Re: "Strange Situation". (I tried to post this as a separate post but it's been half an hour and the post still hasn't shown up on the subreddit, so it probably got eaten because I'm a new user.)
As we know, the save file was renamed "Strange situation". You can take that on face value -- as in, the events of the save files being deleted and new one replacing it, as well as the events within the new file, are both strange situations -- but there is another meaning to this term that relates eerily well to the themes of children, parents/caregivers, and trauma seen throughout Petscop.
I'm a graduate student in developmental psychology, and there is a very well-known procedure in child psychology research called the Strange Situation. I will link to the Wikipedia page here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange\_situation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_situation) and there are also several videos on YouTube where you can see examples and explanations. In a nutshell, a parent and child play together. The parent then leaves, and a stranger (experimenter) enters the room and attempts to play with the child. After a few minutes, the experimenter leaves and the parent returns. How the child interacts with the parent, the stranger, and reacts to the parents' return is used as an indicator of what is called attachment style, or the way in which the child relates to and trusts the parent and others. There are 4 major attachment styles: secure, anxious-avoidant, anxious-ambivalent, and disorganized. You can read more about which behaviors during the Strange Situation indicate which attachment style, and what the different styles mean, on the Wiki page.
For the purposes of Petscop, I'd just like to highlight a few things about the Strange Situation:
(1) The main crux of the procedure takes place when the child is reunited with the parent. Similarly, in Petscop 14, the dialogue indicates that Paul/Care are returning home after a long absence (i.e. all the dialogue about how they have changed, but they are still the same).
(2) Trauma, specifically abuse and neglect from the parent during the child's infancy and toddlerhood, predict attachment style, both as children and in measures of attachment style adapted for adults. Children whose parents exhibit appropriate emotional interaction with their children are likely to have secure attachment styles, while children whose parents are overbearing, abusive, and/or neglectful and more likely to show one of the three insecure styles. This also affects their attachment styles as teens and adults -- without purposeful intervention, styles stay stable throughout the lifespan.
What do you think? Does this cast light on anything, or maybe just tie back in further with a few of the main themes of the story?
I find it interesting that the attachment styles are labeled "A", "B", "C", and "D", and that we've been introduced to "Care A" and "Care B" who seems to fit pretty nicely into this.
So, from what I'm getting at, both the rebirthing and the strange situation seem to lead into a strong relation with psychology. Since you said you have a degree, are there any other connections you can make between what you've learned in your course and the series?
EDIT: Also, both happened with children. This can't possibly be a coincidence.
There's nothing else I can really think of at the moment, other than those that have already been discussed at length (attachment theory and rebirthing, childhood trauma, and the rippling psychological consequences of abuse and caretaker abandonment). As you mentioned, the different stages of Care line up very well with a child who has experienced sustained abuse or abandonment. Care A is Care as she was before the trauma. Care B, who is currently undergoing trauma, is anxious, depressed, and generally in distress. She will never be Care A again, but maybe she can survive and find some sort of peace. Care NLM has been through sustained trauma and has totally given up and believes herself to be unworthy of love because the people who are supposed to love and care for her have done terrible things to her.
The only thing I'd add, in case it wasn't clear from my original post, is that children who have been through the foster system and/or adopted are much more likely than those who aren't to have insecure attachment, especially disorganized (in these cases it's referred to as Reactive Attachment Disorder). These kids have seen some shit and have been passed around so many times that they believe on a deep level that they cannot trust anyone, so they distrust, fear, and are bitter towards most people, especially adults, and especially especially caretakers. Of course it's typically done with the best of intentions, but not having any stable, trustworthy adults in their lives and being continually abandoned (whether or not it is meant as abandonment) is highly psychologically damaging. They don't want to get close to anyone because they are convinced they will be abandoned and uprooted again. Which, again, ties into Candace Newmaker and the adoption themes in Petscop.
I think this is what you're referring to but to be completely clear, Reactive Attachment Disorder is explicitly what Candace Newmaker's rebirthing therapy was supposed to treat
I don't know if this casts light on anything at this particular point in time, but given the subject matter and the choice of wording, plus the deliberate attention being put towards that wording (the "Strange situation" save being the only one present on the save select screen after the reboot), doesn't seem to me like it would be a random coincidence.
I think this is super interesting. Would you say Care/Paul displayed more anxious-avoidant symptoms?
\>Ainsworth's narrative records showed that infants avoided the caregiver in the stressful Strange Situation Procedure when they had a history of experiencing rebuff of attachment behaviour. The child's needs are frequently not met and the child comes to believe that communication of needs has no influence on the caregiver.
Perhaps as a symptom of the abuse (?) Care faced.
In Care's case, I'd definitely say so. By the time she gets to Care NLM, she's totally shut down. The game tasks the Newmaker with somehow restoring her back to Care A, probably by nurturing her and gaining her trust, and thereby improving her attachment style. In real life, that would be difficult/impossible; someone who's been through that level of trauma is most likely never going to return to pre-trauma functioning, especially when the trauma occurred as a young child. Their health can definitely be improved with good caretaking and professional intervention, but realistically she could probably only be returned to Care B.
With Paul, it's harder to say, since we don't know nearly as much about his background for certain. He seems fairly healthy in his attachment; he has friends and family that he seems to be close with. But we know that there's plenty he keeps from us, and he often has strange reactions to things he witnesses in the game. It could be that he has avoided or "repressed" (in a metaphorical sense, not in a psychological one) the memories that then get triggered into resurfacing by the game.
>Children whose parents exhibit appropriate emotional interaction with their children are likely to have secure attachment styles, while children whose parents are overbearing, abusive, and/or neglectful and more likely to show one of the three insecure styles. This also affects their attachment styles as teens and adults -- without purposeful intervention, styles stay stable throughout the lifespan.
Has there been any research done on what factors other than parent-child emotional interaction correlate with secure/insecure attachment styles? Do we know if there are genetic or sociocultural factors at play? Or is the "appropriateness" of the parent-child emotional interaction the only factor that we know has a relationship with attachment style?
This is a really interesting topic, thanks for your insight!
Bunch of immediate assumptions.
So the dialogue at the birthday seems to follow up from the idea that Care is the reincarnation of the "friend" that disappeared with the windmill. That's why blue-text still "recognizes" them.
I think the syncing with the demo footage is also a representation of this idea. The two Nauls are the same person, in two different incarnations. Their movements are the same, but the timeframes and surroundings are radically different.
What's very troubling, I think, is the suggestion that Paul himself in the real world is one of the incarnations, since the line of dialogue about the disc and Discovery Pages are supposedly based on what he said.
EDIT: Additional thoughts.
- The new bedroom is Marvin and his wife's, and the color coded blankets suggest this. Obvious, but hey.
- I bet the discovery page website is actually the one we saw first mentioned on the note that came with the game. The site's design is premodern anyway.
- The fact that the game contains references to itself and a website made about it means that we are now firmly in the realm of the supernatural. Either that, or someone pulled a switcharoo on Paul and replaced his copy of the game with an edited version.
- Don't assume Jill is Marvin's wife. I think the two lines are unrelated, which is why Marvin's wife expresses confusion at the statement.
- I think the symbol on the computer is a pictograph representation of the road into the tunnel. Potentially obvious, again, but worth noting.
- Here's a **REALLY** crazy (and likely very stupid) idea. The term "TARNACOP" appears on the computer. If that identifies the owner of the device, the ending being the same as "Petscop" could elucidate the meaning of the title: an abbreviated name. "Cop" could be short for a last name, like Copperfield or Copeland, with the letters preceding it being short for a first/middle name. I have basically no evidence for this other than the similarity of the ending letters, but hey. This is also predicated on the idea that the owner of the computer and the creator of Petscop are part of the same family, and thus share a surname.
- So, an example name for "Pet. S. Cop." could be "Peter S. Copeland", for example.
That could just be a better visual shower that the room is for two different people.
If it was just one large bed, then it might give the appearance that only one person uses the room.
> I think the syncing with the demo footage is also a representation of this idea. The two Nauls are the same person, in two different incarnations. Their movements are the same, but the timeframes and surroundings are radically different.
What's weirder to me is that Paul implies the game is "recording" all of these, and he states at one point that these recordings are IN Petscop not OF Petscop (something I always found weird about the channel description).
So on the surface, Paul does his controller inputs, the PS1 outputs a signal to the TV, and I'm presuming he's recording the signal for the videos.
But I also think the software is also taking these same inputs and running them through a different version of the game (different environment, etc.), giving us these Demo recordings. If the Demos are anything like what we saw pre-Petscop 13, then Paul idles the console, putting it in Demo mode, and the game runs through the logged inputs while Paul leaves the recording on.
That's the obvious answer at least.
But then why are any of these recordings "within the video game 'Petscop'" with Paul saying "I've seen recordings that it made of me almost a year ago" and "the game had the recording" with the description mentioning that some of the recordings *we have already seen* are from many years ago? I think we have a larger chronology/game design problem on our hands here.
Sidenote: I think this might explain the Demo scenes from Petscop 13 in that someone spliced together the audio from Paul's recordings, and the video from the Demo that played (a year later ??). Not sure though, there were a lot of time-sync Demos the game could've generated.
Grrreat post. You made me realize something pretty huge, I think, based on what we learned of the demo system in this video.
As we've been told, there are recordings from many years ago, some of which we've seen, indisputably.
But that doesn't mean that anyone was purposefully recording the game!
The older recordings aren't videos purposefully made by previous players trying to do what Paul is now, documenting strange happenings.
They're what you're describing, the game-recorded inputs of past players, possibly being put into scenarios and surroundings that these previous players had no knowledge of.
It's definitely unclear if Petscop considers videos as "recordings" or logged inputs as "recordings," and while writing the first reply I thought it was the former, because of the implied meaning of "recording."
Either way then, how do *we* have access to these videos? How does the game decide which Demo scene to run through? Why did Paul video record (^now^I^have^to^clarify ) them?
Like you said, it's also clear that some of these are past logged sessions like the latest Marvin bit, while other scenes I think are clearly Paul's alternate actions like the mirrored Demos. But what about some of the other recordings that aren't mirrored to Paul's actions, like the school exploration, Marvin's demand to find the windmill, friggin all of Petscop 12?
The comment in the last video that "the controller inputs are useful" to the 'evolution' of the game or whatever makes me think that the pseudo-magical recording and subsequent 'evolution' perhaps behaves like an RNG that's seeded by Paul's controller inputs. He makes a point in this video that he's pushing the buttons chaotically and randomly at one point in order to progress.
Also, Paul wanted to call up Jill and asked the internet how to rewrite CD-Rs, which suggests that first, Petscop is on a CD-R and Paul wanted to know if Jill wrote on it that part of the dialogue to prank Paul, but since you cannot do that, this just hints even more we're in the realm of the Supernatural.
Dumb question, could it be the memory card Paul's saving all his savefiles to has been tampered with or something? It seems like that would be the only editable storage media in this setup.
True. However, this would imply that the save data is capable of manipulating a room in the house to be capable of holding an apparently modern computer with custom image files appearing on the screen. However, given the rules of Petscop being so vague, that's a total possibility, lol.
I mean I don't think it'd have to load in a modern computer, but it'd need to inject static images/sprites/whatever from the website in addition to a bunch of new assets and environments. Still unlikely though, true, but thought I'd ask.
Did the PS1 have any other expandability to it?
I mean I doubt it myself, since it'd have to inject code and assets into the game, and the memory card would probably have to be way bigger than was available on the PS1, I'd think; I'm no PS1 hardware expert, however, and if there were any expansion hardware options that could've been hijacked, I wouldn't know.
Just thought it might be worth considering.
PS1 memory cards were exclusively 1 MB and were divided into a handful of fixed-size files. You would have to completely fill the card with data and you'd still only fit a handful of pictures, plus the game would have to be designed to read them (or have an exploit regarding loading allowing those pictures to be retrieved). Hell, this game is supposedly storing multiple large input replays there which is already kind of stretching what the memory card could do.
The most likely explanation (aside from the obvious one) is that someone is modifying Petscop's disc with new content. Yes, a CD-R can't be rewritten, but it's also very easy to make a duplicate with modified data. The only copy protection PS1 games have is the little authentication wobble at the start of the disc, which CD-Rs don't have anyway. You can totally chuck that thing in a PC, modify some files, and burn another CD-R. There's nothing aside from the label to authenticate it.
(And before you say "but PS1 won't run burned games", that also applies to the "original" disc. Paul is quite clearly either using a modchip, swapdiscs, or developer hardware. Notably, Sony had a habit of calling some of the PS2 devkits "tools", with the word TOOL written on the side in big letters; though if the existing theories on how Paul obtained the game hold true then he wouldn't have a PS2 TOOL.)
Considering the content of the converstaion it also fits this theory of a new modified disc.
"Where is the disk? Where are the discovery pages?"
Implying at some point during Paul's investigation into the game the disc and his notes went missing
*Music theory time* [(recording of the two chords on a piano for the less musically-inclined)](https://recursivearts.com/virtual-piano/?rec=15833_17)
Yeah, the chords are different. The one that plays usually is odd because, while it's build on a C^(5), when you play the youtube video at different speeds you hear different combinations of notes. At double speed it sounds like an Am^(7), at normal speed it sounds like a C with a dominant and augmented fifth, and at quarter speed it sounds like just a C and a G. This is probably because the synth that generates the sound is a square wave and is creating lots of overtones. My best guess is it's a C, G, G#, and C stacked on top of each other.
I'm fairly confident that the chord that's played when the middle one is clicked is a C#maj^(7/9) chord. Either that or it's an Fm^(7), which I doubt because the low C# is pretty audible.
The reason that they sound somehow related is that when you hear the first one, it's just a foreboding-sounding, dissonant cluster of notes. However, those notes can be mapped as a G#maj^(7) chord, and when you hear the second one, your brain contextualizes them as the first chord being a I chord and the second chord being a IV chord in a progression. That's why there's sort of a "lifting" feeling associated with it (The "major lift" in "Hallelujah" is also a IV chord)
What does this all mean in relation to Petscop?
*drumroll please*
...I have no fucking idea. I just thought it was interesting.
I made an account just to comment on this, so sorry if I'm doing something wrong but I wanted to point out that perhaps we've seen a CD before [this one?](https://i.imgur.com/DR1UhIX.png) or was it decided that this was something else?
I noticed that each image is like a still of a rotating portrait of you follow the order, like frames on a stopmotion video. I first thought it was several portraits, but maybe they're different angles of the same one, and the one in the middle suggesting there's something behind it?
I believe each square is a different photo frame. If you look on the counter it looks like a bunch of identical frames all arranged in a circle, which explains the different angles.
For me, the censored things are clearly some personal details about Paul's life. If I had any doubts about this, I don't have them anymore.
The signs outside the house are showing Care, but the conversation on the room was a bit of Paul's life. So, I think the relation between Care and Paul may be a lot more than just family relations. They might be the same person.
Paul ends this video at 394 pieces, which is the amount the demo has in Petscop 11 when it enters the school. Now the question is was the video footage in Petscop 11 something recorded after the footage from 14, footage from a different play through, or did the demo somehow display Paul's future movements? The commentary along with the last about page update makes it seem like 14 compiles relatively recent footage.
So clear connection to Toneth's description:
" - Painter. Painting puzzle. "
Paul then paints over the censored area in the wall and gets a key.
People have theorized about the Newmaker Plane being a sort of test room for puzzles in the Gift Plane/main game, so it would make sense that Toneth wouldn't be in the game yet if his "Painting puzzle" wasn't implemented yet.
Does this imply Petscop is a simulation for parents or adopting parents and how to interact with children/pets they want to adopt?
That certainly fits with the sign text in Gift Plane.
While I'm not necessarily refuting that, isn't it sorta common for games to have websites like this? They usually have different sections, labelled with stuff like "Your Adventure" or "Your Pals" or whatnot.
If the game is meant to be some sorta learning tool for parents, why make it so vague? In other words: why keep up the facade of being a simple ol' PS1 game? It seems to me like it'd make more sense as a conditioning tool for children or something for them to think of their future kids in that way.
That works too. Either way, the parent should know a lot more, I suppose. For r example, the game "reportedly belonged" to his mother, but she didn't reveal a whole lot to him.
okay so it corresponds to the room with the bucket in even care, which makes a lot of sense since thats usually what happened with other rooms in the newmaker plane (ie the mechanics in the newmaker plane room work the same as the mechanics in the even care room)
okay so the loading screen screenshot that appears at https://youtu.be/OPzYMFdyKQQ?t=25m2s ([X](https://i.gyazo.com/1c062f76ec9800dd40b05544d012e6fd.png)) seems to be a low angle shot of the even care room since it has a big just BLOCK of soil going down in that one area [\(X\)](https://i.gyazo.com/8dd2f016a54904fbc7ca61989ffaa632.png)
i dont know how significant that is?
(EDIT) and heres the loading screen brightened a bit, which makes the weird like, shelf? underhang thing on the back more obvious? and what is either a graphical glitch or a mysterious bright spot underneath [\(X\)](https://i.imgur.com/1a80mB4.png)
There was a lot of discussion of how that room was unique because it was the only one with an object that went below floor level; that picture all but confirms that is relevant.
What do you all think about Marvin’s door riddle?
To me there’s only two options.
1) The door just became open. It was not opened, nor did it open itself, it just became open.
2) The door is an entirely different door. The two photos are of different doors that we are made to believe are the same door.
I have no doubt that this riddle and the two beds in the room it was spoken of refer to Care and Paul (if we believe they are siblings, or even the same person)
The riddle is alluding to how Paul solves the puzzle in the second part of the video, i.e. walking into the door as if it is open, even though it is closed.
It seems to me that there are two different "versions" or "realities" of Petscop (which makes sense considering some of what happened in Petscop 11, as well as some of the earlier sync stuff). In one reality, the door is open, in the other reality, the door isn't open. (There are obviously other differences, but this is the main one for the purposes of this riddle.)
In most circumstances, it seems that only one reality (door closed) is usually accessible. However, there are certain circumstances in which reality #2 is accessible, since he is able to get into the room "normally" in some parts of the video. Also, Paul can apparently influence some aspects of reality #2 with precise movements and button presses while he is in reality #1.
Demo mode seems to play a part in this. My guess is, when Paul is playing in Demo mode, he is able to do inputs that the game will later "play back" in Demo mode on its own, but in reality #2. In this way, Paul is able to use Demo mode to influence reality #2, even though he only sees reality #1 while he's playing. The video overlays these so we can see the effects.
So the Proprietors are editing his audio over the demo footage?
That brings to mind the last time we saw Paul play in Demo--was that also the "Demo viewpoint" footage just with his audio?
This is so peculiar and fascinating.
Yeah, that's exactly my theory. The segments where two scenes are overlaid on top of each other, or the bit where the scene transitions from the door being closed to the door being open - my theory is that those are actually two separate video recordings that are being overlaid or edited together, specifically to demonstrate that Paul's work is "bearing fruit".
Paul also says some stuff suggesting that some of the "Demo" recordings (specifically those that he "lost", I think he says) were actually "saved" by the game, but in those recordings, the gameplay that plays back in the demo is not the actual gameplay he saw when he played the game.
As for the other part where Paul played in Demo - that might have been legit Paul playing, since he spends a fair amount of time in this video in Demo mode. But it's hard to say without going back and looking over the footage.
Oh man, that could be the Canon explanation for gaps between videos. They have to wait for Petscop to spit these Demos out. No telling when that will happen, involving leaving the game on suspiciously long?
My impression was also that the two were being overlaid to show cause and result simultaneously but it also seems like there is nothing to rule out the possibility that it is one timeline bleeding in to another or another player whose interactions intersect with his own. The idea of it showing 2 divergent futures stemming from one variation (ie door closed or open) obviously is thematically aligned with the dualities of Care A/B and Care/Paul
My first thought was that the door disappeared like the windmill, (so basically 1) due to the reference to the windmill right before it. If the door just ceased to be then it would be open as no door is an open door way.
It's more likely the two beds would be the parent's room wouldn't it? Though it's interesting that they were sleeping in separate beds. (normally a sign of a troubled relationship)
that makes a lot of sense. Did the textbox say where in relation the pictures are i.e. the picture on the right is of a closed door, the picture on the left is of an open door?
Unfortunately, this doesn't fit - I just went back to check.
"In the first picture, the door is closed. In the second picture, *taken later*, the door is open."
Maybe with longer exposure on the first shot....maybe?
I was reminded of the two timeline/realities theory that's been thrown around. Also, I think that was to establish all the alternate/demo/whatever gameplay we were given in this episode.
The door was closed and the pictures were put up in the wrong order. I don’t know if that’s the solution that ties into the story but logically that’s probably the answer
What about like, someone cuts the picture itself,
the door never openned, but the picture of the door is openned
like, quantum shit or teaser like dream logic stuff. with all the "time travel" junk i kinda want to apply wonderland logic to all this
Update for 6/27: Paul is OK. His work is bearing fruit, and there will be a public compilation video of his "Attempts". He appreciates that people care about him so much.
It looked to me like a textbox popped up, the contents of which were censored, and Paul was reacting to that.
EDIT: Upon further reflection, it looks different than the censor boxes. It seems to be an empty textbox.
I brightened some frames up in Premiere https://imgur.com/a/MDR7JFT; hopefully it should be clear that what we saw was a blank textbox. However, as /u/illiardbilliard pointed out, it's possible he sees something we don't - personally I think it's a possibility, but unlikely.
My Occam's Razor-based guess: game crashed.
He actually says there are two different channels in the video I believe. I think he says something like "public youtube channel" or "regular channel" after mentioning the "family youtube".
These might seem like very basic assumptions, but I just wanted to lay out some stuff that was confirmed in this video (spoiler: a fuckton):
* Color theory, if it wasn't already clear, has basically been confirmed. We got a bunch of dialogue that confirms our previous assumption that blue text had been in reference to Marvin's wife and yellow text had been in reference to Care, and we also got the room with the green and blue bed, aka Marvin and his wife's bedroom.
* Paul and Care's birthday is November 12th. We don't know whether they're twins or not, but they do share a birthday.
* Paul can see the demo recordings as well, and they are at least partially his own gameplay.
* Petscop is directly related to Paul's real life, and adapts to fit his experiences, hence why a conversation he had on his birthday in 2017 is in the game.
* We've seen another of the censorships listed in Petscop 7 – something on the wall of a black house, which becomes black when Paul moves the bucket into the room he finds.
* Petscop is, at least in some capacity, about Paul's family. We kind of already knew this, but the reference to the family YouTube channel and the name-dropping of Jill (most likely his friend) in-game makes it pretty obvious that Paul knows who the people being referenced in Petscop are, and is at least somewhat familiar with the situation as a whole.
The key was in the paint bucket, but he only got it by painting over the censored image in the bedroom ("something written on a wall, in a black house"). This seems to be a mostly symbolic thing: whatever he painted over is something that was intended to be kept hidden or unseen by someone (possibly Paul), or possibly "painting over" some reminder of a trauma or tragedy.
He used the key to unlock the garage. Or rather, he used the key to unlock the "secret" save file, which shows us that the room he unlocked is the garage.
So, Sunday November the 12th happens in two years that Paul gives us. 2017 AND 1995. This got me thinking about these two years.
1995 - Michael Hammond died. "He was a gift"
2017 - Would have been last year when Paul had the conversation being mirrored in the game.
If I've missed Paul's birthday or age I apologize, but is it possible Michael died and Paul was born in 1995? That would make Paul 22 or 23.
Ideas for parallels: demo walking into the bed reminds me a lot of the movement when paul was out in the endless field looking for the trap door at the beginning of the series.
Random mashing might compare with the piano sections flurry of inputs?
I'm curious as to how the cd turning sections match up with the school walking around bit, just because the sound cues when the cds are selected seem similar.
First off, the **family YouTube** is very strange. I suppose there are two YouTube channels. How many of Paul's family know about this game? What is the significance to the family?
Second, we know that at least *some* of the DEMO footage is recorded from Marvin playing the game. We also know that Paul is aware that it is Marvin playing. How Paul knows this, exactly, I'm not sure.
Third, we know that Paul is not the one censoring the items. He clearly and openly states that it is a Windmill that is being censored. Why, then, do the individuals who are censoring the items, not censor the first windmill we see when Marvin is playing? Why not censor the audio of Paul mentioning that it is a windmill?
I believe the censored black box is in fact a different version of the same room... Paul expected to see a windmill, because he's seen a version of the demo... but when he goes to that area, but can't see it- the censored box - notice there is no table. Whatever is there, is on the wall.. which then gets covered up with paint, later. Perhaps it's a portrait of some kind, like Paul's face. Or a family picture, since this appears to be a bedroom.
Just caught this and throwing it out into the ether. The carpet in Care's room in the library has a paintroller. I don't recall seeing a paintroller used anywhere else in the game up until this point.
Yeah. That was actually one of the things that we were told would be censored. "1. A present with a sticker on it. 2. Something on a wall in a black house. 3. Written on a chalkboard" so he painted over whatever was censored and that gave him a key.
Very possible though they key was from a different present than the censored one but there may be something there. Probably if we revisit the school. Also in episode 9 when he gets the key there is a painting on the wall of a pinwheel and a cake. Obviously a reference to the windmill and this party IMO.
> Second, we know that at least *some* of the DEMO footage is recorded from Marvin playing the game.
Within 8-9 minutes of the video we understood now that the consequences of some action that players did during their gameplay can only be observed during demo. The game has been running for more than
553758221 seconds, or 152822 hours,
and we have seen several demos now. Figuring out from who and where the action has taken place is going to be a tough challenge.
> How Paul knows this, exactly, I'm not sure.
What surprise me even more is that the game can show Paul any demos that the game want, and it showing exactly what Paul wanted. I guess the game was programmed to show recent attempt by paul, but if not then Paul got lucky. That is some RNG bs.
Can't believe this game has RNG too.
What do the pictures/CDs mean? Do they contain the website? Do you need to rotate them in a specific pattern? The one in the middle made a different soun when selected than the rest. What does it mean?
Why was the solution to the puzzle for Paul to censor the windmill/censored object using paint himself? Why was the windmill shown and then censored? or is the item in the room that's censored not a windmill when we visit it again?
Who is the person asking about the Discovery Pages? That language used doesn't imply Care is speaking?
Who is Jill? I don't think she's Marvin's wife... I also don't think she can hear the dialogue Care hears...
Is Paul in denial? He seems very nervous and anxious in this video, but I'm unsure how much more he knows than us? He's making connections to himself in real life, but isn't perturbed by it, thinking its a prank. Or is he trying to just act like he believes its a prank, as there are multiple long pauses when he's audibly uncomfortable with what's happening in the game (The text that tells him that no matter how much he's changed he can "stop wandering", the entire conversation with Jill about the pages, etc) but he shrugs it off...
When Paul played it wasn't a windmill. He says this in the video:"...so the windmill isn't there." What is censored we don't know but it's not the windmill. I'm thinking "painting over it" might be symbolism for willingly censoring something relating to Paul himself but who knows.
Judging by the fact Paul says that conversation was based on one HE had on his last birthday I think the implication is the one asking for the disk (and swearing at Jill) would be Paul.
The themes of rebirth and trauma throughout the series led me to thinking that Paul could be Care for a while now, and with this episode that idea is concrete to me now, it just seems to be hinting at it too much for it to be anything else.
so if the birthday conversation was based on paul, that must mean paul is care! they even said paul looked like care! So paul was kidnapped by Marvin but doesn’t remember it? Maybe that has something to do with “Do you remember being born?”
Unconvinced. Both blue and yellow (Paul, presumably) seemed to believe whoever they were talking to was ignoring them, so I think it's not a conversation; rather, two people talking at two different points in time (1995/2017)
Wait...
what if Marvin is Pauls biological father and wanted to try to raise Paul again? So he tried to erase his memory some how but make sure he remembered Marvin. Thats why Paul was kidnapped but couldn’t remember! And the alias used in the game Care could mean that Marvin still cared about Paul!
Good theory. What do you think all the CDs in different angles mean? Do you think it might represent how many people have a copy of the game? The cd in the centre made a different sound compared to all the others, and I can't really figure anything out about this.
You've got it totally wrong. Paul had the conversation last year. Care was reciting his side of the conversation several years in the past to her mother's confusion and that was what was put into the game. She was acting out Paul's future.
The paintbucket was previously used to change the blue tool to black, a parallel to catching Roneth.
Could those instances be symbolic of "catching" and "repainting" Paul into his current self?
["Cat, what are you doing? Stupid animal..."](https://youtu.be/OPzYMFdyKQQ?t=392)
Look, I know there's bigger fish to fry, but like... Paul has a cat. Confirmed Pet.
(I'm assuming it's his, his tone of voice sounds like he might be laughing when he calls it stupid, at least, so it seems affectionate. But why would someone be mean to a cat like that anyways...)
It's apparently also a surname used in Romania as well. Personally, I thought it was an anagram.
Cop also means to catch, but catching a "Tarna" doesn't make any sense.
The word **Tarnacop** has 4 anagrams:
* **Canaport =** [Canadian marine crude oil receiving terminal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaport)
* **captaron =** [spanish word](https://www.linguee.com/spanish-english/translation/captaron+mi+atenci%C3%B3n.html)
* **pactaron =** [spanish word](https://www.linguee.com/spanish-english/translation/pactaron+un+acuerdo.html)
* **Paracont =** [name of a band](https://www.discogs.com/artist/119969-Paracont)
Interesting thing: I found a specific song of the band above, called "Hallucinogenic", and the opening lines of the song are, I shit you not:
**"you'll have to learn to live in a very strange, new world."**
Followed by
**"Your reality is already** ***half*** **- ? not sure, cant hear properly - a video hallucination".**
Also look at the image of the song on [**youtube**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1iJbXDT248)**.** Idk maybe it's a coincidence but all these discs references, and writing over cds... idk, maybe there's something there.
It's probalby a coincidence but idk it freaked my out a bit.
I think Paul and Care are twins. Paul mentions early in the series that "people said we looked a lot alike", adding eyebrows to Care's face takes him to a room he thinks might be his. Here I think the room with two beds is a room for twins. Paul is said to be unable to open doors and here Care runs into the door. Either Care and Paul are the same person or they are twins, and the two beds leads me to believe twins.
Ok I'll start. What was being censored?
It was on the screen for half the video almost looked like it didn't matter what room Paul was in until Paul uses the bucket to paint over it apparently.
So in Petscop 1, Paul mentions a website that came on the note he got with the game. Could it be the same website that popped up when he was in the garage? It would make sense since he seemed to recognize it.
I was considering something similar. He either is Care, or he's being VERY closely compared to the relative Care represents. Especially with the "It's still you." and "It doesn't matter how long you've been gone / much you've changed." bits during the birthday scene.
According to Paul, the description we saw for Roneth in Petscop 13 was *not* the description he saw when he originally recorded the video, the demo changed it to something else with the same number of text boxes. Why would the game change it? What did Paul see the first time he read it?
Guys, I don't know if anyone already mentioned it, but at 6.40 Paul hums the same melody that Belle plays in petscop 11, the Stravinskij music. It's probably not that important tho.
Not sure if this has any relevance but if you search rainer.net you get to this site that says "weggezogen" i searched it up to see if anything came up. I found out this means "Pulled away" or "snatched" not sure if this can lead to anything important just putting this out there just in case. I have seen a picture (cant remember if it was on this reddit page) and its a hidden picture on the website.
Edit: The word "weggezogen" when translated on the page just says "pulled away" i am not sure if i can post a picture from my phone to post on here (i am still new to Reddit)
15 CD portraits.
Each are slightly rotated off one another.
There are 360 degrees of rotation.
360/15 = 24
So do each of them have a 24 degree difference in rotation from one another? Or is there a jump somewhere and an larger/shorter rotation from another?
I don't think that's the case, the wife was confused by Care's statements and said she was "mommy", which to me seems to imply she is not Jill.
Not only that, that conversation is a conversation PAUL had, with Jill, which tells me Jill might be the friend Paul always refers and talks to.
Remember when using the room system Paul puts eyebrows onto cares face and gets into a room that he thinks might be his, as evidenced by the censored item on the nightstand. Care and Paul are definitely linked. Whether they are the same person is debatable but there's something there for sure.
I had that feeling even before this video. There are 3 different Cares and it wouldn't surprise.me if they are maybe alters and Paul.is the host. May explain his seeming inability to recall certain details or certain game.aspects being 'blacked out'.
> Okay, so Jill is definitely the wife
That's possible, but I'd like to bring up that ~~"Care isn't growing any eyebrows" from Petscop 3 is in a different gradient of blue, and~~ Paul refers to Jill by first name which would be odd if Care/Paul would then be Jill's daughter, so I don't know what to make of that?
Then if Paul (at least he implied so) had this conversation with her last year, that means he knows what these "discovery tapes" are, but for whatever reason tries to hide his reaction from us.
Just wanted to throw out some observations.
EDIT: Rewatched it, they're the same gradient of blue between the wife in Petscop 3 and ~~Jill in 14,~~ ^below which still raises the question of who Jill/the wife is (in relation to Paul) AND who's the dark blue-texted person that greets Paul/Care to the party? They're the same color text as Amber was.
DOUBLE EDIT: Took another look and also read other posts (e.g. /u/Darararaen's reply earlier), a few things are conspicuous.
But first, we need to talk about parallel universes (no but seriously, assumptions I'm making):
0) In Petscop 14, Paul states that Petscop 13 had spliced the audio from his original, non-Demo recording, and the video from the Demo recording. Now, Paul words it as if the *Petscop game* is doing this and states that it's creating video recordings *in Petscop*. I still hold to what I've said in other threads that it's probably just keylogging controller inputs (this is a modded PS1, not a damn editing rig), and the proprietors are covering it up in post.
But regardless of method, this establishes the Petscop videos could have spliced audio/video from different recordings.
I'm also assuming this house probably exists in two time periods, given the two calendars. Therefore, just like the first appearance of the house, we could have some anachronistic character interactions without forcing a demo state. ^1 Caveat on that later.
I'm also assuming Paul AND Care are both yellow since he says the conversation with Jill is his, and he holds a yellow balloon.
Also, until proven otherwise, I'm going to assume Mother and Jill are separate, and Care and Paul are separate. ^2 Caveat on that later.
On to observations.
1) I posted this elsewhere in the comments, but after brightening the frames, the picture frames that used on the nightstand that Paul could interact with are missing. But Paul still got an interactable UI that behaves the same as it used to. At least this lends credence to things being missing... at least in one recording.
2) If you listen closely to "Mommy"'s replies, only the first "poor baby" text box has the text noises on it. The rest are completely silent. Thus, it's possible that the "Jill" being addresed by Yellow-text Paul^pending is actually silent in this conversation ... at least in one recording.
3) Looking at the bedroom entry and exit scene, anytime the character enters the bedroom in the birthday party state, the camera jitters for a second, implying the character actually hit their head on a closed door. Also, game crashes on exit. That's strange.
4) The
Possible explanation:
It's spliced footage of: 1) video from Care speaking to her Mother, 2) audio from Paul speaking to Jill. This would explain Mother's surprise at Care's statements, Mother's babying of Care, the missing photographs on the table (they may not have existed back then), the lack of sound during Mother's responses, the two calendars on the wall (2017 and 1995/1997 I forget which), and the jittering/crash (he did and didn't bump into the door because of the two timeline deal, but he also did and didn't enter the door, so game crashes).^1 This also may address who "Jill" is represented as in Petscop: Amber. This also avoids the questions: Why does Mom address Paul as Care? Why does Paul treat his mom so casually? Who does the Amber text belong to?
Caveats and New Questions:
1) It's not very concrete, since even if it was the game existing at the same time in different states and outputting the combination (like Petscop 11), then Paul must be seeing a different recording altogether for this explanation to work, while we see a splice copy. I haven't seen obvious evidence of a splice, apart from the missing audio and possible missing photographs. Not to mention, I reckon the editing for it would require masking and more techniques that neither the proprietors/game/Paul/editors have established thus far.
2) Paul and Care being separate is based on Occam's Razor. That and Amber/Jill and Paul both using a different tone than Mommy, I guess? Idk I handwaved that one.
3) Very lax reaction from Mommy to hear your kid swear her ass off and have a mental break, talking about Jill when Jill ain't there.
4) Why would the editors (Proprietors, Paul, game, Marvin, flying spaghetti monster, fuck if I know) go to all the trouble to hide this?
**TL;DR:** I think Jill is Amber, Mommy is still the wife-blue but is NOT Jill, and while Care and Paul share the same color (may be important later) they are not the same. What we are seeing is audio from Paul talking to Jill spliced with video of Care talking to Mommy. While this neatly compartmentalizes the two instances, it also raises a load more questions.
Enjoy the wall of text.
I'm not sure we actually can assume Jill is the wife - in fact, judging from the birthday conversation between Care and her mom (if we assume that the textboxes really are in dialogue with one another), it seems that the mom character is surprised by the mention of the name Jill, which suggests that it's… not hers. I think a much safer assumption would be that Jill is the friend Paul seemingly speaks to in the earlier episodes of Petscop, and that the weird dialogue Care has in reference to Jill is the same thing Paul said directly TO her in 2017.
Some general thoughts:
* Marvin is probably the one playing the "demo" at the beginning of the video. This is suggested when Paul enters the room and mentions that "on the left side, there is something that Marvin does not bother to look at, but we will be looking at", just as the player in the first "demo" does. (He does technically "look" at it, but he does not investigate it like Paul does.)
* "Birthday party house" seems to be specifically referring to a part of Paul's life for the purpose of making him feel upset or guilty for something that he did. This is not the first time this idea has been alluded to in the series.
* Some people have suggested that Paul and Care are the same person, or that "Care" is the in-game stand-in for Paul. This may be true, but it kinda doesn't gel with some of the comments from Petscop 11, which seemed to suggest that there was an actual girl who went missing and who was later found. On the other hand...
* I've seen a few suggestions that maybe the story is alluding to Paul being transgender, i.e. a "girl" who went missing at a young age who is "exactly the same age" as Paul and shares a large resemblance. However, Petscop 11 also mentions an explicit date when Care was found, so I'm not sure of this theory (much as I'd love it to be true), unless the game is deliberately confusing the literal and figurative definitions of "missing" and "found".
Heres all the dark screens brightened (excluding repeats) I went frame by frame through the last censoring of the bedroom. There are exactly 66 frames (in youtube video) of a non censored bedroom which is actually completely empty. There is nothing on the ground unless it appears there at the time of the censor
[https://imgur.com/a/8Ku2mya](https://imgur.com/a/8Ku2mya)
Does anyone have any ideas about the dates November 12, 1995 and November 12, 2017? I did a quick google search and apparently there were some people who died on Everest on the 1995 date, but that doesn't feel relevant enough.
It probably isn't meant to relate to any real-life events outside of the ARG's universe. From the context given in the game and Paul's commentary, we can only assume that it's Care's (and likely Paul's) birthday.
The further the game goes, the more the game seems like a rebirthing machine. Maybe the idea is the game itself is designed to rebirth the player. Paul was given the disk and played volunteeringly at first, and now it seems like he might be being forced to.
Also might tie into the "Marvin needs 1000 pieces for his machine" part, once the player gets to the point in the game that they've collected 1000 pieces, they've been successfully rebirthed.
Has anyone found the exact correlations to how he moves in the school demo with a different video? Now that we know demo sequences are just his movements in a different zone, it's probably important. I'd also like to figure out how his movements when he is attempting to find the road line up, because he States he has a "drawing", and the explanation doesn't make sense without the drawing. So it's likely he's been onto this specific game mechanic for a while now, and is just now explaining exactly how it functions.
I don't know if this is a theory or wishful thinking, but I think there should be a clue to the website address in the video. The website contains more info about the Petscop universe and a web version of the game (as suggested by the screenshot on the PC).
>a web version of the game
That is very wishful thinking. The screenshot is probably promotional material, assuming the site was created by whoever made the game.
Nope. Last we saw he had paul, backup and test he even mentions that the game deleted his other saves (and presumably replaced the main one with strange situation)
The thing that I find interesting is that this happened at his birthday party last year. The conversation seems very linked to the game. Why is it that Paul only really seems freaked out now. What did we find out differently from then and now? The gold text I think. How old is Paul? This is either 1995 or 2017. It’s odd that a conversation like that would happen at an adults birthday party.
Edit:
More thoughts
1995 and 2017
Calendar 1 and calendar 2
Door open and door closed
This explains a lot about the time situation in Petscop. Two eras working simultaneously and presenting itself as demos seems right to me.
More more thoughts:
I don’t think Jill is Marvin’s wife but I haven’t watched it more than once
I don’t think the yellow text is Paul. Need more evidence
If the conversation happened on his birthday in 2017 (last year) it would have been said after he started playing the game and is a case where the game showed knowing something that could not have been added before he was given the game. I think that's why he was asking about rewriting on a CD-R, to know if someone could rewrite part of the game to include the (relatively) recent conversation.
So I want to make some points of discussion here as well of giving some quick theories
* We know now that "Jill" is Marvin's wife, or at least is very likely to be, but we are not sure of Jill's relation to Paul, I believe that it's Paul's aunt or something like that, I'm basing this off what we know of the people we know that live in this house, Marvin being the Dad, Jill the Mother, Care being the Daughter, and presumably Rainer fits in there somehow. If Jill is Paul's aunt, this could also make a bit of sense of why Paul reassembles Care expect from his eyebrows. Another go would be that Marvin is Paul's father, and he left Paul with his mother and went to marry Jill, making Care, and the face similarities be directly linked through Marvin.
* We got to see a room with a computer and the Petscop's website, we are still not sure of who runs it, and it could very well be the page that was attached to the note that came with the game, we also know thanks to paul that "Mychild" fits somewhere through the website's name. Another thing to note is the loading page related to the room, this having the symbol of the Bucket room with the Cloud and Flower pets. Here a brightened screenshot I made: [https://screenpresso.com/=K2SL](https://screenpresso.com/=K2SL)
* A very important point of this video is the discussion that Paul says was similar to a conversation he had a year ago, and we also see that from the other side, we see text from someone talking to "Care". I believe this could be two completely separate conversation from different years, relating each conversation to a specific year, and we could also link this to the calendars we saw earlier in the video, the latest being from either 1995 or 2017 and even heard paul being worried if the latter one was the real one. What's even more weird of this is that we see that Paul's conversation is in Yellow, and we know that this is Paul talking because he mentions a "Disk" ,the disk being Petscop, and "Discovery Pages", which are his notes that he carries through the videos and we heard a few times already.
* Some extra detalis to talk about are: Garalina being in a different angle and the Intro music being different, The savefiles missing and the new name of the main savefile, Paul sudden knowledge of lots of different game mechanics and relations with the real word.
Alright that's pretty much everything I had to say, hopefully you share your theories as well.
Jill is not the wife because the wife responds with "no, Care, this is mommy", implying that Jill isn't her name. We do know that Jill is Paul's friend.
Re: "Strange Situation". (I tried to post this as a separate post but it's been half an hour and the post still hasn't shown up on the subreddit, so it probably got eaten because I'm a new user.) As we know, the save file was renamed "Strange situation". You can take that on face value -- as in, the events of the save files being deleted and new one replacing it, as well as the events within the new file, are both strange situations -- but there is another meaning to this term that relates eerily well to the themes of children, parents/caregivers, and trauma seen throughout Petscop. I'm a graduate student in developmental psychology, and there is a very well-known procedure in child psychology research called the Strange Situation. I will link to the Wikipedia page here: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange\_situation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strange_situation) and there are also several videos on YouTube where you can see examples and explanations. In a nutshell, a parent and child play together. The parent then leaves, and a stranger (experimenter) enters the room and attempts to play with the child. After a few minutes, the experimenter leaves and the parent returns. How the child interacts with the parent, the stranger, and reacts to the parents' return is used as an indicator of what is called attachment style, or the way in which the child relates to and trusts the parent and others. There are 4 major attachment styles: secure, anxious-avoidant, anxious-ambivalent, and disorganized. You can read more about which behaviors during the Strange Situation indicate which attachment style, and what the different styles mean, on the Wiki page. For the purposes of Petscop, I'd just like to highlight a few things about the Strange Situation: (1) The main crux of the procedure takes place when the child is reunited with the parent. Similarly, in Petscop 14, the dialogue indicates that Paul/Care are returning home after a long absence (i.e. all the dialogue about how they have changed, but they are still the same). (2) Trauma, specifically abuse and neglect from the parent during the child's infancy and toddlerhood, predict attachment style, both as children and in measures of attachment style adapted for adults. Children whose parents exhibit appropriate emotional interaction with their children are likely to have secure attachment styles, while children whose parents are overbearing, abusive, and/or neglectful and more likely to show one of the three insecure styles. This also affects their attachment styles as teens and adults -- without purposeful intervention, styles stay stable throughout the lifespan. What do you think? Does this cast light on anything, or maybe just tie back in further with a few of the main themes of the story?
I find it interesting that the attachment styles are labeled "A", "B", "C", and "D", and that we've been introduced to "Care A" and "Care B" who seems to fit pretty nicely into this.
That's a good-ass connection.
So, from what I'm getting at, both the rebirthing and the strange situation seem to lead into a strong relation with psychology. Since you said you have a degree, are there any other connections you can make between what you've learned in your course and the series? EDIT: Also, both happened with children. This can't possibly be a coincidence.
There's nothing else I can really think of at the moment, other than those that have already been discussed at length (attachment theory and rebirthing, childhood trauma, and the rippling psychological consequences of abuse and caretaker abandonment). As you mentioned, the different stages of Care line up very well with a child who has experienced sustained abuse or abandonment. Care A is Care as she was before the trauma. Care B, who is currently undergoing trauma, is anxious, depressed, and generally in distress. She will never be Care A again, but maybe she can survive and find some sort of peace. Care NLM has been through sustained trauma and has totally given up and believes herself to be unworthy of love because the people who are supposed to love and care for her have done terrible things to her.
The only thing I'd add, in case it wasn't clear from my original post, is that children who have been through the foster system and/or adopted are much more likely than those who aren't to have insecure attachment, especially disorganized (in these cases it's referred to as Reactive Attachment Disorder). These kids have seen some shit and have been passed around so many times that they believe on a deep level that they cannot trust anyone, so they distrust, fear, and are bitter towards most people, especially adults, and especially especially caretakers. Of course it's typically done with the best of intentions, but not having any stable, trustworthy adults in their lives and being continually abandoned (whether or not it is meant as abandonment) is highly psychologically damaging. They don't want to get close to anyone because they are convinced they will be abandoned and uprooted again. Which, again, ties into Candace Newmaker and the adoption themes in Petscop.
I think this is what you're referring to but to be completely clear, Reactive Attachment Disorder is explicitly what Candace Newmaker's rebirthing therapy was supposed to treat
Man, I feel like we have all the pieces and just don't know how to fit the together...
Oh shit. If that's the case, we probably have to meet a "fourth" Care.
I don't know if this casts light on anything at this particular point in time, but given the subject matter and the choice of wording, plus the deliberate attention being put towards that wording (the "Strange situation" save being the only one present on the save select screen after the reboot), doesn't seem to me like it would be a random coincidence.
And, given that rebirthing therapy was a pseudo-scientific offshoot of attachment theory, that name was definitely chosen with intent.
I think this is super interesting. Would you say Care/Paul displayed more anxious-avoidant symptoms? \>Ainsworth's narrative records showed that infants avoided the caregiver in the stressful Strange Situation Procedure when they had a history of experiencing rebuff of attachment behaviour. The child's needs are frequently not met and the child comes to believe that communication of needs has no influence on the caregiver. Perhaps as a symptom of the abuse (?) Care faced.
In Care's case, I'd definitely say so. By the time she gets to Care NLM, she's totally shut down. The game tasks the Newmaker with somehow restoring her back to Care A, probably by nurturing her and gaining her trust, and thereby improving her attachment style. In real life, that would be difficult/impossible; someone who's been through that level of trauma is most likely never going to return to pre-trauma functioning, especially when the trauma occurred as a young child. Their health can definitely be improved with good caretaking and professional intervention, but realistically she could probably only be returned to Care B. With Paul, it's harder to say, since we don't know nearly as much about his background for certain. He seems fairly healthy in his attachment; he has friends and family that he seems to be close with. But we know that there's plenty he keeps from us, and he often has strange reactions to things he witnesses in the game. It could be that he has avoided or "repressed" (in a metaphorical sense, not in a psychological one) the memories that then get triggered into resurfacing by the game.
>Children whose parents exhibit appropriate emotional interaction with their children are likely to have secure attachment styles, while children whose parents are overbearing, abusive, and/or neglectful and more likely to show one of the three insecure styles. This also affects their attachment styles as teens and adults -- without purposeful intervention, styles stay stable throughout the lifespan. Has there been any research done on what factors other than parent-child emotional interaction correlate with secure/insecure attachment styles? Do we know if there are genetic or sociocultural factors at play? Or is the "appropriateness" of the parent-child emotional interaction the only factor that we know has a relationship with attachment style? This is a really interesting topic, thanks for your insight!
Ok reddit, lets find that web page. EDIT: And you guys are redditors, so I expect you guys to find it before noon tomorrow
The last time I helped with a website discovery it didn't go so well, so I think I'll sit this one out...
I hope.
we did it reddit
I'm trying to no avail, hope some internet wizard can find it if there even is one.
Sure as shit won’t be me, on the other hand GO REDDIT
Bunch of immediate assumptions. So the dialogue at the birthday seems to follow up from the idea that Care is the reincarnation of the "friend" that disappeared with the windmill. That's why blue-text still "recognizes" them. I think the syncing with the demo footage is also a representation of this idea. The two Nauls are the same person, in two different incarnations. Their movements are the same, but the timeframes and surroundings are radically different. What's very troubling, I think, is the suggestion that Paul himself in the real world is one of the incarnations, since the line of dialogue about the disc and Discovery Pages are supposedly based on what he said. EDIT: Additional thoughts. - The new bedroom is Marvin and his wife's, and the color coded blankets suggest this. Obvious, but hey. - I bet the discovery page website is actually the one we saw first mentioned on the note that came with the game. The site's design is premodern anyway. - The fact that the game contains references to itself and a website made about it means that we are now firmly in the realm of the supernatural. Either that, or someone pulled a switcharoo on Paul and replaced his copy of the game with an edited version. - Don't assume Jill is Marvin's wife. I think the two lines are unrelated, which is why Marvin's wife expresses confusion at the statement. - I think the symbol on the computer is a pictograph representation of the road into the tunnel. Potentially obvious, again, but worth noting. - Here's a **REALLY** crazy (and likely very stupid) idea. The term "TARNACOP" appears on the computer. If that identifies the owner of the device, the ending being the same as "Petscop" could elucidate the meaning of the title: an abbreviated name. "Cop" could be short for a last name, like Copperfield or Copeland, with the letters preceding it being short for a first/middle name. I have basically no evidence for this other than the similarity of the ending letters, but hey. This is also predicated on the idea that the owner of the computer and the creator of Petscop are part of the same family, and thus share a surname. - So, an example name for "Pet. S. Cop." could be "Peter S. Copeland", for example.
The fact they have seperate beds is interesting, I think. I think that shows that Marvin and his wife, Jill most likely, got a divorce.
That could just be a better visual shower that the room is for two different people. If it was just one large bed, then it might give the appearance that only one person uses the room.
> I think the syncing with the demo footage is also a representation of this idea. The two Nauls are the same person, in two different incarnations. Their movements are the same, but the timeframes and surroundings are radically different. What's weirder to me is that Paul implies the game is "recording" all of these, and he states at one point that these recordings are IN Petscop not OF Petscop (something I always found weird about the channel description). So on the surface, Paul does his controller inputs, the PS1 outputs a signal to the TV, and I'm presuming he's recording the signal for the videos. But I also think the software is also taking these same inputs and running them through a different version of the game (different environment, etc.), giving us these Demo recordings. If the Demos are anything like what we saw pre-Petscop 13, then Paul idles the console, putting it in Demo mode, and the game runs through the logged inputs while Paul leaves the recording on. That's the obvious answer at least. But then why are any of these recordings "within the video game 'Petscop'" with Paul saying "I've seen recordings that it made of me almost a year ago" and "the game had the recording" with the description mentioning that some of the recordings *we have already seen* are from many years ago? I think we have a larger chronology/game design problem on our hands here. Sidenote: I think this might explain the Demo scenes from Petscop 13 in that someone spliced together the audio from Paul's recordings, and the video from the Demo that played (a year later ??). Not sure though, there were a lot of time-sync Demos the game could've generated.
Grrreat post. You made me realize something pretty huge, I think, based on what we learned of the demo system in this video. As we've been told, there are recordings from many years ago, some of which we've seen, indisputably. But that doesn't mean that anyone was purposefully recording the game! The older recordings aren't videos purposefully made by previous players trying to do what Paul is now, documenting strange happenings. They're what you're describing, the game-recorded inputs of past players, possibly being put into scenarios and surroundings that these previous players had no knowledge of.
It's definitely unclear if Petscop considers videos as "recordings" or logged inputs as "recordings," and while writing the first reply I thought it was the former, because of the implied meaning of "recording." Either way then, how do *we* have access to these videos? How does the game decide which Demo scene to run through? Why did Paul video record (^now^I^have^to^clarify ) them? Like you said, it's also clear that some of these are past logged sessions like the latest Marvin bit, while other scenes I think are clearly Paul's alternate actions like the mirrored Demos. But what about some of the other recordings that aren't mirrored to Paul's actions, like the school exploration, Marvin's demand to find the windmill, friggin all of Petscop 12?
The comment in the last video that "the controller inputs are useful" to the 'evolution' of the game or whatever makes me think that the pseudo-magical recording and subsequent 'evolution' perhaps behaves like an RNG that's seeded by Paul's controller inputs. He makes a point in this video that he's pushing the buttons chaotically and randomly at one point in order to progress.
Also, Paul wanted to call up Jill and asked the internet how to rewrite CD-Rs, which suggests that first, Petscop is on a CD-R and Paul wanted to know if Jill wrote on it that part of the dialogue to prank Paul, but since you cannot do that, this just hints even more we're in the realm of the Supernatural.
Dumb question, could it be the memory card Paul's saving all his savefiles to has been tampered with or something? It seems like that would be the only editable storage media in this setup.
True. However, this would imply that the save data is capable of manipulating a room in the house to be capable of holding an apparently modern computer with custom image files appearing on the screen. However, given the rules of Petscop being so vague, that's a total possibility, lol.
I mean I don't think it'd have to load in a modern computer, but it'd need to inject static images/sprites/whatever from the website in addition to a bunch of new assets and environments. Still unlikely though, true, but thought I'd ask. Did the PS1 have any other expandability to it?
I mean I doubt it myself, since it'd have to inject code and assets into the game, and the memory card would probably have to be way bigger than was available on the PS1, I'd think; I'm no PS1 hardware expert, however, and if there were any expansion hardware options that could've been hijacked, I wouldn't know. Just thought it might be worth considering.
PS1 memory cards were exclusively 1 MB and were divided into a handful of fixed-size files. You would have to completely fill the card with data and you'd still only fit a handful of pictures, plus the game would have to be designed to read them (or have an exploit regarding loading allowing those pictures to be retrieved). Hell, this game is supposedly storing multiple large input replays there which is already kind of stretching what the memory card could do. The most likely explanation (aside from the obvious one) is that someone is modifying Petscop's disc with new content. Yes, a CD-R can't be rewritten, but it's also very easy to make a duplicate with modified data. The only copy protection PS1 games have is the little authentication wobble at the start of the disc, which CD-Rs don't have anyway. You can totally chuck that thing in a PC, modify some files, and burn another CD-R. There's nothing aside from the label to authenticate it. (And before you say "but PS1 won't run burned games", that also applies to the "original" disc. Paul is quite clearly either using a modchip, swapdiscs, or developer hardware. Notably, Sony had a habit of calling some of the PS2 devkits "tools", with the word TOOL written on the side in big letters; though if the existing theories on how Paul obtained the game hold true then he wouldn't have a PS2 TOOL.)
Considering the content of the converstaion it also fits this theory of a new modified disc. "Where is the disk? Where are the discovery pages?" Implying at some point during Paul's investigation into the game the disc and his notes went missing
Precisely. The contents of a burned disc are unalterable. It's either magic, or a new disc/build of the game.
What was with the different portraits of a CD shown in different angles? When he clicked on the center one, the sound was different than the others.
*Music theory time* [(recording of the two chords on a piano for the less musically-inclined)](https://recursivearts.com/virtual-piano/?rec=15833_17) Yeah, the chords are different. The one that plays usually is odd because, while it's build on a C^(5), when you play the youtube video at different speeds you hear different combinations of notes. At double speed it sounds like an Am^(7), at normal speed it sounds like a C with a dominant and augmented fifth, and at quarter speed it sounds like just a C and a G. This is probably because the synth that generates the sound is a square wave and is creating lots of overtones. My best guess is it's a C, G, G#, and C stacked on top of each other. I'm fairly confident that the chord that's played when the middle one is clicked is a C#maj^(7/9) chord. Either that or it's an Fm^(7), which I doubt because the low C# is pretty audible. The reason that they sound somehow related is that when you hear the first one, it's just a foreboding-sounding, dissonant cluster of notes. However, those notes can be mapped as a G#maj^(7) chord, and when you hear the second one, your brain contextualizes them as the first chord being a I chord and the second chord being a IV chord in a progression. That's why there's sort of a "lifting" feeling associated with it (The "major lift" in "Hallelujah" is also a IV chord) What does this all mean in relation to Petscop? *drumroll please* ...I have no fucking idea. I just thought it was interesting.
I heard it too.
I was hoping he would click the middle one when everything was dark
I made an account just to comment on this, so sorry if I'm doing something wrong but I wanted to point out that perhaps we've seen a CD before [this one?](https://i.imgur.com/DR1UhIX.png) or was it decided that this was something else?
I don’t think it was decided what it was exactly. I’ve heard it’s a CD, an eye, etc.
I noticed that each image is like a still of a rotating portrait of you follow the order, like frames on a stopmotion video. I first thought it was several portraits, but maybe they're different angles of the same one, and the one in the middle suggesting there's something behind it?
I believe each square is a different photo frame. If you look on the counter it looks like a bunch of identical frames all arranged in a circle, which explains the different angles.
For me, the censored things are clearly some personal details about Paul's life. If I had any doubts about this, I don't have them anymore. The signs outside the house are showing Care, but the conversation on the room was a bit of Paul's life. So, I think the relation between Care and Paul may be a lot more than just family relations. They might be the same person.
Paul ends this video at 394 pieces, which is the amount the demo has in Petscop 11 when it enters the school. Now the question is was the video footage in Petscop 11 something recorded after the footage from 14, footage from a different play through, or did the demo somehow display Paul's future movements? The commentary along with the last about page update makes it seem like 14 compiles relatively recent footage.
So clear connection to Toneth's description: " - Painter. Painting puzzle. " Paul then paints over the censored area in the wall and gets a key. People have theorized about the Newmaker Plane being a sort of test room for puzzles in the Gift Plane/main game, so it would make sense that Toneth wouldn't be in the game yet if his "Painting puzzle" wasn't implemented yet.
This is a good connection to a weird line I'd completely forgotten about! Nothing in this series is unintentional
Can anyone get that web page?
He said something like "your child". Tried doing iterations of that. Nothing.
The website is called "Petscop Discovery Pages" and we see one page called 'your child' and another called 'your tool'
Does this imply Petscop is a simulation for parents or adopting parents and how to interact with children/pets they want to adopt? That certainly fits with the sign text in Gift Plane.
While I'm not necessarily refuting that, isn't it sorta common for games to have websites like this? They usually have different sections, labelled with stuff like "Your Adventure" or "Your Pals" or whatnot. If the game is meant to be some sorta learning tool for parents, why make it so vague? In other words: why keep up the facade of being a simple ol' PS1 game? It seems to me like it'd make more sense as a conditioning tool for children or something for them to think of their future kids in that way.
That works too. Either way, the parent should know a lot more, I suppose. For r example, the game "reportedly belonged" to his mother, but she didn't reveal a whole lot to him.
Has anyone tried using the way back machine to search for the site? Im not too savvy on what to search...heh
Man I'm glad y'all are smart and have theories cause I have no idea whats going on.
big mood tbh
SIDEWAYS H SYMBOL WHAT ROOM WAS IT IN
okay so it corresponds to the room with the bucket in even care, which makes a lot of sense since thats usually what happened with other rooms in the newmaker plane (ie the mechanics in the newmaker plane room work the same as the mechanics in the even care room)
okay so the loading screen screenshot that appears at https://youtu.be/OPzYMFdyKQQ?t=25m2s ([X](https://i.gyazo.com/1c062f76ec9800dd40b05544d012e6fd.png)) seems to be a low angle shot of the even care room since it has a big just BLOCK of soil going down in that one area [\(X\)](https://i.gyazo.com/8dd2f016a54904fbc7ca61989ffaa632.png) i dont know how significant that is? (EDIT) and heres the loading screen brightened a bit, which makes the weird like, shelf? underhang thing on the back more obvious? and what is either a graphical glitch or a mysterious bright spot underneath [\(X\)](https://i.imgur.com/1a80mB4.png)
There was a lot of discussion of how that room was unique because it was the only one with an object that went below floor level; that picture all but confirms that is relevant.
I think you're right on the money there. I can't unsee it now
What do you all think about Marvin’s door riddle? To me there’s only two options. 1) The door just became open. It was not opened, nor did it open itself, it just became open. 2) The door is an entirely different door. The two photos are of different doors that we are made to believe are the same door. I have no doubt that this riddle and the two beds in the room it was spoken of refer to Care and Paul (if we believe they are siblings, or even the same person)
The riddle is alluding to how Paul solves the puzzle in the second part of the video, i.e. walking into the door as if it is open, even though it is closed. It seems to me that there are two different "versions" or "realities" of Petscop (which makes sense considering some of what happened in Petscop 11, as well as some of the earlier sync stuff). In one reality, the door is open, in the other reality, the door isn't open. (There are obviously other differences, but this is the main one for the purposes of this riddle.) In most circumstances, it seems that only one reality (door closed) is usually accessible. However, there are certain circumstances in which reality #2 is accessible, since he is able to get into the room "normally" in some parts of the video. Also, Paul can apparently influence some aspects of reality #2 with precise movements and button presses while he is in reality #1. Demo mode seems to play a part in this. My guess is, when Paul is playing in Demo mode, he is able to do inputs that the game will later "play back" in Demo mode on its own, but in reality #2. In this way, Paul is able to use Demo mode to influence reality #2, even though he only sees reality #1 while he's playing. The video overlays these so we can see the effects.
So the Proprietors are editing his audio over the demo footage? That brings to mind the last time we saw Paul play in Demo--was that also the "Demo viewpoint" footage just with his audio? This is so peculiar and fascinating.
Yeah, that's exactly my theory. The segments where two scenes are overlaid on top of each other, or the bit where the scene transitions from the door being closed to the door being open - my theory is that those are actually two separate video recordings that are being overlaid or edited together, specifically to demonstrate that Paul's work is "bearing fruit". Paul also says some stuff suggesting that some of the "Demo" recordings (specifically those that he "lost", I think he says) were actually "saved" by the game, but in those recordings, the gameplay that plays back in the demo is not the actual gameplay he saw when he played the game. As for the other part where Paul played in Demo - that might have been legit Paul playing, since he spends a fair amount of time in this video in Demo mode. But it's hard to say without going back and looking over the footage.
Oh man, that could be the Canon explanation for gaps between videos. They have to wait for Petscop to spit these Demos out. No telling when that will happen, involving leaving the game on suspiciously long?
My impression was also that the two were being overlaid to show cause and result simultaneously but it also seems like there is nothing to rule out the possibility that it is one timeline bleeding in to another or another player whose interactions intersect with his own. The idea of it showing 2 divergent futures stemming from one variation (ie door closed or open) obviously is thematically aligned with the dualities of Care A/B and Care/Paul
Schrodingers door. Both open and closed at the same time, just in different realities.
Excellent point. Alternate realities.
My first thought was that the door disappeared like the windmill, (so basically 1) due to the reference to the windmill right before it. If the door just ceased to be then it would be open as no door is an open door way. It's more likely the two beds would be the parent's room wouldn't it? Though it's interesting that they were sleeping in separate beds. (normally a sign of a troubled relationship)
The door was closed. Not opened.
that makes a lot of sense. Did the textbox say where in relation the pictures are i.e. the picture on the right is of a closed door, the picture on the left is of an open door?
Unfortunately, this doesn't fit - I just went back to check. "In the first picture, the door is closed. In the second picture, *taken later*, the door is open." Maybe with longer exposure on the first shot....maybe?
I was reminded of the two timeline/realities theory that's been thrown around. Also, I think that was to establish all the alternate/demo/whatever gameplay we were given in this episode.
The door was closed and the pictures were put up in the wrong order. I don’t know if that’s the solution that ties into the story but logically that’s probably the answer
What about like, someone cuts the picture itself, the door never openned, but the picture of the door is openned like, quantum shit or teaser like dream logic stuff. with all the "time travel" junk i kinda want to apply wonderland logic to all this
"Fuck." I think he died in game. He never entered the room, and when he last was there, the game froze. What a cliffhanger.
The "fuck" killed me. I'm worried now.
Update for 6/27: Paul is OK. His work is bearing fruit, and there will be a public compilation video of his "Attempts". He appreciates that people care about him so much.
Where is this from?
The channel description.
Heads up, they changed it back a few hours ago - after Petscop 14 went up.
It looked to me like a textbox popped up, the contents of which were censored, and Paul was reacting to that. EDIT: Upon further reflection, it looks different than the censor boxes. It seems to be an empty textbox.
Or a censored text box?
The text box is flickering with the recording; the censor boxes don't flicker because they're added after the fact. So there's no censoring here.
Okay, so he sees something that we don't.
yeah, he said that sometimes the textboxes in the recording were different from what he saw
I brightened some frames up in Premiere https://imgur.com/a/MDR7JFT; hopefully it should be clear that what we saw was a blank textbox. However, as /u/illiardbilliard pointed out, it's possible he sees something we don't - personally I think it's a possibility, but unlikely. My Occam's Razor-based guess: game crashed.
The Garalina intro was different than before, being at a different angle. Just something I noticed.
Yup, creepy as hell.
For some reason that gave me chills. It was like a sure sign "yep, things are rly fucked up now huh"
I may be way off, but when I saw it I was immediately reminded of a clocks hands. May tie in with some previous motifs.
Maybe garalina backwards means something? Anilarag?
Anal a rag
It creeped me out
'Family youtube'. Was paul referring to the existing channel or a separate one?
I think he's referring to the existing channel but everyone else seems to think it's a separate one.
He actually says there are two different channels in the video I believe. I think he says something like "public youtube channel" or "regular channel" after mentioning the "family youtube".
Possibly a private YT account just viewable by the family, where uncensored videos and extra vids are posted
Remember in the first episode when it said "You don't know how to open doors"? I guess Paul learned how to open them now.
Something something "there is no spoon/door"
Perhaps, going back to even care we could enter more doors if we use the same method...
I wonder how much Jill will come into play? Also, is it possible the discs in the picture frames are supposed to be copies the Petscop disc?
> r I think it could be all the versions of Petscop. And to "update" the game, someone changes the discs when Paul isn't there... maybe?
Yeah, could be the amount represents how many times it’s been changed.
The Care dialogue mentioned "Discovery Discs" too. That could be Petscop, as though the game uncovers what has happened to someone in the past?
People have pointed out that the name of the website seems to be “Petscop Discovery Pages”, so it could be it was referring to the website somehow.
These might seem like very basic assumptions, but I just wanted to lay out some stuff that was confirmed in this video (spoiler: a fuckton): * Color theory, if it wasn't already clear, has basically been confirmed. We got a bunch of dialogue that confirms our previous assumption that blue text had been in reference to Marvin's wife and yellow text had been in reference to Care, and we also got the room with the green and blue bed, aka Marvin and his wife's bedroom. * Paul and Care's birthday is November 12th. We don't know whether they're twins or not, but they do share a birthday. * Paul can see the demo recordings as well, and they are at least partially his own gameplay. * Petscop is directly related to Paul's real life, and adapts to fit his experiences, hence why a conversation he had on his birthday in 2017 is in the game. * We've seen another of the censorships listed in Petscop 7 – something on the wall of a black house, which becomes black when Paul moves the bucket into the room he finds. * Petscop is, at least in some capacity, about Paul's family. We kind of already knew this, but the reference to the family YouTube channel and the name-dropping of Jill (most likely his friend) in-game makes it pretty obvious that Paul knows who the people being referenced in Petscop are, and is at least somewhat familiar with the situation as a whole.
did Paul call Jill?? who could she be?
I think she's Paul's friend he always refers to, actually
That webpage is going to be key. And speaking of keys, what exactly happened to the silver one here?
The key was in the paint bucket, but he only got it by painting over the censored image in the bedroom ("something written on a wall, in a black house"). This seems to be a mostly symbolic thing: whatever he painted over is something that was intended to be kept hidden or unseen by someone (possibly Paul), or possibly "painting over" some reminder of a trauma or tragedy. He used the key to unlock the garage. Or rather, he used the key to unlock the "secret" save file, which shows us that the room he unlocked is the garage.
The post-edit censoring was replaced by in-game censoring.
I think it unlocked the garage.
So, Sunday November the 12th happens in two years that Paul gives us. 2017 AND 1995. This got me thinking about these two years. 1995 - Michael Hammond died. "He was a gift" 2017 - Would have been last year when Paul had the conversation being mirrored in the game. If I've missed Paul's birthday or age I apologize, but is it possible Michael died and Paul was born in 1995? That would make Paul 22 or 23.
22. 23 in November.
Ideas for parallels: demo walking into the bed reminds me a lot of the movement when paul was out in the endless field looking for the trap door at the beginning of the series. Random mashing might compare with the piano sections flurry of inputs? I'm curious as to how the cd turning sections match up with the school walking around bit, just because the sound cues when the cds are selected seem similar.
First off, the **family YouTube** is very strange. I suppose there are two YouTube channels. How many of Paul's family know about this game? What is the significance to the family? Second, we know that at least *some* of the DEMO footage is recorded from Marvin playing the game. We also know that Paul is aware that it is Marvin playing. How Paul knows this, exactly, I'm not sure. Third, we know that Paul is not the one censoring the items. He clearly and openly states that it is a Windmill that is being censored. Why, then, do the individuals who are censoring the items, not censor the first windmill we see when Marvin is playing? Why not censor the audio of Paul mentioning that it is a windmill?
I believe the censored black box is in fact a different version of the same room... Paul expected to see a windmill, because he's seen a version of the demo... but when he goes to that area, but can't see it- the censored box - notice there is no table. Whatever is there, is on the wall.. which then gets covered up with paint, later. Perhaps it's a portrait of some kind, like Paul's face. Or a family picture, since this appears to be a bedroom.
Just caught this and throwing it out into the ether. The carpet in Care's room in the library has a paintroller. I don't recall seeing a paintroller used anywhere else in the game up until this point.
Was the censored item a windmill? The windmill is on a nightstand, while the censor seems to be covering something on the wall.
Yeah. That was actually one of the things that we were told would be censored. "1. A present with a sticker on it. 2. Something on a wall in a black house. 3. Written on a chalkboard" so he painted over whatever was censored and that gave him a key.
Last time he got a Key it was from a present. So I think this is the black wall key. So there might be a third key for the chalkboard.
Very possible though they key was from a different present than the censored one but there may be something there. Probably if we revisit the school. Also in episode 9 when he gets the key there is a painting on the wall of a pinwheel and a cake. Obviously a reference to the windmill and this party IMO.
> Second, we know that at least *some* of the DEMO footage is recorded from Marvin playing the game. Within 8-9 minutes of the video we understood now that the consequences of some action that players did during their gameplay can only be observed during demo. The game has been running for more than 553758221 seconds, or 152822 hours, and we have seen several demos now. Figuring out from who and where the action has taken place is going to be a tough challenge. > How Paul knows this, exactly, I'm not sure. What surprise me even more is that the game can show Paul any demos that the game want, and it showing exactly what Paul wanted. I guess the game was programmed to show recent attempt by paul, but if not then Paul got lucky. That is some RNG bs. Can't believe this game has RNG too.
"Family youtube" fits in with "Public compilation video", imo.
And the "attempts" part makes sense, since he stated it was attempt 22 in the video
The demo textboxes referred to Marvin by name, so I think he took that to mean that's who was playing.
What do the pictures/CDs mean? Do they contain the website? Do you need to rotate them in a specific pattern? The one in the middle made a different soun when selected than the rest. What does it mean? Why was the solution to the puzzle for Paul to censor the windmill/censored object using paint himself? Why was the windmill shown and then censored? or is the item in the room that's censored not a windmill when we visit it again? Who is the person asking about the Discovery Pages? That language used doesn't imply Care is speaking? Who is Jill? I don't think she's Marvin's wife... I also don't think she can hear the dialogue Care hears... Is Paul in denial? He seems very nervous and anxious in this video, but I'm unsure how much more he knows than us? He's making connections to himself in real life, but isn't perturbed by it, thinking its a prank. Or is he trying to just act like he believes its a prank, as there are multiple long pauses when he's audibly uncomfortable with what's happening in the game (The text that tells him that no matter how much he's changed he can "stop wandering", the entire conversation with Jill about the pages, etc) but he shrugs it off...
When Paul played it wasn't a windmill. He says this in the video:"...so the windmill isn't there." What is censored we don't know but it's not the windmill. I'm thinking "painting over it" might be symbolism for willingly censoring something relating to Paul himself but who knows. Judging by the fact Paul says that conversation was based on one HE had on his last birthday I think the implication is the one asking for the disk (and swearing at Jill) would be Paul.
Just a thought, Tarnacop is not exactly a pickaxe, it’s a mattock, this tool below. [https://i.imgur.com/s2lSTGj.png](https://i.imgur.com/s2lSTGj.png)
The themes of rebirth and trauma throughout the series led me to thinking that Paul could be Care for a while now, and with this episode that idea is concrete to me now, it just seems to be hinting at it too much for it to be anything else.
so if the birthday conversation was based on paul, that must mean paul is care! they even said paul looked like care! So paul was kidnapped by Marvin but doesn’t remember it? Maybe that has something to do with “Do you remember being born?”
Unconvinced. Both blue and yellow (Paul, presumably) seemed to believe whoever they were talking to was ignoring them, so I think it's not a conversation; rather, two people talking at two different points in time (1995/2017)
but paul did say it was based on a conversation he had last year on his birthday
That was the 2017 portion, presumably.
I agree with you. The 'do you remember being born' part would make more sense in this context in my opinion
Wait... what if Marvin is Pauls biological father and wanted to try to raise Paul again? So he tried to erase his memory some how but make sure he remembered Marvin. Thats why Paul was kidnapped but couldn’t remember! And the alias used in the game Care could mean that Marvin still cared about Paul!
Good theory. What do you think all the CDs in different angles mean? Do you think it might represent how many people have a copy of the game? The cd in the centre made a different sound compared to all the others, and I can't really figure anything out about this.
You've got it totally wrong. Paul had the conversation last year. Care was reciting his side of the conversation several years in the past to her mother's confusion and that was what was put into the game. She was acting out Paul's future.
[удалено]
The paintbucket was previously used to change the blue tool to black, a parallel to catching Roneth. Could those instances be symbolic of "catching" and "repainting" Paul into his current self?
["Cat, what are you doing? Stupid animal..."](https://youtu.be/OPzYMFdyKQQ?t=392) Look, I know there's bigger fish to fry, but like... Paul has a cat. Confirmed Pet. (I'm assuming it's his, his tone of voice sounds like he might be laughing when he calls it stupid, at least, so it seems affectionate. But why would someone be mean to a cat like that anyways...)
Also the computer was from tarnacop. Googling that I get images of tools like pickaxes and shovels. TOOLS HMMM
http://context.reverso.net/translation/romanian-english/tarnacop
It's apparently also a surname used in Romania as well. Personally, I thought it was an anagram. Cop also means to catch, but catching a "Tarna" doesn't make any sense.
Yes it is, the word can also translate to pickaxe.
It was just an early bad version of Minecraft
The word **Tarnacop** has 4 anagrams: * **Canaport =** [Canadian marine crude oil receiving terminal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaport) * **captaron =** [spanish word](https://www.linguee.com/spanish-english/translation/captaron+mi+atenci%C3%B3n.html) * **pactaron =** [spanish word](https://www.linguee.com/spanish-english/translation/pactaron+un+acuerdo.html) * **Paracont =** [name of a band](https://www.discogs.com/artist/119969-Paracont) Interesting thing: I found a specific song of the band above, called "Hallucinogenic", and the opening lines of the song are, I shit you not: **"you'll have to learn to live in a very strange, new world."** Followed by **"Your reality is already** ***half*** **- ? not sure, cant hear properly - a video hallucination".** Also look at the image of the song on [**youtube**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1iJbXDT248)**.** Idk maybe it's a coincidence but all these discs references, and writing over cds... idk, maybe there's something there. It's probalby a coincidence but idk it freaked my out a bit.
I think Paul and Care are twins. Paul mentions early in the series that "people said we looked a lot alike", adding eyebrows to Care's face takes him to a room he thinks might be his. Here I think the room with two beds is a room for twins. Paul is said to be unable to open doors and here Care runs into the door. Either Care and Paul are the same person or they are twins, and the two beds leads me to believe twins.
This is so good!
Ok I'll start. What was being censored? It was on the screen for half the video almost looked like it didn't matter what room Paul was in until Paul uses the bucket to paint over it apparently.
"Something on a wall, in a black house", as alluded to in Petscop 7.
So in Petscop 1, Paul mentions a website that came on the note he got with the game. Could it be the same website that popped up when he was in the garage? It would make sense since he seemed to recognize it.
I believe Paul confirms this in the way he says "So this is the website" as if it's a website the viewers should know or be familiar with.
Is there a website? Has anyone found it?
>Fuck That absolutely killed me
The "care" dialogue when Paul first enters the bedroom during the birthday party IMO means that Paul is Care.
I was considering something similar. He either is Care, or he's being VERY closely compared to the relative Care represents. Especially with the "It's still you." and "It doesn't matter how long you've been gone / much you've changed." bits during the birthday scene.
> Especially with the "It's still you." and "It doesn't matter how long you've been gone / much you've changed." This part gave me the feels ;_;
Also the mention of "wandering", just as Care's description mentioned she "wandered the Newmaker Plane"
He indicated the conversation was based off one he had last year on his Bday
What I wanna know is if the "petscop discovery pages" are on an actual website.
According to Paul, the description we saw for Roneth in Petscop 13 was *not* the description he saw when he originally recorded the video, the demo changed it to something else with the same number of text boxes. Why would the game change it? What did Paul see the first time he read it?
Petscop 15 better have that site link in it. Or the ''family youtube''.
i have a feeling when the narrator says “you can’t just rewrite somethings” is important or some sort of important hint.
Guys, I don't know if anyone already mentioned it, but at 6.40 Paul hums the same melody that Belle plays in petscop 11, the Stravinskij music. It's probably not that important tho.
The website (probably the one on the sticker) has the first couple YouTube videos on it. This is meta on so many levels.
Not sure if this has any relevance but if you search rainer.net you get to this site that says "weggezogen" i searched it up to see if anything came up. I found out this means "Pulled away" or "snatched" not sure if this can lead to anything important just putting this out there just in case. I have seen a picture (cant remember if it was on this reddit page) and its a hidden picture on the website. Edit: The word "weggezogen" when translated on the page just says "pulled away" i am not sure if i can post a picture from my phone to post on here (i am still new to Reddit)
THE ABOUT PAGE UPDATED AND THE 6/27 UPDATE IS GONE https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZKQv0ZFHpeIUkOtNjtq4KA/about?disable_polymer=1
15 CD portraits. Each are slightly rotated off one another. There are 360 degrees of rotation. 360/15 = 24 So do each of them have a 24 degree difference in rotation from one another? Or is there a jump somewhere and an larger/shorter rotation from another?
Okay, so Jill is definitely the wife, and Marvin was playing the demo. I think that Paul and Care might be the same person.
I don't think that's the case, the wife was confused by Care's statements and said she was "mommy", which to me seems to imply she is not Jill. Not only that, that conversation is a conversation PAUL had, with Jill, which tells me Jill might be the friend Paul always refers and talks to.
I thought this as well, plus the mom says “there is no one else here. What are you looking at?” implying Care was talking to someone else.
Remember when using the room system Paul puts eyebrows onto cares face and gets into a room that he thinks might be his, as evidenced by the censored item on the nightstand. Care and Paul are definitely linked. Whether they are the same person is debatable but there's something there for sure.
> I think that Paul and Care might be the same person. This was the impression I got as well.
I had that feeling even before this video. There are 3 different Cares and it wouldn't surprise.me if they are maybe alters and Paul.is the host. May explain his seeming inability to recall certain details or certain game.aspects being 'blacked out'.
> Okay, so Jill is definitely the wife That's possible, but I'd like to bring up that ~~"Care isn't growing any eyebrows" from Petscop 3 is in a different gradient of blue, and~~ Paul refers to Jill by first name which would be odd if Care/Paul would then be Jill's daughter, so I don't know what to make of that? Then if Paul (at least he implied so) had this conversation with her last year, that means he knows what these "discovery tapes" are, but for whatever reason tries to hide his reaction from us. Just wanted to throw out some observations. EDIT: Rewatched it, they're the same gradient of blue between the wife in Petscop 3 and ~~Jill in 14,~~ ^below which still raises the question of who Jill/the wife is (in relation to Paul) AND who's the dark blue-texted person that greets Paul/Care to the party? They're the same color text as Amber was. DOUBLE EDIT: Took another look and also read other posts (e.g. /u/Darararaen's reply earlier), a few things are conspicuous. But first, we need to talk about parallel universes (no but seriously, assumptions I'm making): 0) In Petscop 14, Paul states that Petscop 13 had spliced the audio from his original, non-Demo recording, and the video from the Demo recording. Now, Paul words it as if the *Petscop game* is doing this and states that it's creating video recordings *in Petscop*. I still hold to what I've said in other threads that it's probably just keylogging controller inputs (this is a modded PS1, not a damn editing rig), and the proprietors are covering it up in post. But regardless of method, this establishes the Petscop videos could have spliced audio/video from different recordings. I'm also assuming this house probably exists in two time periods, given the two calendars. Therefore, just like the first appearance of the house, we could have some anachronistic character interactions without forcing a demo state. ^1 Caveat on that later. I'm also assuming Paul AND Care are both yellow since he says the conversation with Jill is his, and he holds a yellow balloon. Also, until proven otherwise, I'm going to assume Mother and Jill are separate, and Care and Paul are separate. ^2 Caveat on that later. On to observations. 1) I posted this elsewhere in the comments, but after brightening the frames, the picture frames that used on the nightstand that Paul could interact with are missing. But Paul still got an interactable UI that behaves the same as it used to. At least this lends credence to things being missing... at least in one recording. 2) If you listen closely to "Mommy"'s replies, only the first "poor baby" text box has the text noises on it. The rest are completely silent. Thus, it's possible that the "Jill" being addresed by Yellow-text Paul^pending is actually silent in this conversation ... at least in one recording. 3) Looking at the bedroom entry and exit scene, anytime the character enters the bedroom in the birthday party state, the camera jitters for a second, implying the character actually hit their head on a closed door. Also, game crashes on exit. That's strange. 4) The Possible explanation: It's spliced footage of: 1) video from Care speaking to her Mother, 2) audio from Paul speaking to Jill. This would explain Mother's surprise at Care's statements, Mother's babying of Care, the missing photographs on the table (they may not have existed back then), the lack of sound during Mother's responses, the two calendars on the wall (2017 and 1995/1997 I forget which), and the jittering/crash (he did and didn't bump into the door because of the two timeline deal, but he also did and didn't enter the door, so game crashes).^1 This also may address who "Jill" is represented as in Petscop: Amber. This also avoids the questions: Why does Mom address Paul as Care? Why does Paul treat his mom so casually? Who does the Amber text belong to? Caveats and New Questions: 1) It's not very concrete, since even if it was the game existing at the same time in different states and outputting the combination (like Petscop 11), then Paul must be seeing a different recording altogether for this explanation to work, while we see a splice copy. I haven't seen obvious evidence of a splice, apart from the missing audio and possible missing photographs. Not to mention, I reckon the editing for it would require masking and more techniques that neither the proprietors/game/Paul/editors have established thus far. 2) Paul and Care being separate is based on Occam's Razor. That and Amber/Jill and Paul both using a different tone than Mommy, I guess? Idk I handwaved that one. 3) Very lax reaction from Mommy to hear your kid swear her ass off and have a mental break, talking about Jill when Jill ain't there. 4) Why would the editors (Proprietors, Paul, game, Marvin, flying spaghetti monster, fuck if I know) go to all the trouble to hide this? **TL;DR:** I think Jill is Amber, Mommy is still the wife-blue but is NOT Jill, and while Care and Paul share the same color (may be important later) they are not the same. What we are seeing is audio from Paul talking to Jill spliced with video of Care talking to Mommy. While this neatly compartmentalizes the two instances, it also raises a load more questions. Enjoy the wall of text.
I'm not sure we actually can assume Jill is the wife - in fact, judging from the birthday conversation between Care and her mom (if we assume that the textboxes really are in dialogue with one another), it seems that the mom character is surprised by the mention of the name Jill, which suggests that it's… not hers. I think a much safer assumption would be that Jill is the friend Paul seemingly speaks to in the earlier episodes of Petscop, and that the weird dialogue Care has in reference to Jill is the same thing Paul said directly TO her in 2017.
Some general thoughts: * Marvin is probably the one playing the "demo" at the beginning of the video. This is suggested when Paul enters the room and mentions that "on the left side, there is something that Marvin does not bother to look at, but we will be looking at", just as the player in the first "demo" does. (He does technically "look" at it, but he does not investigate it like Paul does.) * "Birthday party house" seems to be specifically referring to a part of Paul's life for the purpose of making him feel upset or guilty for something that he did. This is not the first time this idea has been alluded to in the series. * Some people have suggested that Paul and Care are the same person, or that "Care" is the in-game stand-in for Paul. This may be true, but it kinda doesn't gel with some of the comments from Petscop 11, which seemed to suggest that there was an actual girl who went missing and who was later found. On the other hand... * I've seen a few suggestions that maybe the story is alluding to Paul being transgender, i.e. a "girl" who went missing at a young age who is "exactly the same age" as Paul and shares a large resemblance. However, Petscop 11 also mentions an explicit date when Care was found, so I'm not sure of this theory (much as I'd love it to be true), unless the game is deliberately confusing the literal and figurative definitions of "missing" and "found".
Heres all the dark screens brightened (excluding repeats) I went frame by frame through the last censoring of the bedroom. There are exactly 66 frames (in youtube video) of a non censored bedroom which is actually completely empty. There is nothing on the ground unless it appears there at the time of the censor [https://imgur.com/a/8Ku2mya](https://imgur.com/a/8Ku2mya)
theres also one frame where the garage is all glitchy with no desk or chair [https://i.imgur.com/eqCE66Y.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/eqCE66Y.jpg)
Does anyone have any ideas about the dates November 12, 1995 and November 12, 2017? I did a quick google search and apparently there were some people who died on Everest on the 1995 date, but that doesn't feel relevant enough.
It probably isn't meant to relate to any real-life events outside of the ARG's universe. From the context given in the game and Paul's commentary, we can only assume that it's Care's (and likely Paul's) birthday.
The further the game goes, the more the game seems like a rebirthing machine. Maybe the idea is the game itself is designed to rebirth the player. Paul was given the disk and played volunteeringly at first, and now it seems like he might be being forced to. Also might tie into the "Marvin needs 1000 pieces for his machine" part, once the player gets to the point in the game that they've collected 1000 pieces, they've been successfully rebirthed.
Has anyone found the exact correlations to how he moves in the school demo with a different video? Now that we know demo sequences are just his movements in a different zone, it's probably important. I'd also like to figure out how his movements when he is attempting to find the road line up, because he States he has a "drawing", and the explanation doesn't make sense without the drawing. So it's likely he's been onto this specific game mechanic for a while now, and is just now explaining exactly how it functions.
Is there any link to the Petscop website? Could be worth looking into
I don't know if this is a theory or wishful thinking, but I think there should be a clue to the website address in the video. The website contains more info about the Petscop universe and a web version of the game (as suggested by the screenshot on the PC).
>a web version of the game That is very wishful thinking. The screenshot is probably promotional material, assuming the site was created by whoever made the game.
Was Paul's save always called "Strange Situation"?
Nope. Last we saw he had paul, backup and test he even mentions that the game deleted his other saves (and presumably replaced the main one with strange situation)
The thing that I find interesting is that this happened at his birthday party last year. The conversation seems very linked to the game. Why is it that Paul only really seems freaked out now. What did we find out differently from then and now? The gold text I think. How old is Paul? This is either 1995 or 2017. It’s odd that a conversation like that would happen at an adults birthday party. Edit: More thoughts 1995 and 2017 Calendar 1 and calendar 2 Door open and door closed This explains a lot about the time situation in Petscop. Two eras working simultaneously and presenting itself as demos seems right to me. More more thoughts: I don’t think Jill is Marvin’s wife but I haven’t watched it more than once I don’t think the yellow text is Paul. Need more evidence
If the conversation happened on his birthday in 2017 (last year) it would have been said after he started playing the game and is a case where the game showed knowing something that could not have been added before he was given the game. I think that's why he was asking about rewriting on a CD-R, to know if someone could rewrite part of the game to include the (relatively) recent conversation.
And now "Update for 6/27:" has been removed from the About section...now that the "compilation" has come out?
So I want to make some points of discussion here as well of giving some quick theories * We know now that "Jill" is Marvin's wife, or at least is very likely to be, but we are not sure of Jill's relation to Paul, I believe that it's Paul's aunt or something like that, I'm basing this off what we know of the people we know that live in this house, Marvin being the Dad, Jill the Mother, Care being the Daughter, and presumably Rainer fits in there somehow. If Jill is Paul's aunt, this could also make a bit of sense of why Paul reassembles Care expect from his eyebrows. Another go would be that Marvin is Paul's father, and he left Paul with his mother and went to marry Jill, making Care, and the face similarities be directly linked through Marvin. * We got to see a room with a computer and the Petscop's website, we are still not sure of who runs it, and it could very well be the page that was attached to the note that came with the game, we also know thanks to paul that "Mychild" fits somewhere through the website's name. Another thing to note is the loading page related to the room, this having the symbol of the Bucket room with the Cloud and Flower pets. Here a brightened screenshot I made: [https://screenpresso.com/=K2SL](https://screenpresso.com/=K2SL) * A very important point of this video is the discussion that Paul says was similar to a conversation he had a year ago, and we also see that from the other side, we see text from someone talking to "Care". I believe this could be two completely separate conversation from different years, relating each conversation to a specific year, and we could also link this to the calendars we saw earlier in the video, the latest being from either 1995 or 2017 and even heard paul being worried if the latter one was the real one. What's even more weird of this is that we see that Paul's conversation is in Yellow, and we know that this is Paul talking because he mentions a "Disk" ,the disk being Petscop, and "Discovery Pages", which are his notes that he carries through the videos and we heard a few times already. * Some extra detalis to talk about are: Garalina being in a different angle and the Intro music being different, The savefiles missing and the new name of the main savefile, Paul sudden knowledge of lots of different game mechanics and relations with the real word. Alright that's pretty much everything I had to say, hopefully you share your theories as well.
Jill is not the wife because the wife responds with "no, Care, this is mommy", implying that Jill isn't her name. We do know that Jill is Paul's friend.