Obelisk the Tormentor

In the manga Yu-Gi-Oh and the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime series (known as simply Yu-Gi-Oh! in English-speaking countries), Obelisk the Tormentor (オベリスクの巨神兵 Oberisuku no Kyoshinhei, lit. Obelisk the Great God-Soldier) is one of the three God Cards. In the original Japanese manga and anime, it is sometimes called by the Engrish name The God of Obelisk. In the Viz manga the card is called The God of the Obelisk.

Initially passed to Seto Kaiba by Ishizu Ishtar, The God of the Obelisk a.k.a. 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.

Effects

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]

• ATK 4000/DEF 4000 (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.)

• You can activate this effect during you or your opponent's turns. Sacrifice two monsters other than this card on your side of the field. Until after this card attacks, its ATK is set to "∞"(infinity) (i.e., after this effect is activated, when this card inflicts battle damage on your opponent's Life Points, your opponent's Life Points becomes 0 (= loses) immediately.). In addition, all monsters existed on your opponent's side of the field receive battle damage equal to the current ATK of this card (this effect is considered an attack in the manga). (This effect is known as "Soul Energy Max" (ソウルエナジーMAX) in the Japanese anime and manga. With this effect activated, Obelisk's attack is called "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".

A note on Obelisk's effect

In both the manga and anime of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Obelisk's effect was not explained clearly at the beginning. In late 1999, when Obelisk's effect was used during the duel between Seto Kaiba and the Duel Machine in Japanese manga Duel 146: "A Card Like a Fierce God" (鬼神のごときカード) (this is the first time this effect was activated in the manga), there was no indication on how much damage was inflicted on its opponent's Life Points by its effect. What you can see is only Obelisk's ATK increased to an unknown value, followed by Obelisk crushing Duel Machine and all of its monsters to pieces, reducing its unhurt Life Points(4000) to 0 instantly (remember, Obelisk has an ATK of 4000 originally, 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 Duel Monsters anime episode 54 "New contest, new rules" (Japanese name: "This City Becomes Battle City!" (この町は、バトルシティとなる！)) 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 146, 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: "Strike the Enemy!!" (その敵を撃て！！), published in mid 2000. However, what one could see about this duel was that both teams played some unknown cards, and then Kaiba summoned his Obelisk and defeated both Rare Hunters with one attack. All details of the duel were skipped, thus no indication of the 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: "Legendary Fisherman (Part 1)" (Jap. name.: "Invisible Enemy — Sea Stealth II" (見えない敵　シーステルス ||)) aired on August 14, 2001, many details were added, and one could 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 sacrificing two monsters, Obelisk "attacks all of your opponent's Monsters at the same time and does 4000 points of direct damage to your opponent" was given in a Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! rule book called "Thousand Rule Bible" (サウザンド・ルール・バイブル), published by Shueisha in December 21, 2000. After that, although there were still disagreements on whether Obelisk, with its effect activated, destroyed its opponent's monster by attacking them or using a monster-destroying effect on them, the deduction that Obelisk's effect "inflicted 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, this deduction spread even further through the Internet.

Finally, Kazuki Takahashi, the author of Yu-Gi-Oh!, clarified Obelisk's effect in Duel 275: "One-point Life!!" (1ポイントの命！！) by indicating that Obelisk's ATK increased to "∞" when its effect was activated for the third time in the manga. This chapter was published on August 12, 2002, about two years after Duel 177 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: "Clash in the Colosseum (Part 3)" (Jap. name: "Crash! God(Osiris) vs God(Obelisk)" (激突！神(オシリス)VS神(オベリスク))), aired on November 12, 2002. (Note that in the same duel in the manga, Obelisk's effect was never used.) Not until the airing of episode 141 "Obelisk's Anger — Soul Energy Max" (オベリスクの怒り　ソウルエナジーMAX) on January 21, 2003 was the clarified effect of Obelisk finally appeared in Japanese Yu-Gi-Oh! anime.

Card description

"The descent of this mighty creature shall be heralded by burning winds and twisted land. And with the coming of this horror, those who draw breath shall know the true meaning of eternal slumber."