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| “ | You are responsible for the final decision on your investment… Didn't you hear me say that at the end? You said you watched me every day. | „ |
| ~ Myung-gi rejecting responsibility for the Dalmation crypto scam to Thanos. |
| “ | DON'T COME ANY CLOSER! If you take another step... I SWEAR I'LL DROP THE BABY! | „ |
| ~ Myung-gi threatening to kill his own baby to spite Seong Gi-hun. |
Lee Myung-gi (Korean: 이명기), also known as Player 333, is a major character in Netflix's K-drama Squid Game. He is a former YouTuber who went by the name of MG Coin making content about cryptocurrency, the ex-boyfriend of Kim Jun-hee, and the archenemy of Choi "Thanos" Su-bong.
His YouTube Crypto promotion "Dalmatian" turned out to be a scam, which caused his viewers and himself to be financially drained and put himself in debt. He later joined the 37th Squid Game to pay off his debts, where he encountered his ex-girlfriend, as well as several people who were scammed thanks to his advice, such as Thanos and Nam-gyu.
Throughout the games, he attempts to reconnect with Jun-hee and protect her, even promising to help her and their baby once they are out of debt. However, Jun-hee is skeptical of his motives; to reflect this, Myung-gi becomes more ruthless and opportunistic over time, killing more people than necessary during "Hide and Seek" to increase the prize money, alongside Nam-gyu. Later, Jun-hee's death causes Myung-gi's greed and paranoia to reach their peak in the final game; he turns against Seong Gi-hun and his own newborn child, attempting to kill his own baby to ensure his survival. However, he ends up falling to his death during a final fight with Gi-hun.
He is portrayed by Im Si-wan (formerly Woong-Jae) who is a former member of the K-pop boy group ZE:A.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
In General[]
- Although it is confirmed by Im Si-wan that he did not intentionally scam anyone, he still promoted the Dalmation Coin scam (even if unknowingly) and did not show even the slightest level of sympathy towards Thanos and Nam-gyu for being scammed.
- Despite the high heinous standards of the series, Myung-gi stands out for his lower resources compared to figures like The Front Man and The Recruiter, and very unique crime of attempting to kill his own infant daughter, which would make him the only villain in the franchise to have attempted filicide, allowing him to stand out from Jang Deok-su and Player 096, as well as having a higher direct kill count than many other characters like Nam-gyu, Cho Sang-woo, Thanos, and Im Jeong-dae, and it would be unfair to compare him to the game's directors due to them having far more resources.
- He is easily one of the most dishonorable players, as he killed extra players in "Hide & Seek," despite passing the game out of sheer greed, and he blocked the final sky block to force Gi-hun into giving the baby while attempting to leave him to die.
- Like many other O players, he represents the greedy side of humanity that the game makers have a negative view of.
Season 2[]
- He ghosted his girlfriend Jun-hee, who was pregnant after abandoning her for 6 months, although this is arguably justified to some extent as people were out to kill him and being with him would put her in danger.
- After Red Light, Green Light, he seemed indifferent about the other players dying, as he voted to continue the games (although he voted to end the games after he found out that Jun-hee is in the games and is pregnant).
Season 3[]
- He formed an alliance with Nam-gyu, and after passing the Hide and Seek game, he is convinced by Nam-gyu to kill more players, leading him to go on a killing spree. One of his victims was Cho Hyun-ju, whom he killed right in front of Jun-hee after she gave birth.
- This action also led to the deaths of the other Seekers, including Park Yong-sik, who were unable to eliminate other hiders due to him and Nam-gyu killing more than necessary.
- He convinced the other finalists to eliminate Park Min-su in the first round of Sky Squid Game, later personally pushing him off with a metal pole. Although this was only done in order to protect his child (whom the others were planning to eliminate), he had to push Min-su, as they were running out of time and the others were too scared to do so, meaning everyone on the pillar would die.
- He killed Im Jeong-dae unnecessarily at the end of the 2nd round. While this was very well-deserved, Lee Myung-gi only killed him to increase the money and not because he cared to punish his wrongdoings.
- This action also led to him and Gi-hun not having anyone to sacrifice in the next round after 039 killed himself.
- He threatened to kill his newborn baby, who was only 2 days old, out of paranoia of being betrayed and killed by Gi-hun before attempting to kill the latter, which makes him hypocritical because moments ago, he insisted he is on Gi-hun's side yet choose to betray him later.
- To make this worse, before he even threatened the life of his infant daughter, he ordered Gi-hun to restrain in the other Sky block, so that he could be able to kill his own baby because it would be the easier target for him to survive and win, rather than Gi-hun, who had a knife at the time, showing how low he is willing to go in order to survive.
- Another case of his hypocrisy is him calling out the Os for using Player 039 as a sacrifice, only to attempting to do the same afterward.
- When Gi-Hun dropped his knife, Myung-gi picked it up and attempted to kill Gi-Hun one final time. Although he managed to injure him, it also led to both of them falling.
- While his death was indeed played for sympathy and he shows a lot of remorse for his actions, it does not make him a scapegoat due to all of the people he killed and attempting to kill his newborn baby, and he arguably deserved his death for them.
- Even after his death, he is still posthumously responsible for Gi-hun's death because he never pushed the button to start the final round to begin with due to Myung-gi relentlessly fighting against him, and Gi-hun ultimately had to sacrifice himself to let the baby live.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is ultimately a tragic and sympathetic character due to ending up in the Squid Games after being scammed (which led to many people desiring to kill him), watching hundreds of people die, being repeatedly attacked by Thanos, and losing his ex-girlfriend too, with Jun-hee's death being the last straw for his downfall to villainy. In the end, his biggest regret was thinking that he could pursue both money and love simultaneously.
- In fact, him being scammed before is the reason he seems to not be on a team due to being unable to trust anyone, which was also the reason he begins to fall further into villainy.
- Despite not being a scapegoat for his aforementioned heinous actions, Myung-gi is still too remorseful to even be NPE, as he shows remorse for many of his actions:
- He showed sadness after Kim Young-mi’s death, hanging his head in sorrow after she was shot and only spoke up to defend himself after Hyun-ju wrongfully blamed him, despite knowing that what he did is ultimately the right thing to do since any effort to save Young-mi would have backfired by Hyun-ju dying due to being outside and everyone else in the room would have died due to not having enough people.
- While he refused to apologize for it, he showed slight regret over killing Cho Hyun-ju when he realized she was helping Jun-hee.
- Before pushing Min-su (whom he had protected before) off the pillar in the final game, he sincerely apologizes to him and claims he didn't want to do it, and after his death, he looks down at his corpse solemnly, contrasting the other finalists who are gleeful and feigned sympathy for him.
- He was also very reluctant in dropping his daughter and felt immense guilt over the choice, even attempting to convince himself it was Gi-hun’s child so the guilt would hurt less (and he is even shown visibly crying as he asks about Gi-hun promising Jun-hee) and having an emotional breakdown as he threatened her.
- He holds some standards and has moments that humanize him, showing he is not truly evil deep down:
- When he killed Thanos, he was genuinely horrified by the fact that he killed someone.
- He was genuinely horrified and disturbed by the sight of the dead rebellion players being put on display.
- He was genuinely saddened by Jang Geum-ja's plea to the O voters to end the games, and sorrowful at the sight of her suicide, even shedding a tear upon witnessing her dead body.
- He is disgusted by how the Os are ecstatic and compliment him after he pushed Min-su.
- He does care about some people:
- He genuinely loved Jun-hee, as he was willing to do anything to protect her and was even seen crying when she died.
- He voted X only to try and get her out of the games, despite his heavy debt. He only voted O the first time because he didn't know she was also in the games.
- He killed Thanos with a fork after he tried to kill him and take everything he has, even his girlfriend. Him killing Thanos is also out of self-defense since Thanos would have strangled him if he failed to do so.
- He sincerely offered to let her kill him to survive the fourth game and went to find her after completing the game, being horrified when he thought he heard her screams as someone was killed.
- He threatened Nam-gyu that he'd kill him if he harmed Jun-hee, and later tried to hide Jun-hee and Geum-ja by lying to Nam-gyu that there are no one left in the room, as he knew Nam-gyu would go back to his own words.
- He attempted to encourage her to pass the jump rope, and was distraught when she committed suicide at the end of the fifth game.
- He agreed with Nam-gyu's plan to kill more Hiders and indirectly kill other Seekers in Hide-and-Seek to increase the prize money because he believed he would have enough money to leave the game with Jun-hee and start a new life, unlike Nam-gyu, who did it solely out of his sadism.
- While more minor by comparison, he does hold some care for his child, even if he threatened to kill her, as he lied to Nam-gyu to keep her away from him, knowing that he would kill her, sighs in relief when Gi-hun passes the 5th game with her, hesitant to eat his meal until he saw the a Masked Worker feeding her milk and when the other finalists were planning to attack her, he assisted Gi-hun in defending her during the final game, even voting O so they wouldn't suspect that he would betray them and let their guard down, which is how he was able to kill most of them afterward. Even as he threatened to drop her, he was extremely pained by the deed, even tearing up and, according to 'Word of God,' lying to himself that she was Gi-hun’s child in an attempt to convince himself to perform the deed he clearly didn’t desire to do.
- He genuinely loved Jun-hee, as he was willing to do anything to protect her and was even seen crying when she died.
- He can be considered On & Off, he stepped in to assist Min-su from being harassed by Thanos and was considering to join the rebellion before Jun-hee discouraged him.
- Despite all of the heinous actions he has done throughout the 37th Squid Game (such as going on a killing spree in Hide & Seek, along with Nam-gyu), his death is played for sympathy, as in his final moments, Myung-gi looks up at Gi-hun with a desperate and pleading expression on his face as he realizes that he is about to fall to his death, with Gi-hun still attempting to save his life at the end, with it being implied that he regret not trusting Gi-hun and let his paranoia got the better of him.
Trivia[]
- He and the Front Man are the only Squid Game characters to be Inconsistently Heinous. Fittingly, he’s Gi-hun’s final enemy and the latter is Inconsistently Admirable.
- Myung-gi also shares similarities with the Front Man: both started off as well-respected individuals (a police officer and popular YouTuber) who ended up losing their reputation - In-ho borrowed from criminals and was fired from the police force under the accusation of accepting bribes, while Myung-gi was scammed. Both end up joining the Squid Games to cover their debts, with their lovers being a primary motivation for them; In-ho sought to win and help his pregnant wife while Myung-gi tried to help Jun-hee (his pregnant ex) escape the games so they could start a better life together. However, both end up failing, as In-ho's wife died outside the games while Myung-gi watches Jun-hee commit suicide. This ends up being the last straw for both of them to fall into villainy. They also fall into villainy because they were corrupted by someone (Nam-gyu for Myung-gi, Oh Il-nam for In-ho). Also, both are shown to love their kids even after their fall to villainy, with In-ho being absolutely furious when Thanos tells him to "take care of his own kids" while Myung-gi tries to protect his daughter throughout the final game. Ironically, despite In-ho wanting his child to survive, it tragically died with his wife. Meanwhile, Myung-gi reluctantly tried to kill his daughter but instead she survives, outlasting both her parents. Finally, both Myung-gi and In-ho become finalists, but only In-ho won the prize money.
- Interestingly, although Jang Deok-su made the heinous standard among the players so high that almost no one can pass it, him and Hwang In-ho are the only known players who actually managed to pass it and stand out.
- Myung-gi is the character with the highest amount of individual kills out of all the finalists of the 37th Squid Game, with Thanos, Park Hee-yong (235), Player 411, Player 447, Cho Hyun-ju, Park Min-su, Lee Seung-won, Kim Yun-tae and Im Jeong-dae, with a total of 9, with Thanos being the only one he didn't kill during a game.
- He also had the second-highest kill counts out of all the known finalists, beaten by only Hwang In-ho.
- He's also the Seeker with the highest number of Hiders killed, at 4.
- Im Si-wan confirmed that Hwang Dong-hyuk didn't want Myung-gi to viewed as someone inherently evil or just a "one dimensional villain" but someone "more human who constantly makes mistakes" (Si-wan himself would later come to share this view) and told Si-wan “Myung-gi has a good side too”. He even asked Si-wan to play the character so he could "come across as good". Hwang said Myung-gi’s able to justify his actions easier by reminding himself despite what he does, there are still worse people around him. This further highlight Myung-gi's status as Inconsistently Heinous.
- Both Im Si-wan and Jo Yu-ri have stated they don’t believe Myung-gi would've actually dropped his baby at the end of Sky Squid Game. Even Hwang himself admitted after he saw Si-wan's performance he "wasn't sure" if Myung-gi could've done it.
- According to Hwang Dong-hyuk, Myung-gi genuinely was helping Gi-hun and the baby in the final round and trying to make sure all 3 of them survived. However, once Player 039 committed suicide, his desperation to survive and fear Gi-hun would betray him lead him to threatening his child to make sure he survived. He also confirmed the reason he accused Gi-hun of sleeping with Jun-hee was because he was trying to convince himself the child wasn't actually his because of the guilt of what he was about to do. According to Hwang, before 039’s suicide, Myung-gi “never even considered sacrificing his own child.”
External Links[]
- Lee Myung-gi on the Villains Wiki
- Lee Myung-gi on the Squid Game Wiki
