Going to bed but I'm thinking about Ed and his Riddler / Ed Nygma situation in season 4. Especially in regards to Oswald, because of course. If you know me you know I'm filthy nygmobble trash.
I have a LOT of thoughts about the way 'Riddler' views and thinks about Oswald vs 'Ed Nygma'. I don't agree with the takes that say that Ed has OSDD / DID, simply because Gotham does not portray his dissociation / splitting accurately for those disorders, and since it's never stated in canon either, I go with my usual spiel for him (Speaking as someone who writes him on a daily basis). Ed is a high functioning sociopath ( ASPD ) who does also suffer from Schizotypal personality disorder.
These splits between Ed and Riddler are caused by schizoid episodes in which his derealisation drives him to visualise "another version of himself" as he describes. I believe they're the same person, but they each keep very different opinions and ideals that Ed himself always has, as a whole. The way sometimes you only remember certain parts of a book, but then a week later you remember something completely different. A silly way to put it, I know. I'm no psychiatrist.
ANYWAYS. I've been thinking about this ever since I finished season 4, because there's something so crucial in how Riddler reacts to Oswald and how he treats him. I think it's more than safe to say that Riddler is completely smitten, and so is Ed, only, Ed has been hit with the homophobia beam by the writers, so we get an actually pretty tragic depiction of internalised homophobia.
But that aside, I'm actually a little insane about the way Riddler 'switches in' when he visits Oswald in Arkham. Odd representation of mental illness aside, let's just talk about the fact that his breath gets shallow and ragged and that he cradles Oswald's face with the yearning I have not seen since I read Pride and Prejudice. Even more fascinating is that split second when Ed and Riddler are both present, mixed, during the switch, and man, Cory's acting is fucking crazy because you can genuinely read the emotional fragility, obsessive fondness and self doubt on his face in just those few moments. I'm not even gonna start on Robin's performance because if I start praising his acting, I won't be sleeping any time soon. Just phenomenal. Blew it out of the ballpark.
My point with all this is I think Riddler and Ed act as though their relationships with Os are drastically different, but that's not true. They act as foils for each other, but the baseline of their relationship with Oswald is the same, we're just seeing two sides of one coin: Where Riddler has embraced his feelings for Oswald and the devotion and trust he puts in him, Ed is still fighting god and himself to cling to the idea that he's "normal", something we all know he's always been told he isn't.
Thanks for coming to my ted talk. My conclusion post season 4 is that I want Os and Ed to make out.
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