Riddle Me This...

To the few people who know of his existence, Ed is just a slightly disturbed employee at Wayne Enterprises' Electronics Division and a bit of a Bruce Wayne fanboy. Truthfully, Edward is very disturbed and a huge stalker.

It all started from a young. Troubled childhood, bullied at school, nothing particularly special until one treacherous day when he was a teenager. He had read and obsessed about the death of Thomas and Martha Wayne, or more particularly their son, Bruce. He mirrored Edward's intensity, his anger and frustration with his unfair situation in life; but no self-pity.

That interest turned into a pure fixation after it was linked to the trauma of his hospitalisation from an attack by another student of his middle school.

Captivated by a front page newspaper article on the case, Edward strolled home from school when he was thrown to the curb, convulsing in a small pool of blood as the paper soaked next to him.

Why had the world put him and Bruce into such untenable positions?

Everything made perfect sense to him from then on. He learned everything there was to know about Bruce from then on, persued a higher education through a Wayne Foundation scholarship, applied to Wayne Enterprises for a Researcher position, all in the name to prove to his kindred-spirit what he was made of and how he prophesied of their meeting.

Always in life was he ignored and underestimated.

Edward could go by many a label; he's a genius, a hoarder, a hard worker, a psychopath. He doesn't believe in labels, at least not the negative ones especially not for himself. He lives in ignorance of how unusual he is though he gets the hint that he's eccentric.

You would often find him secluded in his apartment, at his desk watching TV and/or working on something. That would usually be on his laptop, a prized item of his. He would be lost without it. Edward's job at Wayne Enterprises doesn't pay too badly but with his already short income his savings went in one pocket and out the other on random expensive junk that he kept around his home. Now, the laptop wasn't junk but a great example of an impulse purchase he would make. I mean... How could you resist? Only $399.99 and you can pay it off monthly!

It was a struggle for him to remember a point of his life where he could say he had someone he could rely on or even just talk to about anything. Never really having a friend group or people to converse with. There's an acquaintance every now and then but those are short lived and shallow relationships. It didn't matter anyway. People slow you down and he was on an important mission to discard every bad card he was dealt with a single solution. That of course would be through his "inevitable" relationship with Bruce Wayne.

"Precisely! What's on all our minds? Brain waves... The future of Wayne Enterprises is brain waves. I have it! Voila... My invention beams any TV signal directly into the human brain. By stimulating neurons, manipulating brain waves, if you will, this device makes the audience feel like they're inside the show. Why be brutalised by an uncaring world?"

"The run-down tenement building was notible only for it's unique decoration. It had once been directly across the street from an outfit called Criss Cross Cleaners, and consequently, a large ad for the dry cleaners consisting of an immense crossword puzzle adorned the exterior. the wall painting was the only reminder that the cleaner had ever been in business there. The paint was peeling and, to make matters worse, graffiti artists had filled in a few of the empty "puzzle spots" wiith letters that spelled out obscenities.

Concept art of Edward Nygma's apartment.

All of this was irrelevant to at least one of the building's tenants, a man who had never viewed the place as anything other than a brief rest stop on his determined drive along the superhighway to success.

The problem was that the tenant had always assumed that Bruce Wayne would present him with the opportunity needed to get that final, extra mile. But it was clear to Edward Nygma that Bruce Wayne was too self-absorbed, self-important, and self... well... self-ish, to give a damn about Edward Nygma and his plans."

-Batman Forever Novelisation by Peter Alan

Edward's apartment was always cluttered with random trinkets, technology and other stuff he didn't particularly need. Blankets covered the windows, blocking out all sunlight, stacks of unopened mail were scattered near his door. The most peculiar item of his collection was his boardwalk dummy resembling The Guesser from his favourite crossword books. He also had a wall dedicated to pictures and posters of Bruce Wayne.

Rent was often payed late to his no-bullshit landlady, Mrs. Owens. Every month she would find herself pounding on his door and threatening him with an eviction notice. That all stopped when Edward just disappeared from his apartment one day.

I first watched Batman Forever with my boyfriend on the 7th of December, 2023, around midnight, after seeing so many reviews mentioning how gay the movie is and I was already a bit of a fan of The Riddler so I knew I just had to watch it. I had very high hopes and had kept myself completely spoiler free. The problem with having such high expectations of something is that you can be easily disapointed but the movie was better than I had even imagined. To get onto the topic of this shrine, I was instantly drawn by the character of Edward Nygma and his backstory before becoming The Riddler.

I was embarassed by my infatuation at first because I know Jim Carrey is thought to be pretty cringy by most people in my generation and of course he isn't a great person in real life so, after my first viewing I made the mental note to not show how crazy I am for this character and I thought it would be a brief hyperfixation anyway lasting a month max. I went to bed knowing the I had to show the movie to everyone else and again on the 7th of December, 2023 I watched the movie again. And again on the 21st. I took a break then again on the 1st of February, 2024 I watched the movie. By this point I was totally obsessed with the movie and Edward Nygma and started collecting merch. I can't pinpoint exactly when I began interacting with the Riddler fandom but I know by February I had a few fans in the community. I read the scripts, I looked for the deleted scenes, I researched all the merch and I started the novel. I have watched the movie 13 times (last updated 10/09/24) and counting because I love it so much and everytime I watched I was always most excited to watch the scenes with Edward Nygma. I've watched clips of my favourite scenes over and over and produced so much fanart since my first viewing. I've collected multiple copies of the movie and I have mountains of fanfiction (that has never seen the light of day), I even got the same awful haircut as Edward! I guess I still haven't started answering the question of why I care so much about Edward Nygma yet though.

I find his character relatable. I dread to sound like that kind of Riddler fan who relates to the great intellect of the character and how he's misunderstood by society (interperated by those who don't fit in because they themselves are actually just assholes). I don't think Edward in this particular adaptation fits that kind of persons interpretation of the character though because of how unserious and campy he is. I interprate Edward Nygma to be an egotistic, eccentric man who tries to ignore (or maybe he isn't even aware of) his insecurity, inadequacy and general instability by trying to go up the hierarchy he starts off practically at the bottom of. I've made him sound very off putting, which he's written to be, but I find his personality reminds me of myself, especially when I'm feeling most insecure. I, too, am socially awkward and insecure though I find myself trying to better that by being more outgoing when I can. I believe I've also always struggled with having a big ego and low empathy depending on my actions and overwhelm. My ego is something I don't talk about often because I think to others it must be seen as the most off-putting things to find out someonw thinks that way but I am self-aware. I also project a lot of his personality onto myself and my identity.

I'm of the belief that Edward Nygma was completely written to be read as a gay man. His unhealthy obsession with Bruce Wayne is firstly meant to be read as his megalomania taking over but I see it as having a gay undertone to it. I think it's common for people to be sexually and romantically attracted to those they also want to be. I think it's even more obvious when it comes to his relationship with Harvey Dent. They are often physically and verbally giving affection and Edward is often pretending to be in a relationship with Sugar for publicity which makes it feels like he's become a part of the polycule. I interpret him to be bisexual though he was probably written to be homosexual and this is probably wholly because I'm bisexual myself. I also interpret him to be transgender because I am also transgender. He dresses eccentrically and keeps his hair long (eventually cutting it but dying it an unnatural colour), he rejects hegemonic masculinity. Physically he isn't super muscular either. This isn't me saying all trans men are like this of course but those are simply traits I have and are shaped by the fact that I am trans. I also read Edward Nygma as autistic as I am autistic too. He fixates on things so intensly that it effects his everyday life, he's lacking in social skills, etc. Again, this isn't me saying all autistic people are like this but I personally identify with those traits. There are definitely other disabilities you can read in Edward, OCD is a common one, but I haven't explored these yet and probably wouldn't headcanon anything that I don't have myself because I have no experience with those things. I also generally relate to how nerdy he is because I'm a nerd. It isn't in the movie but the novel where we get to see a part of Edward's childhood. He is bullied in school without following the typical arch of being a goody two shoes teacher's pet. He's clearly gifted though. Isn't that relatable.

Outside of reletability, I find his character development to be super interesting and fun to watch. A strange man obsessed with power goes mad reaching for it and looses it as soon as he grasps it. I read his obsession with power coming from a place of being overlooked his whole life despite his talent though because he's "weird". I love the way his cubicle at Wayne Enterprises and his apartment tell you what kind of person he is. They're cluttered and maximalist, full of random, weird, sometimes creepy artifacts. His apartment is located in a rundown and dangerous area telling us his financial situaltion and further cementing his need for fame and power, it's the complete opposite of how his idol, Bruce Wayne, lives up in his manor in a completely different part of Gotham to him. Despite their differences, Edward sees them as one in the same. Bruce is rich, charming and handsome; we're meant to read Edward as the opposite.

Everything about Edward's character draws me in and I feel that his personality and struggles can be explored in so many ways. I relate to him a lot and these are all reasons why he's my favourite character of all time.