Taylor Swift’s new music video for The Fate of Ophelia was packed with Shakespearean references and subtle winks at her real-life romance with Travis Kelce. But critics still claimed it was giving high school talent show energy.
The hotly anticipated video first premiered at movie theaters during the Official Release Party of a Showgirl event on October 3. It was then dropped on YouTube on October 5.
Highlights
- Taylor Swift’s new music video for ‘The Fate of Ophelia’ dropped on YouTube on October 5.
- Directed by the singer herself, the video contained Shakespearean references and subtle winks at her romance with Travis Kelce.
- It apparently symbolized how her fiancé saved her from the “fate” of Ophelia, a character she said had drowned after “all these men were just gaslighting her.”
She’s “trying to make a TikTok dance,” one netizen said, mocking the choreography.
Taylor Swift’s video for The Fate of Ophelia contained Shakespearean references and subtle winks at her romance with Travis Kelce
Image credits: Graham Denholm / Getty Images
Taylor Swift, who directed the video for The Fate of Ophelia herself, blended a Shakespearean tragedy with her own modern love story.
Ophelia is a character from William Shakespeare's Hamlet, whose love for the titular character drives her to insanity.
Her life tragically ends after she drowns in a river while picking flowers.
“All these men were just gaslighting her until she drowned,” Taylor said while explaining the inspiration behind the song
Image credits: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott / taylorswift / Instagram
“So Ophelia drowned because Hamlet just messed with her head so much that she went crazy,” Taylor said in her Official Release Party of a Showgirl film that screened in theaters over the weekend.
“She couldn't take it anymore and all these men were just gaslighting her until she drowned,” she added. “It’s like, ‘What if the hook was like you saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia?’”
Image credits: Taylor Swift / YouTube
For her music video, Taylor said she flipped the script and reimagined Ophelia being saved by love.
The video was symbolic of how her fiancé Travis Kelce saved her from the “fate of Ophelia.”
“Basically you are the reason why I didn’t end up like this tragic, poetic hero girl, who passed away in a fictional world,” she added.
The song symbolized how fiancé Travis Kelce saved her from the “fate of Ophelia”
Image credits: Taylor Swift / YouTube
Plenty of Easter eggs were included in the video, including the singer catching a football as a subtle nod to Travis being the Kansas City Chiefs tight end.
There was also a shot of bread in the video, which Taylor said she baked herself.
“Oh, I can bake the bread… Can it be my bread? Can my bread be in the music video?” she recalled thinking in the behind-the-scenes footage.
The very next day, her bread was on set.
“This is a really exciting day for me as a baker,” she added, “because my bread is actually a music video star as of today.”
Image credits: Taylor Swift / YouTube
This wasn’t the first time Taylor flipped the script of a work written by Shakespeare. She did something similar for her 2008 hit song Love Story, where she reimagined Romeo and Juliet living happily ever after instead of passing away together.
“I fall in love with those characters so much that it, it hurts me that they d**,” the singer said.
“This is now the second song where I've gone back in and been like, ‘Yo, what if they got married instead of they d**?’”
Netizens speculated whether Taylor’s ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn was meant to be the Hamlet in her story
Image credits: Taylor Swift / YouTube
Fans began dropping wild theories about the song’s lyrics, wondering: if Travis was the one saving the heroine from a tragic fate, then who was the Hamlet who drove her to madness in the first place?
Many claimed the lyrics were a dig at Taylor’s ex-boyfriend Joe Alwyn, who dated the singer for six years before their 2023 split.
Joe Alwyn happened to play the part of Ophelia's brother, Laertes, in a new movie adaptation of Hamlet.
The British actor also acted in Hamnet, a movie about Shakespeare and his wife grieving the loss of their son.
“Mind you Joe Alwyn is starring on Hamlet this year and tay wrote The Fate of Ophelia,” one commenter said online.
Image credits: joe.alwyn / Instagram
Another wrote, “Waittt Joe Alwyn recently starred in a movie about that! ooh this can’t just be a coincidence.”
“And when are we gonna clock that taylor wrote fate of ophelia because joe is in a new hamlet adaptation and hamnet,” said another.
“The fate of ophelia is sooo good and iconic bc she romanticized joe and her being depressed together for so long and now she’s finally admitting yeah that’s relationship was gonna k*** me. and she rediscovered that happy side of herself with Travis,” one commenter wrote.
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It is believed Taylor and Joe struck up a connection in 2016 and quietly dated each other before reports began linking them together in May, 2017.
They made public appearances together until announcing their split in 2023.
Sources claimed they broke up because they realized they “weren't the right fit for one another.”
“They had plenty in common and fell in love in a safe bubble while she was retreating from the world during Reputation,” the source told People. “Then, the pandemic hit, and they were locked down together and able to continue growing their relationship in this insulated way. But he didn't really ‘know’ her yet outside of that bubble.”
“This can’t just be a coincidence,” one netizen said as wild theories about the song’s lyrics emerged
Image credits: Taylor Swift / YouTube
Once they were outside the “bubble,” the source claimed that Joe struggled “with Taylor's level of fame and the attention from the public.”
Taylor’s song So Long, London from her 11th studio album The Tortured Poets Department, released last year, appeared to be a reference to her relationship with Joe, who was based in London.
Image credits: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott / taylorswift / Instagram
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Following the release of Fate of Ophelian, many netizens criticized the lyrics and claimed, “It's giving thirteen-year-old girl with Rhymezone and a fluffy notebook from Claire's.”
“It really gives ‘I used spark notes when we studied Shakespeare and never read it since,’” another critic said.
“It’s giving 6th grade talent show lmao”: Critics mocked the song’s lyrics and the video’s dance moves
Some accused Taylor of trying to copy Lana Del Rey, saying that there are “so many low, breathy vocal parts in the album that try to [sic] hard to emulate Lana.”
“It's her poorly done ripoff of Lana Del Rey song for the album,” read one comment.
Image credits: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott / taylorswift / Instagram
“Taylor has been the biggest Lana wannabe for years now. She couldn’t identify a style for herself, so she attempted to poorly co-opt Lana’s,” wrote another commenter. “It still blows my mind that so many people refuse to call her out for it.”
Other netizens fixated on the dance moves and mocked the choreography.
“She wants it to be a TikTok dance so bad,” one said.
Some critics accused the pop icon of trying to copy Lana Del Rey
Image credits: John Shearer / Getty Images
Another wrote, “The choreography doesn’t match the song nor the showgirl aesthetic. Edit: watching it again, they literally make waves with their arms for ‘sea’ and point up to the sky for ‘sky.’”
“Watching this is painful. dancers are artists and athletes it takes a natural talent that she clearly doesn’t have. dancers are beasts. she is not,” said another.
On the other hand, fans praised Taylor’s video and called her “the literal princess of pop.
“No one’s doing symbolism like her, whether you like it or not,” one said.
Another wrote, “could literally watch this video nonstop it’s so good.”
“She is trying TOO hard,” one critic commented online
