This article contains spoilers for Squid Game season 3.
By the show’s very nature, Squid Game is no stranger to ripping beloved characters from our grasp just as we’ve come to appreciate them. Even the characters we love to hate tend to come and go just as quickly, forcing us and the other players to leave them behind and move forward. But with season 3 picking up where the game left off in season 2, it’s not quite as easy to leave some of these fallen players behind, especially not a personality as big as Thanos (T.O.P.) was.
Thankfully, season 3 finds some unique ways to carry on the complicated legacy of Player 230 Choi Su-bong a.k.a. Thanos. Nam-gyu (player 124) and Min-su (player 125) both handle their “grief” with markedly different approaches. In episode 1 “Keys and Knives,” Nam-gyu (Roh Jae-won) tries to appeal to Min-su (Lee David) as Thanos did, even going so far as to do an impression of his fallen friend to try and lighten the mood.
DOES THIS COUNTS AS #thangyu? HELP 😭🤍 pic.twitter.com/aaPXPWc6Ub
— angel thanos 🪽 (@svshux) June 27, 2025
In the next episode, Nam-gyu takes his Thanos mimicry to another level by spending the entire game getting wasted on Thanos’ drugs and doing yet another impression of his friend, as though embodying his personality is enough to bring him back to life. He says “I’m Thanos. Let’s go another way. We’ve got to kill half of humanity, but we’re running out of time,” which is surprisingly layered for someone high out of their mind. It’s not only a commentary on the Hide-and-Seek game they are currently playing, but also refers to the ethos of Marvel’s Thanos, the character that his friend named himself after.
