I gotta say, I’m a tad bit disappointed you didn’t mention how he easily accepted the help of the little boy with the claw machine, which shows he judges people of different ages the same, which is later a significant story element with the old man

Gi-Hun's actor is really expressive as well which helps a lot. The face he makes after getting slapped by the recruiter is just so perfect

Honestly, I think one of the saddest deaths in the show was of Gi-Hun’s mother. She died alone and thinking her son didn’t care for her or respect her, that he just went missing and didn’t bother to contact her or help her.

I also like how (spoilers inbound) his kindness ends up saving his skin in the games in very different ways. In the third game, his team only wins because he kept the old man and Sang-Woo in his group even though he had justifiable reasons to sever ties with them - the old man due to his frailty, and Sang-Woo acting suspiciously during the second game. In the fourth game, the old man let him win just because he'd been a good friend and made him enjoy his time. In the fifth game, he grants the other guy's request for the 1st spot, which puts him in the absolute safety of last place. Also, Sae-Byeok helps him with the first step because of how kindly he'd treated her. Obviously, it's not new ground to have a hero who only wins because of the friendships he made along the way, but the unique ways the show manages to manifest that keeps it feeling fresh.

Jay is so happy to finally cover a well-written character, it's like seeing a starving person finally getting something to eat. I'm acutally happy for his mental sanity.

Apparently Gi-Hun's actor ad-libbed giving back the drink after running into her. You can see her turning away while laughing

I think the other important part established here, is that he *does* win at gambling and at the claw game. The entire point of the show is he has to win a death game, so establishing in this first episode that he's not entirely pathetic, that he is capable of winning things and making it big, primes us for later. It makes it much more believable that he could win the Squid Game. If he was a loser schlub the entire episode, we'd be thinking at the back of our minds that there's no way he could realistically win unless the writing bended over backwards for him. Making him win, even if its through luck in one case and getting help in another, means we go into the game knowing he has a shot.

I have to add how incredible the soundtrack was. The main theme had a chilidish, yet deeply disturbing feel to it and the classical songs choices were all great!!

At 4:40 , Ghi Hun picking up the drink and handing it to her was actually improvised by the actor himself (she is even seen laughing) again showing how these actors, even of script could make a seen better

Great video! Another excellent moment from Ep 1 is when Gi-Hun finally wins the slapping game after losing many times in a row. He's been promised money if he wins, but his first instinct is just to slap back. He has to be physically stopped and given the money because he's actually forgotten the ostensible goal of the game! It further shows that Gi-Hun doesn't actually value money as a goal, he just needs it. And foreshadows what he does at the end of the series too.

Steps to make a good character: 1. Find a set of five non-contradictory life values that you'd find in normal people. 2. Order them by the priority that your character would place on them. 3. Write your character consistent with those life values. 4. Dress them up idk lol

This is excellent (spoilers ahead for later episodes my dudes). What I’ll add is, I also noticed a big chunk of his personality is impulsivity and a childishness - he automatically tries to hit Slappin’ Dude back, not thinking of the money. After he knows people are going to die in the game, he still treats he and the others forming a coalition like it’s all a bit of fun (seemingly excited to give everyone roles from an army movie). Just examples off the top of my head. And then you find out he watched a friend get beaten to death, at work, on the day his daughter was born, and it all makes sense. He was clearly a genuinely nice, friendly guy, capable of holding down a steady job and relationship and everything, and then he went through something awful and it just broke him. You see him having flashbacks when they build the barricade, guy’s got some manner of untreated PTSD, and it’s coming out in regression and impulsive behaviours.

“im not going to name any names, even though youre thinking them” made me burst out laughing jay your comedic style is getting even better the more stuff you make and i cant fuckin wait to see what you do next

I feel like this does a great job at introducing the story’s message as well! When Gi-Hun, the poor character, wins what he considers a large sum of money, his first instinct is to share that wealth with other poor people to help them out (even in small ways). We as an audience can later contrast this with the behavior of the villains, who instead chose to hoard their winnings, or even increase them by pitting the poor against each other/making things worse for the vast majority of the less fortunate. Oh-Ilnam claims that being wealthy is boring, but because of Gi-Hun we’ve seen how much joy it brings to the less fortunate (both to have and to share). I think this character introduction is a great way of setting up that message without having to spell it out for the audience.

The characters in squid game were fantastic. I just wish some of the ideas that padded out the story had been cut to make it a more consistent experience. The cop thread was the most contrived storyline possible to give the audience an "inside" perspective of what the game runners were doing. I think the story would've been a lot more fluid if we had simply seen the perspective of the game players until the doctors death, and then had bits and pieces from the perspective of the "game master".

felt like I was just settling in when the video just ends. need more!

As much as I love the videos where you sarcastically rag on things you don’t like, I love hearing you talk about things you really did like, could have happily listened to you sing the many praises this show deserves for at least an hour, but after that masterpiece of a dr who vid i wouldn’t be surprised if you never want to do another long form video again :’) great vid as usual mate, ty

Thanks for doing this, so many people are like "it ain't that good," whereas, in reality, even though it wasn't perfect, it was AMAZING. The things that work REALLY work. Episodes 1 to 6 is some of the best TV I've witnessed in my life.

Imagine having amazing characterization *looks at the majority of modern television and movies*

SPOILERS! I saw the twist ending in episode 1. As people got gunned down everyone froze or panicked and died, only one person continued playing which got others back to playing. And as emotional as episode 6 was, he didn't die on screen, so while I was sad for Gi I wasn't buying it; Alis death got 2 tears for the betrayal.

My god, episode 6 was absolutely phenomenal character writing and it's genuinely upsetting people keep dismissing it because "oh haha it's so tropey haha" It built phenomenally on the foundations that were laid in every episode beforehand. Gi-Hun betraying his own morals for survival was absolutely beautifully done, the acting was phenomenal on every part, and the episode leading to it was amazing. Squid Game isn't perfect, but it's characters and character writing are phenomenal and put most writers in modern tv to shame. but most people just COMPLETELY ignore the characterization of someone just so they could go "wow haha how could he not notice?? haha this guys so stupid" (in ref to episode 6). It's absurdity.

Watching this video I've just actually noticed that when Gi-Hun bumps into Kang Sae-byeok you can actually see his money come out of his inner jacket pocket, from where she cut the hole in the collision and subsequently stole from him. The actual genius that went into the details is damn impressive.

Dang at first I thought this video was gonna be enjoyable but basic and just repeating what everyone's said a million times. But it really surprised me. You have a real skill for analyzing and even greater skill for explaining media and especially the characterization within it. I always look forward to your content. Keep it up!

What? Writing a character’s good qualities, along with their flaws; makes them relatable? Joking aside. Great video, Jay (-1 kick/10)

I think the fact that he gave money to the worker isn't just a "selfless action" I think it's more that he was poor before and didn't have any money, so now when he has it he feels like life won't slap him in the face anymore and he's on top of the world

love that at some point a bullet point is just "hot (fact)". totally agree

Having two Internet explorers is actually great attention to detail. One of them is the Edge Browser that comes with windows, the other is an old IE version that is still used to run old applications that are hard to update onto a new platform, because a lot of critical information is stored there and day to day stuff has to be done through them. A lot of government agencys and big coorporations still use applications you can only start with old IE versions. So its not her dignity at stake here, its the gambling houses IT-Departments dignity.

Jay talks about Gi-Hun obviously loving his daughter, and doesn't even mention that he wins the 4 million won from the horse race by choosing the horses of his daughter's birth month and day.

When the list came out with Hasan at the end I died lmaooooo

The teller lady doesn't have two versions of IE. One is IE and the other is Edge. How can you claim to be a media critic and make such mistakes? /s BTW... there's legacy software with web interface that only works with IE. I know because I use it sometimes. The fact a teller PC has IE probably means this is actually a real work computer.

I saw my father in Gin-Huns actions in the first episode. My father may not have a gambling problem, but when he had money he just throws it away like nothing, spending in the best restaurants, buy in us expensive things, and being as impulsive as Gi-Hun sometimes. (Like giving him money to that lady) Seeing that, made it feel real to me. The caracters felt like real people, with their own goals and motives, not just telling the story of the protagonists.

A really good look at the characterization of Gi-Hun early on. Would really like to see more of Jay's thoughts on other aspects on Squid Game, since I feel a lot of the other characters can also be looked into to understand them so well.

i LOVE how much you focus on character in your videos. so many other channels talk about the plot, hidden details, or allegory/themes, but i havent seen anyone break down gi-hun's character like this when his characterization in that first episode was one of the things that really stood out to me in squid game.

You released this the week after I finished the show, so it’s all good with me :)

I am SO glad you liked this as much as you clearly did! I really enjoyed it too, and I’ve been reading a lot of negative takes that focus on the relative predictability of the plot (“It turns out the man in charge is exactly who you think it is,” one review said) or the fact that the subplot about the cop doesn’t seem to pay off, but I thought that there was so much good characterisation and solid storytelling that those things really don’t matter.

Love your writing analyses. Usually when you are tearing apart some ridiculously bad writing that makes its way into the mainstream. On the other hand, you recognize good writing when you see it and do a fantastic job of breaking it down with a lot of good humor thrown in. I've heard a lot about Squid Game but it was this short analysis that convinced me to give it a chance.

I'd LOVE to see more of this! I love how you disect characters. I'm gonna save this video and take notes on it and ABSOLUTELY use it when I make my own characters! Repetition to show consistency but in different scenarios is brilliant! The character writing really leapt out at me the 1st time I saw this episode and that's why it's my favorite out of all of them!!

Found your channel through your Dr Who critique and it’s great. Thanks for covering this show as well.

Please make more videos about the rest of squid game, this video was great.

I'd love watch you going through the whole show, every episode and every meaningful character in it! No matter if it'd be hours long video, I'd definitely watch it

Damn, I wish you could make more videos on Squid Game and all it's other characters because this was an an awesome in-depth look into Gi-Han I didn't even realise I needed. I know you said on Twitter that this video flopped, but I love hearing about you being positive and exploring why something is well written, it gives me life haha

6:10 Jay you loveable dork. In all seriousness, Squid Game was one of the shows that I felt such a strong connection to its characters I felt I had to keep watching despite feeling absolutely devastated after each episode. Perhaps it's partly because I can see myself in Gi-Hun, but each actor poured their heart and soul into their roles and it had me hooked.

The actors and the direction is just beyond great. It's just amazing and has a pretty good handle on naturalism.

I’ve been wanting to rewatch the show and binge your channel again and omg, this has given me a reason to do both

Jay your outro music is tripy af and I love it. Keep up the fantastic work.

I love this video, I love this show, I love that I watched your other "negative" videos first so this hits home even more, also thanks to the comments for building on the ideas

The ultra rich guys in the show are actually pretty accurate considering billionaires like elon musk and mark zuckerburg’s social awkwardness and garbage personality

Really good analysis :) also your jokes are all so perfectly cut I love your humor and editing style

YESSS NEW JAY VIDEO

Thank you so much for adding subtitles omg. Watching this sent be back on my Squid Game shit and that is very good. Yes.

I know this video hasn't performed super well but finally coming to watch it now has me excited thinking about the show again, and it would be great to see more Squid Game videos!

Really love your take and wholeheartedly agree with the brilliant way the writers introduced Gihoon. Very useful

Really great video. I personally haven't watched the show but this makes me confident in its characters and ideas. Also, a quick suggestion: I really like your Minecraft videos, so how about a video looking at all the past Minecraft April Fools updates? I think that would be a cool look back on Minecraft's past.

you are the only youtuber I like anymore and watch consistently outside of video game news stuff love your content jay never change :D

I didn't even see this come out! Very glad you recommended it through my hero Paulo Rudder!

YES character strength wrecked us all, especially in episode six. It's nice to hear you so happy about something, though I also love your harsher critiques

To be fair, and I know this isn't what your video was about, but I really loved the ending, and how to final twist kind of recontextualised everything that came before. Made it all more meaningful and gut wrenching for me.

New to your channel; here from EFAP. Been binging your content. LOVED the Doctor Who vid. Just sayin’ hello and keep up the great work!

Christmas came early with an old fashioned Jay video and lots of Lee Jung Jae’s face 🎄

Yay an upload from Jay!

Very well-observed; this was such good character writing. I love how little it stops to explain itself, and that goes on through the games--he attaches himself to Sae-Byeok when she's in danger because he has a chance to protect a daughter figure, and to Il-nam because he knows how badly he failed his mother. This doesn't need to be said in the script; it's clear without it. And I think a lot can be inferred about him as well. As a bit of a mirror of Il-nam, he also has retreated to his childhood because he was happier then, but unlike him, that's the beginning of his journey, not the end of it. We can see that he's progressively lost the things that made him feel like an adult--first his job (through no fault of his own) and any sense of power over it when the strike failed and his colleague died, then his marriage (we aren't told why, but given Gi-hun, we can guess that he had started to fall into increasingly reckless behavior), then finally his daughter. And because he's ashamed of these things, he doesn't start to fight back until his ex refers to her new husband as Ga-yeong's father, and that cuts him all the way down. But much of his behavior seems to be driven by shame that he's not who he thinks he should be (which we again see in Gganbu), and maybe even more, because people have stopped _expecting_ him to be an adult. When he gets to the games, and all the outside crap is gone, he very quickly regains his role as both father and son, as Sang-Woo's older brother. He also shows gratitude to Sang-Woo and Ali immediately (part of that generosity of character). And it's interesting that when everyone goes back in "Hell," Gi-hun is the only one of the players to even try to bring it to the police... only to be shamed and humiliated again for his trouble. And his mother's illness reminds him what a bad son he has been, and his ex-wife's behavior reminds him that she doesn't trust him as a father and thinks that somehow, his financial failures have literally negated his parenthood. I love these balances and counterbalances in the character, and as we see him reclaim his adulthood throughout the season, everything he does makes sense.

Great vid as always!

good video, the character writing is very very good. I like your breakdown of Gi-Hun. I don't actually have anything to add I'm just commenting for the algorithm sooo

I literally just finished the series an hour ago, appreciate the timing

never realized how much thought went in to gi-hun's character without it being spelled out for us. a lot of shows would have the character outright say how much he cares about his daughter and his situation, but this show perfectly portrays his motivations and personality without outright telling the audience. this show trusts its viewers and thats what i really like about it

Nice to see your alive and well!

Revisiting this video and omg well done on putting in 2 absolute banger jokes in the first 1 minute

this video needs more views, its a wonderfully brilliant analysis and deserves recognition

My KZfaq glitched and after first 30s it was just showing me a black screen while it kept the audio, and I just thought it was a bold editing choice on your behalf 😆 great vid once I got visual back!

A friend got me to watch squid game and I definitely thank him for that Been a while since I last saw as good characters

I watched the whole Squid game yesterday, so I could watch this video today. Totally worth it, both.

I really really liked Squid Game, even with its shortcomings. Staggering.

Man what an excellent video. You really helped point out some shit id missed. Thanks!

Fantastic work as usual, Jay!

Aaaah! So happy to see you in another video ^///^

The bowl is there to catch the blood Jay, and it’s terrifying that they’re prepared with that.

i do hope we get to see more analysis of squid game from you!

I wasn't prepared for you looking this good when you appeared at 02:20, that one hit different

I just watched this yesterday and now there's a Jay Exci vid on it... The universe was kind to me today

It's admirable that you try to refrain from spoiling episode 6 even though everyone and their grandma has watched the series

great examples with great advice!

Jay exci video

I've been convinced to watch this show in the first five minutes. I'll come back after I finish it

Doing my part to give this vid more engagement as apparently it isn't doing the numbers it deserves. I was also taken back by the wild whiplash from the VIPs and how they acted. I hope you make another video about your problems with that, I have myself turned around on that after reading the stuff from the actors. Them acting mind numbingly dumb, distant, and unrelatable was the point.

I got to 6:22, realised I'm only at episode 5, jumped onto Netflix so I could watch up to episode 6, came back and realised that actually there were no spoilers for episode 6. Great video, but now I just need to talk with someone about all my feelings after watching that episode!

aw man my feels have been activated again god damn you JAY EXCI!!

God I want you to talk about more of Squid Game! I love your takedowns of shitty shows, but hearing you happily gush about this show was really nice!

First episode makes the entire series Stronger. Happy to see good writing getting massive success 👏

Beautiful breakdown👏🏾 you have a sub🍻

Squid Game is such a fucking insanely good six episode series.

I love how the entire video is JUST on the first episode. Would you consider doing a deeper dive into the show?

Great video

It looks like the leftmost IE icon is the one that was used for Edge for a time. I like to imagine the betting shop has some crappy old bet placing system that only works in Internet Explorer, and that's why she has it pinned to the taskbar as well. This would be in keeping with a number of jobs I've worked whose systems will be a mess once MS finally retire IE.

2:50 thanks for that quick reference! XD

Really enjoy hearing your analysis of Gi-Hun. He was a great protagonist.

Great work once again jay. Nice name btw

I'd really recommend watching "Uncut Gems" to anyone else who loved the way that Gi-Hun's character was written. Don't be put off by the main character being played by Adam Sandler, he gives a genuinely Oscar worthy performance, I am not joking!

"I'm not going to name any names, even though you're thinking them" *smashes that like button*

I’m not sure about Korea, but in America, it’s fairly common to tip the dealer on a win, and to tip the banker (person you get tickets etc cashed) on a substantial win. Great vid, I loved squid game.

I came here to like and comment. I'll leave the video running silently in the background but I haven't seen Squid Game yet so I don't want spoilers. I'll come back to watch it properly when I have!