Marik Ishtar: The Yu-Gi-Oh! Terror in Khakis

*taps mic* Ahem. So, I have a confession to make. I like bad boys. I was a Kaiba girl back in the day. I wasn’t a HUGE bad-guy kind of person, but I had my moments of digging the more brutish and cold main characters in media. In the case of season 2 of Yu-Gi-Oh!, I can’t deny there was an appeal to evil Marik. He had that kind of bad boy walk and pose. He had those emo clothes (sans khakis) and weird hair. On second thought, I actually hated the hair. He was trying so hard to be Yami/Yugi, in his super-powered evil form, but the end result was actually kind of ugly. But I digress. I understand the pull of Marik. He definitely looks cooler than the obnoxiously flamboyant Pegasus from season 1, and his personality is nowhere near as grating. Marik Ishtar was a boy born into tradition. He was raised to guard the secrets of his family and country, tying him to the legacy of The Pharaoh, Yami Yugi, supposedly for the rest of his life. However, young Marik desired more; he DEMANDED more. During his coming-of-age ritual conducted by his abusive father, (which involved some pretty serious back tattoos), his traumatic physical and mental pain created an entity within him called Yami Marik, an evil form of Marik’s worst thoughts and beliefs. Yami Marik was a cruel murderer, who had no qualms on killing and torturing to get what he wanted. This led to the main plot of season 2 are, “Battle City Tournament,’ and his rampage against Yugi and the gang.

The best feature of Marik was the…