A character subpage from the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX anime and manga series, the Oddly Named Sequel to Yu-Gi-Oh!. For the main character page, see here.
ALL spoilers will be unmarked ahead. Beware major spoilers.
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Characters From the original series
Yugi Mutou (Yugi Muto)
The former Duel Monsters world champion and protagonist of the original series.
- Brought Down to Badass: He no longer has the Millennium Puzzle. But that doesn't stop Yugi from holding the title of King of Games over the years. Likewise, he still possesses magical powers, thus being capable of seeing Duel Spirits and sending Judai back in time.
- Combat Compliment: As seen with both his present and past self, he compliments Judai's connection with his cards.
- Continuity Cameo: GX-era Yugi only has two appearances — episodes 1 and 179, with the first appearance being to pass the torch to Jaden and establish him being in the series' continuity, and 179 to send Judai to the past in order to duel his younger self.
- The Faceless: His eyes are never revealed in GX's time, but they are in the past.
- Famed In-Story: He's regarded as the strongest duelist with the strongest deck.
- Final Boss: Not the GX-era Yugi, but his Duel Monsters-era self (and Atem) is the final duelist Judai faces in GX.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: He is this for basically everyone.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: When Judai is sent back in time to fight him, he had apparently just competed and won the "Battle City V2" tournament.
- Hero of Another Story: During a field trip to Domino City, Judai and his friends visit Kame Game only to find Yugi conspicuously absent, with Grandpa Muto suggesting he's probably on some adventure somewhere. The dub Grandpa says he "went to the market to get some olives three years ago"note , and both versions imply this is pretty common for him even years after the original series.
- Hero Worship: Despite winning their duel in the ceremonial battle, Yugi still refers to Atem as the better duelist. It really doubles as a case of Humble Hero, especially since Atem personally acknowledged Yugi to be stronger than himself, with a decade having passed since then.
- He's All Grown Up: After the Timeskip between the two series, he looks a lot like Atem did when possessing his body, though he's gained a bit more muscle too. If his bits of dialogue are taken into consideration, he's become a whole lot like Atem in personality as well, if more gentle and humble.
- Identical Stranger: Compare to his past self, Yugi is heavily implied to look like a near physical copy of Atem whenever the latter possesses his body. Especially sounding like him as well!
- Muscles Are Meaningful: After gaining some muscle mass over the years, Yugi is physically strong enough to be able to No-Sell a panicking, running Judai from crashing into him.
- No-Sell: He is casually unaffected by Judai crashing into him, causing the latter to be the only one to be knocked down.
- Passing the Torch: The first episode. He hands Judai his Winged Kuriboh, apparently impressed by his potential.
- Sensor Character: Yubel notes that Yugi is aware of their presence.
- Stable Time Loop: As seen at the end of GX and Bonds Beyond Time, Yugi's first meeting with Judai at the start of the latter's series also jumpstart Judai's adventures.
- Time Master: GX-era Yugi is capable of this as he sends Judai back in time to duel his younger self and Atem to regain his lost love of Dueling.
- Took a Level in Badass: Compare to his scrawny past self who couldn't throw a punch to save his own life, he's now strong enough to be unfazed by Judai accidentally crashing into him. Similarly, he can use supernatural powers without the Millennium Puzzle.
- Top Ten List: In a flashback many years before the series started, Pegasus told Edo that he considered Yugi as the number 1 best duelist he's ever met in his top 5 list.
- Worthy Opponent: Considers Judai one.
Seto Kaiba
Founder of Duel Academy and designer of the Duel Disks.
Voiced by: Kenjiro Tsuda (Japanese), Eric Stuart (English)- Always Second Best: Even with all of his accomplishments as CEO of KaibaCorp, creation of the solid vision technology, and the opening of Duel Academia, he's still hungover with being the 2nd rated duelist to Yugi.
- Batman Gambit: His deal with the elder Manjoume brothers in Turn 35.
- Bystander Syndrome: Even worse than in the original series; Duel Academy is explicitly under his ownership, and yet not once is he shown intervening in its ongoings despite how many times it is imperiled, oftentimes by his own employees. At one point Saiou lampshades this, noting how surprised he is that Kaiba doesn't even try to get in his way. The Out-of-Universe reason is probably that he would be too powerful for most threats to even have a chance against.
- Arguably justified too, as Kaiba's swink-or-swim approach towards the Academy and ruthless ideology means that him expecting the students to just sort out problems themselves (even at the risk of death or putting the entire world in peril) is exactly the kind of thing you'd expect from Kaiba.
- Continuity Cameo: Any of his appearances in GX are mainly to establish that he's still active in the show's continuity and is the founder of Duel Academy, though more concerned with running his company.
- Character Development: While Kaiba's dorm system at Duel Academy show his huge ego still remains, he seems to have somewhat eased up as a person. Notably, unlike the manga version, he has moved on from obsessing with Atem, likely because he oversaw Yugi defeat him in the Ceremonial Duel. Similarly, Kaiba has become more accepting of the supernatural, hence the whole "space program" thing.
- Eccentric Millionaire: His obsession with games has ballooned to an absurd degree. In the time between the series, he's founded a massive boarding school and a space program dedicated to Duel Monsters.
- Expy: Kaibaman, a Duel Spirit that appears in the first season. Though it's uncertain what their exact relationship is, what is clear is that Kaibaman has his Deck, his voice, and a very similar personality and mannerisms. The only major difference is that Kaibaman seems to be a little kinder.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: For pretty much every student at Duel Academy.
- Irony: While the dorm system in Duel Academia is the result of his Inferiority Superiority Complex, the real-life version of the Egyptian Cards do somewhat make sense in this form of hierarchy.note
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: When the Trueman clones are pulling everyone from Domino City into the world of Darkness, Kaiba's is the only name on their list that doesn't disappear, implying he was actually able to fend them off.
- Older Than They Look: He's 26, since the spin-off sequel takes place a decade after the Duel Monsters anime when he was 16. However, he doesn't look any different than he did as a teenager.
- Sink or Swim Mentor: For Chazz in Season 1 when he arranges for his student to duel his older brother, using only monsters with 500 attack points or less against a deck full of powerful, rare cards with ownership of the academy on the line. The duel succeeds in making Chazz a stronger duelist, but it was a huge risk that would have had disastrous results had Chazz not been able to rise to the occasion.
- Sore Loser: Nothing says "I can't accept my loss to Yugi" then sectioning the school into an Elitist system with the God Card he wielded, Obelisk the Tormentor, as the top rank while the one Yugi used, Slifer the Sky Dragon, is the lowest of the ranks and ironically the Winged Dragon of Ra (which was the strongest of the God cards mind you) as the average grade. That said, Kaiba did accept Yugi as the better duelist when seeing him defeat Atem, so maybe he just doesn't want to admit it out loud.
- Top Ten List: In a flashback many years before the series starts, Pegasus told Edo that he considered Kaiba as the 2nd best duelist he's ever met in his top 5 list.
Pegasus J. Crawford (Maximillon Pegasus)
Creater of Duel Monsters and the owner of Industrial Illusions.
- Big Good: In the 2nd half of Season 2 and 1st half of Season 3. He calls a lot of shots, and he has more power and influence than nearly any other recurring character.
- Continuity Cameo: While Pegasus makes sporadic appearances throughout the series, his appearance in Episode 50 is mainly to bolster Jesse's importance, seeing as he's the fifth best duelist in his top 5 list when he met Edo Phoenix at a party.
- Character Development: Has become noticeably more composed and mature, and seems to have made peace with his wife's death. Noticeably, from what we see of his Deck, he no longer uses Sacrifice/Relinquished, which represented his dark and occultist aspects.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: His two-on-one duel with Chronos/Crowler and Napoleon/Bonaparte. Even when they aren't fighting each other as much as they fight him, his Toon Kingdom makes him pretty much untouchable.
- Honest Corporate Executive: He's still the founder of Industrial Illusions, but it's clear that his interest is always in making his beloved game as fun as possible. That, and saving lives; he decides to paint Rainbow Dragon personally.
- Manchild: He still uses a Toon deck.
- Mark of Shame: Gives his rogue employee Franz a good glimpse of his implied to be empty eye socket while chastising him about the responsibility of bearing one's shame.
- Redemption Demotion: Zigzagged; his Toon deck is no longer ridiculously broken, but his actual skills have received a major upgrade.
- Secret Test of Character: His duel with Crowler and Bonaparte: he tells them that the person with higher Life Points will be given a higher position in his company. The test is to see if they're willing to accept a lesser position if it means winning the Duel.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In the manga, he's confirmed dead at the end of the Duelist Kingdom arc. However, anime only arcs in the original show that he survived his Dark Game with Bakura, and his appearance in GX means that he's still alive in the anime continuity.
- Top Ten List: In the past, Pegasus shares with Edo that he has a list of five Duelists he considers the very best. Edo himself is in his fourth spot, with the first three taken by Yugi Muto, Seto Kaiba, and Katsuya Jonouchi, respectively, and he considers Johan Anderson to be in the fifth spot.
- You Remind Me of X: As a duelist, Judai reminds him of Yugi, specifically his ability to overcome all odds. Coming from the creator of Duel Monsters, this means a lot.
