Obelisk the Tormentor (card)

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For the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters episode, see Obelisk the Tormentor (episode)

In the manga and anime series Yu-Gi-Oh!, Obelisk the Tormentor (オベリスクの巨神兵 Oberisuku no Kyoshinhei, lit. "Giant God-Soldier of Obelisk") is one of the three God Cards. In the Japanese manga and anime, it is sometimes called by the Engrish name "The God of Obelisk", while in the English manga, it is called The God of the Obelisk. "Obelisk the Tormentor" is the name used in the English anime, and on the English version of the real God Cards.

Initially passed to Seto Kaiba by Ishizu Ishtar, Obelisk the Tormentor is the first God Card appearing in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and manga. The two poles it represents are "light" and "darkness".

Note that obelisk, unlike Osiris and Ra, is not originally the name of an Egyptian god, but of a kind of structure commonly erected by the ancient Egyptians.He then represents the Egyptian god Seth.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! GX counterpart is Raviel, Lord of Phantasms.

[edit] Effects

Note: The effects stated in this section are based on the Japanese anime and/or manga of Yu-Gi-Oh!. The real Obelisk card does not have any effect printed on it, and cannot be used in duels. (See God Cards for more details.)

According to the Japanese anime and manga of Yu-Gi-Oh!, the Obelisk card has the following unique statistics (unlike most other cards which text are written in Japanese, in the Japanese anime and manga, the text on the God Cards are written in English):

• ATK (ATtacK points) 4000/DEF (DEFense points) 4000

• (Effect) "The Player shall sacrifice two bodies to God of Obelisk. The opponent shall be damaged. And the monsters on the field shall be destroyed." [sic]

With what are observed in various duels, a deduction of the unique abilities of Obelisk is concluded below:

• ATK 4000/DEF 4000

• (Effect)
  • Sacrifice 2 monster cards on your side of the field to destroy all monsters on your opponent’s side of the field, and inflict 4000 points of damage to their Life Points, or increase the ATK of Obelisk the Tormentor by an amount equal to the combined ATK of the monsters sacrificed. Obelisk the Tormentor cannot attack during the same turn that the first effect is used. Also, Obelisk is not effected by magic, trap, or flip effect cards and cannot be destroyed

This effect is known as "Soul Energy Max" (ソウルエナジーMAX) in the Japanese anime and manga.

There are also certain effects shared by all God Cards; these are listed in that entry for brevity.

Obelisk's attack is known as "God Hand Crusher" (ゴッド・ハンド・クラッシャー) in the Japanese anime and manga. And with this effect activated, Obelisk's "attack" is known as "God Hand Crusher/God Hand Impact" (ゴッド・ハンド・インパクト), or, in the English TV show, "Fist of Fate/Fist of Fury".

[edit] A note on Obelisk's effect

There are many contrary views on Obelisk's effect. Some say he gains infinite ATK and attacks directly for the win, others say he does 4000 points of damage.

In both the manga and anime of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Obelisk's effect was not explained clearly at the beginning. In manga Duel 148 published on October 19, 1999, when Obelisk's effect was activated during the duel between Seto Kaiba and the Duel Machine (this was the first time Obelisk's effect was used in the manga), there was no indication on exactly how much damage was inflicted on its opponent's Life Points by the effect. What you can see is only Obelisk's ATK increased to an unknown value, followed by Obelisk crushing Duel Machine's monsters, reducing its unhurt Life Points (4000) to 0 instantly (remember, Obelisk has an original ATK of 4000, which means it can wipe out 4000 Life Points with just one attack). With this scenario and the text written on the manga Obelisk card in mind, some Yu-Gi-Oh! fans deduced that Obelisk's effect inflicts 4000 points of damage on its opponent's Life Points. And although some details of this duel was changed when it was shown in Yu-Gi-Oh! anime episode 54, which first aired on TV Tokyo on May 8, 2001, there was still no indication of the exact ATK of Obelisk with its effect activated, thus nothing to clarify it.

In the manga, after Duel 148, it appeared that Obelisk's effect was activated again when Yugi Mutou and Kaiba formed a team to duel against two Rare Hunters in Duel 177, published in mid 2000. However, what one can see about this duel is that both teams played some unknown cards, and then Kaiba summoned his Obelisk and defeated both Rare Hunters with one strike. All details of the duel were skipped, thus no indication of the exact amount of damage inflicted on the Rare Hunters, and no indication of the Life Points they had just before their defeats either.

However, when this duel was shown in anime episode 68 aired on August 14, 2001, many details were added, and one can clearly see that, after two monsters were sacrificed, Obelisk first destroyed all of the two Rare Hunter's monsters, then attacked and wiped out both of their Life Points (4000) at the same time.

But before this episode was aired, an unofficial effect stating that after Tributing 2 monsters, Obelisk "can attack all monsters on your opponent's side of the field at the same time and inflict 4000 points of Direct Damage to your opponent's Life Points" was given in a Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! card game rulebook called Thousand Rule Bible (サウザンド・ルール・バイブル), published by Shueisha on December 21, 2000. After that, although there were still disagreements on whether Obelisk, with its effect activated, destroys its opponent's monster by attacking them or using a monster-destroying effect on them, the deduction that "Obelisk's effect inflicts 4000 points of damage to his opponent's Life Points" was so widely accepted that it became somewhat "official". And, needless to say, when Yu-Gi-Oh! was introduced to the Western world in early 2002, the "official" effect of Obelisk spread even further through the Internet.

Finally, Kazuki Takahashi, the author of Yu-Gi-Oh!, clarified Obelisk's effect in Duel 275 by indicating that Obelisk's ATK increased to "∞" (infinity) when its effect was activated for the third time in the manga. This chapter was published on August 13, 2002, about three years after Duel 148 was published.

However, for some reason, Obelisk's effect was still not "updated" when it was used during the duel between Yugi and Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh! anime episode 131, aired on November 12, 2002. (Note that during the same duel in the manga, Obelisk's effect was never used.) Not until the airing of episode 141 on January 21, 2003 was the clarified effect of Obelisk finally appeared in the Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. And to prevent contradiction with episode 131, this "new" effect was explained as a "miracle" brought forth by the anger of Obelisk.

The Egyptian God Cards

Giant God-Soldier of Obelisk (Obelisk the Tormentor) | Sky Dragon of Osiris (Slifer the Sky Dragon) | Winged God-Dragon of Ra (The Winged Dragon of Ra)