History Characters / GothamSerialKillers

[[folder: Lazlo Valentin/Professor Pyg]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gotham_409a_scn3_jn0230_f_hire.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see him unmasked.]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lazlo_valentin.png]][[/labelnote]]
->'''Played by:''' Michael Cerveris

A deranged serial killer who sports a pig mask. His primary targets are the corrupt cops of Gotham, although he seems to have taken a liking for Jim Gordon...

* AbledInTheAdaptation: Unlike the comics Pyg, who's one of the few Batman villains to actually meet the qualifications to be declared insane, this version is clear-headed.
* AdaptationalBadass: Most versions of Pyg, excepting ''WesternAnimation/BewareTheBatman'', are schizophrenics and murderous psychopaths and have very little planning skills. This version is perfectly capable of executing an almost [[Film/TheDarkKnight Joker-like]] scheme such as when he [[spoiler: massacres the GCPD in the abandoned court house.]]
* AdaptationalDeviation: This version of Pyg doesn't appear to have any involvement with the Circus of Strange.
* AdaptationalIntelligence: While he lacks the comic variant's surgical skills needed to create his Dollotrons, he's a master strategist and actor, skills the comics Pyg doesn't have.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. This version of the character is a vigilante who murders corrupt cops, which is considerably less depraved than his M.O. in the comics. However, it's clear that this Pyg is still a severely disturbed psychopath, and that his mission against Gotham's corruption is more or less an excuse he uses to indulge his sick desires.
* AdaptedOut: His signature {{Mooks}}, the Dollotrons, never make an appearance in the show.
* ArcVillain: He was the primary villain for about 5 episodes in Season 4. [[spoiler:It later turns out that Sofia is the one who hired him.]]
* AristocratsAreEvil: [[spoiler: He changes his targets from corrupt cops to Gotham's elite because of their callousness and disregard towards the poor.]]
* AnimalMotifs: He models himself after pigs, and places a pig mask on every cop that he kills. Not only that but he leaves figurines of pigs on his crime scenes, sent pig heads to the police HQ as a calling card and left live pigs with two of his victims corpses, one of which was eaten by said pigs.
* AttentionWhore: He loves being the center of attention, so much so that he actually yearns to be hailed as Gotham's most notorious criminal. When Gordon tells him that the city's already forgotten about him after his arrest, he does ''not'' take it lightly.
* BaddieFlattery: He apparently sees Gordon as a celebrity of sorts, and is somewhat starstruck when the two meet face-to-face.
* BaldOfEvil: This version of Pyg is bald behind the mask.
* BerserkButton:
** The only thing so far that breaks Pyg's hammy disposition is Gordon saying that his killing spree is just a madman's game and not some crusade for the greater good.
** He breaks his Pyg persona when Gordon makes it sound like he's yesterday's news and nothing but an amatuer compared to Jerome Valeska, Fish Mooney and Penguin.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He's a flamboyant, effete eccentric with a bizarre dress sense, a lilting voice, and a fondness for nursery rhymes, but he is ''extremely'' dangerous nonetheless.
* BigBadEnsemble: With [[ManipulativeBitch Sofia Falcone]] for Season 4. Both have different goals, and ultimately oppose each other in one episode, yet both are the main threats in Gordon and Penguin's life, respectively. [[spoiler:Ultimately subverted on the "oppose" part, since they were working together all along.]]
* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Courtesy of Sofia Falcone]].
* CopKiller: The DirtyCops on Penguin's payroll are his main targets.
* DeadpanSnarker: After Penguin [[spoiler:kills a callous aristocrat for disregarding the fate of an "urchin" and "orphan" child]], Pyg only responds by saying "what a waste of a good pie" and complimenting Penguin's response.
* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler:Sofia shot him in the head and killed him, years before Bruce Wayne becomes Batman.]]
* TheDragon: [[spoiler:To Sofia Falcone]]
* DramaticUnmask: We finally see his true face ([[spoiler:or is it?]]) when he [[spoiler:removes his Fisoli disguise at the end of "A Day in the Narrows"]].
* TheDreaded: Pyg becomes one of the most feared cop killers in Gotham and forces Bullock to team up with Penguin and his goons in an attempt to capture him.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: At Sofia's fundraiser for orphans, Pyg assures her said orphans are locked up and not hurt, saying he's not an animal. Even his threat against Martin seems aimed more at intimidating Penguin than an actual desire to harm him.
* EvilIsHammy: No pun intended; he's ''very'' theatrical for a psychopathic killer. Fittingly enough, he's played by Broadway veteran Michael Cerveris.
* FauxAffablyEvil: He acts very polite towards Jim, [[spoiler: though this is simply a facade to hide his southern roots.]]
* IronicNurseryRhyme: At the end of "Hog Day Afternoon", he recites "Two Mother Pigs" to a pen of piglets before slaughtering them to make pig masks.
-->'''Professor Pyg:''' ''Two mother pigs lived in a pen.\\
They each had four piglets, and that made ten.\\
All the piglets loved to play,\\
and they rolled and they rolled in the mud all day.\\
At night, when their mothers curled up in a heap,\\
they squealed and they squealed until they went to sleep.''\\
And sleep well, for tomorrow, the axe shall fall...
* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: Gordon tells him that he's nothing more than a C list criminal who's doomed to fall into obscurity, and has virtually no match against the staying power of bigger villains like the Penguin or Jerome. Nowadays, Pyg is considered by many to be one of Batman's more obscure rogues.
* MasterOfDisguise: He's a ''dangerously'' good actor, as demonstrated when he disguises himself as [[spoiler:one of his victims in an effort to trick Gordon and the GCPD]]. We eventually find out that [[spoiler:even his Pyg persona as a whole]] is just a big act.
* MeaningfulName: tells Gordon that spelling it with a Y rather than an I is deliberate as it's short for ''Theatre/{{Pygmalion}}''.
* MythologyGag:
** At one point, he sings along to opera while carving out another pig mask. This should seem ''very'' familiar for fans of ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight''. He even throws a butcher knife at Jim in "Let Them Eat Pie", just like in his boss battle.
** In the comics, Pyg is a surgeon who uses his skills to turn his victims into Dollotrons. In the show, this is visually alluded to during a scene where he surgically [[spoiler:removes a dead man's organs]].
* NotSoDifferent: He expresses interest in Jim because he believes that they share a common goal: to wipe out the corruption within the GCPD.
-->'''Professor Pyg:''' You and I know that Gotham cannot survive unless the cancer is cut out. We both share the same mission, only I do it with a little bit more ''flair''.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: The man's a living testament to why you should BewareTheSillyOnes, but he's no fool. When Jim pretends not to know Pyg's location, Pyg's response is, "Don't act dumb. Only ''I'' get to do that."
* OneManArmy: [[spoiler: He single-handedly massacred a large portion of police officers, some on his own and by using a machine gun trap.]]
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: InUniverse example. As Gordon leaves him behind in his Arkham cell, Pyg angrily snarls, ''"Don't you walk out on me!"'' in a [[spoiler:Southern accent]], thus revealing his ''true'' identity.
* PigMan: Through wearing his signature pig mask.
* PragmaticAdaptation: His pig mask in the comics is usually depicted as a cheap plastic mask and reminiscent of [[WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes Porky Pig]]. Here, it appears to be an ''actual pig's face'' that's been sliced into a mask.
* SouthernFriedGenius: [[spoiler: He’s revealed to be from the south and briefly slips into a Southern accent during “Things That Go Boom”]], Yet this doesn’t negate the fact that he’s still a genuinely intelligent and dangerous criminal who managed to [[spoiler: escape from both Arkham and the prison from his original town with seemingly minimal effort]].
* ShoutOut: Pyg's plot to [[spoiler:bake his murder victims into [[ImAHumanitarian human meat pies]]]] is directly inspired by ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet''. This was a deliberate reference, since Michael Cerveris actually played Sweeney Todd on Broadway.
* VillainSong: He has a very short one in the form of "Meat Pie Tango", a parody of "Cell Block Tango" from ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}''.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:He's offed by Sofia once he's no longer useful to her plan]].

[[folder:"Mother" and "Orphan"]]
!!Mother and Orphan
->'''Played by:''' Susannah Rogers and Benjamin Snyder

"Mother" is a serial killer hiding in an abandoned hotel in Gotham's No Man's Land in the Dark Zone. "Orphan" serves as her sidekick and bait for victims.

* BrownNote: Uses flashing strobe lights to disorient their victims before killing them.
* DirtyCoward: Mother flees as soon as her strobe light setup fails and Gordon and Bullock gain the upper hand.
* KarmaHoudini: Isn't seen again after fleeing down a secret passage. Justified, in that Gordon and Harvey had more pressing issues to deal with at the time.
* RealityEnsues: Mother is apparently only able to kill her victims after having disoriented them or through ambushes. When she loses the element of surprise, she's subdued with a single punch.
* SocialDarwinist: Mother has shades of this, claiming that her murders were done to teach the boy how to survive.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Jane Cartwright/Jane Doe]]
!!Jane Cartwright/Jane Doe
->'''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.
----

* YouDontLookLikeYou: The [[http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Balloon_Man_(Earth-One) Balloon Man]] in the comics is a pre-crisis enemy of the ComicBook/MetalMen with the abilities of flight, size-changing, and expelling clouds of smoke. He was also a literal living gasbag. This show's Balloonman is a mundane VigilanteMan who murders corrupt authority figures by strapping them to weather balloons.

* YouDontLookLikeYou: His modus operandi is that of a Batman villain named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Stirk Cornelius Stirk,]] though he lacks Stirk's {{Glamour}} power and propensity for cannibalism.

* BoomHeadshot: [[spoiler:Gordon shoots him right in the head, just as the Ogre was about to kill Barbara.]]

* TheCorrupter: Eventually this to [[spoiler:Barbara.]]

* {{Expy}}: [[Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey A handsome millionaire with control issues, and a private dungeon stocked full of bondage equipment]]. Also, [[Literature/RedDragon a rampaging psychopath who received extensive plastic surgery to cover up childhood deformities, was abused in his youth, starts targeting a main character when news about him is leaked to the press, becomes obsessed with a blond woman who doesn't realize his true nature until the climax,]] [[spoiler: and is taken out by BoomHeadshot at the end of a hostage situation.]]

* NotSoDifferent: He claims he's this to [[spoiler: Barbara. He's right.]]

* GoneHorriblyRight: [[spoiler: His insane theory actually ''works'', completely desensitizing his brain to the specific hormonal cocktail that correlates to "fear". The thing is, without fear, his ability to accurately gauge the danger of his surroundings or actions is hopelessly compromised, leading to a suicidal attack on Gordon and Bullock.]]

* MyGreatestFailure: [[spoiler:He failed to save his wife when their house burned down due to being terrified of the fire, setting him on his quest to destroy fear completely.]]
* NightmareFuel: He actually creates a substance InUniverse that can be literally considered NightmareFuel. His modus operandi is specifically targeting his victims' fears, terrorizing them to the highest point possible so that he can harvest their adrenal gland when it's flooded with its most potent cocktail of hormones. He then distills this biochemical soup in order to create what can only be called "liquid fear", a mixture that induces intense terror in anyone exposed to it. Why? [[spoiler: To create a cure for fear, under the thesis that by carefully inoculating himself with this liquid fear at regular intervals, his body will eventually adjust to the hormone spike, making it impossible for him to feel fear on his own again.]]

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler: Utter fearlessness + armed cops demanding you drop your weapon = SuicideByCop. Glad that anti-fear serum worked out so well for you, Gerald!]]
* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler: Transforms into this after losing his fear. Turns out Gordon was right. Fear does tell you where the edge is.]]
* TragicVillain: He became bad due to the guilt he felt over his wife's unfortunate death. The more so in that [[spoiler: all he really accomplishes is to leave his son deprived of either parent, fear-hounded, locked up and fated to become a ''creator'' of fear.]]
* WellIntentionedExtremist: He murders and terrifies people in order to [[spoiler: create a "cure" for fear, which he blames for causing a host of flaws in human nature.]]

* {{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.

* AdaptationalAttractiveness:In the comics, she's [[https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/batman/images/e/ec/Jane_Doe_-_New_52.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20130801182045 skinless and grotesque-looking]]. This version has all her skin intact, and thus looks perfectly normal (though she certainly thinks otherwise).

* MeaningfulName: tells Gordon that spelling it with a Y rather than an I is deliberate as it's short for ''Theater/{{Pygmalion}}''.

* YouDon'tLookLikeYou: His modus operandi is that of a Batman villain named [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornelius_Stirk Cornelius Stirk,]] though he lacks Stirk's {{Glamour}} power and propensity for cannibalism.

* AdaptationalDumbass: He lacks the comic variant's surgical skills needed to create his Dollotrons.

* AdaptationalBadass: Most versions of Pyg, excepting [[WesternAnimation/BewareTheBatman Beware The Batman]], are schizophrenics and murderous psychopaths and have very little planning skills. This version is perfectly capable of executing an almost [[LiveActionFilm/TheDarkKnight Joker-like]] scheme such as when he [[spoiler: massacres the GCPD in the abandoned court house.]]

* AdaptationalIntelligence: Downplayed. While he's a master strategist and actor, he lacks the comic variant's surgical skills needed to create his Dollotrons.

[[folder:The Goat/Dr. Marks]]

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jldzpb4fku9maqkxk2rz.png]][[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see him unmasked.]]http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lazlo_valentin.png]][[/labelnote]]