Since its spectacular premiere in 2021, Squid Game has captivated audiences worldwide with its frightening depiction of class conflict, moral quandaries, and ruthless survival. While the series has many fan favourites, it also has extremely flawed, greedy, or simply malicious characters whose acts have transformed them into the franchise’s most loathed personalities.
Throughout its three seasons, Squid Game has offered a spectrum of characters whose greed, cowardice, betrayal, or sadism distinguished them as the worst.
Jang Deok-su (Season 1)
Type: A brutal, aggressive, and unforgiving mobster.
Deok-su has been one of the most loathed characters since the first season. A gangster by trade, he enters the game to escape his criminal background and gambling debts, but swiftly gains control by brute force and intimidation.
His cowardice is evident when he repeatedly manipulates partnerships to protect himself. Deok-su has no qualms about murdering, betraying, or leaving comrades when they are no longer helpful. His inability to trust anybody, including those who trusted him, made his defeat at the hands of Mi-nyeo all the more pleasurable.
Why he’s despised: He’s brutal, self-centred, and lives on violence. The type of individual that brings others down with him.
Han Mi-nyeo (Season 1)
Type: Manipulative and unpredictable.
Mi-nyeo is one of the most divisive characters in the entire series. On the one hand, her exaggerated actions served as comedic relief. On the other hand, she was cunning and devious, aligning herself with Deok-su when it suited her, then turning on him spectacularly.
Her loud personality and unpredictable behaviour irritated many onlookers, but her feigned weakness concealed a calculated intellect. She may have experienced a moment of redemption, but her general vibe was poisonous.
Why she’s despised: Her manipulative character, emotional instability, and irritating behaviour.
Cho Sang-woo (Season 1)
Type: The traitor of intelligence.
Sang-woo is introduced as a calm, intellectual man who appears to be a stabilising presence for protagonist Gi-hun. However, it is his plunge into amorality that makes him so frightening. His betrayal of Ali during the marble game is still one of the most tragic scenes in the series.
The cold, heartless manner in which he manipulates the trusting Pakistani worker shattered the audience’s hearts. Sang-woo shows the pitfalls of unrestrained ambition and how knowledge without compassion may turn evil.
Why he’s despised: He deceived the most innocent persona, demonstrating that intelligence can be just as lethal as raw power.
The VIPs (Season 1 & Season 2)
Type: Dehumanising elitists and emblems of crooked capitalism.
The disguised VIPs watching the events are the most obvious analogy for the rich elite’s fascination with misery as entertainment. Their image may have been artistically overdone, but their perverted enjoyment of human agony and bizarre banter made them extremely repugnant. Their very existence reminds us that while participants murder one other for survival, others benefit from their misery.
Why are they despised : They view life as a game, humans as animals, and death as a sport.
Hwang In-ho aka The Front Man (Season 2)
Type: Betrayer who becomes an enforcer.
The revelation in Season 2 shows that Hwang In-ho, the missing brother of police officer Jun-ho, is the mysterious Front Man. The treachery was stunning. As a past winner of the games, he decides to be a significant enabler of its harshness. His emotionless death of his own brother surprised onlookers, demonstrating how profoundly brainwashed and ethically degraded he had become.
Why he’s despised: He personifies the concept. That authority corrupts completely. His metamorphosis from victim to evil was terrifying.
Ji-young’s Father (Backstory – Season 1)
Type: Abuseful parent figure
Although we never see him directly in the games, Ji-young’s biography shows her trauma: her father killed her mother in a drunken fury. It’s one of the rare instances of home terror in a program already heavy with brutal violence. It explains her detached demeanour and silent despair. While he is a secondary character, the sheer emotional weight of his deeds wins him a place on our list.
Why he’s despised: A monster in a child’s life is unacceptable.
“Hyun-jae” from Season 3: The Morally Grey Manipulator
Type: In disguise, a charismatic cult leader.
Hyun-jae, portrayed as a strategic genius and charismatic team leader, immediately became one of Season 3’s most divisive characters. Unlike Deok-su and Sang-woo, he never utilised raw force or passion; instead, he controlled via ideology and terror. His crew idolised him, and he performed psychological games that resulted in internal damage. His betrayal of his closest comrade, a blind contender, was one of the most distressing events of the season.
Why he is despised: He used charisma and intelligence to conceal wickedness.
The Season 3 Overseer “Doctor Moon”
Type: A sadistic observer in science.
Doctor Moon debuted in Season 3 as a professional psychologist implanted in the games. His role is to watch, record, and occasionally provoke. His brutal experiments, such as intentionally inducing PTSD in candidates during rest times, provoked outcry. His detachment from the suffering, along with his condescending rationalisations, made him one of the most disliked villains of the franchise.
Why he’s despised: He tortures people in the name of science. cold and clinical evil.
Contestant 381 (season 3)
Type: Quiet murderer
This faceless entity gained notoriety in Season 3 for discreetly eliminating contenders during their rest periods. They never spoke, but were revealed to be a former assassin looking for forgiveness. However, their premeditated violence, particularly towards inferior players, turned the fans against them. Their absence of regret and empathy rendered them less human and more scary.
Why they are despised: The scariest evil is one that does not justify itself.
The Organ Harvesters (season 1)
Type: Vultures from the black market.
This gang of guards and a contender conducted an underground organ trade using the remains of deceased players. Their actions broke the already warped laws of the game, making them both corrupt and nasty. Exploiting the dead for profit in a game designed for survival demonstrated how certain individuals will always find new ways to profit from human agony.
Why they are despised: They treated the Dead as goods is immoral even beyond the game’s brutality.
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The Conclusion
These individuals reflect the worst elements of Squid Game over all three seasons: treachery, greed, institutional corruption, and the terrifying depths of human nature when survival is on the line. These characters, from harsh enforcers like Deok-su to emotionally deceptive masterminds like Hyun-jae, represent the various facets of villainy.
What distinguishes Squid Game is that none of these characters are bad simply for the purpose of being evil. They are influenced by trauma, power, desperation, and the system itself. And yet, as viewers, we can’t help but dislike them–because in a world where survival sometimes means surrendering morals, these people went too far.
Written by Nilesh Shiv