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Squid Game: Difference between revisions
Added a few examples of different tropes
(Added some tropes related to Player 062, a math teacher, and to Gi-hun) |
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** Sae-byeok is revealed to be a North Korean refugee, along with her little brother. Her father and grandmother were killed, but there is a chance to somehow locate her mother either in North Korea or China. The problem is that her broker claims the smugglers ran off with the sums that she stole, and he says that if her mother got deported from China to North Korea, she's as good as dead for being marked as a "defector". Her brother also resents being in an orphanage, fearing that the kids are right and Sae-byeok has abandoned him. {{spoiler|Their last conversation is a fight and in the season one finale, he's guilty when asking Gi-hun where she is, as Gi-hun sets him up to live with Sang-woo's mother and the prize money that would have gone to Sae-byeok and Sang-woo}}.
** Detective Jun-ho Hwang's older brother In-ho has gone missing for a few days. He assumes that In-ho is just being In-ho since he makes trips like this all the time and his mother is worrying. Then he finds out that his brother hasn't paid his rent in a while and has been gone long enough for his goldfish to go belly-up and for papers to accumulate. Jun-ho also finds a business card, which looks identical to the one that a supposed drunk brought in claiming that he and 455 other people were kidnapped and forced to play games. He sincerely begs Gi-hun for help, saying that his brother may have been one of the kidnapped victims; when Gi-hun is too despondent and desperate, saying he can't help anyone, Jun-ho elects to follow him, and finds out that his story wasn't that of a bored drunk. Cue Jun-ho going undercover by posing as one of the guards, and facing the real possibility that In-ho might have already been killed and cremated, or worse dissected for his organs. {{spoiler|The truth is worse; In-ho won his 2015 games and is now running them as the Front Man}}.
* [[Ain't Too Proud to Beg]]:
* [[An Offer You Can't Refuse]]: This is how the Squid Game forces the players to complete round one. At the time, most of the players are debtors who called the number, expecting to earn some money to avoid losing a kidney or going to jail. They then have to cross the finish line in Red Light, Green Light before the timer goes out; if they keep freezing, they'll be shot anyway. The guards congratulate the winners for making it past round one. When the top square guard reminds the players they signed a contract and that if they refuse to play, they will be "eliminated," Sang-woo stands up and reminds them that the third clause says players can have a group vote. ▼
**Most of the players after round one get on their knees after Mi-nyeo does so, begging to go home. They say they'll pay their debts and do anything, just please don't kill them. The Square Guard tells them to knock it off and stop groveling. This isn't a means to scare them into paying their debts, but to allow them a "fair chance" to change their circumstances for the better.
**The old man panics during the riot. He stands on his bed at the top, out of the line of fire but terrified. The old man begs for the guards to stop the rioting, that everyone will kill each other. It ends up doing the trick, somehow. {{spoiler|When you learn who Il-nam really is, the answers become much clearer}}.
**Gi-hun tries begging the guards for help when Deok-su callously kills a man in the barracks. He says they can't stand by and let that happen, it's not fair. This comes back to an even more tragic note when {{spoiler|Gi-hun uncovers Sae-byeok's mortal wound in "Front Man" and she starts to lose consciousness from blood loss, while deliriously asking if she can go home. Gi-hun tries to keep her awake, begging her to stay with him, but runs to the locked doors. He starts banging on the bloodied areas, shouting that Sae-byeok needs a doctor, please help so she can play in the final game. All Gi-hun knows is that the last game needs players}}.
▲*
*[[Anyone Can Die]]: One of the reasons why this series knows how to pack emotional wallops; none of the players are safe from sudden or undignified death. {{spoiler|Gi-hun has [[Plot Armor]] owing to being the protagonist, but he is the exception that proves the rule.}} Try not to get attached to anyone, major or minor in this story.
*[[Awesomeness By Analysis]]:
**Sang-woo survives the Squid Game by using his power of observation. He figures out the doll in Red Light, Green Light must have a motion sensor given the way that her eyes dart around, and logically hides behind bigger players to increase his chances of survival. Later, he studies the other team's footing in tug-of-war. Gi-hun keeps saying this is why Sang-woo is the genius and pride of their neighborhood.
**Player 062 is a math teacher, who comes to rapid conclusions using calculations. He alerts Gi-hun to the fact that there is an odd number of players for the fourth game, meaning one person is likely to get killed for being unable to play. What's more, when he calculates his chances for the glass bridge and realizes it's hopeless, he laughs mirthlessly and tries his luck knowing he's dead.
*[[Because You Were Nice to Me]]:
*[[Bittersweet Ending]]: Season one ends this way. {{spoiler|Gi-hun wins the Squid Game by default when Sang-woo elects to kill himself rather than vote to go home alive and penniless with his childhood friend. His mother succumbed to her diabetes without the operation that she needed, meaning Gi-hun was too late by a few days. He spends the next year drinking and drifting, only using the money if anything to pay off his debts, and finds out that the old man Il-nam was the creator fo the games when the latter invites him to spend Christmas Eve in a penthouse. Their conversation and final game motivates Gi-hun to clean up his act, set up Sae-byeok's brother with Sang-woo's mother as well as the portions of the winnings that would have gone to his friends. It's implied he paid overdue child support so his ex consents to let Gi-hun visit Ga-yeong for her birthday. Before he gets on the plane to California, however, he sees the Salesman bitch-slap another potential player, and goes to try and stop him. All he does is confiscate the card, dial it, and promise that he's not forgiving them. The Front Man threatens him to get on the plane and see his daughter, making Gi-hun realize that his family is in danger unless he stops the Squid Game. So he turns around and gets off the plane, disappointing Ga-yeong again but determined to give her a better future}}.▼
**Gi-hun latches onto Ali for keeping him from getting shot during the first game. He sincerely thanks him, and later says that Ali should be in the alliance when he, Sang-woo, and the old man return to participate in round two. When Gi-hun can't drink the milk they're given for breakfast because he's lactose intolerant, he selflessly donates his limited ration to Ali.
**Likewise Ali sincerely thanks Sang-woo for letting him borrow his phone to dial his family after they are dropped off together on the mainland, as well as a bowl of hot ramen and a bus ticket. Sang-woo keeps saying with embarrassment he wasn't doing it to be nice; he did it because he wasn't going to let a man that saved his childhood friend's life to walk several miles to another city.
*[[Beware the Nice Ones]]: Ali is a [[Nice Guy]] who makes his mark by saving Gi-hun during the first game without second thought. He's also still a strong guy, and not a pushover. Case in point, he mauls his boss by accident while fighting to get the wages that are owed to him, and later he defends Gi-hun during the nighttime riot using a metal bed beam, wielding it like a caber.
▲*, [[Bittersweet Ending]]: Season one ends this way. {{spoiler|Gi-hun wins the Squid Game by default when Sang-woo elects to kill himself rather than vote to go home alive and penniless with his childhood friend. His mother succumbed to her diabetes without the operation that she needed, meaning Gi-hun was too late by a few days. He spends the next year drinking and drifting, only using the money if anything to pay off his debts, and finds out that the old man Il-nam was the creator fo the games when the latter invites him to spend Christmas Eve in a penthouse. Their conversation and final game motivates Gi-hun to clean up his act, set up Sae-byeok's brother with Sang-woo's mother as well as the portions of the winnings that would have gone to his friends. It's implied he paid overdue child support so his ex consents to let Gi-hun visit Ga-yeong for her birthday. Before he gets on the plane to California, however, he sees the Salesman bitch-slap another potential player, and goes to try and stop him. All he does is confiscate the card, dial it, and promise that he's not forgiving them. The Front Man threatens him to get on the plane and see his daughter, making Gi-hun realize that his family is in danger unless he stops the Squid Game. So he turns around and gets off the plane, disappointing Ga-yeong again but determined to give her a better future}}.
*[[Drama Queen]]: Mi-nyeo makes her entrance by getting on her knees and begging the guards to let her go home after the Red Light Green Light game, claiming that she has a newborn that hasn't been named yet. Then she proceeds to vote for the games to continue. The old man notes she returned for round two, and wonders dryly if she named her nonexistent kid yet. Sae-byeok even notes that Mi-nyeo has been burning bridges because she can't pick a side, or know when to be serious.
* [[Everyone Has Standards]]
**Gi-hun does not like killing. Unless a game demands death and the other choice is to get shot or dragged off a platform to await a long fall, Gi-hun would rather keep to himself and not have blood on his hands. {{spoiler|Il-nam pinpoints that he didn't spend the money after winning because he feels guilty about the other 454 that died for it to happen, and tries to rather bluntly point out that Gi-hun did earn it with his luck and skill}}.
**Jun-ho while undercover is unable to save any of the players from the games. The most he can do is check on Gi-hun after riot to make sure that he's not hurt, and ask if a prisoner named In-ho Hwang is in the barracks. Later, however, when a guard busts him for being an impostor after the latter asks about a "zombie" that woke up on an operating table, Jun-ho angrily rants about how his brother gave a kidney to save his life, and accuses the guards of dissecting In-ho. It's clear he's mad at the senseless violence, and {{spoiler|extracts a confession from one of the VIPs}}.
*[[Explain, Explain, Oh Crap]]: During the glass bridge, player 062 has fifteen panels to clear before he can reach the end when everyone in front of him has fallen. He takes a few minutes to calculate his odds, as a math teacher. Given each step has 1/2 chance of being successful, and raising that to the 15th power the answer is "One in 32,768. Damn it." {{spoiler|realizing he's dead, Player 062 runs forward and clears three panels before falling}}.
*[[Gut Punch]]: Given the genre and the nature of the episode, these are bound to happen.
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**Credit to Mi-nyeo, she is a [[Drama Queen]] and a compulsive liar, but she knows how to pull her own weight, literally. She figured out how to discreetly use her cigarette lighter during the dalgona challenge and cut out the star easily. During the tug-of-war she follows Il-Nam's instructions without hesitation, and later listens to Sang-woo despite screaming that his advice sounds like suicide. {{spoiler|Her final moment is taking out Deok-su on the glass bridge, as well as herself, when he's about to doom everyone by refusing to move forward, and he spends his last moments begging for his life}}.
*[[Pet the Dog]]:
**When Sang-woo reveals the third clause, that the players can vote to end the games, the Square Guards acknowledge they have to honor the contract and set up an appropriate station. They also say that if the players vote to end the games, 100 million won each will be sent to the families of the dead, ensuring that their deaths at least won't be a waste. Given the old man votes to end the games, the guards honored that agreement and say the surviving players can still compete in round two later, if they wish.
**It's revealed that {{spoiler|Il-nam was the creator of the games, and he entered to have one last bit of fun rather than wait for his tumor to kill him. He voted to end the games when the group vote came up in "Hell", because he felt that the players need a fair chance to enter, or leave if they wish. Sure, he thinks that the poor are "trash" but it wouldn't be right to make 100 scared people stay since it would go against his philosophy of fairness. Anyone who returns would lack the excuse that they didn't know they would be forfeiting their lives}}. Much later, when he learns that {{spoiler|Gi-hun hasn't spent the prize money in a year and is prepared to spend Christmas Eve alone drinking in the cold, Il-nam invites him via a flower-lady to his heated penthouse, to encourage him to not feel guilty or waste away. Rather than leave Gi-hun with the memory of a friendly old man, Il-nam revealed his true self to save his gganbu's life, pointing out another man who was drinking on Christmas Eve that had succumbed to the elements}}.
**Deok-su is a murderous gangster with no regard for human life and will throw away anyone that he deems useless to his goals. He also returns Mi-nyeo's cigarette lighter after the dalgona game when she lends it to him discreetly, thanking her for saving his life. It's his only decent moment.
**The Front Man is a monster. There is no doubt about that with how he runs the games, and especially when he engineers a riot to cull the "weak players", something that even alarms {{spoiler|Il-nam who shouts for it to stop}}. Jun-ho is naturally wary of him and is prepared to fire on him if necessary while undercover. {{spoiler|He also doesn't kill Mi-nyeo when she doesn't have a partner for the fourth game, allowing her to rest in the barracks and sit out the death match. The players are shocked, even if she's hurt on principle that no one wanted her}}. In the season one finale, when {{spoiler|Gi-hun is declared the winner by default, he gets medical treatment for Gi-hun's impaled hand and escorts him back to his hometown in a limo. While gruff, he advises Gi-hun to think of the experience as a dream. Later, when Gi-hun dials the number on the business card, the Front Man refuses to accept him for the 2021 games, ordering him to get on the plane and go see his daughter. That makes more sense with the revelation that the Front Man was also once a winner.}}
**One nameless guard respects {{spoiler|Ji-yeong's [[Heroic Sacrifice]] when she throws the marbles game and forces Sae-byeok to win, saying that her death will mean more than her life knowing she's helping Sae-byeok reunite with her little brother. He gives Ji-yeong a moment to thank Sae-byeok for playing with her and say goodbye, before executing her.}}
**[[Pragmatic Villainy]]: Deok-su votes to end the games when given the chance. His reasoning makes sense when he talks with a lackey about the piggy bank; it's really stupid to stay on the island with a lot of money just out of reach and a high chance of getting killed. Deok-su saya that their gang should follow the convoy of trucks that will inevitably return, overpower a driver, and stage a heist to steal the piggy bank. While he has to abandoned that plan after said lackey betrays him to a Filipino mob that are mad at Deok-su for his debts, Jun-ho comes to the same conclusion and follows the trucks solo.
*[[Reality Ensues]]:
** Gi-hun tries doing a sensible thing after the group vote allows everyone to go home. He goes to the police while still traumatized and tells them about the horrific events that he and Sang-woo suffered. The cops ''do'' take a report and his information down which they later relate to Jun-ho, while dialing the number on the business card, but they don't believe him. As one puts it, 456 people were knocked out, transported to a strange place, ordered to play a lethal version of Red Light Green Light, and then released after voting to go home? Gi-hun himself admits that the story is hard to believe.
** Something that the Front Man mentions when {{spoiler|he and the Square Guards corner Jun-ho on the deserted island. Jun-ho shouts that he is police and they're under arrest, saying he already called for backup, which he did}}. The Front Man acknowledges the call might have gone through, but emergency services in real life don't come the minute you call them. Police have little incentive to be efficient.
**[[Sequel Hook|Sequel Hook:]] With season two having received the greenlight, there are a lot of options, both in early episodes as well as the season one finale:
***{{spoiler|Gi-hun walks off the plane that would take him to see Ga-yeong and maybe a new life.}} He promises the Front Man over the phone that he will not forgive them for the people they killed, or the pain he suffered.
***With the Host {{spoiler|officially dead and gone,}} the Front Man has free reign to design the 2021 games as he sees fit, with no interference. He will likely have more safety measures against intruders this time.
***The Salesman is still on the street, recruiting players with rounds of ddjaki. Gi-hun runs to confront him but is too late, as the man smiles and waves to him from a train.
***We never actually saw {{spoiler|Jun-ho's dead body when he fell into the water from the deserted island. The Front Man also aimed for the shoulder when he had a clear shot to the head, and asked his brother to surrender}}. Not to mention he sent the images and videos that he took to his boss, and even if they didn't send, smartphones save images up to remote clouds and servers. Someone could still find that data and use it to further their investigation, and the chief was trying to locate his distress signal.
***Heck, the Front Man's backstory. Somehow he went from being {{spoiler|a winner of the game to the person running it five years later. His family also didn't notice that he went missing back in 2015, meaning that he was covering his tracks well}}.
***The VIPs mention offhand that countries have their own version of the games, but South Korea has the "best" one. Horror of the implications aside, that is a potential storyline that could be explored.
*[[You Bastard]]: Episode 7 reveals that VIPs have been watching the games remotely from a screen. They've been placing bets on who's going to win and who will die, much as television viewers might when watching survival horror. Hey, wait a minute...
{{Needs More Tropes}}
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