#maybe 'we can analyse them in depth if we've got time to kill like i did when i was sick'

[septembersghost]

I've seen people analyzing tolerate it as more clearly being about crappy hacksaw, but when you were talking about mixed inspiration, do you think some of her experiences with scarf stealer and guitar asshole influenced her too?

(the codenames are sending me)

i had an anon yesterday that was really good, but that i didn't feel like i could post at the time, so i'm going to quote something they said: "she is inspired by a million things. Also this is why her songs are best to analyse." one of her gifts is distilling her experiences and transmuting them into song and storytelling, and there are definitely times when those inspirations swirl together, and while some songs are clear and singular, there are others where she's working through more than one particular situation at once.

evermore happens to be covered in this. (like ivy, you might say!) midnights has brought a lot of that into focus, what she was processing there, across multiple songs. tolerate it being one.

i think an important thing to keep in mind is that, like a domino effect, each of those relationships informs the next. what happened to her in would've could've should've permanently affected her, and it had an impact on everything that happened in regards to the story of red, and it connected to other dynamics for her too, i'd say with hacksaw particularly. i'm not sure we realized how much she carried from all of that until now.

all that said, tolerate it was very scarf stealer to me, especially after Red TV/ATW10 (gain the weight of you, then lose it/I'm a soldier who's returning half her weight), (you're so much older and wiser, and i wait by the door like I'm just a kid/you said if we had been closer in age, maybe it would've been fine, and that made me want to die), (i polish plates until they gleam and glisten/a never needy, ever lovely jewel, whose shine reflects on you), (use my best colors for your portrait/losing him was blue like i'd never known...loving him was red), (i take your indiscretions all in good fun/broke the sweetest promise that you never should have made/i waited on every careless word like they might turn sweet again/you wear your best apology, but i was there to watch you leave), (if it's all in my head, tell me now/in dreams, i meet you in warm conversation, we both wake in lonely beds, in different cities/in my dreams, you're touching my face/i was there, i remember it), (you assume i'm fine/i might be okay, but i'm not fine at all), (i know my love should be celebrated, but you tolerate it/what a sad beautiful tragic love affair/this is the last time i'm asking you this, put my name at the top of your list/push my love away like it was some kind of loaded gun/i kept you like a secret, but you kept me like an oath). it's a lot!

BUT. we didn't have high infidelity yet, or bejeweled. and while we did very much have dear john (which has definite ties here with the sorrow and the belittling feeling of condescension and the "older and wiser"), we didn't have would've could've should've. so now we've also got: puttin' someone first only works when you're in their top five/i made you my world/i didn't know you were keeping count/there's many different ways that you can kill the one you love, the slowest way is never loving them enough -> i made you my temple, my mural, my sky, now i'm begging for footnotes in the story of your life. drawing hearts in the byline. always taking up too much space or time.

and we've got, the most damning of any of them: if i was a child, did it matter?

tl;dr it's, to me, an amalgam of all of this, and it makes SO much sense to me why she'd also connect to the themes of rebecca. she felt small and vulnerable and too young more than once, and she felt like she and the whole of herself and the love she'd given were never going to be enough in shifting ways. :( it's interesting because tolerate it was already devastating to me, but the depth this has all added makes it more so.

#tolerate it #taylor swift #midnights #anonymous #letterbox

[deputychairman]

who is ready for a NEW THEORY about the cobra kai wardrobe department and the deliberate re-use of iconic costumes from TKK? 

obviously there are the Watsonian moments like when Miguel wears the skeleton pyjamas which go from top dog to underdog; an easter egg in s3 when Johnny’s in white at the country club, sees Ali with Daniel and DOESNT get spaghetti spilled on him, but what about Daniel’s TKK iconic red hoodie that he’s wearing on the beach when Johnny first beats him up/when he goes to the cobra kai dojo and Johnny smirks at him/ the cobras push him off the cliff/hill? and he hates that stupid bike? BEHOLD:

(you’re gonna have to trust me on the colours, I *can* just about edit an image but i won’t do it unless I’m getting paid for it) (like you losers don’t remember EXACTLY what both these hoodies look like anyway) Johnny, in s3 ep2!

and then the white with orange sleeves t shirt Daniel’s wearing when he’s learning balance on the boat with mr Miyagi and then also punching? BEHOLD:

(again, trust me on the colours:) Robby in the whole of s2 ep1 when he starts officially training with Daniel, doing all the iconic chores and starting up Miyagi Do (and awkwardly runs into Johnny at the hardware store bc that was an easier screenshot to get)

AND this one really needs a gif (again, i can, but it would take 1900 hours and still be rubbish so I won’t): Daniel’s TKK cutoff grey sweater with the denim shorts when he first meets Ali, complete with that weird shot where the camera shows her looking at him from between his legs like we’re meant to be admiring his thighs (ok?), vs. Johnny’s sexy dream in s2 ep8 about Carmen which ends in Sexy Karate and begins - I SHIT YOU NOT - with her wearing denim shorts and a cutoff grey sweater, BEHOLD:

you are REALLY gonna have to trust me there bc Carmen gets the whole camera panning up her entire body (is this like the focus on Daniel’s thighs? idk, i just say what i see) in soft focus so I can’t screenshot her face and the outfit but I SWEAR TO YOU this is what she wears to start the sex dream

so in conclusion, I don’t know enough about TV wardrobe decisions or the evils of the moving image to analyse this but some choices certainly were made here, i think we can all see that.

#these insights brought to you by being sick all weekend #and rewatching TKK and s2 and half of s3 while feeling VERY SORRY FOR MYSLEF #cobra kai #the karate kid #(i never get this much time to rewatch anything so ii'm trying to be positive) #(also i feel a lot better now so i have the energy to reflect on what i saw) #anyone else got any examples and/or explanations? #clearly it's the Red Hoodie of Underdog Suffering = root for Johnny! #the sexy cutoff shorts & sweater of New Romance #the white & orange t shirt of Learning Miyagi Do Karate #but what if there's MORE i didnt notice? #i was quite sick! #if anyone's got more we must ANALYSE THEM IN DEPTH #well i say 'must' #maybe 'we can analyse them in depth if we've got time to kill like i did when i was sick'