You know, I don't have a problem with Gi-hun sacrificing himself. I think it's pretty in character for him to do that after everything he went through. I also understand that in its own way, sacrifice is an act of rebellion, a fuck you to a system that continued to exploit and beat him down at every chance. I even firmly believe that him choosing a baby, an innocent life, over himself, especially with him being weighed down by all the guilt and regrets, was the ending that made the most sense.
So, no, I'm not one of those people who would say the act itself was out of character or that Gi-hun should have survived no matter what. I think his ending is pretty in line with what we've seen from him through the seasons. It is a culmination of all of his growth and I do think it was, at least on some level, a truly beautiful scene. Although, to be fair, most of the praise should go to the actor who truly can convey so much emotion with a simple look, no words necessary.
What is my issue then? Well, above anything else, what I find jarring and kinda unbelievable about the ending is how he doesn't actually know if he's ensuring the baby's safety.
It just doesn't feel like the same guy who went out of his way to find Sae-byeok's family or ensure that Sang-woo's mother's is taken care of. He knows what the games do to people, he knows how they exploit and exploit until you have nothing left to give. He has no guarantee that this child won't be groomed to continue the games. He has no way to ensure his promise is actually fulfilled.
I won't go as far as to say that it's a shit ending, mostly because I'm still processing and still need to settle on on what I actually think about it. But even though I can absolutely stan Gi-hun for taking a stand, for going out on his own terms, the way it was portrayed feels more defeatist than anything else. And I honestly don't think it was meant to be interpreted that way considering that they still kept this theme of hope prevailing in small ways with some of the surviving characters. Regardless of what they intended, though, this IS how this ending comes off in a lot of ways and I don't think it's unwarranted.
And it shows in how people are reacting, especially since it's A LOT to ask the audience to care more for a random baby than for characters we spent seasons establishing and getting invested in. I think the baby's inclusion in the story, while on paper interesting and in line with the symbolism of the series and fundamental questions this show asks, was... well, maybe not a mistake per se, but definitely a Choice. Not necessarily a good one. Especially since we know that the baby won't die. So at some point, the question became less about who will win the game and more about whether it'll be the sole survivor or not.
I think what frustrates many people the most, though, is that Gi-hin didn't have to die. I think more people would be open for this ending if they showed it as a situation with no solution, no hope. Him or the baby, no loopholes, no other options. But since there was still clause 3 and babies can't exactly vote, the game could have ended right there. The ending doesn't really give us a good reason as to why Gi-hun didn't opt for the option that would allow him to truly fulfill the promise and take care of Jun-hee's baby, give it a better chance at life. Which feels like a strange cop out considering that him doing that IS actually perfectly in line with the message of the show and, even more importantly, with Gi-hun's stance. This is precisely what he did at the end of season 1, choosing to believe and also prove through his own actions, that as long as you're alive, you can still make better choices. You can believe in humanity, even if it seems hopeless at times. Many people won't choose that option. Many will turn a blind eye to all the suffering and will even contribute to it if it means getting ahead.
I don't know, maybe I'm too much of an idealist, maybe I let myself believe in Gi-hun too much, but I think that that message and that Gi-hun, the one who chose to believe even when things sucked and people disappointed him, felt much more authentic to the story's overall message.
Him choosing death when there were still options feels defeatist.
It feels like him acting against the very thing he wanted to prove.
And it would be one thing if the whole message was supposed to be about the games beating this hope and conviction out of him.
It would be one thing if it was truly the only way to ensure the baby's safety and finish that game.
But it wasn't.
And honestly? That feels very inconsistent with the show I watched.
I don't think you were being too much of an idealist, OP. I think this was an excellent break down of one of S3's biggest issues. S3 didn't feel like the same show as S1. S3 felt defeatist because it was defeatist, especially in context of S1 and the way S1 explored major themes of hope & humanity & what it means to hold on to those things - or fail to hold on to those things - even in the worst circumstances.
Regardless of what HDH claimed about his intentions with S3 and the baby, I think you called out the critical flaw very insightfully and concisely early on in this post:
"what I find jarring and kinda unbelievable about the ending is how [Gihun] doesn't actually know if he's ensuring the baby's safety."
This, to me, is also the single biggest reason that S3's ending fails.
As you point out, Gihun knows just how horrifically awful, abusive, manipulative, and just overall cruel the games are and are deliberately intended to be in every way that they can be.
Gihun knows that Inho is cruel and manipulative. He knows that every last person who works for the games has so far stood by and passively allowed the baby's life to be risked in the games up to this point. He knows that even when Inho ostensibly offered him a 'choice' to get himself and the baby both out alive, even that supposed choice was really a manipulative and deliberately traumatizing attempt to shift 'blame' for the baby's fate onto Gihun's shoulders, instead of the shoulders of those actually in charge of the games who conned Junhee into them, advocated for or passively allowed the baby's 'participation' as a player, and have continued to uphold and support every facet of the situation that has put and continues to put the baby's life in danger in the first place.
He knows these are deeply, deliberately cruel and unhealthy people. After his S1 arc he personally knows exactly how difficult it is to face, confront, and make genuine sustained effort to change one's own harmful behavior even with good intentions to start from.
Hope is a good thing. Hope in ourselves, that is, and our own ability to make positive, meaningful choices.
Hope in other people in general, to believe in the idea that people are generally decent and good things do happen because of that fact.
The idea that it is in any way positive for him to kill himself at this point in the hope that the people running the games would be good caretakers for Junhee's baby, by any possible metric of good that Gihun cares about, feels more absurdist than hopeful to me.
