#// and bruce is still sympathetic towards ed's situation in that ep!

[brokentoys]

reblogging with these replies 'cos they're good. and like. honestly i've said before that "riddler's reform" is my least favorite riddler episode just because i feel it wasn't as deep / important as the other two. but if i'm being COMPLETELY HONEST? yeah, bruce's treatment of ed is definitely part of why i don't care for it as much, and it rubbed me the wrong way. AGAIN! it's not 'cos i'm bias and ed's my favorite character and he deserves the world. but... when you watch batman treat every other villain with sympathy, and can be gentle to them... yet, suddenly he's harsh with riddler and believes him to be a lost cause? then yeah... sorry, it's hard not to get a bit frustrated. eddie is literally one of the least evil villains in BTAS.

like it'd be one thing if bruce was like FRUSTRATED with eddie for not changing, but then expressed some kind of hope or encouragement, like telling eddie that today's not the day, but he'd love to see eddie finally overcome his obsessions one day. but acting like ed's hopeless, and acting like he's eager to put eddie back behind bars? it just felt out of character for bruce, it just felt off, it just felt weird. and it's harder to enjoy an episode when the writing feels off.

even tho it's not in my canon (my eddie was the head of the cybercrime unit in the GCPD - inspired by ark origins) but i do like the story of eddie getting fucked over by a company and doesn't receive his royalties for creating such a big, successful game. because this happens too often. like the strawberry shortcake creator, and the hello kitty creator didn't receive royalties either - even though you would think they'd be millionaires because of their creation. but nope. some of them are even quite poor. this also, technically, happened to eddie's creator - bill finger. who was actually the ghost writer / true creator of batman and many of the rogues (including eddie!!!!) but bob kane took all the credit. and bill finger, unfortunately, died a poor man with little recognition. so i did like how the animated series took a unique approach to eddie's story and instead of making him a Scientist of any sort because he's Smart, they went with video game developer who got fucked over by corporation. the job fits eddie quite well, and it can also be a PSA. (also really nice to see eddie standing up for himself in this situation. fuck mockridge.)

it's one of the reasons why eddie's debut eps is one of my favorites from TAS. it's also just satisfying to watch eddie get away with it. and although bruce mentioned eddie still on the run - dick actually seemed more upset that MOCKRIDGE got away with making profit off eddie's work. which bruce then proceeded to joke about mockridge being literally traumatized because of eddie. it's suuuuch a satisfying end.

which is also why i don't get why bruce is so harsh to eddie in riddler's reform. like i always criticize how much nicer bruce is to harley in harley's holiday versus eddie's ep. like in harley's ep, bruce does have hope for harley (despite being madly in love with the joker.) yet in riddler's reform, bruce acts like eddie will never be good because of his "obsession." (which how is eddie's obsession worse than harley's?) like yeah, i know unlike harley, eddie was just pretending. but it's still weird for bruce to have zero hope for eddie when in his first debut episode, bruce seemed to have understood completely - he just didn't approve of eddie's methods of dealing with his situation. (clearly bruce thought mockridge was a Terrible Person, bruce just can't let anyone be Killed tho)