Jerome Valeska

murderous, bloodthirsty, ruthless, chaotic, fearless, psychopathic, vengeful, aggressive, mad, charismatic, callous, humorous, sadistic, bad-tempered, masochistic, tragic, nihilistic, manipulative, tough, remorseless, insane, violent, cunning, cruel, twisted.

Jerome Valeska's mother was the snake dancer at the carnival, she was known for having sex with any male that worked at the carnival and she was also a hateful and mean woman to everyone around her (although the only proof of this came from Jerome himself, so may not be true). Due to her life style and the way she treated him by always giving him orders, Jerome hated her and wanted to see her suffer. Jerome finally snapped and hacked her to death with a hatchet. He later faked lack of knowledge of what happened to his mother and faked sadness for her death, although he was eventually caught by James Gordon, also revealing that his birth father was Cicero the blind fortune teller. When Jerome was questioned by James Gordon on why he killed her Jerome began to laugh as if it were all a big joke and told him she was a nagging whore that needed to die. He was later incarcerated at Arkham Asylum.

Jerome was a remorseless, unpredictable and utterly psychopathic boy with a deep enjoyment of wanton and needless acts of violence and chaos, committed by him and the Maniax or just in general. Unlike anything Gotham had ever seen before, Jerome was not an ordinary criminal in regards that he cared nothing about organised crime or profiteering but how he only relished in the mindless agony of everything around him. Penguin even states how he went against how usual criminals behaved due to his chaotic and unreasonable methods; singlehandedly, Jerome introduced the city, and perhaps even the world, an altogether different class of criminal, one that personified complete sadism, madness and pure, unadorned evil with no distinguishable objective or reasoning, beyond simply that he could or he enjoyed doing so. His presence, even after death, tipped the scales of the kind of maniac Gotham could produce. It is heavily implied that his sociopathic views and his vile behavior, even by Gotham's standards, was the result of both his horrible childhood of being abused by his mother as well as Cicero, far from comforting Jerome on his ninth birthday, telling him that no one's going to care about him.

A showman, Jerome had a theatricality to his insanity that Galavan described as being "boyishly charming". He enjoyed his time in the spotlight to the point where the rest of Gothan's criminals would operate within the shadows, he would televise his crimes for everyone to see. Whatever atrocities he would commit, one would always guarantee that there would be cameras nearby and he would do such act with a smile on his face. Cruel yet charismatic, Jerome desired to create a name for himself and a legacy that would never be forgotten, he brandished a smile when Paul Cicero claimed he would become a "curse upon Gotham". His plans were usually intricate and needlessly complex, sometimes finding the challenge of them becoming a fruition or a failure entertaining nonetheless if they succeeded or otherwise and usually showcased his cunning and ingenuity in his designs. In the mind of Jerome, sanity was only a prison that prevented everyone from seeing what they were: pointless cogs within a monogamous machine stuck between a never-ending loop. Jerome and the Maniax believed that they were free from this prison due to their different ways of thinking and acting in comparison to everyone else and encouraged others to behave like they did, although they only thought this way because they were all mentally troubled, delusional and borderline insane.

One of his most noticeable traits was his disturbed sense of humour which was accompanied with a never-ending, manic giggling and outright laughter towards everything which fit right within Jerome's own beliefs on what was funny. He was sadistic and found immense joy in the idea of pain and death towards others, he smiled broadly when Richard Sionis was strangled to death and shot an injured police officer whom interrupted his broadcast from the GCPD, claiming he had "no manners". Jerome demonstrated a fondness for sarcasm, using it in a sick sense such as telling his father, who was blind "long time, no see" after breaking into his house. He enjoyed his own pain as well, making him suicidal as demonstrated while playing Russian Roulette, shot himself three times in a calm manner and how he found Commissioner Essen spitting at him and head butting him as "strangely pleasant" and laughing crazily, respectively. Even while being killed, he found enough humour within the situation to smile.

Jerome had a definable relationship with most members of the Maniax. He seemed to respect Galavan for believing in him and promising to make him a star, he also nicknamed him "Sensei" but was very shocked when the latter stabbed him in the neck. He was sociable towards Richard Sionis and Barbara Kean within Arkham Asylum, as he appeared to be friends with him and speaking for him when trying to ask Barbara for a date, although he found him being brutally murdered funny enough to grin at. He and Barbara worked together at Gotham Charity Ball and he was the one who granted her a phone call to threaten her ex-boyfriend. The most frictional relationship would be with Robert Greenwood whom mocked him for his young age and prepared to fight him to lead the Maniax. Though they worked together to kill the officers with GCPD and were a part of the same team, Jerome shot him dead for stealing his line and mocked his corpse later on.

Regarding his parentage, Jerome absolutely hated his mother and father. Though he finally discovered that Paul Cicero was his birth father, Jerome initially seemed to have a low opinion of him, claiming he was "pathetic" and a "creep". Even after learning that Cicero was his birth father, Jerome merely stated "I'll be damned" in a non-chalant manner, only shortly afterwards realizing the humor in the revelation. Cicero was somewhat unsympathetic towards his son and admits he was a bad father but loved him nevertheless and constantly gave him shelter and a home, even helping Jerome cover up his matricide for that reason alone. Whilst meeting with him after breaking into his house, Jerome mockingly called him "pops", "daddy" and "dad" all before killing him. His mother was his first ever victim. She was stated to be cold and abusive to her son, and highly promiscuous and alcohol but Jerome claims that the only reason he killed her was because she asked him to do the dishes while having sex with a clown, which pushed him over the edge once too far.

He was rised in Haly's circus exposed to betrayal and pain due to his manipulative brother, cynical father, abusive mother and uncle, driving him into an antisocial perception of life. After being arrested for his mother's murder he escaped prison to help Theo Galavan in his plans, only for Galavan to kill him. Eventually, he was resurrected by a cult in his name, and became an infamous anarchist responsible for causing chaos throughout Gotham.

briefly the cult “leader” had taken his face for his speech.