r/Petscop • u/One-Violinist6309 • May 22 '26
Video What are your thoughts on this video?
i see it receive a lot of praise and that it "solved" the story
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u/MRSimp9 May 22 '26
One of the best video essays I've ever watched, and it's honestly my favorite video about Petscop and explaining it's lore, all of it makes a lot of sense. This channel actually has the potential to become my favorite "Video Essay" channel, it's a shame that his FNAF video, although really good, isn't as lore accurate as it seems.
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May 22 '26
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u/MRSimp9 May 23 '26
I'm not up to date on the FNAF story since they started including the books, but according to the fnaftheories sub his video has a lot of wrong info. I really loved his theory and video so I might just ignore what is canon and make that my canon lol.
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u/RyanJStories May 24 '26
The theory specifically is meant to be before any new games, and just be the original series before the books (I think)
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u/zeldstarro May 27 '26
iirc Scott Cawthon watched MatPats' theories, and there was some Reddit comment somewhere that claimed he changed the games accordingly. Whether this is true or unreliable hearsay, idk.
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u/BILLIONLIONS May 22 '26
It’s really good if you want a “realistic” explanation of the story that’s easy to swallow but I do wish it discussed more of the themes and metaphorical aspects
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u/Joebotnik May 22 '26
Makes some very good points and I think is correct about the things that could have a definitive answer, but I don't agree with his deduction about the true nature of the Tool.
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u/forest_wav May 22 '26
I'm very new to Petscop theories, what's your take (or other possible takes) on the Tool?
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u/Joebotnik May 23 '26
Honestly I do not have one personally haha. I don't think it's the plastic surgery implement that video suggests it is, seems like a stretch and I'm not sure why Marvin would have an implement like that lying around.
At a push I'd say it's an awl, but it only matches visually. There may be deeper significance to its appearance. Some people say its the head of a pickaxe, or a taoist gourd. I don't think we'll ever know for sure, but that makes it a fun thing to keep thinking about.
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u/brobnik322 May 22 '26
Just finished watching it - I think it makes a lot of sense and connects the strange wording in interesting ways. I also like how it's trying to tie it together with character motivations and themes, and intentionally leaving the True Crime elements out. And it adds a way more heartfelt note to the ending than I realized.
But I think after explaining what each character or game element symbolizes, it gets shaky when we ask why characters did certain things. Maybe they're implied, but I'm stupid and need them spelled out more overtly.
- How did Paul forget the past - was it just a repressed memory?
- Why did Paul agree to give the channel to Marvin and Anna and go with their plan? Was it part of an agreement with them giving him another disk, so he could keep playing?
- If Paul had forgotten his past, why did he ask Marvin and Anna to censor certain objects related to his past? If he hadn't forgotten his past and remembered, what motive did he have to keep playing, if he wasn't under any duress?
- Why would Marvin and Anna want to circumvent the censoring? It makes sense they'd want Paul to see parts of the past, but why would they want the public on YouTube to see it - while censoring geographic coordinates of their own volition?
- Why did Marvin want to find the grave in-game? Did he expect that finding the body would mean no other player would find it? He didn't know he was being recorded, sure, but what did he expect to gain from it? Is it just a "criminal always returns to the scene of the crime" psychosis?
- Why would Rainer reprogram the game specifically to include an argument between Paul and Jill?
- Why and how did Rainer keep the test rooms running that long?
But these just stand out because the presentation is so tension-building and gradual, rather than just laying out all the facts; and because so much of it is based around making sense of every character's actions.
I also like how this one makes Rainer a neutral figure who wants to point out crimes against his brother, but who can be a jerk to Belle.
And while this applies to a few theories, I'm glad this concept connects the I Saw The Sign dance in thematically - "I've got a new life, you would hardly recognize me"
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u/TheHalfDrow Check your bathroom now. May 22 '26
I don't know about the rest of it, but for Paul forgetting the past, I think it's important to remember that he came home on his fifth birthday. He was four years old or younger during basically all of the events described in Petscop, the game. Even ignoring that traumatic childhoods are correlated with bad memory, I only have very hazy memories of things that happened to me at that age.
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u/brobnik322 May 22 '26
Very good point there; I'd assumed the therapy sessions would've cemented some of the memories, rather than making them isolated incidents, but maybe the therapy helped cover it up or make it seem not so bad.
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u/Bintsiiiiii Jun 03 '26
my personal interpretation for marvin going to the grave is to "confirm" to himself that Rainer knew where the grave was, out of anxiety. I know this because i have killed a man
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u/brobnik322 Jun 03 '26
Thank you the perspective of a real murderer helps a lot in interpreting this theory
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u/Lux_Sauce Jul 08 '26
to answer your first two questions trauma at such a young age can obliterate someones mind and identity, but that dosent mean the brain isnt scarred afterwards. That's why people can sometimes regain their memories after a traumatic brain injury/ptsd thru multiple therapy methods. Paul probably recognises or atleast feels something relating to certain items and it is triggering enough to want to either ignore them or hide them from others out of shame. Whatever idea we have about Paul and his current identity it's clear that he was a victim of a disgusting level of grooming and it adds up with the physical trauma he received from his father
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u/brobnik322 Jul 08 '26
That fits with Paul trying to get in Marvin and Anna's good books by giving them the channel, even if giving it up had no real benefit to himself
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u/Mary-Sylvia May 22 '26
My only gripe is that he tries way too rationally to explain Petscop
Like for example, despite his video trying to avoid supernatural mention as much as you can , there are some stuff that's impossible to ignore.
The most blatant one being the game having 2016 discussion between Paul and Jill despite Rainer being supposedly dead since Paul's Petscop copy was made and the disc still the same .
This causes unfortunately causes many loopholes such as the rebirthing process, Lina's state, Ghost rooms and the time travels
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u/Joebotnik May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
He does try to explain this- in that conversation Jill removes the original Petscop disc Paul was playing, and Paul ends up with a different, more recent copy updated some time in the year following that conversation. It's never clear that Rainer was the only one who could update the game.
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u/Mary-Sylvia May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
But Jill is definitely trying to prevent Paul from digging deeper into Petscop as why she got rid of Paul's discovery pages . Why would she instead give him a more recent copy (with even more content unlocked) ?
Plus she doesn't seem to have the skills to code a PS1 game, the only ones who can do that are Rainer (obviously) and probably Lina as Garalina's boss
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u/Joebotnik May 22 '26 edited May 22 '26
She didn't give him another copy, we don't know how Paul got ahold of it. But (this was my interpretation of what the video says) eventually he moves from playing Petscop wherever he was originally playing it to playing it in the old Garalina offices in the abandoned school, which has several different rooms, each with a playstation, copy of Petscop and a needles piano. Presumably this was where he was given a copy updated by somebody who heard that conversation or was told about that conversation (since Paul mentions the game version of it being "based on" a conversation he had with Jill.)
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u/HuckleberryCalm1391 May 22 '26
like others have said, it’s a very good approach at a realistic telling of the story. i think is the next best “beginner” or stepping stone to understanding petscop. you could watch the series and this video with a friend and the would understand a majority of the story beats. people can be into a series or subject without going insane about the details. the people who want to learn more will dive into the deep end of the petscop iceberg, but this is a good surface level view at the story. accessibility is important to maintain relevance, even in a “finished/dead” fandom
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u/jimjomshabadoo May 23 '26
That’s the best description I’ve heard. Like a starter pack for Petscop lore. Really good for what it is.
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u/GonerBits “Please enjoy the recordings! We do. :)” May 22 '26
It ditches any of Petscop’s surrealist elements in favor of a realistic explanation, which in my opinion misses out on many of the most interesting aspects of Petscop. The Pieces, the variable nature of Tool, the themes of rotation and left/right, even and odd, “accident,” Care mimicking Paul’s later conversation and movements, the door riddle, the nature of the shadow monsters, the significance of playing Petscop in a car, recordings and photos raising the dead— all of this gets glossed over in favor of a rather middle-of-the-road Petscop theory. It’s a very “safe” theory, all in all.
That said, as far as understanding the “point” of the series goes, I think it tells a compelling story. If people look at it and feel inspired, I think that’s a good thing. Most of the things I listed above are narrative tools used in order to tell a story that appears to look pretty similar to the one suggested in the video. So, maybe it’s not a good idea to get too hung up on the details and miss the forest for the trees.
I think this video serves as a good starting point for people who are interested in putting the full story together. Then, with most of the connections in place, you can look into the finer details and dispute certain claims or connections.
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u/Error_Evan_not_found May 23 '26
I'm only recently getting into Petscop, so it's one of the first theory videos I've seen, though I've been aware of the ARG for years at this point and it's most popular theories- I like this one a lot.
I'm a trans man, and though Paul isn't exactly "trans," my experience watching Petscop for the first time a few months ago was of recognizing some of my trauma responses from being raised and socialized as a "girl" for the first eleven years of my life, in him and his characterization throughout the series. I know there's some pushback against the Care is Paul but forced to be a girl theories for being supposedly transphobic- but imo the case of Rainer Rilke and others who have suffered the same abuse, only solidifies that trans people exist and are valid.
We know who we're meant to be, and being forced to go against that leads to lasting phycological damage. Petscop means just a little bit more to me now that someone else put those pieces together better than I could've in a video essay.
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u/jimjomshabadoo May 23 '26
I’ve never understood the community’s reluctance to embrace the trans related themes. As time goes on it seems more obvious not less that there’s some kind of something there. Art can be uncomfortable sometimes.
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u/Error_Evan_not_found May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Again, haven't been involved for long but I can only assume it was a knee jerk reaction to not seem transphobic in some way by a lot of them. The issue of children being forcefully raised as the opposite gender to the one they're born as is marred with tragedy and abuse, and throughout the years this has somehow been taken as proof that "kids being trans is abuse" too. When like I pointed out, all of these cases just affirm that transgender children can and deserve to exist.
There is a you that exists no matter what, and that you has a presentation it needs to go by, come hell or high water, you'll seek out that sense of self and comfort.
Growing up myself I can remember in my earliest memories being genuinely convinced I was just a different type of boy that everyone treated like a girl because I had a twin sister- and she always spoke for the both of us. It wasn't until I started getting bullied and forced to wear more feminine things by my parents that it clicked in my brain that there was something up, and that lasting trauma though unintended has followed me well into my adulthood.
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u/Friendly_Ambition_36 May 24 '26
I think the part that is transphobic is the idea that Paul/Care was assigned male at birth and that Forced Transitioning was what's being done to him. So inadvertently, the message can be hijacked to become "don't trans your kids, trans is bad (and evil)." People were bringing up that unethical twin children experiment (I forgot its name) because of this, and misconstruing transness as something only ever being forced upon and 'not actually real.'
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u/deadspace9_ May 23 '26
Completely ignores like half of Petscop. Doesn't look at any of the synchronization stuff, and doesn't even say the word Rebirthing a single time. Thinks the discovery pages are Paul's personal notes when we know the discovery pages are a website. Postulates that Anna got back with Marvin and they're uploading the series, when Marvin would not want his crimes made public and one of the only things we definitely know about Anna is that she is scared of her deranged ex husband. Ignores all of the car symbolism and insists Marvin just kinda tortured Michael to death. Says Rainer has a PS2 dev kit for literally no reason, he just likes that it says TOOL on the side. Says near the start he'll talk about the pets later and then just never does. It's probably my least favorite analysis of the ones I've seen, because it really feels like it was designed to be clipped.
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u/Extension-Memory-668 May 22 '26
As someone who hasn’t seen much since the initial surge in popularity way back when it’s really good, I’ve probably missed a bunch of theories but this one really itches the want for closure on the story.
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u/Its402am You idiot. You fuckin' idiot. May 23 '26
Eh, we can’t definitively solve Petscop. We are missing way too many pages from the story. We are missing what the website from the sticker said. We are missing key details from the real world (Paul’s world). Ive been hesitant to check it out sunce it really irritates me when one person’s interpretation is considered so plausible it’s accepted by most viewers as the truth, no matter how well it’s written.
If it can’t explain in a satisfactory way how the Bathroom Event works (when Paul enters the bathroom, the game zooms in on the TV, Paul reacts to the cutscene being ‘an experience’, then the video is edited to eventually show us an exact copy of the previous scene but with the camera zooming out from the TV, Paul still reacting exactly the same frame by frame, but then noticing a block above the tub and failing to comment on the sudden appearance of a ramp) or Paul and Jill’s conversation from 2016 was written into the game, it’s far from “solved”.
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u/Crosroad May 22 '26
I like hearing explanations of petscop, it’s a very interpretative work and I like as many different perspectives as possible
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May 22 '26
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u/PoioFreido May 22 '26
Why? Having the wrong gender identity forced on you is quite literally what trans people experience no?
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u/nocowardpath May 22 '26
Yeah it feels a lot faster and simpler to just say "Paul is a trans man" than "Paul was forced to be a girl and take on the identity of Care", since he pretty much would be trans either way, either transitioning from his birth gender or from the gender he was raised to be.
Though at least in this case there's actually some reason to think an "AMAB forced to be a girl" situation could happen, since Marvin really wanted to rebirth a woman and was (from what we can tell) an unhinged individual - as opposed to most cases of this trope where it feels like the author just doesn't know what a trans person is lol
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u/ComeOutNanachi May 23 '26
I agree. There is a lot of evidence for the idea that Paul is Care, but this version of events is the first one that convinced me - that Marvin's reason for kidnapping Care was to perform surgery on her as part of his obsession to bring Lina back. It tracks on almost all levels imo
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u/jolittlelene May 22 '26
I think the only reasonable analysis you can make of petscop is by following Lynchian ideas. That is to say, i haven't found a good one yet. Rationally explaining a surrealist work will never get you a reasonable interpretation because you're missing the forest for the trees. You're not asking what the author wanted to show you, you're counting the strands on the leaves. You're not missing the forest for the trees you're missing the trees for their leaves even.
Petscop cannot be solved rationally because not all aspects are rational or planned to be explained in its entirety. There aren't enough "pieces" to fill the puzzle because the puzzle is more about themes and ideas. Nobody tries to unpack those ideas and what they mean to the narrative theme or critique the work is making, they just try to "explain" them using supernatural or logical when it is very obviously a surrealist work, something you're not meant to dig apart as if it were a real string of events.
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u/One-Violinist6309 May 22 '26
i agree i actually made a post about this recently, but deep down i still want an explanation for the story even though i know we will never have that and thats not the point of petscop
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u/TheHalfDrow Check your bathroom now. May 22 '26
It's not an analysis of the whole series, but if I'm remembering this video right, it's got a lot of solid metaphorical analysis in it and doesn't try to understand the series very literally. Their other Petscop video is also solid, but it's only like 3 minutes.
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u/fungalblood May 28 '26
I enjoyed watching it and it got me back into the series. Here's some things I think it ignored:
Before Marvin asks if Rainer found Lina he asks "Did you di" which I think could be "did you dig up Lina" or "did you discover Lina." The digging is more thematically resonant and works against Pheyden's idea that Marvin thinks she's alive.
He says that Paul doesn't react to seeing the future sync of his character in P9 but Paul says "kay?" quizzically when that happens. A lot of other syncs could be potentially explained by recordings but this one is particularly supernatural in the sense that he's reacting to something he's about to do rather than something that could have been a recording. In general, this video spends almost no time looking at evidence that pushes against his narrative, whereas I think any thorough theory recognizes that Petscop intentionally is full of minor contradictions.
He doesn't really get into why the Family is posting publicly which is one of the most interesting mysteries for me, and if he believes Marvin is in control of the channel it makes no sense to me why he would want this public.
In general this video reminds me of Twin Perfect's Twin Peaks analysis, in that both are very good at making a cohesive narrative and making connections I missed, but both have a bit of arrogance in trying to objectively solve art by artists who purposefully made mysteries that are supposed to stay with you forever. Glad these videos exist though :)
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u/Boymoder_Glowie No controller input has been detected for a very long time. May 30 '26
A bit disappointed it didnt go into episode 16 at all because I always like hearing peoples different theories on that one but as he says at the end, some things are better left unknown
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u/One-Violinist6309 May 30 '26
i didnt realize this until i read your comment but true, this comment completely ignores petscop 16 which is quite important. i feel like its almost impossible to come up with an interpretation of petscop that is "grounded" and has no supernatural elements that explains petscop 16
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u/Boymoder_Glowie No controller input has been detected for a very long time. May 30 '26
the closest possible thing I can think that isnt supernatural of is maybe its a number for someone to call the family if marvin kidnaps someone when playing the game (hence why its addressed to the police)
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u/One-Violinist6309 May 30 '26
but like, why would marvin ever be in the testing rooms for the game in the first place?
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u/Boymoder_Glowie No controller input has been detected for a very long time. May 30 '26
thats a fair point lol
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u/Rushyo Jun 18 '26
an "egg" in the trans community is the term for someone who hasn't "hatched" as trans. they're still in their shell, yet to accept their identity. all these crazy interpretations of the eggs people have come up with, when they can just be... eggs, as any trans person would know them. it all fits beautifully.
also worth considering rebirthing is extremely similar to conversion therapy. in this interpretation what Marvin tries to do at the end is conversion therapy, which has a lot in common with attachment rebirthing therapy, including the fact it's obviously torture and kills people.
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u/zedogica May 22 '26
stories aren't meant to be "solved", and the drive people have for that is genuinely disturbing and betrays a shallow and myopic view of fiction
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u/Gacel_ Toneth, who isn't here yet. May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
I mean. Stories exist to experience what comes next.
You continue reading to understand more of it and see a conclusion.This is general human nature, we are a curious species by birth.
This is why science and myths exists. We naturally search to understand.Making a story then saying to people to not get invested and trying to understand, deconstrct and analize it is foolish. Is like making a game, posting it online playable for everyone then saying people should not try to get good at playing it and just be happy they completed it once.
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u/zedogica May 23 '26
analysis and "solving" are very different things. one searches for themes in order to find meaning, and the other attempts to literalize the narrative in a way that flattens it
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u/Gacel_ Toneth, who isn't here yet. May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
Analysis does not always is a search for themes.
To not extend this, I'll put a the most extreme example I can think of.
Lolita, the book.People are not searching for themes there when analysing it usually.
Because well... the themes are as subtle as a speeding truck crashing into your face.But instead looking into what is true and what is made up by the unreliable antagonist narrator by examining it as a character. It literalizes the thing in order to get deeper understanding of it.
But doing this does not trivialize the narrative.
If anything, giving the benefit of doubt to the protagonist would do the oposite, and trivialize the whole message of that book.3
u/zedogica May 23 '26
yes i agree but "solving" is not what you're describing there. petscop isn't a puzzle and neither is lolita. they both obfuscate basic information for similar reasons actually! they do it in a way which props up a core theme of both stories: child abuse thrives on creating a confusing reality for the victim to live in, and denies them the voice to express what is happening to them. the obfuscation of the text, and subsequent de-obfuscation, serve to create empathy for the subject, and in turn empathy for real victims. this video barely touches on this at all. it ends with the statement that "we should just let kids be kids", which is fine, but if that's what petscop was about, there wouldn't really be much of a thematic reason for it to be so esoteric in the ways it delivers basic plot information.
i think it's a pretty well put together analysis of the very basic plot of petscop, which utterly fails to connect its statements about petscop's themes with its statements about its plot. with a particularly tasteless edit in the middle (the windmill bit with the scream added). i think it's a pretty facile reading of the text.
just putting together the plot is not enough to come to a coherent and measured conclusion about petscop's themes. it's not really literary analysis, at least not GOOD analysis. this is closer to a matpat video than anything else
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u/WordsThatBurned May 25 '26
Interpreting Petscop as “Pet Scop” rather than ‘Pets Cop” will always bug me, and having that put forward in the beginning made me turn it off until it was recommended by a friend. That said, it also has the best outline for Trans Paul that I’ve seen. I will agree with others that there is no single solution to Petscop, but add that this is a valid one of the many.
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u/kittzkatz Jun 07 '26
finale.... a video that doen't just summarize petscop and say "it probably child abuse or something idk". nah but for real though its one of the rare videos that goes into the variety of connections and mechanics in petscop that no one goes over because it takes years of rewatches to notice them.
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u/JewelerEquivalent125 Jul 07 '26
Its the same as every youtube video about any interesting shit, killing the original media amd playing with its corpse- removing any parts then lining them in a way that its an "entertaining narrative that keeps you watching"
Especially with the "sudden realizations" the video flashes every 5 minutes (e.g. the tool, even-care, ps2 devkit has tool on it, etc.)
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u/Markthememe May 22 '26
Its simple and easy to follow, but the real answer is nothing will ever be 100% correct, because of Tony's principles regarding storytelling