I appreciated how many more side characters we got in S2 whose storylines rarely or never interacted directly with Gi-hun's story.
One of the core moral themes of Squid Game is that all the players are people. All of them, whether or not their lives affect Gi-hun. Whether or not Gi-hun knows their names or cares about them on a personal level.
All of the players are people.
All of the players have their own stories, their own lives, their own hopes and dreams and fears and homes they want to go back to.
The VIPs, Il-nam, and In-ho only care about players once they become winners, but the 455 players who don't win every year have value as human beings regardless of whether or not they are valued by the system.
And some of them are terrible people! Thanos was willing to push other players to their deaths in RLGL, before he knew that killing other players was a viable way to increase the prize pool. Before he even knew the prize pool was based on the number of dead players in the first place. Player 100 is clearly a manipulative weasel who loudly proclaims, "One more game, and then we can all go home with more money," when it's time to vote, yet complains just as loudly about how many people are still alive when a game is over.
And many of them are kind people, too.
Like Geum-ja, with her positivity and hope and willingness to grow past her own prejudices to better understand a woman she'd grown to respect as a teammate and friend. Geum-ja, who immediately noticed Jun-hee's pregnancy, and committed straight away to helping Jun-hee in any way she could - even at the cost of her own dignity, like when Jun-hee needed to go to the bathroom at night and Geum-ja spilled her own business to the guards while she begged for them both. Geum-ja, who had no debt of her own and was only in the games in the first place because she was trying to pay off her son's debt.
Or her son, Yong-sik, who was ashamed of his debt and not always prone to making the best choices, but who deeply respected and cared for his mother and wanted to pay off his own debts without making his mother save him from the consequences of his own mistakes. Yong-sik, who wanted to be the kind of son that his mother could be proud of, but who was still willing to challenge her prejudices and stand up for the trans woman in the room even before they teamed up. Yong-sik, who was willing to smack his own mother across the back of the head when she was being invasive and rude to Hyun-ju, who backed off only because Hyun-ju said she was fine, and he respected her agency, too.
Or Young-mi, who was shy and awkward and yet reached out first to Hyun-ju and offered her friendship and unconditional acceptance just because Hyun-ju was kind to her, too. Young-mi, who was terrified of dying and wanted so badly to go home, but who accepted Hyun-ju's apology for voting 'O' the instant it was offered, because she understood that Hyun-ju was scared, too, in her own way.
Or Hyun-ju, who had been abandoned by everyone in her life when she was brave enough simply to live as her honest self, but who began to let people in again the moment she was given a chance. Hyun-ju, who encouraged her teammates with positivity and hope, who found in turn kindness, acceptance, admiration, even family in the midst of deadly games designed to strip players of their humanity and turn them into frightened, desperate animals. Hyun-ju, who was ready to kill as many guards as she could in a final suicide run in the dorms after she'd found and lost so much so quickly in those games, only to stand down because Geum-ja - the same woman who had started out confused and awkward and caught up in the prejudices she'd learned growing up - stepped up and reminded her that there were still people in the room who cared very deeply if Hyun-ju lived or died.
Even Se-mi, who teamed up with Thanos and Nam-gyu because she thought they were stupid boys who would be easy to anticipate, but who teamed up with Min-su because she saw someone shy and scared and thought he could be a friend. Se-mi, who voted to stay in the games after the pentathalon because even the games, at that point, weren't as frightening to her as whatever awaited her outside of them, but who voted to leave when she saw how the games could turn even the kindest, softest people to betraying the people they actually liked.
Or Min-su, who betrayed Se-mi's trust in a moment of terror and panic, and who regretted that betrayal afterwards right to his core. Min-su, who wasn't strong or brave or competent, but who tried his best to help Se-mi in the riot even when his intervention didn't save her but could have opened him up to attack if Nam-gyu had decided to go after whoever threw that bottle next.
And all of these happened independent of Gi-hun. The most influence Gi-hun had on many of these stories was in the likelihood that he'd saved the lives of some of them who would have died in RLGL without his leadership there, and thus allowed their stories to continue at all.
Just like the woman who saved the homeless man in the last episode of S1 while Gi-hun watched from too far away to add any meaningful aid of his own, their stories show that kindness and compassion and hope and care for other human beings just because they are human beings is not some special quality unique to Gi-hun. That the ability to engage in these positive desires for connection and compassion and hope are not unique to Gi-hun even in the context of the games. That for all the cruelty and selfishness and greed that human beings are capable of, there will always be people who are capable of the most selfless acts of kindness, too.
And their lives matter, whether or not they 'win the games' that cruel and selfish people make them play just to entertain themselves.
