The Sun Dragon Ra (character)

The Winged Dragon of Ra, known as Ra the Winged God Dragon (ラーの Rā no Yokushinryū) in the Japanese version, is a character in the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga. It is one of most powerful monster spirits, the Egyptian Gods. Its corresponding Duel Monsters card is "The Sun Dragon Ra".

Ancient Egypt
Ra is one of the three Egyptian Gods, along with Obelisk the Tormentor and Slifer the Sky Dragon. These monsters were only capable of being summoned by the Pharaoh.

Battle City
3000 years later, Maximillion J. Pegasus created cards depicting the three Egyptian Gods, for his game Duel Monsters. Pegasus was unable to decipher the hidden powers of Ra, which were wrote in Hieratic text, so he transcribed the Hieratic text onto the card. This text was only visible in the light emitted from Ra' and had to be recited in order to Summon "The Sun Dragon Ra".

The souls of the Gods came to dwell in the cards, making them powerful weapons. On realizing this, Pegasus regarded their creation as one of his greatest mistakes. He tried to destroy the God Cards, but could not bring himself to do it, so he had the Egyptian supreme council of antiquities bury the cards in different locations in the Valley of the Kings. The Ghouls managed to steal the "Slifer the Sky Dragon" and "The Sun Dragon Ra" cards. However the Egyptian supreme council of antiquities was able to prevent them finding the card, "The God of the Obelisk". Ishizu Ishtar, from the council, later gave it to Seto Kaiba, so that he would host the Battle City tournament to retrieve the other two.

The leader of the Ghouls, Marik Ishtar entered the Battle City tournament with the "Slifer" and "Ra" God cards.

Rishid, posing as Marik, Dueled Katsuya Jonouchi in the quarter finals. Towards the end of the Duel, Jonouchi expressed disbelief that his opponent was Marik. Marik then tried to create some false proof by having Rishid Summon "The Sun Dragon Ra". He believed Rishid would be capable of Summoning it. However the card was a counterfeit and this angered the real Ra, who smote the Dueling arena with lightning, hitting both Duelists.

During Mai Kujaku and Dark Marik's quarter final Duel, Mai took "The Sun Dragon Ra" using the effect of "]". However when she Summoned Ra, it appeared in its Sphere Mode. Unable to read the Hieratic text, Mai could not Summon it. On his next turn, Dark Marik recited the inscription and Summoned Ra to his side of the field. He prepared to attack Mai, who was held still by his torture cards. The nature of the [[Shadow Game, meant that this attack would kill Mai. However as Jonouchi tried to free her, Dark Yugi stood between them and Ra and took its blast on his back, preventing Mai from dying. Kaiba used satellites to get images of the Hieratic text and was surprised to find that he was able to read them.

In the night, Dark Bakura, with the help of Marik, Dueled Dark Marik. However Dark Marik defeated them with Ra's Point-to-Point Transfer ability.

During the semi final Duel between Jonouchi and Dark Marik, Dark Marik Special Summoned "The Sun Dragon Ra". Since he did not Sacrifice any monsters, its ATK and DEF became 0. However Dark Marik converted Ra to its Egyptian God Phoenix form and destroyed Joey's monsters. This inflicted immense pain on Joey, which Dark Marik did not expect him to withstand. Joey did manage to stay standing after the attack, but collapsed during his turn before he was able to finish the Duel.

Dark Marik and Dark Yugi Dueled in the finals. Dark Marik demonstrated the rest of Ra's abilities, but ultimately lost the Duel and Dark Yugi received "The Sun Dragon Ra" card through the tournament's rules.

Project R.A.
Dark Yugi attempted to summon Ra to destroy "The Wicked Dreadroot" while dueling the Yako-possessed Gekko Tenma, but Yako used "The Selection" to negate the summoning of the Eygptian God. Ra briefly appeared before being destroyed by the card. "The Wicked Avatar" was stated several times to have power that was at least equal to that of Ra.

Memory World
When Dark Yugi entered the Memory World, he relived some of his life as Pharaoh Atem, and fought the battle against Bakura, King of Thieves, in which he summoned Slifer, again. This time after Slifer was defeated by Diabound, Yugi and his friends arrived on the scene and Yugi was able to lend Atem strength, allowing him to Summon Ra and defeat Diabound. However, Dark Bakura at the Shadow RPG table used an Hourglass Token to reverse time. This time, Dark Bakura distracted Yugi, so that he would not reach Atem and Ra was not Summoned.

Upon relearning his name, Atem was able to summon the three Gods from the cards in Yugi's Deck and combin them into The Creator God of Light, Horakhty, who defeated Zorc.