malik vs marik – I am Terra

ahhvernin:

I think after tomorrow, I’m going to try to draw someone else besides Bakura. Maybe a character I kinda sorta liked from design but not personality, but may be growing on me?

Perhaps some Malik…Marik??? What does this fandom call them anyway?! I know “Mariku” or “kek’ is for Yami Marik, yes? What about the hikari? What tag am I suppose to use?!

Tell me your head canons or requests of Marik-Malik I dont know, -throws hands up- NAMU!! I’ll post more draw memes Sunday evening.

@mxlik Please help me, you must know! What do people use?

The thing is Marik IS Malik in every sense of the word. Marik is everything Malik ever wanted to be, could be, and hoped to become. (Not necessarily a murderer but free, confident, strong, and so very much alive and allowed to do anything he wanted with no limitations.)
But since he still had lingering feelings for his father he could not kill him but his hatred was too strong. That with the lifestyle he had growing up that he came to loath combined with the dark ritual carved into his back, this allowed an outlet that allowed Marik to be. You see, they are still the same person and that is why even the other characters in the show are always saying “Malik’s dark half” and not any other name.

As for the fans though, well we were sick of saying “Malik’s dark half” when writing fanfiction or roleplaying that we decided since Malik was a real name as well as the name given to him in Japanese that it would belong to the one who was there first and seen as the good side.
Marik was the dub name and we all liked it because it was nice and easy to say but it still looked very similar to Malik in written works so half of us adopted adding a u to the end and took to calling him Mariku since it was easier to spot and tell the difference.

The newer fans to this great fandom though seem to find that silly or have no idea of our ancient ways so they took to calling him other names and calling Malik by the name Marik because that is the way of the Abridged series for when it came out years later.

I hope this was informative.

As for headcanons- well, that depends on what you are looking for and if it is shippy or not.

amarantines:

There is no coming back from this way of thinking.

Malik really enjoys holding someone on the spot, watching two friends emotionally torture each other until they both die, unable to do anything about it. It’s not even that Jounouchi got in his way to get to Atem — he’s having a lot of fun holding onto Jounouchi’s mind, picking at all the little memories of friendship he shared with “vessel Yuugi” (Malik’s words, not mine), and twisting them to his advantage in making this death-duel more painful for them.

He loves doing this kind of thing. He’s not a nice person. The only difference between him and Yami Malik is that he’s more calm and logical, and his love for his siblings overrides his natural urge to emotionally destroy people. Even after banishing YM, these urges are a part of Malik’s dominant personality and are not realistically going to go away.

Admittedly, I laughed out loud when I got to the part The only difference between him and Yami Malik is that he’s more calm and logical-
Because this beautiful shit lord is anything but calm. He can act it but the very second something starts to not go his way, he gets angry. It starts off with a bit of growling but as things continue not to go Malik’s way, he loses his shit. He screams, he breaks things, he shoves Rishid and knocks things out of Rishid’s hands and lashes out. Malik throws a tantrum so hard core it amuses me most of the time but I can see why it gets under his skin so easily.
Everything he had was handed to him. His role in life, food, his superiority over the rest of the family and underground cult, it was all handed to him but with a forceful hand. So he has right to be angry and lash out- but he does it against all the wrong people.

As for logical, Malik isn’t that much more logical either. He knows how to be cunning but he always complicates it by wanting to stab whoever he is making deals with in the back instead of completing his end of the deal.
You can see that with all of his Rare Hunters/Ghouls. He’s made promises for most of them; returning loved ones, fame, freedom- all of which he betrayed and lied to, setting them up to be nothing but used and then discarded.
Marik/Yami Malik doesn’t make such deals or promises because he is self reliant and believes he is fine without anyone else. He is there to kill them and remove them at face value. He does, however, torture them but the victims are always aware of his intentions.
With Malik though, you can’t trust him not to back stab you. Which is part of why it pisses me off to no end that they were all so willing to accept Malik as good and forgivable when he’s done so much shit that doesn’t warrant forgiveness at all but I still love the little asshole.

Okay. I’ve had this thought come to me several times so I want to share it with the fandom just to see the reaction on this idea.

What if Marik (Yami Malik) was actually the good side of Malik?

“But Terra, that’s not right! You called him Yami Malik just a second ago! And-”

Hear me out.

Malik

Has killed many people
Lied countless times
Tortured his Rare Hunters for failing him
Stolen rare/priceless items
Left out key bits of information out in an attempt to dupe his allies
Kidnapped people
Saw himself as faultless
Blamed anyone he could for his own wrongs
Was a contributor to the Black Market
Threatened his sister if she tried stopping him again
Mind controlled dozens of people
Cheated his way to the finals in Battle City
Contracted Bakura into trying to destroy his body because if he couldn’t have it no one could so… Attempted assisted suicide

Marik

Killed one known person
Tortured those who dueled him but allowed punishment to be returned, keeping it fair
Did attempt to kill the rest of his family
Refuses to give up control over the body he inhabits
Only plays high stake games where the loser will most likely die
Was actively willing to kill anyone who got in his way of revenge

That’s about it… I’m sure there is more but honestly… Malik’s negative qualities are greater than Marik’s from what I have seen over the years.
Marik is polite and greets people cheerily. Sure, he plays hard but all of his games have always been fair. He goes in knowing he can die but he believes in himself so much that he doesn’t see himself as able to lose. He is the embodiment of overkill and thus is one tough cookie to beat.

Malik though, the supposed weak/lighter half, lied at every turn and cheated in every single duel he was ever part of and everyone who wasn’t him that lost was always punished for failing him.

Yes, he shows change in the very end but up until that very tipping point… He was clearly the dark/evil half.