Yami had a feeling like electricity pulsing through his body when he saw the Winged Dragon of Ra in its sphere mode summoned onto Mai's field, something akin to a memory flashed through his mind.

After a moment to recover he'd realized that Mai's turn was nearly at an end and he knew that if she ended her turn now then Marik would win the shadow game. "Mai wait!" he called out suddenly, before she could seal her fate. "I know the Hieratic Chant."

"What?! Impossible," Marik exclaimed furiously, distracting him from continuing to taunt Mai.

"Yes Marik," Yami smirked. "I too know the ancient words and to protect Mai from losing the shadow game I'll tell it to her now."

"Yugi that'd be interfering in their duel, I could have you disqualified for that," Kaiba hissed at his rival.

"Then do so Kaiba, because this is bigger than whatever you think there is between us. Mai could actually die up there and I won't standby and let that happen," Yami said as he got up onto the platform and walked over to Mai to whisper to her the chant.

"And you're certain this will work?" Mai asked Yami who gave her a nod in return. "Alright, I'm trusting you. If this doesn't work I'll haunt you when I'm dead," she warned the mysterious person who sometimes took over the body of the sweet young man named Yugi.

"When you fail, you won't even have a soul to come back as," Marik declared as he waited for Mai to make her move.

The sound of Mai chanting was drowned out by the heavenly screech of Ra as it unfurled from its sphere mode.

"No, that's not possible," Marik took a step back in fear as he gazed upon the Egyptian God of the Sun.

"Now Ra, attack Marik's life points directly," Mai proudly commanded as Ra formed a massive ball of fire as it wiped out the remaining life points Marik had.

The shadows swirled and twisted as they attacked Marik for his penalty game and was soon carried off screaming into the shadows before leaving just Mai standing on the platform.

"Oh god," Mai gasped, realizing what just happened, bile began building up in her throat as she understood that Marik was dead now because of the duel they were in. Even after the platform lowered she didn't move from her spot.

The announcer couldn't get a response out of her and neither could anyone else until Yami spoke up. "Mai, I know what you're feeling right now." Yami said, causing Mai to turn on him with fury and tears in her eyes.

"Really, because I think I just killed a man Yugi. How could you possibly know what I feel?" she screamed at him. She stomped over and pushed him hard. "I didn't know that winning that duel would kill him. That wasn't what I wanted."

"I know Mai," Yami sighed. "I know what you are feeling because I have done that before, many times. Not just in duels either."

Joey Wheeler was on his last legs, this Shadow Game stuff was really wearing him down, but despite it all he'd stuck it out. "Gearfried attack," he managed to gasp out as he fell to the floor. The last thing he heard was his sister calling out for him.

Everything about his body hurt as he regained consciousness. The lights were too bright, every sound was like an explosion in his head and he was pretty sure he was surrounded by people. "Hey guys," Joey groaned as he turned his head to see his friends and sister all in the room with him.

"Joey!" Everyone shouted as they hurried over.

Joey chuckled as he sat up. "Jeez guys, you act like I died or something."

"Well…" Tea trailed off nervously. "You kind of did, for a little while."

"Woah, for real?"

Tea nodded slowly. "Mokuba said that you stopped breathing for almost a minute."

Joey let out an appreciative whistle before looking at his friends' faces. "So did I win?"

"Really Joey," Tea slapped Joey on the head. "You hear that you died and the first thing you want to know about is whether you won your duel."

Joey looked ashamed for a moment before a smile crossed his face. "Yeah, so did I win?" he asked again.

The group sighed even as Yugi handed him the Egyptian God Card for Ra. "Yeah, you did." Yugi scratched his cheek.

Joey stared at the piece of whatever the duel monster cards are made of before letting out a cheer for his victory over Marik.

It came as much of a surprise to everyone else who watched the duel when Gearfried sliced into Marik's life points ending the duel.

Author's Notes: These were two quick write ups about how Marik's duels could have ended.

First of all that "chant" to summon Ra, total fucking BS and should never have flown, especially because it doesn't come back up again. That to me was a red flag and while maybe I shouldn't have made it the Pharaoh who told the chant to Mai, when Ishizu should have also known the chant. Either way Mai was ripped of her victory because of BS card hax.

The second story was because Joey declared the attack and it should have gone through regardless of him passing out, even if he did pass out, there are likely no hard rules about maintaining consciousness during a duel.

Either way had Marik lost this would have had drastic implications for the series since now one of the strongest cards is in possession of Mai or Joey. Mai who was then shown in Waking the Dragons to have confidence issues due to losing all the time, would have gotten a big win right there and I think she could have finally beaten Joey to go on to battle Yugi in the finals. That would have been incredible for her.

Joey meanwhile in his duel was being built up as a guy who had nothing to do with this ancient prophecy nonsense and was keeping up with reincarnations and mystical powers. He is surprisingly a good duelist as a result, so him getting a win against the big bad of the series would have been a wild card because of the growth it would have shown over the series as well, from starting as someone who had no idea how to play the game at all to being a part of a major tournament and going all the way with it.

But of course series cannot allow for anyone but the main character to defeat the villain because then what would they do?

Honestly, I just don't like how they handled Marik's duels, he "lost" to both Mai and Joey in his duels and was only saved by plot contrivances with Mai no knowing this specific summoning requirement not listed on the card and the IRL game didn't even exist until 2015. And in Joey's case that despite having life points left he passed out and for some reason that was enough to cancel the attack he called out that would have won him the match. The series should have come up with better non-ass pull ways for Marik to win rather than quickly making up a reason for them to lose.