History TearJerker / SquidGame

* We don't know much about the Host's backstory. He did say that everything he told Gi-hun was true, including that he once had a family: a wife and a son. Il-nam recollects fondly how his wife would prepare lunches for him and his boy. Yet, they are ''nowhere'' in the present, not even in the penthouse where you would logically expect a grown man to tend to his dying father. There are hints that Il-name's crusade to build his wealth using loan sharks pushed them away, much like how Gi-hun's gambling addiction pushed away his wife and daughter.

* [[TearJerker/SquidGameS1E6Gganbu Episode 6]]
* [[TearJerker/SquidGameS1E9OneLuckyDay Episode 9]]

[[folder:Episode 1]]

[[folder:Episode 2]]

[[folder:Episode 3]]

[[folder:Episode 4]]

[[folder:Episode 5]]

[[folder:Episode 7]]

[[folder:Episode 8]]

** [[HopeSpot The moment]] where he thinks the guards are coming to help her, only to see them bringing in the coffin is especially heart-wrenching.
** Her last words to Gi-hun: "I wanna go home now."

** Moreover, Sae-byeok dies without knowing if her little brother would be looked after by Gi-hun. And her little brother will live on not knowing that his sister died for his sake, especially after he got into trouble with other kids earlier because they kept claiming she abandoned him.
* Even though he still goes through with it, seeing how painful it was for In-ho/the Front Man to shoot his little brother Jun-ho and how conflicted he was to the point of shaking as he was lifting his gun up to shoot him is heartbreaking. As is the fact that he ended up going through with it and thus making all of Jun-ho's efforts amount to nothing.
** This is also heartbreaking from Jun-Ho's point of view, as he had just gone through so much effort and put himself in so much danger for the sake of finding his brother, only for said brother to reveal that he was one of the main villains all along and then being the one to actually shoot him as he was still processing the shock of finding out his brother was the Front Man in the first place. That's right, [[UngratefulBastard the very person who]] [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished he went through all that trouble and danger for in the first place]] is the one who ended up ruining everything for him. One can only imagine what was going through Jun-ho's head as he was being shot. In-ho, shown to be so coldly cruel for most of the show, is so shaken over having had to shoot his brother that he regretfully sees his brother haunting him through the mirror asking him "Why?" at the end of the episode and is clearly struggling to hold back his emotions while staring at his brother's apparition.
** What makes this even sadder is the fact that, while a million things could've been going through Jun-ho's head as he was being shot, one of them was probably something along the lines of "why would the brother that was so selfless and loving towards me that he willingly gave one of his kidneys to me so I could live now involved in something so unspeakably evil and even willing to shoot me for it?" It also makes a viewer wonder what caused In-Ho to go from being so kindhearted and loving enough towards his brother that he would donate one of his organs to him all the way to being actively complicit and involved in something so horrific and evil such as the Squid Game and willing to shoot said brother he gave a kidney to earlier to maintain the secrecy of the awful Games.

[[caption-width-right:350:This is why money doesn't get you everywhere, or even everything in life.]]

* Jun-ho's AdultFear when, while undercover during the illicit organ extraction operation, he finds out a "zombie" from the Red Light Green Light game had a kidney and lost their eyes. When the other guard suspects he's not the real 29 and forces him to unmask, Jun-ho complies while in the caverns near the ocean but reveals he's armed with a gun, forcing the other man to drop his knife. He starts a speech about how his big brother had one kidney, because he donated it to save Jun-ho's life, and the guard helped the doctor fricassee him for some extra cash. Fortunately or unfortunately, the guard reveals that the victim was a woman, not a man, because they raped her and wouldn't do that to a guy.

* The games in question are designed to strip down humanity to their base instincts. People will fight to save themselves or to get more than enough money to pay off their debts and stave off the loan sharks. The surviving winner does get paid for his or her troubles, but is left broken by the experiences and their complicity. Il-nam implies that Gi-hun and his team were the first people to break this cycle, all because Gi-hun befriended a sickly old man who had nothing to lose.
* Sang-woo's fall from grace. Gi-hun teases that he used to drive Sang-woo to school, that he was top of his class at the top university in South Korea and TheOneWhoMadeItOut. Even though he got a prominent position, the story is that Sang-woo embezzled from the company by investing money that didn't belong to him in stocks and futures. Gi-hun is shocked that Sang-woo is as much of a gambler as he is, asking if he literally bet on his future. Sang-woo lies to his mum that he's on a business trip while watching her from a short distance because he put up her restaurant on collateral and is worried the banks will toss her on the streets. Gi-hun remains painfully oblivious to the fact that Sang-woo isn't the childhood friend he remembered, until seeing him literally push another player to his death. As he asks Sang-woo in a cold WhatTheHellHero tone in their argument following the games, why is the genius of their neighborhood in the same position as the loser gambling addict?
* Mi-nyeo is a tragic AntiVillain. It's hinted that she's not all bad, given one of her moments was saving Sae-byeok from Deok-su's gang, taking the opportunity to flirt with him, and she respects the old man after he saves his tug-of-war team, telling him how awesome he was to suggest the leaning back strategy. Yet, because of her FatalFlaw of being an OpportunisticBastard, she feels the need to hide her softer side or trust anyone that may look like a weakness. Her HeroicSacrifice shows that she ultimately realized that thanks to her own actions, no one would love or accept her, but she gave her lives for the survivors anyway.
* We don't know much about the Host's backstory. He did say that everything he told Gi-hun was true, including that he once had a family: a wife and a son. Il-nam recollects fondly how his wife would prepare lunches for him and his boy. Yet, they are ''nowhere'' in the present, not even in the penthouse where you would logically expect a grown man to tend to his dying father. There are hints that Il-name's crusade to build his wealth using loan sharks pushed them away, the way that Gi-hun's gambling pushed away his wife and daughter.

* The end of the episode when one of the square supervisors is being held at gunpoint by a desperate player 119, who makes the supervisor remove his mask and face him. The supervisor is a handsome young man with a forlorn look on his face, not a twisted evil smile or cold expression. Player 119 is broken at this sight exclaiming "You're so young! How did you come to be involved in something like this" and then blows his own brains out. The 'square' is then executed by the Front Man who reminds the other staff members that if the players see their faces, they are dead. What makes it so sad is that the supervisor knows he is dead but does not hate the man who has basically killed him and even looks ashamed, whereas Player 119 realizes to his horror he was about to kill someone young enough to be his son. The tone of his DespairEventHorizon makes it also sound as though Player 119 holds himself responsible in that moment for having created a CrapsackWorld where young men get involved in something sick and wrong like the squid games.

** And there's also the look on his face when they're pulling on the rope in slow-motion as if he recognizes that he's going to witness the deaths of the other team.
* Jun-ho's AdultFear when, while undercover during illicit organ extraction, he finds out a "zombie" from the Red Light Green Light game had a kidney and lost their eyes. When the other guard suspects he's not the real 29 and forces him to unmask, Jun-ho complies while in the caverns near the ocean but reveals he's armed with a gun, forcing the other man to drop his knife. He starts a speech about how his big brother had one kidney, because he donated it to save Jun-ho's life, and the guard helped the doctor fricassee him for some extra cash. Fortunately or unfortunately, the guard reveals that the zombie was a woman, not a man because they raped her and wouldn't do that to a guy.

** As the guards take the corpse of Player 069, Sang-woo has a clear [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone look of guilt]] after he knowingly pushed him to his edge.
* "[[DyingMomentOfAwesome I told you I'd kill you if you betrayed me]]." How Mi-nyeo goes out during the Stepping Stones bridge; she pulls Deok-su down with her by using her own weight to break a panel of tempered glass when he refuses to move forward unless someone goes ahead of him. For the whole game, she was out to protect herself by allying with the strongest side and earn some money in the end. This was her last (of few) selfless gestures, to ensure the other players would not be held up by a jerky DirtyCoward of a son. It was her way of paying homage to the old man as well, who she thanked for his leaning backward strategy that saved the team during tug-of-war.

* Sae-byeok's death between the fifth and sixth games. She is impaled by a shard of glass at the end of the fifth game, and hides the fact that she is bleeding out throughout the dinner and the following night. When Gi-hun realizes that she's dying, it's clearly too late to do anything, but he nevertheless runs to the doors and tries to appeal to the guards for help. And then, the moment that Gi-hun has left her side, Sang-woo kills her with a steak knife. This is the moment that causes Gi-hun to finally break and try to kill Sang-woo.
** The moment where he thinks the guards are coming to help her, only to see them bringing in the coffin is especially heart-wrenching.

** Sae-byeok [[AllForNothing never got to make it out of the game alive]] despite Ji-yeong [[SenselessSacrifice giving her life]] to save her.
** Sae-byeok dies without knowing if her little brother would be looked after by Gi-hun. And her little brother will live on not knowing that his sister died for his sake, especially after he got into trouble with other kids earlier because they kept claiming she abandoned him.
* Even though he still goes through with it, seeing how painful it was for In-ho/the Front Man to shoot his little brother Jun-ho and how conflicted he was to the point of shaking as he was lifting his gun up to shoot him is heartbreaking. As is the fact that he ended up going through with it and thus making all of Jun-ho's efforts amount to nothing. This is also heartbreaking from Jun-Ho's point of view, he had just gone through so much effort and put himself in so much danger for the sake of finding his brother, only for said brother to reveal that he was one of the main villains all along and then being the one to actually shoot him as he was still processing the shock of finding out his brother was the Front Man in the first place. That's right, [[UngratefulBastard the very person who]] [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished he went through all that trouble and danger for in the first place]] is the one who ended up ruining everything for him. One can only imagine what was going through Jun-ho's head as he was being shot. In-ho/The Front Man, shown to be so coldly cruel for most of the show, is so shaken over having had to shoot his brother that he regretfully sees his brother haunting him through the mirror asking him "Why?" at the end of the episode and is clearly struggling to hold back his emotions while staring at his brother's apparition.

* The games in question are designed to strip down humanity to their base instincts. People will fight to save themselves or to get more than enough money to pay off their debts and stave off the loan sharks. The surviving winner does get paid for his or her troubles, but is left broken by the experiences and their complicity. Il-nam implies that Gi-hun and his little team were the first people to break this cycle, all because Gi-hun befriended a sickly old man who had nothing to lose.

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: General]]
* The games in question are designed to strip down humanity to their base instincts. People will fight to save themselves or to get more than enough money to pay off their debts and stave off the loan sharks. The surviving winner does get paid for his or her troubles, but is left broken by the experiences and their complicity. Il-nam implies that Gi-hun and his little team were the first people to break this cycle, all because Gi-hun befriended a sickly old man who had nothing to lose.
* Sang-woo's fall from grace. Gi-hun teases that he used to drive Sang-woo to school, that he was top of his class at the top university in South Korea and TheOneWhoMadeItOut. Even though he got a prominent position, the story is that Sang-woo embezzled from the company by investing money that didn't belong to him in stocks and futures. Gi-hun is shocked that Sang-woo is as much of a gambler as he is, asking if he literally bet on his future. Sang-woo lies to his mum that he's on a business trip while watching her from a short distance because he put up her restaurant on collateral and is worried the banks will toss her on the streets. Gi-hun remains painfully oblivious to the fact that Sang-woo isn't the childhood friend he remembered, until seeing him literally push another player to his death. As he asks Sang-woo in a cold WhatTheHellHero tone in their argument following the games, why is the genius of their neighborhood in the same position as the loser gambling addict?
* Mi-nyeo is a tragic AntiVillain. It's hinted that she's not all bad, given one of her moments was saving Sae-byeok from Deok-su's gang, taking the opportunity to flirt with him, and she respects the old man after he saves his tug-of-war team, telling him how awesome he was to suggest the leaning back strategy. Yet, because of her FatalFlaw of being an OpportunisticBastard, she feels the need to hide her softer side or trust anyone that may look like a weakness. Her HeroicSacrifice shows that she ultimately realized that thanks to her own actions, no one would love or accept her, but she gave her lives for the survivors anyway.
[[/folder]]

!! General

** What makes this even sadder is the fact that, while a million things could've been going through Jun-ho's head as he was being shot, one of them was probably something along the lines of "why would the brother that was so selfless and loving towards me that he willingly gave one of his kidneys to me so I could live now involved in something so unspeakably evil and even willing to shoot me for it?" It also makes a viewer wonder why In-Ho went from being so kindhearted and loving enough towards his brother to benevolently donate his kidney to him all the way to being actively complicit and involved in something so horrific and evil such as the Squid Game and willing to shoot said brother he gave a kidney to earlier to maintain the secrecy of the awful Games.

* What pushes Player 069 to commit suicide above when he attempted to convince the remaining contestants to quit but failed, followed by Sang-woo showing NoSympathy for him by going on a rant at him for choosing to go back to the games with his wife, knowing that there could be only one winner and is now paying the price for it.