History Characters / YuGiOhSetoKaiba

* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Kaiba didn't fully [[CharacterisationClickMoment click as a character]] in the manga until somewhere between Death-T and early Duelist Kingdom. Consequently, his early incarnation in "The Cards With Teeth!" is practically a different person. The Mind Crush may have had something to do with it.

* SmugSnake: Especially prior to his HeelFaceTurn. The dub actually keeps a lot of his smugness permanently, with many of his lines being spoken in a sneering tone and making his behavior more asshole-ish in general, whereas in the Japanese he is more straightfoward.

* SociopathicHero: He has an inflated opinion of himself, lacking any shame or fear, a need for stimulation, has little to no regard for the safety of others (allies and enemies alike), and if anything, takes no responsibility for any wrongdoing. On the other hand, it is through [[MoralityPet Mokuba]] that Seto still has a pang of conscience that prevents him from becoming a full-blown sociopath.

** The dub also cranks up his disbelief in magic and other supernatural elements to the point of being a complete AgentScully through the entire dub, as he dismisses any supernatural elements as hallucinations or holograms and thinks that the people who show him he's the modern reincarnation of Priest Seto are trying to brainwash him. He grows out of this in ''The Darkside of Dimensions'' dub, and is implied to have started believing several supernatural elements at the end of the anime dub since he refers to Atem as "Pharaoh" and thinks he's the true King of Games while he views Yugi as a fraud who took the credit for Atem's duel victories.

* MagicVersusScience: The Science to Ancient Egyptian Magic, utilizing modern technological devices to duel while Yugi has magical powers. In fact, the Solid Vision holographic technology was inspired by Shadow Games and the "Experience of Death" Yami Yugi originally subjected him to. He also intended to counter the ability of Pegasus' Millenium Eye by developing the Duel Disk (although Pegasus didn't actually let him use it). In ''Darkside of Dimensions'', he even manages to block off Aigami's abilities with his technological gadgets!

* PutOnABus: In the manga, both Kaiba and Mokuba leave the story after Battle City and don't take part in the Millenium World arc, though [[TheBusCameBack they do get an appearance in the very last chapter of the series]]. Thanks to his popularity, this was changed in the second anime, where he has a major role in not just the Millenium World, but also the anime-only Doma and KC Grand Prix arcs.

* WorfHadTheFlu: His losses to anyone but Yugi can be seen as this. Pegasus' Millenium Eye is basically cheating and a nearly unbeatable advantage, and Pegasus went out of his way to avoid being forced to play with Kaiba's newest Solid Vision technology (which Kaiba specifically developed to ''counter'' his eye) by using Mokuba as bait. Against Noah, again, Mokuba is used as a shield to prevent Kaiba from attacking. Even Yugi points out that if Noah hadn't done that he would have lost to Kaiba.

* SeriousBusiness: Even by the series' standards, he is by far the most extreme example, as he doesn't even care about the mystical stuff behind the games, and is even called out on it by the other characters. He just wants to prove he is the best. And he ''really'' enjoys crushing his opponents. Unlike the other characters, who actually just want to have ''fun'' while playing games but end up getting roped into life-or-death situations against their will, Kaiba was taught from a very young age that losing a game may as well be equal to death itself, hence the idea behind the Death-T amusement park and him willing to gamble his own life against Yugi in the Duelist Kingdom in order to win, he was ready to die had Yugi not thrown in the towel, and while he gets somewhat better, later on, he still takes Duel Monsters very seriously.

* {{Tsundere}}: He spends a lot of time helping out Yugi and pals despite insisting he doesn't care about them and that friendship is for fools. That's not even getting into how obsessed he is with Yugi himself.

* ShutUpHannibal: While Dartz uses the souls of Yugi's posse as meat shields in his duel, he gives a HannibalLecture on how every human being has darkness in them that they can never eradicate fully. Kaiba laughs this off and explains that he and Mokuba have battled their inner darkness all their lives, yet are still fine.

* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Snaps Yugi out of despair when he is about to give up against Strings and his Slifer.

* MagicVersusScience: The Science to Yugi's Magic, utilizing modern technological devices to duel while Yugi has magical powers.

* RivalsTeamUp: Usually when he does so, it's because he's facing off against a common enemy.

* BrokenAce: Rich, famous, successful, and none of it is good enough for him because he's overshadowed by Yugi, is still haunted by the memory of Gozaburo, and is full of hatred for the both of them.