Maximillion Pegasus

Maximillion J. Pegasus, aka Pegasus J. Crawford in the Japanese version. He is the president of Industrial Illusions and the creator of the game of Duel Monsters. He owns many cards that have never been released to the public. Pegasus is one of the few characters to use his English anime name in the English manga. Although on one occasion, he is referred to by his original name from the Japanese version, Pegasus J. Crawford.

Background
Pegasus first met Cecelia at a party thrown by his businessman father in Las Vegas 14 years before Duelist Kingdom. The two fell in love and made plans to live together. Pegasus often spent time painting portraits of her. (In the dub, the two got married.) Cecelia died of illness at the age of 17.

Pegasus searched the world looking for anything that could possibly revive the dead. His quest led him to Egypt, where their beliefs of an afterlife intrigued him.

Pegasus searched the world looking for anything that could possibly revive the dead. His quest led him to Egypt, where their beliefs of an afterlife intrigued him.

Here he met Shadi, the ghost of a guardian of the Millennium Items. Shadi warned him that he wouldn't find the solutions to his problems here and tells him to leave. Pegasus is impressed as he thinks Shadi just read his mind. He ignores Shadi's warning and follows him to an underground temple. After Shadi realizes Pegasus followed him, he puts him to the Millennium Eye's test. If Pegasus was worthy of the Eye, he would be granted his dearest wish, which was to see Cecelia again. Pegasus has his left eye replaced with the Millennium Eye, which Shadi forced into Pegasus' socket.

After receiving the eye, Pegasus saw a vision of Cecelia for a brief moment, enough to hug her before returning to reality.

Pegasus soon learned of the ancient Shadow Games that were played in ancient Egypt and became obsessed with their powers. Having created Industrial Illusions, he started a new game in the United States, Duel Monsters, a card game based on the duels of ancient times. Combining the magic of the Millennium Items with these cards had the same effect as using them with the stone slabs originally used.

On a second trip to Egypt, Shadi took Pegasus to an underground city and led him to chamber, containing a tablet of carvings of the Egyptian Gods. Pegasus then returned to America to create the God Cards, basing them off what he'd seen on the tablet.

However, everyone Pegasus employed to work on the God cards died. Despite this, Pegasus refused to stop this project. He continued to paint the God Cards himself. As he did so, he fell asleep and dreamed of a Egyptian city being destroyed by the Gods. Shadi appeared to Pegasus in the dream and warned him of the danger he was unleashing. He told Pegasus that his only hope was to return the God Cards to their resting place.

Fearing for his life, Pegasus returned to Egypt, and had Ishizu Ishtar, a current guardian, bury the Egyptian God Cards in the Pharaoh's tomb.

In the English version, during some unprecedented time in the creation of Duel Monsters, Pegasus had also traveled to Eastern Asia, where he drew inspiration from the religions and mythologies to create the Spirit monster card variety.

Pegasus receives a proposal from Seto Kaiba from KaibaCorp inquiring about developing a Dueling Arenas to amplify Duel Monsters.

Pegasus participated in the Intercontinental Duel Monsters Championship tournament and faced Bandit Keith in the finals. Pegasus toys with Keith and reads his mind using the Millennium Eye. He scribbles down some notes and calls a kid, named Sam, from the audience over. He hands Sam the instructions and tells him to use them to defeat Keith. In the meantime, Pegasus sits with Kaiba and happily accepts his proposal to develop the holographic system, as they watch Sam defeat and humiliate Keith.

Pegasus is also present at the regional Duel Monsters championship in Japan. He hands the prizes to the winner Weevil Underwood and invites him to participate in his upcoming tournament.

Pegasus is the inspiration for Dungeon Dice Monsters, a game that Duke Devlin created. After playing Duke in a game, Pegasus approves the creation of Dungeon Dice Monsters, wanting to expand it further. Upon Pegasus' request, Duke allows him to make an addition to the game. Pegasus adds "Dark Magician" as a monster, which Duke doesn't learn of until later. Pegasus also hacks into KaibaCorp's computer system and adds some of Dungeon Dice Monsters' data.

Personality
Pegasus is depicted as a well-mannered, yet overly dramatic man obsessed with cartoons, concealing the appearance of a ruthless businessman and gamer, yet man of his word.

Pegasus has a habit of calling  Yugi  "Yugi-boy" and Kaiba "Kaiba-boy". This trend continues in ''Yu-Gi-Oh! GX''. When sufficiently provoked, he can ha ve a temper. Pegasus is also notable for his foppish manner, dandified appearance, and effeminate hairstyle, all of which have led to him being referred to as "cutie-pie" (by Bandit Keith) and an "overdressed prima donna" (by Joey Wheeler).

Pegasus is interested in cartoons, especially Funny Bunny, which he watched every Saturday morning while growing up in America. Cartoons are the inspiration for many of his cards, such as the Toon Monsters.

Pegasus at first comes across as a cheater with a thirst for collecting souls and achieving his ambitions. This impression is changed when his true motive is revealed. Not only is Pegasus an excellent business man, his motivations for acting as the above was the resurrection of his late lover Cecelia. Furthermore Pegasus himself honors his pledge to Yugi Muto claiming to be both "duty bound" and a "man of [his] word", releasing the souls of Solomon Muto, Seto Kaiba and Mokuba Kaiba before being defeated in a Shadow Game by Yami Bakura. Despite cheating with the Millennium Eye himself, he at least punished Keith Howard for cheating right in front of him; in the anime, he was somewhat light-hearted in this aspect, simply making fun of Keith while dropping him with a trapdoor, but in the manga, Pegasus was deadly serious by personally killing Keith.

He does shows a moment of kindness when others needed help or reserved to anything they need.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Duelist Manga
Pegasus' father was a wealthy man, who managed casinos in Las Vegas. While Pegasus was growing up, he watched Funny Rabbit every Saturday morning and considered its characters to be his best friends at the time.

Around the age of 10, while attending a social function, he met Cyndia, the daughter of one of his father's friends. The two fell in love and spent a lot of time together. They would often talk about their dreams, with Pegasus aspiring to be an artist who would travel around the world. They swore to spend their lives together. Shortly after Pegasus turned 17, Cyndia got sick and died also at the age of 17, causing Pegasus to fall into a state of depression.

Shortly after Cyndia's death, Pegasus became interested in the ancient Egyptian beliefs in life after death and traveled to Egypt to learn more. He visited the Valley of the Kings. Inside the village, Kul Elna, he saw a thief about to be prosecuted for stealing the Millennium Ring. Fearing for the thief's safety, Pegasus offered to buy the Ring with all the money he had in exchange for the man being let go. However Shadi appeared and advised him not to flaunt his wealth in that area. He explained that the man was to be punished for the theft and the value of the Ring was irrelevant, but priceless. Shadi warned Pegasus that thieves were a common sight in the village, suggested that he leave and added that it was not a place where the sadness of losing a lost one is healed.

Pegasus was surprised that Shadi seemed to have read his mind, so he secretly followed him and the other prosecutors. They went to an underground temple where they put the thief on trial to see if he was chosen by the Ring. The ring was put on him, which resulted in his body burning up, killing him. Pegasus was caught spying on the ritual and taken down to Shadi. He begged to be let go and promised not to tell anyone what he had seen. However he was only permitted to leave if he became bearer of a Millennium Item, so he was to be tested by the Millennium Eye. If was deemed worthy, Shadi said he would be granted his dearest wish. The other men cut out Pegasus left eye and inserted the Millennium Eye in its socket. Pegasus passed the test and for a moment was embraced by an apparition of Cyndia.

At some point, Pegasus painted portraits of Shadi and Cyndia, which he hung up in his castle, but did not like to talk about them.

While in the Valley of the Kings, Pegasus also heard legends of Egyptian magicians, who had power to seal monsters in stone tablets and summon them to fight battles. He created the card game Duel Monsters as a means of bringing these ancient games to the modern world.[7] Pegasus founded the company Industrial Illusions and established himself as a young genius game designer on creating Duel Monsters,[8] Among the cards he created were the three Egyptian Gods. He regarded their creation as his greatest mistake as three cards gained power as if the gods dwelled within them, making them powerful weapons. He tried to destroy the God Cards, but could not bring himself to do it, so he had the Egyptian supreme council of antiquities bury the cards in different locations in the Valley of the Kings.[9] Pegasus also designed the Wicked Gods, but refrained from creating them for the same reason he regretted creating the Egyptian Gods.

Duel Monsters became a huge success in the United States, with players said to be in excess of twenty million and many tournaments hosted with large prizes.[11] He received an offer from KaibaCorp to develop Virtual Simulation Battle Boxes together, to enhance the experience of playing Duel Monsters.

The United States top Card Professor, Keith Howard challenged Pegasus to a Duel. Pegasus was not interested at first, but accepted under the conditions that the prize was to be one million dollars, the Duel was to take place in a stadium capable of holding fifty thousand people and broadcast nationwide with earnings split between sponsors and TV stations. The Duel was to take place in the New York Duel Stadium. Before it began, Pegasus took the time to teach some children present how to play Duel Monsters. He gave one of the children, Tom, a Deck of cards as he could not afford to build a good one of his own. When the Duel began, Pegasus performed a Mind Scan on Keith and wrote instructions on a piece of paper. He then called Tom to the Duel and gave him the paper, telling him to follow the instructions and he would win. In the meantime, Pegasus sat with his guest, Seto Kaiba from KaibaCorp and accepted his offer to develop the Battle Boxes. When Tom defeated Keith, Pegasus took him to the camera and advertised Duel Monsters as a game where even a beginner can beat a strong champion, effectively turning the Duel into a commercial.

Pegasus grew fond of the Solid Vision technology KaibaCorp was developing. It was capable of creating projections that were more lifelike than simple holograms. He hoped to takeover KaibaCorp, so he could have the technology and use it to create a lifelike projection of Cyndia. He got a number of his employees work at KaibaCorp as spies, including Saurwatari.

Pegasus took in a number of orphans, including Yako Tenma, Gekko Tenma, Depre Scott and Richie Merced, as protégés to be potential heirs to Industrial Illusions, while raising the others to be professional gamers and designers.

When Seto Kaiba was left in a coma after losing to Yugi Mutou in Death-T, KaibaCorp shares began to plummet. With the company in a bad state and Kaiba out of action, Pegasus seized the chance try and take over it. He made a deal with the company's leading stock holders, the Big Five, in which he could buy the position of chief executive if he defeated Yugi Mutou in an official game of Duel Monsters in order to rebuild the company's reputation.

To defeat Yugi Mutou, Pegasus organized the Duelist Kingdom Duel Monsters tournament. It was to place on his island, which shared its name, Duelist Kingdom. Participants were given 2 Star Chips to wager in Duels in the battle royal format preliminary stages. The Duels were to take place in Battle Boxes scattered across the island, granting different Field Power Sources based on their location.[15] Duelists who acquire 10 Star Chips would earn the right to enter his castle. Pegasus also hired Player Killers to try and defeat Yugi in the preliminary stage, and win Star Chips from the regular participants, so that no more than four finalists could enter the castle. The finalists would participate in a knockout stage with the winner facing Pegasus. If they could defeat him, they would win $200,000 US.

Invitations were sent to Duelists Industrial Illusions deemed to be the best in Japan.,[20] including one to Yugi, along with an 8 mm videotape. Pegasus also appeared at the finals of the Japanese National Duel Monsters Championship, where he congratulated the winner Insector Haga, and personally invited him to the tournament. Pegasus arranged the boat ride to the island.

Duelist Kingdom arc
Pegasus is informed of the uncontested Duel Monsters champion, Seto Kaiba, being defeated by Yugi Muto. He struck a deal with The Big Five from KaibaCorp in an attempt to overthrow Seto Kaiba and gain control of KaibaCorp. Pegasus planned the Duelist Kingdom tournament in the hopes of defeating Yugi Muto to restore the company's reputation (and take Yugi's Millennium Puzzle in the English version). He planned to use KaibaCorp's Solid Vision technology to create a holographic version of Cecelia. (In the English version, he planned on using the Millennium Items and the technology to revive Cecelia.)

Pegasus sent Yugi a videotape and items needed to participate in the tournament. Through the videotape, Pegasus was able to communicate with Yugi on the spot and faced him in a timed Duel. Pegasus won and stole the soul of Yugi's grandfather as Yugi's Penalty Game. He forced Yugi to enter Duelist Kingdom to get back the soul of his grandfather.

Pegasus sent his henchmen to take care of Kaiba, but he escaped, making it look like he jumped to his death. Pegasus henchmen kidnapped Mokuba, who had swallowed a key to a safe of documents Pegasus requires to take over KaibaCorp.

Kaiba managed to get to the Duelist Kingdom island and demanded that Pegasus give Mokuba back. Pegasus responded by sealing Mokuba's soul in the "Soul Prison" card. He told Kaiba he would need 10 Star Chips to see him, like the other contestants. He gave him the 5 Star Chips Mokuba had previously stolen and told Kaiba that he must beat Yugi to get the other 5.

Kaiba did so and prepared to Duel Pegasus using his Duel Disks, which he has designed to counter Pegasus' mind reading strategy. Pegasus agreed to use them, provided Kaiba also accepts his terms; to have Mokuba's body hold his Duel Disks. Kaiba refused to attack his own brother, so he Dueled Pegasus using a standard Dueling Arena. With the ability to read his opponent's mind, Pegasus defeats Kaiba and traps his soul in another "Soul Prison" card.

Pegasus watched the semi-final Duels; Yugi Muto against Mai Valentine and Joey Wheeler against Bandit Keith. Having been humiliated by Pegasus in their last encounter, Keith held a gun to Pegasus after losing his Duel and demanded the prize money. Pegasus opened a trap door, causing Keith to plummet into the ocean.

As he planned, Pegasus ends up Dueling Yugi. Were Pegasus to win, Yugi's soul would be sealed in a card. Should Yugi win, Pegasus would release the souls of Yugi's grandfather and the Kaiba brothers. The Millennium Eye initially gives Pegasus a massive advantage, but Yugi and Yami Yugi are able to outsmart him by using a "Mind Shuffle" technique, where each of them play a card face-down and then switch to the other mind without letting the other know what card they played. After the Yugis destroyed Pegasus' card "Toon World", giving them a small lead in Life Points, Pegasus draws them into a Shadow Game. Although the game is too much for Yugi, causing him to collapse, Yami Yugi was still able to resist Pegasus's Eye with the aid of Yugi's friends reaching out to protect Yugi, allowing him to destroy Pegasus' monsters and win the Duel.

After his defeat, a downhearted Pegasus leaves for his sanctuary where, true to his word, he releases the souls of Solomon, Kaiba and Mokuba, lamenting his failure to Cecelia. Shortly afterwards, Yami Bakura confronts him and challenges him to another Shadow Game, with their respective Millennium Items on the line. Weakened from his Duel with Yugi and Yami Yugi, Pegasus loses easily, and Yami Bakura takes his Millennium Eye. This causes Pegasus to fall into a coma, and his last appearance in the arc is being carried out of his sanctuary by Kemo, presumably for medical care.

Dungeon Dice Monsters arc
Pegasus's disappearance after Duelist Kingdom hinders the release of Dungeon Dice Monsters. Duke Devlin blames Yugi for Pegasus' disappearance and faces him in Dungeon Dice Monsters over it. Yugi manages to win using the "Dark Magician" that Pegasus added, and shortly afterwards it is revealed that Industrial Illusions plans to take Dungeon Dice Monsters global.

Duke uses Pegasus' additions to the KaibaCorp computer system to his advantage, by adding Dungeon Dice original monsters to his Deck when he is trapped in the Virtual World.

Waking of the Dragons arc
Pegasus returns in the Waking the Dragons arc, and gathers information on Paradius company and the company's true intentions. Pegasus warned Yugi and his friends of the impending danger and also gives Yugi the card "Legend of Heart", a key card leading to the defeat of Dartz. His soul is taken by Mai Valentine, but is restored by the end of the arc. When Dartz Summoned the "Mirror Knights", Pegasus was one of the captured souls in the cards, along with Mai, Yugi, and Joey Wheeler. He is eventually freed after the Great Leviathan is destroyed.

Dawn of the Duel arc
He is told of the Ceremonial Battle towards the end of the series, where he gives a small narration of how Yugi's past adventures have led to this.

Ceremonial Battle arc
He later makes a business deal with Zigfried von Schroeder. (This is not shown in the English version.)

Yu-Gi-Oh! GX (Anime)
Shortly before finishing school, Chumley Huffington is called upon by Pegasus personally to work as a card designer for I² due to his successful card design submission of Ayers Rock Sunrise.

When Franz, an I² employee, steals the only remaining copy of The Winged Dragon of Ra (and controls it with a field spell he created, and travels to the Duel Academy to test it out on the participants of the Genex Tournament. Pegasus and Chumley follow him to Duel Academy and end up working with Chumley's school chum, Jaden Yuki, to track him down. After Chancellor Sheppard halts the tournament, the group finds Franz and Pegasus prepares to Duel him. Jaden steps in, however, and though he struggled at first against a God Card, manages to hold his own. After seeing Ra in pain, Jaden declares he will save the monster from Franz' grasp and ends up destroying Ra and resurrecting to beat Franz. Pegasus watches the Duel in awe of Jaden's confidence and ability and even compares him to Yugi (much like Yugi's own Grandfather had done before). After the Duel, Pegasus credits Franz for his work, but tells him he would have to do things differently to continue at I².

Sometime later, he issues a Triangle Duel< against Dr. Crowler and Vice-Chancellor Bonaparte for their right to work at Industrial Illusions, after the two believe themselves to be fired by Chancellor Sheppard. Pegasus wins the triangle Duel but accepts them as employees until Sheppard arrives and tells the two that they were not actually fired. Shortly afterwards, Pegasus and Sheppard meet in private to discuss the threat of the "Ultimate D-Card" that was stolen from Aster's father.

While watching Jaden Duel Jesse Anderson, Aster Phoenix recalls a meeting he had with Pegasus in which Pegasus reveals that his (then) "top five" Duelists were 1. Yugi Muto, 2. Seto Kaiba, 3. Joey Wheeler, 4. Aster Phoenix, and 5. Jesse Anderson. He explains that Jesse was the only Duelist who could use the "Crystal Beast" cards he had given him. However, Jesse did not have the "Rainbow Dragon" card as its tablet had not yet been discovered. While Jesse and everyone else at Duel Academy were trapped in another dimension, the tablet is discovered and Pegasus uses a high tech portable card designer to create the card right then and there. After its finished, the card is transported to the other dimension so Jesse could use its power to take the school back home.

Some time later, when several cards stopped working on Duel Disks he hired Axel Brodie to investigate. When Nightshroud, the one behind the dysfunctional cards (and much more), Duels Jaden for the fate of the world, he tells him about the origins of the universe. Among other moments, Pegasus' discovery of the Tablet of Lost Memories is shown.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's (Anime)
A poster for the WRGP lists one of its sponsors as the "Pegasus J. Crawford Memorial Foundation", suggesting that by the 5D's timeline, he had passed away.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Pyramid of Light
Pegasus also appears in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light, which takes place after Battle City and before Waking The Dragons. Pegasus dreams of the impending danger as it enters his room to set its plan in motion. Soon after, Kaiba arrives and demands a way to defeat Yugi's three Egyptian God Cards since he knew Pegasus wouldn't let them go without a way to take them down. Pegasus admits to having a card that may work, but doesn't agree to Duel for it until after Kaiba wagers his three "Blue-Eyes White Dragons". Though he uses his beloved Toons, Pegasus is defeated after Kaiba uses "XYZ-Dragon Cannon" to destroy "Toon World" (which destroys the Toon Monsters as well) and attack him directly. Kaiba discovers two cards to take on the God Cards and doesn't believe Pegasus when he insists he only had one.

Pegasus investigates the extra card and discovers the history of Anubis and arrives just in time to save Téa Gardner, Solomon Muto, and Mokuba from being crushed when Kaiba's Duel Dome starts to collapse. When Anubis reveals himself to Duel the Pharaoh and the building collapses further, Pegasus summons "Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon" and "Toon Dark Magician Girl" to catch some falling debris before they are (goofishly) crushed.

Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time
Pegasus is the target of Paradox, the new antagonist in Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time. Here, Paradox aims to kill Pegasus using Yusei Fudo's "Stardust Dragon", eliminating Duel Monsters from existence in order to prevent his future from being destroyed by Synchro Summoning. When Paradox came to Yugi Muto's time during a tournament that Pegasus was hosting, he used his Malefic Dragons to destroy buildings in the plaza, resulting in Pegasus' death as he was crushed under a collapsing building, along with several other bystanders, including Solomon Muto. Yugi then travelled back in time with Yusei Fudo and Jaden Yuki to a point prior to both Pegasus's arrival in Domino City and Paradox's, so that the three can defeat Paradox. After Paradox's defeat, Pegasus is then shown distributing cards at the event.

Knownable Relatives

 * Cecelia (Wife/dead)

Voice Actors

 * Japanese : Jiro Jay Takasugi


 * English : Darren Dunstan