Marik Ishtar

Marik Ishtar is the leader of the Rare Hunters and the main villain of the Battle City arc. As a child, he was forced to be a tombkeeper by his strict father to continue their family's lineage. This ultimately results in developing a split personality, which is only suppressed by his adoptive brother. Without him, the personality of Yami Marik takes over his body. Marik is often considered to be one of the foremost adversaries in the series.

Character design
Marik's usual outfit consists of a long purple cape with a gold chain at the front worn by the rare hunters, a sleeveless black shirt and beige combats. He wears gold earrings, neckwear, armbands, and bracelets all up his wrists. His white-blond hair is neatly arranged as Marik. As a civilian, he still wears the gold earrings, neckwear, armbands, and bracelets all up to his wrists (although in the manga he doesn't wear any of them), a sleeveless purple shirt, black paints, and black shoes. In the Battle City arc he often wears a KaibaCorp Duel Disk on his left arm.

Personality
As a child, Marik was an innocent boy who desired to see the outside world, despite his clan's laws forbid him from doing so, and was willing to sneak out to fulfill his desire. He cared for his siblings very much. Marik also considered Odion to be his brother, despite being not blood related.

Marik bore a grudge towards the pharaoh because he was forced to guard with his life (robbing him of his freedom) the family carving. Marik's hatred only intensified when his father forced him to take the family's ritual of having the carvings cut onto his back (in the English version the carvings were a tattoo). The pain was so intense that he spawned a second personality to deal with the pain. A year later, when his father brutally tortures Rishid for helping Marik and Ishizu to sneak outside, Marik woke up and had no recollection of his father's murder only to see a loyalist to the Pharaoh and thought the loyalist was the killer, and thus leading to Marik's betrayal to the clan to get revenge against the Pharaoh.

While leading the Rare Hunters, in his quest for world domination and freedom, Marik became rather cruel and uncaring, willing to brainwash people to do his bidding, and force them to cheat and use cruelty on his behalf, victims being Keith Howard and Strings. He was not above using death to punish his subordinates for failure, such as Arkana and Lumis, nor did he care about sacrificing Rare Hunters to test the fake "The Winged Dragon of Ra" cards, which produced severe injuries and death. He even threatened his sister Ishizu with the Millennium Rod for getting in his way, and ordered Odion to use the fake Ra card against his will. However, he still retained his love for his family, despite his mistreatment to them.

Biography
Marik's family guarded the tomb of the pharaoh for generations and two of the Millennium Items (the Millennium Rod and Millennium Necklace) were passed on to Marik and his sister Ishizu Ishtar. Marik was forbidden to leave the Pharaoh's tomb due to his father's fear that the freedom and marvels of the outside world would further divert Marik's attention away from his heritage. Marik no longer wanted to become a Tombkeeper, so his adoptive brother Odion Ishtar asked if he could take Marik's place but was refused. When Marik was forced to take the initiation ritual to become a full Tombkeeper, Mairk spawned a second personality from the pain he endured. A year later, after Marik and Ishizu took a forbidden trip to surface, Marik's father, having found out, attempted to kill Odion. Marik somehow blanked out what happened next: Yami Marik (the second personality of Marik) emerged for the first time to resist his father's punishment and claimed the Millennium Rod for himself. Ignoring his father's orders to put the item down, Yami Marik used its powers to smash him against the wall. When Ishizu protested, she suffered the same strike. Yami Marik then proceeded to kill his father (or, in the English anime, sent his father to the Shadow Realm). Yami Marik was sealed away in Marik's body by Odion.

In the Battle City arc, Marik was the leader of the Rare Hunters organization, he wishes to obtain the three Egyptian God Cards, and with them, unlock their power for himself so he can gain the title of "Pharaoh" and set his family free. He also has a hidden agenda - to get revenge on the Nameless Pharaoh's soul, which currently resides in Yugi Muto's body, for killing his father, as he was made to believe. In the English anime, he is considerably more fiendish. He wants the God Cards and the Millennium Puzzle to gain the power of the Pharaoh and rule the world, though he retains his hate of the Pharaoh. Marik uncovers two of the three Egyptian Gods ("The Winged Dragon of Ra" and "Slifer the Sky Dragon") from where Maximillion Pegasus had hidden them away due to danger associated with them. However, the third Egyptian God ("Obelisk the Tormentor") is taken by Ishizu, who gives it to Seto Kaiba.

Marik and his Rare Hunters hack into to the Battle City computer system and enter themselves in the tournament. He has them duel Yami Yugi to take the Millennium Puzzle from him and duel Kaiba to take "Obelisk" from him. Marik also had one of his Rare Hunters that he controlled (via the Millennium Rod) include "Slifer" in his deck and used it against Yami Yugi, but was defeated, allowing Yugi to take Slifer. Later, Marik teams up with Yami Bakura in a verbal deal consisting of Marik's relinquishment of the Millennium Rod if the Yami Bakura got back Slifer.

Marik, Bakura, and Odion get places in the quarter-finals. Marik took the guise of Namu Odion pretends to be "Marik" (nobody except for Yami Bakura had actually met him in person). After Bakura is defeated by Yugi in the first quarter-final match, Marik has Odion use a counterfeit "Ra" card in his quarter-final against Joey Wheeler. Joey suspects he is not dueling the real Marik so Odion attempts to win using the counterfeit to prove he is Marik,. Ra is angered by this and strikes both duelists, leaving Odion unconscious. As Odion is trying to remain awaken, Marik suffers through sudden headaches. After Odion becomes unconscious, Marik (still with his headaches) reveals himself Yugi, Joey, Kaiba, Mai Valentine, Téa Gardner, Tristan Taylor, Duke Devlin, Mokuba Kaiba, and Serenity Wheeler. Suddenly, Marik yells in extreme pain and Yami Marik appears.

After the quarter-finals, Marik's reformed soul teams up with Yami Bakura to stop Yami Marik, but fails when Yami Marik uses "Ra's" other abilities that were unknown to Marik. However, Marik (through Téa) tells Ishizu to hide Odion from Yami Marik. In the final duel between Yami Marik and Yami Yugi, their weaker selves were the victims of the Shadow Game being played. As the duel goes on, Yami Marik becomes the dominant host of Marik's body, with the real Marik's soul slowly fading out of existence. Also, this Shadow Game that gave him a clear edge, when Yami Yugi lost Life Points, Yugi's body would fade away, when Dark Marik lost life points, the original Marik would fade away. While they duel, Odion wakes up and he makes Marik realize he had to accept his responsibility for being a Tombkeeper. With this confidence, Marik overpowers his evil self and forfeits, destroying Yami Marik. Marik gives Yugi the Millennium Rod and the Ra card. Marik then reveals the Tombkeeper's initiation. The carving of the pharaoh's memory onto the back of a tomb guardian involves using either a hot dagger (as in the manga and the Japanese version of the second series anime), or a tattoo (in the English second series anime, though the dagger was still seen in the flashback) on his back. Fulfilling his duty as a Tombkeeper, Marik returns to Egypt to start a new life.

In the Millennium World arc, Marik, Ishizu, and Odion lead Yugi and his friends to the tomb of the Pharaoh in order for Yugi and Atem to have a final duel in order to determine if Atem will move on to the afterlife or remain in the present.

Naming
Marik's name is also commonly read as Malik by fans (it can be because in Japanese version, their L sounds similar to R). Some fans believe that it was made fairly obvious that it was meant to be romanized as "Malik", given the meaning of the name "Malik", and given the fact that Malik is a fairly common Arabic name. Additionally, "Malik" can be defined in Arabic as "the controller," "king", or "one who rules", a well-fitting name given his excessive use of the Millennium Rod, mind slaves, and his portrayal as a dominating villain. Marik Ishtar is known as "Malik Ishtar" in Indonesia.

Likely Marik comes from the fact that often "l" and "r" alternate in names from Japanese to English, though this was not necessarily the intended substitution.

Marik's name is derived from the Arabic word Malik ("king") and the Mesopotamian deity Ishtar. Ishtar is a vengeful Babylonian goddess according to the 3000 year-old epic of Gilgamesh.

Malik is considered a correct Romanization of 3 different Arabic words. These include:
 * (ملك) Malik (also Malek or Melik), an Arabic word and title, meaning "king", "monarch", and "sovereign". Notably not used as a given first name, but rather as a title.
 * (مالك) Mālik (also Maalik), an Arabic word and name, meaning "owner", "proprietor", "proprietary", "possessor", and "holder". It is the the most common among the three to be used as a first name for a person, and its use as a name dates back to ancient times.
 * (مليك) Malīk (also Maleek), can mean either of the two words above. Although mostly not used as a given first name.

If Marik's name was based on Arabic, then the second one (مالك) is the most correct equivalent naming-wise. It could have been chosen based on the meaning of the other two names though, as the three words are usually written with no clear differentiation in English.

Deck
Marik's own deck is never shown in a duel, as Yami Marik modifies it prior to his first duel. For that Deck, see Yami Marik.

Marik does, however, use several Decks while controlling the bodies of others through the Millennium Rod. While controlling Bandit Keith, he utilizes Keith's Machine Deck, albeit modified to include powerful cards obtained by his Rare Hunters, such as "Zera the Mant", "Seiyaryu" and "Graceful Charity".

While controlling the body of Strings, Marik uses a Deck tooled to Summoning and powering up the Egyptian God Card "Slifer the Sky Dragon" using a five-card combo (known as the "God Five" in the manga and Japanese versions) of the following:


 * "Slifer the Sky Dragon": The main attack force with near infinite attack power.
 * "Revival Jam": The ultimate defense, to defend "Slifer" in case necessary.
 * "Jam Defender": To allow "Revival Jam" to automatically defend "Slifer".
 * "Card of Safe Return": Every time "Revival Jam" is Special Summoned from the Graveyard, Strings must draw three cards, and "Slifer" gains 3000 ATK points.
 * "Infinite Cards": Removes hand limit, allowing "Slifer's" attack to climb virtually infinite.

However, despite Marik's claim that this combo will allow "Slifer" to have infinite attack, Yami Yugi proved otherwise, as he brainwashed "Revival Jam" and have "Slifer" to constantly attack the reviving monster, forcing Strings to keep drawing until a Deck Out occurred, thus losing. Therefore, this combo's greatest weakness is that God's power is limited by the number of cards within the player's deck.

While controlling Joey Wheeler, Marik plays a modified version of Joey's own Deck, which includes cards that are banned by Battle City Rules, such as "Hinotama", "Raigeki" and "Meteor of Destruction".

In Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship 2004, Marik plays a deck centered on monster destruction via Flip Effect Monsters, and also includes a general Beatdown strategy.