Man I Love When A Character Turns Into A Wound That Time Refuses To Heal

I did an overview on s2, and it's so painfully awkward how 'Young-Il' inserted himself over and over again to Gi-Hun.

All his actions are premeditated to gain his trust, emotionally attaching him and break him from within.

To highlight some of these interactions:

He is completely inappropriate with his comments, laughing it off, "oblivious" to the implications of his comments. Happily telling Gi-Hun "I voted to stay because of you," then taunting him with the trauma he faced when playing Dalgona, asking him why he came back, telling him that they were not responsible for the blood money and how he was "right" for choosing to continue the games.

Then, at night, he gave him a story to make Gi-Hun empathize with him, how he was desperate to save his wife and kid, willing to gain a bigger prize, even when it was at the cost of other people's life. He hit a familiar string as he remembered how desperate Gi-Hun himself and others were. Achieving Gi-Hun to have a nightmare at the thought there were people just like him relying on him, to later reinforce that as he tells him, "I still believe in you," and "we have a winner on our side."

BTW, he took advantage of the fight between Thanos and Myung-gi to have the interaction about his "motives." He needed to have a "morally good" presentation even after being completely cynical to the fact he sentenced more people to die for him to gain more money. So, he patronized Thanos, treating him like if he was a kid, and obviously Thanos is going to reciprocate the energy. Giving him the perfect excuse to "demostrate his vulnerable side" by beating Thanos under the premises that "he offended him."

It also comes to mind how, during mingle, he abandoned the group to cause distress to Gi-Hun. Keep in mind that he would have the same distress if he couldn't ensure the safety of everyone else in the group, and even those who weren't.

You get the gist of it? Making Gi-Hun feel strong emotions; anger, uncertainty, shame, fear, and worry, to then reward him with praise, relief, companionship, reliance.

After all of that, the only thing he achieved was Gi-Hun seeing him the same way he saw the others in the group. He certainly worried and cared about him, but to the same level he did with Dae-Ho, Jun-Hee, Hyun-Ju, Yong-Sik, Geum-Ja, and everyone else there.

At the end, contrary to In-ho's plan, he chose to go alone with Jung-Bae, because he is his friend.

Even after all he did, Gi-Hun didn't see him as his biggest priority. And I'm sure that devastated his ego.

last night i annotated sang-woo’s apartment (for fic purposes, but there’s some funny ones on there)

i swear @player016 did smth similar so this is lowkey inspired by them 🙏 (sorry for the tag)

tap/zoom for clearer image! also sorry if my handwriting is atrocious 😭😭

vanish into you author here (but u already know that cleave LOL)

i’m thinking about how hair is known to be one of the mediums ghosts are able to easily manipulate in ghosts folklore (at least from what i’ve read)

hehe. hehehehehehhehehehehehe

izzy. izzy, what are you planning. i'm scared.

my initial thoughts:

mi-nyeo's hair getting even longer. like to-the-floor long.

ji-yeong's highlights glowing at night/in the dark.

deok-su steals picks up a hairband from one of the other dead players. just because i want to see his hair up again.

sang-woo's bangs getting longer when he's agitated (like whenever he sees in-ho or something) .

ali's hair getting fluffier or curlier when he's upset.

Fem!Sangwoo sketches for you guys!!! Eat up!

do you think whitaker had someone close to him seriously ill or suffered a fatal accident and he couldn't save them due to the hospital being too far away in broken bow. do you think he held them in their last moments and that's why he took mr. milton's death so hard. do you think when he calls home he always feels so so guilty after because they need to work harder in his absence and he knows he's practically homeless but he's supposed to be "living it up in the big city" like one of his older brothers said. do you think living far distance from his family makes him anxious as hell because what if something happens and hes not there??? do you think when he closed his eyes at night on that rickety cot up in that empty hospital wing he tucked that raggedy blanket as close as possible to remind him of home, curled up by the fireplace and listening to the nightlife and rustle of the fields. do you think he sits outside in the park and just *listens* so he can pretend he's back in broken bow playing in the sun, roughhousing with his brothers. do you think he felt lonely when they slowly pulled away from him once they had to do more work on the farm. do you

i feel like whitaker just… doesn’t yell. like he can obviously yell when he’s scared or it’s like necessary but he just doesn’t really raise his voice. if he’s frustrated he just grits his teeth, sighs through his nose, and carries on.

santos — because she is the way she is (and i love her for it) — keeps trying to get him to break. it unnerves her how he just doesn’t seem to get mad at her. oh he definitely gets annoyed and exhausted, but he doesn’t raise his voice. when she won’t stop kicking him in the ass when he’s fixing the clogged sink drain he just… lets her do it. if she’s being lazy and wants some ice cream from the freezer but doesn’t want to get up she only has to whine for a few minutes before he groans and gets it for her.

she’s trying to see his boundaries. to see how far she can push until he proves that he’s just like every other man she’s met and the fact that he won’t fold irks the shit out of her. idk i don’t think they’d ever really talk about it, but whitaker is a smart cookie and would probably figure out what she’s trying to do a few months in. he’d probably casually drop that his older brothers yelled at him all the time and then his poor mom would yell herself hoarse trying to get them to quit and oh here comes his dad yelling for everyone to shut the hell up. so he’s just always been quiet. quiet little dennis who once walked on a broken ankle for a few days because he didn’t wanna bother anyone.

and santos learns to live with that. to live comfortably with a guy who won’t scream at her or hurt her even when he gets mad at her. she learns to relax. to stop waiting for the other shoe to drop.

my update on how absurdly detailed the betting board is goes as robby voted disgruntled ex emt (obvious). langdon voted meth head (obvious). santos voted chop shop (illegally broken down and sold for parts reminiscent of her SA). langdon crash out. santos tried catching him out. robby caught him. all of them voting out. santos/robby wanting him out. robby/langdon dealing with it outside the hospital. whatever.