Dartz
| “ | With the power of the Great Leviathan, I shall wipe this world clean, and rebuild paradise in its place.
|
„ |
| ― Dartz's stated goal |
Dartz (ダーツ) is the primary antagonist of the Waking the Dragons story arc in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters anime. As the last ruler of Atlantis, his fate was deeply intertwined with the lost city's history.
| Names | Dartz (ダーツ) |
| Gender | Male ♂ |
| Race | Human |
| Occupation | Duelist, King of Atlantis, President of Paradius/Doma,Possible president of Industrial Illusions, Possible president of KaibaCorp |
| Origin | Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Episode 145: A New Evil - Part 1 新たなる闇の鼓動, Aratanaru Yami no Kodō, lit, "The Throb of a New Darkness" February 18, 2003 |
| Alignment | Evil (Corrupted), Reformed after the Waking the Dragons arc |
| Age | 10,000 |
| Created By | Studio Gallop, Nihon Ad Systems |
| Personality Type | INFJ, 6w5 (Enneagram) |
| Voice Actors |  Japanese: Yū Emao
|
Appearance
Dartz typically wore a flowing white and blue robe with a floor-length cape trailing behind him. His attire featured padded shoulders, cuffed wrists, a raised collar, and a gemstone bearing the Orichalcos symbol around his neck. He had multiple piercings on his left ear and wore a fragment of the Orichalcos Stone embedded in a chain on his forehead. His long, light blue hair was styled with two distinct locks in the front, while the rest extended to his knees, tied at waist level.
Originally, Dartz had golden irises, but after succumbing to the power of the Orichalcos, his eyes became heterochromatic—his right eye turned green while his left remained gold. Upon his defeat by Yami Yugi, his right eye returned to its original golden color. During his Duel against Yami Yugi and Seto Kaiba, he wielded a Chaos Duel Disk. In his role as the head of Paradius Inc., Dartz adopted a more formal look, wearing a periwinkle-colored suit with a red tie and white shoes.
After sacrificing his soul to the Great Leviathan, Dartz's body took on a glassy, fragile appearance, disintegrating into dust at the slightest touch. His consciousness fused with a fragment of the Leviathan, manifesting as his upper torso grotesquely merged with the creature's head. In this state, his skin turned purple, his eyes became entirely yellow, and his mouth no longer moved except to display emotions, which were accentuated through his glowing eyes. (In the English dub, the merging points between Dartz and the Leviathan were obscured.)
Personality
Dartz was a manipulative and calculating mastermind, driven by his belief that humanity was inherently corrupt and needed to be purged. His charisma and intelligence allowed him to deceive and control others, molding loyal followers like Rafael, Valon, and Alister by exploiting their pain and fueling their hatred. Unlike many villains who sought personal power, Dartz genuinely believed that his actions were for the greater good, aiming to create a "pure" world free of evil—even if it meant annihilating mankind.
Despite his calm and composed demeanor, Dartz was utterly ruthless, showing no remorse for the countless souls he sacrificed to the Great Leviathan. He rarely displayed anger, preferring to psychologically break his opponents rather than overpower them through brute force. However, his arrogance led him to underestimate the resilience of the Pharaoh and his allies.
Beneath his god-like authority, Dartz was ultimately a tragic figure. His descent into darkness stemmed from a deep sense of loss and betrayal after witnessing the corruption of Atlantis and the transformation of his wife. His unwavering devotion to the Orichalcos blinded him to the truth, twisting his sense of justice into an obsession that lasted 10,000 years. Only upon his final defeat did he realize the depth of his mistakes, finally finding peace as he reunited with the spirits of his family.
Biography
Background
Ten thousand years ago, Atlantis thrived as a utopian civilization, isolated from the rest of the world. However, its golden age came to an abrupt end when a shower of mysterious meteorites rained down upon the kingdom. These meteors contained the Stones of the Orichalcos, which radiated a brilliant greenish-blue light. Imbued with immense power and knowledge, the people of Atlantis rapidly advanced, surpassing even modern civilization. But with power came corruption and greed.
Ironheart, the King of Atlantis, eventually abdicated the throne to his son, Dartz. However, as the influence of the Orichalcos grew, it began transforming people into monstrous beings. Dartz witnessed this horror firsthand when his own wife, Iona, was turned into a grotesque creature. (In the Japanese version, Iona attacked him, forcing him to kill her with his sword.) Dartz believed that the Orichalcos merely revealed the darkness within people, warping them on the outside to reflect their inner evil.
Disturbed and seeking answers, Dartz turned to the Orichalcos for guidance. The stone granted him immense power and an army of Orichalcos Soldiers to do his bidding. It instructed him to resurrect the Great Leviathan, an ancient mystical beast, to purge the world of its wickedness and create a new utopia free from corruption. Consumed by this ideology, Dartz fell deeper into darkness.
Realizing the threat Dartz posed, Ironheart and Chris (Dartz’s daughter) fled and sought the aid of the guardians of the Duel Monsters world—three warriors whom Dartz had transformed into dragons. The conflict reached its climax in the Battle of Atlantis, where an army of benevolent magical creatures, led by Ironheart, clashed with Dartz’s Orichalcos Soldiers and the Great Leviathan. The battle ended in mutual destruction: the three dragons were frozen in ice, the magical creatures were banished back to their realm, the Orichalcos Soldiers were annihilated, and the Great Leviathan was sealed away. In the aftermath, Atlantis sank beneath the ocean.
Dartz, however, remained convinced that humanity was inherently evil. He saw the monstrous transformations of his people as divine punishment, believing that the Orichalcos had merely exposed their inner malevolence. Determined to cleanse the world, he vowed to revive the Great Leviathan, raze civilization, and rebuild it in the image of Atlantis reborn. To achieve this, he needed to harvest human souls.
For 10,000 years, Dartz wandered the Earth, sustained by the Orichalcos’ power. During his journey, he encountered Pharaoh Atem in ancient Egypt and recognized him as a powerful soul due to his mastery over the darkness and ability to command Duel Monsters. He witnessed Atem’s battle against Thief King Bakura, with Slifer the Sky Dragon in pursuit of Diabound. However, Dartz was unable to claim Atem’s soul due to the presence of Bakura and Zorc Necrophades (though he showed no fear of Zorc and seemingly believed the Great Leviathan’s power surpassed his). He resigned himself to waiting another 5,000 years (3,000 in the Japanese version) for another opportunity to capture the Pharaoh’s soul.
The exact moment when Dartz began actively harvesting souls remains unclear, but at some point, he established Paradius, a multinational conglomerate that became a dominant yet enigmatic force in the corporate world. However, Paradius was merely a front for a darker purpose. Dartz also controlled the Doma Organization (referred to as Paradius in the English version), a group dedicated to gathering souls for the Great Leviathan. They accomplished this by luring unsuspecting Duel Monsters players into battles where the Seal of Orichalcos—a card infused with the Orichalcos’ power—would claim their souls upon defeat.
For millennia, Dartz’s relentless pursuit of souls continued, his efforts amassing millions of victims. With each stolen soul, the Great Leviathan inched closer to awakening, preparing to bring about the destruction of the world as Dartz envisioned.
Waking the Dragons
Dartz manipulated the lives of Rafael, Valon, and Alister—a trio of skilled Duel Monsters players known in Japan as Doma’s Three Swordsmen—to fill them with hatred, shaping them into his most loyal servants. Each was granted a fragment of the Orichalcos, allowing them to break the Seal of Orichalcos from the outside in an emergency. Additionally, Dartz bestowed upon them mystical abilities rivaling the power of the Millennium Items.
Upon discovering that the Pharaoh Atem had been reincarnated and revived in the present day, Dartz set his plan into motion to claim his soul. He encased the Tablet of Memories in ice, preventing the Pharaoh from recalling his past. He then ordered his subordinates to steal the Egyptian God Cards. In response, the Dark Magician Girl guided Yugi Mutou, Seto Kaiba, and Joey Wheeler to release and ally themselves with the Legendary Dragons, as the souls of their friends—and their own—fell into peril. During this struggle, Dartz’s surviving family, Ironheart and Chris, helped Yami Yugi restore his confidence and earn the trust of Timaeus.
As events reached their climax, Yami Yugi and Kaiba confronted Dartz in a high-stakes Duel. Yami Yugi ultimately emerged victorious by unleashing the power of the Legendary Dragons, restoring them to their original human forms. With their triumph, Kaiba, Joey, and Yugi's souls were freed from the clutches of the Great Leviathan.
Refusing to accept defeat, Dartz sacrificed his own soul, reducing his physical body to dust, in a final effort to fully resurrect the Leviathan and raise Atlantis once more. Merging with the beast, he waged a climactic battle against Yami Yugi, who summoned the Egyptian Gods to strike down the Leviathan. As the Gods unleashed their power, all the stolen souls were released.
However, a lingering darkness remained, revealing the Leviathan’s true form along with Dartz’s trapped soul. In a final act, Yami Yugi banished the remnants of the Orichalcos’ corruption, freeing Dartz from its influence. This allowed him to reunite with the spirits of his family before passing into the afterlife. With its master gone, Atlantis sank beneath the sea once more, bringing an end to Dartz’s millennia-long reign of terror.
Powers and Statistics
Tier: 10-A physically. 2-C via The Seal of Orichalcos
Powers and Abilities: Peak Human Strength and Durability, Hacking (Stole 100% of KaibaCorps shares, Kaiba guessed they were hacked) Immortality (Types 1 & 8) (The Orichalcos also seemingly granted Dartz eternal youth, as 10,000 years had passed since he ruled Atlantis and he didn't age at all). Soul Manipulation, Sealing (The Seal of Orichalcos steals souls), Magic, Summoning, (The monsters summoned through the seal are real) Mind Control (Brainwashed his minions), Empathic Manipulation (Shadow Games reveal a person's true nature), Darkness Manipulation (the Seal amplifies the Darkness is ones heart) Clairvoyance, Telekinesis, Weather Manipulation (caused devastating weather storms, rain lightning blasts from the sky) Telepathy, Weapon Creation (Conjured a sword from nothing) Fusionism (Merged his Soul with the Great Leviathan)
Attack Potency: Athlete level physically. Low Multiverse level via powers (Can summon monsters with various degrees of power and amplify their power with his spirit energy up to the strongest monster he has in his deck)
Speed: Athletic Human | Athletic Human
Lifting Strength: Athletic Human | Athletic Human
Striking Strength: Athlete level (By himself) | Street level (By himself), Low Multiverse level with summons
Durability: Human level | Street level
Stamina: Superhuman
Range: Standard Melee Range physically; Tens of Kilometers with several monsters, spells, and traps; Planetary with the Seal of Orichalcos
Intelligence: At least Gifted. A tactical fighter and leader.
Weaknesses: Is vulnerable to the power of the light of the souls
Standard Equipment: Duel Monsters cards, Duel Disk.
Deck
Dartz utilized an Orichalcos Deck, built around The Seal of Orichalcos and its enhanced forms, Orichalcos Deuteros and Orichalcos Tritos, each of which added an additional ring to the glyph surrounding the field. His primary offensive force came from Mirror Knight Calling, which summoned Mirror Knight Tokens. These tokens mirrored the ATK of any monster they battled and could prevent their own destruction by expending Shield Counters, provided they had protection.
However, Dartz's true strategy revolved around Orichalcos Kyutora, which negated all battle damage he received, instead converting that damage into ATK for Orichalcos Shunoros. While Shunoros could amass immense power, it rapidly weakened after battle—losing ATK when it fought a monster or when its subordinate creatures, Orichalcos Aristeros and Orichalcos Dexia, engaged an opponent.
As a last resort, if Shunoros was destroyed, Dartz would summon his ultimate monster, Divine Serpent Geh, an entity of infinite strength. However, this final gambit came with a risk—should Divine Serpent Geh be destroyed, Dartz would automatically lose the Duel.
Trivia
- Unlike other users of "The Seal of Orichalcos," Dartz did not display the symbol on his forehead when activating the card.
- However, the symbol did appear on his forehead in flashbacks to the Battle of Atlantis, despite him not being shown playing "The Seal of Orichalcos" at the time.
- Dartz originally held the record for the highest Life Points (20,000 LP) in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime franchise for seven years until he was surpassed by Charlie McCay (100,000 LP) and later by Don Thousand (102,900 LP) in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.
- Coincidentally, both Dartz and Yami Yugi reached 0 Life Points in a Duel without losing due to the protection of cards they had in play.
- Dartz is the only final arc antagonist to cause Yami Yugi to experience tearful distress.
- His fused form with the Great Leviathan bears a resemblance to Reginald Kastle’s true form in Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.
Themes
