Why Squid Game's Ending Reveal Doesn't Work 

I like the twist at the end a lot and it makes sense

Did you forget the name of Tug-o-war? lol

Also when the old man yelled "stop I'm scared", that was a pretty obvious hint that he had some ties with them, since they wouldn't stop the game just cause some old man said he was scared.

There was also the part where it wasn't the police alone that helped the homeless man, there was the blonde guy from earlier that alerted them

Amogus

good point, I forgot about that. also illustrates the horrible working conditions at his manufacturing job where the workers would eventually go on strike

I’m all for him helping people…but go see your daughter! Even if he’s doing the greater good i hate seeing him let her down. 😩 damn them for writing that in! 😑

Ooo good perspective

@@shanehart7391 Right? He should care about his daughter’s feelings too. Your dad letting you down like that fucks you up

It's established in the start that he is kinda a bad father.

I was thinking the exact same thing

Yeah the whole point especially was that it wasn’t actually all equal and fair. Like I don’t know how schaffrillas missed that. It’s a game run for rich people to enjoy poor people suffer and scramble for money, they don’t give af about whether it’s actually fair for them, it’s that if it’s unfair it makes it less entertaining for the VIPs too. Even in the glass bridge game, they screwed people over who went first and they didn’t let the glass factory worker use his own skills to tell the difference and they screwed him over by dimming the lights, which in a sense is unfair and was only done so the VIPs could have a better show. And there are many more examples of how unfair the games were, I just can’t be bothered writing them all.

As George Orwell would say, all animals are equal but some are more equal than others

@@Crazyapple16 lolll

Well it is defined as an analogy of capitalism by the creators, so that seems like a given

This is a great view on that and this deserves more likes!!

Awesome analysis!

Thank you. Needs to be pinned

Oh... I did not notice the last part. That is... Incredible

This is such a great observation! It makes me appreciate the show so much more! Thank you for sharing!!!

Wait people misunderstood that?? I knew that citizen helped that homeless guy the first watch.

@@feister2869 the only one who misunderstood that is shaef lol

Yeah, that person has blonde hair specifically so the viewer notices it’s the same person when they come back.

Schaffrillas takes on the bet really annoyed me. Not only what you said, but other things. He said Gi-hun shouldve went to help him, but that makes no sense, since he wouldnt be helping the homeless man just for the sake of helping someone, thereby proving that people are indeed good and worth it. No, if he went there he wouldve been helping the guy for his own benefit of winning the bet and therefore wouldnt prove people are good. He also said that him standing there and watching is akin to the vips, which makes no sense, since Gi-hun truly believed someone would turn up and save him proving Gi-huns point and demonstrating how wrong the old guy is.

I was also disappointed that Schaffrillas, the guy that says he can see every twist villain coming a mile away, didnt see this one coming and was upset that he was tricked with the ganbbu stuff. I really didnt like this review, but its fine since his other reviews are great

!!!!! You are right!!! The decision wasn't made by his kindness but because this is what happens nost games and they expect it front man shows this. Omg!! My eyes are open 👀

plus he also still wanted to have fun and make friends :D

Since he was in games himself this time, he wanted only volunteers , not people held by force

I’d also argue that this is part of his character arc, initially he votes for them to leave because knowing human nature (as he sees it) they’re all too selfish to resist the urge to come back for the money and so the game will continue as planned. However, by the second game onward he, Gin, and the rest of the team’s bond strengthens and he realizes that collective betterment is more satisfying than any selfish materialism. And so the bet he made on humanity’s selfishness by voting for the games to end is contrasted at the end of the series by his bet on humanity’s charitableness by betting the homeless man would be helped.

Yup. It fits well with the message. It is the perfect answer to the argument “If work conditions are so bad, quit, nobody made you work there!”. They did, they know how the system works, and that those people don’t have an actual choice. About 20 out of 200 refused to come back, and most likely didn’t survive that long. So him letting them leave is more to ensure he’ll be able to say “You made that decision yourself” rather than to actually give those people choice.

Everyone keeps saying he wasn’t highlighted during the red light green light game, but to my eyes he had a green outline around him during the scene. What is everyone talking about there?

But didn't he say that if it wasn't for Gi hun then he would have died in the dalgona round?

@@kimchi2093 Oh, yes he did have an outline but no freen filling to it like the other contestants, and even contestants around him had theirs removed, likely to show he wasn't hostile no matter what. Not certain though, as far as I saw he wasn't highlighted

@@randompanda2391 He did say this, but it is fully possible he was lying here. He chose (arguably) the easiest shape and it is also fully possible the guards could've just escorted him out of the room instead of executing him. Idk, it also just seemed rigged for him to win due to prior knowledge

The red light green light one was disproven by some guy on youtube

omg nice catch i don't think i noticed that!

Yeah, but I feel like they intended for that to happen.

Won't know until season 2 unfortunately

@@Andre83572 could be... Well I'm personally not very eager for a second season, as I feel this one concluded perfectly and does a great job at wrapping up (as well as fully exploring) it's themes, but that's besides the point.

@@Andre83572 oh god don't even get me started on the saw series lmao

So is he more horse than man or more man than horse

Was just about to say this.

That is so fucking cool lol

Thank god someone said it

Let’s like this so James can see it

Wasn’t that completely obvious if you’re paying a little attention?

At least this time it's their fault if they come back. The first time they didn't know what they were getting themselves into but the next time it was on them. As he said, no one had to play. Those who died in the first game were innocent but those who die in the next game they are all guilty.

@@Nameless82284 They have no choice, they're being forced by the money. It's not their fault, you think they would play if no money was involved? Almost all of them just already have no way of escaping debts or living, playing the game is their only hope. It's like the comment said, it's illusion of choice, they actually have no choice. They didn't actually agree to be murdered on those games, they just NEEDED that money. The old man still killed tons of people and there it is his fault, not theirs. Il-nam is the one to blame for their deaths, he made the games.

@@e-2921 I wasn't defending the old man, I was just pointing out how no one had to play. They knew of the consequences and still went for it. It's not worth it to risk your life over it. What if you don't win? Not only would you lose the money but your life. And who knows, maybe there's another game out there that offers a huge prize, one where they don't kill people.

I always thought that he wanted to experience the best game so making sure the contestants really wanted to be there and remembered what they were fighting for would give him the most adrenaline filled game.

@@Nameless82284 The contestants had a choiceless choice. It's not much of a choice when their alternatives are their old lives, which are pretty much under the stranglehold of crippling poverty, and the games, which offer an escape, be it winning or death.

I thought he didn't because he was going to take on the game runners.

@@sonoftheway3528 yes, that what the comment was implying. Taking down the show runners for the greater good and being in danger is better than living in a comfortable life knowing poor people are still suffering in that game

He never found it more comfortable. He just didn't want to live knowing the game that caused him all that suffering is still ongoing and hurting more people. Your example is a Vet finding comfort in a warzone rather than a comfortable life. What Gi Hun is doing is trying to stop the warzone from existing so others don't experience it too.

kids these days 💀

idk why people are discrediting this comment, as someone w/ ptsd, this is 100% true for me because an unknown is more anxiety inducing than a violent known, plus someone's interpretation isn't wrong because you don't like it, move on

I was so upset when he dumped out the little bag into his hands and it was rocks, Sang Woo started as a great character and turned into as much of as Douchebag as Deuok whatever his last name was, I actually cried when the old man “died” lowkey I wish that the twist wasn’t in the show, but at same time I understand why it happens

Justice for Ali...

I think Ali was killed off-screen because he is the REAL REAL host of the games, which we'll find out in S2!!! /s but not really.

@@Jsingle911 i see the /s and get its sarcasm but i mean we saw his dead body in the next episode :(

@@coreycasciano3255 who is soo wang??? 😭😭😭 it's sang-woo (상우)

Inhibiting the glass manufacturer’s ability to see the glass still falls under the fairness theme of the game however; since the character has the advantage of knowing which platform would be unsafe-a base form of fairness that would be unfair in all circumstances if the lights stayed on. If the manufacturer was first, then he would be able to easily assist everyone to the next stage; if he were last, then-assuming everyone prior would wing it-he would still have the advantage of knowing which glass is tempered and which wasn’t. Either way, it’s a guaranteed success for the manufacturer if the lights stay on; an unfair advantage in the eyes of the game. Though I do agree with you saying they Il-Nam is an exception to the fairness rule, as the factor of his supposed memory loss and regain and childhood experience with certain games indicated bias toward his character; which paid off in the end via the reveal of him being the true mastermind. (Though I’m the type to say Il-Nam truly did die at that game but he was a part of a wealthy family of triplets who read Gantz once and decided to make it a reality.)

@@JoeticJustice I get what your saying! But to me, that means things like brute strength are also an unfair advantage for games like tug of war, yk? Plus, the masked guy only turned the lights off when one of the VIPs said it was boring, so it felt less about fairness and more entertainment.

The fairness was supposed to be about the system not giving handouts to any of the players, but even then, they still failed at it when they decided to hinder the glass manufacturers ability which he had before coming to the game.

@@youregonnaneedtothrowsomem2665 not only that, but to take the absurdity of them calling the games fair to an even greater degree, Sae Byeok is practically killed by glass shards that literally only blew up because the VIPs wanted a spectacle.

@@JoeticJusticethe games were never fair. The honeycomb episode pointed out the hypocrisy of that statement when one of the players argued why they all weren't given the exact shapes.

Yes! Love this.

This scene also illustrates how people with power tend not to face real consequences. The old man lived his life enriching himself at the expense of others, never truly believing in humanity and dying seconds before being proven wrong. Gi-hun got in a tiny moral victory over a dead rich man and, whether or not the old man saw it in the end, nothing changes

@@roosterboots4684 yeah, the fact that he was in the game in general can really be seen as a slap to the face for all the other contestants who were battling with their lives to get out of poverty, while he was simply role-playing at poverty. He was absolutely giddy during the first game, hopping around the dead poor people around him. You think he's just confused because of his brain tumor, but then you realize he is just enjoying his advantage. He used a terrible experience in people's lives to get a thrill out of the last days of his life.

@@LoveValentineXO Right, he's a class tourist who fetishizes the "noble struggle" of the poor

ending still sucks

He'd already started doing good again before he saw the business card guy again. Adopting the brother and giving money to his friend's mother were both good things.

Tbf he didn’t help because the point of the bet was if humans have good in them. Him going down to help would’ve proved the old man’s point of humans not being good. Gi hun though truly believed someone would help and he won the bet. Not to mention the VIPs gained satisfaction from the suffering of the less fortunate, but Gi hun wanted someone to help him.

@@ReblazeGaming true, but Gi hun still engaged in a bet on a human life. He had the power to help the dying person, but instead he watched and waited to try and prove something to the old man. Regardless of intent, he played the game, making him just like the VIPs. Or at least, more corrupted. Someone in another comment said this, but the moment he took the bet was him playing into what the old man wanted, watching through the glass - even if he hoped the guy would survive, hope is not a guarantee. He could have seen the dying person, rejected the bet and left to help them, but he didn’t. That’s what could make him just another part of the cycle (maybe). Sorry for the paragraph, ahah.

@@AnEmu404 It’s been a while since I watched it but wasn’t the bet only until 12 midnight, or a certain time? He wasn’t going to leave him out forever, I assume that had no one come to help, Gi hun wouldn’t gone to help. I just think the “just like the VIPs” is a bit of a stretch. The VIPs viewed them as entertainment and only cared about losing money if someone died. And the people that ran the games purposefully put them in life and death situations for the fun of it. That’s not the same as Gi Hun hoping that someone will help a man on the street in a few minutes.

People see the protag being a piece of shit and write him off. Then they see him showing love and care to others and they decide he's been redeemed, he's the Mockingjay now. They see him fuck up in contest and decide him surviving must be plot armor. But then they see him strategize carefully and decide he's a secret genius. The show is very carefully using him as a blank slate to make you think about yourself and some American viewers just do NOT know what to do with that. He's not the Mockingjay. He's pulled in all sorts of directions and he will never ever be the hero you think you deserve to see at the helm of this dystopian horror comedy. If they wanted a hero they wouldn't have made Squid Game

agreeed 1000%. i know Netflix will see this as a cash cow and order more seasons but Squid Game should not have more than 1 season, it can only get worse after this.

@@annaisntcool There are way too many plot holes. Also the ending of this season just screams season 2. The fact that the game is still going but we dont know how it will end. We dont know about Alis wife or the girls brother and whether he will be able to meet his mother. So many questions that need answering. This isnt stranger things.

@@ultrachadstinctgoku7579 the creator has no plan on doing a season 2 and said he doesn’t want to, what don’t y’all get?

@@Teddy-wd3ro actually not true. He already talked about it and said that he is thinking about a season two. The only thing he said about it is that he wants to focus more on the Frontman (Thats just something i read in an Article) What he DID say however is this: “When I think about doing the same for Season 2, I'm personally kind of worried,” he said, before adding the part that’s likely to give Squid Game fans a glimmering ray of hope: “There’s nothing confirmed at the moment, but so many people are enthusiastic that I'm really contemplating it.” So your point is completly false and proovabley wrong. Why make up your own Stuff about what a creator said and share it to make other people think its real?

I loved it and because of that I hope there is no season 2. Good story telling requires and ending. This is why TV and cinema is often so shit these days. Everything is left open ended in case there is a sequel or new season.

Fuck it, he just destroys the fuckin island

@@terragolemenjoyer8359 the entire island is actually his shell 😳

Goodluck with Honeycomb lol

Because of his size? No! Because he's goddamn tomotoa that's why

That sounds like the hypest shit! I didn't really like Squid Game, but I would definitely tune in for a season 2 if Tamatoa wrecks shit up!

Gi-hun was also involved in a labour riot earlier in life, which is brought up during the stake-out. Him deciding to rebel against the system is not out of left field or disappointing; it fits him quite well.

@@Rikrobat "Labor riot" It's called a strike.

@@justanotherhumanuser3145 - in summaries of the event, it was termed a labour riot, so that’s the terminology I’m going to use.

I think it's less a "debunking a capitalism" but instead shows how the powerful and corrupt take control and use regular people for their entertainment and selfishness.

The movie references a very recent failed collective action following a large company’s ‘bankruptcy’ and major layoff (the strikers were violently attacked by police and the executives stole the pension without penalty). It was a super important event in S Korea for worker solidarity. I agree with your interpretation but want to add that ‘winning’ the game is a parallel to career success, since the MC lost his family and friends and had to destroy (kill) the competition to surpass them. Everyone could have gotten a (much smaller but still) life changing amount of money if they had cooperated but instead only one person will ‘win’ while everyone else (and their families) suffer even more. The old man wins too. The MC stays there and watches the homeless guy as part of the bet. So now our wealthy MC has become just another rich guy playing with lives instead of heading down stairs and trying to help. Money (and the pursuit of it - the game) corrupted the MC and now he’s going to selfishly play future games instead of using that money to help his family and his neighbors.

@@clay1430 Sure, but the series had a lot of anti capitalist subtext that I had clearly interpreted on my first watch through. Though I agree, “debunking capitalism” wasn’t so much its goal as critiquing the notion of equality under capitalism.

Yeah, he got the idea that it was supposed to be fair from the black mask guy, but the black mask guy was supposed to represent the few working class people who get lucky and make a bunch of money, who then turn their backs on the working class in the need to believe the system is fair to feel superior. Being wealthy already, the old man was under no such pretensions

Yeah exactly, and the point about Il-nam giving them a choice by being the final vote to send them home is bullshit. These people's choice is as follows: a slow death to poverty or a quick one in the game. Il-nam even lays this out himself! It's the same lie that capitalism uses when it says the poor have the choice to not work if they don't like the work they are doing. No they don't! It's life or death...so what do you think people are going to choose? That the contestants chose to return is merely an illusion. Practically speaking, they didn't have a choice

@OwO stop.

@@msgirly6827 just report his comment for spam and move on

I initially thought that person robbed him and I was like, damn, that was brutal.

It's also an illusion to what Gi-Hun does at the end of the episode. Seems like he's going to see daughter, but in fact goes to get help for the people in the squid games

he also makes a mistake for the tug of war mini game calling it a plot hole if since he thinks it would lead to ill nams death but he didnt have any cuffs on so he wouldnt have died. Weirdly alot of mistakes in this video

How would the other contestants react to him surviving? Edit: I realized they could have just pretended to shot him

Oh damn, good point.

huh, that's a good point

real life billionaires and millionaires dress up as homeless people sometimes because they find it “fun.” This reveal is brilliant.

@@littlelordfuckleroy3822 i mean, potentially being an analogy for something irl doesn't automatically make it a brilliant twist in terms of writing.

@@galarstar052 well that’s not the only reason I like the twist, just one aspect of it

As soon as I saw he lived through a bullet the shoulder, and was breaking HIS OWN RULES to his brother, I immediately said “Oh that’s his brother isn’t it”. Also, I dunno how he survived without a doctor to treat him. I think I would’ve liked if Vigil (yes I call Front Man Vigil) just never showed his face.

@@mreverything7056 my boyfriend and I guessed it when he found the records of past winners and his brother was the one from 2015

so what?? the main character winning the whole thing was the worst part to me when it comes to being predictable

@@thehillisalive Ye that’s actually good foreshadowing

@@michaelangst6078 Ye well I would write that off because of course MC-Kun is gonna win (I know he’s Korean not Japanese)

but then, what about the ropes. If he had not fallen off, would that not have been noticed by the other players that were watching?

@@harlequincat That's a good point.

also, are'nt the vip's watching as well, they don't know the old man is actually one of them. When 001 was "shot" out of view of 456 in game 6, did not the vip's see what happened there?

@@harlequincat Well, that’s probably why he told his team how to win the game. I assume that if he had not fallen with them then the soldiers would have just let him live and join the others, but obviously he tried to prevent that scenario as much as he could

@@harlequincat I guess the guards could just wait until the rest of the team had fallen down, leaving him all alone up there, then just be like "oh whoops lol forgot to lock that one", pretend to shoot him and then drag him out of there in a coffin (like pretty much what I expect they've done in the Marbles episode sans probably the coffin part)

There were many hints in the show that were going to lead up to the twist. From when we didn’t see #1’s data when the cop was flipping though the notes, to us not being able to see his “death” when they showed everyone else’s, etc. I thought it made sense.

@@Cooldoge67 Also in the riot night, they only interview when he was really scared and asked to stop that shit

Yo its marco

@@Cooldoge67 I mean it doesn't recontextualize the old man as a character and makes his heart wrenching marble scene pointless. I'd rather someone else was there instead of the old man to reveal that the old man was the host and that he died at the marble game. It'd fix the problem of him having an unfair advantage, kept his scenes powerful, still keeping the twist intact, and recontextualize him as a person better.

ok about the plot hole for challenge 3 if you look closely at right after they won you can see that the old mans handcuffs weren't locked so if they lost he could slipped out of the locks and live.

Omg thank you, I didn't like this review at all. Seems like he wanted the title to be that "the ending of squid game was bad" for the clicks.

Besides, Gi-hun didn't have to help him during the bet at all;. It's not like all drunk homeless men die exactly at midnight. He would just go help after midnight, after losing the bet but still finding out why the old man did it.

I went back to look and the final bit of the tug-of-war scene when the players fall on their backs you can see the old man's locks on his cuffs clearly as his hands are in the air

1. old dude is just an asshole and the show didn't execute well enough to justify the twist, like, at least make him not dying to show that he is willing to pee himself while not having brain problem or literally participate in the most luck base game. the twist is just force AF. 3. once again, execution problem, red hair boy have every reason to go back to the game, the show just didn't make that choice seem legit, it felt like a uncalculated cliffhanger.

Yeah this was off base for Schaff. It’s like he watched it in the background whilst doing other things.

Watching a homeless freeze to death because of a bet is even worse though. That would be what a gambler do just to win.

@@mertarican5456 maybe it hints that Gi-Hun still has that gambler's side somewhere in him? Tho, I can see why people might not like this scene

@@panlis6243 why not just show the gambler side of him throw a actual gamble.

I suppose that's a valid take but I wouldn't mind. Perhaps the point is that we should take every advantage we can and then use them to help each other instead of being selfish

Besides he went through a lot of trauma, he's not going to be the same 'dad', his world view changed

FR

True but what is he actually going to do? We've seen that people who had unfair advantages were publicly hanged (we dont know if this rule applies to the previous winners), and his first time playing was him getting carried the entire time. The only game he won was the carving thing, and even then most players actually won that.

Also can't forget the fact that Gi-hun was told to "get on the plane" while he was on the walkway, meaning that he was being watched one way or another. Him not going to America gave his daughter the best chance of being safe.

@@Sliacen omg I didn’t even think about that but yeah, having him away from his daughter in America might make her safer, but it may also open the opportunity to use her as leverage if Gi-Hun starts doing shit

Wait, were they not dubbed?

My friend's husband played one of the VIPs and he said they were told to act dumb and boarish so the audience would really hate them. I'm an actress here in Korea too and at least one reason for the awkwardness of the lines is because they were most likely originally written in Korean, then translated to English.

Im pretty sure they were dubbed over, there's a lot of moments where their mouths don't line up with what they're saying at all, and moments where it looks like they're talking but we can't hear anything

Film major here: they may have dubbed them for the same reason they dubbed all The Mandalorian dialogue: no one can hear shit from under a mask. Even the half-mask things could get in the way enough from them to decide to dub a better-quality recording later. Just a possibility.

Maybe you were entirely convinced that they were all dubbed over because they actually were...?

I dismissed his reaction not as "he's not all there" but as "he's so over life (from being terminal) that stuff like this is one of the few things that makes him feel alive". Turns out, that was not only spot-on but actually strengthened by the reveal

Yeah... All I saw in the first game was an old man with dementia just thinking "this is one of the childhood games I used to play!" not really grasping that much the gravity of the situation, and/or not thinking of death that seriously as he already had one foot in it.

I always thought it was a little weird that he would be this happy in the first game, but I never thought it was suspicious or anything since I eventually loved his character until my heart was ripped in two. But I totally see where you're coming from, and it's hard not to notice regardless of how you feel about it.

Yeah, if gi hun went to help it just wouldn’t hit the same. He has an incentive to help the homeless man, he wants to prove the old man wrong and that is self serving. The bet wasn’t “I bet you won’t go help that guy” it was “I bet no pedestrian witnessing this drunk man will want to help”

exactly. dude was convinced there was no good in the world after witnessing the brutality of the games, needed a little spark of hope

That's true, but it doesn't improve his character at all. I felt that it was going for a "be the change you want to see in the world" thing. Him waiting for someone else to take action doesn't reflect good on him, also prioritizing a "game" over a human life. It makes him part of it, so it discredits him not using any of the money. Gi-hun made too many contradicting decisions that made no sense for what was established.

I think the stupidly of the bet hits Gi-hun when he realised the old man probably died before seeing the outcome. He literally just became one of the VIPs. It gives him a kick up the arse to stop being a passive onlooker and go DO stuff to make amends

@@ahh952 it wasn’t a test of gi Hun’s morality at this point though. Gi hun has a unique perspective and has gone through a very demoralizing and traumatizing ordeal in exchange for money he can’t even look at-he is compromised. He absolutely wants to prove this organization and the old man wrong on their misanthropic and dehumanizing perspective, but a true test of empathy and care for your fellow man cannot be taken if it’s coming from a person that has so much to gain from proving the old man wrong. It’s important coming from a simple bystander that has no knowledge of the squid games and what the 1% are doing. The games had made gi hun lose hope in himself and humanity and he needed to see someone outside of this sick insular world he’s in do a selfless act to inspire him back to his true spirits.

But in that case, if his team had lost, it would expose his position to the rest of the people there would it not?

@@lsffan Yea, he probably would've just gone "welp, I lost, I'm out of the game. Bye" and gone back backstage

@@vitorcustodio5899 I think what fuguvn was trying to say was that even if he could’ve slipped by, that game specifically would be hard to “fake” his death without exposing him unlike every other game before.

seeing how the other participants are situated compared to him, they could have had one of the red guys go "whoops, guess he wasn't properly attached, nothing a bullet can't solve" and pretend to shoot him like in the marble game.

But he was smack in the middle of his team, how would they not notice that he doesn't have the shackles on?

yeah that absolutely goes against the point of the show, why would he want that? smh this video is bad, i expected more from him

Exactly. It'd go entirely against the direction of the show by turning it's audience into what the antagonists signify, WITHOUT the audience's awareness. Possibly the worst way it could turn out.

It's pretty funny Netflix itself didn't get that and legit tried to actually do squid game in real life.

@@raincloud96 thank u i tried my best :)

What you seem to miss is that story structure always comes first in any work of fiction, and your message doesn't work (as well) if you sacrifice that in favor of said message.

@d R You really have no idea of how storytelling works if that's how superficially you see things. That's how 90% of all Christian media is made

@d R i disagreee. great art should be a mixture of both good structure and its message, a movie that makes no sense and only has its message as an element would be pretentious as hell

The game makers actually did rig it for him An example is him not having locks in the Tug of War, or him being straight up not killed in the marble challenge

also he was never scanned during the Red Light Green Light game

@@janseanmarwyn4703 Actually if you review the footage he does have the locks in tug of war, he couldn't have missed it and everybody else would notice too. However he was not fully scanned during red light green light so he couldn't have died then.

I don’t think he really cared about the game being rigged or not in his favor, there’s always the option that the caretaker lied about not caring for the organ smuggling and just used “equality” as an excuse to make an entertaining murder instead of letting a contestant keep fucking up the game and making it too easy to be entertaining

@OwO how dare you betray us with not spam of RU-vid videos

It's bad enough that Il-nam had a safety net in all the games he played in, but when the Frontman *switched off the lights* in Game 5 just because a VIP asked him to, that showed the total hypocrisy of the whole affair.

@@TheSecondVersion whats the point of that game if you can see the glass and know 100% where to go? i agree with the vips on that one.

@@TheSecondVersion The equality is that everyone is there voluntarily not knowing what the next game might possibly preventing in depth strategizing. Once the game begins equality and fairness is thrown out the window as that would tame the games. The equality is only real between the contestants when out of the games as then they are all equally worthless in the eyes of the Frontman/Guards.

@@TheSecondVersion well the glass man ability in itself is an advantage which make it unfair for other people who doesn't have the ability, that's why the front man turnoff the light so everybody become "equal", I don't see any hypocrisy there.

@@byakugozen8334 Sang woo did the same shit with the honeycomb game and Ill nam with tug of war, they used knowledge from their lives outside to help them with the game. How is Glass man different

Also it was a passerby calling the cops and not just the cops helping the homeless, so it’s sort of a middle ground between good action and just mildly alright minimal care for people (not to speak of the fact that it’s not a good universal solution for the situation, but I genuinely don’t know anything about the general conduct of South Korean police regarding homeless people)

@today was a good day stfu

Yeah, I was really hoping he'd go visit his daughter as planned.

Mc going back definitely dragged it from a 9.5/10 to an 8.5/10 for me. It also feels like old man might have been thinking that people should only be helped when they can help themselves

Gi-Hun helping the man himself would be wrong IMO. Him seeing the man get helped is what actually snaps him out of his stupor. We know, as the audience, that Gi-Hun would normally go and help the man himself. The point of the scene is that Gi-Hun doesn't realize that now. The man being helped and Gi-Hun realizing that, in that moment he cared more about winning the bet than helping the person, is what motivates his change back from morally apathetic back to good. I dont have a problem with the twist villain much, but Gi-Hun abandoning his responsibility to his daughter to go back to the game is a dogshit and out of character decision.

economic studies 😤

That makes sense, I mean, they've been hosting this game for over a decade and I don't believe this has never happened in the past game once before

That's why I take issue whenever people say that "well they chose to came back". Yes they did, but it's because their circumstances meant that they would rather have some shot at glory than simply dying hungry and pathetic. You can't really say it's much of a choice when most people had nowhere else to go. The fact that people were desperate enough to go back shows that the poor actually have NO choice other than having to risk the lives of themselves and others in order for a CHANCE at success. It's an important piece of social commentary that people always miss.

​@@rbwjakfjenwbw1009 if anything the games werent truly all that evil imo. i think they saved ali's family from being killed alongside him. they gave ji yeong a friend and good experience before death that i dont think she would of gotten outside the games. sae byeok probably would of been beaten to death by someone she stole from. they all had terrible lives outisde of the games. ilnam and frontman didnt pick anyone to die that werent already dead. frontman even gave his brother a chance after being shot. the true villains were the people trying to end the games and send those people back to poverty with no CHANCE at success.

Hence why the show is a bad critique of capitalism, beeing a much better critique of sistems such as socialism and corporatism, where government chooses winners and losers instead of letting people be free to do as they please

@@pedropradacarciofi2517 corporatism XD as if that's no just capitalism. braindead take. "socialism is when bad".

@@tesso.6193 Capitalism is defined by a free market If the government is interfiring in the market to help corporations (corporatism) then it's not a free market Similarly, under socialism the government controls the economy

@@pedropradacarciofi2517 no it isn't. it's defined by private ownership of the means of production. socialism is defined by worker ownership of the means of production. the current remaining socialist states are all market socialists. What fanboys of capitalism do is invent a meaningless definition then pretend super, super hard the profit motive doesn't make capitalists move politics. so basically -> capitalism is when free market then -> oh it's never free market it's [excuse here] -> the market isn't less free because the profit motive creates political lobbying - > the gov should interfere against these corporates acting on the profit motive so we have le REAL capitalism -> when gov interferes it's not free market -> no free market no capitalism it's not free market when government interferes in it, but if it doesn't interfere monopolies form and control politics, that you'll then pretend is unrelated to capitalism. Incoherent logic that i'd rather you spare me because I had the conversation a 1000 times already.

@@tesso.6193 And since when are workers not alowed to privately own the means of production under capitalism? That definition is defunct and extremely nonsensical. Acording to it mercantile kingdoms are capitalist, but a modern society with a lot of startups wouldn't be The definitions actualy used by the people nowadays are capitalism as private property + a (mostly) free market and socialism as centralized control of the economy in the name of the people For those were the kinds of economys to use the names thorugh history And of course you use the nonsensical "government is corrupt so we should give it more power" argument If government isn't trustworthy (and it isn't) we should restrict it's power and let people be free from it's influence Of course, you don't even realize you are proving my original point. You, the socialist, are advocating for exactly the kind of centralized control we are saw exemplified in Squid game, while I, the capitalist, am advocating we should get rid of it

Exactly!!! Throughout the series it was clearly showcased that the rich were using their power and money for solely themselves, for their own greed and contentment. Gi-hun could do exactly that, go back to his daughter like you said and live a comfortable life for the rest of time, however he decides to sacrifice his own happy ending and help others out instead. He is breaking the cycle, because power doesn't have to be about putting others down but about lifting others up as well. And I wonder if there is some sort of implicit message about that in there with Il-nam. He said that the only time he found real joy was when he was playing the games with others, and especially Gi-hun who to him became a real friend, reason why he thanks for playing with him. Maybe it's being implied there that had he spent his time and money building happiness with and FOR others instead of only for himself he wouldn't have been so miserable his whole life. Think it's interesting and would definitely explain the reason why Gi-hun's compassion is highlighted so much during the show I think. Edit: In an interview for Netflix the director said that the main conflicting idea between Sang-woo and Gi-hun was that Sang-woo thought winners become so because they are able to beat out others, while Gi-hun thought winners were so because others were willing to help them along the way. I think the ending could be a manifestation of this idea.

He could simply visit his daughter for like a month or even week before he starts his war against the game

@@dimitrescu182 Except for the fact he KNOW'S a new game is about to start. He doesn't have time to wait, he needs to do everything in his power to stop it before more innocent people kill themselves for a prize that wasn't worth the risk.

im not a big fan of the ending either i think its still a little bit stupid that he just doesnt go and see his daughter but i do like how in character it is, gi huns character flaw (?) is that he puts emotion and morality above all else, his decisions are consistently kinda stupid but noble at the same time.

@@louminouz I mean, you try living with the guilt of knowing that you, and perhaps only you have the chance to save lives, but choose not to for your own sake. A few drops of that blood end up on your hands. That's a hard thing to ignore.

That was kinda dumb on Schaffrillas end. There are lots of people that were attached to the main character.

@@oeospdocix Fuck the main characters all my homies hate the main character, bring back Ali or the gay girl and we're getting somewhere

@@hieutruong7456 Lol, the gay girl... wait, which one?

@@hieutruong7456 What's wrong with me main character?

i wanted the four eyed jerk to win because it would've been too predictable if the deadbeat dad or the north korean girl won

Yeah it's a 15

Kids should not be watching these kinda stuff

I've been seeing kids toys for this show.

@@saphiriathebluedragonknight375 same leh

This is pretty light compared to most shit. Kids have access to the internet these days. Who fucking cares.

Or maybe he was too shocked by his friend returning from the dead after a year and wanted an explanation for everything

Or because its already established that Gi-hun is a altruistic person, and that him going to help the guy would take away the meaning of the bet, being is there still good people? If Gi-hun went it'd be because he wanted to win and get the truth and because he feels guilty. (And he is also shocked). In this way he wins the bet that not only someone help the man, but that humans can do good. This is also to point out how the old man is wrong about human nature. It makes the scene more powerful overall imo

No, it was to show that he still had faith in humanity, and him going to stop the game clearly shows that he's not "cold" as that's the entire point of the show.

Yet he helped a bunch of other people.

And the slaughter after lights out was halted by the Frontman after the old man begged them to stop. It's a bit more ambiguous before the reveal (maybe the Frontman was being compassionate), but it's a red flag

There’s a lot of little hints that he was the master mind in the game.

@@TheSecondVersion Upon first watch I thought he stopped the game because the point was to drive one of them to desperation, at which point they would stop, so as to not kill literally everyone. An alternative reason could've also literally just been coincidence. With the recontextualization, though, I can see it being just because it was the old man.

I'm sure that the special rule in the marble game (the one that let Mi-Nyeo skip the game) was aimed towards the old man. As he was old and didn't have enough strength, nobody would like to have him in his team. That would let him to be safe until the next game, but we already know how it ended lol

@@KagamineRinVocaloid omg! I hadn’t thought about it that way!

Yoooo I have the same exact feeling. I had been suspecting the old man as the boss since around the middle episodes (when he was crying to stop the madness during the blackout and the showrunners actually listened!!) but that scene with the two girls and the one sacrificed herself made me want to bawl my eyes out. And then every time she said “we should go there when we get out” made me want the main character girl to win just so she could visit those places with her new dead friend in mind

I totally agree!! The fact that 067 wanted her to throw the marble again really comes to show her selflessness and humanity when could’ve easily taken that opportunity to save herself and take advantage of her kindness!!

*she

FACTS. Even if I didn't know that the old man was the host or whatever, I knew he was eventually gonna die so I wasn't that attached to him. But Ji-yeong death made me cry as a child. I didn't cried when Saebyok died, even if I thought she was going to win, but the thought of her not being able to achieve her promise to Ji-yeong, that makes me a little sad every time I think about it. I know it's not gonna happen, but my heart needs an AU where they both are alive and just living adventures together idk, I'll miss them:(

"Kang Sae-Byeok! Thanks.... For playing with me" That broke my heart 😭

I mean he's going to try to stop a crazy organization from killing poor people so that what happened to him never happens to someone else so I think he has a good reason. I just have no idea how he's gonna do it.

But that's what he's always done He's always been too kind for his own good.

A big question to be asked here tbh is:"what if my daughter got that invitation and joined squid game?"

Got so mad about that

I knowwww! It was very unsatisfying.

The marbles game number was only odd because the doctor was killed before, though.

I can clearly see at least 1 lock on one of the old man's wrist though. Episode 4, 46:36. As the camera pans over the protagonist's team while they're leaning back, there is a lock on the old man's left wrist

i agree its not a plothole. But the doctor wasn't supposed to die so there shouldve been even numbers for marbles. Unless they knew the whole time the doc was cheating, which there isn't really a hint of. they seemed caught off guard and didn't know who all the players of the organ harvesting was.

That wasn't the plan though, the only reason they had an odd number was because the doctor died right before the marble game so Ilnam was meant to participate in it.

The problem is let's assume that the old guy wasn't chained to the rope. If Gi-Hun's team had lost he would've let go of the rope and walked away? And that wouldn't have looked suspicious at all?

Ya his analysis was wack

Your reasoning falls flat if you imagine the alternate timeline where the old man isn’t the mastermind

Bro you wrote the best comment in this whole section. I’m sorry no one noticed it. If there’s one comment the creator needs to see it’s this one.

Those are the front man's ideals. It's why he decided to help run the game after winning. The old man is just there to have his version of fun like the VIPs.

That's the point, Capitalism (in this case the game) preach equality and meritocracy but in reality it's the opposite

This is a rather shit way of transmitting that message though. If that was a core theme that the series wanted to explore, how they actually went about it is pretty awful and rather confusing. The old man doesn't actually win the game, we never get confirmed the idea that he did have plot armor, it's only a logical assumption, and one of the actual contestants does receive the money in the end, which would absolutely be a story of excruciatingly painful success, but success at last.

@@gravynavy516 You're talking about Corporatism, not Capitalism.

@@botkarma5753 it's sad you think that

Even with the notion that he was actually ready to die it's still flimsy, because why not let the guard shoot him at the end of the marbles game, then? They needed him alive only to deliver the twist, feels like a plot device for its own sake

Nope the rich old man had a purpose, to showcase the differences and similarities between the poor and the rich people. I guess the point of the old man being the original creater of this deadly game was, because he got portrayed as an sweet, kind, innocent and caring character before, to show that there is no entirely good or bad Person when it comes to poor vs. rich people. All of them were in grey areas, they were all responsible for the deaths of other people, because they were fighting to survive and got rewarded for being ruthless, selfish and cruel (through the money), but they were still also kind people with needs, feelings and people they care about. The problem is the unfair system (aka capitalism) were they try to survive. Also the old man had cancer, and even his stupid money couldn't save him from that, he was ready to end his life because anything else seems hopeless and he basically brought the poor people at the same point through the traumatizing experiences they've made because of the game, and he did that just to have a fun time, which kinda shows his ignorence towards poor people (how they often experience discrimination and struggles because of unfair conditions such as being born into a poor family). And because he's rich he has the privilege to be ignorant about poor peoples struggles. Interesting enough just like the poor people in real life, experiencend the rich old man himself multiple times discrimination throughout the game, because the other players (except Gi-Hun) viewed him as weak, untrustworthy and kinda worthless (like "He's old, so he's going to die anyway, no need to take him seriously"). The difference is only that the poor peoples life's sucked because they didn't had the money to solve their problems, while the old man had all the money but couldn't solve his problems regardless of the money, its basically a recap to the beginning of the show: Where the new husband of Gi-Huns Ex-wife gives Gi-Hun money in order to keep him away from his family, and Gi-Hun throws the money at him, beats him and says "You think money can solve everything". If you would have paid attention you would have recognized that. At the end the rich man asks Gi-Hun "Do you still trust people after all you have seen through the game?", because the people in the game were all becoming more and more ruthless and selfish, even Gi-Hun almost reached this point. But he still showed empathy and humanity instead. Gi-hun asks him "Why did you spared my life?" and the old man says "because it was Fun to play with you", but I guess actually the reason his life got spared was, because Gi-Hun showed humanity and was mostly supportive and kind towards Oh Ill-nam in the game.

@@emalaw1329 he threw the 4th round to let Mc win, clearly he had him completely downloaded, and even admitted he knew Mc was cheating, so I think its more likely he faked the senility. I would accept them picking games that he would be able to win (except he almost didn't finish round 2, or know what it was since he got the star) To keep things fair, sure they still should have killed him, but whatever Actually I think it's more likely that the doctor was killed so there would be an odd number of people, with the assumption that nobody would choose the useless old man. This would have been done purely by the guy in charge in his absence, without his consent. Old man was probably willing to die but his protégé wanted to save him if possible. He might have even been upset that he wasn't killed when he lost, but who knows

@@Kelarys the odd number thing makes sense, but still, at that point they only really needed the old man to deliver the twist, so I still feel like the guard sparing him defeats the purpose of him joining the game in the first place in favor of a plot device, which is kinda lame.

They actually did rig the tug of war in his favour. If you look closely at the game, you'll see that he doesn't have locks on his shackles like the other players do so he could slip out of them if needed.

Also I don’t think he was allowed to. The game was about which philosophy would win. Gi-Hun’s philosophy or the old man’s. The game was between them and Gi-Hun wasn’t allowed to prove him wrong. He had to have someone else do it to prove the old man wrong.

Thank you!

I don't think you know how captlisitm works

Because wealth is not genrated through taking it from someone else

Yea. I was mad he didnt go see his daughter but these last few minutes bro. The fact that people were still playing the game and OH MY GOD SEASON 2 JUST COME.

I picked up on it when he got "shot". his death was the first to happen off screen in a series that made it no secret when characters died. I immediately thought that was odd.

It would be interesting to see if Oh Il-Nam hadn't died at midnight would Gi-Hun have killed him? He seemed pretty angry. But we saw him offer San-Woo forgiveness even after his misdeeds.

Didn't the guy from Pakistan also get shot off screen?

Byron Senior But he was shown in a coffin at the start of the next episode

@@colboy1fish I'm pretty sure Ali was the first off-screen death, since it cuts off right as the soldier pulled the trigger. And honestly, since both Ali and Il-nam were eliminated back-to-back, I was practically begging that I didn't have to see Il-nam's "death" on-screen either. I really thought the show was just taking it easy on us so that we didn't have to see the two seemingly kindest and most innocent characters' brains being blasted off on-screen. Honestly, I thought that was brilliantly executed. (edit) Or... brilliantly **not** executed I guess

middle class people do this too, they just call it camping

@@lounowell4171 yeah but camping still provides you with shelter and food and water. comparing homelessness to camping is stupid. And besides camping is for leisure (NOT to see what it's like to live as a homeless person and have fun with temporarily living like that), homelessness is because you don't have a choice and you're going to be sleeping coldly on some floor near spikes

​@@papasscooperiaworker3649 people camp to see what it's like to temporarily live without electricity/running water/shops/etc... (for leisure) some people don't have a choice to live like that rich people pulling publicity stunts like this is just a reaction to complaints that they don't know what it's like to be poor so they're like "ok, I'll try to understand" and then you make fun of them for trying haha

@Lou Nowell I grew up in an area that was prone to blackouts from hurricanes and tropical storms, and no one wanted to fund more weather resistant power lines. We had to grill and use lanterns and improvise food preservation out of necessity. But we also liked camping as a family. You can do one without pretending it's the other. Your argument is like saying cyclists are just cosplaying as people without cars. Just because someone has to do it doesn't mean that it can't be enjoyed. Plenty of poor people enjoy camping, too, and that gear we had saved our asses more than once

@@msjkramey I'm not the one criticising people here, apply your same defence of camping to rich people spending a day working in the labour force of their company. My point is just trying out a more minimalistic lifestyle for a day and then returning to your relative prosperity doesn't make you a bad person, it's more complicated than that, regardless of how wealthy you are or aren't.

It doesn't _really_ matter when the next game begins, I reckon. He has no real way of finding out where the squid game people are and any planning would likely be doable during and after spending time with his daughter.

@@nicolaszan1845 ehhh idk bout that last one chief. I don't think he'd be able to even enjoy the (likely limited) time with his daughter

i guess he could have at least CALLED her and said like something happend, the plane isn't taking off. he loves her. she would be wondering where he was for days/weeks/forever if he dies. ugh. at least give her a bit of love/closure.

@@BrianaLynn7 I mean, we don’t know that he didn’t call his daughter afterwards to let her know. The show ends with his phone call to Squid Game for dramatic effect. If he teamed up the cop (who is possibly not dead), the 20-ish contestants who opted out after Red Light Green Light and/or any other concerned loved ones who suspected something was up (the cop surely wasn’t the only one suspicious of their loved one’s disappearance) he might have a chance

@@Kabbaway it’s true. Just only makes sense in a story that nobody else has ever tried to stop it.

I feel this way too. Can't hate the old man.

Yeah. One of the characters even directly points out that most of the games disadvantages women, and the notion of all of this being "voluntary" is kinda laughable. This too is a jab at the idea that the capitalism that we know is meritocratic and that we get what we deserve: for some people, the game is rigged.

@@GormTheElder yeah i never got the impression that the game was voluntary, even after all the contestants came back, more like they were being coerced into participating in a brutal system because they didn't feel they had much of a choice.

That was his mistake

In ho being the front man was a pretty good one tho

@@lukethelegend9705 it was a pretty obvious twist

I watched the show knowing the old man had rigged the game, and it made the experience better for me imo. He probably would've been better as the known villain of the show so he could have more time spent on his motivations

I mean the director could’ve made the twist so much better So honestly *IT WAS HIS MISTAKE*

Good point!

That’s how I took it. At first I thought he’d help the homeless dude though😅

Yes! This! The man was traumatized for a whole year just going through the motions (because if the games didn't PTSD him enough coming home to find his Mom, the whole point he went, died alone because he wasn't there did). He Needed to see it as much as proving it to the Old Man. I also like what someone pointed out about the elevator only having a 7 because it was the 7th game. And I'm pretty sure the water was poisoned so dude could die when he wanted. I loved the twist but honestly once I saw there was a host I knew it was the Old Guy with player 1 on his jersey, then he got them to break up the fight, he got shot off screen, etc. But it was still emotional to me because of how it effected the main character. Plus between the girls and Ali I was already overloading on feels that episode.

Exactly, the entire point that they were betting on in that scene was “is kindness part of human nature” not “am I a good person” it’s not about one man making a difference, it’s if humanity can actually be good

@@ausar4148 exactly. Loved the ending

Him smiling for the entirety of red light green light was a dead give away

Also during the riot when they didn't have enough food, he stood on the bed asking everyone to stop killing each other and the front man sees this and then tells the staff to go in and stop it

I dnt think him stopping it was mind games, i think he gave everyone one more chance to back out, to ease his conscious.

@@nomdeplume2213 exactly, his final conversation 'i never forced anyone to play' wouldnt work if he voted to continue the games, he knew at the end they would return, thats why the masked guy was still keeping in touch with the other contestants that didnt return. Dude has being doing this for ages, he probably knows how the human mind works

He didn't play any "mind games" when voting. He simply wanted to let them out and give them a chance to bail on this madness.

I think this is an interesting way of looking at it, many say it's that he is trying to show the old man that compassion lives in humans but he really does bet with the mans life!

No, he still had faith in humanity.

@@asshat6986 Him going to help the homeless person would've meant NOTHING since that wasn't the point, hence why the homeless person was eventually "saved" after the woman and the police came back.

Yeah, hell every single game was unfair. In ep 6 or 7, it was revealed that those who were on the back of the first game didn’t make it because time ran out. The second game, those who got the umbrella were screwed. The tug of war DID mostly rely on strength so a team full of women were going to be at a disadvantage. The marble games were mostly based on luck, and the bridge was also luck, a literal 50/50 chance where it was impossible for the one that goes first to actually win. There wasn’t fairness in any of the games because anything that relies on luck can’t be entirely fair, and showed that with cunningness and smarts SOME people can overcome economic inequality and adversity (tug of war), but that it isn’t the likely outcome

I think that's the point? They were all given the same opportunities to succeed. But the reality is everyone is different. Some people are smarter, more creative, luckier, stronger etc. The games were fair, but individual success was based on the individual. As oppose to real life where some people are just born into a higher status.

@@byronsenior6499 Yeah of course thats obvious but i was commenting more on the aspect of that even the most skilled individuals, no matter how fairly distributed the game was, were unmatched by the representative of the highest wealth bracket (the old man) because he was rigged to win that round.

@@nicolasbalashenko3969 The old man was never rigged to cause others to lose. He couldn't personally die, but in all games he gave no unfair advantage to anyone.

@@ayushdeshmukh284 in the tug of war, which is a game he chose, technically he did. but no i get your point for sure, that is true.

Oh god, thank you! Yes to all of this. Gi-Hun is addicted to gambling. It's an essential part of his character. That's why he joins Squid Game, that's why he eventually returns, and it's why he bets on the drunk man. You're right, he is no different than the VIPs. It's easy to imagine a different timeline in which Gi-Hun becomes super rich by betting on horses, realizes he's still not happy, and transitions to betting on people. This is an explicit point that the show is trying to make! Money seems like the gateway to happiness, but it corrupts your soul. It leaves you empty and joyless. This is what happened to the cop's brother, who became rich by winning Squid Game, but never found happiness. He probably thought he could find joy in Squid Game, like the old man and the VIPs, so he became the Front Man. This is what happened to the old man! Betting on Squid Game still never made him happy. The only thing that brought him joy was actually playing Squid Game because it felt like his childhood, which was a time before he was corrupted by wealth. The final message of the show is super simple: money can't buy happiness. Except it's also a critique of the modern world, specifically capitalism and wealth inequality, which is extreme in South Korea. The ending was a bit hack just to set up the next season, but I will forgive it because it is otherwise a very good show.

I mean if I watched 455 people die, several of whom I cared about, had my best friend die so I could live, only for me to come home to my daughter gone and my mother dead, I would be frozen for a year too. PSTD makes it so you cannot move or do anything. Gi Hun was completely traumatized by what happened.

@@judefliegler1745 THISS

This is why I disagree with what this video is about, I seen this experience before with my family suffering for the elite to buy things while we scraped the barrel for a living. This whole series represents the real world, fairness don’t exist, the big companies or government only change when their bottom line is in danger or their PR is stunted by negative criticism that lead to less people investing in them and punish them for it. To the rich it all a game until bad decisions basically make them prey to bigger predators, the end is not a twist more of a enforcing the point that yes most of the rich people don’t care much about others, they care about the profit and way to make it. Of course there are exceptions to this statement but just that exception, rare in between the bad and the infamous.

Yes! Thank you! I don't get why he didn't get it

Only 1/3

We STILL get a punch when you realize that the old man LET THE MAIN CHARACTER LIVE. He was all set to continue the games and sacrifice our lead, but he chose to let him when and he would bow out

Ali was the best character I cried when he died

It is another demonstration of how Il-nam and by extension the rich don't care about the emotional trauma they are putting the poverty stricken players through. He fucks with Gi-hun emotionally and mentally in that episode by creating the illusion that Gi-Hun killed him.

At the same time, the idea that it was "dumb luck" that saved the man is not that erroneous at all even with the policemen being there for a reason. We see a lot of people pass the man by until finally one woman decides to help. The fact she of all people was going through that sidewalk specifically at that time is incredibly lucky for him, given it seems most other people won't actually do anything about it.

@@nicolaszan1845 but that proves that some people still care

By making it a gamble, Il-Nam tricked Gi-Hun (the smoothbrain) into not helping.

if the main character helped it would show that only he was selfless/a good guy

"The idea was to show him the state of humanity. " Okay but is Gi hun not a part of Humanity?

Didn't the front man say that in the squid games, the entire point of the competition was for everyone to have an equal opportunity? (which is why he executed the doctor and guards who were helping him get info on the games) The game itself was supposed to be played fairly (other than the old man cause he runs the operation), excluding the subtext and metaphors I get that there's meaning in this show (and I love it for that) but not every single thing can be excuses with that. There are plot holes, and mistakes. No matter how good the show is, you can't really ignore that

@@wyd_marco4107 This falls apart as well just because the exploding tempered glass. The thief girl won fair and square then caught a large chunk of glass because the flashy way they explode the glass when the time runs out. They really should have at least given the people who won some kind of cover from the glass at the end.

@@wyd_marco4107 front man romanticizing the games is the whole point. frontman is an unreliable narrator bro.

@@billfred9411 the fact they stopped the guy with glass knowledge from continuing with his stuff, shows that they don't care about fair and square. (This was also shown in the secret riot game and how they didn't feed everyone). It's a lie. The true reason the doctor got killed, was because he was messing up the bets the uber-rich has in the contestants.

@@wyd_marco4107 orange juice is right the front man is an unreliable narrator, someone who has been tricked by the system after lucking out and rising up to think that the system is fair. giving him a position in the game itself means that 1. he's less likely to turn against the people that benefit from the game (like the new winner is currently going to do) and 2. he helps keep the new poor people in line by also making them think that the game is fair. also, the old man and the doctor have a huge difference, one is secretly rich and the other is truly in debt. they use the actual poor guy as a tool to make people think they truly want the game to be fair and everyone has equal opportunity as a means of keeping them under their control, but the real twist in the "twist villain" is that the squid game isn't even fair like they claim it to be. Its intentions to be fair and put capitalism in good light are inherently flawed. i don't think the twist was to be for the characters itself and more about the even more sinister implications of the game. the fact that one gets treated in accordance with the supposed principles of the game and gamemakers while the other one obviously is a contradiction to those principles the entire time is a direct representation of late capitalism in real life- the rich have an inherent advantage. funny enough, the people who run the game who are killing people tell the contestants its fair, and us as the viewer have the choice to take that at face value, just as the contestants do. everyone in this comment section, If they were contestants, would fall for the same ploy, the one that perpetuates the cycle. i cant wait for the next season!

I really liked that he was an illegal immigrant. His betrayal seems like a metaphor for how poor native-born people will throw poor immigrants under the bus when instead they should have solidarity

I think the fact that his Korean is so simple adds to his character. It makes him seem more naive and innocent, like a child.

Ali is one of my favorite characters but I really didn't expect him to win from the beginning onwards. You know fan favorites always die

@@user-lt6ve9ns4d he wasn't an illegal immigrant

@@CoWinkKeyDinkInc he was an immigrant who wanted to get to pakistan with his wife and son but they killed him

Especially because he was making the money partially to pay for her medical bills and get her help.

Ok BUT when you are tasked with essentially keeping a child alive for your dead friend, abandoning them for a year isn’t the best thing to do

@@OhWowThatsDumb that’s true. I think it wasn’t the Bess decision but at the same time we don’t know what was going on in The 1 year ts.

@@OhWowThatsDumb trauma does a lot to you

Anyone who can empathize WITH SEVERE TRAUMA wouldn't judge the man for falling off.

the true hero of the story was random blonde bystander

Yeah, that's how I felt to. Gi han needs some level of personal proof that there is some good in humanity. That he too can embody what his fellow people do. If it's just himself in a cruel world (which realistically it's not but this guy just went through so so much that he's probably extremely depressed) he pretty much feels that it's not worth trying and thus gives up.

fax lol

mald

I doubt he's dead. His brother had the same shot wound and lived, so I think he'll come back in season 2.

His brother also got treated and didn't take a 50+ foot tumble into an ocean to,,,, what? Swim back to civilization without a scuba set?

It was meant to he a movie but to make it a series they needed more screentime and plotlines so that's something they added

The only way I could see it as a set up for later is that maybe the photos and videos he sent to his police crew did go through and more of them will start investigating in his honor. But even then, I was really upset that the detective himself got killed off -- he was so interesting and I really enjoyed how he sneaked around while the games were occurring.

The photos and videos may still be send, there was a weak signal after all the cop reached the police station with his call.

Yeah, Il-nam can try to justify it to himself that he never forced anyone to come back to the game, but he actively sought out completely desperate people looking for an out and took advantage of that for his own twisted amusement. And it all starts with hundreds of contestants being gunned down in cold blood without them even realizing what kind of game they had signed up for.

@@YorkJonhson I imagine many people after the finale have forgotten that the first game was a surprise. Yes, the contestants knew it was violent *after* that game, but 255 people didn't get to choose to leave. They didn't know it was life-or-death. Il-nam and any other conspirators took that right away from them, and exploited it. The idea that anyone, especially Schaff, can still feel anything but contempt for the old man is boggling.

@@wpw8570 just shows the power of bias. I mean there are still elon musk fans even though he's literally said supervillain shit like "we'll coupwhoever we want!" In public no less