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The real reference of the ship tattoo

Just saw this post about Harry's ship tattoo which reminded me I had found the actual painting this tattoo is based on a while back. So I guess this is a debunk of that theory. It's not a french "Louis" ship but an English ship called the "Victory". It doesn't debunk the ship-and-compass connection tho, waves can try but they won't break that one.

The ship is from a painting by Nicholas Pocock called Nelson's Flagships at Anchor.

A description of the ship: Dominating the right foreground is the 'Victory', 100 guns, shown in her original state, with open stern galleries, and not as she was at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. She is shown at anchor flying the flag of Vice-Admiral of the White, Nelson's Trafalgar rank, and firing a salute to starboard as an admiral's barge is rowed alongside, amidst other small craft. (x)

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Karlie Kloss by photographer Gabrielle Revere. See the story here. 

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She’s stepping into the daylight in every room of the lover house 😭

in the opening sequence daylight is definitely flooding the house with light, and in some cases she does seem to be looking out at it 😌

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I'm sorry but dear reader might be just the most secretive song Tay has written. Like what does "find another guiding light" Mean??? This song is clearly a letter to her fans and no one can change my mind! Also the line "if you knew where I was walking. To a house, not a home, all alone 'cause nobody's there." Idk but what if she means to say, she's walking to a house after all the stunts that she has to do to prove that she's with Joe and her real life partner isn't there. Like she's going to a "house" After pretending to be someone she's not in front of the world because she can't reveal her true identity. She's not going "home" Because the love of her life isn't there and maybe because again she's pretending to be someone who she's not. Ik this is very confusing 😭 sorry but what do you think?

okay so. without typing out the entirety of my thoughts on dear reader, i will say this:

when she says “to a house not a home all alone cause nobody’s there” i get the sense that the phrase because nobody’s there is a descriptive phrase attached to the word house. as in: why is this a house and not a home? because nobody is there. in other words, home is where[ver] the heart is; this house is not a home to taylor without her lover present. i think about the christmas tree farm lyric (yes! a christmas tree farm pull.) “and when i’m feeling alone you remind me of home” and the willow lyric “you know that my train can take you home, everywhere else is hollow” as being in the same spirit, and suggesting that, for her lover as well, anywhere else besides where her lover is, is not home. even if the building is a house. because home is wherever they are together.

and the line preceding this is “you wouldn’t take my word for it if you knew who was talking, if you knew where i was walking” which suggests that the house where she’s heading to and ultimately writing this from is a place that, if people knew were it was or what it was, would make her readers want to stop taking her advice. the idea that taylor’s location is a detail that would matter to peoples opinion of her.

i think whats interesting here is that she follows up what is a string of pretty depressing imagery with a contrasting closer: “you should find another guiding light *but* i shine so bright.” when you take the word bright to be a word with a positive connotation, i would argue that she’s basically saying, “you should look to someone else to be your role model, but i’m not saying that because i feel like i’ve lost my own light; it’s just not the light that you want.”

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side note, i’m loving how speak now is getting Tanabata as a release date! 7/7!

it is said that on this day two star crossed lover constellations are allowed to see each other on this day, when the milky way opens up a path for them to meet in the sky.

🎋

part of the tanabata tradition is to write out wishes on pieces of paper and tie them to a bamboo branch. usually kids write what they want to be when they grow up, but the tanabata after taylor’s masters were bought, a lot of swifties in japan made wishes that taylor would get her music back 🥺 taylor also made a special happy tanabata video clip in 2019! so yeah, i like this very much.

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Some of the queerest lyrics on Lover

I’m still in the early stages of listening to the album, but wanted to do a quick compilation of lyrics that stand out to me as particularly queer. Lots of folks have been asking me for this, so here they are, along with explanations geared toward people who don’t spend a ton of time on Kaylor tumblr for easy sharing with your more skeptical friends. ;) Enjoy! 

“Cruel Summer” 

“Bad, bad boy, shiny toy with a price, you know that I bought it” – refers to bearding contracts where men are literally paid to be Taylor’s public boyfriends, whether in money or publicity, songwriting credits, etc. Tom Hiddleston and Calvin Harris are the most obvious examples of these. 

“I don’t want to keep secrets just to keep you” – What about J*e is (or ever has been) secret? She’s been dating him publicly since October of 2016, the month after she supposedly broke up with Tom. He’s a straight white guy. No one has any objection to him except that he’s boring. If this relationship is real, what secrets, exactly, is Swift keeping? 

“And I snuck in through the garden gate every night that summer just to seal my fate.” – Guess whose apartment has a garden gate? Correct. Karlie Kloss.

“The Man” 

“What’s it like to brag about raking in dollars and getting bitches and models?” – The conceit of this song is not what Taylor would do if she were a man, but how she would be treated if she did the exact same things she does now. So…bragging about sleeping with models? Noted. 

“I Think He Knows” 

“His hands around a cold glass make me want to know that body like it’s mine” – Leaving aside the male pronoun (sigh), the word “mine” has two meanings here: I want to know your body like it belongs to me, and I want to know your body as well as I know my own. The second thing could work for a male body, but boy does the lyric make more sense if she’s dating a woman. 

“He got my heartbeat skipping down 16th Avenue” – This line refers to Music Row in Nashville (she’s writing songs about her lover, so good), but it’s also another street: The main drag (pun intended) of the fictional gay town from Taylor’s “You Need to Calm Down” video. Why would a straight guy make her heart pitter patter down a gay gay street?

(Credit @dixiechicksswift for this one)

“Paper Rings”

Not my fav song tbh, but it undoubtedly hits on several queer themes in Taylor’s work: going from friends to something more, picture frames (a motif from “How You Get the Girl,” a Very Gay Song), and substituting the public jewelry you could wear with a public (straight) partner for the symbolic jewelry you wear with a private (queer) partner, i.e. “picture of your face in an invisible locket,” a lyric from additional Very Gay Song “Dancing With Our Hands Tied.” 

“Cornelia Street”

One of Taylor’s three solo writing credits on the album, a gorgeous love song without a hint of no homo. Taylor’s Cornelia Street rental was frequently visited by – you guessed it – Karlie Kloss.

“Baby, I get mystified by how this city screams your name.” This could be a reference to any city where you have a meaningful relationship, but it’s another level when the city is New York and Karlie is regularly on billboards in Times Square. 

“Jacket ‘round my shoulders is yours” – I absolutely love how this lyric takes a straight trope (a man giving a woman his jacket) and puts a queer twist on it – girlfriends sharing clothes. 

“Barefoot in the kitchen” – Taylor and Karlie famously love to bake together, and baking has been a big motif of this era, including sweet treats on Taylor’s insta and baking videos in the “Lover” lyric video. 

There are 13 seconds of silence at the end of this track – to my mind, this means that Taylor is telling us there’s something she’s not telling us. 

“False God” 

This track continues the theme of Taylor’s lover being her religion that she began so skillfully on “Don’t Blame Me.” When you think about relationships that religion frowns upon, what kind of relationships do you think about?

“Religion’s in your lips…the altar is my hips” – Um, guys. Guys. Hey. Guys. 

“You’re the West Village” – If you’re wondering whether Karlie’s apartment (you know, the one with the garden gate) was in the West Village, do you really have to ask? (It was.) 

“Afterglow”

“Fighting with a true love is boxing with no gloves” – Karlie and Taylor famously had a (very sexy) boxing match in the “Bad Blood” video.

“It’s Nice to Have a Friend”

This dreamy little track chronicles the progression of a childhood friendship into a mature romance. The song is very feminine, with moments like “Something gave you the nerve to touch my hand” (paralleled in “Gorgeous”), and as Jill Gutowitz pointed out, it literally replays the plot of Carol. Also, this:

“Have my back, yeah every day” (credit @karlies for this one) 

“Daylight”

What really got me on this track was the spoken outro, where Taylor says, “I want to be defined by the things I love.” To me, this is so, so powerful. For queer people, being defined by who we love can be scary and dangerous. It can mean being kicked out of our homes, fired from our jobs, or even murdered. But at the end of the day, it’s such a beautiful way to identify ourselves and our community. We are who we are because of who we love. It’s a good thing, not a bad thing. And I absolutely adore Taylor for saying so, even if she’s not ready to say it about herself just yet.

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We’ll probably never know what went down but you can just tell this girl was so in love with Taylor. Girly was whipped.

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Here's a short recap of the Kaylor Koincidences since 2021 (when i joined this little community) for anyone who wants it!

Kaylor Koincidences 2021:

Partial 1, Partial 2, Complete List

Kaylor Koincidences 2022:

Part 1 (Jan-Aug 3), Part 2 (Aug 3 - Oct 7), Part 3 (incomplete)

KK foreshadowing Midnights, Midnights Album/MVs easter eggs

Kaylor Koincidences 2023:

The Eras Tour (Main), The Eras Tour (Speeches/Surprise Songs/etc.)

Will be updating this everytime we get new ones :)

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Midnights Album / Songs - Kaylor Konnections / Koincidences

KK Foreshadowing Midnights Compilations

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(Click on links for original posts)

Maroon

NYC / Cornelia Street Konnections

Snow On The Beach

"Now I'm all for you like Janet" + 3/6 Konnections

VSFS 2013 Snow Angels Segment reference? + Sound effects

Question...?

Kissgate reference?

Cruel Summer parallels?

OOTW Backing vocals from OOTW 1989 Tour (T wearing KK inspired outfit)

Karma

Karma + KK references

Coming straight home to me / I came straight from Rome for this

Sweet Nothing

"On the way home, I wrote a poem" + YAIL callback + Big Sur trip caption "On the way home"

"I spy with my little tired eye"

Mastermind

VSFS '13 reference?

"Checkmate, I couldn't lose"

Hits Different

I slur you name 'til someone puts me in a car (Kar)

"It's got one of my fav bridges"

Gold Rush + "Dream Girls" VSFS segment parallels

The Great War

Admitting she was wrong, her lover didn't betray her (+ Link 2 , Link 3)

The Great War (world war 1) lasted July - November 1918 -> "Gray November, I've been down since July"

Paris

KK the French speaker / "Wish you were here" / "From Paris with love"

KK teasing Paris months before (also refer to KK foreshadowing compilation)

"Confess my truth in swooping, sloping, cursive letters" -> Cursive letters written in the Lover Remix Snowglobe (YAIL inspired) "Look in my eyes they will tell you the truth, the girl in my story has always been you"

Paris is KK's city too (Paris Fashion Shows, speaks french) + lover being talked about in the song KNOWS Fashion "all the outfits were terrible 200r unbearable"

Glitch

2190 days of our love black out -> Oct. 2016

It's all part of the fucking story - Oct. 2016

KK x KWK "glitch"

Additional Summary

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Midnights Music Videos - Kaylor Konnections / Koincidences

ANTI-HERO

Her hypothetical Daughter-in-law is called "Kimber"

Swift-Kloss Family Crest on the wine bottles (+ Link 2 )

Daisy symbolism (droplight, wallpapers, ghost)

Eye Theory reference - Right side Egg yolk

Eye Theory reference - Sunny-side up Eggs in the Lyric video ("It's me" (left egg) ; "The Sun" (right egg))

Daisies & Butterflies on the plate + The Plate's pattern is called "Butterfly Gold" (+ Link 2 )

Ghosts = 3 *ex*-gfs references?

More Daisy symbolism (Funeral Scene)

Taylor dialing 8 and 3 on the Telephone? (+ Link 2 )

Picasso book by an Elizabeth (Cowling) on the coffee table

BEJEWELED

Dita Von Teese Konnections ( + Link 2 )

Runway / Catwalk on 3rd Floor reminiscent of VSFS '13 - Snow Angels Segment ( + Link 2 , Link 3 , Link 4)

Swarovski Konnections ( + Link 2 , Link 3 , Link 4 )

Other *Gem* Bodysuit - KK reference? + Bodysuit / Don't Take The Money Parallel

Meeting a woman (Fairy Goddess) on the 5th Floor (1989 era) - Meeting KK reference? ( + Link 2 , Link 3 )

Delicate's "But you can make me a drink" reference on the 5th Floor (1989 era - Blue room, when she met KK)

The Panther Walk?

8 Rings (beards callback?) on Step-Mother's hands

Eye Theory reference - Lover's Eye Ring on Step-Mom

"TS" Hairclip

"Place a Poppy in my hair" - The Great War reference ('remembrance/hope' flower + August birth flower)

Girl = Diamonds?

The Golden Pocketwatch - Vintage Estee Lauder Golden Shell compact

Taylor's Marie Antoinette - KK's 2012 "Sweet Escape" Photoshoot parallels ( + Link 2 )

The Gold / Invisible String reference?

The Cloak interpretation

Laura Dern easter egg?

Ghosting the Prince ( + Link 2 )

KK Foreshadowing - Cinderella themed music video?

KK Foreshadowing - Marie Antoinette (Versailles) reference?

KK Foreshadowing - "Juliet balcony vibes"

KK Foreshadowing - Roblox Face Gems?

LAVENDER HAZE

Daisy imagery ( + Link 2 )

Eye Theory reference - Film Camera + Ring?

The Sun on the lover's sleeve/jacket + Map locations referencing KK (St. Louis, Big Sur etc.) + The K shape on the map (+ Link 2 )

Gaylord on the weather map?

Kaylor, South Dakota (66) + other sus places on the map ( + Link 2 )

The numbers on the weather map making a K adds up to 308 (minus 60, St. Louis)

The lover's Story MFG (Manufacturing) Jacket + Sun references

Fishbowl (Koi?) theme reference? ( + Link 2 )

Carolina Herrera - Lavender Haze Smoke parallels

KK Foreshadowing - posting Lavender related stuff a day before Taylor's announcement ( + Link 2 )

KK Foreshadowing - Cloud + Koi fish + Space / Astronomy

Taylor posting the LH announcement video at 8:03 am NYC/ET time

The guy playing Taylor's love interest in the mv is named Laith (meaning 'Lion' in arabic)

Interpretations: Some thoughts from twitter + Mastermind's "The Love Story of Sagittarius and Pisces - A Haze)

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Ok whew!! Tried my best to compile the links i've got saved up, apologies bc i know i may have forgotten a lot! So please don't hesitate to add-on 😆 thank you! Enjoy!!

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Well, that’s interesting… 👀

(source)

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Mmhmm

Carolina Herrera (2023) / Lavender Haze (2023)

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ran into this very early career photo of karlie and um,

it’s low key taking my breath away how aesthetically similar it is to the rep photoshoot 👀

like… 👁👄👁

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Night 2.

Confirmation that it’s choreographed that they do the damn thing. 🤭😍

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can we talk about this??

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HOW DID SHE DARE?

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checked out some sustainability related tags on instagram and I feel like I just entered some kind of hell dimension