Thief King Bakura was a villager in Kul Elna and is the unmerged/humane version of Yami Bakura. As his name implies, he is a skilled thief and graverobber. His village was slaughtered by the Pharaoh's command and seeks revenge by obtaining the seven Millennium Items to place in the Millennium Stone in Kul Elna to summon Zorc Necrophades. Due to the overwhelming hatred for the Pharaoh, combined with the restless spirits of Kul Elna, he obtained a very powerful Ka called "Diabound"
Thief King Bakura was introduced to the series in chapter 284 of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga titled: "The Evil Shadow" or " 邪悪なる影" in japanese. He was actually introduced later in the manga, his first appearance being when he invades the pharaoh's palace, which was forseen by Priestess Isis. He's draped in gold and jewelry and refers to himself as a king while smirking, an amazing first impression to his character.
Thief King Bakura's debut in Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters was in episode 201 titled: "Memoirs of a Pharaoh" or "開かれた記憶の扉" in the japanese version. He is seen being on his way to be punished due to graverobbing, fainting mulitple times, before Yami Bakura takes over to start the RPG. Though he is implied to be in a flashback during episode 180 as Atem fought of Diabound with Obelisk.
Why do I like Thief King Bakura in particular so much that I gave him a seperate page, even though he's relatively similar to Yami Bakura? Firstly, the memory world arc is by far my favorite! Mainly due to Bakura but in general the ancient Egypt setting is so cool and interesting. So including TKB was a no brainer. For the superficial reasons, he has an amazing design. His slightly darker and shorter hair, the scar under his eye, his darker skin, the bright red robe contrasting his original blue color pallete, and his hot muscles heheheuheuh- anyways I think he's so so so cool and who doesn't love a character design that shows a bit of skin? But like I've said many times on this site, looks aren't everything and TKB's character only gets better! I love how he's an amazing contrast to Atem, and how he opposes the pharaoh and the kingdom as a whole. I think it's awesome how he's able to stand his ground against a whole army, the seven millennium items, six highly trained priests, the Egyptian cards, and more all by himself! And for valid reason too, his motivations and the incident of Kul Elna make an interesting spin and pin Atem as antagonist, and rightfully so in my opinion, (I wish the show did more with this.) But why do I personally love him? Well I feel represented by him. I feel really happy seeing a lot of dark skinned anime characters on screen during this arc, and I am especially happy seeing one of my all time favorite characters being portrayed as being darker skinned as well as being seen as hot and sexy by the fandom. I feel like a lot of people don't really see the impact that representation has for people like me, but I really appreciate it. And I just appreciate overall this arc taking place in Africa/Middle East. Another thing I really like about him that I briefly mentioned above is that, I love how he had the guts to oppose the pharaoh. Not going to get too political here but that's awesome!
Pharaoh Atem and Thief King Bakura are on bad terms as Atem's father was responsible for sending his men to massacre Kul Elna, his home village. Atem doesn't like TKB because of all the robbing harm he's done to Egypt, as well as robbing his own father's grave.