Téa Gardner

### Friends / Allies

Yugi Muto, Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor, Duke Devlin, Serenity Wheeler, Mai Valentine, Bakura, Seto (To an extent) and Mokuba Kaiba

### **Enemies**

Hitotsu-Me Giants, Crump, Zork, Yami Marik, Rare Hunters, Yami Bakura, the Big 5, Noah Kaiba (Formerly)

## Personal Information

### Powers/Abilities

Immensely high intelligence, Dueling skills

### Dislikes

Her friends hurt, sad, in danger, bugs, immaturity, evil, cruelty

## Character Information

### **Voice**

Amy Birthaum

**Téa Gardner**, known as **Anzu Mazaki** in the original Japanese version, is the tritagonist of popularized anime series, *Yu-Gi-Oh*.

## Background

Téa Gardner was born in Domino City 16 years before the start of the series. In her childhood, she befriended Yugi Muto. In high school, she met and befriended her fellow students Joey Wheeler, Tristan Taylor and Ryou Bakura, the former two of whom, were initially bullies to Yugi. She would from then on spend most of her time with them, forming extremely close bonds with them all, though Bakura spent less time with the group.

## Personality

In addition to her great beauty, Téa possesses a pure soul and compassionate heart. Téa is a kind, gentle, fun-loving, brave young teen with a very strong will. Usually, she's shown to be very fun-loving, always attempting to enjoy the moment she is in while she still has the chance. She also possesses many of the interests and hobbies usually associated with girls her age, as her favorite pastimes include going shopping, buying new fashionable clothes and eating at fancy restaurants and stores. She can, however, also be a bit of a hedonist as she enjoys going to parties and concerts, all the while acting very lavishly, being unafraid to spend large amounts of money on tasty foods and other expensive pleasures, as demonstrated during the blimp ride to KaibaCorp's Duel Tower. This ultimately makes Téa something of a party girl.

In line with her gentle nature, Téa is also a pacifist at heart. She greatly dislikes fighting or any other form of violence (Unless a Duel involves saving herself or the world from literal doom if she wins). Because of this, she sometimes has reservations about the *Duel Monsters* game, after noticing how evil individuals have used the game to do great harm to both her and her friends. Despite this, she recognizes how important *Duel Monsters,* the card game, is to her closest friends and doesn't outright hate the game. Also, despite her gentle nature, Téa is by no means weak. Often, she has shown exceptional bravery for her age, even when placed in some of the greatest dangers. Also, when threatened or placed into a corner, Téa is often defiant to evil individuals and unafraid to stand up for herself whenever she feels she is being mistreated.

Téa is also exceptionally empathetic, especially to those in need. She believes in being altruistic and helping those in need, even when it sometimes comes to herself being put at great personal risk. Her empathy also sometimes extends to her enemies as well as she is often able to recognize the good in others despite their misdeeds and can be quite too forgiving as seen when she forgave Noah Kaiba for all his misdeeds towards her after recognizing that Noah’s cruelty was the result of his true lonely nature and the painful life he had experienced. Her empathetic nature and optimistic attitude has earned Téa many friends and allies over the course of the series. This empathy and optimism, however, does not mean she is naive and entirely forgiving of all her enemies. In truth, Téa can be very unforgiving and resentful herself to those whom she recognizes have more evil in their hearts than good. Because of this, she held no sympathy for the Hitotsu-Me Giants after they fell to their deaths nor any empathy for Crump after he was seemingly killed during their Duel after the latter villain went on and on about how he'd use her stolen gorgeous body if he were to win the same Duel when in reality, the penguin-obsessed man was just sent back to Noah Kaiba's lair after his defeat. She was also very uncomfortable in Crump's presence and had no pain watching Noah punishing him for trying to steal bodies without winning them.

Probably the greatest aspect of Téa’s personality is her loyalty to her friends. Due to having a lonely childhood, Téa loves her friends more than anything and always acts as a system of support for them, cheering them on during their duels and doing everything she can to support them. She can be pushy at times, however, especially when she thinks her friends, who are mostly boys, are acting immaturely. She will not hesitate to voice her displeasure at Joey or Tristan when they undergo their antics, occasionally even physically reprimanding them (Though she only physically reprimanded the boys once). Because of this, Téa has often voiced a desire to get more female friends, but still loves her male friends very much.

Her friendships also serve as her greatest source of emotional strength and support. During intense situations, she will often remind herself of the bond she shares with her friends to give her courage to overcome the seemingly hopeless odds stacked against her, while also pushing herself to do what she can for them. Ironically, Téa’s strong importance on friendship also causes her to have insecurities as well. Her overall greatest fear is losing her beloved friends forever as was exemplified during the Battle City Tournament when one by one her friends were being sent to the Shadow Realm. After Joey was defeated by Yami Marik and his sent to the Shadow Realm, Téa was left devastated and made a tearful plea to Yugi not to engage in any more duels, fearing for his fate as well, as evidenced when she was in tears of joy when he got his soul back. She's also much less hasty than Joey, Tristan and sometimes Yami Yugi.

Téa (particularly in the English version of the anime) possesses a very sarcastic and witty sense of humor, so strong that she will even crack jokes even in the most intense situations, possibly as a means of lightening the mood and finding some form of comfort during such situations (Though these things would unintentionally cause hating from some fans of the entire franchise since they'd be very annoyed by said jokes).

## Appearance

As noted by a number of characters throughout the series as well as most real-life fans of the series, Téa is a very attractive young woman. She is a 5'5 Caucasian 16-year-old slim girl with a weight of 47 kilograms with blue eyes (Darker under Marik's control), brown hair and light skin. Téa’s hair is shown to be very thick with it being divided into multiple layers with her large side bangs almost reaching down to her shoulders, keeping her ears largely out of sight. Her hair also possesses a difference in coloring in certain areas, with the very top being light brown while the inner parts, along with her forehead and side bangs, taking on a slightly lighter hue.

For clothing, she sometimes can be seen wearing a buttoned light-green tank top with a big yellow collar, jean-short shorts with a light-blue belt that possesses a large buckle in the center. While wearing these, she always keeps her shirt firmly tucked into her shorts. In addition, her tank top lacks any sleeves, revealing her shoulders while also exposing the area around her armpits. Extending all the way up to her thighs are elegant white cotton stockings with two blue platform shoes at the bottom, each with two sets of buckled straps that go over the tops of her feet. Finally, she wears two sets of colorful bracelets on each wrist, the first on each being light blue and the second being a very bright shade of pink. The bracelets on her right hand are shown to be solid plastic bracelets while the left hand's bracelets are flappy rubber.

She also can sometimes be seen with a beige handbag usually carried on her left side. After being kidnapped by the Rare Hunter organization, however, the bag was confiscated by the criminals following her attempt to escape alongside Mokuba. In addition, during her Duel with Adrian Randolph Crump III with the Duel Monster "Nightmare Penguin" as his Deck Master, Téa was gifted with a standard Domino City-styled Duel Disk for the first time ever. During this duel, the disk was placed on her left wrist, temporarily replacing the two pink and blue bracelets located there at the time, while her other arm maintained its respective bracelets. After she defeated Crump, the Duel Disk vanished, restoring her left arm’s wrist bracelets.

After her first encounter with the Hitotsu-Me Giants, she received a small blemish under her left cheek from the Hitotsu-Me Giant Leader, though it eventually faded away during her escape from their cave. Also, as demonstrated while she was being carried by the leader throughout the canyon; when upside down, Téa’s unique hair takes on a radically different appearance that leaves her almost unrecognizable. When upside down, all the layers of her hair combine together into a single large mass pointing directly above her head. During this time, the darker inward portions of her hair are located at the very top of where it’s falling, while the portions with a much lighter hue are located more towards the bottom and around the back of her head. In addition to her hair being styled this way, it leaves her forehead and ears exposed, which were kept hidden when it was upright.

In the Japanese version and the U.S.A. dub (particularly in the sub)*,* Tea's breasts are sometimes separated from each other in extremely rare instances (though they *are* still together other times).

## Etymology

Her Japanese name "Anzu" means "apricot" while her surname "Mazaki" means "Cape of truth".

Her English dub name "Téa" is a shortened form of "Dorothea" or "Theodora" means "gift of god" while her surname "Gardner" could be a corruption of the word "guard" or "the one who guards", reflecting her role as Yugi's "guardian" to some degree. It's also possible that her name is a joke on Tea and Gardening.

## Skills, Abilities, and Powers

As a normal human girl, Téa possesses no powers or supernatural abilities (With just one exception listed below). Despite this, she has shown herself capable of many other useful skills.

* **Dueling**: While nowhere near to the level of Kaiba, Mai, numerous antagonists, Solomon and Yugi (These being a few of many other Duelists in the series), Téa has been shown to be a capable duelist despite her skill level being recognized as only average and about Joey's level. During her first actual Duel against Crump (After Mai Valentine), Téa showed a surprising level of competence that eventually allowed her to triumph over the Big Five member, despite his vastly superior experience with the game. Her surprising skills with Duel Monsters stems from her many times watching Yugi, Kaiba and Joey, etc duel.
* **Athleticism**: Téa is a very athletic individual and is shown to be very much in shape, which has been especially shown during sprinting; her long legs allow her to run at considerable speeds, which has proven useful when attempting to escape her pursuing enemies. When she was being pursued by the Hitotsu-Me Giants again, Téa was able to outrun the frightening creatures despite their own great speed and super-human strength.
* **Immensely high intelligence:** Téa has constantly proven that she's far more intelligent, aside from Seto Kaiba, than the average person. The biggest example was when she outsmarted the Hitotsu-Me Giants when she escaped from their cave which the creatures didn't know their prey was that smart though they still pressed on with chasing her after they found out about Tea's escape.

## Being hunted

While on their way to the final phase of the Battle City Tournament, Téa and her friends are abducted by Noah Kaiba and the Big Five. After bringing the group to his headquarters, Noah separates his captives, sending them to different parts of the Virtual World with different environments. Téa is sent to a large barren canyon in the middle of a desert alone and with no idea where she is. Worried about her friends and with nothing else to do, she decides to walk down the canyon’s path, hoping to find someone. Wanting to make her journey through the canyon interesting, Noah sets a trap for her.

As she makes her way down the path, with the hot sun shining down on her, Téa calls out for anyone to answer her. No one answers, her words merely echoing off the canyon walls and rock formations. Stopping for a moment to study the canyon’s formations, Téa starts pondering to herself out loud; she ponders where she is, noting how the gorge is something of a virtual Grand Canyon. She then starts walking again, remarking how the eerie surroundings are creeping her out and continues pondering where her friends might be. Unknown to her, however, as she continues her walk, a strange muscular creature is creeping behind one of the rocks watching her. In its hand is a large stone axe, held tightly as it spies on the unsuspecting girl.

Téa continues strolling down the canyon, oblivious to said stalking creature and complaining about the hot heat. Suddenly, she stops upon hearing the noise of small rocks falling off the right cliff of the canyon. Startled, Téa looks up to finally see the spying monster watching her. Now that she has seen it, the creature makes a quick retreat back behind the rocks leaving Téa scared and confused as to what she just saw (Here, Téa's beautifully short brown-layered hair can be viewed from behind). Soon after, however, before she could make any logical decision at all, Téa finds herself, to her horror, surrounded by four cyclops monsters wearing animal skin clothing and wielding clubs and axes like cavemen. The creatures are live versions of the Duel Monster Hitotsu-Me Giants.

The frightened Téa attempts to stay calm, hoping to not provoke the beasts into attacking her. She tries to make a quiet escape by calmly backing up slowly, moving one of her cute socking-covered legs back a bit (In the original Japanese version, Tea silently backs up), but her attempt quickly ends in utter failure with her first step. Accidentally, the back bottom-end of her platform sandal steps on a small pebble causing it to be loudly kicked up. The noise provokes the giants, causing one of them to roar in fury and begin their assault. The leader of the pack, the giant she spotted earlier, begins the assault by ferociously jumping into the air from the cliff and throws in its axe at Téa with lethal intent.

Fortunately for her, the spinning axe does not strike her body but lands behind her feet away. *Unfortunately* for her, however, the axe strikes the ground with such force that said force causes several small rocks with sharp tips to shoot up into the air. One of these rocks heads right towards Téa, striking her as she looks back, hitting the cute girl's left cheek and giving her a small cut under her left eye which causes her to cover her wound with a hand and reel as she *actually* *groans* *in real pain* and putting her cute socking-covered knees close together from said pain despite the fact that everything in the Virtual World is supposed to be a total illusion (In the U.S.A. dub. Tea's wound is censored due to brutal violence).

Téa has no time to worry about her injury despite its pain or even recover from said injury. The giants move in closer to her position, causing her to flee. The terrified Téa yells with all of her voice, begging someone, anyone, to help her (In the original Japanese version, Tea calls out for Yugi to help her). Her pleas go unheard with no one coming to her rescue as her cyclopes pursuers chase after her. She tries her best to run away but her attempts prove all for naught as she has fallen into the Hitotsu-Me Giants’ trap. The whole time, the leader with only two only two other pack members have been chasing Téa towards the rock formations of the canyon. Hiding behind the rocks, is the fourth member of the pack, waiting silently for her to come to his position so that he may ambush her.

The monsters’ plan works perfectly, the leader and his two pack-mates force Téa towards the rocks where their fourth member is hiding where he soon reveals himself just as she attempts to run by. The monster looms over her with its claws ready to strike her down as it stares down at her with murderous intent. Cornered and with nowhere else to run, all Téa is able to do is stare at the beast with a look of pure and utter horror with her whole body frozen with fear. With the girl now at his mercy, the fourth Hitotsu-Me Giant gives her a slash attack down at her stomach with his claws, forcing her down hard onto the rocky floor of the canyon, painfully knocked into a state of unconsciousness (This scene was censored around the world due to its graphic content).

## Taken prisoner

Soon after being incapacitated, Téa’s unconscious body is soon surrounded by her Hitotsu-Me Giant hunters. The giant who gave Téa her cut, the pack’s leader, then grabs the unconscious girl and throws her over his right shoulder, his large muscular arm pressing her socking covered legs onto his chest to carry her steady. He then orders his pack to move out as they begin their journey back to their lair. The leader is the one in front with the others walking behind, all following as he continues to carry the insensate Téa down through the canyon, her thick beautiful hair falling upside down as she dangles down the leader’s back (all of which were off-screen).

Eventually, the giants climb a large hill containing a big hole in its center which leads to the cave where they have made their den. The leader then brings Téa to the center of the cave where there is a huge stone shelf with a flat surface. With no sympathy for his lovely prey, the leader hurls Téa off his shoulder down onto the stone surface of the shelf. Landing right on her side first, strikes the stone surface releasing a loud groan as she hits. She then starts groaning in visible pain as her body squirms from the impact. Just as she stops moving, the leader and two other pack members loom above her, visibly amused by her agony as their eyes glow with an eerie red, looking forward to the prospect of eating her. The monsters then climb back down in order to rest and relax before dinner, leaving Téa alone while still unconscious...and defenseless.

## Escaping the cave

Hours later, drops of water from an above stalagmite fall onto Téa’s scratch, causing her to awaken. Coming to, she is still dazed and confused as she ponders where she is having completely forgotten how she arrived. Soon though, she hears the sounds of the Hitotsu-Me Giants in their den below in the bottom of the cave. The leader of the pack notices her awakening and gives her a vicious snarl causing her to briefly jump in fright, now fully remembering how the beasts attacked and carried her off to their cave. Téa’s cut, however, continues to sting, causing her to briefly let out an actual pained wince. Trapped on the stone shelf with her cyclops captors below with no way of escape, Téa's situation continues to worsen.

Eventually the giants start boiling a huge cauldron filled with hot water. Téa correctly deduces that the giants brought her back into order to feast on her flesh as their dinner. Using a loose vine, she manages to climb on the walls of the cave towards the hole in the ceiling. However, the giants hear her escape and soon follow after her. She manages to reach the top first and though she is nearly out of breath, she has no time to rest as the giants are halfway out of the cave. She makes a desperate run for it and manages to get very far ahead by the time they reach the top.

The giant who knocked her unconscious attempts to stop her from escaping by throwing his axe at her. Fortunately, like before, the ax misses instead landing right before Téa’s feet. This close call causes her to run even faster as the giants charge after her. While she does manage to outrun them, her escape attempt is soon halted when she runs to a large ravine overlooking a running river. The giants continue running and though they are very far behind her, with nowhere to go, Téa will soon be back in their clutches.

However, she notices an old wooden bridge not far away and runs towards it. When she makes it, she hesitates in crossing, fearing the bridge will give out due to how obviously rigidly it is. Through the memories of her friends however, Téa builds the courage to cross and make her way to other side. But she is not even halfway across when the Hitotsu-Me Giants arrive and start crossing after her. Téa barely manages to keep a head of them as she cries out in fear for someone to help her. Then, just as the giants are about to reach her, the bridge gives out from their combined weight and collapses.

While the screaming Téa holds onto the half of the bridge that manages to hang off the cliff, her former captors are not so lucky as they fall to their deaths in the raging river below. With the giants now dead, Téa climbs up the bridge to safety, complaining the whole way about the day and ordeals she has had. Shortly later, she defeats Crump in a Duel and reunites with Yugi to watch Joey defeat Johnson.