once again gonna yap about these old men from AiB and Squid Game bec they did NOT deserve their tragic endings 😭💔
what gets me about these two characters, out of EVERYONE, is how heartbreaking their arcs were
Tetsu had a history of drug addiction, while Gihun had a history of gambling addiction
And they tried. SO HARD. to be more than just their addiction, they tried so hard to be better people. We see it in the way they try to save others, in the way they sacrificed themselves to help everyone else. They're good people who just made really bad choices in life.
They were both thrust into a live-or-die high-risk environment, yet they Never considered to sacrifice someone else's life to save theirs. They say these games show someone's true nature, and if it does, then they were never the type to be selfish. they never put their own lives above others'. they were never cruel for cruelty's sake. even when they had to hurt others, they never enjoyed it.
and i think what hurts the most is that, despite all the good they have done and all the people they have saved during their games, they both died alone. with none of their friends or family ever knowing the good they tried to do for others. They would just be another Missing Persons case in the real world, and society will just assume they fell victim to their addictions.
can you imagine a worse fate than theirs?
Tetsu died believing that, according to those future visions, no matter how hard he tries to change for the better, it will always be for nothing, and he will Always end up an addict - either rotting in a cell or dying in a ditch with a needle up his arm.
Gihun died thinking his daughter will never hear from him again. Gayeong will probably grow up assuming that Gihun disappeared bec he doesn't love her. She has NO idea about the lengths he went through just to get back to her.
Their ex-wives will continue on with life believing they were just hopeless cases who deserved what they got.
No one in the real world will ever know about what they'd done. Because everyone else they helped has also died.
btw im not condoning the bad things they did. im not saying they were perfect good lil angels. gihun was a deadbeat dad who stole money from his own mom. we dont know much about tetsu but his ex-wife prob had a good reason for leaving him.
the thing is, they are both incredibly flawed, and that's what makes them so human and relatable. and it's just tragic to see them Try so hard to be a better person, and they still ended up failing.
I guess these characters mean so much to me because their end showed me what will happen if my deepest fears come true: what if i try my hardest to be better, and it's still not enough? what if i die alone, believing i have failed everyone i loved?
AGHHHHH 🫠 anyway! 😀 wow! what an existential crisis to have in the middle of the day! (i spent my lunch break yapping abt this instead of eating LMAOAFNDJ)
