(Credits: Netflix)

On the surface, Squid Game is a tightrope walk between life and death. But beneath the blood-soaked battleground lies a searing critique of capitalism’s cutthroat culture and classist underpinnings. Here, the price of survival is paid in human lives. As with all tyranny, resistance rises from the ashes. In Gi-hun, Squid Game found its unlikely catalyst for change. However, as season three inches dangerously closer by the minute, a Reddit think tank has fans on their toes about whether Gi-hun was ever really the “good guy” in the Netflix series.

In a Reddit theory shared about ten months ago, a Squid Game fan was found airing his concerns about the lack of morality in Gi-hun. “In most good stories, the protagonist is fundamentally a good person with strong morals,” they wrote. It’s their rich backstories, their purpose in life, and their actions that initiate the fan support to see them succeed in the show. However, with Gi-hun, they haven’t felt similarly.

The Reddit user took fans on a trip down memory lane to Squid Game’s first episode. They highlighted several instances, including the time Gi-hun stole from his mother to feed his gambling problem. He recalled how Gi-hun was on a guessing spree to track down his mother’s password. A poignant scene is shown when he realises it’s not his birth date but his daughter’s. However, keeping his feelings aside, he gambles anyway.

The Squid Game fan further rationalised his point of view, referencing how Gi-hun forgot his daughter’s birthday. From being a useless son to a bad father, it was difficult for the user to relate to Gi-hun. For them, all he has done so far is stand against the idea of a “good guy,” subsequently making it a challenge for them to sympathise with the character. Everyone who participates in Squid Game has mounting debt. Yet, the Reddit user was somehow unable to feel for Gi-hun’s cause.

Although they want the best for Gi-hun, especially in Squid Game season three, it’s the squid-shaped crumbs so far that hold him back. However, several other fans chimed in. They backed Gi-hun’s characterisation as crucial to expose the socioeconomic scaffolding that reinforces inequality and the cognitive elite that it cultivates. “He forgets his daughter’s birthday, but part of that is how estranged poverty has made him from his daughter,” a fan explained.

One of the Squid Game scenes they emphasised to counter the critiques of the father-daughter relationship is when Gi-hun refused to take a lump sum amount of money to get out of her life. But it’s not the only scene they believe clarifies his stand in the show. Throughout the seasons, he makes alliances, takes the lead, and tries to encourage fellow competitors to leave the game.

For some users, the conditioning of what makes someone a “good guy” is actually subjective. A user gauged out a what-if situation, replacing Gi-hun’s gambling addiction with a disease, per se. They asked if Gi-hun would still be the bad guy if it were a clinical condition instead of self-inflicted addiction of some sort. And clearly that probes you to think about the Reddit theory from a different perspective.

A critical oversight in the theory is that gambling is, in fact, a poster child for capitalist excess. It thrives on the principles of risk and reward. But for Gi-hun, the risks outdo any possibility of rewards. Of course, he has made poor decisions. However, the reality is that he cannot make decisions from an elite point of view because choice is itself a privilege. And he doesn’t have a lot of them.