Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t the whole point of the show that Sang-woo isn’t ultimately the bad guy? He’s just a desperate man placed into a situation that, sure, he got in himself, but also was trying to copy the ways of the upper class - trying to beat the game by cheating.
Objectively he is a bad person. But also objectively he ISNT the villain. And both Gi-hun and Sang-woo realise they aren’t each other’s enemies at the end. The game was made to bring out the worst in ppl, actively working against cooperation tactics and group work, because the ppl who MADE the game have some ridiculous moral complex about humanity being inherently evil (thereby justifying and excusing the way they take advantage of the poor in these games).
My dad pointed out something I think is incredibly important and something that game itself capitalises on - that final bet between Gi-hun and Il-nam had them create a circumstance that depended on human kindness, on the simple act of ONE person doing the right thing to help a man in trouble; the thing is, both Gi-hun and Il-nam were also potential aids to this man’s plight, and neither did anything. Il-nam refuses to look at the hypocrisy in his own actions by rejecting the inherent truth: he, as part of the upper class, is in a unique position to help those with less them him. Gi-hun however is trapped, not by hypocrisy, not by a refusal for accountability, but by spectator syndrome. The bet demands only one person do right, and there’s a implication that Gi-hun helping would count as interference - but it doesn’t matter, because both people making the bet are also people who have the potential to simply not make a bet in the first place. The Squid Game alleviates the VIPs guilt (If they have any) and pushes the players into thinking that they also have no true power over their own surroundings. They are punished, time and time again, for trusting in *each other* and made to believe that working together is dangerous when it’s actually the best way to win. They feel powerless and unable to contribute; made spectators to their own suffering.
Gi-hun could have helped that man in the streets but did not because he fell once again into the trap. Nobody helping that man would not have reflected on humanity at all, only on the people who did not help. Had Gi-hun ignored the bet altogether and saved that man himself, he would have shown Il-nam the truth to his own lie: all it takes is one person holding themselves accountable to their own conscience, and that in itself is evidence of humanity. (As well as the fact that, in a way, Il-nam has rigged the bet by placing the responsibility into the hands of strangers, despite being aware a man could genuinely die). Il-nam tricked Gi-hun into entertaining the bullshit of billionaires, and while I didn’t like that he disappointed his daughter again, he did what he didn’t do for that man on the street, and recognised the responsibility in his own hands as someone with an iota of power.
How does this all pertain to Sang-woo? Well, all Sang-woo had left was a knife. And that knife was like the berries in the Hunger Games. That knife was an apology and a rebellion. You don’t get to kill me, you don’t get to steal from me this last thing that I have. You don’t get to decide this, I do. And I die for my friends. He untrapped himself, no longer a spectator to suffering, no longer washing himself of the responsibility. Sang-woo’s death was tragic too.
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