Yami Marik

Pure Evil
Full Name	Marik Ishtar
Alias	Dark Marik Yami Marik
Origin	Yu-Gi-Oh!
Allies	Rare Hunters (Ghouls in the original Japanese)
Powers / Skills	High intelligence Dueling skills Control over the Millennium Rod Magic Authority over his Winged Divine Dragon of Ra
Goals	Take over Marik Ishtar's innocent body and kill his own father (Japanese version; succeeded). Send his own father to the Shadow Realm (4Kids version; succeeded). Acquire all of the Egyptian God Cards and the power of the pharaoh to rule the world (4Kids version; failed). Spread pain and destruction for his own sadistic amusement (Japanese version; failed) Take over the world (failed)
Moral Event Horizon	Trying to stab his foster brother Odion in his sleep. Torturing Mai during their duel.
Kill Count	Three (at least)
Worst Crimes	Torture Assault and battery (heavily implied) Theft Serial murder False imprisonment Psychological abuse Terrorism Brainwashing Conspiracy Slavery Attempted world domination Treason Incrimination Mutilation
Type of Villain	Sadomasochistic Alter-Ego

“	I'm the true Marik, and I'm not as kind as the one you've come to know.	„
	~ Yami Marik's first and most famous quote.

Yami Marik is the secondary antagonist of the Yu-Gi-Oh! original series, serving as the overarching antagonist in the Battle City arc in the manga, as well as the main antagonist in the Tournament Finals arc and seasons two and three of the anime series Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.

He is the alternate personality of Marik Ishtar and is homicidal with a penchant for wanting to torture individuals who duel him.

He was voiced by Tetsuya Iwanaga in Japanese and Jonathan Todd Ross in English.

What Makes him Pure Evil?

• He took over Marik and murdered his abusive father (though in the dubbed version, he instead sent his father to the Shadow Realm). Afterwards, he subtly influenced Marik to go on the path of darkness. While their father was evil, this isn't redeeming.
  • Although the murder of his father (or banishing in the dubbed version) was horrible enough, some fans say that his father deserved this for the horrible treatment over Marik, though even then, this doesn't justify his actions overall because he was motivated by sadism rather than vengeance.
• His crimes aren't motivated by hatred for Pharaoh like original Marik, but rather pure sadism, he also care for no one not even Ishizu or Odion despite both of them suffer from their abusive father like him. Thus he subvert his tragedy.
• Despite being a spilt personality, he possesses a clear moral agency and personality when he is seen expressing glee when he sees others in pain (except for Yami Bakura, who is also Pure Evil), has high intelligence, and able to come up with complex plans.
• He took control over Marik’s body and had Marik banished from his own body.
• Yami Marik sets up a series of shadow duels where his targets are subjected to torture:
  • In his duel against Mai Valentine, Yami Marik would have her lose her memories whenever their monster was destroyed in the duel. As the duel progressed, the psychological abuse got worse, and she became more hectic. At the end of the duel, Mai's mind was banished to the Shadow Realm.
    • During the duel, Yami Marik also lost his memories. Unlike Mai, who expressed fear and terror for losing her memory, Yami Marik openly expressed no care over losing his memories, especially some memories that had his minions, the Rare Hunters.
    • He briefly acted like he was affected by Marik's tragedy, only to laugh it off and told everyone that his split personality originated from Marik's trauma, confirming that he isn't affected by Marik's tragedy.
    • After Mai lost and was sent to the Shadow, Marik was trapped in a sand clock watching her friends play on the beach without seeing her, while the sand slowly took away her life force and memory of everyone she ever knew.
      • In the original manga, they are instead flesh-eating bugs.
      • In anime continuity, this would traumatize her and would later make her join Dartz in the Waking the Dragons arc.
  • In his duel against Yami Bakura, he would have parts of their bodies disappear when they lost life points. Eventually, Yami Bakura lost the duel and was sent to the Shadow Realm along with the good Marik Ishtar.
    • However, Yami Bakura survived and resided within the Millennium Puzzle and had his host, Bakura Ryou, banished to the Shadow Realm in his stead. His host also survived through Tea.
  • In his duel against Joey Wheeler, he would have a string attached to the monster. When the monster is destroyed, the player will lose energy. Eventually, during the duel, Joey lost, and his mind was sent to the Shadow Realm despite being close to defeating him.
    • However, unlike Mai (even though she did eventually escape when Yami Yugi won the duel), Joey survived and had escaped from the Shadow Realm.
  • In his duel against Yami Yugi, Yami Marik would have their other halves (Yugi Muto and Marik Ishtar) receive pain when they lose the points during the duel.
• In anime only, when Noah Kaiba interrupted the Battle City tournament and later set his virtual world to explode, he destroyed the control room to prevent Noah from stopping the explosion.
• He tried to find and kill Odion, who is in a coma, after using a fake Ra card to prevent him from giving the original Marik strength of heart to take back control of his body.
• He intended to destroy the world if he had won his duel against Yami Yugi.
• Before he was sent to the Shadow Realm, he tried to manipulate the real Marik out of pragmatic reasons to continue dueling and take revenge on Pharaoh, which ultimately failed in the end.
• While he did follow the rules of Duel Monsters while in duels and never cheated, it only furthered his villainy.

External links

• Yami Marik on the Villains Wiki
• Yami Marik on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Wiki