Was your initial interpretation of petscop much different than it is now? I always think it's cool to compare perspectives through time like this. Also, are there any parts of the narrative that still elude you? Does this play into your interpretation?
its hard for me to think all the way back to 2017 when i first heard about petscop (and maybe in the worst way possible, because my ex girlfriend sent me the link to the pyrocynical video. uh huh. i was 15 too)
im not sure when i actually sat down and watched the videos by themselves but i know that petscop 11 was the first video i was actually there for the release of. my sister was really into it and she came into my bedroom on christmas and told me there was a new petscop. my sister was also the one who told me about tony being discovered on thanksgiving 2019. so its kind of cool that my first exposure to most of petscop was through my family on holidays. i like that the uploading schedule followed that.
but like...even if my introduction was through pyrocynical i remember feeling really strongly about it. it really creeped me out, especially the brightened belle loading screen and the tones that played when the bunker door opened. it actually made my blood run cold.
back then there was a lot of hubbub about real life crimes that was impossible not to hear about when engaging with petscop which is pretty unfortunate. i dont think i ever really cared much for that reading nor did i find it particularly compelling. i was more caught up in just like....how weird it all was. the claps and snaps of the dialogue boxes, rainers weird way of speaking, the absolute unreadability of the guardian sprite.
i think i was just mostly confused the entire time, or i didnt form too much of a solid reading, i was drawn to the atmosphere more than anything else. theres the natural curiosity that comes with that, but i wasnt like...scouring the subreddit or anything. i also didnt even think anything much of paul, which is funny to think back to now that hes like....part of my soul. but after petscop 11 he did start becoming more serious.
one initial reading that i do remember is the soundtrack ending, when paul said family i thought he was just saying that in some kind of dumb disbelief or loss for words, it didnt click for me that he was responding directly to belle. but the feeling still got across, and i thought it was really sweet. the idea of paul being referred to directly at all in the context of the story felt weird but cathartic.
also, that specific thanksgiving was weird for me. i spent the night before sitting alone in a cold car in a parking lot having a meltdown. and then the soundtrack released and i spent the drive home listening to it through my headphones and getting really lost in it. so that like....emotional context is always gonna be part of it for me i think.
vague answers. the paul is care reading was endearing to me though. ever since 2019 i viewed petscop as an intimate and comforting thing, like the memes really quickly wore off. but it took me a few years to process all of it into something that was tangibly meaningful to me.
and theres plenty of the narrative that still eludes me, and i kind of rely on my intuition and gut feeling to interpret it, because i dont really understand it entirely. though sometimes it gets re-contextualized through tonys other stuff. im absolutely fine with stuff being left vague, though, because its part of the experience i think. the confusion and lost feeling is integral to it.
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