TØP Tuesday: "Isle of Flightless Birds" Explained 

Holding On To You please!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd never thought about this before, but for some reason this video make me realize that the chorus is really reminiscent of the story of Icharus. Icharus ended up flying too close to the sun, which might be why Tyler opens with the line "I am cold" as if he craves or wants to go the sun somehow. He is flying without hope because he doesn't really believe that he will make it, but also flying without fear because he isn't scared of the sun. Flying too close is what eventually makes him plummet and end up on the Isle of Flightless Birds.

okay how about Glowing Eyes?

Ruby . Please do ruby

You were right the first time. It is from self-titled

the pantaloon

Addict with a pen :)

YES PLEASE DO HOLDING ON TO YOU...

Darn it I'm supposed to be in class! BTW do trapdoor!

fall away!!!!!

6:49 I love lettuce birds (turn on the auto generated captions)

Thanks for watching, fam! What song should I do next week?

It's interesting because I just made a connection between this song and ode to sleep. So he says in this one, we can take apart our very heart. And earlier he's talking about the ground taunting his wings and sinking. In ode to sleep he says, by the time I find it handy to rip my heart apart and start planning my crash landing. So it's kind of a repeating theme of crashing back to earth but also using self examination to break free of that. Going off the rest of that verse in ode to sleep in relation to IOFB kind of gives me more meaning to it. In that verse he also asks, "is this living free?" Which is paralleled in IOFB where he says the light will set us free after taking apart our hearts. So what I'm getting from ode to sleep is a sense of regret? Confusion? Like he finally starts to do the thing that he talked about in IOFB and now he's not sure if he can handle the fight that comes with it? In fact the whole stanza in IOFB explains the plot of the first stanza in OTS. I'd love your thoughts. If this makes any sense at all lol. The two stanzas: IOFB: If you decide to live by, what you think's wrong and what's right Believe me you'll begin to wish you were sleeping Your weeping will creep in your head and you'll cry But if we wake up every morning and decide what we believe We can take apart our very heart and the light will set us free OTS: I wake up fine and dandy but then by the time I find it handy To rip my heart apart and start Planning my crash landing I go up, up, up, up, up to the ceiling Then I feel my soul start leaving Like an old man's hair receding I'm pleading, please, oh please On my knees repeatedly asking Why it's got to be like this Is this living free? I don't wanna be the one be the one to have the sun's blood on my hands I'll tell the moon Take this weapon, forged in darkness Some see a pen, I see harpoon Edit: in fact the more I look at the lyrics to the two songs the more parallels I can see. I wonder if this just falls into Tyler's pattern of referencing himself and his own past songs/ideas or if it was done with purpose. I feel like he rarely does things without purpose. Okay anyways comment over haha. Thanks for this video! I never got too into this song back when I was first discovering self titled because there were just SO MANY good songs on the album that I couldn't process all of them. But it's one I've really been getting into as of late. So it's cool to see and think about.

YES!!! I havent even started the video but im so excited this is my fave song! THANKS!!! Now that i've watched it, I agree on your interpretation of the song and you also pointed out some things that I hadn't realized. Overall a great analysis of the song. My fave part is "Your soul knows good and evil, your soul knows both side, and it's time you pick your battle and I promise you this is mine". Not only lyrically, but musically this song is a master piece

If you decide to live by what you think's wrong and what's right Believe me, you'll begin to wish you were sleeping Your weeping will creep in your head and you'll cry But if we wake up every morning and decide what we believe We can take apart our very heart and the light will set us free I think you're interpretation of the song as a whole is great! regarding the lyrics above however, your interpretation kind of merges the first half of the lines and the second half. What Tyler is saying is that we can't just choose what we think is right and wrong. There's too much freedom in that and it's too unstable. We will undoubtedly break down from the inconsistencies. INSTEAD he urges us to choose NOT what is right and wrong, but instead what we believe. Likely urging us to find resolution in our purpose in the world so that we are not left clueless and suicidal because of it. Obviously, I'm not 100% sure because I'm not Tyler, but based off of my knowledge as an aspiring youth pastor, this is what makes sense based off of the structure of the lines, as well as the background of the singer. P.S. It may seem like I'm picking at hairs, but I really do think the difference here is very important. It changes the conclusion entirely.

Do kitchen sink plz

Maybe before you start your day

Please do Clear!

Holding onto you! :)

Please do Air catcher and message man!! Those r the only two songs I am needing help on understanding then I'll have my tøp playlist complete.

Isle of flightless birds is my favorite song of all time, thank you so much for explaining it! There were a couple of things you pointed out that I never caught :)

can you do glowing eyes pls?¿

Can you do it for Glowing Eyes? Love your channel🙂

do holding onto you thats my second favorite song and i can't believe you haven't done it yet

This song gives me the chills every time I listen to it

7:07 "They stopped thinking of the sky" No one looks up anymore cuz you might get a raindrop in your eye

I'm new, just found this channel while trying to figure out some meaning of Trench, and I'm absolutely hooked. I'm so excited to watch someone as passionate as me -not that I'm some TOP super fan. I just don't have many people around me who I can really enjoy this with.

This is so great. Thanks for analysing this one! Really interesting I knew the lyrics were deep but so morally intellectual it's so cool to hear 😯🙌 as you explained truly words to live by ☺️

Hey, just browsing through your archives, this is one of my fav songs from twenty one pilots so I thought I had a look. I read this present darkness a while ago, and I found this concept really interesting.

really appreciate your channel dude thank you so much for what you do

So happy you did this one!

Thanks for being so awesome and making videos like this.

This opened my eyes

This was one of the greatest explanations ever!!

thank you so much for doing this song! This song means so much to me because it was how i met my bf. i have fallen in love with your channel and you are now, like, my favorite youtuber!!

This was so cool!

dude, good job with this song, it was a great explanation.

Your videos are just so great! All of Tyler's lyrics are so insightful and deep. Every TØP song is so beautiful! I just can't even...... Anyways I recently did a presentation about my interpretation of their song slowtown so I decided to request it.

Hey clifford, I found self titled through isle of flightless birds, and it's one of my favourite songs from twenty one pilots because it's wonderful and amazing, it's a great song for me, plus I agree with you in the video man, great video and I hope to see more videos, you're doing great. Stay alive and it must be tonight. I-/

The thumbnail is just amazing

Glowing eyes!!!!!!!!! PLEASE

thank you for doing this one!!

thank u for doing this song aghshsh i love isle of flightless birds so much

Can you do forest, glowing eyes, or holding on to you

Okay I know I’m a year late but I just recently read The Delusion by Laura Gallier that pretty much is exactly what this song is about, how you explained it a “cosmic invisible war”. SUCH a good book and such a good song!

Holding On To You Truce Really want to see those two

Holding on to you !!!!!

Awe 🙂❤️He said he cared about us.

Please, do "clear". It's so underrated. It would be also cool if you made a vid about "be concerned"

Yes, please do Holding on To you!!!!!

Holding onto you!!

Clifford has gotten much better at talking to the camera

thank youuu !

My favourite ❤️

oh wow grooveshark mention. That really takes me back

I read both of those books!

The Run and Go!

Do TB Saga

That thumbnail is gold😂😂

holding onto YOU!!

The pantaloon please

i remember these days

I love trying to read the books in the background. I didn't recognize many of them but I did see The Princess Bride and The Giver

I love you videos! Would you please do The Pantaloon?

you deserve much more subscribers man.

Yessssss!!!

holding on to you, forest and glowing eyes :)

the texting is very good... and, I really really love tonin pilots! they are my favorite band! (tonin!? really?!)

oh and the run and go!

Please do "whisper" even though it's from no phun intended, I am confused on what's it is about :)

I LOVE ISLE OF FLIGHTLESS BIRDS!!!!!!!!

You are Fantastic

I stan legends I love the depth of their songs

What about Forest? That is one of my favorites, and definitely one worth explaining because of the complexities and length of the song.

I agree with everything you said and you actually broughtup somethings I didn't notice in the song yet. I've actually thought as the us being flightless birds as a different interpretation. I think your interpretation may be better bt I've always thought about it in the way that whenever you ask someone the first thing they think when they think bird they will probably say flying. So, even though there are flightless birds I think he may sort of be saying that they are different from the norm and they are lacking this fundamental thing people think is just natural for them to have. So, I was just thinking it may just be a way of saying we're different but I like your explanation better.

Please do Air Catcher or Kitchen Sink

Could you do glowing eyes or air Catcher?

I know this is technically not twenty one pilots, but could you do Drown by Tyler Joseph?

Ok I'm so hyped for a forest one!

This is *certainly* one of Twenty Øne Piløts' best songs

Holding On To You please

You should do holding onto you

Holding onto you

Could you do Before you start your day?

Omg I have that booookk!!! 😱 it’s a really interesting book

Do Air Catcher!!

my favourite flightless bird is the inaccessible island rail its smol and lives on a island that is really hard to get to

Glowing Eyes PLEASE!

You were right the first time, Isle of Flightless Birds is on their self-titled album :)

I don't know if you did this one yet, but Air Catcher would be really cool. it might be easy for others to understand, but its kind of confusing to me XD

I was listing to this song when I got the notification 😂😂😂😂

Holding on to You! I've been begging since forever!

I immediately thought of Antarctica, isle of flightless bird, literally an island only inhabited by penguins, flightless birds.

Uh one thing is that the line “ no hope no fear” is referring to the feeling of apathy which is fairly common among people with depression. No hope referring to feeling no positive and no fear referring to feeling no negative. Hence feeling nothing

This is a bit lengthy but I wanted to share a bit of my interpretation as well... there was one line that you interpreted that was a little bit different than I always had: "If you decide to live by what you think is wrong and what's right, believe me you'll begin to wish you were sleeping, your weeping will creep in your head and you'll cry" I always thought about this part that if you try to "decide to live by what you think is wrong and what's right," then you'll end up finding that just living through your perspective of morals and your own good deeds isn't what is actually important. You may be living what seems right to you, but it will always seem like it's not enough. I've always kind of thought that since they are Christians, that this tied into the "You can never be a good enough person to earn the way to righteousness" But "if you wake up every morning, and decide what you believe" then you won't have to pick your own definition of "rights and wrongs," and what you believe will show you the way. I have that and the rest of that lyric as the lock screen on my phone to remind me every morning when I wake up that I have to decide what I believe every single day :) thanks if you read this whole long thing!

I've always imagined like really big creepy dark birds (maybe big vultures?) That for some reason aren't able to fly and so are just hoping around and trying to fly and flap their wings to no success and just kind of of hop and peck around

Trapdoor pleeeeaaaassssseeeeee

Can you please do Glowing Eyes? That would be pretty cool! (:

This isn't a very well known artist, but I think you would like the artist NF. He's a rapper, a christian but his music is technically not (like tøp!), and he puts his emotions and thoughts in his music. He calls his music a therapy session. Please check his music out?

You should do Addict with a Pen!