Sleepy-leavez - Flower

Hyung. I’m sorry. EPISODE 9 | ONE LUCKY DAY Squid Game (2021) dir. Hwang Dong Hyuk

Happy International Women’s Day!

them

summer longing

Chat, what did we think was going on in Gihun’s head in s2e1 when he got back to his hotel and found the recruiter/the salesman waiting for him?

As soon as he comes in and sees him looking at the calendar, his expression is tense and scared. A second later it relaxes and he goes about his business, toweling himself off from the rain like he isn’t at all concerned about the gun in the other’s mind.

Did he expect the Frontman to have stepped out of his nightmares? Does he see the recruiter/the salesman drinking his lil yogurt with a straw and decide he isn’t a threat?

I think something else is happening; something I think about a lot with Gihun. I think he thinks the recruiter/the salesman cannot kill him.

I think one of the manifestations of his trauma, one of the adaptive delusions he’s embraced to keep himself afloat through all the grief and guilt and misery, is that the games can’t kill him. Not until he’s done with them.

I think he thinks he’s destined to end the games and ignores any fear or common sense of his own mortality.

Because if he cannot end the games, it means the hundreds of deaths, including those of Saebyeok and Sangwoo, are meaningless.

I think he physically cannot accept that nor his own powerlessness, and that he’s been driven to a point where fear of death cannot reach him past his dedication to his mission.

I think we see this delusion really calcify in the scene where he plays roulette with the recruiter/the salesman, and I love that that’s how the season presents Gihun’s current mindset.

Once more to see you- Sangihun

(edit done with my absolutely limited editing skills! I just didn’t see anyone edit them with this song and so I did so myself! a lack of editing skills won’t stop me!)

This song fits them a bit too well

reading this while listening to are you satisfied by marina and the diamond LORD

It's certainly interesting to think about the fact that Gi-Hun and Sang-Woo envied one another.

While it might be obvious to see why Gi-Hun would envy Sang-Woo given his credentials; Pride and joy of Ssangmun-dong, top of his class, SNU buisness graduate, valedictorian, etc. It might not be as obvious to think what Sang-Woo envy Gi-Hun for.

I think the answers relies on what society considers a "successful man"

This is usually measured by these factors: finances, career and family.

While certainly on a superficial level, Sang-Woo reach far greater than Gi-Hun in terms of career and finances, Gi-Hun had a title that Sang-Woo didn't.

Husband and father.

They shared the experience of both having success in their careers and having that taken away from them, and their finances were fucked over because of it.

But, unlike Sang-Woo, Gi-Hun was a "complete" man. Even though they both "failed," Gi-Hun had a daughter that would thrive regardless of the bad decisions he made. His legacy would live regardless if he had a career or not.

Sang-Woo only had himself and his achievements, and he lost everything.

Even though he seems quite disinterested with the idea of having a girlfriend (more than likely he is a closeted gay man) it's the fact that Gi-Hun build something everlasting, even if it didn't require any special titles. Just the will and the love.

If instead of reaching for something beyond his league as it is to become a multimillionaire, he focused on the "small and trivial" things, he might have built something of importance, something that wouldn't die along with him.

He envy the fact that Gi-Hun, with the contrasting careless attitude, could build that for himself. Could be materially more successful than he is.