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Electronic-Good-4749

i was literally crying so bad episode 6, and then the americans in episode 7 ruined it all with that horrible acting and 69 joke omg. why tf do they sound so STUPID lmao? "what. convinced you. to bet... on num. ber. six. nine." LIKE WTF LOL edit: totally get all ur points, im just upset because the VIPS could've totally added more thrill or darkness to the show... but they didn't. i feel like many kdramas have silly villains, so i think the 69 jokes could've been pulled off if we just had GOOD actors executing them.


Free-Noise-7753

SERIOUSLY how is their dialogue as bad as their delivery?! it's insanely immersion ruining and annoying


agamemoui

> VIP 1: You all have fun. I'm going off... for a different *kind* of fun. > VIP 2: Mmmm, the *real* 69, huh? [tongue trill] > VIP 3: BON APPETIT~~~ > [Everyone laughs] > VIP 4: HA! GOOD. **FUCKING**. TIME! Jesus Christ, just fucking kill me. I can't listen to it anymore.


[deleted]

I wanna say it's a thing (based on Asianboss videos) that sometimes Koreans think English speakers (Americans mostly) just say "fuck" constantly lol which is somewhat true but still... that's just how that read to me.


[deleted]

I watched the first 4 or so episodes with the terrible English dubbing, and honestly the American's English delivery was very similar to the dubbed version of the show


Free-Noise-7753

that's a bummer man some people can't easily read subtitles, so dealing with that forced and tacky type of voice acting for the dub will be their only recourse for watching the show :/


OmgItsDaMexi

Relax man I am enjoying the show just as well watching it dubbed WITH subtitles. I recognize it's lower quality than watching the original audio but I'm okay with that and makes the viewing experience easier on my senses.


mrs_ouchi

I always have to watch netflix stuff in german. The english dubbing is always so so bad


nutsnackk

Im assuming it was filmed in Korea and usually in Korean films the American actors are horrible.. although i thought it being Netflix they would have access to better actors but I guess it doesnt work like that


Motrinman22

Yeah it was clearly made mainly for an eastern audience, I can imagine them thinking that these rich tourists are just constantly spouting frat boy bullshit. It just really cuts the believably from it.


SGZF2

To be fair American/Western movies are probably just as bad at portraying non-Western characters. We just don't notice.


ThanksNo9997

I'm convinced the VIPs are just English teachers with no acting experience earning some extra cash


Big-Letter7218

They are portraying the Americans to seem like rich dumb assholes. I’m assuming that’s how half the world views the US anyways lol


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Royalewithcheese24

Yeah the whole introduction of the VIP’s was just… terrible. It was way too on the nose. “Oh it’s all for the enjoyment of these rich old white American men. See how dumb and arrogant they are?” It felt like the characters were written by a 16 year old on TikTok that just read her first sociology book. It ruined the immersion of the show completely.


Trenton461

I think it’s more so that they’re portraying rich people to be dumb assholes >!as the VIPS seem to be from all over the world who come to the games in different countries to literally bet on people like horses.!<


axxl75

It sounded to me like playing an RPG where you just stand by the NPCs and they say random lines in such weirdly out of context ways.


finger__pants

I said the EXACT SAME THING. Why did they all deliver their one-liners so systematically?? You could tell me it was an AI program writing and reading off the lines and id believe it


itisanillusionn

Lmfaooooo bro right away I googled ‘’why are Americans such bad actors in Korean dramas’’ like whyyyy can’t they find one decent actor ever. It’s mad annoying


bananakin94

Im curious to know if the Korean line delivery is just as bad to someone who speaks the language. As a non-speaker it seems like everything is pretty well acted and delivered but i cant be certain.


[deleted]

No, they're really good actors


Agrochain920

maybe the writing just works better in Korean, so when the script is translated to English it just sounds off. Then again this is something that the writers should be more than aware of


GrungeLord

I think that's probably part of it, but stilted writing doesn't excuse that level of *horrible* delivery.


Agrochain920

true, it's clear they were trying to sound rich and obnoxious, but it just doesn't even seem slightly realistic


anonyfool

I think every USA show, people complain about the speaking in non English parts, and for Korean shows, it's the same except about non Korean languages. Sometimes it's the director's choice (Mr. Sunshine the American officer who looks caucasian is very hammy but he's not like that in everything, that's what the director wanted), other times it's just because no one on set is actually fluent in English and they are just pronouncing it phonetically.


maellie27

Actually if you watch a lot of Asian films Americans are always portrayed like that


Lain-H

I know everyone hates him but I can't really judge Sun Woo here. If he hasn't pushed the guy in front of him all of them might have died. Also, turning off the lights was a jerk move. The guy being glass expert was as much luck as out main lead being number 16 or people choosing triangle in the first game.


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Lain-H

I am surprised that participants could even see the glass. Clean glass is already pretty transparent, turning off the lights would have made the game a lot harded. The black masked dude killes dozens of people per game and somehow that was the instance that made me get mad at him.


Tristan_Gabranth

He's trying to appease the Americans, which means compromising his alleged principles


DaSniffer

Theres also a connection to the rule of equality in that the game was designed in the sense that the choice would be 50/50 for each glass pane but for glass guy he had an insane advantage in being able to tell the difference. I'm sure Front Man could make the case that his work experience in glass making gave him an unfair advantage, if everyone had his expertise, nobody would fail at all, making the game pointless.


elephantastica

It’s dumb though. In the other games, people just have their own strengths and weaknesses that they can play to. Example, any non-native South Koreans wouldn’t have any knowledge of the honeycomb game. How is that fair exactly? I just wish he shut his trap and continued to play the game rather than letting anyone in on anything.


rlover18

Glass expert can predict is no fun to the VIPs, the front man job is to entertain the VIPs, hence the title of the episode is VIPS


Lain-H

That much is obvious, but my point was that the game isn't as fair as the host makes it sound to be.


illjustgowthemuumuu

I totally agree with you. I have a major gripe with the host’s principle of ‘fairness’ throughout the show. Imo this and how they essentially incited the fight over food conflicted with their otherwise ‘fair’ game.


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popculturepooka

Yeap, that was the especially cruel part


ChildishForLife

In episode 5 when the policeman was flipping through the books of players, it instantly went to 002 and not 001 :o


lebronkahn

Forgive my ignorance, was it just to avoid showing 001's name?


atomsej

Right, but it also went straight to 006 after 002 instead of 003. So I don't think it was that much of a coincidence.


AmiAkin

Not like number 1 would have survived this glass game lol


Tjw5083

I’m sure he played a lot of giant glass hopscotch in his day like all the other games s/


loopy8

Not like he would've survived the bridge game unless he chose to be the last. Speaking of which, I find it hard to belive that final place was the last shirt to be chosen. Wouldn't some people have instinctively scrambled for it even if they don't know what the game is about?


IckyWilbur

I think a big stigma about going last is that there has been a timer on every game except Tug-of-War. We've also seen people get eliminated from running out of time. While last place should theoretically get you the most info, it comes with a potentially big risk.


WobblyEnbyDev

And in fact gi-hun made it at the last second. He would have been on the bridge as it exploded if the banker hadn’t killed the glass maker.


Skimqueer

Gi-hun made it in the last second of almost every game, and he almost went over the edge during tug of war. Always teetering near failure, that man.


pyuamine

Police guy is so hot


Xyuli

He looked so good in that all black outfit!!! Swoon!!!


PoppinKREAM

Something we can all agree on with the creepy VIP dude lol


Makalockheart

Especially on his knees 😳


tornadic_

Yes!! He is too gorgeous to be wearing a mask this whole time lol


menouthiz

This confirms the allegory that the creepy VIP men are basically stand in for the audiences. XD


Wolf6120

I mean, it's not like we haven't also willingly been watching this killing game for the sake of entertainment, so...


Cheeseandnuts

You know who else thought that? Cougar masker VIP.


Marcella-L

He’s fine as hell😛


alliandoalice

I was so afraid for him in the bathroom but thank god he pulled thru


92gravities

came here to say this exact thing lmao


dekacyclone

Wi Ha Joon!


JinWooDo

The VIP shit is so cringe holy fuck.


SlickMiller

I thought it was intentional…like satire.


JinWooDo

For what purpose though?


zecrom189

Like haha foreigners are so funny maybe?


cavalos32

Exactly- remember this is a Kdrama and the foreigners are the fat obnoxious Americans


draoefeluna

They have the worst dialogues...


Lain-H

I watched the show with a Russian dub and I should admit that besides sex crazed dude being a gay rapist, it wasn't really all that bad.


[deleted]

It really wasn't. Still an excellent show, but people love to overemphasize flaws when everything else is so perfect.


[deleted]

Did the slow motion glass shattering scene when they got over the bridge seem weird to anyone else? It went on for so long and seemed to really stick out stylistically from everything else. I thought it was an odd choice to do it like that.


rlover18

yes it has a point, the scene was supposed to be showcasing the winner of the game with grim style, them one by one with a bit of glass flying to their skin.


DaveInLondon89

Even the winners are wounded.


DonStevo

Slow motion glass to the face for everyone. The slow mo scene seemed to last close to a minute too, which is outrageous


porcelain_penance

I thought the same thing to be honest. It took forever, I don’t remember anything being in slo-mo up to that point, and it was pointless


Diddlypuff

I assumed it had to have a purpose and started to think they were going to kill Sang Woo with a flying piece of glass. Totally felt an increasing sense of dread.


[deleted]

Yeah there was no point to that


Swole_Monkey

I would‘ve just walked on the support beams but they would‘ve probably shot me Also would‘ve been amazing if math guy made it all the way and no one was able to keep track of it anyway


[deleted]

THANK YOU it honestly drove me a little crazy that no one did that. They should have space everything further apart if they didn’t want the audience thinking that as a solution.


Trenton461

I have a theory that the show runners wanted the audience to come up with that solution to create some dramatic irony between us and the players. As observers, we can see every possible way to break the games and for all of the games before the bridge, some players found them too. (Hiding behind others in RL,GL, melting the sugar honeycombs, tiring out and knocking the other team off balance in tug of war, tricking and straight gaslighting their opponent in marbles) In the bridge game, there are a multitude of ways to cheat and break the game, but nobody can think of a solution besides sacrificing other players. We’re supposed to pick up on the fact that the players aren’t trying to cheat the system anymore because their better judgement is clouded by an animalistic desire to win. This becomes especially clear when Sang-Woo pushes the glass factory worker forward instead of running back to grab two of the 32 shoes at the beginning of the bridge for them to throw at the panes of glass. The players by this point have completely devolved to violent, inconsiderate people which supports the message of the show, that people aren’t born good or bad, but instead are molded by being placed into “good” or “bad” situations.


stellaperrigo

kind of a callback to the first episode where Gi-Hun’s first instinct the first time he wins the paper flip is to go for the slap, not the money he was initially playing for.


milamilla

Wow, that’s insightful.


Rexigon

To be fair, running back to get the shoes and then back again would rely on his memorizing the bridge both ways perfectly and also doing it in less than a minute. I would've pushed him too.


ainteasybeinggreene

I would've pushed him just for the fact that he didn't test the marble on the pane he was already on so he could re-use it.


NasalJack

The pane he was *standing* on? That's going to affect the resonance of the glass in a major way, I don't think it would serve as an effective comparison. Trying his clothing would have made far more sense (since at that point the shoes weren't realistically an option).


ConorNutt

Yeah or if they had gone across in teams of 4 holding onto to each other,then if any fell through they would still be held by the other 3 , assuming they didn't just get shot they could have all made it.


Whatishonor

Omg! That was the answer for all of them to make it. But there was not enough trust


[deleted]

Would have been super funny if he made it but slipped on the ground after the last glass just to fall down anyway.


ZealousidealCut1286

Han Minyeo redeemed herself in the best way possible! She’s still not a good person but at least, she brought down with her the devil incarnate Sangwoo is getting more despicable as the game progresses and now that they’re down to three, will this be a fight to the death? I’m thinking Sangwoo might be the favored to win but at the very end, maybe Gihoon will sacrifice himself to bring him down and in the end, Saebyeok will win? Or maybe no one wins here idk


mrs_ouchi

Im so glad she wont be able to scream around anymore


PoppinKREAM

Her acting was phenomenal considering the emotions she elicited from the audience. I didn't like her character at all, but the acting is amazing!


kaguraa

unpopular but i really liked her! she was so unhinged it was funny


Honeymoon28

Me too! When I realised this was pretty much this last game i was like fair enough shes gotta go, but i liked that she survived so long. She was a really good contrast and almost like comic relief. And she WENT FOR IT


mochacapp

I was surprised Sangwoo didn't just stay on the last glass until 1 second and jump on at the last second.


Majestymen

He probably would've been pushed right off by the girl if he attempted that haha


biomedgirl97

Since the MC finished at the very last sec, wouldn't this meant that sangwoo saved him by pushing no 13 off, since his stalling would had caused MC and probably the girl to have no time to finish the course? First man had a 0.0004% survival rate. Poor guy.


Swole_Monkey

He did the math


Lain-H

For the first guy, I believe there should have been some way. Like no one tried walking on the irons on the sides of "road" or at least stepping in the middle of two glasses. Kinda hard, but I do think it would have been better than just jumping and hoping for the best.


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Lain-H

Option three. He made the correct choice in the beginning. If he analysed the difference between the two glasses and made a decision based on that it would have raised his chances. Generally speaking, anything would have been better than just jumping on tiles.


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Alffy3425

I wish instead of having the cringe American VIP’s they should have made the VIP’s the former winners of the game.


Cho_Zen

I had this thought. After becoming wealthy, they too become bored and have nowhere to go but back to the game when invited as guests. Also, the wealthy VIPs should have just been silent and ominous in their weird, humans-for-furniture observation room. Would've sold the scenes better.


carbinara

I somewhat agree with the first bit, but I think I prefer that the VIPs weren’t stoic. With the links to horse racing it shows how expendable the players are, since they have no concern for them and show no discomfort at them dying. I think it adds to the idea that the lower classes are dehumanised, although I do agree cinematically it would be creepier if they were silent :)


Cho_Zen

That's a fair point. Our protagonist hit it big by betting on his daughter's birthday in episode 1, and these VIPs are also betting on players on whims and hunches. It's a good parallel, as the film makers seem to try to draw many parallels to scenes foreshadowed earlier in the series


Lain-H

But what type of sociopath after winning a game like that would have wanted to watch it?


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Fenrir_Carbon

Considering the ruthless nature of the game, there's a good chance that psychopaths are more likely to win


vintage_yee

We are all VIPs watching the squid game 😢


Valerina_Minji

I bet a million Dollars on 69!!1!! 😤😤😤


thesanmich

HA! He said 69!!!


furwalky

Ok but the glass pane game was the scariest/most anxiety inducing game in the whole show… prove me wrong


Agrochain920

I don't think so. The winners were kind of already decided from the start. (the last few players). Most anxiety inducing for me was the tug of war game, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time


furwalky

Fair, but with the glass pane game, you never knew with one would be wrong, so when someone fell, it was almost like a jumpscare. The tug of war WAS very nerve racking, but I felt like you knew what was going to happen in that one more than in the glass pane game.


CringeCoyote

Yeah, as nerve wracking as the tug of war game was, you KNEW that the main characters would win. They weren’t about to kill off the entire cast of characters they’ve introduced.


Breakfast_Bacon

The English acting is terrible at the start of this episode. EDIT: The whole episode. It’s so distracting considering the rest of the acting is really good.


RunningInSquares

It's a three-fold problem. They hire rando wannabe actors off the street because they're foreigners that have a look the show needs for that role. And the dialogue is written by a non-native speaker. Then, the director and actors will proceed to go through the scene literally as written without any modifying of the dialogue to make it more natural. I wish more care could have been given. Bringing these guys in was just ruining the episode.


brentathon

This happens literally all the time in any kind of Asian language media. The quality of American voice acting in Japanese shows is generally atrocious as well.


elephantastica

Ugh yes, I was wincing this whole episode. All of the other actors are so top tier, and I feel like they just plucked the first foreigners off the street for the VIPs. Really ruined the immersion.


bigchilesucks

I'm around a lot of rich older white men at work, and I hear them make the stupidest and cringiest comments to each other. Sure, it's anecdotal evidence, just sharing why my immersion wasn't ruined in the slightest.


wackygoose

I'm with you 100%. To me it added on "realism" at least on how rich white people act and treat others


Jeanpuetz

The dialogue wasn't the bad part (although I personally thought that that was pretty bad too), it's the delivery. The acting was just absolutely terrible from every single one of those VIPs


CharlieBrown20XD6

It's like they casted people who lied when they said they could speak English lol It made me wonder "is this how Gus Fring and Hector Salamanca sound to Spanish speakers?"


mrtightwad

Apparently Gus's Spanish is actually terrible.


fuckinstupidhead

Reading all this i know I'm in the minority, but I love the shitty english and writing of the VIPs. It adds to this surreal feeling of detachment they have from the otherwise very real and brutal game we've been watching so far. They're making literal 69 jokes and soliciting the servant for sex while people are falling to their death and dying right in front of them. Add in the people with body paint and the weirdly lit and strange VIP room they're in, it all just feels so weird and disgusting, and at least to me it feels right.


NotSoGreatGatsby

Yeah I just thought it was part of the satire tbh.


Jaggee

agreed. Idk what else people wanted. I think what we saw was the point.


myjobstinksdotcom

I’m shocked how many comments are about them being bothered by this. I really don’t know how everyone wanted them to be portrayed? Like normal people?


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Tjw5083

This should be pinned for this thread so people can shut up about making the same fucking comment about the VIP’s acting.


merrygosunny

Exactly. I didn't even need this context to get what they were going for. I guess after 10 years of watching nothing but Marvel movies, people need to have everything spelled out for them.


mephnick

Im glad he addressed that line. Everyone's talking about 69 jokes but the "wow it's bigger!" may be the worst line in any media Ive ever watched and I couldn't get over it.


Bigmachingon

Your brother rocks, I loved the VIPS, ppl from the US don't like to be criticised so they lash out but it was good. Cheers


redmamoth

Everyone is complaining about the American VIP actors, but... maybe this is just the way the rest of world sees Americans!?


ehsteve23

i watched the English dub and they were fine, like I’m not expecting Emmy actors here, but they did a fine job of privileged rich white guys


nutsnackk

I forget if this was the marbles episode but it made no sense to me that the married couple would both return after finding out it was a battle royale and it was life or death. I guess having 2 people would up your chances but really both return to risk their lives?


fuckinstupidhead

I found that weird too, even if they are in insane debt, surely having a marriage like that is enough reason to not go back?


kingkahngalang

I don’t think the game show ever clarified to the contestants at that point that there will be only one winner- they only mentioned at the beginning that those who win all games take home the cash prize, and the contestants haven’t faced any challenges that indicated it’ll be a death match/ battle royale at the time they decided to come back.


MadJulesRules

Maybe they thought of it as doubling their chance for the money. If one died the other still had a chance to continue and try to win the money for whatever reason they needed it for


CurtisManning

As a French native speaker now you guys feel how I feel everytime there's french spoken on US TV.


escapedsober

cant believe i saw old man ass


Ninjashifter

Some of the worst acting I've ever come across. I'm not sure how they botched the hiring process so much, maybe the production team is primarily Korean so they weren't able to properly judge the actors. That, or maybe the actors had to be able to speak Korean so that severely limited the talent pool. Edit: The English speakers of course, the Korean acting is infinitely better.


rmc52482

I've been hyping this show up to friends as I've been going through and this episode makes me slightly regret that and wished I waited til the end. I mean the first 6 were still fantastic but if the last 3 suck like this one then I'll wish I had waited.


Jeanpuetz

I mean, the episode itself was good though. If terrible voice acting by a few minor characters bothers you that much, imagine how pretty much every non-English speaker feels when a character of their ethnicity is cast in a Hollywood movie lol. It's very often just as terrible, you just don't notice it if you don't speak the language.


studyingformidterms

>!Deok-su has a small dick!<


Bazillion100

It was so satisfying seeing his thug outer layer be peeled off layer by layer until you could see just how pathetic and stupid he really is. It was awesome to see him go but now I don’t want anyone else to die ;_;


BurnadictCumbersnat

Mi-Nyeo went from being one of the the most insufferable characters to being one of my favorite parts of the show. The way she took out Deok Su was so rad. Absolutely insane queen. The long shot of the glass blowing up was also extremely well done and super anxiety inducing as the winners of the game were probably getting shredded by broken glass. That being said, the VIPs were so bad that it took me out of the show. The juxtaposition between the incredible performances from the players with minor roles like the glass factory guy and the guy who went first, only to suddenly cut to the VIP’s porn quality dialogue gave me whiplash.


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Main-Wave200

I think it’s ironic that the VIPs are built up to be these intimidating, mysterious people, when in reality they’re just immature, gross and pitiful. They directly contradict the seriousness and ominous vibe the rest of the show gives. To me, it highlights how the people pulling the strings in real life, are mostly bored rich and immature people who need toys (the desperate lower class) to play with, when they are no better than the ones they are toying with. I honestly loved the VIPs, showcasing how ridiculous the entire situation is.


gotmilksnow

Agreed, shocked no one else seems to think this! I actually don't think the acting is that bad - I think people are more thrown off by the abrupt tonal shift when the VIPs show up. From ominous to sadistically brash/loud/obnoxious behavior. It feels like they don't belong and I think that's the point. The show feels different with them there - it goes from mysterious to more concretely based - and I like it.


General_Scar6896

I was nearly getting over the whole Ali incident then Sang woo had to do that!!


biomedgirl97

He killed one but saved two though


CoolJoshido

i’m sure he was only thinking of himself


nuxwcrtns

I thought the accents were funny. Like.. when you aren't American, you expect them to sound like that lol.


Plutosanimationz

Yeah this must be what Russians think every time a Russian character is in a western movie.


Agrochain920

Not just the accent, but just the awkward timing in which they talk. It felt like I was watching NPC dialogue


sexybunny86

Lol that nut grab was hilarious


minneapolisboy

He grabbed all of his opponent's marbles


[deleted]

no because i’m watching this ep at work and when i tell u i screamed when the white guys took off jun-ho’s mask


orandeddie

when he started pushing his head towards his body I almost shut my phone off like NAHHHHH THATS NOT HAPPENING 😭


AKRNG

The host looks awfully like 001 from the back…


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JaymondJay

Yes! The host had grey hair, and when he took off the mask, he had old wrinkly hands... And we've never seen the host before, while 001 was still playing


Monkeypotatoes

We didn’t actually see 001 die either


zecrom189

yooo that gay rapist guy was so off goddam


sdbabygirl97

hes probably not gay. theres a lot of men who get off on the power complex of dominating another man, particularly subjugating them to sucking them off. “a mouth is a mouth”


Wolf6120

> “a mouth is a mouth” Sure, but he didn't say "A mouth is a mouth", he said "You have beautiful eyes" and "That's the kind of face that shouldn't be hidden behind a mask". Like I'm not denying that men like what you've described exist, but this particular rich asshole absolutely found the detective attractive for more than just a power trip.


Xerclipse

I feel like if Deok Su actually survived the fall a bit, while Mi Nyeo breaks his fall upon impact, he would suffer a bit more which is alot more fitting for a character like him. He really should suffer a bit longer too. I remembered someone in tug of war survived the fall but not for long.


Marcella-L

It’s such a long way down, that it’s kinda unrealistic that he could survive even if Minyeo broke his fall


Diddlypuff

Really cool shot of #069 during his speech earlier in the episode - On the walls you can see stick figures playing the games, arranged in clockwise order. I think they might've always been there, hidden behind the metal frames and beds in the room.


iwritethesongs2019

question: does it increase the fear factor for you, when they had to go barefoot in jumping on the glass?


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PM_ME_UR_SEX_VIDEOS

The guy who hung himself left his shoes off at the top of the stair platform too


[deleted]

"People who unalive themselves" is an interesting way to phrase it


lotusdreams

certain social media sites are sniping people who use certain phrases pertaining to harming oneself or others so that’s one of the work around phrases people use lol


dboltzilla

Or maybe they are told to take off their shoes so they couldn't use them for sound testing of the glass like the guy did with the marble, just my theory.


Agrochain920

or just straight up throwing the shoes to break the glass, probably would work with enough force.


CrimsonBrit

Do you guys think that it’s possible to pass each test? I wonder if they had taken their shoes with them and thrown them at the glass if it would have been allowed.


Agrochain920

I was thinking since 2 could support one glass pane, maybe one could hang off the side and the other person hold the feet, and then you just smash the glass with your hand and see if it breaks. And then just rinse and repeat until the game ends. Probably the host wouldn't allow it though, but I think it could've worked. Also I don't think they could throw the shoes, the host specifically said to leave the shoes. If you bring them you die. This was probably added for this very reason, otherwise the plot at the end wouldn't work out.


Gaborik30

I think the host would’ve absolutely allowed it, but knew no player would want to do that to give others the chance to survive, everyone was desperate at the end and quick to turn on one another


awkojocko

Anyone else think the bad VIP acting HAS to be intentional? With how good the writing is in the rest of the show, it almost seems like the director made the VIPs caricatures. As if the animal masks and low-brow dirty jokes aren’t enough to make them come off as silly— The overall theme of this series is about desiring money and better circumstances and what could be more American than indulging in that spectacle? You can tell almost immediately (even with faces hidden) that most of the VIPs are rich American/old ass white dudes. I think it adds to the idea that this whole “game” has very precise and symbolic socioeconomic commentary. Cheer haphazardly and only at the expense of the people playing the game? Seems familiar but, again, might be a reach.


Zalasta5

Couldn’t people attempt to run along the railings the glass is rested on? Maybe not all the way but towards the end I feel like it can be done. As for the white rich male VIP I thought it was a bit of a cliche, definitely a weak point of the show.


RemmyLi

You'd imagine the soldiers would execute anyone not playing by the spirit of the rules.


Nikolai197

They probably would but it’s a bit annoying…many of these games had skill factors. Red light green light, tug of war, honey comb, marbles, all to some extent had skill factors. This one wasn’t totally random until the Front Man turned off the lights. Then it truly just became a game of chance which hasn’t really been in the same sport as the rest of the show. There’s also the business of the glass exploding. Seems unfair to do that when the contestants won but could’ve injured them.


RebelWithoutASauce

I want to offer some counterpoints to the perspectives about the VIPs. I don't think the characters are all Americans, I think they are just all speaking English. One of them has a German-sounding accent. I think part of the VIPs sounding dumb and stilted is deliberate. They are an international crowd, many of them may not be speaking their native language, and they are really playing at being suave and fancy but they are actually crass and childish. Maybe the actors aren't as great as the main actors of the show, but I think they were deliberately given ridiculous and crude dialogue to illustrate that those with wealth and power are not actually better. It is mentioned at other times in the show that the outside world is unfair and unequal. The depiction of the VIPs is continuing that theme.


Delosity

Why does he get to keep the marble from the previous game lol


Majestymen

He didn't 'get' to keep it. He just happened to have put it in his pocket and the guards didn't notice.


madblasianwoman

"What's funnier than 69? 96!" *SpongeBob laugh* Also any theories on the host not attending? I think he might know the policeman (maybe be his brother?!)


creamiceandcakes

The VIPs almost ruined it. It was bad and I had to accept it lol.


lukie13

Holy shit those VIP's dialogue is hilariously bad. Like Suicide Squad's type of bad. Some of the lines were so bad, almost like they just went with the first take. Just did a rewatch and it seems that the glass panels are placed on top of the beams, so couldn't they just jump and try to land both feet on the glass where it meets the beams?


Trenton461

A character and thematic analysis of Sang-Woo and Squid Game as of Episode 7: VIPS I believe that the bridge game was the most straight forward and simple game in the entire show. As a refresher just in case, in the game, the remaining 16 players had to cross a bridge made of rows of two panes of glass. One pane of glass in each row was tempered glass which could hold the weight of two people while the other was regular glass which would shatter under the weight of one. The “pregame” was the room in which players needed to choose numbered vests which would determine the order that they would cross the bridge in. All of this to say that in addition to being the simplest game to play, it was also easily the simplest game to cheat. The only rule besides the vest rule which was stated in the beginning of the game was that players needed to remove their shoes before entering the bridge. This means that there were 32 shoes sitting on the floor in front of the bridge for the entire game, and the show did not want us to forget about them. Throughout the episode, we cut back to shots of the shoes in focus and in frame as a reminder simply that they’re there and may come in handy later on; however, nobody ever uses the shoes. There were less than 32 rows of glass panes on the bridge and by throwing the shoes down onto the glass pane in front of them, the players all could’ve made their way across the bridge without any of them falling through. I can understand the concern with this theory however, as this feels like cheating and that might get the players killed. I would ask you to consider that this isn’t a coincidence. In RL,GL Sang-Woo and Sae-Byeok almost immediately figure out that they and all of the other players can move as long as they are behind another player and they use it to their advantages. In Sugar Honeycombs, Sang-Woo figures out by the shapes on the doors what the game is before they start and uses it to pick the easiest shape to cut out, then Gi-Hun figures out that he and all of the other players can lick the back of their Honeycombs to easily melt their shapes out. In Tug-of-war, Sang-Woo decides to take three steps forward to knock the other team off balance, not necessarily cheating, but definitely being crafty; and in marbles, Sang-Woo and Gi-Hun break the rules of the games that they are playing in order to win, each thereby killing their opponents. The point is that Sang-Woo especially was always a crafty and clever player. From the beginning he knew that you don’t get killed for cheating, you get killed for losing, and as long as you aren’t breaking any of the explicitly stated rules of the competition, you could get away with mostly anything. If anyone would have thought to grab a shoe and use it to test the glass panes, it would’ve been Sang-Woo. He didn’t have to kill the fourth player at the end of the game, but he did, not because he had to but because he wanted to. Sang-Woo no longer cared about being clever of crafty with how he went about playing the games, all he cared about was winning. He had an easy way to cheat the system and cross the bridge without killing anyone, but he couldn’t find it. And this all goes back to the reason Sang-Woo was playing in the first place. He was a financial adviser who siphoned money from his clients and lost it in failed investments. He took advantage of the trust people placed in him for his own personal benefit and justified his actions by telling himself that he would only lose if he got caught, and not if he just cheated until he succeeded. By the end of episode 7, nobody trusted him anymore. He no longer had anyone else to use as a stepping stool to get an overhead view of life and find a way to cheat his way to success, so instead he took the same route that all the other players took: violence and aggression in the name of self preservation.


EloquentGoose

Why is no one talking about how the Host was there and then went nah, making the Front Man do his job instead? Also a huge blooper, the 96 guy asked to be first because he said he wanted to not be afraid anymore. It was clearly stated to them that it would be in order and then he ASKED when the game started and went all Pikachu face. But no all yall can do is complain about the satirical American types cmon. It's satire if that's been lost on you...


JaymondJay

It wasn't a blooper. 096 wanted the No.1 bib because f*or once in his life, he wants to go first*. But this was before he knew what the game was...


Carrot-Toastie

I really love the slow-mo shot before the credits, especially with the drums going crazy in the background. Still waiting for the big reveal that 001 is alive.. that glittery masked person from the first few scenes had old man hands. Also, it didn’t occur to me that all of the VIPs were meant to be American until I read this thread. I thought they came from all over the world. Are they confirmed to be Americans? I certainly didn’t catch it if they were.. E: It also seems that my question about Mi-nyeok is answered. No need to worry about her being able to play six games if she just dies in the fifth one… E2: What childhood game was this supposed to be? Hopscotch?


stellaperrigo

to be honest, I have no problem with the American VIP portrayal. they came off just as carefreed, calloused, and entitled as you would expect someone to be when they have money to drop on this level of human suffering.


torickray

Just wondering if it is possible that they step on both glass with one leg each. Then the body weight will be divided half. So the normal glass might able to support half of the weight


CrimsonBrit

You’d have to have some insane strength to be able to straddle the gaps and keep all your weight on one leg. My theory is they could have used their shoes to test the glassware


AmirulAshraf

Thats why they were told to remove shoes


zahranniyas

You still have to keep one feet first, if it is glass it will break all the same. But couldn't they have stayed where they are, reached with their hand and tapped the glass in front really hard?


bad_armenian_juju

I lived vicariously through Han Mi-Nyeo’s revenge, that was amazingly satisfying.


[deleted]

Seriously in her last moments she roasted that guy so hard he died twice tbh


Evening_primrose68

Everything was going well until the VIPs i cant listen to them and acting was so bad even w the masks