#Given how Tetch is the least relevant to the main plot

[vilevexedvixen]

AU Edward Nygma

@dariusblake and I are actually still on the fence about how to take his character.

Personally, I'd have him be the healthiest mentally and generally. Initially becoming a teacher, specifically to be the supportive figure he needed as a kid (being smart and combative, questioning everything no one wanted questioned, generally put down and held back). Although he was technically just a maths teacher, he managed to apply his subject in a way that meant he effectively taught his students the entire curriculum through a mathematical lens (art, architecture, biology, chemistry, physics, etc.). Encouraging his students to question everything, particularly everything taught in the standard curriculum.

I think this version of Ed would really not stand children, despite being a teacher (the same was true for all my best teachers). His initial attempt at going straight by trying to be that supportive figure and change things from the inside on a small scale would be somewhat self-indulgent (to fulfill his own personal need for a supportive figure retroactively and to show off his superior intellect in a way that is relatively socially acceptable) and something he would later consider foolish and naïve once he does start trying to disrupt the corporate and state powers that dictate the education system and society at large.

Unfortunately, eventually Ed gets fired a. For diverting wildly from the curriculum (even if it lead to students attaining a better understanding of each subject much earlier than expected) and b. For attempting to out the headmaster as a nonce. He was already very much aware that being the healthy supportive figure he needed to others wouldn't help the wider structural issues that lead to people being taught not to think and keep their head down. This Ed still has an ego of course, but is much more secure in his own intelligence and feels less of a need to prove it to others as it is clearly self-evident. No, his riddles are less to prove his intellect over others and rather to make people think. He wants them to be engaged with and becomes more brazen with his presentation to force them into the spotlight. Less to show off (though that too) and more to force everyone to face the questions they otherwise don't think about.

Around the time Ed appears in the story, he's investigating the very same corruption that Bruce is (new to being Batman and recently returned to any involvement in Wayne Enterprises, so has a lot of dirty laundry to sort) and they end up crossing paths (both as investigators and with Ed targeting Bruce himself regarding Wayne Enterprises corruption). Initially, his riddles are a way to keep his old students informed about what's actually going on in Gotham while remaining under the radar. I also feel like he'd plant some riddles unrelated to that info that instead lead to a prize or something to throw off anyone who might also figure them out.