Web Shrine dedicated to Jim Carrey's Edward Nygma from Batman Forever (1995)
Currently playing: The Flaming Lips - Bad Days By Cain Eulogy eta.3/4/24 upd.5.1.24
" A party in my honor?"
days
since this guy manipulated my brainwaves
Edward Nygma was an employee in the electronics division of Wayne Enterprises - personally hired by Bruce Wayne himself (well, they hadn't met before, but his name was on the hire slip). He's often described (in the movie and other official media) as obsessed, sycophantic, megalomaniacal, and brilliant, as well as awkward and - most fittingly - nerd supreme.
Regarding Bruce, Edward is (pretty obviously) obsessed with him, going so far as to decorate the opposite wall of his cubicle with magazine covers, photographs, and articles Bruce is featured on (you could consider it...ehm...a shrine... *cough*) and having his Wayne Enterprises hire slip framed.
(Later in the movie he also essentially cosplays Bruce down to the mole on his face)
He's very fond of riddles and puzzles, and is incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to computers and tech (and...generally anything), having invented a mind-reading device that manipulates brainwaves to beam TV signals directly into the brain (therefore, putting the viewer "inside the show") named the Remote Encephalogram/Encephalographic Stimulator Box; or, simply, The Box.
Though his fame-and-power-unrelated motivations to create The Box are a little muddy (he literally only says two sentences about it), as the neural effects weren't planned (as far as I know) and only came to light during his experimentation with Stickley, I'd wager he created it out of general unhappiness with his life.
When you have nothing but your job where your boss thinks you're a nutcase, a tiny (and admittedly pretty shitty) apartment, and deep-seated jealousy for the man you work for, you're bound to want something more out of life. Something different. An escape.
This is mostly backed up by pages 18 and 20 of the novelization, where he ruminates on his lower middle-class homelife, and his explanation of The Box to Bruce. Further, if music from the movie is anything to go by, Bad Days is essentially his theme considering it plays during the scene in his apartment and aligns a lot with him in general, so that could be considered proof as well.
In both the script by Akiva Goldsman and the novelization by Peter David, Edward is a lot more... intense, for a lack of a better word. Consider these examples (click for high-res):
His overt clinginess, jealousy, competitiveness, and intense anger towards Bruce (though all primarily caused by things not going his way), coupled with his former idolization and almost stalkerish behavior (along with everything else I've listed on this page), has led me to, inevitably, theorize about his mental state and what could be going on with him to cause this. Considering the whole movies premise has to do with psychology, I'd think it's pretty fair to say Edward has BPD.
As someone with BPD (....yeah, i know), representation is everything to me - BPD is incredibly horribly stigmatized which does impact my thoughts on myself in regards to it. That, coupled with the lack of resources (or, I guess, honestly just the lack of wanting anything official in fear of my quality of life being hindered) which causes the "I'm going to be like this forever" feeling, and how it takes up a lot of who I am, does not make me feel any better about my situation.
I'm at a point in my life where, currently, I have no idea what I am (or if there even is or ever was a "me") and all I really have going for me are my intermittent projects and art. Though Edward is far from the perfect rolemodel and...probably shouldn't be seen as one at all, it's nice to just have someone to relate to, at the very least; and there's a lot for me to relate to when it comes to him... much more than I'd like to admit, a mental disorder is really only the tip of the iceberg here. A more accurate way to describe it would be...
"You experience the same things as me, and I like you a lot, so maybe I can like myself, too".
(I'm also just a massive sucker for cute bespectacled sciency guys..)
On a lighter note (and so this isn't just me talking about my mental problems..), I own two of his trading cards, namely a Fleer card and a Topps sticker card (which...I wasn't aware was an actual sticker until it got here..)
I have them both propped up within viewing distance on my desk. For sappiness' sake I'll leave in the part where I say seeing him makes me happy because...well..it really does, to be honest. I hope to order more of his cards when I can, though collecting all of them is a pipe dream currently...
Fleer card arrived 3/9, Topps card arrived 4/8
- Edward's birthdate in other official media is April 1st, but my headcanon birthdate for this guy is May 22nd, with the year being somewhere around 1965 to 1969 (if we go with 1994 as the movie's time placement). So, he's around 25~29 in the events of the movie. He's also, fittingly enough, a gemini!
- He's bisexual. Maybe with a bit of a preference for men, though it isn't much of a concern to him in general..
- Without his glasses, he's functionally as blind as a bat (nearsightedness and astigmatism).
- He has TMJ. (this is mostly to explain the jaw movements Jim Carrey does... but, I think it just makes sense too)
- He often skips meals, either out of focusing too much on his work, wanting to save money, or to have more of a figure like Bruces(?).
- This might be less of a headcanon and more just absorbing-traits-from-the-actor, but I think he'd be left-handed.
- Coupled with his orange-auburn hair, his roots are a lot darker than the actual color. This is partially inspired by the..again admittedly pretty shitty dye-job he has in the apartment scenes...
- He has a slight caffeine sensitivity and crashes really badly on worse days. Think jitteriness and random dread for a couple hours followed by agitation and irritability...yeah.
- Being born in the mid/late 60s, he got to grow up with lots of classic gameshows, and he enjoys them quite a bit! No clue if he'd have a favorite, though. Maybe something generally trivia based. (He's also really good at them and would probably win if he got to be on one.)
- He prefers so-hot-you-end-up-looking-like-a-steamed-lobster showers. They're comforting to him, since....he's also incredibly touchstarved...?? Among other reasons.
- Speaking of, though I headcanon him to be touchstarved, I also think he's touch-averse in a way. If you were to, idk, put a hand on his shoulder or something he'd probably pull away due to it feeling "too much", almost painful. (though he's a big sweetiepie when he's comfortable with someone; he's definitely a hugger/cuddler)
- He collects pens. Pretty much any of them, not just fountain pens or the like. It's probably related to his love of arts & crafts.
- The band sElf! Any of their albums, though Gizmodgery is admittedly a big one, namely the tracks Pattycake and I Am A Little Explosion.
- 80s synthwave/disco/EDM. Think On TV by Buggles, Bostich (N'est-ce Pas?) by Yello, or Movoco Syntaca by Nacht Und Nebel.
- More music, but the band Popular Science. I listened to their album Design For Living and immediately thought wow...this is so Edward...though their whole discography is pretty him, I think.
- Perfect Case in Point by Drive45 (as well as any of their other music), the inspiration for this piece. Seriously, listen to that and tell me it's not the most Edward song you've ever heard. Especially coupled with the music video!! Dahh..
- IBM Computers. Specifically, the IBM ThinkPad 360 (which is the model he has in the movie, though it's infinitely more decked out). Also, Windows 3.1 and 95, the former is what this windows-type layout is based off of.
- The green color you're seeing right now, everywhere on this page. The hex code is #50C968.
- Crossword puzzles... riddles... seriously, you say anything about word puzzles in my general vicinity and I get activated like a sleeper agent. (I'm not even that good at them... especially compared to Edward, sheesh)
- Television! Mainly anything from the 80s or 90s, but also the physical object. Also, tech and electronics in general.
- Early 80s/90s computer generated graphics. Stuff like Ed’s Synapse & Ed’s Dendrite (heh).
- Random one-offs: caffeine, clear-framed glasses, the numbers 5 and 8, dimly lit new-york-esque cityscapes, programming, engineering, synapses, electricity, question marks.
Excluding this page, so far I've drawn him 6 times (sorted from newest to oldest, click for high-res):
" Caffeine'll KILL YA!"
Thank you so much for viewing the shrine, a lot of hard work was put into it (this guy really means a lot to me and I hope i've been able to capture that sufficiently enough!)Special thanks to my sister, who made this page possible in the first place by making me watch Batman Forever with her. (My tone here makes me sound like I didn't enjoy it but it was really nice)
Most (if not all) sources here were made available to me by 1995batman.com - please check it out!
(Do you think he'd be flattered or horrified that someone out there is giving him the same treatment as he did with Bruce...?)