seiberwing

Title: You All Meet in a Cell
Fandom: Batman (1960s TV Show)
Characters: Riddler, Penguin, Catwoman, Joker
Warnings: None.
Summary: The future Underworld United gets acquainted.
Author’s Note: Originally written for harleyquinn1517’s birthday, in infirmity no less. I am playing around with 'traditional' canon a little, since backstory's very rare in show canon and what little we do get often contradicts commonly accepted Batcanon. Also the parachute thing? True story.

( I'll get to queer_fest when I feel like it, okay? )

Title: Puzzles and Masks
Fandom: Batman (1960s TV Show)
Characters: Riddler, OC (canon immigrant)
Warnings: References to depression, massive amounts of ham.
Summary: The one riddle Batman cannot solve is the one he doesn’t even know is there.
Author’s Note: If it exists there is fic of it, even if I have to write it myself. This started as a joking attempt to explain why every female minion in Gotham seems to want to ride the Batpole, and ended up a dark psychological analysis of characters from show that brought us Shark Repellent Bat-Spray and a villain obsessed with eggs. My brain likes to latch onto odd things.

( Consider it an exercise in getting my groove back. )

So on a lark and because harleyquinn1517 has been getting me back into Batman again, I've been watching the 1960s Batman TV show. The show as a whole is good for Narm Charm and unintended hilarity, but in typical myself fashion I've become completely fixated on Frank Gorshin's portrayal of the Riddler.

He's hardly what most of us would think of as the 'traditional' Riddler, but years in the Transformers fandom has made me good at compartmentalizing different versions of similar characters. To more modern sensibilities he comes across as a cross between the goofier versions of comics Riddler and a less psychotic version of the Joker. Most of his riddles are more about wordplay than intellectual strain (though their relevance to current events can only be deduced with Batman's Insane Troll Logic free association) and there's an intense playfulness to his schemes. In "Death in Slow Motion" he does an entire Charlie Chaplin routine as a distraction for stealing a pittance of cash and dropping off his first riddle. Necessary, no. Awesome, yes.

He later walks into a bakery and pies the employees in the face. There are legitimate reasons for this. Fact remains that he thought it up.

It doesn't hurt that Riddler's the walking definition of a manic state. He's constantly bouncing off the walls, giggling, running off into passionate monologues, creating bizarre plans which he is extremely enthusiastic about and on rather unusual occasions making out with his own hands. Swap the shopping sprees with crime sprees and you've basically covered every DSM syndrome that would make it past the sixties censors. Much of this is of course due to Gorshin's acting, which gives us a wonderfully expressive character who can't seem to stand still for more than five seconds.

Also, kinky as heck. I'm not even kidding. No guy who doesn't have some manner of bondage fetish would be that gleeful about playing around with medieval torture/bondage equipment. That sensibility in the context of the sixties (especially such a mindblowingly Wholesome place as Gotham City), combined with the potential manic-depression, just makes me itch to get inside his head.

One of these days I will stop trying to overanalyze trivial or minor characters from shows that gave little thought to the 'verse they were creating. BUT TODAY IS NOT THAT DAY.

Amidst much raspberry daquiri, faithinfire has introduces me to Batman and Batman Forever.

( Nana nana nana nana... )

And yes, I'll have TFA Season 3 stuff up tomorrow when I'm not toasted and tired. My one comment is...what the fuck, writers? Take my heart out and step on it at four in the morning, why don't you? OH WAIT, YOU DID.