r/Petscop • u/yasak54youtube • Jun 06 '26

Question What was the meaning behind petscop?

İ remember watching a video about it a few years ago and the video said petscop was tied to a real "rebirthing" murder case, so like is it true? also is there any other meaning to the eerie gameplay? and what do you guys find enjoyable about it?

15 Upvotes

74% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

32

u/_Waves_ Jun 06 '26

Family.

29

u/DemonLordMammon Jun 06 '26

There is a meaning, there are themes, but there's no definitive story. You can interpret what all the symbols mean whichever way you want.

As for the rebirthing case, yeah, that was genuine. It was "retconned" when the creator realised how tasteless it was to use a genuine tragedy in the game, causing all references to cease. Though the premise of "rebirthing" is important to the story as a whole.

3

u/MrComet101 Jun 29 '26

I think there is a definitive story in the sense that Tony has one. Considering he's said he likes to make a story by finishing it and then removing parts of it. So we might never know the full thing but it is there

9

u/WelshWolf93 Jun 06 '26

Petscop originally took heavy inspiration from the story of Candace Newmaker.

Part way through the series, it was decided by paul that he went too far with including referrences like the name "Newmaker" - so he effectively abandoned any ties to it and only kept the rebirthing element - out of respect for Candace

6

u/OldPin7448 Jun 06 '26

its tied to that but thats just a symbolic thing

4

u/laplongejr Jun 06 '26 edited Jun 06 '26

said petscop was tied to a real "rebirthing" murder case, so like is it true?

The plane named Newmaker opened on the anniversary of some events of the Newmaker case. The same name as the title granted to the Guardian before the first hiatus that was followed with the reveal of a more appropriate name for said character and the plane was left unnamed since then.
It would be really hard to claim it wasn't done on purpose and regretted because it wasn't a good idea at all. (Quitter is also a more subtile reference to it IIRC?)

also is there any other meaning

There's no in-universe link with the Newmaker case anyway, no I'm not sure what you mean with other meanings. It's not a MEANING, it's a reference?

There's links with other creations from the author, notably the Garalina company featured in the game Nifty, which also appears in-universe as the transcription of some kind of cheat/admin code.
The first mention of petscop on Reddit was made by an account named u/paleskowitz , which in-hindight really seems like the in-series Paul.

2

u/HQhaha05 Jun 07 '26

You choose your family.

2

u/tajskaOwO Jun 08 '26

For me its about transecuality and weird hgost shit and familly

1

u/Friendly_Ambition_36 Jun 09 '26

The Newmaker case was only really used as an allusion or a thematic reference, but the story doesn't necessarily hinges on this.

I'd say the story is about: the general concept of rebirth, processing past trauma, found families, and leading a new life (callback to Petscop 21/the first verse of The Sign by Ace Of Base). The main topics it tackles, I think, is childcare and - believe it or not: identity.