explorerswiftie

[explorerswiftie]

I've seen some people express some confusion about what Fortnight is about, why it opens the album, what's happening in the video, etc, so here's my attempt at an analysis. For the most part I'll be referring to the characters in the video with the names of the people playing them (Taylor and Post) but at times I'm going to be making direct reference to the events of Taylor's personal life and referring to the muses by their names (Joe and Matty) for the sake of clarity and simplicity.

The song itself uses the suburbia conceit as an extended metaphor for the beginning of her relationship with Matty (he's the neighbor she runs away to Florida with, Joe is the cheating husband.) For more eloquent and detailed thoughts on the narrative of the song you can check out Jaime @cages-boxes-hunters-foxes's post here.

The video is really dense, and I'm not 100% confident in every aspect of my interpretation, but I feel pretty sure that it's making extensive use of visual metaphor in order to tell roughly the same story as the song, just in a different setting. To start, Taylor wakes up chained to a bed in a white dress.

To me this suggests that she's been driven mad by being left at the altar, and is now trapped, surveilled and controlled, in a type of asylum. This represents the end of her relationship with Joe--waiting for a marriage that never came, feeling trapped, mentally unwell etc.

She then takes 'forget him' pills which reveal Post's tattoos on her face when she looks in the mirror.

This represents Matty (the "miracle move-on drug") and shows that he made a mark on her while she was still in the asylum--that is, still in her relationship with Joe. Additionally, in the wide shot where we see the mirror, its size and shape are very reminiscent of a one-way mirror, often seen in interrogation rooms and psychological experiments, further reinforcing the idea that Taylor is imprisoned here.

She then is able to go to the typewriter room and do her work, creating art about how she's feeling, shown by her repeatedly typing "I love you, it's ruining my life" on the typewriter. She's still in pain and feeling trapped. While there, she encounters Post and they create art together, which creates beauty and color in her life. The blue and gold obviously reference her writing about Joe, but the fact that her work is gold and Post's is blue may be a deliberate choice to draw parallels between Matty and Joe, as she does on numerous songs throughout TTPD.

The next scene, where Taylor's hair is down and she and Post are wearing the same black coat and pants, takes place inside her head (symbolized by the shape of the papers they're laying on.) She is dreaming about them being free and creating art together, represented by the papers surrounding them and book she's holding, which has the word "us" written on the cover. She's writing their story before it's begun.

She then reaches for his hand in her fantasy, accepting and asking for this relationship

Then we see that she's being studied and experimented on--the results of the lie detector test read "I love you, it's ruining my life." Her pain is an object of fascination.

Interestingly, Post is part of the group experimenting on her, but when the experiments begin to cause her pain, he liberates her.

This inspires Taylor to destroy the place where she's been trapped, which we see through her opening the filing cabinets that cover the walls and destroying the mirror. I also find the shot of her standing still while papers burn around her interesting and significant; I interpret this as Taylor destroying her own work about Joe. By choosing to leave, she is metaphorically burning--rejecting--the story she wrote about them.

Finally, Taylor and Post enter the dangerous outside world together; the rain echoes the lyric "I chose this cyclone with you" on the album's title track. While I do feel the meaning of Post being in the phone booth is somewhat ambiguous, the framing and the accompanying lyric--"I've been calling ya but you won't pick up" suggest that he's attempting to communicate with her but can't reach her. They are free of her prison, but still separated.

Then, he hangs up the phone and reaches for her hand, and she takes it. The final shot of the video is a close up on their linked hands, presenting us with a cautiously optimistic ending--they are lost and vulnerable in the middle of a storm, but they have each other.

I feel this is a somewhat less sinister, for lack of a better word, portrayal of the start of Matty and Taylor's relationship than is suggested elsewhere on the record, though I believe Post's character being part of the group experimenting on her is significant and the editing creates some ambiguity about exactly when and why she decides to break free. But I hope this clarifies how the video sets up the beginning of this story, the fallout of which is then chronicled over the course of the rest of TTPD.

#ttpd

[explorerswiftie]

that comment about how you should not borrow grief from the future has saved me multiple times from spiraling into an inescapable state of anxiety. like every time i find myself thinking about how something in the future could go wrong i remember that comment and i think to myself: well i never know, it might get better. it might not even happen the way i think it will and if it does happen and it is sad and bad ill be sad about it then, when it happens. and it’s somehow soo freeing

#needed to hear this right now <3

[explorerswiftie]

You ruined my life, by not being mine -> I love you, it's ruining my life 💔

#parallels

[explorerswiftie]

who's afraid of little old me? has such a dark, rep vibe and it boosts my mood just rightly

#taylor swift #ttpd

[explorerswiftie]

The manuscript is about writing all too well ten !!! And the second to last verse is directing the video !! I want to die!! I need my therapist NOW !

#ttpd

[explorerswiftie]

mrjoshcharles: Little debrief about yesterday: I don't like keeping secrets so that was hard. I didn't even tell my kids until the other day! Here's a couple of tortured old poets about to board an early flight to be pop stars for a day. Been through a lot with this dude over the years, but safe to say this was a most memorable day. We were treated with such class by Taylor and her crew from beginning to end. What l'll remember most was the laughter. There was a lot of it. Like we were 17 all over again. #TSTTPD

#ttpd

[explorerswiftie]

You put me on and said I was your favourite -> My boy only breaks his favourite toys

#Em 😭😭😭😭😭 #ttpd #parallels

[explorerswiftie]

TTPD Collector's Edition: The Black Dog photocards

#ttpd #merch

[explorerswiftie]

the prophecy is like evil invisible string

#ttpd

[explorerswiftie]

"but i'm not the one" in so long london coupled with the invisible string to the 1 setlist change makes me ill omg

#weeping 😭😭😭😭 #ttpd

[explorerswiftie]

📷| Taylor Swift for "The Tortured Poets Department" studio sessions.

#ttpd

[explorerswiftie]

the dresses are very similar and the gloves

#the eras tour #ttpd

[explorerswiftie]

[explorerswiftie]

Pixar!!!! What you doinnn. I'm crying.

#noooooooo :( #ttpd

[explorerswiftie]

TAYLOR SWIFT & POST MALONE Fortnight Music Video (2024)

[explorerswiftie]

listening to loml hits different after you realise that you're not compatible with your bf in a relationship 😭😭😭😭

#i hate the timing of things surfacing in our relationship #my bf & i met yesterday and discussed how we should move forward or if things don't work out it's best to part ways 😭😭😭 #I'm crying everytime I listen to loml #g

[explorerswiftie]

Spotify background

#ttpd