I think this tour has been, for Taylor as well as the rest of us, an exercise in loosening up. Speaking as a snake who knows nothing of pop culture and is mostly an observer, this tour started in a place of fear. A lot of the reputation brand was surrounded in fear — we were cautiously protecting Taylor’s reputation just as much as we were denouncing the importance of it. Yes, reputations don’t matter. Taylor says that every night on stage. What does her reputation matter? What does the media matter? I’m just a snake, but I feel like the reputation tour proved the opposite of what the album set out to do: it proved that reputations do matter. And Taylor, like the rest of us, cares deeply about hers. She put on four months of tireless shows, resting only when her glowing orb literally broke on stage. (Even then, she sang a cappella!) She met fans and let two people propose right in front her. She generated many millions in revenue and earned a couple of Billboard Music Awards while she was at it. Rome wasn’t built in a day; reputations aren’t either.