Yami Marik

Yami Marik, known as Dark Marik in the manga and Japanese versions, is Marik Ishtar's second personality created by his own inner hatred and pain. He serves as the main antagonist of the Battle City Finals arc after Odion falls into a coma, triggering his take over of Marik's body.

Appearance


Yami Marik's usual outfit consists of a long purple cape with a gold chain (similar to one worn by the Rare Hunters), a sleeveless black shirt and khaki pants. He wears gold earrings, neckwear, armbands and bracelets up his wrists. His hair is spiked upwards and points in all directions and he bears the Eye of Wdjat on his forehead. Whilst dueling, faint, ghastly images of his face frequently stretch out from his head. As the series progressed, visible veins slowly start to appear on his face. In the Battle City arc he often wears a KaibaCorp Duel Disk on his left arm.

Personality
Yami Marik is a person of pure cruelty and insanity who cares for no one but himself, as he was born of hate, anger, and envy. Yami Marik ruthlessly murdered his father, and was constantly trying to kill Odion for being a hindrance to his existence in the outside, and threatened Ishizu with death for hiding their brother. Yami Marik showed no interest for Yami Yugi's past or Seto Kaiba's past, something which his alter ego wanted to know. Also, unlike the true Marik, who had an actual goal fuelled by a personal affliction towards the Pharaoh particularly, Yami Marik didn't seem to have any goal except for spreading pain and suffering like the sadist he is. Before being sent to the Shadow Realm (in the English dub), he did tell Marik that they could rule the world together. But it's debatable as to whether or not that was an actual goal he had, or if he was just trying to persuade Marik to free him from his predicament.

Aside from his lack of empathy, he also seems to be a sadist, building his Deck around torture-themed cards, and using the shadow powers to manifest them into reality, painfully hurting his opponents for his own pleasures. He even became dependent on his dark powers to win his duels, since he wouldn't have won his duel against Mai Valentine right away if it wasn't for Ra's Sphere Form, and in his duel against Joey Wheeler, he would have lost if Joey hadn't collapsed because of the torturing of Marik's "The Winged Dragon of Ra". During his last duel he even stated that he got the most pleasure torturing Yami Yugi.

In Noah Kaiba's Virtual World fortress, Yami Marik showed that he can be a reckless person, as he destroyed the fortress' computer, which was the only way of stopping the missile that was programmed to fire at the building. He also seems to enjoy thrill rides as he was seen smiling (with a bit of adrenaline rush) during the escape from the explosion.

Despite his cruelty and evil, he valued his own life dearly, and tried to murder Odion so he would not be sealed back in. He also tried to plead for Marik to help him win against Yugi after Marik was able to regain control of his body. Still, he shows traits of a masochist as well, especially in the Japanese version of his duel against Joey. For example, after his "Gil Garth's" pain was transferred to him, he laughed scabrously and stated that he was enjoying the feeling. He also appears to consider himself as the "true" Marik. In the 4kids version of his duel against Mai he even explained Marik's biography as if it was his own, mentioning the ancient scriptures, guarding the Pharaohs tomb, and the supposed pain he suffered as a result. He could have just been toying with their minds since none of that was ever implied in the future at all and that these were actually pieces of Marik's history and that Yami Marik birthed from the pain, but did not endure it himself.

Yami Marik was shown to be very clever in his duels such as using his Egyptian God Slime to complete his strategy of immortality and do a follow-up with Jam Defender to make it the only monster Yugi could attack (thanks to its ability to regenerate); he also knew more about Ra's abilities than his good side, he also outwitted his good side and Yami Bakura by changing most of the cards in his deck.

Yami Marik is shown to be clueless about advanced technology during the Virtual World arc as he was having trouble with a security pass-code when he pressed it, only to be denied, so he just blasted it with his rod.

Etymology
Marik's name is also commonly read as Malik by fans. 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.The substitution occurs because there is no 'l' in the Japanese language- the closest they have is 'r'.

Some speakers of Japanese, however, argue that 'Marik' is not meant as 'Malik', because the translation in Japanese isn't correct. If his name was Malik, and Kazuki Takahashi had translated it to Japanese, than the correct name would be 'Mariku', as there is no singular 'k' in the Japanese alphabet. Despite some fans arguing that the substitution of 'l' to 'r' from English to Japanese would mean that 'Malik' would become 'Marik', the entire name would've had to have been translated for this theory to be correct.

Marik is not the romanized version of Malik: Mariku is. This is why some fans say that Marik is simply meant to be Marik.

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.

Marik/Malik means "Master" in Hindi, these are common definitions and they are similar to the other languages.

Battle City
Yami Marik was "born" from the pain that Marik had endured when he was forced to take the initiation ritual to become a full Tomb Keeper at ten years old by his father. A year later, Yami Marik emerged for the first time (after Marik's forbidden trip to surface) to resist his father's punishment and claim 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 his sister Ishizu protested, she suffered the same strike. Yami Marik then proceeded to murder his father. In the manga, Yami Marik specifically skinned his father with it and then threw his father's back onto his adopted brother, Odion. In the Japanese anime, he killed his father to stop him from killing Odion (in the English anime he sent his father to the Shadow Realm). Yami Marik was then sealed away in Marik's body by Odion. Although it is likely that he continued to influence Marik for all of those years that Marik's been antagonizing the Pharaoh because even after the death of his father Marik was still a sad child and probably wouldn't have become so villainous if he didn't get some "help."

Yami Marik was released during the Battle City quarter-finals when Odion was rendered unconscious during his duel against Joey Wheeler. In Marik's quarter-final match, Yami Marik duels and defeats Mai Valentine in a Shadow Game using "The Winged Dragon of Ra". After winning, Yami Marik traps Mai's soul where several brain insects slowly devour her body (in the English version, he banished her soul to the Shadow Realm). After this, Joey is determined to duel Yami Marik and save Mai no matter how high the cost.



After the quarter-finals, Yami Marik Duels Yami Bakura in a match not part of the tournament (who teams up with the real Marik's soul). Yami Bakura managed to gain possession of "The Winged Dragon of Ra" via "Exchange", but Marik used "Joyful Doom" to lower the ATK of the monsters Tributed to Summon it and add their power to his Life Points thereby weakening the Dragon's ATK to 0. Yami Bakura Tributes it to Summon "Dark Ruler Ha Des" and also Summoned "Dark Necrofear" and "Headless Knight" but Marik used "Monster Reborn" to bring Ra back and introduced its Point-to-Point Transfer ability sacrificing all but 1 of his Life Points to raise the dragons ATK to 8549 then attacks to wins the Duel. Marik tormented Bakura telling him that he will be in the darkness soon but Bakura claims to be the darkness itself and vowed revenge. The real Marik sealed himself in Téa Gardner's body and Bakura avoided death for both himself and his host via the part of his soul he had sealed in the Millennium Puzzle. Yami Marik claimed the Millennium Ring as his trophy from defeating Yami Bakura after his disappearance into the darkness, wearing it around his neck for the remainder of the tournament and now possessing two Millennium Items.

Virtual World
In the Virtual World arc, Yami Marik stays on the blimp for most of the arc, but he eventually gets tired of waiting and takes matters into his own hands. He investigates Noah's base to find Yugi and his friends. Eventually, the alarm sets off and the fortress's guard robots come after him. But, using the magic of his Millennium Rod, he destroys them with ease. He forces his way inside the base and destroys the main power generator, which in turn, releases Kaiba's blimp. Then, he finds the console that controls the satellite which Noah programmed to fire a missile to destroy the base. He recklessly damages it, so there is no way to stop it. Luckily, he and the others managed to get out in time.

Battle City finals
The next day, he Duels Joey during the semi-finals, who manages to gain the upper hand until Marik Summons "Ra". However, Joey is still standing after Ra's blast and Summons "Gearfried the Iron Knight", a monster with enough power to win him the Duel. He attempts to attack Marik directly but collapses from the Shadow Game and is unable to continue to claim victory. As time goes on, Yami Marik becomes the dominant host of Marik's body, with the real Marik's soul slowly fading out of existence.

Yami Marik turns his Duel with Yami Yugi in the finals into a Shadow Game that gives him a clear edge; when Yami Yugi lost Life Points, Yugi Muto's body would fade away, and when Yami Marik lost Life Points, the original Marik would fade away. Marik helps Yugi get "Slifer the Sky Dragon" out so he can destroy it himself "Ra" which he did. Yugi then Summoned "Obelisk the Tormentor" but Marik created a clone of it called "Egyptian God Slime" While they Duel, Odion wakes up and makes Marik realize that he has to accept his responsibility for being a Tomb Keeper and for the death of his father. With this confidence, Marik overpowers his evil self and forfeits, destroying Yami Marik.

Waking the Dragons
Yami Marik makes another brief appearance in Mai's nightmares at the beginning of Waking the Dragons. He also appears as a spirit in the Valley of Lost Souls, when Yami Yugi journeys there to find his other half.

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Yami Marik appears in two flashbacks in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. When Syrus Truesdale mentions some of Yugi's exploits and tells Jaden Yuki about the Egyptian Gods and when Franz uses the counterfeit copy of "The Winged Dragon of Ra".

Non-canon appearances
In Yu-Gi-Oh! World Championship Tournament 2004, Yami Marik is a level six opponent. He is unlocked after the player defeats all of the level five duelists twenty times and then defeats Marik Ishtar three times in a row. After doing this, Yami Marik will appear to challenge the player when Marik is selected for a fourth Duel.

Deck
Yami Marik runs an Immortality-Torture Deck, which focuses on slowly torturing his opponents and watching them squirm. In the theme of pain Yami Marik's cards slowly sap an opponent's strength, such as discarding their hand with "Helpoemer", lowering ATK with "Dark Jeroid" and "Plasma Eel", and inflicting Burn damage with "Coffin Seller" and "Bowganian". Some of his cards, like "Nightmare Wheel" and the manga-exclusive "Byser Shock" and "Viser Des", are based on torture machines. Yami Marik's deck otherwise relies on a variety of powerful Trap cards and Fiend-type monsters. With "The Winged Dragon of Ra" as his trump card, Yami Marik uses a variety of cards to discard it, then revive it with "Monster Reborn" to devastate his opponents. He further relies on retrieving "Monster Reborn" to his hand after using it initially to continue to revive Ra again and again, using cards such as "Left Arm Offering" and "Magical Stone Excavation". Yami Marik also uses some of the cards previously used by Rare Hunters such as "Revival Jam" and in the anime "Masked Beast Des Gardius".

Trivia

 * Yami Marik is the only antagonist faced by Yami Yugi to not actually be defeated by him, instead ending up being destroyed by the other Marik instead.
 * He's also among the few antagonists to actually be killed upon being defeated, the others being Zorc Necrophades (who is merged with Yami Bakura at the time), The Orichalcos, Paradox, Ghost Kaiba, and PaniK. Gozaburo, Noah, and the Big Five are killed sometime after their respective defeats.