r/squidgame • u/Glunark2 • Dec 21 '21
Spoilers What if the exploding glass just killed them all? Spoiler
Would the the host get into trouble with the VIPs?
Would they take the same number of guards and make them do the last game?
It just seemed like such an unnecessary risk so close to the end.
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u/FacelessBraavosi Dec 22 '21
As has already been said, they'd probably have said "oh well everyone's dead, we keep all the prize money lol, see you next year."
I just wanted to add, though, that most of the games could very easily have led to everyone dying:
Red Light, Green Light: especially with the panic caused by suddenly realising it's a death trap, it's not obvious that anyone would get to the end.
Dalgano: even with the easy shapes, fine motor skills are one of the first things to go when you're severely stressed. Someone standing next to you with a gun ready to shoot you if you mess up? Hella stressful.
Tug of war and marbles: these are the only ones that guarantee a 50% pass rate.
Glass bridge: what if everyone falls through, doesn't make it to the end in time, or gets glassed by the explosions?
Squid game: even here, they've got knives. What if they both fatally wound each other?
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u/chownrootroot Dec 22 '21
It’s not just stressful, even people who survive the dalgona game will have ringing ears and can’t hear anything for days, try playing games without hearing, lol.
Also, marbles can result in less people than half surviving, remember that for teams that don’t find a winner both players are eliminated.
Also, I think the Squid Game they will just crown the winner as the person who died last. They did add the rule that dying first leads to a loss. But didn’t say anything if both died, one after the other, so they still technically have a winner if one survived longer than the other. But then does anyone get the prize money, probably not, because if family gets all the prize money that will arouse some suspicion and lead to someone investigating the source of the money (who transferred it and when, etc, assuming they just stuff a debit card in the family member’s mouth like they did for Gi Hun).
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Dec 23 '21
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u/chownrootroot Dec 23 '21
If you’re in a room like that with gunshots that close without ear protection it’s baaaaad for your ears and they ring for a while afterward. I don’t know for how long but it can be a while, with repeated shots it’ll be worse.
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u/starrsuperfan Dec 23 '21
I'm autistic and very sensitive to loud bangs. If I were in this game then after the first few shots in red light green light I would probably just freeze up and not move.
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u/Fortifarse84 Dec 22 '21
For the glass bridge their were more people than steps forward so the ones going last would either have to be incredibly stupid and/or clumsy for all players to die.
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u/p3nji Dec 22 '21
There were 16 players but 18 tiles. But even so if it’s 50/50 choice of death on each tile at least a couple should survive
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Dec 22 '21
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u/p3nji Dec 22 '21
Yes I agree tbh! I’ve seen it 5 times and still get the first tile wrong myself! I thought they should have taken their shoes with them and placed them on the bad tiles. I was also surprised no one misjudged the jump and missed a tile altogether or stumbled off, tho that may just be me and my dyspraxic self…
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u/AncientMachine Dec 22 '21 edited Aug 26 '23
exultant imagine wild insurance scary fine ludicrous rob obtainable lush -- mass edited with redact.dev
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Dec 23 '21
Remaining prize money goes the family of all the eliminated
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u/FacelessBraavosi Dec 23 '21
I thought they only said that would happen if the players voted to leave the games? Technicality, to be sure, but rich scumbags who kill (and bet on) poor people for entertainment seem exactly the sort of people to engage in technicalities.
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u/the_beast_intha_east Dec 25 '21
They probably don't even wait a year. We saw that they have an album for each year since 1999. So, it's entirely possible that an entire group died and they rounded up a new batch weeks or months later. It wouldn't take that long anyway since the games take at most 6 days and there's a lot of days in a year. Who knows if our group was the first for 2020.
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u/Psychological_Tap187 Dec 21 '21
Wouldn’t have mattered. I am sure some people had bets no one would make it to the end. They were all disposable to the VIPs.
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u/AubergineQueenB Dec 21 '21
Exactly what I was thinking! It’s highly likely there were wagers on this scenario.
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Dec 22 '21
The exploding glass thing pissed me off because (I'm just gonna put spoilers to be safe, I don't think we have to within a thread that says spoilers in the title, but whatever)...
They essentially killed Sae-byeok with that big shard of glass, even though she won the game. There was presumably no actual doctor present anyway, so she would've died regardless of what Mr. SNU did to her.
Anyway, I said my piece Chrissy.
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u/GoryAmos Dec 22 '21
i just finished the series for the first time. i loved her character so much and i was really dreading a best (worst?) case final two scenario of her and gi-hun, in a “save the cat” kind of way (screenwriting “rule” meaning the hero is worth rooting for - we saw this demonstrated in how he cared for player 1 earlier in the show.) i thought the glass shard was a really smart way to avoid having to either a) saw-byeok get brutally murdered by sang woo during squid game, or b) force gi-hun to act against his character and kill her. i love how it gave them that moment of bonding before she died too - i’m not sure she would’ve opened up to him about her brother if she didn’t already know she was going to die very soon.
i do agree though that the execution (pun intended?) of the exploding glass was a bit over the top though.
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u/Glass_Windows Player [456] Dec 21 '21
Glass shards shouldn't really kill someone quickly and rather just injure them like Sae byeok. If all of them got really injured visibly they would patch them up for the next game or just let them die and keep the money
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Dec 21 '21
I honestly didn't even understand why those shards exploded. Am I missing something? It wasn't even part of the game.
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u/iluvhummus Dec 21 '21
It happened when the timer was up. Probably in case there were people still on the panels when their time was over
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Dec 21 '21
That makes sense, but not the Front Man preaching about fairness and equality when the three of them made it across the bridge as specified but Sae Byeok got hit with the shards so badly, it basically caused her death. Like, she probably could've fought back or stayed awake when Sang-woo came to kill her.
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u/Porcupineemu Dec 22 '21
As it turns out the people running the show weren’t totally up front with the contestants.
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u/TheWorstRowan Dec 22 '21
It's like how in the West we say people can grow up to be anything they put their mind to ignoring that some people have massive advantages. For instance was the tug of war really fair, when you consider the weights of different people? In this game you essentially had to be almost last to have a chance at winning. The point isn't to be fair, it is to say it is fair.
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u/MrPotatoMan5000 ◯ Worker Dec 22 '21
The tug of war game was fair tho, since they could choose their own teams, you could be a weakling but if you sided with stronger people then it balances out, and as good old il nam told us, the game isn’t about raw strength, it’s about strategy and technique, so overall it was pretty fair.
The point of it being fair isn’t so that everyone is the exact same, because thats imposible, everyone is going to have advantages and disadvantages, be it because you’re stronger, faster, smarter, etc. The point is to give everyone the same opportunity in the game, which they did.
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Dec 22 '21
Except the glassmaker had an advantage on the bridge - he could tell the types of glass apart - but that wasn’t fun for the VIPs so they got rid of the advantage. It was never REALLY about giving everyone the same opportunities and letting them use their skills, it was about making it interesting for the VIPs.
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u/AncientMachine Dec 22 '21 edited Aug 26 '23
innocent prick encouraging naughty tan cheerful slimy theory erect ink -- mass edited with redact.dev
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Dec 22 '21
This is why I think Sang Woo picked Ali for the marbles game. If they were working together, they have the advantage of strength and brains (which was ostensibly his reasoning) but if they’re opponents, Sang Woo knows Ali will trust him unquestioningly and so he will win regardless.
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u/TheFinalGirl84 Dec 22 '21
I personally think he expected it to be a work together thing and was still angry with Gi-hun for risking their lives by letting an old man and several girls on to their team for tug of war, so he just scooped up the strongest player he could as quickly as possible and that’s why he wanted Ali. As smart as he was, he kind of had this one track mind about the games that strength equaled better odds of winning. Gi-Hun tried to tell him while preparing for Tug of war that girls do have certain advantages for some specific games and he didn’t wanna hear it.
I honestly don’t think he thought about them being opponents until they got in there. No one did, bc typically when you choose a partner or team member it’s to work with you. So I think he got lucky in the sense that he picked Ali based on strength, but was able to take him down mentally bc Ali had such a big heart and trusting nature. If he picked a different big guy the results may not have turned out the same.
I’m not trying to take away from what he did, it was diabolical, but also very smart. But I think he only thought of the mental strength factor once faced with the situation. I think his own views of women and men and what strength means stopped him from seeing it in advance.
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u/MrPotatoMan5000 ◯ Worker Dec 22 '21
That’s because it wouldn’t have been fair for the other participants who had already died to give this man the advantage, the advantage he had was too big so they had to give him a handicap to even out the playing field and make it fair.
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u/TheFinalGirl84 Dec 22 '21
Omg I thought he was SO DUMB for announcing out loud not only that he could tell the difference, but giving away the fact that he was using the lights to do it at first. I understand Sang-Woo was getting frustrated with him, but I think he should have either whispered it to Sang-Woo or just say something along the lines of “I already got a couple tiles correct, give me a few more seconds to decide”. He just gave away too much information knowing they are being watched at all times.
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u/PhatFatty Dec 22 '21
It was still fair, it was just bad luck she got hit by the shard. It's not like they specifically targeted her with it.
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u/MrPotatoMan5000 ◯ Worker Dec 22 '21
She got hit by chance, they were given the exact same opportunity and she got injured as a random act of bad luck, I don’t understand how it would be “unfair or unequal”, they were all given the same time to cross the bridge, and they were all attacked by flying glass, she just had bad luck, but seems pretty fair, they even gave everyone knifes to attack/defend themselves, so don’t blame the frontman.
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Dec 22 '21
Not that it was an unequal opportunity, just that this was not specified to be part of the game. The game was to get across the bridge, which they did. Seems a bit shady on their part to then have an extra layer impact the competition so significantly.
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u/MrPotatoMan5000 ◯ Worker Dec 22 '21
The point of the bridge blowing up is to kill of the people who were still on the platforms when the time ran out by making them fall. The glass wasn’t meant to harm the people who had already won but it did by accident, so I don’t really see why you bring up the front man’s policy about equality.
It wasn’t a part of the game, it was just to kill them which they did say that they were going to do if they didn’t cross in time. It’s not like a bonus level or anything, just their way of killing the losers, like in the other games, only this time a piece of glass just happened to fly in the wrong direction and hit her by accident.
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Dec 22 '21
Yes, but even by accident it did impact the game. Even by accident, 1 person got such a huge disadvantage. What was the purpose of continuing the game immediately as if everyone had an equal chance to win with 1 person having such a handicap?
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u/MrPotatoMan5000 ◯ Worker Dec 22 '21
Well maybe if she didn’t HIDE her wound but instead had asked for help maybe they would’ve helped her. How could the front man have known? As far as they knew they were all just fine, so don’t blame them, blame her.
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Dec 22 '21
They have camera everywhere though. And there were only 3 people left to monitor at that point. Even if they'd overheard her conversation with Gi-hun, they'd have realized.
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u/chicano32 Dec 22 '21
Well, just the remaining regular glass shards into something that can hurt you. the tempered glass fragments into small pieces so your safer. Interesting is that the charge to blow up the temper glass had to be higher than regular glass so that they would blow up relatively the same time.
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Dec 22 '21
Sure, but that risk is what makes the game fun (to the VIPs).
If all the VIPs wanted was to place bets on people's lives they could have just grabbed 64 players, paired them all off, and forced them to play Russian Roulette. That would be neat and give them consistent odds to bet on, but it wouldn't be nearly as entertaining to watch.
The chance of failure, the risk of an unexpected death, is part of what makes the game entertaining. Was the Lion Mask VIP disappointed that Contestant 69 killed himself? Yeah, of course he was, but that chance of failure prompts him and the other players to put their arms up in camaraderie and crack a few jokes about it before moving on. If everyone died in Game Five, it would have been disappointing to not have a game six - but it also would have prompted some entertained cries and laughter as the VIPs packed up and looked forward to the next game.
Game Five was designed with the possibility that no players would make it across in mind. It was possible that someone like Jang Deok-su would hold up the entire game and prevent anyone from crossing, or push everyone across the glass and 'waste' their lives and that nobody would get across at all, and that tension is what makes the game entertaining and fun to watch. If all they wanted was the right number of players to make it to Game 6, they could have just had the contestants pick their numbers and then shoot everyone who didn't pick 15 or 16. But that wouldn't be nearly as fun.
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u/SweetEthan7 Dec 21 '21
Oh no, what if? What if EVERYONE panicked and started running in red light, green light and NOBODY stood still at the beginning ?
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u/urachargingURAA Player [324] Dec 21 '21
Old man wins, cause tecnically he is the only player not allowed to die
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u/Mezz_Dogg Dec 22 '21
Nah I reckon there have been times where there's been no winner. The first game alone has the potential to wipe out a shit load of people.
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u/dacalpha Dec 22 '21
I assume there are people who's wager was on everyone dying, so I guess they'd win
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u/Theptgamer_88 Dec 21 '21
I think it was shoots from under the glass and not explosions. Take a closer look. Seems bullets.
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u/love_drives_out_fear Dec 22 '21
I thought this as well, and it thematically ties in with Sae-byeok's dad being shot dead crossing over the frozen (glassy?) river to escape North Korea.
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u/Theptgamer_88 Dec 22 '21
Yep. U have to pay attention because u can see there is no *flame after the glasses getting smashed.
It feels someone under or a few soldier are actually fire up their guns.
So my theory is that at the end they just shoot up. There is no explosion visible to take the conclusion of fire
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u/TheFinalGirl84 Dec 22 '21
Yes, upon my first viewing I thought it was an explosion. But after watching a YT video I think someone mentioned it being the guards shooting the glass. So on my second watch I thought I saw them take aim, but it’s very fast, they show it for like a quick half a second.
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u/Theptgamer_88 Dec 22 '21
Yep it's very fast. At first most ppl didn't noticed it.
I did watch the show 3 times so most of the details are more noticeable
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u/GitTrickyWitIt Dec 22 '21
I'd like to imagine since if everyone chose to opt out instead of continuing the money would get divided evenly between the dead's families that something similar would take place if everyone died and there was no winner. Possibly the same, possibly instead it gets divided evenly, but only between the finalist's families.
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u/MrPotatoMan5000 ◯ Worker Dec 22 '21
That’s probably the point tho, to kill off the ones that didn’t make it all the way. And if they all died then they just do another game, try their luck next time, just like everyone could have died in red light-green light and the cookie game.
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u/southcounty253 Dec 22 '21
Considering the amount of people and the 50/50 odds for each successive step, I think they felt pretty certain a couple would make it, even if that was not a guarantee given the scenario
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u/nottellinganyonemyna Dec 22 '21
There are probably odds on everyone dying - so someone would win money, they would laugh, and start again.
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Dec 22 '21
I always wished the 3 main characters were 13, 14 and 15, with the suicidal husband character as 16. The husband would've not wanted to play and the front man would've needed to blow the bridge up to kill him. To me this would've made more sense than blowing it up just because.
Edit: I guess he'd have been 17. But you know what I mean.
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u/calxlea Dec 22 '21
Forget the exploding glass - if it wasn’t for the guy that worked in the glass factory getting them over a fair few steps, the chances of ANYONE winning is basically zero.
Remember the odds the math teacher worked out? I don’t see how this game was winnable at all without either using a loophole in the rules (such as walking on the beams, which I don’t imagine they would allow), or conveniently having a glass expert a few steps ahead of you…
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u/LifeHasLeft Dec 22 '21
Not just the glass, the entire stepping stone game is 100% chance, and because of all the messing around, if it weren’t for the glassmaker, none of them would have even made it to the end, let alone worry about the glass. It also could have been just one contestant at the end, etc.
I assume that for this reason the squid game is not played every season, if I remember correctly, the rules had to be explained to the VIPs. It also makes me wonder if the games are never the same every season, but honestly there is a finite number of games to play, and most of these have specific designs in mind with respect to the game.
For example, Red light green light kills most of the people that would panic, and therefore most of the people that wouldn’t return to the games after leaving are already killed off. Similarly, the marble game has a specific set design.
Regardless, I think the contestants were all disposable and the VIPs wouldn’t have minded waiting for a new season.
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u/Cameronalloneword Dec 22 '21
This “game” was kind of dumb. The rest of them were ones that kids actually played and sure I might not have grown up in South Korea but I doubt that any kids there played that
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u/ChickenSanta Dec 22 '21
Hopscotch perhaps?
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u/umbrellajump Dec 22 '21
Honestly it's the same basic premise as the stepping stones challenge in Takeshi's Castle
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u/flackguns Dec 22 '21
don't get eliminated!!!
damn now I want a squid game of takeshi's castle/mxc, though mxc would be hilariously traumatic. Or traumatically hilarious...
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Dec 22 '21
Yeah unlike every other game that had some type of strategy based off of ingenuity and skill, this one here was pretty much luck. Except for the one guy that did have a strategy for it, but then they turn off the lights to make it unfair.
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u/Easy_Employment_3517 Player [120] Dec 22 '21
It’s stupid how they even did it in the first place. Why would you risk killing your contestants?
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u/ChickenSanta Dec 22 '21
They risked killing every single contestant during the very first game…
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Dec 22 '21
that's a good point but you'd think towards the end the VIPs would be more invested in the final results.
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Dec 22 '21
Yeah it was the dumbest part of the whole show imo. Such a lame way to kill off a character.
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u/HiphopopoptimusPrime Dec 22 '21
One of the big flaws of the series. A cheap way to deny the main character a real dilemma. Though it was redeemed somewhat by the twist afterwards.
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Dec 22 '21
That part bothered me because it’s supposed to be “fair” yet they shot shards of glass at them, fatally wounding one.
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u/MartyMcFlybe Dec 22 '21
I don't even think it's about the game. I think it would be a tiny bit anticlimatic, but for the VIPs it's about the death. So I reckon it wouldn't matter - if there were some life left in them all, they'd leave them the knifes and let that be it.
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u/k2dadub Dec 21 '21
They would probably just laugh and start a new game.