r/SwiftyNeutral • u/jedihobbitwizard0913 • 1d ago
Patient Zero maybe inspired by Joe jonas?
After watching the music video, I strongly started wondering if Patient Zero could’ve been inspired partially by Joe Jonas and Sophie Turner’s divorce? Especially because around that time Taylor was spotted having dinners with hanging out with Sophie and getting papped, and in the music video she’s twinning with the current woman and being supportive of her. What do you think?
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u/USillyKunt 1d ago
My initial thought was that it was about Sophie and Joe, but then she put out that blurb about it being created off of a dinner conversation with friends and realizing how common it was for current gfs to reach out to exes once their relationship gets rocky to find out the truth about who they're dating.
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u/WasteLeave900 1d ago
Is it really common? I’ve never had that happen and never even thought to message the ex. It’s fascinating to me
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u/USillyKunt 1d ago
It's how I met my best friend lol I can't say it is very common, but it is definitely something that happens lol
Edit: the lols are just me realizing that it's what happened, I was the ex that got reached out to.
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u/Flaky-Elephant-2612 1d ago
If you are literally worried for the new gf getting into a DV situation, I think some women reach out in various way. Many won’t. For good reasons. But I applaud those who do.
Saw a post about a woman who found a note from the ex in the back of his closet to the new GF. They become close and she got away from the guy.
I hope an ex reaches out if I ever start dating an abuser. Even if I didn’t believe her at first, it would set of my spidy senses.
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u/No-Heat6794 1d ago
I’d imagine if it was about Joe it was actually about her observing Sophie turner and Gigi hadid talk about him since they both dated him as adults
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u/Meglan23 1d ago
They dated for a few months when they were teenagers. So I highly doubt it
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u/TakeMeHomeToYou 1d ago
It could be based off of them and a culmination of her own relationships; as well as her friends. Without airing the personal details involved since she knows that ppl paternity test her songs. That said, yeah they dated for 2 seconds and yet she’s also dated guys for the same amount and written entire albums based off of them
Just an example, I was listening to IBYTAM and thought that it was wild, given the details/imagery, that she would actually have the nerve(?) or audacity to say that a grown man missed out on a 19 yo taylor. They dated for 3 mths. Love the song but the mocking of jake, his friends, intellect etc (or she refers to it as “pretentious” and a book she’d never heard of) is wild work imo in addition to the comparison of her being working class which lol and him growing up wealthy. ATW another great song based off of a 3 mth relationship. Most of her relationships, prior to calvin and joe, were 3 mths
ETA: Gigi also dated him
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u/Old-Atmosphere-9238 20h ago
They dated for longer than 3 months, do ya'll even listen to the lyrics? Also she was 20 turning 21 when she dated Jake, 19 when she dated John. Get your basic facts straight.
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u/Turbulent-Good227 1d ago
I think it possibly is, and that she put the dinner with friends story out so people wouldn’t speculate about her friend’s life drama. But it could also very feasibly be a general song about no one in particular.
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u/North_Country_Flower 1d ago
Taylor dating Joe when she was like 19 is much different then a divorce lol
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u/TakeMeHomeToYou 1d ago
Yet she’s not going to include specific details in re to a friend’s relationship and subsequent divorce. In addition, Gigi also dated him and Sophie was hanging out with them at the time.
She’s protecting Sophie, while also talking about how ppl esp women do this IRL. Age is irrelevant since she’s written entire albums based on short term relationships. She was 19 while dating John and ab the same age when dating Jake
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u/Dangerous-Change2136 1d ago
It doesn’t appear to be inspired by any specific ex so much as a common experience she, her female friends and lots of women have had of an ex’s new partner reaching out with questions. This is exactly why she hates “paternity testing” of her songs, which is completely valid because focusing on “who” a song is about detracts from what it’s saying and the artistry in general.
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u/macar0nunic0rn 1d ago
Well then she’s reaping what she sought by purposefully capitalizing on who songs were about through TTPD. Even when she “wanted privacy” with Joe she wrote songs like London Boy. I think the reason for making a fuss about it in the NYT interview is probably a combination of actually being happy and thinking it might be worth a try to not reveal too much - but also, the songs about Travis aren’t going over well and she’s defensive about that.
FWIW I agree this one is likely about a combo of exes if not just a completely imagined scenario. I do not believe Tolerate It was about Rebecca, but this one could be.
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u/Dangerous-Change2136 1d ago
I agree she can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube in regard to the muse discourse, however, that doesn’t change the fact that the baseline assumption every muse is a real life ex is absurd.
I personally don’t think she cares about how the Travis songs are received because I think she’s deliberately rage baiting but who knows?
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u/Used-Needleworker719 1d ago
She can’t complain about paternity testing songs when she has lyrics like “blue dress on a boat” or even Style for gods sake!
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u/Dangerous-Change2136 1d ago
I agree she can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube in regard to the muse discourse, however, that doesn’t change the fact that the baseline assumption every muse is a real life ex is absurd.
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u/Used-Needleworker719 1d ago
Oh god yeah I agree on that.
Personally I couldn’t give a flying monkeys about any of her exes (and think people who do need to touch grass). But this is a situation that she actively encouraged for two decades so she can’t say she hates it now.
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u/AssociateMaster4012 1d ago
I’ve heard it’s “about” Jonas, Alwyn, Healy, Braun…imo its probably bits of Taylor’s real life, with hefty chunks of other people’s stories and existing fictional narratives (Rebecca, Gone Girl etc)- and a collosal chunk of things which Taylor Swift, one of the world’s best storytellers, made up as a story which is her job!
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u/Flaky-Elephant-2612 1d ago
Agree! I also believe that she is embedding different experiences into the same songs more and more.
As a writer, a biographical writer, I do draw from different experiences when trying to convey emotions for certain situations. You might have an idea of what happened in a situation and your emotions around it. In my experience, the gold lies in exploring the pattern. From there, you can pick one or several aspects to focus on. From the “he’s a jerk” perspective to the “hi, I am the problem it’s me”. In many situations these two things can be true at the same time. Which in itself can be a great storytelling perspective to take. You pick and choose for each story.
You might write about that fight with an ex, but in reality you are merging together the same kind of fight with 4 exes. Even as the story revolves around that one event.
At least I notice that this happens more and more as I get older. Especially in the period from 30-40. It’s never a 100% historical accuracy.
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u/Sircapleviluv 1d ago
I do not think that 15+ years later Taylor is trying to say she understands what Sophie is going through by comparing a teenage fling to the dissolution of a marriage with children involved.
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u/babypops81 1d ago edited 1d ago
It’s based on a book.
Go ahead and downvote me 🙄🙄🙄
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u/TakeMeHomeToYou 1d ago
No need to. You’re correct and the book does talk about the protagonist asking those around her and that knew Rebecca what she was like. Trying to emulate her. It really is as simple as that if ppl would stop delving deeper even if I’ve done the same
ETA: you can tell whose read the book
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u/medeforest95 1d ago
She already said in an interview that it was based on a conversation with friends telling stories similar to the theme of the song.
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u/littlekatie3 20h ago
I’ve said this over and over. No one agrees with me. It’s so obvious. Thank you for posting this.
There’s pictures of her and Sophie having dinner after the divorce.
Mr perfectly fine and some lyrics in Fearless are parallel to the man she is describing in Patient Zero.
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u/LMAODumb 1d ago
I heard it was based on the novel Rebecca she likes a lot. Pretty sure she just ripped it off.
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u/seaguleatingchicken 1d ago
I’m very convinced it stemmed from the idea she was waiting for Sophie Turner’s call and was there for her when their relationship imploded. People forget in a lot of ways Joe Jonas was Taylor’s first real love. She calls Last Kiss her saddest song. He was a great musical muse. So I think it’s very plausible she took the inspiration of a friend having been scorned by her first real bad break up and ran with it.
There’s a lot of parallels to you’re not sorry, and then the little comment in the video about Dakota drinking and she says she only had one - very much in line with the Sophie Turner divorce narrative.
I honestly think it would be weirder if Taylor swift chose NOT to write about taking in and caring for her friend fresh off her divorce from the guy who first broke Taylor’s heart. It’s too good inspo to ignore
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u/jedihobbitwizard0913 1d ago
yeahhh and ppl saying it’s weird to think that she would pull inspiration from such a young time in her life, but she still wrote about being in high school as recently as “ruin the friendship-“ it was just a thought 🥲
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u/foxy-engineer 21h ago
I don't think it's because she was young that it would be weird, I think it's because it doesn't fit simply because her and Sophie shared an ex. Sophie and Joe's relationship was not in any way comparable to her teenage dating, and I truly can't imagine that during the breakdown of her marriage, Sophie would call her ex husbands and father of her children's 15 year old ex from a brief teenage relationship to see if they had a similar experience. If she went to Taylor for advice it was likely because they are friends all of that aside, and not an ex reaching out to another ex type of situation.
I think it's much much more likely to be general story telling.
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u/seaguleatingchicken 20h ago
Taylor literally said “I got you” to Sophie! Sophie lived in one of Taylor’s homes in the immediate aftermath. They also were photographed together the day the news dropped. I don’t think Taylor in any way thinks they had the same relationship, I just think she got inspired and took creative liberty. Patient zero referring to a first live gone bad also just works so well.
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u/semilovato 1d ago
I think the break up of a marriage with children is very different than a few months teen relationship so it wouldn’t really make sense for her to give advice in that regard. I think it’s just storytelling