#robin ttpd

[sprnklersplashes]

"swifties don't ever question taylor swift, they applaud everything she does" mother fucker I wish that were true, I can't even get these assholes to appreciate robin (2024)

[thatstheproblemwithnapkinman]

all this showmanship to keep it for you

higher and higher wilder and lighter for you

buried down deep and out of your reach the secret we all vowed to keep it from you

you have no room in your dreams for regrets you have no idea

this song is the robins being in pain because of how much they care for and admire bruce and never see it reciprocated

how they do everything for him and how it hurts them the most

how they sacrifice so much and how it's mostly in vain

[mypartoftown]

Things you can sing to the tune of “way to go, tiger” from Robin:

Now we’re both, sorry

Friends to the, summit

Well you should, be-e

Call it what, you want

It’s nice to have, a friend was played beautifully by Taylor but no one’s talking abt it and I’m actually really mad i thought she’d get her moment but she’s being paid dust

[soupdeewoop]

favorite lines from "THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY"

and it hits me, i just dont understand how you dont miss me, in the black dog

that was intertwined in the magic fabric of our dreaming

and i may never open up the way i did for you

now i want to sell my house and set fire to all my clothes, and hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons, even if i die screaming, and i hope you hear it

and i hope its shitty, in the black dog

i still cant believe it, cause old habits die screaming

honey, i can tell when somebody still wants me, come clean

whether im gonna be your wife or, gonna smash up your bike

i hear the whispers in your eyes, ill make you wanna think twice, youll find, that you were never not mine, youre mine

flip the script and leave you like a dumb house party, or i might just love you til the end

whether im gonna flip you off or, pull you into the closet, i haven't decided yet i told my friends i hate you but i love you just the same, pick your poison, babe, im poison either way

a rose by any other name is a scandal

cross your thoughtless heart, only liquor anoints you

locked me up in towers, but id visit in your dreams, and they tried to warn you about me

and when that sky rains fire on you, and youre persona non grata, ill tell you how ive been there too, and that none of it matters

the devil that you know, looks now more like an angelso cross your thoughtless heart, shes the albatross, she is here to destroy you

your hologram stumbled into my apartment, hands in the hair of somebody in darkness named chloe or sam or sophia or marcus

as the decade would play us for fools

if you want to break my cold, cold heart, just say, "i loved you the way that you were", if you want to tear my world apart, just say you've always wondered

you said some things that i cant unabsorb, you turned me into an idea of sorts

i changed into goddesses, villains and fools, changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules

back to the moment i crashed into you, like so many wrecks do, too impaired by my youth, to know what to do

will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon

cause i wonder, will i always, will i always wonder?

and so a touch that was my birthright became foreign

the empathetic hunger descends

we learned the right steps to different dances

soon theyll go home to their husbands, smug cause they know they can trust him, then feverishly calling their cousins

guess who we ran into at the shops, walking in circles like she was lost, didnt you hear they called it all off

say it once again with feeling, how the death rattle breathing, silenced as the soul was leaving, the deflation of our dreaming, leaving me bereft and reeling, my beloved ghost and me, sitting in a tree, d-y-i-n-g

well tell no one except all of our friends, but i still dont know, how did it end?

i wanna find you in a crowd just to hide from you

tell me bout the first time you saw me

ill drink what you think, and im high, from smoking your jokes all damn night

your friends are around, so be quiet, im trying to stifle my sighs

are you gonna marry, kiss, or kill me? (kill me), its just a game, but really (really), im bettin on all three for us two (all three)

no ones ever had me (had me), not like you

truth, dare, spin bottles, you know how to ball, i know aristotle, brand new, full-throttle, touch me while your bros play grand theft auto, its true, swear, scouts honor, you knew what you wanted and boy, you got her, brand new, full-throttle, you already know, babe

do that impression you did of your dad again

im sinking, our fingers entwined, cheeks pink in the twinkling lights, cause i feel so high school (i feel so high school), every time i look at you, but look at you

if comfort is a construct, i dont believe in good luck, now that i know whats what

no mid-sized city hopes and small-town fears, im there most of the year cause i hate it here, i hate it here

everyone would look down cause it wasnt fun now, seems like it was, never even fun back then, nostalgia is a minds trick, if id been there, id hate it, it was freezing in the palace

i hate it here so i will go to lunar valleys in my mind

im lonely, but im good, im bitter, but i swear im fine, ill save all my romanticism for my inner life, and ill get lost on purpose, this place made me feel worthless, lucid dreams like electricity, the current flies through me, and in my fantasies, i rise above it, and way up there, i actually love it

quick, quick, tell me something awful, like you are a poet trapped inside the body of a finance guy

and it was always the same searing pain, but i dreamed that one day, i could say all that time you were throwing punches, i was building something

and it wasnt a fair fight, or a clean kill, each time that aimee stomped across my grave

screamed, "fuck you, aimee" to the night sky, as the blood was gushing, but i cant forget the way you made me heal everyone knows that my mother is a saintly woman, but she used to say she wished that you were dead wrote a thousand songs that you find uncool, i built a legacy that you cant undo

and so i changed your name and any real defining clues, and one day, your kid comes home singing, a song that only us two is gonna know is about you cause

screamed, "thank you, aimee" to the night sky, and the stars are stunning

i had died the tiniest death, i spied the catch in your breath, out, out, out, out, out, out

i look in peoples windows, in case youre at their table, what if your eyes looked up and met mine, one more time

what are the chances youd be downtown, downtown, downtown

im addicted to the if only

so i look in peoples windows, like im some deranged weirdo, i attend christmas parties from outside, i look in peoples windows, in case youre at their table, what if your eyes looked up and met mine one more time

hand on the throttle, thought i caught lightning in a bottle

pad around when i get home, i guess a lesser woman wouldve lost hope, a greater woman wouldnt beg, but i looked to the sky and said

please, ive been on my knees, change the prophecy, dont want money, just someone who wants my company, let it once be me, who do i have to speak to, about if they can redo the prophecy?

poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand, oh, still i dream of him

and i sound like an infant, feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen, a greater woman stays cool, but i howl like a wolf at the moon, and i look unstable but even statues crumble if theyre made to wait, im so afraid i sealed my fate, no sign of soulmates, im just a paperweight in shades of greige, spending my last coin so someone will tell me itll be okay

i was in my new house placing daydreams, patching up the crack along the wall

so they killed cassandra first, cause she feared the worst

i was in my tower weaving nightmares, twisting all my smiles into snarls

bloods thick but nothing like a payroll, bet they never spared a prayer for my soul, you can mark my words that i said it first, in a mourning warning no one heard

when the first stones thrown theres screaming, in the streets theres a raging riot, when its burn the bitch, theyre shrieking, when the truth comes out its quiet, its so quiet

forgive me peter, my lost fearless leader, in closets like cedar, preserved from when we were just kids, is it something i did?

are you still a mind reader?, a natural scene stealer, ive heard great things peter, but life was always easier on you, than it was on me

we both did the best we could do underneath the same moon, in different galaxies, and i didnt want to hang around, we said it was just goodbye for now

and i wont confess that i waited, but i let the lamp burn

cause loves never lost when perspective is earned

forgive me peter, please know that i tried, to hold onto the days when you were mine, but the woman who sits by the window has turned out the light

you said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me, you said you were gonna grow up

you said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me, said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me, said you were gonna grow up, then you were gonna come find me, words from the mouths of babes, promises oceans deep, but never to keep, never to keep

a curious child, ever reviled, by everyone except her own father

excellent fun til you get to know her, then she runs like its a race

"oh, we must stop meeting like this"

ended with the slam of a door, then hell call her a whore, wish he wouldnt be sore

but as she was leaving, it felt like breathing

all her fuckin lives, flashed before her eyes, it feels like the time, she fell through the ice, then came out alive

and at first blush, this is fate, when its all roses, portrait poses, central park lake in tiny rowboats, what a charming saturday!

and she just knows. she must bolt.

theres escape in escaping

ended with the slam of a door, but shes got the best stories, you can be sure, that as she was leaving. it felt like freedom.

out window panes talking utter nonsense, you have no idea

way to go, tiger, higher and higher, wilder and lighter, for you

long may you roar, at your dinosaurs, youre a just ruler, covered in mud, you look ridiculous, and you have no idea

buried down deep and out of your reach, the secret we all vowed, to keep it from you in sweetness

you got the dragonflies above your bed, you have a favorite spot on the swing set, you have no room in your dreams for regrets

now and then she rereads the manuscript, of the entire torrid affair

he said that if the sex was half as good as the conversation was soon theyd be pushin strollers, but soon it was over

she thought about how he said since she was so wise beyond her years, everything had been above board, she wasnt sure

and the years passed, like scenes of a show, the professor said to write what you know, lookin backwards might be the only way to move forward, then the actors were hitting their marks, and the slow dance was alight with the sparks, and the tears fell in synchronicity with the score, and at last, she knew what the agony had been for

now and then i reread the manuscript, but the story isnt mine anymore

[stillgotscars]

robin - taylor swift

[tvventystitches]

what is your taylor swift song, the one that nobody else gets or appreciates the way you do?

[iwanderthroughthesenights]

Something that stood out to me a lot from this album is the intentional de-personalization of extremely personal feelings and stories. She seems to have decided for this project that in order to be free to be completely honest in her art (which tbf she always has been but never as much as this album), she needs to visualize herself, and thus her stories, as a third party, an external entity on which she's conducting a post-mortem examination. Her 2016 self and the hate train she suffered after Snakegate is reimagined as Cassandra, a character from Greek mythology who had visions in her dreams but no one believed her and instead she was punished. Her anxiety of holding her lover's career back is instead described as The Albatross, this girl who everyone has been warned to stay away from bc she causes problems and is a liability. Her sweet, innocent childhood self is depicted as a robin, a feisty little bird full of life, dreams, and potential who has yet no clue of the cruelty of the world.

Consequently, the characters in her life are, too, bestowed upon fictional characters from stories that have been told before and/or are familiar in some way to the listener (aIMee the girl from this allegorical high school which is actually Kim Kardashian, Peter the boy who never grew up and stayed forever in Neverland who actually is her long-term ex partner, both her and her lover's separate romantic involvements imagined as Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus, her real life therapist referred to as The Professor etc). By using the representation of well-known characters from widely popular stories and myths with names and all, she creates an even deeper line of emotional connection with the listener. Then, the 4th wall is delightfully broken in Clara Bow, where she refers to Clara Bow and Stevie Nicks as the inherent precedents to Taylor Swift. But what's even more brilliant about this is that in this way, she is making Taylor Swift into a character in and of itself. She is actually attempting to externalize Taylor Swift from Taylor the real-life woman. By narrating her stories through tangible entities presented as completely external to herself, she is inhibited by the safety of this fictional/allegorical lense through which she's allowing her stories to be consumed, and as a result, she has unlimited freedom to be more personal than she has ever been in her art before.

[hope-ur-ok]

this actually makes me like robin more

[evermoredeluxe]

robin being a whole song about how younger taylor doesn’t know the extent of what comes with her dreams, and how she’s so clueless and kept in the dark, but regardless she should still go and chase them. how all the showmanship is worth it, and how she’s doing all these things for her. i think this song on TTPD specifically, an album where she talks about how she had to do her job while going through a whole crisis (to say the least) is so significant because there’s a reason she didn’t give up, there’s a reason why she’s good at doing it with a broken heart. the fame made her already horrible time in life worse, but reassurance that the cluelessness was worth it because if she knew, who knows maybe she wouldn’t have pursued it. the not-knowing is cruel and unfair, but regardless it worked out and she did the right thing by not giving up because this is what she wants, what heals her, what makes her happy.

[cametotheshowinsd]

THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: THE ANTHOLOGY | My Personal Top 5

[sprnklersplashes]

I don't think you guys were listening... you've got the dragonflies above your bed, you've got a favourite spot on the swingset... you've got no room in our dreams for regrets (you have no idea)... the time will arrive for the cruel and the mean, you'll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline, but now we'll curtail your curiosity... in sweetness

do you guys get it now?

[gofightwin]

higher and higher, wilder and lighter, for you

[sadbeautifutragic]

Covered in mud, you look ridiculous and you have no idea Wish I'd never grow up, it could still be simple

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

Marriage and children on TTPD:

My husband is cheating, I want to kill him / Your wife waters flowers, I want to kill her / At dinner you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on and that’s the closest I’ve come to my heart exploding / You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? I died on the altar waiting for the proof / I’m having his baby— no I’m not, but you should see your faces / No, you can’t come to the wedding / Ain't no way I'm gonna screw up now that I know what's at stake, here at the park where we used to sit on children's swings wearing imaginary rings / My friends all smell like weed or little babies / Your cheating husband disappeared, well no one asks any questions here / You and I go from one kiss to getting married / You shit-talked me under the table, talking rings and talking cradles, I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all / Whether I'm gonna be your wife or gonna smash up your bike, I haven't decided yet but I'm gonna get you back / So if I sell my apartment and you have some kids with an internet starlet, will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon like it never happened? / Didn't you hear? They called it all off / Are you gonna marry, kiss, or kill me? It's just a game, but really I'm betting on all three for us two / Way to go tiger, higher and higher, wilder and lighter for you / He said that if the sex was half as good as the conversation was soon they'd be pushing strollers, but soon it was over

[stillgotscars]

never grow up // robin - taylor swift

[headcanon-that]

hc that jason todd is a secret swiftie. he likes a lot of taylor swift's songs, especially the more metaphorical and literature-inspired ones. his fav album is ttpd, his fav song is "dear reader". and if he listens to "robin" he will definitely cry.