[ SECRET POST #5398 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5398 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 38 secrets from Secret Submission Post #773.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The basic premise is similar (people compete in games to the death to survive) but I think all three are vastly different shows.

Squid Game: Players are incentivized with a huge cash prize to play, given opportunities to quit and to return at their own free will, and the world in which these games are going on it coexists with a functioning society in which is like our reality. The VIPs seem to watch these games solely as a means of fun/pleasure.

Hunger Games: In a not-too-distant future, oppressed districts are forced to volunteer their kids to play in a life or death arena for food, a punishment from the ruling state to the oppressed people who tried to rebel. The ruling state use the games and contestants as a means of entertainment, yes, but it stems from punishing the rebels.

Alice in Borderland: Arisu and his friends don't know what happened (did they get sent to an alternate reality? are they in purgatory? did everyone who disappeared die? etc) but all they know is that they are forced to play life or death games to continue living while trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

IMO all vastly different shows telling vastly different stories. Even the protagonists are nothing alike.

Also, I personally found the cop's story to be like an epic Greek tragedy and it coincides well with the idea of good people with good intentions not getting the happy ending fictional stories tell us they will get. Good intentions can only get you so far in a corrupt society. In the US we have an issue with corruption in our justice system on all levels, from local cops up to federal agents and politicians and judges. South Korea in recent years have received a lot of scandal due to corruptions in their justice system too.
And beyond that, I feel like there is subtext that alludes to how the US broke families up by forcing Korea to break up into North Korea and South Korea. The dynamic and mystery and reveal of the 2 brothers, to me, feel like there's something really deep there that hasn't been scratched at enough.
Squid Game's approach to addressing the North Korea/South Korea divide was done with a soft hand (IMO but I'm seeing this with a 1st Gen Asian American lense so please don't quote me), so I DON'T KNOW, maybe my dumb ass is reading too much into it.
All I can say is, I'm a fierce defender of Junho's story, especially because I went into the show ready to hate his story. Sick and tired of "cops are inherently good and they will save the day, that's how you know it's a happy ending!" narrative and the show didn't go in that direction.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, one interpretation of the Hunger Games is that it really is about the entertainment and the punishment is just the flimsy excuse the government is telling people. But that aside yes, they are still very different.

[(Anonymous)]

Another difference is that in Hunger Games and Battle Royale it's young people who are made to fight to the death, in Squid Game the contestants are adults of all ages, including an old man who ends up pretty important to the plot. That alone makes it pretty original.

> Players are incentivized with a huge cash prize to play, given opportunities
> to quit and to return at their own free will

Exactly, they aren't forced, except by their own desperation for money, which is essentially how coercion works in "free" capitalist societies (in contrast to the direct coercion in places like North Korea - interestingly enough, one of the characters is an escaped North Korean). You aren't forced to do anything, it's just that if you don't comply and don't work at that exploitative job, you won't have money to live.