While Yu-Gi-Oh! has a very sizeable cast, the characters who undoubtedly receive the most focus are the trio of Yugi Muto, Seto Kaiba, and Joey Wheeler. The three of them form the classic dynamic of the protagonist, the rival, and the best friend, and even with all the spinoff stories over the past 20 years, the three of them remain the most iconic depiction of that dynamic in the franchise.

The original Yu-Gi-Oh! series, both the anime and the manga, ended 20 years ago, and with it came the definitive endings to Yugi, Kaiba, and Joey’s stories. While their characters have been expanded on through spinoff material and official sequels, the original Yu-Gi-Oh! series still served as a conclusive end to their character arcs, and that’s true of both the anime and the manga.

With how old and how iconic a series Yu-Gi-Oh! is, its ending is undoubtedly well-known by now, but both its ending and everything that followed it are still worth detailing, regardless.

How The Original Yu-Gi-Oh! Ended Its Story

The best duel brought the series full circle

With Atem having defeated Zorc Necrophades and regained his memories, it was finally time for him to pass on to the afterlife. For Atem to do so, however, someone had to defeat him in a duel where he was going all out, for losing in that scenario would be the only way for Atem’s soul to be at peace and pass on. Both Joey and Kaiba offered to duel Atem, but they were both denied and Yugi declared that he would duel Atem in the Rite of the Duel.

At the Shrine of the Underworld, the power of the Millennium Items separated Yugi and Atem, and the two began the Rite of the Duel. At first, it seemed like Atem had an overwhelming advantage, even summoning all three Egyptian God Cards and leaving Yugi with little defense. However, Yugi was in control of things the entire time and destroyed the Egyptian Gods in a single play, and in doing so, Kaiba, who was nothing but dismissive of Yugi, finally acknowledged him as a duelist.

Yugi and Atem kept having a back-and-forth, with Atem even willing his deck to give him the cards he needed, but eventually, Yugi defeated Atem, and Atem could pass on to the afterlife. As sad as everyone was to lose Atem, they remained adamant that they would always be friends, and Atem could leave knowing once and for all that everyone would be okay. After that, Yugi remarked that this was just the end of Atem’s story and that his story was just beginning.

What Happened To Joey Wheeler After The End Of Yu-Gi-Oh?

Yu-Gi-Oh!’s truest underdog got a proper sendoff only in the sequel

Out of the main trio of the original Yu-Gi-Oh!, Joey Wheeler is the one who gets the least amount of focus. His character arc ends with either winning back his Red-Eyes Black Dragon from Yugi in the manga or helping Mai overcome her trauma in the anime, as he wasn’t given anything to do in the Millennium World arc. Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions does feature Joey along with the rest of the original cast, but he has little involvement in the story, and as such, Joey’s future is never elaborated on in the continuity of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga.

Regarding the anime continuity, however, a little more is done with Joey’s character. While Joey never physically appears in the anime after the original series, in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Pegasus tells Aster Phoenix that he considers Joey to be the third-best duelist in the world thanks to his raw talent, so that means that Joey is still a professional duelist as an adult in the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime continuity. It’s not much of anything to go on, but at the very least, it does give Joey something following the end of the original series.

What Happened To Seto Kaiba After The End Of Yu-Gi-Oh?

Yugi’s eternal rival built an incredible legacy

Seto Kaiba’s story in the continuity of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga is continued in 2016’s Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions. Kaiba started rebuilding the Millennium Puzzle to finally settle the score with Atem, but he eventually accepted that Atem was gone and that Yugi was just as worthy of a rival. Even so, Kaiba used Diva’s Quantum Cube to enter the afterlife and get his rematch with Atem, and while their duel was never shown, Kaiba would return to the realm of the living and eventually conduct a playtest of Yugi’s new game, Spherium II.

Kaiba also does a lot in the continuity of the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime. Kaiba helped establish the Duel Academies featured in the anime’s immediate sequel, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and he was also responsible for sending both Yubel and Jaden’s drawings into space, causing the drawings to turn into the Neo-Spacians and Yubel to be corrupted by the Light of Destruction. Finally, while Kaiba doesn’t physically appear in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s, KaibaCorp has become a tyrannical megacorp and turned Domino City into the dystopian New Domino City, making Kaiba, for better or worse, the character with the longest-running involvement with the anime.

What Happened To Yugi Muto After The End Of Yu-Gi-Oh?

The King of Games got an appropriate job

Yugi Muto, much like Kaiba, saw his story continue in the 2016 film Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions. Yugi ended up caught between Kaiba and Diva’s plots involving Atem, and it was by making it clear to them that Atem was never coming back that Yugi, himself, could finally accept that Atem was gone. Following Diva’s defeat, Yugi graduated from high school and worked to become a game developer, and sometime after Kaiba’s return from the afterlife, Yugi and Kaiba playtested Yugi’s new game, Spherium II, in Kaiba’s space station.

While not a recurring character, Yugi also continues to appear in the anime continuity after the original series. Yugi is still the King of Games in Yu-Gi-Oh! GX and has grown to match Atem’s physicality, and in the first episode, he gave Jaden his trademark Winged Kuriboh card after meeting him by chance. Years later, at the end of season 4, Yugi reappeared and worked with Winged Kuriboh to have Jaden duel his younger self so Jaden could remember how fun dueling can be, a lesson that was shown to have stuck with him in Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time.

What Happened To Atem After The End Of Yu-Gi-Oh?

The great Pharaoh, gone from the world

On the topic of what happened to Yu-Gi-Oh!’s original protagonists after the original anime, it would be remiss not to include Atem. The original ending to Yu-Gi-Oh! is never undone and Atem stays in the afterlife, but in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions, not only did Atem help save Joey from Diva’s assault, but in the final duel of the film, Atem briefly returned to finish off Diva and save Yugi and Kaiba. Later, Atem prepared to duel Kaiba after he used the Quantum Cube to enter the afterlife, although the outcome is never shown.

The anime continuity also maintained Atem being gone from the world, but he did make appearances set before the Rite of the Duel. In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, for example, Atem took over for Yugi during his duel with Jaden after summoning Slifer the Sky Dragon, and in Yu-Gi-Oh! 3D Bonds Beyond Time, Atem teamed up with Jaden and Yusei to stop Paradox from killing Pegasus. By design, Atem is the one Yu-Gi-Oh! protagonist that can’t truly do anything new, but at the very least, the franchise has done what it can to maintain his relevancy alongside the other protagonists.