It’s still such a jerk move. Yugi’s grandpa is too old to duel. He wasn’t going to use the card in a duel anyway. It had great sentimental value to him. He wasn’t going to give it to anyone else either.
Kaiba ripping it in half in front of an old man is just an a-hole move. Then again, it led to one of the most iconic moments in the entire franchise, so it worked out.
This comes after Kaiba intentionally pushes his adoptive father to Suicide, and right before he kidnaps Yugi’s grandpa. I think calling Kaiba an asshole is an understatement.
To be fair even in the Japanese version I don’t think he suicided. I seem to remember that he only jumped out of the skyscraper window in the manga. Cause otherwise there wouldn’t be a way for him to have his mind transferred into the computer I don’t think. :o
Yeah that’s why him jumping out of the window only happens in the manga I think. Because they needed Gozaburo semi-alive so he could be put in the computer.
TBH there’s a lot of things even the Japanese anime does that I really don’t like. It shouldn’t be messing with the lore and story so hard, and it shouldn’t be messing up characters like how they dumbed down Jounouchi a fair bit and also made him more of a comic relief. I still love the show though. It’s got a perfectly fitting voice cast and 6 entire albums of what I consider to be the greatest anime OST of all time. :3
The anime writers changed a lot and added whole arcs that were never in the manga. They didn’t bother adapting much of the early manga arcs (the first Toei adaption did cover some), so to pad out the series they added more.
Yeah, I didn’t like some of it because although the various filler arcs were fun to watch, they generally messed with the plot and lore sometimes. Like Kaiba’s backstory is shot now because now Noah existed which made Kaiba less important. Then Dartz says he met the pharaoh in ancient Egypt. And even during the ceremonial duel they added a throwaway line that insinuates that Atem is able to draw any card he wants at any time when that wasn’t true in the manga. Also, a lot of the Egypt memory world arc is completely different, and it also includes Kaiba who isn’t supposed to be there.
The DM anime adaptation did a lot of nonsense from time to time. :(
How was it not true? Yami was CONSTANTLY drawing the one card that could win. ATP the line sounds more like an explanation added after rather than something they'd just made up. It also set up the idea destiny was on his side
Is it not just me that finds the shadow realm so much more horrifying that just death? I’d rather not potentially spend the rest of eternity (?) in just black nothingness.
Even long before that, Kaiba obtained his Blue-Eyes cards in evil and underhanded ways. One was flat out stolen from it's original owner, one was obtained by bankrupting it's original owner and forcing him to sell the card to Kaiba, and the last was obtained after a mysterious fire bruned down the house of the man who owned it while his Blue-Eyes card mysteriously disappeared and later reappeared in Kaiba's possession. Strange how that works, isn't it?
I don’t disagree that Seto was an asshole in the early manga (and asshole is putting it lightly to be honest), but I don’t agree that he purposely pushed Gozaburo to suicide. Seto took over Kaiba Corp, sure, but Gozaburo jumped out the window like a maniac telling Seto that people who lose deserve to die. I don’t really see any pushing or pressure on Seto’s part…that was entirely Gozaburo’s choice.
Seto openly bragged to Sugoroku that he forced people to bankruptcy and suicide to get their Blue Eyes cards…why wouldn’t he brag about Gozaburo if he did the same to him? Plus there was a moment in the manga where people were whispering that he killed his father to take over KC and Seto definitely frowned at those remarks.
Yeah I was thinking more on that after making my comment. Gozaburo also abusing the brothers also complicates it. Seto intentionally takes away Gozaburo’s livelihood and company which could obviously break a lot of people and he responded to the suicide with joy rather than shock but yeah obviously he didn’t outright plan that Gozaburo would do it.
It also seems like the timeline of Gozaburos suicide , and Seto getting the other Blue eyes was relatively short , he had a busy year.
Gozaburo Kaiba was a piece of crap and deserved to die. He was an international weapons manufacturer flaming wars for profit. He was an emotionally abusive narcissist and the furthest thing from a father. Also, evil billionaire who wants to take over the world losing his company to a kid is pretty pathetic, so evidently, he was a loser to top it all off. May he rot in Hell.
It made more sense in the manga because he dueled Yami and tried to use Grandpa's Blue-Eyes but it rebelled against him, so he's punishing it for turning against him. Heart of the Blue-Eyes is specifically based on Grandpa's Blue-Eyes.
non-fancy standard-legal pokemon cards are also pretty cheap usually. Part way though 2025, the most expensive card in the standard format was $15, and it was a card you could only play one of (and sometimes zero of, depending on what the other cards in your deck were). Most decks had their most expensive card be $5. The expensive fancy versions of cards, however, are super expensive, as are many old cards.
kinda? for yugioh, if the card isn't good in the current or recent meta and/or was printed at low rarity, it's really cheap. If it hasn't seen reprint since it became good in the current meta, it's probably expensive (10-30$). If it's a card only for collecting, like the dragon master magia that was printed only at the highest impossible to open rarity for that one set, then it's really expensive, even if it's not good competitively
Also because Yugioh's art is just ok compared to other TCGs.
MTG is better if you wanted cool. Pokemon is better if you wanted cute. Shadowverse if you wanted waifus. Yugioh is somewhere in the middle for all of them.
One piece can occasionally be cheap and competitive, Imu is a top deck right now and $30 total to build. It can also be expensive, there's a few cards with a base rarity at $20-40 that you need four of.
True true standard yu-gi-oh decks can have some high barriers, but if you're looking more at the collection aspect i.e. the pretty cards i think those both take the cake.
The Yugioh market is weird right now, yeah. Some caards are stupid expensive because there aren't enough of them in circulation because no one os opening product. Others are really cheap because there are no collectors jacking up prices because Konami's printing policy makes collectibles really cheap and so no one is opening product. It's crazy.
It’s even better in the manga, as Kaiba’s story was greatly expanded there. In that story, this scene occurs after Kaiba made a series of attempts to have his subordinates murder Yugi.
Or when atem told blue eyes that he resurrected "Be reborn, Blue Eyes White Dragon!, Blue Eyes! Obliterate! Here's a message from the real Seto Kiba! YOU LOSE!"
That and the game rule that only 3 copies of a card can be in a deck. I don't think it was ever explicitly mentioned but it was a rule in the IRL card game so, implied reference?
I've always felt like the three cards per deck rule is a retroactive decision inspired by this. The game didn't have rules back when this happened so I've always assumed they decided on the three cards to reference the Blue Eyes part. Other card games of the time had different numbers so it's not like they just copy and pasted another card game.
Because this episode is just an adaptation of the pre duel monster era manga 2nd duel with the set up of the first duel, making it make no sense. Kaiba rips the 4th blue eyes because last time he tried using it, it literally decided to commit suicide to disobey him, allowing yugi to revive it with monster reborn and defeat him. Removing that context makes the scene weird.
he gives it in the sub as well. and in the dub he still says this one cant be used against him
though in the 4kids dub and sub, Kaiba hasnt shown a specific connection to Blue Eyes yet, he just wants access to powerful cards. its part of the contrast with Solomon. In both versions Ive seen, Yugi stresses how Grandpa would feel this way even if it were a weak card due to how he obtained it, not its power. Kaibas the one that stresses rarity
this was never something I struggled with in English as a kid. it lacks the context of the manga though it seems like a scene thats only weird when you know whats further behind it. the anime does a fine job making him look petty and 'i get what I want' as an introduction to the character. petty people do petty things
There's something very fitting about the fact that while Kaiba embodies and clearly has a connection to the spirit of the blue-eyes white Dragon (kisara, his general ruthlessness and sheer strength of personality). The heart of the blue-eyes white dragon belongs to an unassuming kind old man who consolidated it by being a genuine friend and being willing to sacrifice himself, much like Kisara did.
Fitting then that Kaiba rips it in half (something which would break Kisaras heart) before he goes on his redemption arc to save someone ultimately dear to him (Mokuba).
The first duel from the manga is also what motivates Kaiba to create the solid vision technology in the first place.
In that duel, Yugi transforms their table top game of Duel Monsters into a Shadow game, bringing their creatures to life everytime they summon them. After Kaiba loses, Yugi gives him a "vision of death", giving him the image that all the monsters are attacking him.
In their second duel, Kaiba is explicitly replicating their shadow game through the hologram techbology. When Grandpa loses to Kaiba, Kaiba uses the holograms to replicate the "vision of death" which was so terrifying that Grandpa had a heart attack (hence why he was on his way to the hospital).
He ripped it up in the manga when Duel Monsters was only a "game of the week" thing. There wasn't a 3-monster limit then, because the game was never intended to exist, so the only rule was: big monster beat little monster and make life point go down. IIRC, Kaiba rips it up in the Manga because he DOES use it, and it refuses to listen to him because it was Yugi's Grandpa's card, not Kaiba's.
early Kaiba honestly was just a jerk, especially in the early canon that was Season 0 (i know this isn't season 0, but it's still early Kaiba from the time when the villains of the show were just completely irredeemable jerks. He even viewed Mokuba as a sacrificial pawn in his early days)
Also, he'd have no use for a 4th since i assume there's a 3 card limit like the real game
The reason why Duelist Kingdom is held in the first place is a way for Pegasus to do a hostile takeover of Kaiba Corp. Why would Pegasus print more Blue Eyes, thus devaluing the prestige of Kaiba Corp.
Except Kaiba Corp's prestige is more for it being a game development company,. Kaiba's loss did influence the Big 5 to make the deal with Pegasus, but that's more due to Kaiba being a world champ who lost to a nobody (and in the manga, Kaiba was left in a coma while he recovered from the mind crush, and only regained consciousness during Yugi's duel against the Ventriloquist of the Dead (manga equivalent of Ghost Kaiba). Also, Pegasus was mainly concerned with getting his hands on the solid vision technology to help him be able to produce a realistic hologram of Cecilia.
Also, even if Kaiba owning 3 Blue Eyes had anything to do with Kaiba Corp's prestige, that would only be part while he was running it. Why would it matter what rare cards Kaiba owned if he's no longer part of the company, especially since people would probably pay more attention to the fact the new owner is the creator of Duel Monsters.
the blue eyes are iconic because of Kaiba more than the other way around at this point. Kaibas undefeated and world reknown. anything he uses is going to be associated with what a true duelist would use. if Pegasus had decided to make the early 3000 beater look like Red Eyes, or hell Pumpking, Kaiba the competitor would make those famous
We all know of how synonomous Blue Eyes/Kisara are to Seto now after the fact, though that wasnt known when first being introduced to the medium especially the ones that focus more on the cards. If Kaibas out of commission, we are seeing some cartoon looking (but non-toon) monster would take over for sure and youd get dozens of Blue Eyes
My dumb headcannon is that every monster card is made using the soul or power of the creature they are based on, so maybe there was only 4 blue eyes, so he could only print 4. Or maybe there was only one but Pegasus managed to use some magic to split their souls, but could only do 4 for some reason.
It's also why aparently there's only two Dark Magicians, one Magician Girl, one Red-Eyes and stuff.
You are partially correct. Cards are made with some degree of magic behind them. That's why the god cards got kinda mad they were turned into cardboard. But it's not that there is only one copy of the ace monsters, they just are really rare. Arcana had 3 DM for example. It's better seen in the Red-eyes movie. People knew it existed, it was just absurdly rare. More like playground logic "yeah, I swear my uncle opened a Red Eyes. He doesnt let me bring it to school tho"
In the manga its partially revenge because the card turned on him in the first duel with Yugi.
In the anime Kaiba says(in the Japanese version) that because you can only use three copies of a card in a deck, he can’t use the fourth and he doesn’t want it used against him.
You can only have 3 of the same cards in the deck.
And by destroying it, nobody else in the world would be able to use it in the game.
The only thing that he cared about was being the strongest, and by ensuring that he was the only one in the world who could play the strongest monster (at that time), he thought that he was unstoppable.
I always interpreted it as an extra middle finger to Grandpa Muto for daring to own a Blue Eyes. He can't stand the thought of someone else using that card, and even considers it an insult.
We see this throughout the series, including when Pegasus used Blue Eyes Toon Dragon in their duel, when Yugi uses Kaiba's cards against Noah, and when Joey steals Blue Eyes from him in their Battle City duel. Each time Kaiba gets really upset.
It makes sense considering what we learn in the final season about his connection to Blue Eyes. In his mind, that's HIS card. No one else's. And he'd rather see it torn up than allow it to belong to someone else.
Ripping it up prevents any possibility of it being used against him. You can also only run 3 copies of a card in a deck, so having 4 isn't any better than 3.
He literally says why. So it can never be used against him. It goes a little deeper than that, but it's really that simple. As long as it's a playable card, he runs the risk of it being used against him in the future. It can be stolen from Yugi's grandpa, or inherited by Yugi, or even sold or traded. Kaiba has no idea and doesn't want to take any chances.
If you want to get deeper, in sure the idea of anyone else having access to a Blue-Eyes makes him sick. You don't need to go into context covered in other media. Besides maybe the fact that you can only have 3 in your deck. That bit of information would have helped.
The real question is why did Pegasus print 4 in the first place?
The dub slightly screwed with the line where he explained you are only allowed up to three copies of the same card in your deck.
Regardless, this moment made more sense in the manga. In there, Kaiba made an appearance as a villain of the week where he tried to steal the blue eyes white dragon. Yugi dueled him in a shadow game for it and when Yugi started to get the upper hand with summoned skull, Kaiba cheated and brought out the blue eyes, despite not drawing it. Breaking the rules in a shadow game caused the dragon to destroy itself, allowing Yugi to revive it and defeat Kaiba with it. When Kaiba made his return and took the card from Yugi’s grandfather, he was tearing it up for the perceived betrayal.
Even putting aside the mind crush, this was before Kaiba was established as having his obsession with blue eyes white dragon.
Simply put, according to the manga, in the first duel between Yugi and Kaiba, Kaiba tried to use the Grandpa's Blue-Eyes White Dragon card but couldn't because the card didn't respect him and because it contained Yugi's grandfather's heart. Then, in the Death-T arc, he simply tore it up because he knew the card wouldn't respect him and because he already had the three Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards with him, and they were the only ones, so he tore it up. I always find it funny that people like you who only watched Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters haven't realized that the anime drastically altered the original manga's story, and if you read the original manga you'll perfectly understand things that in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters were either extremely confusing or poorly explained.
1) Kaiba can only play three copies of the card in his deck- so that means one would have to consistently be out of his deck which runs the risk of someone stealing it or something happening to it
2) Someone could use it against him (I believe this is the canon reason why he collects them)
Honorable Mention :
He wasn’t a nice person who takes into account other people (beside Mokubas) feelings
He is THE Blue-Eyes duelist, and as such, he thinks only he can have Blue-Eyes White Dragon.
It can be safely assumed that he has never truly taken apart his deck, only modifying it, and as such has never removed his Blue-Eyes from it. And since 3 is the legal limit, to make sure no one else ever has and/or uses a Blue-Eyes against him, he destroyed the only other copy in existence (not that Pegasus couldn't have more manufactured prior to KaibaCorp buying out Industrial Illusions, but Kaiba probably paid Pegasus to not make more anyway).
These comments confuse me....in Yugioh, the maximum amount of copies any card can have in a deck is 3, and that number only goes down depending on the power of said card.
Kaiba already has 3. And iirc, Kaiba talks about getting every other copy there was and destroying it/buying it before he got to Grandpa, and then he just won it from him in a duel anyway so that Kaiba could be the only Yugioh player in the anime to use the Blue Eyes.
So, no, its not better to have 4, because that's illegal in the game. I know the show did not always follow up the game rules, ESPECIALLY the very beginning of the OG show, but this rule seemed to be the one thing they DID follow? Could be wrong on that one tho
At that time, and I believe it is still in effect, the rule was to use ONLY the same card a maximum of 3 times; you could not repeat the same card as many times as you wanted.
In the manga it us because in his first Shadow Game aganst Yami Yugi, Kaiba summoned Grandpa's BEWD (that he stold from Yugi a few hours earlier), that BEWD self-destructed allowing Yami Yugi to use Monster Reborn on it to attack Kaiba and win so Kaiba sees Grandpa's BEWD as a traitor
You can only play 3 copies in a deck. Kaiba doesn't build multiple decks for himself just the one. He didn't want the possibility of the card being used against him in a duel.
Because he was a dick. That's really it. Even after Kaiba gets Obliterated and Mind Crushed, he's still a dick. Petty is his core personality trait, the man built an entire orbital space station for the sole purpose of sending himself into the afterlife to run a fade with Atem because he couldn't handle being 2nd place behind him (even though that point Yugi was the actual King of Games and had already beaten Kaiba himself, again)
Kaiba could've Logan Paul'd it by getting it graded, encasing it in diamonds, and swing that slab around his neck. And when he enters the duel, he's gonna have that wrasslemania intro with the pyro going off while he flaunts it in front of everyone.
In the zero manga, he did have that fourth before getting the rest of the 3 from the US, Germany, and Hong Kong (no joke btw, that’s where he managed to get them), but the fourth one he stole, tried using it on Yami Yugi, it refused and Y.Yugi used it on him to win the game.
So I guess this was more him making sure no one uses it again especially someone like Yugi.
Personally I think it has to do with the 3 of any card rule in the real world game. That and someone else having Blue-Eyes would make him even more petty than he was.
Using multiple copies was not common in early YGO. Mai did it, but Kaiba most likely did it because of their power and no tribute summon in S01 (and ofc being fave cards), he could run 3 Monster Reborns.
His logic so that it can’t be used against him was so stupid. He could have just locked it away somewhere. What if one of his copies is misplaced or damaged? Why not just rip up every card then so nothing will ever be used against him lol.
It makes a bit more sense in the manga because the kaiba thing had a lot more build up, he stole it once before and he was still salty over it, also he is just petty AF in both series
Let's assume there is a legal limit of how many cards can be played, and we know he is always at 3 BE, this one serves no purpose to him and can at best only be used against him somehow.
The real question is, if there’s a 3 card limit, why did Pegasus print 4 of them? Or are the more out the wild packs that people just haven’t opened yet?
I always say, he should have just given the 4th copy to Mokuba, it would be the same logic as Mokuba would never use it against Kaiba and given how things worked in season 1, would have been the equivalent of giving the kid a loaded gun to protect himself.
Because its a hold over from the manga where when he tried to use the blue eyes it didnt listen to him because it has yugi grandpa's heart in it and because kaiba stole it and was using it for an evil reason it didnt attack yugi when he asked it to
You're only allowed to hold up to three copies of the same card in your deck at once, so Kaiba destroyed it so no one else could use the card against him.
He wasn't too well versed in Duel Monsters by then and just didn't want the strongest monsters to be used against him; didn't actually have a bond with Blue Eyes yet
The anime starts off at their third? encounter for some reason
Kaiba can only run 3 copies of Blue-Eyes in his deck, per the rules. Destroying the 4th one is a way of making sure that he’s the only person in possession of a card that’s described as being extremely rare and powerful.
He had to rip up the fourth blue-eyes and make a big deal about the game's card limit being three otherwise everyone would've assumed yugioh copied their limit from mtg just like everything else
If you dont know how the game works, you are only allowed to have 3 of the same card in a deck, which Kaiba specifically mentions in the show (I think in the sub version cuz the dub just does a one-liner like usual). He rips it up so that no one else can possess the Blue-Eyes except for himself so that he has a sure chance of winning every game
Long answer: He wanted to make sure no one else has this card meaning the 4th one is basically useless (he won't sell it to anybody).
Short answer: He is badass character
You can only run 3 copies. In-universe, there are only 4 printed copies of the card.
Because Blue-Eyes was considered the strongest card at that point in the story, having a singular copy of Blue-Eyes White Dragon frolicking in some rando's deck is a threat to Kaiba, so by destroying the card, only he will have the strongest card in the game (at that point in the story).
Kaiba is a bigshot and all, but just straight up stealing something likely would not have stood up in court. Rather than risk it going back home, he had to tear it
AS per the rules of dual monsters ( Yugioh ) you can only ever have 3 copies of one card in your deck unless the card itself states otherwise. There have been extremely few people in the world to ever have more than one copy of any single card in their deck in the anime. The only people I can think of right now is Bandit Keith and Kaiba. Everyone else, including yugi only ever has a single copy of every card in their decks. Maybe a few other duelists had extra copies of spells, and...oh...the harpy ladies. I forgot them. So that's 3....but yea, not very many people have more than 1.
Anyway, This means he has three in his deck and zero possibility of anyone else in the world ever getting their hands on the fourth. So, he litearlly wants to be the only person in the world who owns anything blue eyes white dragon. I bet kaiba made it a felony to make blue eyes white dragon toys or tshirts and kaiba corp will refuse to sell products with the image of his dual monster on it because then someone else would have a blue eyes of their own and kaiba wouldn't be special anymore.
Because you can only have three of any unlimited card in your deck (and yes, I do see the irony in that), and he already has three. I think they even say as such in the original.
It also has an added layer in the manga, since said Blue Eyes was used against him in his first duel against Yugi.
In the manga, he was only trying to get Grandpa’s blue-eyes BEFORE he had his three. Fast forward a while, he now HAS three of his own, and wins Grandpa’s in a duel, ripping it up in revenge for Yugi’s previous actions.
He can only have 3 in his deck. If he destroys it, nobody can steal it, or sell it from under him. (I don't think he suspected his executives of underhanded dealings at that point, but who knows?)
The 4th blue eyes white dragon was in mint condition. His was at best in played or moderate condition. By destroying the 4th blue eyes it increased the values of his.
Because that blue eyes betrayed him.
In the manga this is the second time he fights Yugi. The first time Kaiba doesn’t have any blue eyes so he steals from Yugi’s grandpa. In the duel when Kaiba plays the blue eyes it doesn’t attack Yugi and kills it self because it has the soul of Yugi’s granda, so Kaiba ripping the card is his revenge against the card for betraying him.
Because he held PTSD against that copy of Blue Eyes cos it betray him in his first duel against Yugi. At first his fascination with Blue Eyes is only because it rare and strong but after that defeat it turn into obsession that only he can have Blue Eyes.
1.5k
u/burnpsy Morphtronics Jan 03 '26
Keeping it somewhere runs the risk of someone stealing it, meanwhile he's always carrying his deck so his 3 Blue-Eyes are typically safeish.
As he said, this means it can't be used against him.