idk, i liked squid game's conclusion because it reflects the world accurately as i see it. It may look totally helpless and devoid of warmth, but if you look closer, it's Not. The bad stories get more noise, but look closer and you see the good. You may never know the positive effects you have on someone or something, but that doesn't mean you didn't Have a positive effect. You don't always get to see the flowers you plant, but you still planted them.
At the same time, I enjoy something that doesn't soften the blow of its commentary. The effect of oligarchies, the oppression of children, the violence and horror of institutional and just regular day to day ableism, outright violent misogyny killing women, unchecked greed taking lives, the commentary on exactly What type of person becomes a billionaire and how to get there you've Had to hurt and crush other people etc etc
I didn't need, nor want, a twee blockbuster action flick style where there's a glorious revolution and everybody lives happily ever after (I do like the occasional trashy blockbuster action flick, but not for This show). I like happy stories, not delusional ones. This show had had two seasons that set the tone so i'd been very much warned what the mood of the final season would be and I knew it'd not be a happy ending, it was merely down to how the chips fell. I was not expecting to be happy, just not totally desolate.
In the end, I was honestly left surprised at how upbeat the ending was. The implication that In-ho is at the very least, a marginally better person because of Gi-Hun winning their battle of wills. No-Eul saved Gyeong-Seok and because she did Jun-Ho found the island and set the coast guard on the organisation. Her getting him out of there Also saved a little girl with cancer, she succeeded. Gi-Hun's care for a little girl stopping No-Eul from killing herself because he gave her hope that her baby girl could still be alive because yes, kind strangers Do care and will help a child who is totally alone, and the narrative supporting that hope by the trafficker finding evidence that her daughter Is alive after this happened, validating her choice to not end it. The Island blew up. It may not be a smoking gun but evidence of wrongdoing was Very much discovered, a chink in the armour of the organisation exposed. Seeing the little baby healthy and happy, in proper clothes, with somebody who i have no doubt will make sure she's safe.
(i was a little scared that we wouldn't find out if in-ho and her survived. now That I'd have been depressed by)
The parallel between Gi-Hun seeing the salesman at the end of s1 and in-ho seeing the blonde at the end of S3 placing in-ho into Gi-Hun's shoes is a Hopeful end. The whole of S2&3 has been In-Ho trying to force Gi-hun into His shoes and in the end, it's the other way around and gi-hun wasn't even Trying for that. But he made In-Ho more like Him.
To me, Gi-Hun ushered in change. So many people in history never got to see what their actions led to, that doesn't void their effect. It just makes it sad they don't get to know.
Mostly, the conclusion of S3 left me feeling the exact same as the conclusion of S1 did. Very Sad, but with hope. Because he didn't get on the plane. Because he believed that the world was good enough that it was Worth it to save the baby girl. Because he was given the same choice he was at the end of S1 to be involved in a bet on somebody's life, and instead of partaking and consenting to play without considering the implications of that, he rejected the entire premise of the sick and twisted wager and threw himself from the pillar instead.
