| “ | I am a thief and a stealer of souls, and I have done terrible things in my quest to possess the Millennium Items. You do remember the legends don't you? Whosoever wields all seven Millennium Items will possess power unimaginable, and before I'm done with you, your Millenium Puzzle will be mine! | „ |
| ~ Dark Bakura while possessing Bakura Ryou to Dark Yugi. |
| “ | Don't you realize I AM the darkness? | „ |
| ~ Yami Bakura's most famous quote before being sent to the Shadow Realm. |
Yami Bakura is the main antagonist of the Yu-Gi-Oh! original series and the posthumous overarching antagonist in the 2016 film Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions.
He is also known as the Spirit of the Millennium Ring. Yami Bakura is a composite being formed from the fusion of Zorc Necrophades's and the Thief King Bakura’s souls. However, Yami Bakura has developed his own identity and personality from both of them. Throughout the series, he was shown to take possession of Bakura Ryou and use his body as a host. Yami Bakura sought the revival of Zorc Necrophades in hopes of destroying and taking over the world.
He was voiced by Tsutomo Kashiwakura, the late Yõ Inoue, and Rica Matsumoto in the Japanese dub, and by Ted Lewis in the English dub.
What Makes him Pure Evil?[]
- Despite have genuine tragedy as Thief King Bakura who witnessed people in his village being killed as a sacrifice to create the Millennium Items. As Yami Bakura he's no longer care about his past self-life (whom he looks at and talks about with a level of detachment and even contempt), hurting everyone on his way including the innocent people that has nothing to do with his Egyptians past, and his enjoyment of causing chaos and destruction has nothing to do with his tragedy but pure sadism.
- He takes possession of Ryou Bakura multiple times over the course of the series. With Yami Yugi and Yugi Muto, they work together, and Yami Yugi would step in for a duel with Yugi's knowledge and consent. Yami Bakura and Bakura Ryou have a parasitic relationship where Yami Bakura simply possesses his host, completely suppressing his free will and often times uses him as a human shield to protect himself, such as having him sent to the Shadow Realm after losing his duel to Yami Marik.
- Yami Bakura brutally ripped off one of Pegasus eyes in order to get his Millennium Eye, which resulted in his death in the manga. In the anime, Pegasus survives despite being critically injured.
- While he did strike a deal with Marik Ishtar before being possessed by Yami Marik, it was purely out of pragmatic reasons since he's still intent on taking Marik's Millennium Rod by any means necessary.
- He even saved his host only out of pragmatic reasons, despite having ultimately ruined Marik's plan in winning the duel against Yami Yugi.
- He sets up multiple shadow games where the person who loses the Shadow Game is killed or sent to the Shadow Realm in dub. The Shadow Realm is the 4kids equivalent to the original anime, where a person is essentially killed off when they lose a Shadow Duel.
- In addition, the Shadow Realm is a hell dimension, as it serves as fate worse than death, even if characters in the dubbed version are not killed. An example of this is when he sent Bonz, Zygor, and Sid to the Shadow Realm after winning the shadow duel or Hell in Japanese anime (Practically the same thing).
- Despite losing to Yami Marik, he survived and resided within the Millennium Puzzle and had his host, Bakura Ryou, banished to the shadow realm in his stead. He gained one piece of the Millennium Puzzle by faking redemption in the manga.
- Unlike other major villains like Pegasus, the original Marik, or Dartz, Yami Bakura has no redeeming qualities and has a clear moral agency and personality. The only other major villains to lack redeeming qualities are Yami Marik and Gozaburo Kaiba.
- Even though he was made by a shard of Zorc Necrophades fused with Thief King Bakura, he has a clear moral agency and personality as he is able to impersonate Bakura, which is something an amoral can’t do. He is also very sadistic and developed his own personality, so he has a clear moral agency and personality.
- He attempts to revive Zorc Necrophades in an attempt to destroy the entire world, setting him apart from most villains. While Dartz did attempt to destroy the entire world, he was a genuine extremist who believed mankind was evil, and it was later revealed that he had been possessed by the Orichalcos all along (thus disqualifying him from the heinous standards), while Yami Bakura was fully in control of himself.
- It's also worth noting that he attempted to destroy both the past and the present at the same time, while Dartz only tried to destroy the present, making him stand out regardless.
- Overall, Yami Bakura is the most heinous villain in the original Yu-Gi-Oh series alongside Zorc.
External Link[]
- Yami Bakura on the Villains Wiki
- Yami Bakura on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Zexal | ||