Once upon a time the villains were supposed to be hated by fans, and yet on Gotham not only are they loved but one in particular has storylines anyone can connect with.
The characters of Gotham are constantly in crazy, dangerous, and scary situations that can sometimes make them hard to connect with. That’s an issue that fans have never had with Penguin. His never ending journey to find acceptance and love has resonated with fans of the series so much that he’s easily become a favorite.
When Gotham season 3 returns, fans will be on the edge of their seats waiting to find out what happens next. Will he find out Nygma has turned against him? Or will he fall for the tricks that are heading his way? Until then lets look back on everything that’s made him so relatable thus far.
He started from the bottom:
It seems like forever ago, but when fans were first introduced to Penguin on Gotham he was just a lowly umbrella boy. Everyone looked down on him, and no one expected him to rise from where he was. Even Mooney, who he seemed the closest with at the time, had little respect for him.
Penguin wasn’t exactly like-able at this time, he was a little bit creepy and was going behind Mooney’s back to the GCPD. However, it’s easy to connect with him at that time when he was just starting out, had help from no one, and was still trying to make a better life for himself. Very few of us have had life handed to us, and that’s probably where fans first started to feel a connection with Penguin.
He’s faced bullying:
Bullying, in its many forms, is no doubt one of the most common issues in society. Where there are people, there is sure to be someone putting down others. Penguin isn’t the only one that has to deal with bullying on Gotham, but is probably the one that has to deal with it the most.
He was often teased for his looks, especially before he embraced the name Penguin and seemed to stop caring about the comparisons to the animal. He was teased about his family, and he was looked down upon for seeming to be weaker than those around him. There’s no doubt that if the news of his secret love for Nygma spread there would be people bullying him about that as well.
In some ways, Penguin seems to have grown a thicker skin and is more comfortable with himself. In other ways it seems like he’s just as vulnerable as before, especially if it’s someone close to him.
He often feels lonely:
If there’s one thing Penguin craves more than anything, it’s a connection with another person. Even when he’s surrounded by a room full of minions, he doesn’t have a true friendship with them. For a long time the one person that he really loved and felt loved by was his mother, and when she was killed he lost everything.
Once Penguin met his father, a bit of that loneliness went away. But it didn’t last as his father was killed and his step family turned out to be heartless. Penguin did end up forging a close friendship with Nygma, and they seemed to really understand each other, except that Penguin clearly valued it more.
He was left to face hard times on his own:
Remember that time that Penguin was sent to Arkahm for the murder of Theo Galavan? Despite being there for others when they needed help, Penguin was left to face this difficulty alone. Gordon was all too happy to let Penguin take the fall and then he didn’t even bother to listen to Penguin when he complained about the torture they were using on him.
Not to mention Nygma was so busy with his own journey to becoming a villain, that he didn’t visit Penguin. When the roles were reversed, Penguin often went to go see Nygma and even helped get him out of there.
He fell in love with someone close to him:
Penguin isn’t the first person to fall for his best friend. It’s quite easy for people to go from being friends to being something more. In Penguin’s case, it was quite a delicate matter. For one thing, he’s never been in a romantic relationship before (as far as we know) and secondly the friend he was falling for had previously only been in heterosexual relationships (as far as we know).
Not only was Penguin taking the leap of trying to go from friends to lovers, he was doing it without discussing his friends sexuality. This just makes Penguin seem all the more brave, even if it didn’t turn out the way he wanted it to.
He keeps getting betrayed:
As if being crushed by loving someone that doesn’t love you back isn’t enough, Nygma is about to betray Penguin in a big way. Now that he knows the truth about Isabella’s death, Nygma is ready for revenge. It doesn’t seem to matter to him that Penguin has always been there to help. Isabella is more important to him and so Nygma is plotting to take Penguin down with the help of Barbara, Tabitha, and Butch.
This isn’t the first time he’s been faced with betrayal though. When fans first met him, Mooney was so upset that he’d been working with the cops that she ordered Penguin to be killed. That was the first time that he was majorly betrayed by someone very close to him. It could be argued that he had it coming, but that’s not the point.
Butch and Penguin have also had a very tumultuous friendship. First, Penguin basically stole Butch from Mooney and had him brainwashed. Then they seemed to become friends until Penguin used his friend to try and get to Galavan. That blew up in his face when Butch turned on him and led to the murder of Penguin’s mother.
For a while, they paired back up to take down Galavan together. Once Nygma came into the picture though, Butch’s jealousy caused him to betray Penguin once more.
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