Squid Game - Blog Posts
You can’t tell me this shit ain’t accurate
The way my black ass would’ve been in red light green light:
so funny when people make sang-woo the evil ex from gi-hun's past. he would NOT be acting like that in 2020 if he had ever actually hit. he would be 300% crazier but in a completely different way
Depressing Sangihun thought of the day:
In the years between S1 and S2, Gi-Hun researched the hotel where Sang-Woo stayed. Let's say everything was left untouched, so the messy room, the cigarettes, the empty bottles of soju, the bathtub left with undrained water, and the stove next to it was all in there, as an evidence of what Sang-Woo went thru before returning to the games. Two notes were left behind, one was wrinkled next to a trashcan, and the other was neatly placed on a desk, right next to his glasses.
The wrinkled was a suicide letter, apologizing for everything he did that led him to that place, especially apologizing to his mother for being a failure and dragging her into his crimes.
The neatly letter explained he was brought another opportunity to fix his mistakes, and might dissappear in the attempt. He explains all the details he knew about the first game but didn't expect anyone to believe him. If he doesn't come back, it would be because he failed at the attempt. If he did come back, he would fix his mistakes. But won't stay for long either, as he didn't see any purpose, even if he had the chance to start over.
Gi-Hun took everything with him, his suits, personal items, and his glasses. Hoarding everything into a room, but his glasses. He kept those in the nightstand beside his bed, staring at it for long hours.
lil doodle of this scene cuz its one of my favorites. i think they r so cute
Who's off the island so far?:
-the salesman-myung-gi/player 333
-hwang in-ho/the frontman
-Kang no-eul/guard 11
-Kim Jun-hee/player 222
-Kang dae-ho/player 388
“WHERE’S MY JUUL? WHERE THE FUCK IS IT? WERE YOU SITTING ON IT? HUH? WHERE THE FUCK IS MY JUUL?”
Gi-hun + hearing words of affirmation
"I will show you that the world doesn't always go the way you want to" are the premises which Gi-Hun made a bet with In-Ho.
In-Ho, who is smart, cold, and manipulative, always seeming to be three steps ahead of everyone, is being put to the test if things would "always go his way".
He has the upper hand and will absolutely use all the cards in his favor.
This is a continuation of the post I made regarding his interpersonal manipulation to get Gi-Hun to like him and emotionally attach to him. In-Ho didn't stop there, using his position as a bureaucrat to manipulate both Gi-Hun and everyone else to continue the games, systematically ensuring the results he wants to win the bet.
As Gi-Hun correctly pointed out, the way he got people to comeback to the games was upon preying on their desperation, making it seem like they reached a dead end, with the only and last opportunity they had was to participate "willingly" on the games. Making it virtually impossible for people to want to vote out on later games as they feared something greater outside, and everyone has "come too far" to get out now. This time, it was much more sophisticated.
The addition of clause #4 and the voting system.
Unlike last time, people have the opportunity to get out and share the price money, even after only playing one game. A direct way to fuck Gi-Hun's mind as if those were the conditions of the 33rd Squid Game, at least both Sang-Woo and Sae-Byeok would have made it out alive, In-Ho knew this very well, so, he would need to prove that people will continue the games regardless if they shared the price money.
Him choosing to be player "001" is key into determining the fate of the results. If it came to end a tie or marking a tie, In-Ho would hold that power as he is the last person to vote.
Other factor to consider is that voting is *not anonymous* so the outcomes are corrupted by the expectations other people have on you, specially after they are marked with a patch that exposes if they chose to continue or wanted to get out. Min-Su is the most obvious case of voting for 'O' because he was intimidaded into doing so, however, Jung-Bae, Dae-Ho, Yong-Sik, Myung-gi and "Young-Il" all voted 'X' because there was an expectation from someone else to vote that way.
It is very interesting that the games did this fake illusion of democracy, as it only matters during the votes that people don't get violent, however, you are free to intimidate and even kill people.
Participants
While the players were already recruited, it was certainly convenient for In-ho to have many players that would put Gi-Hun on a very familiar and uncomfortable situation, some to point out:
Jun-Hee and Myung-gi: A pregnant woman and her incompetent baby-daddy, who is constantly trying to prove himself for Jun-Hee to forgive him and allow him to be part of her baby's life, as well as hers. Reminding him of how Gi-Hun (without fault on his own) neglected Eun-Ji and almost lost his daughter by witnessing the death of his friend during the strikes. Marking the resentment she holds against him.
Yong-Sik and Geum-Ja: a pathetic mama's boy who gets in debt and (unwillingly) brings his mother down with him, and while trying to make amends to fix mistakes, he doesn't realize how much he hurts her, as she makes her own sacrifices to help her son. Reminding him of the dynamic he had with his own mother, especially after In-ho maliciously implied that Yong-Sik would abandon her to save his own ass.
'Young-Il': A desperate husband who had his pregnant wife in the hospital, sick to death, with time running out, his "only hope" was to win enough money to pay for her treatment. Even if it comes to the death of others. But he is willing to set aside his selfish interest in favor of Gi-Hun's because he "respects and admires him." This is to both remind Gi-Hun's of his relationship with Eun-Ji and also the fact that he came back for the sake of his mother's health.
Jung-Bae: self-explanatory. Gi-Hun's best friend whom he neglected after being profusely traumatized. Too deep into the hole to see past it, blaming himself for not preventing Jung-Bae from falling victim into the system he swore his life to destroy. The only one who reminded Gi-Hun the person he used to be before entering the games. The weapon In-ho would use to destroy Gi-Hun beyond repair.
The Games
In-Ho certainly organized the games in a way that would be favorable to the outcome he hoped for.
He chose Red Light, Green Light first, besides having a huge death rate because of people panicking. He would make Gi-Hun believe that he'd be playing the exact same games as before, blowing his cover as a former winner and making people distrust him, even though his goal was helping as many people to survive as possible. He'd also use this to taunt him. "You know, if you didn't reveal yourself, I wouldn't have chosen to keep going, right? So it is your fault we are still here, despite your efforts of being a hero and saving everyone."
The six-legged pentathlon was also a deliberate choice, a game that relied on teamwork, having a high survival rate and just the right amount of adrenaline, would make people feel euphoric for surpassing the games, forgetting the unfortunate who didn't made it thru. Making people who were originally scared feel confident that if they keep going, they would be able to reach their goal. Not realizing that it meant that the money would be the cost of the blood of the people who "loose" until it came to bite them in the ass for the next game.
This one made it for the majority to vote 'O' without the need for In-ho to be the one making the final choice for him to get the favorable decision.
Mingle brought people back into reality, either losing or being close to losing someone they loved. It brought it back to 50/50.
And now it was turn for the extra round, where In-ho set it up to make it convenient for people to target one another. Keep in mind, if Gi-Hun accepted the terms of fighting one another, In-Ho would have won the bet, as he'd prove to Gi-Hun that things "always went his way," diverting Gi-Hun's objective in favour of the system In-Ho set up. What he didn't expect was that Gi-Hun didn't fall for it, suggesting to take down the whole system down instead of doing what the executives (In-Ho) wanted them to do.
If Gi-Hun chose to go with Young-Il instead of Jung-Bae, he would have kidnapped him (kinda as a payback for trying to do the same a few days ago) and revealed himself right there, winning the bet.
So it was Plan C, betraying him, and shooting the last trace of sanity Gi-Hun still held, his best friend, Jung-Bae, as well as everyone else who decided to follow him.
In conclusion
(Credits to @cleaveslice for such glorious image)
Hwang In-ho, you are not seeing the gates of heaven when your demise comes, malparido triplehijueputa.
i can’t stop thinking about sang-woo’s suicide attempt. more specifically, little details surrounding that.
on the floor, we see a pile of cigarettes and ash, an empty bottle of soju, a trash bag filled with wrappers of what i’m going to assume are some kind of food or beverage… and shaving cream. which means it is more likely than not that sang-woo shaved himself before his suicide attempt. (he also does look cleanly shaved as well)
further more, when calling his mother, he’s not wearing the jacket of his suit. we see him put it back on. it wasn’t a spur of the moment decision; he willingly got in the bathtub with his suit on, assuming he was going to die.
so sang-woo made sure that even in death, he looked presentable and clean. he doesn’t want to be found a mess, because he’s meant to be better than a mess, and he wants people to think highly of him, even if he’s dead.
oh, the sheer irony of his actual death being messy.
look how far we’ve come.
—
also, it still breaks my heart that sang-woo was never able to tell his mother he loves her. while yes, he did get interrupted by the customer, i feel he also held back because of the things that had happened.
he’d basically jeopardized his mother because of his own wrongdoings, and he hadn’t really been the son she thought he was for the past couple years. that alone feels like a betrayal on its own.
and he’s basically drowning himself in shame and guilt that maybe he’s tricked his psyche into thinking “well, if you really loved your mother, none of that shit would have happened.”
Han Kang, 'Human Acts' via metamorphesque
Let’s talk about how Gihun felt watching the other players in the pentathlon.
He’s not stupid. He knows he has to pick his battles to win this war. He knows he is powerless without allies. He went into the games alone with faith in his heart that people will help him and make the right choice.
But some of that faith is challenged—they lose the first vote. Surely they’ll win the next vote after more players see the brutality of the second game when he has no knowledge of it to protect them.
Still, he has to watch players wearing red patches get gunned down. He has to watch them die knowing they wanted to leave and he failed to sway the votes, knowing his efforts backfired and feeling the weight of that.
He watches the clock with bated breath, shakes when bodies hit the dirt, cheers like he’s won big at the tracks when players pass.
What an intense experience it must have been for him.
Rip to this part of my current Sangihun wip. I didn't take it out fully but I had to change part of it to fit with the flow of the whole thing
Cho Sang-woo + Life Time Warranty by Cyberbully Mom Club
just drew the stupidest looking sang-woo ever. he looks so lost
Fem!Sangwoo sketches for you guys!!! Eat up!
Apparently the Squid Game director made the cast test out the pentathlon game to figure out the right time limit, and now all I can picture is a cursed behind-the-scenes AU where Inho is like:
“Circle guards, we’re playtesting. Mask up. Game time.”
So now you’ve got a bunch of poor exhausted guards, who thought today was just gonna be corpse disposal and trauma, suddenly lined up for Red Light, Green Light like it’s gym class. And then Inho shows up—fully masked, trench coat flapping in the wind like some kind of dystopian PE teacher—and joins the game.
He’s doing everything with them, completely dead serious. They’re crawling through the honeycomb challenge and Inho’s right there, carving his shape with surgeon-level precision, muttering “Inconsistent sugar texture. We need a 12.3% longer boil.” like it’s a bomb diffusal exercise.
Specific sensory experiences I think Gihun would find triggering from his time in the games:
- Hearing the endless ticking of a clock. Imagine it wearing on him with each soft sound, filling him with panic as the seconds pass by, convincing his nervous system that something awful will happen when time is up.
- Losing his footing. Have you ever walked on glass or ice or another slick surface, especially on your socks? It’s easy to slip. He also lost his footing during tug of war and was hanging off the edge for a terrifying moment, so I think that moment of adrenaline when he slips would be hard to recover from.
squid gals
last night i annotated sang-woo’s apartment (for fic purposes, but there’s some funny ones on there)
i swear @player016 did smth similar so this is lowkey inspired by them 🙏 (sorry for the tag)
tap/zoom for clearer image! also sorry if my handwriting is atrocious 😭😭