#ttpd epilogue

[taylortruther]

this does remind me of a line in the epilogue that i wondered if i was misinterpreting because it wasn't generating discussion ("it's the worst men i write the best" and joe being largely missing from the album)

[daisyswift3]

Cardiac Arrest, CPR, and the Reticent Volcano 🌋🎁

So yesterday I made a very interesting discovery while watching the TTPD (track) lyric vid that led to me having several epiphanies at once. If you watch the vid, you'll notice that for the most part the lyrics are in all caps save for a few lines. Of these lines, one in particular, “like a tattooed Golden Retriever,” caught my attention bc it has 2 capital letters--G and R--that you wouldn't have been able to see if the line was in all caps like the ones just before it. What makes it more interesting is that golden retriever is not a proper noun like a name or title so it shouldn't be capitalized according to English grammar rules.

This led me to search for the TTPD album booklet scans to see if this was also capitalized in the booklet and to see what other words were capitalized. Then after looking at the booklet it hit me--CPR(G)!!! Charlie Puth Retriever Golden. Everyone agreed these lyrics sounded a little odd compared to the rest of her lyrics and the shout out to Charlie Puth seemed kind of random. But now it makes complete sense why she wrote those lyrics. She was trying to draw attention to the capital letters CPR(G) that are repeated throughout the album. In this post I explained that Taylor mentions CPR in So Long, London bc they're all related to each other, they're a family. C=Cassandra=Taylor; P=Peter=her 2nd kid; R=Robin=her 1st kid; G=Gold/Golden=Karlie. If you look at the TTPD tracklist, Cassandra, Peter, and Robin are in the same order as CPR.

Taylor wanted to acknowledge her family in some way on this album and so she represented them w these 4 letters which are likely a stand-in for the Swift-Kloss family crest since I don't believe that showed up on this album. This is the key to deciphering several of the anon messages and understanding why some things are lowercase while other things are capitalized. For example, all of the volcano 🌋anon messages and the last 2 messages from (PR)esent anon 🎁 are lowercase with the exception of the words "Gold" and "Goodbye." This connects these messages to TTPD (track). "Gold" is highlighted like "volcano" to indicate that Miss Gold Rush is going to be a part of the atomic bomb Taylor is getting ready to drop. And the "Goodbye" being capitalized indicates that Karlie is indeed the "neighbor" in this message and in Fortnight as well as "the woman who sits by the window" in Peter that turns out the light/lamp. She is the one who keeps a lit jack-o-lantern 🎃 on the front porch while awaiting Taylor's return home from exile. These things single-handedly prove that 🌋 and present 🎁 anon are indeed legit bc how would a troll have been able to predict these things when The Anthology tracks were surprise dropped at 2am and weren't revealed w the standard edition tracks on Feb 5, and why would a troll even bother w such subtle details?? Plus no lyrics had leaked yet at the time these messages were sent so the only logical answer is that they must've either been sent by Taylor or someone close to her.

Side note: When I first wrote that post analyzing the present 🎁 anon messages, I had thought that the song Robin, and maybe Peter as well, was the gift/present to us kaylors that present 🎁 anon told us to look out for since P's and R's are repeated in the messages. However, I have since figured out that actually the poetry book For now, she slumbers was likely the gift since present 🎁 anon's messages mention the title of the book "for now, she slumbers" and "reticent volcano" which is the author's name as an anagram (see this post). Plus the March 4 message directly quotes the first poem in For now, she slumbers called "Two" ✌️ (If you want to read all the poems in order see this post). I explain in this post that the reason why this poem is the first one in the book is bc it's the key to understanding all the ones that follow and to understanding TTPD. The 2 ✌️ is probably the most important motif in TTPD bc it symbolizes the 2 different versions of Taylor and 2 opposing narratives abt her life that exist. Taylor Swift the brand vs Taylor Swift the person; the boy-crazy maneater that only writes songs abt her ex-boyfriends vs the tortured closeted queer poet that is forced to hide her truth behind metaphors and red herrings. Going back to the CPR of it all, I still believe my initial analysis of the present 🎁 anon messages was correct for the most part since the "reticent volcano" is likely a tell-all memoir that will explain the whole messy story and how and why she kept her family (CPRG) a secret. The purpose of the 🎁 and 🌋 anon messages was to guide us to both the poetry book and to CPR(G) which both foreshadow what her memoir--that she's hinted at w The Manuscript and The Story of Us--is going to be abt.

Now continuing on w the theory, as I mentioned previously, we have Cassandra=Taylor, Peter=her 2nd kid, and Robin=her 1st kid. And if you look at the pg in the booklet w The Manuscript, you'll see that there is a capital G in "Good Samaritan" which completes the CPRG set and is also the only capital G that shows up in this song.

And to tie it all together, if you look at the summary poem/epilogue at the very end, Taylor mentions cardiac arrest. This happens when someone's heart suddenly stops functioning and can be reversed by CPR! "I stopped CPR after all it's no use, the spirit was gone we would never come to." And this connects to You're Losing Me (From the Vault) which is abt the fans not seeing the real her or paying attention to her repeated queer signaling -> "I can't find a pulse, my heart won't start anymore for you, 'cause you're losing me." Taylor has given up trying to get her fans to listen to her (CPR) and has accepted that she may lose a lot of them when she reveals everything (CPRG). She is warning them that they are abt to lose the Taylor that they know, the old Taylor, bc she is going to have to kill her public persona and brand in order to be reborn as the new version of herself and move onto the next chapter of her life.

And to add even more evidence to this theory, CPR is often performed on drowning victims, and where does drowning show up in TTPD? Oh it shows up in The Bolter which just so happens to be sandwiched in between Cassandra, Peter, and Robin! -> "By all accounts, she almost drowned when she was 6 in frigid water...And she liked the way it tastes, taming a bear, making him care, watching him jump then pulling him under...as she was leaving, it felt like breathing/freedom" // "When I was drowning that's when I could finally breathe." Drowning also shows up in Guilty as Sin which I've determined probably represents the acceptance stage of grief so the drowning metaphor checks out (see this post) -> "Drowning in the Blue Nile, he sent me 'Downtown Lights.'" (Also check out this amazing video which explains the Blue Nile and religious connections). This connects to the 8th 🎃 message where Taylor chooses to jump into shark infested waters and sacrifice her image and brand so that her lover doesn't have to. So putting all these pieces together, this means that by giving up on trying to revive her relationship w her fans or to maintain her image (CPR) and by putting her family and her happiness first (CPRG), Taylor will finally be able to be truly free. She is going to let Taylor Swift the brand drown so that she can finally breathe. This connects to The Black Dog where she compares the red herrings/bearding/lavender haze/smokescreen to an old habit like smoking that she's trying to quit -> "6 weeks of breathing clean air, I still miss the smoke."

Now w all this context in mind, it makes more sense why Taylor has been emphasizing capital and lowercase letters and the number 4 recently. The hidden word hunt on Apple Music, thanK you aIMee, imgonnagetyouback, her retweets from 4/21/23-4/24/23 which happened in groups of 4, putting 4 letter words in all caps, etc. And now it's clear that "I keep these longings locked in lowercase inside a vault" is most likely referring to her explosive tell-all memoir, the reticent volcano, she's going to publish since 🌋 anon's messages were all in lowercase. "Restful, reticent, restraint" = locked inside a vault. Rep tv and the folklore and evermore vault tracks may also be included in this since these albums are in lowercase as well.

In conclusion, I think it is safe to say now that all of these anons are probably legit. In my opinion, all of these connections provide concrete evidence that these anons do foreshadow things and have ties to Taylor.

[midnightsslut]

i saw you talking about i hate it here earlier and what is your interpretation of the consolation prize? i still can't understand it very well. is the prize the relationship with joe and it's the only good thing she has and that's why it's consolation because everything else is bad? or is it a “negative” view of the relationship? is she not referencing the relationship? what is it?

i definitely see it as a line about the relationship. a consolation prize generally has a pretty negative connotation, especially since she says it’s ‘all you’ll ever be,’ implying that their relationship at this point in time is lackluster compared to the life she used to have. she was once a debutante (i.e. a popular socialite, and in taylor’s case a celebrity), but now she’s stuck at home with someone who tells her awful things. one of the key lines in the song, which was actually taken out an hour or so after the anthology was released, is ‘nostalgia is a mind’s trick / no midnight in Paris / it was freezing in the palace.’ that’s a pretty clear reference to the song paris and basically says everything in that song was a mind’s trick, a fantasy she created but now feels too jaded for: ‘stars placed and glued meticulously by hand next to the ceiling fan,’ a line from the epilogue that seems to be a callback to ‘drew a map on your bedroom ceiling.’ i hate it here is written at a time when she’s feeling particularly sad and cynical, so she essentially dismisses all the stories she wrote about their relationship as a fake consolation prize.

the mashup with the lakes was also an interesting way to reframe the song, but that’s a separate conversation from the main track.

[midnightshaze13]

No one is aware of how obsessed I am from my essence of being a philologist, which is the entire core of my person, the fact that Taylor Swift has released an album called Tortured Poets and The Anthology on these piano poems 📜🎹 !! (more than songs, they feel like piano poems) everything is either hyperbole, sattire or/and an exaggeration of the tragedy and I LOVE it entirely

@taylorswift thank you I adore this album and I protect and appreciate these lyrics with my heart

[theblsckdog]

to this day im still perplexed by the ttpd epilogue, is honestly one of her most fascinating works, she was so enlightening and even so people refuse to understand lol i don't even say by people needing to like her choices but they choose to change the narrative to what contributes to the image they created of taylor

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

It’s the worst men I write the best 🥴

[new-york-no-shoes]

We are simply not talk enough about “in one conversation, I burned down the whole sky.” !!!! And the whole poem is just jaw on the floor honestly

[okaykyrie]

king of my heart body and soul -> im the queen of sand castles he destroys

[yournameoverandover]

today I’m thinking about the connections between tell me I’m despicable / say it’s unforgivable / what a crash, what a rush, fuck me up Florida (Florida!!!) and it was a mutual manic phase. / it was self harm. / it was house and then cardiac arrest. (TTPD Prologue) ………it’s really all right there if anyone cares to actually pay attention!

[stillgotscars]

thinking about the pipeline from “once upon a time, the planets and the fates and all the stars aligned” in mastermind to “tried wishing on comets / tried dimming the shine / tried to orbit his planet / some stars never align” in the ttpd epilogue

[lovestory]

As a vinyl collector I am completely stunned by the TTPD vinyl. The packaging is heavyweight and top quality, even the inner sleeves are gorgeously printed. The booklet inside the gatefold is so innovative and for the first time in a while, I was flipping through it and felt very WOW about the design of the lyric sheets. Amazing typesetting and use of negative space. I actually avoided seeing the prologue, poem and epilogue until I had the album in my hands and wow. What an experience. Considering the amount of units Taylor needs to press in vinyl I definitely wasn’t expecting something so fantastic, I’m very proud to have it in my collection.

[taylortruther]

Interesting you interpret the low hanging fruit to be the what if/little match she held for him (unless I’m reading you wrong here). I always took that line to be the things she wanted ie marriage, children, that saw slipping through her fingers with Joe & likely confided in him about. Which MH used to say how he/they would be different. Like, you persuaded me to give into these feelings I have held and wondered about by using the easiest methods (my deepest desires and fears) to get to me that I also willingly offered up to you

I know this sounds conniving on his part and I think to an extent it was, but despite my deep distaste for him I think on some level he also deluded himself this fantasy he was selling was real

oh, i think he was deluding himself also, and while his actions were hurtful, i'm not fully convinced it was intentional (like, i don't think he was scheming how to fuck taylor swift, i think he was scheming how to get with her without realizing what a bad idea it was... and when he did, he bounced.)

but hmm i took the low hanging fruit to mean all of those things? he knew she still held a torch for him, he knew she wanted commitment and to feel loved again. she was in a vulnerable place and he knew it (or should've known it.)

[the-dark-artifices-trees]

Tessa during tid: london boy (lover -2019) 🩷🏹💐

Tessa post cp epilogue: so long, London (ttpd -2024) 🤍🪶📜

[midnightsslut]

Not sure if you’ve touched on this before, but any thoughts on the parallel between “tried orbiting his planet” in the summation poem and “could it be enough to just float in your orbit” in Chloe et al?

i actually always thought those two lines talked about different things, because if you look at that stanza in the summation poem, she is talking about the different compromises she made to save a man she had created a galaxy with. matty isn’t mentioned until the next stanza after she ‘tore down the whole sky.’ in the context of the summation poem, orbiting his planet is making him your priority and revolving your life around his needs. in chloe et al, she talks about being on the periphery of his life, just like the male protagonist looking through the window at end of the all too well short film: not the main character in her life like he used to be, but still an observer who hasn’t entirely left her. in other words, could it be enough to just watch your life unfold and let the lamp burn somewhere in my mind?

[bettyshoweduptotheparty]

What is the ‘Thesis’ of Tortured Poets? (+ Fortnight Deep Dive)

After 4months of listening to TTPD I was recently wondering what the 'thesis statement' of this massive album is, if I had to give it one. Is it "Female rage: the musical" as Taylor has named the TTPD set on the Eras tour? Anger is certainly evident in the album a lot, but, no, I wouldn't say that's quite it (that's just the parts she's picked for the tour set). I would say it's more than that, and usually a good clue is the lead single and music video. Anti-Hero (and the mv), the lead single for Midnights, made it pretty clear what Taylor's main message for Midnights was: Taylor Swift™, you're the problem. Lover's lead single was Me! and then YNTCD, which for a lot of people seemed like a dumb choice when Cruel Summer was right there, but we know that for what that album SHOULD have been, it needed to be those two. That was the statement. So what is TTPD's statement? And what is Fortnight as the lead single telling us about it?

Fortnight single and music video

The first line of the first verse immediately connects to where Midnights left off: They were coming to get her to take her away in Hits Different and now she was supposed to get sent away but they forgot to come and get her. So we are still very much circling the same issue as Midnights: The duality of Taylor Swift. And I am now fairly certain that Post Malone is also portraying a different version of Taylor in the music video, just like the two Taylors from Anti Hero. When she wipes her face, the same face tattoos are revealed, they are both writing the music/poetry together and they face each other like a mirror image in the pile of papers that make up Taylor's silhouette.

Though while Taylor and Postie are writing together here (Postie perhaps as the 'male POV') and their creations join together, the two Taylors in the Anti-Hero mv are less unanimous, one creating the music and the other one destroying it. Otherwise I find these two scenes very similar:

The setting has also notably changed: She's not in her house anymore, she is in this government institution, kept chained in a cell and only allowed out when medicated to do her work. And there are other people there too, seemingly with the same fate. (A not so subtle hint at the music industry...) The first verse continues

I was a functioning alcoholic 'til nobody noticed my new aesthetic.

This strongly reminded me of the In Summation poem which comes with the album leaflet, but kind of like an epilogue rather than a prologue. And also the introduction post that Taylor posted with the album release.

Confirming yet again that this album, much like Midnights, is a debrief/a rewinding. And she even tells us for what reason: a warning. Are you afraid? You should be! (Yes I think that could easily have been the lead single too). And what is she reflecting on? A “fleeting and fatalistic moment in time”, a sensational, yet sorrowful one that led her to having to tell her saddest story to be finally free from it. So in this context, I think the line about new aesthetics and alcoholism is a throwback to the summer of 2019 and the failed Lover coming out/masters heist. A lot happened and had things gone differently she’d be an out queer woman now. It must feel like a strange parallel universe to still be closeted at 34 years old. And losing your life’s work and your relationship (at least temporarily) in the process I think qualifies as someone’s saddest story. If you’ve seen any of Taylor’s performances from July/August 2019 dressed in all black, you’ll probably agree that it felt like a woman at rock bottom. When she couldn't get out of bed (loml) but still did it with a broken heart. THAT is the context and thesis of TTPD: This twist of events that led to her still being in the closet five years later, and everything that she reflected on when she thought she'd lost everything. The regret, the anger, the heartbreak, even the resentment towards your family for the path they guided (pushed?) you down when you needed someone to fight your corner. "Blood is thick, but nothing like a payroll" is one fucked up thing to say and I'm still shocked seemingly everybody moved on from that so quickly. Those are sentiments that Taylor, the people pleaser, would never have put out into the world before, but this is a debrief, an exorcism even. She needs to get her ugliest truths out before she can move on.

The Fortnight pre-chorus continues with

All of this to say, I hope you're ok but you're the reason And no one here's to blame, but what about your quiet treason?

Now there's a 'you' coming into the picture, and I know there are varying opinions, and maybe multiple possible interpretations of who the you is. Remember, this is the lead single, the thesis song, so to speak. And in that context, I don't think the You is another person, it's another version of Taylor, perhaps the one from the Anti-Hero mv, or the one she hoped she'd be after 2019 if everything had gone to plan. You (brand Taylor) are the reason I'm feeling unstable and I don't blame you but you betrayed me by leaving me here in the closet (similar sentiment to Peter).

She goes on say how she and the 'you' were together for only a short time (a fortnight), the loss has turned all her days into depressing Mondays and that no "miracle move-on drug" can fix that. It sounds like her bemoaning the what could have been, the you being the public persona that she was hoping to merge her true self with by coming out. And I think, yet again, the music video supports that interpretation with Taylor and Postie being the same person but not looking the same. She could have easily played both parts herself, but she cast a different person, a man no less, to play this other side of her, maybe to highlight that she has to take a man's perspective (James/The Man, etc.) to express her true feelings.

Taylor and the You then go on to sing the line "I love you, it's ruining my life" to each other. So they're both feeling that way. And it is a very key sentiment, because it was also one of the first we ever read from the album during the roll out and it's written on the dress during the TTPD set on the Eras tour. The separate existence is ruining both of them. It then changes to "I touched you for only a fortnight" and these two sentences alternate through to the end of the song where we end on "But it won't start up till I touch (touch, touch) you". So, uniting with this other person/version seems to be the key to Taylor's happiness. And we've seen this before. It's exactly the same outcome as the Anti-Hero mv: As everybody is fighting, Taylor finally manages to make peace with the other versions of her and share a bottle of wine. Just like when Postie steps out of the phone box in the final scene and joins Taylor in the rain to touch her hand.

That's my interpretation anyway. as always, feel free to disagree or share your interpretation in the comments.

[daisyswift3]

The Acceptance Stage of Grief—The Manuscript and Guilty as Sin

So I realized sth crazy recently. I think the 🎃 messages describe the 5 stages of grief; and I think the standard edition and The Manuscript variant of TTPD have the album cover they do bc it’s a play on the common expression “You’ve made your bed now lie in it" which means to accept the unpleasant results of your actions. This aligns w the Apple Music playlists Taylor made that have The Manuscript as part of the acceptance stage of grief. However, I will caveat this by saying that I don't think the Apple Music playlists are completely accurate as they are full of red herrings to throw everyone off (I'll explain this in more detail shortly) but I do think The Manuscript is one of the few songs that is properly placed and is not a red herring since the bed imagery and connections to the 🎃 messages indicate it represents acceptance. I think the messages not only give us Taylor's overarching story spanning the past decade, they also give us the true 5 stages of grief that are separate from the 5 stages of grief given in the playlists which are mainly for marketing and pr purposes. The messages are likely meant to be a navigation tool for us to more easily cut through all the noise, red herrings, and chaos that has come w TTPD's release (x)(x)(x). In the messages I just linked, 🎃 and 🫚 make it clear that there is a very specific reason why they sent this korner messages explaining the whole messy story. I believe this reason may be related to the TTPD epilogue because in it Taylor is essentially saying she’s at the mercy of the general public and her fans as she’s on trial in a court of public opinion; and I think our role is to serve as the “witnesses” to help her win this case and prove that she didn’t completely lie abt everything because otherwise how would this small group of ppl on tumblr have figured it out yrs ago? I think it’s possible that after coming out Taylor may direct ppl to this korner to prove that the truth was there hidden in plain sight the whole time if you were just willing to dig a little deeper past the surface level interpretations.

In this album cover, Taylor is literally lying in a bed that she’s made bc she is accepting whatever the consequences of her actions are. The story isn’t hers anymore, she’s sent it out into the world like a message in a bottle and now it’s just a matter of time. Come what may. This is the end of the 9th 🎃 message and I believe all of the 10th message as well since she chooses to step through the closet door accepting whatever fate lies on the other side. This connects to the most recent volcano anon message as well (x). I think the first part of the 9th message represents the depression stage of grief since it’s explaining that Taylor is a tortured poet because she is forced to hide her truth behind metaphors and red herrings which are likely the old habits that die screaming in The Black Dog, a common symbol of depression. In the fortnight mv, she is literally being tortured in an asylum w electroshock therapy (which is one of the same methods of conversion therapy they use to used on queer ppl) while a black dog lingers nearby.

In the Apple Music playlists, Taylor put The Black Dog in the anger playlist, but as I mentioned earlier I think this may be because the playlists are supposed to be more for swifties and to sell the Toe breakup narrative. Because, if you think abt it, it doesn't really make sense for The Black Dog, which is commonly used to represent depression, to symbolize anger. It also doesn't make sense for the acceptance stage playlist to be called I Can Do It With a Broken Heart when the song ICDIWABH is actually in the denial stage playlist. The math does not math. I think she was purposely trying to make it confusing for the general public and fans to make the puzzle harder to decipher so she gave them low hanging fruit. I think it's possible that the vinyl variants, which each have a bonus track that has a corresponding 🎃 message, are the actual 5 stages of grief. The Albatross = anger, The Bolter = bargaining, The Black Dog = depression, and The Manuscript = acceptance. I think it’s possible that she chose to only have 4 variants to make it harder to connect them to the 5 stages of grief and to make it look like the 5 stages of grief were just a last minute thing she threw together because she was running w swifties’ theories. But since the 5 stages of grief show up in the messages, it’s clear that this was sth she’s had planned for a while and it wasn���t just a last minute decision. I think that the denial stage may just be represented by a message and song.

“Six weeks of breathin' clean air, I still miss the smoke” -> The “smoke” is the smokescreen/Lavender Haze/blowing smoke/smoke and mirrors/bearding/pr stunts/red herrings/metaphors that she uses to cover up her truth like a magician pulling the wool over everyone’s eyes. She’s no longer going to use these tactics of trickery and deception but it’s not an easy habit to break when you’ve been doing it your whole life and it’s essentially your default state. Just like how it’s hard for a smoker to stop smoking cigarettes, which is probably another layer of this line making it a double entendre. I think this is what the lavender haze mv scene w her blowing smoke is meant to represent. As the clock gets closer to midnight she’s going to start this process of unraveling the “braids of lies” she’s woven over the years and it’s going to be a very difficult and painful process. I haven't done a full analysis of The Black Dog yet but I believe it's similar to TSMWEL, Peter, Fortnight, and Chloe et al where it's a conversation between Taylor the brand and Taylor the person. At the end of the song, Taylor the person finally chooses her happiness and her lover over her image/brand, which is the cause of her depression -> "Cause tail between your legs you're leaving and I still can't believe it cause old habits die screaming." She burns all the files and gets rid of her house which is likely the lover house. This is when she drags the "enemy" in the 8th message into the shark infested waters which I'll explain in the next paragraph.

The Bolter vinyl variant, represented by the entire 8th 🎃 message, is likely supposed to symbolize the bargaining stage of grief. I think she achieves part of the acceptance stage when she chooses to jump into the shark infested waters which may be why The Bolter edition also has her lying in a bed and why the 10th message (acceptance) seems to be a direct continuation of the 8th message. In the 8th message, the “enemy,” which is likely just Taylor herself or her public persona/reputation, is trying to make a deal w her—quite literally bargaining w her—and asking her lover to jump into the shark infested waters (destroy her reputation and get eaten alive by the fans and general public). Taylor refuses the deal since Karlie has been through enough already and jumps into the waters choosing to sacrifice her brand and image instead ->

“He [the enemy] was a cad, wanted her bad just like any good trophy hunter ['I've been the archer, I've been the prey'], And she liked the way it tastes, Taming a bear [Taylor’s made it clear she’s the bear], making him care, watching him jump then pulling him under, And at first blush this is fate, When it's all roses, portrait poses, Central Park Lake in tiny rowboats, What a charming Saturday, That's when she sees the littlest leaks down in the floorboards And she just knows she must bolt ['And you know in your soul when it's time to go']” //

8th 🎃 message: “You are not a hero. You never have been, and you never will be. You're a selfish asshole. But there are some people in this world worth breaking character for. And so in one swift motion [pun intended], you replace the solid boards beneath your feet with rushing deep blue water.”

10th 🎃 message: “You limp over uneven ground, smiling at the pain of the shark bite with each excruciating step - replaying the satisfying splash as you finally chose her over the world. As you grabbed the enemy and dove into the infested waters.”

The Apple Music playlists have The Bolter in the denial playlist but again I believe this is a red herring since the themes in the 8th message align more w the bargaining and acceptance stages.

(If you want to read more abt the connections to midsummer/midsommar see this excellent thread on the June 21/midsummer eve easter eggs)

I think this might also be what the bed imagery in Guilty As Sin and the Wildest Dreams eras tour visuals represents. She has accepted that when she reveals the truth many ppl, especially the conservative evangelical Christians, are probably gonna tell her she’s going to hell because she’s in a relationship w a woman, and figuratively burn her at the stake like the ppl accused of witchcraft and heresy in the middle ages were and this really ties in w all the religious imagery in this album -> “my bedsheets are ablaze” // “you’ll see me in hindsight tangled up with you all night burning it down" // BDILH eras tour visuals. We’ve discussed how in the TTPD epilogue she’s on trial in the court of public opinion and the jury is her fans and the general public. I think Guilty as Sin is her essentially saying “yes it’s true, I committed the crime of loving another woman; condemn me to hell if you want.” I find it interesting that it’s posed as a question “Guilty as Sin?” as if she’s asking the jury if they deem her worthy of punishment. It’s ultimately up to them to determine her fate and decide whether she’s guilty or not guilty. Some other kaylors pointed out that in the wildest dreams visuals Taylor looks completely at peace, sleeping soundly while everything burns around her. This likely symbolizes how she’s made peace w the fact that many fans may leave her and she may lose her career when she comes out—it indicates complete acceptance of any ensuing consequences.

(x)

But wait there’s more! I think there’s another layer to this song that relates to something very important she said in the rep prologue that many swifties conveniently ignore: “There will be slideshows of photos backing up each incorrect theory, because it's 2017 and if you didn't see a picture of it, it couldn't have happened right?” The obvious answer to this posed question, which is more rhetorical than anything, is NO. Why? Because “We think we know someone, but the truth is that we only know the version of them that they have chosen to show us” i.e. Taylor is only showing the public one side of herself w pap walks, staged photos, and social media posts and she can keep the other sides of herself hidden if she wants by just not doing these things. If she wants the public to know sth they will know abt it and if she doesn’t want them to know sth they won’t know abt it. Taylor knows that her fans have willfully ignored this message that she’s repeatedly tried to send to them over the years; so now she’s flipping the question on it’s head and using their inattentiveness to her advantage. She’s now saying “Well you guys never actually caught me and Karlie in the act, there’s no photographic or video evidence, so how can I be guilty as sin? I mean you said it yourself by ignoring this prologue. There is no picture; therefore it did not happen. So by your own logic I cannot be guilty!”

I also find it interesting that the bedsheets on the album cover and eras tour visuals are plain white 🤍. White is commonly a symbol of purity and innocence. This may be the purpose of the black and white aesthetic of TTPD—black for guilty 🖤, white for not guilty or innocent 🤍. The black and white may also relate to her duality and how she has 2 versions of herself that are in opposition to each other, Taylor Swift the person vs Taylor Swift the brand.

Just in case you got lost during my ramblings and tangents, I'll give you the tldr as well:

Beginning of 8th 🎃 message -> Bargaining stage: The Bolter; the enemy [Taylor Swift the brand/her reputation] wants to make a deal w her

Beginning of 9th 🎃 message -> Depression stage: The Black Dog; "old habits [red herrings/bearding/lavender haze/smoke and mirrors] die screaming"; Taylor is a tortured poet because she is forced to dilute her truth w metaphors, symbolism, and red herrings and this feeds into her depression

End of 8th and 9th 🎃 message and all of 10th 🎃 message -> Acceptance stage: The Manuscript and Guilty as Sin; she has made her bed and now is lying in it; represents the peaceful acceptance of any ensuing consequences; she has sent her story out into the world like a message in a bottle and made her case; now it is now up to her fans and the general public [the court of public opinion] to determine if she is guilty or not guilty; real Taylor has killed her old habits and the black dog by dragging her public persona into shark infested waters and burning down the lover house which represents her closet and music empire

Since this post is already lengthier than I wanted it to be I won't go into detail abt the denial and anger stages but I believe it's possible these are represented by the 1st and 2nd 🎃 messages respectively assuming the 5 stages of grief are in the usual order in the messages. The Albatross is obviously an angry song abt getting revenge on someone--most likely Scooter--so it makes sense for it to represent the anger stage; plus the same parachute metaphor that's in The Albatross shows up in the 2nd message which is related to the failed coming out and mastersheist which Scooter was involved in so it checks out. Then working backwards, this leaves the 1st message, which perfectly parallels The Prophecy, for the denial stage. I believe the 1st message is abt her first big pivot, her first failed coming out, during rep era (going full throttle on her getaway bike then slamming on the breaks which damages her heel) which was originally supposed to be lover/daylight. This would explain why she clips the wings of her TS6 jet and spray paints "reputation" on the side while wearing a palm tree outfit which relates to the palm tree/paradise easter eggs during lover era. I think this pivot may have been the thing that started this downward spiral through the 5 stages of grief hence why it represents the denial stage. Of course this is all just my interpretation of everything and I could be wrong. Feel free to share your thoughts, I'd love to hear other ppl's interpretations!