Unpacking Clancy: Paladin Strait and the Isle of Flightless Birds 

The 60 second moment of silence is a typical length of moment of silence to remember the dead.

There is also a car a torch a death reference in the the craving music video. The rabbit holds a jar with a heart

Me personally when I heard the birds I thought about how good day started with birds, and Clancy ends with birds

This could be the reason why they recently performed some of the self-titled songs in the mini concerts before the album release

Would be cool instead of a double album or deluxe album we would get a isle of flightless bird mv nearly 15 years after its release

I think its kind of interesting that at the end, blurryface references fairly local with "so few, so proud, so emotional."

self-titled has a bit of lore in almost every song if you want it to due to their lyrical intertextuality. so it wasn't intended at the time of it's release in 2009, but it evolved into something, that ties to the lore almost perfectly. idk if you noticed or not, but if you play self-titled right after clancy - you may find implicit demand for proof as a direct continuation of the outro of paladin strait - in the first tyler is screaming to someone or something powerful to show themselves because he's not afraid of them and he's ready to confront and in the second you hear clancy screaming to Nico to show himself, then fall away has almost the same message in the chorus as backslide does, trapdoor is literally the origin of clancy and the isle of flightless birds is the climax of the story.

You got a sub from me. Anyone who can connect new TOP to old in a way that actually makes this much sense has my viewership for an album breakdown for sure

imo March to the sea also fits perfectly to paladin strait and isle of flightless birds the lyrics is matches almost exactly! or its just me too excited about theories at this point haha

The moment I heard the end of palidez straight i knew that the double album theory was real. Plus there wasn’t all that many lore related songs on Clancy like they promised.

Also they played Isle of flightless birds live in the An Evening with TØP Shows for the First time in several years

Just a note, the start of Good Day from SAI has sounds of birds but seems to be an attempt by the bishops to generate the sound of birds.

My take on self-titled being lore or not is that it's like a blueprint. By the time the building is done the facade may change from the original idea but the structural elements are still there. Self-titled has those elements, idealogically.

there's bird sounds in vignette aswell, I think the birds connection is very real

they did play isle of flightless birds and trapdoor during their evening with twenty one pilots shows 👀 its absolutely intentional and more than just a callback

There are nature sounds at the beginning of Good Day in Scaled and Icy

When the music video for paladin straight comes out its going to end with a short film

What a great video. Tbh, I don't think 'IOFB' is really reffering to something about the DEMA storyline, but maybe a kind of "draft" of a story Tyler was creating at that time but didn't know how to exacty represent it yet. Now, this song can be extremely related in that way just like you mentioned, and it makes totally sense! Also, 'Clear' a song from Regional at Best, could it be also SO related with the creating process and the correlation between Blurryface and Tyler/Clancy. It will be awesome if you make a video of that!

Self titled wasnt made with lore in mind, so I'm not sure ill ever be fully convinced with these new posthumous references

I love this theory!!! It also makes sense why they played Trapdoor and Isle of Flightless Birds live. They played it live because its the sequel to Paladin Strait, Clancy, and really the Trench storyline as a whole

my theory is that paladin strait leads us back to imlpicit demand for proof and repeating the cycle. main theme in last verse in paladin strait depicts clancy standing on a high place and yelling "show yourself' to nico, in demand tyler literally yells 'show your face' and needs someone to appear. (i know that in first place demand is about religion but lets dont forget that nico is the bishop and also connected to religion)

Levels of depth of those self-references are filling me with determination. I am definitely not the first one to notice it, but the Vignette chorus contains a very similar vocal melody to The Pantaloon

Now it's the climax to the story they give the demons and angels purpose

honestly on first listen the ending bit of paladin strait reminded me of migraine with the way the vocals cut out-- i'm not extremely familiar with self-titled but even i thought of isle of flightless birds when the bird sounds came in, so definitely this theory could be onto something

Woahhhhh. While Tyler didn't write self-titled with this story in mind probably, it makes sense that he would draw back to those songs to enhance his story. Especially with the theme of routines and cycles in this album

Excellent theory, I agree with everything you said

I think this too!! I also noticed in the paint cans behind tyler and Josh in the routines MV looked like the colours on the self titled album to me (as you mentioned lyrics related at 3:14)

I completely agree with you! My first thought was isle of flightless birds

I was thinking the same thing! There's a constant metaphor/topic mentioned in each album. Water and cars.

At the time of me watching this, your video has 546 likes, the length of Isle of Flightless Birds

Great theory! My only thing that I feel like makes me a little skeptical of IOFB and Paladin Strait being connected is the vast difference in the meaning of the songs. Paladin Strait is about Tyler (or Clancy) confronting Blurryface while IOFB focuses on topics of struggling to find God in hard situations, cycles of depression, feelings of feeling trapped, and just overall struggle with religion.

I will say on the live stream that Tyler said tell me what you think. Does this feel like the end?

Well to me Clancy’s is a sort repeat of the blurry face album, it s has a similar vibe sounds like it’s setting up a character for a bigger part of the story blurry face is the set up, trench is the payoff, Clancy I think is the set up for a sequel album possibly called the isle of flightless birds it’s gonna be a repeat of that first final battle at the end of the first album but it’s gonna break that cycle and it’s gonna be Clancy who finally overcomes the battle

great video and analysis

You can link the bird chirping in Paladin straight to the start of backslide. A lot of connections to PS in BS. Rat race, place to place,(voldsoy to dema) Adding weight(PS- I'm all in I'm surrounded.. even though om past the point of no return) Feel the pull (PS- can't be sure that I'll make it)) Waters over my head(PS- swimming without floating) Reach my hand above the tide.(PS) I don't care you control me(nico) Did you solve your problem, yes but uncovered a new one yesterday I Used to be a champion of a world you can't see (nico leader of the niners) Do you think that now's the time you should let go(PS- you on the other shoreline waiting) I think it a story of about handling all the ups and downs life throws at us. Just when we think we got it figured out, were hit with a new problem that can' start the cycle all over again. Our Nico is always there, and we can always rely on our support circle to help the Clancy in all of us to rise up and face your fight. I made a playlist that I think follows this theory and would love to share it. ru-vid.com/group/PLAtVHtqn6kQQJaDFpKEhhHlfQDBqCxtO1&si=u6kJR2i6T0TJ3zm- Thanks for posting, I love your passion and never made those connections. Keep up the good work.

just a cool note, the birds are the same audio sample from good day, making me think maybe that's clancy arriving in dema idk man i haven't followed the lore in a bit so i might be completely wrong

On the birds, Goner, the last song on Blurryface, also has a bird theme

So you're telling me that twenty one pilots are on the same bracket as Gorillaz/Coheed and Cambria?🤯

Completely random thought but is one the sequel of the other or has all this happened before. Im getting a vibe off this album that Clancy is scared to confront nico for the final battle, what if its because he failed before. In paladin strait he talks about climbing a tower, in isle of flightless birds he talks about plummeting, what if that is him signifying that he lost that time and thats why theres a sense of fear throughout the album.

I love Isle of Flightless Birds soooooo much.

The self titled album is so much better than people give it credit for

My only question is to know if clancy is the last album

Both songs are also the last song in their respected album

would banditos be the flightless birds than? i see the citizens of dema being the representation to flightless birds. like their trapped and they lack motivation, ambition, they spirial to their own meaningless and unapologetic death like said in neon gravestones. plus i really really like the flightless birds being a sequal to paladin straight because that just made so much sense. i dont take the lore that seriously in terms of character but i do try to connect the symbolism and connecting flightless birds to paladin straight is really smart and i wouldnt doubt that this is somthing symbolic that has evolved in his mind and shows in his art. and how else would it show but symbolically because symbols patters and cycles are the language of the universe and we all intuitively understand it but not all of us consciously perceive it. thoes are really good comparisons

in june 16 we get clancy (deluxe) version

This is a really good theory! I have a question that’s not quite related to the isle of flightless birds part, but how is Clancy crossing/going to cross Paladin Strait during this song if he already did that before/during Overcompensate? Because if I’m correct Navigating takes places on the main island of Trench?

No phun intended: ended Rab: ended Vessel: ended Blurryface: hasnt ended yet Trench: ended Scaled: maybe ended Clancy: i put an end to trench lol

Your soul knows good and evil. Your soul knows both sides, and it’s time to pick your battle, and I promise you this is mine.

Now it could just be me but a few of the songs on this album do feel like they take a little inspiration from self titled, sound wise anyway.

and also i believe they have never played a self titled song as twenty one pilots until these last private concerts, in which they played trapdoor, maybe it has some kind of meaningful don't you think?

Not end

I thought Niko died in the Saturday Music video

Off topic You like Cal Kestis from Jedi fallen order. It’s cool that a Jedi likes TØP

Curious coincidence

Bro the lore started at blurryface stop trying to to connect old stuff that isn’t involved 😭

Clancy is a pretty mid album, not as bad as scaled and icy but not close to the other albums

If this album did anything it just reaffirmed (to me) that Clancy is just a clone or a copy of Nico. Morph- “He'll always try to stop me, that Nicolas Bourbaki He's got no friends close, but those who know him most know He goes by Nico He told me I'm a copy When I'd hear him mock me, that almost stopped me” I mean that’s pretty telling right there but there’s more Why is Clancy the one exception to multiple rules? Not only can he seize (which in the I am Clancy video he says makes him the exception) but he’s the only one who can be seized while he’s living and that wasn’t mentioned in the video. Strange considering that’s a fairly important part of the lore. Next. Why the hell would keons, a bishop, betray Nico for a random dude? If there was some underlying animosity between Keon and Nico wouldnt it make way more sense for keons to covertly help and make sure he stay’s alive to help Clancy fight against Nico leaving keons a clearer path to the top? (No pun intended) I mean not for nothing but controlling a MASSIVE BLUE FREAKIN WATER DRAGON is probably the most “hey everyone look what I did” thing that could possibly been done, might as well just write Nico a note saying hey bro gonna free your captive love Keons. Lastly (there’s way more but always gotta leave them wanting more.) Why the hell does Nico care so much about one random escapee? Why make this random regular dude the poster boy of your propaganda campaign? Not only that but he’s a known ally of the banditos, he was litterally kidnapped from a bandito camp. Why the hell would you have a random dude who’s friends with your number one enemy the face of your front? Why put him on stage in front of a camera that is broadcasting to everyone? You don’t think there’s any possibility that secret messages could be passed about your jail/prison/where ever Clancy is being held, about the comings and goings of the people working on the project easy access points, under patrolled areas ect? Idk man but don’t be surprised when at the end of the 25 minute 17 second real paladin strait video we find out that the cycle he’s been trying to break is becoming what he fears/hates the most.