*nods thoughtfully* That's certainly one of the ways I've taken Atobe--that the 'showing off' is an act to keep his club in line. It makes sense for Kaiba. Goal-oriented doesn't even begin to describe him. Though I think he does use his arrogance to provoke closeness as well as distance; with Jounouchi, in particular. The evolution of his insults was one of the things that interested me enough to include it on the website I did for the show. (http://www.alltrees.org/anime/redgold/ if you're curious)

I have to say, I was a completely lost cause once I saw Kaiba fighting that thug-in-chief at Duelist Kingdom--the affair with the gun and the card, and Kaiba being unspeakably cool.