Seto Kaiba refuses to believe in the Egypt and magic nonsense not because he’s just stubborn, but because he is a devout Christian—-though he considers himself to be without a specific denomination. He also honestly believes that God and Jesus are the only people he should ever have to answer to. Post-series he plays off any idea of the Memory World adventures as the Devil’s work.
i don’t mean to be a butt
but
kaiba reads friedrich nietzsche, specifically thus spake zarathustra. which he would probably enjoy since it has many ideas of becoming who you are, rising above others (“You must be ready to burn in your own flame; how could you rise anew if you have not first become ashes?”)
but, yeah, he reads Nietzsche. if you’re familiar with this philosopher (whom i happen to have a love-hate relationship with), you’d know his stance on religion. His philosophy has many themes, but one of the most widely known is his contempt towards religion. a few quotes:
“In Christianity, neither morality nor religion come into contact with reality at any point.”
“Two great European narcotics, alcohol and Christianity.”
“When we hear the ancient bells growling on a Sunday morning we ask ourselves: Is it really possible! This, for a jew, crucified two thousand years ago, who said he was God’s son? The proof of such a claim is lacking. Certainly the Christian religion is an antiquity projected into our times from remote prehistory; and the fact that the claim is believed - whereas one is otherwise so strict in examining pretensions - is perhaps the most ancient piece of this heritage…Can one believe that such things are still believed?”
and possibly one of the most famous statements he made, speaking about how europe’s religious consciousness had to be “killed”—
“Gott ist tot/God is dead.”
he also wrote that he found himself identifying with spinoza and his beliefs. spinoza’s god was one of only nature, and that the only concept of “god” had to be one that was nature in whole, and not any cognizant/aware being.
it’s…an okay headcanon, one i’m not really fond of due to my own wariness of religion, and i don’t mean to tear it apart. maybe he’s a questioning christian reading nietzsche, then.
i’m sorry.
I would like to point out that Kaiba is specifically reading “Thus Spake Zarathustra”, which is entirely about the death (and thus, nonexistence) of God.
Everyone is totally entitled to their headcanons, but it seems to me like this one is directly contradicted in the canon (in the very screencap used to make this post!), so I have a hard time with it…
This just shows how bad I am about getting sucked into debates, since I’m not even part of the fandom, but I’d just like to point out that Thus Spake Zarathustra is a well-known book, and one could easily read it without agreeing with it. (From what little Yu-gi-oh I have seen, though, I’m just going to mention that if Kaiba is a Christian he’s a terrible one.)
