History SquidGame / TropesJToZ

* OrganTheft: {{Justified}} as most of the players were either forced or willingly signed their bodies forfeit unto a waiver due to poverty. A few of the guards start a side hustle where they harvest organs from the dead players. To this end, they recruit one of the players who is a doctor, giving him hints about the upcoming games in exchange for him performing surgery. [[spoiler: This ends when the Front Man finds out and murders the guard running the operation as well as the doctor. He states that he doesn't care if they harvest or sell the organs, but he draws the line at cheating, as it destroys the integrity and equality of the games.]]

* PerpetualPoverty: The game players are all either poor, in deep debt, or otherwise in hard financial straits, and are desperate enough to risk their lives for the equvalent of a lottery win.

** While we don't see if [[spoiler:Jun-ho's proof got sent to his boss, the chief ''did'' receive his DistressCall and became alarmed when Jun-ho said that he needed backup on an island in the middle of nowhere]]. Not to mention most smartphones automatically save copies of their data to a remote cloud, meaning the data may still exist somehwere. The Front Man also acknowledges that it would be an extremely long shot that the Korean police would open an investigation, but that if it happened, it would take so long owing to the police's corruption and lack of efficiency, long enough for the organization to initiate a coverup.

* NeverFoundTheBody: [[spoiler:Jun-ho]] is shot in the shoulder and falls into the ocean, but we don't see him die, so it's possible he's still alive.

** How the game staff get away with their crimes. The entire concept of the game-- adults playing rounds of games for children, with death as the losing penalty--sounds absolutely ridiculous, and it sounds even more unbelievable that the perpetrators would offer their victims cash prizes or ''let them leave''. When Gi-hun tries to report the game, the police thought he is a crazy drunk. It helps that they target the dregs of society, who are less likely to be believed in the first place.

* PetTheDog: [[spoiler: Il-nam casting the deciding vote to let the players go home and summoning Gi-hun to persuade him to use the prize money.]]

** TheDarkChick: Han Mi-nyeo, TheSmurfettePrinciple of the group who is ''very outspoken'', actually comes up with clever ideas to Deok-su's advantage (i.e. giving Deok-su the lighter, cutting in line for seconds), and briefly enters a relationship with Deok-su. She ends up kicked off the gang during the game of [[spoiler:Tug-of-War]] and joins Gi-hun's team as TheSixthRanger.

* TheyLookJustLikeEveryoneElse: [[spoiler:The guards and staff who run the game are no more than regular everyday people, just like the contestants. When Player 119 learns about this by forcing one of the guards to unmask, he is so horrified at the implications that he immediately shoots himself.]]

** How the game staff get away with their crimes. The entire concept of the game-- adults playing rounds of games for children, with death as the losing penalty--sounds absolutely ridiculous, and it sounds even more unbelievable that the perpetrators would offer their victims cash prizes or ''let them leave''. When Gi-hun tries to report the game, the authorities assume he's a crazy drunk. It helps that they target the dregs of society, who are less likely to be believed in the first place.

* WomanScorned: Mi-nyeo warns Deok-su that she will kill him if he betrays her. [[spoiler:He cuts her out of his group after learning from the doctor that Game 3 is tug of war, focusing on recruiting large strong men. During the bridge game, Deok-su holds up the line to force others to go before him. Mi-nyeo volunteers to go. She tells him that she warned him not to betray her before [[TakingYouWithMe grabbing onto him and pulling him off the glass panel with her]].]] This is {{Lampshaded}} by one of the [=VIPs=], who incorrectly attributes it to William Shakespeare (and he's corrected, no less).