infinite baths outro and some Lore Thoughts
my thoughts on the lore ft some lyrical analysis. basically an expansion on this post i did a while back
ok i love. the baths outro. it's so cool and cinematic. but let's see
lore wise, ik there's a theory that vessel either ascended to godhood during tmbte or at least got some power to stand on equal ground with sleep. and i'm wondering, what if that's the worshipers?
like, he was picked to be a vessel to worship and call attention to this old god who was likely fading out of existence since their glory days were looooooong ago. yk, to obtain more worshipers.
but it's funny if you think about it. in a lore sense (and somewhat meta sense?) Nobody Is Worshiping Sleep. rather, we're all here for the raw human emotion n shenanigans of the vessels themselves. if sleep presumably draws power from the worshipers, how possible is that if they all recognize his vessels instead and not the (totally existent) deity behind them?
which i think leads to the crashout in infinite baths (culminating over the album and maybe even before that.)
i’d go directly into the breakdown part, but i do wanna discuss this bit right before it:
“drift with me”
this is the lyric that’s repeated after the mention of infinite baths. the word "drift" is also notably used in look to windward when vessel sings "losing this war of attrition / just as i drift away." perhaps this is an invite (maybe even a final one) from vessel to sleep to drift together. an olive branch of sorts, inviting the lonely god to share power or become equals.
alternatively, it could be for the worshipers. the line combination of "war of attrition" / "drift away" from LTW can be connected to caramel, specifically the "war of attrition." that is, it can be relevant to fame and the fanbase. so, perhaps it's vessel calling the worshipers to drift with him and to support him in battling sleep in whatever way that may be.
either way, sleep does not like this.
so. sleep's verses
"all this glory you did not earn / every lesson you did not learn"
remember, sleep promised vessel "glory and magnificence if Vessel followed Him" (from that one initial interview). i think this can be a fed up sleep taunting vessel by saying "hey, you think you earned glory? you fucking think you earned all that? i have so much more! i am a god! and i've been here for millennia!"
and then "every lesson you did not learn" is just sleep being condescending. "did you learn fucking nothing from every experience we've shared together?" vibe, even more so enhanced by vessel's previous offer.
"you will drown in an endless sea"
self explanatory i think. i mean. sea... ocean... deep ocean... this place will become your tomb... yk.
also teeth of god graphic novel mentioning the black wave/sea coming to swallow the director and everyone else or something like that
"if it's blood that you want from me / you can empty my arteries"
maaaybe i should've done a post analyzing the themes of violence and combat on sundowning before this but oh well. sorta relates to this idea that "the blood and the fury takes us a little higher" (- higher), or the shared pain was a sort of crutch they could both use. "i hurt you, you can hurt me." (OBVIOUSLY UNHEALTHY) (DON'T DO THIS). it's a desperate sleep offering another battle to either prevail or teach vessel the ultimate lesson.
"will you halt this eclipse in me?"
THISSSS!!!! i see this as sleep twisting vessel's words. we initially hear this verse from vessel in look to windward, probably asking sleep (or maybe the worshipers) to stop the eclipse.
also, i like the official japanese ver of this lyric -> "will you stop the darkness that is eating at my heart?" or something along those lines. so, rather than vessel asking the darkness (the pain, presumably), it's sleep this time SCREAMING for vessel to stop the darkness that's eating at them. and this time, it's probably literal darkness/nothingness. after all, what's a god without any believers? void!
so then. vessel's verses
"teeth of god"
the teeth of god poem + the entire graphic novel + biting imagery throughout the discography. remember, teeth/jaws are canonically explained to be the following:
"Our jaws are the tools used to rend apart, [...] They show our concealed aggression and take something once hidden and burst it apart. You don't know someone until you've seen them destroy something."
now, this could be explaining the built-up aggression from everything, accompanied with a will to genuinely fight back and destroy.
"of god" could mean he himself is a god, and that would be referring to his own teeth/aggression.
or, it could be used in the way it was used with the ToG poem: "i am the teeth of god," or he is God's Aggression Incarnate™, which i interpret as him having the capacity to Fight Back Genuinely from all the bullshit he's had to endure over the discography. (i should probably discuss this in another post given how prevalent the ToG themeing is but. hmm). anyways i'm more inclined to believe the latter with the upcoming lines.
"blood of man"
very. literal. He's Just A Man (HELLOOO EPIC THE MUSICAL FANS). even if he did get power or godhood or wtv, deep down, he's just a Guy. he understands human emotion, probably more so than sleep ever did.
it can also apply to whatever blood was shed during any fights or encounters with sleep.
"i will be what i am"
honestly, fancy way of saying "fuck you" imo. deity, vessel, worshiper, Some Guy -- they're all him, whether or not sleep likes it or not and whether or not they indirectly caused those transformations.
"i will be what i am, even if we no longer associate with each other," given how sleep reacted to the "drift with me" bit. he isn't sleep, and he doesn't have to put up with their bullshit nor completely base himself on them (the idea of dependency). he can be his own person without them.
And then the breakdown hits and then they have a really cool sword battle and sleep is throwing rocks everywhere and destroying arcadia while also flooding the place with black water and vessel's dodging them like crazy and jumping around while taking sword swings at sleep and sleep also has a really big sword just trust me on this one
