#kaiba being rich

[grimmcheems]

Idk lmao. This was originally a drawing of Kaiba wearing the skull of a blue eyes like a medieval au or something, very much was inspired by Cubone but it didn’t look right with the proportions and was ugly lmao. So then I used the same canvas and made this instead, which I somewhat like better, but I still got to include my og idea as a lil doodle with him in an outfit instead. Also meatball Yugi who👁️😂

Also I added those nails in last minute bc I thought it’d be funny but like they actually slay?!!?!😔🩵💙or maybe I’m delusional.

[teamfreewill58]

Remember when Mokuba got kidnapped for the like 8th time and he and Anzu were sitting there right before building this escape route and Mokuba goes “If I can get out, I can have Kaiba Corporation crush the Ghouls.” (Episode 72 3:02)

Like Mokuba that’d be great but how about you start with taking preventative measures to stop you getting kidnapped?

We love you and you are resourceful but you also spent 85% of your time in this series being kidnapped. With how rich you are you can afford at least a taser. Seto lets him walk around without bodyguards and yet every time Mokuba gets kidnapped Seto is like:

[bonesdontmelt]

Kaiba and Pegasus are simply equal but opposite magnitudes of rich bastard

[romanceddawn]

i know its probably more rich american culture than rich japanese culture, but i think seto should give transfem mokuba a fucking insane and huge sweet 16 party

like maybe its not long after she comes out and he wants to make her feel special and give her some gender euphoria (with a side of a big old fuck you to the media) so he just goes all out, spending thousands on whatever dresses she wants, a whole crown to top her look off, makes it a private concert with her favorite bands/singers, holograms and light shows everywhere because seto kaiba would not be caught dead planning a party without them, and he runs himself ragged trying to make it as perfect as possible because he loves her and would do anything for her

(honestly she'd be fine with just a day out at the fair or something, but she wont complain about getting a sick ass party and private concert)

[kneel-to-seto-kaiba]

//crack post

POV: You are that one thug in battle city and Kaiba approaches you

“Why do I enjoy punching thugs with Obelisk? It’s not for the reason you’d expect. I don’t get off on the violence, I get off on the feeling of control over people. You see, when I was a small child, I never felt like I was in control….. So now that I’m a big strong man, I like to use my CARDS in order to feel like I’m more in control. That’s why I punch thugs with Obelisk. It’s not the punching, it’s the fact that I’m the puncher. And that’s what really makes me explode.”

[devilsburger]

i said id doodle more of her

[shinayashipper]

I love that Kaiba is canonically Rich, Kaiba should pay all my bills and also gives me a job where I shouldn't have to work <3

[hoarding-spirit]

Blink. Huh. An interesting response. Blushing and pouting made an almost humorous combination. Looks like he hadn’t been noticed. Seto must really be stuck in that head of overzealous griping thoughts.

You're one of Yugi's friends.

Dubious. Actually that should be his line. This one constantly ended up at Yugi and the Pharaoh's side when it came down to it!

That and, now that he sees, this man has zero security with him, no defense to be seen. Why doesn't he just rob him? No- no. He can already see it's too late now. Maybe he can make a quick nab if he plays nice? No. Far too big of a Long shot. Why did he do this? Because he was bored or something?

"I had thought that you were one of his friends.I saw that you appeared to be frozen. Staring out like that, I figured l'd check your soul hadn't left you prematurely." Huh. Sounds almost like his former host.

👌 - @hoarding-spirit ~

"Ow what the hell!?"

The CEO growled with a hand cupped over his ear and a fluster on his cheeks--

Namely because it was so irritatingly stupid.

"There are better ways to get my attention you know..." He grumped.

Not that he found many worth his time or attention --

But surely there were better ways to talk to him than touching him.

He raised a brow and folded his arms--

"You're... one of Yugi's friends aren't you?

" he scoffed, "What do you want?"

[k-aalia]

Breathtaking

Joey knows it's bad manners and probably distasteful. Really, he does.

Despite what others may think, he really is a gentleman. Tries his best to be, at least.

Unfortunately, his mouth has always run quicker than his brain. Usually it just gets him into a bit of trouble he can't talk his way out of, but every now and then it just leaves him embarrassed and humiliated in front of pretty people.

He will not let this be a repeat of that situation though. Not when the girl who's grabbed his heart is the most gorgeous, ethereal woman that he has ever had the privilege to lay eyes upon.

Especially not when she's Seto Kaiba's fuckin' personal assistant.

It's not often Joey comes to KaibaCorp -- okay, he never comes to KaibaCorp -- but Yugi had invited him along for one of his weekly matches with the man himself.

And for the first time in his life, Joey just cannot focus on the game playing out in front of him.

Not that seeing Yugi and Kaiba duel isn't always some sort of spectacle -- and these days, filled with so much innuendos and flirting it's like watching a particularly captivating trashy TV show -- but no matter the dramatics or the plot twists, Joey's attention is firmly held by the pretty woman sitting next to him in the spectator stands.

Kisara, Joey knows her name is after hearing Kaiba bark commands at her. Silky white hair flowing over her shoulders and curling round her pale face. Her eyes are a beautiful sparkling blue, intensely focussed on the laptop sitting on her knees.

"Hey, how's it going?" Joey says to her and fights the urge to wince.

Really? That's the best he can do?

Kisara blinks and turns her head to face him, concentration broken as she looks at Joey like she's only just realised he's there.

"Oh, hi. I'm just working," she tells him with a quick smile and fuck is it breathtaking.

She turns back to her laptop and Joey curses silently as he realises he'd missed the opportunity to say anything more, too captivated by her stupid pretty smile and now if he tries again it's gonna be awkward and god, what if he makes her uncomfortable?

Kaiba and Yugi's duel finishes soon after and Joey practically runs up to Yugi to try and escape his spiralling thoughts. The two of them are halfway to the door when Kaiba grabs his arm and pulls him back.

Joey whirls around, a taunt on the tip of his tongue. What's wrong, rich boy, want me to beat your ass too?

But he stops when he sees Kaiba's sneer.

"Don't hit on my assistant." He warns "Kisara is too good for a mutt like you."

Joey feels himself flush, pulling his arm out of Kaiba's grip.

"Fuck off man, I was just being polite!" He snaps back.

Seto's sneer falters slightly as he narrows his eyes, looking Joey over like he's some fun new puzzle to solve.

"At least wait until she's off the clock. I can't have you distracting her."

Seto stalks off before Joey can get another word in, Kisara at her bosses side in an instant. Despite recieving Kaiba's blessing -- which he didn't want or need, by the way -- Joey is almost certain it's not gonna do him any good anyway. Kisara is way out of his league, as usual, and totally not interested in him. As usual.

Joey suspects he has a type.

But just when he thinks he's done for, Kisara looks over his shoulder to shoot him a wink and a smile.

Oh. Joey thinks, heart beating so fast it could burst from his chest. I'm totally in love.

[gx-gameon]

Every few years Yugioh comes back and takes over my life.

And as I rewatch the anime I can’t stop thinking about a world where Jaden was raised by Yugi.

I don’t know if you all remember but a few years back there was a creator on here and they had an au were the Gx gang were raised by the Duel monster gang. But they are gone now and I can’t find their stuff😢 but it’s okay. I’ve got my own ideas on this!

Instead of having the whole Gx gang raised by the DM gang we are just going to focus on Jaden.

When Jaden is four all the drama with Yubel happens. His parents aren’t around very often, and Yubel is being Yubel. She sees Jaden fighting and losing duels so she lashes out at the other duelest because in the dark world if Jaden lost that duel he’d be dead. She’s just protecting him. He designs the Neo-spacians and they get sent into space, and his parents make the request for Yubel to be sent up as well (I know in the show it was Jaden but we’re going to say it was his parents idea first)

Jaden is now having horrible nightmares about Yubel and his shadow magic is lashing out. He’s four. He has so much power and no idea how to control it. So his parents, afraid of their child take him to get ‘help.’ Whatever it is that they do it blocks out Jaden’s powers and his memories. He can’t remember Yubel, he can’t see spirits. But it’s to late. He’s already branded a social pariah and his parents are scared of him and he doesn’t know why. His parents just can’t take it anymore and drop the kid off at a fire station (don’t know if this is a thing in Japan but in some states you can drop a kid off at any age at and just leave) or maybe they just die. Either way they are gone and he’s in an orphanage. Alone, scared, no spirits, parents, or friends.

Here is where Yugi comes in.

Our boy just graduated. DSOD just happened. (Jaden’s cards going to space were Kaiba testing things for his satellite thingy) Kaiba is AWOL. But Yugi doesn’t know why…yet.

Maybe he’s in town for a tournament, or college, but for some reason he’s in town, and what he does find is this kid dueling by himself in a park. No one will go near him and he looks so lonely. And Yugi knows that feeling. So he goes over and plays with the kid. Jaden is ecstatic, the king of games wants to duel him! Best day ever.

Over time the two keep running into each other until Yugi learns about the kids situation. No family, no friends, he’s alone in the world. And Yugi, he just can’t stand that. Yes Jaden is a little loud and over excited but he’s a great kid and Yugi can’t even comprehend why his parents would abandon him. So he makes the decision to go and adopt this kid.

But the adoption’s weird. He expected a lot of questions. He’s 18 after all, and while he’s got his grandpa’s support, he’s still 18 years old trying to adopt a 4 year old. But the orphanage basically throws the kid at him happy to be rid of the problem. (Everyone in that part of town knows what used to happen when Jaden dueled.) and Yugi is perplexed. He’s not mad, it’s the outcome he wanted, but why is everyone so scared of the kid?

He tries to find out but there are no records of Jaden. Who his parents are, or what happened. (Rich people have the ability to get certain records closed) so he goes to the one person he can think of who might be able to find those records, Kaiba. But when he gets there Mokuba is barely keeping it together. Yugi asked where Seto is and the kid just breaks down, telling him all about Seto’s trip to the afterlife to duel Atem and Yugi is floored. Why would he be so stupid. Mokuba begs Yugi to go after his brother. But Yugi hesitates, he’s got Jaden to worry about now.

“Who’s Jaden?” And it’s in this moment that Yugi realizes he was so wrapped up in adopting Jaden, getting him home, and trying to figure out why that whole town was scared of a 4 year old, that he didn’t tell anyone about Jaden! So he quickly explains to Mokuba who Jaden is and what is happening and why he needs Seto’s help.

Mokuba didn’t think he could like Yugi anymore then he already did, after all Yugi has helped him and Seto a lot, but now! After learning he saved a kid for an orphanage and an awful upbringing like he and Seto had, he adores this man. (Now if Seto would just get his head out of his butt and realize that Yugi isn’t just his rival but also a perfect match. He’s the biggest rivalshipper) but he needs Yugi to go after Seto, after all who else can?

So Yugi calls Joey to watch Jaden. And Joey is experiencing so many different emotions, having so many breakdowns. What do you mean you got a Kid Yug? What do you mean Kaiba went to the Afterlife to duel Atem? What do you mean you’re going after him? Why? I’m so confused!!

But he instantly loves Jaden. They both love dueling, they both have empty heads. Uncle Joey is in the house! He offers to go after Kaiba for Yugi, Jaden can’t lose him, but Yugi insist he go. He wants to see Atem, but he also knows he has a better chance than Joey at coming back.

So after Kaiba Yugi goes. Jaden’s safe with Joey and Mokuba.

And if this isn’t in the top 5 weirdest thing Yugi’s ever done, which is saying something.

He meets up with Kaiba and Atem. And Atem has spent the last month yelling at Kaiba for coming here because the man didn’t plan on how to get back. And here comes Yugi, Atem sees him and starts to lose it because, either Yugi is dead or he followed Kaiba here and he doesn’t know which is worse. Until Yugi starts yelling at Kaiba as well. Because “I had to leave my son to come get you!” And hold up now Atem and Kaiba are Floored because “son?”

Atem’s wondering if it’s been way longer than he thought and Yugi and Kaiba have just aged well, or did he miss something THAT big when he was with his aibou.

So Yugi has to explain who Jaden is. (Kaiba’s in love but he doesn’t realize it) and Atem is so proud.

Yugi drags Seto back down to earth but not before some adventures in the afterlife. That may end with Atem coming back down with them by accident. (A gift from the gods, Atem didn’t plan or ask for it, but he will forever be grateful for this second chance at life) Uncle Atem gets to meet his nephew and he’s pumped.

Jaden grows up so loved. Learning from the best. Seto finds out about Jaden’s past and Atem works with the kid on unlocking his powers once again while Kaiba tries to retrieve Jaden’s cards from space. (They are his soul cards, he’s suppose to have them, just as Kaiba is suppose to have Blue-eyes, or Atem the Dark Magician. And Seto just sent them to space!! Yugi was not happy when he found out, he doesn’t blame Seto, but he’s not happy)

Jaden grows up going to all of his dad’s tournaments. They give the kid a baseball hat and sunglasses so no one knows what the ‘prince of duels’ looks like.

Eventually Yugi and Seto get their crap together and start dating/get married. Seto is the most over protective Oto-san ever. Only rivaled by uncle Atem.

When Jaden is fourteen he’s ready to go to duel school. He enrolls are Jaden Yuki. His transcript does not mention his parents, as Jaden doesn’t want any special privileges at the school.

Yugi gives his son winged kuriboh on his way to his entrance test. The whole gang is there in a private sweet to watch the entrance exams and see Jaden’s duel against Dr. Crowler.

Seto is furious at his staffs behavior but Yugi and Atem are more focused on Jaden finally being able to see spirits again. They’re so excited. Seto less so, he’s happy for his son but he’s so focused on his employee bullying a child, his child. (Lets just say Crowler owes keeping his job to Jaden, he will have no clue of this until after Jaden graduates)

Gx is so much funnier because Kaiba is hearing about all the crazy things his staff is doing and he’s ready to fire everyone, but his son keeps saying he likes them, the school, the adventure. Jaden so desperately doesn’t want any of his classmates to know who his parents are, not wanting to be treated differently. So Seto can’t fire them, yet. But once Jaden graduates he is overhauling this school.

Yugi is at a cross between laughing at Atem and Seto being over protective and also losing his mind because who stored the dark lords at this school! “Seto, did you know about this?” (Seto’s never been more scared of his husband)

Season one is uninterrupted. But season 2 is close. Even Yugi wants to step in when the evil cult comes to light. But it’s season 3 that makes the family lose their minds.

[seekerbr]

One thing I was thinking about today after reading a few fanfics is Seto Kaiba and school, and how that is portrayed in fanfics.

In canon, we have very little of Kaiba in school: in the manga we have his introduction chapter, and then the first episode of DM and his introduction on Season 0 adapting it, but after these he kinda just… never goes to school again. We don’t even have him graduating on DSOD, so I guess we are supposed to assume that he dropped out of it sometime after losing to Yugi (or ending their game on a draw in Season 0’s case). 

But honestly, I think what i find interesting is how he’s portrayed as in fanfics: obviously I haven’t read every single YGO fanfic in existence, and sometimes different people will have different takes on it, but what i’ve seen on a lot of them is he still going to school after his first duel with Yugi, where he’s a pretty popular guy who’s known as the owner of a big company; also, he usually either works from school or skips classes a lot to work. The minor details then are kinda muddled, like if he’s considered a good student or not.

I put the detail of people knowing that he’s the owner of a big company because that isn’t actually the case originally? In his first chapter there’s nothing really implying that he’s even rich (though he does have that briefcase full of cards) and in the beginning of Death-T both Yugi and Joey are surprised that he’s the owner of Kaibacorp, so that’s obviously not common knowledge.

I guess you could just say that this is a retcon or use the meta excuse that Takahashi hadn’t thought about him being the owner of Kaibacorp yet, but I find interesting how that implies that he isn’t the big rich popular kid in school, seeing how the average person doesn’t know that he’s the son of the owner of a big company. Maybe he was really antisocial? Also, Kaibacorp still hasn’t created the Duel Boxes and Duel Disks at this point, so they might not be as popular at this point.

Both of the anime adaptations change this when they adapt his introduction: Duel Monsters has Joey asking why he is visiting grandpa’s shop since he’s the owner of a big company, so that’s common knowledge there, and Season 0 has him everyone immediately knowing who he is after first hearing his name, having the other student see his fancy car, letting people visit his mansion… Funny enough, his fandom self is closer to this version in a way, with him making it obvious how rich he is (though this version of him also still has Gozaburo being alive, so I imagine it changes his deal a little… Season 0 is weird sometimes)

BTW, I’m not complaining about how he’s treated in fanfics: it does make some sense seeing how boisterous he acts in later story arcs, and most people know the animes better; this is just an interesting detail i was thinking about

[itstimetoduell]

Um would you be able to do Seto Kaiba headcanons? I’m okay with however it’s written since i saw that children will be platonic and technically he was a minor in the beginning with being aged up later in the DSOD movie I believe. I don’t want to make you uncomfortable writing if you don’t want to

Seto Kaiba Headcanons

Warnings: mentions if degrading, mentions of punishments, yandere stuff

Notes: OMFG I'M SO SORRY FOR THE LONG HIATUS BUT I GOT A RANDOM BURST OF MOTIVATION SO HI GUYS :33 -mod Yugi

Made by mod Yugi (with the help of mod Yami)

Seto Kaiba

Yandere type: possessive, stalkerish, quiet

Danger level: 9/10

I’m sorry but if you are friends with him. You are not allow to have other friends only him and his brother

So if isn’t obviously he’s RICH RICH. I feel like he would try to buy your love? If that Makes sense, like if you don’t like him at all he would buy you things so you can like him or date him

I feel like he wouldn’t really know how to communicate well with you? He’s like creepily watching you and then sneaks up behind you and is like “how was your day.” Just like out of nowhere. in the dark. alone.

I feel like he gets jealous very very VERY easily, I feel like he would keep it in and wouldn’t tell you. He would just push his feelings down. Like very down.

If you were to keep struggling, he'd call you a "stubborn little thing"

He will have his bodyguards watching over you, no matter where you are in the Kaibacorp building, there will be at least one bodyguard near you

Cameras. Everywhere.

As if Kaibacorp already had so much security, it'll be ampt up at least 5 times from what it usually is

Even if you try to ask someone for help (either mokuba or one of the bodyguards), Kaiba will find out, one way or another

Even with all that, if you even manage to escape by some miracle, there's already about 5 helicopters searching for you, did I mention the tracking device Kaiba already built and planted on you?

Once he finds you, you're placed on his office, but you're not immediately punished, he likes to build suspense onto you.

You sit there, watching him type away on his laptop, you have no idea what he's doing, until around 30 minutes later, he'd slam the laptop shut, glaring deep into your soul.

He'll scold you for a bit, asking if you're stupid, some degrading, asking why'd you escape, then he'd call one of his bodyguards to come collect you, locking you in his room for hours.

All in all, you'd probably never see the light of day again.

[99problemsandallofthemarefandoms]

Puppyshipping ramblings

I like to imagine that Kaiba's need to slap his name on everything would translate to a relationship. Not outwardly possessive (cause like who could he lose to when he is rich, hot and a genius) but instead unconsciously protective.

So he would just end up dressing Joey in Kaiba corp t-shirts or he would buy "himself" hoodies and Joey would appropriate them. I love when one person is a clothes thief. I just imagine Joey grabbing something from a drawer and throwing it on not caring as long as it fits. Kaiba can do nothing to stop him nor would he want to. (He will not admit how cute Joey looks)

Matching accessories when they go out and dress fancy cause Joey insists on going with Kaiba to some of his fancy business parties (a. just cause he is spoiled for attention b. the food is really good) which surprisingly the snooty business people find Joey amusing. Partially cause he has bard level charisma and he cleans up well while trying his best so Kaiba will bring him to more.

Instead of a necklace I think it would be cute if he got Joey a keychain that matched his and Mokuba's. He never says anything about the significance but Joey thinks its so cute and sweet then spends the rest of the week showing it off.

I love possessiveness but honestly Kaiba is too confident for that. Joey could be but I think his whole emotional development from the early chapters would have him put a big deal of trust in Kaiba to not worry about the masses throwing themselves at Kaiba. Plus with Kaiba's attitude to people he is not interested in is a big confidence boost when he can easily get the oh so important business man's attention without having to schedule a meeting. (Ok Joey can just walk in but since he had been granted VIP privileges at KC after an incident with some rookie guards he tends to schedule ahead just cause he is a good BF.)

Secretary has Joey on speed dial for Kaiba's bad days when he gets in the mood to start firing people. Kaiba wouldn't really cause that's a loss in man power and it takes too much time to vet employees but those bad days make the other workers stressed.

(I still can not find the damned fic that put this idea in my head) Kaiba starts collecting Red-eyes merch to match the Blue-eyes merch. Its starting to bug him not all of the statuettes have a matching counter part. (Joey finds this super fucking sweet. Since there is not enough Red-eyes merch he arranged the few Kaiba did find to have at lest 3 Blue-eyes around each one. Joey finds it hilarious that Red-eyes has a haram. Kaiba refuses to comment the new arrangement.)

I stan Joey being able to cook. Nothing too fancy but its good. I imagine its from having to take care of himself and working odd jobs some of which landed him in a kitchen or two. Also from these jobs he has a random amalgamation of knowledge. Nothing like any fancy computer stuff but he knows how to take care of a garden, could build you porch and the like.

[yugioh-rare-pair-poll]

Round 6: The Final Round

Propaganda under the cut

Pairing 1: Pompshipping (Miho Nosaka/Seto Kaiba)

Propaganda: HEAR ME OUT. Miho has blue-ish white long hair. Kisara has blue-ish white long hair. Yugioh DM is NOTORIOUS for having long-dead characters have mysterious modern day dopplegangers (that’s the whole plot!!!) so why not like this? Miho is a gold digger who’s on the lookout for her perfect prince. Kaiba fills that role perfectly: young, rich, successful, handsome— what’s not to love? She latches onto him and they are both confronted with the fact that they’re both terrible people actually, and somewhere in there, real feelings sprout and they have to struggle to navigate it

Pairing 2: Beautyshipping (Mai Valentine|Mai Kukaju/Aileen Rao)

Propaganda: love a good f/f rarepair and also two powerful ladies. aileen is a model who is so good at games that kaiba decides to make her a game master, and mai is introduced as being a powerful duelist who wins a lot. they could make each other worse. | i really like them both and like to see my faves together. and i like the idea of two women who are both very independent being in a relationship together because it could be done either as a sort of rivalry romance where they're both trying to one up each other OR it could be a very soft thing where after a long day having to do everything for themselves, they have someone safe to come home to who really gets them. really depends on where in each of their stories you have them meet, i think.

Now, let’s keep things civil. This is a silly poll where we can share why we love our overlooked ships. There’s no need to be nasty to prove your point. Bashers will be banished to the Shadow Realm.

[themattress]

The Evolution of Yu-Gi-Oh! Villainy

Thinking back on this post from @ultraericthered, It's interesting to note that Kazuki Takahashi developed in how he wrote villains as the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga progressed.

Let's look at how he initially wrote villains, shall we?

They're all the same type of one-dimensional, psychotic, horrible person. It gets old fast.

We then get a pair of two-parters with a slight step up.

Kaiba and Hirutani respectively are still one-dimensional, psychotic, horrible people, but they actually feel dangerous. Yami Yugi has been owning every other shmuck with relative ease; he honestly came off as more frightening than they did! Kaiba and Hirutani, meanwhile, show a more calculating and intelligent side to them that allows them to pose a genuine threat.

Then there's Takahashi's first attempt at a "Big Bad": Shadi.

And Takahashi himself has admitted that he sucked. He tried so hard to make him mysterious that he just ended up being confusing and bland, with no charisma or even an identifiable motive for antagonizing Yugi and his friends. Takahashi himself hadn't actually thought of any concrete plans for Shadi or the story's lore beyond vague details at this point, so much of how Shadi is presented here and the things he does end up feeling contradictory to how the narrative develops later. So after this failure, Takahashi went back to making one-note assholes before bringing back one of the best of them and elevating him to Big Bad status.

Now with the first name of Seto, Kaiba worked beautifully as a Big Bad since he had a clear motivation, established history with the protagonist, and we already knew he was a threat, with the new additions of just how rich and skilled at games he is plus a backstory explaining why he is the way he is cementing him as the series' best villain to date without question.

However, he was still lacking a key element: charisma.

"What?", you may be saying, "The Hell do you mean; Kaiba's super charismatic!"

Kaiba post-Mind Crush is super charismatic, yes. He's even charismatic in the 1998 Toei anime adaptation, where he has green hair and is more of a classy, scheming supervillain.

But originally?

He can pretend to be charismatic, particularly when he's playing for a crowd, but otherwise Kaiba is still the same charmless thug as before, and the actions he takes in this arc reach truly vile territory. Again, he's a wonderfully effective villain, but it's not because you love to hate him - you just hate him and want to see him brought down. You don't enjoy his villainy.

Once again, the arc is followed up by a few more one-off forgettable baddies, although at the end of that run we get Hirutani making a return appearance, now with a ratty sidekick named Nezumi who I feel like more could have been done with. And after that, he finally debuted.

Yami Bakura, while a step down from Kaiba in DEATH-T in terms of scale (feeling more akin to Kaiba in his debut two-parter instead), was when Takahashi finally managed to crack the charisma code. Yes, he's a psychotic asshole, but he carries himself with such conviction, schemes and plays games in such a meticulous way, and has such a sense of theatrical flamboyance and gallows humor that it's impossible not to be entertained by his twisted Dungeon Master antics. And unlike Shadi, he is mysterious the right way; you can tell there's a lot more to him that you don't know yet, but the arc foreshadows much of it impeccably, and as he goes on to be the main overarching antagonist of the whole series it's great to see him only become more dangerous until he successfully pays off all of his long-term planning.

And then...

Maximiilion J. Pegasus (Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese version) is the apotheosis of Takahashi learning to write villains. Like Shadi, he has crucial and mysterious ties to the overarching narrative, but like Yami Bakura it's done correctly. Like Kaiba, he's a large-scale corporate rich guy whom Yugi and his friends must fight through a dangerous game tournament to reach after he does something bad to Grandpa Moto, all while he monitors everything from his stronghold, and at the very end fully reveals a tragic backstory that explains but does not excuse him. Like Yami Bakura, he is insanely charismatic and you enjoy watching him even when he's doing the most dastardly things. And to take things a step further, he is directly connected to all of those prior Big Bads: he got his Millennium Eye from Shadi personally, he is colluding with Kaiba Corp which only became possible because Yami Yugi defeated and Mind Crushed Kaiba in DEATH-T, and he ends up killed by Yami Bakura!

I won't be talking about Mr. Clown, because ultimately he's just a decoy while Yami Bakura, under the guise of being an ally now, makes crucial progress in his big overarching evil plan.

Then we get the disappointment that is Marik Ishtar.

No, not that Marik Ishtar! He's actually great! A slight step down from Pegasus but a major step up from Mr. Clown, Marik is a different sort of villain: a distant, shadowy evil mastermind behind a criminal organization engaged in a conspiracy across Domino City. Marik is threatening, charismatic, and interesting: increasingly so as we learn his backstory, discover his blood ties to Ishizu, and see him enter a deliciously sinister alliance with Yami Bakura.

But then...

Not only does Yami Marik come out of nowhere, but his character can be summed up here:

Now, these kinds of crazy, evil-for-evil's-sake, "I wanna destroy everything" villains can be done well. But I'm sorry, I just don't think Takahashi knew how to do so. Yami Marik is boring. He's not remotely charming or engaging in his vile villainy, he is overpowered to an irritating degree, and he only serves to further complicate and elongate what was already a very complicated and elongated story arc. It feels like Takahashi was going to carry Marik all the way through but then gave him such a dark and sad backstory that he felt sorry for him and wanted to redeem him, but couldn't think of a viable way without inventing this even eviler alternate personality to serve as a scapegoat. So I am absolutely not a fan of Yami Marik....

...in the original manga.

Yes, for all that the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime adaptation screws up, it can sometimes fluke into improving on the source material, and Yami Marik is one of the biggest examples. Animation and voice-acting single-handedly change him from a boring villain to a wonderfully entertaining one; devouring the scenery and coming off more feral monster than serial killer.

Finally, we have Zorc Necrophades and Akhenaden.

Zorc is the standard Final Boss villain who has been built up to for a long time, and he serves that role very well. But Akhenaden is where the real interest lies. He's essentially Takahashi writing a Shakespearean tragic villain: a complex man both loathsome and pitiable, whose understandable desires and conflicting emotions lead him down a dark path that ends with him losing his humanity and becoming a hollow vessel for Zorc's soul, fueled only by hatred. Additionally, he has deep connections to all prior Big Bads and to Yami Yugi himself. He is worthy of Ultimate Villain status (which the Duel Monsters anime sadly took away from him).

My ranking of the manga's Big Bads: Shadi < Mr. Clown < Yami Marik < Marik < Kaiba < Zorc/Akhenaden < Bakura < Pegasus (would've been Kaiba < Marik if not for Yami Marik).

[braziliancat2015]

Next part of my "Yu-Gi-Oh as a American cartoon of the early 2000s" project, this time with Kaiba's family! (part one here)

I imagine Seto wouldn't have a personality all that different from the YGO dub, but would fit more into a "rich bully from school" role, while Mokuba is more similar to the early manga/season 0 as a little spoiled kid, but they both become nicer over time.

Gozaburo and Noah are the ones i imagine being more different: for starters, Gozaburo's still alive! I can't imagine them just allowing Seto and Mokuba to live alone, so he would still be around being a very unpleasant person, and even worse parent (not sure if he would still have adopted them or if his their biological parent here). Noah would be 100% AI here, created by Gozaburo to replace Seto as his successor after he starts disobeying him.

(Others: 1, 3)