#taylor wrote that about me

[pinkgic]

i'm such a failure, play this is me trying

[anyfire]

still thinking about the two realities conversation between mari and ben and how it works into the ongoing "debate" on whether or not the supernatural stuff is real, or if it's all just happening in their heads. to me the show is at its best when it's saying two things at once, ie "we brought it back with us". "it" being It, but also "it" being trauma. like, "two versions of reality" is an inherently supernatural statement. but it's also a very real one.

it comes after ben detailing his life as a "completely normal guy" before the crash, and how in a world where the crash never happened or he never got on the plane, he would still be that guy. we've already seen glimpses of what that life could have looked like when ben dissociates, and we see it for the girls when lottie hallucinates the shopping mall. we also see versions of "different realities" in jackie's death dream, as well as the dream shauna has after giving birth. and all of these visions and dreams become more warped/horrifying the longer they continue -- cabin guy in jackie's dream, ben's final vision being in the cabin with paul leaving, the snow coming down on lottie in the middle of the food court, and finally the rest of the team eating shauna's baby. the other reality, the "bad" one, the one infected by the wilderness and everything that's come about because of it, just "hiding, or waiting".

mari also talks about watching a cartoon in the hospital room when her cousin dies, and going out into the waiting room afterwards where the same cartoon is playing. to me, those are two different realities as well. but the world where her cousin just died next to her and the world where she's just in a hospital waiting room, as if it never happened, are tethered. sometimes only your world ends, and for everyone else it's just another day. we also see THIS echoed in the adult lives of all the survivors. they're paranoid, misunderstood, violent, strange. they're utterly disconnected from everyone but each other. the world ended for them, but it didn't for anyone else. they came back, but they can't ever really leave.

there's a reality where shauna really did go outside and get jackie. there's a reality where the team really is eating chinese food in a shopping mall food court. there's a reality where none of them survived the plane crash to begin with. there's a reality where jackie drinks hot chocolate. there's a reality where MARI drinks hot chocolate. there's allie's reality, where she was SUPPOSED to be on the plane that day. maybe theres a reality where they take a bus instead. but all of them, in one way or another, are real.

i don't know, i just really love it. i love how it plays into the ideas of fate and regret and doom and self fulfilling prophecies and how it reinforces the one true "villain" in the show being the plane crash itself, because all the tragedy that comes about because of it would never have happened. it's a conversation about "what if's" just as much as it's a conversation about the dream realm and the visions and all the other freaky shit going on out there. 10/10.

[kingofmyborrowedheart]

You ever listen to a Taylor song and just get hit with a lyric and you’re like “damn she was how old when she wrote this?!?!”

[butterscotchx98]

What

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

I was thinking last night about Midnights and how it’s conceived as these collection of sleepless nights and things that keep someone up until morning, and it hit me that it’s kind of like a collection of questions you’d ask yourself going through it. Like a series of “what ifs”, as we know is such an important theme in her discography in general (thanks @taylortruther for the regular reminders). So I kept thinking about what the overarching question would be throughout the album, and I feel like it makes Midnights even clearer as a concept to me.

(Disclaimer: I’m not saying these are the theses of the songs or anything. Just the things that stuck out to me.)

Lavender Haze: What if we stayed in this bubble?

Maroon: What if you hadn’t changed me forever?

Anti-Hero: What if my demons are who I am?

Snow on the Beach: What if this were real?

You’re On Your Own Kid: What if everything had been worth it for this?

Midnight Rain: What if I’d stayed?

Question…?: What if you’d stayed?

Vigilante Shit: What if they got what they deserved? (Derogatory)

Bejeweled: What if I know?

Labyrinth: What if it worked this time?

Karma: What if I got what I deserve? (affectionate)

Sweet Nothing: What if this is all I need?

Mastermind: What if I’m all we need?

The Great War: What if we actually made it?

Bigger than the Whole Sky: What if I hadn’t lost you?

Paris: What if we escaped the world?

High Infidelity: What if I hadn’t fled?

Glitch: What if we beat the odds and stick together after all?

Would’ve, Could’ve Should’ve: What if I’d never let you have me?

Dear Reader: What if you saw me for who I really am?

[chenfordswopez]

How dare you think it's romantic

Leaving me safe and stranded

'Cause fuck it, I was in love

So fuck you if I can't have us

Chenford - Down Bad (Taylor Swift)

[whatyourehungryfor]

yeah yeah analysis of characters is great and all but have we considered jackie had sex with travis because she could sense her tgirl swag

[dearabsolutelynoone]

[joejhang]

y'all will never understand adam parrish the way i do until ur stuck in a prison of your own making in an expensive private school surrounded by people who are richer and more well-adjusted than you and you're trying desperately to fit in and be like them and study hard and be the best so you can graduate at the top of the class and make it far far away from your shitty town and your shitty family and make money and a life that's better than the one you have now and all your friends are better off than you and they don't really understand you but you love them anyway but you are alone you will always be alone.

[womp-womp-waa]

Taylor was sleeping over at Ashlyn's house tonight. 'Girls night' Taylor excitedly called it. Ashlyn never had a Girls night before, she didn't have any friends to do it with. Now she did and that friend was Taylor.

Why did they just have to be friends?

It was hard to describe how Ashlyn felt about Taylor. She cared for the other deeply. And she loved her smile and her laugh. How she can easily make anybody feel better if they were sad. How she loved to share her interests. How she was one of the smartest people she's ever met. Her beautiful long flowing hair that blew just right in the wind to always make her seem like she's in a TV show.

That's how she felt about Taylor and no words would be able to convey that.

And now they were both in her room with face masks on. Taylors soft, small hands undid the braid for the fourth time. Taylor was determined to be able to brajd Ashlyn's hair. Feeling her hands play with her hair made her face flush as a small blush crept onto her face. She was grateful that Taylor couldn't see her red cheeks. She wouldn't be able to handle the embarrassment of seeing Taylor's shocked face if she saw her blush.

She really wanted to tell the brunette how she felt. But Ashlyn refused to risk their friendship, Taylor was important to her and she couldn't imagine life without her. So if it took keeping her feeling to herself then that's what she will do. Plus, she's pretty confident that Taylor doesn't even like girls and even if she did she doubts that she would like Ashlyn.

So here they were. In a comfortable silence that neither of them decided to break for a while.

"I like you."

What? Surely Taylor meant only in a friend way, right? No way she would date an anti-social freak like Ashlyn. The shock from the sentence made Ashlyn's voice stop working, which in response made Taylor start stuttering a response

"Well- I mean. I do like you. A-alot by the way. And, um, not just in a friend way-"

Did she just say what Ashlyn thinks she said?

"I do really value our friendship and I get it if you just want to be friends, like that would be cool. But I-" a sigh escaped the brunettes lips "I would love for us to be something more"

Silence fell over the two once more. It felt more tense as Taylor waited for a response, her now tense hands still playing with her hair.

"I like you too."

It wasn't nearly enough to show how happy she truly was, but it felt like Taylor got the message as she slumped in relief and her hands began to flow freely throughout her hair as she started to attempt to braid Ashlyn's hair for the fifth time.

[metalandmagi]

"I hate it here so I will go to lunar vallies in my mind, when they found a better planet, only gentle survived, I dreamed about it in the dark, the night I felt like I might die"

Ambrose and Kodiak from The Darkness Outside Us. The sequel is my book of the year so far, and it makes me so sad that more people haven't read this duology. I like to think that this is one of their previous iterations, staring out the "window," blissfully unaware of their reality. Just ignore the fact that I don't know how to draw planets 😅

[jakeperalta]

it's an odd strategy to me to have the promo for an upcoming album kind of... invalidate her past albums. it's probably not that deep, but personally, it makes me less excited, not more.

aka no one can take lover away from me and act like that's a denial song. so many swifties have gotten married to that song, please.

yeah same, I feel like in the past she's always very much tried to put the music at the forefront and resist the gossip appeal of it all whereas this time round it's like she's leaning into it for the sake of building the hype and conversation :/

[tortured-poet-of-thursday]

castiel “family that i chose now that i see your brother as my brother” and dean “is it enough if i can never give you peace?” winchester

[g4rdens0fb4bylon]

tell me why was my first thought 'dead poets society' when I found out about Taylor's new album😭

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Currently obsessed with the idea that Taylor wrote Carolina during the folkmore period being inspired by Where The Crawdads Sing (listen I know....) because she couldn't put the book down and was inspired by "the juxtaposition of [the character's] loneliness & independence. Her curiosity & fear all tangled up. Her persisting gentleness & the world’s betrayal of it" and having a glimpse now into how difficult those years were for her personally and those same themes showing up in songs like Dear Reader, Midnight Rain, How Did It End, I Look In People's Windows, Clara Bow, etc. I'm just saying it's no wonder it ended up on the B Stage (the day after I got home from my trip BUT I DIGRESS I'M NOT BITTER I SWEAR) and it ended up on the pre-release Depression playlist because... yeah.

[seeinganewlight]

that bottle shattered at the vigil, just like the barometer shattered in my apartment. both times i felt something, and i know you felt it, too. and both times we were close enough to...