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(please note: if you send me an ask where it’s 90% mostly copy-paste of someone else’s analysis please leave a link, I want to give proper credit :) otherwise I don’t feel right about posting it.)
I was reading a translated interview with the director, and I found this embedded in there:
Question: In Season 2, we learn more about Front Man Hwang In-ho’s backstory. Why did he take such a different path from Gi-hun, despite having similar struggles?
Answer: In-ho shares his past with Gi-hun—his wife was pregnant, and he needed a liver transplant. Like Gi-hun, he entered the game out of desperation. I wanted to subtly hint at In-ho’s history through his dialogue with Gi-hun. He was once an upright police officer, but after being caught taking bribes out of financial necessity, he was dismissed. While participating in the games, he lost his wife and child.
Despite having similar experiences, Gi-hun chooses to believe in humanity and fight for change, while In-ho believes survival means adapting to the system and becoming stronger. The clash between their ideologies is central to the story.
Season 3 will reveal a crucial event that solidified In-ho’s path. Their divergence was not immediate—there was a turning point. Stay tuned to see how that unfolds.
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Does this mean that we’re getting a flashback?! Do you think he’ll tell Gi-hun about it?
Kind of interesting since the premise of my Frontman Gi-hun AU was that Gi-hun prevented this type of event horizon. I have to finish it before the show wrecks my little sandcastle.
the reason why inho looks at Gihun is not that he is in love with him it due to a warped sense of duty or a desire to keep an eye on him
are u agree with this ?
No. I feel like this is more delusional than us shippers. Even the actors and the director pretty much say that In-ho wants to bring Gi-hun to his knees and show him the realities of human nature. His fixation with Gi-hun has always been there, and it’s not because he’s doing his job.
Rating: Explicit
Relationships: Hwang Inho | Front Man/Seong Gihun, Hwang Inho | Front Man & Hwang Junho (Squid Game)
Additional Tags: Top Hwang Inho | Front Man (Squid Game), Bottom Seong Gihun, Alternate Universe - Role Reversal, Role Reversal, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Depression, Dissociation, Grief/Mourning, Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms, Possessive Behavior, Codependency, Mildly Dubious Consent, Dom/sub Undertones, Slow Burn, Yearning, Eventual Sex, Eventual Happy Ending, More Comfort Than The Tags Imply
Summary:
“Do you think you really helped him? Don’t be self-righteous. He’s a drunk. He’ll end up on the street tomorrow, and he’ll freeze to death then.”
In-ho’s sanity slowly slipped away. He leaned against the man, still muttering over and over. Suddenly, a touch burned him. It was the other man’s fingers, gently cupping at nape of his neck.
“If you’re going to leave him to fend for himself without fixing him, you should have just let him die,” In-ho repeated.
“I understand,” came the man’s answer. “Take it as my own selfishness, then.”
Role Reversal AU where Gi-hun is the Frontman, and In-ho meets him after the games in 2015.
BTW April is probably going to be a busy month for me so I might not be on here as much 🫶 but I’ll be writing and reading in the fandom. I just won’t have as much free time.
Fascinated by the way Hwang In-ho was living despite winning the 28th squid game. And the books. Lacanian philosophy of desire. Picasso, Magritte, Van Gogh, Monet. Catcher in the Rye. Camus and Nietzsche. Like a riddle wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a weird hooded cloak.
There’s been investigations into what some of these books are since the first season aired. Most of the ones on his desk have been identified, but the ones on the shelf in the first gif are really blurry.
I believe the book on the far right is Charlotte Bronte’s The Professor based on other images I’ve seen of the spine of the Penguin Classic edition of that. I was able to identify the fifth from the left as Vivian Maier Self-Portraits.
I’d never heard of Vivian Maier before, but I looked into her after finding the book. She was a nanny who photographed as a hobby but never shared any of her photos. Someone bought all of her film/prints in a storage unit auction because either 1) in her old age she forgot or was unable to pay for it or 2) she had passed away and had no family/will. She died in 2009 and this book was published in 2013 but I couldn’t find info on when the photos were purchased. Anyway thought that was a uniquely sad anti-capitalist story.
Nothing I can think of re: The Professor, other than it was also published posthumously.
Also for the desk books… I don’t think the dark blue one to the right of Catcher in the Rye had been identified. The black one next to that that says Campus Life(?) on the spine seems like it could be a journal or something but who knows. The book to the left of Catcher seems like it could be part of a series (number 11 on it) of I’m guessing art/art history books. The picture in the spine is of Holbein’s The Ambassadors, which if you’re not familiar with it, has this bonkers stretched out skull on it. Guessing the book deals in perspective? lol.
Anyway thought I’d post this here in case anyone else is as weirdly obsessive about this as I am?
My Korean is almost non-existent lol but I recognized the word on the second book to the left. I know it means "Hell," and it's also the title of episode 2 in season 1. When I googled "지옥 novel," the first thing that came up was "Hell," a novel by Henri Barbusse... which is about an unnamed narrator who spies on other people through a peephole. From the Wikipedia page:
The narrator, unmarried and friendless, books a room in a Paris boarding house. By chance he finds a hole in his wall, through which he can see the adjoining room and its inhabitants.
Now, I can't see the writer's name, so I'm not 100% sure that the "지옥" book on In-ho's desk is really Barbusse's "Hell." But the plot... An unmarried and friendless man spying on other people... That's Frontman.
I can't really say I miss him. It's not that I don't like him in S1. It's just that he isn't happy in both seasons.
In S1, he's more naive. He appears to be more carefree, but maybe he was just more able to hide his problems.
He's in debt. He's lost his wife, and he's slowly losing the connection to the most important person in his life - his daughter. He lost his job and saw his colleague die. He can't support his mother and her wellbeing. He desperately tries to get his hands on some money to be a better father and son. Yes, he steals from his mum, but do you realise how desperate you have to be to do so? Also, he uses the money to try to increase their wealth a little. He joins the games because he thinks the solution to his problems is money.
In S2, none of his problems that he tried to get rid of have been solved. He 'only' paid his debt. He tried to reconnect to his daughter, but the trauma didn't allow it. He seems to be more serious, but I think it's a part of his personality that hasn't shown before so strongly. It may seem as if he lost his innocence, but I believe deep down he always knew about his situation, and he now gave up on hiding his true emotions. I don't want to downplay his trauma and say he's the same as in S1. I just think he wasn't truly happy in both seasons.
However, one very important thing is different: He actively started caring for others. He did so in S1, but it seems like the games have changed something in him.
He supports the weaker players. He helps Sae-byeok's little brother as well as Sang-woo's mum. After that, he uses the money to stop the games. I don't want to say it was good that he went through all that trauma, but it's the reason why I like S2 Gi-hun a little more. At the same time, I can totally understand the wish that all of that would have been possible without the pain and regret. Seems like caring can't be done carefree (omg, I'm proud of this one).
I just wish that he survives and finds a way to heal at the end of S3. I wish he could find a way to live a happy life.
"Can you recommend a fanfic where the characters are closer to their versions in the series? For example, I saw someone write that they are writing a fanfic where Gi-hun is much closer to his version in the series."
Apologies for the delay. This question really stumped me, if I’m honest ;-; Mostly because I don’t know what “closer” means. I think there’s many different interpretations we can have based off canon. Here’s some I like from a canon-compliant character study lense:
A what-if story exploring if Gi-hun got on the plane. I love stories that feel like gentle rain, and this one I think is one of them. It follows Gi-hun very closely in the process of grief and healing, and In-ho here is very much a “reaching out to you and hope you take my hand” version.
This premise of this story is what if Gi-hun had never entered the games and met Il-nam before he passed, only to be left a small bit of inheritance. If you want a fic that feels like S1 Inhun, this is a very strong contender. I will note it’s in mandarin (I used google translate to read it), though it has an English translation. I still prefer the mandarin one. I think the English version was written to sound “perfect” to natives but it sacrificed a bit of the nuance.
A canon-divergent fic in which a 2015 In-ho meets Gi-hun before he becomes the Frontman, and it changes his life. hl14 is an authors whose body of work I think exemplifies the different ways In-ho and Gi-hun can be interpreted while still feeling like their canon selves.
This fic is a fascinating one in that it has the same premise with the opposite take: In-ho meets Gi-hun before he becomes the Frontman – and it finalizes his decision to become him. One of the earlier fics I read in the fandom and it really helped refine my perception of In-ho’s possible motivations.
Canon AU in which every time Gi-hun dies he gets a redo, but he still joins the games. Magical realism take on canon essentially (and I know I’m cheating a little with this one). I particularly really liked the character voice. It felt very much like Gi-hun.
A fic in which Gi-hun is a worker instead of a player. Based on the premise, it might not sound like a character study but I think it can definitely be seen an exploration of how different choices could lead to different outcomes, while still staying true to Gi-hun.
A post-season 2 fic. We get really in Gi-hun’s head for this one and it’s just about as heart-wrenching as the first time I watched the finale. You really see Gi-hun fall apart. Which you know, is my cup of tea.
Explores the premise of “what-if Gi-hun chose to get on the plane” as well but it’s a different interpretation than this morning, this evening. In this one, In-ho’s machinations are more intense, and I think you it really emphasizes Gi-hun’s loneliness.
An In-ho POV fic where he pretends to be a ghost to haunt Gi-hun after his “death.” In-ho feels very keen and spider-y in this one if it makes sense. I do so love the wolf-among-the-sheep character exploration of him.
Canon-adjacent fic in which In-ho pretends to have sex somnia in order to have his way with Gi-hun. I think it plays well with the tension of what we know as an audience and what Gi-hun knows, and particularly enjoyed how it portrays In-ho’s brand of manipulation.
Intense character study of In-ho’s POV from season 1 to the present. The undercurrent of obsession and delusion is impeccably interwoven into the events. It’s just poetry, really.
~ * ~
Anyway, I have 100+ bookmarks so I can be here all day. I mean just based on canon-adjacent character studies only I had to exclude a abo fics, historical, fantasy (please ask me for fantasy recs ;-;) etc since characters are affected by the world they live in. If you enjoy any of these, please remember to give the authors their flowers 💐
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