Can I just mention rn, that folklore is a complete 180 from rep and Lover in terms of how Taylor views her relationship. I remember seeing someone (I think it was @ballerinaswifts) say that she was worried bc Taylor seems to invest all of her happiness into Joe and rely on him,-

& I agree to an extent. In rep and Lover, Taylor often refers to Joe as being a saving grace. He brought light into her dark world and kept her safe and warm while she was experiencing the worst time of her life. In her lyrics, she really seems to hint on the fact that she relied

on him and heavily leaned on him to keep herself sane. Dress is a perfect example of this, “deep blue but you painted me golden,” “I’m a mess but I’m the mess that you wanted,” “even in my worst time you could see the truth in me,” “My one and only, my lifeline,” etc. And he

really did come through for her. She was able to re-stabilize herself with his help, and to ground herself back into reality. The way she seemed to almost latch all of her happiness & mental health on him being in her life was sort of concerning, but then folklore came along

and really showed Taylor’s growth over the past couple years and growing back into herself. The underlying theme of folklore is basically Taylor being able to stand up for herself and to take care of things on her own. Honestly, most noticeably to me is my tears ricochet.

Normally in songs like that which focus on darker aspects of her life, she would make some reference to having her lover with her to lean on. Like in MA&THP, for example. But in MTR she remains focused on her character’s response to the events and how she deals with it.

And I feel like most of the songs on folklore kind of focus on what she can gives back in her relationship. Instead of constantly taking and taking like in rep and Lover, here she is laying out what she brings to the table and how she helps him as well. Peace is the best

example, “I’m a fire that will keep your brittle heart warm/ if your cascade ocean wave blues come.” It makes their relationship feel so much more well rounded, and explored I guess is the right word? It’s fleshed our and shows how they balance each other out. And even in

the lakes which almost reverts to her former way of describing their relationship, it still holds up this new perspective of their love. She sings about escaping from this life to live in all of her emotional, messy glory but “not without my muse.” She’s bringing him along.

Not to rely on, but to add to the contented sigh worthy experience of it all.

Anyways I don’t know if anything in this thread made sense lmaoo I just had a thought and tried to follow it so idk if it worked out the way I wanted it to