Out of all the characters in Yu-Gi-Oh!, no one has left such a significant mark on the franchise than Seto Kaiba. He's more than your typical anime rival. He's a brilliant inventor. A highly-skilled player. A wealthy entrepreneur. And a grade-A jerk you love to hate.
Kaiba may have failed to defeat Yugi Moto in Duel Monsters (without a threat of suicide), but he always keeps the King of Games on his toes. Despite teaming up with Yugi and his friends in the past, Kaiba never becomes another "good guy" that cheers on from the sidelines. The only friends he needs are his Blue-Eyes White Dragons and his little brother Mokuba. Here are Seto Kaiba's most badass moments in Yu-Gi-Oh! We are sticking with only scenes that were dubbed into English so nothing with guns here.
10 Saving Tea's Life With His Mad Card Skills
Eat your heart out, Gambit. Not only is Kaiba an excellent duelist, but he's also a top-notch marksman... as long as his weapon of choice is a children's trading card. During the mind-controlled Joey Wheeler vs. Yugi match in Battle City, Kaiba saved Tea Gardner's life from the insidious deathtrap that Marik Ishtar placed her in.
First, he knocked out the Rare Hunter goon operating the crane that held a crate above Tea's head with his Blue-Eyes White Dragon card, then he tipped over the crane itself with his AI-controlled helicopter, so Tea could escape unharmed.
9 Defeating Joey In A Humiliating Duel
Kaiba might be a jerk, but his deck is still top-notch. Joey found that out the hard way in his first duel with Kaiba at the Duelist Kingdom. Annoyed by the cold shoulder Kaiba showed Yugi and his friends, Joey hastily challenged Kaiba to a duel.
Kaiba accepted Joey's challenge, as the duel provided the perfect opportunity to test out his new portable Duel Disk system. Every monster Joey summoned against Kaiba was easily defeated by his Rabid Horseman, and when Joey finally summoned his pride and joy, the Red-Eyes Black Dragon, it was quickly defeated by Kaiba's Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Joey lost fast and hard. The beating was so brutal he even had nightmares about it in the next episode.
8 Helping Yugi Defeat... Himself?!?!
Even though Yugi stipped Kaiba of the title of Duel Monsters World Champion, Kaiba still helped Yugi out when he needed it the most in Duelist Kingdom. After ordering an attack on Kaiba and presuming him dead, Maximillion Pegasus stole Kaiba's deck and assigned it to one of his Player Killer duelists to defeat Yugi with.
As if stealing Kaiba's desk wasn't enough, Pegasus had the Mimic Of Doom masquerade as Kaiba to psyche Yugi out throughout the match. Naturally, this didn't sit well with Kaiba. After surviving Pegasus' assassination attempt, Kaiba infiltrated the Duelist Kingdom tournament and hacked Pegasus' control system to help Yugi win his duel. And he had to destroy his own Blue Eyes card to do it.
7 Defeating Destiny
Seto Kaiba has never been one to dwell on the past, nor is he one to let others dictate his future. That philosophy came into play in his duel against Ishizu Ishtar in the Battle City semi-finals.
Ishizu allowed Kaiba to get cocky throughout their match; believing his fate was sealed. Her vision saw Kaiba lose horrifically, after Obelisk the Tormentor was destroyed by her trap card. However, thanks to the power of the Millenium Rod, Kaiba had a vision. Kaiba briefly saw his past Egyptian life as an ancient priest, holding a mysterious woman in front of a stone tablet that depicted the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. The shocking vision convinced Kaiba to change his strategy and win with Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
6 Taking Over His Abusive Stepdad's Company And Killing Him Twice!
As brilliant as Seto Kaiba was in his youth, it wasn't enough to find him and Mokuba a new family to live with. That is, until Gozaburo Kaiba paid a visit to Kaiba and Mokuba's orphanage, as part of a publicity stunt.
Kaiba tricked Gozaburo into adopting him and Mokuba by defeating him in a game of chess. Gozaburo didn't take his defeat lightly, as he pushed Kaiba to his limits by making him study day and night with little to no breaks. Kaiba would have the last laugh, however, as he successfully staged a coup on Gozaburo's company by obtaining a majority of KaibaCorp's shares.
Humiliated, Gazaburo took his own life. However, it was revealed that Gozaburo implanted his mind into the virtual world that held his real son Noah. In the virtual world, Kaiba once again defeated his stepfather in a game of Duel Monsters and stopped him from escaping into the real world before the virtual one was destroyed, essentially killing him again.
5 Small Talk With Dartz
In their showdown against Dartz, Yugi and Kaiba joined forces to stop him from reviving The Great Leviathan and wreak havoc upon the world. During their duel, Dartz shocked everyone by revealing his Mirror Knight Tokens held the soul of their lost friends, such as Pegasus, Mai Valentine, and little Yugi.
The revelation stopped Yami Yugi from attacking, as he feared the destruction of the Mirror Knight Tokens would mean the destruction of his friends. Kaiba, on the other hand, was unimpressed, which sparked this A+ dialogue exchange between him and Dartz.
Kaiba: “So you got a dweeb army. Is that supposed to make me afraid to attack?”
Dartz: “No, not unless destroying an innocent soul concerns you.”
Kaiba: “Nah. As a president of a major corporation, I have to do that every day.”
It's true. Just ask Kaiba's stepfather.
4 Becoming A Superhero
Batman? Iron Man? The only billionaire superhero the world needs right now is the great Kaibaman! This masked vigilante not only has his own Duel Monsters card, but he also shares a strong resemblance to Duel Monsters champion Seto Kaiba. Hmmm...
In the 34th episode of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Jaden Yuki is defeated in a duel by the spirit of Kaibaman. While Jaden's devastating defeat against Kaibaman echoed Joey's humiliating defeat against Kaiba, the tone and message were vastly different. Kaibaman defeated Jaden to show him there's no shame in losing a battle, as it's all part of becoming a better duelist.
3 Summoning An Egyptian God Through Willpower
While Yugi may be the hero of Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions, Seto Kaiba is the one that steals the show. Nothing signifies this better than Kaiba's first encounter with Aigami, A.K.A. Diva.
Diva confronts Kaiba at the Shrine of the Underworld in Egypt. When Kaiba's bodyguard threatened him, Diva dispatches him with the mysterious power of the Quantum Cube. Diva and Kaiba then duel. Although Diva had the upper hand in the match, Kaiba's determination to duel Atem gave him the power to summon Obelisk the Tormentor from the ground up. When Diva questions how Kaiba summoned one of the pharaoh's monsters, Kaiba responds with the best line in the movie:
"It's no monster! It's a god!"
2 Chasing Down Atem In The Afterlife
Throughout the movie, Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions, Seto Kaiba had only one thing on his mind: a rematch with Atem. Unfortunately for Kaiba, Atem passed on to the great beyond after little Yugi defeated him in the TV series.
Thanks to Diva's Quantum Cube, however, Kaiba found a way to have his rematch. In what essentially looks like a high-adrenaline space elevator, Kaiba combined his advanced technology with the mystical powers of the Quantum Cube to transport his consciousness to the Afterlife. Against all odds, Kaiba found a way into Egyptian Heaven, just to play a children's card game against a dead pharaoh. Wow.
1 Teaching Aliens How To Play Duel Monsters
Seto Kaiba has so many badass moments in Yu-Gi-Oh!, it's impossible to jot down every one of them. With that said, one moment that takes the cake comes from episode 62 of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. In the episode, Jaden has a flashback of Kaiba announcing a global contest to design the next Duel Monsters card. The winners would have their cards launched into space via a KaibaCorp satellite because, as Kaiba put it beautifully:
"If there is intelligent life out there, let's teach them how to duel!"