#tayliar

Everyone’s talking about all the karma references but I’m still stuck on the fact that Taylor Nation shared the clip of Taylor talking about writing the song lover by herself. Adding in the comment about high school is what makes the whole conversation sound like one big double bluff.

Taylor has referred to herself as the narrator of the story within her music over and over again, but what type of narrator is she referring to? It’s appears that Taylor has been alluding to being the unreliable narrator of her own story.

The unreliable narrator is a form of literary device utilised by authors to create plot twists and conflicted characters within a story. In the process the narrator may withhold information, lie to the audience or mislead them. This encourages them to cast doubt on the narrative and engage with the material on a deeper level. The benefit of telling a story in this way is that it forces the audience to come to their own conclusions when the narrator’s point of view cannot be trusted.

When we apply this context to Taylor’s role in retelling her story we start to understand why she has been affectionately referred to as ‘Tayliar’. There is a layer of mistruth sprinkled throughout her story to alter the way it is interpreted so that everyone can slowly see through the facade that was being presented to us. This is a gentle approach, but also an effective one.

Taylor has slowly been drawing more attention to the lies so that more people will notice. This has intensified the split in the narrative, leading to a hostile divide between those who can see the truth and those who believe that the fantasy is real. Both have different points of view but only one side is right, and it's the gaylors because we can see how all of the pieces of the puzzle fall into place when it's viewed through a queer perspective. There's a lot more to the story past this point, but it is the beginning point for many to begin questioning the narrative.

What we're continuing to see unfold now is the lies being told to keep up the facade for everyone else. This phase is supposed to feel contradictory as Taylor continues the process of leaving a trail of clues. I understand many have known the truth for years and are growing tiresome waiting for an ending, but I'd urge you to see that what's happening now isn't for us, it's for those who still believe in the fantasy.

Unfortunately the ending of a story told by an unreliable narrator is oftentimes anti-climactic. It sounds cliche but it really is about the journey and not the destination. But the good news is that there really is so much suspense, complexity and beauty when you are paying attention to all of the small cracks forming in the facade. This is where it becomes clear that Taylor truly is a mastermind.

It's likely that some will accuse Taylor of gaslighting her fans when they discover the truth, but the majority will begin to understand why she kept it a secret once they've had a chance to uncover the truth that has been hidden in plain sight for themselves.

"If you ask me if I love him, I'd lie" -Taylor Swift

A tortured poet,

In the latest series of You Joe had been ambushed by his ex and locked in the glass box that he typically keeps his victims in, an inescapable cage that’s hidden in the basement of his bookstore.

In the process his usual hidden spare key had been removed, leaving him defenceless. But when Kate least expected it Joe revealed that he had planned ahead and anticipated this scenario playing out by burying a key inside his arm.

We’ve seen many examples of glass closets within Taylor’s visuals, especially the glass boxes used on the eras tour.

In the willow music video Taylor appears to be trapped like Joe was, until she reveals that there’s been a Truman-esque escape hole beneath her feet the entire time she was performing.

So what was she waiting for? Her partner needed time to catch up and to prepare ahead of time so that he could join her when she escaped successfully.

Joe’s latest partner in crime called herself Brontë when she was introduced this season and I can’t help but notice how much they have in common with the characters from the ‘all too well’ short film. “She told me that they want me to write our story.” 📕📘

Apart from Madeline Brewer sounding like the female version of William Bowery, she had just received a book publishing deal when Joe got ‘tied up’. ‘Her, later on’ also shares her stories on her own while her partner remains ‘tied up’ outside in the snow.

When Kate returns to the basement and discovers the glass box is empty Joe declares that “you forgot a key!” This reveals that Joe had known he was walking into a trap by tracking her and used that to his advantage to gain the upper hand.

“Dear reader, if it feels like a trap, you’re already in one.”

This sentiment is applicable to many of Taylor’s Easter eggs, especially the ‘hey Stephen’ skit. Taylor purposefully draws our attention to the piece of pizza by pointing out that it’s the only element on the board that isn’t related to Stephen Colbert.

This leaves us feeling like the mood board is a dud with a dead end and that’s because it is if we’re missing a key that unlocks the meaning behind it. And “‘fuck the patriarchy’ key chain on the ground” is the reason why we’re missing such a large piece of the puzzle. ☠️🔚

Credit to @ MyTearsRicoKay for picking up on the connection between Joe’s key being hidden in his arm and the young girl tapping on Taylor’s arm at the VMAs while she’s wearing the shirt covered in her album names.

So many see reputation TV as the key because they’re associating the re-record with karma fire vault tracks, but if “every bait and switch was a work of art” then Taylor Swift TV lines up with both the golden egg on the mood board as well as Joe hiding the key in his right arm.

The arm concealing the key instantly reminded me of the scene in Harry Potter when Barty and Harry compared scars. The dark mark is a magical symbol that links the death eaters with Voldemort and it’s always located on the inner left forearm, but Harry’s cut is on the right side.

This creates an interesting delineation between the good and bad guys, similar to the contrast between the Taylor Swift and reputation albums. “I don’t like your kingdom keys, they once belonged to Me.”

There are so many different directions I would like take this in, but first I’d like to point out the connection between Taylor’s love for scrabble and the letters associated with music notes. See this link for a categorised list of the musical keys used in Taylor’s music. This is outside of my wheelhouse but I find it interesting to see what music key Taylor uses most frequently.

So many of the behind the scenes clips are scripted in a way to intentionally expose the inconsistencies in Taylor’s story, just like the Truman show switches to the director’s POV halfway through the movie. Eg. Taylor Lautner’s “three of them” comment etc.

“So excited! This is the main event!” This initially sounds like Taylor’s excited about filming the video, but it’s actually a reference to Ice Spice and the pearl orbs. Karma is not a lost album, it’s a trail made up of thousands of breadcrumbs… “It’s death by a thousand cuts.”

Alluding to karma being a lost era and then withholding the orange colour in her album eras has lead to Taylor’s infrequent use of it to be associated with fire vault tracks instead of the changes she made to disguise the truth. Eg. two T letters -> two Taylor theory. 🧡=🌈🕳️🐇

Next I’d like to circle back to the ‘all too well’ short film and the red scarf that is seen as a key factor in this song. I’d like to propose the possibility that this might actually be a dud Easter egg with the f in scar-f acting as a red herring for the scar-let letter. 🧡🎁🦋

“We show off our different scarlet letters. Trust me, mine is better.” Leaving a trail of breadcrumbs eliminates the possibility of anyone ruining a big reveal if the truth has been hidden in plain sight the whole time. “You drew stars around my scars but now I’m bleedin’.” ✨🧣

This one ties into my previous post about ‘I can do it with a broken heart’ not being what it seems and the possibility of this performance being an example of Taylor lying to prove a point in order to create lasting change within the music industry. Essentially 🧡 = 🌈 taykarma

I won’t share every example of orange Taylor has used, but this orange mask was worn during the scene about there being a secret encoded message in the funeral scene. Karma = the orange tabby cat from my previous muse post. 🐈🐈‍⬛

Taylor claimed she used “the wrong key” 🔐 before playing ‘ours’ on the eras tour. And the same had occurred before playing ‘delicate’ on the reputation stadium tour.

This ties into the lyrics “I keep my side of the street clean” and implies that the clean version of Taylor™ is devoid of what precipitated the use of the karma orange Easter eggs. Hence the cleaning cart for the eras tour and the “nothing new” style ending too.

I haven’t done a deep dive into it yet but there seems to be a lot of significance to the vault tracks and the truth they hold in comparison to Taylor’s story. She really put the ‘hem’ into mayhem here by leaving a piece missing from the OGs. “I’ve still got you all over me” 🤍🖤

This one’s from the Miss Americana documentary. The view on the camera shows a circle of orange and blue instead of the rainbow featured in the ‘Me!’ music video. This implies that karma is not revealing who her IRL twin flame and continuing to allude to their presence instead.

This was a conversation Taylor and Brendon had about her adopting Benjamin Button. It ties into the way she talks about her cats being her children and how that plays out with making her music from a narrator POV.

Before I continue I just want to clarify that I don’t disagree or disapprove of others ideas and theories around karma and unsolved Easter eggs. It’s becoming apparent that a lot of big Easter eggs like the man wall were designed to keep us occupied without a key to decipher it.

My muse theory has unlocked a new level of understanding Taylor’s work that has taken me in a complexly opposite direction. And that’s what a cypher key does, it decrypts information and that “you’re missing a key” seems to involve two people influencing the creation of Taylor™.

When Taylor said ‘ours’ was the wrong key it was coming from the perspective of Taylor™. “I will go to secret gardens in my mind. People need a key to get to, the only one is mine.” This creates a choice between the key being mine or ours. And if the devil’s in the details… 😸

The answer can be found in the ‘Me!’ music video when Taylor rejects the flowers and ring but keeps the cat. Which then calls into question Me vs We and me+you=us and so on.

Ed Sheeran is definitely a large part of Taylor’s version of karma and her collaborations with redheads in general. I wouldn’t be surprised if karma the lost album ends up being a collab album full of songs that we already know to reveal just how widespread her story has become.

For example Ice Spice collaborated with Travis Scott (TS) for their ‘oh shhh…’. song. This reveals Ice Spice in a singular glass box surrounded by butterflies and a 112 sign, as the Statue of Liberty as the city burns and TS at the helm surrounded by orange light. 🧡🦋🗽🃏

And there’s even a hallway full of playing card imagery too. I’m starting to think getaway car is a red herring for car-d. ♠️♥️♣️♦️

To finish off I wanted to touch on the forearm tattoos again. Adam Lambert was seen giving Ellen a cruel summer tattoo in the ‘you need to calm down’ music video.

Adam has a ‘musica delenit bestiam feram’ tattoo on his left forearm. This is Latin for ‘music soothes the beast’.

I died dead when I saw what was on his right forearm… 🗝️ a skeleton key! 🫠🤦🏻‍♀️ In exactly the same spot as Taylor Swift was written on her shirt.

All I’m saying is that this was the OG fictional teenage love triangle. With Taylor as Ron, her muse as Hermione and Taylor™ as Harry. Which leaves us with debutation: Harry dying, the Me! snake destroyed, setting the butterflies free and the OG TS returning from the grave. 🐍🦋

🧡🩷 vs 🩷🩵

What started with ‘our song’ is now ending with the ‘delicate’ facade crumbling down piece by piece. The eras tour was the key to understanding the many pieces of Taylor’s story and now whatever comes next is going to be the key to uncovering how those pieces go together. 🧡💌💙

“Still alive, killing time at the cemetery.

Never quite buried.” 🪦🪦

The connections between the box of lies skit and Taylor’s music videos suggest that Taylor has been telling a queer love story that began with two people stuck in the closet. Taylor™ went on as the narrator to tell their story from the perspective of Romeo and Juliet while her muse stayed hidden in the shadows. 🐈🐈‍⬛

Just like a game of poker, the box of lies skit is designed to test your ability to detect whether your opponent is lying or not. This ties into Taylor being an unreliable narrator, a plot device that typically relies on concealing the truth with a lie in the very beginning. Much like a house of cards or a tower of Jenga, this creates a foundation that is built on an unstable footing where one small move can make the whole thing come crumbling down.

This is what the invisible string symbolises. It’s a trail of spider web woven in the shadows that’s only visible when you shine a light on it “We think we know someone, but the truth is that we only know the version of them they have chosen to show us.” -reputation prologue. Considering what we don’t see or hear, such as who could be sitting in the audience while Taylor’s on stage, helps to expose our blind spots.

The man wall has had everyone hitting dead ends because it was a reflection of the ‘man you script’, a red herring designed to distract everyone. Just like Truman declared his plans to travel to Fiji when he had bigger plans, this isn’t Taylor’s version either. Her ultimate plan seems to involve the tortured poets department in some way. When Taylor opened the 3rd box she revealed a grimace themed book that contained a burger and fries, a reference to the end scene of ‘you need to calm down’. Another book seen on the show was the Grimm’s fairytale book that contained a bottle of Tennessee whiskey, as well as a class of 1790 year book that looks a lot like what Taylor would’ve written in her year book.

In the 1st box she opened was a pair of binoculars with a lanyard that said ‘I can see corn’. It also had to pieces of corn in one end and two pieces of baby corn in the other. This was the first music video (chronologically based on album) to include the contrast between red and blue.

It feels like there’s two stories being told at once here, with the left referencing a love story and the right referencing a plan for revenge.

There was a comment during one of the skits about the turtle being inside the burger, which feels like a reference to the tale of the tortoise and the hare. And I understand there’s also a deeper message being referenced with the pizza here, but I feel like it’s also dangling a missing piece of the puzzle in front of everyone that will seem obvious in hindsight.

These are just a few of the items that seem to tie into Questlove’s game nights. The rainbow cereal time turner is from four years ago and the good guys club house is from last month.

There so many movie references here that I believe tie into Taylor’s muse hiding in the shadows. There’s reference to scary movies and the pumpkins tying into the @spade-riddles pumpkin anon, Elsa’s isolation from her sister in frozen, the grinch living on the top of the mountain away from everyone else, Star Wars characters being used as mascots, the friendship between Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street with the rubber duckies and also the lucky cat that was kept in Taylor’s cleaning cart on the eras tour.

As I was watching these videos I was seeing a pattern emerge with boxes 3, 4 and 5 in particular containing the most references to Taylor or her muse. And box 1 seemed to be tied with the most references to trolling or tied to a bigger enemy.