betty, taylor swift (2020) click for high quality Standing in your cardigan Kissin’ in my car again Stopped at a streetlight You know I miss you

it really does, anon. those were things i always associated more with how her relationship with jm affected her. like i took her relationship with jake to be more like state of grace, where she's nervous and knows it's risky, but it's hopeful. ikywt being a part of that narrative colors it all so differently. not like night and day differently, but y'know. "a new notch in your belt is all i'll ever be" is also not how i thought she felt about that relationship, at least it wasn't until we got the manuscript. but now.............

it’s about jake!!! but jake wouldn’t have happened if john didn’t fuck with her mind first, if that makes sense. like the events chronicled in the manuscript are jake. but the pattern began with john

@please-picturemeintheweeds exactly

I would add that it’s all building up to Dear Reader, which is sooo complex, but the line that stands out to me most with this theme is: “you wouldn’t take my word for it if you knew who was talking, if you knew where I was walking, to a house not a home all alone cuz nobody’s there.” Like that midnights is a set up and explanation that makes her confession in WCS more believable in the face of victim blaming than it could have possibly been had she disclosed in the immediate aftermath. Midnights humanizes her, it encourages the listener to trust her narrative. If she had been publicly straightforward about her various situationships over the years as they were happening, nobody would have believed her story. “When you aim at the devil, make sure you don’t miss.” Dear Reader directly addresses the public, and wrestles with the role that we played in the events of WCS and the relationship dynamics that fell out of that. ❤️‍🩹

All of Midnights leads into Speak Now. And it’s in the last two songs that that becomes obvious. WCS obviously referencing that time, and then Dear Reader becoming a letter, which is the premise of Speak Now. Dear John/Dear Reader. You know?

some old stuff I found on pinterest

The math is mathing

*death glare*

The idea you had of me, who was she? A never-needy, ever-lovely jewel whose shine reflects on you.

@domperignonubroughtit so true. may I add ‘before I had somewhere to be / back when we had all night, and we were happy’

i think about this a lot

TAYLOR SWIFT Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions