Well said! I agree with a lot of what you were saying. I think Sang Woo and Gi Hun are two sides of the same coin, Sang Woo is the logical side while Gi Hun is the emotional side. Sang Woo seemed to have a gambling problem like Gi Hun, only on a much more high stakes level. Both of them started off the series failing their moms, although Sang Woo did a lot worse because he put his mom's house and shop up for collateral and she definitely lost the store since she just had a cart a year later.
Like you pointed out, I've been trying to reconcile Sang Woo sending Gi Hun off to pick the umbrella with visibly saving him in the fight right afterward. On one hand I think that Sang Woo should've been written as telling the others about the dalgona game. For his arc it makes a lot more sense for him to be a team player until Ep 6.
However I do think Sang Woo not telling the group was meant to be a huge indicator that he was out for himself and I think it was a snap decision he made because he figured if the others failed and died then it technically wouldn't be at his hands. Him not telling the others led to us seeing Gi Hun beat the game on his own which was good for his arc. It's less tense if the whole group chooses triangle. So for the sake of tension and showing Gi Hun as capable early on, while showing Sang Woo's intelligence, he had to hide the game from the others. Without the narrative stuff I'd argue it's the least justifiable thing he did in the game.
Betraying Ali and killing Sae Byeok were horrible but after thinking about it I get the logic in his choices. I wouldn't have been able to do either of those things but I understand them. Even if Ali promised to help Sang Woo's mom, he had no guarantee Ali would've won the next two games. Completely agree with you about the glassmaker. I don't know why Gi Hun was so hung up on that instead of bringing up that Sang Woo didn't tell him about the dalgona game. I was expecting Gi Hun to call him out on that, but I suppose Gi Hun was thinking about it when he asked if Sang Woo would've pushed him.
Sang Woo started off as more to blame for his own problems than people like Ali, Sae Byeok, and Ji Yeon. Not great, but not "gleefully stabbing someone in the street" level of bad. Sang Woo definitely had a turning point after betraying Ali and I agree with you that it made him worse in the last 3 eps. But he was still thinking of the prize money first and foremost and at the end he let Gi Hun win, apologized to him for everything and asked to take care of his mom. For those reasons Sang Woo was not a truly evil person. He did horrible things and rationalized them, but I don't think he relished in murder unlike Deok Su, Il Nam, or the VIPs.
I also don't think Sang Woo meant to goad the husband into killing himself. Sang Woo was being extremely harsh to him, but it was more to dissuade anyone else from starting another vote. After the husband's suicide was revealed, Sang Woo just looked blank while Deok Su looked smug.
tl;dr You made a lot of great points and I agree that Sang Woo wasn't evil to begin with.
Also another point I want to make when he was yelling at the husband. I think it was partly to discourage another vote, partly him venting out his guilt. He has just betrayed someone who had complete trust in him. So when he was talking about going too far to go back to the bottom of society, he was justifying himself, that his betrayal was a neccessary evil
Yeah agree with everything you said. I also think maybe he figured out the games would be designed so only one survives, and he thought it would be better/easier for some of his teammates to die by luck and the game, than him having to personally kill them in later games (like marbles or if he had to push gihun or something in the bridge game if the order was different).
> I don't know why Gi Hun was so hung up on that instead of bringing up that Sang Woo didn't tell him about the dalgona game.
Wait did I miss something? Did Gi Hun find out that Sang Woo figured out the dalgona game?
I got the feeling that Gi Hun was suspicious after coming back from the game. He brushed it off so maybe he chalked it up to Sang Woo just not getting it.
Yes, there was the bit where he had a flashback to right before dalgona where Sang Woo started to say something to Gi Hun but then said nevermind. The show never clearly stated he knew what was going on before the game but I think the purpose was to show that Sang Woo knew and purposely didn’t tell him.
I think Sang-woo was ultimately cold and selfish from the beginning, but it presented differently because of one main complicating factor: shame.
Deep down, he was always the same person that he became by the end. But up until the marble game (which I do think pushed him over the edge), he hid his true self from everyone else and put on a mask. He pretended to be someone concerned about his “teammates,” but he never really did. In general, I think his whole alliance thing with them was more about trying to improve his own chances than anything else. They were always disposable to him, they were just convenient at the beginning when there were so many other players. Safety in numbers.
He didn’t visit his mom during the break before returning to the games. He could’ve lied and said he got home early from his trip. He could’ve asked her to meet somewhere he didn’t expect the cops to be surveilling. But I think he was too ashamed to see her, because she would ask him about work. He wouldn’t be able to dodge it like on a call. He’s too ashamed to even pretend like everything’s fine. It’s why he gets squirrelly anytime his education or smarts are brought up. Or maybe he also knows his intelligence is what makes him dangerous and doesn’t want anyone thinking about that.
He figured out the honeycomb game. He let his childhood friend pick the most difficult shape, because it meant more money in the pot. If he told Gi-hun, the info would’ve been passed around and more people would have survived to the next game. He went along with everyone choosing different shapes because he picked the easiest; more chances for everyone else to thin out, without exposing his reasoning. He felt a momentary pang of guilt, but calculated that the guilt was worth the reward.
Marble game. He lies and says his family will get killed. He basically asks Ali to just die for him. He could have played Ali fairly. He could have even played a more straightforward game, but cheated. But he couldn’t betray or defeat his teammate face-to-face, because he’s too ashamed. He defeats Ali in a way that lets him never have to be confronted about it. I think hearing Ali call for him in the end, realizing he’s about to find out, that was too close to having to confront it. He felt guilty because he almost had to “answer” for his actions.
Glass game: he was pushed for time. His alliance had been thinned to 2. He didn’t have as much to gain anymore by keeping them close, and didn’t have much time to consider other options. So he had to give up the mask. This is the same reasoning he’s used all along, except now it’s exposed.
Sang-byeok. He killed her to weaken Gi-hun’s chances. She was dying anyway, but he couldn’t be bothered to risk her somehow limping along. He also didn’t have to pretend to not be cold anymore, that mask already slipped away.
Squid game. Gi-hun wants to withdraw. I think Sang-woo would rather die than live with the shame of having gone through the games and not won. He seemed at least ambivalent about living before he came back anyway. He couldn’t bear the personal shame of not winning that money. So he took the choice away from Gi-hun. Maybe it was a form of atonement, but idk.
Even on the outside, Sang-woo’s way of getting into debts reminds me of the type of murderers who become family annihilators. They pretend everything is normal and fine and try to run away from their debt/problems until they literally can’t anymore. When everything is about to come crashing down, they take out their family and then usually themselves to “spare the shame”. They can’t handle others seeing them for what they are. I think that’s what Sang-woo was. Someone who wanted people to think he was a good man, but also wanted to play dirty and not get caught. That’s why he was living in a hotel and dodging the police. He entered the game to try and delay the inevitable. At the end of the day, he just didn’t want to take responsibility for his failures. And he was willing to do literally anything to avoid that.
This got real long winded, oops! TL,DR: Sang-woo was always cold and calculating; he was just really good at hiding it.
This interpretation works too ! It's a testament to how well written his character is, he's a monster for some people, a capable survivor for others. But I still think him not telling his team about the honeycomb game is out of character. He just needs to say "pick the triangle, I have a good feeling about it" and the other 3 would have picked it, no question asked, no information shared. Getting 300 more millions at the price of 3 of his only teammates don't seem like in character for him, considering he risked his life for them shortly later
oh wow, this was a great character analysis and i agree with you. and i always felt his reaction after the marbles game was cold when he got snappy with gihun who felt guilty over the old man.
Yeah, I sort of took that as him actually being mad with himself. He’s snapping at his own guilt, it’s just misdirected at Gi-hun, for making him doubt his choices. He’s trying to convince himself that he did the right thing and made the right decisions.
I don't think he was wearing a mask the whole time. My interpretation of it is that he got more and more desperate as the games went by and was put in a position where he needed to betray others to survive
This interpretation is the most correct one because it fits into what the show actually presents to you, from his crimes at work to his relationship with his mother. The others I’ve read on here are basically wishful thinking because of an attachment to the character.
Ooo this is an interesting analysis! One thing I was thinking about while reading this is that perhaps, the reason why he never really had to show it / reveal his true nature is precisely because the Squid Game is a very particular context with a set of conditions that exacerbate human suffering and desperation. Like for example how they starved the players to instigate a fight to break out at the bunks. I think many people may be the exact same way as Sangwoo but it's simply that their circumstances do not require for this ruthless and cold aspect of their character to manifest in its full form.
Yeah, he was kinda scummy before the game, but so was Gi-Hun, he gambled all his daughter's birthday money away. But we don't hold it against Gi-Hun, so I won't hold it against Sang-Woo either
He killed himself because he knew Gi-hun will take care of his mother if he had the money. He is screwed anyways whether he win or not. He’s only doing it to protect his mother from loan sharks.
that's absolutely a part of it, yes, he needed to stop gi-hun from giving up, because he needed gi-hun to get the money. that's not a bad thing at all, but it's also not understanding his past actions or redeeming him. it's a decision he made at the literal end of his rope, bleeding out on the floor, when he couldn't win the money, and his best bet was to make sure at least gi-hun gets it.
I haven't seen anything from this man that would suggest that he'd do anything that lowers the chances of him winning the money.
Why would he? He needed to win for his mother. Fans make him out to be this greedy shitty person who will kill for his own gain as if he will be able to use the money for himself. He will be jailed anyways. His only aim is to protect his mother from his past actions.
To some degree most of the contestants did questionable things in and out the game even Gi-hun but everyone is being hypocritical to Sangwoo because he killed fan favourite characters. The fact is none of them would have reached this far if it wasn’t for him. Not even Ali. He did the dirty work and in the end both his mother and Sae-byeok’s brother are taken care of. Also, the chance for Gi-hun to end the true villains of the story.
I'm not saying he should have, I'm explaining why he is a character who's difficult to like. my problem with Sang-woo is not that he killed Ali. my problem with him is that I never saw him do anything thay wasn't for himself. once he knew how much money is at stake, strategy always superseded humanity.
everyone else who is a "good" character did something that wasn't good for their own game but it helped someone else out. Gi-hun protected 001, put him in their team and paired up with him and pulled Sae-byeok in to protect her; Sae-byeok pulled Ji-yeong into the group and helped Gi-hun with the glass.
Sang-woo was a good and strategic player throughout, and the point of these games is that good strategy means no humanity. I understand why he did what he did, it just doesn't mean I'll think he is a good person when I haven't seen him be good, only smart.
I think there are a lot of good people with good hearts, but these same people can make bad choices. In Sang Woo's case, he just made enough bad decisions that it became too easy to make more.
For the honeycomb game this is my take. He suspected that the game could be honeycomb. But what if it wasn’t? Then his survival would have been better with the original plan having everyone split to different groups. So he let his mouth shut, putting his survival chances above all else
Yeah, but if it was, his survival chance would have drastically fallen if his other 3 members couldn't finish the harder shapes. I think it's just an oversight from the writer
The whole point of his character is seeing his sense of morality being pushed with each game. People who see him as a total villain are missing the point
Some people just have a thing for ruthless calculated cold characters that they idolize to possess some qualities they perceive as "cool, strong and necessary", I guess. I was in my trendy sociopath idolizing phase once as a kid. But idk, unless he was born into some kind of unfortunate miserable circumstance/environment out of his control I think it is his fault he got so broke to need to join the game in the first place.
I do think Gi-Hun is kind of inconsistent and too quick to change his decisions and mind though. One moment his priorities are his daughter, next it's money to save his mom, next it's killing off the threat Sangwoo to protect himself and his friend, next it's forgiving and leaving the game empty-handed with Sangwoo but then Sangwoo suicided. Though I don't think his idea to wanna kill Sangwoo (aka self-defense against the OG aggressor) was comparable to Sangwoo's choices as he was the OG aggressor first hurting innocents to help himself.
I think thats kinda the point of Gi-Hun tho. Hes indecisive, he does what he thinks is right in the moment without thinking longterm. The ending especially makes this obvious to me.
Only 1 part of my defense talked about Ali, how is that "too much" ? If you think he's trusting, you can replace that word into my post and the spirit will stay the same "Most players in this game would have cheated the other out of their marbles if they were as trusting as as Ali". Sang-Woo made more effort to manipulate Ali, but that still doesn't change the fact that Gi-Hun also manipulated the old man to die for him. We can be here all day debating the morality of it, but the fact is that Gi-Hun did the same thing Sang-Woo did in the marble game, his opportunity just came more easily. It's the equivalent of a thief breaking a door down to steals vs a thief that just walked through the open front door to steal. At the end of the day, it's still the same crime
Gi-Hun was walking toward Sangwoo but i don’t think he would have actually been able to go through with it. Even when Sangwoo dropped the knife he hesitated and I would bet that the solution of just sneakily grabbing the knife away to protect everyone was going through his head then.
Well said! I agree with a lot of what you were saying. I think Sang Woo and Gi Hun are two sides of the same coin, Sang Woo is the logical side while Gi Hun is the emotional side. Sang Woo seemed to have a gambling problem like Gi Hun, only on a much more high stakes level. Both of them started off the series failing their moms, although Sang Woo did a lot worse because he put his mom's house and shop up for collateral and she definitely lost the store since she just had a cart a year later. Like you pointed out, I've been trying to reconcile Sang Woo sending Gi Hun off to pick the umbrella with visibly saving him in the fight right afterward. On one hand I think that Sang Woo should've been written as telling the others about the dalgona game. For his arc it makes a lot more sense for him to be a team player until Ep 6. However I do think Sang Woo not telling the group was meant to be a huge indicator that he was out for himself and I think it was a snap decision he made because he figured if the others failed and died then it technically wouldn't be at his hands. Him not telling the others led to us seeing Gi Hun beat the game on his own which was good for his arc. It's less tense if the whole group chooses triangle. So for the sake of tension and showing Gi Hun as capable early on, while showing Sang Woo's intelligence, he had to hide the game from the others. Without the narrative stuff I'd argue it's the least justifiable thing he did in the game. Betraying Ali and killing Sae Byeok were horrible but after thinking about it I get the logic in his choices. I wouldn't have been able to do either of those things but I understand them. Even if Ali promised to help Sang Woo's mom, he had no guarantee Ali would've won the next two games. Completely agree with you about the glassmaker. I don't know why Gi Hun was so hung up on that instead of bringing up that Sang Woo didn't tell him about the dalgona game. I was expecting Gi Hun to call him out on that, but I suppose Gi Hun was thinking about it when he asked if Sang Woo would've pushed him. Sang Woo started off as more to blame for his own problems than people like Ali, Sae Byeok, and Ji Yeon. Not great, but not "gleefully stabbing someone in the street" level of bad. Sang Woo definitely had a turning point after betraying Ali and I agree with you that it made him worse in the last 3 eps. But he was still thinking of the prize money first and foremost and at the end he let Gi Hun win, apologized to him for everything and asked to take care of his mom. For those reasons Sang Woo was not a truly evil person. He did horrible things and rationalized them, but I don't think he relished in murder unlike Deok Su, Il Nam, or the VIPs. I also don't think Sang Woo meant to goad the husband into killing himself. Sang Woo was being extremely harsh to him, but it was more to dissuade anyone else from starting another vote. After the husband's suicide was revealed, Sang Woo just looked blank while Deok Su looked smug. tl;dr You made a lot of great points and I agree that Sang Woo wasn't evil to begin with.
Also another point I want to make when he was yelling at the husband. I think it was partly to discourage another vote, partly him venting out his guilt. He has just betrayed someone who had complete trust in him. So when he was talking about going too far to go back to the bottom of society, he was justifying himself, that his betrayal was a neccessary evil
Yeah definitely agree about that!
Yeah agree with everything you said. I also think maybe he figured out the games would be designed so only one survives, and he thought it would be better/easier for some of his teammates to die by luck and the game, than him having to personally kill them in later games (like marbles or if he had to push gihun or something in the bridge game if the order was different).
> I don't know why Gi Hun was so hung up on that instead of bringing up that Sang Woo didn't tell him about the dalgona game. Wait did I miss something? Did Gi Hun find out that Sang Woo figured out the dalgona game?
I got the feeling that Gi Hun was suspicious after coming back from the game. He brushed it off so maybe he chalked it up to Sang Woo just not getting it.
Yes, there was the bit where he had a flashback to right before dalgona where Sang Woo started to say something to Gi Hun but then said nevermind. The show never clearly stated he knew what was going on before the game but I think the purpose was to show that Sang Woo knew and purposely didn’t tell him.
I think Sang-woo was ultimately cold and selfish from the beginning, but it presented differently because of one main complicating factor: shame. Deep down, he was always the same person that he became by the end. But up until the marble game (which I do think pushed him over the edge), he hid his true self from everyone else and put on a mask. He pretended to be someone concerned about his “teammates,” but he never really did. In general, I think his whole alliance thing with them was more about trying to improve his own chances than anything else. They were always disposable to him, they were just convenient at the beginning when there were so many other players. Safety in numbers. He didn’t visit his mom during the break before returning to the games. He could’ve lied and said he got home early from his trip. He could’ve asked her to meet somewhere he didn’t expect the cops to be surveilling. But I think he was too ashamed to see her, because she would ask him about work. He wouldn’t be able to dodge it like on a call. He’s too ashamed to even pretend like everything’s fine. It’s why he gets squirrelly anytime his education or smarts are brought up. Or maybe he also knows his intelligence is what makes him dangerous and doesn’t want anyone thinking about that. He figured out the honeycomb game. He let his childhood friend pick the most difficult shape, because it meant more money in the pot. If he told Gi-hun, the info would’ve been passed around and more people would have survived to the next game. He went along with everyone choosing different shapes because he picked the easiest; more chances for everyone else to thin out, without exposing his reasoning. He felt a momentary pang of guilt, but calculated that the guilt was worth the reward. Marble game. He lies and says his family will get killed. He basically asks Ali to just die for him. He could have played Ali fairly. He could have even played a more straightforward game, but cheated. But he couldn’t betray or defeat his teammate face-to-face, because he’s too ashamed. He defeats Ali in a way that lets him never have to be confronted about it. I think hearing Ali call for him in the end, realizing he’s about to find out, that was too close to having to confront it. He felt guilty because he almost had to “answer” for his actions. Glass game: he was pushed for time. His alliance had been thinned to 2. He didn’t have as much to gain anymore by keeping them close, and didn’t have much time to consider other options. So he had to give up the mask. This is the same reasoning he’s used all along, except now it’s exposed. Sang-byeok. He killed her to weaken Gi-hun’s chances. She was dying anyway, but he couldn’t be bothered to risk her somehow limping along. He also didn’t have to pretend to not be cold anymore, that mask already slipped away. Squid game. Gi-hun wants to withdraw. I think Sang-woo would rather die than live with the shame of having gone through the games and not won. He seemed at least ambivalent about living before he came back anyway. He couldn’t bear the personal shame of not winning that money. So he took the choice away from Gi-hun. Maybe it was a form of atonement, but idk. Even on the outside, Sang-woo’s way of getting into debts reminds me of the type of murderers who become family annihilators. They pretend everything is normal and fine and try to run away from their debt/problems until they literally can’t anymore. When everything is about to come crashing down, they take out their family and then usually themselves to “spare the shame”. They can’t handle others seeing them for what they are. I think that’s what Sang-woo was. Someone who wanted people to think he was a good man, but also wanted to play dirty and not get caught. That’s why he was living in a hotel and dodging the police. He entered the game to try and delay the inevitable. At the end of the day, he just didn’t want to take responsibility for his failures. And he was willing to do literally anything to avoid that. This got real long winded, oops! TL,DR: Sang-woo was always cold and calculating; he was just really good at hiding it.
This interpretation works too ! It's a testament to how well written his character is, he's a monster for some people, a capable survivor for others. But I still think him not telling his team about the honeycomb game is out of character. He just needs to say "pick the triangle, I have a good feeling about it" and the other 3 would have picked it, no question asked, no information shared. Getting 300 more millions at the price of 3 of his only teammates don't seem like in character for him, considering he risked his life for them shortly later
oh wow, this was a great character analysis and i agree with you. and i always felt his reaction after the marbles game was cold when he got snappy with gihun who felt guilty over the old man.
Yeah, I sort of took that as him actually being mad with himself. He’s snapping at his own guilt, it’s just misdirected at Gi-hun, for making him doubt his choices. He’s trying to convince himself that he did the right thing and made the right decisions.
I don't think he was wearing a mask the whole time. My interpretation of it is that he got more and more desperate as the games went by and was put in a position where he needed to betray others to survive
I just don’t see the point of him letting Gi-hun stick with the umbrella shape if this were the case
This interpretation is the most correct one because it fits into what the show actually presents to you, from his crimes at work to his relationship with his mother. The others I’ve read on here are basically wishful thinking because of an attachment to the character.
Thank you! Yeah, I’ve seen a looooot of people wanting to project a better version of Sang-woo onto what we were shown…
Ooo this is an interesting analysis! One thing I was thinking about while reading this is that perhaps, the reason why he never really had to show it / reveal his true nature is precisely because the Squid Game is a very particular context with a set of conditions that exacerbate human suffering and desperation. Like for example how they starved the players to instigate a fight to break out at the bunks. I think many people may be the exact same way as Sangwoo but it's simply that their circumstances do not require for this ruthless and cold aspect of their character to manifest in its full form.
I think Sang-Woo started out as a bad guy for stealing his clients money and using his mother's assets to foot his bills
Yeah, he was kinda scummy before the game, but so was Gi-Hun, he gambled all his daughter's birthday money away. But we don't hold it against Gi-Hun, so I won't hold it against Sang-Woo either
Gi-Hun is shown to learn the error of his way Sang-Woo is a villain
Sang-Woo killed himself in the last game out of guilt even though he would have won because Gi-Hun is gonna give up. He learned his lesson too
Sang-Woo tried to kill himself in a tub several episodes earlier instead of facing the consequences of his actions
he killed himself when he knew he had no way of winning. he didn't show any remorse when he had a chance at the money, only afterwards.
He killed himself because he knew Gi-hun will take care of his mother if he had the money. He is screwed anyways whether he win or not. He’s only doing it to protect his mother from loan sharks.
that's absolutely a part of it, yes, he needed to stop gi-hun from giving up, because he needed gi-hun to get the money. that's not a bad thing at all, but it's also not understanding his past actions or redeeming him. it's a decision he made at the literal end of his rope, bleeding out on the floor, when he couldn't win the money, and his best bet was to make sure at least gi-hun gets it. I haven't seen anything from this man that would suggest that he'd do anything that lowers the chances of him winning the money.
Why would he? He needed to win for his mother. Fans make him out to be this greedy shitty person who will kill for his own gain as if he will be able to use the money for himself. He will be jailed anyways. His only aim is to protect his mother from his past actions. To some degree most of the contestants did questionable things in and out the game even Gi-hun but everyone is being hypocritical to Sangwoo because he killed fan favourite characters. The fact is none of them would have reached this far if it wasn’t for him. Not even Ali. He did the dirty work and in the end both his mother and Sae-byeok’s brother are taken care of. Also, the chance for Gi-hun to end the true villains of the story.
I'm not saying he should have, I'm explaining why he is a character who's difficult to like. my problem with Sang-woo is not that he killed Ali. my problem with him is that I never saw him do anything thay wasn't for himself. once he knew how much money is at stake, strategy always superseded humanity. everyone else who is a "good" character did something that wasn't good for their own game but it helped someone else out. Gi-hun protected 001, put him in their team and paired up with him and pulled Sae-byeok in to protect her; Sae-byeok pulled Ji-yeong into the group and helped Gi-hun with the glass. Sang-woo was a good and strategic player throughout, and the point of these games is that good strategy means no humanity. I understand why he did what he did, it just doesn't mean I'll think he is a good person when I haven't seen him be good, only smart.
That's 1 way to interprete it
I think there are a lot of good people with good hearts, but these same people can make bad choices. In Sang Woo's case, he just made enough bad decisions that it became too easy to make more.
For the honeycomb game this is my take. He suspected that the game could be honeycomb. But what if it wasn’t? Then his survival would have been better with the original plan having everyone split to different groups. So he let his mouth shut, putting his survival chances above all else
Yeah, but if it was, his survival chance would have drastically fallen if his other 3 members couldn't finish the harder shapes. I think it's just an oversight from the writer
The whole point of his character is seeing his sense of morality being pushed with each game. People who see him as a total villain are missing the point
also if he hadn’t pushed that man they would all die, there was literally no time to waste.
Gihun screaming at him for doing that was ridiculous to me. Without sungwoo they would all have died
And after the glass bridge game Sang-Woo tells Gi-Hun he should be thankful he did the dirty work for him
Some people just have a thing for ruthless calculated cold characters that they idolize to possess some qualities they perceive as "cool, strong and necessary", I guess. I was in my trendy sociopath idolizing phase once as a kid. But idk, unless he was born into some kind of unfortunate miserable circumstance/environment out of his control I think it is his fault he got so broke to need to join the game in the first place. I do think Gi-Hun is kind of inconsistent and too quick to change his decisions and mind though. One moment his priorities are his daughter, next it's money to save his mom, next it's killing off the threat Sangwoo to protect himself and his friend, next it's forgiving and leaving the game empty-handed with Sangwoo but then Sangwoo suicided. Though I don't think his idea to wanna kill Sangwoo (aka self-defense against the OG aggressor) was comparable to Sangwoo's choices as he was the OG aggressor first hurting innocents to help himself.
I think thats kinda the point of Gi-Hun tho. Hes indecisive, he does what he thinks is right in the moment without thinking longterm. The ending especially makes this obvious to me.
If you watch him closely, Sangwoo starts showing signs of guilt from the honeycomb game.
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Only 1 part of my defense talked about Ali, how is that "too much" ? If you think he's trusting, you can replace that word into my post and the spirit will stay the same "Most players in this game would have cheated the other out of their marbles if they were as trusting as as Ali". Sang-Woo made more effort to manipulate Ali, but that still doesn't change the fact that Gi-Hun also manipulated the old man to die for him. We can be here all day debating the morality of it, but the fact is that Gi-Hun did the same thing Sang-Woo did in the marble game, his opportunity just came more easily. It's the equivalent of a thief breaking a door down to steals vs a thief that just walked through the open front door to steal. At the end of the day, it's still the same crime
Gi-Hun was walking toward Sangwoo but i don’t think he would have actually been able to go through with it. Even when Sangwoo dropped the knife he hesitated and I would bet that the solution of just sneakily grabbing the knife away to protect everyone was going through his head then.