10 votes

Taylor Swift - The Fate of Ophelia (2025)

7 comments

  1. [4]
    cfabbro
    (edited )
    Link
    Whoa... WTF is the with the timeline tracker icon on YouTube for this video!? It's a weird door symbol for me with the image called "project_nevada_open_2025_v3". Edit: Hmmm, it's actually on...

    Whoa... WTF is the with the timeline tracker icon on YouTube for this video!? It's a weird door symbol for me with the image called "project_nevada_open_2025_v3".

    Edit: Hmmm, it's actually on every Taylor Swift video but not on any other YouTube channels. A few other people (one on reddit, and one on tumblr) seemed to have noticed it as well, but besides those two comments there are no other relevant search results for it that I can find. Weird.

    5 votes
    1. [3]
      chum-cha
      Link Parent
      Interesting, I experienced the same issue on Android. I "uninstalled" the app (which seems like it just reverts it back to the original version that shipped with the OS?) and it went away. Then I...

      Interesting, I experienced the same issue on Android. I "uninstalled" the app (which seems like it just reverts it back to the original version that shipped with the OS?) and it went away.

      Then I updated the app and I still don't see it anymore, so maybe there was some kind of corruption during a recent update? Still seems super weird it would only appear on certain videos...

      2 votes
      1. [2]
        cfabbro
        (edited )
        Link Parent
        I don't think it's a corrupted file. I'm on PC, and I checked Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and a freshly installed Opera. Ditto for iOS on Safari, Chrome, and the YouTube app. The door timeline icon...

        I don't think it's a corrupted file. I'm on PC, and I checked Firefox, Chrome, Edge, and a freshly installed Opera. Ditto for iOS on Safari, Chrome, and the YouTube app. The door timeline icon shows up in all of them... but only on all the Taylor Swift videos from the last few days, so I suspect it's related to her new album in some way. Which would make sense since the album is called "The Life of a Showgirl" and Las Vegas is in Nevada.

        Edit: Okay, so there is also "project_nevada_closed_2025_v3"... which I guess might have been the what the icon originally started as. But maybe now that the album is released it has switched to the open one. Not sure though, since I don't think YouTube has ever done anything like this before, and there are no search results about the closed variant either. :/

        Edit2: Googling around some more, it looks like it's related to an ARG. Apparently the orange doors were found in a bunch of cities, and had QR codes that led to a bunch of YouTube shorts with a pass phrase which then unlocked a lyrics video from the album:

        https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/2025/10/05/taylor-swift-orange-door-is-sending-swifties-to-this-nashville-record-store/86537299007/

        And from reddit:

        https://www.reddit.com/r/TaylorSwift/comments/1ny513b/orange_door_qr_codes_youtube_shorts_megathread/

        “You must remember everything but mostly this: the crowd is your king”. You put in google and after 12 million clicks, we unlocked the lyric video for Ophelia (that we were already scheduled to get today 😬)

        Edit3: The ARG was not just taking place on YouTube either. If you google "the life of a show girl" a heart icon appears at the bottom of the screen, which if you click on repeatedly leads to clues about which cities the orange doors were located in.

        6 votes
        1. chum-cha
          Link Parent
          Yeah, I assumed you must have been on PC since you pulled the icon image name, but thought it was weird that it seemed to resolve for me after reinstalling. That said, it actually did come back...

          Yeah, I assumed you must have been on PC since you pulled the icon image name, but thought it was weird that it seemed to resolve for me after reinstalling. That said, it actually did come back after I closed and reopened the app, so I proved myself wrong.

          I think you're right though. It feels like a typical Google Easter egg, but the implementation is so clunky it looks like a bug, lol

          1 vote
  2. [2]
    TaylorSwiftsPickles
    Link
    This album is such a bop and I fucking love it, a bunch of songs were stuck in my brain since the first listen. Especially this one, Elizabeth Taylor, Opalite, and CANCELLED!. Like on Saturday I...

    This album is such a bop and I fucking love it, a bunch of songs were stuck in my brain since the first listen. Especially this one, Elizabeth Taylor, Opalite, and CANCELLED!. Like on Saturday I just randomly woke up at 5 and my brain just started playing Opalite

    2 votes
    1. Autoxidation
      Link Parent
      Elizabeth Taylor and Opalite are my 2 favorites of the album so far. I can't get Opalite out of my head.

      Elizabeth Taylor and Opalite are my 2 favorites of the album so far. I can't get Opalite out of my head.

      1 vote
  3. TMarkos
    Link
    Neat music video. I was going to be listening to the album on repeat in the car courtesy of my wife regardless of quality, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was this catchy. Pretty...

    Neat music video. I was going to be listening to the album on repeat in the car courtesy of my wife regardless of quality, so I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was this catchy.

    Pretty sure the shot in the beginning is meant to reference Ophelia by John Everett Millais.

    1 vote