Characters / Yu-Gi-Oh!: Seto Kaiba

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Seto Kaiba (海馬 瀬人; Kaiba Seto)

Voiced by: Hikaru Midorikawa (Toei anime), Kenjiro Tsuda (Duel Monsters), Eric Stuart (English), Ricardo Mendoza (Latin American Spanish), Roberto Cuenca, Jr. (European Spanish)

"Games mean conflict — a combat between two enemies. It’s the same for all of them! Cards, chess, the blood-soaked wars of the human race… All these are different kinds of games. Do you know what god gave to people so they could play games in this world? A single chip called life!" —Seto Kaiba, Chapter 106 (Duelist Kingdom), in response to Yugi's unwillingness to send him off to his death.

"Nothing will save you from humiliation."

^{Click here to see his appearance in Dark Side of Dimensions}
"It wasn't the real Pharaoh, so I didn't really beat him. And until I do, my scars of defeat will continue to burn!"

Kaiba is a rival of Yugi Muto and Dark Yugi. He's the head of the gaming company "Kaiba Corporation" and was first introduced as a prodigal, cold-hearted gamer who stopped at nothing to achieve his goals, even resorting to torturing or killing his opponents. Following his second battle with Yugi during his Death-T games (where he acted as a main antagonist), he was left in a coma, where he reconstructed his tainted heart and emerged less evil. Since then, rather than being a villain, he merely attempts to reclaim his title and challenge Yugi again — retaining his arrogance but sharing compassion for his younger brother, Mokuba.

Basically, he's initially a Faux Affably Evil Smug Snake before Character Development changed him into a Smug Super jerkass Breakout Character with much more involvement with the plot as an Anti-Hero. Even though he's a supporting character, he appears with a lot of prominences in the second series anime adaptation - in manga canon, he has the ambition to destroy Kaiba Corporation's past as a weapons company under his father's ownership, and this subject takes up the majority of two Filler Arc sagas of the second series anime and is a vital subplot of a third. He is the reincarnation of Seto, one of the Six Priests who protected the Pharaoh Atem, Yugi's past life, and his Blue-Eyes White Dragon is the reincarnation of his past lover, Kisara.

In gaming, he most definitely mains Duel Monsters. He uses a Power deck which focuses on summoning the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, of which he has the only three intact copies in existence. He's also fond of Deck Destruction and removing cards from play. By Dark Side of Dimensions, his deck has become almost entirely centred around Blue-Eyes and its alternate forms, giving him access to upgraded forms both as Fusion and Ritual Monsters, and a new trump card in "Deep-Eyes White Dragon."

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A-E

• Adaptational Heroism: In the second anime. He's still acerbic and thuggish enough to abduct an old man over a trading card, but his outright murderous behavior is skipped over. He also doesn't believe in stealing to get ahead in life, as is evident when he goes up against Siegfried. The Filler Arcs also make him even more heroic by giving him numerous villains who have a personal connection with him, which allows the audience to root for him.
• Adaptational Villainy: Kaiba in the Toei anime lacks the Freudian Excuse he had in the manga and does most of the murderous things manga-Kaiba does as well as additional kill-Yugi schemes. Also, since in the anime he didn't get a Penalty Game in his first duel with Yugi, it's implied he creates the Experience of Death punishment on his own. Since this anime ends after the Monster World arc, we don't get to see Kaiba's more noble moments after recovering from Yami Yugi's Mind Crush.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: In the Toei anime, he had green hair and gold eyes. This was corrected in the 30-minute Toei movie.
• Agent Scully: Mainly in the 4Kids version, where, despite repeatedly having highly personal and intense supernatural experiences, he always defaults to calling it a bunch of mumbo-jumbo. He doesn't even give any good reasons. He simply instantly declares it all smoke and mirrors (no explanation as to how), and moves on. In the original, he accepts the reality of Shadow Games and the magic of the Millennium Items, but also engages in this from time to time in the manga, particularly in Battle City when Ishizu tried to make him confront his past life.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In the manga, after Atem defeats him in their Death-T duel and is preparing to subject him to a Penalty Game, Kaiba frantically tries to beg for mercy. Atem is having none of it and inflicts Mind Crush upon him.
• All-Powerful Bystander: During Battle City, he can stop questionable duels but refuses to for varying reasons.
• Aloof Big Brother: To Mokuba, especially in the manga.
• Always Second Best: No matter how good he is, he will always fall behind Yugi/Atem. And this fact really pisses him off.
• Angry Eyebrows: His eyebrows always seem to look this way.
• Anti-Hero: (At best.) He starts out as a villain until Yami Yugi uses Mind Crush on him. As the series progresses, Kaiba ends up teaming with Yugi again and again ^note  Through this happens a lot more in the non-canon anime continuity and it's filler arcs. However, he does team up with Yugi at times even in the manga continuity, most notably in Battle City against Mask of Light and Mask of Darkness and in the climax of Dark Side Of Dimensions against Aigami while remaining a complete Jerkass at the same time.
  • In Duelist Kingdom, the first arc where Kaiba is in an anti-heroic role, Kaiba actually outright refuses to team up with Yugi's group and acts antagonistic to such extent that Yugi assumes he hasn't changed at all. He is even treated as the final obsticle to Yugi's journey to Pegasus' castle. It is his motivation of saving his brother from Pegasus that puts him in a morally grey area and that prevents him from being an outright villain in that particular arc.
• Anti-Villain: When he first appears in the manga, he's one of the most vicious bad guys so far, and that's really saying something. However, Mokuba reveals that his obsession with winning games to such a homicidal degree was the result of internalizing Gozaburo's abuse and traumatizing suicide. Being forced to literally put his mind back together by Dark Yugi makes him a better person, thought still a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
• Arc Villain: Of the Death-T arc in the manga and Toei anime.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: His attitude towards dueling. He's an elite duelist who considers himself the best in the world, everyone else is beneath him and doesn't deserve his attention except for when he feels like hurling insults at them. The sole exception is Yugi, naturally, who Kaiba grudgingly accepts as a Worthy Opponent, and his obsession with beating Yugi to prove to the world (and himself) that he has surpassed him goes to absurd extremes.
• Ascended Extra: Kaiba might as well be this trope's poster child:
  • In the manga, he's initially just your typical Villain of the Week but ended becoming so popular that he got reintroduced as the Arc Villain of Death-T and would later go on to become the Anti-Hero rival we all know and love.
  • In the Toei anime, he's the overarching villain for the majority of the show and the closest thing it has to a Big Bad, though he does end up losing out on being the Final Boss to Dark Bakura.
  • The second anime not only features him as a major focus in every one of its filler arcs, but it even has him be present for the King's Memories and Ceremonial Duel arcs, which he was absent for in the manga due to time constraints.
  • He's more or less promoted to protagonist in Dark Side of Dimensions, having far more focus and screentime than Yugi.
  • Duel Monsters itself was initially a gimmick tied to him exclusively. Pre-Duelist Kingdom, Yugi didn't duel anyone aside from Kaiba nor were there any implications of the game having any connections to the Myth Arc. But much like Kaiba himself, the game wound up becoming so popular that it eventually became the main focus of the franchise.
• Badass Bookworm: A genius CEO who's trained in Krav Maga.
• Badass Longcoat: Have you seen his trenchcoat?
• Badass Normal: He doesn't have any inherent magical abilities like Yugi or most villains, but he's still physically strong enough to be able to overhead-throw a guy twice his size with one hand.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: More like Being Tortured Makes You a Jerkass in his case, but it was years of emotional abuse at the hands of Gozaburo that resulted in Seto internalizing Gozaburo's harsh outlook on the world. His little brother, Mokuba, notes that Seto was much happier—and actually used to smile—before they met Gozaburo.
• Berserk Button:
  • Losing to Yugi became a sore spot for him since he stole Solomon's Blue Eyes White Dragon (in which the dragon commits suicide and Yugi revives it to defeat him). Since then, he created Death-T specifically to defeat Yugi and his friends, who were able to beat his Death-T levels with their own skills. Once he loses to Yugi again, the latter decides to invoke a Penalty Game in order to restore his soul. Since then, his buttons were less extreme.
  • Don't threaten his little brother, Mokuba, his company, don't destroy or take control of his Blue-Eyes White Dragon, and don't defeat Yugi before he can.
  • Harming children, in general, seems to be a sore spot for him. When Kaiba is unable to stop Zorc from incinerating two children during the Memory World arc, he really doesn't take it well. His words there also imply that he has disdain for those who think they can play with human lives as they please.
  • Don't even think about disrespecting the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Even something as lighthearted as as a cartoony version of it in a trading card..... Don't even dare damage one of the three cards of it within his deck.
• Best Out of Infinity: He really, really will never accept being second best to the Pharaoh. Ever. His obsession with a rematch gets so bad that he ends The Dark Side of Dimensions, and possibly his final appearance on the franchise, sending his consciousness/soul to the afterlife in the hunt to rematch the Pharaoh again.
• Big Brother Instinct: In the manga, after Death-T and reconstructing his heart, he will do anything to save Mokuba. The Duel Monsters anime has him with this from the start, while the Toei anime averts this due to its early cancellation.
• Bigger Stick: His Duel Monsters deck is chock full of them, giving him a pretty one-sided advantage. See also: Power Equals Rarity.
• Bilingual Bonus: Kai and ba are Japanese for sea and horse respectively. In Japanese mythology, seahorses are considered to be larval dragons, and Kaiba has an affinity for his Blue-Eyes White Dragon as well as Kaiser Seahorse, which can be tributed to summon a Blue-Eyes.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: He was this in the manga and his debut episode in the Toei anime. Afterward, he doesn't even try acting nice to get what he wants.
• Born Lucky: Despite not believing in the "heart of the cards" and lacking the outright fate-warping powers of Atem, Kaiba is a very good drawer. Just like Yugi, he often draws what he needs in the nick of time, and frequently has overwhelmingly powerful opening hands (such as drawing all 3 Blue Eyes).
  • It is played with when he throws a card from the top of his deck at a Rare Hunter to disarm him, hoping the card he drew was a cheap one. It was the Blue Eyes White Dragon...
• Brainy Brunette: Seeing as he came up with the Solid Vision system, this is an obvious one.
• Breakout Character: Originally Kaiba was meant to be a one-shot antagonist in the manga, but was then promoted to the main antagonist of an entire arc, and returned for every subsequent arc with major roles in the Duelist Kingdom and Battle City arcs. The Toei first series anime promoted him to the main antagonist for most of the series, and the second-series anime made him a recurring Anti-Hero with an expanded role in filler arcs and the Memory World storyline. The Dark Side of Dimensions was originally meant to star just him, and he has more of a role in the movie than Yugi and all of his friends. In Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links, Kaiba is even billed as the protagonist of the DSOD World.
• Broken Ace: As the head of Kaiba Corp, Seto is rich, successful, world-famous, and is regarded as one of the greatest duelists in the world with some of the rarest and most powerful cards ever created. But due to his abusive and lonely childhood adopted by Gozaburo, he's endlessly tormented by his step-father's memory and his legacy, and also struggles with the burden of being overshadowed as a duelist by Yami Yugi, the one opponent he's never been able to beat in a fair duel (the one time he did win, Kaiba basically had to cheat, and in later story arcs he seems to have quietly admitted it didn't really count). He's also strongly implied to suffer from an Inferiority Superiority Complex; Gozaburo taught him that anyone who isn't a winner is a loser and deserves nothing but humiliation and pain, so what does it say about Seto that he can't beat Yugi in spite of all he's tried?
• The Bully: Towards Jonouchi by constantly finding ways to humiliate him.
• Bullying a Dragon: Subverted towards Jonouchi in the manga. Considering Jonouchi's own fighting skills and experience, you would think that Kaiba might be in over his head if he were to actually get into a physical altercation with the former. Nope! Kaiba is more than capable of holding his own in a fight by subduing Pegasus' goons in the Duelist Kingdom Arc, who are armed with guns, mind you, meaning that he can and will back up his insults and cruelty towards Jonouchi on physical grounds.
• Byronic Hero: He is as talented and intelligent as he is destructive and obsessive. There are no limits that he does not pass to be the best player in the world
• The Chessmaster: Mostly during his time as a Big Bad, but it's still there later on, as seen when he enacts a nearly successful plan to rescue Mokuba in the Duelist Kingdom.
• Cain and Abel: In the second series anime, he's the Abel to Noah's Cain.
• Calling Your Attacks: With his best monsters, especially the Blue-Eyes.
• Catchphrase: "Such nonsense!"
• Cerebro Electro: Kaiba is a genius at engineering and computer science. His Blue-Eyes White Dragon's special attack is called "White Lightning".
• Character-Driven Strategy: In contrast to Yugi's Strategy Decks, Seto Kaiba uses Beatdown decks; decks that focus on overwhelming their opponent with monsters with high ATK while paralyzing their options, reflecting Seto's stiff and standoffish behavior. His signature monster, "Blue-Eyes White Dragon", is a strong and rare monster (only four of them exist, him owning three of them) that is known for its high ATK, reflecting his ambitions as Kaiba Corp. CEO and one of the highest-ranking duelists in the world.
• Character Exaggeration:
  • The 4Kids dub of the anime cranks up Kaiba's rivalry with Yugi and contempt for Jonouchi, making him closer to the manga version, where he was hateful of Jonouchi and obsessed with beating Yugi, among other things. They also made him deny the existence of magic and refuse to believe in it, while in the Japanese anime he didn't care about it. Manga!Kaiba went back and forth from outright denial to not caring. It also tended to make him even more of a Jerkass than he already was in the Japanese version.
  • The dub also cranks up his disbelief in magic and other supernatural elements to the point of being a complete Agent Scully 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 Dark Side 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.
  • His dragon obsession is largely an anime thing. In the manga, the only dragons he really uses are Blue-Eyes and its fusions, and the majority of his other cards are Warriors, Fiends, and Beast-Warriors, focusing on a beatdown deck. The anime filler arcs add more Dragons to his deck to the point that his other cards seem out of place. The Dark Side of Dimensions has his deck be almost completely Blue-Eyes based to the point that Saggi the Dark Clown is an outlier.
• Characterization Marches On: Kaiba didn't fully 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.
  • In his first appearance, he is shown as resorting to cheating to get a win, suggesting him to be more of a Smug Snake. Later appearances would show him as more Strong and Skilled, with only one other Duel, which was depicted as a moment of extreme desperation, having him cheat. What was more, Kaiba is shown to not trust his deck, which is what makes him willing to cheat in the first place, when later, his extreme trust and pride in his deck is one of his main positive traits.
  • While he is implied to be rich and stated outright to be a champion Duel Monsters player, there's no mention made of KaibaCorp, Yugi's grandfather doesn't recognize him, and Yugi himself doesn't seem to regard Kaiba as anything more than just a guy who he shares classes with, suggesting him to be little more than a rich kid. It's almost inconceivable that the Mutos wouldn't have heard of Kaiba as he was later established.
  • Kaiba is shown going to Yugi's school and sitting in classes like everyone else, when he would later be written as a Teen Genius who also has an entire large company to run, making it very unlikely he'd go to a regular high school. Notably, Death-T has one of Kaiba's servants point out that he's too busy to go to school these days, and he's rarely if ever shown in school again.
  • Considering the increasing mystical importance that Blue-Eyes has to Kaiba from Duelist Kingdom onward, it can be rather surprising to find that Kaiba had never seen a single copy by the time of his first appearance, seems to consider it nothing more than a rare and valuable card, and the climax of the story more or less revolves around the idea that Yugi's grandfather is Blue-Eyes's true owner, with Blue-Eyes destroying itself rather than make an attack under his control.
• Cold Ham: In the anime, he's usually stoic with a near-perpetual frown or smirk. When he gets fired up though, he really gets fired up, particularly in the Japanese version, thanks to his loud, roary voice.
• Commonality Connection: Finds this with Ishizu once he realizes that she's willing to allow herself to sink along with a self-destructing island if it becomes apparent that Marik can't be saved.
• Corporate Dragon: Kaiba is the president of Kaiba Corp with a deck centralized around dragons, with the Blue-Eyes White Dragon being his signature Monster card. His company even worked as an Arms Dealer until he wrested control from his stepfather, Gozaburo Kaiba, at which point the business shifted into the gaming industry, complete with theme parks and holographic projectors. He even flies a jet plane shaped like a Blue-Eyes.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Averted. The lifelike Solid Vision 3D system he creates was primarily made to mimic Dark Yugi's powers, but Seto's actually wise enough to go into business with it, which ends up becoming a key plot point for the Duelist Kingdom arc. His anime counterpart averts this even further, as he created it with the intent of going into business with it from the beginning.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: After stealing Gozaburo's company away from him, Kaiba began a gradual descent into outright villainy comparable to that of his hated patriarch, dragging Mokuba into his kidnapping and extortion schemes just so he could own all the copies of the trading card he innocently coveted when he was just a child.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has quite a few moments, including some in the 4Kids version that borders on Lampshade Hanging.
  "Alright, that little detour was a complete waste of my time and effort. So let's move on and pretend that nonsense never happened."
• Determinator: Games are serious business. Rescuing your little brother is also a serious business.
• Deuteragonist: In the anime, where he gets a lot more screentime, his relationship with Yugi and Dark Yugi is expanded upon, and unlike the manga he journeys to the Memory World RPG alongside the rest of the cast, ultimately helping them defeat Zorc. The anime's Filler Arcs also tend to prominently focus on Kaiba, and the villains tend to be his enemies, not Yugi's.
• Does Not Like Guns: In the anime, he seems to have this, tossing away a handgun after disarming its wielder. Manga Kaiba was more of a Combat Pragmatist.
• Dub Personality Change: In general, Kaiba in the original Japanese version tends to have "powerful" sounding dialogue, fitting the elite man-of-standards anti-hero portrayal the Duel Monsters anime goes for. The 4Kids version exaggerated his jerkassery by making him more of a snarker, ironically bringing him closer to the manga's depiction. Examples include:
  • Brushing off Yugi's warning about Pegasus's Millennium Eye in the 4Kids version, as opposed to the original translation where Yugi warned him about the "Dragon Capture Jar" card and Kaiba took the warning to heart, even thanking Yugi for the advice.
  • Deciding to let the Exodia-wielding Rare Hunter cheat out of spite because he wanted Yugi to see what it felt like to face Exodia, rather than it being because he considered Yugi a Worthy Opponent who "wouldn't lose to trash like that".
  • In particular, he behaves as though he will easily defeat Yugi in the Battle City Tournament and regards him as an obstacle to be dealt with; the original characterization, while depicting him as having a huge ego, nevertheless had him show a grudging respect for Dark Yugi as a Worthy Opponent.
    • Having a blatantly selfish ulterior motive for encouraging Yugi to stand up against Slifer the Sky Dragon during his Duel against Strings i.e. so he could analyse Slifer in battle, find out its weaknesses, and use that information against Yugi to take Slifer for himself. Downplayed in the original, as Kaiba still wants the Egyptian God Cards for himself, but again, he also begrudgingly sees Yugi as a Worthy Opponent and looks forward to their battle.
  • He also bullies Jonouchi every chance he gets, not believing in his true skills, when in fact, he's getting better as the series goes on. The best compliment he gives Jonouchi is at the end of his duel with Marik, when he thinks, "Perhaps he's not the third-rate duelist I thought he was..." Keep in mind, if Jonouchi wasn't affected by Marik's shadow magic too much, he would've attacked Marik one final time, winning the duel. The aftermath of this same duel in the original has Kaiba fully accepting Jonouchi as a duelist in his supposed death.
• Duels Decide Everything: While the Yu-Gi-Oh! Verse becomes a more extreme version of this trope practically every season, Seto Kaiba is the only character who truly lives and believes in this trope. In fact, he is directly trying to make this happen by constantly innovating Duel Monsters and making it more and more omnipresent. In the DSoD movie, he outright declares that his vision for the future is one where things like war are overcome through card game duels. He does not stop there and proceeds to teach even alien cosmic horrors how to duel by shooting cards into space in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. By the time of 5D's, the entire world pretty much does run on card games, thanks in large part to Kaiba's influence.
• Dramatic Wind: His white trenchcoat is always flaring out behind him, even when he's just walking down the hall. His other coats flare too, but not nearly as much so it's more believable.
• Drunk on the Dark Side: During the time he had Obelisk the Tormentor in his deck, he really enjoyed crushing his opponents with it.^note to be fair, most players tend to do this with their boss monsters of choice
• Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In his first appearances in the manga up until Death-T, Kaiba had a somewhat creepy, haggard look, with a tendency towards toothy Slasher Smiles, and seemed to be fairly average in height and proportions. By the Duelist Kingdom Arc, he was much taller, slimmer, and more handsome, as well as a Perpetual Frowner. Additionally, this was also the first time he was shown wearing a Badass Longcoat.
• Easily Forgiven: In the manga, it's jarring to see him and his brother be forgiven after failing to kill Yugi and friends in the Death-T arc. Averted in Jonouchi's case, as he makes it clear how much he despises him for his actions during the arc and never lets him forget it.
• Empowered Badass Normal: He may not be an Item-wielder, but he does have some untapped mystical abilities, letting him wield Obelisk and Critias.
• Enemy Mine: Most of the time when he directly teams up with the main cast, it's because they share a mutual enemy, or they've helped Kaiba in some manner and he feels he has to repay the favor.
• Enfante Terrible: In the backstory. He's not as bad as the anime's Noah, but he still bordered on creepy.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: After Death-T. Even in his moments of biggest Jerkassery, Kaiba still cares deeply for his brother Mokuba and would never do anything to hurt him.
  • This is not even to count his adoration for Blue Eyes White Dragon who turned out to be the spiritual form of the lover of his past life thousands of years ago as priest Seth back in ancient Egypt.
• Every Man Has His Price: Attempted to trade any of his briefcase of rare cards to Sugoroku for his Blue-Eyes White Dragon, but the latter declines due to the sentimental value he has with it. Refusing to give up, Kaiba tried to steal it in the manga, but lost to Yami Yugi because it refused to obey him, and tears it up after defeating Sugoroku in a duel and destroys it because it was loyal to Sugoroku or there can't be four Blue-Eyes White Dragons in the Duel Monsters anime.
• Everyone Has Standards:
  • He's perfectly okay with endangering infants, allowing a homicidal maniac trying to kill the main characters out of revenge, and attacking innocent people, but when other people do something similar or worse, he feels compelled to stop them.
  • When Marik forces Yugi and Jonouchi into a deathmatch and rigs it so that only one of them can come out alive, Kaiba is immediately appalled and runs to help, only stopping because Mokuba is being held at knifepoint. In the manga, he's also the one to save Jonouchi from drowning after the duel by dropping his key to him.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: In the Death-T arc. When Yugi and his pals are trapped in the Death T-3 room, which involves giant blocks falling and attempting to crush them, Kaiba firmly believes that everyone only cares about themselves most of all and at least one of Yugi's group will betray the others to save themselves. Tristan proves him wrong when he is pinned by the jacket between two blocks, helping Yugi escape and remaining behind.
• Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: He's a bit sick with his jokes, but a few aren't as bad.
• Evil Laugh: Despite being a reserved individual, he tends to indulge in this when he bests an opponent. Mind you, he isn't exactly "evil", but the principle still stands. One of the most notable examples is during the anime's Grand Championship, where Kaiba defeats the resident Big Bad after disqualifying him and then laughs like a villain.
• Evil Versus Evil: He's disgusted by the Rare Hunters and wants to use the Battle City Tournament to lure them out and crush them one by one. Although a noble goal, he acts utterly villainous about it, showing great sadism and even gleefully watches Umbra fall to his death (he ended up having a parachute, however).

F-N

• Fatal Flaw: His obsession with being the most powerful and using strategies that primarily rely on brute force directly costs him what was supposed to be his victory over Dark Yugi at Battle City. His obsession with technology. That, and his hostile attitude and pride.
• Fiction 500: He has so much money that he can screw the rules on a regular basis. He managed to become the owner and CEO of an entertainment company (that until he took over also manufactured high-tech weapons) and his brother's legal guardian without graduating high school. He also built a card game-themed amusement park and pioneered advanced holographic technology (and repeatedly improved upon it) just to improve a card game. Later, he founds an entire school to teach more about the game. At one point in season 4, he needs a car, so he and Mokuba find one and get in (never mind how they got the keys). As the car comes on, a salesman rushes over, frantic and demanding to know what they're doing. Even as the man rants, Kaiba whips out a checkbook extremely dramatically, scrawls something, and tells the man to keep the change as they drive away. The distraught salesman frets that he's ruined... until he looks down at the $500,000 check.
• First-Name Basis: Very few characters call him "Seto", even less so in the 4Kids version. In the 4Kids version, only Mokuba, Noah and Gozaburo call him by his given name. In the Japanese version, Mokuba does not (he calls him "Nii-sama" instead), and aside from Noah and Gozaburo, the other characters who call him "Seto" are Ishizu, the Big Five and the employees of Kaiba Corp.
• Flat-Earth Atheist: In the 4Kids version, Kaiba refused to believe in and denied much of the supernatural events going on, while in the Japanese anime and manga it was more that he didn't care about them, so long as no one tried to tell him he was focused on fighting Dark Yugi Because Destiny Says So rather than it being his own choice.
• Foil:
  • To Jonouchi. While Jonouchi came from a low-class background, Kaiba was raised by a tycoon. Jonouchi was easily won over by Yugi's kindness, while Kaiba put up resistance. Their initial Establishing Character Moment with Yugi are opposites; while Jonouchi was The Bully, he never uses violence against Yugi, and while Kaiba was friendly, he had no problem whacking Yugi in the face with his metal briefcase. Jonouchi is hotheaded yet friendly, while Kaiba is calm yet frigid. This also extends to the cards they use. Kaiba has the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, while Jonouchi has the Red-Eyes Black Dragon. Kaiba has the Crush Card Virus (a Trap Card that destroys strong monsters), while Jonouchi has Jinzoningen - Psycho Shocker (a strong monster that destroys Trap Cards). Kaiba uses Spell/Trap Cards that are reliable but have minor effects, while Jonouchi uses spell/trap cards that have a high risk. Kaiba's cards all tend to be sinister-looking, while Jonouchi's are cartoonish.
  • To Marik, more obviously in the manga but still present in the anime. They're both products of abusive parents that they escaped by killing their fathers and seizing control of their own lives, their only companions are their brothers, and they steal cards to acquire the most powerful cards in the game, the Blue-Eyes White Dragons for Kaiba and the Egyptian God Cards for Marik. They also desire revenge on Dark Yugi for punishments they blame him for (Kaiba for his Penalty Game, Marik for his tombkeeper upbringing) before losing to him in a duel and coming to their senses. Marik's tombkeeper lineage and acceptance of the Myth Arc of the series also contrasts Kaiba's control of the tech giant Kaiba Corp and his disbelief in the ancient ways. Note also the Millennium Rod Marik uses was used by Priest Seto in ancient times.
• For Science!: Kaiba is the tech innovator in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Verse and is on par with Pegasus in the sheer influence he has on the game. His motivations for creating new tech vary from wanting a good business deal, countering the dark magic of Atem/Pegasus/Diva, to simply wanting to make the game he loves better. Regardless, he does not seem to worry about the consequences of just about anything, which does not work out well in GX, where he shoots trading cards into space in order to teach alien lifeforms how to duel... which then attracts cosmic horrors.
• Four Is Death: He ripped the fourth copy of the Blue-Eyes White Dragon in two so it could never be played against him. After the first season, it's shown that Yugi and his grandfather collected the two halves and just taped them back together.
• Freudian Excuse:
  • Adopted by an abusive father who taught him that being a failure in anything, even losing games, means you don't deserve to live. Lost everything but his brother in unknown circumstances before that. He never even knew his real parents.
  • The manga had his mother died giving birth to Mokuba, then his father died in an accident three years after that. His relatives left both young boys at an orphanage after they spent all the inheritance money. All that before he met and defeated Gozaburo at ten years old.
  • Averted in the first anime, which didn't include his backstory, making him a dick for no reason.
• Friend to All Children: Mokuba explains the reason Seto works so hard for KaibaCorp is to achieve his dream of a Kaiba Land amusement park to bring happiness to children; while not very expressive, he's kind, patient, and protective whenever he's around them.
• Genius Book Club: He's introduced reading Also sprach Zarathustra in the second anime series.
• Get A Hold Of Yourself Man: Snaps Yugi out of despair when he is about to give up against Strings and his Slifer. In the manga, he even figures out that Slifer isn't "invincible" before Yugi, and tells him so (albeit without clear hints, which would probably be against the rules).

Kaiba: "Get up, Yugi! If a God stands in your way, knock God down!"

• Godlike Gamer: Given he's a Child Prodigy and already a genius at everything, it's no surprise that when he invested his talents into gaming he became one of the greatest duelists in history, second only to Yugi. The two of them end up as rivals and Worthy Opponents. A battle between him and Yugi will be long and drawn out and can go either way as the two duelists run rings around each other.
• Gone Horribly Right: Gozaburo wanted Kaiba to be as ruthless as him, and view everyone as a possible threat. You have to wonder how he saw that working out, although he probably didn't expect Kaiba to oust him before leaving high school.
• Good Is Not Nice: After his post-mind crush "character development" that borders on a retcon, he is at worst neutral, but more often than not finds himself fighting on the good side, and has ideals for the world that are even philanthropic. However, he is nevertheless an egocentric Jerkass who doesn't show a shred of empathy towards anyone that isn't Mokuba.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Very much so. After his public defeat during Death-T, he doesn't stop at anything to get his title back from Yugi.
• Griefer: Has one of these moments during the Battle City semi-final 4-way match, directing Marik's attack to Jonouchi out of pure spite.
• Guile Hero: Though not as much as Dark Yugi, he has his moments, particularly in their Duel against the Masks of Light and Darkness when he gets them to begin fighting with one another.
• Heel–Face Turn: Sort of. He stops being evil and regularly helps the heroes. However, he never stops being a gigantic jackass. The manga outright shows that the Mind Crush Kaiba received at the end of Death-T destroyed what Gozaburo had turned him into, allowing Kaiba to rebuild himself to a semblance of his former, kinder self. He'll never be a nice guy, but he's firmly on the side of good.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: It's buried deep. After his Mind Crush, he acts kinder to Mokuba and respects Dark Yugi, but doesn't give anyone else the time of day.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: His Crush Card Virus destroys monsters with 1500 or more ATK, but in the Duelist Kingdom arc such cards are rare, and therefore most Duelists have only a few such cards in their Decks. His own Deck is the exception, because of all the money he spent on it. Therefore, even though Yugi was still able to get into a winning position after being on the receiving end of Kaiba's Crush Card, when Pegasus turns the card back on Kaiba in their own Duel, it completely cripples him, and Kaiba has no choice but to surrender a turn later.^note Also, Pegasus's ace monster has 0 ATK so even if it did work, it wouldn't have helped much.
• Homefield Advantage: He keeps trying to shake up the game in various ways to enact this with the Duel Disks originally being designed to throw Yugi and Pegasus off with having to learn how to use them on the fly and the fact that its Hard Light holograms pack a punch. To his detriment, he made the devices a little too intuitive to the point that barely anyone has problems using them. Battle City can be seen as a very elongated attempt at this as while Yugi and his friends had to run around the city searching for opponents, Kaiba could just have his personal transports take him wherever he needed to go, conserving his energy for what he thought would be a clash against an exhausted rival.
• Honest Corporate Executive: In contrast to his adoptive father, he's a good businessman and doesn't do anything illegal on the corporate side of things. In the anime, he takes this further by completely shutting down Kaiba Corp's weapons manufacturing division when he takes over, ending the company's legacy of war profiteering.
• Hypocrite: Kaiba can come across this way at times in the series:
  • Particularly where he chastises Dark Yugi for being hung up on the past instead of focusing on the here and now, yet he himself refuses to let go of his own past losses at Yugi's hands or his memories of Gozaburo's abuse. Gets even more emphasis in The Dark Side of Dimensions, where Kaiba's the one who refuses to accept that Atem's gone to the afterlife, all because of his drive to settle their rivalry once and for all, whereas Yugi, who didn't initially want to complete the Ceremonial Duel because he didn't want to give up his friend, has since made peace with it and urges Kaiba to do likewise.
  • His chastising Koji Nagumo for being a bully also falls flat, given Kaiba's own cruelty to Jonouchi.
• Iconic Outfit: His black clothes and silver sleeveless coat, as pictured. He doesn't start wearing it until the Battle City arc (which in the manga doesn't occur until nearly halfway through its run, while in the anime still takes a little over 50 episodes to reach), but after that, it becomes his primary outfit for the franchise.
• Icy Blue Eyes: Cold and stoic, just like Kaiba.
• Image Song: From the 4Kids anime dub's Pyramid of Light soundtrack, You're Not Me.
• Improbable Weapon User: He uses cards and his briefcase as weapons, also using the latter to block bullets.
• Ineffectual Loner: To this day, Yugi's friendship disgusts him, though he does help Yugi on occasion.
• Inferiority Superiority Complex: While he is genuinely arrogant and has fair right to be given what he's achieved at a young age, what really grinds Kaiba's gears and drives him to defeat Yugi no matter what is the perception from the world at large that Yugi is the better duelist of the two. Across the franchise, all the times they've clashed Kaiba only managed to beat him once and he had to play dirty to do it, and it obviously eats at him to know that as skilled as he is, he's still overshadowed.
• Informed Ability: In the manga. Despite apparently being an expert at all games, we only ever see Kaiba play Duel Monsters and chess.
• Insufferable Genius: He's one of the most advanced minds in the world, is an expert strategist, and an amazing inventor, and will let you know any time it's relevant.
• I Shall Taunt You: Comes across as a Badass Boast.
• It's All About Me: It's all about Seto Kaiba. He even designed the tournament at Battle City so that he would be the final victor and considered blowing up the island prematurely after losing.
• Jerkass: He swings back and forth between Jerk with a Heart of Gold and Jerk with a Heart of Jerk in different story arcs, but is mostly just a jerk. In the Battle City arc, he is more obnoxious as he constantly makes his declaration of him being the number one duelist much to other character's annoyance even his little brother. His absolute mastery of the Good Is Not Nice trope allows Kaiba to avoid needing excessive Pet the Dog moments, be as much of an asshole as he wants and never really become any nicer as the story goes on, and still remain fundamentally on the good side, as plot points will routinely put him into alliances with Yugi's group.
• Jerkass Has a Point:
  • During Duelist Kingdom, while his disdain for Jounouchi really isn't fair, Kaiba is right that Jounouchi isn't much of a duelist at this point; his deck is a mish-mash of cards with no strategy behind it, most of his wins were due to dumb luck or Yugi helping him, and he'd lost that too without Time Wizard, which Yugi gave him on the ride to the island. Even Jounouchi's trump card, the Red Eyes Black Dragon, was only given to him because Ryozaki grabbed the Idiot Ball and bet it in an attempt at winning the Time Wizard during their duel, which Jounouchi forgot he even put on the field! Of course Jounochi has barely started playing for real and has little access to power cards due to lack of money the way Kaiba or any other major duelist does even well into the series.
  • During the Battle City arc, he warns Yugi that if Marik can brainwash people, he'll use that power on Jonouchi to make them fight each other, claiming that's what he would do in Marik's position. Soon after this warning, Kaiba gets proven right as both Jonouchi and Anzu have been brainwashed by Marik, which leads to Yugi's deathmatch with Jonouchi at Domino Pier.
  • During his second Duel against Amelda (Alister in the 4Kids version) during the Doma Arc, he eventually calls out Amelda as a Hypocrite and Sore Loser for allowing himself to be consumed by hatred to the extent that he's willing to purge all of humanity if it means avenging his little brother's death in the war, which would, in turn, result in the deaths of many little brothers the world over. In the 4Kids version, he instead calls out Alister for his Never My Fault complex, explaining that it was his duty as a big brother to protect his little brother during the war, and he failed, so he has no right to be angry at the one responsible without also taking accountability for failing to protect him. Original or dub, Kaiba's accusations are cold^note and could potentially be hypocritical if he were to experience what Amelda had to suffer through, but he's right.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Seto may be mean and ruthless, even cruel, but he loves his little brother, Mokuba more than anyone or anything in the world, and has a soft spot for children; he doesn't take it well either if children are hurt.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Does this a few times, usually to Jonouchi. In the manga, he repeatedly mocks him as a commoner, a worthless duelist, and a waste of space to the point where he waits until he's sure Jonouchi drowned before dropping the key to save him during the deathmatch duel. And this was after the Mind Crush.
  • In the four-way duel between himself, Yugi, Jonouchi, and Marik, Jonouchi's Gearfried the Iron Knight gets hit by one of Kaiba's trap card, shrinking it in size and cutting its attack in half... making it easy pickings for Marik's monster. The kicker? Jonouchi wasn't even attacking Kaiba on his turn. Kaiba's Evil Laugh is the epitome of It Amused Me.
• King of Games: The story informs us of his prowess in gaming which rivals Yugi, with his high scores on every arcade machine at the Domino Arcade, which are connected to every arcade machine in Japan. The game that he takes the most interest in and shows the most skill in is Duel Monsters.
• Lack of Empathy:
  • Pre-Heel–Face Turn of course, but also later, occasionally. One of the worst examples was during Battle City, where he was more concerned with continuing his tournament and gathering the God Cards than getting help for the seriously injured contestants. Further, after Amelda tells his story about how he lost his little brother to Gozaburo's weapons, Kaiba's only response is to give him a "Reason You Suck" Speech about even letting that happen, and assert that in his situation he would have saved Mokuba.
  • In the dub, he has a Kick the Dog moment towards his past incarnate. While he’s stuck in the past, he firmly believes it’s all a dream, but Atem points out to trying telling that to Priest Seto while he’s mourning Kisara. But Kaiba coldly asks Atem if he’s suppose to feel bad because a guy who looked like him had just lost his girlfriend.
• Large and in Charge: He was actually made taller after his initial manga appearance to reflect the rest of his character.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Kaiba losing to Yugi in the Battle City Finals counts as this as he was being rather arrogantly obnoxious throughout the whole tournament thinking he has it in the bag, had no concern for the injured duelists well-being, and did a cruel moment to Jonouchi before the match-up. To elaborate further, he loses his Egyptian God Card and his chance of being a champion in his own tournament that was only designed for him to win from the guy he thought that he could easily win against with his supposed 'perfect' strategy.
• Last-Name Basis: Almost everyone is on a last-name basis with Kaiba, and he's on one with everyone but Yugi. In the Japanese versions, Ishizu, the Big Five and his employees refer to him by his given name, but in the 4Kids version, they call him by his last name as well.
• Leitmotif: The dub gives him a recurring theme that plays most prominently when he's performing Hollywood Hacking or something similar. It even plays during his cameo in GX.
• Let the Past Burn: This was his plan for Battle City, destroying his father's island and (attempting to) reclaim his title from Yugi. It's practically his way of life: if there is anything tying him down, be it a grudge, a favor, or even the most meager stain on his pride, he will go out of his way to rectify it with an unhealthy and ruthless obsession. This causes a lot of problems with anyone bringing up his Egyptian incarnation because as far as he's concerned, it's not his problem and can stay the hell out of his life.
  • By the Battle City Finals, he cites this as the reason he's so obsessed with defeating Yugi, besides reclaiming his title. He sees Dark Yugi's desire to reclaim his lost past as an ultimately futile effort that will keep him from moving forward as he himself does, forgetting that before the Nameless Pharaoh can move on, whether in life or into the afterlife, he needs to know who he is. His obsession with destroying all traces of his past begins to worry Mokuba during the duel as the elder brother gives the impression that the good times the two did have, in the orphanage before Gozaburo ever came into the picture, weren't worth cherishing.
  • At the same time, his attempts at actually doing this fails because for all of Kaiba's posturing, he's among the most motivated by his past. He's unable to genuinely move forward because he's still driven by the pain caused by Gozaburo and his defeats to Yugi. As such, his attempts at trying to ignore his past for the future comes off more as him trying to run away from his problems or pain rather than face it.
  • The manga film The Dark Side of Dimensions has the plot be driven by Kaiba's obsession to resurrect Atem after the latter has finally passed on to the afterlife, going so far as to excavate the Millennium Puzzle, as well as successfully create technology that is implied to allow him to reach beyond the living realm.
• Light 'em Up: His main cards, namely the Blue-Eyes and XYZ cards, are Light attribute.
• Light Is Not Good: The overall white color motif and tendency to use LIGHT attribute monsters fool is a direct contrast to Dark Yugi, but Kaiba is the more sinister of the two by far, even before the latter's Character Development. He eventually mellows out, but is still an Unscrupulous Hero at best.
• Magic from Technology: Creates the holographic dueling technology to replicate the magic of the Shadow Game he fought with Yugi. By Dark Side Of Dimensions his dueling technology has become so advanced it is actually on par with Aigami's Quantum Cube and able to repel it.
• The Magic Poker Equation: His incredible card drawing luck is second only to the Pharaoh himself (who can quite literally control fate to draw any card he needs). Several times he either has ridiculously good starter hands, or draws exactly the card he needs when his back is against the wall. It's even played with when he throws a card from the top of his deck to disarm a Rare Hunter, praying that it's not a valuable card... yet it ends up being a Blue Eyes.
• Magic Versus Science: 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' Millennium Eye by developing the Duel Disk (although Pegasus didn't actually let him use it). In Dark Side of Dimensions, he even manages to block off Aigami's abilities with his technological gadgets!
• Manchild: He can fall into this through obsessing over being the best at games like Duel Monsters, bullying and talking down to people particularly Jonouchi, refusing to move on from the past until he delivers a defeat to his enemies to satisfy his lust for power and his reputation, and he also has childish arrogance of where he frequently boasts about his successes saying that he never needed help from anyone and doesn't rely on anyone to succeed even though he gets help from people all the time like Mokuba and his KaibaCorp employees.
• Manipulative Bastard: On occasion. Really shows it off against Mask of Light and Mask of Darkness, where he tricks them into fighting each other to win.
• Meaningful Name: Seto. Besides meaning "seahorse" in Japanese, it's also similar to "Set/Seth", the ancient Egyptian god of storms and chaos who was the rival to the god Horus; Egyptian pharaohs were considered to be the avatar/personification of Horus on Earth.
• Moral Sociopathy: Kaiba is virtually incapable of feeling empathy for anyone besides Mokuba. Not even Amelda, who lost his own little brother to war, can invoke much sympathy from Kaiba. However, Kaiba certainly has a strong sense of honor when it comes to duels, despises conflict for any reason besides measuring your own strength, and has a vision to make the world better.
• Munchkin: An In-Universe example. He'll do what he can to claim victory, no matter the cost.
• Narcissist: In appearance. Kazuki Takahashi claimed in an interview he presents this image to try and combat his severe self-hatred after Gozaburo's death.
• Nay-Theist: In the manga and the Japanese dub, his dismissal of the supernatural occurrences around him aren't because he doesn't believe in them, but because he scoffs at the idea of his destiny being in anyone's hands but his own. He is also convinced that everyone has (or should have) something they believe in even stronger than any gods.
  • Nothing exemplifies this better than when he sacrifices a God card to summon his beloved Blue Eyes, leaving everyone from Yugi to Marik absolutely stunned.
• New Transfer Student: His manner of introduction, except in the second anime adaptation.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: His fanatical research into the power of Duel Monsters (sending cards into space, studying Duel Energy, etc.) so as to find a way to defeat his rival causes the game to mutate into increasingly catastrophic forms as shown in the subsequent shows in the franchise. Although, his holographic tech deal with Pegasus was initially just a lucrative business deal to enhance a trading card game he was fond of.
• Nice to the Waiter: Although he's an asshole to everyone else, Kaiba treats his employees with cold, polite professionalism. For him, that's being civil. Averted in the 4Kids version of the movies. In the Pyramid of Light, he fires his technicians for failing to find a strategy to beat the God Cards. In The Dark Side of Dimensions, he tells his technicians to fire whoever designed a Kaiba Corp water bottle because it bent too easily in his grip.
• Nightmare Fetishist: In the manga, he's the first person Dark Yugi drags into a Shadow Game that actually enjoys all the creepiness going on around him.
• Noble Demon: Exemplified in Battle City, where he was willing to allow games of varying lethality, but the one duel he demanded to be stopped was one where it was rigged so a player would die no matter what.

O-S

• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Happens in Pyramid Of Light. He’s gotten so desperate to find a way to defeat Yugi, he challenges Pegasus to a duel and doesn’t hesitate to wager all three of his Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards in exchange for a card that can beat Yugi’s Egyptian God Cards. Pegasus even lampshades his desperation as out of character.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: His rivalry with Yami Yugi is one of the strongest examples of this trope ever. He even says this nearly word-for-word in the manga spin-off Yu-Gi-Oh! R. When he finds out Yugi lost to Raphael in the Doma arc, he absolutely loses it. In the DSoD movie, his obsession with dueling the Pharaoh leads him to literally enter the afterlife.
• Offscreen Inertia: Since the Toei anime was canceled before Kaiba's heart could be pieced back together, that version of him has been in a coma since 1998.
• Only Sane Man: The dub subverted this as he thinks there's a logical explanation for the mystical adventures, but really, he's completely skeptical and denies a deeper meaning behind it.
• Orphanage of Fear: He grew up with Mokuba in an orphanage, which may not have been that bad, but he did feel compelled to win his way out in a game of chess.
• Papa Wolf: Kaiba will let nothing stop him from helping Mokuba, especially in the anime.
• Perpetual Frowner: When he's not a Smug Smiler, which is an improvement to his Stepford Smiler and Slasher Smile he used to put on.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Even at his worst (early manga antagonist), he seemed to adore children and wanted to give a safe and fun place for orphans to forget about their troubles.
  • After four seasons of not giving Joey any respect, Kaiba finally allowed him to compete in the KC Grand Championship.
• Plague Master: Kaiba's use of the various virus cards is able to weaken his opponents' monsters, prevent them from using stronger monsters, or mill their deck to the point of decking out.
• Playful Hacker: As shown in the Duel Monsters anime, when he broke into Pegasus' database.
• Poor, Predictable Rock: Kaiba's strategies tend to be very predictable, and once you've seen them, you know what he is trying to do the next time, meaning that only a reckless duelist like Jonouchi would fall for them even after witnessing them.
  • In Duelist Kingdom, Pegasus uses the Crush Card Virus strategy against Kaiba. While Pegasus has the clear advantage with Mind Scan, Kaiba's over-reliance on powerful monsters is something that he's well-known for and it becomes his downfall.
  • In the Virtual World Filler Arc, Daimon chooses Psycho Shocker as his Deck Master, knowing that it would counter Kaiba's Crush Card Virus strategy.
  • In the semi-finals of Battle City, Dark Yugi knows what Kaiba is going to do, especially when Kaiba forces them to discard most of their decks until both of them have three cards left. Dark Yugi choosing "Fusion Cancel"/"De-Fusion" as one of his three cards is in anticipation of Kaiba's Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon, something that Kaiba does indeed summon.
• Power Equals Rarity: The epitome of this trope. Prides himself on his collection in both respects, and cannot accept the thought of a duelist he deems mediocre owning any rare and powerful cards, and rather circularly, that anyone who plays weak monsters isn't a serious duelist. The 4Kids dub of the Duel Monsters anime also makes it his motto before his defeat to Yugi where he claims "Cards are power".
• The Power of Hate: He claims his hatred of Yugi and Gozaburo is what drives him to be the best, by crushing both their legacies beneath his own. Deconstructed when Dark Yugi points out what a hollow and pitiful kind of life that is, and indeed, Kaiba seems to be rather miserable in his personal life, aside from being a misanthrope towards others.
• Pride: Seto Kaiba's ego is his worst enemy some days. This is best exemplified by his use of the game-ending cards Last Turn^note : a card which decides the outcome of the duel on a battle between two monsters and Final Attack Orders^note in the show, it forces both players to choose only three cards to keep in their deck, assuming Blue-Eyes would be enough to overpower anything. Naturally, he loses in both cases because he was overpowered.
• Privileged Rival: He's the richest person on the planet, making him better equipped than any of his opponents.
• Progressively Prettier: When he first appeared in the manga, Kaiba had a notably creepy design, until he's drawn to be much sharper in the later volumes.
• Promotion to Parent: He raised Mokuba after their parents died, and protected him from the worst of what Gozaburo put him through.
• The Proud Elite: Rich, intelligent, master of games, and won't let anyone forget it.
• Psychopathic Manchild: He retains his ferocious obsession with gaming well into his adult years.
• Punny Name: "Seto Kaiba" is awfully similar to the Japanese word for "student council" or "student council president", "seitokai". Appropriate, as he can resemble some of the more negative examples of a haughty Student Council President.
• Put on a Bus: In the manga, both Kaiba and Mokuba leave the story after Battle City and don't take part in the Millennium World arc, though 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 Millennium World, but also the anime-only Doma and KC Grand Prix arcs.
• Rage Quit: After losing to Yugi in Battle City and failing to resolve his daddy issues, he decides the best way to get rid of the problem is to sink the Duel Tower to the bottom of the ocean before Yugi and Marik even have their duel, thus prematurely end the tournament out of spite. Luckily, Mokuba talks him out of it and he decides to help Yugi win the match before blowing it up.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives them constantly, to heroes and villains alike, especially in the anime. In the Virtual World arc, his one to Noah lasts for half an episode and is awesome. In the Doma arc, his one to Amelda marked the first time someone finally shut the Doma guys up about the whole "healing the world through extermination" thing.
• Red-Flag Recreation Material: The first episode features Kaiba, still in full-villain mode, reading Also sprach Zarathustra. Interestingly, one can argue that even after the bulk of his Heel–Face Turn character development he never quite sheds his dreams of being a sort of Übermensch.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue oni to Jonouchi's red and the red oni to Dark Yugi's blue. He's far less impulsive and much more intelligent than Jonouchi, but compared to Dark Yugi, his pride and stubborn attitude often leads him to take drastic actions without thinking things through.
• Reformed, but Not Tamed: After the Mind Crush, he no longer has sadistic or murderous impulses, and no longer despises Yugi, but he never, never stops being as colossal a Jerkass as humanly possible, refusing to apologize for Death-T despite now knowing it was wrong. His continued behavior after Duelist Kingdom (which is otherwise a redemption arc for him) implies that being a jerk is just in Seto’s nature, and if he ever apologized for his behavior he just wouldn’t be Kaiba anymore.
• Reincarnation: Of Priest Seto, later known as Pharaoh Seto.
• Reincarnation Romance: Priest Seto and Kisara's relationship is the defining episode for the relationship between present-day Kaiba and his Blue-Eyes White Dragon. More of this was planned in the manga than was shown, but it's still hinted at how obsessively Kaiba loves the card.
• The Resenter: He dislikes Yugi and Yugi's friends, considering their offers of friendship weak. Stems from his Freudian Excuse and Nietzschean mindset, preferring to work for his success.
• Revenge Before Reason: He pours trillions of yen into developing new technology, hosting costly sporting events, and seeking out rare cards all because...one of his classmates beat him at a trading card game.
• Rich Bitch: Or Rich Bastard, rather. He's a ludicrously wealthy CEO, and treats everyone not named Mokuba with cold contempt at best and outright cruelty at worst. Exaggerated in the 4Kids version, which gives him snarky one-liners about firing employees that he never had in the original.
• Riddle for the Ages: In the manga, what methods did Kaiba do to cheat in his chess game against Gozaburo, who is regarded as the national chess champion in Japan?
• The Rival: Kaiba is Yugi's (or rather Yami Yugi's, especially in the manga continuity) main rival, and refuses to let anyone but himself defeat him. He's obsessed of defeating Yami Yugi and become the King of Duel Monsters, having designed Death-T and organized Battle City for the purpose of killing/defeating Yami Yugi. In DSOD, Kaiba goes so far that he spends tons of money in technology that would allow him to duel Yami Yugi again, even going to the afterlife just to challenge him.
• Rivals Team Up: Usually when he does so, it's because he's facing off against a common enemy. His team-up with Yugi in Battle City is particularly noteworthy, as they both just recently received their God Cards and proceed to absolutely tear through the Rare Hunters that try to stall them.
• Sanity Slippage: In Transcend Game, Kaiba uses his technology in an attempt to reach the departed Atem without much care for the fact the effort might kill him.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: Wore his school uniform during his first appearance, before it was replaced with his Kaiba Corporation white-collared outfit for the Death-T arc; the Toei anime had him wear the transfer uniform all the time. In the first anime episode and flashbacks, he is seen wearing his white school uniform and walking away from his first monetary triumph in a prototype of his first Badass Longcoat. Averted in the present day where he hardly ever wears it.
• Screw Destiny: Notably in his duel against Ishizu. He's more of a believer in free will than in fate.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Trope coined by his character in Abridged, and used by him throughout the original series. For a specific instance, in an anime Filler Arc, he walks onto a car lot, jumps in the first car Mokuba picks out, and when confronted by a clerk casually writes him a check for $500,000, telling him to keep the change as he drives off.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: He lets Rare Hunter continue his duel against Yugi (despite going against the tournament rules) out of pure spite^note At least in the 4Kids version; in the original, he allowed it because he was confident Yugi would win. Mokuba is not amused by this.
• Self-Made Orphan: Killed his adoptive father in the manga. In the anime, Gozaburo manages to escape and makes a comeback as a Filler Villain... and is killed when Kaiba and the others leave him trapped in his self-destructing virtual world.
• Self-Made Man: Believes he is one. Largely the reason for his particular disdain for Jonouchi, who he believes doesn't work hard enough and relies too much on luck to stand alongside himself or Yugi.
• Self-Serving Memory: Also overlaps with I Reject Your Reality. In his test duel where he uses Obelisk the first time, he recounts the duel with Yugi where he used his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon and claims that even Yugi couldn't beat it, though Yugi already had him beat and Kaiba only won through an unfair move in the end.
• Serious Business: Even by the series' standards, Seto Kaiba 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 and is more than willing to accept life-or-death stakes when it comes to duels. As if that wasn't enough, the fact that human society in the Yu-Gi-Oh verse runs on card games (especially in the sequel series'), can largely be traced back to Kaiba's continuous efforts to make it so, including sending cards into space to teach alien life how to duel.
• Ship Tease: With Kisara and Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Dishes these out quite frequently. The villainous monologues in this show frequently aim to show Kaiba just what bad guy he is. Unfortunately for them, Kaiba couldn't give less of a crap.
  • While Dartz uses the souls of Yugi's posse as meat shields in his duel, he gives a Hannibal Lecture 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.
  • When Zigfried rants about how he's going to take revenge on him because Kaiba "picked a fight", Kaiba quite literally tells him that he doesn't care and their supposed 'rivalry' means nothing to him.
• Signature Mon: Unlike Yugi, who wins with what he can, Kaiba can't go a single duel without bringing out his Blue-Eyes White Dragon monsters in one form or another. During Battle City, Obelisk also served as his Signature Card. In terms of theming, Kaiba favors Dragons above all other Monster Types.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: In the 4Kids version, Kaiba's hatred for Katsuya Jonouchi/Joey Wheeler is even more extreme and is often Played for Laughs at Jonouchi's expense.
  Kaiba: "...and anyone who's late for registration will be disqualified. Mokuba, make sure Wheeler's late."^note Keep in mind, Jonouchi is right next to him when he says this. And as pointed out by Yu Gi Oh The Abridged Series, this dub line change doesn't make any sense, due to the fact that there is no registration at all, and Jonouchi was an invited participant.
• Slobs Versus Snobs: Is the Snob (rich, privileged in every material sense, elitist, cold and arrogant) to Jonouchi's Slob (lower-class, less privileged but scrappy, hot-headed but more friendly).
• The Smart Guy: Whenever he sides with the gang in the anime's Filler Arcs.
• Smart People Play Chess: Among his other gaming achievements, his victory in chess over Gozaburo as a young orphan was what convinced the latter to adopt him as his heir.
• Smug Smiler: So very much.
• Smug Snake: Especially prior to his Heel–Face Turn. 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.
• Smug Super: Post Heel–Face Turn. Kaiba still remains as insufferably egotistical as ever.
• Sociopathic Hero: 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 Mokuba that Seto still has a pang of conscience that prevents him from becoming a full-blown sociopath.
• Sore Loser: He doesn't take losing well at all. One of the most significant examples would be when he faces off against Yugi during the Battle City tournament where he believes he was robbed of his "rightful" victory. As far as he's concerned, the only option is victory. And the only allies... are enemies.
• The Spock: Not only is he intensely logical, but he also has the emotional range of a brick.
• Starter Villain Stays: Played with in the original anime; there he's the first opponent Yugi faces unlike the manga, however is still just as obsesssed with proving himself as the better duelist after being beaten by him. He doesn't stay a villain though, eventually maturing into a Anti-Hero rival.
• Stock Shōnen Rival: One of the most iconic examples. Cynical, aloof, rich, proud of his accomplishments, and has no patience for things like "having fun" or "relying on others."
• The Stoic: Particularly in the anime.
• "Stop Having Fun" Guys: Invoked to the max. Jonouchi even lampshades this near the conclusion of their rematch in the anime. He was inspired by a real-life person Kazuki Takahashi's friend met. A said friend asked him if he could teach him how to play a card game, to which he replied, "Hmph! Come back when you've collected 10,000 cards."
• Straw Nihilist: Especially in the manga, where he has a couple of Nietzsche-themed lectures to anyone who doesn't share his mentality. He's seen reading Nietzsche's Also Sprach Zarathustra in the first episode of the anime. That being said, he reveals himself more and more to be a dark version of The Anti-Nihilist, meaning he's a far more accurate embodiment of Nietzschean philosophy than being a Straw Nihilist. He's got a strong code of honor and ethics and ultimately does wish to make the world a happier place. It's the reason why he changed KaibaCorp from an arms dealer to a gaming and entertainment company. As for his dismissal of relying on others, which forms the basis of his antagonism with Yugi's group, he does see some merit to their form of strength, even if he doesn't agree with it. In particular, his antagonism towards Jonouchi is due to his disdain towards the latter's reliance on luck. As for the supernatural shenanigans, unlike what the Flat-Earth Atheist of the dub, Kaiba recognizes their existence, but wants nothing to do with it, especially if he feels they're trying to dictate his fate, but is not above capitalizing these forces if he has to.
• Strong and Skilled: This is the defining idea of his strategy, post-Death-T: he's only Unskilled, but Strong in relation to Yugi. Much of what makes Kaiba dangerous is that, while he's a beatdown player at heart, he's far cleverer and more strategic than other beatdown players like Ryuzaki or Keith. Several of his duels involve him trying to attack the opponent from multiple angles—usually crippling their Decks with viruses before bringing out his big guns. He's also rather good at coming up with counter-strategies, and despite favoring Awesome, but Impractical strategies, he tends to execute them pretty reliably.
• Sufficiently Analyzed Magic: Once he comes to accept it as a force in the universe, Kaiba chooses to approach the universe's magic like this, using his technology to turn his duel disks into a super advanced Magical Accessory in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions. Not only is he able to outright counter the magical artifact the antagonist of the movie tries to use against him with it, he later manages to send his consciousness to the Pharaoh's afterlife just so he can duel him in person again.
• Superior Successor: Kaiba Corp has reached far greater heights as a gaming and entertainment company under Seto than it ever did under the borderline supervillainous Gozaburo.

T-Y

• Took a Level in Kindness:
  • Downplayed, but it's there. When Yami Yugi uses a Penalty Game to shatter his soul in an image of a puzzle while in a coma so that his child self can repair it, his methods are less extreme than what they used to in the manga where he goes out of his way to create deathmatches for Yugi and his friends (but being fair about it), and even invokes a Penalty Game on Mokuba. After restoring his soul in Duelist Kingdom, he is extremely reluctant to help Yugi and his friends (especially helping Jonouchi retrieve his key by dropping it in the pier for him), and even help them get off Pegasus' island after Yugi wins the tournament. He's still an asshole, but not at the same level he used to be since Death-T, but still a loving brother to Mokuba the latter remembers him being.
  • The second anime has the same idea across, but without the Penalty Game-induced coma. He's still a reluctant ally to Yugi and his friends, but his rivalry and superiority to Yugi is what he still cares about, but is willing to fight on his side against even worse enemies than him.
• Too Clever by Half: He considers his deck to be unbeatable. He's stacked it with really strong cards. He executes his strategies with care. And still, he wonders where he goes wrong.
• Too Dumb to Live: In the Dark Side of Dimensions prequel manga, Seto is so focused on seeing and dueling Atem that he listens to Sera and tries to break into the afterlife using nothing but his own brainwaves and without any sort of protection. It would have killed him if Mokuba hadn't intervened.
• Transfer Student Uniforms: He wears an all-white one in his first appearances in the Toei anime.
• Trash Talk: He does this to a lot of people, especially to those he particularly dislikes.
• Truer to the Text: The 4Kids version turning up his snarkiness and jerkish behavior is closer to the manga in some respects, while the anime portrayed him as more of a hero and worthy rival than an anti-hero.
• 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. It gets quite laughable in the Battle City arc, when he literally spends resources to locate Yugi's friends, only to insist to Yugi that he's only doing it to crush the Rare Hunters. That's not even getting into how obsessed he is with Yugi himself.
• Tsurime Eyes: One of, if not the only, teenage main characters to always have these going on.
• Übermensch: Kaiba has his own morals which have some Nietzschean overtones such as strength mattering more than anything, and believes so firmly in it that he is mostly unimpressed by anyone else's moral speeches, be they a hero or villain. He also has a vision for the future which is more fleshed out in The Dark Side of Dimensions movie: He basically aims to overcome things like race and ideologies by making the entire world run on card games. And, if one looks at the various spin-off sequels, it is clear that he succeeds.
• The Unapologetic: Kaiba has attempted to murder all of the main characters in the early manga, abused his younger brother, and driven an old man to a heart attack. He's apologized for none of it. Presumably, this is because apologizing or admitting wrongdoing is a sign of weakness to him, as the manga shows he recognizes how bad Death-T was when he's appalled by Marik's death game at the pier. This has not gone unnoticed In-Universe: while Kaiba was Easily Forgiven by everyone else, Jonouchi has never let Kaiba live it down, as late in the series as The Dark Side of Dimensions.
• Undying Loyalty: To Mokuba, most obviously, but also to the Blue-Eyes White Dragon archetype in spite of in-universe Power Creep producing seemingly mightier cards.
• Ungrateful Bastard: He only grudging thanks Yugi for saving him at times, and doesn't acknowledge anyone else.
• Unknown Rival: Played with. Yami and Yugi consider Kaiba to be a superb duelist but don't take their "rivalry" with him as seriously as he does, often getting annoyed when he performs reckless actions that endanger the world for the sake of a rematch.
• Unscrupulous Hero: Kaiba largely has good goals and wants to make the world a better place with his company, but is completely ruthless when it comes to defeating enemies. To Kaiba, opponents are simply something that needs to be stomped into submission, deaths from Shadow Duels are considered honorable, and necessary sacrifices don't deserve any pity.
• Unstoppable Rage: Often, this renders him vulnerable in duels since it clouds his judgment.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: As shown in a few flashbacks, and stated by Mokuba, Kaiba was a much nicer person back at the orphanage, but over the years, Gozaburo's abuse and cruel education twisted him into a ruthless sociopath. About the only part of him that Gozaburo didn't manage to corrupt was his vision for Kaiba Corp, as despite every horrible thing Kaiba did pre-Duelist Kingdom, he still converted the company from a weapons manufacturer to a toy and games company.
• Unskilled, but Strong: Especially in the early days, Kaiba prefers to crush his opponents with brute strength and powerful monsters, and most of his supportive cards are meant to power up his monsters more or inhibit his opponent's ability to defend themselves. Though he becomes more strategic as time goes on, he remains a beatdown player with his primary focus on being to summon high-level monsters with high ATK — Judge Man, XYZ-Dragon Cannon, Twin-Headed Thunder Dragon, Vorse Raider, Chaos Emperor Dragon, and of course, his beloved Blue-Eyes and its variants.
• Unwitting Pawn: The show's outright villains savvily use Kaiba's bullheaded obsession with beating Yugi to either use the guy as a blunt instrument against the Pharaoh or as a means of distracting Kaiba himself so they can sabotage him.
• Villain of the Week: He was this in his debut before becoming one of the recurring characters and developing into an anti-hero.
• Villain Protagonist: He's the focal character in The Dark Side of Dimensions and an antagonist towards Yugi.
• Villainous BSoD: Following the first episode of the Duel Monsters anime, after his defeat to Yugi he starts to question his motivations and goals as he realizes power alone isn't enough to beat him - enough for him to leave his company and his little brother unattended.
• When He Smiles: He is normally the least gleeful of the main cast, especially in the anime. However, he has a few rare moments where he genuinely smiles, mostly in his childhood and when helping Mokuba.
• The Wonka: He's a bizarre and dark take on it. He's basically a teenager later young man who treats gaming as absolute Serious Business and applies his "winner take all" philosophy from his games to life. He also endures Training from Hell to inherit a large arms corporation which he turns into a MegaCorp all from the love of his game and inventing futuristic machines and technologies for the game. Plus, he made amusement parks, runs charities and a good chunk of his stuff (including his plane) is shaped by the Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
• The Worf Barrage: Despite being feared as a card that can singlehandedly ensure his victory, his Crush Card doesn't work more often than it does. Across the various adaptations and spin-offs, he tries to employ it almost a dozen times but is only able to actually use it three times. And two of those three times, Yugi found ways to strategize around it and Ishizu flipped its effect to her advantage; they lost for entirely unrelated reasons. However, given that it is such a dangerous card, it's understandable why his opponents would make a point to not let him use it if they know it's coming.
• The Worf Effect: His Shadow Game duel against Pegasus is to remind fans just how severely Pegasus's Millennium Eye rigs the match in his favor, turning Kaiba's moves against him left and right. The cast lampshades this in the English anime, noting Pegasus likely had them watch the duel as intimidation.
• Worf Had the Flu: His losses to anyone but Yugi can be seen as this. Pegasus' Millennium 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.
• World's Best Warrior: Well, replace the "warrior" with "gamer". Shortly before Death-T in the manga, Yugi and Jonouchi go to an arcade and check the high scores on a number of machines. Every single one has the top scorer's initials as "KAI". It's a plot point that Kaiba's reputation as the world's best gamer was a big reason since Yugi manages to defeat all three Egyptian God cards with more mundane cards.
• Worthy Opponent: Sees Yugi as this. Whatever differences they may have, Kaiba genuinely respects Yugi's dueling skills and usually has complete confidence that Yugi will beat his opponents (this is downplayed in 4Kids version).
• You Shall Not Pass!: Anime-only; he and his Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon do it to Zorc in the Memory World RPG, engaging the God of Evil and slowing his advance on the city. He also throws up a Ring of Defense at the very end to buy the last bit of time Yugi and his friends need to deliver the Pharaoh's name to him.
• Younger Than They Look: Compare to how he was first seen in the manga and Toei anime, Kaiba looks more like a young adult in the second anime series due to his character design, along with scenic shots of his naturally tall height.

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Such nonsense!