hhmmm ok but u can’t tell me ned doesn’t represent someone listening to twenty one pilots, and the chlorine is representative of music & talent & the amount of work they put into their songs (’this beat is a chemical’, it says it in th song). BUT, especially through the lyrics, this isn’t always good bc a lot of their music hits some really sensitive topics that’re hard to talk abt (venom on my tongue/dependant at times & i despise you sometimes, i love to hate the fight, and you in my life is lies)
ned keeps turning away until the pool is full, or until they’ve put 100% of their effort in-- until they’ve got an album, or until they’re getting recognized in the mainstream. ned jumps into the chlorine. he grows his horns-- which is using the music to grow as a person yourself, to carry on & keep alive, which is the boys’ entire message.
by the end, tyler’s exhausted-- they’ve put SO much effort in that it’s unavoidable. we see josh pass him the cup. the chlorine. the beat: josh is a drummer, josh is his best friend, it’s why he’s specifically passing him the cup. it’s a “carry on”, a reason to get back up from the bottom of the empty pool.
it’s later on. ned and tyler are in the empty pool: ned’s looking around as if to say ‘what now?’. the year long haitus where they had no new music, no appearances. tyler offers him the cup, and he takes a sip. unfiltered chlorine, unfiltered thoughts and struggles and issues tyler and josh are facing. nothing like the last time, not really.
and so he jerks back. and tyler looks down at the cup, down at their work:
is what i’m doing any good. this last album, was it good enough. what’s the point?
