| “ | I'm the answer to your life's questions! Without me, you're just a joke... without a punch line. | „ |
| ~ Jeremiah Valeska breaks down in front of Bruce Wayne shortly before falling into a vat of acidic chemicals. |
| “ | To be fair... the day's not over yet. | „ |
| ~ Jeremiah before shooting and crippling Selina in front of Bruce. |
| “ | Never forget... this is all for you Bruce! | „ |
| ~ Jeremiah to Bruce before attempting to shoot and kill Jim Gordon and Lee Thompkins as a re-enactment of his parents' murder. |
Jeremiah Valeska, also known as Xander Wilde and "The Joker" in some promotional media, is a major antagonist of the TV series Gotham.
He is the younger twin brother of Jerome Valeska and a structural engineer who arises to take over his brother's psychotic crusade and cult following Jerome's death, set on bringing anarchy, chaos, destruction and death to Gotham City. He becomes the arch-nemesis of both James Gordon and Bruce Wayne, the latter whom he targets after failing to bond with him.
He was portrayed by Cameron Monaghan, who also played Jerome in the same show.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
In General[]
- Despite having some comedic moments like his twin brother he is still taken seriously in the Gotham universe.
- While he does have a excuse where he was raised by an abusive family and was the main target of Jerome constantly abusing him (That can be a big lie, and Jeremiah did never suffer this situations at all) resulting in Jeremiah going his separate ways from him his actions are still inexcusable even though he was slightly more stable then Jerome, he ended to be just twisted and evil, if not very much more. Anyways, the own show make a notice of the own Jeremiah admitting that all was cheats and tricks to get empathy of people.
- To make it worst, when he recieves Jerome's special toxin, at hearing: "My days were numbered", Jeremiah smiles, and Jerome explicity says: "This gas is an special mix I made just for you, something to finally set you free."
- Despite claiming that he loves Bruce and wants to be his best friend, he claimed he would kill Bruce if he interfered with his plans and has put him in mortal danger several times, including torturing him, mocking his pain, and hinting that he wants Bruce to become as evil as he is, Jeremiah's true feelings they reveal themselves when he states that Bruce needs him, that without him, Bruce would lose his sense of existence.
- Showing that deep down, Jeremiah sees Bruce as a valuable possession who is both a threat against his plans, but not a person to be reckoned with, in fact, Jeremiah himself acts as if he knows what is best for Bruce, never considering your opinion or complaints. So this, instead of being a redeeming factor, makes it even more evil.
- He acts like a complete jerk towards anyone who he views as inferior to himself.
- He claims that the chemical gas used by Jerome to infect him only changed his appearance. While it is possible that it affect his perspective, it is unlikely the case, as he still views his brother as inferior to him, meaning that he has some bits of free will yet continued to be evil.
- Furthermore, it's implied that Jeremiah was evil before Jerome's toxin hit him, as the latter blames the former for turning their entire family against him by lying that he tried to kill him back when they were children. In their confrontation alone in the maze, Jerome gets Jeremiah to admit that he indeed lied, making Jeremiah even worse as he's at least partially responsible for Jerome going down the wrong path.
- While Jeremiah seemed genuinely upset when mentioning how Jerome killed their mother and speaking about in a hurt tone of voice, this is not a prevention for these reasons:
- It is eliminated in the scene of Jeremiah and Bruce talking in Wayne Manor, where Jeremiah uses his family and "tragic" story like a tool of manipulation, as he smiles at Bruce's bad memories, and gets angry at Bruce exposing him. "None of this is real, you're trying to manipulate me. I will never be real".
- Something to keep in mind is Jerome's dialogue in season 3, stating that he himself in his teens, felt the desire to kill everything he saw. This coincides with his dialogue stating that Jeremiah's madness is in his DNA, something else that corroborates this is Lila Valeska, their mother, who is presented as completely abusive and without empathy, and her brother Zach, who demonstrates a high level sadism, even stating that he wanted to throw Jerome into the river.
Past[]
- He turned all his family on his brother Jerome by lying that Jerome was trying to kill him back when they were children, leading everyone to turn against Jerome and causing his descent into evil.
- Jerome admit it that he already has fantasies of killing people when he was a teenager, making him and Jeremiah even worst, considering that curiously, Jeremiah did start to build his bunker at the age of 13 (The beginning of teenage years, considering that Jeremiah didn't got out his maze even with Jerome's first death, implying that Jerome never was the problem, but him).
Gotham[]
Season 4[]
- He sacrificed his own professor and his boss, to allow Jerome to find Ecco, who then would proceed to capture him and bring him to Jeremiah, then, Jeremiah puts his brother in a cell with inhumane conditions, with the clear intention of starving him to death.
- He lied about the age he had when he scaped out of the circus, declaring that he had 10, but just by watching on Bruce's age, it's implied that Jeremiah in fact went at 8. Showing he is able to lie even in the most unrelevant things.
- He shot one of Jerome’s followers in the face for saying Jerome is victorious.
- Uses his generators as bombs and has his Jerome minions plant them across Gotham City to set them of killing dozens of people. He attempts to set off all the bombs within Gotham in order to rebuild the city in his own image.
- Captured Alfred Pennyworth and then having a duplicate of him subjected to torture to torment Bruce Wayne.
- Betraying and murdering his minions by burning them when they were not pleased by him.
- While he does appear to be initially calmer than Jerome that may have been a facade to deceive Jim Gordon and Bruce because once he turned insane his brief friendship with Bruce was thrown out the window as a manipulation tactic to fool them.
- Shoots Selina Kyle through the abdomen resulting in her becoming temporary paralyzed. When he faced Bruce Wayne, Jeremiah mocks him about it just to spite him.
- Set off multiple bombs across the bridges of Gotham as part of his alliance with Ra's al Ghul, causing multiple deaths and isolating the city from the mainland.
Season 5[]
- He kidnapped several groups of entire families, even making them play Russian roulette in a circle so that they work on tunneling him to the outside, which in the end, they would never use since all he wanted to do was get to Wayne Manor to torture psychologically to Bruce Wayne, exploit his mansion out of spite, and close what at that time was the only possible way out of the city.
- Captured two individuals who bare resemblance to Thomas and Martha Wayne and having them hypnotized by Jervis Tetch to be his pawns.
- He attempted to recreate the night of the Wayne murders to satiate his obsession with Bruce Wayne and later murders the two individuals before attempting to murder Jim Gordan and Leslie Thompkins who were also put under Jervis Tetch's hypnotism.
- Attempted to unleash deadly chemicals upon Gotham to destroy the city further.
- 10 years later, he threatened the family of an Arkham guard not to be working on the day of the Riddler's "kidnapping", in order to lure and frame Harvey Bullock for murder, (The guard ends up killing himself to do it, claiming having no choice). Harvey is so scared that he shuts up Jeremiah orders to kill several criminals (it will not be clear if they are his followers or not) in which he places explosives, so that, by the time Gordon arrives to investigate, he will die.
- Takes advantage of Penguin's release, Riddler's ego and their friendship, he uses them as distractions, Penguin to kill Gordon if given the opportunity, and Riddler to make his show, not knowing that they were in Wayne Tower the missing explosives, enough to blow up the building and destroy many others, killing several birds with one stone (Alfred Pennyworth, James Gordon, Lucius Fox, Barbara Kean, Lee Thompkins, Selina Kyle and Riddler) all having previously thwarted their plans in one way or another.
- Kidnapped Gordon's daughter, but not before hitting Barbara and threatening to kill her daughter if she doesn't send Gordon to Ace Chemicals.
- He shot and killed Ecco because he felt like doing it and even implies that he will replace her.
- He lures Gordon into a trap, intending to force him to watch his daughter burn to death in the toxic chemicals, and then kill him if given the chance.
- When Batman finally reveals himself, Jeremiah laughs with excitement and attempts to shoot him in the head, a clear reference to "If I wanted to kill you, I'd just do it, I'd shoot you in the head." Referring to the fact that perhaps due to the resentment that he was forming for not accepting it, denying it and abandoning it, J combines that hatred and twisted love towards Batman.
External Links[]
- Jeremiah Valeska on the Villains Wiki
- Jeremiah Valeska on the VS Battles Wiki
- Jeremiah Valeska on the Wikipedia
- Jeremiah Valeska on the Gotham Wiki.
- Jeremiah Valeska on the DC Comics Database Wiki.
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 Pure Evils
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Jerome Valeska | The Dollmaker | Hugo Strange | Professor Pyg | Jeremiah Valeska | |||||||||||
