Aahana Swrup
‘The Believers,’ a Thai Netflix show about an unconventional business venture’s descent into the realms of criminality, follows the narratives of three young entrepreneurs whose unfettered ambitions lead them down dangerous roads. The story begins after Win, Dear, and Game— high school friends turned business partners— drop into massive debt from a loan shark due to their business’ collapse. Consequently, once the pressing need for money strikes, Win emerges with the idea to profit off the billion-dollar religion industry by running a temple of their own.
Yet, as Win and his friends seek to make bank from the masses’ faith and the virtue of monks like Dol, a string of repercussions await in the trio’s cards. Since the show centers around Win and his friends’ entrepreneurial aspirations, the storyline ends up including a number of enterprises, such as their NFT game, “Pirate’s Hell.” However, is there any real-life basis for these businesses?
The Fictional Business Ventures In The Believers
Neither Naruethip Water nor Pirate’s Hell is an actual business enterprises that exist outside of the fictional confines of ‘The Believers.’ The first business, Naruethip Water, is an expansive family-owned bottled water business run by Game’s family. Meanwhile, Pirate’s Hell is the NFT Game that rises to global prominence under Win, Dear, and Game’s development and ownership until it plummets into public obscurity after its failure.
Both businesses have significant impacts on the show’s storyline. Naruethip Water acts as the looming entrepreneurial giant in Game’s family, accentuating the reality of his own failures. On the other hand, Pirate’s Hell, built from scratch by Win and his friends and destroyed by a loan shark over greed, offers a backstory for the protagonists, legitimizing the gluttonous misadventures. While both businesses occupy their own spaces within the narrative, the show’s inherent fictionality renders them fictional plot points as well.
In recent years, with the rise of cryptocurrency, NFT Games had a brief moment in the limelight, with even big video game companies such as Ubisoft and EA considering dipping their toes in the genre. Nonetheless, most such games failed in the long run. Notably, an NFT video game called Axie Infinity lost approximately $620 million after hackers attacked their network. Likewise, several other video games that took off in the market ended up failing.
Thus, the reality of NFT video games remains reminiscent of Win and his friends’ experience with them on a larger scale. Nevertheless, no real-life NFT video game ever came out of Thailand, named Pirate’s Hell. The existence of similarly titled non-crypto video games seems to be entirely coincidental.
As for Naruethip Water, the business is also equally fictitious in nature, with no real-life counterparts existing that are identical to the show’s bottled water brand. For the most part, the business only serves a narrative purpose within the show by building Game’s character and providing context to his actions throughout the story. Ultimately, the business enterprises in ‘The Believers’ remain as fictional as the show itself, with only in-universe significance attached to them.
Read More: Netflix’s The Believers Ending, Explained
