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Back to rotting

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Squid Game AMV - The Underworld (EPIC The Musical)

I've had this song stuck in my head for two weeks now, I was practically obligated to make this.

[click for better quality]

[don't repost, reblog instead]

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No matter how you look at it...

Life is just unfair.

I still believe that you came here

to save us all.

it hurts that Gi-hun hearing such important and decisive words only for the FIRST time since all that shit and his victory in 2021. But I'm glad he hears it from someone so real one like Geumja 😭 I believe she is the only one who could really understand what Gi-hun went through, what other people couldn't just comprehend and imagine, his real traumas that have been torturing him for so long: the immense pain of guilt, loss, apathy, despair, anger, he is just sick and totally depressed for years and so much more... I hope these words of hers will have a big impact in season 3 🍀

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He’s so cute, I wanna swallow him whole

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Gihun: I'm not feeling well. I've been so nauseous lately.

Inho: [excited] Maybe you're pregnant.

Gihun:

Inho:

Gihun: I don't know who's the bigger idiot. You for suggesting I can get pregnant, or me because I almost had a heart attack.

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"hey man, you remind me of my dead wife"

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This scene kills me 😭 the way everyone else leaves and young-il (SOME RANDO) keeps standing there… they look so awkward

Me making stuff up now:

He’s desperately trying to signal to gihun he’s not with these people

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Artistic references in squid game. There were a lot of them within season 1, more subtle homages than whatnot. Here were the ones with less discussion around them that I wanted to talk about, and that I wanted to try and tie to the characters of our series.

Visual references such as René Magritte’s Empire of Light often pop up in the backdrops of Squid Game. Interestingly enough, although the paintings are often interpreted as visual illusions meant to challenge our perception, Magritte himself rejected a single fixed meaning. Some believe the paintings are meant to depict wealth inequality. Which we know as a whole represents the entirety of Squid Game, and aligns with its most prominent theme— the centering around human contradiction, especially in how it places familiar elements in unfamiliar contexts solely to evoke a sense of disorientation amongst the players. Paired with the fact that the games are created as entertainment for the uber wealthy (a whole other potential post in itself about how the games are essentially a wager on class wars)— the use of these backdrops for philosophical value are definitely intentional. It’s not just for aesthetic value or to nod at Inho’s art obsession. All of this has probably been noticed before, albeit it’s still a very nice reference to talk about.

A scene which is shown further in the season displays a crowbar with blood on the handle. It didn’t immediately strike me as an artistic expression until I watched an analysis video by yogvampowerment via tiktok (love them). It had me thinking about René Magritte’s The Survivor and how it encompasses the psychology of characters such as Gihun and Inho well. Especially in both their roles as the protagonist and antagonist. The idea of an involuntary sacrifice and its consequences, though not solely onto the victim but perpetrator as well; a role most wouldn’t immediately jump to think also has its own mental consequences. The painting depicts a gun with a visible bloodstain on the butt, set against a seemingly domestic and peaceful background. The elements of the painting are meant to convey survivor’s guilt, and the different people who are affected in times of crisis. Squid Game is all about survival despite human conditioning. Even outside the games, the real world creates its own kind of crisis— one where people are pushed into desperate choices. Which is what shaped both Gihun and Inho in the first place. As we all know, Gihun becomes a changed person after the games. He ends up carrying an extreme amount of survivor’s guilt, even though he doesn’t directly kill anyone by the end of Season 1. He’s a shell of his former self, though more socially nuanced and aware which came at a cost. Inho has his own form of compartmentalization (an interesting mirror to Sangwoo). The drinking to aid his seemingly strong detachment when watching the games, his own self corruption that he wishes to pass onto Gihun in the name of nihilism, which is a belief he continually doubles down on so strongly likely because of his lingering shame over going down that path in the first place. To me, both character origins and the unexpected consequences they face as a result parallel the meaning of the painting. It also just reinforces to me the idea that Gihun and Inho were direct (and purposeful) counterparts to each other. Both of them are marked by their participation in systems of violence, even if their roles differ.

Literary odes to the book The Catcher in the Rye, another one of the many books on Inho’s desk featured in Season 1 that stood out to me. The book is about two siblings and holds a heavy emphasis on innocence and criticism of the “adult” world from the perspective of an adolescent. Holden, the adolescent mentioned, has his own loss of innocence and tries to shield that of other children from the harsh realities he was forced to face. Holden’s brother becomes a screenwriter for a theater which Holden dislikes—as he believes that his brother has prostituted himself by writing for the commercial entertainment industry. There are subtle parallels between Holden, his brother, and a certain pair of brothers within our series. More clearly, the relationship between Holden and his brother directly reminds me of Junho and Inho. Specifically how Junho potentially feels about the fact that Inho has become an “overseer” of such games. Inho is someone who (in Junho’s eyes) has sold himself to the rich and now profits from exploiting the very people he once swore to protect. The story as a whole also calls me back to the “innocence” of the games, and how there is a manufactured effort (on Inho’s part) to mix the world of finer art and philosophy with the softer life of the South Korean child. It wouldn't surprise me if Catcher in the Rye was placed on Inho's desk as a deliberate source of inspiration, perhaps reflecting his desire to find that same sense of lost innocence in himself and in others (which ties into the dynamic of 457 and Gihun— but once again, a discussion for another post). I’m hoping this speculation finds its way to Season 3 and will help in shaping some aspects of the dynamic. I would love to see Inho still being obsessively focused on the innocence in philosophy and morale Gihun continues to hold onto.

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Seriously imagine how sinister it would be to be Gi-hun and find out THE FRONTMAN has an obsession with you?

He is literally the one responsible for almost all of your troubles, the one to psychologically torture you, the one that faked being your teammate, the one to kill your friends..

and he’s…weirdly obsessed with you.

Imagine how gut wrenching that is, how you never did a thing to him but suddenly you became this man’s favorite little racehorse to toy with?

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Gi-hun again but a different background

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if I take my shipping glasses off (and yes, I am blind without them), I actually do not think Hwang Inho will redeem himself in the end. He, at most, will passively allow Gihun or Junho (or both) to do their thing to try and save people, but ultimately he's not going to change his own ways. There's no reason for him to keep being the Frontman after Il-nam's death if he didn't at least partially believe in the cause, and I think he will uphold that system until he dies.

There is an undercurrent of contempt for the players shared by both the Recruiter and the Frontman. I think they hold a core belief that all the desperate people that sign up for the games have destroyed their lives of their own volition, that they knowingly made every single choice that have landed them here, and therefore, these people do not deserve any sympathy. The Recruiter climbed up the ranks through "hard work," he would then think why can't other people do the same? Why can't they choose to make the right choices like he did? They must be lazy or stupid, and so their current predicament is justified. The experiment with the scratcher or bread in the park enforces this dehumanizing idea. Hwang Inho was in law enforcement for over fifteen years. He probably has even less empathy for downtrodden people. I won't go into why this type of mentality is dangerous for society as a whole (and it's unfortunately rampant nowadays in rl), but it is objectively wrong and takes out the effect of systemic oppression carefully woven into place for the average citizen by the ruling class and just makes everyone blame each other instead.

And while Gihun and his endless empathy/compassion might have caught Inho's interest as a standout among the "trash" he likely consider the rest of the players to be, that's not enough to shake him from years of momentum and ideology upholding the oppressive system (whether it was for law enforcement or Il-nam's little games for the oligarchs' amusement). And that why, at least partially, I don't think he will change all that much in S3.

But do I still want him and Gihun to sloppily make out on that tiny wooden chair? hell yeah 😌 feel free to come throw ripe tomatoes at me if this turns out to be wrong and they do ride off into the sunset together and that three-day situationship really changed that man. I'll throw one at myself then too as a toast to their happy marriage ❤️

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The 2024 Nuclear Family in this AU

Inho: Malewife

Gihuns Evil Twin: The non-binary dad

Junho: The boydaughter

Salesman: The woke dog

I would like to see a AU world where all the people around Hwang Inho are super evil, and he's the only wholesome good guy for a change. It would be such a struggle, coming home to find his baby brother hacking some stranger to death in the bathroom of their shared apartment (he even bought plastic lining sheets). And the guy he had a one night stand with turned out to be an international drug dealer nicknamed the "butcher" (and is that where Junho learned to carve someone up like that???)

Oh and Junho's new boyfriend is a complete psychopath that Inho arrested a year ago for running someone over with his convertible at 3 am, high on cocaine, but he's rich so he weaseled out of going to jail...

Inho should just pack his bags and fly to a whole different country and start over because there's no way he's getting out unharmed. But the catch is they all adore him in their own sick ways and would end up following him to the new place…🥲

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A Crack fic idea where Gihun, instead of telling the players they're playing a death game right before Red Light Green Light, goes for the way more logical option of telling them before they sign the consent form.

After the other players finish their whole "You kidnapped us, how are we supposed to trust you?" Shouting at the staff, Gihun looks back to the cameras and winks and then turns to the manager and goes "excuse me yeah I have a question too. Is it true that the eliminated players will be killed?" And everyone laughs until the masked manager says "Details about the elimination process will be revealed during the first game."

Gihun says "sure, but can you just confirm the eliminated players won't be killed?" But the manager just repeats his vague answer. At this moment the players start to panick and they use the "If you do not wish to play, please let us know at this point." option very quickly.

As all the players refuse to play, Gihun is about to follow but the manager informs him he can't refuse to sign the consent form because of his deal with the Frontman. So they make Gihun play Red Light Green Light BY HIMSELF and it's just so awkward. So so awkward. He just casually walks every time the doll sings and he looks so DONE. Then after the game's over he (obvi) says he wants to end the game but they do it the proper way and bring the podium and make Gihun, the only fucking player, Go up and press that X before they finally send him home.

And the ride home with Inho again? PEAK AWKWARD.

I just need this to happen I'm sorry.

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We will never get to see them like this ever again.💔

Please just put a bullet through my head already

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The next time someone implies I'll stop being aroace "when I meet the right person" I'm committing murder.

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It’s really this simple.

don’t know who needs to hear this but AO3 comments section is not Letterboxd. giving unsolicited criticism to a fanfic writer does not make you a “fanfic critic” because there’s no. such. thing.

giving unsolicited criticism to a fanfic writer just makes you a spoiled, rude, entitled asshole at best, makes the author stop posting their works altogether at worst.

a reminder that it’s always okay to just stop reading and quietly click away from a fic if at any point you feel like you don’t like it for whatever reasons. unless specifically asked, there’s no need to tell the author, whose work you read for free, how you dislike something they wrote for themself for fun.