#duplicitous

GVBBRMB 2022: “Duplicitous” by @fandomscraziness22 + @desidarling123.

“After months of silence, Kaz calls Inej for an undercover mission at a Ravkan gala. But all is not as it appears on the surface... and not just for the mission at hand.”

Read on AO3.

“Well, he was running after us, I was screaming, "Go, go, go!"/ But with three of us, honey, it's a sideshow/ And a circus ain't a love story/ And now we're both sorry (We're both sorry)” - Getaway Car

“And they called off the circus/ Burned the disco down/ When they sent home the horses/ And the rodeo clowns/ I'm still on that tightrope/ I'm still trying everything to get you laughing at me” - Mirrorball

“I'm on a bench in Coney Island wondering where did my baby go?/ The fast times, the bright lights, the merry go/ Sorry for not making you my centerfold/ Over and over” - Coney Island

Fun fact: Coney Island has a circus known as the Coney Island circus sideshow

Fun fact: in the willow music video the scene where Taylor is in the glass box is supposed to be part of a circus sideshow

Analysis

Taylor has been singing about trying to balance the circus and love for awhile. In Getaway Car it was a messy balance that ended with a ring master trying to protect his investment without regard for the other party involved. And Taylor went along with it.

“X marks the spot where we fell apart/ He poisoned the well, every man for himself.”

In mirrorball taylor explicitly tells us what the circus represents. During the long pond studio sessions she explained that she wrote the song after she learned that her shows were cancelled. The circus is performing.

In the willow music video we see Taylor is content in the glass box until her lover shows up. She wants to leave but she learns that she can’t get out the way she came so she exits through the trap door. She doesn’t want her lover to be part of the circus and in the video she was willing to leave the circus to be with them.

Conclusion

Taylor has been singing about trying to balance being a circus performer and being in a private relationship for awhile now. We know reputation is when she made the clear split between her public and private life. And using a circus to describe that is cool. All in all, I enjoy seeing the call backs to this circus imagery.