Characters / Gotham - Jim Gordon

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Det./Captain/Commissioner James "Jim" Gordon

"However dark and scary the world might be right now... there will be light."

Played By: Benjamin McKenzie

"This city...the law, the crime here, they're all...twisted up in each other like a maze. I came here to be a cop. This city needs something else."

A detective at Gotham City Police Department who works to find the man who killed Bruce Wayne's parents and get rid of the corruption at the Gotham City Police Department.

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Tropes, A-H

• Abled in the Adaptation: Even in flashbacks to his youth, Gordon in the comics is shown to wear glasses, whereas this Gordon doesn't, even ten years in the future during the Distant Finale.
• The Ace: An exceptional police officer in every regard: detective skills, morality and combat ability. He's puzzled out some genuine mysteries on his own, continually been the show's moral exemplar, and gotten into fights with a long line of nasty criminals and has beaten every single one of them. His reputation as this is such that Ed automatically assumes Jim is onto his murder of Kristen when he questions him about her whereabouts, and works to frame him as a result: in reality Jim had no idea and only asked because Lee had been needling him about it.
• Action Dad: Jim eventually becomes Barbara Lee Gordon's father, and tries to rescue her himself when "J" abducts her.
• Adaptational Badass: While Gordon's never been a slouch in combat skills in the comics (the famous scene where he curb stomps Flass in Batman: Year One comes to mind), we see this Jim Gordon in his prime. He's clashed with some of the most brutal villains from Batman lore, and always comes out on top. He's so good he rivals the prowess of Batman himself.
• Adaptational Dye-Job: He has brown hair in the comics and that color or black/grey in most media. Here, he has Ben McKenzie's natural blonde hair.
• Adaptational Jerkass: He's notably far more cynical and jaded than his comics counterpart for most of the series; by the midpoint of season 2 he's shown to be completely fine with threatening and beating suspects when a case is personal, will use the likes of Penguin and Barbara for information and has actually unlawfully killed two people (Penguin's debtee Ogden and Theo Galavan). In fairness, this is implied to be because the city really puts him through the wringer, and he hasn't yet got the hope Batman gave him in the comics.
• Agent Scully: Only really present for Jerome's debut episode, but he's got zero time for supernatural theories about his cases.
• All of the Other Reindeer: As the one cop to stand against corruption, he's not popular with his fellow cops at first, and things hit a really low point when they all abandon him to be killed by Zsasz - leading him to retaliate by being so by-the-book he arrests their informants. Things get better, as he wins over Bullock and Essen, leading him to be able to rely on his fellow cops...but then they get worse in season 4, as his determination to stand against Penguin's licences earns him the hatred of not only the cops of Cobblepot's payroll, but those cops who like the quieter life provided by crime being semi-legal. Again, this changes when he saves many cops from the Pyg's ambush, turning him into a hero and inspiring the other cops. Which, unfortunately, is all part of Sofia Falcone's plan.
• Amicable Exes: Jim manages to be on civil terms with Barbara in the finale, despite her criminal past.
• Anti-Hero: Develops into this over time. A large part of his development is the realization by being an outright hero, he won't manage to change anything. By season three he's edging into Unscrupulous Hero territory. Once he's back on the force he makes a conscious effort to be better, approaching the By-the-Book Cop of season 1 - but he's still shown to be fine with going to Penguin/Barbara for information and threatening suspects.
• Arch-Enemy: In the absence of Batman, he's this to an alarming amount of villains, most notably Theo Galavan, Edward Nygma, and Jervis Tetch.
• Ascended Extra: He's in no way, shape, or form an "extra" in the comics, but he's usually depicted as a supporting character (and sometimes secondary protagonist) alongside Batman. In this show, the roles are essentially reversed: Gordon's the central character while Bruce Wayne is the secondary protagonist, although their roles do start to balance out over time.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: His usual GCPD attire includes a suit and tie, which he is willing to fight in.
• Bat Deduction: This happens a lot to him in the first season; at this stage the show was still trying for a mystery-of-the week plot. The problem was that while shows like Law & Order usually have a full episode dedicated to unravelling the crime, Gotham also had significant time dedicated to the storylines of Bruce, Penguin, Fish and others, none of which had any bearing on Gordon's plots. Consequently, without the time to set up clues and suspects, many of Gordon's deductions come off as incredibly lucky guesses that always happen to be right.
• Batman Grabs a Gun: Normally, he'd not allow Bullock to beat up any criminals. But when child snatchers are on the prowl? Bullock pulls a Jack Bauer on one of them without his interference.
• Berserk Button: Don't imply he's corrupt. Seeing criminals look like they're going to get away with their crimes - Arnold Flass and the Ogre in season 1, Galavan in season 2, Penguin's licencing system in season 4 - is another major one.
• Big Good: Played with: he becomes Captain of Gotham Central early in season 4 - but it's only because Sofia Falcone needed a puppet and blackmailed him by making him complicit in her crimes, and Bullock later convinces him that while he might not feel this way about himself, the GCPD believes in him as such and he needs to project that image. In season 5, he's the only high-ranking official left in Gotham, and takes hundreds of refugees under his protection with the remnants of the GCPD - but we see the pressure he's under and bad decisions that result, especially after Haven is blown up.
• Broken Ace: By late season 4 Gotham's ground him down quite a bit. He's found it harder and harder to fight for the city without compromising his morals, and has made some very poor choices. As a result he's become much more cynical, leaving him open to Batman revitalizing his hope in the future.
• By-the-Book Cop: Played with over time. He's pretty much the only one in the show at first. Crispus Allen and Renee Montoya are pretty straight, but bend the rules from time to time and are antagonistic to Gordon, and Bullock is much too cynical to care anymore. But over the course of season 1 he starts to edge into Cowboy Cop territory as he realises the GCPD are no help, then largely drops it after his shooting Galavan in season 2 once he realises due process will only work in Theo's favour. He's back to this in season 3, but it's a conscious decision to be a better cop instead of inconsistent characterisation.
• Call-Back: His experience at Blackgate is indirectly brought up by Bullock as they're interrogating a traitor on the force in "Smile Like You Mean It".
• Calling the Old Man Out: Does this to Captain Barnes over his black-and-white outlook just before they're first confronted by Azrael.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Kills Galavan to prevent him from using his connections and money to escape justice any more. Is himself ultimately sentenced to a whopping 40 years for an unrelated murder he didn't commit but which took place as Barnes was getting wise to his real role in Galavan's death. Though he ultimately clears his name in relation to the latter, it ends up being just the start of a long conga line of problems for him.
• The Captain: Officially oversees operations as a captain in the GCPD, after replacing Harvey in season 4.
• Characterisation Marches On: He begins the show as an idealistic By-the-Book Cop, determined to fight the corruption in the GCPD. But the general insanity of Gotham and his inability to make a dent in it begin to wear him down, and we see him begin to compromise his morals in the name of the greater good - most notably when he kills Theo Galavan after realising he owned the courts and judiciary process in Gotham. From here we see Bullock's warnings in season 1 take root, with Gordon retaining a core of idealism but beeing portrayed as much more cynical and prone to Cow Boy Cop behaviour, including being ok with beating information out of suspects - something season 1 Jim would NEVER have done.
• Chick Magnet: Well, he is played by Ben McKenzie after all - Barbara, Lee Tompkins and Valerie Vale have all fallen for him, and he has a long list of admirers beyond that. Unfortunately, things never seem to end well - until he finally marries Lee in season 5.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: He can't stop trying to do the right thing and save people, no matter what it costs him personally. For example, the Ogre has no idea Gordon is hunting him, so Gordon could walk away and his loved ones would be safe. But Gordon can't stomach the thought of letting a serial killer go free, or letting Loeb win, and so takes the whole thing public even after the Ogre warns him not to - with dire consequences for Barbara. In fairness he does talk it over with Lee (who he thinks will be targeted) first. It's telling that when he hallucinates a trial in his own mind after being shot, this is one of the main charges he envisions for himself.
  Bane: I always knew you had a saviour complex, but this is too much.
• The Commissioner Gordon: Prior to Season 4 there aren't any actual heroes active in Gotham, so Gordon and the cops are on their own in fighting the villains. Finally goes all the way when he's appointed Commissioner at the end of "They Did What?" after stopping Bane and Nyssa from destroying the city.
• Cowboy Cop: From season 2 onwards he shows shades of playing fast and loose with the enforcement of the law, being a lot more willing than before to punch/shoot first and ask questions later.
• Cynicism Catalyst: His realising that arresting Theo Galavan won't make a blind bit of difference, as Galavan will just use his influence to escape scot-free again.
• Deadpan Snarker: Jim's sardonicism is more pronounced as his Gotham experience turns sour.
  Leslie: There are plenty of things in this world that can't be explained by rational science.
  Jim: Yeah, people who enjoy folk dancing, for instance. Doesn't mean ghosts exist.
• Deal with the Devil: As his war against the corrupt cops continues, he begins resorting to making deals with Cobblepot to advance his efforts. He makes another deal with Cobblepot in the season 2 premiere, in exchange for forcing Commissioner Loeb out of the GCPD so Gordon can get his job back, Gordon agrees to strong arm a rival mobster for money he owes Cobblepot. Gordon's side of the deal goes awry and he's forced to kill the mobster - but Cobblepot follows through on his end an gets rid of Loeb. Needless to say, when Gordon suspects Penguin of doing Galavan's dirty work, Oswald brings this up.
• Death Faked for You: He's broken out of Blackgate after having his death faked by Harvey and Falcone.
• Death Seeker: Jervis invoked this in Gordon, but it's stated that it wouldn't have worked if he wasn't already feeling this deep down after everything he had been through and lost in seasons 1 and 2. In "The Trial of Jim Gordon", he reached the point where he does want to die, but what snapped him out of it was an image of Lee holding his and Barbara's child.
• Defiant to the End: Always. When Barnes, Kathryn Monroe and Sofia Falcone variously have him at their mercy, he just tells them to go to hell rather than beg.
• Despair Event Horizon:
  • Galavan worming in his way out of justice, combined with Gordon netting a 40 year sentence for a murder he never committed, seems to have stripped Gordon of any notion that the law can work in Gotham. While he later regains faith in law and order, he's shown to be much more cynical and prone to questionable actions from season 3 onward.
  • In season 5, he hits it again when Haven is bombed, killing hundreds of innocent people. His inability to catch the perpetrator, combined with his saving an ungrateful Zsasz from Penguin's show trial and many of his people abandoning him for Penguin (as they didn't care Zsasz wasn't actually the perpetrator) lead to him hooking up with Barbara of all people.
• Determinator: He's endured a lot in the series - virtually every major criminal on the show has tried to kill him (repeatedly in some cases), his superiors have tried to ruin him, he's been demoted/reassigned/thrown off the force, publically scapegoated for numerous major incidents that weren't his fault and his relationships tend to end disastrously. Yet through it all he never gives up: while he's a lot more bitter and cynical than when he started, he's never lost his faith and determination to do the right thing regardless of the consequences.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Briefly gains Super-Strength due to the Alice Tetch virus, to the point where he outclasses League Assassins and Talons. He gets cured later though.
• Establishing Character Moment: Being the only officer who actually tries to comfort Bruce after his parents are killed.
• Even the Guys Want Him: Jim unintentionally attracts a laundry list of admirers, male and female, most of whom are Ax-Crazy. At last count they include: Penguin; Nygma; Barbara; Sionis; and Theo Galavan, who genuinely planned to have Jim at his side when he took over Gotham but due to Jim's refusal to bend to him finally orders him killed. Even the Court of Owls considered him a potential inner-circle candidate, albeit as a replacement for his own uncle rather than someone recruited out of the blue.
• Expy: For the protagonist of the 1973 film Serpico.
• Failure Is the Only Option: While the circumstances differ from the comics - here it's the inherent lunacy of Gotham and the early rise of Batman's rogues' gallery rather than the endemic corruption (which Gordon does actually make a lot of progress against) - it's still a Foregone Conclusion that Jim can't fix everything, leading to the need for Batman. Spelled out very clearly in the DVD extras for the first season, where it's explicitly stated that Jim needs to fail as hero for Bruce to develop into one in his own right.
• Fair Cop: Jim is an attractive police officer played by Ben McKenzie.
• Fatal Attractor: Dear God. Barbara and Lee both went nuts, with the former trying to ruin his life more than once. Valerie Vale got shot after becoming a pawn in Tetch's scheme, and Sofia Falcone was only using him. It's safe to say for all his qualities Jim and relationships don't mix. Until he and Lee get married at the very end anyway.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • His Chronic Hero Syndrome and Honor Before Reason streaks have led him into a lot of situations that have nearly killed or ruined him due to his inability to stop doing the right thing, no matter how many powerful enemies it makes him.
  • Has an overly-sentimental streak. Discussed occasionally in the series - a part of him will always see Barbara as his ex-fiancee, or Oswald as that scared kid on the end of the pier, hence why he tends to let the two of them off the hook far too often for the city's own good.
• Fire-Forged Friends: With Harvey. The two start off like oil and water, with the idealistic and moral Gordon clashing frequently with the cynical and worn-down Harvey. Over the course of season 1 Jim manages to reawaken the heroic side of Harvey, and while the two have the odd fallout Bullock becomes Gordon's best friend and staunchest ally.
• Foreshadowing: At one point, he tells Captain Barnes that he'll be in charge of the GCPD one day. Any Batman fan should know damn well that he's right. Sure enough, come season 5 it finally comes to pass.
• Frame-Up: Gordon is framed for the murder of another cop and sentenced to 40 years of imprisonment thanks to Nygma. He manages to escape imprisonment and expose Ed by the end of season 2.
• Good Counterpart:
  • To Penguin. Both are relative newcomers to the city's power structure, both attempt to change things for what they see as the better and both recover from a series of setbacks over the seasons that would have crippled anyone else. However, Gordon always holds true to his morals and seeks to change the city for the better, where Penguin is only out for himself.
  • Ends up being this to Barnes. While both are infected by the Tetch virus, Gordon at least battles to retain some semblance of the good man he was until he gets cured, where Barnes almost immediately becomes a vigilante murderer who throws his former standards out the window.
• Good Is Dumb: Gordon has no sense of pragmatism and always does the moral thing even if it's stupid and dangerous. He gets a lot smarter as the show continues though.
• Good Is Not Soft: He may have a strong moral code, but if pushed too far he will do the right thing regardless of how legal it actually is - as Galavan found out the hard way.
• Good Old Fisticuffs: His standard fighting technique. He's amazingly good at it too.
• Guilt Complex: By the later seasons this is a near-constant theme; he nearly exposes his involvement with Sofia Falcone out of guilt, regardless of the consequences for the GCPD, until Harvey talks him out of it. He gets hit with it especially hard under the pressures of No Man's Land; when he gets shot he hallucinates a trial in his own head that almost convinces him to let himself die because of his guilt over the collapse of his relationship with Lee and the deaths of the Haven refugees.
• Guns Akimbo: Does this in the season 1 finale, swapping between pistols while fighting off Maroni's hit squad to avoid reloading.
• Happily Married: Way subverted: he might have wanted this with both Barbara and Lee, but things fall apart with both of them. Amusingly, he ruins Lee's stab at this to save her from a Tetch virus-afflicted Mario. It's eventually played straight, as in Season 5, he and Lee finally tie the knot.
• The Hero: Gordon, the show's lead character, is the only non-corrupt cop in the Gotham Police Department at the start of the series. Although he starts making deals with Gotham's criminal element, particularly Oswald Cobblepot, as the series progresses, he does so only because it's usually the only way to get anything done and not because he actually wants to.
• Heroic Willpower: Jim's willpower has allowed him to withstand insurmountable odds many times in the series. He is able to withstand the effects of the Alice Tetch virus and cure himself and Lee despite giving in to it. He is also able to break out of the effects of Jonathan Crane's fear gas, a feat that the Scarecrow says should be impossible.
• He Who Fights Monsters: A character arc in season 2; Galavan, Barbara, Lee and others see a darkness in him that he himself can't deny - as Lee says, he runs towards the abyss where others would run away. After multiple episodes of seeing Galavan get away with everything - including the indirect death of Commissioner Essen through the Maniax - finally snaps after hearing Galavan boast he'll be out soon, letting Penguin beat Galavan nearly to death with a baseball bat before finishing the job. Deconstructed later, as we see the consequences of this act - Lee leaving him, Barnes having him under investigation - in detail, and we see Jim realise what a mistake he made.
  Bruce: I fear we are going down the same path as before, and we won't get justice unless—
  Gordon: Unless what?
  Bruce: What you did to Galavan. What you knew you had to do, because of the bureaucracy and the red tape.
  Gordon: What I had to do? I chose to kill a man in cold blood. And it was the wrong choice, crossing that line. You'll pay for it over and over again, like I have been... like I still am. And it will make you more like the evil you're trying to fight. You need to be better. Do you understand me?
• Honor Before Reason: Both the good and bad sides of this attitude are shown: his unswerving devotion to doing things the right way and standing up to corruption no matter what earns him the admiration of Bullock, Essen, Nygma (early on) and numerous others over the course of the series, and is shown to be one of the major factors influencing Bruce's own attitude. On the other hand it earns him a laundry list of powerful enemies - Mayor James, Commissioner Loeb, Theo Galavan, Penguin eventually - because he can't stop himself confronting them directly and letting them know he'll stand against them, leading to a ton of grief - demotions, firings, assassination attempts - that could have been avoided if he'd simply bided his time and investigated quietly. Lampshaded a lot by Bullock and many other characters.
  • It's also been a contributing factor to his relationships with Barbara and Lee falling apart, as it's consistently shown he will put his quest to clean up Gotham before them - best shown when he ignores Lee's pleas to flee Gotham with her instead of charging off to take down Galavan with Penguin and Alfred, leading to her losing their baby as a result.
• Hypocrite: While Jim desperately tries to stay true to his moral code, Gotham's lunacy is such that as much as he rails against the GCPD's corruption and dirty cops, he's made some profoundly poor calls. He criticized Harvey for using Fish as an informant, yet uses Penguin and later Barbara the same way at several points (including getting him reinstated to the GCPD by threatening Loeb's life). He stressed to Bruce the importance of doing things within the law, yet went outside it to kill Galavan after realising the law wouldn't work. And after vowing to stand against the Pax Penguina in season 4 he's making deals with Cobblepot to get rid of the considerably worse Sofia Falcone not long after. To be fair, the show treats this less as Jim being a self-righteous scumbag and more as Gotham being so far from the norm that he sometimes HAS to take different routes to justice - including eventually working with Batman. Lampshaded:
  Penguin: So, the insane serial killer who hates cops warned you to save your life... because, why now?
  Gordon: Because I'm against dirty cops!
  Penguin: Except all the times you are one.

Tropes, I-Z

• Iconic Attribute Adoption Moment: The Season 4 finale has him donning the classic trench coat for the first time, and in the series finale, he grows a mustache (though he shaves it off a few scenes later because he doesn't like the look).
• I Need a Freaking Drink: He's prone to imbibing alcohol as a response to stress as the seasons roll on, especially when Harvey eggs him on.
• Ideal Hero: Deconstructed over the seasons.
  • At first, he's exactly the type of paragon you can see the young Bruce emulating: an ace detective, expert hand-to-hand fighter and incorruptible paragon that openly tries to do good regardless of the consequences. But then Jim starts to realise how crazy and different Gotham actually is, and before season 1 is even finished, he's making deals for information with Penguin just as Harvey used to with Fish after realising he can't make any long-term difference in a city where the GCPD and even the mayor is heavily corrupt.
  • Over the following seasons we see him go outside the law to remove the threat of Theo Galavan, let Penguin take the rap despite earlier stating to Oswald he'll take the consequences when they come, murders Fish while crazed from the Tetch virus, and manages to institute a new era of Falcone mob rule after unwittingly helping Sofia Falcone undermine Penguin. The show always shows the consequences of these actions, and the damage they have on Jim's life - after the Sofia incident he's well aware he's not this, but Harvey convinces him to project this trope's image to his fellow cops as an example and symbol of hope.
• Idiot Ball: His tendency to grab on to it at times is why Falcone can never follow through on any death threat; though he never uses those exact words, Falcone's opinion of him is that he's more of a "useful idiot" than anything. It's not so much that Jim is stupid, but his strong morals mean he usually goes for the Honor Before Reason approach - which is often suicidal in Gotham.
• Inter-Service Rivalry: Downplayed with Barnes, who calls him a "sad-sack Army hump" to which Jim replies "Jarhead, huh?"
• It's Not You, It's My Enemies: His reason for not letting Barbara in on his darker secrets in his GCPD duties. Unfortunately, his freezing her out of his work life is one of the reasons for her growing instability by the end of season 1.
• It's Personal: After discovering that Commissioner Loeb set him up with the Ogre case in order to threaten his loved ones in a round about way, he tells Loeb in no uncertain terms that he is going to put the Ogre behind bars and then come after Loeb relentlessly.
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: After the personal nature of the Ogre case really gets to him, he becomes far more prone to this in ensuing seasons.
• Jerkass Ball: Seen most glaringly when he refuses to bail Penguin out of Arkham for fear his own killing of Galavan will be exposed, after Penguin had voluntarily gone there to protect Jim's involvement in said murder. Almost becomes a case of Hoist by His Own Petard: not only does it earn Penguin's ire (leading to a cooling of Oswald's attempts to be friendly in seasons 3 and 4) but their conversation is overheard by Hugo Strange, leading him to send Azrael (the resurrected Galavan) after him.
• The Lancer: To Barnes; their taking different sides of the To Be Lawful or Good debate means they both want the same thing but are frequently at odds over how to attain it.
• Laser-Guided Karma: A positive example: in "Prisoners", he befriends a prisoner whose sister he had saved a season and a half ago.
• The Mole: He infiltrates the Court of Owls for a few episodes, being prompted to do so by his uncle who then shoots himself right in front of him.
• Mythology Gag: When Bruce encounters him within a hallucinatory nightmare in "A Beautiful Darkness", he sports a mustache just like his comic book counterpart. He's grown a real one by the time of the Grand Finale, but shaves it off to revert to his normal look after Lee and Barbara both make fun of it.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Saving Lee from Mario results in her holding a grudge and trying to have him killed.
• Naïve Newcomer: Is initially very strait-laced and a do-gooder, and learns very quickly how the real Gotham operates in the pilot.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Oh, and how. Sparing Cobblepot leads directly to the gang war that leaves Oswald as King of Gotham in season 1. In season 2 he rejects's Barbara's genuinely well-meaning attempts at atonement, leading her sanity to backslide into a murderous Ax-Crazy gang boss. And in season 4, he goes to Carmine Falcone to get rid of Penguin - precipitating his daughter Sofia coming to Gotham, replacing Penguin and swiftly becoming worse than Oswald ever was. Sofia even lampshades how badly he'd screwed up, pointing out zero cops died under Penguin's licencing scheme but Gordon's pride couldn't let it slide, leading to Pyg killing multiple cops and her plunging the city into gang war.
• Nice Guy: In a city like Gotham, it works to his disadvantage. He learns the hard way by the end of the pilot, though.
  Bullock: You seem like a nice guy, but this is not a city or a job for nice guys, you understand?
  Gordon: No.
  Bullock: And that's your problem.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • He killed one of the child snatchers in the second episode, and he had pretty good reason to do so, considering his especially dim view on those willing to harm a child.
  • When he realises the Ogre will target his loved ones, he notably inverts his usual relationship with Bullock in desperation, with Gordon being aggressive and threatening during interrogations (with it being implied he beat a suspect for information) and willingly going to Penguin for information while Bullock plays good cop.
  • When Zsasz taunting him about not being able to save Gotham in season 5 triggers Jim's Despair Event Horizon, he flatly gives him a gun and challenges him to a shootout - one even the assassin declines. Harvey's utterly appalled by it, and gives Jim a What the Hell, Hero? speech as a result.
• Official Couple: With Barbara until the events of "Penguin's Umbrella" when she leaves him. Then with Lee in season 2, until he gets arrested and she skips town - but then they rekindle things in season 5, and marry near its end. The latter doubles as Real Life Writes the Plot.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Gets a particularly good (not to mention resigned) one in "The Mask" when he finds out that the Corrupt Corporate Executive who is holding him hostage, Hunting the Most Dangerous Game style, has not only offered a job to whoever kills him (which they were hesitant on), but thrown in an extra million to sweeten the deal.
  • When discussing The Ogre with Bullock and the chief, the sudden realization dawns on him that The Ogre is targeting Barbara Kean instead of Doctor Thompkins as he had originally assumed.
  • Has probably his most serious case of this in season 4 when viewing Jerome's video will - only for "Jerome" to start peeling off his makeup, revealing it's actually Jeremiah in all his Joker-esque glory.
• Papa Wolf: Immediately goes after Jeremiah upon learning that the latter has kidnapped Barbara Lee.
• Parental Substitute: He shares this role with Alfred when it comes to Bruce, to the point Jeremiah Valeska targets him specifically as such to earn Bruce's hate in season 5. He's also this to Selina, to a certain extent.
• Plot Armor: No matter what savage criminal Jim comes across, he always lives to fight another day, because he's the main protagonist.
  Harvey [After Jim has supposedly been incinerated in a near-nuclear explosion] In two minutes Jim Gordon's gonna come walking through that door and chew all your asses out for standing around and not doing your job! ^note  He does eventually, though not the chewing out part.
• Pretender Diss: During his "Reason You Suck" Speech to Jeremiah after he survived his attempt on his life, he refers to him as a "pale imitation of Jerome".
• Rage Breaking Point: Prior to season 2 Jim was the Wide-Eyed Idealist Foil to Bullock's cynical slob, and despite everything Loeb does to him he still remains so. Then Jerome murders Sarah Essen, with her dying in his arms. The first scene of the very next episode has him throwing perps out a window in the hope the underworld gets the message to stop sheltering Jerome. From then on, he's the "shoot first, ask questions later" Cowboy Cop he actively railed against in happier times.
• Rank Up: Gets promoted to captain and is given command of the Central Precinct in "Stop Hitting Yourself." In season 5 finally attains the rank of commissioner after saving the city from Bane.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Due to his tendency to make poor decisions (then wonder why he gets no support from his fellow cops) he's had a long series of these over the series, from Bullock, Barnes, Lee and Sofia among others.
• Reassigned to Antarctica: After crossing the line against the city's corruption one too many times, he's sent to be a security guard at the newly opened Arkham. This doesn't last long though.
• Related in the Adaptation: The comic version of Gordon was not married to Leslie Thompkins.
• The Rival: Along with Bullock, to Allen and Montoya (especially Montoya). Played with with Ed in season 2; he considers Gordon this as he looks into Kirsten's disappearance - but he's actually an Unknown Rival, as Jim was only asking because Lee was getting on his case about it.
• Running Gag: His being forced off/leaving the GCPD and subsequently returning.
  Harvey: If we had a big to-do every time you came back to the GCPD, we'd never catch any bad guys.
• Sanity Slippage: Late in season three, Gordon injects himself with the Alice Tetch virus and suffers the expected side effects, although he resists better than most.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: An interesting case in that he never actively uses said connections - but he's a war hero, and his dad used to be the DA, so the Gordon name carries a lot of weight, hence why Bullock is stuck with him as partner. Then in season 2 he uses his Odd Friendship with Penguin to get back into the GCPD and force Loeb out - which involves killing somebody to collect Penguin's debt while Loeb very nearly gets a bullet between the eyes from Zsasz.
• Shoot the Dog: In Season 2 he's doing things he would've never had done in Season 1. A specific example, in the Fall Finale of Season 2; Gordon decides to execute Galavan after some prodding from Cobblepot. Due to the fact that Galavan had so many officials in his back pocket, Gordon came to the conclusion that the only way to finally bring him to justice is to kill him himself.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: To Dwight upon his attempt to imitate Jerome over the phone:
  Gordon: For the record, you're doing one thing Jerome never did: boring me. [hangs up]
  • Also to Sofia during their final confrontation.
  Gordon: Sofia........go to Hell!
• Spanner in the Works: Constantly. His not killing Cobblepot when he was supposed to was the start of a long line of villains - Fish, Theo Galavan, Ed, the Court of Owls, Jeremiah Valeska - underestimating him and having their plans go to pot as a result.
• The Stoic: Whether it's mobsters, insane lunatics or age-old cults, Jim does his best to take it all in stride. Played for laughs in "The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause"
  Zsasz: Wait. Is Penn important, or something?
  [Gordon visibly doesn't change expression at all]
  Zsasz: That's a yes! You see that? That's his "yes" face.
• Technically a Smile: If you make a Drinking Game out of all the times he gives authority figures a brief and mirthless flash of tooth, don't try to drive.
• Tempting Fate: Antagonizing authority figures, even corrupt ones, isn't the greatest of ideas. After rocking the boat one time too many, the Mayor gets him thrown off the force and has him demoted to a security guard at Arkham. He's reinstated, but Loeb demotes him to beat cop out of spite. It takes the threat of a bullet between the eyes to Loeb from Penguin and Zsasz to undo that one.
• To Be Lawful or Good: Gordon increasingly finds himself in this dilemma as the series progresses, where he occasionally has to do shady and blatantly unlawful things in order to strive for an ultimately just goal. Although, in his case "shady" or "unlawful" is still saintly compared to the rest of the GCPD.
• Token Good Cop: Zigzaged over the course of the series. In season one he's the only cop in the entire GCPD willing to challenge its pervasive corruption — the other halfway decent cops are burned out (like Harvey Bullock), self-righteous and willing to bend or ignore the rules to their advantage (like Montoya and Allen) or else powerless to do anything about the corruption (like Captain Essen). However, Gordon is confronted with just how screwed Gotham really is, and over time he resorts to immoral if not illegal actions just to bring about some actual changes, eventually leaving temporarily in season three. He later rejoins after realising that acting outside the law was corrupting him even further and attempts to return to his former principles, but he is still more willing to resort to dirty actions (such as keeping relationships with the more friendly gangsters like Barbara and Penguin) than he was before.
  • Discussed in Season Four when he points out to Bullock that a large portion of his reputation as the honest cop who can save the GCPD is built on a lie (with his recent rise to captain being part of a plot by Sofia Falcone), only for Bullock to point out that he's still better than all the alternatives.
• Token Good Teammate: Serves as this in GCPD, after the rest of the crooked cops believe he kills Cobblepot. Bullock gets frustrated that Gordon still maintains his morals. Gradually subverted, as after Barnes' appointment the GCPD starts to approach his level of morals.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Being in Gotham took a heavy toll on his optimism. This is mainly due his harsh break-up with Lee and her miscarrying their child.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: In season 3 his decision to go out on his own as a bounty hunter isn't necessarily this - but repeatedly showing up to GCPD crime scenes and expecting Barnes and Bullock to keep supporting him regardless of his actions sure as hell is.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After going on his own as a bounty hunter, Gordon begins to embrace the darkness of Gotham and starts treating Bullock and Barnes like crap, in addition to putting Vale in danger via his methods. He starts to lose this after being exposed to the Mad Hatter's 'Red Queen' potion.
• Tranquil Fury: Seems to have a hidden rage (or a "little danger in your eye", as Fish calls it) which he keeps under his steely gaze.
• Ultimate Job Security: Due to Gordon being a By-the-Book Cop, he's garnered popularity with the public, essentially meaning his corrupt bosses can't fire him. Played with, in that this doesn't stop them from variously reassigning him to security at Arkham, or demoting him to beat cop.
• Unwitting Pawn:
  • "Penguin's Umbrella" reveals that it was Cobblepot's suggestion to Falcone that Gordon be the one who kills him, knowing Gordon was too good a man to go through with it. This allows Penguin to leave town, and come back under an assumed name to infiltrate Maroni's gang.
  • He also becomes one of Sofia, doing exactly what she'd expected and planned for at every turn. It leaves him in the position of captain - squarely under her thumb, as she threatens to ruin his image as the incorruptible cop by exposing how he'd worked with her to get rid of Penguin.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Ed and Eduardo before they became the Riddler and Bane. It's even more complex with Barbara due to their past history.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • After getting set up and fired by Commissioner Loeb in Season 2, Gordon turns to Cobblepot to find some way to get his old job back. Cobblepot agrees to help, on the condition that Gordon plays debt collector for one of his defiant underbosses. Gordon's task goes awry and he's forced to kill the mobster—in self-defense, it must be said. When Gordon comes calling later in the season after Penguin (unbeknownst to him) has been killing people for Galavan, Cobblepot invokes this, knowing that if Gordon was truly serious about taking him down he'd have come with backup, and giving him a tongue-lashing for not being able to admit his own part in things.
  • Gets a scathing one from Harvey mid-season 4 when he tries to mend fences and give him his badge back. Harvey blasts him for never listening to others, working with Sofia, and only wanting him back on the force in order to act as Gordon's confessor.
• Wild Card: A rare strictly heroic version of this. Throughout the first season Cobblepot, Fish, Falcone and Maroni are all engaged in Xanatos Speed Chess against each other, maneuvering for overall advantage. Gordon is frequently the wrench in their plans because unlike the rest of the GCPD, he absolutely refuses to play ball - even when ordered to by the corrupt Commissioner.
• You Don't Look Like You: Lacks the distinguishing mustache and glasses combo that other versions of James Gordon have. While he does get a mustache in the series finale, he shaves it off in the same episode.
• You're Insane!: He gets this from Barnes in "Azrael" in response to his informing him about his suspicions regarding Hugo Strange in an attempt to get a warrant issued for his arrest.

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