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maxwell-grant · 2 months ago

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Didn't realize you've read Riddler: Year One, any thoughts on it ? Also, in a more general way, what are your thoughts on the Riddler ?

Someone sent me an ask the past week or so saying that The Penguin is everything that the Joker movies should have been, and I don't think I agree on that in regards to The Penguin specifically. But if we're talking about a "Batman-less Batman villain origin story about a lonely suicidal man struggling with poverty and mental illness exacerbated by child abuse, who is pushed down through the cracks of society deep into the pits of his own mind until he can only save himself by becoming a horrible force of social upheaval and political terrorism, finally discovering joy and a reason to live at the expense of everyone around him, and now he will be Batman's problem someday", well this just completely embarasses Joker (2019) on every level. Impressively drawn, impressively written, impressive on it's own and as a prequel to the movie, WAY better than a movie actor's comic book tie-in has any right to be, and one of the greatest Batman comics ever made. Issue #5 in particular is one of the best and most harrowing comic issues and format breaks I've ever seen in the medium, and even if it's entirely self-contained, it very much belongs in the exact same conversation and should be considered inseparable from The Batman and The Penguin.

We spens 4 issues boiling the frog over every painful corner of Edward's childhood and humanity and misery, taking us through painfully intimate views and perspectives inside his headspace, seeing how and why he justifies his worldview and how easy it even is to do so, feeling truly sorry for this hopeless wretch even though we know he's losing it bad bad baddy bad bad and is going to step off the deep end forever. And then Issue 5 happens and suddenly you are one of the people in Gotham City tasked with sifting through this serial killer's personal diary and you can hear that creep shouting with that distorted voice, you can feel the final death rattle of Edward Nashton's soul ending where The Riddler begins to scream in your head 'I NEVER KNEW I HAD A REASON TO BREATHE", and by Issue 6 you fully understand why and how nobody was prepared for him, and why what he is and does and embodies is going to drag the city into an abyss it may never recover from, and why this was never going to stop even after his arrest, even after his defeat and humiliation in the movie. Everything here adds layers of sympathy and tragedy and heartbreak to the character, while simultaneously making everything he is and does in the movie so much more harrowing and disturbing, holy shit he really staked EVERYTHING, everyone's lives included, on being noticed by his savior.

I was already very much on board with Dano Riddler in the movie, whose execution absolutely sold what should have been, on paper, a storm of unadvisable fandom pitches and uninspired trends and straight-up bad ideas ("What if The Ridder was the Zodiac Killer", "What if The Riddler was a 4chan mass-shooter type", "What if The Riddler was a political terrorist with legitimate grievances but whose final goal was to kill off scores of people for little reason", "What if The Riddler was a creepy fascist responsible for a QAnon cult that ends the movie by metaphorically storming the capitol", "What if The Riddler was really, really, really obsessed with Batman", "What if The Riddler was another Dark Opposite Batman", fucking "What if The Riddler was Hush" even) worked into just this miracle magic bullet of a new take on the guy, fully capturing a lot of the essential bullet points of what makes The Riddler tick as a character while spinning them into new and significant ways befitting this increased role he has in the movie. Rereading the story now, so much of the movie even feels like it's specifically referencing the first Riddler story - The Mayor of Gotham City as a target, Riddler misdirecting Batman with a big target while his real plan involved a flood, Edward putting on a costume and naming himself The Riddler specifically because he wants to get Batman's attention, the glass maze, the written letters to police headquarters, The Eagle's Nest that is a nightclub and also the home of a millionaire with a bird last name (Falcone), a driverless vehicle careening wildly into a public place, even how the very first thing we learn about this fucker is that he cheats to win.

The guy in the movie is a version that fully works on it's own, but it clicks SO much more strongly and cohesively when you read this comic and what it establishes for him. It's the scene in the movie where the section of his diary reads "I must become something more" while Bruce finds the panicked desperate bat rattling against a cage, the thematic parallel between them that is the scariest thing he finds in the entire movie, but developed across six issues. This even begins with Eddie living through his version of the Wayne murders, with the first time he's felt anything other than crushing despair and misery, in part because he's seen the first hint of the puzzle he needs to solve, and where he needs to go. The moment the world stopped making sense for Bruce is the moment that the world started to make sense for Edward.

We understand, around the same time he understands, the childish nightmare that must become the pattern of his entire life from that moment onwards, how Edward Nashton would have killed himself, and no one would have cared, had he not become The Riddler, and how the only alternative to "Hey Edward why don't you crawl into the black hole inside yourself" is to, in fact, find this black hole inside of you and shaped like you and push other people into it instead. Become the creature of the night who can punch crime forever, become the avenging force too great for the Falcones to handle, become the kingpin whose name alone will live forever, become someone that the entire city will never again ignore or forget.

We see how it's less that he's been planning for this for so long, and more that his entire life has been broken and hammered into a Riddler shaped hole, and then when Batman dropped into it, he could start to understand what it is and put a name in it, in the fact that he's been training his entire life for this without knowing. Getting comfortable with flushing rats and making bombs at the orphanage, getting intimately and painfully familiar with self-loathing and alienation and misanthropic contempt for this city and it's people who sit by and allow all of this to happen, surviving his suicide attempts without being able to explain why, searching for answers as to why it hurts so much to live broken and unfulfilled and miserable and why he even bothers to keep on doing so, having nothing to love in his life but numbers and puzzles, spending his entire life invisible while trying to get Thomas Wayne and then his boss to notice and praise him, and then being the wrong man at the right place to begin his campaign, a little nobody accountant who noticed an inconsistency in the numbers, put the pieces together, and then decided he was gonna do something about it because he knew it could be done, because there was someone out there who showed it could be done, and if Eddie joined in, maybe this someone would notice him, let him be his friend.

Batman and R, forever.

(People don't talk nearly enough about how this Riddler's entire life ambition was to recreate Tim Drake's origin story, and they should, it's pretty funny)

And to be honest, I think this is the first Riddler origin story I've ever really liked. Some of the others, particularly the first, have their charms, and this one certainly wouldn't fit most takes on the character, even most of the ones I like, but I've never really been fully sold on the idea of a Riddler origin story until this one, he's always been a very backstory-proof guy to me. This doesn't have any particularly obvious shorthand moment as to why Edward became The Riddler, so much as an entire life twisted and torn and abandoned and rotten in ways big and small until this is what came out of him. No immediately abusive fathers or test cheating scandals or major company backstabbings as defining tragedies, just life for a poor orphan in Gotham City who can't figure out the answer to what's missing from his life until he does.

Still a horrible nerd hopelessly trapped in a life of trying to intellectually one-up everyone as the only thing he lives for and, like every horrible nerd, knowing that one day he will be recognized for what he is and then they'll all see how wrong and stupid and savage these stupid savage idiots all were to look down on him. Still a man driven to impose order on the world the way he believes it has to be. Still a cheater who loves puzzles and answers and the thrill of intellectual stimulation and victory more than anything else (and in this case, having had absolutely nothing else to even love about his life), and still very much this guy at the end:

I do have a lot of thoughts on The Riddler, and I think part of why I might not talk about him as much is because he's not a character I tend to have really exclusive or particular preferences for. There are a LOT of Riddlers out there, maybe more so than there are Jokers out there, and there's not really with him the definitive must-be-like-this that the other Batman rogues have. Everybody approaches the puzzle differently if they do so at all, and I like a lot of these Riddlers! They connect with each other surprisingly well even, in spite of being incompatible as the same person.

He's gone through some real ups and downs over the decades: given stardom in the Adam West show that made him a definitive Batman villain and spread his modus operandi across all the others, sacrificed in the altar of camp insecurity along with fellow snooty oddball Penguin, defanged and turned into a parody of himself, refitted for joke status, re-refitted for surprise baddie status, given a whole new lease on life and his own gimmicks with the arrival of computer puzzles and the internet and given his fangs back and then amplified, pushed back to the big leagues more horrible and topical than ever before and exponentially increasing as such until his next big movie showing, torn in multitudes across multiverses of takes and ideas, almost too many to even consolidate them all.

I like the first Riddler of Bill Finger's original story in Tec #140, this curious satisfaction-seeking master cheater growing exponentially more dangerous and more varied and more assured the more he fades into his endless barrage of traps and toys and puzzles,. I love Frank Gorshin's Riddler, and everybody loves Frank Gorshin's Riddler, he is the reason The Riddler became an iconic Batman villain overnight. I like John Glover in TAS, and I like Robert Englund's cold ghostly showman in The Batman (2002) much more. I love the Arkham games version of Riddler, probably because I never actually played the games and had to collect his dumb trophies. I love Paul Dini's Detective Riddler, and I especially love Brent Spiner's take on the guy for Justice League Action. I LOVE the more classic take on Riddler as played by John Leguizamo in The Batman Audio Adventures, and I LOVE Paul Dano's Riddler in The Batman, and they couldn't be more incompatible with each other.

I love the Riddlers who continuously undermine themselves in the name of criminal artistry and who look down on the profit-seeking rubes who think any of this is about money, and I love the Riddlers who are ultimately con-men doing money heists because they want to be the only crooks in town smart enough to have something to show for all their work at the end of the day. I like Riddlers who are widely despised and regarded with annoyance and disdain by the city and their fellow rogues, and I like the Riddlers who have good professional relationships with the other rogues, and the Riddlers who managed to become darkly inspiring figures in their own right. I love the Riddlers who've subsumed themselves into the mysteries and horror they embody, and I love the pathological pattern-finders trying to find a way out of this weird pathetic life, even if their efforts will be doomed to failure - The Riddler couldn't out-think his way out of Batman's toybox no matter how much he tried, and he has no desire to - where would it leave him? Down there with all the troglodytes? Please.

I can get on board with very human, conversational Eddies, the Eddies that did stints as sideshow carnies, that can tell on some level that they should be doing better things than this, who'll do bored stick-em-ups to fund the attention-seeking tantrums they're actually passionate about, and I can get on board with Eddies who are truly uniquely vile and scary even compared to the other Rogues in the room, who uphold this terrifyingly cold perversion of fairness, imposing a stark and utilitarian worldview on the city by which the penalty for falling short of his games is murder, that sheer calculated murderous menace that Frank Gorshin brought when he ended his first episode leering on a helpless Robin strapped to an operating table. And if I ever thought I couldn't get on board with the Riddler as a major serious scary existential threat to life on Gotham, well, The Batman sure proved me wrong. I may not love him as passionately as I do The Penguin or Hugo Strange, but I love too many versions of this guy to ever be able to narrow them all down, and there are even more still to be discovered.

Endlessly adaptable, able to change and mutate with the times on the same kinds of grand orchestral shifts and minute beats that Batman does, a greater variety of personalities than the Joker if not quite the same versatility (and where would we be without these two always pissing each other off or making out or both, living in each other's respective negative spaces), always an enduring and entertaining opponent regardless of whether he's the most pathetic man alive or a malevolent genius beyond understanding who routinely puppeteers an entire city and it's greatest hero into putting on their greatest performances for him. Always an adapting puzzle box, always leading into the next version of himself, always beguiling, and always becoming the most frustrating thing that Batman has to deal with, whether he's systematically destroying Batman's rationale and will and ability to be Batman or just being naturally the worst guy to deal with at the most unfortunate possible moment, in itself another key to his endurance. The Joker can murder sidekicks and torch the city and routinely try and drive Batman to breaking points of rage and indignity and despair - but sometimes The Riddler can get Batman there just by being himself, as anyone who's had to deal with this asshole in the Arkham games can attest.

It is imperative to believe in and understand Batman's worldview that his villains can be saved because everyone can and must be saved, just as it is to understand that, out of everyone in his Rogues Gallery, if The Riddler was drowning, Bruce would be inclined to throw him a cinderblock, and The Riddler would be glad to receive it, so long as his last gasps of breath could be spent laughing at Batman's inability to match wits with him.

For a villain who is meant to be fixated on knowing the one correct answer to every riddle, he’s uniquely able to be reinterpreted in endless new ways. He’s gone from being a camp and colorful performance artist to one of the most sadistic and sinister villains Batman can ever go up against. There is no one way to write a Riddler. There’s no single solution! And writers will always like the challenge that presents.

Just when readers think they’ve seen everything the Riddler has left to offer us, and the character is finally exhausted… a new lime-green envelope pops through the door of Wayne Manor to challenge us all once again. It seems we’ll never get tired of trying to unravel the Riddler, and writers will never give up on unraveling the character’s fullest potential. It unites readers, writers, and caped crusaders alike: this time, surely, we’ll crack him. - Batman's Greatest Enemy is...The Riddler, by Steve Morris

#replies tag #dc comics #batman #dc #the riddler #riddler #edward nashton #the batman #paul dano #stevan subic #the riddler year one #matt reeves #edward nygma

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wycroftie · 3 months ago

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Something I don’t hear many people talk about is how significant the name „Edward Nashton” actually is for the Batman 2022. The name Edward Nigma/ Edward Nygma has been used for YEARS in both comics and in media such as the Gotham TV show but nobody talks about WHY they called him Nashton and not Nygma and I’m going insane!!

TW// Brief mention of child abuse.

In his original story line, Ed was abused by his father in the classic puzzle story line where his father accused him of cheating in the contest. THAT is why he changed his name from Nashton to Nygma. So that he could stray away from memories of his abusive father.

In the Batman 2022, Ed’s story was changed, Ed was now an orphan who grew up in the orphanage. Ed did NOT have any negative memories of his father. Therefore he never felt the need to change his name from Nashton to Nygma. This wasn’t just a random name change, this was a DELIBERATE choice made by Reeves and Craig to show the impact of his different origin!!

I just needed to get that off my chest thank you <3

#kanna rambles #the riddler #dc riddler #riddler #dano riddler #edward nygma #edward nashton #<?>#batman 2022 #batman #the penguin

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ghostbxne · 1 year ago

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a bit self-indulgent edward nashton headcanons bc im going insane and i have to share my though with the world

- he guessed the joker’s riddle wrong. joker didn’t mean to call himself his „friend”, he literally introduced himself as „ the joker” - the card. the less you have the more one is worth (jokers in a deck of cards) (but maybe im overthinking this lol)

- his teeth are not taken care of. the orphanage did not provide proper dental care for the children, so his teeth are crooked and he has a few cavities. he would like to get braces but still can’t afford it

tw: self harm mention in the next one

- he self harms (honestly thats canon, in the year one comic we see him as a child and his hands with very prominent bite marks). he also punches walls (implied in the batman movie when he slaps a wall in his cell in the asylum)

- he stims (in the year one comic he thinks to himself „stop chewing on your glasses, edward”) and is autistic (literally gets called „rain man” in the year one comic) but undiagnosed due to his financial situation and fear of any doctors (my personal headcanon, but also implied considering how the medical staff at the orphanage treated kids)

- cannot cook to save his life. he buys pre-made food or makes really bad watery soups so he can put them in cups and drink them while working

- usually keeps his nails a little longer. he picks at his skin a lot so it annoys him when his nails are very short

- has ocd (implied in the year one comic (intrusive thoughts) and in the movie (compulsive writing))

- has anxiety (pretty much canon)

- doesn’t really listen to music, he prefers podcasts (canonically listens to a motivational podcast in year one) and audiobooks

- usually wears a few layers of clothing. he’s usually cold and also insecure about his body. (i love his year one cardigan)

- really likes animals, especially dogs. he likes how they don’t leave their owners and are always on their side. would like to have a dog but can’t (obvious reasons)

- has very big trouble managing his emotions (canon) and gets incredibly upset when something doesn’t go his way, even the small things

tw: animal abuse mentioned in the next one

- has a fear of water and drowning (might be from that one time when the guy at the orphanage forced him to drown a rat)

- doesn’t really know how to take care of himself due to childhood neglect

- has nightmares every night. after seeing the batman in real life they stopped for a while (he’d just have no dreams at all and occasionally a very distorted fever dream, but still not a nightmare), but he still kept repeatedly waking up in the middle of the night

alright thats it for now, i might edit the post and add more later or idk😭

#danonation #edward nashton #the batman 2022 #paul dano #the riddler #riddlebat #dano riddler #the batman #edward nashton headcanon #headcanons #edward nashton headcanons #riddler: year one #riddler 2022 #dano edward nashton x reader #edward nashton x reader

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ednashtn · 3 months ago

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trans people: im trans

society: ok

edward nashton: my life has been a cruel riddle I could not solve, suffocating my mind, no escape, but then today, I SAW IT... A SINGLE WORD on this ledger, sitting on the desk beside me! RENEWAL! the empty promise they sold to me as a child in that orphanage. one look inside and finally I UNDERSTOOD! my whole life has been PREPARING me for th

#edward nashton #is this something

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fnck-fac3 · 3 months ago

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Riddler/ Dano!Edward Nashton LOVERS, PLEASE ANSWER ME THIS!

If Edward somehow had a child, whether with the reader or with someone else, would he be a good father or not?

Look at him so silly HEHEHEHEJWVSLQVCOWBLSVRWOSBSLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA:$/&(./@!/@-/@-&/&/&:$:&/@/&HELPMEEEEEEE!1!1!2!2’qbwmrbqm

#i love him #batman movie #im cryign #I wanna kiss him until he explodes #male wife #edward nashton x reader #edward nygma #edward nashton #batman 2022 #gay twink #chunky boy #please help #send help

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mimicmimikyuwrites · 5 months ago

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Good Enough - Edward Nashton (The Riddler) x Fem!Reader

Summary: Edward has never felt good enough for anyone or anything. When the self-help resources fail to work and the feelings of inadequacy grow stronger by the day, he begins to doubt that he's even worthy of being loved, but you're there to comfort him and remind him of just how much he matters.

Contents/Possible Warnings: Minor spoilers for Riddler: Year One, a lot of angst, hurt with comfort, fluff, mentions of smut (but no actual smut)

Repulsive. Broken. Unwanted. Not good enough. The words he told himself had buried their way into his thoughts, repeating themselves like a twisted mantra that never ended, even with the constant use of every self-help tip and coping skill he had learned. That same mantra had been there so long that he couldn't remember when it had first started.

Maybe it was never something new at any point; maybe it was just the truth that he kept trying to deny with ledgers filled line to line with positive affirmations that he could never convince himself of. 'You are good enough.' No, he wasn't. He never would be. He was fighting a losing battle against himself.

At least at the end of the day, he had someone to come back home to, someone who told him every day how much she loved him. Before he had met you his only form of salvation was his puzzles, like it had always been since he was a young child. With you here, though, he had more than just riddles and crosswords online and in the local paper to look forward to after a long workday. You were the only good thing that Gotham City had to offer. You were an angel, his angel.

He unlocked the door to his apartment and closed it behind him, a smile making its way onto his face at the sound of your shoes against the wooden floor as you made your way from the bedroom and toward him. You grinned widely as you saw him, your arms outstretched and wide open before you wrapped him in a tight hug.

"Hi," He murmured in greeting, hugging you back as he nuzzled his face into your soft, beautiful hair. You smiled even wider, looking up at him with eyes that always made him melt with just a single look into his own. "How was work, Eddie?" You questioned, pressing a kiss to his cheek.

"It was—" He paused, trying to find the right words. Shit. It was shit. His boss was a condescending, passive-aggressive, arrogant prick who slacked off more than he worked and still managed to be more successful in his career than Edward had ever been. As much as he wanted to vent, he didn't want to burden you with more than he already was by being with you.

"Fine." He finally decided, putting on a fake smile. "Same old calculations and whatnot. Nothing interesting." He lied. It was another day of statements from Zach that were insulting enough to strike a nerve, but not obvious enough to report to HR. Not like it'd matter, it would probably get swept under the rug and forgotten about. Some days Edward wondered if his superior was actually the pompous dick he thought him to be or just an idiot with confidence.

"Oh." You could see right that smile on his face. Something was bothering him like it had been for days now and you could tell. It broke your heart knowing he was struggling and that same struggle left him unable to feel okay confiding in anyone. "Are you sure...?" You questioned, a hand moving upwards to cup his cheek gently, the man leaning into your comforting touch.

He had lied to you. How could you lie to her? You manipulative, disgusting freak. As the thoughts filled his head, guilt washed over him. God, he didn't deserve you. He didn't deserve your affection, and most certainly not your love. Did he deserve any love at all? Was there anything to love about—

"Eddie?" Came your soft voice, the sound like that of an angel. He broke himself out of his thoughts, smiling at you again. "I think I'm gonna go pick us up some takeout for dinner. What do you want?" He changed the subject, moving away from you and back towards the door.

"No." You said a bit sternly, grabbing his hand and pulling him over to the nearby couch, sitting down with him. "You're not getting out of this that easily. Tell me what's wrong, Eddie."

"It's not you, I promise that it's not." He insisted quickly, afraid he had upset you with his earlier lie. She's going to leave you. She never should've been yours to begin with. You ruin every good thing you get. He grew tense as the fears filled him and threatened to consume him whole. You were so perfect, so deserving of every amazing thing the world had to offer and more, and he was just... Edward Nashton.

"Woahwoahwoah!" Your hands shot forward at the sight of tears beginning to well up in his eyes, your thumbs wiping them away as they fell. "I'm not mad, honey. I just—" You stopped, unsure how to phrase things. "I'm worried about you. You can tell me anything, as cliche as that sounds. You're not a burden to me; you never have been, and you never will be."

He buried his head into your shoulder, sobbing into it as your arms came to hold him close to you. "Why? Why do you love me? I–I don't understand..." He cried softly against you. "All of these years you've spent with me and I can't comprehend why. Is it out of pity?" He asked. While to anyone else it would've sounded like a bold accusatory remark, you knew that the question was genuine. He needed to know.

"Look at me, Edward." You commanded gently, him moving so he could face you and meet your eyes with his own. The sight of tears running down his face and wettening his glasses broke your heart. "Three years we've been together. In those three years, I've fallen more in love with you than I have anyone else. We've made love more times than I can count. I even wait for the day you'll put a ring on my finger, no matter which one it is. It could be made out of scrap metal for all I care, as long as it's from you.

You're smart, Eddie. Tell me, does everything I just listed sound like I only pity you? Or does it sound like I'm head-over-heels in love with the man in front of me? You are good enough. I love you, Edward Nashton."

That made him cry even harder, but you were there to hold him, just as you had been since you stumbled into his life. If he wasn't good enough for himself, then at least he was good enough for his angel. You wanted a ring on your finger? He'd get you one in due time. Anything for the one who showed him that he could be loved, that he wasn't some type of vermin in the cesspool that was Gotham City. You are good enough. For once, he believed it.

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danosrosegarden · 6 months ago

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Hey ur my favorote Eddie Nashton fic writer, if you're taking requests at all would you write something about reader throwing him a birthday party? I imagine he didnt get many in the orphanage :( Supposedly 7/21 is his birthday!

sweet tooth - edward nashton x gn!reader

{contains: brief mentions of past trauma but mostly fluff/celebrating edward :-)}

Edward got up for work early, when the sky was still a dark, milky blue-black and the air was still chill and silent.

40 today. He would rather not think about it.

He was perfectly fine with you forgetting. He could count on one hand the amount of happy birthday letters he had received in his four decades. He was fine without a stupid cake or colorful candles or glittering balloons. He was a fully grown man, not a selfish little child. Who needs them.

But while you're still sleeping in bed and he's putting on his jacket, getting ready to head out the door, he sees something shining on the kitchen counter. He walks over and sees a card. Sweeping, cursive letters and a drawing of a cupcake decorate the front.

It's Your Day!

The counter is bejeweled with small, glittering pieces of rainbow confetti. He doesn't notice that his hands are trembling as he opens the card.

Happy birthday, sweetheart. I hope this year is the year you flourish like never before.

I can't wait to celebrate you when you get home.

His stomach is churning as he places the card back on the counter and it stays twisting and turning throughout his day at work.

Not a single happy birthday, Edward! Not a card or confetti decorating his desk.

But you. You remembered.

He scoffs a laugh as you practically tackle him in a hug when he walks through the door.

"I'm so glad you're home, darling."

It takes genuine strength to blink back his tears as you shove a gift in his arms. It's wrapped in glimmering green paper.

He thinks of the orphanage as he tears it. He thinks of the children he shared a room with. He wonders where they are. How they could've bloomed like neon flowers in the beating summer sun if only they had been given a chance.

You looked worried as he peers at the gift: a thick book of crosswords.

"It's kind of stupid, but I thought you'd like it. It's supposed to be harder than the New York Times. I know you love a challenge."

He shakes his head and says nothing as he envelops you in a quiet, warm hug. You can feel his smile against your cheek and suddenly, it all is worth it. The nightmares that keep you both up and make your stomach cave in worry. The times you have to run your fingers through his hair and pat his back as he dry heaves into the toilet. The days where the world is too loud for him and his voice is far too quiet to fight back...it all is worth it if it means he could blossom with you. It wasn't easy, but getting to be a part of him would always be worth it.

You think of him, him in his entirety. His high, trembling giggle as he stumbled his way through a dumb joke. His compassion and dedication, the times he'd pick up market flowers for you or write you long, handwritten letters just because. The truth of the matter was that despite everything he had weathered, Edward Nashton was sweet. He was kind to you. He was yours, and there was nothing you'd trade that for.

Edward did not look forward to his birthday. He hardly remembered it when it rolled around each year. But then there was you. God, he never could've imagined that this would be his life. A life where he's celebrated, not crumpled like a piece of ruined paper and thrown away. A life where he's thought of and cared for, not just another number.

He is loved. That's all he could've wished for.

#eli's writing #danonation #paul dano #edward nashton #the riddler #the batman #edward nashton x reader #the riddler x reader #edward nashton x you #the riddler x you #edward nashton x y/n #the riddler x y/n

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gl1tchr · 2 months ago

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Gotham City Limits Rogue Bios

These are the same little lore dumps from my original post, but as text so they can be more easily read/accessible!!! Since it's huge blocks of text, I'm sticking them all under a divider, and I'll update this post when I finish more rogues!!

Jonathan Crane, "Scarecrow"

Jonathan Carter Crane was born and raised in Louisiana by his heavily religious grandmother after the passing of his parents. As a child, her fire and brimstone preaching struck immense fear in him, especially when she would claim his mother was burning in Hell for being Protestant and not Catholic. As he grew older, he was not swayed to belief by her teachings, and would silently reject the faith while he still relied on her. At 23, Crane received his Bachelor’s in Psychology and one of his professors would pull some strings to get him into a Master’s program at Gotham University. Crane would bury himself in his education, and the study of the human mind would become his one comfort in life. He went on to earn his Master’s and PhD in Psychology, deciding to remain in Gotham to teach. While he attempted to find contentment in his life in Gotham, Crane found himself increasingly obsessed with fear, which affected his teaching, hitting a rut in his 30s.

When a mugger attempted to rob him one night, Crane pulled a gun on him. The mugger revealed he was not armed, and only had a flashlight in his pocket to look like a gun. Crane grabbed the man and forced the gun to his temple, taking immense joy in the terror he had caused the young criminal. After setting him loose, Crane came to the realization that he was meant to instill fear in others the way his grandmother had done to him, and became the Scarecrow. He would don his frightening costume, inspired by undertakers, highwaymen, and, of course, scarecrows, to terrorize criminals - or anyone he deemed worthy of punishment - with his signature Fear Toxin. This outlet has allowed him to continue teaching undistracted, though it won’t be long before his double lives converge and he can no longer separate Jonathan Crane from the Scarecrow.

Edward Nashton, "The Riddler"

Edward Theodore Nashton is a Gotham native, the lone son to parents who had very little affection for one another before he was even born. When he was, their relationship became even more tumultuous, leading to a divorce in Edward’s childhood. While his mother remained the same, his father deteriorated into severe alcoholism and would abuse him both emotionally and physically. He tried to tell his mother about the abuse that occurred when he went to his father’s, but she didn’t listen, and nothing was ever done. For much of his life, Edward would feel he simply wasn’t heard. In his teens, Edward began toying with cybernetics and discovered a knack for programming. The more he learned, his pace increased, finding it difficult to fill his time with as much stimulation as he possibly could to quell the volume of his mind. In his 20s, Edward would work for a short time at a cybersecurity company before becoming bored again. He would attend college at Harvard, earning his Master’s in Business Administration, specializing in finance. This allowed him to work freelance, offering accounting to whomever he wished to work with. Unfortunately, he would find himself unsatisfied once again, feeling as though the things he was doing weren’t enough.

Edward eventually realized he could be selling the information he learned from his work, making him an incredible asset for insider dealings. Much of his early criminal behavior was white-collar crime, however, as he became entrenched in the lifestyle, he began dealing with more and more shady individuals, including organized crime. Realizing he would need a more legitimate source of income to cover his tracks, Edward got his teaching certificate and began working at Gotham University teaching finance. In this way, he has been able to control a great deal of Gotham’s criminal underbelly from the comfort of his classroom, and with the safety of anonymity.

Jervis Tetch, "Mad Hatter"

Jervis Benjamin Tetch is the youngest of seven siblings, and the son of two professors of science at Oxford University. While his older siblings excelled in the sciences, Tetch was drawn to the arts. While his parents didn’t outright shame him for this, they showed little interest in encouraging his creative endeavors, often drilling him about the difficulties those in the arts faced in having successful careers. Feeling as though he would never get the attention he wanted from his family, he decided to finish his studies abroad in the states. With his grades, he was able to get a full-ride scholarship to Gotham University, where he would be enrolled for only two years.

During his time in college, Tetch would fall into a deep depression. Feeling isolated with no support system, he turned to recreational drug use to get through school. This drug use would fuel a bizarre infatuation with the story Alice in Wonderland, which he used for inspiration for many of his projects for class. He would also begin acting strangely, his classmates reporting he’d become oddly talkative and outgoing in the weeks leading up to the horrific murders he would commit. Allison Wells would be the frequent target of his odd behavior, reporting to several of her friends she felt unsafe around him. Eventually, Allison would inform Jervis she was seeing someone, and her friends would confront him outside of class demanding that he leave her alone. After a particularly aggressive episode, Jervis would drug and kidnap Allison, her boyfriend, and her three friends, holding them captive in an abandoned building near the school for several days before slowly picking them off, ending with Allison. Jervis is currently serving multiple life sentences in Arkham for quintuple homicide.

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