It should be of no surprise to one that Netflix’s biggest hit series is ‘Squid Game’ after all it was the talk-of-the-town in 2021. With more than 110 million views on Netflix, it is understandable where they amassed most of its popularity from entertainment wise, but… did they focus on what lessons the series was teaching us?
Well, here are a mix of subtle and apparent lessons we learnt from ‘Squid Game’. Firstly, let’s start from the end of the series. Gi-hun longed to meet with his daughter and he was enroute to do so but then all the unnecessary deaths flashed in front of his eyes and hence he decided to suppress his longing and instead take an action for what had happened. This is a subtle lesson that tells us to suppress our desires in order to fulfill our purpose and achieve something.
A character which totally stole our hearts and sympathies in the show was the Pakistani immigrant, Ali who was incredibly kind and trustworthy. His nature to trust others very quickly turned fatal for him when Choo Sang-woo cheated on him. It taught us a very important lesson to trust others but to never forget to verify. If he had verified who held the marbles, he might have just had his life spared.
Another iconic moment of the show is when Gi-hun started licking his Dalgona candy to make it easier to trace out the shape from the rigid block on which their life depended on, literally. These tactics not only helped him make it past that round but also inspired others to do it so easily and faster- thus proving our point that smart work beats hard work.
Be loyal to your own– perhaps the most overlooked lesson nowadays too. When players betrayed each other to win past the round, they usually failed but when they won in that round, they still didn’t gain anything from their actions except a reminder of their acts of betrayal which costed the other person their life. It’s very important to be loyal and not let your greed and momentary needs trample on your virtues and beliefs.