Young-il Is Talking To Gi-Hun About His Wife While Dae-Ho Listens In The Background.

*cough cough* Inho *cough cough*

HEY that's MY emotional support morally ambiguous misunderstood full of trauma touch starved yearning for love drenched in blood responsible for numerous atrocities comfort character who is TRYING & u will TREAT them with RESPECT

THIS BRO IM SO TIRED OF SEEING SQUID GAMES FANS W/ZERO MEDIA LITERACY BASH ON THE SHOW LIKE OH MY GOD

Something some people don't understand is that Squid Game is an ALLEGORY

Yes, many characters are very dictated (/doomed) by the narrative, beholden to their convictions, BECAUSE IT’S AN ALLEGORY.

Yeah, some things don't seem 100% realistic (although it's a fantastically well thought out world and story), BECAUSE IT’S AN ALLEGORY.

This story, these characters, THIS ENTIRE WORLD was meticulously staged TO SEND US A MESSAGE.

It's about capitalism. It's about classism. It's about the evil of hoarded wealth. It's about the dehumanization and infantilization of disadvantaged groups by privileged ones. It's about choice and autonomy, and how neither of those mean much - and yet, mean EVERYTHING - when all you have are bad choices. When all you've BEEN GIVEN are bad choices.

It's about the violence of poverty. About what people become when they have no other choice. About what people become when they don't have even the basics of life provided for them, the selfish beasts we must become to survive when those situations are imposed - and about how, then, we're blamed for it.

It's about the way we're pitted against one another while those in power sit back and watch. It's about the violence of consumption - specifically media consumption.

Of course In-ho is a little evil; HE EXISTS TO SHOW US WHAT HAPPENS TO NORMAL PEOPLE WHEN YOU FORCE THEM INTO THOSE CHOICES.

Of course Gi-hun trusts too easily, accepts Young-il as a friend despite that damning number on his chest; HE EXISTS TO SHOW US THERE’S ANOTHER WAY.

"We could have been us."

Audio books but it’s Michael Sheen reading books as Aziraphale and sometimes you hear David Tennant shouting something obnoxious as Crowley.

Iubsfebhjfuybasfjkhsydjfubsdyfheusfhjsdufdu SOBBING VIOLENTLY STOP I CAN’T TAKE THIS ANYMORE

this parallel is scaring me because if it was done on purpose then I fear there's a possibility that in season 3 we will see a fight between gi-hun and in-ho (like gi-hun and sang-woo in the final round in season 1) where in the end gi-hun refuses to kill in-ho (I doubt gi-hun will outright forgive him, but maybe he will try to tell in-ho to go home to jun-ho, that it doesn’t have to end in death) and when gi-hun tries to offer his hand to help lift in-ho up, in-ho will pull the same stunt sang-woo did and kill himself to maybe save gi-hun or jun-ho. something about "small sacrifice for the greater good"

:(

(you right anon)

happy to hear u liked my musings! i really like the way u described gihun as heat, openly passionate, with his intentions clear and pointed; and inho as his natural opposite, deceptive and murky, cold, detached etc they really are two threads in the same stitch

and of course your inclusion of jungbae and youngil as well as sangwoo!! if any man could pull off being jealous of himself its hwang inho. he can tongue at the scar left by the tracker gihun cut out and burn about it while gihun calmly tells him about other little scars left on his body left behind from his childhood, from nights spent at the racetrack or bars or anywhere else inho was not privy to, a different softer sweeter gihun existing within the current man before him

and the idea that gihun wants inho to lose it, to be passionate, to be angry to show SOMETHING human, raw and sticky and bloody is so so fun. show me jealousy and grief, show me hatred in those eyes of yours, don’t look away from this or me, take the mask off, dont lie, i will crack you open and eat your softness etc

love the idea that they both want understanding from the other, and that they long to be equal. they’re darkness chasing light, light chasing darkness.

i think gihun has a particular distain of that geometric frontman mask, that’d he want to break it and then turn and tear at the youngil mask too. what he wants is that squishy human core. he wants to be RIGHT he feels that shit in his bones, so stubborn. he wants surrender from inho the way he wanted surrender from sangwoo.

hes righteous (jungbae) and he’s focused on winning (sangwoo) the way that matters most to him (saving, caring) and hes devastatingly, painfully, only just one man (who cannot save everyone but now he thinks maybe i could save and keep this one…) and this man requires the metaphorical death of the frontman, the mask, in order to accept inho as his. like he needs to kneed inho into something he can hold onto. play by MY rules and im yours to keep. let me win. and the idea that inho wants gihun to be right too ohhhh he really just wants to mash their broken forms together until its impossible to tear them apart. impossible to hurt one and not the other too, to be two as one, to feel the pressure, not of running games that kill hundreds every year but the pressure of protecting one heart. possessiveness can go both ways… as a treat…

loving each other the way the other thinks is inhuman while also contradicting themselves (inho thinking gihuns empathy and goodness is special to gihun and therefore not /human/ly, but wanting him to be right anyway. gihun thinking inho is bathed deeply in the blood of others; inhuman and monstrous, but hes slain that monster and what arose was redemption, not forgiveness but atonement etc)

i really love their back and forths, and combined with an idea u mentioned once, about how gihun was always chasing and admiring sangwoo and would maybe be a little overwhelmed when inho’s the same to him. i think he’d learn to crave the attention like air, esp being so isolated and withdrawn in between seasons he needs love so bad.

needing to always defend his continuous choice to show empathy and trust in humanity when time and time again the people closest to him give him so many reasons why he shouldn’t

getting a little giddy and drunk with the power that comes with choosing to trust someone who hurt so many, and him specifically pretty deeply (my best friend died in the squid games and all i got was this lousy shirt 2x) (and psychosexually obsessed other half with a staring problem sure whatever) he did have fun playing the hero, this once, the pain of it all, was worth it. ohhh seong gihun u will always be famous….

anyway! i ended up adding ur music recs to my 457 playlist!! they were all great! ive never heard lilith before, it was such a gem. if u like lana and mitski i think ‘let the light in’ ft father john misty and ‘me and my husband’ are also very 457.

originally i did have a longer list of music recs to swap with u, but i could feel myself starting to go on a whole different rabbit hole based on some of them, i started yapping about sangihun and this ask is already crazy long so ill leave the 457 specific recs here n save the others for another time maybe! have a lovely day

• ‘thats why i love you’ sir ft sabrina claudio (esp in the context of being halves of halves ugh my heart)

• ‘running out of time’ tyler, the creator

• ‘i need you (to be wrong)’ switchfoot

• ‘walk on by’ dionne warwick (get on the plane… let it be a dream… deeply mournful inho center my beloved)

YES YESYESYEYSYEYSYSYS YYYYYEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!! 😩😩😩😩

gihun wanting to see inho, all of him, not the front man or youngil, just inho.... but inho is so convinced he is unlovable and he cannot be forgiven, his sins are too great, so he can't show gihun, he refuses. but he doesn't realize that for gihun to ever love him, he has to see him.

inho associating gihun's goodness, his faith in humanity, his ability for forgive, deeply nurturing self, not to a human trait, but maybe to somethign god-like, something that is not of this mortal plane. because humans cannot forgive each other like that, they cannot look selfishness and cruelty and horror in the face and still be able to absolve, no, no. that is for gods, for beings of another realm. especially true for a man who has not only participated in the games and then was in charge of them for almost a decade, but also someone who worked in law enforcement and has seen the depravity of mankind.

god, sometimes they remind me of a poem i read about ares and aphrodite, and how aphrodite has held ares' hand for so long that the blood on her hands is the same as his. and that is so reminds me of inhun.

of how, in s1, when gihun offers his hand to sangwoo, his palm is clean but the back of sangwoo's hand is bloody. the implications that is they held hands, the blood on sangwoo would smear gihun, would "taint" him. and it's the same with inho. how can he get close to gihun without spilling this blood all over him? because i think inho wants to show gihun that people are not worth saving but, at the same time, he doesn't want gihun to believe him, because then maybe he can be saved. maybe inho isn't so far gone. maybe, inho can atone at gihun's feet, can lay his sins down and gihun can forgive him for them, can cleanse him of his wrongdoings....

i'm glad you liked my recs!! lana's "let the light in" is such a good song, can't believe i forgot it!!! gonna go listen to yur recs right now!! 🫶🥰

stop, when i was writing down my song recs, i was also seeing so many sangihun songs and was like, no wait this is inhun i cant add sangihun ejfieiioffrghhve

but please send those sangihun song recs and ramblings, i wanna hear them!! 😩

WAHHHHH IM GONNA BE SICK STOP

Reminder that this was how Junho looked when he found out the frontman was his brother.

And this was how Inho looked after he shot his little brother.

Now, imagine their reunion in season 3.

bonus:

I want to sob :(

:]

I DONT HAVE ANYWHERE ELSE TO POST THESE SO HERE IT GOES ON MY MAIN. PLEASE DONT JUDGE

these are ok to post elsewhere as long as u dont claim u made them. its a gift to the fandom :-)♥

EDIT: made a proper sideblog for my art! go follow! https://blorbocollection.tumblr.com/