| “ | You were supposed to understand. I'll make you understand. | „ |
| ~ Edward Nygma before seeking his revenge on Bruce Wayne for rejecting his mind manipulation invention. |
| “ | Riddle me this, riddle me that. Who's afraid of the Big Black Bat? | „ |
| ~ The Riddler’s most famous quote. |
Edward Nygma, better known as the Riddler, is the main antagonist of the 1995 film Batman Forever, the third installment of Tim Burton and Joel Schumacher's Batman film and comic series.
He is a criminal genius who teams up with Two-Face so he can get rich, become Gotham's cleverest carbon based life-form, get his revenge on his former employer Bruce Wayne, and figure out the identity of Batman.
He was portrayed by Jim Carrey.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Heinous?[]
- He kidnapped and murdered his former employer Fred Stickley as revenge for firing him, while making it look like Stickley instead committed suicide.
- He took great enjoyment in seeing Two-Face attacking a circus and endangering the lives of the hundreds of innocent civilians, while watching this on live television and eating popcorn. While Nygma wasn't directly guilty of Two-Face's atrocities, he still didn't care about the innocent people at all.
- He teamed up with Two-Face and committed mass robberies, robbing banks and shops, while taking great pleasure in doing this.
- He tried to use The Box to steal the intelligence of everyone in Gotham City. It wasn't shown to be fatal but it was shown to be painful enough, because Nygma used The Box on himself temporarily and described himself as feeling like a fried egg.
- By using The Box, he deduced that Bruce Wayne was non other than Batman.
- He and Two-Face attacked Wayne Manor and destroyed The Batcave, while also kidnapping Wayne's girlfriend Doctor Chase Meridian and holding her hostage.
- He tried to kill Batman, Robin, and Chase Meridian near the climax in his lair. And to make it worse, he forced Batman to either choose between Robin or Chase Meridian. If he were to choose one, the other one would die.
- His excuse being Bruce Wayne rejected his idea of manipulation of brain waves doesn't justify anything and not only does it come off as petty but it's completely subverted over time.
- His defeat at the hands of Batman wasn't played for sympathy and was treated like a deserved karma for his crimes.
What Makes Him Inconsistent?[]
- He is far too comedic to qualify as Near Pure Evil. The good examples of how Nygma was heavily played for laughs are him constantly farting throughout the movie, making funny jokes, constantly playing and talking with his robotic puppet, and his funny games with his brainwashing machine, like it was zombifying the people and especially how he was defeated by Batman at the finale of the movie, when his brainwashing machine was broken by Wayne.
- He showed a genuine liking towards Two-Face's good side's girlfriend Sugar, as was shown in their first meeting and all of their scenes together.
Trivia[]
- Before Jim Carrey was cast, Joel Schumacher offered the role of The Riddler to Robin Williams, with writers Lee and Janet Scott Batchler writing the character with his comedic delivery, since they already cast Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face, and even Williams talked to Akiva Goldsman about The Riddler when they're brainstorming in his kitchen. Williams read the screenplay for Batman Forever, and he loved it. And his management wanted the same thing Michael Keaton's agency wanted: $15 million and the percentage of the gross and the percentage of merchandising. Warner Bros. later spent $30 million on both Keaton and Williams and Carrey got the Riddler part instead.
- In the earlier drafts written by the Batchlers, they gave Riddler the name of Lyle Heckendorf and not Edward Nygma (Goldsman later added the Edward Nygma name in the later drafts), and his rival company was called "HeckTech." The Batchlers came up with a scene that was not in the final film where Lyle tests the Box on his landlady, and Schumacher also came up with a scene that's also not in the final film where Lyle stalks Bruce Wayne and Chase Meridian at the circus, and Lyle stole clothes from a fortune telling leprechaun, which form the basis of the Riddler outfit, and he has magenta hair.
- Jim Carrey toyed around with an idea of himself with a question mark shaved into his head, but decided not to, since he was going through divorce proceedings.
- He is the first incarnation of the Riddler to be Inconsistently Heinous before the Riddler from the 2022 film The Batman got moved here.
- He is also one of the two Inconsistently Heinous in the Burton/Schumacherverse, alongside Mr. Freeze.
External Links[]
- Riddler on the Villains Wiki
- Riddler on the DC Wiki
- Riddler on the Batman Wiki
- Riddler on the Batman Anthology Wiki
- Riddler on the Wikipedia
[]
 Inconsistently Heinous
| ||
|
Comics Theatrical Movies Direct-to-video Movies Television Video Games
Fanon | ||