Gotham: Every Major Villain Ranked From Worst To Best
5. The Riddler/Edward Nygma (Seasons 1-5)
The Riddler - played excellently by Cory Michael Smith - was a major antagonist in Gotham and one that was always intended to be so from the start. It felt like there were two main arcs in Nygma's storyline: before and after he assumed the identity of The Riddler.
The former was perhaps the strongest of the two. Still working for the Gotham City Police Department as their forensics investigator, pre-Riddler Nygma walked a slippery slope. All the makings of his villainous alter-ego were there - his clever mind, his affinity for riddles, and his possessive relationship with Kristen Kringle - but Nygma was still trying to keep hold of his morality.
After acknowledging his identity as The Riddler, Nygma certainly looked the part and Michael Smith provided the character with an intellectual intensity that perfectly suited his quick-thinking mind.
At times, it felt that Gotham wasn't certain about what to do with Nygma 2.0 as he lacked an endgame. Sadly, that's just a part of Gotham's format. The show thrills us with the origin stories of Batman and his greatest adversaries without ever giving or showing us their eventual showdowns.