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Yami-Marik-Mai

Think Duel Monsters is all just fun and games? Not when Dark Marik's around, it isn't!

Most Yu-Gi-Oh! villains don't rise above literal Card-Carrying Villainy, with some being in the Anti-Villain or Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds territories. But there are a few that are just plain nightmarishly evil to the core.


Original Series[]

  • The Great Evil God Zorc Necrophades/Zorc the Dark One is a primordial demon fueled by darkness, influencing humanity's corrupt actions for his own amusement. Making contact with Priest Akhenaden, Zorc used him to create the Millennium Items, resulting in the town of Kul Elna being slaughtered except for a single child named Bakura, who'd grow up to be the Legendary King of Thieves. Summoned into the physical realm by Akhenaden years later after a part of his soul consumed the priest's heart and made him into his dark priest, Zorc rampaged against the armies of Pharaoh Atem, killing many and forcing Atem to seal himself and Zorc inside the Millennium Puzzle. Acting through proxies 3000 years later, Zorc's battle with Atem is recreated in the Shadow RPG of Memory World, with the demon intending to win and resurrect himself in the real world. Zorc's ultimate goal is to destroy the world and replace it with his extended Shadow Realm, an "endless hell" of darkness and suffering.
  • The Spirit of the Millennium Ring, better known as Dark Bakura/Yami Bakura, was one of the series' longest running antagonists, and one of its worst, possessing Yugi Mouto's friend Ryou Bakura for almost the entire duration of the series. During Bakura's childhood, Dark Bakura possessed him to murder Shadi Shin and attack his students. As Bakura grew up, whenever any of his friends tried to play games with him, Dark Bakura would trap their souls inside RPG figurines, putting them into comas. He makes his first appearance in the series proper by trapping Yugi and his friends souls inside a Shadow Game where Dark Bakura will kill them all if they lose. During the Duelist Kingdom arc, he subsequently tries to hijack Mokuba Kaiba's body in the anime and forcibly extracts Maximillion J. Pegasus' Millennium Eye from his eye socket (an act that outright killed him in the manga and left him horribly injured in the anime). During the next arc(s), he seals a piece of his own soul within Yugi's Millennium Puzzle, infiltrates the Battle City tournament, conspires with Marik Ishtar and sends Bonz, Zygor and Sid to Hell where they'll suffer for all eternity, then tries to do the same to Yugi and Dark Yugi during their duel. However, he doesn't quite solidfy himself as this trope until he returns in the final arc as one of the Big Bads. Outing himself as an agent of Zorc Necrophades, the Spirit repossesses Bakura and constructs the Shadow RPG of Memory World to recreate Pharaoh Atem's final battle in Ancient Egypt, including the ensuing destruction, to summon the original Zorc who could then proceed to bring about The End of the World as We Know It. Trapping the entire cast in the Memory World where he can control their lives, possessing Tristan Taylor and even his own past self, Thief King Bakura, in the process, he duels Joey and Yugi at two separate occasions and nearly kills them both, and destroys Atem's tomb in a last-ditch effort to kill the entire group. Eventually pulling a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on his past self, Dark Bakura unleashes Zorc in the past while taking on Dark Yugi in his final Shadow Game in the present, where it's revealed that the Spirit's agency is not even of his past self, but of Zorc himself due to an an unholy fusion that was created when a piece of Zorc's soul infiltrated the Millenium Ring and overtook the Thief King's soul, as he fully merges with the Zorc of the past with the intent of unleashing the apocalypse upon the world across time and space.
  • Pictured above: Dark Marik/Yami Marik is the twisted Split Personality born of the ages old abuse, darkness and rage of the Ishtar clan who drove Marik Ishtar off the deep end in the first place. Seizing control of Marik's body during his childhood, he killed their Abusive Dad by stabbing him to death with the Millenium Rod (or in the manga, flaying him alive), then tried to kill their adoptive brother Odion, who had been keeping Dark Marik suppressed within Marik. This failed, and so Dark Marik bided his time, gaining strength and driving the increasingly angry, arrogant and embittered Marik to commit even more acts of cruelty in his quest to kill Pharaoh Atem and Take Over the World, these acts including Mind Rape, brainwashing, kidnapping and attempted murder. Fully unleashed as an Enemy Without when Odion was defeated in the Battle City semi-finals, Dark Marik exiled his other half from their shared body, then engaged Mai Valentine, Dark Bakura and Joey Wheeler in a series of increasingly sadistic Shadow Games that saw Mai horrifically tortured and trapped in a nightmare to make her lose her mind and die horribly, Dark Bakura temporarily erased from existence, and Joey tortured to the brink of death. He also made several attempts on the lives of his sister Ishizu and the comatose Odion, while also forcing the real Marik to watch this from what was left of his consciousness. This all culminated in a final battle against Dark Yugi, during which he arranged for any damage that the two of them incurred to be suffered by their better halves, Marik and Yugi, nearly killing them both to rid himself of any chance of being suppressed again. An Ax Crazy Combat Sadomasochist with omnicidal plans for the world, Dark Marik left the cast in shell-shock and irrevocably altered the tone of the story from that point onward.
  • The anime-only Doma arc featured a Big Bad named Dartz, former king of Atlantis. While at first he was obeying the stones of Orichalcos in hopes of saving his civilization, being told to summon the Great Leviathan that could destroy the world and re-create it free of the corruption that had swept Atlantis, Dartz soon fully embraced the stones corrupting influence and led his civilization to it's destruction instead. Leading an army of undead beastial warriors, he fought against the three guardian dragons in the battle that led to Atlantis' sinking, also giving the dragon Timaeus its scar, and he's also implied to have killed his own father and daughter. Living for centuries under the influence of Orichalchos, Dartz grew to resent the entire planet and see humanity as wicked beings in need of eradication. Now completely far gone from his well-intentioned roots, he plotted to revive the Great Leviathan in order to raze the world and wipe out humanity, after which he could create a new world order where he'd have control of the souls of all that lived. Human souls were required to revive the Leviathan, so Dartz started harvesting souls as he worked on his Evil Plan for 10,000 years. Aside from mass soul stealing, his crimes included corrupting players of Duel Monsters with the Seal of Orichalcos so that their souls were susceptible to being taken away, war profiteering under the guise of Gozaburo Kaiba and causing the deaths of several innocent casualties including Alaister's little brother (all so that Alaister could join him), sinking a ship full of people including Raphael's family (so that Raphael could join him), burning down a nunnery and killing everyone inside including Valon's caretakers (so that Valon could join him), many attempts at murdering Yugi and his friends, and sacrificing his own self to merge with the Leviathan and complete his efforts to Kill All Humans. While his soul ends up cleansed of darkness and redeemed after he and the Leviathan are destroyed, Dartz was shown to be so hopelessly lost in his self-righteous delusions and malice while he was alive that he could only find any salvation after he was already dead.

GX[]

  • The Light of Destruction stands out as one of the most heinous villains in the franchise. A celestial entity that finds bliss in destruction, the being is revealed to be the true Big Bad of the second season. Prior to the story, the entity corrupted the pro duelist, DD, into murdering the father of Aster Phoenix for the card, Destiny HERO-Plasma. The Light of Destruction then had DD trap his soul inside the monster, before delivering the same fate to countless duelists. When possessing Sartorius Kumar, the Light of Destruction gains access to the dangerous satellite, SORA, intending to use its laser to wipe out all life on Earth. After defeating Aster, the Light places him on top of a high scale, telling Jaden that he'll fall to his death unless he gives the entity the remaining key to activate the satellite. When Jaden complies, he attempts to have Aster fall anyway. During his duel with Jaden, the Light of Destruction states that the universe is destined to be led to destruction, and that he intends to create a cycle of constant re-creation and destruction of the universe. He then attempts to mentally torture Jaden in the hope that it breaks the latter's spirit. In Season 3, it's revealed to have been the corrupting influence that drove Yubel insane, having physically and mentally burned them alive for an entire decade, directly leading to that season's main conflict.
  • Brron, the Mad King of the Dark World, is demented and sadistic, ruling the Spirit World as its vile dictator and being responsible for its deplorable state and oppression of its denizens. His right-hand man, Zure, oversaw Brron's will, detaining anyone who defied him in internment camps while killing duelists who could be threats to him. The executions occurred at his fortress and involved unleashing monsters on disarmed duelists while Brron himself and his minions watched the spectacle. After learning of Jaden's presence in his domain, Brron orchestrated a plot that involved turning Jaden evil by sacrificing all of his friends one-by-one with his set of "Wicked Doctrine" cards to create the "Super Fusion" card. After his defeat, Brron mocked Jaden by saying that he would never see his friends again before dying.
  • Tragoedia, the manga-exclusive Big Bad, was formerly a human from the village of Kul Elna. After the village's entire population was massacred, Tragoedia was trialed by the malice inside of his heart, resulting in him transforming into a powerful spirit monster. After he tries and fails to kill the priests, he's sealed away for thousands of years. When he's uncovered, Tragoedia has his spirit either possess or corrupt duelists to duel others in pain, inducing Shadow Games where the loser will be trapped in a dimension of darkness for all eternity. He gives Koyo Hibiki a special punishment, where his life will slowly and painfully deplete with every passing duel Koyo has for the sheer fun of Koyo being harmed by what he loves doing. While possessing Principal Mackenzie, Tragoedia manipulates the American students into draining the energy of other students to fuel to restore his body, only to drain their life energy when they've fulfilled his purpose. Once Jaden and Chazz confront him, he reveals that the only reason he sent hundreds of people into the dimension of darkness was to kill his boredom throwing away any possible sympathy for him about his village being massacred. He then duels the two for the sole reason of seeing them in pain during their shadow duel. Tragoedia's a sadist who only takes pleasure in causing people suffering.

5D's[]

  • Divine/Sayer is the leader of a group of duelists training to control and harness their psychic abilities in order to turn them into soldiers of war against the rest of humanity. His earliest duelist, Toby Tredwell, was unable to withstand the procedure meant to test his abilities. Believing him to be weak and useless, Sayer ordered the intensity of the electric shocks to be amplified, which caused the young boy's death. He also does his best to keep his prized duelist Akiza secluded from anyone outside the Arcadia Movement to keep her full of hate and resentment at the world for his goals, as well as hide his own secret motives. To this end, he gasses Luna, Leo, Yanagi and Bolt Tanner when they come to him for aid against the Dark Signers. He then threatens Leo's life in a psychic duel to test if he has powers like his twin sister Luna. Later that day, he has another psychic duel with Carly Nagisa and then murders her by sending her through a window with a direct attack, kick-starting her Face Heel Turn and subsequent rebirth into a Dark Signer. He then returns from his Disney Death at the hands of Carly, posing as a security agent to attack Yusei and Mina. Sayer states that anybody who falls prey to him will simply follow his orders and nothing more, as he takes full advantage of that individual's weaknesses.
  • Lawton is a tyrant lording over a small western-style town called Crash Town, who forces those he's defeated to either join him or endure slavery in the mines. He gets into a match with Yusei while Yusei and the gang are trying to escape the mines, but before it can be decided, he throws a stick of dynamite at Yusei, Kalin, West and Nico that results in a cave-in. When it explodes, Yusei and Kalin fall off the mountain, while Nico and West are left unconscious on the ground. Lawton takes them back to Crash Town, renaming it "Lawton Town" after he and his wife Barbara double-cross his brother Malcolm. Later, not satisfied with the number of workers in the mines, he and Barbara begin forcing their henchmen to duel for their survival, which is stopped by Yusei and Kalin. Once he starts to lose his 2-on-1-handicap match against Yusei and Kalin, he quits the duel and tries to run away, but not before he abandons Barbara to her fate and sets off explosives in an attempt to destroy the entire town.
  • "Return to the Spirit World" 2-parter (English dub): The Professor is the agent of Yliaster tasked by Rex Goodwin to duel Luna and learn the secrets of the Duel Monsters Spirit World. He hypnotises Luna during their duel in order to find a way into the Spirit World, even threatening to have the spirit Kuribon tortured unless Luna shows him the way. After following Luna into the Spirit World, where his mere presence corrupts and starts destroying it, the Professor reveals he has no loyalty to Yliaster, planning instead to destroy and rebuild it under his rule.

ZeXal[]

  • Don Thousand, in order to ensure his revival, traveled the world and selected seven humans who had connections to the Legendary Numbers, which had sealed most of his power. Not too bad, right? Look at his methods for doing so. As an example, he brainwashed Alito's best friend and the ruling court to execute Alito, something that everyone had managed to notice, and just before Alito was executed, Don Thousand altered his memories to make it seem that he had been heartlessly killed, instead of being framed by a God of Evil. The end result was filling Alito with so much hatred, he was revived as a Barian. Then look at what happened to the other Emperors. Don Thousand essentially ruined their lives all to fuel his comeback, which also ended up tearing up nations and killing large numbers of innocents. Oh, and this includes being responsible from turning Vector of all people from a decent guy into the monster he is now. In the present day, Don Thousand releases one million Fake Number cards onto Earth, amplifying the negative emotions of the people who picked them up, and increasing the hatred and chaos on Earth enough to allow it to be merged with Barian World. Don Thousand later has two of the other Emperors further brainwashed to make them fight Yuma and Astral, whom they had befriended during their time on Earth. He also has the Barian leader Nash captured in an energy sphere, with his energy sapped into Vector's Life Points during Vector's duel with Dumon and Marin, Nash's soldier and sister, respectively. Lastly, in Don Thousand's final duel against Yuma and Nash, he forces them to make a Sadistic Choice with his Numeron Network card: leave it be, and Astral World succumbs to destruction, or destroy it and have the energy that would be released annihilate Earth.

Arc-V[]

VRAINS[]

  • Lightning, the Big Bad of season 2. After finding out that the simulations showed him there was no future that had him coexisting with humanity, he started to plot something disastrous. Between being the one responsible for destroying Cyberse World all because the other, Ignis, didn't agree with his ideals, kidnapping his own Lost Incident partner's consciousness and turning him into a puppet, corrupting Windy into joining him by rewriting his data, declaring war on humanity and his poor treatment of all of his subordinates besides Bohman, not to mention blackmailing Kusanagi into fighting Playmaker if he didn't want his brother to die. Also, in his duel against Revolver, he didn't hesitate to use Jin as a shield to try to win. Even after his own death, Lightning forces Ai, fearful of becoming like Lightning, to turn evil and commit suicide by showing him glimpses of the future. Despite all of this, Lightning shows no regret whatsoever for any of his actions.

Tabletop Card Game[]

  • Gishki Noelia, in the metaplot. She fuses her own daughter, Gishki Emilia, and Gusto Falco into a Humanoid Abomination (this is, incidentally, basically the same thing the infamous Shou Tucker did for his Moral Event Horizon crossing) so she could be able to fight better. If that weren't enough, she later sells out the planet to the Verz/Evilswarm because she wants to be on the winning side, resurrecting Steelswarm Hercules and the Dragons of the Ice Barrier to fight for them. There's good news, though: if Dia or Ptolemys Messier 7 didn't get her, Sophia certainly did.
  • World Legacy: Lee is the Big Bad of the World Legacy story in Master Guide 6. Originally a scientist studying the World Key, an artifact of unimaginable power, she decided to use it to awaken the power at the planet's core, which would allow her to become a god. The act nearly destroyed the world, and wiped out most life on it. Though she was killed in the aftermath, she bound her soul to the created World Chalice. Much later, Lee came across 3 heroes, Ib, Ningirsu and Auram, and their pet dragon, and convinced them to gather the World Legacy artifacts that were created as a part of the World Key's activation. At first seeming benevolent, she reveals her true colors in front of Ib, and takes control of her body. Though defeated when Ib regained control, Ib was forced to kill herself in the process. When Ningirsu tried to revive Ib, it was revealed that Lee survived in the robot Ningirsu created for Ib's soul. Lee then seemingly destroyed Ib's soul, all while attempting to become a god once again, not caring one bit about the world being destroyed.
  • Abyss: His Magnificence Dogmatika Maximus is the iron-fisted theocrat ruling the Dogmatika Nation, whose citizens are governed by 666 harsh commandments, including that they must actively participate in Maximus' efforts to wipe the continent's other societies off the face of the planet. When a teenage member of his corps of knights, Ecclesia, saves the life of a mysterious shapeshifter from outside Dogmatika named Albaz, Maximus marks them both for death, then, desiring an army to take on the other nations, performs a ritual that transforms all his own countrymen into brainwashed killer puppets. With these new minions he nearly annihilates the Tri-Brigade, Swordsoul, and Icejade tribes, before killing Ecclesia's mentor right in front of her and engaging her, Albaz, and their friends in an apocalyptic final battle.

Video Games[]

  • Yu-Gi-Oh! Forbidden Memories has Heishin, the Big Bad invented for the game. An Evil Chancellor and Evil Sorcerer of Ancient Egypt, as soon as he gets the ancient power of the Millennium Items, he attacks the palace with his soldiers, killing various people (including Pharaoh Aknamkanon and his wife) and mortally wounding Shimon Muran, Prince Atem's mentor. When Atem tries to escape, Heishin threatens to kill him if he doesn't hand over the Millennium Puzzle. Atem shatters it, and is transported inside of the puzzle to the present day. When Atem returns, he finds that Heishin has destroyed much of Egypt and slaughtered most of his friends and allies. After defeating Heishin's top mages, Atem learns that his childhood friend Teana has been kidnapped and is having her life threatened in an attempt to lure him into a trap, but this is stopped by Priest Seto, Heishin's right-hand man, who instead sets her free and ends up becoming The Starscream. Unfazed by this, Heishin steals the Millennium Puzzle and summons the Dark God DarkNite, commanding him to destroy the world and make him a god. DarkNite responds to this by trapping Heishin inside a card before burning him alive. Petty, selfish and so obsessed with power that he'd try to murder underage kids in his pursuit of it, Heishin was a monstrous individual whose cruelty knew no bounds.
    • Konami recycled Heishin's character in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelist of the Roses, a game with a plot set during the War of the Roses, with him cast in the role of Richard III. Seeing as Richard III is famous for his Historical Villain Upgrade into a Complete Monster in Shakespeare's play, this role suits Heishin rather perfectly. Here, he again shows his disregard for the lives of young people when he threatens to kill Maximillion J. Pegasus' son.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! The Falsebound Kingdom: Scott Irvine is a former Kaiba Corp scientist who traps Yugi, his friends and the Kaiba brothers inside a multiplayer RTS game in an attempt to feed their souls to DarkNite, a wicked spirit, who will then Take Over the World. When the virtual villain Emperor Haysheen is defeated, Scott deletes him from the game and assumes his position, brainwashing Yugi's friends into attacking him or attempting to kill everyone in the game; if the player fails to free Téa Gardner or Joey Wheeler, everyone is destroyed or Scott forces Joey to commit suicide via a hypnotic suggestion, gloating all the while. He additionally steals Mokuba Kaiba's soul in order to blackmail his brother Seto into fighting Yugi, adding that he'll kill Mokuba if Seto doesn't do as he says. When the heroes finally reach him, Scott reveals his plan of unleashing DarkNite on the real world and attempts to sacrifice them as tributes to the dark god, succeeding in killing everyone should the player fail to defeat him. He also deletes other sapient NPCs from the game, and a prequel campaign reveals that he was toying with an NPC version of Marik Ishtar by manipulating him and making false promises of power. Cruel, merciless and arrogant, Scott Irvine does everything in his power to achieve his goals and cares nothing for anything else.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Sacred Cards: Marik Ishtar, holder of the Millennium Rod (which he uses to Mind Control several people), leads the Ghouls in a conspiracy across Domino City, infiltrating the Battle City Tournament to take out Yami Yugi and his friends, with the Player Character often caught in the middle. This culminates in the Ghouls overtaking the entire city and forcing Yugi to duel his best friend Joey Wheeler with the latter under Marik's control, with the abducted Tea Gardner also Mind Controlled and threatened to kill herself via a cyanide pill should Yugi back down or forfeit, and controlled Joey even attempts to drown Yugi in the sea when the Player Character steps in to save him. Adopting the guise of "Namu" to enter the tournament semi-finals while having his loyal servant Odion pose as him, Marik soon reveals his true self and threatens to kill the Player Character for having interfered with his plans. Marik then duels Joey and Mind Rapes him into a coma upon winning, and in the finals he defeats Seto Kaiba and banishes his soul to the Shadow Realm. Before the final duel begins, Marik pledges that when he wins all three Egyptian God Cards and attains the Pharaoh's power, he plans to plunge the entire world into darkness and kill every living thing as he pleases just to satisfy his hatred and sadism. When Marik is defeated, he undergoes a Mind Crush as penalty, disintegrating all the evil within him and wiping his soul clean.