DM had the perfect combination of starter villain (Pegasus), middle villain (Marik), and final villain (Bakura). Even the filler villains (Noah and Dartz) brought something to enjoy.
You praised Marik a lot but I would consider Marik separate from Yami Marik. By the time that Yami Marik took over, Marik was less of a villain by this point.
I know Arc V didnt exactly have the best villians, but imo Yuri was an awesome sadistic villian to watch. The animators clearly had fun with his facial expressions
Yep! Much better than some of Dylans picks in my opinion.... Like he says cause the bad end of Arc V = Yuri is bad...but still likes Dead Sister Smiler Shun and Geno-daddy hugger Reiji...😅 So..yea. Yuri still the best Villian in Arc V❤❤
I think Yuri deserves a bit of credit as well. He was like Vector in terms of trolling skills and great at duelling as well as being performed amazingly by Kensho Ono. His duel with Yuya ranks as my second favourite Arc V duel next to Yuya and Yuto vs Ruri and Serena.
While I do agree with you in Yuri being a great villain, it seems like Yugioh Everything had an unspoken rule where he couldn't put villains that were fully redeemed on this list, something which Yuri sadly falls under.
I gotta give the top spot to Yubel. Yubel was able to orchestrate events that permanently changed Judai. Not just the Supreme King manifesting, but literally robbed him of his smile so bad that they had to change the opening. And resulted in a major change in character for the final season. To be able cause the tone of the whole show to shift is an amazing villain
Ehhh, Yubel was too linear. She didn't have any wild story telling outside of her and Judai. Definitely a top villain but she did not have any massive story implications like Marik, Pegasus, and Vektor. Outside them, almost every villain is interchangeable
She was undefeated the entire show, had one of the highest amount of 12 lvl boss monsters plus Exodia, accomplished all her goals, canonically got away with genocide, etc. Crazy character.
Leo would be first place. He is just such a stupid villain. Like I understand where he comes from but the sheer stupidity he had is unmatched. Like you knew that trying to revive your daughter would cause all this and you even had a new family, you could have moved on but Noooo, you had to f* everything up. Then again, if it was not for this stupid and desperate desire of his, we would not have the amazing season that was arc-v, up until the end that is where they really ruined it.
What made Zexal's villains so good for me is that besides Don Thousand (and by extension Number 96), nobody was truly evil. They were all victims of circumstances that lead them to villainy, whether it was vengeance, brainwashing or just a genuine desire to help. And it's through Yuma, both directly and indirectly, that they end up getting redeemed, because he's just that gosh darned nice that he ends up changing these people for the better. It's like what Shark said in the dub: "He's the best dweeb a friend can ask for."
Zexal is the only series with good writing. Yuma surpassed Astral and can protect himself. Vector was batsjit insane. Kite and the others photon users did a 180 and became enjoyable. The arclights had a well written background and carried.
Man ZEXAL was fucking great. The villains were fantastic, one of the best protagonists to date, a sweetly executed coherent storyline, the characters are so consistent, the rivals are the best we've had in the entire series. It's just a real shame how people dismiss it and treat it like a joke because they enjoy hopping on the hate train like sheep, without giving the Japanese version a fair chance And like you've said, I loved how morally grey a lot of the characters were in ZEXAL. Many of them were just tragic characters. Yuma even questions his own morality when hunting Numbers if it puts Kaito's brother in danger. The show does an excellent job sympathizing with the antagonist's point of view And it's because of Yuma's ability empathise with his enemies that he's able to save them. Yuma has unyielding optimism in the face of impossible odds that touches even the darkest, most closed off hearts.
Zexal heavily focus on their antagonist, where most of their interesting characters are against the main character. I mean if you look at the final shot of Zexal, 95% of them are former antagoinst lmao.
Its crazy. I was just thinking the other day that "hey I don't think Dylan has made a YGO villain list so I hope he does in the future" so here we are now lol
I recently reread the Dark RPG arc in the og manga and ugh it just reminded me why I love Bakura so much. Also love when marik beats him and he just goes “L + ratio + I’m unkillable + I’m the darkness”
Also him: Would have died that moment if he didn't make a backup(though I don't recall if that was a thing in the manga too, or if that was only in the anime).
Yami bakura actually helped Yugi when his god cards stolen . I think it's the genius writing of Takahashi sensei. He misdirected readers to believe Yami Bakura as " someone who not evil enough" but planting a few hints and foreshadowing before revealing the true character of Yami bakura. The reveal of the Dark Rpg gave much more impact in manga than anime
Rex Goodwin from 5D's should have made the list in my humble opinion. Rex was the underlying villain who guided the events of season 1 and season 2 until revealing himself as the villain at the climax of season 2. Rex was responsible for blowing up Bomber's home town. Not even Marik did something on THAT scale.
Rex honestly had awesome build up and incredible motivation. As much as I like Tron or IV, Rex Godwin should have been somewhere over them. If not him, then Aporia.
@@Hunter-pt4zy yeah I'm gonna have to disagree. I like rex but he's not topping vetrix who had a fully fleshed out backstory. His story would be better than quattro but not his dueling, quattro has chaos numbers
For me my number 1 villain in yugioh is still vector. I was crying when vector died. Favorite character in the show, an ultimate troller and a death scene that makes you cried. For me that makes a really good yugioh villain.
Great list Dylan! ZEXAL is really awesome. The villains were fantastic, one of the best protagonists to date, a sweetly executed coherent storyline, the characters are so consistent, the rivals are the best we've had in the entire series. It's just a real shame how people dismiss it and treat it like a joke because they enjoy hopping on the hate train like sheep, without giving the Japanese version a fair chance I also loved how morally grey a lot of the characters were in ZEXAL. Many of them were just tragic characters. Yuma even questions his own morality when hunting Numbers if it puts Kaito's brother in danger. The show does an excellent job sympathizing with the antagonist's point of view And it's because of Yuma's ability empathise with his enemies that he's able to save them. Yuma has unyielding optimism in the face of impossible odds that touches even the darkest, most closed off hearts.
Really? I don't know about the story and the antagonists in ZEXAL, but i really despise the protagonist Yuma. I seriously can't watch it with him being the main character.
@@naphthylamin6862 ok dude chill. You're too judgemental. He's the only mc with any development whatsoever. By season 2 he doesn't need to depend on Astral so much. Give him a chance!
@@fxzzy__ Yeah, i didn't finish ZEXAL, which is kinda sad, because there seem to a lot of interesting characters to be involved but maybe you can enlighten me if Yuma actually gets more bearable later on. My first impression of Yuma from the little i have seen, it felt like he was a crossover of Joey and little Yugi, making him a person who is the butt of every joke and is way too dependant on a higher being for his duels.
Sadly, I have to agree. Leo had a lot of great build up and when we finally saw his intentions and backstory with his daughter, he might have worked as a sympathetic villain on paper but the execution left a lot to be desired which is sad cause I’m one of the few who doesn’t mind him but still underwhelmed. If had more duels and got a win against someone like Yusho, Jack or even a solo duel with Reiji, that might have made more intimidating.
"You shouldn't feel bad for Vector dying-" Good, because I didn't. His past being manipulated by Don Thousand sucked, but that is not going to absolve him of his wrongdoings. The only reason Yuma should have wanted to save him was to keep Don Thousand from getting stronger.
5D's really dropped the ball with its villains. No one who dueled was a genuine evil dude in his own right as they were usually either controlled by some outside power, and/or an actual good dude who loves humanity but went down the wrong path. Z-one is easily among the latter, while ALL of the Dark Signers fall into the former.
@@cameraredeye3115 I don't nessscary see that as bad thing to be fair. They are in the grey area, but that's what makes them interesting. Plus they have Divine
Great choices Dylan Here's my Top 10 Villains: 10. IV (Quattro) 9. Dark Signer Kalin 8. Tron (Vetrix) 7. Zigfried von Schroeder 6. Vector 5. Aigami (Diva) 4. Yubel 3. Yuri 2. Pegasus 1. Marik
Rex Godwin from 5DS is my favorite of the villains, Lightning and probably Vector are my runner ups. My favorite final villain is personally AI from Vrains. Season 3 was sadly rushed until the climax (to the point where the climax was literally half the Season with the last three duels) but I still really enjoyed him and the emotional payoff hat his heel turn provided. His last duel with Yusaku might also be my favorite final duel and potentially my favorite Vrains duel.
Pretty much yesterday I watched video on how terrible a duelist Marik are. I wouldn't say he is the worst but I do agree with that his skills are outside of dueling. Marik is about as good at the game as "Panic" the main difference is that Marik able to make people fear for their life while "Panic" more or less only made people afraid they would lose the game and get knocked out of Duelist kingdom.
If pure evil is the main criteria, Lightning is simply unbeatable. Causing traumas to a child during years just for fun is reason enough to make it Top 2 at least.
Great list Dylan! I absolutely agree on your Top 7 (just in slight different order), however one notable character missing that’s def in the Top 8 among the others is Z-ONE, which I know you’re not too high on compared to most! Hope to see more of your Top 10’s on other topics in the future, since they’re usually my favs to watch!
Who are your picks? Dm, I say maybe kisara or marik. Gx- banner/zane perhaps 5ds- kalin Kessler Zexal- arclight fam Arc v- ray perhaps Vrains- yusaku losing ai
Shark/Nasch would definitely be near, if not, at the top. He's said himself that his existence is a curse. And ironically, he's the only Barian who was never directly influenced by Don Thousand. Shark was destined to fight for the Barians
@@Diamondr11Blue Nah I'd disagree Shark's whole fate is ironic. He grows up as a normal guy, thinking he's Ryouga Kamishiro, but finds out he's actually a reincarnation of King Nasch in the body of the real Ryouga Kamishiro who died in a car crash years ago. This King fought hundreds of years ago in a war and in the end, his entire army was killed. They all went to Barian World, and so, he was forced into fighting for Barian World and its people because of the overwhelming guilt of his comrades' deaths on his shoulders The current 'Ryouga' now HAS to fight his modern day friends, and become allies with the very group of people they all deemed enemies. He was forced into this destiny To quote him (JP): "I'm... a Barian! Can such an ironic fate exist? Yuma... Astral... Kaito... The true enemy they've been fighting against... for me to be one of them...!" The only person who was capable of saving him in the end, was Yuma
@@fxzzy__ meh all of the barians had somewhat generic backstories. There are much better candidates for this position. I feel far more bad for quattro's family being torn apart than shark suddenly remembering random alien people that had no impact whatsoever on the main cast
I think now we have a battle between Marik vs Bakura vs Vector who is the most assh*le the Triforce YGO villain era. But I keep Tron, Alito, Mizael and Nash in my Heart.
My issue with marik is that he wasn't that intimidating enough. He's made out to be this massive threat and then proceeds to beat JOEY WHEELER because of a technicality.
@@sigiligus while that's true, the duel still played out the way it did and he won because Joey was knocked out not because he knocked his life points out
What types of villains do all of you prefer? Anti Villains? The super evil jerk that’s evil for the thrill of it? Or a Personal antagonist? I am a big fan of personal antagonists and evil for the sake of evil. That’s what Vector and Marik are for me. Edit: The reason why I didn’t mind Vector’s Face Turn at the very end is because of a specific reason. Vector’s betrayal is meant to be a spit at everything that Yuma represents as a person. And despite that, it’s the very same ideals Vector, and even Shark hate about Yuma that ultimately got Vector to change. If Shark didn’t see that Change, he wouldn’t have spared Barian Hope’s overlay unit representing his soul. Thanks to Yuma’s kindness and dedication, Nasch saw a reason to see Vector as one of his own.
@@fxzzy__ I don't need subs to watch the series. I just cannot stand their voices. Yuma and yuya sound way too deep for little guys lol, it sounds unnatural
I think Bakura is a better villain than marik and pegasus He just planned to ressurect zorc the whole show from the begining everything that happened is staed to be in his plan he outsmarted yugi the whole previous seasons and other caracters to make him fall in his trap wich is the final shadow game that we saw in season 5 wich will make him win the war between him and atem 5000 years ago The whole yu gi oh events relative to millenium items were a part of his plans so in my opinion he is better villain
@@alonsoarana5307 I just want to see him again, if only the yu-gi-oh! Community remade the old serie like they did in dsod with that high 4k quality and graphism it will be so great
Duel Links is indeed the greatest freeze-up especially for VRAINS since many of us gurantee that it is after the tearjerking sad ending it showed up. Now Ai is revived, which leads Varis to believe that the other Ignis and Bohman will revive as well, which unfortunately means that they have to handle Lightning AGAIN even when things are different and they are more "prepared".
This was cool, I really loved all of these choices!! The villains in zexal were fantastic and kinda freaky and have well written stories. Lighting and kuaidul are also cool, I also love villains who secretly manipulate the story from the start and have secretly succeeded in their plans. Everyone on this list is awesome! :)
This would pretty much be my list only with Lighting in the 2nd spot. He left such unforgettable impression on me and I love how he's actions effect influence the final arc of the show. Yami Bakura would have to be an honorable mention as well
I feel Divine deserves a higher spot on the list given this guy was masterminding a rebellion of Psychic Duelists who had been outcasted by society, much like Aki for an example who is his strongest "piece" of his chess board. He was definitely sadistic, but not unhinged in his methods with a fiery desire for revenge against society for how they treated the Psychic Duelists for their powers that so many in his organization started off not knowing how to control. If this was explored more I just know this could have made an entire arc, if not two for the 5Ds series and make for great character growth for Aki as both a duelist and as a person when forced to confront the remaining Arcadia Movement after the Dark Signer arc. Like surely this guy should have had someone to act as his second in command to carry out his will if anything happened to him. Someone who'd want revenge on the city for how their people are treated like monsters for powers they never asked for or knew how to control at the start. People who found safety, care, and understanding in the Arcadia movement among their own kind. With Aki considered to be one of their champions and protectors, if not a role model of what a Psychic Duelist could become. Only now they're divided between seeing her as a traitor or as a dear member of their family that has been mislead by those not like themselves, someone they want to bring back to their side of things again to "save her" from the lies of society.
I guess my Top 10 would be: 10) Zwijo (Go Rush) (I do consider him a villain and his relationship with Yuudias is very interesting). 9) Sceptre (Vrains). Generally I like his deal. I wish he got more screentime to be a villain tho. 8) IV (Zexal) for similar reasons as this list. 7) Dartz (Duel Monsters) sue me I like the anime original king who broke his mind in an attempt to revive his kingdom. 6) Vetrix (Zexal) for similar reasons but I also like how he was driven insane to be the villain. 5) Yuri (Arc V) fricking awesome villain! He’s great! 4) Pegasus (Duel Monsters) great showman, Bakura does not stand out to me sadly until the end. 2) Revolver (Vrains) I just generally wish Vrains was a better show and he would’ve kept being the villain. 1) Vector (Zexal) Just my favorite overall, he’s great
@@riotkitty I always think that Season 1's Zwijo deserves at least a spot among the best villains/antagonists in Rush's Animes (and some of the best characters in Rush's Animes in general) Season 1's Zwijo did a lot of questionable things: - Treat his initial henchmen badly. - Trying to hurt people and Yudias himself. - Steal key elements for his plans. - All damage done by Zwijo's henchmen (under his orders) to MIK. - Attempt to manipulate and harm young people (Yuhi, Yuamu and Damamu) - Try to destroy spaceships with living beings. - At least one attempt to eliminate the universe with negative energy. Sure, Zwijo redeemed himself some time later, but his actions were not completely forgotten: seeing Manabu not forgiving him so easily when he reappeared and the times that Zwijo mentions the damage that he did before (in addition to continuing to manipulate his henchmen for his own benefit like Mitsuko) Also, in this list (from the Video), we have villains/antagonists who also redeemed themselves (most of ZEXAL) I think the only thing stopping Season 1's Zwijo from being a complete villain is the good actions that he did in Season 1 (something a completely evil villain wouldn't do) - Meet Yudias and tell him to join him like in the old days (as Commander and Soldier) - Help revive Yudias and, at the same time, give him Equip Spells to face Rovian. - Not doing anything bad to Yuamu even though she discovered his bakery (his hiding place). Both characters reached an agreement not to say anything to anyone.
@@christopherb501 I think that if we have redeeming villains in this video like Tron or Yubel, I think Zwijo also deserves to be on this list (not as the Top 3 of course) Sure, you could say that Kuaidul was behind pushing Zwijo if that's the case. But, if we go from that angle, Kuaidul was also influenced by external factors to do his evil actions: The Creator and The Relic (a very discreet way of saying that Otes is the reason why Kuaidul became rebellious and anarchic)
Interestingly, the same arguments that were made for the recent Duel Episode can be applied to the next Duel episode. - They only showed us the preview of a Monster that The Darkman (Bleu Air) is going to use: Dark Matter Enigmata. That Fusion Monster is already known, so it is expected that The Darkman will use a different Fusion Monster. - Like Manabu, Nyandestar already comes with a streak of having lost before (against Yuamu). However, this is no guarantee that she will win since The Luge also had a Duel again after a long time and ended up losing (despite having lost before). Honestly, this one is 50/50 since anyone can win, but I feel like both Sabyuas and Bleu Air will be recurring henchmen of another Darkman who would be the antagonist of the Arc. In any case, everything indicates that we will have new Cat cards in the next Duel. PS: I just realized that it is curious that several of the Duelists who will Duel in these Episodes are related to Yuamu. - Epoch only achieved its first victory thanks to Yuamu. - Manabu and Nyandestar were already defeated by Yuamu previously. - Yuhi is Yuamu's twin, where he is using High Tech Dragon with Jointech. - The Darkmen is believed to be related to Yuamu (or Yuamu indirectly created them)
yuri should have been here beating 5 duelist in one turn going second just because he wanted to see them set their hopes into the board just to destroy them not to mention he is a true maniac who would laugh after turning all of his opponents into cards
As a cardfight vanguard fan aswell, Tron always reminds me to Takuto in his villian form, so Tron always was an amazing villian for me and also because that zexal season was so peak.
The fuck you mean he’s not a good duelist? He is the only person who ever broke Atem’s will to duel. Atem would have lost if Kaiba wasn’t there to rekindle his spirit. Even when he actually lost to Rafael and Yugi, he never straight up gave up in the middle of a duel other than against Marik.
The fact that Seto Kaiba is seen as a rival instead of a true villain would prevent me from ranking him at all, if I wanted to make a top ten list of my own. But all of the downright EVIL things SK has done, across not just ONE series but TWO (THREE if you count Zero Reverse which didn't technically happen on screen at all but is referenced several times in 5D's), would probably be enough for me to rank him right up there with Marik.
At first I was gonna say that Vector is the best villain, but then I put my Zexal bias aside(It was the first one I watched) and I actually agree with you, Marik is an awesome villain
Vector although brainwashed got the Yami marik vibes and to his credit he successfully got 5 Barinas emperors killed and played with Yumas mind and possibly better than marik did
Not a main villain by any means, but my personal favorite villain has to be Arkana/Pandora. His back story is just so... real, and sure he is a jerk, but I don't think he has the knowledge of the ancient past that Marik or Yugi has. He doesn't know his monsters could feel, he doesn't know Marik is using him. He is just a desperate man wanting to rebuild his life after a horrible accident that resulted in him losing the woman he loved. In the manga I feel even more sorry for him because its adds the fact his mother died, and implies Marik drives him to suicide after the duel with Yugi.. Just, someone help this guy not die after that, jeez. Yugi might of saved him, but after that who knows what happens. Maybe a top 10 henchman list or something is warrant to appreciate characters like Arkana that are one off villains.
I haven't seen all of Arc V so I will not be including characters from it. Also haven't seen sevens or rush so no characters from there either. 1) Yubel 2) Lightning 3) Pegasus 4) Vector 5) Marik 6) Aporia 7) Vetrix 8) Spectre 9) Dr Faker 10) Kalin
These would be my top 10 Yugioh villains: 1. Vector 2. Marik 3. Lightning 4. Don Thousand 5. Yubel 6. Bakura 7. Sartorius 8. Aigami 9. ZONE 10. Tron/ Vetrix Honourable Mentions: Paradox Windy Bohman Yuri Roman Godwin Aporia
I LOVED this video. I'm obsessed with Villains, and as I've been working on Card Game Lit myself... it's hard to make a compelling villain in a card game story. Yugioh does it continuously. Thank you for this video!
I think you're praising Marik's duelling skills far too highly. Both Joey and Mai out-duelled him. Joey lost because he was in a shadow game and Mai lost due to being unable to read ancient Egyptian. He also had a hostage during his duel with Yugi, so Yugi wasn't fighting at full strength. I also think you are putting Marik too high as his villainy is focused solely on torturing the Pharaoh. Yubel did essentially the same things as Marik but on a grander scale and with actual duelling ability and yet they got put lower on the list
Marik was really pulling the “Strings” in Battle City, I see what you did there… nice. These videos are great, if possible, could we get a what if Syrus was kidnapped and sent to the stars along the 4 others from the second half of season 3? like maybe Jaden turning into supreme king mid duel against Brron, that would be insane.
Personally Darkness is one of my favorite yugioh villians, despite his true form being in the last few episodes of GX he had such a creppy and eeire nature to him and found that his goal of obsorbing the world's populace is not because he is evil but it is just how his homeworld functions and abides by what he sees as the rules of nature as very fascinating. I really like how he is portrayed as less of a person and more as an act of nature, IMO he deserves at least an honorable mention.
I really liked Kalin Kessler and Z-arc and would have loved to have seen them. I personally would have put Yubel at number 1, Marik at 2, and Bakura at 3. But I loved the video and I loved your thoughts, thank you for sharing this with us. I've seen your videos in my feed and watched 2 or 3, this video got you my subscription.
Mizar from zeXal in my opinion is another wonderful villain. He was very well written and was very consistent as the story progressed. And I personally enjoy that Mizar had a softer side at times to show that he did care and wasn’t always out to beat humans, etc. And Mizar’s death was the hardest for me, for sure.
Not only the original YGo had the best antagonist but also the best archetype monsters. Blue eyes and Dark magician are the most iconic cards and the god cards are still up to this date, canonically the strongest cards (in the anime)
Vector and Yubel are still my top villains. But giving shoutouts to Sevens since it seems to get criticized as not having good villains. I think Nail was a great villain even if he didn't stay a villain long. He just seemed like such a perfect foil to Yuga and his introductions of Maximums is amazing! The Goha siblings were didn't live up to their full potential and were honestly kind of forgettable by the end of the show but I think Yuo and the 6th sibling were both really cool when given their chances to shine. Also I don't get why Otes gets trolled on, I actually think he is a really cool and great character!
@@predaplantuser2742 ah you sure about that? In season 1 he pretended to be nice and turned out being the main antagonist and the duel him Vs shun he said he enjoyed hunting people from xyz world the guy is a child soldier
@@GokuBlackZamasu_ i mean he did act quite bad in season 1 but i don't see him much as a villain. Same could be said about shun. He was carding people in s1,but he wasn't a villain.
@@predaplantuser2742 yeah but shun was on revengeful rampage for the friends who were lost where Sora was manipulating using his charm till he betrayed them of course his friendship with yuya and zuzu changed him in season 2 but it doesn't change his actions in the xyz world and the carding of sun shadow and his duels with shun
YES THAT'S RIGHT YAMI MARIK IS NUMBER 1!!! For some reason people hating on them just because he's not a "good" duelist which is crazy because personally i smell jealousy at the same time, also he's the only villain that almost made Atem to give up, there's no other villain scary or threaten as Yami Marik!
Awesome Top10. I am from Greece where as a kid i watched all the time Yu-Gi-Oh. Totally agree with your Top10 except that i personally think that Bakura was the Best Villain ever and Marik number 2,because Bakura was actually the "God" of Darkness and Evil (aka Zork). Anyway, that's personal opinion and congrats about your Top 10 villains.
Duel Monsters had the best villains by far Pegasus, Marik, Dartz and Bakura etc, GX had Yubel/Darkness, Vector/Don Thousand were decent, the rest of the villains have been a joke. Don Thousand was the last good villain in Yugioh.
Marik's father deserved what he got. My favorite villain is Yubel so they top my list. Yubel terrifies me and there aren't many villains that legitimately do that. Also, Yubel was definitely not complaining when Judai used Super Polymerization to fuse their souls. Yubel got what they wanted too, not just Lightning. I'm not good at ranking characters so I can't do a proper "top 10 villains" list consistently and it would depend on my mood. I can list the characters that would be in it most consistently though: Yubel, Yami Marik, Vector, IV/Quattro, Lightning, Yuri, Saiou, Aporia, Ai, and Tron/Vetrix. Saiou isn't necessarily the best villain by himself, but he got me interested in tarot cards.
Yuri should have been on this list I do not care I do not care I do not care about that's stupid ending where he somehow turned good the fact that he was so unhinged destroying everything just to make me happy
