TLDR: a literal masterpiece

This series was absolutely mind blowing. I love the storyline and the characters and the cast were perfect for their roles.

Some mentionable points that really stuck with me:

1. The fact that we got backstories for most of the characters was spectacular, you felt like you got to know what the characters were fighting for and then most of the time they got unapologetically ripped away from you

2. Arisu’s emotions after the sheep and wolf game. Wow. Honestly wow, I was absolutely balling my eyes out when they stopped responding to him during the game and that was all down to the acting, the connection they made us form with the characters and the cinematography during that sequence; the ring, chota basically choking out that girl...

3. I loved that every games goal wasn’t the goal you were told it was, it made them exciting to watch and made me really uptight in a fun edge of my seat kind of way

4. Arisu managing to figure out basically every game (sometimes even by accident) amazed me, it really showed how even though he was viewed as effectively useless in the real world by his family and friends for only playing video games, his knowledge and problem solving skills saved countless lives in this alternate country (?)

5. That injured guy on the bus, who I convinced myself would die, being saved and then walking off into the horizon like ‘see you guys later’ as if he would survive on his own, iconic

6. Chishiya. That’s it. That’s the tweet. Is he good? Is he bad? Who knows but he’s serving looks like he’s on a international runway, the hair really does it for me and his characters so mysterious he just really adds to the show. The casting for chishiya was particularly spectacular

7. The Easter eggs to Alice in wonderland that I didn’t even get until after I finished watching it. Obviously I got Arisu because it kind of sounds like Alice with a push, but the rabbit one? Genius. And chishiya obviously sounds like Cheshire now that I think about it but yeah, I’m dumb. And I have no excuse for not realising the hatter, that ones just dumb on my part.

A couple more mentionable things were the visuals of the buildings and all the game arenas, wow. They were all so breathtaking in a gloomy ‘you’re gonna die here’ kinda way. And the inclusion of a transgender character without it being made obvious all the way through? *chefs kiss* also the mums acceptance, I didn’t cry, you did. Oh and the hatter and the scary guys friendship being revealed at the end!

Sorry it’s long lol, if you didn’t get the memo so far I loved it, it was a masterpiece