it's truly. so dark

it's so fucking sad man. it feels like if these seasons had been made in 2019, it might have been written to have the uprising win. but season 2&3 (and in some ways the whole show itself) reflects post-2020 malaise. there is now a prevailing sense that revolution failed and is no longer possible, that we are just doomed to all prematurely die brutal and pointless deaths

but the fact is that ending the death game IS a radical position. and much like fascist street gangs & paramilitaries in real life, the O players materialize as footsoldiers for a capitalist regime in crisis. the democratic election of a socialist candidate (i.e. for ending the death games) is resisted by force in a spectacular act of mass murder, reinforced by the military apparatus of the capitalist regime

it's both horrifying and hilarious that in the bleak world of the show, wanting to exit a literal death game inside a concentration camp gets you branded as a communist. that resonates hard. things really are so bad in the world that wanting to stop genocidal bloodshed gets you branded as a radical subversive

but once you get to the 50/50 player split, the political dimension of the factions becomes blindingly clear. it was chilling when the O players started referring to the other faction as "X bastards". one of them even refers to them as "reds". the O players very overtly come across as a rabid anticommunist fascist gang

the whole plot thread about the voting and the separation of the players into the camps of X (who want to end the games) and O (who want to stay) was fascinating also. it felt extremely intentional to make the X red. that choice is so clever too because on the surface the red just straightforwardly represents NO

the way they hang the corpses of the players who died fighting in the uprising is so. god. that's truly how the fascists treat revolutionaries

and it's super fucking relatable for that LOL. god

the part that sticks in my mind the most is the uprising, and the voting of course. that fucking uprising dude. it's so tragic. the whole show is about a failed union organizer who becomes a failed revolutionary and then commits suicide. it's so fucking bleak

I feel like it's impossible to have a meaningful analysis of the show if youre not like, invested in revolutionary socialist politics. all the "apolitical" analysis of the show is so fucking facile and superficial