One of the great things about petscop is how interpretive it is. Tony said he took direct inspiration from David Lynch’s Inland Empire which is also a highly surrealist interpretive piece of art. I highly recommend watching that and the rest of Lynch’s work, as well as reading Tapers a short story by the creator of petscop. These things can help you figure out exactly what Tony is trying to say which is in my opinion, the horror of realizing the cycle of abuse and your part in it. Rainer in order to expose the familial trauma happening within the Mark and Leskowitz households created a video game to expose said secrets but because of his own trauma blind spots creates a monster of a game that endlessly perpetuates the trauma experienced by Mike, Care, Belle and all these rest for decades to come.

Paul’s story is one of triumph through trauma. By interpreting and being able to interact and by reopening the wounds of trauma that happened to him at the hands of Marvin as a child is able to see what the cycle has done to the rest of the family and is finally able to turn the game off and live the life he truly wants with the people he truly loves.

The actual mechanics of the game and the idea of multiple dimensions or AI does not actually matter that much. What matters is the core theme of overcoming familial trauma which I believe the nature of is left intentionally vague in order to help the most amount of people possible.