“For too long we’ve been forced to live in this reality it’s tedious, poorly designed and pathetically constructed if the one responsible worked for me he’d have been fired years ago. I knew i could do better and with minimal effort i have”. Those words spoken by Seto Kaiba my favourite character from my favourite childhood TV show have really got me thinking about his character and made me want to analyse the aspects of his philosophy. Upon looking into it I’ve found an incredibly complex character with a complicated philosophical view of the world which encompasses issues like free will vs determinism, objectivism and the issue of God vs man/science and in this modern age where AI is around the corner and complex virtual universes can be created with simple algorithms are we the gods now?



In the very first episode Kaiba is seen reading the book Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche a German Philosopher most known by his line “God is dead and we have killed him”. But where Kaiba and Nietzsche differ is where the latter gives into Nihilism to escape the meaningless of the Universe, Kaiba revels in a godless universe where there is no greater power controlling his life, when you’re as brilliant as Seto Kaiba you are god free to forge whatever destiny you choose and that for him is true freedom for in a universe with a god we are merely slaves to his whims,pieces on a game we cannot control. In the dark side of dimensions movie the antagonist Diva has an item the millennium cube which can alter the universe in any way he sees fit, it can create other dimensions and evaporate people from existence and I believe Diva is a stand in for God within the movie although it is classed as magic in the movies context. This God vs Science narrative is exemplified when Diva using his cube tries to disintegrate Kaiba from existence but is repelled by Kaiba’s new duel disk system which leads to Diva remarking “The power of the cube is supposed to be the greatest in the universe” this is a metaphor for how science now rivals the power the early humans gave to the gods and to be honest its not too far of happening in our own world. We can create life and new worlds in video games which seem as realistic as our own, and in these worlds we can control we have the power of life and death over those worlds, is it too far from us being able to create our own consciousness? Playing god could soon be a common thing for the human race. Later on the movie Kaiba captures Diva using the Kaiba corp special forces creating a special suit for them to repel the affects of the cube and Diva’s powers after studying how the cube worked, this again shows that science and man has surpassed god and the world our technology has created is superior to any God would be able to create for us and as Nietzsche would say god is dead but Kaiba would probably reply good riddance.



Next I want to speak about Seto Kaiba and objectivism developed by Ayn Rand in Atlas shrugged if you’ve played bioshock you should have a decent grasp of what objectivism is but just in case you haven’t objectivism is the philosophy that a person should rationally determine their values on whether it brings happiness to your life it essentially revolves around “looking out for yourself”. It maintains that if it is done properly, and practised by everyone, the entire world could be a better place. Objectivism endorses several different ideals. The essentials are: reality, reason, self-interest, and capitalism we’ll look at each one in turn to see how it is relevant within the context of Seto’s character. For Rand reality is something that needs to be faced as it is and we should not entertain notions of Gods or mystic powers only we can change the nature of the world ourselves by our own work and actions, this is Seto to a tee he rejects any notion of magic and the supernatural and focuses on life as he sees it and if he wants something changed he’ll do it himself. The next essential is reason which is a rejection of emotions in decision making this one wasn’t so clear as although Seto demonstrates a rejection of authoritarian figures in his decision making such as not being swayed by prophecy or destiny, he does have a few emotional attachments well one in particular his brother Mokuba which occasionally causes him to make decisions which do not benefit himself like when he is defeated by Noah who uses his brother as a human shield or when he threatens suicide in order to win his duel with Yugi and save Mokuba from Pegasus, this under objectivism would be a mistake as Kaiba should have put that too one side and done what was best for himself and attacked and won the duel in the case of Noah and not put himself at risk in the latter.



Thirdly we have self interest which in Rands words was to be selfish basically. As she puts it “Man must choose his actions, values, and goals by the standard of that which is proper to man – in order to achieve, maintain, fulfill, and enjoy that ultimate value, that end in itself, which is his own life.”Kaiba has one goal in his life to defeat the Pharaoh and regain his title as the best he devotes his life works and all his energies into achieving this goal and this is the very definition of objectivism, work hard for your goals and don’t care what others think or do you are responsible for your own happiness. And finally we have capitalism again as Rand says “An individual who eagerly faces reality, who embraces his own rational mind as an absolute, and who makes his own life his highest moral purpose will demand his freedom. He will demand the freedom to think and speak, to earn property and associate trade, and to pursue his own happiness.” It is essentially saying you will get what you work for and those of you who watched yugioh know Seto was an orphan and worked his way to the top through his own genius and hard work as he loves reminding people at every opportunity and so as Rand would point out Kaiba has earned the right to own a multi billion company and use it in whatever way he sees fit for his own happiness.



Ayn Rand the creator of objectivism

Final thing i am going to discuss is Kaiba and free will vs determinism which was in abundance during the battle city duel between Kaiba and Isis but quickly, what is Free will and determinism? Well as the name suggests determinism is the belief that whether down to environmental or spiritual factors everything in our lives is pre determined and we have no control over it whereas free will is the belief we have the power to decide our own choices and live in what ever way we choose. So to the duel (episode 93 if you’d like to watch it yourself) Isis has an item the millennium necklace which allows her to supposedly see the future and throughout the duel she demonstrates this by predicting all of Kaiba’s moves much to his annoyances and in true Kaiba fashion he just assumes she’s cheating. Now this attitude from Isis is very determinist, the future can’t be changed and our destinies are set. Kaiba’s reply to this is very interesting he says “when will you people stop looking in the past, I look to the future” this is a man who believes he forges his own path by his own actions, and later in the duel when Isis is confident of victory after infecting Kaiba’s obelisk the tormentor card with a virus which would win her the duel Kaiba defies her prophecy and sacrifices obelisk to summon his signature blue-eyes white dragon proudly proclaiming “hear me now I won’t be controlled! I decide my future there’s no such thing as destiny”. If I had to put this into a determinist category this episode I’d probably class it as soft determinism which is the theory that human behaviour and actions are wholly determined by causal events, but human free will does exist when defined as the capacity to act according to one’s nature as Isis could determine most of the duel but through Kaiba’s own strength and will power he was able to alter his own destiny.



My first words were “Neutron Blast Attack!!”





There we have a brief look at the philosophy of a character from a decade old children’s TV show hope you enjoyed something a bit different today. See you next time!