Hello, Dr Crane! Have to ask about your relationship with other rogues (sorry if asked already) and especially Edward. What you think of him, who he is to you?
Trying to humanize Gotham's most notorious? Understandable, but futile. As I continue to indulge your curiosities, know this: My responses to your inquiries change nothing. The dread their names inspire will prevail.
The rogues, for all their bravado, tend to avoid me. My methods, my presence - unsettling - are not to their liking. This, of course, suits me just fine.
Among them, the Riddler provides an intriguing study, with a mind as sharp as it is self-destructive. Our interactions have been infrequent, yet illuminating. Mr. Nigma, for all his brilliance, is a man consumed by an insatiable need to prove himself, to outmaneuver, to dominate intellectually. It is not difficult to discern the source of this compulsion, though he has never confided in me directly. His father’s shadow looms large, shaping every riddle, every desperate attempt to assert control over a world he believes has wronged him.
A predictable cycle. Predictability, however, does not equate to weakness. A man with something to prove is a man willing to set fire to anything standing in his way.
I have found it... prudent to exercise patience with him. The wrong word, the wrong tone, and his temper flares; a wildfire of arrogance and wounded pride.
Most would call it a flaw. I do not. There is a certain purity in it, an unfiltered expression of the very impulses others bury beneath civility. It is refreshing, in a way, to watch a man so utterly unwilling to suppress himself.
But that, too, is a tool to be used. With the right persuasion, the right incentives, he is a most valuable ally.
When our objectives align, collaboration is efficient. Calculated. And, at times, extends beyond the purely cerebral. There is an undeniable tension between minds such as ours, an intellectual friction that, when stoked, finds other outlets. A means of enhancing operational efficiency, of indulgence, yet devoid of sentiment. I won't elaborate.
In summation, the Riddler is neither ally nor adversary but a complex variable, a mind to be engaged with caution, a force to be directed, and, when required, a tool to be utilized.
