Hi, hello, sorry, maybe somebody has said this before idk but. Is it not so obvious that In-ho offering Gi-hun the chance to kill all the other finalists wasn't just a test of morals but also a test for Gi-hun to see whether he could possibly become the new frontman? Like. Is that just me who thinks that?
Il-nam gave In-ho that same chance and In-ho took it. Why In-ho? Why not any of the other finalists from his games? Why offer anybody a chance like that in the first place? Because In-ho had the potential!! Because Il-nam saw somebody in him who could keep the games going. Somebody who would give up his own morals to save himself/the people he loves. He did that too when he took that money and then lost his job just to save his wife. Il-nam knows that, it was in his file. And to keep the games going you need somebody to take over eventually. But not just anybody. Somebody who has been in the games and understands their "purpose". Who has seen them, benefitted from them, is tied to them. Not some random rich asshole who really doesn't care about any of the players, but somebody who saw the games for what they are and got changed by them. That's In-ho. Il-nam pushed him further and further and In-ho let himself be pushed and did exactly what Il-nam wanted and expected of him. Perfect frontman material.
And now In-ho tried to do it to Gi-hun. He tests him, because he sees himself in Gi-hun. Somebody who lost everything, somebody with good morals who still won the games and afterward couldn't let them go. Who had nothing left to live for. That's what In-ho was doing all of season 2. Poking Gi-hun, testing him, pushing him bit by bit, just to see how far Gi-hun would go. Will he "sacrifice" other players just to fulfill his own fantasy. Will he play the games just to get what he wants. Will he do as he is told just to make himself feel better, feel like he's doing the right thing?
But the thing is that In-ho fundamentally misunderstands Gi-hun. Gi-hun never truely let go of his morals. He did all those things and still cared about other people, people he had Nothing to do with, whose names he didn't even know. Gi-hun didn't win the games because he was ruthless and played the games properly and just like In-ho lost his morals along the way. Gi-hun won because he cared and because he was kind. The games changed him but they didn't change his core. That hope and trust in humanity and goodness. In-ho thought Gi-hun's games had erased that. That he was trying to reenter the games not to truely save other people, but simply to make himself feel better about all the horrible things he did. To prove to himself that he is a "hero", that by playing the games and winning them he did the right thing. But that was never Gi-hun's goal. Gi-hun couldn't let go of the games because he cared Too Much. Because the thought of innocent, unknowing people entering death games, controlled by rich people who couldn't give one fuck about them, was too much for him to just ignore. It may have been reckless and a lot for one person to take on themself but it definitely wasn't selfish. But In-ho failed to see all of that. He might have hoped for it but if he had truely believed Gi-hun to still be a fundamentally good person, then he wouldn't have let him reenter the games like that. This was all a test. And a selfish one too. There would have been other great new frontman candidates in there. But In-ho just wanted to have somebody who could relate. Somebody who had just like him, gone through the games, done horrible things, lost or pushed away everyone he ever loved and then gone back because he just couldn't let it all go.
And so he gave Gi-hun his final test. Kill everyone else to win. To get out. Go save yourself and save somebody else, so that you can say to yourself that you did the right thing. To make yourself feel better. Because humans are selfish and even in their kindness they are selfish and if you just push them far enough then they will break and the ugly truth will show. That is frontman material. And that's why In-ho gives Gi-hun that option and tells him to do it. "So I can know that you're like me and so I can then bring you back again and again and again and you will become what I am now."
And again, like. Why give any player an oppurtunity like that just to win a moral battle? When doing so would disappoint the VIPs and really just "hand" the winner more money. In-ho's not playing favorites, he's selecting his new successor, just like Il-nam did. With the same offer and the same words and the perception that Gi-hun and In-ho are the same. But they aren't. And Gi-hun doesn't pass the test and In-ho is all alone
This somehow became another post about morals again but like no joke. Was that not so obviously a test to see if Gi-hun could become the new frontman? It's the same test, it has the same "unfairness" to it and the last time that test was given to somebody, that person became the new frontman. Like why not make the black square guard the new frontman, when In-ho instead takes over Il-nam's position? Because the role of frontman is only ever offered to a winner that has the potential and passes the test. Il-nam already saw that potential in Gi-hun in s1 and In-ho continued with it after Il-nam died. But Gi-hun was stronger than them and he failed their fucked up test and showed them exactly why they are wrong BY failing that test.
