Squid Game: Who Really Wins?

This entire show is the epitome of "I've won, but at what cost?", and I love it

The strike was based on a real strike at Ssangyong Motors. SY wanted to lay off 43% of workers. After 77 days of striking, cops violently broke it up, and workers were saddled with massive fines with massive interest. Many committed suicide. The vans that the Squid Game uses to transport players? Ssanyong.

I also thought it was significant that the old man wanted to participate in the game for the thrill of it, but was clearly never really in jeopardy of losing his life as his "death" when he eventually lost was faked. Like a rich man wanting to have the appearance of a working class man, and "walk a day in their shoes" but never really knowing the difficulty of their life as at the end of the day he will be secure. His participation in the game is insulting to those who really are at risk, and trivialises their experience

Ali Abdul was the most purer hearted guy in the whole series His case reminds me of how people that you think they’re your “friends” end up betraying you, stepping on you to get above you The scene of Ali’s eyes watering, 🥺 and sent-woo not looking back after what he did just breaks me man 😔

Gi-Hun ends the show in debt... he's in moral debt to the people who died during the games. He owes his success to their sacrifice.

Jihyeon intentionally loses, in what a Lacanian philosopher called “the only authentically free choice” in the game. Ironically although the victim of religious abuse she shows more Christ-like character by sacrificing herself than the outwardly religious guy she despises

When the screen showed Gi-hun as the last contestant, it struck me that he wasn't the smartest, strongest, or even noblest of the contestants and despite being the protagonist, he didn't really deserve to win, nor did anyone else. The contest was supposed to be "fair", but mostly it was a literal crapshoot. The message I got from this was that some people, like the frontman, think that they are successful totally due to their own merit and that the world is fair, but in reality most of it comes down to luck. I don't totally agree with that view, but it was interesting to think about nonetheless.

My favorite part of the show was it's commentary on how money turns everything into a cold, cruel numbers game. For starters, the players are only referred to by their numbers, and the show really wants us to notice when players tell each other their names. Also, the Darth Vader guy makes it clear that his henchman must die if their identities are discovered. Basically, any glimpse of humanity has to be removed from the games for them to function. Everything that takes place is so regimented and organized. The henchmen's cells are chrome boxes all laid out in an optimal arrangement to make best use of the space. In fact, the architects of the games have removed so much humanity from the games that it almost stops being cruel and just becomes standard procedure the way a machine runs. A machine doesn't feel anything or think about its role in whatever it's doing; it just turns and turns until it runs out of gas. The henchmen are just doing their jobs, turning like cogs in a machine. That's my take at least.

The real friends are the ones who went to SNU along the way

Anyone notice how the food they're given starts traditional, and gets more westernized over the course of the show? They even have a "famine" where they're only given a potato, just before the opulent western steak feast at the end. I think it mirrors Korea's westernization over time but also mirrors its economic status, with the famine coming right before modern abundance. When I noticed that, I started thinking that the show was also trying to talk about how Western (and Russia, depending on how you classify) forces are pitting Koreans against eachother. Both in terms of bringing a capitalistic debt structure and the "debt relationship" part of Christianity that pits them against eachother, and more literally, Russia and USA fighting a proxy war over Korean land and throwing Korean bodies at eachother to do it.

I wish the show went deeper into the relationship between the Detective Hwang Jun-ho and his brother In-ho. It is revealed In-ho had actually been the victor years ago and then somehow transitioned into the Frontman, presumably because he became a money lender after he won. Like the original creators of the game and VIPS, In-ho is cold and mechanical even killing his own brother for the sake of rules. I found In-ho and Oh Il-nam (Player 001) to be interesting because they were the only two characters that transitioned in their roles as "debtors" and "creditors". This shows that being in either group is ultimately meaningless because you are either in financial debt or moral debt, both of which become blurred lines as one transitions to the other.

Hope there's no season 2. The creator spent 10 years trying to get this made, and it gave him lots of time to perfect his story. When you rush guys like that you get True Detective Season 2. And a mega corporation demanding a sequel to an anti-capitalist show so they can make more $$$ is farcical If there must be a season 2 give the creators a couple years to write something out

Kinda ironic that the sponsor is a service that let's you buy a title/status.

The fact that Gi-Hun didn't help the drunk homeless man and that when he finally does somewhat make good on his promise to look after the kid, it's by way of dumping him on Jon-shoo's elderly mother, it kinda felt like Gi-Hun and the old guy were broken in similar ways, but to different degrees.

RIP David Graeber... "Debt: The first 5000 years" is the most transformative book I've ever read... I highly recommend reading it. The quote from David on Christianity is slightly removed from its context in this video and he has some positive things to say about Christianity (& Islam). The broader argument that he's making is that there has always been a tension in our language and religious practices surrounding debt. On one hand, mutual obligation powers all of society, but if it's allowed to spiral too far, it can turn into a brutal form of slavery. The institution of slavery was so baked into Imperial Roman society that they could not conceive of a world without it. Instead both Christianity and Islam launched a moral attack on the pipeline to enslavement - usury - lending money at unreasonably high rates of interest - that is to say, debt was outlawed between followers of the religion. This broke the link that would see people sold into slavery and for a period of time the practice virtually disappear as a fact of life for the common man. Sadly, the lesson wasn't permanent, and loop holes and easing of restrictions around usury saw it creep back into society over a 1000 year period. This culminates with the first conquistadors looking to plunder all the riches they could to avoid debtors prison, and is part of the process that would see the intuition of slavery rise again.

One thing I thought was interesting is that the show didn’t really make it clear that only 1 person would be winning. Like with the hunger games you already know everyone in the game is dying besides the protagonist. Squid games had me thinking at first that like 10-20 people could win and split it

I knew you would quote Graeber, his book on the topic of debt is phenomenal. RIP

I appreciate this channel challenging concepts like perpetual debt, systems that have been so normalized but objectively are downright savage.

"Here, every player gets to play a fair game under the same conditions". Finalist effectively killed after passing the game because the hosts wanted to show off and destroy the glass before the winners were a safe distance away.

While watching the show I kept saying to myself "this shit about equality in the game makes no fucking sense" and then on like episode 5 I was like "Oh right thats the point you idiot" lol I still have lots of problems w the show, but overall I would recommend it. Great episode btw!