Marik Ishtar

Marik Ishtar is the main villain of the Battle City arc. He has dissociative identity disorder with two distinct identities. His alter ego Dark Marik (or Yami Marik in the English anime) was created by Marik's hatred for being a tombkeeper and for his father who strictly enforced that he continue his family's lineage. Dark Marik slowly grew by Marik's hatred. 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 Ghouls, 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 Yami Marik his face features various veins which seem to become more prominent over time, 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. In the Battle City arc he often wears a KaibaCorp Duel Disk on his left arm.

Character biography
Marik's family guarded the tomb of the pharaoh for generations and two of the Millennium Items, the Rod and Necklace were passed on to Marik and his sister Ishizu Ishtar. Marik was forbidden to leave the Pharoah'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 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, Dark Marik was created from the pain he endured. After the forbidden trip to surface, Marik's father, having found out, attempted to kill Odion. At this, Dark Marik emerged for the first time and claimed the Millennium Rod for himself.

In the manga Dark Marik specifically skinned his father with it and then threw his father's back onto 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). Dark Marik was sealed away in Marik's body by Odion.

In the Battle City arc, Marik has a Ghouls 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 ancient Pharaoh's soul, which currently resides in Yugi'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 he hate of the Pharoah. Marik uncovers two of the three Egyptian Gods, The Winged Dragon of Ra and Slifer the Sky Dragon from where Pegasus had hidden them away due to danger associated with them. The third Egyptian God, Obelisk the Tormentor, is taken by Ishizu, who gives it to Seto Kaiba.



Marik and his Ghouls hack into to the Battle City computer system and enter themselves in the tournament. He has his Ghouls duel Yugi and Kaiba to take the Millennium Puzzle and Obelisk the Tormentor from them. One of which included the Pantomimer (Strings in the English anime, though his name said out loud), who he controlled using the Millennium Rod and included Slifer the Sky Dragon in his deck. But was defeated by Yugi allowing him to take Slifer. Dark Bakura (Yami Bakura) teams up with Marik Ishtar in a verbal deal consisting of Marik's relinquishment of the Millennium Rod if the Dark Bakura got back Slifer the Sky Dragon.

Marik, Bakura, and Odion get places in the quarter-finals. Marik has Odion pretend to be himself (nobody except for Yami Bakura had actually met him in person), while he took on the disguise Namu. Bakura is defeated by Yugi. Marik has Odion use a counterfeit The Winged Dragon of 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 in a coma. With Odion knocked out Dark Marik was able to take control of Marik. In Marik's quarter-final match, Dark Marik traps the soul of Mai Valentine and has several brain insects slowly devour her body after he beats her in a shadow game (in the English version, he banished her soul to the Shadow Realm). After this, Joey is determined to duel Marik and save Mai no matter how high the cost.



Dark Bakura teams with Marik's soul to stop Dark Marik, but fails as well and loses the Millennium Ring. In the semi-finals dark Marik duels Joey, who becomes severely injured by The Winged Dragon of Ra and is unable to continue to claim victory. As time goes on, Dark Marik becomes the dominant host of Marik's body, with the real Marik's soul slowly fading out of existence. Yugi faces Dark Marik in the finals. Dark Marik turns the duel into a Shadow Game that gave him a clear edge, when the Pharaoh 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 Dark Marik. Marik gives Yugi the Millennium Rod and The Winged Dragon of Ra. 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), a normal dagger (in the Japanese version of the second series anime), or a tattoo (in the English second series anime, though the dagger was still scene 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 Pharaoh Atem and Yugi to have a final duel in order to determine if the spirit will move on to the afterlife or remain in the present.

Naming
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 Millenium 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.

Opponents

 * Mai Valentine
 * Dark Yugi

Deck
Marik's own deck is never seen, because when Marik's dark side took over, he changed his Deck around without the good Marik knowing it. Yami Marik plays an Immortality Deck. He slowly tortures his opponents and watches them squirm, until ultimately playing "The Winged Dragon of Ra" in ways he finds most evoking of pain; for example, activating Ra's special abilities including it's "Phoenix Formation" and "Point-to-Point" transfer. Throughout the Battle City Finals, Yami Marik relies primarily on reviving Ra from the graveyard via "Monster Reborn" and continually transferring the card to his hand via "Left Arm Offering", "Zombie's Jewel", "Magical Stone Excavation" etc.

Besides this, his Deck is largely composed of Fiend-Type monsters, and his cards rely on draining an opponent of strength: "Helpoemer" discards cards, "Viser Des" lowers the ATK of an opponent's monster, etc. A great deal of his cards also rely on effect damage. In particular to the theme of pain, "Byser Shock", "Viser Des", and "Nightmare Wheel" are all modeled after torture devices.