my folklore love triangle theory: a thread

okay so first off my theory is that:
betty - taylor
james - a combination of all her exes, but mostly jake gyllenhaal
unnamed ‘august’ girl - the other woman that taylor doesn’t know but sympathizes with

this thread will explain in detail why i believe this is the case

let’s start with cardigan

it’s arguably the most personal and emotional of the three songs, leading me to believe that one was written solely from her own perspective and experiences. the whole song is like she’s reliving very strong memories, especially the bridge:

then there’s symbolism between the cardigan and her scarf that jake kept
“but you keep my old scarf from that very first week because it reminds you of innocence and it smells like me”
“but when i felt like i was an old cardigan, you put me on and said i was your favorite”

another hint towards this being about jake is the clear similarities between these lines in cardigan and come back... be here

now moving onto betty:
like i said, i believe the character of james is meant to represent all/most of her past relationships, but one of my biggest hints to that was the clear connection to jake gyllenhaal

the key moment that’s talked about in the song is betty’s party. in reality, jake didn’t show up to taylor’s party, but this is folklore aka reality that’s diluted by fiction over time, so in this version of events, he does show up at her party

another hint that the song is about taylor’s life is how james cheated on betty. we know taylor swift was actually cheated on because of “babe” and “girl at home”. (people speculate that jake was the one who cheated on her, again bringing the story back to him)

now onto august:

i think the reason the girl in this song is never given a name is because taylor doesn’t really know her. she’s just “the other woman.” she’s not her friend, but someone taylor can understand/sympathize with. example: this line in “girl at home”