get in loser we're going to rule gotham...

Boy, If you think Oswald Cobblepot was done with Edwards heterosexual noncence back when he was falling in love with Isabella after just meeting her, and then more recently, watching Riddler letting himself be used by Lee…

Just wait until Edward asks Oswald why he saved Lee, and Oswald has a heartfelt response about how he saved Lee because, dispite everything, he knew Lee ment something to Edward and he wanted him to be happy, even if it was with Lee, not him.

And how Oswald regrets not being able to track down the criminal who stabbed them both.

Just so that Edward has to awkwardly be like:

”YEEEEaaaahh…. thANks… but you sEE…Lee and I kind of stabbed… eAch otHEr?”

Oswald:

@littlehollyleaf

💜A bird and his dog 💜

Gotham’s Robin Lord Taylor promises that his version of The Penguin will be a ruthless monster by the time the series ends. The assortment of villains who have tormented Batman over the years is incredible. Perhaps no other hero in history has such an impressive gallery of rogues, from The Joker and The Riddler to Catwoman and Mr. Freeze, to relatively recent additions like Hush and Black Mask, Batman’s bad guys are arguably more iconic than the hero himself.

Fox’s Gotham is fueled by this idea. Set in a city before the emergence of Batman, the series deals with Jim Gordon and the GCPD’s futile efforts to combat the over-the-top villains of DC Comics, without the aid of iconic heroes like Batman. Throughout the show’s run, one of Gotham’s many breakout stars has been Robin Lord Taylor, who plays Oswald Cobblepot, better known as the Penguin.

During a recent visit to the New York City set of the series, we spoke with Robin Lord Taylor about his character’s unexpected popularity and how he wants that early audience sympathy to play into Penguin’s arc during this, the final 12 episodes in the series. When we asked him about reflecting on Penguin’s journey over the course of the series, he shared his gratitude toward the creative team of writers and producers who facilitated his role on the show:

I couldn’t have been asked to play a more dynamic, emotionally rich, intellectually complex character than The Penguin. To see where we all have taken the character, it blows my mind. That’s all I’m feeling right now. I’m so grateful and so proud of the work everybody’s done. It’s been amazing.

Even among the esteemed ranks of Batman villains, The Penguin’s fandom, particularly for this incarnation, is palpably strong. We asked the actor about his considerable fandom, why his character is so particularly adored despite his long track record of heinous misdeeds, his face lit up with excitement, surely because of the plans the show has for the character:

It’s so weird! One of the stories that I’ve always tried to tell with this character, and just with the show in general, is that Gotham City is a place that beats people down and either turns them evil or into heroes. It’s a polarizing place. We start Gotham with someone of very low status, and who is just striving and striving. There is something sympathetic with Oswald in the beginning. Something identifiable, and something human inside of him. We see that he makes terrible decisions and does terrible things, but it’s out of necessity to survive. As we go forward in the fifth season, I want to see the culmination of all those years of being in Gotham and making those terrible decisions and watching someone’s humanity get stripped from him. When we end, I don’t want him to be likable. I want him to be a monster. That’s what this city has done to him. That’s what we’re working towards. It’s gonna be really amazing when we get there.

As Taylor explains, his character was able to be developed over the course of many years, from lowly underling to Fish Mooney to ruthless criminal kingpin. In addition to his charismatic performance, this dedication to long-term storytelling is a key factor in the character’s success with fans. Audiences have seen The Penguin’s rise over the course of the show’s lifespan. The apparent goal of season 5 will be to establish The Penguin as an irredeemable villain, a monster with no redeeming qualities who has crossed lines from which he can never return.

I agree that Martin was the moment when they could (should, if they were gonna?) have taken Ozzie’s development into this ‘unsympathetic, unlikable monster’ territory.

Truth is, up until Martin I did in fact honestly think that’s what the plan WAS for Ozzie, and that everything with Ed would be used as a major stepping stone to get him there, have him properly hardening his heart and becoming cold and ruthless and completely shut off from love (I’ve babbled about this often in the past). But… like you say @vampirebillionaire - the moment passed (and I didn’t even know that those moments you mention were variations on much darker and crueler comic book stories!!).

IMO it would be very… out of place… for the show to end with Ozzie UTTERLY stripped of his humanity like Robin suggests (or the more dramatic description by the article narrator of 'irredeemable villain’ with 'no redeeming qualities’, which I’m inclined to argue is maybe not QUITE the same as what Robin is saying actually?)

Not only out of place for Ozzie’s established characterisation but also out of place for the tone of the show overall perhaps? Because that kind of dark ruthlessness seems to me more… Nolan Batman or various comic versions. And while the show obviously has undertones of all versions of Batman, inc those, to me the stronger tone is more of a mash of Batman 66 and Batman the Animated Series, which… to me a totally monstrous Penguin just wouldn’t GEL with that? Gotham the show is just… that little bit too… campy in its darkness?? And what Robin seems to be describing is something overly grimdark/gritty??

But… maybe that’s just me picking up on select vibes and thus an extremely subjective analysis…

I can see Ozzie once again reaching a point like at the start of S04, where he is committed to TRY and emotionally harden himself… but with the implication, based on his history with Ed and Martin and Jim, that he simply won’t ever succeed. That he is destined to a life of appearing and acting cold/ruthless, but always (secretly) cares deeply about select individuals, no matter how hard he tries not to get attached. Like, that feels like the most fitting endgame for his character to me right now.

Because of that I'm always a bit reluctant to take Robin that seriously when he talks about Oswald being a monster, because he's ALWAYS been more convinced of that than we are, and something he can't get past isn't necessarily going to be something we as a fandom can't. Like, I feel like I recall him making a really big deal about Oswald betraying Butch at the end of last year? My personal response to that was less shock and horror and more "Eh, figured that was coming, I'm just kinda pleasantly surprised his motivation for it was stronger than Butch outliving his usefulness and being kind of a dick. Not that it would have bugged me if that HAD been the motivation..."

Robin Lord Taylor, Cory Michael Smith are seen on the set of the FOX TV show ‘Gotham.’