what we've been told about the next twenty one pilots album:

- it will pick up from leave the city ["intentionally a cliffhanger"]
- it will conclude the story of dema ["wouldn't make sense not to finish it"]
-include a character "never talked about on an album before"

other things we know:
- there's a 60 page [dense] trench bible from which donoho drew the three trench vids, but wasn't allowed to use anything directly from it

- the role of vultures in vialism is too complex for a short answer [asked in a press conference]

- in 2015, tyler described having came up with a 'name and a backstory' and referred to him as a 'character he met in another dimension' [woody show, 2015]

- in 2017 tyler talked about trench talking about being about
a) what is blurryface doing now what's going on there
b) tying the self-doubt and overconfidence, the good with the bad -- talked about balance
c) needed a narrative to support it

- 2014 saw a lot of imagery like this, with the "metaphorical blast" intro to the quiet is violent tour. by the end of the blurryface album, we are to understand shooting him didn't work ("i need your help to take him out".)

blurryface was bullproof, so to speak. they began with bullet -- now add fire. will this kill him?

apparently not, seeming to reach a fever pitch with this last leg of tour. blurryface may be fireproof, but damn if they're not still fighting.

tyler muses on whether fear even *is* a rival. should blurry be killed? can he be?

- twice now this year tyler has talked about conflict in terms of "tension to be managed", to be "lived with", rather than "problems to be solved." https://twitter.com/poptivist/status/1191871651824230401?s=20

so to be clear -- that's tyler doing exactly what he said he was going to do in 2017. make an album about balancing, tying the extremes, not necessarily solving them.

in jumpsuit he nearly gets got, but snaps out of it. in levitate he -- well, levitates, neither flies nor falls. in morph he morphs to someone else to avoid what's being thrown at him. in chlorine he negotiates his relationship with his passion/career.

in pet cheetah -- he has this animal in him (a phrase 2013, 2014 tyler will use a lot) that wants to rip through the task at hand, and tyler says no, i move slow. i'll sit here til i find the problem. he mitigates. he balances.

"in time, i will leave the city. for now, i will stay alive."

a tension to be managed.

all of these things point to finding a way to live with the bad, not defeat it.

lastly, when rock sound posited that vessel was a 'thing' and blurry was a 'person' and trench was a 'place', what was next? and josh leaned back and said "an idea". and tyler said "don't let his body language fool you. what he says is actually brilliant."

*apologies, altpress

this stuff has a bit more weight if you watch this video https://twitter.com/poptivist/status/1168469460681940992?s=20

i guess a reasonable thing to add on is we may *not* get another clancy letter, bc clancy's completed the arc of the album: rebellion, escape, capture, being back in the city, just like tyler is at the end of the album. straight chillin

balance

i guess i'm just thinking of this thread https://twitter.com/poptivist/status/1252797895872577543?s=20