Cho Sang-woo

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## Fallen Hero

### Alias

Player 218
The Pride of Ssangmun-dong
Prodigy
The Genius Cho Sang-woo of SNU (all by Seong Gi-hun)
Oppa (by Han Mi-nyeo)
Sajangnim
Hyung (both by Ali Abdul)

### Allies

His & Gi-hun's team
* Seong Gi-hun (childhood best friend)
* Ali Abdul † (close friend; formerly, indirect victim)
* Kang Sae-byeok † (formerly)
* Oh Il-nam † (indirect killer; unknowingly)
* Ji-yeong †
* Han Mi-nyeo †
* Player 276 †
* Player 196 †
* Player 244 †

Player 017 † (situational ally; briefly, victim)

### Powers/Skills

Genius-level intelligence
Exceptional shrewdness
Resourcefulness
Vast knowledge of business administration
Leadership
Charisma
Strategy
Teamwork
Manipulation
Eloquence
Combat prowess
Reflexes

### Goals

Pay back his clients and prevent his mother's belongings from being taken (indirectly succeeded through Gi-hun).
Win the Squid Game and return to his mother with the prize money (failed).

### Moral Event Horizon

Killed Sae-byeok to prevent a possible vote to end the games.
Attempted to kill Gi-hun in the final game.

### Kill Count

2 (directly)
11 (caused)

### Crimes

Fraud
Embezzlement
Forgery
Obstruction of justice
Murder
Theft
Assault and battery

### Type of Fallen Hero

Pragmatic Anti-Villain

**Cho Sang-woo** (Korean: **조상우**) is the deuteragonist-turned-final antagonist of the first season of the South Korean Netflix drama *Squid Game*.

Sang-woo is Seong Gi-hun's childhood best friend and the former leader of a investment team at a securities company. Being extremely intelligent, Sang-woo graduated as the top of his class at Seoul National University and became a successful businessman. However, after siphoning money off from his clients and failing upon investing it mostly in the future market, he became heavily indebted and wanted by the Korean police. Sang-woo accepted to join the 33rd Squid Game to win the crash prize, in order to pay his ₩6 billion debt and solve his financial problems, especially because they will also cause his mother's financial ruin.

Starting as Gi-hun's closest ally and teammate in the Squid Game, the two friends form a team to survive the games. Because of Sang-woo's more calculated and pragmatic ways to deal with the games, he eventually becomes his friend's rival and final adversary near the end of the brutal competition for the ₩45.6 billion prize.

He was portrayed by Park Hae-soo, and by Park Si-won as a child. In the English dub, he was voiced by Stephen Fu.

## What made him heroic?

* He is childhood best friends with Seong Gi-hun, and genuinely cares about him. He also shows great care for his mother and befriends Ali during the games.
* He joins the games determined to save his mother from financial ruin.
* He motivates and tells Gi-hun how to survive the first game, which saves his friend's life.
* He reminds the staff that players can vote to terminate the games after the first game, which ends up saving lives as 14 people don't rejoin after the games being temporarily terminated.
* He helps Ali in Seoul by buying him food, lending his phone to him and then giving Ali money to take a bus to his home.
* After forming his team with Gi-hun, he helps his teammates by thinking about strategies for the group to survive.
* He protects his team during the special game, where he saved Gi-hun's life more than once and defended Sae-byeok from Deok-su's gang.
* He saves his entire team during the Tug-of-War game.
* He redeems himself in the end, and lets Gi-hun be the winner.

## What led him to being villainous?

* He siphoned money off from his clients, causing his great debt that later led him to join the Squid Game.
* He betrays Ali and caused his death in the Marble game, although he didn't want to do it and had no other option to survive the game.
* He kills Player 017 for wasting too much time at the fifth game, although this saved not only his life but also Gi-hun's and Sae-byeok's.
* He kills Sae-byeok because he hears Gi-hun's desperate pleas to save the dying girl and thinks that they both will vote to terminate the games.
* He attempts to kill Gi-hun on the final game, although he quickly stops trying once he is beaten.

## Trivia

* He is a fallen hero towards the final episodes of the series, however, he redeems himself at the end, making him also a redeemed villain.
* He's so far the only *Squid Game* fallen hero.
* He is on the Spoilers Template.

## External Links

* Cho Sang-woo on the Heroes Wiki.
* Cho Sang-woo on the Villains Wiki.
* Cho Sang-woo on the Inconsistently Admirable Wiki.
* Cho Sang-woo on the Squid Game Wiki.