Fan-favorite character from Fox's
hit TV-series, Gotham, a show that dramatizes the origin stories of all the DC characters within the titular cursed city. Jerome's origin story is the precursor to
Batman's most infamous villain ever,
the Joker.
Jerome Valeska is the
18-year-old
red-headed son of a snake-charmer from a cheap traveling circus. After years of drunken physical and emotional abuse from his mother and her various sexual partners, as well as years of being told to be responsible and clean up after hypocritical lowlifes, he had had enough. He murdered his mother with an axe and covered it up without any empathy. After the revelation that his real
father, a blind old fortune teller, had been there knowing of the abuse the whole time, he erupted in laughter at the total joke his whole life was.
From then on out, he became like the Joker in every sense except in name. He is narcissistic, sadistic, cynical, and even misogynistic, and murders indiscriminately for
fun. He is also charming, snakelike, and is a charismatic showman, with unpredictable mood swings and a wide range of facial expressions. He enthusiastically uses these as tactics to make
people uncomfortable and terrified, yet also unable to look away. He tends to get bored, but he hates being ignored. Bruce Wayne is the only
one besides his own
parents that he's truly obsessed over.
