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| “ | Everything was fine until I told people who I really am. People would look at me strangely, but I never had any big issues. But... once I told people I wanted to live as a woman... and started transitioning, everything changed. My mom cried a lot. And my father stopped talking to me. I got fired from my job, and lost all my friends. I wasn't done with treatment and procedures, but I wasn't earning any money, so my debt kept piling up. Although I felt liberated, my life... became so much harder. | „ |
| ~ Hyun-ju explaining her reason to press O. |
Cho Hyun-ju (Korean: 조현주) is a major character in the Netflix's K-drama Squid Game. She is a former Special Forces sergeant and a participant of the 37th Squid Game. Her goal is to earn enough money to move to Thailand after completing her transition to a woman.
She was portrayed by Park Sung-hoon.
Her Good Ranking[]
What Makes Her Close to Being Pure Good?[]
In General[]
- While she is partly responsible for the games continuing (having voted O twice), she felt genuine remorse for doing so, and it's understandable given the struggles she faced due to her transitioning and needing the money to lead a happy life as her true self.
- Not to mention, she felt an immense deal of remorse for this act, especially given the fact it led to the death of her friend, Kim Young-mi, and ever since then, she's been trying to stop the games.
- Although she does have lethal moments, such as her notably high kill count and threatening other players, these actions are justified or understandable. The guards she killed were not innocent in the slightest, and all of her kills were either in self-defense or attempts to protect the other players, with Player 039 being an example where she didn't attack him when he decided to leave.
- She is overall a compassionate person who provides emotional support for the various players in the game.
Season 2[]
- She saved Player 444 with Gi-hun during Red Light, Green Light, risking herself even though No-eul killed the former anyway.
- She offered practical tips and encouragement during the Six-legged Pentathlon, keeping morale and strategy intact.
- She convinced Seon-nyeo to spin the top in the Six-legged Pentathlon, and while she did slap and threatened the shaman, this was in a last resort and only when supporting encouragement failed — ensuring the team’s survival.
- She pulled Seon-nyeo to safety in Mingle and attempted to save Young-mi before being stopped by Myung-gi.
- She opened up to various players, such as Young-mi, providing them compassion and understanding when they were genuinely afraid for their lives.
- While she did lash out at Myung-gi for Young-mi's death, her anger was understandable at the time, plus she calmed down when she was convinced Myung-gi did not actually kill her and that any effort to save Young-mi would have not work and backfired with Hyun-ju's death due to being outside and everyone else's deaths due to not having enough people since there's too little time.
- She didn’t retaliate when Seon-nyeo taunted her about Young-mi’s death.
- In the rebellion, she taught teammates how to use MP5 submachine guns, shot down cameras, and eliminated eight triangle guards to give the team an advantage.
- She tried to recover ammunition when Kang Dae-ho failed, ready to face all returning guards alone to protect her team.
- She was ready to face the guards who returned to the main chamber for the players, even if it meant she died. While this could be interpreted as reckless, it shows her desire to protect her friends and defend their honor.
Season 3[]
- She felt bad for failing in the rebellion, thinking she could have done more, as unlike Gi-hun or Dae-ho, she blamed no one else.
- She even tried to take responsibility for Dae-ho's failure to deliver more ammo, instead of telling Gi-hun that Dae-ho quit on the rebel group in panic, remaining silent when Yong-sik blamed him and tried to have her agree with him.
- She refrained from switching to the Seeker role in Hide-and-Seek despite being given the opportunity by the guards.
- She gave Yeong-sam a chance to leave before fighting him, showing she avoids killing unless absolutely necessary.
- In Hide-and-Seek, she teamed up with Geum-ja to defend pregnant Jun-hee, fought off two Seekers, and found the exit — but turned back for her friends, which unfortunately led to her death.
- This demonstrates how she ultimately subverted her self-prioritization in the games through voting O a few times, showing that her care for her allies and desire to look out for others is not overshadowed by her personal ambitions.
What Prevents Her From Being Pure Good?[]
- When Gi-hun proposed his plan to leave dozens of innocent X voters to fend for themselves, Hyun-ju and the rest of his teammates went along with it. They didn't even warn the X-voters - just letting the O-voters slaughter as many as they could. However, this isn't too preventing since the narrative explicitly frames this as Gi-hun's wrongdoing, and as the leader of the rebellion, his associates (which include Hyun-ju) likely didn't have much say in it. Considering how selfless, compassionate, and otherwise non-lethal Hyun-ju is, it's very likely that she only agreed to the plan in order to save more lives in the long run.
Trivia[]
- Interestingly, she share similarities with Ali Abdul, another Squid Game NPG. They both are caring and selfless characters, helped Gi-hun in Red Light, Green Light, and died from being killed by an ally (Sang-woo for Ali, Myung-gi for Hyun-ju) in the fourth game. They were both also Pure Good for a while before being removed.
- But while Ali was removed due to failing the admirable standards, Hyun-ju was removed for being minor lethal.
- Roh Jae-won was originally intended to portray her, but he lost his role to Park Sung-hoon. Jae-won would instead portray Nam-gyu, whom ironically is Near Pure Evil, the polar opposite of Hyun-ju's status, and who is indirectly a reason for her death due to him giving the idea to Myung-gi of killing more people for more money.
- Hyun-ju is the only female NPG from Squid Game.
External Links[]
- Cho Hyun-ju on the Heroes Wiki
- Cho Hyun-ju on the Squid Game Wiki
- Cho Hyun-ju on the Main Light Horse Wiki
