I Love That Karlie’s Walk Perfectly Matching The Gold Rush Beat Is Making The Rounds On Twitter. The

of course pride month has the image of her in the glass closet

The Tortured Poets Department - All Variants

Eras tour thoughts, part 3: Burning the Lover house

So, after my Anti-Hero/Matilda theory, here's another brain dump of thoughts on style choices for the Eras tour, now that the first leg has officially finished and we are on the international leg of the tour. Warning, this is bit of an essay...

This part is about maybe the most glaring visual choice of the whole tour, one that pretty much every swiftie has picked up on: The burning of the Lover house. I've seen a lot of confusion in the fandom about this and some theories about how this could represent 'burning down' her old work as she releases the re-recordings or making space for new albums because the house is full if every room represents an era.

In terms of gaylor theories I've only seen one and that is THIS one by @keepingsecretstokeepyoutk (I hope you don't mind me borrowing your theory for this post). It's a brilliant theory that burning the house is another step on the road to coming out and I'd like to extend this with a few observations on my own.

Firstly, I'd agree that the midnights cover image of Taylor holding the lighter was definitely a sign that something was going to get burned before the tour even started. Even with the midnights songs themselves, if we think of it as a journey of stepping into the daylight, the songs on this album are definitely pretty gay and only one song with he/him pronouns. But back to the lover house...

True to my TRUE Lover

So the lover house to me has always represented her public relationships, it's not where her real lover lives and that is for two reasons:

The OG lover house is in a snow globe (see lover mv) so it is to be displayed/looked at but not to be actually lived in. And

Maybe most importantly, the house doesn't have a kitchen. In all of Taylor's music the centre of her domestic life/the place where her lover is, has always been the kitchen. Dancing in the refrigerator light / barefoot in the kitchen/ you're in the kitchen humming, and so many more. Not to mention that her actual love story literally started with the line 'your kitchen or mine...' So yeah, the absence of a kitchen in the lover house has always been pretty telling to me, that this is the 'love's for show' house and her true lover is somewhere else.

What happens to the house during the Eras tour?

So not surprisingly, the house first appears during the lover era set which is the opening act of the tour. Notably though, it isn't furnished and 'lived in' anymore like it was in the lover mv, it's empty and the lovers have very clearly moved out. It's also not night time anymore, it's now daytime and the sun is shining in through the windows:

The only person we see in it, is Taylor in a yellow dress in the pink bedroom where she climbs into the big mirror and disappears. The first 'burning' then occurs at the end of the set, during the transition to fearless era. The last song of the set is the Archer, during which golden arrows fly around on the stage that form a ball of light that explores into a cascade of sparkling rain that sets the house on fire.

It doesn't really burn like a normal house fire though, it just stands in the rain of sparks, looking almost peaceful and golden. So much so, that she added a massive smoke effect to drive home the message that the house really is burning. Look how much smoke there is:

So at the end of the lover era, the contents of the house and a few of the walls have burned, but the house is still pretty much intact. It can be repaired. And that's pretty spot on for the actual lover era, which was meant to be her coming out era, but ended up just being a nice gentle golden (aka pastels and rainbows) fire that left some damage to her straight image but could ultimately be repaired and the public bearding continued. Keep that in mind, because we now don't see the house again until way later in the show.

1989 - Now it really burns

During the 1989 set (which is the second to last in the show) there is a ton of fire imagery, starting with the flame in the hand and the bed on fire during Wildest dreams and then finally, during Bad Blood, the final song, we see the house again looking a bit charred. Now, this is where things get interesting. We see Taylor walking in wearing Karlie's 2014 VSFS outfit, full strut and including the flick of the cape as she sits down at the vanity. She then flicks a match at the floor and the rooms lights up in blue flames.

So despite this being Taylor, I think the outfit and the strut make it pretty clear that this is Karlie who is lighting the house on fire again. And I think now in hindsight we can safely assume that this was foreshadowing Karlie showing up and setting in motion the events that follow. Even in the last few weeks since Karlie's appearance at the LA show, the fandom has been pretty much on fire over it, no matter what side of the fence you're on. And this time it's not a gentle sparkly rain, it's a blazing inferno, blue first, then it turns orange (or whatever colour normal fire is) before the house eventually collapses in a smoking heap and is gone for good.

video credit: ryan pily on YouTube

So...are we nearing daylight?

My interpretation is, that the blue flames indicate that 1989 TV will have a significant impact on this journey, and the different cover images that we have seen so far have confirmed that for me. They are all imitations of original 1989 era polaroids, but taken outside in broad daylight with seagulls flying freely and Taylor's face smiling on full display. They are also the first re-release covers that have the album title and Taylor's Version written on them so she wants her name on these, which feels significant. Now, I don't think that this will be the 'coming out era' or anything, I still think we are 12-18 months away from the end of this whole process, but I think Karlie showing up was a big shift in the story and I hope we'll be seeing a lot more of her and a lot less of any 'boyfriends'. But let's not forget that the general swiftie fandom still have a long way to go from 'she's straight and has only ever dated men' to 'she's been madly in love with the same woman for the last 10 years'. The house finally collapsing suggest to me that we are done with the bearding narrative, and tbh Taylor seems over it. She's been the happiest ever on this tour and didn't even attempt to look sad over her supposed breakup with Joe... I'm trying to collect my thoughts on how the remaining two re-release albums will further this journey, but it's all a jumble at this point. I wouldn't be surprised if tour visuals for the Asia/Australia/Europe leg of the tour change as time goes on to reveal more as we get closer to rep and debut re-release. And personally, I think that once the tour and all re-releases are done, we will get TS11 and that will be the gayest album yet, songs with she/her pronouns and all. 🤞😉

If you've made it all the way to here - Thank you indeed, you are a star!

(pictures and gifs not mine)

I didn't see caffeine as a drug until I realized I could quit alchohol and weed any time but I can't go a damn day without coffee or energy drinks

People are so weird about anything that makes you high to the point of wanting the chronically ill to suffer more. “Just take OTC painkillers 🙄”

Many of us do. Do you know how damaging that is to the body? To take every damn day, round the clock? Ever think that’s why many spoonies have to have a strategy, constantly rotating drugs?

It’s literally not the end of the world if a spoonie needs to consume cannabis in order to more effectively manage pain and other symptoms (weed SAVES my ass from persistent daily nausea. I wouldn’t be able to eat otherwise).

It’s especially weird when people are anti-any-pain-med-that-has-a-high when they’re guzzling caffeine drinks. They really can’t pretend it’s out of concern and “worrying about the dangers of addiction.” Quit coffee, then, Susan! And get back to me in a week, tell me how you feel.

(x)

a true friend will see all the most vulnerable, dark, sorrowful parts of you and love you the same if not even more after seeing them

IF this whole thing is a PR stunt it's probably to mimic the 1989 era

Thoughts on Anti-Hero on the Eras Tour

I’ve noticed something when watching the midnights set from one of the LA shows (disclaimer, I’ve not actually been to a live show of this tour yet so all my observations are from other people’s videos).

Before going into her final song, Taylor ends her performance of Anti Hero with this pose which was immediately familiar to me as the famous Matilda pose from the poster for Matilda the Musical. The head position and even the light from the back…? I’ve seen that musical a ton of times but even if you haven’t I’d say it’s quite the resemblance.

So if Taylor is in fact referencing Matilda here, what is she saying? If you haven’t seen the show (or the film), this pose is from a song called ‘Naughty’ where Matilda tells the audience that even when you’re a child you can change your story by taking charge of your narrative and not playing by the rules. She ends the song in this pose while she sings the final lines which are:

‘But nobody else is gonna put it right for me,

Nobody but me is gonna change my story,

Sometimes you have to be a little bit naughty.’

So, if this is a deliberate Matilda pose, my interpretation would be that, like Matilda, Taylor is taking charge of her public narrative and is changing her story to show herself authentically. No more perfect princess stories. Naughty also references Romeo and Juliet and Cinderella, both also mentioned in Taylor’s songs, and emphasises how they were just victims of their ‘stupid fate’ and if they’d changed their story maybe they would have lived happily. So bottom line: the people in the story can take charge and change the ending. You don’t need a fairy godmother, you can be your own hero. Very Taylor to end a song called Anti Hero with such a defiant hero pose 😉

Another thing I noticed that solidified that thought for me, is that the giant Taylor on the screen visuals balls her hands into fists and yells at where Taylor is standing performing before she turns and screams at the audience.

I’ve never actually seen a video of the full screen visuals during this number, because people tend to film Taylor walking around on stage which is ironic, because I think it is exactly the point she’s trying to make that we’re all too distracted by the glittery performance to notice the giant screaming in the background.

That’s my (rather long) rambling on the Anti Hero performance. And that was just one song, I swear, when I get to see the full show, I’ll have pages of notes! Sorry (not sorry) 🤭

I was in 5th grade, the girl that sat next to me was a huge Jonas Brothers fan and she showed me a picture of Joe at some award ceremony sitting next to a blond girl, told me she was his girlfriend and my reaction was "girlfriend? Nah, she looks gay"

as a kid (maybe 7 or smth) i was like: “if taylor’s having such bad luck with her boyfriends, why doesn’t she just date a woman?”

7 year old me knew what she was doing.

my inner gaylor came out a lot later though.