Squid Game Season 3's Deadliest Game Makes Season 1's Marbles Look Like Actual Child's Play

Warning: This article includes SPOILERS for Squid Game season 3!

Netflix’s Squid Game season 3 ups the ante by including a game so deadly that it makes season 1’s marbles look like actual child’s play. Four years after its debut, Squid Game’s final (and most divisive) season has released on Netflix, bringing the story to a close. Even though the fan reaction to Squid Game season 3 has been extremely mixed, it’s unarguable that the games are just as violent and twisted as the past ones.

As expected, the remaining players and Gi-hun were forced to play the games again, leading to plenty more deaths. As such, the question arose as to which games the players would compete in. Fans predicted they would play human chess or monkey bars because of the drawings on the walls of the dorms. However, the contestants ended up playing an equally deadly game called Swords and Keys, which made season 1’s marbles look like child’s play.

Hide-And-Seek Was Squid Game Season 3’s Version Of Season 1’s Marbles

Both Cames Had A More Personal Approach & A High Death Toll

Technically speaking, the most deadly game of Squid Game season 1 was Red Light Green Light, which took out 255 players. However, marbles resulted in a high rate of deaths while also packing an emotional punch. During marbles, half of the characters are eliminated in a much more personal way. Rather than each individual competing against themselves, the players were directly responsible for another person’s life or death in the marbles game. Squid Game season 3 gave the show an updated version of this with Knives and Keys, the hide-and-seek game.

Gi-hun looking down and defeated in Squid Game season 3 episode 1

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Theoretically, at least half of the players would be wiped out. If the players with knives kill someone, they live. If they fail to kill someone, they die. Each player is ultimately responsible for the life or death of another. It’s an effective way to quickly decrease the number of individuals still alive in the games in one fell swoop.

Major Deaths In Hide-And-Seek
Park Mi-hwa
Cho Hyun-ju
Seon-nyeo
Kang Dae-ho
Park Yong-sik

However, Myung-gi and Nam-gyu found a workaround that would actually lead to more than a 50% death rate, making it even more interesting than marbles. Ultimately, because of the high death rate and the more personal aspect of the game, Knives and Keys is much more similar to marbles than it is to Red Light Green Light.

I Wasn’t Ready To Lose So Many Squid Game Characters At Once At The Start Of Season 3

Squid Game Season 3 Didn’t Ramp Up To The Most Violent Game

While I expected the show to find a way to kill off a bunch of characters at once, I wasn’t prepared for that to take place during the very first game in Squid Game season 3. Marbles arrived halfway through the first season, allowing the audience to experience a build-up before the absolutely physical and emotional carnage hit its hardest. Based on that, the Marbles-like game should have taken place halfway through the season. Unfortunately, that just wasn’t feasible because of the way they structured the 37th Squid Game.

Squid Game seasons 2 and 3 were originally supposed to be one story before creator Hwang Dong-hyuk split it into two seasons (via Capital FM). As one full story, it makes sense that the game of Knives and Keys would happen when it did. It was halfway through the actual games. Unfortunately, they broke up the story into two, giving the game’s placement a different impact.

A blended image features the honeycomb umbrella and the recruiter in Squid Games

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Ultimately, the decision to put Knives and Keys at the start of the third season meant taking emotional hits one after another without having time to prepare for them mentally. Just as the audience had a chance to invest in one character’s gameplay, they’d get taken out. By the end of the game, at least 22 players were taken out

Squid Game Found A Way To Make Hide-And-Seek Even More Tragic Than Marbles

Hyun-Ju’s Death & Gi-Hun’s Dark Side Make Knives And Keys Extremely Tragic

Hyun-ju (Park Sung-hoon) shocked in Squid Game Season 3 Ep 2 — Image via Netflix

Marbles is widely regarded as one of the most tragic episodes in Squid Game because it’s extremely character-driven and includes upsetting betrayals. Despite this, hide-and-seek became more tragic than the season 1 game by forcing the players to commit direct acts of violence. Hyun-ju, who is the most likable and genuine character since Ali, gets killed in a senseless way. It was especially difficult to watch Myung-gi stab her from behind. From a practical and emotional standpoint, if anyone should have made it to the final game, it should have been Hyun-ju.

Le Jung-jae as Gi-hun in Squid Game season 3

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On top of that, hide-and-seek is probably the rock bottom moment for Gi-hun, as Player 456 gives in to his darkness when hunting down Dae-ho. It’s easy in this moment to understand how he could potentially become the Front Man. Rather than just stabbing him, he kills Dae-ho in a much more personal way, strangling the Squid Game character. Luckily, he finds a way to reconnect with his humanity after the incident, preventing him from taking the same path as In-ho.