Pegasus J. Crawford

Enlist the help of Yugi Moto, Joey Wheeler and Seto Kaiba to save the world from Dartz.  (succeeded)
Continue to help Yugi & co on their adventures.  (succeeded)

### Crimes

Soul theft
Tomb raiding
Kidnapping
Child Abuse

### Type of MB

Tragic Mastermind

**Pegasus J. Crawford** (known as **Maximillion J. Pegasus** in the 4Kids version) is one of the main characters in the *Yu-Gi-Oh!* franchise.

In the manga he is the main antagonist of the Duelist Kingdom arc and a posthumous antagonist for the remainder of the series. In the anime *Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters* continuity, he is the main antagonist of season 1, a flashback antagonist in both seasons 2 and 3, the tritagonist of the 2004 film *Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light*, a supporting protagonist in season 4, a minor character in season 5, a major protagonist in *Yu-Gi-Oh! GX,* a major character of *Yu-Gi-Oh! Bonds Beyond Time* and a posthumous character in *Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds.*

He is an American artist and eccentric billionaire who is best known as the creator of Duel Monsters and the CEO of Industrial Illusions, as well as being the former possessor of the Millennium Eye, enabling him to read minds or trap people's souls inside cards.

He was voiced by Jiro Jay Takasugi in the Japanese version of the anime, and Darren Dunstan in the English dubbed version.

## Biography

### Early Life

Pegasus was born into a very wealthy and influential family and lived a very comfortable and glamorous life. From a young age he expressed great artistic talent as well as a huge love for cartoons and comic books which continued all the way into his adulthood, with his favorite in particular being "Funny Rabbit". At the age of nine Pegasus met his one true love Cyndia (Cecelia in the English dub) and the two almost immediately hit it off and fell in love with another. The pair continued their romance all the way into adolescence until finally being wed to another at the age of seventeen. Unfortunately their love did not last as Cyndia was soon diagnosed with a terminal disease and quickly succumbed to the effects of her illness and passed away leaving Pegasus heartbroken, alone and depressed.

Desperate to find a way of conquering death and restoring his loved one, Pegasus turned to Egypt for an answer where he met Shadi a shadowy and mysterious man who was the guardian of the Seven Millennium Items, initially Pegasus was interested in getting the Millennium Key from him however after being refused decided to follow Shadi into a pyramid where he saw a man being tested to bear the weight of the ring on himself only for him to be brutally killed, leaving Pegasus mortified before being caught by Shadi. Impressed by his perseverance Shadi decided that perhaps Pegasus was suited for the Millennium Eye as opposed to the ring and as such forced the item into his left socket and surely enough he was found to be the worthy host for the item. With the eye Pegasus found himself able to look into the spirit realm where he was overjoyed to see Cyndia once more, being reunited with her at long last, however unfortunately for the couple they could only see one another and couldn't touch or even be in each other's company for long, Shadi explained that the magic from the eye only allowed him to see his late wife temporarily and he would need something much more powerful for her to be permanently restored. This sparked Pegasus on his ambitious life's mission, learning about the ancient shadow games of Egypt's past and turning it into a tabletop card game while also plotting to obtain the remaining Millennium Items in order to restore Cyndia to him properly.

During the rise of Duel Monsters Pegasus found himself becoming an international celebrity and struck a deal with the Kaiba Corporation and its CEO Seto Kaiba for the latter company to become sponsors for Duel Monsters while Industrial Illusions supplied them with funding for duelling equipment such as arenas and eventually disks. Meanwhile behind the scenes he began working behind Kaiba's back and talked the traitorous Big Five into allying themselves with him in order to get rid of Kaiba from the equation so they could take over the Kaiba Corp for themselves, the Big Five agreed and assumed Pegasus was merely doing this for profit however unbeknownst to anyone this was actually part of his plan to restore Cyndia, with him wanting to use the resources and technology from the company to somehow bring back her physical form.

Pegasus also managed to locate the Millennium Puzzle as belonging to Yugi Moto, a young man who was a quickly rising master at Duel Monsters, prompting an impressed Pegasus to make plans for the Duellist Kingdom tournament while also orchestrating and taking part in the American Championship as a way to promote his upcoming tournament. It is here when his animosity with Bandit Keith began, after he humiliated him on stage by having a child from the audience play the final moves of the game which managed to give a crushing defeat to Keith, leaving him outraged and disgraced. At this point Pegasus announced the start of his new tournament and bestowed personal invitations to the Championship finals players Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor.

By this time he was fully aware of Yugi Moto's presence and had also kidnapped Mokuba Kaiba, finally making his move with the Big Five after Kaiba had been put out of commission by a devastating defeat from Yugi and Atem which ended with him meeting a Shadow Game punishment namely a mind crush which left him comatose in the manga and emotionally empty in the anime, making him unable to intervene with Pegasus's plot.

### Duellist Kingdom (Manga & Anime)

After setting his plan into motion Pegasus sends Yugi a package containing a VHS tape and a fingerless glove with two star chips, the tape had a note on it instructing Yugi to put it into his video cassette player. As soon as this happens however Yugi and his friends as well as his grandfather are knocked unconscious and Atem must take centre stage. Pegasus introduces himself over the tape and demands that Atem duel him to which the latter reluctantly complies noting the situation his friends are currently in however is shocked to find that Pegasus can read his thoughts through his use of the Millennium Eye making the duel tricky. Quickly however Atem did manage to gain the upper hand however before he could finish Pegasus off the duel ran out of time and Pegasus won by default since the attack didn't yet land and he still had his life points, he then told Atem that he and Yugi now had to attend his Duellist Kingdom tournament and in order to force them into doing so he used the power of the Millennium Eye to steal the soul of Yugi's grandfather before disappearing. In that moment Yugi returned to take over and shook the TV in horror over what happened, helpless to do anything but join the tournament.

The Duellist Kingdom tournament was set into motion and Pegasus sent out several traps, tricks and distractions for Yugi and company in order to both throw off other competition to ensure Yugi's place in the finals and also so he could test Yugi's skills and watch them improve. Throughout this time Pegasus also set his sights on Seto Kaiba who he was vigorously pursuing all the while trying to reassure the Big Five that their plot would run smoothly. While all of his other allies seemed to be stressing over the situations and growing more and nervous Pegasus remained as cool and calm as ever.

When the finals rolled around Pegasus extorted Seto by stealing Mokuba's soul and forcing him to duel Yugi for a chance of getting it back to which the latter reluctantly accepted, he managed to win the duel by default by threatening to kill himself forcing Yugi to stop Atem from delivering the finishing blow in their duel and thus killing Kaiba. Following this Pegasus offered Kaiba the chance to duel him for a chance at restoring Mokuba's soul however he took advantage of Kaiba's desperate and agitated state of mind and threw him off guard for so long by making bizarre and unpredictable tactics which ended in him ultimately defeating Kaiba and stealing his soul as well.

The finals finally occurred properly and Pegasus watched the penultimate duels, with the final one in particular being of interest as it was between Yugi and Joey two close friends and allies both forced to fight with stakes neither of them could afford to lose. Bitterly but still sympathetically Pegasus thought of Joey and began a cynical rant about how unfair the world is and how friendship ultimately won't save you before being reminded of Cecelia and his one reason for wanting to do what he does. Ultimately Yugi defeated Joey and Pegasus would face the former in the final battle of the Duellist Kingdom.

During the duel Pegasus turned it into a shadow game separating Yugi and Atem from their friends while also ensuring it was an environment that would heavily weaken Yugi, thus making the stakes and challenge harder than ever. Unfortunately for Pegasus however he overestimated the Millennium Eye's abilities and Atem quickly deduced that it was actually his greatest weakness as well as his biggest asset. As such Yugi and Atem kept switching forms to throw Pegasus off even as he continued to gain the upper hand and deliver crushing blow after crushing blow until Yugi was ultimately out of the picture. Finally Atem managed to defeat Pegasus much to his horror and dismay.

### Death (Manga Only)

After his defeat a devastated Pegasus told Atem everything about his life, backstory and motivation for what he did and even apologised for all the pain he put him through, promising to keep his word on freeing the souls of Yugi's grandfather and the Kaiba brothers before meeting a shadow game punishment. Surprisingly however Atem took pity on Pegasus and decided not to punish him, seeing that he was already heartbroken enough. Unfortunately for Pegasus however this same kindness was not given to him by Dark Bakura who ambushed him after he had freed the souls from his hold and gouged the Millennium Eye out from his face before leaving him to bleed to death, taking the eye for himself to help in his future evil plans.

### Future (Anime Only)

In the anime a grief struck Pegasus ran off after losing to Yugi and Atem and relented over his failure before declaring that he was a man of his word and he released the souls of Yugi's grandfather as well as the Kaiba brothers. Yami Bakura then entered the scene and toyed with Pegasus before forcing him into a shadow game with his Millennium Eye as the wager, due to being exhausted from his previous duel he was beaten easily and left in horror as he realised who and what Bakura actually was before having the eye torn from his face. Thankfully however Pegasus's guards came to his aid quickly and rushed him to the hospital. Yugi and co then discovered his diary and read it, revealing his entire backstory and life to them, Yugi also then noticed that the soul cards for the Kaiba brothers and his grandfather were now blank and the gang took pity on their opponent, realising he wasn't as evil as they may have initially thought.

Meanwhile Pegasus was left comatose for a while however after recovering the first thing he did was have Industrial Illusions complete publishing work on Dungeon Dice Monsters another tabletop game created by Duke Devlin which impressed Pegasus greatly, he promised the two they would become business partners shortly prior to the events of Duellist Kingdom and surely enough the first thing he did once he had recovered was distribute it while informing Duke Devlin much to his joy. Pegasus then decided to take it easy and lay low for a while, enjoying a retirement from duelling while also watching the Battle City tournament and continuing his work with Industrial Illusions.

Pegasus was finally thrown back into the world of duelling when Seto Kaiba approached him and demanded he give him a card to defeat the nigh unstoppable Egyptian God cards, Pegasus kept up his usual demeanour and took up Kaiba on the offer while also taunting him for his repeated failures to best Yugi. During their duel however it became evident that Pegasus had grown rusty and wasn't the man he once was and Kaiba managed to best him quite quickly, with the blowback from the duel being so severe that it actually knocked Pegasus off his feet, suggesting that his physical strength had suffered from the loss of the Millennium Eye. Kaiba then scolded Pegasus for withholding information of a second card from him however Pegasus was genuinely confused and had no idea what he was talking about and as such began investigating the supposed "Pyramid of Light" card Kaiba had taken and realised the dangers it actually brought about and as such hurriedly prepared a helicopter to go and aid Yugi, Kaiba and the others from the consequences of Kaiba using it in a duel.

He managed to arrive in time and rescue Mokuba Kaiba, Solomon Moto and Tea Gardener from the ensuing chaos before explaining the situation with Anubis to them. Tea then decided to jump from the helicopter to try and aid her friends however was thankfully pulled back inside in time by Pegasus and the others however her spirit had left to go and help Yugi and co leaving her body catatonic. Ultimately however the duel was won thanks to both Atem and Kaiba teaming up at the last minute and Pegasus was seen with the others examining the debris before eventually departing to go home.

He next appeared when he knew that Dartz was on his tail and decided to send a video tape and invitation to Yugi warning him of the situation regarding the man, and even ensured to make a hologram of himself as a pre-emptive measure, his seemingly extreme acts turned out to actually be justified as he ended up being ambushed by a brainwashed Mai Valentine and having his soul stolen as fuel for the Orichalcos. He did however manage to assist Yugi and co through use of his hologram during these events and even managed to encounter both Joey and Kaiba in spirit form where he explained the situation in all of its detail before ultimately having his soul restored after Dartz had been bested.

Pegasus remained out of action for a while however was informed by Duke Devlin of Atem's soul finally being ready to go to its resting place and he congratulated his former opponent on how far he had come and how he wished for the best for he and all of his companions. His final appearance in the anime showed him securing a deal with Zigfried and Leon von Schroeder in order to save their company from bankruptcy by partnering their corporation with Industrial Illusions.

## What Makes Him Magnificent?

### Both Adaptations

* His brilliant cognitive abilities, business skills and artistic and creative nature served him spectacularly in both incarnations of the series and he used all of them to make himself as successful and powerful as he ultimately became.
* His unpredictable tactics and his habit of getting under his opponent's skin by annoying and frustrating them until they're distracted enough to drop their guard.
* His insight allowing him to easily predict whenever someone would try to harm him, most notably when Bandit Keith pulled a gun on him.
* Hosting the Duelist Kingdom tournament in order to manipulate events that lead Yugi into facing him during the finals and his goals was reviving his wife Cecelia.
* Outsmarts Yugi Moto, Atem and Seto Kaiba on numerous occasions.
* Keeping his promise to Yugi to free the souls of his grandfather and the Kaiba brothers after losing the duel against him.
	+ Also agreeing to allow Joey to take the award money even though he only came in second place since Yugi didn't want it and the latter needed it for his sister's eye operation.

### Anime Only

* Even after being left comatose for months after losing the Millennium Eye Pegasus didn't lose any of his smarts, flamboyance or intelligence and adjusted to normal life again quite quickly.
* Using all of his resources to save the lives of the main cast during the near apocalyptic duel between Atem, Kaiba and Anubis.
* Realising he was a target for Dartz and consequently leaving Yugi one of the three dragon cards that would allow him to fairly duel the man.
* Willingly giving up his one chance at seeing Cyndia once again by allowing Atem to enter his final resting place, even congratulating both he and Yugi on how far they came together.

## What Makes Him a Baddie?

### Both Adaptations

* Humiliating Bandit Keith in front of an audience of millions.
* Stealing the soul of Yugi's grandfather in order to force him into participating in the Duelist Kingdom tournament.
* Usurping control of Kaiba Corp with The Big Five.
* Kidnapping Mokuba Kaiba and locking him in a tower for weeks.
* Stealing Mokuba's soul and blackmailing Seto Kaiba into dueling first Yugi and then himself for a mere chance of getting him back.
* Stealing Seto's soul after winning the duel against him.
* Putting Yugi and Atem into a shadow game for their duel and nearly killing Yugi consequently.

### Manga Only

* Making Bandit Keith play Russian Roulette with himself as punishment for trying to assassinate him, leading to fairly obvious results.

## External Links

* Pegasus J. Crawford at the Villains wiki
* Pegasus J. Crawford at the Villainous Benchmark wiki
* Pegasus J. Crawford at the *Yu-Gi-Oh!* wiki