#one bad dag riddler

[just-an-enby-lemon]

For all my hate for OBD Riddler I do think it brings an interesting concept for an AU: what if Edward's mother had kept him? I don't know why I kept thinking about it and not sleeping even though I have a test tomorrow morning and I ended up writing some random things about it:

" She should never have kept him. She knows that, has always known that.

Edward looks at her with big inocent brown eyes and questions too complex for a boy his age and she knows she should have gave him away. Is not that she doesn't love him.

She didn't at the start. When he would take her sleep and her employers with loud cries and empty bellies. But while she knows that she can't truly remember how it is not loving him.

No, she thinks again, looking at his too big second rate clothes and messy red hair, is because she loves him that she should have let him go. Because a boy like him is wasted here. What matters if her son can read at two when they are barely scraping above the poverty line? She should have let his father take him away."

-

"Edward Tierney never grows to be a troubled young man in a boarding school terrifield of his father fury and tamed down by riddles.

Instead Edward Nasthon grows to be a troubled young man in a poor part of the city terrifield the violence of Gotham will take his mother away. For him riddles and puzzle books aren't a sign of failure, they are his one strengh.

The Riddler is born either way.

But Edward Nygma is a very different man depending on the story we tell here."

-

"She still remember that day.

The biggest decision of her life. Her biggest failure, the one she does never truly regret.

The baby in her arms turns and tussles as if knowing that this is the moment that will change his life forever. And in another life she would have done the right thing, Edward would be raised in fancy clothes and warm meals and have access to all the knowledge his heart so desperadly desires. But on this life she didn't.

She couldn't.

Not when the man, the fateful client, the father, looked at their son like that. She knew that look, the contempt and disgust, she had accepted that judmental rich white man would always look at her like this, as if she was lesser. But to see him look at their son that way. To know on her gut he would love the boy less just because it was hers.

Hot anger fueled to her veins. All she remembers after is the man leaving and saying that she better not expect child support because he won't pay for his own blood to be raised by a whore. She never sees him again and life goes on."

_

"She sees him again. She knows it's him the moment her eyes met his and she almost feels ashamed somehow, almost hides, but she refuses to lose. This city already broke her too much as it is. "

-

"Edward is four years old when he sees his first body. Mom took him for a fun day in the park close to the appartment and even bought a cheap ice cream cone for them to share.

He is running around trying to discover the secrets of the park. Maybe catalog it's bugs, he read a book about bugs recently in one of his visits to the library. He would like to study them closer. Instead he finds the remains of a woman.

He is four and he read a book on the human body once but even if not he knows it should not be open like that. He knows it's weird and wrong. He pokes it with a stick and tries to see if the insides match the book.

His mother finds him ten minutes later. She looks horrifield at the scene before grabbing him and hugging him way to tight. They don't go to the park again."

-

"She can't say no to the schoolarship.

It would be unfair.

Her boy is smart too smart for his own good but more importantly too smart for what she can give him. And this is a chance to give him a future. It's a good sign. First the boarding school and then a good college all paid.

And if she could take more clients knowing Edward would be far away all the best. So you see, irrecusable ofter. Even when he is also there.

"And remember-"

"Behave, try to make friends instead of just studying all the time and do not engage with the principal unless absolutly necessary." He says with the habitual pre teen annoyance. Although not even it is enoght to hide his excitement. She is doing the right thing. "There's a thing I don't unserstand." Edward continues curious as always. "Why is not talking to the principal so important? I do understand you don't want me to cause trouble but why ask this in a separate order from behave?"

She brushes some strands of orange hair from his face. He is big now. Soon he will be bigger than her.

"Eddie" she pleads "For once in your life, don't ask question."

He pouted. And she had to supress the smile. They might grow fast but he will ways be her little boy.

"But-"

"No buts, let this one go, son. I'll ground you if need for."

He pouted harder but noded.

"Okay, mom. I won't ask about it."

He lied.

She pretends to believe him."

[just-an-enby-lemon]

oh your ideas are definitely better, especially the ones for the past! the part with the rubiks cube is a nice way to include a reference to his original origin story too, maybe that cube could show up as a clue or so in the present version too to connect the parts even more?

as for my idea i don't know if it is any good either and i tried to keep as much of the original intact as possible so it doesn't feel like an entirely different story but hopefully has some of the weird edginess taken out? i'll send it in two parts though because this is long lmao:

for the past i'd keep most of it the same (even though that is absolutely not how i would do Ed's origin story either) i'd even keep him being bad at the riddles on the test because imo that could work if instead of making him hate riddles and play and fun like in the original (which is a super weird choice for a character who's whole theme is riddles and games) it instead made him obsess over them in part because he's bad at thinking outside of the rigid rules and confines his father set for him since he never knew anything else than obedience and in part because the teacher told him he should try to think out of the box and have fun so now he feels he has to get perfect at 'being fun' to get that teacher's approval and attention because he has been taught by his father that he only has worth if he is perfect at everything and that he will only get positive attention for achievements and for nothing else. it even goes so far that his grades start slipping because he is completely focused on achieving this task he set himself of getting perfect at riddles and fun since his father is never gonna give him positive attention anyways but maybe the teacher will if he just gets it right. it doesn't work though because the teacher does not notice that the kid is being abused and thinks he's just like that (unfortunately a realistic way some people think of abuse victims) and dismisses him somewhat like in the original so that scene in the empty office still happens (btw i agree with you that it was the most emotional moment of the comic) because he feels like he failed, like he is not enough and that his father was right and he should not have tried to break out of his confines because now not only has he not 'achieved' winning his teacher's approval for being the best at fun, but since his grades slipped he can't win his father's "goodwill" (if you can even call it that) back either but instead will always be an imperfect failure in his father's eyes. after that scene he tries to go back to being the perfect emotionally empty student for his father like he was before but finds that he can't, not really, because while his obsession over them started out of a need for achievement, it also unlocked the part of him that just genuinely enjoys and loves riddles and games and play. he feels like he can't allow himself to 'indulge' in these things though because he's already 'failed' at them once and besides his father would not approve of him doing anything not aimed at academic success again, especially not the things that caused him to stop focusing on his grades once already and he can't risk that because from his perspective his father is the only person he has left that might start caring about him if he only tries hard enough to be what he wants him to be (the perfect academic genius that does nothing but study and follow orders). there could even be a reference to his ocd, maybe that he unintentionally developed his compulsion to tell riddles as a self soothing ritual to help with the stress and anxiety he constantly would live with as a kid because they are one of the only things he genuinely enjoys, although he would get embarrassed once he realises he has that compulsion and might try to force himself out of it because it does not fit into the image of what his father wants him to be (probably some internalised ableism too lbh). he has the talk with his teacher at the basketball court but instead of coldly murdering him (which was weird and edgy) the things the teacher says to him about having fun for fun's sake paired with his father ignoring him anyways because of his 'failure' make him think that maybe he can still get perfect at fun and thus get attention from people that aren't his father after all, that the reason he 'didn't get it right' the first time was that he misunderstood the task.maybe that causes him to have some sort of a mental break in that moment which causes him to make 'having fun and being fun' his sole goal in life that he needs to obsessively perfect to get attention and be happy, no matter the cost?

oh no sorry this is extremely long and it's not even finished so i'm not sure if i should send the second part too that would just make it even longer?

I think your idea is way better. Like I genuinally already care way more than whatever Tom King did. Not only that but I think your idea is already better than mine both because is a great adaptation that keeps the major bits but gives them meaning, doesn't have Edward hating riddles (I swear I will punch Tom King) and there is a genuinally curious thrid aspect your version fits King general portray of Edward better.

His obcession with winning at fun to please others can easlly explain his weird obcessive goal of making Joker laught to the point of cominting heinous acts and planning for his own brutal torture as the punchline. It also fits his interactions with Selina in Killing Time and how he is always playing a persona. This actually works as a backstory for King's Riddler au contrary of King's own Riddler backstory (I swear I don't hate everything King wrote to the Batman universe). So yeah. I really liked it and felt it makes total sense and was waay better than mine as a reimagining.

Please please post the part two.