anyway my final opinion on the ready for it music video (written w/ a lot of input from @shesdeads):
hoodie taylor is training caged taylor. she isn’t holding her captive out of malice, but is instead preparing her to survive in the outside world, as someone who doesn’t fit in (because she herself doesn’t fit in either, considering she’s the only one of the cyborgs outside of the glass cage who has a face).
when hoodie taylor approaches, the other taylor takes a stance as though she’s waiting to begin training.
and at first they seem to be sort of going through the motions, like a routine. hoodie taylor watches as the caged taylor goes through all of these transformations, and she seems sort of bored and unimpressed, like she’s seen it before.
then, eventually, caged taylor learns to control the blue light, and hoodie taylor’s personality seems to shift. she pushes back her hood to watch more closely, and even smiles.
she looks at her with pride….and this is when she first touches the glass. it knocks caged taylor down….but it’s because hoodie taylor recognizes she can do more. suddenly, when she asks “are you ready for it?” it becomes obvious she’s asking the caged taylor if she’s ready to harness her full potential.
when caged taylor develops full control over the lightning, hoodie taylor stands back and watches, letting her do it. “letting the games begin” because they both recognize that caged taylor won’t have to be trapped much longer now that she’s strong.
they approach the glass not as enemies but as equals, which is why they place their hands in the same spot, to create a connection that allows the cage to break open. the two have to, at least for a moment, become one, in order for caged taylor to escape.
and then the glass shatters. but…caged taylor doesn’t look angry when she does it. @shesdeads pointed out that instead she looks….upset, or devastated, even, as though in that moment of the glass shattering, she realized that by releasing her, hoodie taylor wouldn’t survive.
and hoodie taylor, for her part, seems to be completely at peace, as though she knew this was going to happen.
now that she’s strong enough, caged taylor is allowed to go free, and hoodie taylor, stripped of the the human skin that made her different and perhaps intimidating to the other cyborgs, holds them off. she too is shown to have the ability to control lightning, meaning that she may have once been in the same place that caged taylor was.
as the other taylor sacrifices herself, caged taylor makes her escape, and a singular tear trails down her face, because the other taylor had to die for her to be free.
in my opinion, this means that the darker taylor, the one in the hoodie, represents all of the old taylors, and the media’s perception of them. she’s the one that recognizes the world is cruel, and trains the caged taylor because she wants her to be able to survive. and by sacrificing that version of herself to protect her, she gives the now freed taylor the opportunity to start fresh, and maybe not end up the same way she did.
but even with the hoodie taylor gone, caged taylor’s eyes still flicker, because a trace of that taylor will always be inside of her.
