Noah Kaiba

Noah Kaiba (Kaiba Neia) is the biological son of Gozaburo Kaiba and the main antagonist of the Virtual World Arc until his defeat at Yami Yugi's hands. He has green hair and blue eyes (probably a reference to the fact Seto Kaiba had green hair in the first series anime).

History
Noah lived with his father in luxury and was forced to study heavily in the arts and in academic subjects, just like Seto Kaiba later was, but enjoyed it. When Noah was around ten years old, he was in a car accident which rendered his body useless. In the hope of saving his son, Gozaburo Kaiba uploaded Noah's mind onto a super computer just before Seto was adopted. Noah's consciousness lived in a virtual world that initially only included his own empty bedroom but was ultimately expanded to include many other areas. While Noah at first found his virtual existence almost pleasant, even enjoyable, the limits and bugs in the virtual citizens and his own virtual pet caused Noah to grow increasing frustrated, agitated, and in some cases even sadistic to seek out some satisfaction in his virtual existence. While his intelligence (and ego) grew exponentially, with no real human contact, his maturity didn't increase one iota.

Gozaburo had adopted Seto as a body for Noah, but eventually Gozaburo forgot about his own son, realizing he would always be a spoiled brat, in favor of teaching Seto. When Seto Kaiba took over Kaiba Corp., Gozaburo, in frustration and defeat, uploaded his own mind into Noah's virtual world.

Virtual World
Six years later, Noah takes his revenge on Seto. He kidnaps Seto and his passengers on Seto's Kaiba Craft 3 during the semi-finals of Battle City, hoping to take one of the passenger's bodies, preferably Seto's. With the help of the Big Five (the former chief executives of KaibaCorp who had been trapped in the virtual realm after their failed coup) and his father, Noah locks Seto and the others in his virtual world and duels with them for their bodies.

Unfortunately for the Big Five, they all fail to defeat the group; despite the amateur dueling abilities of such players as Tristan Taylor, Duke Devlin, and Serenity Wheeler, the Big Five are only able to claim Tristan's body, with the combined Big Five being defeated by Yami Yugi and Joey Wheeler in a final duel. Disgusted at the Big Five's failures, Noah destroys them (in the dub, he simply sealed them away forever) and decides to take on Seto himself, attempting to take Seto's body so that he can fulfill his role as Kaiba Corporation's heir. He either brainwashed or hypnotized Mokuba Kaiba (he brainwashed Mokuba into believing Noah was his true brother rather than Seto), in order to weaken Seto's resolve, before Noah personally duels with Seto. Though Noah proves to be more skilled than the Big 5, he eventually finds himself about to be defeated, but uses Mokuba to discourage Kaiba from attacking as both Noah and Kaiba knew continuing with the attack would severely harm Mokuba, and because of how close Kaiba is with Mokuba, Noah knew he would never risk destroying him for the sake of winning one duel. Just as he's about to lose, Kaiba manages to get through to Mokuba and frees him from Noah's mind control. Noah, in retaliation, turns Seto's virtual body to stone, along with Mokuba's.

Noah now duels with Yami Yugi, who has taken Seto's place to prove to Noah that he only won by trickery and deceit. Despite Noah's use of "Shinato, King of a Higher Plane" as his Deck Master, thus allowing him to add to his Life Points whenever a monster is sent to the Graveyard, and Yami Yugi being left with only a small number of Life Points at the start since Kaiba's had been worn down to almost nothing, he loses when Yugi - who was using both his and Kaiba's Decks - draws Kaiba's three "Blue-Eyes White Dragon" cards, fusing them to form the "Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon" to defeat Noah's strongest monster (outside of "Shinato", which he saved from being destroyed with an effect that meant it couldn't be used on the field anymore) and subsequently using "De-Fusion" to separate them and destroy Noah's Life Points. After Gozaburo revealed himself, Noah showed everyone that there was a way for them to escape, but when he shows Mokuba to it, he escapes in Mokuba's body and leaves the virtual realm. Using his new body, Noah attempts to blow up the computer by ordering a missile equipped satellite to destroy the submarine, with everyone else's minds in it.

At the very last minute, Noah remembers how Mokuba had called him brother and still loved him even after he tried to kill him and Seto. Realizing that that what he was doing was wrong, Noah tries to call off the satellite, but finds the computer he used to control was wrecked by Yami Marik. Despite that, he manages to give Mokuba back his body, get every one out of the virtual world to safety, and save them from being blown up. Noah doesn't manage to stop the explosion, though, so Noah's and Gozaburo's minds are destroyed, because Noah made sure to keep Gozaburo from escaping into the net. Noah is finally able to accept the fact that he is dead though, unlike his father. (In the English dub, he is believed to have saved himself on a back-up file before the explosion.)

He is voiced by Chisa Yokoyama in the Japanese version and by Andrew Rannells in the English version.

Deck
Noah uses two Decks during the series. The first one can be seen as an allegory for the history of Earth. The first monsters he plays are seemingly human, possibly a reference to the antediluvian members of humanity present before God sent a flood to destroy them all with the exception of Noah and his family. These monsters include "Chiron the Mage" and "Aeris", whose powerful attacking abilities enable Noah to briefly gain the upper hand. He also utilizes "Fissure" and "Earthshaker", referencing among other things, the earthquakes that frequented Earth when it was cooling. He then uses the "Giant Flood" Magic Card to destroy every monster on the field and in one's hand and send them to the Graveyard. Noah's Deck Master is "Shinato's Ark", an obvious reference to Noah's Ark. All his monsters go inside the ark rather than to the Graveyard. He then switches to Dinosaur monsters such as "Giant Rex" and their large attacking capabilities allow Noah to gain another advantage on Kaiba. He then uses "Deepest Impact" Magic Card, symbolic of an asteroid coming down to destroy the dinosaurs, to destroy all monsters in play and deplete both players' Life Points by half. The field then switches to the Ice Age, and Noah uses "Ice Age Panic" to call forth his "Last Tusk Mammoth". After Kaiba destroys it, Noah switches the field to modern times, plays the Magic Card "Dark Hole", and Summons "Gradius" and eventually "Gradius's Option" to the field, equipped with several Magic Cards that reflect futuristic weaponry and space exploration. After Kaiba forces the duel into a final showdown with "Last Turn", Noah calls forth his Deck Master, which is initially crushed by the blast from Kaiba's "Blue-Eyes White Dragon". It then reveals "Shinato, King of a Higher Plane", symbolic possibly of end times.

In the Japanese versions of the episodes, Noah actually refers to his duel with Kaiba as "The 7 Turns of Creation" duel, and makes references to the creation of Earth during the duel. Because of its biblical connotations, Noah's mention of the Earth's creation is omitted in the English version.

After the defeat of Seto, Yami Yugi takes over as his opponent, and Noah opts to switch the Deck he is using. In this Deck, his Spirit Monsters must return back to his hand at the end of the turn on which they were Summoned or flipped. His spirits must be references to the afterlife and beyond, continuing his themes from his recreational deck. He uses his "Spring of Rebirth" card to take full advantage of this by gaining 500 Life Points whenever a monster returns to his hand. Combined with "Shinato's" ability to increase his Life Points whenever he does damage to an opponent, his Life Points climb higher to over 10000, and he simply waves off direct attacks from Yugi, laughing he doesn't even feel them. Noah then Summons various Spirit Monsters, ranging from the powerful "Yamata Dragon" to the direct attacking "Inaba White Rabbit". Noah eventually settles on "Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi", his most powerful Spirit Monster (also his strongest monster next to "Shinato"), and uses "Spiritual Energy Settle Machine" to keep it in play.

Trivia

 * Noah has a striking resemblance to Seto Kaiba's look in the first series anime.