Pegasus J. Crawford (Maximillion J. Pegasus) (ペガサス・ジェイ・クロフォード; Pegasasu Jei Kurofōdo)
- Voiced by: Jirou Jay Takasugi (JP), Darren Dunstan (EN), Gabriel Gama (Latin American Spanish), Cholo Moratalla (European Spanish)
"Yugi boy... from here on, it isn't just a battle between duelists... it's a battle between those who have been chosen by the Millennium Items. From here on... it's a Shadow Game!"
The Arc Villain of the fourth arc of the manga (first arc in the anime), Pegasus is the enigmatic creator of Duel Monsters and the bearer of the Millennium Eye. He rarely appears before the public, many of whom have never seen his face. Some time after Yugi defeated Kaiba in his Death-T arena, Pegasus duels with Yugi in a Shadow Game...through a video tape, and ends up winning due to the time limit. Pegasus then inflicts a Penalty Game which seals his grandfather's soul into the video tape (in the anime, a blank Duel Monsters card) and asks Yugi to come to his tournament, Duelist Kingdom. It is later revealed that he desires to take over KaibaCorp, and for that to happen, he needs to defeat Yugi in a official match in order to get the prestige title as top gamer. However, his real goal stretches beyond a mere company takeover...
Although he is killed by Dark Bakura in the manga, he survives in the anime. Resurrecting him is the plot of the manga spinoff Yu-Gi-Oh! R, and he appears in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light and Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time. He also appears in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction video game as a main antagonist.
As the creator of Duel Monsters, he uses an exclusive and ridiculously broken Toon Deck, whose monsters cannot be destroyed except by other Toon monsters. On the off-chance that his Toons are overcome, he then pulls out the even more broken "Relinquished" and "Thousand-Eyes Restrict."
Tropes A-K
- Absurdly High-Stakes Game: During his first match against Yugi, he puts Yugi's grandfather's soul on the line through a Shadow Game. Off-panel, he played an unknown game with Mokuba with his soul on the line. During his duel with Seto Kaiba, both Seto and Mokuba's souls are on the line. And during his final duel with Yugi and Dark Yugi, their souls are on the line, with the release of Sugoroku and the Kaiba brothers being the prize, as well as 60% of his company's stock.
- Achilles' Heel: He's so reliant on the powers of his Millennium Eye to give him the edge in duels, that without it he's much less threatening. Yugi lectures him that a duelist needs intuition to duel, but Pegasus has relied on the foreknowledge provided by the Eye for so long that he's lost his intuition, and thus Pegasus starts second-guessing his moves and making misplays.
- Adaptation Dye-Job: He has blue eyes in the manga, but they are brown in the anime. His white pants were also colored red in the anime.
- Adaptational Heroism: Due to the fact that he survives past the point where his manga counterpart died, Pegasus becomes somewhat of an ally to Yugi and his friends in his later appearances in the anime.
- Affably Evil: He may seem like a carefree goof until he gets serious, but even then he's genuinely good-mannered compared to most of the Yu-Gi-Oh! villains.
- Agent Peacock: A fashionable gentleman, a vicious soul-stealer, and a very dangerous opponent.
- Almost Kiss: In the anime, with Cecelia. It's interrupted as she turns into a rose and vanishes to symbolize her illness.
- Ambiguously Gay: His childish, effeminate mannerisms give off this vibe, and yet he is very clearly identified as straight. This is a source of comedy in the Abridged Series.
- Anime Hair: He has a simply fabulous hairstyle.
- Anti-Villain: Type II. All that he wanted was to be with his love, but he doesn't care how many people get hurt in the name of his goal.
- Arc Villain: Of the "Duelist Kingdom" arc, though moreso in the manga where he's killed off afterwards. In the anime, he makes several appearances later on, post-Heel–Face Turn.
- Artifact of Doom: The Millenium Eye isn't evil the way that the Millenium Ring is, but its power is hard to use for anything positive.
- Ascended Fanboy: As a child, he was a huge fan of Western cartoons. In adulthood, he was able to create a deck centered around them, his cards both able to interact with him as well as overcome his opponent with a wink and a nod. Whenever any of his Toon monsters are destroyed in battle, he takes it personally.
- The Atoner: During the anime continuity, where he tries to aid the cast during the DOMA arc and the film, and seems to have genuine regrets about his actions during Duelist Kingdom.
- Author Avatar: Of a sort. Pegasus is the in-universe creator of Duel Monsters and shares many traits with series creator Kazuki Takahashi, especially his fondness for card games, RPGs, and American comics and cartoons.
- Badass Longcoat: In GX, when he's fitted with the technology to paint Rainbow Dragon, he is given a black longcoat to wear with all the gadgets on.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Thanks to the Millennium Eye, being an artifact capable of granting a wish, Pegasus does get to meet Cyndia again... but only for a fleeting moment, and it wasn't even the real thing — just an illusion. It left Pegasus down an eye and in a very precarious mental state.
- Berserk Button: Don't mock Pegasus' Toon Monsters and don't try to take them down. Moreover, don't speak of his past and his plan in front of him.
- Beware the Silly Ones: He acts foppish, playful, and generally acts like his duels are a big joke. However, he's actually very clever and manipulative, and when he drops the silly act he shows you just how ruthless he can be when he starts taking things seriously.
- Arc Villain: Of the Duelist Kingdom arc and the first parts of Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With Dark Bakura during Duelist Kingdom, as Dark Bakura was pulling strings all on his own with Pegasus not even aware of the dark being's existence.
- Big Damn Heroes: In the anime movie The Pyramid of Light, he saves Yugi's friends from death (or at least severe injuries) twice.
- Big "NO!": A few times, the most known one being the one when he is defeated by Yugi.
- Big "OMG!": When he discovers the Egyptian Gods' tablet, he shouts "JEEEESUS!" in the Japanese anime. Before that, he actually says "Oh my god!" when Shadi tells him he knows where to find the tablet with the Gods on it.
- Big "SHUT UP!": To Dark Bakura in the Japanese version of the anime adaptation.Bakura: So your social status and your actions are in fact a mask concealing your true intentions. An extremely roundabout way of reaching a goal hidden in the depths of your heart. And this goal is—Pegasus: SHUT UP! Shut your mouth!
- Big "WHAT?!": On a few occasions.
- Bishōnen: With the hair and the suits etc.
- Boring, but Practical: In terms of abilities and outright power, his Millenium Eye ranks rather low among its peers, but it's a ridiculously advantageous tool in a game where knowing your opponent's next move all but guarantees victory.
- Brainwashed: By the Millennium Eye or rather, the piece of Zorc infecting it to create Duel Monsters, a recreation of the Ka Shadow Games of Ancient Egypt, according to Takahashi.
- Breakout Character: Despite being dead in the original manga, in the anime he was so popular that they kept him alive. He returns in several cameo appearances in GX, even getting to duel again, he's a major antagonist again in Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction, and he features in both mainstream movies. Even his Deck, Toons, is a perennial favorite for new support cards and something of a rogue deck. By contrast, the best Bakura and Marik can usually hope for are very rare cameos in the occasional video game.
- Bring My Red Jacket: His eye-related injuries were not pretty. He also wears a white shirt underneath his red suit. He is killed at the end of Duelist Kingdom (only in the manga; he's kept alive in the anime), and he is actually killed temporarily in the Tenth Anniversary Movie for the NAS Duel Monsters anime.
- Brought Down to Badass: He no longer has the advantage of mind-reading his opponents, but he's still the creator of Duel Monsters and knows the ins and outs of the game. This is shown when he manages to hold his own against Kaiba in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light and when he beats Crowler and Napoleon in GX.
- Camp Straight: As foppish and well-groomed as he is, he had a girl he loved deeply and is doing everything he does to try and see her again.
- Captain Ersatz: Not Pegasus himself, but the "Funny Rabbit" series he so often cites as his inspiration is clearly one for Bugs Bunny.
- Character-Driven Strategy: Maximillion Pegasus is most famous for his Toon deck; a deck that relies on "Toon World", a Spell card that was never officially released because of how insanely powerful it was. Being the founder of Duel Monsters, he had "Toon World" made due to his childhood love for Western Animation, and had based the entire archetype around it. Toon monsters are impossible to destroy using conventional attacks, with many of his strategies involving cards that steal his opponents cards, creating Toon-based parodies of his opponent's monsters. This tells us that Pegasus is a trickster that likes to toy with his opponents, using the power of the Millenium Eye to preemptively guess and subvert his opponent's moves. Like his cheating methods however, his Toon monsters are also incredibly fragile, his strategies falling apart in an instant should "Toon World" be taken off the board.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: In Pegasus's case, they usually do. Take away his ability to cheat via the Millennium Eye, however, and things rapidly fall apart for him. Yugi points out that Pegasus is a lousy duelist, having used the item as a crutch for so long.
- Chekhov's Hobby: We see him gleefully reading a comic book of Funny Rabbit. We later find out that Pegasus' love for the series and cartoons inspired his nigh invulnerable Toon Deck.
- Chekhov's Skill: While we don't actually see it, it was Pegasus' painting skills which may have saved him from dying horribly when he received the Millennium Eye. According to Takahashi, the Eye found Pegasus' abilities useful and used him to have "Ka battles" recreated as Duel Monsters in order to assemble the Millennium Items.
- The Chessmaster: Everything that happens on the island happens because he moved them there four turns ago.
- Childhood Friend Romance: He and Cyndia met when they were children and became attracted to each other, then they got engaged when they grew up (married in the dub). He doesn't get to cherish it for too long, however.
- Comically Invincible Hero: Seemingly the reason his Toon monsters have the ability to avoid or block attacks from other monsters; after this happened for the first time, Pegasus cites how the Funny Rabbit character had not once been caught by or hit with a bullet from his policeman nemesis.
- Complexity Addiction: He organizes a tournament just to have a cover for taking over Kaiba Corporation! All he needed to do is defeat Yugi in an official duel. Granted, we do not know if Pegasus could have taken over the company in a different manner. The manga explains that due to Kaiba's reputation as Japan's #1 gamer being the lynchpin of the company's current success, an official tournament to restore the company's reputation independent of the then-invalid Kaiba was the condition that the Big Five set for Pegasus to take over.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Played with; there's nothing crooked about his game company "Industrial Illusions" (the selling of Duel Monster merchandise, etc) but his Duelist Kingdom tournament is rigged to benefit himself only.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Yami accuses him of having fallen victim to this when he manages to block Pegasus's mind-reading powers, claiming that Pegasus has become so dependent on being able to read his opponent's future moves that he's lost any real tactical ability he ever had for the game. While Pegasus does show more skill in his later duels, this could be attributed to him having time to re-learn his old tricks after losing the Eye, and he certainly finds himself missing his mind-reading ability after he can no longer rely on it in later Shadow Games.
- Curiosity Is a Crapshoot: Shadi told him that the village is full of grave robbers and that he should just leave the place, as he will not find a cure to his heartache. Pegasus thinks he had read his mind, which makes him curious and follows him instead. Needless to say, it does not end well.
- Cutting Corners: Pegasus clearly didn't spend a yen on Duelist Kingdom that he didn't have to; while the island does have some impressive dueling setups, the rest is pretty much all flash and no substance. There's no food or sleeping facilities provided for the duelists, losers apparently have to row back to the mainland themselves, and since the whole tournament was essentially rigged to allow Pegasus to beat Yugi, he never intended to pay out the prize money either.
- The Dandy: Foppish, prefers fancy suits, rich - he fits all the categories.
- Dark and Troubled Past: As Anzu put it in the manga, "the death of his love was the beginning of his tragedy". Then he created the Egyptian God Cards, which he considered his greatest mistake.
- Dead Man Writing: In the anime only, during the Doma arc. Pegasus has his soul taken away by Mai, but he leaves a message behind in the form of a Solid Vision projection of himself for Yugi and his friends.
- Death Is Cheap: While he dies in the manga, he escapes this a few times in the anime.
- By the time of 5D's he has passed away, likely from old age. note
- Demonic Possession: In the Reshef Of Destruction video game, he is gradually possessed by Reshef's evil powers, then the entity ultimately worms itself into his heart.
- Despair Event Horizon: After Cynthia's death. He lost all motivation to basically do anything, and went to Egypt due to learning of the ancient beliefs of life and death, but found nothing until he stumbled on Shadi and the Millennium Items. He was then forced to bear the Millennium Eye and ultimately went mad dedicating himself to see Cynthia, no matter what.
- Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: His Deck consists of an army of completely invincible and flagrantly broken monsters of his own creation. Does this stop him from cheating like a bandit with his Millennium Eye or rigging the circumstances? No, sir, it does not. And notably, he tends to be so thrown off when his opponents manage to adapt against his cheating that his own strategies fall apart.
- The Dragon: In Reshef Of Destruction, he is this to Reshef.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the Tenth Anniversary Movie for the NAS Duel Monster anime universe, a building collapses on him thanks to Paradox's attack. It's undone by a Reset Button in the end, though.
- Dub Name Change: His name change is unique in that the English manga used it as well.
- Eagleland: Not as blatant a Flavor 2 as Bandit Keith, but he is a filthy-rich Manchild obsessed with cartoons, who spouts Gratuitous English at the drop of a hat. In addition, the manga enjoys playing up both his Greed and miserliness: Kaiba recalls how he turned his duel with Bandit Keith into a glorified commercial, and Duelist Kingdom is rife with Cutting Corners, from the utter lack of accommodations for the contestantsnote to how the losers are expected to row back to the mainland by themselves. To top it all off, the Player Killer of Darkness (aka Panik) explains part of the Player Killers' jobs are to ensure Pegasus doesn't have to pay the tournament prize money to anyone.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Pegasus's duel strategy involves using first his Toon monsters and then switch to his Illusion monsters if the opponent is tough enough, but in his first duel with Yugi, Pegasus's main force is instead based in weird clown-like monsters and cards which mess with his opponent's mind, most notably the Faceless Mage and the Dragon Piper. They definitely fit Pegasus and his stylized trickster gimmick, but are never used again except the Dragon Piper, which is used as a sacrifice against Kaiba. It's possible he didn't want to show his hand so early, and being the maker of the game, he can use whatever cards he wants.
- Easily Forgiven: Downplayed. In the anime, when he turns up in the film and the DOMA arc, the cast are wary, but willing to listen to him.
- Easy Come, Easy Go: His anime self isn't too concerned with losing his Millennium Eye, possibly realizing that the ability to see but not touch his lost love was more trouble than it was worth.
- Even Evil Has Standards: In the anime when Jounouchi beats Keith, he reveals that Keith was cheating the entire duel, and congratulates Jounouchi on winning fairly while his guards haul Keith away, and later drops him down a trap door into the ocean. In the manga, he gives Keith an even worse punishment, turning Keith's hand into a gun and forcing him to play Russian Roulette as a Penalty Game.
- He also keeps his promises. When Yugi successfully defeats Pegasus, the man honors his word and releases the souls of Kaiba, Mokuba, and Yugi's grandfather, proving that even at his worst, he is by no means an oath breaker.
- Evil Plan: Use the tournament and soul hostages to acquire Kaiba Corp by beating the King of Games in Duel Monsters (Kaiba Corp's execs need their CEO to be a top-level gamer), and see and feel his beloved fiancee/wife again using Kaiba Corporation's Solid Vision technology.
- Eye Scream: In the manga, when he receives the Millennium Eye (which is not an eye piece, but an entire replacement eye ball), he is heard screaming while we're shown a Shadow Discretion Shot, and it happens again when Bakura steals the Eye and kills him. The anime actually shows Shadi pushing the Eye into his socket, with visible blood afterwards, though Bakura tearing it out is offscreen.
- Fanboy: Of American cartoons, particularly Funny Rabbit. He also knows exactly how many episodes the series has and how many bullets were fired at the main character by the police.note And he is not happy whenever his Toon Monsters get destroyed...
- Final Boss: Of the Duelist Kingdom arc. For Dark Yugi to secure the release of all those Pegasus has abducted with his Penalty Games, he first has to beat the billionaire in a duel.
- Fixing the Game: Makes heavy use of his Millennium Eye to read the mind of his opponents, granting him a huge advantage in any duel. If that weren't enough, he makes two Game-Breaker sets of cards. He can do that; he made the game after all.
- Foil: His flair, smooth confidence, manipulative ability, and results contrast dramatically with the brutally direct failures of Bandit Keith, the arc's other prominent antagonist.
- Four Is Death: His four Player Killers.
- Freudian Excuse: Cynthia is this to him; all his evil is for her sake.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: In the anime, given how much trouble he put them through and his own eccentricities, the cast are reluctant to ever cross paths with him again and are immensely distrustful of him when they have to.
- Friend to All Children: As long as they don't have something he wants or can be used as leverage against the people who do, Pegasus is great with kids. During the National Tournament, before dueling against Keith, he explains how to play the card game to the kids there (though Kaiba points out in the manga that it was a move to create positive advertisement for the card game). In Yu-Gi-Oh R, he adopted orphans from all around the world to tutor them as card designers.
- A Glass of Chianti: He is fond of his wine. It is even listed as one of his favorite foods.
- Gone Horribly Right: If implanted, the Millennium Eye will kill the host if he is unworthy. Unfortunately for the Mutous and the Kaibas, Pegasus was very worthy.
- Graceful Loser: While he's devastated from losing in his duel against Yugi, he nevertheless keeps his promise and returns his victims' souls.
- Gratuitous English: Constantly uses English phrases in his dialogue in the Japanese version, including a despairing Shiiiiiiit! when he loses to Yugi. In particular, his constantly calling Yugi "Yugi-boy" is taken directly from the Japanese version, where he does it in gratuitous English.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: In the manga. We first know he needs something from Yugi, no matter what. Later, we learn from Mokuba that Pegasus intends to take over Kaiba Corporation and must defeat Yugi in an official duel as part of his deal with the Big Five. We don't know why he needs Kaiba's company until the very end of Duelist Kingdom. The dub, and to a lesser extent the original anime, hints at Pegasus' real goal more clearly with giving more importance to Cyndia's portrait in episode 28 (in the manga, the group viewed it briefly, and that's it) and dub!Pegasus' Inner Monologue in episode 34 clearly reveals what he is fighting for.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: A majority of Pegasus' cards involve exploiting the power of his opponent's monsters, spells, and traps for his own benefit. Shadow Toon deserves special mention as it inflicts life point damage equal to the targeted monster's attack points.
- On a bit of a personal level, his grand designs to revive his wife were put down by someone wielding the very cards he invented.
- Homage: His Toon Monsters are this to American cartoons. Also, he prints cards for special events. Richard Garfield printed three special cards for his marriage and the birth of his two children.
- Hypocrite: Calls out Keith for cheating, while he himself uses his Millennium Eye and position as creator of Duel Monsters to full advantage. However, it's averted with regards to how they react to their defeats. Unlike Keith, who proved to be a Sore Loser after his defeat to Joey and tried to threaten Pegasus with a gun, Pegasus accepts his defeat gracefully and honors his promises. It should be noted that Pegasus didn't take the drastic step of dumping Keith into the ocean (Anime) or inflicting a lethal Penalty Game (Manga) until after Keith threatened him with a gun in the former case, and a knife in the latter..
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: In Reshef Of Destruction, Reshef worms itself into Pegasus' heart, who then asks the main character to have him sealed away before Reshef takes him over.
- Icy Blue Eyes: He's cold and distant as an antagonist.
- I Gave My Word: Pegasus promises to release the souls of Seto, Mokuba, and his grandfather if Yugi can defeat him. After he is defeated, Yugi tells him to fulfill his promise, which he does.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: In the manga - he is fairly innocent and naive as a teenager (he wants to help a stranger in Egypt who got into trouble, who is in fact a graverobber who stole a Millennium Item).
- Irony: When Pegasus also seals Kaiba's soul and looks at the two Soul Prison cards with Mokuba and Kaiba's souls in them, he mentions that the two brothers will never know the joy of restarting their relationship in this life. Then comes the end of Duelist Kingdom where karma strikes back at Pegasus - he fails to fulfil his dream of reuniting with Cyndia in his life. Upon learning about Pegasus' past, that particular quote becomes somewhat ironic, even.
- I've Never Seen Anything Like This Before: One of the reasons why his Toons are so powerful. Nobody's ever seen Toon World or Toon monsters in play, as they were too powerful to be circulated, so nobody knew how to counter them.
Tropes K-Z
- Karma Houdini: In the anime, while he does get humbled after the Milennium Eye is stolen (and also, y'know, gets one of his eyes gouged out in the process), he largely goes unpunished for his actions in Duelist Kingdom, and his business continues running. 5Ds even implies that he's memorialized as a hero after his death. At the same time, he's shown to have truly turned over a new leaf, working to properly improve Duel Monsters and in GX is shown to use his past experiences in regards to those who have lost their way, as seen in his reconciliation with Franz, so his status in that continuity perhaps isn't quite undeserved. He stays dead in the manga continuity and Gekko Tenma is the one who takes over Industrial Illusions. He is mentioned in Koyo Hibiki's backstory during the GX manga as the one who gave him Winged Kuriboh, but his face is notably shadowed and ominous there, reminding the reader of his shadier past.
- Kick the Dog: Although a majority of the things he does as a villain are in service of a sympathetic goal, the man has way too much fun playing the bad guy along the way and isn't above messing with people for completely unrelated reasons.
- Kubrick Stare: In the anime, especially during his second duel with Yugi.
- Large Ham: In the original manga, anime, and dub versions he is a showman.
- Laughably Evil: During Duelist Kingdom. He may be amoral, but he's just so funny while he's doing it. Given that Dark Yugi and Kaiba are Stoic Straight Men in response, perhaps he just can't resist.
- Leitmotif: "Illusion" in the Japanese anime.
- Let's Get Dangerous!: He made the game, and has the Millennium Eye, yet it's still hard to take him seriously. His duel with Kaiba and especially his second Shadow Game with Yugi establish just how dangerous this man is.
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: He has shoulder length hair.
- Love at First Sight: He and Cynthia became attracted to each other as soon as they met.
- Love Makes You Evil: His desire to reunite with Cynthia leads him to do rather monstrous things.
- MacGuffin Delivery Service: The primary reason Pegasus didn't mind Yugi's friends accompanying him into his private castle (in the anime at least) was that, thanks to Bakura, the group would be bringing him two Millennium Items rather than just the Puzzle. He simply didn't care one way or other in the manga, where he did not know that Bakura had the Ring.
- Magical Eye: The Millennium Eye is a golden trinket in his eye socket that gives him the power of mind reading and, obviously, Shadow Games.
- Manipulative Bastard:
- Using the Millennium Eye to read minds gives him an absurd advantage over opponents: he can see every card they have, knows every strategy they're thinking of, and can look deeper into their memories to see their entire deck. Aside from his Toons, many of his cards have a Control theme, where he manipulates the opponent's moves and turns their cards back on them, which in tandem with his Eye lets him counter almost anything they might try to throw at him.
- He's also just good at this in general, knowing how to manipulate Yugi and Kaiba perfectly. He abducts Grandpa Muto and Mokuba to force the two to come to his island, when Kaiba is set on rescuing Mokuba he ups the ante by sealing his soul in a card, and when Kaiba tries to force Pegasus to use his Duel Disks, Pegasus agrees on the condition that Kaiba duel Mokuba as Pegasus' proxy, forcing him to back down since he can't bring himself to do it.
- Magitek: Thematically represents such as a contrast to Yugi and Kaiba's Magic Versus Science rivalry, having the Millennium Eye to combat Yugi's Puzzle while being Kaiba's business partner looking to take over his company. Even more apt in the dub, which states that Pegasus's plan to revive his wife was to combine the Millennium Items with Kaiba Corp's hologram technology.
- Meaningful Name: In Japan, a pegasus is often referred to as a "tenma", or "horse of heaven" (ten=heaven, ma=horse). However, there's another word "tenma". The same "ten" kanji is used for both, but the second tenma's "ma" kanji is the one that translates to "demon". Thus, we have a homonym meaning "demon of heaven"...or, to keep the actual, non-literal intent, "fallen angel".
- Mind Rape: One of his Penalty Games. He grotesquely morphed Bandit Keith's hand into a gun and, against his will, made him play Russian Roulette with himself (reliving his depression after he was humiliated by Pegasus in the American tournament).
- Missing Mom: In the manga, his father can be briefly seen, but nothing is known about his mother.
- Mood Whiplash: Oh boy. Pegasus often changes between a cruel villain and a goofy gentleman, but his duel against Yugi is the best example. Even his deck is this Trope, shifting from the silly Toon Monsters to the bizarre and creepy Illusion Monsters. See Villainous Breakdown below.
- The Mourning After: He was willing to do anything to reunite with Cynthia... In the manga, he goes to the grave with this wish in his heart. In the anime, the entire subject is dropped after Duelist Kingdom. note
- My God, What Have I Done?: Though it happens way before his actual Heel–Face Turn, the carnage caused by his recreation of the Egyptian God Cards completely horrified him.
- Mysterious Middle Initial: It has never been stated what the J. stands for.
- Necromantic: The means of his Evil Plan; revive Cyndia, at least in the dub, by using the Millennium Puzzle to bring a hologram of her to life...or something. In the manga, he tragically just wants to feel and see her visage again using Kaiba Corp's Solid Vision.
- Nerf: Pegasus's Toon cards are this in GX. While they're still useful, they're no longer the Game Breakers they were in the original anime. Maybe these were the versions he modified and released to the public?
- Never Say "Die": The 4Kids dub averts this with Cyndia.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Being an American game designer who created a popular card game In-Universe, Pegasus' clearly a homage to Richard Garfield, who's best-known for being the creator of Magic: The Gathering, the Trope Codifier of Trading Card Game.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: He uses this tactic against Seto Kaiba and Yugi.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: He traps Yugi's grandfather's soul in order to force Yugi to come to Duelist Kingdom.
- Oh, Crap!: Gets this look after Yugi summons Magician of Black Chaos.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: In the manga, he deals a brutal and horrific death to Bandit Keith with a penalty game. Few people would shed any tears over him. Downplayed in the anime, where Keith is simply dropped through a trap door into the ocean.
- Pet the Dog:
- At his arrival at Shadi's village, upon seeing a terrified graverobber seized by Shadi's men, he immediately offers to pay for whatever was stolen. And this is supposed to be at the nadir of his post-Cyndia depression, to boot!
- In the manga, he agrees to forgo the finals duel between Yugi and Joey and lets Yugi duel him outright.
- Posthumous Character: In the spin-off manga, Yu-Gi-Oh R, and the manga continuity as a whole.
- Psychopathic Manchild: He loves his favorite comic book and his Toon monsters, but there's a broken and very dangerous man under the childish exterior.
- Redemption Demotion: As the Arc Villain of Duelist Kingdom, Pegasus was a near-unstoppable force and it took everything in Yugi's arsenal to defeat him. Following that arc's resolution, whenever Pegasus reappears, he is presented as an ally to Yugi and his friends. In those appearance, his prowess is less on display, losing his soul to Mai during the DOMA arc and suffering a defeat at Kaiba's hand in the Pyramid of Light movie. A Justified Trope as, without his Millenium Eye, Pegasus lost his biggest advantage over other players and was no longer able to counter his opponent's strategies as swiftly as he could when he knew what cards they were holding.
- Retired Monster: In the Pyramid of Light movie—he's not technically a villain anymore, but he's not really good either, and generally seems to prefer staying out of the affairs of the main cast until it becomes clear that something more sinister is going on. The anime moves him to a proper Heel–Face Turn that is better seen in GX.
- Sad Clown: Throughout the series, he is shown being a overly-competent Giggling Villain and a cheap-skate who is willing to hold souls hostage, humiliate his opponents and lie and cheat to get what he wants. After Yugi and Yami defeats him, it is revealed that everything he ever did was just so that he could be reunited with his dead love Cyndia.
- Sanity Slippage: After getting the Eye: constantly seeing Cyndia just out of reach, unable to touch her and knowing that she's just an illusion cannot have been good for his mental stability.
- Sarcastic Clapping: In the anime, when Kaiba finds Mokuba in the dungeon.
- Scars Are Forever: Post-Duelist Kingdom in the anime, much to the horror to those who witness his empty eye socket.
- Schrödinger's Cast: He's dead and gone in the manga following Duelist Kingdom, but in the anime he survived. The manga spin-off Yu-Gi-Oh! R introduced his protégé Yako Tenma who planned to resurrect him, and Gekko Tenma, Yako's twin brother who stepped in to run the company after Pegasus passed. The anime eventually brought him back for the movie, Seasons 4 and 5 and GX, and in the video game Yu-Gi-Oh! Reshef of Destruction he gets possessed by Reshef after the events of Battle City and is one of the game's main antagonist, being sealed away with the entity afterwards.
- Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: As the creator of Duel Monsters, Pegasus creates cards that are in-universe Game Breakers, such as Toon World, Relinquished, and Thousand-Eyes Restrict, all of which have very powerful effects that singlehandedly turn the tide of duels and are very difficult to counter. Then he never releases them to the public and keeps them for himself. The heroes lampshade that this is obscenely unfair. His Toon monsters also fall under New Rules as the Plot Demands, as their effects are tweaked every time he uses them until GX brings them in-line with their real-life counterparts.
- In Duelist Kingdom, Jounochi and Keith arguably entered the tournament illegally, since they don't have their own dueling gloves or entry cards. Pegasus waves this off and simply treats them as regular competitors.
- Possibly averted by the time of GX, since by that time his Toon cards are somewhat Nerfed and more like their real-life versions. These newer versions may have been released to the public.
- Shower Scene: In the novelization of the Pyramid of Light movie. While we don't see it in the actual movie, it is lovingly detailed in the novel."Pegasus’ entire body is drenched with a cold sweat. Flinging off his silk pajamas to expose his naked white body, he took a hot shower."
- Sissy Villain: He's foppish, childish, and thin, but he's still an intimidating force to reckon with.
- Slasher Smile: In the anime once his duel with Yugi becomes a Shadow Game and he's on the cusp of winning.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He's the anime's Starter Villain and an Arc Villain in the manga, but setting up Duel Monsters arguably makes everything in the franchise past his arc possible. Including several near end of the world scenarios. He still counts as this in the manga, as his creation of the God Cards and introduction of the Millennium Eye set up several of the arc conflicts afterwards, with Dungeon Dice Monsters as the only exception.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Dark Bakura kills him in the manga after he steals his Millennium Eye, but Pegasus survives in the anime and anime-based spinoffs and movies.
- Squishy Wizard: While he's quite smart and manipulates people rather well, he's described as physically weak in the Pyramid of Light novelization, and in the original manga, he tells Kaiba he's not good at physical sports when the Duel Disk prototype is suggested. He's thus a contrast to Bandit Keith, who takes up the role of the big, strong thug.
- Star-Crossed Lovers: With Cyndia. He tries to reunite with her twice, failing both of the times. But in the manga, they do reunite after Pegasus is killed by Bakura and atones for his sins.
- Start of Darkness: His backstory shows how he went from a lovestruck painter to a man who steals souls.
- Stealing the Credit: While rich to start with, he became obscenely wealthy because he "created" Duel Monsters when many of its initial game components and rules were created by the ancient Egyptians.
- Stepford Smiler: His silly and childish exterior hides both insanity and desperation.
- Talking to the Dead: In the anime, he addresses his beloved's portrait before realizing he's being watched by Dark Bakura.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Plans to use Jigen Bakudan to nuke his own field while Relinquished has absorbed Yugi's monsters. Pegasus's score would be unaffected due to Relinquished's Attack Power being zero, but Yami Yugi would take the full 3900 Attack Points of damage that Relinquished had absorbed. Let's keep in mind that Yugi only had 400 Life Points left on that turn. Overkill is kinda putting it mildly.
- Together in Death: With Cyndia in the manga, according to Takahashi.
- Too Awesome to Use: Outside of the cards based on those used in the Egyptian Shadow Games, the expansions Pegasus and his development teams made to Duel Monsters occasionally fell into this. Some of these he keeps to himself (the Toons). Others that were either too powerful or simply unfinished were offered as tournament prizes to be won and owned, but never played. The Egyptian God Cards are the most well-known examples, as their connection to the actual entities turned the cards into incredibly dangerous magical artifacts on top of being powerful cards, which hadn't been Pegasus' intention when he created them, leading to him giving the cards to Ishizu for safe-keeping. Another example is the Golden Castle of Stromberg from the KC Grand Prix filler arc, which was a partially-developed tournament prize that was never supposed to be used in actual competition.
- Took a Level in Badass: A mild example. As other entries note, Pegasus originally had trouble improvising when opponents found a way around his Toon cards and Millennium Eye. However, by the time of GX he beats Crowler and Bonaparte in convincing fashion without any special advantages (he uses Toon Kingdom, but it's been deliberately nerfed to be balanced). Since his previous defeats by Yugi and Kaiba, Pegasus has clearly been polishing his dueling skills.
- Toon: His Toon World magic card transforms monsters into classic toons, complete with the ability to stretch out of the way of attacks. They include Toon Mermaid, Manga Ryu-Ran, Toon Summoned Skull, and the exceptionally powerful Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon.
- Tragic Dream: His desire to spend the rest of his life with Cyndia makes him a Tragic Villain.
- Trap Door: When Bandit Keith threatens his life in the anime, Pegasus presses a button with his foot that opens a trap door around the perimeter of his seat that sends Keith into the ocean.
- The Trickster: One of the more malevolent examples. His deck and play-style have a strong emphasis on rule-bending to just straight-up cheating and his Millenium Eye allows him to plan ways to subvert his opponent's strategies turns in advance. His toons are evocative of Karmic Tricksters and Screwball Squirrels in Western Animation, with every other card being clown-esque in some way.
- Troubled Fetal Position/Dull Eyes of Unhappiness: After Cyndia's death he completely shuts down, only recovering after his trip to Egypt.
- The Unfettered: For his beloved Cyndia, he will steal souls, buy whole companies and crush anyone he needs to.
- Unskilled, but Strong: He has the most powerful deck of his time by a wide margin and supernatural magic on his side. But whenever he can't rely on either, his strategies tend to devolve into firing blindly with his strongest cards while ignoring any defenses the opponent might have set up (which, both times against Yugi, is what does him in).
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Bringing Duel Monsters into the modern era makes him responsible for the original series, its successors, and all the wondrous and cataclysmic events therein.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: In his flashbacks, he was shown to be a kind boy.
- Verbal Tic: "Deeeesu!" and "Maaaasu!" in the Japanese. In both versions, he tends to tack a person's gender onto the end of their name, IE "Kaiba-boy."
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Dark Yugi suspects that Pegasus's dueling skills have decayed quite a bit since he started using the Millennium Eye, forcing him to heavily rely on the effects of his overpowered Toons and Thousand-Eyes Restrict when the Eye's magic is blocked. He's proven right when these effects are worked around and Pegasus is defeated. Later duels in the series don't go much better for him, though he's apparently grown out of this by the time of GX.
- Villain with Good Publicity: In the anime, he survives the Duelist Kingdom arc and remains a beloved cultural icon in the eyes of the world with his crimes of kidnapping and corporate espionage never coming up.
- Villainous Breakdown: When Yugi and Dark Yugi manage to use their Mind Shuffle tactic to evade Pegasus' Mind Scan ability and destroy all his Toon Monsters. Pegasus immediately drops his silly persona and stops toying around, starting a high-level Shadow Game where he even manages to psychically wear out the regular Yugi, albeit temporarily. It's underscored by him changing from the dangerous, yet still goofy Toons to the horrifying, outwardly malevolent Illusion monsters.
- Villains Out Shopping: He is shown drinking wine and reading his Funny Rabbit manga during the Duelist Kingdom tournament.
- Villain Song: For the English 4Kids dub: Face Up, Face Down.
- Vocal Dissonance: His campy and flowery way of speaking, compared to all the horrible things he does. It's even worse in the Japanese version.
- White Hair, Black Heart: He's a cold and manipulative villain, though he does have some sympathetic qualities and and he drops this quality after he is defeated.
- Wicked Cultured: He's sophisticated, smart, drinks fine wine and dresses well.
- The Wonka: He's the creator of Duel Monsters, and is very rich. He's also fond of metaphors, cartoons and has an odd speech pattern. His only close friends are Cyndia (who died), or at the most, Mr. Croquet, his bodyguard. He also has his adopted children in Yu-Gi-Oh R. Nonetheless, he has made his eccentricities, specifically his passion for toons, around which he created an entire archetype, work to his advantage as a game designer.
- Would Hurt a Child: Though this stops after Yugi defeats him.
- Younger Than He Looks: Many people assume he's in his thirties or is much older due to both his white hair and his aristocrat vibe. He's only 24 years old during Duelist Kingdom.
- Your Soul Is Mine!: Most of his Penalty Games involve sealing the loser's soul in inanimate objects. Unfortunately for Bandit Keith in the manga, he got the only downright lethal one.
