It’s no secret in Yu-Gi-Oh! anime fandom where Seto Kaiba is the coolest character in the franchise. From his style and skill to his intellect and attitude, Kaiba is definitely a top fighter. However, as demonstrated by an impressive feat in the anime, Kaiba is even cooler without Duel Monsters.
Seto Kaiba first appeared in the first episode of Yu-Gi-Oh!, and he was originally a villain. Kaiba challenged Yugi’s grandfather, Solomon, to a duel, and defeated him, thereby obtaining the old man’s Blue-Eyes White Dragon card, and also giving him a heart attack due to the stressful situation. Not only was Kaiba a human being loathed to terrorize an old man like this, but he took it a step further by tearing Solomon’s card right in front of him, even knowing the important Blue-Eyed White Dragon what it’s like for Yugi and his family. . So Yugi (more precisely Yami Yugi) taught Kaiba a lesson by challenging him to a duel where Yami Yugi played all five Exodia cards and defeated Kaiba’s Blue-Eyed White Dragon. , defeat him with just one move. After this defeat, Kaiba was deflated, but also a better man. Not only did Yami Yugi send the evil within Kaiba to the Dark Kingdom in their literal duel, but it was good for Kaiba to taste defeat after such a shameful victory, and that event directly leads to his most redeeming (and easiest) mission in Yu-Gi-Oh!.
Kaiba is a World Class Hacker in Yu-Gi-Oh!
In Yu-Gi-Oh! episode 9 (written by Junki Takegami, Masashi Sogo, and Shin Yoshida, and directed by Kunihisa Sugishima), Yugi is confronting Ghost Kaiba (the evil embodiment that was brought into the Shadow Realm by Yami Yugi). Pegasus called Ghost Kaiba to fight Yugi, and he knew he could do it convincingly because Kaiba was actually dead – or so Pegasus thought. Pegasus sends a few assassins to kill Kaiba, and when Kaiba apparently jumps to his death to avoid his fate, the assassins believe their job is done. However, Kaiba only faked his own death before retreating to his underground bunker, where a sentient supercomputer awaited him. With it, Kaiba manages to deal a lot of damage to enemies that tried to kill him, while also helping out his new ally/rival, Yugi – all without playing a single card.
Using his hacking skills, Kaiba is able to disrupt the computer systems on Pegasus’ island, Duelist Kingdom, both in the real world and in cyberspace. Kaiba takes over one of Pegasus’ satellites in space and crashes it into his server on Earth, weakening Pegasus’s system on the island. This leaves Pegasus free of any cybersecurity, allowing Kaiba to virtually walk through Pegasus’ mainframe unobstructed. While there, Kaiba controlled Ghost Kaiba’s holo computer during a duel with Yugi, thus weakening his monsters and helping Yugi defeat his evil ego.
Kaiba took down one of the strongest fighters in the world from his computer, and he did so in true early 2000s hacker style. Plus, in all that shit, Kaiba didn’t pick up a single Duel Monster card, relying instead on his skill and wisdom to battle dangerous enemies. Before that, fans only saw Kaiba lose to Yugi while being bullied by his grandfather. But here, Kaiba is proving that he really is cool. Yu-Gi-Oh! character, and he proved it without Duel Monsters.