History Characters / YuGiOhMainAntagonists

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. He inherits his host's penchant for role-playing games. A cold, calculating sadist, the Ring sets his EvilPlan in motion from very early on, eventually stepping up as the BigBad 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.

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 EvilPlan in motion from very early on, eventually stepping up as the BigBad 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.

** In the manga, he tricks the gang into thinking he's switched sides after his defeat in the Monster World RPG. He helps Honda out of a bind while he was retrieving Mokuba's body during (unlike the anime, he didn't desire to swap hosts) and helped Yugi defeat Ryuji Otogi/Duke Devlin in Dungeons Dice Monsters (only so he could get his hands on a piece of a puzzle so he could transfer his Mind parasite into it). This plot point was removed/changed in the anime.

** Really only happens in the anime, where filler gave the ring some weird transportation powers (after being chucked into the forest by Honda in an anime-only scene) and Yami bakura's ability to come back from the dead after being ofted by he Reaper of Cards (whereas, in the manga, the ring falls off of Bakura's neck after the tabletop battle and the spirit only comes back after Bakura decides to put it on again to save their asses during Duelist Kingdom).

* OneWingedAngel: Transforms into Zorc at the end of the Millennium World arc.

* SuperpoweredEvilSide: Ultimately revealed to be [[spoiler: the BigBad, Zorc]].

* YourSoulIsMine: Can trap souls inside of cards (though it doesn't work as well on those with Millennium Items).

* FaceDeathWithDignity: 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.

* MysteriousPast: We know jack about The Spirit of the Millennium Ring's past, up until Season 5.

* {{Agent Peacock}}

* AntiVillain: [[SlidingScaleofAntiVillains 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.

-->"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''."

* LargeHam: In the original manga, anime, and dub versions.

* SchrodingersCast: 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 BigBad.

* {{Badass Biker}}: Normal Marik.

* BeautyEqualsGoodness: Played with. Normal Marik is a {{Bishounen}} WhiteHairedPrettyBoy who nevertheless schemes to TakeOverTheWorld and has no problems brainwashing people into doing his fighting for him. Dark Marik, however, is infinitely worse, being a CombatSadomasochist, BloodKnight, and OmnicidalManiac who gets his kicks out of torturing his victims. He's also far more twisted looking than normal Marik, with his muscular build, VoiceOfTheLegion, TaintedVeins, AnimeHair, bulging eyes, facial stretching, OffModel bouts, and habit of sticking out his tongue during combat.

* {{Faux Affably Evil}}: Dark Marik.

* JerkAss: Normal Marik, though he gets better.

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 [[spoiler: Atem]], and millions of others he has gathered over his immortal lifetime.

* ManipulativeBastard: 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 [[spoiler: 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 traumatised by her duel with Marik.]] All were then given the Orichalcos to play on their inner darkness.
* MismatchedEyes: After being forced to kill his wife (who had been turned into a monster), Dartz was himself corrupted, turning his right eye green.

* SNKBoss: 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 '''[[BeyondTheImpossible infinite.]]'''

* ThemeNaming: His name is derived from a character from RichardWagner's opera, ''Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung''. One of his cards is even called Nibelung's Ring! And he has a Valkyrie deck, which is a reference to one of the ''Ring'' operas, ''Die Walküre (The Valkyrie)''.

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.

** And of the entire series, if we're going by the manga.

* TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt
* EvilOnlyHasToWinOnce: 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.

The BigBad 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 SuperpoweredEvilSide, Dark Marik (who ultimately pulls a SplitPersonalityTakeover an becomes the real BigBad). 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 [[NeverSayDie banished his father to the Shadow Realm]] and he decided to claim the Millennium Puzzle for himself in order to take over the world.

* KnightOfCerebus: 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 MindRape 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.

* SadisticChoice: 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.

** 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.

* YouKilledMyFather: 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.

* SealedEvilInACan: Double example. He's trapped inside the Spirit of the Millennium Ring who is in turn--duh--trapped within the Millennium Ring.

* EasilyForgiven: At least Bakura and Yami Marik [[FreudianExcuse were crazy to being with]], [[spoiler: The way he uses Yugi's friends as shields, manipulates THE EVENTS that cause his three subordinates would come to hate the world and serve him, his purpose for doing that in the first place]]. At least Yugi managed to beat his ass in a duel.

!!'''Pegasus J. Crawford (Maximillion J. Pegasus)'''
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/0000qhs6_8629.jpg

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

The BigBad 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 ''Videogame/YuGiOhReshefOfDestruction'' 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.

!!'''The Spirit of the Millennium Ring/Thief King Bakura'''
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/bakura6_jpg_w560h373_2285.jpg

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 EvilPlan in motion from very early on, eventually stepping up as the BigBad 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 YouInoue and RicaMatsumoto (Japanese) and TedLewis (English).

* AccentAdaptation: He was given a British accent in the dub to reflect the real Bakura's polite speech patterns in Japanese.
* ArchEnemy: 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.
* ArtifactOfDoom: 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.
* AxCrazy: Less so than Dark Marik, but that ain't saying much.
* {{Badass}}
** BadassLongcoat: In the last season, where he adds a black trenchcoat to his Battle City costume.
** BadassLonghair
** BadassLongRobe: Thief King Bakura's long red robe is very badass.
* BewareTheNiceOnes: [[NiceGuy Ryou Bakura is a genuinely nice, polite, sweet guy.]] His SuperpoweredEvilSide is a sadistic psychopath.
* BigBad: Though it doesn't become apparent until the final season, he's been working on his scheme the entire series, laying {{Xanatos Gambit}}s out to be executed later. It just happens that in the meantime, Pegasus and Marik are more pressing threats to deal with.
* BitchInSheepsClothing: Does an amazing impression of NiceGuy Bakura.
* CannibalismSuperpower: 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.
* CastFromHitPoints: His Battle City deck relies on giving Life Points to use various cards, or letting opponents attack him while he sets up his strategy.
* TheChessmaster: Many of his plans are set up some time in advance. Carries into his duels as well where he's a ManipulativeBastard who strings the opponent along while laying out an overarcing strategy to spring once he's got all his cards in place.
* ClingyMacGuffin: The Ring has been disposed of dozens of times. It always manages to make its way back to Bakura and possess him again.
* TheCollector: He's collecting the Millennium Items. God help you if you get in his way.
* TheCorrupter: The Millennium Ring seems to have a pretty negative effect on whoever's holding it. See ArtifactOfDoom, above.
* DeadpanSnarker: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrsdzQ1E0c0 Later on in the]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awv8pPgA7Qo English dub, at least]].
* DemonicPossession: Half the time Bakura doesn't even know what's going on, the Ring has so much control over him.
* DiscOneFinalBoss: Thief King Bakura was this to Zorc in the past; in the current timeline he's essentially TheDragon to his own future self.
* EvilBrit
* EvilCounterpart: To The Pharaoh
* EvilLaugh: Both the Spirit of the Millennium Ring and Thief King Bakura.
* EvilSoundsDeep: At least when compared to his normal self.
* EvilerThanThou: With Dark Marik, whom he attempts to take the Millennium Rod from.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: 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.
* FakeBrit: In the dub.
* FauxAffablyEvil
* FreudianExcuse: [[spoiler: 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 [[spoiler:Zorc Necrophades]] who doesn't give a rip about the village.
* FromNobodyToNightmare: 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.
* GenocideBackfire: Thief King Bakura's origin story.
* GoodEyesEvilEyes: The Spirit of the Millennium Ring's eyes are cold and narrow to contrast Bakura's big open ones.
* GoodScarsEvilScars: Thief King Bakura has a very ugly scar on his face, just below the eye.
* GottaCatchEmAll: The Ring's objective is to capture all of the Millennium Items for himself.
* GraveRobbing: 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.
* HiddenAgendaVillain: 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.
* HydePlaysJekyll: All the time, to the point where it's really hard to tell who's in control at any given time.
* IncomingHam: The way the Thief King Bakura introduces himself in the manga is [[RefugeInAudacity 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!'''
* KickTheDog: Trapping Yugi's friends inside of their favourite cards was totally irrelevant to his plan to take the Millennium Puzzle. Jerk.
* KickTheSonOfABitch: 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 Victim}}s? Absolutely.
* KillerGameMaster: Both figuratively and literally.
* LackOfEmpathy: 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.
* LargeHam: Goes in and out of this in the manga, [[SoftSpokenSadist never]] with his [[YouInoue first seiyu]], and ''always'' with his [[RicaMatsumoto second]].
* LarynxDissonance: [[TheOtherDarrin Both]] of his voice actors in the second series, YouInoue and RicaMatsumoto, were female. Averted in English, where he's voiced by TedLewis and in the Latin-American dub, where he's voiced by Yamil Atala and José Gilberto Vilchis.
* MysteriousPast: We know jack about The Spirit of the Millennium Ring's past, up until Season 5.
* TheOnlyOneAllowedToDefeatYou: 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 [[spoiler:Bandit Keith]] from Marik's mind control.
-->"Whoever is an enemy of Mutou Yugi is an enemy of mine."
* OneWingedAngel: Transforms into Zorc at the end of the Millennium World arc.
* TheOtherDarrin: You Inoue was Ryou's seiyuu before she died of lung cancer in 2003.
* PlayingAgainstType: [[{{Determinator}} Rica]] did double time by doing a WhiteHairedPrettyBoy ''and'' the main antagonist!
* {{Reincarnation}}: Although his version is more [[ItsALongStory complicated]]...
* {{Revenge}}: Thief King Bakura wanted revenge for the destruction of his hometown.
** SinsOfOurFathers: With Atem's father dead, he transfers his hate to Atem.
* TheSociopath: The Spirit of the Millennium Ring.
* SoftSpokenSadist: As played by You Inoue.
* SoulJar: The Millennium Ring is Thief King Bakura's soul jar; the Thief King himself is Zorc's. He's been shown to trap the souls of those he attacks inside of their favourite cards as well.
* StepfordSmiler: Type C. Crossed with BitchInSheepsClothing ''and'' HydePlaysJekyll (he's an AxeCrazy ancient spirit impersonating a NiceGuy who happens to be a member of TheHero's circle of friends).
* SuperpoweredEvilSide: Ultimately revealed to be [[spoiler: the BigBad, Zorc]].
* TalkingToHimself: As with Yugi across nearly all the dubs, but they really only talk to each other for several seconds in episode 13...in which this was ''averted'' in the Japanese version for the reason below.
* UnwittingPawn: Thief King Bakura is used as a pawn by both Zorc and his own future self.
* UsedToBeASweetKid: The Thief King.
* VillainTeamUp: With normal Marik.
* WalkingShirtlessScene: Thief King Bakura in his shorts and wide-open robe.
* WhiteHairedPrettyBoy: He has white hair. He's a boy. And did we mention he's pretty?
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: The Spirit of the Millennium Ring sacrifices Thief King Bakura to resurrect Zorc. That's right--he pulls this on himself.
* YourSoulIsMine: Can trap souls inside of cards (though it doesn't work as well on those with Millennium Items).

!!'''Marik Ishtar/Dark Marik'''
http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Yami_Marik_8267.jpg

The BigBad 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 SuperpoweredEvilSide, Dark Marik (who ultimately pulls a SplitPersonalityTakeover an becomes the real BigBad). 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 [[NeverSayDie 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 TetsuyaIwanaga (Japanese); JonathanToddRoss (English)

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* SealedEvilInACan: Double example. He's trapped inside the Spirit of the Millennium Ring who is in turn--duh--trapped within the Millennium Ring.
* UltimateEvil: Of the second anime

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* VerbalTic: "Deeeesu!" "Maaaasu!" In the English he tends to tack a person's gender onto the end of their name. "M'kay, Yugi-boy?"

* LargeHam: Goes in and out of this in the manga, [[SoftSpokenSadist] never]] with his [[YouInoue first seiyu]], and ''always'' with his [[RicaMatsumoto second]].

* CampStraight: Despite his fabulousness, he did everything for a woman he loved.

* AntiVillain: 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. Type II

** ToyShip: As said above, they were attracted to each other even as kids.

* ShoutOut: Whether intentional or not, VideoGame/{{Zork}} -- it helps that his manga debut had him as the BigBad of a killer role-playing campaign.
** The other half of his name, Necrophedius, comes from the DungeonsAndDragons board game monster Necrophidius.

* ShoutOut: Whether intentional or not, {{Zork}} -- it helps that his manga debut had him as the BigBad of a killer role-playing campaign.

* InnocentBlueEyes/IcyBlueEyes: 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 graverobber who stole a Millennium Item) but cold and distant as an antagonist.

* AdaptationDyeJob: He has [[BlueEyes blue eyes]] in the manga, but they are [[BrownEyes brown]] in the anime. His white pants were also colored red in the anime.

* BlueEyes: In the manga. This can be played in two ways - 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 graverobber who stole a Millennium Item) but cold and distant as an antagonist.

* UltimateEvil: Of the second anime