YGO ASK 4: Favorite duel?
Haha, I do like a good portion of the duels because of character development, so it’s always hard for me to pick a favorite. For me, though, one of my all time top favorite duels is the final one with Yami Marik.
Aside from having tons of Ishtar sibling fluff (which I am a complete sucker for), it’s also the one duel Yami does not win outright. Marik instead forfeits and it’s a great comparison to how he was prior to that moment.
We saw throughout Battle City how far Marik was willing to go in order to defeat/kill the Pharaoh. He took over Yugi’s friends, he engaged Yami in life-threatening duels, and he didn’t really care who got hurt. For pity’s sake he even told Yugi and friends he was willing to sacrifice anyone to achieve his goals…after Rishid was struck down by Ra and while Rishid was watching him.
But then that duel comes around and after Marik regains control of himself (thanks to Big Brother Rishid, GOD BLESS THAT MAN) he chooses to give up rather than fight. While Yami won that duel by forfeit, I always felt Marik achieved a symbolic victory over himself - which, in the far run for Marik, was much more important. Now granted, I can’t say if Marik was happy he had to forfeit or not (I bet there’s a part of him that wanted to keep fighting in spite of the odds), but at least he could survive to resent the way he’d lost.