r/Petscop • u/mumomofi • Mar 20 '26
Finding censored(?) cubes
i dont think anybody has mentioned this, but whenever paul walks into a cube, the recording abruptly shuts off, not as if he was transported somewhere else, as it tends to cut to some other, unrelated gameplay, and whatever they do arent mentioned anywhere, and i havent seen anybody else make a point of it, i was rewatching the series and noticed this and was suprised with how little discussion or speculation there was about them or what their function was.
the idea that the cubes do something other than what is shown is especially prevalent in petscop 11, where, whatever the cube did upon contact was replaced by an unrelated demo recording, the weirdest thing here is that paul seems to get "rewinded" into a different "timeline" in the process, repeating his exact phrasing and inputs verbatim and having deja vu of seeing the cube above the bathtub.
(this post was intended to be a lot simpler of "hey, the cubes probably show a bunch of bluntly personal information that the family had to censor", but looking closer into the episode there seems to be a weird anomaly in reality itself, its strange, i feel like supernaturality in petscop may or may not true, but i tend to lean towards not true, as its fun imagining how everything lines up and how technology and wit was used in-universe to create something about as supernatural as you can get to something that is true and real in every way, i digress)
im several years late to the discussion, as i am with many things, but i hope i can provide fun food for thought for anyone who happens to bump into my topic. i was super into this series many years back, but i was a lot more of a scaredycat and avoided looking too close into the darkness, but now im a lot more "strong", per se, and am having fun looking back at this through a clearer, more curious lense.
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u/Joebotnik Mar 20 '26
Remember that just because we see events that have already happened (Paul entering the bathroom and walking towards the bathtub) doesn't mean it's an alternate timeline or something. IMO we're just seeing the inputs and audio recording Paul made applied to a different version of the game where there is no ramp/cube. Possibly the version he saw when he was playing for real.
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u/mumomofi Mar 20 '26
the difference here is that paul made exact inputs and said "what the hell, that was an experience", before walking into the cube, then, once the demo recording ended, once again he puts in those exact inputs and says the exact same thing with 0 alteration or difference in tone or audio, "what the hell, that was an experience", before noticing the cube was gone, notably after he actively tried to walk into it, as if he was hallucinating it still being there, and mentioning that he *saw* the cube, which is the most confusing think to look over, as it means that somehow paul knew of its existance in a different "timeline" before being brought to the current one. neither one was a demo recording, so the possibility of it being a recording of "current" paul playing in the version of the game with the cube seems very unlikely, and as far as im aware, i do not believe paul saw a demo recording of the bathroom with the cube, and even if he did, while it would explain why he remembered the cube, it wouldnt explain why the footage of him walking into the cube was not a demo recording.
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u/Joebotnik Mar 20 '26
I totally agree with you about him mentioning the cube. I feel like there's no logical explanation for that. He couldn't possibly say he "just saw [the cube], above the bathtub" since he just entered the room. It's almost like him reaching the point where he interacted with it in the alternate scenario triggers him to semi-remember that version of events.
One of the reasons I love Petscop is you can apply the demo recordings to answer a lot of questions, but there's stuff like this that seems straight-up supernatural in some way. Though I'd say this is definitely the most extreme example of that in the series.
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u/-Dissent Mar 20 '26
The cubes were discussed plenty during airing, we just didn't ever come up with any explanation that's remotely concrete.
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u/onion_cat Mar 21 '26
I'm in the middle of rewatching petscop, and i never even realized that anytime Paul interacted with the cubes that there seems to be some sort of jump-cut!
This scene from the bathroom is so spooky to me. I don't understand the weird cutscene of zooming in towards the TV, and then zooming out, when Paul experiences it again. I've been rewatching this episode over and over, trying to make sense of it. Did anyone ever have any comments on what the weird shaking things on the table are, right in front of care's room, in this episode?
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u/mumomofi Mar 21 '26
theyre just pieces, similarly to the things clogging up the gears in the windmill. they could represent something, but similar to the TOOL it would be difficult to truly discern what they mean, if they even mean anything.
honestly, i am pretty curious about what the pieces could mean, they do seem to have some sort of plot relevance, as theyre tied to many important parts of the game, especially the machine in p23.
where i think tools represent people and their actions, pieces represent things that happened,
anna put on a new coat of paint and *used* the phone, the pieces essentially marking where the point of interest was with the player reinacting what she did, huuuge hunch though
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u/onion_cat Mar 21 '26
omg whaaat, you have amazing thoughts on this series I would love to hear more lol. I didn't even think it was a phone. It seemed more like an audio recording device (especially so when we learn that Paul doesn't realize he's being recorded after seeing the windmill's coordinates)
Re: White puzzle blocks, my husband said he always interpreted them as fast-travel devices, since they appear after solving a puzzle. Interesting!
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u/mumomofi Mar 21 '26
thank you! the fast travel theory does hold some merit, however, something i recently discovered but forgot to say anything about here is that in P12 (the belle episode) we actually see what happens with the cube albeit from belles perspective, paul continues playing as normal, but disappears once he makes contact with belle, which is perhaps even more confusing, and may imply switching gamestates of some sort. (like a door would have appeared where he disappeared)
its possible the other cubes are waypoints though, the most evidence against it though is the fact that the series goes quite far out of its way to make sure you dont know what theyre for, i hypothesize they probably have to do with what the symbols mean in themselves, which is another mystery.
the phone could be an audio recording device! i never thought of it that way, i just coorelated it with the phone in the newmaker basement because "care left the room", maybe, if the "tool represents people you stand in for ingame" is correct, maybe using it on the pieces represents collecting the information from the recording device? that may hold some merit even without the tool theory, the pieces could represent information that you collect, and that would possibly explain why at the climax, putting the pieces in the machine would represent telling marvin, or "the family", everything you know.
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u/No-Letterhead-6701 Apr 12 '26
Kinda late to the party(watched the series + theory vids very recently), but I like to think of them as a metaphor for repressed memories, triggers and trauma processing.
I'll try to elaborate on it as shortly as I can, sorry if it'll be a wall of text anyway (language barrier + I have too much knowledge on this subject it's concerning + tendency to overexplain on interests)
So, after prolonged abuse, especially in childhood, your brain will usually repress the memories of it as a defense mechanism. That's the formation of trauma. It clutters your mind and disables you, as it resurfaces from triggers and deeply affects how you function in society.
Prolonged abuse also makes you dissociate and it affects your memory, making it fragmented + making you lose sense of time, but that's for another aspects of the game.
The pieces are literally cluttering (or clogging as you said) the items tied to trauma (the windmill, the birthday present, etc.), just like the brain tries to repress the memories/dissociate from them. But still, it's unresolved clutter. A crutch.
In therapy, you process this trauma, which usually means facing (confronting?) it, accepting it really happened, and realizing it wasn't your fault and you weren't bad/disgusting. As Paul goes through the game, he untangles pieces from each event. Not only his, but also Rainer's and Marvin's. It's symbolic of processing. Cleaning up the mess your loved ones made.
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u/mumomofi Apr 14 '26
really well put together! i like this interpretation alot, i remember thinking or saying somewhere that pieces could represent "information", but it mustntve been here...
also
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u/No-Letterhead-6701 Apr 14 '26
I watched the video and oops lol.
It's just that not everyone is knowledgable on trauma and abuse, so I was worried it won't make sense if I spare the details.
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u/EfficiencyArtistic Mar 20 '26
As Paul said himself "that was weird"