#folklore analysis

plot : the one where wanting was enough.

tags : cheating,references to folklore esp illicit affairs.

Taylor Swift Speaks On Double Standards For Female Artists In The Music Industry (2020)

ok y’all have earned a lyric analysis

so i think it’s possible that exile is about dianna seeing taylor with joe at snl/the afterparty in 2019 + all the people dianna has had to see taylor out with after their breakup

we know that taylor and joe were seen making out at the afterparty, but dianna was noted to be in taylor’s inner circle there, making me think they were hanging out, and a gaylor eyewitness said that dianna made a face when taylor sang magnetic force of a man in lover:

the vibe of exile is this hurt betrayal that goes beyond your ex simply moving on and makes me think joe being a guy plays into it... i can’t exactly explain it but sometimes it hurts more if she moves on to a guy.

taylor bringing in a man to sing a whole verse about seeing taylor out with another guy feels like what she used to do with her pov switches like “from the male perspective” to the max

the first verse i think is dianna’s pov and i think it makes sense that part of the offense, as stated in the first lryic, is that dianna can see it “i can see you standing honey, with his arms around your body” because taylor gets to be public with joe in a way she never was with dianna.

i think i’ve seen this film before, and i didn’t like the ending 

1. sounds like allllll the guys taylor had to parade around in front of dianna as she could only watch, conor and harry during their relationship, then calvin and tom so publicly in the aftermath of their relationship and then joe being real and special in a way most of these other guys weren’t and don’t even get me started on kaylor and karlie and how public that was.

2.  the film reference and how the ending doesn’t spell out good new for the couple is also expressed in the 1 with the lyric “the greatest films of all time were never made” and ofc you guys know i think the 1 is about dianna

3.  all the film references in this song make me think it’s possible she’s singing to someone who acts in films - dianna!

You're not my homeland anymore So what am I defendin' now?

this whole vibe of a homeland and defending something makes me think of a war or a fight and the 1989 breakup muse taylor goes to war with (i don’t think against, i think they’re on the same side and they were fighting to make it/come out, but that’s another post for another day) in clean she loses the war and in iwyw she says she wants to remember what they’re fighting for.

I can see you starin', honey Like he's just your understudy

again - dianna is an actress and so is joe so him being her “understudy” is a really apt metaphor if it is about her.

Like you'd get your knuckles bloody for me

gives me major dianna vibes since we think she shoved harry just for adjusting taylor’s scarf 😭(maybe)

Second, third, and hundredth chances

gives me swiftgron vibes, “it was months and months of back and forth” just painful, slow to end, and on and off is very much the 1989 muse imo

Balancin' on breaking branches Those eyes add insult to injury

swiftgron vibes 100% now we’re in taylor’s pov and ofc she’s mentioning dianna’s eyes which she sang about again and again and she mentions the balancing act they had to do for their treacherous love 

I'm not your problem anymore So who am I offending now? this also sounds like taylor’s pov of swiftgron, i think it was taylor’s career and fame that broke them down in the end, the pressure of staying a secret was unbearable and they ended up breaking up due to that.  taylor framing herself and all the baggage that comes with secretly dating her as “your problem” 

Now I'm in exile seein' you out this feels like a macabre play on being “out” - i always theorize dianna wanted them to come out together.  but they didn’t and now she’s out with joe, instead of out of the closet.

So I'm leavin' out the side door more commentary on hiding in the shadows, even their breakup is shielded from public similar to the silent screams taylor keeps framing their break up(s) as in this love and clean also reminds me of dianna having to leave out of side doors of restaurants like she did when she met andrea (while harry got to stride out of hotels for “morning after” pap walks in full view of everyone)

All this time

I don’t know if we talk about this simple lyric enough!  whatever taylor is singing about it’s been a connection for a long time!  it certainly fits for that damn 1989 muse that taylor seems to keep coming back to.

I never learned to read your mind

this is such a dianna lyric - she is this confusing amalgamation of mystique and even winston comments on it in the song he wrote about her, woman, which says, “i can’t read your mind though i’m trying all the time”

now let’s talk about how she sent the song to radio on karlie’s birthday.  i do think it’s possible this song is about her (though it feels more dianna to me) the mentions of a crown, and packing up in five minutes reminds me of that blind (back before enty went crazy) that said Taylor kicked karlie out and had her stuff packed up in a few minutes do make me think of karlie.  but if the song is dianna the reasons i can think of taylor sending it to radio of karlie’s birthday are: 1.  it’s simply a coincidence, we do have to allow for coincidences even as gaylors.  2.  she was just being petty, you guys know i think they’re not on good terms(x, x), if she had to send a sad song to radio in late summer, like the release of folklore demanded, why not send it on karlie’s birthday just as a bit of a snub. 3. maybe it’s because karlie was one of the people dianna had to see taylor out with (amas! 143 remember those days!) so it was proper timing and thematic and it just worked out like that.

nahhhh i think the cardigan mv is a metaphor for proper 2012-2014 swiftgron

first, taylor is enticed by an alluring glowing in the dark light:

and pulled into a dreamy Wonderland scape very specifically In The Woods:

but a storm and flood come and she’s drowning, lost at sea:

but when all is lost taylor clings to her art and it saves her:

she manages to escape the storm thanks to her art:

and comes back from her journey permanently changed.

she lost him her but found herself and somehow that was everything.

and that my friends is the story of 1989 from This Love to Wonderland to Out of the Woods to Clean!

and that just helps to add to my theory that cardigan is about dianna!\

so in my brain, seven and dorothea are a call and reply between two childhood best friends drifted a long ways apart.

dorothea the song comes first in the story. seven and dorothea end up as neighbors and childhood best friends. they share their love and trauma with each other, until dorothea finally escapes their hometown and makes it big. seven is left wondering for all of these years, now grown up, if her former best friend thinks about her at all, and leaves a reminder that she’s still here and she still loves her after all of this time. seven tells dorothea that their town hasn’t changed one bit, but with dorothea making it big now, seven knows that she wouldn’t like it there anymore.. but she still offers. seven mentions a quick few core memories between the two of them (how they met, being in the park, and skipping prom), but knows she has no idea who dorothea is as a person now.

REPUTATION MAGAZINE VOLUME 1, page 69