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✎ show: Squid Game 2 🐙

Inho and Gihun have consumed my brain: a rant.

their dynamic is absolutely insane, like watching two halves of a broken mirror slowly shift toward each other, each reflecting something so raw, so !! unbearably !!! human !!!

they are opposites in the most obvious way: one, a cold-blooded killer who thrives on power, privilege, and pain (though they both come from a similar background); the other, a man haunted by his own humanity, stubbornly holding on to the last shred of his moral compass, believing in a better life, a greater future.

but it’s the tension between them that burns — the way they orbit each other, drawn together by something darker than either of them is willing to admit. and it drives me insane, insane I tell you.

Inho studies Gihun like a predator; he is disguised as an ally, draped in the mask of sympathy and empathy, but every moment spent with him … it’s like watching a snake move through tall grass, its every flicker of movement calculated, controlled and designed to ensnare, trap, conquer, destroy. he watches his every more, everything he does and he doesn’t do. it’s a real time dissection !! he watches Gihun's cracks, his weaknesses, his flickers of anger and despair. every subtle movement doesn’t escape him.

he needs to see that part of him, the part that’s been broken, the part that still hurts. and in a way, he’s intoxicated by it. it’s like he wants to drink from those wounds, to feel the sharp, stinging taste of anguish on his tongue, to experience that pulse of pain, just so he can savor it, dissect it, and make it his own.

he watches Gihun not because he’s merely intrigued, but because in his suffering, in his brokenness, there is beauty. a beauty that can only be savored when torn apart, shredded, dissected, bruised. and the more he watches, the more he feeds on that agony, the deeper he falls into the nightmare of this endless fucking twisted game.

Inho is too far gone. he’s lived through the games, seen how the system works, and he’s embraced it without shame. to him, the so called “blood money” he earned is a truth. he doesn’t hide from it. he doesn’t pretend it’s anything else. he has seen too many bodies pile up to think there’s any other way. Inho believes the only way forward is through destruction. he’s accepted the curse of the games. hell, he’s fucking embraced it ! the lives lost are nothing more than fuel for his ascent to power. people are pawns, and pawns don’t matter. it’s all part of the game.

Gihun, though… he’s not like Inho. he too has been brutalized by the games, crushed under the weight of the world’s cruelty, watching as the lives of those he loved dimmed. BUT! even so !! there’s this flicker of light in him — a really fucking stubborn and desperate hope to protect those who still live, to undo the wrongs. for all the pain he’s endured, he hasn’t completely surrendered to the darkness. he’s been pushed, stretched to the breaking point by the horrors he’s witnessed, by the blood shed that he can never wash away and still lingers even in his dreams … but there’s this part of him that still fights to hold on to the fragments of the man he used to be. he’s so stubbornly human.

and yet, it’s not the break that Inho is after imo — it’s the collapse. he doesn’t just want to see Gihun’s humanity crack; he wants to see him fold. he wants to make him question everything, even his need to protect others, even the value of his own moral code. to descend into madness, forsaking logic.

you can see him being fascinated when Gihun agrees to sacrifice people for the greater good. I swear, you can see Inho alive in that moment. I can’t explain it other than he’s feeding on him. he’s watching this man, so different from him, with scars that shine the same way, who once held onto some semblance of hope, succumb to the same darkness that devoured him.

he wants to see the man who refused to let the games destroy him finally fall into the same dark logic that built those games in the first place.

but here’s the thing — Gihun’s resistance, his refusal to just surrender to Inho's desires, drives him insane. Inho, for all his power, for all his twisted thrill at orchestrating this, isn’t immune to that same hunger. he sees Gihun as both a reflection and a challenge. it torments him. he wants to unravel him from the inside. the more he watches, the more he understands just how much it is tearing at him, how much he wants it.

there is a tenderness to it, a chilling, perverse tenderness, where one offers the illusion of safety while the other inches closer to the slaughter.

what drives me insane is that Gihun doesn’t know. he doesn’t know that the man he’s grown to trust, the one who’s quietly listened to his every confession, who has offered him that flicker of human connection in the desolate wasteland of the games, is the very demon he’s been chasing. the one that has orchestrated every nightmare he’s endured. and every time Gihun speaks of his mission, of his burning desire to kill the one who created this nightmare, to undo the games and get revenge Inho just listens intently, relishing in every moment of vulnerability.  and it’s delicious. Gihun is literally unraveling before him, piece by piece, and Inho hasn’t even revealed the true extent of his power!

the betrayal scene is going to be so good. SO FUCKING GOOD. it’s when Gihun talks about revenge, when he plans to end the game, to kill the person behind it all, that Inho feels that twisted thrill in his chest. because what Gihun doesn’t realize is that all those plans, all those quiet declarations of death, have been heard and they’ve been absorbed, broken down, and processed. Inho already knows what Gihun is capable of, what he’s willing to do, and how far he’s willing to go to get his revenge. it doesn’t matter to Inho. it never has. he’s already five steps ahead. Inho has studied Gihun like a surgeon carving through flesh, patiently unraveling his soul, savoring each fragile thread of hope only to tighten the noose, knowing that the moment Gihun’s trust shatters, so too will his humanity.

-> and like … Gihun’s humanity is his greatest weakness. his desperate hope to protect, to save, to make things right when he couldn’t before (example: in season 1 when a dying man reached for him and he looked away, in season 2 he helped a dying man) that's what Inho sinks his teeth into, because he knows that in this world, hope is the ultimate poison, the biggest gamble. every moment Gihun spends clinging to the idea that he can save anyone, that he can stop the game — that he can stop The Frontman — it draws him closer to the truth that will eventually shatter him.

and imo — Inho watches him with a twisted admiration, because in that desperate struggle, he sees himself or rather, the version of him that could’ve been if he had not embraced the game so fully. and in that, their paths, though seemingly different, are always converging. they are the same in the most brutal way: two sides of a coin, both marked by the same blood, the same violence, the same emptiness, and in the end, they are not so different after all. for all their differences, in the end — they are mirrors.

They should get married

So this is why the Front Man is so obsessed with Gi-hun... I love this trope of conflicting morals between hero and villain ❤️ perhaps Inho was reflecting about his own morals and secretly rooting for Gi-hun but also imagine his disappointment when Gi-hun decided to sacrifice those people to take the guns from the pink soldiers 😭 (which may've convinced Inho that his reasoning is the right one and prompted him to carry out the plan accordingly, not that he wasn't going to do it eventually, but he'll do it more decisively now)

This is why I'd love a spin-off of the Front Man, I think he became evil when he lost his wife and his unborn kid but I'd like to see more of his backstory and what he went through when he played those games back in 2015. I'd like to know what he saw, what he witnessed, who else he lost that convinced him of his current worldview. Also perhaps even Il Nam was his father (Il Nam's son also didn't drink milk like Inho) and he abandoned his family only to be reunited with his son (Inho) when he participated in the games. There's so many things I'd like to know.

In a way, Gi-hun and Inho are the only ones who can understand each other because they both played the games, they both returned to that place, they both lost their families... if only they didn't have conflicting worldviews <\3

Other characters I'd love to see have spin-offs are: Sangwoo (my Sangihun heart NEEDS to see how was their relationship like when they were younger and what happened for them to grow apart... 😭😭), Sae Byeok and Hyun Ju ❤️

lovey dovey chasoo featuring jealous daewoong

Why don't we transfer him to the factory in Sanpo?

"Are you two together?"

"Is he your boyfriend?"

What is this?? Is it a trend nowadays? Or is it just Shin Ha Kyun and his charms?

Shin Ha Kyun, the epitome of Pretty Young Men Collector

that are always taller than him 😌

The Auditors, 6th July

how is it that shin ha kyun yet again has chemistry with every single male actor in the auditors. there’s at least 3 men in this funny construction company who are obsessed with him

We are honestly so tired that we might as well leave A for the dark side 😭

Oh to be a detective with wonky blood in a small town where everyone thinks you’re hot

back with another "what i think mc and ub's texts are like"

tacos and May Mays:

typing with body parts:

left on read:

don't touch mc's files:

after a fight with A:

A trolling agenda in deep romance/friendship:

m playin too much:

m's secret:

mc's rumba:

these were so fun to make haha 😂 im totally all aboard for the A trolling agenda. i believe it with my whole heart.

This was assembled for myself but I tidied it up and posted it for anyone to use.

Please read through the entire intro. I WON’T ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE GAME MECHANICS, it is provided as is. I’m sure wayhavenguide will post a more comprehensive/user-friendly guide soon enough, but until then, use this as a handy little cheat-sheet. I’m 99.9% sure it’s all accurate, but the auction outcomes are pretty tangled up so i can’t guarantee that I’ve interpreted all the data correctly. Use at your own caution.

( also, if you play in a browser, then i recommend using firefox with the tampermonkey add-on and this plugin that allows you to save your place in any choice-script game. it’s invaluable for trying out all the options in a playthrough. )

"I can fix her..." Shut the fuck up.