Sometimes, the best teacups are chipped. @derecktheuniverse - Tumblr Blog

This is my essay on father figure being about JA. I’m not going to cite or link sources this stuff but if you were here you remember and if you weren’t I bet you could google it. Disclaimer this is how I’m interpreting the song don’t argue with me about it I don’t care if you disagree.

The opening is about meeting a young an aspiring actor starting to spend time in circles she’s in. He had a couple projects early on, but nothing huge. She was already rich and famous (hence the jag and chateau). His thirst and craving to work hard reminded her of a younger self, she saw a lot of potential in him. Proven with her posts hyping up his projects and attending his events in ways that made him feel supported but didn’t over shadow him. She went to after parties and sat at tables with him without attending the red carpet multiple times.

The first chorus is like, oh honey I’ve navigated this fame thing before. I can figure this out. I can make big swings on your behalf with my PR team bc I have the clout and experience and the best experts in the industry working on my behalf. Your project didn’t go the way you planned? You didn’t get the recognition you wanted? Come here baby, I’ll dry your tears. I’ve been there. Also see the NYD lyrics “I’ll be there if you’re the toast of the town babe, or if you strike out and you’re crawling home.”

Her team essentially became his team. She’s protecting the family, meaning him, his family, and hers, from herself and her fame. She bought into the idea that she’s a burden. She’s using what she has to help him achieve his dreams but also to protect him from being Taylor Swifts boyfriend as much as she can.

The next verse adds to character development, and could also be a comment on the dynamic that maybe he didn’t care about her money when it benefited him, and she doesn’t even think about it bc she’s so used to paying for everything. The rise / reign thing is her sharing her experience getting torn down before Reputation, exactly when she met him. If he messes up, she knows how to help him navigate that. I think the loyalty line is a sarcastic exaggeration of the character in the song, but one of those jokes that has truth to it. Is it so much to ask for loyalty when I do so much for you? It’s understood from the music he cheated on her more than once.

The only change in the next chorus is one line, they’ll know your name in the streets. This is pretty self explanatory for me; you’re going to benefit from this relationship and that’s inevitable. Sometimes you have to take what comes to your benefit and embrace it.

The next verse/bridge is when he turned dark on her and everything that comes with being with Taylor Swift. When she didn’t wither away from the spotlight with age, as even she thought would happen, he couldn’t handle it. HE wanted to be an infamous actor, do high brow movies, and not be associated with her in public. We saw this in full force when he did interviews and ultimately when he accepted projects that took him away from supporting her during big career highlights. At the time, the fandom I spend time in could see she seemed unwell. With the hindsight of midnights, you’re losing me, and TTPD, it’s clear this was a low in their relationship.

The last choruses take us to the breakup and further develops the story of the character in the song. After the breakup was announced, he tried to put statements out there to make her look bad and her team shot it down respectfully like the experts they are. Her portrait is in the mantel because their status and everything they have together wouldn’t be there without her career and work - her Grammys and awards are LITERALLY all over her houses. We look back to the cheating with the reference to scandals. Card canceled is pretty self explanatory. I’m sure there’s hundreds of other things they had to do to split up, including dealing with his songwriting credits on her work. Sure, he deserves that credit, but it’s her empire at the end of the day.

She saw potential in him as an artist, and actor, and as a life partner. He disappointed her and now that’s all over.

#EXACTLY!!!#thank you this is the best interpretation of father figure I’ve seen

stillgotscars

happy the life of a showgirl release day to all those who celebrate

midnightssea

I’m just saying that hypothetically if I spent 6 or 7 years in a relationship where my partner mentioning my name let alone being seen with me in public was treated as highly taboo for a whole host of reasons among them being a fear that my success would overshadow his career….and then my next boyfriend was like “hey wouldn’t it be fun if you went on my podcast?” well I would probably be thrilled by that. Hypothetically if that were me.

nessa007

NEW YEAR'S DAY | TAYLOR SWIFT

tayloralison

THE ERAS TOUR (March 17, 2023 - December 8, 2024) You and I, we’re about to go on a little adventure, and that adventure is gonna span 18 years of music, and it’s gonna happen one era at a time✨

Thinking of friendship bracelets

and reclaiming your girlhood

and hearing Cruel Summer live for the first time

and crying with a crowd of 50,000 strangers to All Too Well 10 minute version

and that all things come to an end but The Eras Tour will be in the history books forever.

Thank you @taylorswift for everything✨

#taylor swift #ts the eras tour #the eras tour #can’t believe it’s the last show #hold on to the memories #they will hold on to you

Thinking back to Santa Clara Night 2 of The Eras Tour. ✨✨✨

#ts eras tour #taylor swift #the eras tour #Santa Clara night 2 #eras tour #levis stadium #santa clara #lover house #lover

mightnotfeelrealbutitsok

I love that women like Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell were out there in 1810 or 1855 unapologetically creating shippable couples and excruciating tension and swoonworthy moments in the most delicious slow-burn love stories. Like they were obviously drawing on their own desires to be able to hit the spot, to know what women want, and were writing to afford themselves and others a vicarious experience of love in a society that was probably pretty devoid of it. And here I am 200 years later, also a wistful romantic woman who needs escapism, still in agreement about what love should look like, and their otp is now my otp.

wizardarchetypes

really strange how you can be almost at peace with something that happened to you but it will continue to be a defining moment of your life for the rest of your life. you wont think about it much anymore but in a conversation about a film someone will mention the year it was released and you’ll think to yourself, “that was before it happened” and you’ll see an old photo and think how strange it is to have existed before it happened and somehow it’s like living a life in two acts

mustlikeme4me

We were so incredibly on point that day when we discussed that their relationship came to a massive turning point in 2021 and never recovered. Taylor overstayed the entirety of 2022 and has a lot of regret that she did. Perhaps if she hadn’t stayed hoping a cure would come through, she wouldn't have exited the relationship in the fashion she did and the entire manic episode could've been avoided? Making an entire album focussed on Joe would be like going after a dead man/beating a dead horse. She shares that he neglected her, resented her, preferred spending time with other women, and basically left her devoid of any love and affection - she’s explicit about these problems/his behaviour, but none of this is a focus of any one song or songs directed at him. Their intimacy was catalysed by arguments which was mostly caused by her fighting for the relationship, trying to keep it (and him) alive.

She's clearly cognizant of his mental health which so adds an extra layer to this. She even expresses her uncertainty with how it ultimately ended - because these were all issues in the relationship while still ongoing: cheating happened and they remained together; he neglected her and they remained together; he resented her and her success and they remained together. It was the totality of all of this that of course meant it had to end. But because it all was accepted until it wasn’t, it’s confusing even to her how it finally did (How Did it End).

So the story of them can be found throughout the album for the listener to pick up and it's by using a much shorter but also incredibly painful relationship as a vessel. This might just be the biggest feat she's ever accomplished as a songwriter and I applaud her for succeeding so wonderfully.

diamondseaside

the bridge of the smallest man that ever lived is actually so devastating because this man lured taylor out of her 6 year relationship gaslit her into thinking it was meant to be them all along when in reality he was taking advantage of her for unknown reasons. and once again taylor finds herself in the same position as august mourning something that was very real for her but not for the other person

deathofherreputation

idk not to sound like too much of a cupcake or whatever but I love Taylor so much for how earnest she is. Like, as someone who has been told for pretty much as long as I can remember that I'm too much or that I'm annoying or just care too much, I really resonate with how much she's just authentically herself and is brave enough to keep feeling so openly, you know? Sincerity is such a breath of fresh air in a time where it sometimes feels like admitting to having emotions about anything and not being an aloof above-it-all cool girl is somehow an embarrassing thing.

selenastaylors

you showed me colors you know i cant see with anyone else

derecktheuniverse

Also the reference to the colors blue and gold??? Mastermind indeed…

I’d love if someone with photoshop/gif skills could compare the imagery from the music video for Fortnight with Scream by Michael Jackson. They just visually remind me of each other so much.

#taylor swift #tsttpd #the tortured poets department #fortnight