I can't be the only one who notices that Kaiba and Joey from Yu-Gi-Oh! are incredibly similar. They have so much in common: They both have backgrounds in poverty, they both suffered under an abusive father, they both have a younger sibling who they'd do anything for, and both of them have a Color-Eyes Color Dragon card in their Deck. So why is Kaiba such an asshole to Joey? The odd thing is, if you watch Joey and Kaiba's first Duel in Duelist Kingdom, Kaiba doesn't seem that antagonistic towards Joey at all (at least going from Eric Stuart's delivery of Kaiba's lines). Fast-forward to their second Duel after their respective Duels in the Battle City finals; Kaiba is just mercilessly beating Joey down, and to me at least, for no good reason. That antagonism has to come from somewhere, unless it's just Eric Stuart being overzealous in delivering Kaiba's lines.
Leaving aside the reason that Kaiba is just an asshole in general, I have an alternative theory: Kaiba doesn't like Joey not because of his lackluster Dueling skill, but because Joey unconsciously reminds him of where he came from, and since Kaiba did everything he could to get out of poverty, he feels like he has to beat Joey down in order to prove to himself that he at least won't ever end up like that again, and mocks Joey because unlike Kaiba, Joey still lives in poverty and hasn't gotten out of it yet. In a way, it's as if they're foils of each other in regards to one crucial thing: Choosing between poverty and the influence of an abusive father, it's clear Joey was able to escape the latter while not the former, while Kaiba was able to escape the former but not the latter. I kind of feel like Takahashi wasted a perfectly good plot here with the potential parallels between them.
I can't be the only one who notices that Kaiba and Joey from Yu-Gi-Oh! are incredibly similar. They have so much in common: They both have backgrounds in poverty, they both suffered under an abusive father, they both have a younger sibling who they'd do anything for, and both of them have a Color-Eyes Color Dragon card in their Deck. So why is Kaiba such an asshole to Joey? The odd thing is, if you watch Joey and Kaiba's first Duel in Duelist Kingdom, Kaiba doesn't seem that antagonistic towards Joey at all (at least going from Eric Stuart's delivery of Kaiba's lines). Fast-forward to their second Duel after their respective Duels in the Battle City finals; Kaiba is just mercilessly beating Joey down, and to me at least, for no good reason. That antagonism has to come from somewhere, unless it's just Eric Stuart being overzealous in delivering Kaiba's lines.
Leaving aside the reason that Kaiba is just an asshole in general, I have an alternative theory: Kaiba doesn't like Joey not because of his lackluster Dueling skill, but because Joey unconsciously reminds him of where he came from, and since Kaiba did everything he could to get out of poverty, he feels like he has to beat Joey down in order to prove to himself that he at least won't ever end up like that again, and mocks Joey because unlike Kaiba, Joey still lives in poverty and hasn't gotten out of it yet. In a way, it's as if they're foils of each other in regards to one crucial thing: Choosing between poverty and the influence of an abusive father, it's clear Joey was able to escape the latter while not the former, while Kaiba was able to escape the former but not the latter. I kind of feel like Takahashi wasted a perfectly good plot here with the potential parallels between them.
edited 9th Aug '17 9:46:08 PM by SirHandel3