keithislactoseintolerant on Tumblr

In episode 1 of “Squid Game”, Seong Gi-hun struggles to win a simple crane game. In that one scene, the foundation of the entire show was set up:

1) Gi-hun ends up turning to a little kid for help. The grown adult couldn’t beat a child’s game, whereas the child did. Or at least…the one with the mindset of a child (nudge nudge, wink wink).

2) It’s well known that crane games are rigged.

3) Gi-hun kept losing since he didn’t know the strategy to beat the game.

4) The prize was not worth it (the toy pistol ended up scaring the daughter).

5) Gi-hun only got what he wanted in the end due to pure luck that there was a crane game expert willing to help him.

6) Gi-hun was only playing the crane game since he lost all the money he made from gambling.

genshinmemes-answers

I'm still bitter about this

burst-of-iridescent

so one of the key themes of squid game is how capitalism forces people to compete with and screw over others in order to get ahead, even though they could all move up if they just worked with instead of against one another. and i’ve seen people say “but they couldn’t even if they wanted to! the VIPs and game hosts wouldn’t have let them!”

and…that’s just it. because that’s how capitalism works! it stacks the odds against you so you’re forced to pit yourself against those you should ally with, and then it brainwashes you into thinking this is how the world should work so you don’t question it. because of course the privileged upper classes don’t want the people they screwed over to mobilize and become a threat!

and it’s so telling that while every participant enters just to get enough money to pay off their debts, eventually their need to win it all drives them to betray and actively murder each other. even though winning as a team would still have let them walk away with enough money to both settle their debts and still live a comfortable life, at this point they’ve internalized the “me first” rhetoric to the extent that this is just not an option they can consider anymore. and it’s only at the very end, bleeding and injured, that gi-hun and sang-woo realize it at all.

the only way to succeed in a capitalistic system is to put yourself first, because that’s how it’s been designed to work. so even if you do manage to get to the top, odds are you become like the Front Man - a class traitor, someone who upholds the very system that oppresses those like him. because capitalism tells you that there is only space for you, not us.

crashed-on-mars

yeah most of sang-woo's actions involve using the trust people had in him to further himself in the games (these actions did involve killing 3 people) and that can make him seem like a villain BUT! throughout the whole show we learn about the league of rich people (the VIPs) that decided they would kill poor people for fun because being rich was getting boring. sang-woo, even though he's a mythic bitch who i would rip in half if presented the opportunity to, is a victim. painting him as the end-all-be-all villain while disregarding those who created the circumstances that made him act like a villain is exactly what the show tries to warn you about. and I think thats just swell.