One can say that fans of Squid Game are eagerly waiting for its 2nd season on Netflix given the popularity of the first season, which took the world by storm, it is fascinating to say the least. While the world waits for the sequel, it begs the question that what happened in Season 1 and the backdrop of this season. Squid Game Season 2 is most likely to offer some clarifications.
The ongoing conflict, Squid Game and the world are persistent obstacles that motivate the viewers to move forward. These are key points to remember when drawing the picture. Starting from the global spread of the franchise, we should never forget how the first season ended and what events made it possible to pause it and return to the already established universe.
Squid Game Season 1 the Way Forward if Squid Game Season two is the Goal.
Ever since the show was launched for viewing in September, Squid Game has been making waves across many vistas of the world. The reason behind this popularity is the engaging nature of the plot, the character portrayal and even more interesting the socio-political commentaries within each episode.
Created by Hwang Dong-ok, the series revolves around a group of debt-obsessed people, 456 dire participants to be exact, who receive a mysterious call to Sino-Korean war to battle it out through children’s games that if lost leads to elimination in the most brutal sense. Thousands of people gathered to memorial are games similar to the childhood memories people hold dear.
In my case, we have almost similar people in the backdrop starting with people Seong Gi-hun played by Lee Jung-jae who is separated and has severe gambling issues and is likely to lose his right to see his daughter. In other words, we are headed towards a season of mass participation by people across the nation with diverse backgrounds wanting to be a part of the game.
Among these characters are Cho Sang-woo (Park Hae-soo), who is a former business owner and was a friend of Gi-hun during his youth, as well as Kang Sae-byeok (Jung Ho-yeon), a North Korean defector, and Ali Abdul (Anupam Tripathi), who hails from Pakistan and works as a laborer.
These games take place on an isolated island and are run by a faceless organization led by a person who goes by the name of the Front Man. Their contestants are made to participate in standard childhood games – such as Red Light, Green Light, Tug-of-War, and Marbles – but with deadly consequences.
With the help of flashbacks, the series tries to provide a psychological portrait that delves into the psychological and physical suffering that these characters go through as they make pacts, betray their allies, and struggle with whether or not their violence is justifiable.
As the series goes on, the true nature of the game becomes clear. The Squid Game is patterned by the upper-class people who invest money on the game just for their pleasure. What a plot twist it is to find out that Gi hun was the one who managed to win, but the cost that he had to bear was enormous.
By the end of Season 1 it is made clear that the game has been existent for very many years and that a lot of rich people have their fingers in this pie while Gihun is nothing but a pawn. Gihun’s decision to seek out the person who created the game is the first thread that binds to Season 2.
Societal Criticism and Motifs
The Game of Squid contributes significantly to the audience’s understanding of social class struggle, socio economic inequality, and the lengths people would go to survive in a depraved system. The games in essence are a harsh portrayal of the people residing at the bottom of the econo social pyramid.
The people hoping to play the game are competing for more than the money as they are also trying to escape from the clutches of poverty and debt that have become the fabric of their lives. In dire need, moral lines become blurred and alliances are made and broken.
Also, Squid Game depicts how capitalism would make people over-exceptional in humanisation such that people become mere faceless pawns smiles. As the gates of the unnamed VIPs watching the games were opened to a world of riches, the image of poverty before their eyes became a form of entertainment. Players, on the other hand, are pushed to their limits and are forced to choose between morality and life.
Societal Realities Behind the Squid Game
While the game of squid seems to be a dark dystopian makeup, its fundamentals are woven in real world statistics, most notably the South Korean economy and the alarming income gap and its effects on children.
South Korean society has become increasingly competitive forcing violence and other harmful acts especially amongst the youth as evident in Squid Game. The show illustrates the distinct features of society, largely the notion of suicide as one of the highest in the world, suggesting an extensive concern for economic struggles and their impact on averting unemployment, depression and suicidal ideation.
Hwang Dong Hyuk is well aware of the south Korean socio economic hardships which in his opinion are the main cause for the struggles depicted in the show – personally he had also gone through hardships and pushing poverty into his past childhood. The inequalities that exist have a major influencing factor on the harshest extremes that people are willing to go through in order to rid themselves of oppression.
The events and the game of Squid Game started to take shape due to the increasing love for reality shows by the audience. In his opinion , the reality show phenomenon contributed a lot more negatively as survival themes wore off and misery became a tool to market gain.
However in my opinion, factories and the means of production in Hwang’s eyes had a far darker theme, illustrating the dark side of capitalism and appealing the other side of humanity.
Through the depiction of children’s games Squid Game implements a stark contrast between deceptive innocence and cruelty.
Such games which are normally of childhood fun are distorted into fight to the end type games which shows what has happened to the bare innocence and most times defenceless, bullying is visible.
Expectations for Season 2
After Season 2 was announced, fans are lost in imagination on how the story is going to develop. The previous season ended with Gi-hun deciding to take down those behind the game. This creates between Gi-hun and a PROSPECTIVE “power struggle” that will likely be teased throughout the season.
The next season is expected to show the origins of the game and Front Man’s and the other talking points that follow Gi-hun’s decision to take on the people who created the game. There is immense scope of new people, conflicts and more complicated ethical dilemmas as the level goes higher.
Just like the very first season, even season 2 is believed to dive deeper into the socio-political issues that are erupting in the current world, including disparity between rich and poor, greed and many more. The readers also have the potential to take pleasure in the unique combination of mystery, action, and critique of society that this series has to offer as it will be one of the most anticipated seasons on Netflix.
Ultimately, Squid Game Season 1 is a fascinating study of ethics, survival, and inequality of social classes influenced largely by the real world and the extreme economic issues faced by the people of South Korea.
As Season 2 approaches, audiences are eager to see how the storyline expands along with the introduction of gruesome games present in the show.
If you are interested for more: Season 2 of Netflix’s ‘Squid Game’ is forthcoming: A summary of season 1 and the actual events that inspired it. Bangladesh informs India of its desire for the return of former Prime Minister Hasina for the ‘judicial process
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