Characters / Gotham - Rogues Gallery: Cellblock A

Main Character Page | Cellblock A (Arthur Penn to Jeremiah Valeska) | Cellblock B (Jonathan Crane to Victor Zsasz)

---

Arthur Penn/The Ventriloquist

Arthur Penn

Played By: Andrew Sellon

A nervous mob accountant working for Penguin starting in season 4.

---

• Adaptation Name Change: The original Ventriloquist in the comics is named Arnold Wesker. This is alluded to when Penguin calls him "Arnold" by accident.
• Adaptational Nice Guy: Scarface isn’t as abusive as his comics counterpart is towards Wesker, with part of his motivation being getting back at Penguin for his awful treatment of Penn - this makes sense in a way, as Scarface appears to represent Penn's suppressed anger for Penguin's actions.
• Boom, Headshot!: How he's eventually killed, courtesy of the Riddler.
• Canon Character All Along: Turns out this minor character was the Gotham version of the Ventriloquist and Scarface all along.
• Character Death: In episode 3 of season 5, he is shot by the Street Demons leader after they turn against Penguin and appears to die. He turns up again in episode 8, having survived and patched himself up, only to be killed by Riddler with a bullet to the head after he attacks Oswald.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Introduced as Penguin's long-suffering accountant, everyone thought we'd seen the last of him when he was killed by the Street Demonz. Then he came back in "Nothing's Shocking", where it turned out he was actually the show's take on the Ventriloquist/Scarface.
• Death by Adaptation: To a degree. Whist this version of the Ventriloquist dies about a decade prior to Bruce Wayne becoming Batman, the Ventriloquist is actually a legacy character in the comics, with many others taking on the identity. So it's entirely possible another criminal could end up taking on the Ventriloquist/Scarface identity in Gotham's off-screen future.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Dies in Penguin's arms after he is shot and has a surprisingly heartfelt moment with him when Penguin angrily mourns his death and Penn apologizes for abandoning him, though it's subverted in that he somehow survives this and returns in episode 8 - only to be killed again.

• The Dog Bites Back: Happens twice in season 5 towards Penguin. The first is when he leads most, if not all, of Penguin's remaining workers into defecting and fleeing to Jim Gordon's Haven. The second is via the Scarface personality, which is his repressed anger towards Penguin, which attempts to kill his former employer.
• Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: Is eventually revealed to have been on Penguin's, Sofia's, and Falcone's payrolls, keeping tabs on all three of them for each other.
• Manchild: Penguin mentions a "specialized clinic" that Penn spends most of his weekends off at. When Jim and Harvey storm the clinic, it turns out to actually be a fetish hotel for adult babies. This leads to Penn being interrogated while wearing an adult-sized onesie.
• Mythology Gag: When trying to remember Penn's first name, Penguin accidentally calls him Arnold rather than Arthur. Arnold is the first name of the original Ventriloquist in the comics.
• Nervous Wreck: Constantly extremely anxious. Not surprising considering who he works for.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives a fairly damning one to Oswald in "Nothing's Shocking" shortly before Riddler kills him.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He's very intelligent and has a sophisticated way of speaking. This works fine with Penguin, but not so well with some of Gotham's other denizens.
  Penn: Ed Nygma, who owes his life to Mr. Cobblepot's mercy, is repaying that generosity by aping his benefactor in a crude commedia dell'arte!
  Selina: ...what?
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Penguin helps him break free of the Scarface personality, blowing the doll's head off and prompting a delighted Penn to seemingly snap back to normal - then Riddler kills him via headshot anyway.
• Split Personality: His repressed loathing of Penguin manifests itself in the Scarface personality.
• Turncoat: Defects to Jim Gordon's side after witnessing Penguin's continued callous and dismissive nature towards his employees and having his own life threatened. It doesn't last.
• Ultimate Job Security: Comes with the territory of being a mob accountant, hence why Sofia keeps him around despite knowing of his status as a mole for multiple families.
• Verbal Tic: As Mr. Scarface, transplants B's, P's, and M's with G's, T's, and N's. This is a real-life trick used by amateur ventriloquists to avoid moving their lips.
• Walking Spoiler: It should be obvious from the number of whited-out entries that all is not as it initially appears with him...

"Basil"/Clayface

Played By: Brian Mc Manamon, Benjamin McKenzie, Paul Reubens

Hugo Strange: "Basil is a gifted performer. A chameleon of sorts."

An actor who died of unknown means, Basil is an Indian Hill patient that is capable of changing his features & voice to impersonate others.

---

• Adaptational Attractiveness: While still a relatively creepy looking fellow, he at least fares better than the giant blob monster that he is in the comics.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: Rather than the radioactive mud pool that gave the Matt Hagen Clayface powers (and later become the source for other versions of the character receiving powers), this version receives his shapeshifting powers from octopus DNA implanted by Hugo Strange at Indian Hill.
• Adaptational Wimp: Naturally. Clayface at full power would make short work of anything else in this series, so his shapeshifting here is limited to sculpting his facial features to impersonate other people.
• Bald of Evil: He can't shapeshift hair, so he does this to make wigs easier.
• Bad "Bad Acting": He was an actor in his previous life and had terrible performance skills. His impersonation of Gordon has to be seen to be believed. Subverted later, as his impersonation of Elijah Van Dahl was so spot on it further broke Oswald Cobblepot's mind.
• Big Eater: While impersonating Gordon, he snacks on chips and drinks milkshakes.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: He's only referred to as Basil by Hugo Strange, never Clayface.
• Identity Amnesia: As part of Strange's experiments. By his second appearance, the good doctor's ministrations have erased any unease over this.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: Unlike his comic counterpart, he can't just morph his features and has to manually resculpt his features until they look how he wants. As a result, hitting him does to his disguise what it would do to a clump of soft clay.
• No Name Given: It is unclear if Basil was or is his real name, since this was the name given to him by Strange during his experiments at Indian Hill.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: He's not a giant clay monster in this continuity. Instead, he's a (somewhat) regular-looking guy with stretchy, clay-like skin.
• Rubber Man: His power works because his flesh is extremely malleable, allowing him to sculpt it at will.
• Took a Level in Badass: His acting skills have greatly improved in Season 3 and he is instrumental in the Riddler's plot.
• Voices Are Mental: Justified. His power only lets him change his appearance, not his internal structures. He has to rely on old fashioned listen-and-repeat just to get in the ballpark of the voice he should be using.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Basil hasn't been seen or heard since season 3, something especially notable in a show like Gotham where the freaks were running amok in the later seasons.

Bridgit Pike/Firefly

Bridgit Pike/Firefly

Played By: Michelle Veintimilla (Season 2 and 4) / Camila Perez

"You should feel honored. You are a sacrifice to the goddess of fire."

The youngest member of a family of arsonists, who is forced into it by her stepbrothers. A horrendous accident that sears her suit to her skin and the psychological manipulations of Hugo Strange transform her into the pyromaniac Firefly.

---

• Adaptational Attractiveness: Firefly's previous action incarnation on Arrow wasn't as horribly burnt like how Firefly is in the comics (who supposedly has his entire body covered in burns). This incarnation follows suit as Bridgit isn't as horribly burnt. Granted, she is still covered up in a protected suit that covers her body but not her face. Her face, like Arrow's (which had a two-faced appearance), is not as bad as the comics or the the Arkham games.
• Adaptational Badass: Compared to Firefly's last live action incarnation on Arrow, who was a mentally crippled Tragic Villain who utilized a lighter and a tank of gasoline, this Firefly can go head-to-head with Mr. Freeze and takes down one of the nigh-invulnerable Talons of the Court of Owls with surprising ease.
• Adaptation Name Change: Is named Bridgit Pike instead of Garfield Lynns or Ted Carson.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Combined with Adaptational Heroism. In the comics, Firefly developed a taste for setting fires by himself, while this version is bullied into committing crimes for her brothers before growing into a super-villain. Firefly is also simply a pyromaniac. Bridgit, after becoming Firefly, leans toward Pay Evil unto Evil. Even her attacks on the cops are both more due to blind panic than anything else. However, there are also strong hints that she has developed a liking to the act of burning people alive and choosing asshole victims solely because she can.
• Ambiguously Gay: She seems to harbor a strong relationship with Selina Kyle. However, it's unknown whether it's a crush or if they're just close friends.
• And I Must Scream: After she suffers serious burns, the police assume she's dead and she is taken to Indian Hill for experimentation. The worst part is that she's still alive and in serious pain already from her burns.
• Animal Motif: Of a firefly. She's given several insect like features, with her goggles resembling an insect's compound eyes, while her overall bodysuit is also very insect like.
• Anti-Villain: Is forced into crime by her abusive brothers, and her only victims are either accidental or of the Asshole variety (such as the aforementioned brothers). Changes later on as she willingly gets mixed up with Penguin and later Jerome.
• Armor Is Useless: Played with; she builds herself an outfit from "flame-proof" cloth to prevent getting burned after her first night leaves her with fire on her leg. But during her final fight with the cops, her fuel line soaks her suit, catching her on fire... only for it to turn out that the cloth didn't burn, but fused to her body.
• Ax-Crazy: After her brainwashing, she just wants to watch the world burn.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Her brothers and Hugo Strange relentlessly abused her to the point of insanity.
• Body Horror: After her fuel line soaks her flame-proof cloth suit and she is set aflame, the suit fuses to her body, cementing her as Firefly for good.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Thanks to Hugo Strange's treatment on her. It goes away.
• Break the Cutie: The abuse from her brothers and corruption from Selina's influence turn her from a shy, timid young girl into one of Gotham's deadliest arsonists.
• The Bus Came Back: She returns some episodes after her seeming death, now donning her identity as Firefly.
• Butt-Monkey: She's abused by her family, seriously burned and suffers a Fate Worse than Death after she's mistaken for dead.
• Canon Immigrant: She is added to the comics, being the second character to do so.
• Co-Dragons: With Freeze for Penguin in late season 3 and early season 4.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: In "By Fire", Barnes and Bullock both call her a firefly, but that's just a Mythology Gag. She never actually calls herself Firefly, nor does anyone use the word in the context of a name. Averted after her return in "Unleashed", where she insists that Firefly is her name, refusing to answer to Bridgit.
• Cop Killer: Accidentally, after her flamethrower malfunctions.
• Costume Evolution: Her first suit is a crudely-crafted hoodie and mask made out of fireproof fabric, along with a pair of black goggles that resemble an insect's eyes. After she's taken into Indian Hill for experimentation, she sports a darker, sleeker suit◊ with a flamethrower that appears to represent her "Firefly wings", as well as a new pair of goggles that look strikingly similar to her Arkham counterpart's.
• Dark Is Evil: She dons a gray fire-resistant suit upon becoming Firefly.
• The Dog Bites Back: In "By Fire", she kills the Pike brothers by, well... by fire.
• Dragon Ascendant: After seasons spent killing people for Strange, Penguin and Jerome, she's got her own gang of pyromaniacs by the end of season 4.
• Driven to Villainy: Her brothers and Hugo Strange push her to the point of insanity with their relentless torture; resulting in her becoming the arsonist Firefly.
• Dysfunctional Family: The Pike brothers force her into becoming an arsonist, calling it "family business", and threaten to expel her if they decide that she is not family.
• Evil Feels Good: After her first night, she realizes that she enjoyed setting fires.
• Evil Is Hammy: After accepting her villainous side, she goes way over the top with her desire to torch everything.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: She was a pretty, innocent girl before suffering from serious burns during her arson crimes.
• Fire-Breathing Weapon: Progresses to using a flamethrower at the end of "Scarification".
• Fire/Ice Duo: With Mr. Freeze. The two of them are a pair of Psychos for Hire. One episode has them turning their weapons on each other.
• Foil: Appropriately enough, to Mr. Freeze. Both are villains themed after elements, both wear bodily-concealing suits and goggles, and both use guns that fire ammunition deriving from said elements. However, while Freeze is trying to rescue the one he loves and not cause massive collateral damage, Bridgit sets her abusive family ablaze (though it wasn't without reason) and goes on a subsequent rampage. They both end up at Indian Hill and don't see each other until Hugo Strange attempts to activate a bomb to level Arkham. While Freeze stays loyal to the professor, Bridgit (now truly Firefly) immediately rejects Strange's imploring to kill Selina. The two end up in Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors and are evenly matched, only stopping when Strange gets in the crossfire.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: She was just an abused, shy girl before becoming one of the city's most dangerous arsonists.
• Gender Flip: Firefly is traditionally portrayed as male.
• A God Am I: Due to Strange creating a new persona for her to adapt to, Firefly now believes she is a "Goddess of Fire." By the time Oswald and Ivy find her again in Season 3, the "Goddess of Fire" alter ego went away.
• Immune to Fire: The combination of Strange's experiments and her flame-resistant suit being fused to her skin have seemingly made her this, as she's seen carrying around containers filled with molten metal with exposed flesh in a steel mill and quits her job there when Penguin hires her as his enforcer by dunking her bare hand into one of those containers and throwing a glob of molten metal at her abusive boss.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: She's not portrayed as stable after her evolution into Firefly, but generally she's ok being Penguin's enforcer. Season 4, however, has her throw in with Jerome's mad plan to destroy the city.
• Karma Houdini: Gets away with all her criminal actions by the end of the series.
• Loss of Identity: After her time in Indian Hill.
• Not Quite Dead: Bridgit ends up burnt alive by her malfunctioning flamethrower and is thought to be dead. However, her body is taken to Indian Hill for experimentation, while she's still alive and completely aware of what's going on.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: Barbecues her brothers, who have abused her since childhood, and a pimp auctioning sex slaves.
• Psycho for Hire: Much like her original counterpart, she becomes a villain for hire recruited as the Penguin's new muscle.
• Put on a Bus to Hell: After receiving serious burns that the police assumed she died from, she's sent to Indian Hill where Hugo Strange commits horrific experiments on her.
• Pyromaniac: Well, she is a villain who bases her gadgets off of flame-inducing technology.
• Retcon: A somewhat downplayed example. Her fiery accident permanently damaged her entire body, and thus, her whole face ended up getting completely scarred. In Season 4 however, only half of her face is scarred (this is never explained).
• Religion of Evil: Her Fire Goddess persona desires the burning of the entire world.
• Religious Bruiser: She truly believes that fire is a religion for her to spread.
• Sanity Slippage: After Strange works on her in Indian Hill, she comes to believe she is an actual goddess of fire. She's gotten over it by her season 3 reappearances.
• Shrinking Violet: Before her Start of Darkness, Bridgit was a timid girl who was afraid of interacting with people due to her constant abuse.
• Small Name, Big Ego: After Strange convinces her to act as a fire goddess, she becomes quite full of herself and only spares Selina's life in order to make her a servant.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She really hates working with Freeze in season 3, even though they're a devastatingly effective combination.
• That Man Is Dead: When she sees Selena again after Selena sneaks into Indian Hill she maintains that Bridgit is dead and that her name is Firefly.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After she becomes a fully evil villain, she embraces her Ax-Crazy side.
• Truer to the Text: Compared to Firefly's last live action portrayal on Arrow, this Firefly is a lot more closer to the comics by being a high-tech arsonist using an advanced flamethrower rather than a rogue firefighter who used a lighter and a tank of gasoline.
• Villain Decay: She was once a rogue pyromaniac that went around killing people for fun, but later in the show she gets recruited as the Dumb Muscle for more competent villains. To rub salt in the wounds, she once gets taken out by Leslie Thompkins of all characters with a single bullet igniting her flamethrower.
• Villainous Rescue: Kills a Talon threatening Jim Gordon at Penguin's behest.
• We Used to Be Friends: She and Selina used to be good friends before she became Firefly, trying to kill Selina at the end of season 2.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: In season 4 she first works for Penguin, then becomes part of the Legion of Horribles, but drops out of sight after their defeat. She's mentioned in season 5 as being in a turf war against Freeze, but her final fate is unresolved in both the season proper and the Time Skip finale.

Butch Gilzean/Solomon Grundy

Solomon Grundy Butch Gilzean/Cyrus Gold/Solomon Grundy

"I know Gotham like the back of my hand."

"Solomon Grundy... born on a Monday."

Played By: Drew Powell

An experienced member of the Gotham City underworld crime system, Butch was a former underling of Fish Mooney and later, he came to be second-in-command under Oswald Cobblepot before splitting off from him and trying to become the King of Gotham with the help from his girlfriend, Tabitha Galavan, and Barbara Kean, Tabby's ex-lover and former business partner. Thanks to the dueling affections of both for Tabitha (and their plotting against her) Barbara ends up killing him - but thanks to Indian Hill he ends up coming back as the zombie-like Solomon Grundy.

---

• Adaptation Expansion: The human side of Solomon Grundy is scarcely explored in the comics. In Gotham he actually spent the vast majority of the show in his human identity before his transformation into Grundy.
• Adaptation Name Change: Played with. While his true name is still Cyrus Gold like in the comics, he goes under the name "Butch Gilzean" for the majority of the show.
• Adaptational Wimp: While Grundy's power level varies drastically Depending on the Writer, ranging from Superman levels to being capable of being defeated by Batman, this is still easily one of the weaker versions of Grundy to date, being a great deal stronger and tougher than an average human, but still mostly restricted to being a street-level threat.
• Affably Evil: Unlike either of his former bosses, he's genuinely pretty likable, even when he's giving you the choice whether to get beaten up or shot in the leg. His few nasty moments seem to be a case of Punch-Clock Villain.
• Age Lift: Inverted. Solomon Grundy is hundreds of years old in the comics (he was born during the 19th century), but in this show, he's about 30-40 years old by the time he becomes a zombie. Additionally, because of DC deciding to keep Batman as a member of the Justice League and ignore Bruce's history with the Golden Age means Cyrus's resurrection into Grundy and first forays as a super villain happened years before Bruce was even born. Here, his death and resurrection happen while Bruce is a teenager.
• An Arm and a Leg: Penguin hacks off his hand when he asks Butch to perform a special infiltration mission against Galavan. He then gains a prosthetic replacement. Later, once he becomes Solomon Grundy, his Healing Factor kicks in and he regains his hand for good.
• Ascended Extra: He's just Fish's head mook in Season 1, and while the show spends a good deal of time exploring his character, he's overshadowed by the likes of Penguin and Fish. By "Wrath of the Villains", he survives through the reigns of both Fish and the Penguin to become "King of Gotham", standing on top of the underworld, hooking up with Tabitha in the process. And then in season 4 he becomes someone with a lot more importance to the Batman mythos - Solomon Grundy.
• Back from the Dead: After a pair of lazy paramedics dump his body in Slaughter Swamp, some discarded chemicals from Indian Hill bring him back to life.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: It was revealed that Zsasz did this to him as punishment for his betrayal, so that he would follow Penguin's commands without question. This becomes problematic during Penguin and Fish's fight where his loyalty to both plays havoc on his mind and he ends up shooting them both. However, Tabitha helps break him of his brainwashing in exchange for his help.
• Came Back Strong: After coming back to life as Solomon Grundy, he's gained Super-Strength. But...
• Came Back Wrong: After his resurrection, he has virtually no memory of his past life as a human. However, he eventually gets his memories back when Tabitha literally beats them back into his head.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Despite his loyalty to Fish and saving her from execution, Falcone has Zsasz torture and brainwash him into servitude instead of killing him for this reason. Butch knows the Gotham club scene like the back of his hand, and as Penguin's tanking Fish's old business, Butch is an ideal and loyal number two for Cobblepot.
• Canon Character All Along: He initially appeared to be a Canon Foreigner along with Fish, but the Season 3 finale reveals that his real name is Cyrus Gold, the true identity of Solomon Grundy in the comics.
• The Chains of Commanding: He becomes the King of Gotham after Penguin is brought to Arkham. He is effective at first, killing people loyal to Penguin - but after Tabitha appears he softens considerably, laying around in his robes and losing interest in the details of his new empire. Penguin says in Season 2 Episode 20 that he has become "soft" and "sentimental".
• Character Death: In the season 4 finale, after his condition is cured, he is shot in the heart in front of Tabitha by Penguin as part of his plan to get revenge on both of them for their roles in his mother's death. It is unknown what happens to his body after that.
• Conflicting Loyalty: He couldn't decide if he was loyal to Fish or Penguin so he kneecapped both. However, Penguin still wins.
• Cursed with Awesome: Butch is convinced he's a monster & badly wants to change back. But unlike say Mr. Freeze he doesn't seem to have any major downsides to his state of being. He's not decaying, his lack of pulse has no affect on him, can heal from just about anything and is the strongest man in Gotham.
  • The worst thing that's said about him is Barbara saying he smells, in a tone that implies she's just as likely messing with him.
• Death by Adaptation: In the Season 4 finale, Hugo Strange manages to reverse Butch's condition and make him normal again. Unfortunately, this also makes him mortal again, leaving him vulnerable enough for Penguin to shoot him dead. Without Grundy's ability to resurrect, Butch ends up expiring again, this time for good.
• Defiant to the End: When Barbara reveals that she knows he and Tabitha were plotting against her and is prepared to kill him, he keeps his cool and gives her a scathing speech about her relationship with Tabitha as he prepares an attempt to kill her with a switch blade, only getting cut short when she shoots him in the head as he was finishing insulting her.
• Dies Differently in Adaptation: His past life as Butch was ended by Barbara shooting him. In the comics, until a self-titled miniseries that served as a lead-in to Blackest Night, it was speculated that Cyrus Gold was mugged and killed, murdered by a pimp who tried to blackmail him, hanged by a mob who thought he was a child molester — and said miniseries stated Gold killed himself.
• The Dog Bites Back: Helps Theo Galavan against Penguin after being freed from his mind control.
• The Dragon: For Fish. And eventually for Penguin, too.
• Dumb Muscle: As Grundy serves as this for Riddler in early season 4.
• Easily Forgiven: Penguin seems remarkably OK with his betrayal contributing to his mother's death, his taking over from him and having all his loyalists killed in season 2, as Butch stays with him as his right-hand man in the early part of season 3, and is only cast out when he tries to kill Ed.
• Even Evil Has Standards:
  • Fish orders that the captive Gordon and Bullock be tortured to death and literally carved to pieces in a meat-packing warehouse, to send a warning to the police. Gilzean earnestly apologizes to Gordon and Bullock that if it were up to him, he'd simply shoot them each in the head execution-style and be done with it - but it's not up to him.
  • Overrules Tabitha when she wants to kill the now-harmless Penguin, noting they've both lost a lot and are now "square".
  • In "Better to Reign in Hell...", he tells Selina that she's too young to be hanging around in a nightclub.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: From a common mob thug to the mutated super-villain Solomon Grundy.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Part of his antipathy towards Ed and Barbara is driven by the former supplanting him as Penguin's right-hand man, and the latter becoming his rival for Tabitha's affections.
• Has a Type: May have a romantic preference for forceful, morally shady Black women, if Tabitha and Fish are any indication.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Alongside Fish, he was the most prominent original character in the series for years - then the end of season 3 revealed he'd been the human identity of Solomon Grundy the whole time.
• Honor Among Thieves: He makes sure to confess to his old friend Saviano about how when they were teens who had stolen 40 pounds of meat, he had screwed him out of the better cuts, and asks for forgiveness. Saviano does this, and then Butch shoots him.
• Informed Deformity: Once he regains his memories in Season 4 he gets very down on his new appearance, claiming to be too grotesque for Tabitha to love, despite all evidence showing she still does. The thing is, once he's out of the Grundy rags, he just looks like an albino version of his old self.
• Iron Butt Monkey: He has suffered a great deal as a result of being The Dragon to a number of sadistic criminals. Tortured, brainwashed, lost a hand, tortured some more... Even Leslie beats the shit out of him in season 3, then Barbara just murders him.
• Killed Mid-Sentence: Barbara shoots him in the head as he's telling her how she never deserved Tabitha.
• Killed Off for Real: After a false start getting shot in the head by Barbara the season prior, he's killed by Penguin after getting cured of his Grundy side, in order to pay Tabitha back for his mother's murder.
• Large Ham:
  • Although nowhere near the levels of his boss, anyone who uses a dozen kidnapped nuns to hijack a truck definitively qualifies.
  • Has a phone rigged to detonate a bomb to kill some loose ends. With "Final Countdown" as the ringtone.
• Lonely at the Top: After temporarily becoming The Don of Gotham, he immediately gets bored with his high position and places great value in his new relationship with Tabitha.
• Meaningful Name: Called "Butch" and appears to work as a butcher.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: In "Anything For You", he's fed up with the way Penguin treated him, even before Nygma came along.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Said almost word for word when, under Penguin's brainwashing, he shoots his former mentor Fish, enabling Oswald to kill her.
• Mythology Gag:
  • He acts like a brainless brute when he first becomes Grundy, but is back to his intelligent old self when Tabitha knocks the memories back into his head. In the comics, Grundy is known to grow more intelligent and less mindless with every resurrection.
  • He was given the same Super-Empowering event that Comic!Grundy had. Being dumped in "Slaughter Swamp" with chemicals that brought him Back from the Dead with Super-Strength.
• Nepotism: His nephew Sonny runs a magic mushroom operation for him in season 2, despite being a complete incompetent.
• Odd Couple: Hapless former mob enforcer paired with ruthless former assassin would be a match normally made in hell - but it's shown he and Tabitha genuinely love each other.
• Only Sane Man: Pronounced in season 3, as he repeatedly advocates to Tabitha that they kill both Ed and the hugely unstable Barbara. She doesn't listen, with fatal results for him at the hands of the latter.
• Our Zombies Are Different: He's less a zombie and more a mutant with a strong Healing Factor that brought him back from the brink of death.
• Perverted Sniffing: To Barbara Kean when he tries to scare her in season 1.
• The Peter Principle: An excellent consigliere and enforcer. Less effective as numero uno.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: In the comics, Solomon Grundy is explicitly stated to be a zombie reanimated through supernatural/mystical means. The Gotham version got mutated through the exposure of discarded chemicals from Indian Hill.
• Punch-Clock Villain: For the most part. Butch seems to take pleasure in doing his job well - his job just happens to be as a mob enforcer. He can have an almost perfunctory tone about doing routine mob work, though. Yes he tied up some nuns to use as a roadblock but he didn't expect them to be actually killed (the point was to make the truck stop). He then goes through the polite, almost boring routine of explaining to the drivers that he needs to send a message to Maroni, so they can choose between a thorough beating or a quick bullet to the leg. His tone is that of a mechanic calmly discussing payment options with a customer. The drivers, also matter-of-factly, ask why he even needs to send a "message" by hurting them, they could just tell Maroni that he was willing to beat them up. Butch gets mildly annoyed that this would subvert the entire "message", so he casually whips out his gun and shoots them both in the legs. Even his threats against Barbara Kean are more perfunctory, calculated intimidation than they are For the Evulz.
• Red Right Hand: Had a metal prosthetic hand during seasons 2 and 3, after Penguin cut it off. His transformation into Solomon Grundy additionally grew the hand back.
• The Reveal: "Heavydirtysoul" reveals, after Barbara kills him, that his original name was "Cyrus Gold", as in Solomon Grundy.
• The Mole: Penguin employs him in an infiltration mission against Galavan, but when Galavan offers him a chance to break free of his brainwashing, Butch immediately switches sides and betrays Penguin.
• Scapegoat: After he betrays Penguin with the whole Red Hood affair, he becomes the easiest person to blame for any underworld dealings with Penguin's involvement, not necessarily at Penguin's initial suggestion, among them Isabella's car accident.
• Swiss-Army Appendage: Deconstructed when Galavan attempts to set him up with some, but most prove Awesome, but Impractical. Later reconstructed when he's able to pick his own, slightly more practical, attachments, like a mallet attachment for "negotiations".
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He loathes and mistrusts Penguin in season 4, but teams up with him regardless after Cobblepot promises he can cure him of his Grundy affliction
• Truer to the Text: Much more faithful to the comics than Arrow's version of the character, being a super zombie rather than just a really tough guy empowered by a Super Serum.
• Undying Loyalty:
  • To Fish, big time. When a childhood friend of his (a boss with seniority to Fish, and better claim to the empire should Falcone be removed) offers him a chance for a much better position within the mob in exchange for killing Fish (namely her territory as his equal partner), he instead kills said childhood friend without a second thought in his usual Affably Evil manner. Exactly why he has such loyalty to Fish above all else is never revealed. He personally rescues her from being tortured in "Welcome Back, Jim Gordon", and sacrifices himself to help her escape.
  • He proves just as loyal to Penguin, even sincerely renouncing Fish, albeit under brainwashing. This comes to a head when he has to choose between them. However, Galavan breaks him out of his brainwashing and he betrays Penguin.
• Unholy Matrimony: Briefly with Tabitha in the second half of Season 2, but they break up when she regains interest in Barbara. They get back together again in season 3, and are an item on-an-off until Penguin kills him.
• Villain Decay: Goes from the cunning Faux Affably Evil Noble Demon he was at the start of the series into the resident Stupid Evil Iron Butt Monkey routinely abused by everyone.
• Villainous Crush: He has one on the more villainous Tabitha Galavan.
• Villainous Valor: Sneaky, smart, brave, and strong enough to escape the van in which he was being transported to an incineration facility, kill his captors, track down and free Mooney, and then help her escape when Zsasz shows up, even willingly staying behind to cover her escape. He even managed to kill one of Zsasz's henchgirls, which surprises them.
• Villains Do The Dirty Work: Technically speaking. Gordon was more than willing to murder Galavan again, but wasn't having much success. Then Penguin and Butch showed up and Butch shot him with a rocket launcher.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Until Season 1 Episode 16, it was unknown what happened to him after he stayed behind to let Fish escape Zsasz's gang. It turned out he was 'conditioned' to be a personal assistant for Cobblepot.
• White Hair, Black Heart: Subverted when he comes back as Solomon Grundy - he’s more of a dimwitted monster defending himself.
• Working for a Body Upgrade: After regaining his memory, post-Grundy Butch very reluctantly agrees to work with Penguin again, but solely to track down Hugo Strange in the hope that Strange can undo the transformation inflicted upon him by Indian Hill's discarded chemicals.

Copperhead

Played By: Lesley-Ann Brandt

An assassin hired by an unknown party to kill Selina Kyle and eliminate the witness to the Wayne murders.

---

• Affably Evil: She's polite and honest despite being a hired assassin, and prefers to kill her targets and will spare others but will kill civilians if it will serve her ends.
• Hell-Bent for Leather: Wears a skin-tight leather suit.
• Punch-Clock Villain: She only kills people she's been contracted for — she has a chance to shoot several characters, but lets them go or only knocks them unconscious.
• Kick the Dog: Kills a Gardener and uses his blood to pull a Wounded Gazelle Gambit to get into Wayne manor.
• Race Lift: Is based on the Arkham Origins re-imagining, and thus is an African American woman instead of a Caucasian man like Copperhead usually is. In fact, she's this twice over as the Origins Cooperhead was Latina.
• We Are Everywhere: Whatever party it is that hired her has intense connections, because she knows Selina is at the Wayne manor when no one outside Gordon, Alfred and Bruce were ever told. She also finds Selina easily when she's on the run.
• Would Hurt a Child: Is willing to to kill the child Selina as part of her contract.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: Kills a civilian gardener and uses his blood to pull this trope off to get inside the Wayne manor.

The Court of Owls

See here.

Dr. Francis Dulmacher/The Dollmaker

See the entry for him and his organization on this page.

Dr. Hugo Strange

Dr. Hugo Strange

"Death is not an ending. Death is a new beginning."

Played By: B.D. Wong

The Chief of Psychiatry at Arkham Asylum. He forces his patients to undergo brutally-intense treatments and tests, with Penguin being one of his most recent guinea pigs. Behind the scenes, he's secretly running mysterious experiments at Indian Hill, which end up leading to reborn villains such as Azrael (Theo Galavan), Fish Mooney and Jerome Valeska...

---

• Adaptation Origin Connection: His heinous experiments at Indian Hill have resulted in the birth of several Batman villains, including Mr. Freeze, Firefly, Solomon Grundy, and Bane. He also was the one who hired Matches to kill Thomas Wayne, making him responsible for turning Bruce into Batman.
• Adaptational Wimp: While certainly a credible threat, this Hugo Strange doesn't act Defiant to the End like his original counterpart. Whenever Strange was losing his battles, he always had a backup plan and bravely stared down his enemies even when the odds weren't in his favor. The show's version breaks down crying and loses all hope the minute he's betrayed by the Greater-Scope Villain due to losing to Gordon and Bruce (who's still a child).
• Ancient Conspiracy: Is an agent for the Court of Owls.
• Bad Boss: Allows his men to be brutally killed by Azrael in order to see what he is capable of.
• Bald of Evil: As usual.
• Beard of Evil: Strange's signature chinstrap beard only serves to enhance how Obviously Evil he is.
• Big Bad: For the second half of Season 2. Professor Strange runs a secretive research facility called Indian Hill where he uses Arkham inmates as test subjects for meta-human or scientific purposes, unleashes a transformed Victor Fries as Mr. Freeze, and brings back and resurrects Theo Galavan as Azrael. And that's not even counting his Greater-Scope Villain role as the man behind the killing of Thomas & Martha Wayne.
• Blatant Lies: Any claim of his that a dead body brought to his facilities had been burnt. He was first known to have told this lie about Victor Fries in "Azrael", and in "Unleashed" Bullock notes that he told the same lie about Theo Galavan, too.
• Break the Haughty: When Gordon and Bruce eventually get the better of him and the Court of Owls activates a nuke under his facility, Strange breaks down crying and loses all his cool suave characteristics almost immediately. Happens again in season 3 when he goes from smugly daring Penguin to do anything to breaking down in panic when he realises Oswald has the same torture headset Strange himself once used.
• Butt-Monkey: After Season 2, him getting kidnapped, tortured and then coerced into being someone else's slave becomes something of a Running Gag.
• Can't Kill You, Still Need You: How he's avoided being killed so far. His skills at mental and physical alteration mean he's too valuable to lose, even for someone who despises him like Penguin.
• Cold Ham: He rarely raises his voice, but expect him to make himself known in every scene he's in regardless.
• Composite Character: By the show going with the Waynes' deaths being an assassination and him being behind it to stop Thomas Wayne, he takes the role of Lew Moxon from the stories where their deaths were an assassination.
• Creepy Monotone: It never turns off.
• Dirty Coward: When things don't go his way in the season 2 finale, he breaks down crying and runs away like a coward.
• Dragon-in-Chief: In "Wrath of the Villains", it is revealed he directly works for the Court of Owls, but doesn't agree with their methods.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Hugo was a former friend to Thomas Wayne before betraying him.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Just listen to that eerie, baritone voice of his.
  Hugo Strange: This is an official certificate from the Gotham Board of Health and Hygiene. It states that Oswald Cobblepot has passed all mandated tests, and by the laws of Gotham City, is hereby declared... saaaaaane.
• False Friend: He used to be friends with Thomas Wayne but eventually betrayed him.
• Faux Affably Evil: Comes off as a polite and compassionate psychiatrist who wants what's best for his patients in his therapy sessions. It's all an affectation of course, and he keeps it even while torturing his victims.
  Strange (with a warm smile): "Remember, see no evil, do no evil."^note He says this to a patient as he is sending him to have his eyes gouged out.
• For Science!: He doesn't seem to have any reason for torturing Cobblepot using Gerald Crane's fear formula other than to see what will happen. Also his reasoning for releasing Oswald and Barbara from Arkham, literally just to see what would happen.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul: He has creepy red-tinted shades, used for maximum effect in the closeups of his face, and he experiments on the "patients" at Indian Hill.
• Greater-Scope Villain:
  • In "Pinewood", it's ultimately revealed that he was the one who hired Matches Malone to kill Bruce's parents — in order to prevent his father from stopping Strange's nightmarish experiments on his patients. This means that he's indirectly the one who ends up creating Batman.
  • He's the one that gave Eduardo Durrance the ability to mind-control Riddler in season 5, leading to the bombing of Haven. And when Eduardo is critically injured by Gordon, Strange is the one that saves him and turns him into Bane.
• Hannibal Lecture: Delivers one to Gordon at the start of "Azrael". Gordon is able to see through it and points out that he never believed him for one second when Strange lies that the last remains of Victor Fries had been destroyed after Gordon hands him a court order ostensibly signed by Harvey Dent calling for his exhumation.
• The Heavy: He's acting as the Big Bad of the second half of Season 2 while secretly working under the Court of Owls.
• Hijacked by Ganon: In the comics he usually has his own plans and motives (usually figuring out Batman's identity). Here he's working for the Court of Owls all along.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • He decides to release Barbara from Arkham Asylum, basically just to see what will happen. What does happen is that Barbara helps Gordon find a major clue to the person behind the Wayne murders — namely, Strange himself.
  • By unleashing 'Azrael' on the city to kill Jim to keep him silent, he ends up blowing his secret: not only do the police finally have a strong reason to investigate him, but the Court of Owls order him to move his operations to an upstate facility, which results in all of Strange's experiment patients escaping into Gotham.
  • In the Season 2 finale, he gets hit by simultaneous blasts from Mr. Freeze and Firefly's weapons, two of his "creations".
  • In season 3 Penguin tortures him with the same "therapy" headset Strange once used on him.
• Inscrutable Oriental: Comes off as this due to the Race Lift.
• Karma Houdini: Gets away with all his criminal actions by the end of the series.
• Light Is Not Good: Wears a white lab coat most of the time, but is very evil.
• Mad Scientist: His experiments make the Dollmaker look outright sane, and he's particularly fixated on reversing death. He eventually succeeds in bringing Theo Galavan, Fish Mooney, and others back to life.
• Made of Iron: He gets frozen and burnt at the same time, but he completely shrugs this off.
• Manipulative Bastard: In spades. In under two episodes, his "treatment" of Penguin has left Gotham's King a confused duck-duck-goose-playing Broken Bird. If Nigel's any indicator, he can and has reduced inmates to self-harming incoherent messes. Plus he just added Mr. Freeze to his collection of underground freaks... Freaks who are presumed dead (and at least a couple of them just as presumed having been incinerated), each with special attributes, that Strange no doubt intends to use. Turned completely on its head just as quickly: Penguin breaks his conditioning and comes gunning for him, while one of his "freaks" turns out to be Fish Mooney, who quickly makes him her captive.
• Mythology Gag: Takes a while to play out, but he eventually turns out to have been working for Ra's al Ghul through the Court of Owls. Minus the latter, that sounds familiar...
• Never My Fault: He tells Bruce it was Thomas's own fault for forcing Strange to have him killed.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
  • By questioning Gordon and Bruce if they knew of a mysterious council that secretly controlled Gotham, he inadvertently put them on the trail of the Court of Owls, though he wasn't really expecting them to survive after the interrogations.
  • He also overhears Penguin admitting Jim really killed Galavan, leading him to resurrect Theo in his experiments and, as Azrael, send him after Gordon. At this point, Barnes is investigating Gordon for Theo's murder, and all this does is make Barnes think Theo had never been dead, derailing the one investigation that could have legitimately put Jim away.
• Non-Action Big Bad: He's not really a physical threat.
• Obviously Evil: Per the norm for Gotham City, the guy could not be more obviously shady, but no one sees him as anything worse than eccentric.
• Oh, Crap!: When he realizes his test subjects have escaped and he's trapped in the asylum with a nuke ready to go off.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: B.D. Wong tends to slip between an American accent and a Chinese one every so often.
• Omnidisciplinary Scientist: He's both a psychiatrist and a master of biological manipulation.
• Pet the Dog: He seems perfectly willing to fix up Lee Thompkins and the Riddler for Penguin at no charge. Subverted later, as it turned out he was putting mind control chips in them for Nyssa al Ghul to use.
• Plot Armor: Taken to ludicrous extremes in the second season finale. While Mr. Freeze and Firefly are fighting to the death, Strange runs right between their crossfire getting simultaneously frozen and burnt. Miraculously, this doesn't even faze him in the least.
• Psycho for Hire: In later seasons his ability to physically alter someone sees him used by both Penguin and Nyssa al Ghul.
• Psycho Psychologist: As per usual, he's experimenting on patients. Specifically the ones at Indian Hill.
• Race Lift: Typically a German, here he's played by an Asian actor.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: Red-tinted ones!
• Smug Snake: He releases both Penguin and Barbara, without regard to what it will do to his professional reputation. The latter puts Gordon squarely on his trail within a few episodes, while the former comes for him with a minigun at the end of the season.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He never uses anything but a mild indoor voice, to the point that his speech is strangely hypnotic at times. And yet he enjoys screwing with people's minds in the same way a cruel child might enjoy burning ants with a magnifying glass.
• Too Dumb to Live: While Firefly and Mr. Freeze are fighting each other, the doctor runs right into their crossfire. Somehow, this doesn't kill him.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: One of the corpses he collected? Jerome Valeska. If he'd left well enough alone there, Gotham might have been spared his brother Jeremiah's transformation into the Joker...
• Villainous Breakdown: Has one in "Transference", when he tearfully waits to die in a nuclear explosion, rather than disarm the bomb and let his experiments escape into the world.
• Villain Decay: Is reduced from being the Big Bad of Season 2 and one of the most prominent Greater Scope Villains of the series to being the lackey of whoever has him on a leash at the moment in season 3.
• Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: Strange admits to feeling this way about Thomas Wayne, when speaking to Bruce. And before that, he tried to get Thomas to understand the purpose of his experiments.
• Xanatos Gambit: Helps Gordon and Bullock locate the Court's weaponized Tetch virus in season 3 after helping the Court create it. His reasoning is that if they succeed he can work a deal with them, and if they fail he still appears loyal to the Court of Owls.
• You Monster!: Quoth Bullock in "Unleashed":
  Bullock: You stink, Strange—this whole place stinks.

Ecco/Mummer

^{Click here to see her as Mummer} 

Played By: Francesca Root Dodson

Jeremiah Valeska's devoted assistant and bodyguard. Even after Valeska goes insane and becomes a maniacal terrorist bent on the destruction of Gotham, she retains her loyalty and acts as his partner in crime. Serves as "Gotham"'s equivalent of Harley Quinn, due to the real HQ being a part of the DC Extended Universe.

---

• Action Girl: Initially: she effortlessly knocks out Jerome and proves more than a match for Gordon (the series Ace in close combat) and Bullock even when outnumbered. Graduates to Dark Action Girl once Jeremiah goes through his transformation.
• All There in the Manual: Her alter-ego's name, "Mummer", is only listed in the credits.
• Asshole Victim: She was a willing accomplice to Jeremiah, and killed off in the finale.
• Ax-Crazy: In Season 5, she's considerably more unhinged than she was in the fourth season, due to shooting herself in the skull and surviving.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: In "Mandatory Brunch Meeting", the Mad Hatter hypnotizes her into bringing Jeremiah to his twin brother Jerome.
• Canon Foreigner: She's the show's take on the Joker/Harley Quinn dynamic but she isn't Harleen Quinzel and she's shown up way before the real Harley Quinn would have an opportunity to do so. The Death of the Family story had Joker claim that Harley was just the latest in a long-line of disposable henchwomen, but the story strongly implies he was lying.
• Character Death: She gets shot dead by the Joker since he considers healing her wounds a burden. Interestingly enough, she's also the final character to die in the series overall.
• Composite Character: She has elements of both the classic and modern versions of Harley Quinn. Her Mummer costume is a darker, creepier take on Harley's jester suit, and her Season 5 leather jacket is evocative of her post-New 52 design.
• Dark Action Girl: Especially when she's in her dark harlequin getup. She's able to stalemate Selina when the two engage in combat.
• Darker and Edgier: To date, this is the darkest live action incarnation of the Harley Quinn character. If you were to take away Harley's childish attitude and sympathetic qualities, and amplify her insane and violent tendencies, you'd basically get Ecco.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the Mad Love Dark Mistress, where it almost seems like a Take That! against the Misaimed Fandom surrounding Harley Quinn. Ecco is just as insane as the Joker himself, with none of the childlike innocence or borderline sitcom shenanigans that make so many versions of Harley endearing. Even her Ms. Fanservice qualities are significantly dialed down to show what such a person would realistically be: an unkempt, mentally ill Psycho Supporter. Despite her attempts to win his affection, those feelings are never really reciprocated since Joker is far more focused on his obsession with Bruce Wayne. Her undying love for a murdering psychopath, to the point of spending 10 years of her life waiting for his return, gets her killed while carrying out one of his schemes, as said psychopath dismisses her death with a callous "plenty of other fish in the sea".
• The Dragon: Like Harley Quinn to the Joker, she's this to Jeremiah.
• Expy: She's essentially Gotham's take on Harley Quinn, given that she's a young blonde woman who dresses up like a harlequin jester (with red and black diamonds to boot) and serves as the loyal dragon to the Joker. Even her nickname, Mummer, is another word for Harlequin.
• Face–Heel Turn: After her boss turns into a homicidal supervillain, she also becomes a criminal and aids him in his plot to bomb the city. It's initially unknown whether she's acting out of pure devotion or if Jeremiah broke her mind as well, but in season 5 her mind has been shattered by a lost round of Russian roulette, leaving her more devoted to Jeremiah than ever.
• Legacy Character: Very subtly implied. When Jeremiah guns Ecco down, he comments that there's "plenty of fish in the sea", hinting that he'll find another assistant (possibly Harleen Quinzel) to take over her role as the Harley Quinn character.
• Mysterious Past: While we know at least some details about Jeremiah's past, many of the details of hers - like how she came to have such Undying Loyalty to Jeremiah and where she got her formidable combat skills - are a mystery.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Her mask looks like the one worn by Jack Napier's girlfriend Alicia in Batman (1989).
  • Her accent also slips into a New York brogue at points, a reference to her portrayal in Batman: The Animated Series.
• Psychopathic Woman Child: "Ace Chemicals" has her attacking Gordon on a pair of roller skates.
• Sanity Slippage: In Season 5, caused by surviving a lost round of Russian Roulette. She claims to still have the bullet lodged in her skull.
• Slasher Smile: Sports a truly unnerving one, complete with Blood from the Mouth when Jeremiah kills her.
• The Stoic: She's initially very stone-faced and emotionless, even when she's dressed like a clown. This changes as of Season 5.
• Villainous Harlequin: Just like the character she's based on, she wears a dark harlequin suit with a red and black diamond pattern, along with a creepy white face mask that conceals her identity.
• Vocal Evolution: She's quite softspoken in her first appearance, and talks in a low, almost throaty voice. Following her Sanity Slippage, she sounds a lot more like Harley Quinn, with a higher voice and a slight New York brogue.
• Walking Spoiler: Most of the tropes here contain some information about Jeremiah's transformation and her own.

Eduardo Dorrance/Bane

Eduardo Dorrance/Bane

^{Click here to see him unmasked} 

Played By: Shane West

"The world is full of monsters. The only way to defeat them is become one yourself."

A government task force member who once fought alongside Jim Gordon in the army. In Season 5, he's sent to Gotham to aid Gordon in the ongoing fight for the city, but quickly reveals he's actually making things worse so his employer Theresa Walker - actually Nyssa al Ghul - has an excuse to call in the Army to destroy it. Critically injured by Gordon, Hugo Strange saves and upgrades him with an anesthetic mask that constantly feeds him Venom, a chemical born from the Viper drug that grants him superhuman strength and durability.

---

• Adaptational Name Change: Similar to his first live action incarnation, "Bane" is an alias rather than his birth name. His true name here is Eduardo Dorrance (notably, Dorrance is the surname of his comic book father Edmund/King Snake).
• Adaptational Origin Connection: He's an old army buddy of Jim Gordon here, and the two apparently saved each other's lives in combat several times. In the comics, Bane had absolutely no connection to Gordon prior to becoming a supervillain. It also takes from the The Dark Knight Rises interpretation of Bane, where he has ties to an Al Ghul, in this case Nyssa instead of Talia.
• Adaptation Personality Change: While the comic book Bane is usually an outlaw who mostly cares about power and proving his strength as a warrior, this Bane is a particularly vicious Knight Templar who wishes to brutally purge Gotham of who he deems to be criminals, not caring if innocents get in the way. If anything, he bears more resemblance to the Bane from The Dark Knight trilogy.
• Age Lift: He's older than Bruce by at least 20 years, probably even more than that, where in the comics, Bane and Bruce are closer to their age ranges.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: The army men are all too willing to follow him when he Neck Snaps an officer unwilling to follow his orders. Subverted when his ordering them to fire on innocent civilians provokes them to turn on him.
• Badass Boast: Infinitely helped by the low voice his mask gives him:
  Bane: You simply cannot run from your sins. And you cannot run from me.
• Bad Boss: He's actually implied to be a pretty good boss for his own men (given how badly he reacts to Gordon taunting him that he left their squadmates to die), but he murders an army officer who dared to question their orders to attack Gotham.
• Berserk Button: Implying he's reckless enough to get his men killed.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Nyssa al Ghul in season 5 - he's technically her chief henchman, but where she desires vengeance on Bruce and Barbara for Ra's al Ghul's death he's got a bitterly personal hatred of Gordon, and clearly views attacking Barbara as getting at Jim a different way. In addition he's the main physical threat to the heroes, where Nyssa prefers to stay in the shadows.
• Card-Carrying Villain: He's very aware of his evil nature when he turns into Bane, and really doesn't think of the GCPD as anything but fodder to shoot down.
• Character Tics: Bane occasionally grips the sides of both his armored vest and his Venom gear straps with both his hands (The former as Eduardo, as some nice Foreshadowing to what he becomes, the latter as Bane). This is similar to a quirk Tom Hardy's Bane had in The Dark Knight Rises, in which Hardy explained in interviews that he did this to get air into his lungs while he wore the mask and kit, which he lugged around constantly. It's quite possible Shane is doing a similar thing here, which happens to reference Hardy's portrayal of Bane.
• Cool Mask: He wears a translucent anesthetic mask here, which appropriately covers his entire mouth to emulate his comic book appearance.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Virtually no-one can touch him in close combat due to the massive power boost Venom gives him. He almost kills Alfred and Selina with ease when they meet. Bruce and Selina's fight with him goes just as badly until Bruce uses Lucius' techno-wizardry to summon a horde of bats to distract him.
• Disabled in the Adaptation: Unlike his comics counterpart - but very much like his counterpart in The Dark Knight Rises - he needs the mask and attendant life-support system to keep him alive after Jim impales him through the chest in their fight.
• The Dragon: For Theresa Walker - aka Nyssa al Ghul.
• Empowered Badass Normal: When we meet him he's already a formidable Army special ops commando, if not quite on Jim's level. But after his injury Hugo Strange's ministrations power him all the way up on Venom, to the point he now has Super-Strength and is Nigh-Invulnerable.
• Even Evil Has Standards: He almost mocks the idea of this:
  • He orders Lee to be killed once he has Gordon at his mercy and says with a smirk that he will have her killed out of his sight as a favor to him after all that they had been through. Of course, there's no need for him to kill Lee in the first place since he already has Gordon, so the whole thing is just to twist the knife further before he kills him.
  • Later, Jim tries to sway him from going after Barbara by revealing she's pregnant. He appears to consider mercy - then notes it's one future against many, and mocks Jim for his "petty" concerns.
• Evil All Along: Though this shouldn't be much of a surprise to fans. He acts as Gordon's trusted ally before his true intentions are unveiled.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: It doesn't seem to have occurred to him that while his army troops are terrified of him, ordering them to knowingly fire on civilians might be a step too far.
• Evil Sounds Deep: The Bane mask, unsurprisingly, gives him quite the voice.
• False Flag Operation: He's the one that's been having Riddler (unwittingly) make everything in Gotham progressively worse, so he and his benefactors have an excuse to enter Gotham.
• Faux Affably Evil: He may have genuine feelings of comradeship towards Gordon to begin with (engaging in banter with him and his own evil allies), but it doesn't take long for the arrogant killer underneath to be revealed, and he loses his affability once things stop going his way.
• Foreshadowing: He's first introduced wearing full tactical gear, which includes a black face mask that covers his mouth. This is a nod to the Venom mask that he eventually sports as Bane.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Gordon leaves him impaled on a metal rod sticking out of debris at the end of their fight. Unlike most examples of this trope, however, it doesn't kill him.
• The Juggernaut: He will not let anything keep him from going after Barbara. Riddler and Penguin blow up a stack of high-oxygen tanks practically in his face and it doesn't even faze him.
• Just Following Orders: Claims this as his excuse for going along with Theresa Walker's plan to mind-control Riddler into ruining any hope in No Man's Land Gotham. Gordon doesn't buy it.
• Knight Templar: Has a murderous hatred for criminals which only gets worse after his upgrade. It's worth noting that he thinks almost everyone in Gotham deserves to die and he scoffs at innocents being killed in his twisted pursuit of justice.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Weakened by his fight with Bruce and Selina and confronted not only by Jim's ragtag militia, but his military sect coming to their senses and defying his attempt at a Klingon Promotion, Bane has no choice but to surrender with hundreds of rifle muzzles pointed in his direction.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: He's near-fatally-wounded by Gordon in the middle of season 5, but Walker saves his life with the Bane mask, and has Hugo Strange transform him. He returns 3 episodes later as Bane in full, with the massive power upgrade that implies. For bonus points, the red band trailer for the final episodes even refers to it as an upgrade.
• Mythology Gag:
  • His mask system is similar to Tom Hardy's portrayal of Bane from The Dark Knight Rises, although the Gotham version uses Venom to both keep him alive, and also to make him powerful enough to be The Juggernaut in pretty much any fight. His leather jacket may also be an allusion to his depiction in Batman: Arkham Origins.
  • He occasionally grips the sides of his armored vests with both his hands, which is similar to a quirk Hardy's Bane had. Hardy did this to get air into his lungs while he wore the mask and kit, which were strapped to him and were quite heavy, and it's quite possible Shane is doing a similar thing here, which happens to reference Hardy's portrayal of Bane.
  • This wouldn't be the first time Bane has turned out to be the loyal protector of an Al Ghul.
  • Shane West himself had stated that he took inspiration from both Tom Hardy and Batman: The Animated Series when creating the voice for the character.
• Necessarily Evil: How he views his transformation into Bane - see the quote at the top of this entry for his thoughts.
• Nigh-Invulnerable: Shrugs off Riddler and Penguin detonating a stack of oxygen canisters in his face - he just walks through the ensuing massive explosion, totally unfazed. Alfred and Selina later running him over with a car keeps him down for all of ten seconds.
• Outside-Context Problem:
  • Gordon and the GCPD have had to deal with all manner of gangsters and crazies over the seasons, but a ruthless paramilitary leader seeking to deliberately undermine Gotham's fragile stability is something else entirely.
  • Post-transformation too: while other villains in Gotham have had superpowers they've either been one-offs or had the non-physical kind (Fish, Clayface). A permanent villain with actual Super-Strength and durability is almost totally beyond the pre-Batman main cast at this point.
• Painful Transformation: Hugo Strange warns him the process to save his life will be both extremely painful and lengthy, and we're treated to a shot of him screaming in agony as the first of the Venom is pumped in.
• Shoulders of Doom: He sports pointed shoulder pads on his suit.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: Somehow manages to sneak up on Bruce and Selina despite his Vader Breath and suit's loud servos.
• Super-Strength: What Venom gives him in spades. He's able to Neck Snap a nurse with one hand at one point.
• That Man Is Dead: Said almost word for word.
  Bane: But Eduardo's dead, Jim. There is only Bane now.
• Vader Breath: Thanks to his life support mask.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Gordon. The two served together in the army, with Gordon even saving his life at one point.
• Wham Shot: Walker's saving his life at the end of "13 Stitches" by giving him the Bane mask.

Eduardo Flamingo

Played By: Raul Castillo

An assassin with a taste for human flesh. Is the Gothamverse's version of obscure DC villain the Flamingo.

---

• Adaptational Jerkass: As god awful as the Flamingo from the comics was, he at least engaged in cannibalism after killing his victims. This Flamingo enjoys eating their flesh while they are still alive.
• Ax-Crazy: He enjoys killing people For the Evulz.

• Cold-Blooded Torture: He's subjecting some poor victim to this before being recruited back in the assassins guild for a special mission.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Starts laughing when Gordon is beating the crap out of him.
• Cop Killer: Murders Officer Parks.
• The Dreaded: He's feared by every other assassin in Gotham.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Eats parts of his victims.
• Large Ham: He's not very subtle.
• Man Bites Man: How he kills Officer Parks.
• No Indoor Voice: Shouts about half his lines.
• Professional Killer: Gotham's most feared assassin.
• Sadist: He loves the suffering of his prey.
• Slasher Smile: Has one big murderous grin plastered across his face all the time.
• Small Role, Big Impact: He's only in one episode, but it's his murder of Officer Parks that really makes Gordon's Heroic BSoD about the futility of the justice system in Gotham hit home - eventually culminating in his supremely bad decision to murder Theo Galavan in cold blood.

Edward Nygma/The Riddler

A crime scene analyst who works for the Gotham City Police Department and often presents his information in riddles. After his accidental killing of his crush's abusive boyfriend, he starts a downward spiral that involves him killing his girlfriend, framing Gordon for it and eventually becoming the full-fledged Riddler in season 3. For his tropes see his character page.

Griffin Krank / The Toymaker

Played By: Thomas Lyons

A mechanical engineer, toy shop owner, and low-grade assassin for hire. Is hired by Riddler to kill Lee Thompkins, which he fails at quite spectacularly.

---

• Adaptation Name Change: The original version of this villain appeared in The Batman under the name Cosmo Krank. Cosmo does appear as Griffin's son, which means that Griffin may be a Predecessor Villain to his son, much like Scarecrow and his father.
• Canon Immigrant: Cosmo Krank and the Toymaker persona were originally created for The Batman, and never actually appeared in the mainstream comics.
• Death by Secret Identity: Is shot just after telling Nygma that he's the one who hired him.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Only does the assassin gig for cash, and is quite content to run his toy shop otherwise.
• Robot Master: Kills his targets via automated toys, usually with bombs or guns attached.

Ivy Pepper/Poison Ivy

Ivy Pepper

"First I was a seed. Then a sprout. Now I've bloomed."

^{Ivy as portrayed by Maggie Geha.} 

^{Ivy as portrayed by Clare Foley.} 

Played By: Clare Foley (Seasons 1-3), Maggie Geha (Seasons 3-4), Peyton List (Seasons 4-5)

"Plants make better friends than most people, and some of them help save your life."

The daughter of Mario Pepper, a small-time crook who was framed by the mob as the Waynes' killer. She's prematurely aged by one of Fish Mooney's gang, and becomes a follower of Penguin in season 3, before undergoing another transformation in season 4 that turns her into Poison Ivy in all but name.

---

• Abusive Parents: Her father was physically abusive to her mother and possibly her, too, though she still hates the cops for gunning him down.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Poison Ivy is typically a redhead. While Clare Foley's Ivy's hair is red, Maggie Geha has auburn hair and Peyton List is a brunette.
• Adaptation Name Change: From Pamela Isley in the comics to Ivy Pepper on the show. However, a Gotham Chronicle article states her adoptive family calls her Pamela.
• Adaptational Nice Girl: Played with. Due to her essentially still having the mind and maturity of a child, she's actually pretty nice after her first Age Lift. She notably doesn't kill Nick despite his throwing a plant in the trash, helps the recuperating Penguin out of genuine kindness, saves Selina's life after Bruce's clone nearly kills her and views the Ragtag Band of Misfits Oswald throws together at the end of season 3 as like a family (even helping convince Firefly to join). But after her second transformation her characterization falls in line with the person-hating eco-terrorist of the comics.
• Adaptation Origin Connection: In the comics, Poison Ivy wasn't connected to the Wayne murders at all. In the show, her father is accused of the crime, both her parents end up dead as a result of the fallout and she finds herself living in the streets.
• Adaptation Personality Change: Most versions of Ivy are an eco-terrorist who wants to do all she can to save the Earth's plant life and sometimes displayed an almost sympathetic side at times. This version is a Cloudcuckoolander who's mainly looking out for herself by seeking financial gain while her love for plants is downplayed. Halfway through Season 4, after Ivy's second rebirth, her characterization becomes more in line with her comic version.
• Adaptational Dumbass: This incarnation of Ivy is a lot dumber than most versions of the character, who've had scientific backgrounds and a mastery of botany. The show's version of Ivy makes foolish decisions all the time according to Selina. This changes in Season 4.
• Advertised Extra: For all her appearances in promo material, she remains little more than a recurring minor character, unlike Nygma. Her role is greatly expanded in Seasons 3 and 4 after the character is recast.
• The Ageless: What is implied after her transformations - when she feels the need to grow stronger or adapt to a new situation, this Ivy can cook up a brew (or steal it from someone) that will allow her to shed that form and take a new one. That she grows smarter and colder to humanity with each transformation, well, that's just Ivy...
• Affably Evil: After her first age-up. She's a genuinely nice (if self-centered and rather dim) person who seeks the friendship of others. That those others are super-villains like Penguin, Freeze and Firefly is unfortunate...
• Age Lift: Thanks to her Plot-Relevant Age-Up in Season 3, she's now about 10 years older than Bruce and Selina. In Season 4, she goes through another Age Lift and is now a full-on adult.
• All There in the Manual: Her adoptive name being Pamela comes from an online article and is never mentioned in series. Furthermore, her alias Poison Ivy is currently only shown in promotional material.
• Arc Villain: She is the main antagonist of Season 4 for the first three episodes after the mid-season premiere, whereapon she's subsequently Put on a Bus.
• Berserk Button:
  • When Bruce mentions who he is to her in "Lovecraft", her tone gets harsher and she starts asking him if he killed her father or made her mother cut her wrists.
  • As demonstrated in "Burn the Witch", never mistreat or throw away plant life in front of her, or she will concuss you. Becomes a whole lot more violent about this in season 4.
  • Being treated as stupid (she sort of brought it upon herself for saying stupid things at the wrong moment).
• Big Bad Ensemble: In Season 4, she's one of the many villains vying for the role.
• Big Eater: In "The Executioner", she wolfs down literally all the food in Selina's home. And judging by Selina's reaction to it, it's not the first time it happened.
• Brainless Beauty: After she ages up to an adult she becomes beautiful, but still has the mindset of a naive child. After her second age-up, she becomes a lot smarter.
  Penguin: [monologuing to the frozen Riddler] Remember how you accused me of being a slave to my emotions? No more. I’ve banished those feelings. And look how I have risen. But at what cost? I wonder which of us is frozen...
  Ivy: Him. He’s like, totally frozen.
  Penguin: ...Ivy, go somewhere else.
• Break the Cutie: Ivy goes through a lot over the course of the series, all leading her to become the cold, calculating Femme Fatale of the comics.
  • She ends up a street kid in the first season (supported by Selina and then Bruce), her father a small-time crook that was unfairly blamed for the murder of Bruce's parents.
  • She is forcibly aged up by one of Fish Mooney's goons (Marv/Subject 514A) and tries to make the best of her situation, reveling in her newly gorgeous exterior and making "friends" like The Penguin and Mr. Freeze. Her overtures of friendship are shattered by the villains as she inadvertently plants the seeds for the Legion of Horribles Jerome will later hijack.
  • Tired of not being taken seriously by Oswald, Ivy seeks a method of increasing her power and raids the same apothecary that produces her pheromone perfume. Drinking every potion in the shop against the warnings of the proprietor results in her taking a new form that is older, more seductive, and a Poisonous Person.
• The Bus Came Back: Appears in "Mad Grey Dawn" after not showing up for most of Season 2; she's working for a gang that sells magic mushrooms.
• Came Back Wrong: The first time she ages up she retains the same ditzy, childlike personality, just in an older body - but the second time she has the poisonous biology and plant abilities of her comics counterpart.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: A really creepy version of one.
• Creepy Child: Hardly ever blinks and speaks in a monotone whisper. Selina, Ivy's friend, even admits she's creepy behind her back.
• Cute and Psycho: After her first transformation. She's far nicer than most versions of the character at this point, but still definitely not someone to piss off.
  Ivy: You'll do anything I ask?
  [Mooks nods, entranced by Ivy's perfume]
  Ivy: [perkily, with a happy grin] Super! Kill them all.
• The Dragon: Becomes the new one for the Penguin after saving his life and helping him build an army of supervillains.
• Dumbass No More: After her Plot-Relevant Age-Up she somehow becomes considerably smarter and gains a great deal of botanical knowledge, enough to create a mind control perfume. In Season 4, she goes through a second transformation and grows quite a few more brain cells, including the ability to control plants.
• Early-Bird Cameo: While heavily advertised along with the main cast, and appearing in the premiere, she is not seen or mentioned again until the mid-season finale, ten episodes later. She then gets a scene with Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. The writers have said that she actually is meant to be an important recurring character, it's just that the first story arc needed time to set up the primary cast in the Gotham police department first.
• Evil Redhead: Even discounting her future super-villain status, Selina is already scared of her. And this is Selina Kyle we are talking about.
• Fatal Flaw: Ivy's Number 1 shortcoming is her impulsiveness, not only when it comes to thievery, but in how she underestimates other people and sticks to these judgments.

• Fille Fatale: Technically, she's still a child, but has the body of an adult temptress while seducing unsuspecting adult men. Averted with her second age-up, where she's got the ruthlessness to match her looks.
• Genius Ditz: She has an incredible knowledge of botany and chemistry (enough to create a mind control perfume) but is otherwise pretty air-headed. This trait disappears halfway through Season 4.
• Gold Digger: After aging into an adult woman, she instantly begins using her charms to seduce men into buying her things.
• Green Thumb: A strong affinity for plants, which should surprise no one, given who she's meant to become. Sure enough, by season 4 she's Poison Ivy in all but name, murdering people who experiment on plants and attempting to wipe out Wayne Enterprises for authorizing it.
• Insane Troll Logic: Becomes an eco-terrorist after her second age-up, convinced she's fighting for those who have no voice - plants.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: After her second transformation, her only real redeeming quality is that she seems to still consider Selina her friend, letting her go even after she ruins her plans, and helping Bruce cure her broken spine - albeit at the cost of empowering her dark side. Even this sole positive trait is snuffed out when she orders the brainwashed Mutant Leader to kill her without any sign of remorse, unless she knew Selina would survive and was just trying to bait her dark side into consuming her, which is almost just as callous.
  • In-universe, this is a result of the plant side of her consuming the human side, to the point where her "fellow plants" are the only life-forms she cares for.
• Karma Houdini: Gets away with all her criminal actions by the end of the series.
• Kindness Button: Calling her pretty or offering her money is a good way to get on her nice side.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Despite being a villain, she seems to be much less evil than the Penguin's enemies until Season 4, when she becomes more misanthropic and psychotic.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Her putting Bruce under a prolonged, painful hallucination is what snaps him out of his hedonistic playboy phase and pushes him back toward heroism.
• The Not-Love Interest: Some of her interactions with the Penguin seem classic of a Dark Mistress or an Ignored Enamored Underling, but they are only friends.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: Despite her genki and childish personality, she really managed to create a mind-control perfume and has the power to control plants and use them as deadly weapons as of Season 4.
• The Nth Doctor: Ivy's on her third actress by the time Season 4 rolls around.
• Parental Abandonment: Her dad is killed in the pilot, and later we learn that her mother slit her wrists.
• Perky Female Minion: Becomes a super cheerful child after befriending the Penguin and becoming his new confidant. She loses much of her perkiness, however, after enduring a heap of emotional abuse from Penguin and being rejected by Tabitha and the Sirens, and it's completely gone after her second transformation in the second half of Season 4.
• Pet the Dog: Ivy providing the medicine to heal Selina's back simply because she used to be her friend. Though considering their falling out, Ivy also takes clear delight in the idea that this healing will come at a dark price for Selina as well.
• Phrase Catcher: "You're so beautiful", or words to that effect, becomes this trope for her third incarnation as an indication that her mind-control pheromones have taken control of someone.
• Psychopathic Womanchild: Despite aging up to a grown woman, she still has her childish mindset. This pretty much vanishes after her second transformation.
• Plot-Relevant Age-Up: When Ivy encounters Fish's gang of super-powered freaks from Indian Hill, one of the goons, Marv (who harnesses the power to rapidly age people just by touching them) grabs her in an attempt to age her to death, but she manages to escape his grasp just in time. However, he held onto her just long enough to age her from a young teenager to an older woman (played by Maggie Geha for the rest of Season 3). In Season 4, Ivy goes through yet another transformation after drinking a cocktail of mystical potions and is now played by Peyton List.^note According to Word of God, the decision to age Ivy up was made in order to allow the character to use her seductive charms like in the comics. For obvious reasons, this could not be done with the young Clare Foley, so an older actress was introduced.
• Precision F-Strike: In the pilot, she has a rather choice word for the police who killed her father.
  Ivy: Bastards...
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: She's not actually psychic, but uses her perfume to hypnotize Harvey into trying to do this after he's killed Jim in season 4.
• Rapid Aging: She gets aged from a child into a young woman by Marv, then uses potions to age herself into the bio-terrorist Femme Fatale of the comics in season 4.
• Redhead In Green: Always dresses in shades of green.
• Revenge: Targets Jim and Harvey in season 4 for their roles in the death of her father.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Ivy's main goal after her second rebirth in Season 4 is to kill everyone who's ever hurt her before moving on to everyone else in the city in retaliation for their mistreatment of plants.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Well, she's a future super-villain...
• Slipping a Mickey: Slips magic mushrooms into Sonny Gilzean's gang's lunches, knocking them all out.
• The Starscream: She's grown into this by Season 4 after having had enough of Penguin abusing their friendship. She goes behind his back to try to join the Gotham Sirens and also attempts to help the Merton gang succeed at their assassination attempt on her boss.
• Start of Darkness: Once she grows up in "Burn the Witch", she realizes that something dark is developing inside her, but eventually, she decides to embrace it head on. This is further solidified when she knocks out and robs a man (who was actually helping her) for throwing away a plant - and by the end of the season she's happily helping Penguin and killing people for him.
• Stupid Evil: She stole a valuable jewel from a wealthy man she tried seducing, thinking that nobody would ever come back to attack her for it.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl: Girly girl to Selina's tomboy.
• Too Dumb to Live: After getting caught spying on Selina and Fish' gang, she stupidly tells them to let her go or she'll rat them out. This almost gets her aged to death by Marv.
• Took a Level in Badass: After her second rebirth, Ivy is no longer the quirky "adult child" or innocent but now determined to use her power to ravage Gotham.
• Took a Level in Cheerfulness: She becomes much more happy after growing into an adult with plant powers. The first time, anyway.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After her second aging-up, she becomes downright evil and psychotic and plots to kill everyone in Gotham for abusing plants.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After her first Age Lift. She saves Penguin's life despite having nothing to really gain from it, helps him recruit Firefly by appealing to a genuine sense of family, and saves Selina's life out of genuine friendship. After her second age-up it doesn't last.
• Troll: The very first time she is seen actually having fun is when she's messing with Barbara's head for no good reason (except maybe to get back at Gordon). This trait returns in Season 3, when her first encounter with Selina, after Ivy was aged by Marv, sees her not telling her friend who she is, and instead treating her with notable scorn.
• Two First Names: Per the DC Comics norm, notably something that doesn't occur in the comics.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: She happens to be squatting in Gordon's apartment when a badly spiraling Barbara calls, and, for kicks, pretends to be a woman Gordon is cheating on her with. This contributes to Barbara's later Start of Darkness and attempts to murder Leslie.
• Villainous Friendship: With the Penguin. It doesn't last long, though, due to his inability to stop being a Bad Boss.
• We Used to Be Friends: With Selina, after her second transformation. She went from saving Selina's life to trying to kill her multiple times.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She's not mentioned again after her latest attempt to purge Gotham of humans goes awry in "The Trial of Jim Gordon", despite the Time Skip finale providing updates on several other prominent villains.
• You Killed My Father: Tries to kill both Harvey and Jim in season 4 for their killing her father waaayyy back in the Pilot.

Jack Gruber/The Electrocutioner

See this page.

Jane Cartwright/Jane Doe

Jane Cartwright/Jane Doe

unmasked

Played by: Sarah Pidgeon

A mentally ill young woman and former test subject for Hugo Strange, who seeks revenge against the detectives who had her mother falsely imprisoned.

---

• Adaptational Attractiveness: In the comics, she's skinless and grotesque-looking. This version has all her skin intact, and thus looks perfectly normal (though she certainly thinks otherwise). That said, she did still have her skin in her comics debut in Arkham Asylum: Living Hell.
• Adaptational Superpower Change: While Comic!Jane relied on masks and costumes to steal her victims' identities, Gotham!Jane has the ability to physically shapeshift.
• Anti-Villain: Ultimately just a very frightened young woman who has been mistreated for years.
• Composite Character:
  • Her shapeshifting abilities is similar to Clayface, a character who actually appeared back in season 2 and 3. However unlike that version (who is Basil) Jane can actually shapeshift voluntarily, whereas Basil had to actually reconstruct his face manually. Gordon and Bullock do initially suspect that Jane is Basil due to him pulling a similar stunt back in the second season finale.
  • Her creepy mask and delusions of disfigurement bring to mind the animated series villain, Calendar Girl.
• Death of Personality: Jane's original persona has all but disappeared and has been replaced by a bitter and depressed shadow of her former self who is driven purely by revenge. She even says that Jane Cartwright is dead and Jane Doe is all that remains.
• Expy: Jane's backstory is similar to Karen Jennings from the season 2 episode "Pinewood". The pair of them were locked up for murdering an abusive family member in self defense, only to end up being experimented on by Hugo Strange (in Karen's case it was at Pinewood Farms instead of the then closed Arkham Asylum) and giving an abnormal ability which made them into a "freak". Whilst Karen never went onto try and kill anyone and only lived in hiding, she would eventually end up dead.
• Facial Horror: Subverted. She believes she is the victim of this due to her psychosis and the experimentation by Hugo Strange, hence why she wears the mask. However, when she removes it to reveal her true face, she looks perfectly normal.
• I Am Not Pretty: Played for horror. Jane's face looks perfectly fine, but she believes she is horribly disfigured, and lost her sanity as a result.
• Named by the Adaptation: She's given the surname Cartwright here.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Seeks vengeance on the four detectives who rushed the investigation into her mother, after she killed her abusive husband in self-defense.
• Suicide by Cop: Invokes this by forcing Harvey to shoot her, rather than live with her grief any longer.
• Third-Person Person: Speaks in third person, due to considering Jane Cartwright to be a different person than who she is now.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: The result of Hugo Strange's experiments on her.

Jervis Tetch/Mad Hatter

Jervis Tetch

"Look into my eyes..."

Played By: Benedict Samuel

A talented hypnotist who comes to Gotham looking for his younger sister, Alice. Her death sends him into a campaign of Revenge against Jim Gordon, eventually leading him to team up with villains like Scarecrow and Jerome Valeska.

---

• Adaptational Attractiveness: The youngest, most attractive portrayal of the character, as played by Benedict Samuel.
• Adaptational Badass: Usually Tetch's mind control is managed via high-tech hats he places on his victims. Here he only needs for his victims to listen to his voice.
• Arch-Enemy: To Jim Gordon. Jervis blames Gordon for Alice's death and in turn turns both of his Love Interests against him.
• Ax-Crazy: Has no compunctions about harming innocent people.
• Badass Boast: He lets off a bone-chilling self-description in his debut episode:
  Mad Hatter: Who am I? I haunt your dreams like a ghost, for I know what scares you most. So, you run! Run as fast as you can! There's no escape... from the magic man!
• Beard of Evil: A natty goatee. However, he's clean-shaven in season 5.
• Berserk Button: His sister Alice. Or rather, the possibility of losing control over her. Telling him his sister left him out of fear and hatred of him for loving her is also surefire way to get Jervis ready to murder you.
• Black Eyes of Crazy: Whenever he uses his hypnosis, Jervis's irises turn an eerie black, and what makes it scarier is that they're not even reflective once they become that way.
• Big Bad: Served as this for the first part of Mad City.
• Brother–Sister Incest: Alice claims that Tetch tried to implant thoughts "a brother should never have" into her head in the past.
• Catchphrase: "Look into my eyes."
• Co-Dragons: Becomes one to Jerome alongside Scarecrow in season 4.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: In spite of the Alice in Wonderland motifs that accompany him, he isn't called the Mad Hatter in-show for quite some time. This is finally averted in Season 4 when Oswald refers to him as "Hatter".
• Compelling Voice: How he enthralls his victims.
• Darker and Edgier: Most modern depictions of Jervis in the comics imply him to be a sexual predator who kidnaps girls and tries to transform them into "Alice". Gotham takes this one step further and adds Brother–Sister Incest to this by making the original Alice of his obsessions his own sister. He did however kidnap an unknown girl and dress her up, only to slit her throat afterwards.
• Disc-One Final Boss: The GCPD and Jim were able to stop Jervis and his plan to unleash the virus, but there are still three episodes left of Mad City allowing the vacant spot of Big Bad to be filled by Jerome Valeska.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Horrifically, disturbingly deconstructed. His love for his sister is very sick and twisted; he abuses and terrifies her and calls it love.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Whilst he is willingly and eagerly helping out Jerome Valeska, he is noticeably disturbed and shocked at the Joker Toxin's effects on the test subject.
• Evil Is Hammy: He starts off as a cold and calculating foe, but becomes louder and more over-the-top as he sinks deeper into insanity. His rhyming habit only furthers his hamminess.
  Jervis: Soon the bells will toll, Jim. How many more will grow cold, Jim? Like your soul, Jim. How many would-be fliers will be die-rs?! Splattered like my poor, spitted Alice when the Gotham bells tolled their full ROOOOOOOLL!
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Jim gets him to reveal who he has infected with Alice's blood by turning his Rhymes on a Dime tendency back on him.
• The Immune: He is impervious to Alice's virus, and his blood is the key to its cure.
• Incest-ant Admirer: His one-sided fixation on his sister Alice is strongly implied to be of the incestuous sort.
• Irony: Jervis loves watching people fall into madness from Alice's blood as a twisted way of being close to her, but his blood is the key ingredient of the antidote.
• Karma Houdini: Gets away with all his criminal actions by the end of the series.
• Mind Manipulation: He's a hypnotist.
• Never Bareheaded: Though not given much focus, he just wouldn't be the Mad Hatter without a snazzy topper. Even after he winds up in Arkham, he makes a cartoonish one out of newspaper.
• Never My Fault: After Alice's death, Jervis blames Jim Gordon for turning her against him, even though she hated Jervis because of his own actions.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Normally speaks in a polite, soft-spoken manner, so when he raises his voice, it's a sign that he's very angry.
  • He usually wears a smug smile on his face and speaks with glee when committing crimes and killing people. If he ever drops this, someone's going to die even more horribly.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: He's not actually psychic, but he uses his hypnosis to make his victims off themselves on his behalf.
  Mad Hatter: Oh, and I'm gonna need you to kill yourself, too. Chop-chop!
• Psychopathic Manchild: He displays an almost childlike innocence, which just serves to make him creepier.
• Psycho for Hire: He returns in season 5, working for Jeremiah Valeska to create a new killer virus. When queried as to why, he claims he's just doing it to have fun.
• Revenge: Blames Gordon for Alice's death, and tries to ruin his life as a result. Subverted in season 4, where his latest attack on Jim turns out to be a distraction in order to give Jerome and Scarecrow time to achieve their goals.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Tends to speak in this when he's hypnotizing people. It slips into his regular speech the further off the deep end he goes. This is an actual symptom of schizophrenia called Clanging.
• Sadistic Choice: He's very fond of these, often offering Gordon situations in which he has to choose between saving one person or the other - most prominently when he gets Jim to tell him to kill Vale or Lee.
• Sanity Slippage: He's clearly got some screws loose in his introductory episode, but finding out that Alice wants nothing to do with him, and later witnessing her death doesn't help. Later, it's a testament to how off his rocker he is when, after escaping Arkham, most of his dialogue is screamed, as opposed to the quiet, polite tone he usually uses.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: He has a very calm, low voice, even while he's commanding people to kill themselves.
• Suddenly Shouting: When dealing with Gordon in "One of My Three Soups", every other sentence out his mouth is this, a sign of how much he's cracked.
• Take a Third Option: How Jim frequently gets the better of him.
  • When Barbara and Tabitha are hunting for them, he gleefully tells Jim his only options are to give into the Tetch virus or get killed. Jim slits his throat to get enough blood for the cure instead, patching him up with duct tape.
  • When he's got masses of people on rooftops ready to jump through hypnosis, he rigs the situation to they die either way - if the clock gets to midnight, they jump, and if someone tries to save them, they jump. So Jim instead commands them to save each other, which works.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Like many other less prominent villains, he goes curiously unmentioned in the grand finale.
• Yandere: Tetch is hunting Alice down even though he terrifies her and she wants nothing to do with him.

Jeremiah Valeska/The Joker

The identical twin brother of Jerome Valeska. After being sprayed by a gas his brother designed specifically to drive him mad, Jeremiah begins his descent into becoming Gotham's most dangerous and notorious criminal. For tropes regarding him, see the Valeska's page.