Marik Ishtar

“	I swear, by the sands of Egypt, the Pharaoh's power will be mine! Then everyone will be bowing down to Marik, the new pharaoh!	„
	~ Marik's vow to become the new pharaoh.

“	You should be more careful with this!	„
	~ Marik confronting his dark self while possessing Téa Gardner.

Marik Ishtar is one of the main characters in the Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise.

In the manga, he made his debut as the main antagonist of the Battle City arc, before becoming the deuteragonist of Tournament Finals and the tritagonist of Ceremonial Battle. In the anime Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters, he acts as the central antagonist in season two, the deuteragonist in season three, a cameo character in the films Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light and Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions and the tritagonist of season five.

He is a former tombkeeper and the leader of the Ghouls (also known as Rare Hunters). He owns the Millennium Rod, allowing him to take control of anyone, sometimes to the extent of speaking through them.

In the majority of the Battle City Arc, Marik serves as the main antagonist but during the finals, his alter ego took over and replaced him going forward into the tournament finals.

In Japanese, he was voiced by Tetsuya Iwanga. In English, he was voiced by Jonathan Todd Ross and by Amy Birnbaun while possessing Téa Gardner.

Anime[]

When Marik Ishtar was born, it was decided by his father that he should be the next tombkeeper. However, unlike his adopted older brother Odion, he did not want to be a tombkeeper, and out of his hatred for the pharaoh, his evil side, Yami Marik, was born. When Marik and his sister Ishizu snuck out (which was strictly forbidden to do), and his father found out, he was about to banish Rishid, when Yami Marik took over Marik's body, took the Millennium Rod and stabbed Marik's father to death (while in the 4Kids version, he sent his father to the Shadow Realm).

In the Japanese manga version of Yu-Gi-Oh! the ghost of Shadi told him that his fate and his father's death was the pharaoh's fault. Because of this, Marik set out to kill the pharaoh and gain his memory for himself to break free from his family's duty, which he regards as enslavement.

Battle City[]

File:Marik the Rare Hunter.png

Marik while wearing his Ghoul robe.

Marik set out to take over the world, using his army of Ghouls to find the three Egyptian God Cards. He soon came to possess two of them, Slifer the Sky Dragon and the Winged Dragon of Ra. His goal is to exact his revenge on the pharaoh (he only wants to take over the world in the 4Kids adaptation).

He found "Bandit" Keith Howard (who was fighting for his life in the current after being ejected off of Pegasus's island) and turned him into his mind slave with his Millennium Rod. Speaking through Bandit Keith, Marik stole Yugi Muto's Millennium Puzzle and dueled him over it (as it had to be won from him), but the duel was interrupted with Dark Bakura severed his control over Keith.

Marik's Ghouls illegally entered Kaiba's tournament in Battle City so they could defeat Yugi and Kaiba (who possessed the third God Card, Obelisk the Tormentor) to take the Millennium Puzzle and Obelisk. After one of the Ghouls, the Rare Hunter, lost a duel to Yugi, Marik took over his body and rendered him unconscious. His next Ghoul was Pandora the Conjurer, who dueled Yugi, and whom he had convinced to join up with him by lying and saying that he would bring his ex-girlfriend (whom he drove away) back to him. Pandora lost to Yugi. Afterwards, Marik dueled Yugi through his mind slave, the Pantomimer, who possessed Slifer the Sky Dragon, but against all odds Yugi defeated him and took Osiris. Marik then went to Battle City himself and teamed up with Dark Bakura, while posing as a good man named Namu in order to fool Yugi and the others.

Next, Marik sent two Ghouls, the Masks of Light and Darkness, to defeat Yugi and Kaiba and get their God Cards, but the Mask of Darkness was defeated and presumably sent to Hell (or the Shadow Realm in the English version). Marik then possessed the Mask of Light and trapped his soul in the Shadow Realm, telling him that Tea Gardner and Joseph Wheeler had been kidnapped.

Marik used his Millennium Rod to possess Joey in order to make him challenge Yugi to a duel in which the loser would be drowned and if the duel was stopped Tea would be slain but Joey fought Marik's control driving him out with Yugi's help while Tea was freed in the end all 3 surviving. Marik entered the Battle City finals, telling Rishid to pretend that he is Marik. After Rishid was knocked out by the Winged Dragon of Ra for playing a counterfeit Ra card, Yami Marik could no longer be contained.

Seconds after revealing his true identity to Yugi, Marik was taken over by Yami Marik. From here, he remained trapped inside Yami Marik's mind, though he was able to speak through Tea and appear alongside Yami Bakura as he dueled Yami Marik and lost, trapped in Hell.

Enter Hell[]

Marik appeared beside Yami Marik as he dueled Dark Yugi, just as Yugi appeared alongside Dark Yugi, in a Hell duel that the loser's other half would vanish into Hell or simply be destroyed. It seemed that the situation was hopeless, as even if Yami Marik was defeated, it would be the original Marik (who is now good) who would vanish, but when Dark Yugi destroyed the Winged Dragon of Ra in their duel, Marik and Yami Marik were switched around, so that Yami Marik was the victim and Marik regained control of his body. Realizing and accepting his destiny to help the pharaoh fulfill his, Marik surrendered the duel to Yami, and Yami Marik was destroyed. He then gave Dark Yugi his Millennium Rod and Winged Dragon of Ra, making Dark Yugi possessor of all three Egyptian God Cards and one more of the seven Millennium Items.

Dawn of the Duel[]

After Zorc Necrophades and Dark Bakura were destroyed, Marik appeared alongside Rishid and Ishizu to witness the final duel between Yugi and Atem, in which Atem would have to lose in order to go through the door and rest with his guardians. Their duties as tombkeepers were finally completed when Yugi won and Atem walked through the door.

Personality[]

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

Marik bears a grudge towards the Pharaoh, because he was forced by his own father to guard the family's carving with his life via a ritual of having carvings (in the anime's Japanese version and the original manga) or tattoos (in the anime's dub) onto his back which brought intense pain during and after the ritual and robbed him of his freedom.

With the intense pain and his strong hatred towards the Pharaoh, he spawns his second personality Yami Marik to deal with the pain. A year later when his father brutally tortured Odion for helping Marik and Ishizu to sneak outside, Marik was unconscious, while Yami Marik kills his father and wakes up without recollection of his father's murder. Immediately afterwards, he sees a loyalist to the Pharaoh had come to warn him about the dangerous path he had taken. Marik thought that the loyalist murdered his father, leading to Marik's betrayal of the clan to get revenge against the Pharaoh (this aspect is removed from the dub).

While leading the Rare Hunters in his quest for world domination and freedom, Marik becomes cruel, uncaring, hot-tempered and aggressive, willing to brainwash people to do his bidding, force them to cheat, and use cruelty on his behalf, the victims included Bandit Keith 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. He still retained his love for his family, despite his mistreatment of them.

Appearance[]

Marik is a very pretty young man with soft facial features, of slight under average stature who has a slim toned build, dark skin, purple eyes and pale blonde hair going down to his shoulder blades. He also has two lines under each of his eyes (which are possibly makeup or facial paint) and his back is covered in tattoos and carvings of the pharoah and ancient scriptures, which mark his status as a gatekeeper.

Marik's initial outfit consists of purple hooded robes with the Eye of Anubis on it, and a long purple cape with a gold chain at the front. He wears golden earrings, three bands of neckwear, an armband on each arm, and five bracelets on each arm starting from close to his elbows down to his wrists.

When he arrived in Domino City, he wore a sleeveless lilac hoodie with two gold chains on the front, black jeans, and black shoes. While in Battle City, he acquires a KaibaCorp Duel Disk on his left arm. In the manga, his pants are beige and he wears a black tank top underneath his hoodie, which would come to be the clothes his split personality would wear, minus the hoodie.

When he was switched with Yami Marik as his sacrifice during his battle against Yami Yugi, he wears the outfit that Yami Marik wore, a black tank top alongside khaki trousers as well as his usual jewellery, but removes the purple cloak before he destroys his dark self in the shadow game.

In subsequent appearances he wore mostly the same outfit but swapped his hoodie for a dark blue vest and didn't wear his neck pieces anymore.

While possessing Tea he took on her appearance, i.e he resembled that of a tall sixteen year old girl with short bob style brown hair, pale skin and a slim build. The only difference in his appearance while possessing her and the normal Tea's appearance was her eyes taking on a much more animalistic look.

Relationships[]

Family[]

Mr. Ishtar (father; deceased)
Mme Ishtar (mother; deceased)
Ishizu Ishtar (older sister)
Odion Ishtar (adoptive older brother)

Allies[]

Rare Hunters (formerly)
Bandit Keith (formerly)
Seeker (formerly)
Arkana (formerly)
Strings (formerly)
Lumis (formerly)
Umbra (formerly)
Yami Bakura (formerly)
Odion Ishtar
Ishizu Ishtar
Yugi Muto
Yami Yugi
Seto Kaiba
Mokuba Kaiba
Joey Wheeler
Solomon Muto
Tea Gardner
Tristan Taylor
Serenity Wheeler
Duke Devlin
Bakura Ryou

Enemies[]

Yugi Muto (formerly)
Yami Yugi (formerly)
Seto Kaiba (formerly)
Joey Wheeler (formerly)
Mokuba Kaiba (formerly)
Kaiba Corp (formerly)
Ishizu Ishtar (formerly)
Mai Valentine (formerly)
Solomon Muto (formerly)
Tea Gardner (formerly)
Tristan Taylor (formerly)
Serenity Wheeler (formerly)
Duke Devlin (formerly)
Bakura Ryou (formerly)
Battle City contestants (formerly)
Yami Marik

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Despite being a major and well known antagonist, Marik himself has actually never dueled anyone on screen. Every duel he has played in was simply trough one of his mind puppets. Because of this, it is unknown what cards his deck contained (other than the Winged Dragon of Ra)

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