TØP Updates

[thecompasslies]

The Opening Eye: TØP’s Return

Over a year ago, tøp posted this series of photos on their twitter, each depicting an eye closing with a lyric from one of their songs:

At the time, there was speculation that this was symbolic of the ending of the blurryface era, and that soon tøp would post similar photos of an eye opening, welcoming in the new era. Now (finally, over a year later) they have posted videos of an eye opening. As I am struggling with my editing software, I can’t turn them into gifs, but here is what it looks like, followed by the links to the videos themselves:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1016291048279113729

https://twitter.com/i/status/1016653365244317696

The eyes appear to be those of something non-human and look similar to the eye in this gif of a vulture from the Dema website 

In the eye, you can see bits of what turned out to be the Jumpsuit video (the running horse, the rocks, etc). This leads me to the conclusion that some of the shots from the video are from the perspective of a vulture watching Clancy’s escape. 

[thecompasslies]

The Last DEMA Updates: A Summary

So heres the post I promised. Sorry it took so long, but hopefully it’ll cover everything else on the DEMA website before tøp’s official return. 

When the DEMA website first went up, they were updating it periodically over the course of a couple months with cryptic information and letters from their new character, Clancy. I made posts about these updates when they were less frequent. In this post i’m going to pick up where I left off, staring with this photo:

This photo shows 21 people standing at the top of a cliff, looking down at the camera. At the time of the release it was speculated that these were people outside of dema. We now know that these are actually edited screenshots of the Jumpsuit video, where these people outside of the Trench are looking down on Tyler, who is still in the Trench. Also, the figure 8th from the left is Josh and it’s speculated that the figure to the right of him (the one turned away from the camera) is Jenna. 

The next update was this gif of a vulture:

At the time this was posted, not much sense was made of it other than the connection to a previous update with photos of vultures. However, now we know that vultures will be playing an important thematic role in the new album, with them even going as far as to put a vulture on the new album cover. Also, it’s speculated that the eye opening back up is that of a vulture (I’ll discuss that more in a different post).

The second update in that 24 hour period was this letter from Clancy:

In brief, it expresses Clancy’s desire to escape while also giving us some more information as to how the residents of Dema got there and are being controlled. 

The next update, although less exciting, also contained some important information. 

This photo is titled “_o__ut_”, which I believe means that it’s a photo taken by Clancy of his first look outside of Dema. The horizontal dark bar at the bottom looks like a wall that the viewer is looking over, showing mountains in the background (similar to those seen in the Jumpsuit video).

Next was another letter from Clancy, this time titled “_he_a_vy_”

This briefly chronicles Clancy’s plan escape from Dema. However, the use of the word “we” implies that Clancy is alone. He also mentions waiting for the torches, which makes sense seeing the next update:

I believe that this GIF of people carrying torches through what appears to be an underground tunnel acts as confirmation that Clancy has escaped Dema as he planned to. 

This is further confirmed by this last letter by Clancy, stating that he has successfully escaped:

In summary, this note is reflecting on his escape as well as thoughts of the future and life in general. It ends with the words “Cover Me!”, which we now know is part of the chorus to jumpsuit. 

The final update to the Dema website was this photo here:

As the photo is inverted, it’s hard to make out what it shows, but flipping it back to normal shows a body lying in a river:

Immediately it was pointed out that the figure looks like Tyler wearing some sort of mask, like his death drops in the blurryface era. (Example:)

It was assumed that Clancy had died while escaping Dema. However, with the release of the Jumpsuit video soon after, it was shown that he was simply lying in the river as if he had woken up there. An interesting connection as well is this post from Jenna on instagram, which says that in Iceland (where the video was filmed), water is cherished and protected, which may explain why he as laying in it. 

Since this final update, the Dema website has not been updated, and I don’t suspect it will be.

[thecompasslies]

An Apology

I’m so sorry for kind of abandoning this account over the last few weeks, which was incredibly inconvenient considering everything that has happened. Within the next couple of days I will be trying to create a master post containing everything that’s happened with tøp’s return, as well as some music video theories and other updates. Thank you all for being patient with me and I’ll try to keep this account updated more. 

[thecompasslies]

2 New Singles??

I know I’m a little late, as @ discordclique on twitter discovered this yesterday, but of course I still need to share. On the PPL website (for those who don’t know, PPL is a reputable company that registers music and collects royalties, wiki here) there are two new songs by twenty one pilots with the release date of 2018. The first is titled “Jumpsuit”

and the other is titled “Nico and the Niners”

However, since the time says 0:00, it’s safe to assume that the tracks have not been finalized and it may be a little bit before they are released. 

[thecompasslies]

Is the latest gif on the Dema site really an update?

In one of my previous posts (here), I discussed that the latest update to the Dema site (the gif of the cheetah which says “You still don’t know his real name, do you?” with the word “Nico” spelled out twice) was another update following the pattern of relating to each one of the eyes on tøp’s twitter, with this one representing Slowtown. 

However, I’m beginning to become more skeptical. First, the connection between the gif and Slowtown is weak; the lyrics don’t match up and the only connection is the fact that a cheetah is fast. Secondly, when on the Dema site, I noticed something. The gif with the cheetah was dated as July 16th, 2017 which, unlike all of the other dates before it, has no important meaning that I can come up with, as this date was a little over a week into the hiatus. This leads me to the conclusion that, just like the date, the update itself isn’t important and thus shouldn’t be regarded as following the order of the closing eye. 

[thecompasslies]

A Correction

@atfcx pointed out out to me that the line “Wouldn’t it be great if we could just lay down” is from Slowtown, not Forest. How I managed to make that mistake, I’m really not sure, but realizing this has made me realize that my interpretation of the latest Dema update is incorrect. I previously stated that “You still don’t know his real name, do you?” was a reference to Forest (”Does it bother anyone else that someone else has your name?”), but obviously that’s not the case as Forest is not involved. 

Instead, I believe that the importance of this update has to do not with the message itself, but with the gif it’s presented in. @atfcx pointed out that it relates to slowtown, as it depicts a cheetah, which would be the opposite of SLOW and thus a direct reference to the next eye on their twitter. 

[thecompasslies]

Nigo vs. Nico? (TØP Update)

Late last night this gif was posted on the Dema website 

The letters at the top spell out “UNSTILLIDONTCKNOWOHISNREALINAMECDOOU”, or “U N STILL I DONT C KNOW O HIS N REAL I NAME C DO O U”, or “You still don’t know his real name, do you?” with the word “Nico” spelled out twice. 

I believe that this means that the bishop we know as Nigo is actually Nico. Looking more closely at the album cover we see that it really does look more like NICO than NIGO (which, may I add, was what I read it as at first, but couldn’t find lyrics to support)

So, if this is the case, many of my translations are wrong and I am planning on going back through and redoing all of them. However, I would like to make note that this update to the website may support my theory about Forest, discussed in this post here. In this theory, I pointed out that the next update to the website most likely will have something to do with the song Forest. Indeed, “you still dont know his real name, do you?” is undoubtedly similar to “Does it bother anyone else that someone else has your name?”

Although this update to the website may only be there to clarify the Nico vs. Nigo debate, it does seem to fit with the pattern of relating to the photos of the eye closing on twitter. If this is the case, the next update to the Dema site should be related to the line “I will fear the night again,” or just Truce in general. 

Edit: I’m an idiot and got slowtown and forest confused. I made the necessary corrections here

[thecompasslies]

Clancy’s Rebirth

Once again examining the lines at the end of the latest Clancy letter, I have another speculation about the “plot” of Dema. What caught my attention was “A better version [of myself]… that will find a way to experience what’s beyond these colossal walls," which seems to imply that if Clancy were to escape, it wouldn’t be the same Clancy that’s writing these letters. Of course, this could be metaphorical, meaning that the only difference between the current Clancy and the newly enlightened one is an emotional revolution, but since we’re talking about a bunch of people who don’t know what love is living in an ossuary under the rule of evil bishops, I’d say that its just as plausible, if not more, that there could be a completely different Clancy.

This leads me to my theory: what if Clancy is dead, but when he escapes he’s alive. I’ve previously mentioned that I believe Clancy and the rest of the Inhabitants of Dema are dead, which is supported both by their lack of love and liveliness, and also the fact that they literally live in an ossuary meant for the disposal of dead bodies. I suspect that Clancy is beginning to become self-aware of his situation - maybe not necessarily aware of the fact that he’s dead, but at least that he’s missing something. I think that if he were able to successfully create this “better version” of himself, he would then be alive and would no longer need to be in Dema.

I think that this relationship between life and death (death being characterized by a lack of humanity, and life being characterized by hope) is going to be a major theme in the new album. I think not only does it go well with tøp’s aesthetic, but also is a nice change from their other albums, which contain many songs related to death and coming to terms with it. Switching this idea around to beginning to be aware of life would make a really cool theme, and I hope that I’m correct and they actually do something like this. 

[thecompasslies]

The Anti-Blurryface

I find the last couple of lines in the latest Clancy letter very interesting. The lines (“This hope of discovery alone has birthed a new version of myself; A better version, I hope, that will find a way to experience what’s beyond these colossal walls”) on the surface level appear to be just referring to Clancy’s desire to escape Dema and experience life the way other people are/were able to. However, something stands out to me about these lines that makes me believe it goes a little deeper. The description of a new better version of Clancy seems to be a direct parallel to Blurryface, or rather an anti-Blurryface. Blurryface was Tyler’s bad side, representing all his fears and all the parts that made him not human. Blurryface was trying to destroy Tyler, which I think is the opposite of what’s happening with Clancy. Clancy seems to be the one who lacks humanity, which can be seen in his description of his life and how he has only heard stories of what could be considered human experiences. However, unlike with Tyler, Clancy has a desire to escape his prison (both literally and metaphorically) which I believe is not only a difference between the two characters (Blurryface and Clancy) and between Josh and Tyler, but also progression of the band’s messages, showing with more force that escape isn’t only possible, but something to strive for. 

[thecompasslies]

UPDATE!!!

Ok so as of this evening (about 5pm May 9th), a new photo appears at the top of the Dema website. It is a different Clancy letter:

However, as you can probably tell, there are a handful of letters missing, and, when the missing letters are written out in order, it spells “you are still sleeping” 

I’m interpreting this as another message that Clancy is trying to get across, similar to “The compass lies” and “east is up”, but as for what it means, I only have speculations. 

1)”You” could refer to tøp themselves, as in “tøp is still sleeping.” However, I find this unlikely as if that were what they were trying to say, they most likely would have said “we” instead. The use of “You” leads me to

2) Clancy is trying to warn the reader that things are not what they seem. The content of the letter itself is reflective and mildly speculative, but the message seems to be more critical. I suspect that he may be trying to warn the reader that they aren’t fully conscious and are still being controlled by Dema.

3) Finally, and I once again owe this to @top_today on twitter, but “you are still sleeping” may be a reference to the line in oh, ms. believer “My pretty sleeper.” The reason that this is important is that they point out that back when tøp went on hiatus the second eye they posted was also “my pretty sleeper.” But what was the first? The line from Polarize “you’ll have to come and find me” and @top_today points out that we had to find the Dema site through the gif. 

Long story short, I think each new thing they post will follow the order of the eye, meaning that I suspect that the next thing they post will relate to the line “wouldn’t it be great if we could just lay down?,” or Forest in general. This theory also means that there will be at least 4 more updates corresponding to the eyes (5 if you count “and now I just sit in silence”, but I think that using that one to reveal the album would be more dramatic. 

[thecompasslies]

A Different Translation?

I noticed that the names of the bishops surrounding the 9 circles in the center didn’t go in order of those on the inside, but rather zig-zagged around. So, I tried putting the words back in google translate, this time in the order listed on the outside circle. At first, I started with the one at the top (lisden), but that didn’t get me anywhere 

So I tried east as up again. That time, having residro at the top I got this:

"In the list, you will receive a list of other keywords in the list below”

That’s a lot more similar to the message I got before when translating another combination of the words. If this is what they intended, I suspect that there may be more words, maybe anagrams of the words or maybe something completely different that I’ve overlooked. I suspect that if such a list exists, it would provide us with even more clues. 

[thecompasslies]

Translation of The Bishops’ Names

So back when the photos were first released, I of course put all the bishops’ names through google translate and, when it detected it was in Luxembourgish, I got this

I noticed that the “lyrics” were actually words, but since they didn’t make much sense I ignored it and assumed it was a coincidence. However, today a friend sent me the following image and for whatever reason the translation makes a lot more sense on mobile because

Obviously, this makes a lot more sense, but it prompted the question: What list of other keywords? There really isn’t anything else on the album cover of any use, or anywhere else on the Dema website, so I figured the list was something we already knew. Then I remembered: east is up. I switched the words around so that it read from right to left, top to bottom, or “keons sacarver listo lisden residro vetemo andre nigo nills” and, translating in Luxembourgish once again, i got:

Yikes. Although I’m not sure what it means exactly, it does seem to match the aesthetic of Dema. Maybe when they release more it’ll make more sense. 

Also, side note, but if this whole thing is intentional, then how long did it take for them to figure out what they wanted to say and then find matching song lyrics? Like seriously? That’s probably why the hiatus took so long.

[thecompasslies]

Just a thought

But what if the Heathens music video was actually about Dema? Like I know that the Video was for Suicide Squad, but they could have gone a ton of different directions with it, yet they chose to make it about being locked in a prison, similarly to the way Clancy is trapped in Dema. That makes me wonder if they made it just relatable to Suicide Squad enough to not draw attention to the video, but were really hinting at the new era and the concept of Dema. 

[thecompasslies]

Clancy=Josh?

A lot of people have been saying that Clancy is Josh’s version of Blurryface, but I realized I barely mentioned it on here so here’s a list of evidence supporting that:

-The date on the top of the Clancy journal is 988 06MOON 18, or June 18th, (1)988, Josh’s birthday

-Clancy is an Irish name meaning “red headed warrior” and, well,

-The handwriting on the side of the Clancy note is most likely Josh’s (see my previous post analyzing it)

Anyway those are just a few things I noticed and heard being discussed. I’m sure there’s probably more evidence that I haven’t come across yet though. 

[thecompasslies]

New Tøp Video???

@ top_today on twitter posted this last night and honestly, if this is real, I think we’ve got something coming pretty soon. 

(photos via @top_today on twitter)

[thecompasslies]

The Anathema Theory

A friend recently brought this theory to my attention, so I thought I would share. For those who don’t know, the anathema theory refers to the audio clip posted by youtube user 15398642_14 back in January (original audio here) which, if reversed, supposedly reveals Tyler’s voice and new music. Because the file is so large, I wasn’t able to upload it here, so I’ve linked a video of the reversed (correct) audio by youtube user Blue 4 here. Most people seem to think that this theory is most likely fake (considering the age of the clip, the crypticness of the account, and some of the findings), but I thought it would be best to at least analyze it myself before discrediting it. 

Here are my findings:

Keep reading

[thecompasslies]

Update: immediately after posting this I noticed something - the audio at 2:58 is very similar to the beginning of sleepers #5, which is just further proof the audio is fake. 

[thecompasslies]

The Anathema Theory

A friend recently brought this theory to my attention, so I thought I would share. For those who don’t know, the anathema theory refers to the audio clip posted by youtube user 15398642_14 back in January (original audio here) which, if reversed, supposedly reveals Tyler’s voice and new music. Because the file is so large, I wasn’t able to upload it here, so I’ve linked a video of the reversed (correct) audio by youtube user Blue 4 here. Most people seem to think that this theory is most likely fake (considering the age of the clip, the crypticness of the account, and some of the findings), but I thought it would be best to at least analyze it myself before discrediting it. 

Here are my findings:

0:00-0:02: *in what sounds like Tyler’s voice* “There’s no music here, no music” or possible “New music theory, new music”

0:07-0:08: *also in “Tyler’s” voice* “I got it wrong, but I’m gonna keep going”

0:09-0:28: *distorted music followed by, in what sounds like Jocef’s voice, a clip of someone rapping* (I googled the parts of the rap that I could make out and the lyrics aren’t from any major song that’s been released)

0:32-1:39 *relaxed, techno-y music* 

1:42-2:04 *sounds of birds and the sea, followed by some sort of mandolin or music box*

2:04-2:52 *bird noises continue, wordless techno music with a bass line similar to that of isle of flightless birds*

2:58-4:05 *horn/siren that becomes more and more distorted and pulsing, set to the beat of a deep, slow drum*

4:07-4:29 *what sounds like 3:16+ of polarize, slightly distorted*

4:29-4:33 *”polarize” fades out, deep “blurryface” voice* “you’ll soon see my face again”

4:41-6:03 *slow, pulsing organ music*

6:16-6:51: new music?? *tøp style music that actually sounds original*

6:51-6:55: *what sounds like tyler’s voice* “waiting for sign”

7:09-7:15: *reversed, what sounds like tyler’s voice* “waiting for sign”

7:17-7:51: *the same tøp style music as above, but backwards*

So a few things are immediately obvious to me:

1) times 6:16-7:15 is the same audio played twice, but mirrored over time 7:02 

2) the “blurryface” voice is back 

3) the audio from 4:07-4:33 is unmistakably polarize that has been edited.

These things have to lead me to the conclusion that this audio clip is fake and, at least most of the audio, is not original. The usage of a song (polarize) that already exists is unlike tøp and it just reminds me more of someone using old material to make new sounds. Also, it’s established that the blurryface era is over and thus it would make no sense for them to include blurryface at all. Finally, although some of the music does actually sound original, I’ve heard some people say that it’s similar to an older demo of theirs. 

Anyway, there isn’t proof, but this does seem to be fake. If I’m missing anything or got something wrong, tell me.