#deok su squid game

[jangdeoksu]

Why..

@doctor-gy

why what, gi?-

what are those photos?

@doctor-gy

[uskoedgnaj]

heyyyyyyy big boy :) you're really handsome looking

@mi-nyeo-the-star (oh god she's found him)

i- uh-

mi-nyeo..? you're alive..? i thought gi-hun killed you.

but- u-uh..

thank you, anyway..

@mi-nyeo-the-star

[meadowfics]

deok su was in love with byeonggi

[kai-strophics]

A messy midnight essay on the themes in episodes 4 and 5 of Squid Game season 1

I've recently been watching Squid Game and every episode has just been HITTING me with some absolutely great metaphors and symbols that are just so fun to analyse, but episode 4 has really peaked with the social commentary, so let's go into it a bit (basically this whole post will be me rambling about all the different themes explored in this episode)

Side note: as of writing this, I've only watched up to episode 5, so apologies if certain aspects are inaccurate

Childish values and sexism

I think perhaps the most potent image throughout squid game is that of the underlying childishness of…well everything, yet up until this point this was seen more so in the games themselves. Episode 4 now explores the childish personalities of the players, and subsequently their values.

I think this is seen mostly with Sang-woo, during the scene in which the players must pick out groups of 10. Here, he claims it'd be most beneficial to the team for them all to pick able-bodied men.

With the way this is phrased, and the circumstances he's in, Sang-woo's actions do not come across as being inherently rooted in a hatred for women, but rather, in his own mind, to ensure his own survival. Even Gi-hun and the other team members see reason in his argument, even if they may not entirely agree with his ideas.

Yet, despite his rather professional phrasing prior, the specific use of ‘girls’ over women to refer to the female players ends up ultimately casting him as…very childish.

He seems less like a rational yet old fashioned businessman and more like a little boy on the playground not wanting to play with the girls because of ‘cooties >:(!’.

By underlying the ideas expressed by him in this childish light, Squid Game manages to critique everyday sexism in society in an incredibly casual manner, while also exploring the justifications of those who believe in that way, balancing off the framing of childlike values to more adult beliefs in a way that both critiques and undermines sexism, while not consequently undermining the effects of sexism, which many other pieces of media fail to do.

Capitalism and the loss of plausible deniability

Now capitalism is the BIG theme all throughout Squid Game and it rears its head sharply in this episode.

Ultimately, this is all a game where players trade lives for money, yet up until episode 4 there had mostly been a degree of plausible deniability for the player's actions. They have no choice but to play the game, and well, if someone else messes up and gets shot by guard, how is it their fault? They're just playing the game.

This destruction of that passive nature of responsibility is built up slowly in this episode, starting at the point where Deok-su had beaten the man who's food he had taken to death, at which point Gi-hun becomes increasingly angry, shouting at the guards that a man has just died and expressing complete disgust that nobody is taking his death seriously.

That is up until the player is registered as having been eliminated on the screen. At that point, where the player is reduced to a number and a sum of cash, is where Gi-hun and we as the audience internalise that this murder had been no different from the several hundreds of deaths prior. The only difference was that instead of passively allowing their companions to die, this had been a more disturbing event as it had been an active choice.

This then builds up to the ‘special game’ at night where the players begin fighting, and this is how the guards slowly mould their mindsets to become okay with being aware of the blood of their companions on their hands in order to prepare them for tug of war.

One thing I find quite interesting about this scene is that although it was planned by the guards for fighting to break out, it was never directly commanded to the players to do so. They all were content to watch the man be beaten to death by Deok-su, so why should they have bothered to fight? In fact, it seemed more as if the idea of the possibility of a fight breaking out became increasingly prevalent and spread amongst the players, which in itself created a self fulfilling prophecy that subsequently encouraged the fight to break out.

This is incredibly interesting as both a metaphor for criminal labelling and the way in which distrust spreads amongst society, with people only deciding to fight and attack others as they believed that was what would happen to them first- paralleling violent crimes and weapons carrying offences in the real world.

Ultimately, the pinnacle point of destroying all sense of passivity within the games is ‘tug of war’, which in itself is an incredible metaphor for the way in which capitalism functions.

In this game, the players are literally responsible for the other's deaths by pulling them to their graves, and they become nearly indistinguishable from Deok-su. This is additionally a metaphor for the way in which success under capitalism functions- it is only possible for you to survive and get to the top if you are willing to pull others down to the bottom, a theme seen all throughout the Squid Game.

Anyways BEJAHAGGAHQG I have so much to say about this show and this episode, thanks for reading XP

[snow-on-mtsilver]

I saw a tierlist i didn't agree with so i made my own 💔

[jangdeoksu]

realest thing ive seen all fucking day

mi nyeo more like. mor e like mine yo

[lakesparkles]

The idea of Mi-nyeo and Deok-su being Nam-gyu's parents is very funny to me, I had to draw this AU

[p1nkey3]

season 2 summarized:

[batosha]

Damn Gihun where is your friends..........

[jangdeoksu]

ur soooooooo hoooooot …

...

i mean, thank you, i guess? well- i know i am, but..

who even are you? are you doing this just for protection?

[uskoedgnaj]

oi, why the fuck do you look like me?

you a döppelganger or some shit?

AH-

well, uh, i don't think so.. neither do i intend to be one..

i-i just ended up here, i swear!

[midnight--sadness]

ever since joining the squid game fandom back in the olden days of 2021, ive seen gihun be shipped with:

sangwoo

inho

junho

ali

oh ilnam

the salesman

deoksu

mr kim

jungbae

the pink guards

his ex-wife's new husband

if he interacts with a male character in any way, shape or form, trust he WILL be shipped with them

[breadandlottery]

[lakesparkles]

More of the "Deok-su and Mi-nyeo are Nam-gyu's parents" AU, now with Young-mi as his sister

Pls don't take any of this seriously, this is my silly AU ALFMSNFN

[s0dabeach]

i feel like someone already did this for squid game but whatever. silly messily made squid game ship meme thing

[itsshawtyysworld]

Hear me out: squid game edition

I've seen on tik tok and pinterest a lot of people saying 'hear me out' on the finest man of the entire south Korea which makes me believe this 'hear me out' has lost its meaning, so I'm gonna do a list full of my favorite underrated characters of squid game that no one talks about enough.

♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤♡♤

N°6: That one math teacher from s1.

This man absolutely slayed his minutes of screen time and we have to admit he was smart as hell but unfortunately he was gone too soon (if he looked at me like that he would die looking a slurped caprisun)

N°5: The square masked officer

He was given 2 minutes of screen time and he served and ate. I don't know if this if just me but I hope he makes a bigger appearance in the third season because I feel like he has some potential (help me lord he's fine as hell)

N°4: Park Gyeong-Seok

Let's be real here, he did soooo good on episode 7, he literally went off and acted like he was in call of duty or something. He's honestly a great character and I got so sad they killed him because I want him to go back to his daughter (MY SHAYLA) but I also have a theory that N°11 (No-eul) was the one who went to shoot him but didn't actually kill him, this since we didn't see him die (he's so pookie I want him in my bed)

N°3: Choi Woo-Seok

My baby did nothing but serve face for the entirety of s2 (LMAO) but I honestly love him so much, he's such a cool and funny character, although i found slightly annoying how much trust he put onto captain Park but i can't blame him since Jun-ho also believes him but I hope they get to find that island in s3. (That fuckass chain of his makes him finer oof)

N°2: Deok-Su

BEFORE YOU COME AT ME LISTENNNN, OKAY? We can't lie and say he was the worst character because he WASN'T. Was he fucked in the head? Yes. Would he slay if he was alive during s2? Absolutely. This mf went INSANE during the bathroom fight and during lights out and although he wasn't the best with the brains, he definitely was one hell of a fighter. I don't think anyone in s2 would stand a chance if he was still alive (he's pretty fucking hot too I'd honestly let him destroy my insides)

N°1: Seong Gi-Hun

How tf is he the MAIN CHARACTER but also underrated??? He's quite literally one of the best characters in the entire show but I'm so disappointed at how much trust he puts on people (frontman) but that only shows how much kindness he has in heart, I mean, after watching over 600 people die, losing both his best friends (RIP MY SHAYLAS) and also losing contact with his daughter??? This man deserves the best therapist in the world. I also will NEVER forgive Netflix for cutting off his fluffy hair and for taking away his smile. (He's so pookie and this pic is making me feral I want him to look at me like that when he sees me laying naked on the table as he waits for dinner)

Anyway, this was a brief opinion on these characters and I know there's so much more I could say but I feel lazy and I can't remember half of the events of s1 but feel free to share your thoughts!! Like, repost and comment if you can I love you babes🫶🏽