Twenty One Pilots just dropped this absolute masterpiece of a music video for Paladin Strait and I am having so many thoughts.
The (literal) Neon Gravestones? The zombies as a representation of what we've become? (They're controlling you, those thoughts that rule over this depression city, and now this is all you'll ever be—a body seized by Them)
Torchbearer and the Banditos acting as a distraction for Clancy to face the Bishops (his demons, the dark parts of his thoughts) only for everything to end when Blurryface enters the picture (so few, so proud, so...emotional)?
I don't know what I was expecting with that ending. I don't know what color will Clancy's (Tyler's) eyes be when he opens them in that last frame. (Golden? Red?) I don't know if I want to know.
Clancy opened his eyes. Clancy opened his eyes to look straight at Blurryface when he was being grabbed by the neck (painted black—always black) in remembrance of the Jumpsuit music video. Did Blurryface take control? Is Clancy back to fighting himself? (In an album about cycles, about not knowing if you'll ever truly get better, about backsliding and pushing through and growing old with the same fears you had over ten years ago—this seems oddly fitting)
But that's not the message. You are better than you were ten years ago, if only because you're still here—still alive—and now you're able to snap your eyes open and stare your demons down (even if they're grabbing you by the neck).
If you haven't gone to sleep and woken up to an insane content discovery by the fandom that you then have to dissect while still half asleep are you even a t.ø.p fan
Can we talk about how much strength it takes to look your demons in the eye? To look the dark part of you in the eye, the part that you don't want to show to anyone else. You don't want to see it yourself. I love that they leaned into it in the Paladin Strait MV. He's not running anymore. He faced Blurryface. He is Blurryface
To everyone who is freaking out about the paladin strait mv, please don't forget to eat food and drink water, and like, maybe have some irl human interaction? Idk that last one might be difficult judging by the state most of yall are in rn