I've been thinking about your speculation that Netflix interfered with S3. If it's true and it does sound likely, I think it's because of the American spin-off they seem to be planning, and it may be the reason why there's so little of Hwang Bros in S3. It's because they want the storyline to be explored in the spin-off. Just thought of this and idk what to think lol.... ;_;
so i work in writing (albeit in a wildly different field) but the same is true, every single word of my writing gets reviewed and commented on and adjusted per need. scripted tv does go through editing and adjustments but in a different way, review boards will decide whats appropriate to show and stakeholders will input what they want to include, and occasionally there will be a project or open ending that needs to be inserted. for arguably the most popular tv show in the whole world with an audience of millions, squid game definitely had a lot of editing. sg1 was probably the free-est season creatively because it wasnt expected to be popular, but after snowballing into something huge im absolutely certain that there were 100 cooks in that writers room all trying to adjust things. the conclusion/s3 is always the biggest thing, and i think hdh kept a lot of his vision in the last season as eps 1-3 were great, and some of the messaging that resonated felt like him (e.g. people being willing to sacrifice a baby for money/entertainment, not seeing the humanity in others when they have something to gain/seeing themselves as so far above others that theyre not worth considering among others) but there were quite a few character journies and scenes that felt like they had been perfected and then edited 20 more times until it wasnt good any more. writers know what i mean lmao. and the sg america twist felt very "netflix wants to promote the next season of this" like, the cash cow is milked dry in korea so welcome to America! it felt like it undermined the other characters deaths and came out of nowhere as a shock twist (which is very much more netflix than it is hdh)
there were also storylines that were set up so richly in s2 (inhun and hwang bros specifically) that just did not get explored in s3! after all that youngil stuff and there was only the reveal scene and thats it? and gihun didnt say ANYTHING? no history about inho? no confrontation with junho? it just felt like a lot of doors were opened and idk if theyll use sg america to explore them. if they're trying to appeal to americans they might be aiming for the part of the market that hasnt watched squid game 1-3 (the insurmountable 1 inch barrier of subtitles) so they might just do all fresh characters. idk i liked part of the season but i feel like gihun was barely in it, so some of the emotional beats i was waiting for just didnt happen :/
tbh im not gonna watch any squid game that isnt from director hwangs brain so sg america will be missing me x
