that's his lil whistle and cute fishsona in the MV.

Sad queer analysis ahead.

Let's analyse the lyrics first:

There is a town

Somewhere down a country road

The speaker describes the town to us, from memory, from experience. "There it is, down the road, can you picture it ?"

I see it now

I take it everywhere I go

The speaker doesn't currently live in the town, they're on the move (nice throwback to the coutry road). But despite all the travelling, they realize the sedentary smalltown never leaves them. It's part of them. It left a mark on them.

The river sways, I can almost hear it now

As if to say, "You're not the only one who wants a way out"

The town is so real to the speaker they can sense it, eyes and ears. But it gets a bit dark: the river sways like it's trying to leave its bed. The river is envious of the speaker who managed to leave. The town is so toxic even nature wants to get away from it. Or the speaker resents the town so bad that they project their own resentment on the river.

So, I go

'Cause I don't wanna feel like I don't know you anymore

I memorize those roads

This is the call for the speaker to leave for good. Their motive doesn't seem to be ambitious or anything grand. They leave because they apprehend a feeling. Apprehending a feeling, something that may not even happen, is the way of an anxious person. Anxiety is the motive of their departure. However, they still memorize the roads leading to the town, just in case. Perhaps one day they'll come back.

Somewhere out in the big wild country

Someone's fallin' in love in a backseat

Givin' it away

Like their hearts won't ever break

Suddenly it's about love ! Young love, one that is lived in the small compartment of a car, somewhere hidden and safe in the big wild country. As if the countryside was unexplored and threatening.

God bless the young hearts sippin' cheap wine

Gettin' drunk with their friends for the first time

Thinkin' nothing's gonna change

'Til everything changes

The speaker looks at the youth with tenderness, wishing them the best. But once again, they're not in the town in the present time, they don't see the youngsters fooling around, they can only guess from first-hand experience. And it's very specific: falling in love, getting drunk with friends and thinking everything's gonna be easy like that forever until it's not and heartbreak ensues.

From there I hop in with the raw queer theme of those lyrics. It started by falling in love and it ended up in a heartbreak. In between, the speaker got drunk for the first time with their friends, people they trusted enough to let go a little, but in the end everything changed. Why ? Alcohol makes you forget about code of conduct, how you're supposed to behave. It makes you say or do things you might not have done sober.

We can interprete this chorus as the beginning of the end for the speaker. It's the only part of the song evocating the past, and it's fun and easy, but it's also where things started to get bad the way they are in the present. Something might have happened that first time the speaker got drunk and it marked the end of innocence and careless childhood, and it probably has to do with love as no other factor is provided apart from falling in love and heartbreak.

They never leave

They're all havin' babies now

Watchin' daytime TV

Livin' off the gossip of a cruel small town

They. With Harry, it's always You, Me, and They. They are having babies, all of them, like it's not a very difficult thing to do, it's just natural. They have the leisure of the day, not a thing to worry about, if not gossip. It's not implied anymore, the small town is downright cruel. Gossip fuels it, but on behalf of someone else, and that someone is most definitely the speaker who left and who describes its inhabitants in the most mundane way, perhaps with a hint of contempt. The speaker seems bitter.

So, I go

'Cause I don't wanna feel like you don't know me anymore

Don't recognize my face

Reprise of the pre-chorus except now, the speaker provides another reason for their departure. Not only they feared they wouldn't know the town anymore, they also feared being seen as a stranger. It's not like the speaker actually changed physically: but it might as well feel like it. Again, apprehension, anguish. As implied in the chorus, things changed to the point where the speaker feels they would seem like a whole another person to the rest of the town, a stranger, a threat to the integrity of the conservatives. So they leave before this shift in perception can happen.

There ain't nothing here for me anymore

They say they don't hear from me anymore

And I don't wanna hear it anymore

The town is not outwardly hostile. It's still the town that saw the speaker as a kid. The town doesn't understand why the speaker left, but the speaker won't give in and get in touch. They want to be as far away as possible, until they don't hear the questions, the river, everything. It's almost like the speaker doesn't carry the town in their heart at all. They want to forget it all, and it hurts everytime the town tries to lure them back in. The way Cam sings it is painful to me man

Somewhere out in the big wild country

I was fallin' in love in a backseat

Givin' it away

Like my heart won't ever break

Had such a young heart sippin' cheap wine

Gettin' drunk with my friends for the first time

Thinkin' nothing's gonna change

'Til everything changes

Yeah, just the confirmation of the chorus being the speaker's experience. I went ahead and assumed it was already lol but it's like a plot twist effect. It's dramatic. It's a personal song to someone.

TO MAKE IT SHORT to me this song is intense and very in touch with the queer experience. Though it describes a specific situation, it is surprisingly not that detailed or full of metaphors the way Harry often writes: this town could be literally any smalltown in the countryside. The backseat could be the one of any car, cheap wine is something any teen can afford. I like to think Harry wrote it for himself but is also aware so many people went through the same thing, and still will. I have to admit I'm heavily biased writing this, as the experience of a queer kid struggling to find their place in a well settled smalltown is familiar.

GETTING DRUNK AND QUEER IDENTITY is an analogy Harry already used in Fine Line when he sang "We'll get the drinks in so I'll get to thinking of her". To drink is to let go, to unveil the most subconscious aspects of yourself you might not want to deal with otherwise. You don't care about judgement and you get to explore those parts freely. In Changes, this is the last memory they recall before stating the changes and their departure. Perhaps getting drunk for the first time would be when they realized they're queer. Or acted upon it, causing their little world to shake. They chose to leave before it eventually wouldn't feel like a choice anymore. There is no life for people like them in a cruel smalltown.

SMALLTOWN BOY

This song reminds me an awful lot of Smalltown Boy by Bronski Beat. The song is about a queer boy having to leave the smalltown where he grew up because of persecutions and no future prospects.

Mother will never understand why you had to leave, Smalltown Boy

They say they don't hear from me anymore, Changes

But the answers you seek will never be found at home, the love that you need will never be found at home

There is nothing here for me anymore

Other people not understanding why they leave. People who can't truly empathize even when they mean no harm. They would never understand the speaker's departure, because those people get to find love and have babies and live a peaceful life in the countryside.

You were the one that they'd talk about around town as they put you down

Livin' off the gossip of a cruel small town

Yeah yeah. I really struggle with just seeing this song as nostalgia when such harsh words are being used. I do believe there is a part of fondness for that town, that countryside setting and the early days. But it's not all tender memories.

CHANGES AND ERODA

Of couuuurse we all noticed the adorable purple fish with the pearl necklace. It represents Harry, no question, as it whistles Harry's part. And of couuuuurse we all made the link with the erodian fish, and some even noticed they formed the bluegreener pair when their colors are inverted.

It makes sense for those fishes to be connected with this interpretation of Changes. Both works are about a small town, lost in the nature, where the people are watching, aware of everything that isn't normal, that is peculiar. The early life of the peculiar boy is similar in every way to the early life of the speaker in Changes. The fish in Adore You grows too big for the island and has to leave, and though Eroda makes amends with the peculiar boy, he leaves as well because his future, his fulfilment, is somewhere else. So does the speaker in Changes.

IN CONCLUSION

The more I write posts like this, the more endeared I am by Harry's world. How Harry writes for himself, but also for other people with songs like this. How nature finds its way in all that he does. How grounded he is, how he doesn't seem to forget where he came from. It really is such a rare thing to see in a mainstream popstar's writing and art. How can someone say he sold his soul to LA is beyond me

[spade-riddles]

Submission: Kaylor timeline 2019-2020

This is a atempt of maping the happenings surrounding kaylor in the last 3 years. Please keep in mind that i might forget some things, mostly from 2019 since my memory is actually horrible. I’ll try to include the most important things mainly so let me know if i missed something big. Also, feel free to add some kaylor nods, easter eggs on the girls’ social media, general stuff and correct me i fim wrong on dates or places. Oh quick disclaimer: most of this is Taylor focused because the last time i went on karlies instagram to look for the nashville selfie i actually wanted to puke or bury my face into a hole for the rest of eternety (ok, both) after seeing the jerk photos so if you have any important stuff please add it. Thank u!!!

Lover Era

- ME! MV release on lesbian visibility day (april 26th)

- City of Lover (funny enough, karlie was there in march 😉)

- taylor’s pride post “lets show our pride...” (taylors ig june 1st)

- Promo for the MV with karlie’s hand on taylors ig 16 june post   

- sc**ter *audible puke sound* buys taylors masters (june 30th)

- You Need To Calm Down MV (july 17th) 

- Lover Title Track released 13 days after karlie’s bday (august 16th)

- Lover mv release which Taylor captioned on her ig post with YAIL lyrics.

- Lover Album Release (august 23rd)

- Miss Americana release (jan 31 2020) “gay pride... everything that makes me me” etc

- The Man MV release (feb 27th)

Here’s some posts with lover era easter eggs:

Link 1

Link 2

some inch resting posts:

eye theory ?! 

gold rush 😉

paris captions: 

Link 1

Link 2

(probably not that much of a proof much more of a koincidence since au revoir is a pretty common frase but whatever)

This masterpiece here during NYFW in 2019:

note: I think its pretty safe to assume that up until this point its obvious kaylor is still together. Theres exactly no reason why Taylor and Karlie would be referencing kaylor stuff and each other at this point if they weren’t together.

folklore & evermore Era (oh the start of a daydream and a nightmare)

- Not a lot going on at the moment post  April 27, 2020

- Karlies very interesting posts:  

Dancing in a Cardigan July 10th, 2020

Happy Place July 23rd, 2020

- Tamagochi June 25, 2020 and buns May 14, 2020

- folklore announcement (july 23rd)

Note: up until this point its also pretty much a concensus that they’re still together. Since Karlie hinted the folklore aesthetic and cardigan on her ig post, and Taylor changed the cardigan lyrics to “knew you’d come back to me” and wrote “the lakes” and obviously there is “peace”. From this point on, especially after the WB stuff and pregnancy rumors in September (?) things start to get kinda blurry and gaylors and kaylors start building different point of views. So heres what happens:

- Taylor releases the long pond sessions where she says that joe is WB. I feel like we kinda all believe he isn’t, the thing that gives it for me is mostly Taylor’s body language and the way she stutters when she says it. Also, its kinda weird that out of nowhere joe got this songwriting skills magically. Like, they’ve been “together” for four years and only now Taylor discoveres this man has better songwriting and composing skills than his actual job, idk sounds fishy to me but, you make the call.

- Pregnancy rumors starts flowing on both sides. Taylor quickly starts drinking a shit ton of wine to get her beloved swiffers to come to the realization that she is in fact not pregnant. Karlie’s rumors also starts flowing, and then the people! (?) article comes out confirming it and Karlie later posts a video on her instagram. Here’s where it gets messy. Ill try to explain shortly to you the narrative on the Kaylor side and why i don’t believe in the gaylor narrative. Obviously its your choice wheter you believe it or not.

- Kaylor: The baby is Taylor’s and Karlie’s (not gonna get into hows and stuff bc if it is actually real then it is invading their privacy too much, also speculating about this might trigger some people). 

Things that back this theory up: obviously peace “give you a child”, karlie not tagging j*sh*a on her vids, that one 2,1/2 photo from the folklore photoshoot, buns and tamagochi, Taylor and Paul talking about parenthood in the Rolling Stone issue, and all the fertility imagery in evermore and folklore.

Karlie was in Cali in may until august, Taylor was also there. Jerk was on Ny or Miami cant exactly remeber. And it seems that this is what she wrote that one line “knew youd come back to me” in cardigan about. (IMO they [t and k] had some fight after the masters sale on the end of 2019 and took a break or something, so she would in fact come back to her, but just my opinion). So, karlie was there from may to august, karlie’s is on the end of her pregnancy, and if you do the math, she got pregnant sometime between june and july. Which makes it kinda impossible for the baby to be jerk’s (consequently ending the gaylor narrative) since he was in another place and karlie was on cali for like 4 months, if the baby was his, the baby would’ve been born already.

The gaylor narrative is mostly based on Taylor’s songs specially champagne problems, coney island, hoax, closure and exile.

Coney Island isn’t even necessarily a breakup song, it’s just simply a sad song, it is like death by a thousand cuts pt2, it gives the vibe that Taylor is sorry about a lot of things like not being able to thank Karlie “but when i walked up to the podium i think that i forgot to say your name”.

Like coney island, hoax is about the lows of their relationship but it’s clear in the song that taylor still loves karlie and would trade her for anything “don’t want no other shade of blue but you”

Closure and champagne: it just reminds me of Dianna for some reason i don’t even know how to explain it. Champagne Problems remind some of Dianna bc of i know places where she says “take my hand and don’t ever drop it”, to the gp that song is about harry(<3) and most songs that “are about him” are actually about Dianna. i do think it’s is kinda inspired by Karlie though.

Exile: honestly could be used to form a toe breakup narrative.

TBH we’ll probably never understand fully the story behind it. But Taylor also said that a lot of the albums are full of fantasy even thought they’re also inspired by real life situations.

Thank u for reading!! this is obviously my opinion on the matter and my take on the whole situation. feel free to believe whatever you want, and add stuff i forgot sending u lots of love <3

[kwangyadetective]

🏁 Coordinate 127: Butterflies and a Snake

“Favorite MV is a continuation to the death of their navigating butterfly friend.”

and

“Jaehyun fell into the snake’s trap.”

A theory discussion post about NCT127′s Favorite and how its connected to aespa’s universe. There’s more that I discussed in the post than whats described in the main point.

tw// mentions of death

(!) WARNING: This is a theory as it is not confirmed by SM  entertainment nor members of NCT, so please don’t believe this 100%!

I’m going to talk about a different perspective of the MV, I mean, I haven’t seen anyone talking about this. Since Favorite came after Savage then the story still continues. The difference is that its in a Neo universe.

Before anything I think you need to know that if you see butterflies in SM MVs, its not just for aesthetic purposes. In aespa, they don’t have butterflies (other than Ningning’s logo (which I have yet to find why her logo is that)), they have Naevis. Naevis is the butterfly of aespa.

Naevis = Nabi 나비 (butterfly in Korean) = Navigation

In NCT, there weren’t really butterflies, except for one in SM_NCT #3 7th Sense, but they have a member that has the same role as Naevis; Jungwoo. Both characters are in charge of portals, and can connect and travel to different dimensions.

Main point:

“Favorite MV is a continuation to the death of their navigating butterfly friend.”

Naevis died in Savage and the Neos offered their condolences for it (I swear this sounded weird when I typed it). Taeyong swallowed the butterfly, I’m not sure why he did (even though he was unconscious when it happened). But I don’t think it literally went inside his body because whatever it passed through was circular and it doesn’t look like what the insides of a human mouth/throat would look like (I hope you understand what I’m trying to say:”)).

But there was a part when the butterfly went inside Jungwoo and near to his heart. Perhaps it sought protection from him? Or they become one?

I read from somewhere that Naevis would probably be brought back some time in the future, but that is up to the story line of aespa.

Aside from butterflies, what else hints about this?

This statue that kind of shook the fandom is actually the statue of Atlas (people thought it was a wedding dress or some sort).

I know there is another statue on the left side of Taeyong but this statue was the one that was slightly shown in one of the pictures.

Its like they did it on purpose and it holds more meaning than the other. Atlas is now associated with maps, and navigation/navigate is related to it, right?

I don’t know for everyone else but to me, the song sounds sad and tragic (just like Story of Favorite). Well, if we relate this to Story of Favorite, the overall song theme sounds like a loss of a loved one but the lyrics is more toward how unattainable the love is. I know this sounds a bit of a stretch, but the drumming, towards the end of the song; the sound was still soft but it stood out (NOT the dance break, the vibe is different there), reminds me of a funeral scene in movies. Plus the whistle truly adds into the sadness of it. I remember watching something that involves drumming in a funeral, then I found out its a military funeral?

Naevis holds an important role for aespa, and she died in a battle(?) But this isn’t just about Naevis of aespa, I’m sure it represents the butterfly in most SM MVs.

All of the things above are just one aspect of the MV and I’m sure there are many people out there that covered different interpretations of the MV. Well, its not like the Neos are singing about how much they love that butterfly.

This Kfan pointed out that there are many Christianity references. There were always Christianity references in NCT’s contents since the beginning. I do believe that it has something to do with the woman with black veil in The Origin Video.

“Jaehyun fell into the snake’s trap.”

I also found this interesting. There is this part in the lyrics,

“That pure poison I took a bite and swallowed it all” (00:40)

In the MV, right after that line, is the scene where Jaehyun got bitten.

In connection to Story of Favorite, he was the main character and was portrayed as losing someone he loved. If you read my last post, I explained that all of that were just hallucinations from the snake. With that, he was immersed in that hallucination and, possibly willingly ‘took the poison’ to get ‘his loved one back’. Basically he fell into the snake’s trap and possibly got corrupted by the Black Mamba. That is not a vampire bite, but a snake bite. Though to confirm if the snake really got him or not, we have to see their next comeback or perhaps NCT2021.

Is it just me, or its so rare to see NCT MVs that actually shows them sleeping? This is one of those rarest times. I think SM is trying to make it obvious this time haha after all many people still don’t know that all of their MVs are their dream.

Btw, Mark’s position changed drastically.

He kinda got attacked in one scene but I’m not sure by what. Haechan and Doyoung too, but not that much.

This one scene of them dancing surrounded by flowers reminded me of Boom.

Well, I think thats all from me. Thank you if you’ve reach this far!

[purgemarchlockdown]

Hello, I really love reading your analyzes of Amane 💓 and I would be very interested to know your opinion about one very interesting moment in Magic.  Why do you think not all but the key moments in the video look like a paper cartoon?  Moments at the beginning and end where Amane is on the clouds with everyone else;  the moment where she treats the cat;  her punishments and subsequent transformation.  this seems important but I just can't figure it out yet

Oh thanks for the ask! I have an idea for Why their like that but I'm not super sure.

So those parts are depicted like children's storybooks. For a while I've been trying to figure out What Specifically they reminded me of (as the texture used for those scenes seemed felt-like) but then I remembered that when I was younger I had this felt storybook that looked actually pretty similar.

Uh I don't remember what it was called but google gives me this image that looks vaguely like it.

The felt thing might just be me though as this does also look like a papercut illustration...

What this does is lend an additional layer of separation between the real events.

and fiction.

A lot of people didn't realize Amane was Actually Electrocuted for a while and I think that was on purpose. The sheer trauma and Horribleness of the situation being depicted as something unreal and imaginary, abstracted and cartoonified.

This is not the first time Magic does this In The MV see:

This cat which is both The Cat and Amane Momose.

Or the whole premise of the MV, where it's events are portrayed as a TV Show that Amane is Watching.

Now that explains the later scenes but then we still have the first few scenes to question and to be honest I'm not super sure.

However, Milgram also uses texture/filter to highlight when there is something inaccurate/distorted that the Prisoner Themselves knows is inaccurate/distorted.

We have...a lot of reason to believe Amane is not nearly as good of a girl as she says she is. And if were going off the idea that filters are used to hint at a prisoner's own awareness of an inaccurate depiction of reality then it would make a ton of sense that these shots are done in this style.

With the first half being comfortably placed in the idea that Amane Momose is a very good girl (who just needs to learn sometimes!) and the second half trying it's hardest to distance itself from the Horrible Horrible things that happen during it.

We know Amane is Aware to some extent of the hopelessness of the whole game.

After you cry, repent, and kneel, it’s now your turn to say that hopeless “I’m sorry”

And we know that she isn't fully willing to accept the Bad Stuff that Has Happened to Her.

(...Ive used this Same Diagram three different times but in my defense it works)

Even though we know she is Aware to some extent that it was Bad Stuff.

Amane: Okay! I’m kind, so I shall forgive you. That’s nice, isn’t it? If my parents were in my place, you would have been lectured for another hour.

(I bring up this line so much but in my defense again I love Amane subtly calling her parents mean...I hope she straight up calls them mean and horrible one day)

So it would fit Pretty Well into this pattern Milgram established.

Plus...that first scene also just works Really Well as a children's show opening.

[mercuryonparklane]

I seriously debated keeping this one in the drafts...

Okay, I felt compelled to analyze the timeline of all of Taylor’s rumored/alleged boyfriends (barring any that she supposedly dated pre-fame) and why I believe they could have been fake/pr setups...

Disclaimer: this is all speculative and is just my opinion. No one has to agree... we don’t all have to agree because really the only people who know the truth are Taylor and those she has shared it with. I do have a very skeptical view of the entertainment industry and pr, so that is a bias I will own up to. I especially think Taylor, for a very long time, was willing to play along with the pr side of things, but eventually reached a breaking point (as any normal human under that amount of pressure and scrutiny likely would). Whether that means she has faked all of her public relationships or some of them or just aspects of them... I can’t really, truly know that. So, just keep in mind that this is one little, insignificant person’s view of Taylor’s public relationships and that I do not personally know any of the people involved...

Don’t take this too seriously, peeps... I’ll even tag it as crack theory...

Joe J.: June/July-September/October 2008

If nothing else this feels like a typical pr setup of two young stars. He had Camp Rock, a Jonas Bros’ album and a tour and concert film to promote. Camp Rock came out on 6/20/2008. The Jonas Bros’ third album, A Little Bit Longer, was released on 8/12/2008. In August, Taylor joined the band on stage during the filming for a concert movie that would be released in February 2009. 

Taylor had an album that was released just weeks after their alleged breakup. An album which contained a few songs that would be attributed to Joe J. due to the publicity surrounding their relationship. Hmm... what a great way to drum up interest in an album that includes quite a few heartbreak songs. Not saying I know that is the case, but they both had a lot to promote between June and November 2008.

Lucas T.: March-April/May 2009

He was in the Hannah Montana movie, which was released 4/10/2009. Taylor had a cameo in that movie and also wrote a song for the soundtrack. Lucas also played Taylor’s love interest in the mv for YBWM, which premiered 5/2/2009 on CMT. He was in one of her Myspace vlogs in April 2009. IMO, this was a setup to promote the Hannah Montana movie and the YBWM mv, but it didn’t really take off. Lucas later said they dated briefly, but he realized that he just saw her as a friend...

Taylor L.: August-December 2009

 They played a couple in Valentine’s Day. In September, just days after the VMAs where KW interrupted Taylor on stage as Taylor L. stood a few feet away, Taylor went to an Owl City concert at the Bowery Ballroom where she met the man who would supposedly inspire “Enchanted”. Umm... “please don’t be in love with someone else”... even though I am currently dating Taylor L. and he is my forever crush, but like, I am totally crushing on you actually. I have no clue if any Swifties have ever picked up on that discrepancy.  

Oh, and Taylor L. also “dated” Selena in early 2009 and I doubt Taylor would go there, even if they ended on good terms. I mean, it’s possible, but idk it seems unlikely to me. 

John M.: December 2009-February 2010

I think Taylor admired him as a musician (this seems to have been mutual with John praising her talent multiple times) and she may have seen him as a mentor at first. I do not believe that anything happened between them beyond that. I think he was so thrown off by “Dear John” because of that. He was already tweeting in the spring of 2009, hinting at wanting to collaborate with Taylor. The album their duet was on came out in November 2009, right before they started “dating”. Although it wasn’t released as a single until June 2010.

Besides, Liz (friend or otherwise) has remained a fan of John and even went to his concert a few years back. So, either she didn’t care that he screwed one of her supposed good friends over or it didn’t go down how people were led to believe it did.

Jake G.: October 2010-December/January 2011

Unless this relationship started much earlier than everyone has been led to believe, it is very unlikely that ATW is about him. It certainly seems to have been written prior to the maple latte/scarf/sister’s house articles that were abundant after that pap walk. Either Taylor used him as a scapegoat for a song that wasn’t about him or he was a willing participant in a pr scheme to make sure people thought the song was about him. 

He couldn’t have been setup with his costar, Anne H., because she was already in a long term, committed relationship. At the time Taylor was still good pr since she was still known as a kind of girl next door, all American type with genuine talent. 

I’m not saying I know for a fact it was fake. I’m saying there are plenty of reasons why I think it was. Everyone has different perspectives... mine is that this was purely a pr setup.

Will A.: sometime in 2010 and/or mid or fall 2011-January 2012 or May (?) 2012

They were likely just friends, but people did think they were dating back then. The songs that people think he wrote about Taylor (”White Dress” and “Kiss Me Slowly”) were recorded in 2010. So, if she started dating him in September 2011, which people think because the dress she wore to his May 2012 birthday party was the one she is wearing on the “Begin Again” cover art, then those songs aren’t about her. About the party dress...  Sarah B., who took the picture, was also friends with the Parchute guys, so maybe the photoshoot that the picture on that cover art came from happened earlier that day. 

He was friends with Liz’s ex Jason and one of his best friends is still to this day very close friends with Liz, so that’s probably how he met Taylor. I think Taylor hung out with that crew a bit back then. AND those times Will and Taylor were seen hanging out in late fall/early winter 2011, Jason and/or the other friend were there. Yes, I am saying that Taylor was hanging out with Jason in November/December 2011, just a few months after he and Liz supposedly broke up. She was also still hanging out with Liz a lot at that time and after, though, so I think it was all good.

Conor K.: July 2012-September/October 2012

This was Taylor’s worst pr. If it was a real relationship... it is borderline predatory. If it is fake... still a big yikes... I don’t have much to say about this one. I think it was fake and an attempt at making him the muse for “Starlight” (how cute, this song she wrote about his grandparents sort of became about them), “Begin Again” (nevermind that the copyright record say the song was written in 2011), and EHC (nevermind that the song was written in May 2012). It would have been great pr, though, if he was a couple years older. Taylor should have fired Paula after this one... (because the public should have never known about it, real or fake).

Harry S.: November 2012-January 2013

Similar to all the others before (and after), there were “random” sightings, including a birthday trip to “the lakes” and blatant pr (go on and wear that fox sweater and paper airplane necklace, Taylor...). That NYE kiss, though...

Calvin: February 2015-May/June 2016

Taylor finally dropped her old publicist and brought on Tree. First step, was to erase the “boy crazy”/“man eater” label (and possibly the “professional beard” label) and become an independent woman who just wants to have fun with her gal pals. It got a bit gayer than expected (whether Kaylor was really a thing to some degree or not is irrelevant to the point). The gay rumors were actually catching on even faster and people were like “oh, that’s why she couldn’t keep a man” (sexist/homophobic as all of this is/was, ofc). 

Enter Calvin... a playboy DJ who some might deem “tall and handsome as hell” (peeps, I am not really the best judge of a man’s attractiveness, so this is just how I think people see him). He seems sooo straight. I don’t know how else to say it. All of her other supposed boyfriends had gay rumors, whether or not those rumors were just people gossiping or had some basis in reality... I think he is the only one that doesn’t have them, that I know of anyway. 

I know a lot of people think they were really together, but I think this was an attempt to have her in a more serious, long term relationship to counteract both the gay rumors (not necessarily as a cover for a woman because I don’t think all of the guys have been or need to have been covers for a secret relationship with a woman, it’s about appearing straight) and the “can’t keep a man” narrative that had followed her around. Even if they were in some sort of situationship (not what I think, just theorizing here), it wouldn’t have been a steady thing and they seemed to not like each other very much when all was said and done.

I still laugh that he said Taylor was the opposite of his type (and specified that he likes brunettes) in November 2014 and then he allegedly dated her for almost a year and a half, starting literally a few months after he made that comment. If that was a real relationship, he was either playing it cool when he said that or he misjudged her or Taylor was determined to date him because it was a challenge.

Either way, it seems like her team controlled the public narrative and maybe Calvin was okay with that at first, but over time it seemed like he wasn’t a big fan of that. Maybe that visit to the strip mall massage parlor was a bit of a rebellion... 

At least they both got some royalties out of it...

Joe A.: September 2016-Present

Taylor’s team absolutely has control of the public narrative and he seems okay with that. He is a literal mirrorball. He is whatever Taylor supposedly says he is in her songs/whatever Swifties want him to be.

He likes to drop fun facts like how his family jumps into a freezing pond at Christmas or that he worked at a yogurt shop as a teenager. Whether they are real or not... he seems to be playing into the pr. Dropping little bits of information that will tie him to her songs... it is very “maple latte”/“paper airplane necklace”/dark jeans and Nikes... OR Taylor is just taking the few facts people know about him and using it to pin songs on him.

If he is a beard (which imo he likely is), I think he gets along with Taylor and doesn’t mind the minimal pr of it all.

I don’t think he is WB, either way...

Again this is just my view of things. This has no bearing on which women Taylor may have dated. I could do a separate post on what I think that timeline might look like.

One point I will reiterate is that I do not think that a beard would always be a cover for a secret relationship with a woman. I think it sometimes is, but it can be more of a general cover for someone who is gay. So many people think Taylor is the straightest person who has ever lived simply because of her public dating record. I mean, heteronormativity and homophobia also play a big part in that...

Edit: I completely skipped Tom lol. I just don’t buy that one either. Maybe he thought it would be good publicity or maybe he was led on to think it was more real than it was or maybe he was just having fun. Idk. All kinds of articles written about them at the time included some caveat about how they seemed fake or were maybe filming something...