4/5/18 - Favourite Character Praise Friday! - Seto Kaiba

Today, 4/5/18 is the ninth instalment the series of posts praising my all-time favourite characters for their quirks and flaws etc. called Favourite Character Praise Friday. I will be sharing these posts every two weeks to gush about fictional characters in a proactive environment. With this segment, I intend to demonstrate what makes characters great so you and I alike can use these facts to improve our characters!

So who is the subject of my ninth Favourite Character Praise Friday?

The subject for today's Favourite Character Praise Friday, is a character that has been close to my heart since my childhood, the anti-hero of the original Yu-Gi-Oh Franchise; Seto Kaiba!

Honestly, I have no legitimate reason to justify why I adored Kaiba as a child. I just did! I ended up having his starter deck when I began to play Yu-Gi-Oh! and my deck ended up having three Blue Eyes White Dragons, and a Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon within it. Albeit, I cannot justify exactly why I was enamoured with his character originally, I can explain why he remains to be one of my all-time favourite characters.

So, why is Kaiba one of my all time favourite characters?
Warning! There will be spoilers!

Seto Kaiba is a more complicated character than he is given credit for 

When exploring the backstory that surrounds the Kaiba brothers, especially when rewatching the series, one learns that Kaiba's story is a lot sadder than one might think as a child, the idea that Kaiba was an orphan and he had to run a company at age fifteen could be very much foreign concepts to children in the target audience. They would likely see him as his archetype, the rich antagonist that can get pretty much anything he wants. However, as the show goes on, the viewers learn to expect that Kaiba is not destined for the same greatness as Yugi. 

But regardless of what the audience may believe, Kaiba constantly strives to defeat his rival and demonstrate that he is apt. This is significant due to the content produced by his company since he took control, he turned a company which manufactured weaponry into one that endorsed technology advancements and built theme parks to make people happy! It's really interesting to explore Kaiba and the way he behaves as he is not motivated by this same obligation to the Pharaoh that resides within Yugi's Millennium Puzzle. 

Exploring Kaiba's loyalties is very simple - which is not only realistic but also gives him more depth

Throughout the series, Seto Kaiba is a character that rarely goes out of his way to engage in the central conflict of the story until the conflict appears on his doorstep. For example, he does not actively seek out Pegasus in the first season until his younger brother is kidnapped, and does not pursue the members of the Orichalcos movement until his company was under threat. Kaiba is a very practical young man, mature for his age and acknowledges that the most important things at hand are his younger brother and his company; Mokuba because he raised him and the company because it is the only income the pair have considering they lost their inheritance.  

Kaiba is, despite how the show depicted him - a huge philanthropist! 

Kaiba's actions in terms of being a philanthropist are demonstrated in the way he changed the company he inherited. As I have previously stated, Kaiba Corp. prior to Seto acquiring the position as president, manufactured weaponry and heavy machines used to create weaponry for the military, to a company that could inspire children that were in similar circumstances that he grew up in - wanting to create things that would inspire the imaginations of the children that went to the Kaiba Land theme parks. He actively strives to motivate those around him and do good for the world around him. He will not let antagonistic forces try to spoil a company that he had only just redeemed.

So, what can we learn about writing anti-heroes from Seto Kaiba?

1. Providing younger audiences with a complex character which derives from an archetype gives them enough content to comprehend but a backstory reasonable enough to make sense in the eyes of the parents who tended to have to watch these programs too. 
2. Just because a character has all of his cards on the table in terms of who he trusts, does not mean that the character is any less interesting - sometimes having simple ideas and executing them well means that the characters can learn 
3. Anti-heroes need not appear to be bad people, they merely stand in the way of the protagonist meeting their goals. 

Thank you for reading my reasons that I adore Seto Kabia! I hope I influenced the way you perceive your own characters!

Until next time!

And remember: 

Per Ardua Ad Astra! 

- Imogen. L. Smiley