#squid answers stuff

[squidthechaotickid]

WAA I CANT KEEP UP

FOUND OUT THAT IF I ALIGN THE SITE JUST RIGHT I CAN SPAM ONE SPOT AND BOOP LIKE 100 TIMES IN A MINUTE

[salamispots]

squid 👀

[reingkings]

Reinggggg I just read your last three ask responses and I wanted to say that you just have the loveliest, big-brained Inhun thoughts.

I love your references to In-ho’s passion for art. The “Creation of Adam” is so neat. Expanding on that, and sorry the imagery is not exactly there, but I could also see Gi-hun down in the rain and mud, embodying Adam and symbolizing humanity and the persistence of hope. Whereas, In-ho, standing so high above him, essentially gets painted as this god-like figure and therefore, far removed from humanity. What do you think of this moment as an impetus for In-ho’s fascination with Gi-hun because of the subconscious urge to reconnect with humanity?

Tying this idea to season 2, I think In-ho consciously joins (or should I say descends into? Keep the metaphor going) the games to stop Gi-hun’s plan and to prove him wrong. Yet, there’s so many moments where he seems to get pulled into the act; cheering along with his team members, defending Gi-hun, giving Jun-hee his milk carton. I think Byung-hun mentions this in his interview, but I think, inadvertently, joining the games reminds him of what it felt like to be a player again i.e. awakening more empathetic, human emotions. 

Sorry if this doesn’t make a lot of sense, I don’t write media analysis very often haha, but I’ve really enjoyed reading yours.

Thank you so much you are so sweet <3

As for the rain scene I actually did have a few more thoughts on it but only really guesses– because again we never really get to perceive In-ho when he is the Frontman but here is some of what I guessed. I didn’t include it in the other post bc I thought it would get too long.

One point I mentioned was that I didn’t think In-ho regards VIPs too highly. To expand on that let’s examine parallels between two scenes:

Both are “horse” races. One is for the rich and the other the poor. In-ho clearly has no respect for gamblers – he lets them die every year – and I think the same attitude applies to the richer gamblers too.

The only one he shows respect for? Oh Il-nam. And I believe that’s because he created the games. So he’s not just a “gambler” but a creator/god.

Mind you this scene has another parallel. That beingJun-ho and In-ho’s scene:

He gives Jun-ho very little time to process but when Jun-ho shakes his head, he immediately switches to shooting him. Bro give him a sec.

And so when In-ho sees this, where Gi-hun went from angry to forgiving:

It’s kind of like a Hades and Persephone moment? In-ho views himself as above the human greed on display from both classes, but he doesn’t think anyone else is above it. And yet here is Gi-hun, passing a morality that no else has ever passed, offering Sang-woo life where In-ho can only offer death.

But also, in that moment Gi-hun is not only In-ho’s equal (not like the greedy trash humans) but I think maybe he wants to be Sang-woo? Like subconsciously maybe wondering if he were in that vulnerable moment if Gi-hun would hold out his hand? So he takes off his mask in the limo.

(I also do agree Gi-hun also symbolizes the kindness in humanity too sorry just writing this with the shipping lense).

As for him having his humans emotions reawakened I think they definitely do but the question is when bc some of those actions are definitely manipulation 😭 I wish I could work into that twisted little head of his.

[alatariel-gildaen]

Speaking of fucking me up mentally for the rest of the day, the line in obedience & oblivion where In-ho says Gi-hun’s name, and Gi-hun points out that Young-il used his name but he's only ever called him a number - that's my one. It kills me but thank you for the trauma 🖤

You are more than welcome 😅 I'll be honest that was one of the lines that made me cry when I was writing it, so I'm glad it had that effect on at least one other person!

Thank you so much for reading, and for letting me know you enjoyed it, really means the world to us writers :)

If anyone else is interested, that fic is available here

[squidthusiast]

What’s your favorite fic by theashemarie? I want to read her stuff, but I’m so intimidated by how much there is!! Where do I start?

OH ANON HOW I’VE BEEN DYING TO ANSWER THIS ONE!!!!

You’ve opened up THE can of worms my good fellow…

I am so sorry for the person i’m about to become

I’ve actually spent the last couple days making a simplified compilation of Ashe’s works, to make it easier for new readers to visualize them.

It’s the reason why it has taken me some time to answer this haha.

As for my favourite fic…. That’s such an insanely hard question to answer T_T

I’ll put the compilation & my thoughts under the cut to minimize dashboard noise.

(Disclaimer: i’m not a writer so some of the terms I use are from my loose understanding of literature!)

Warning for rambling ahead!!

I tried to make the fomatting as straightforward as possible! If there are any other questions you can drop a comment :)

As for the fav fic stuff:

I don’t think I can have a hard singular favourite of Ashe’s fics, because they’re all different and encompass different themes and vibes and ideas, and fuck man they’re just so good. Ashe has a masters degree in writing and it SHOWS, but also just her writing style & way of developing stories.. it’s so captivating, rich and thoughtful. I love analyzing their work & being rewarded with the amount of detail and effort that is put into it.

Here’s a couple that fucked me up particularly good though, if you must know:

LDR AU | Meet Me on the Rink | And Take Off Your Mask | Simulacrum | Language Barrier

At least two of these majorly impacted my life & mean a whole lot to me because of the themes, topics and characterization in them.

I think one of my favourite things about Ashe’s works is how visceral and raw and real they feel while you read ‘em. There’s a real strong focus on the plot, which makes for a fantastic build up throughout the story. There’s also emphasis on characterization, and by the gods it’s deliciously crafted. The direct and indirect ways in which Ashe portrays the personalities, flaws and motivations of characters… MAN.

A lot of people read fics for a quick hit of fluff or angst, so plot-heavy, meaty fics with a lot of undertones and somewhat unconventional themes can be very different from typical expectations.

Still, I stand by the fact that it’s exactly because of this that Ashe’s work is so refreshing and fascinating to read through, and I strongly encourage everyone to give it a try, especially if you like Off the Hook.

She also has a lot of oneshots and shorter stories that I listed above, if longer ones feel daunting. They’re just as good!!

I’m really grateful that they share all of this work online; creating entails a lot of work, whether it be art, writing, cosplay, etc.

Posting it for free on top of that??? I think we need to appreciate our fic writers more, honestly. They’re a huge pillar in fandom spaces that often goes unnoticed.

That’s my little ramble on the topic, thank you for reading if you went this far!

I hope this helps Anon, and if you need more pointers or thoughts you can hit me up again.

With all that said, big shout out to @theashemarie , this is my big propaganda post for you all to follow her and/or check out their work, and leave her a comment if you enjoy the fics!! I know they appreciate them a lot :)

[zorosroronoas]

"Front Man killed gi hun's friend because he was jealous"

I thought it was a funny meme but it seems people are serious about it, i'm sooo mad my favorite character is so mischaracterized 😭

literally! it's all fun & games when ppl KNOW that it's fun & games, but some ppl seriously believe this shit. literally nothing turns me off a ship more than ppl mischaracterizing the characters & twisting both canon & their relationships with other characters to serve the ship, or making canon all about the ship.

i hate hardcore shipping so much, man, it legit kills all the fun. ppl don't know how to be normal & differenciate between their wish-fulfillment headcanons & the actual canon story.

i'm not even gonna mention the weirdos making ai generated crap of the characters kissing & being all excited about the actors & creator seeing it, like.... pls kill me, it'd be less painful.

inho is my fave in the show too & like, it's impossible to navigate his tag in here, it drives me up the walls.

honestly can't wait for s3 to focus mostly on inho's relationship with junho, bc i'm tired of all the frontman/gihun nonsense at this point. lmao can you believe i used to ship it? shortest lived ship i ever had, if you don't count that i've shipped them technically since s1.

[schadennorth]

SALESMAN HCS PLZ 🙏

HELLO HI YESSIR

✶ headcanons - the Salesman from Squid Game LONG post below because i'm so normal about him <3

☞ i’m on the fence with what his real name is. the placeholder i’m using in crying lightning right now is Min Dakho, but we’ll see if i stick with that. i was going to call him minjun but it doesn’t really fit to me, if ykwim

☞ achillean (i genuinely can’t picture him being attracted to women for the life of me). i may headcanon him as transmasc or somewhere on the gender non-binary spectrum but i’m still rolling that thought around in my head (this is all because of the one time i was zoning out and my subconscious screamed TRANS SALESMAN! with zero elaboration)

☞ i lowkey have an entire made up backstory for him that goes something like

he was a strange kid, having grown up very neglected and poorly socialised; this is partially because didn't go to preschool as his parents couldn't afford to send him

later had a younger brother who he constantly felt inferior to, as his parents diverted their attention to him and were blatantly biased towards him

when he was in his teens, his mother passed away from a terminal illness which wasn't detected or treated in time

after her death, his father became an alcoholic and was eventually fired from his job, effectively leaving dakho as the sole breadwinner of the family

to get money he started throwing hands in fight rings with other young adults (i bet on losing dogs or whatever. /ref @calindean LMAO) and taking on multiple part time jobs

he eventually saved money to send his younger brother to university. despite his resentment, he still cared about him and would rather die than let his future be wasted like his was (Dakho definitely had the potential and intelligence to further his studies, but didn't have the opportunity to)

when his younger brother was away, Dakho was drafted into the games and began working there

his father spent all the money he'd earned on gambling, and eventually joined the games himself (and as we know Dakho solved the problem of his deadbeat dad by shooting him in the head)

there is a longer, more detailed version of this hiding in my notes app, but i plan to make a bunch of drawings to accompany it and then show it all off in a longer, separate post so that’ll have to wait haha

☞ he enjoys psychoanalysing people and observing their behaviour (especially to figure out how their thought processes work and what pisses them off), but this comes with the downside of him being painfully aware of his own mentality and all the things he perceives as 'wrong' with himself

☞ I DO NOT fw the cocky self-confident bastard interpretation of his character.. gi hun hit the nail right on the head when he said he puts his mask on and does whatever his masters tell him to. it's all a facade. inside he is PATHETIC and needs acknowledgement to the point where he'd willingly reconstruct his entire being to get it (but that's just my opinion idk)

☞ generally leads quite a hedonistic lifestyle outside of the games; in he back of his mind he knows that he's been so absorbed into the morals of the games that he essentially does not own his life anymore. as such, spends his time outside of recruiting pursuing things he wants to do, in some feeble attempt at deluding himself into thinking he's still his own person

☞ to continue my previous thought i'd think he's very very conflicted, constantly at the mercy of the two polarised perceptions of reality that crash against each other like waves eroding a cliff face in his mind; one half of him very much knows that he's been brainwashed and views some warped version of the world, while the other part of him is violently in denial and strongly prefers to believe that the games' morals are objectively correct (i could write a whole essay about this but i'm also lazy </3)

☞ he's definitely a compulsive liar. he'll make stuff up for absolutely no reason, and he'll remember all the lies he's told to the point where he mistakenly starts believing they're the truth himself (especially if he told them a long time ago)

☞ i have a stupid crack headcanon that he knows online slang and will unironically use it to piss off his coworkers at the games, but that's mostly just a silly joke. all fun and whimsy!

anyways yes i'm done yapping about him for now thanks for reading. stay alive salesman nation

[one-lucky-day]

ngl the Gihun ships feel disrespectful. He isn't gay. It's frustrating because everywhere I turn I see him being shipped by men.

Ngl, anon but this ask kinda made me feel icky.

I don't think shipping is inherently disrespectful as long as you approach it with an open mind and an understanding that it's a form of creative expression. Shipping can be a way to explore different dynamics and interpretations, and everyone is entitled to enjoy stories in their own way.

I understand that it may not be comfortable seeing these stuff, anon. But that is what blocking is for. That is what filtering tags and filtering content are for.

There are things in the fandom that I don't like seeing too, but I save myself the headache and trouble by just filtering them out so I never have to see them again, and then I'll move on.

And as for Gi-hun "not being gay", we don’t know that for sure. We don’t have concrete evidence that he is or isn’t queer, and that’s what makes fandom such a great space for creative interpretations. Characters, especially in complex stories like Squid Game, leave room for different readings of their identities.

I personally headcanon Gi-hun as bi, but I’m not gonna get my panties in a twist if someone headcanons him as gay or anything else. Hell, I’m not gonna be upset if someone headcanons him as straight, either. Everyone in the fandom is allowed to express their interpretation of a character. If you don't like the Gi-hun ship content, then go ahead and filter it. It's that simple. It will make fandom much more enjoyable for you.

[squidsinashirt]

What are you looking forward to most about becoming an uncle? will you be as chaotic as Scott?

My aim in life is to always be more chaotic than Scott, Anon. Someone needs to make him look normal.

I am a big kid at heart Anon, if this is news to you so…

When the time comes, it is a distinction of honour I will cherish. If there’s mischief to be made, then Uncle Gordy will be involved 😏 those kids are gonna be master pranksters and it’s going to be gloriously chaotic. Good luck to their parents.

But I’d like to think I can offer them a bit more than that. Swim lessons, dive trips, surfing lessons, sailing lessons, scout trips. Uncle Gordy will be at every sports event/competition/dance recital he can make (and with all the colours on!).

(The Tracy Island swim team will be also be competitively the best around too, we’ll have a relay squad 💪🏻)

I’d also hope to be able to teach them all I know about our planet, and pass on the stewardship of it to them, the same as I would for my own children. Get them to understand why conservation, protection and regeneration of everything we share space with is so important, and to (hopefully) get to pass on the torch to them.

It will be amazing to take them to show them the good that we (old folks by that point) have hopefully done to offer them a healthier, happier planet Earth to live on. Get to dive my favourite reefs with them and see all the fish (and teeth, especially if their father is @scramjettracy 😏), and out to the Galapagos to see the turtles. Take them into the rainforest to let them see the species we’ve helped pull back from the brink of extinction.

On the back of that, I also can’t imagine not being an involved, supportive, available for advice however terrible, gives good hugs kind of uncle, and my own kids not growing up close with their cousins and uncles. We had each other as kids, but I think it’d be so awesome for my own gremlins to have any cousins just as close.

And their uncles. I hope they’re off on rescue scout adventures with Uncle Scott. Learning how to take something apart and put it back together with @ilikebigshipsandicannotlie. Pestering @starman-john-tracy and learning about the stars from him. Surfing with Uncle Alan, and maybe even getting to play Cavern Quest.

Happy future dreams of kicking back together and watching the next generation of Tracys try and drown each other in the island’s pool.

Family’s what being a Tracy is all about after all, and I hope we are all still somehow close enough that it’s one big riotous happy family, and it means that the Christmas table is a couple of seats longer.

It’s maybe a bit hope of a hopeful dream that we’re all still somehow gonna make it work, but hey - gotta dream!

[zibaldone-di-pensieri]

🦑

What if a Squid Game tournament happened in real life?

[squidthechaotickid]

hi i love your trans rights images!! can you do one with metal or neo metal sonic? thank you in advance :^)

Yippee glad you like them :DD Happy almost pride btw!!

[izzyfishie]

I don't know if I made new pairings but

In-ho and Sang-woo

Salesman and the black square guard (the officer..?

Idk how we described him)

In-ho and the black square guard

And I hate it when Ali gets paired with Sang-woo, only because he's married who recently just had a child and he's Muslim.

I also feel like Gi-hun shouldn't be paired with anyone because it goes against his character and he just wants to live, focus on himself (and to go back to his daughter). (This could include Jun-ho as well… let him see his brother damn it.)

interesting! :0

some of this i agree on and some i don't, so let's break it down, shall we (im gonna assume ur talking romantic pairings by the way its worded but correct me if im wrong-)

inwoo (???? idk what it's called???? in-ho x sang-woo) i don't have any opinion on but leaning more towards nah, mainly bc apart from in-ho watching him in the games they wouldn't have any real interactions afaik- i do feel like they'd rip each other apart if they were placed in the games at the same time tho. not sure why.

salesquare (i just made that name up. wow) / salesman x blacksquare/masked officer (those r the two names i refer to him as, gonna say officer here for simplicity tho) tbh i fw this, i'd never heard of it before but lowkey i kinda vibe with it, not sure why 💀

in-ho x officer (idfk if they have a ship name and nothing sounds good so) tbh i see them more as a mentorship/"captain and his right hand man" pairing, not anything more (and i think the rp that's been ongoing has helped me cement that belief 💀)

aliwoo (ali x sang-woo) i've stated my thoughts on earlier, but i do agree- ali seemingly has a healthy relationship with his wife, and tbh i think ali deserves to be back with her more than anything. he really did care about his wife and family, and

i'd be a hypocrite if i agreed with not pairing gi-hun with anybody because i am captain of the sangihun ship lmfao (as well as enjoying 457, ddakhun, and mathhun a bit) BUT i do agree with you 10000000% on jun-ho! i don't think there's a single jun-ho ship i like actually- i'm not a big fan of any of them, him being in a relationship rn seems pointless to me because his focus is on his brother and needs to remain that way imo.

ty for the ask!!

[alatariel-gildaen]

Touch starved Gi-hun, you say? Is there any chance of a little preview? Please?

Well, you did say please ;)

Was that what he wanted? His body answered before his mind could, heat blooming low in his stomach; a quiet, aching yes. He craved the closeness, the way In-ho looked at him like he was something worth desiring, worth taking apart with careful, deliberate hands. It had been so long since anyone had made him feel this way—if anyone ever truly had.  But then there was the fear, sharp and insidious, threading through his longing. In-ho had been right about him before; he loved too easily, trusted too deeply. And what happened when the moment passed? When the heat faded and the reality of it all set in? Gi-hun knew how it felt to be left in the wreckage of something that had once felt like everything. He wasn’t sure he could survive that again.   More than the fear of being with a man for the first time, it was the fear of what it meant—to give in, to open himself up, to risk being discarded once the fire burned out. He didn’t want to be another mistake. He didn’t want to be another regret. But God, did he want to be wanted.  

[squidthusiast]

How do you feel abt ABXY/Chirpy Chips?

Imo they're a top 3 for splatbands cuz I like chiptune a bunch & they have a bunch of fan made covers of real songs

Hey anon!

I actually had only listened to one song from ABXY/Chirpy Chips (other than what I assume was the Christmas song? Haha) so I went ahead and checked out the rest.

I definitely get the chiptune vibe! I also found myself laughing a bit, there’s some parts of the songs that feel very playful/silly, and the mix between fast-paced beats and upbeat sounds is really cool.

From all their in-game songs, I think the ones I enjoyed most were ‘Shellfie’ and ‘Blitz It!’ (The live version of that last one ROCKS)

I think personally it wouldn’t be the kind of songs I put on repeat, simply because the songs are a bit too overwhelming for me.

(But I love that there’s a bunch of fan covers, like wdym someone made an ABXY/Chirpy Chips cover of Rasputin?? LMAO)

I think my top 3 splatbands (aside from Off the Hook) would be:

1. Turquoise October

2. Wet Floor

3. Riot Act (god I hope we get more songs from them)

Thanks for the ask! It’s always fun to try out/learn new things and find new music :)

[squidkid15]

Shadow didn't mention it in your fic, but I like to think one of his greatest fear of being a clone would be that his happy memories of Maria and dr.robotnik were all fake

oh that's absolutely one of things that was on his mind, even if he didn't say it.

There are any number of 'whys' for his fear, even if he didn't say it out loud.

[dooxliss]

yes please show us your agents in the boneless sweater 🙏

ask and you shall receive 🙏🏽

(drawn june 2018)