Fictional Couples as Taylor Swift Songs

We all know the mind of a shipper. Endlessly thinking about your favourite fictional character. Wanting so badly for them to be together. Perhaps even... making playlists for them?

All (most) of us have been there. Or at least I have. And as the resident-Taylor-swift-expert in my family and friend groups, who better than me to give you a comprehensive guide to which Taylor song fits your favourite fictional couples? I recently asked for everyone's favourite ships on my Instagram story and have included as many as I could in this post, along with plenty of my own favourites! Who knows, you might just find your next favourite book - or song!

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NovaCaine: Don't Blame Me (reputation)

Who better to start this series with than my current fictional obsession: Tristan "I'm gonna kill you" Caine and Callum "not if I get there first" Nova.

These two (from The Atlas Six series) have a serious love/hate dynamic going on. Is their relationship a little bit messed up and manipulative? Yeah. But there's just some sort of desperation in it which makes it addictive to read. They essentially just long for each other for three whole books but hide it behind "I hate you's". And what song is better to convey that desperation, neediness and addiction than reputation's Don't Blame Me?

Key lyric: "And baby for you / I would fall from grace / just to touch your face. / If you walk away / I'd beg you on my knees to stay."

Key quote: "And by some definition that was love. A bad love. A corruptible love. Poets wouldn't write about it. But that didn't undo what had already been done."

Red and Blue: The Great War (Midnights)

From This is How You Lose the Time War, these star-crossed lovers love in secret and (quite literally) fight to be together. And not only is this song about a war, but so much of it reflects Blue and Red's story: from fighting a person to falling for them, and from fighting 'the other side' to creating your own side.

So many parts of this song are perfect for Red and Blue and their story. "Tears on the letter" represents the letters they sent each other, whilst "we can plant a memory garden" and "I drew curtains closed / drank my poison all alone" draws incredibly accurate parallels with the final act of the book... if you know, you know. There's also so many references to the colours red and blue as well: crimson clover, broken and blue, burning embers... they almost sound like the colourful nicknames our star-crossed lovers address each other with.

Key lyric: "Soldier down on that icy ground / looked up at me with honour and truth / broken and blue / so I called off the troops. / That was the night I nearly lost you."

Key quote: "It'll be a long, slow game. They'll hunt us fiercer than they ever hunted each other - but somehow I don't think you'll mind."

Everlark: Safe & Sound (non-album)

I know, I know, using a soundtrack song from The Hunger Games movies feels like a cop-out for Katniss and Peeta. But this song is genuinely just perfect for them...

Maybe it's because I recently read Mockingjay, but Safe & Sound feels so perfectly symbolistic of Everlark's ending together and the safety they achieve. Throughout the books, Peeta feels like home for Katniss because he represents safety and the chance of a normal life. To her, he is all that is good and warm in the world, and I think that's a big part of why she loves him and why she chose him in the end. Constantly throughout the books, Katniss goes to Peeta when she needs to feel safe: when she has nightmares, when she's alone in the first games and needs an ally... and their "big thing" is always trying to keep the other one alive. They constantly make promises and choices based off that alone because they could not bear to live without the other. They represent safety for each other in a world that is so unsafe, and that's exactly what this song means to me.

Key lyric: "I remember tears streaming down your face / when I said 'I'll never let you go.' / When all those shadows almost killed your light."

Key quote: "What I need is the dandelion in the spring. The bright yellow that means rebirth instead of destruction. The promise that life can go on, no matter how bad our losses. That it can be good again. And only Peeta can give me that."

Wesper: I Think He Knows (Lover)

Quite possibly my favourite fictional couple of all time. If there's one thing you should know about me, it's that I'm a Six of Crows stan first and foremost, and Wylan and Jesper are my ultimate comfort characters.

If you know the books, I think it's pretty obvious that these two are a Lover couple. Compared to the other couples in this series, Wesper are far less angsty - especially in the Netflix TV adaptation! But really this song is just perfect for their mutual crushes, flirtation and banter that starts to turn into something more. Their relationship is very much rivals(ish) to friends to flirting to lovers. It's for sure a slow burn with a lot of pining on both sides, but what else would it be when you're busy trying to save the world and get revenge on your father?! This song also strongly reflects the feeling of wanting someone so badly and therefore making it very obvious to them - which is 100% what Jesper does!

This is definitely their song. It gives those vibes of flirtation whilst also having genuine deeper feelings for someone, and it's just perfect at getting at that feeling of teenage lovesickness.

Key lyric: "He got that boyish look that I like in a man. / I am an architect, I'm drawing up the plans. / It's like I'm seventeen, nobody understands."

Key quote: "Just girls?" "No, not just girls."

RomaJuliette: Suburban Legends (1989 Taylor's Version)

The young heirs of two infamous gangs in 1920's Shanghai falling in love... what could be more Suburban Legends than that?

For those of you who haven't read These Violent Delights, the series is a Romeo and Juliette retelling. Roma and Juliette obviously have that star-crossed lovers vibe and are very much "we're supposed to be enemies but we're actually deeply in love". In fact, their whole on/off again dynamic throughout the books is incredibly reminiscent of the whole of the 1989 album. But this hope for their relationship to be more than is logically possible and the blindness to the outside world reminds me so much of Suburban Legends. They're here. They're iconic. And their angst is so angsty.

Key lyric: "When you hold me, it holds me together / and you kiss me in a way that's gonna screw me up forever."

Key quote: "They used to be unstoppable. When they were together, they never had an ounce of fear."

Iris and Roman: invisible string (folklore)

My most recent read, Divine Rivals is a great fantasy with an even greater romance. I haven't read book two yet, so no spoilers, but I just think that invisible string fits them too well for me to not include it!

These two are connected to each other via magical typewriters and write letters for ages before discovering their true identities. They fall in love slowly through their words and the magic element really just gives "all along there was some invisible string tying you to me". If soulmates were real, Iris and Roman would be it.

Key lyric: "And isn't it just so pretty to think / all along there was some invisible string / tying you to me?"

Key quote: "He began to see the invisible threads that drew him to Iris. It didn't feel like fate; Roman didn't quite believe in such fancies. But it certainly felt like something."

BenMars: You Are In Love (1989)

Also from These Violent Delights, Benedikt and Marshall are the reimagined Benvolio and Mercutio. Their story really is a slow burn (several years in the making, in fact) and it's a sweet, tender friends to lovers with a lot of pining and a healthy sprinkle of angst.

Mars has loved Benedikt for almost as long as they've been friends, but it takes Benedikt ten years (and some extreme plot devices) to realise his feelings in return. And to me, You Are In Love perfectly represents this slow realisation, and all the moments that make up the quiet falling for someone.

Key lyric: "One look, dark room / meant just for you. / Time moved too fast / you play it back. / Buttons on a coat / lighthearted joke. / No proof, not much / but you saw enough."

Key quote: "'I loved him,' Benedikt said again, softly this time, only to feel what those words tasted like on his tongue a second time. He had known all along, hadn't he? It was only that he could not say it."

Monty and Percy: Snow On The Beach (Midnights)

From A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue, Monty and Percy are your classic childhood friends to lovers story. But their love for one another is so sweet and there's just so much yearning - hence why I love them so much!

SOTB is the perfect song for them because it captures that way of deeply falling for someone and the wonder and amazement that comes with realising they feel the same, and that this precious thing could be yours. It's dreamy and it's poetic, much like some of my favourite quotes between these two.

Key lyric: "I can't speak, afraid to jinx it / I don't even dare to wish it."

Key quote: "A small shift in the gravity between us and suddenly all my stars are out of alignment, planets knocked from their orbits, and I'm left stumbling, without map or heading, through the bewildering territory of being in love with your best friend."

Kanej: cowboy like me (evermore)

Last, but certainly not least, we have the ever-popular, angsty-as-hell Kaz and Inej from Six of Crows. Like Wylan and Jesper, these two are my comfort characters and I genuinely love them both and their relationship.

Tentative, their developing relationship is one of two people who don't know how to trust, and, due to trauma, exert physical boundaries with other people. They are perhaps the two people least likely to fall in love, but they do and the way it goes against their human nature is beautiful.

Cowboy like me is exactly that: the tale of two people who aren't here for love but just happen to fall anyway. They don't know what's true and what's false, but those feelings defy any rational thought.

Key lyric: "You're a bandit like me / eyes full of stars / hustling for the good life / never thought I'd meet you here. / It could be love. / We could be the way forward / and you know I'd pay for it."

Key quote: "He needed to tell her... what? That she was lovely and brave and better than anything he deserved. That he was twisted, crooked, wrong, but not so broken that he couldn't pull himself together into some semblance of a man for her."

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And that's a wrap on this blog post! I love making playlists for books and characters, so this was super fun for me to write, and also a great challenge to take some of your suggestions and write about them. Hopefully you either discovered your next book to read or a new Taylor song to listen to! Let me know in the comments if you have a favourite song that you connect to your book otp and if you'd like to see more posts like this. I'd love to do something related to The Tortured Poets Department when the album drops next month!

But it's bye for now... see you all in the next one <3