Can any of those gamers hold directly to any scrap in their humanity when they have been manipulated into Squid Game? This is the query the “deadly festival” trope seeks to explore and, on occasion, solution. Squid Game doesn’t opt for one definitive solution, but fairly a more sophisticated and nuanced one. It does this through giving us 4 transparent, varied eventualities to peer this theme performed out.
Deok-su vs. Ja-hyoung
First, now we have our duo with the least unexpected thematic outcome: gangster Deok-su and henchman Ja-hyoung. Unlike Sang-woo, these two have hardly ever pretended to prioritize anything else over their own survival and accumulation of power. When Deok-su betrays Mi-nyeo, leaving her to her presumed demise over and over again moderately than risking his own survival by way of teaming up along with her, it’s expected. Past that, there is little artifice to Deok-su’s games with Ja-hyoung. Ja-hyoung has dropped the act that he'll obey Deok-su’s orders with out question, but no longer even Deok-su is stunned by means of that. After all, he lives his life without the comfort of human connection, only trusting in violence and money as safety—why should he be expecting the rest from his social circle? What’s most interesting here is the sport stipulation that claims Deok-su can not use violence to win the marbles. This puts Deok-su at a drawback because violence has all the time been how he exerts energy. While Deok-su ultimately wins, this is the most unsettled we’ve noticed him up thus far, and a reminder that even violence has its limits in the case of making sure survival.
Sang-woo vs. Ali
Lying can be a type of refined violence, and it’s one who Sang-woo has demonstrated himself very in a position to because the starting of Squid Game, most notably when he selected to knowingly send his “teammates,” including early life pal Gi-hun, to the more difficult dalgona demanding situations in Round 2. If you’ve been taking note of Sang-woo, then his betrayal of Ali isn’t in particular surprising, nevertheless it cuts a lot deeper. That is because, whilst the viewer may not be shocked that Sang-woo would trick Ali to his death to save lots of himself, Ali is. While this characterization didn’t all the time paintings for me—I think Ali could be extra discerning as a 33-year-old immigrant who has been screwed over before—it really works on an emotional and thematic level. Ali is depicted because the most blameless persona inside the sport; he is almost child-like in his portrayal. To see Sang-woo benefit from that innocence is provoking. It could also be tempting to see Ali as a passive player on this recreation, but that’s no longer how I view him. To me, believing in the goodness of others, and taking a possibility at the relationships you've gotten built is now not handiest an active decision, but one of the crucial bravest ones—an action that Deok-su and Sang-woo are a lot too cowardly to ever take themselves.
Gi-hun vs. Il-nam
While Gi-hun might combat to play “honest” against Il-nam when his own survival is at stake, it’s all in the context of Gi-hun’s first main choice on this episode: to take Il-nam as his teammate. When the spouse requirement is announced, Gi-hun to start with goes to seek a extra able-bodied contestant—and he has some good options. However, when someone points out that there is an uneven selection of folks and makes the assumption that the abnormal man out shall be killed, Gi-hun sacrifices the edge a extra physically able teammate might give him with a view to be certain that Il-nam doesn’t die. In this episode, Gi-hun hits height aspirational relatability. He is the kind of player, the type of human, we want to believe ourselves to be. He’s relatable in that, when Il-nam’s apparent dementia gives him the risk to keep away from losing, he is taking it; he desires to live to tell the tale. He’s aspirational in that, when confronted with entering Round Four within the first position, he chose friendship and compassion over the presumed competitive edge. It’s now not the primary time we’ve noticed him make that decision, and it received’t be the final.
Ultimately, the outcome of “Gganbu”‘s contest between Gi-hun and Il-nam hits different while you’ve observed the finishing of the season, and the Oh Il-nam twist. Il-nam doesn’t die here. In some ways, Il-nam’s arc in this episode foreshadows that reveal. For most of the episode, we and Gi-hun are ended in consider that Il-nam doesn’t totally understand what’s going on. Then, with handiest mins left in the spherical, Il-nam reveals to Gi-hun that he knows Gi-hun has been tricking him, using his apparent reminiscence problems against him to ensure he isn’t taken out of the game. It’s a manipulation not unlike the bigger manipulations of the game in the sense that Il-nam has so much more energy than Gi-hun, and is the use of that energy to play with him and see what he will do. It’s merciless as it is cheating. Watching this the first time, Il-nam’s decision to let Gi-hun win is a formidable one, and it disappoints that the Il-nam plot twist retroactively undercuts that narrative selection. That being stated, the enjoying out of this dynamic—each a primary and 2d time—helps to provide us a posh, nuanced view of humanity.
Sae-byeok vs. Ji-yeong
While most of the avid gamers spend their half hour taking part in marbles to the death, Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong make a selection to “experience” what is going to be the overall half-hour of certainly one of their lives. This decision by myself is a thematically impactful one: it treats lifestyles as precious. By the usage of that half-hour to share their secrets with one any other, they are choosing humanity’s capacity for togetherness and connection over humanity’s capability for violence and desperation. They inform tales concerning the pain they have got endured, and industry dreams about a future simplest one of them (after which neither of them) can have. While some, especially throughout an preliminary watch, may assume the “Gganbu” of the name refers to the friendship between Gi-hun and Il-nam, I think it refers back to the connection between Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong. If a gganbu is, as Il-nam describes it: “a good good friend, one you accept as true with a lot [and] you proportion issues with,” then Sae-byeok and Ji-yeong develop into gganbu over the course of this hour of tv.
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