Marik Ishtar

Marik Ishtar
Yu-Gi-Oh! character
First appearance	Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Volume 10, Duel 92 Original Japanese manga Volume 17, Battle 151
In-universe information
Relatives	Elder sister: Ishizu Ishtar Adopted brother: Rishid Ishtar (Odion in the English anime) Father: Hank Ishtar (deceased) Mother: name unknown (deceased)

Marik Ishtar (マリク・イシュタール, Mariku Ishutāru) in the original Japanese anime and manga, is a character in the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and the second Yu-Gi-Oh! anime series (known in Asia as Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters). The heir to a clan of tombkeepers, Marik's hatred of the nameless Pharaoh compels him to disregard his duties and turn to a life of evil, eventually developing a split personality. He serves as the fifth major antagonist Yugi faces in the manga, and is the antagonist in seasons two and three of the anime. At the end of the second season, it turns out that his evil self, Yami Marik, is the true villain of the season.

Biography

Marik Ishtar is the antagonist of the second arc of Yu-Gi-Oh!. The holder of the Millennium Rod and leader of the criminal organization Ghouls (called the Rare Hunters in the English anime), Marik wishes to obtain the three God Cards and with them unlock their power for himself so he can gain the title of "Pharaoh" and set his family free.

Marik is the last in a long line of tomb-keepers. His mother died shortly after he was born. She had beseeched Rishid (Odion in the English anime), her adopted son, to watch over Marik, and so Rishid is always with Marik. After he turned ten, Marik received the "Tombkeeper's Initiation," which entailed having his family's secrets carved onto his back with a dagger (a tattoo in the English dub). To cope with this pain, his alternate personality was born. It was this event that caused his bitterness towards the Pharaoh to blossom.

When he was eleven, his sister Ishizu took him outside of the tomb-keeper's home for the first time. There, Marik experienced the outside world for the first time. When he returned, his father was furious and began to take his anger out with his whip (In the English version, he had banished Odion). This triggered an appearance from his alternate personality known only as Dark Marik, who took possession of the Millennium Rod and killed his father with it (In the English version, Marik sent his father to the shadow realm, removing all the scenes that contained him). Shadi appears there, and tells Marik (now back in control) that this was the will of the Pharaoh. As such, Marik believes that the Pharaoh is responsible for his father's murder. He is unaware of his other self. After this event, Marik left the tomb-keepers and began to build his criminal organization to gain revenge on the Pharaoh.

His elder sister, Ishizu Ishtar, the holder of the Millennium Necklace, has always cared deeply for Marik and has tried to make her brother see the error of his ways, even following him to the Battle City Finals. Marik, consumed by his hatred for the Pharaoh, refuses to let his sister foil his plans.

At the Battle City event, Marik sends his Ghouls to capture the God Cards. When this proves inadequate, he uses his Millennium Rod to possess the minds of various Ghouls and Katsuya Jounouchi to defeat the Pharaoh. After this too fails, Marik himself enters the Battle City Finals under the guise of Namu to defeat Seto Kaiba and the Pharaoh himself without exposing himself. Rishid enters the Finals as well under Marik's name to bring out the God Cards. When Marik orders Rishid to play a fake God Card in his duel with Jounouchi, he is struck by lightning and put in a coma. As a result, Marik's personality is completely suppressed by Dark Marik, save for a small part possessing Masaki Anzu. He warns his sister to make sure Rishid is kept safe from his dark half. His spirit enters the body of Bakura Ryo and duels his dark half with Dark Bakura for control of his body. He loses, and he splits his soul so that part of it remains within Anzu while the other part is sealed in Dark Marik's pyramid cage. His soul is the avatar for Dark Marik's life points during his duel with the Pharaoh, and regains control of his own body after the Pharaoh defeats Dark Marik.

After his loss, Marik forfeits the Winged Dragon of Ra and shows the Pharaoh his scars on his back, which hold the key to his lost memories. He returns after Zorc's defeat to guide Pharaoh Atem to the Ceremonial Battle.

Dark Marik

The sadistic alter ego of Marik Ishtar, he is an entity that was created when his host was only ten years old. After having the secrets of the Pharaoh carved (In the English version tattooed) onto his back, Marik struggled to cope with the agony and pain. It also manifested itself into his other self, Dark Marik who could only emerge if Marik himself were full of rage.

He made his first appearance when he murdered his own father (in the manga he specifically skinned his father's back with the millennium rod and threw it on Odion) before being sealed away in Marik's body by Odion, waiting for his chance to break free. But when Odion is knocked out in his battle with Joey Wheeler on the Battle Ship during the Battle City semi-finals, Marik is so furious and in despair that Dark Marik finally escapes, embarking on a rampage of destruction, horror and madness.

He then traps the soul of Mai Valentine and has several brain insects slowly devour her body after he manages to easily defeat her in a shadow game (in the English version, he banished her mind to the shadow realm). After this, Joey is determined to duel Marik and save Mai even if he dies in the process.

Dark Bakura (Yami Bakura) teams with Marik's soul to stop Dark Marik, but fails as well and loses the Millennium Ring. Joey becomes severely injured to the point where he can no longer duel. 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. Dark Yugi (Yami Yugi) is the only one who could stop Marik. When Dark Yugi and Dark Marik 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 Ring as well as the Sun Dragon Ra a.k.a. The Winged Dragon of Ra. Marik then reveals the tombkeeper's initiation. The carving of the Pharaoh's (Dark Yugi a.k.a. Yami a.k.a. Atem) 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) on his back. Fulfilling his duty as tombkeeper, Marik goes with Ishizu and Odion and returns to Egypt to start a new life.

Officially revealed in the English-language manga, Dark Marik is an alter-ego of Marik. When he received the tombkeeper's initiation and was tattooed, Marik created a second personality to deal with the pain and agony of the ritual. This can be used to explain Dark Marik's obsession with pain: he was a vent through which Marik's pain was shunted he is a textbook example of sadistic personality disorder. Overall, Dark Marik and Marik are most likely suffering from dissociative identity disorder, more commonly known as suffering from multiple personalities. Unlike most villains in the series in the original Japanese series Dark Marik has no desire for the millennium items or any type of power, he simply enjoys causing pain and the act of killing while in the English dub he wants the god cards to rule the world.

Naming

In the character profile leaflets of a Japanese volume his name is romanized as Maric with his alter ego's name romanized as Yami Maric.

Marik's first name is actually derived from the Arabic (Egyptian) name "Malik" (ملك), meaning "king, master".

Marik Ishtar is known as "Malik Ishtar" in Indonesia.

Marik's family name is derived from the Mesopotamian deity Ishtar.

Deck

Marik's deck theme is Immortality. While slowly torturing his opponents and watching them squirm, he plays and replays The Winged Dragon of Ra in the ways he finds most evoking of pain. To this end he relies primarily on reviving it via Monster Reborn and continually transferring the card to his hand via Left Arm Offering and Zombie's Jewel, among other cards.

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 rely on "burn" damage: Life Point damage through special effects rather than battle. In particular to the theme of pain, several of his cards are modeled after torture devices, such as Nightmare Wheel being based on the breaking wheel.

Note

In Yu-Gi-Oh! Characters Guide Book: The Gospel of Truth, Marik's sign is indicated as Sagittarius. When employing the sidereal zodiac, this is correct. But when employing the tropical zodiac, Marik's sign becomes Capricorn. Since the signs of all other Yu-Gi-Oh! characters in the book are either incorrect when using the sidereal zodiac or match with the birthdays in both tropical and sidereal zodiacs, the tropical zodiac sign is used here.

References

• Kazuki Takahashi (2002). Yu-Gi-Oh! Characters Guide Book - The Gospel of Truth (遊戯王キャラクターズガイドブック―真理の福音―). Shueisha. ISBN 4-08-873363-0