Second Noah

the bathroom trap has one person who could never leave because he was purposefully put in a bathtub full of water so he would wake up, reasonably freak out and have the key would go down the drain. that was on purpose, it wasn't an accident. adam wasn't given a fair chance because he was and "apathetic person" and john just left him to die because he was a cynical photographer without a lot of money. lawrence was given literally every advantage in the room because adam wasn't supposed to live, john wanted him to die. for no reason. the only thing adam had was the photos he took and the bonesaws (which he couldn't use to kill lawrence unless he had really really good hand-eye coordination.) it was lawrence's trap, adam was just the sacrifice. even the gun was positioned in a way that only lawrence could reach. adam clearly values life because he keeps saying he wants to live/escape the whole time, he's desperate to leave. isn't that enough proof that he now values his existence? even before the trap he clearly valued life because he was willing to do whatever is takes to put food on the table, including photographing a random doctor he didn't know. lawrence, too, values life because if he didn't he wouldn't try so hard to make sure his daughter is happy. even if you want to argue that john's philosophy only applies to how the person in the trap values their own life, then I would say that lawrence does value his life because he doesn't want the cops to arrest him and he clearly doesn't want to die in the bathroom either! he fights for a way to get both himself and adam out of there until he's pushed to his breaking point!

the razor wire trap only exists because john came to the false conclusion that paul, a man who was harming himself, was doing so for attention. "he didn't appreciate life" yeah, maybe his life wasn't going well, or he was depressed, or he was an abuse survivor, or something else, we don't know. it's pretty hard to appreciate life when life doesn't appreciate you. paul didn't need a maze of razor wire to teach him the meaning of life, he needed a therapist. if he survived he would very likely relapse because a saw trap is traumatic.

the flammable jelly trap isn't fair. it's given to a man named mark who "fakes chronic illness" but john's "evidence" for this is that mark wasn't in hospitals 24/7. last i checked a lot of people dealing with chronic illnesses and/or chronic pain don't have to be hospital bound at all times, some are, some are not. you cannot generalize chronic illnesses/chronic pain. it would be different if john had mark's medical receipts to prove it, but even then, mark didn't deserve to die, he would've deserved jail. mark's task is impossible, too. he has to not only walk on broken glass in a dark room, he has to enter a code into a safe by using numbers on the wall in order to get the antidote to a poison he was injected with. he's also covered in flammable jelly and has to use a small candle to search the numbers on the wall. he dies, obviously, because the trap was clearly rigged. the trap is rigged because john was mad at mark for not "suffering enough".

the reverse bear trap is the one everyone knows, because it's uniquely horrifying. a woman suffering from drug abuse named amanda is put into the device but again, john's decision to put her there is flawed, to say the least. amanda is dealing with a mental health issue and needs a therapist and/or rehab, not a death trap. amanda is forced to kill a man who we don't know and doesn't know what's happening because...? i mean, does he value life? is he just there for amanda's test? was he just a sacrifice? he can't learn to value life if he doesn't know what's going on! afterwards amanda says that she values life, but it's very obvious that this is a trauma response because she's extremely fucking terrified when she says this. she doesn't want to go through the trauma of the trap again so she's doing anything to not have to. she didn't recover, she was just mortified into never falling into drugs again.

the drill chair only exists to slow the two cops on john's trail. i don't think it counts but whatever. who is this guy? why is he here? is he another person who's only put in a trap because someone else doesn't "value life" (noticing a trend here...)? why tf would he test two cops who very obviously value life because if they didn't they wouldn't be hunting him down?

the trap that kills detective sing is not a saw trap because it's a regular normal trap. but why kill a man who wants to catch you unless you just want to continue on your rampage, jigsaw?

zep's "trap" only exists to facilitate the bathroom trap. zep was the only person in the hospital to advocate for the humanization of john in the hospital by telling the doctors to refer to john by name. he presumably valued life (otherwise, why would he say this???) so for what reason was he targeted? to make sure lawrence thinks zep's the culprit and therefore letting john escape? that doesn't line up with what john actively says he believes in.

lawrence's wife is a woman who actively fights for her marriage, she doesn't fit john's philosophy because if she didn't "value life" she wouldn't be fighting so hard to keep her husband in her life. lawrence's daughter looks no older than 9. kids at that age, while more intelligent than adults give them credit for, don't really know what "the value of life" even means. why are two people in which one very clearly values her life and the other is too young to understand what valuing life even means, being tortured? for the sake of someone else's test? that doesn't line up with john's philosophy.

you, as the viewer, are not meant to agree with jigsaw. you are meant to see the horror and violence on screen as bad, as something monstrous, horrific, dehumanizing. that's what it is. john doesn't follow his own philosophy because he doesn't value the lives of other people. he reduces them down to base survival instinct, nothing more, nothing less. he treats his victims like animals. if they do not find enjoyment during every single nanosecond of their lives then, in his mind, they don't see the value of life and should die. his viewpoint is, ironically, incredibly childish. life is not always beautiful or wonderful or kind. life can be cruel and upsetting and hard. the solution to that isn't a death trap, it's a therapist or a reconstruction of the system or maybe just a bit of kindness. "so many people are ungrateful to be alive" yeah, it's almost like most people can't take the time to be grateful because life is complex like that?