Yu-Gi-Oh! Dartz Vs. Zigfried: Who Is The Best Villain?

The Yu-Gi-Oh! anime is filled with filler arcs, to the point that they take up about half of the show’s episodes. All of these filler arcs vary in quality, and fans never know what they’re going to get with them. Two of the most notable villains from the filler arcs, though, are Dartz and Zigfried.

From the Waking the Dragons and KC Grand Championship arcs respectively, the two are generally both pretty good villains, even if they aren’t quite on the level of manga villains such as Pegasus and Marik. Both Dartz and Zigfried have their own strengths and weaknesses that set them apart from one another.

10 Dartz: The Seal Of Orichalcos

One thing that Dartz has over Zigfried is The Seal Of Orichalcos, his ace card. This card is absolutely insane. It powers up monsters, allows duelists to protect certain monsters behind others, summon more than five creatures, and all other sorts of nonsense.

And it steals souls, that one is pretty important. This card is absolutely insane and provides some pretty steep competition for Yugi and the gang to take on. It even causes Yugi to lose at one point, but more on that later.

9 Zigfried: Has An Attainable Goal

Dartz’s goal is a bit ridiculous, as he plans on harvesting souls in order to revive a thousands-of-years-old beast and take over the world with it. That’s a bit much. Zigfried, on the other hand, really just wants to destroy KaibaCorp. Now that’s relatable.

Zigfried is one of the few villains in the series that doesn’t want to take over the entire world, which is very refreshing. He makes for a nice change of pace in the series that isn’t seen often.

8 Dartz: His Henchmen

Dartz actually comes with his own crew, which, of course, Zigfried does not. That doesn’t mean that his crew is good, it’s just a factor that he has over Zigfried. Dartz’s crew consists of sideburns, Australian, crop top, and Mai Valentine.

While it was a shame to see Mai turn to the dark side after what Marik did to her, it was a surprising plot point that no one could see coming. It’s a shame that she never got a true redemption arc.

7 Zigfried: His Arc Is Better

Dartz’s Waking the Dragons arc is very, very long. It runs for an entire season and comes with a plethora of pacing problems because of that. Zigfried’s KC Grand Championship, on the other hand, only runs for 14 episodes.

It is concise, which was needed after such a long arc. Due to its shorter runtime, everything is a lot smoother, giving Zigfried a much better arc than Dartz.

6 Dartz: Came With Some World-Building

One of the interesting things about the Waking the Dragons arc is that it came with a nice bit of world-building. The arc sees the gang traveling all over the world, we get to learn a bit about KaibaCorp and how it functions, and there are implications for the fate of the world if Yugi loses to Dartz.

Waking the Dragons builds on the lore of Yu-Gi-Oh! in a way that the KC Grand Championship arc doesn’t, which makes Dartz a more interesting villain in some senses.

5 Zigfried: The Leon Fakeout

The KC Grand Championship arc, and a few others, to be fair, can be predictable. It’s easy to guess what will come next. As such, it was a nice plot twist for the final villain of the arc to be none other than the unsuspecting Leon, Zigfried’s younger brother.

This detail is hidden until the end of the arc, leading to quite a surprising reveal that is hard to see coming. It sets up an interesting battle that will be delved into in just a bit.

4 Dartz: Yugi Loses To Rafael

It’s not something you hear often, but Yugi actually loses to Rafael, one of Dartz’s henchmen. He tricks Yugi into using The Seal Of Orichalcos when he thinks he’s backed into a corner, which leads to Yugi’s eventual defeat.

Yugi never ever loses, so for Dartz to be able to say that one of his henchmen was able to defeat the King of Games is absolutely huge. Yugi even loses his soul because of it, and the Pharaoh takes the lead for the rest of the season.

3 Zigfried: The Illegal Card Angle

Yugi’s final battle with Leon isn’t just surprising because he turns out to be the final villain, but because he uses an illegal card in his duel with Yugi, The Golden Castle Of Stromberg.

This was the first time that anything like this had been done in the series. It proved to be a huge challenge for Yugi to overcome, as Zigfried had added numerous powers to the card. In the end, it took Yugi and Leon working together to destroy the card, and with it, Zigfried’s plans.

2 Dartz: Everything Zigfried Does Makes No Sense

Dartz’s plans are pretty straightforward. He’s going to revive Leviathan and take over the world with it. That makes sense, even if it’s a bit… wild. Zigfried, on the other hand, wants Leon to win the KC Grand Championship to destroy KaibaCorp so Schroeder Corp can become No. 1. How does Leon winning the tournament destroy KaibaCorp?

At the very, very most, it makes KaibaCorp look dumb because they missed this scheme. It would never destroy the company.

1 Zigfried: His Backstory

While Zigfried’s plan might be a bit silly, his motivations and backstory are concrete, at the least. While Dartz’s whole 10,000 years ago/Atlantis story is a bit far-fetched, Zigfried’s rivalry with Kaiba is grounded in reality.

They’ve been rivals since they were children, so his actions make sense in the end. Everything in Dartz’s arc is just too much to take in.

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