Yu-Gi-Oh!/Characters/Main Antagonists

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Pegasus J. Crawford (Maximillion J. Pegasus)

"You must have a heart befitting enough to wield power. Power lacking heart will only bring about tragedy."

The Big Bad of the first arc, Pegasus is the enigmatic creator of Duel Monsters. He rarely appears before the public, some haven't even seen his face. Shortly after Yugi defeats Kaiba, he duels with Yugi, who then loses. Pegasus then seals his grandfather's soul and asks Yugi to come to his tournament, Duelist Kingdom. It is later revealed that he desires to take over Kaiba's company, Kaiba Corporation, and he needs to defeat Yugi in an official duel for that to happen. However, his real goal stretches beyond a mere company takeover...

He makes a reappearance in Yu-Gi-Oh! R, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, The Pyramid of Light Movie and the Yu-Gi-Oh Tenth Anniversary Movie. He also appears in the Yu-Gi-Oh Reshef of Destruction video game as the antagonist.

He primarily uses a Toon Deck, although he keeps Relinquished and its support cards around as his trump cards on the off-chance his Toons are defeated.

  • Adaptation Dye Job: He has blue eyes in the manga, but they are brown in the anime. His white pants were also colored red in the anime.
  • Affably Evil: He may seem like a carefree gentleman until he gets serious.
  • Agent Peacock
  • Almost Kiss: In the anime. Gets interrupted in a rather bizarre way.
  • Anime Hair
  • Anti-Villain: Type II. All that he wanted was to be with his love, but he doesn't care for people who get in the way of his goal.
  • Badass Longcoat: In GX, when he's fitted with the technology to paint Rainbow Dragon, he is given a black longcoat to wear with all the gadgets on.
  • Be Careful What You Wish For: Thanks to the Millennium Eye, being an artifact capable of granting a wish, Pegasus does get to meet Cyndia again... but only for a fleeting moment, and it wasn't even the real thing—just an illusion. It left Pegasus down an eye and in a very precarious mental state.
  • Berserk Button: Don't mock Pegasus' Toon Monsters and don't try to take them down. Moreover, don't speak of his past and his plan in front of him.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: He appears to be playful and not taking his duels seriously, but he is a clever and dangerous opponent.
  • Big Bad: Season 1.
  • Big Damn Heroes: In The Pyramid of Light, he saves Yugi's friends from death (or at least severe injuries) twice.
  • Big No: A few times, the most known one being the one when he is defeated by Yugi.
  • Big OMG: When he discovers the Egyptian Gods' tablet, he shouts "JEEEESUS!" in the Japanese anime. Before that, he actually says "Oh my god!" when Shadi tells him he knows where to find the tablet with the Gods on it.
  • Big "Shut Up!": To Dark Bakura in the original anime.

Bakura: So your social status and your actions are in fact a mask concealing your true intentions. An extremely roundabout way of reaching a goal hidden in the depths of your heart. And this goal is--
Pegasus: SHUT UP! Shut your mouth!

  • Big "What?": On a few occasions.
  • Bishonen: Naturally.
  • Brainwashed: By the Millennium Eye to create Duel Monsters, according to Takahashi.
  • Bring My Red Jacket: His eye related injuries were not pretty. He also wears a white shirt underneath his red suit. He is killed at the end of Duelist Kingdom (only in the manga; he's kept alive by the anime), and he is actually killed temporarily in the Tenth Anniversary Movie.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the Tenth Anniversary Movie, a building collapses on him thanks to Paradox's attack. It's undone by a Reset Button in the end though.
  • Camp Straight: As foppish and well-groomed as he is, he had a wife he loved deeply and is doing everything he does to try and see her again.
  • Chekhov's Hobby: We see him gleefully reading a comic book of Funny Rabbit. We later find out that Pegasus' love for the series and cartoons inspired his nigh invulnerable Toon Deck.
  • Chekhov's Skill: While we don't actually see it, it was Pegasus' painting skills which may have saved him from dying horribly when he received the Millennium Eye. Namely, according to Takahashi, the Eye found Pegasus' abilities useful and used him to have Duel Monsters recreated in order to assemble the Millennium Items.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive
  • Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: Shadi told him that the village is full of graverobbers and that he should just leave the place, as he will not find a cure to his heartache. Pegasus thinks he had read his mind, which makes him curious and follow him instead. Needless to say, it does not end too well.
  • Dark and Troubled Past: As Anzu put it in the manga, "the death of his love was the beginning of his tragedy". Then he created the God Cards, which he considered his greatest mistake.
  • Dead Little Sister: Cyndia is this to him.
  • Dead Man Writing: In the anime only, during the Doma arc. Pegasus has his soul taken away by Mai, but he leaves a message behind in the form of a Solid Vision projection of himself for Yugi and his friends.
  • Death Is Cheap: He died/got sent to the Shadow Realm three times by the end of Season 2. Didn't slow him down much.
  • Demonic Possession: In Reshef Of Destruction, he is gradually possessed by Reshef's evil powers, then the entity ultimately worms itself into his heart.
  • Despair Event Horizon: After Cyndia's death.
  • The Dragon: In Reshef Of Destruction, he is this to Reshef.
  • Easily Forgiven
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Doubling as his Pet the Dog moment, in the anime when Jounouchi beats Keith, he reveals that Keith was cheating the entire duel, and congratulates Jounouchi on winning fairly while his guards haul Keith away.
  • Evil Eye: The Millennium Eye.
  • Evil Is Stylish: And how. He organizes an actual tournament just to have a cover for taking over Kaiba Corporation! All he needed to do is defeat Yugi in an official duel. Granted, we do not know if Pegasus could have taken over the company in a different manner.
  • Eye Scream: When he receives the Millennium Eye, he is heard screaming while having shown a Shadow Discretion Shot of him. Happens again when Bakura steals the Eye and kills him at the same time in the manga only.
  • Fan Boy: Of American cartoons, particularly Funny Rabbit. He also knows exactly how many episodes the series has and how many bullets were fired at the main character by Bulldog Police.[1] And he is not happy whenever his Toon Monsters get destroyed...
  • Foil: His flair, smooth confidence manipulative ability, and results contrast dramatically with the brutally direct failures of Bandit Keith, the season's other main antagonist.
  • Four Is Death: His four enforcers.
  • Friend to All Children: During the National Tournament, before dueling against Keith, he explains how to play the card game to the kids there. In Yu-Gi-Oh R, it was revealed that he adopted orphans from all around the world to tutor them as card designers and such.
  • Gentleman Snarker: Especially towards Kaiba.
  • A Glass of Chianti: He is fond of his wine. It is even listed as one of his favorite foods.
  • Gone Horribly Right: If implanted, the Millennium Eye will kill the host if he is unworthy. Unfortunately for the Mutous and the Kaibas, Pegasus was very worthy.
  • Graceful Loser: After he loses his duel against Yugi, he keeps his promise and returns his friend's souls.
  • Gratuitous English: Nice idea deesu!
  • Hidden Agenda Villain: In the manga. We first know he needs something from Yugi, no matter what. Later, we learn from Mokuba that Pegasus intends to take over Kaiba Corporation and must defeat Yugi in an official duel as part of his deal with the Big Five. We don't know why he needs Kaiba's company until the very end of Duelist Kingdom. The dub, and to a lesser extent the original anime, hints at Pegasus' real goal more clearly with giving more importance to Cyndia's portrait in episode 28 (in the manga, the group viewed it briefly, and that's it) and dub!Pegasus' Inner Monologue in episode 34 clearly reveals what he is fighting for.
  • Homage: His Toon Monsters are this to American cartoons.
    • Also, he prints cards for special events. Richard Garfield printed three special cards for his marriage and the birth of his two children.
  • Hypocrite: Calls out Keith for cheating, while he himself uses his Millennium Eye and position as creator of Duel Monsters to full advantage.
  • I Cannot Self-Terminate/Heroic Sacrifice: In Reshef Of Destruction, Reshef worms itself into Pegasus' heart, who then asks the main character to have him sealed away before Reshef takes him over.
  • I Gave My Word: Pegasus promises to release the souls of Kaiba and Mokuba if Yugi can defeat him. After he is defeated, Yugi tells him to fulfill his promise, which he does.
  • Innocent Blue Eyes/Icy Blue Eyes: In the manga - he is fairly innocent and naive as a teenager (he wants to help a stranger in Egypt who got into trouble, who is in fact a grave-robber who stole a Millennium Item) but cold and distant as an antagonist.
  • Irony: When Pegasus also seals Kaiba's soul and looks at the two Soul Prison cards with Mokuba and Kaiba's souls in them, he mentions that the two brothers will never know the joy of restarting their relationship in this life. Then comes the end of Duelist Kingdom. where karma strikes back Pegasus - he fails to fulfill his dream of reuniting with Cyndia in his life. Upon learning about Pegasus' past, that particular quote becomes somewhat ironic, even.
  • Kubrick Stare: In the anime, especially during his second duel with Yugi.
  • Large Ham: In the original manga, anime, and dub versions.
  • Laughably Evil: During Duelist Kingdom. He may be amoral, but he's just so funny while he's doing it. Given that Yami Yugi and Kaiba are Stoic Straight Men in response, perhaps he just can't resist.

"What, no 'hello', no 'how are you'? I thought we were friends, Kaiba-boy. Don't tell me that my kidnapping Mokuba and seizing control of your company has put a rift between us. It was nothing personal."

  • Leitmotif: "Illusion" in the Japanese anime.
  • Let's Get Dangerous: He made the game, and has a Millennium Eye, yet it's still hard to take him seriously. His duel with Kaiba and especially his second Shadowgame with Yugi establish just how dangerous this man is.
  • Love Makes You Evil: His desire to reunite with Cyndia leads him to do rather monstrous things.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Carries the air of one and has the tactical planning of one too, despite being ultimately a big cheater!
  • Manipulative Bastard: Using his Millennium Eye, he often unnerves his opponents with his knowledge of their cards. Also happens when Kaiba tells him to duel him using his Duel Disk prototype, Pegasus gets a soulless Mokuba to duel Kaiba in his place. Kaiba, not wanting to fight against his own brother, goes on to duel Pegasus' way instead.
  • Magitek: Thematically represents such as a contrast to Yugi and Kaiba's Magic Versus Science rivalry, lurking in a castle and stealing souls while heading a billion-dollar corporation that manufactures trading cards. More apt in the dub, which states in Episode 40 that Pegasus's plan to revive his wife was to combine the Millennium Items with Kaiba Corp's hologram technology.
  • Meaningful Name: In Japan, a pegasus is often referred to as a "tenma", or "horse of heaven" (ten=heaven, ma=horse). However, there's another word "tenma". The same "ten" kanji is used for both, but the second tenma's "ma" kanji is the one that translates to "demon". Thus, we have a homonym meaning "demon of heaven"...or, to keep the actual, non-literal intent, "fallen angel".
  • Missing Mom: In the manga, his father can be briefly seen, but nothing is known about his mother.
  • Mood Whiplash: Oh boy. Pegasus often changes between a cruel villain and a goofy gentleman, but his duel against Yugi is the best example. Even his deck is this Trope, shifting from the silly Toon Monsters to the bizarre and creepy Illusion Monsters. See Villainous Breakdown below.
  • The Mourning After: He was willing to find a way to reunite with Victorious Childhood Friend Cyndia all his life... In the manga, he goes to the grave with this wish in his heart. In the anime, the entire subject is dropped after Duelist Kingdom.[2]
  • Mysterious Middle Initial: It has never been stated what the J. stands for.
  • Necromantic
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: While it wasn't intentional, creating Duel Monsters allowed the Pharaoh to reach the Afterlife in the end, with Duel Monsters being the "sword and shield" for the Ceremonial Battle, but it did cause a lot of incidents and trouble in the future, including the destruction of the world in the distant future as shown in the Tenth Anniversary Movie, leading Paradox seeking to eliminate him.
    • The creation of the Egyptian God Cards sent him into a My God, What Have I Done? state, and he attempted to destroy them after realizing his mistake. In the end, he gave them to Ishizu to have them sealed away.
  • Obfuscating Stupidity: He uses this tactic against Kaiba.
  • An Offer You Can't Refuse: He invites Yugi to Duelist Kingdom, who does not wish to go, so he seals away his grandfather's soul to make him go to the tournament anyway.
  • Oh Crap: Gets this look after Yugi summons Magician of Black Chaos.
  • Posthumous Character: In Yu-Gi-Oh R.
  • Psychopathic Manchild: He loves his favorite comic book and his Toon monsters, but there's a broken man under the childish exterior.
  • Sarcastic Clapping: In the anime, when Kaiba finds Mokuba in the dungeon.
  • Scars Are Forever: Post-Duelist Kingdom in the anime, much to the horror to those who witness his empty eye socket.
  • Schrödinger's Cast: There's three continuities to his character—he's dead and gone in the manga following Duelist Kingdom, but in the anime he survived. The manga introduced his protégé Yako Tenma who took over his company, the anime eventually brought him back for Season 4 and GX, and the video game "Reshef of Destruction" (a sequel to the game "The Sacred Cards" which is loosely based on Season 2 of the anime) he gets possessed by Reshef after the events of Battle City and is the game's Big Bad.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them: Pegasus makes free use of cards like Toon World, Relinquished, and Thousand-Eyes Restrict that were considered too powerful to release to the general public.
  • Sempai-Kohai: Pegasus is the sempai to Tenma Yakou and Tenma Gekkou.
  • Shower Scene: In the novelization of the Pyramid of Light movie. While we don't see it in the actual movie, it is lovingly detailed in the novel.

"Pegasus’ entire body is drenched with a cold sweat. Flinging off his silk pajamas to expose his naked white body, he took a hot shower."

  • Sissy Villain
  • Slasher Smile: In the anime only, during his duel with Yugi.
  • Spared by the Adaptation
  • Squick: (in-universe) How people react to his empty eye socket, namely Kaiba in The Pyramid of Light.
  • Squishy Wizard: While he's quite smart and manipulates people rather well, he's described as physically weak in the Pyramid of Light novelization and he tells Kaiba he's not good at physical sports in the manga. He's also the contrast to Bandit Keith, who takes up the role of the big, strong guy.
  • Star-Crossed Lovers: With Cyndia. He tries to reunite with her twice, failing both of the times. But in the manga, they do reunite after Pegasus is killed by Bakura and atones for his sins.
  • Start of Darkness: His backstory. The manga shows us he may have been quite naive... who then became the broken, twisted man we know from the series.
  • Stepford Smiler: His silly and childish exterior hides both insanity and sad desperation.
  • Talking to the Dead: In the anime, he addresses his beloved's portrait before realizing he's being watched by Bakura.
  • Together in Death: In the manga, according to Word of God.
  • Toon: His Toon World magic card transforms monsters into classic toons, complete with the ability to stretch out of the way of attacks. They include Toon Mermaid, Manga Ryu-Ran, Toon Summoned Skull, and the exceptionally powerful Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon.
  • Tragic Dream: His desire to spend the rest of his life with Cyndia.
  • Tragic Villain
  • Troubled Fetal Position/Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: After Cyndia's death. His dull eyes can be seen better in the manga, whereas in the anime his eyes just look sad.
  • Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Makes heavy use of his Millennium Eye to read the mind of his opponents, granting him a huge advantage in any duel. If that weren't enough, he makes two Game Breaker sets (his Toons and Relinquished/Thousand Eyes Restrict.) He can do that; he made the game after all.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid
  • Verbal Tic: "Deeeesu!" "Maaaasu!" He also tends to tack a person's gender onto the end of their name. "M'kay, Yugi-boy?"
  • Victorious Childhood Friend: He and Cyndia met when they were children and became attracted to each other, then they got engaged (married in the dub). He doesn't get to cherish it for too long, however.
  • Villainous Breakdown: When Yugi and Dark Yugi manage to use their Mind Shuffle tactic to evade Pegasus' Mind Scan ability and destroy all his Toon Monsters. Pegasus immediately drops his silly persona and stops toying around, starting a Game of Darkness where he even manges to take out Yugi, albeit temporarily.
  • Villains Out Shopping: He is shown drinking wine and reading his Funny Rabbit manga during the Duelist Kingdom tournament.
  • Villain Song: Face Up, Face Down
  • Wicked Cultured: He's sophiscated, smart, drinks fine wine and dresses well.
  • The Wonka: He's the creator of Duel Monsters, and is very rich. He's also fond of metaphors, cartoons and has an odd speech pattern. His only close friends are Cyndia (who died), or at the most, Mr. Croquet. He also has his adopted children in Yu-Gi-Oh R. Nonetheless, he has made his eccentricities, specifically his passion for toons, around which he created an entire archetype, work to his advantage as a game designer.
  • Younger Than They Look: Many people assume he's in his thirties or is much older. He's only 24 years old during Duelist Kingdom.
  • Your Soul Is Mine

The Spirit of the Millennium Ring/Thief King Bakura

The evil spirit within the Millennium Ring, he possesses Yugi's friend Bakura throughout the series, and clashes with Yugi, Pegasus, and Marik as he seeks to add all the Millennium Items to his growing collection. A cold, calculating sadist, the Ring sets his Evil Plan in motion from very early on, eventually stepping up as the Big Bad when it comes to fruition in the series' finale. The spirit' identity is kept a mystery; it is eventually revealed to be a fusion of Pharoah Atem's enemy Thief King Bakura (who wanted revenge on the Pharoah for the destruction of his village), and a shard of Zorc Necrophades soul.

His dark side uses a Dark deck which focuses on the uses of Dark Necrofear, Dark Sanctuary, and Destiny Board. Then, he uses a deck that emulates the original monsters from the Shadow Games, focusing on Diabound Kernel. Finally, he uses an Undead Lock deck, which pins the opponent down while he slowly depletes their deck.

He is voiced by You Inoue and Rica Matsumoto (Japanese) and Ted Lewis (English).

  • Accent Adaptation: He was given a British accent in the dub to reflect the real Bakura's polite speech patterns in Japanese.
  • Arch Enemy: The Spirit of the Millennium Ring is an ancient spirit, just like Yami, and he's also the series longest running, and final (sort of), antagonist.
  • Artifact of Doom: The Millennium Ring, which is by far the most openly malevolent of any of the Millennium Items. Having a sociopathic tomb robber and the essence of a dark god sharing space inside of you will do that.
  • Ax Crazy: Less so than Dark Marik, but that ain't saying much.
  • Badass
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Ryou Bakura is a genuinely nice, polite, sweet guy. His Super-Powered Evil Side is a sadistic psychopath.
  • Big Bad: Though it doesn't become apparent until the final season, he's been working on his scheme the entire series, laying Xanatos Gambits out to be executed later. It just happens that in the meantime, Pegasus and Marik are more pressing threats to deal with.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Does an amazing impression of Nice Guy Bakura.
  • Cannibalism Superpower: This is what makes Thief King Bakura's Ka, Diabound, so deadly dangerous—every time it kills an adversary it gains that creature's raw power, if not its actual abilities.
  • Cast from Hit Points: His Battle City deck relies on giving Life Points to use various cards, or letting opponents attack him while he sets up his strategy.
  • The Chessmaster: Many of his plans are set up some time in advance. Carries into his duels as well where he's a Manipulative Bastard who strings the opponent along while laying out an overarcing strategy to spring once he's got all his cards in place.
  • Clingy MacGuffin: The Ring has been disposed of dozens of times. It always manages to make its way back to Bakura and possess him again.
  • The Collector: He's collecting the Millennium Items. God help you if you get in his way.
  • Complete Monster: Thief King Bakura does not qualify, but the Spirit of The Ring is most certainly this when under the dark influence of Zorc's soul.
  • The Corrupter: The Millennium Ring seems to have a pretty negative effect on whoever's holding it. See Artifact of Doom, above.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Later on in the English dub, at least.
  • Demonic Possession: Half the time Bakura doesn't even know what's going on, the Ring has so much control over him.
  • Disc One Final Boss: Thief King Bakura was this to Zorc in the past; in the current timeline he's essentially The Dragon to his own future self.
  • Evil Brit
  • Evil Counterpart: To The Pharaoh
  • Evil Laugh: Both the Spirit of the Millennium Ring and Thief King Bakura.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: At least when compared to his normal self.
  • Eviler Than Thou: With Dark Marik, whom he attempts to take the Millennium Rod from.
  • Face Death with Dignity: Although not really death, as he comes back. But the Spirit Of The Ring’s only reaction before having Slifer The Sky Dragon strike him down was laughing wildly and gleefully. No fear of death here, people.
  • Fake Brit: In the dub.
  • Faux Affably Evil
  • Freudian Excuse: The Spirit of the Millennium Ring (at least part of him) was originally Thief King Bakura, who, when he was a child, witnessed and was the only survivor of the massacre of his entire village. Said massacre was directed by the Pharoah (Atem's father), albeit unknowingly, to create the Millennium Items. The Pharoah died soon after, but Bakura wasn't satisfied with that and transferred his hate to Atem. How much water the excuse holds is questionable, since the Spirit is also a part of Zorc Necrophades who doesn't give a rip about the village.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare: Thief King Bakura. He would have been just another peasant boy living a meaningless life in his village. Than the Pharoah and his brother slaughtered that village and the rage and pain engendered by that experience transformed Bakura's Ka into the monstrous killing machine Diabound, which gets stronger as it devours other people's Kas. Things get messy from there on out.
  • Genocide Backfire: Thief King Bakura's origin story.
  • Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: The Spirit of the Millennium Ring's eyes are cold and narrow to contrast Bakura's big open ones.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: Thief King Bakura has a very ugly scar on his face, just below the eye.
  • Gotta Catch Em All: The Ring's objective is to capture all of the Millennium Items for himself.
  • Grave Robbing: How Thief King Bakura got his start. He began by robbing the tombs of the Pharoanic line that butchered his village, and it only gets worse from there. Eventually he stops caring whether his victims are dead or not.
  • Hidden Agenda Villain: Until Season 5. We know he wants all of the Millennium Items, but what he plans to do with them and even who/what he is remains a total mystery.
  • Hyde Plays Jekyll: All the time, to the point where it's really hard to tell who's in control at any given time.
  • Incoming Ham: The way the Thief King Bakura introduces himself in the manga is so audacious, it can'[t be anything else then this.

Bakura: A King is robed in gold, isn't he? Then that must make me a king, too! A KING OF THIEVES! H-HA HA HA HA!

  • Kick the Dog: Trapping Yugi's friends inside of their favourite cards was totally irrelevant to his plan to take the Millennium Puzzle. Jerk.
  • Kick the Son of a Bitch: He banishes Pegasus' goons to the Graveyard, steals Pegasus' Millennium Eye (and kills him/leaves him in a coma), and later sends Bonz and his crew to the Shadow Realm. Evil, yes? Unecessary? Yes, especially Bonz. Done to Asshole Victims? Absolutely.
  • Killer Game Master: Both figuratively and literally.
  • Lack of Empathy: The Spirit of the Ring has none for anybody, no matter what the fangirls tell you. This extends even to his past self, Thief King Bakura, whom he cheerfully sacrifices as part of his game against Yami.
  • Large Ham: Goes in and out of this in the manga, never with his first seiyu, and always with his second.
  • Larynx Dissonance: Both of his voice actors in the second series, You Inoue and Rica Matsumoto, were female. Averted in English, where he's voiced by Ted Lewis and in the Latin-American dub, where he's voiced by Yamil Atala and José Gilberto Vilchis.
  • Magnificent Bastard: He is a Game Master in every sense of the word, after all.
  • Mysterious Past: We know jack about The Spirit of the Millennium Ring's past, up until Season 5.
  • The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Has shades of this towards Yugi, since he wants the Millennium Puzzle and thus won't allow other villains to take it. This is most prominent in the anime when he frees Bandit Keith from Marik's mind control.

"Whoever is an enemy of Mutou Yugi is an enemy of mine."

Marik Ishtar/Dark Marik

The Big Bad of Seasons 2 and 3, he's a former Tombkeeper charged with protecting the Pharaoh's secrets and preserving his name. An ancient ritual traumatized him so much he created a Super-Powered Evil Side, Dark Marik (who ultimately pulls a Split Personality Takeover an becomes the real Big Bad). From there, the story diverges depending on the version you watch. His evil side either killed his father and he blamed the Pharaoh and tried to kill him and lead a normal life, or his evil side banished his father to the Shadow Realm and he decided to claim the Millennium Puzzle for himself in order to take over the world.

He uses a Fiend deck which focuses on summoning Winged Dragon of Ra and is meant to signify immortality. Many of his cards emulate torture devices; thanks to his ability to make the duel real, he tries to get the opponent to give up, pass out, or die from the extreme pain and injury before the game is even over.

Voiced by Tetsuya Iwanaga (Japanese); Jonathan Todd Ross (English)

  • Absurdly High Stakes Game: Turns every match into one.
  • Anime Hair: Dark Marik.
  • Ax Crazy: Dark Marik.
  • Badass Biker: Normal Marik.
  • Badass Cape: Dark Marik adds a cape to his wardrobe.
  • Bad Boss: Pulls a You Have Failed Me... on the Rare Hunter, Arkana, Strings, and Lumis.
  • Bare Your Midriff: Normal Marik.
  • Beauty Equals Goodness: Played with. Normal Marik is a Bishounen White-Haired Pretty Boy who nevertheless schemes to Take Over the World and has no problems brainwashing people into doing his fighting for him. Dark Marik, however, is infinitely worse, being a Combat Sadomasochist, Blood Knight, and Omnicidal Maniac who gets his kicks out of torturing his victims. He's also far more twisted looking than normal Marik, with his muscular build, Voice of the Legion, Tainted Veins, Anime Hair, bulging eyes, facial stretching, Off-Model bouts, and habit of sticking out his tongue during combat.
  • Big Bad: Seasons 2 & 3
  • Bishounen: Normal Marik. Dark Marik adds about thirty pounds in muscle even on his face, averting this.
  • Blood Knight: Dark Marik doesn't care who he has to duel, as long as he gets to torture them.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: To everyone.
  • Cain and Abel: The Cain to Ishizu's Abel.
  • Card-Carrying Villain: Dark Marik is more or less evil for its own sake. Than again, he's not a fully formed personality so this should come as no surprise.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture
  • Combat Sadomasochist: Inflicting pain or suffering from it, it's all the same to Dark Marik.
  • Complete Monster: Dark Marik, who takes on a life of his own and just wants to torture and kill anyone he can For the Evulz.
  • Dark Is Evil
  • Dark-Skinned Blond
  • Diabolical Mastermind: Normal Marik, who has dozens of Rare Hunter minions working for him across the globe, gathering rare cards and hunting for Ishizu and the missing God Cards.
  • Dirty Coward: Normal Marik, who never faces his opponents directly and enters the finals under a fake name. Dark Marik doesn't have this problem.
  • Disc One Final Boss: Normal Marik is arguably one to himself, being displaced by his own Super-Powered Evil Side partway through the Battle City semifinals.
  • Easily Forgiven: Although after a Season and a half of dealing with Dark Marik, normal Marik was probably looking pretty good.
  • Evil Makes You Ugly: White-Haired Pretty Boy Marik was hardly a good guy, but he's got nothing on his disfigured Super-Powered Evil Side for sheer malice. Notably, the more Axe Crazy Dark Marik gets, the more his veins stand out, the more his eyes bulge, and the more his face stretches.
  • Evil Sounds Deep: Dark Marik's deep, Voice of the Legion-tinged voice.
  • Evil Vegetarian: The official stats lists his favorite food as koshary, a vegetarian Egyptian dish, and least favorite food as any kind of meat dish.
  • Eviler Than Thou: Dark Marik has this with both the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, and normal Marik.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Dark Marik is usually smiling and happy about what he does - which is torture, murder, and destruction.
  • For the Evulz: Dark Marik's motives. He wants to continue doing evil even after he's taken revenge on the pharaoh.
  • Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Normal Marik's are narrow and snakey. Dark Marik's bulge constantly and are filled with red veins.
  • Heel Face Turn/Defeat Means Friendship: Once Battle City concludes, he has no problem being civil towards Yugi, who helped extinguish his Super-Powered Evil Side once and for all.
  • Jerkass: Normal Marik, though he gets better. Dark Marik takes it Up To Eleven.
  • Knight of Cerebus: In the anime and especially the English dub. Duelist Kingdom was pretty light-hearted, with the only major Shadowgames all involving Pegasus—and even than, they only got truly ugly if you lost. Marik's arrival heralded an entire season of duels designed to maim, kill, or banish the loser to the Shadow Realm, and his love of Mind Rape and mind control only made things worse. Dark Marik took things up yet another notch, and between them they managed to drain the show of many of its softer elements.
  • Large Ham: See Card-Carrying Villain.
  • Lack of Empathy: Normal Marik's empathy is limited. Dark Marik's is none existant.
  • Laughing Mad: Hoo, boy....
  • Manipulative Bastard: Screws with his opponents' minds during duels. It's especially obvious against Mai, whose mind he breaks.
  • Mind Rape: He does this to Mai in Battle City. Heck he does this to everybody.
  • Morality Chain: Rishid/Odion is this to him.
  • Off-Model: Dark Marik is frequently off model. Throw in the facial stretching, and it makes him really gross.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Implied in the anime, and made explicit in the video game adaptations. Dark Marik's goal is to destroy everything on Earth but himself, plunging the world into shadow, and laughing over the remains in the dark.
  • One-Winged Angel: Dark Marik often fuses himself with Ra by giving the god card his life points. The results are grotesque, with one of Marik's eyes and one of his hands remaining on the field, while the rest of him—with a missing hand and a gaping black shadowy hole where his eye should be—physically combines with Ra, usually leaking black smoke in the process. One could argue that Dark Marik is himself the One-Winged Angel form of normal Marik.
  • People Puppets: His Mind Slaves.
  • Plot Armor: He should have lost his duels with Mai and Joey. What saved him with Mai was her run in with the Idiot Ball, while Joey actually tried to make the winning move but collapsed from exhaustion and was disqualified. He's also on the good end of New Rules as the Plot Demands, revealing new abilities of the Winged Dragon of Ra every time he duels, abilities that just so happen to let him win when otherwise Ra would be useless.
  • Purple Eyes
  • Sadistic Choice: Normal Marik sets it up so that Yugi can lose his Millennium Puzzle or kill Joey. Dark Marik frequently creates set ups like this, forcing Yami to sacrifice his own good half or watch Yugi fade out during their final duel.
  • Sissy Villain: Normal Marik has some traits of this. Musclebound and psychopathic Dark Marik, does not.
  • Smug Snake: Normal Marik. Dark Marik's too much of an insane monster for the definition to apply.
  • The Sociopath: Dark Marik
  • Spell My Name with an "S": Marik or Malik? Takahashi spelled his name in the bunkoban as Maric.
  • Spanner in the Works: In Season 3, after Noah has a change of heart and runs back to change the missile controls to save the heroes, he discovers Dark Marik was there in his absence and the control console has been destroyed.
  • Split Personality: And how.
    • Split Personality Takeover: Dark Marik successfully takes over their body following Odion's collapse, and exiles normal Marik from his mind. The poor bastard's left as a disembodied spirit, wandering the real world and the Shadowrealm until Dark Marik's defeat.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: Dark Marik who's more vicious and far tougher than normal Marik ever was. With all the facial stretching, and the Voice of the Legion thing he's got going on, one gets the impression that there might well be something even worse lurking inside of Dark Marik.
  • Tainted Veins: They're not a different colour, but they bulge quite unhealthily out of his face.
  • Take Over the World: Normal Marik's goal in the dub.
  • Torture Technician: Dark Marik
  • Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Normal Marik cheats frequently while controlling his Mind Slaves. Dark Marik meanwhile sets up the rules of his Shadow Games to favor him.
    • Against Mai, each time a monster is destroyed the duelist forgets someone from their life. This plays on Mai's feelings of being alone, Dark Marik of course doesn't care.
    • Against Joey, when a monster is weakened or destroyed the controller feels the pain, Dark Marik is a Combat Sadomasochist.
    • Against Yami Yugi, when a duelist loses Life Points their alter-ego fades away bit by bit. Yami Yugi has to deal with the fact hurting Dark Marik will destroy the real Marik he wants to save, Dark Marik on the other hand gets to destroy both Yugis and get rid of his other self by paying Life Points until he's too weak to stay alive any longer.
  • Used to Be a Sweet Kid: He really did.
  • Villain Team-Up: Between normal Marik and the Spirit of the Millennium Ring.
  • Voice of the Legion: Dark Marik.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Normal Marik. Dark Marik keeps the white hair but...look at the page picture. Not a lot of pretty going on there.
  • You Killed My Father: His motivation in the manga and original dub; after his father was killed, Shadi appeared and said something which Marik assumed meant that the Pharaoh had murdered his father to punish him for leaving the tomb. He doesn't quite care for the fact that his family has been enslaved for three thousand years either.

Noah Kaiba

Gozaburo Kaiba's biological son and Seto and Mokuba's step-brother, though they never met him. Initially intended to be Gozaburo's heir, he was in a car accident and died. What was left of his mind was digitally recreated as a computer program, and his father turned his attention to Seto as his new heir. Noah didn't take this well and kidnaps Kaiba and his friends to prove his superiority.

He uses a deck that emulates the stages of Earth's creation (the great flood, dinosaurs, the Ice Age, the dawn of man, etc) then switches to a Spirit deck. His trump cards are Shinato's Ark, Shinato - King of a Higher Plane, and Hino-Kagu-Tsuchi.

Voiced by Chisa Yokoyama (Japanese, Playing Against Type)

  • A God Am I: Noah's deck master Shinato is a six-winged angel [dead link] with regal robes and a halo, and its Japanese name is actually "Shinato, King of Heaven." Noah merges with Shinato for a period of time, his face superimposing itself over its. Then there's the Faux Symbolism entry below.
  • Bad Boss
  • Cain and Abel: The Cain to Kaiba's Abel.
  • Cheaters Never Prosper: His cheating lets him beat Kaiba, but brings the wrath of Yugi and Yami down on his head. That's right--Yugi Moto wants a piece of this kid's hide. Smooth move Jerkass.
  • Conscience Makes You Go Back: He rescues the entire main cast from being trapped in the virtual world, complete with What Have I Done. There is no other reason for his sudden Heel Face Turn other than this.
  • Death Equals Redemption
  • Disc One Final Boss: It's not until his defeat that we know Gozaburo is even there.
  • The Dragon: To Gozaburo. He's aware of it in the dub, not so much in the sub.
  • Enfante Terrible: He's actually around Kaiba's age, but is permanently stuck in childhood.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: He stops Ooka/Johnson from cheating during his duel with Jounouchui, as victory through dirty playing won't prove their superiority. Then completely subverted when he uses Mokuba as a human shield to stop Seto from attacking him.
  • Evil Counterpart: Kaiba's first one in the anime. See Foil below, for how.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Moreso in the Japanese version.
  • Faux Symbolism: Uses a deck that reflects the creation of the earth from the cooling of the earth through the dinosaur era to the ice age to modern times, then switches to a Spirit deck symbolizing the afterlife.
  • Filler Villain
  • Foil: Kaiba's a Self-Made Man and Self-Made Orphan. Noah's a Spoiled Brat and "Well Done, Son" Guy who's lost everything. The comparison is pretty obvious.
  • Gambit Roulette: The way his duel vs. Kaiba and subsequently Yugi carries out in how he improbably transitions through his deck's themes, including the (then) harder to play spirit monsters.
  • Giggling Villain
  • Grand Theft Me: He planned to do this to Kaiba; he does do it to Mokuba for a while.
  • Hypocrite: Calls out the Big Five when they try to cheat or take bodies without having won a duel...than does it himself.
  • It's All About Me: Even more so than Kaiba. Just for fun sometime, count the number of times Noah gets mad at someone for making him look bad.
  • Jerkass
  • Large Ham: For a little kid, quite a bit.
  • Light Is Not Good: Temporarily fuses with Shinato, King of a Higher plane, an angel like monster. And his deck reflects the biblical story of Noah (duh).
  • Meaningful Name: His deckmaster is the Ritual Spell Shinato's Ark, and the first phase of his deck's strategy emulates the Great Flood. Hmmmm....
  • Mythology Gag: Noah's design is nearly identical to Kaiba's design in Season 0.
  • New Powers as the Plot Demands: Shinato's Ark and Shinato both manifest new abilities any time Noah is losing. You begin to suspect that he's changing the rules as they go along.
  • Not So Different: From Kaiba.
  • Older Than They Look: Noah's actually in his late teens or early twenties, but is stuck as a child mentally and physically.
  • Orcus on His Throne: Aside from when he stops Ooka/Johnson from cheating, Noah is content to sit back in his control chair watching the protagonists run around.
  • Pet the Dog: With Mokuba, eventually.
  • Psychotic Smirk: All the time.
  • The Resenter: Towards Seto, who's body and life he wants.
  • Screw the Rules, I Make Them: Noah is essentially the ruler of the Virtual World, and enforces a strict policy of no-cheating on the Big Five, intervening when Johnson doesn't play fairly against Joey, and preventing them from stealing bodies unless they have fairly won a duel. When it's his turn to duel, though, he cheats like crazy, and after losing, bodyjacks Mokuba anyway to try and escape into the real world.
  • Slasher Smile: Displays one during his duels with Kaiba and Yugi.
  • Smug Snake: Good god is he ever.
  • Sore Loser
  • Spoiled Brat: The source of his attitude. Kaiba and Yami both point this out.
  • Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Justified, as Noah maintains and runs the virtual reality program the heroes are trapped in.
  • Trying to Catch Me Fighting Dirty: Pretty much says, "no, I win," when Kaiba has him dead to rights, and ignores the effect of Kaiba's card.
  • The Unfavourite: Believes he is this. In reality Gozaburo's too much of an ass to have a favourite.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Upon realising that Daddy doesn't love him.
  • Virtual Ghost
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Too bad Daddy is such a bastard in reality.
  • You Gotta Have Green Hair

Dartz

Dartz is the former King of Atlantis and the head of the organization Paradius. His goal is to resurrect the Leviathan using the soul of Pharaoh Atem, and millions of others he has gathered over his immortal lifetime.

10,000 years ago the mysterious substance called the Orichalcos rained down from the skies and allowed the city to make incredible technological advances, but also played on the darkness within their hearts. The people were turned into monsters and Dartz was brainwashed into believing all humanity was evil, and must be destroyed by being fed to the Great Leviathan.

He uses an Orichalcos deck.

  • Anime Hair
  • As Long as There Is Evil: Dartz claims The Leviathan was born from humanity's hatred, so as long as humanity exists, so shall the Beast. However, the Pharoah says it was created by the Orichalchos.
  • Bad Boss: Usually limited to insulting his subordinates for their supposed incompetence and stupidity; however, he clearly has no problem feeding them to the Leviathan if they lose their duels and probably planned to do so all along. But what really gives him this trope is how he recruited them in the first place- secretly sabotaging their lives, even killing their families, in order to make them hate the world as much as he does.
  • Bishonen
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Himself, and all of his minions, are controlled or influenced by the Orichalcos.
  • The Chessmaster: Everyone of his minions isn't just another lunatic who share his ideas, some of them even honestly believe that his intentions will lead to world peace...yet he plays them like any piece on a game-board.
  • Complete Monster: While thoroughly influenced by the Leviathan, he was the cause of several of the world's tragedies, including the loss of his followers' loved ones. And he did it all with a sense of malevolent cruelty. Good lord, he got off way easier than he deserved.
  • Cross-Dressing Voices: Although that you don't believe it, in the Japanese original version Dartz was voiced by a woman. Averted in the 4Kids English dub, which Dartz was voiced by Wayne Grayson who does a damn good job considering the company who dubs the show.
  • Dark Messiah
  • Deadpan Snarker

"The score stands - Orichalcos one, Seto Kaiba, zip."

"You've left yourself open to attack. Rather, you've left yourself open to four attacks!"

  • Determinator: He's waited 10,000 years for one card game with the pharaoh.
  • Easily Forgiven: By his family's spirits, and Yugi, in the end. Even Yami Bakura and Yami Marik were crazy to being with, The way he uses Yugi's friends as shields, manipulates ALL THE EVENTS that caused his three subordinates to come to hate the world and serve him, his purpose for doing that in the first place.
  • Filler Villain: Surprisingly, his plot would fit right in the manga, as this filler was done so well that it's mistaken for a canon plot for a while.
  • Four Is Death: His henchmen.
  • Gambit Roulette: Even with the constant revisions of his plans, his own soul proved to be enough to revive the Leviathan, when Yugi manages to beat him.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Nearly forced Yami Yugi to surrender, that's a accomplishment by itself.
  • Humans Are the Real Monsters: Brainwashed into believing this.
  • Karma Houdini: Denied many people happiness with their loved ones, his spirit gets to have happiness with his loved ones. WHAT. THE. HELL?
  • Knight Templar: What he started out as before Jumping Off the Slippery Slope.
  • Magnificent Bastard: As both the former king of Atlantis and owner of his own corporation, Doma.
  • Manipulative Bastard: With a bit of magic on his side for good measure. So good he nearly talked the Pharoah into surrendering his soul. Bought out Kaiba Corp purely to goad Kaiba into dueling him. His M.O. for recruiting his henchmen Raphaels' parents were killed by a storm he conjured; Alisters' brother and mom by tanks he sent in posing as Gozoburo Kaiba; and Valon was manipulated into a life of crime either by burning down his orphanage or framing him for his first crime, depending on sub or dub. Mai was preyed on after being traumatized by her duel with Marik. All were then given the Orichalcos to play on their inner darkness.
  • Mismatched Eyes: After being forced to kill his wife (who had been turned into a monster), Dartz was himself corrupted, turning his right eye green.
  • More Than Mind Control: He uses it to control his subordinates. He himself is a victim of this by the Orichalcos.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Out to destroy the entirety of earth society.
  • Really Seven Hundred Years Old: Though physically in his twenties, or maybe early thirties (we're told he took the throne at 21), he is actually over 10,000, kept alive by the Orichalcos.
  • Screw the Rules, I Have Money/Connections/Make Them: Dartz and his company have so much money, connections and influence that he can effectively control governments, making attempts to call the authorities against him useless. At best, they won't be allowed to do anything to him. At worst, they will be on his side.
  • SNK Boss: Has the most broken dueling deck of any character in the regular series, period. He has three layers of the Seal of Orichalcos- the first, which all his main henchmen have, grants 500 extra points to all his monsters and gives him an extra 5 to play with, as well as meaning the loser will lose his soul. However, he also has Orichalcos Deuteros, which gives him 500 extra life points a turn for every monster he has on the field, which in his game with Kaiba and the Pharaoh meant he ended up with 20,000 at his peak, as well as letting him destroy any attacking enemy monster by sacrificing one of his own. Orichalcos Tritos, the third layer, cancels out any Magic or Trap cards used against him. After that there is Orichalcos Kyutora, a monster that absorbs any damage taken against his life points. When Kyotora gets destroyed, it becomes Orichalcos Shunoros, which has those absorbed points, which in his game with Kaiba and the Pharaoh meant 20,000 points and Shunoros has two arms that are always 300 points stronger than whatever they are attacking or defending against, respectively. And to top it all off if you defeat that, it turns into Divine Serpent, which costs him all his life points and becomes the only card he is allowed to play, so that he auto-loses when it is destroyed. Good luck with that, though, because its attack points are infinite.
    • Admittedly, it does have a major weakness. You have to finish your opponent quickly or you mill your own deck because you have to discard ten cards (out of a 40 card deck) each time you attack. While this should be easy, a couple of cards that negate damage or force the attack to hit a monster in defense mode can burn through the deck entirely.
  • Ubermensch: He lives by his own rules, baby.
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: His goal, or so he believes.
  • Villain Sue: Unfortunately, yes.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Even if his henchmen lose their duels, he still gets their souls, which feeds the Leviathan. The same goes for him, though that turned out a little differently.
  • Your Princess Is in Another Castle: See SNK Boss above.

Siegfried von Schroider/Sieg Lloyd

Siegfried is the main antagonist of the KC Grand Prix arc. Siegfried is the son of the owner of a company that develops weapons...like Kaiba. When his father died, Siegfried took over and retooled it as a gaming company...like Kaiba. Siegfried hit a huge breakthrough upon the development of holographic projectors for Duel Monsters...like Kaiba. That's where the parallels end, because Kaiba signed his business deal with Pegasus first, and Siegfried was left in ruins, his company falling into obscurity while Kaiba Corp became a huge megacorp. His main goal now is to discredit Kaiba Corporation.

He uses a Valkyrie deck, based on Der Ring Des Nibelungen, and is loaded with cards that let him make extra draws, increase his life points, block his opponent's attacks, and remove his opponent's monsters from play. His trump cards are Ride of the Valkyries and Valkyrie Brunhilde.

Zorc Necrophedius

The ancient enemy Yami Yugi defeated in the past and sealed away, and in the English dub is the creator of the Shadow Realm. A great evil demon that seeks to destroy the world and cover it in darkness, he was unwittingly unleashed by the servants of Pharoah Atems' father when they destroyed a village to create the Millennium items.

Voiced by: Yoshitaka Kaidu (Japanese).

  • Artifact of Doom: The Millennium Items
  • Big Bad: Of the second anime series.
    • And of the entire series, if we're going by the manga.
      • Bigger Bad: For most of the series, he is frequently but vaguely referred to only as a dark evil defeated by the Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt who destroyed that country and which the Pharaoh is prophesied to defeat again. However, it is not until the end of the last arc that we find out who and what he is, and its revealed/ confirmed that Bakura was working to release him all along.
  • Complete Monster: He's the embodiment of evil, darkness, and death. Of course he's gonna be this! In the anime, we even see him incinerate two innocent children on the spot!
  • The Corruption: To Thief King Bakura and Akhenaden. Anything that has a piece of his soul in it, as he will eventually consume and replace them. The Spirit of the Millennium Ring began as that of Thief King Bakura, but ended as Zorc, and Akhenaden ended his life as Zorc's emissary, with only a shred of his old self buried within the darkness of his soul.
  • Dark Is Evil: Red eyes, a dragon pe...I mean extra head and black wings, typical of an ancient demon.
  • The End of the World as We Know It: His goal: to DESTROY THE WORLD!
  • Evil Only Has to Win Once: Inverted. To win, The Spirit of the Millennium Ring/Zorc actually recreates the events of Zorc's original attack in an elaborate Role Playing Shadow Game, trying to rewrite history so that he never lost in the first place.
  • God of Evil: Technically an Eldritch Abomination created with the Millennium items, he's upgraded in the dub to the Ruler of the Shadow Realm, essentially Satan.
  • Large and In Charge: Undeniably the biggest villain, if one does not count the Leviathan.
  • Made of Evil: Made of all the negative energy of humankind since the dawn of their creation.
  • Playing with Fire: Zorc Inferno!
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Double example. He's trapped inside the Spirit of the Millennium Ring who is in turn—duh—trapped within the Millennium Ring.
  1. ↑ 583 episodes and 26000 bullets, respectively.
  2. ↑ Save for Yami remembering Pegasus' backstory during the Doma arc in the original anime, but that scene was altered in the dub.
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