As the card game at the center of Yu-Gi-Oh!, Duel Monsters plays a key role in the anime's lore. However, the game has a much longer, more complicated history.

The first traces of what later became Duel Monsters started in Egypt. Thousands of years before the start of Yu-Gi-Oh! and Yugi Muto’s adventure, the Ancient Egyptians used sorcery to battle one another in the Shadow Games. Once a Shadow Game began, both sorcerers were transported to another dimension, where the punishment for cheating was death.

The two used their magic to summon fierce monsters that battled to the death. While the winner would leave safely, the loser of the battle faced an immense penalty. Eventually, the Shadow Games sparked a war that threatened to destroy the world, so The Pharaoh of Egypt, who would later be found inside the Millennium Puzzle by Yugi Muto, sealed its magic away.

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Several millennia later, a young Pegasus fell in love with a girl named Cecelia. The two got married, but Cecelia was overtaken by illness and passed away shortly after. Pegasus searched for a way to see his beloved wife once again, leading him to Egypt. There, he discovered the Millennium Items and learned about the Shadow Games. Pegasus then found a way to fuse the ancient sorcery into playing cards and eventually created Duel Monsters. When he approached by KaibaCorp to develop the game even further, Pegasus plotted to combine the company's technology with the Millennial Items to bring his wife back to life. Duel Monsters becomes a phenomenon, and the stage was set for the story of Yu-Gi-Oh! to begin.

The theme of war and love is a part of Duel Monsters that also extends to its players. Yugi Muto spends much of the anime fighting to save his grandfather’s soul, while his friend Joey Wheeler fights to pay for his sister’s eye surgery. Another villain of the show, Seto Kaiba initially only seeks to expand his corporate enterprise and further expand his influence, but he changes priorities when his younger brother is put in danger. However, there can be only one winner in a duel, and fighting to save the person you care about means stopping other people from saving the people they love.

At the core of Duel Monsters is the Shadow Games of Ancient Egypt, which were brought into the modern world. The Duelist Kingdom tournament created by Pegasus reenacts the wars that threatened to destroy Egypt. With every loss, someone’s dreams are crushed, while someone else gets closer to their own. Yet, this war would never happen if Pegasus did not desperately seek to take Yugi’s Millennium Puzzle and Kaiba’s company to resurrect the love of his life. Yugi and Kaiba would have never entered the tournament if they didn’t need to save someone they cared about. Every Duelist is fighting for their own side in Pegasus’s war, and there is only one winner.

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In the end, Yugi saves his grandfather as well as Kaiba and his brother. However, Pegasus loses his chance at taking the Millennium Puzzle and overthrowing KaibaCorp. With neither of these in his control, his hopes of seeing his wife again are crushed. Yugi and Kaiba win the war, and Pegasus finds himself unable to see the love of his life ever again. Pegasus is defeated by his own game, and the ancient powers of Duel Monsters and the Millennium Items prove to be too much for his control.

In a way, Yugi, Kaiba, and Pegasus are not too different. They each strive toward a similar goal that can only be achieved by playing Duel Monsters and awakening the ancient powers of the Shadow Games. What sets them apart the most might just be their relationship to the game. Pegasus created the game and wants to control those who play it. Kaiba helped develop the game and needs it to become more powerful. Yugi, however, just wants to help other people. The spirit of the ancient Pharaoh that rests in his Millennium Puzzle, starts off vicious but learns from Yugi’s example. Together they face those who would cause others harm and trump them as a perfect balance of love and war.

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