Thank you for such lovely comments on my fanfics!
If I could step in, however, and give my perspective on Kaiba's characterization from the POV of someone who really, really likes the guy--he is my favorite anime guy; he might even just really be my favorite character of all time--I think the discussions on Kaiba's characterization lately have been skating over a really key point.
I do want to caveat, before I really get into it, I'm not saying you HAVE to like him or even care about him. I am the first to admit he's a black hole who sucks in all the attention. But I don't agree with the idea that his characterization is thin, poorly written, or going backwards.
DSOD is a direct sequel to the manga. In this sense, anything that is anime-only (like Virtual World and DOMA) do not matter to Kaiba's characterization/character arc in DSOD. This is not to say our fanon writing of Kaiba can't draw on multiple sources, but rather to say "why is Kaiba like this in DSOD, when he was like that in DOMA?" is not the right question to ask. It's like saying "why is an apple an apple, when it could be an orange?" Not the same story!
So, WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR HIS CHARACTERIZATION?
The manga, step by step, provides us with a very clear character arc for Kaiba, developed primarily through interactions with Atem--it is not about becoming nicer, or friendlier, or less intense, and it is not about returning to the Seto of old, the one Mokuba misses. (I've had my share of traumas; I have dealt with grieving the person I used to be, and knowing I will never be that person again).
It is about learning how to understand and value the power of connections and placing your faith in others. It is literally the power of friendship.
DSOD Kaiba is not a return to Death-T Kaiba, because the mind crush in Death-T does not cure him of his obsessiveness, his intensity, or his drive. The mind crush gives Kaiba time to reflect and begin repairing himself after a period of substantial trauma and pain. We see him continuing to reflect (yes, Kaiba reflects) over the course of the manga.
After Death-T, during DK, Kaiba wonders if Yuugi (Atem) won because he had someone to protect, and if having someone to protect makes you stronger.
In Battle City, he poses the question to Atem again: what will friendship mean when you're forced to fight each other? Will it mean anything? (The pier duel between Yuugi and Jou answers this question for him).
We see it again in the Battle City finale. Atem himself recognizes that his friendship with Kaiba is something unique and different--"friends... rivals... where is the line?" Right before Atem's duel with Yami Malik, Kaiba challenges Atem to prove that their friendship is real by taking his card and adding it to his final deck--and Atem, in turn, places the card in his deck without looking at it, telling Kaiba that HE has faith in HIM. That he DOES see him as a friend. The connection between them is real, and it matters to both of them.
And, because the logic of Yugioh is card games, Atem does prove, in the battle against Yami Malik, that friendship is real, and placing your faith in your friends is a form of power. Kaiba recognizes this (Hilariously, in the manga, Isis even says: we will see if the power of friendship can defeat an evil god.)
In short, Kaiba, over the course of the manga, continually questions the nature of friendship, the value, the importance of it--through his connection to Atem--and in the end, sees its power.
Then Atem dies, and--in a critical difference between the manga and the anime--Kaiba is not in attendance at the Ceremonial Duel. He does not see Atem die.
And if we know anything about Kaiba's history, it's that a lot of people who matter to him, for better or worse, die or abandon him: his parents die, his relatives abandon him, his stepfather dies--and now, faced with the death of someone else who has mattered to him and changed his mind, he is not given the chance to say goodbye or achieve closure.
Kaiba's pursuit of Atem in DSOD is not entirely about rivalry or beating Atem. True--it is framed through Kaiba wanting to duel Atem again. But more importantly, it is about feeling abandoned by the death of a friend, and it is about wanting closure for the death of someone you care about. He is not his same old Death-T self; he is not trying to destroy himself, Mokuba, or other people; he is not gloating or delighting in violence, murder, and sadism. He IS the same obsessive Kaiba as before, because the story never "cured" him or "fixed" these personality traits; crucially, he is also now a Kaiba who cares about friendship, and who feels that the friendship HE felt for someone has been betrayed (by death itself).
Of course he's mad--this guy who promised a road of battle that goes on forever (via their favorite card game) just fucking went and died on him!
DSOD capitalizes on the themes of the manga: it lets Kaiba prove that he's internalized what he learned from Atem, and that he believes in the power of friendship, ferociously, to the death. He sacrifices himself in the duel against Aigami to prove to Yuugi that the connection with Atem transcends and continues on beyond death--that if their faith in this friendship is strong enough, even in the face of death, Atem will come. Even Yuugi didn't believe, until Kaiba proves it to him: in both the English and Japanese versions of DSOD, Yuugi thanks Kaiba at the end.
Is Kaiba sort of a cool guy billionaire throughout all of this? Yes. Is he a good billionaire? No. In that respect he fucking sucks, and at no point does the narrative ever give us any indication that the story is about how a mean billionaire becomes a nice billionaire. Is he Yugioh's resident sexyman? Yes.
Does all of this change the fact that Kaiba's arc is learning and believing in the power of friendship, to the point that it's the literal climax of the DSOD? No.
Does the old Seto still exist? QUITE an interesting question; probably not. Tragedy, triumph; transformed by life, experience, trauma.
Are there many, many essays to write about what DSOD does to Kaiba's relationship with Mokuba, and whether or not it reinforces or undermines my argument here? Sure. I love thinking about this, as you know; I love all things Kaiba brothers, I love that their relationship is messy. Personally, I don't think it undermines the argument at all; in fact, it makes the whole story feel more human to me; it means DSOD is not a tidy moralistic message about friendship, but another step in a character's particular journey. It tells us that Kaiba is a flawed person (not a flawed character), and that the victory of connection, as evinced through his reunion with Atem, is complicated by what he left behind. DSOD is deliberately open-ended (whether or not Kaiba comes back or can't is UP TO YOU) and, in a sense, maybe it is asking US to have faith that the Kaiba brothers still care about each other (Kaiba still cares about Mokuba).
tl,dr; No one has to like kaiba. But he DOES have an arc. And it IS the power of friendship.
gracieabrams
amandla
germansingergirl
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
