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| PLAYER INFORMATION Your Name: rog OOC Journal: ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small} gals Under 18? If yes, what is your age? 18+ Email + IM: ciao.vespa (at) gmail.com | cinder heartbeat (at) AIM Characters Played at Ataraxion: Petyr Baelish ( seem)CHARACTER INFORMATION Name: James Gordon Canon: Christopher Nolan's Batman Trilogy, DC Original or Alternate Universe: OU Canon Point: At the end of the events of The Dark Knight Rises. Number: » 121 Setting: Gordon comes from Gotham City, as portrayed in Christopher Nolan's films. Gotham is generally considered to be something of an exaggerated version of New York. It is largely similar to our present-day society in that it does not feature any superpowers or supernatural creatures. History: BATMAN BEGINS The story of Bruce Wayne's parents' deaths is an infamous one. On their way home from the opera, they are shot and killed by a thief. Afterward, the eight-year-old Bruce is taken to the Gotham police station. There, only one officer — a beat cop — tries to comfort him, coming over to where Bruce sits and draping his father's coat about his shoulders and telling the boy it's okay. As it turns out, this is Jim Gordon, who will remain an important figure in Bruce Wayne's life. When we next see Jim Gordon, he has risen to the post of Sergeant, and is one of the few uncorrupted cops in the city of Gotham. As Bruce begins his transformation into the masked vigilante Batman, Gordon is the first person that he visits, remembering his kindness on the night of his parents' deaths. With a gun to the back of Gordon's head, he tells him that he intends to clean up the city, asking what would be needed in order to put away the crime boss Carmine Falcone: leverage over the judges in Falcone's pocket and a DA brave enough to prosecute. Wayne suggests Rachel Dawes, a childhood friend, as a DA before making his escape through the window and revealing that the supposed gun was, in fact, just a stapler. Though Gordon gives chase, he loses Bruce after he jumps from the roof of one building and onto the fire escape of another. Bruce makes good on his word, catching Falcone and a handful of his men smuggling drugs into Gotham. Rachel is prevented from properly pursuing Falcone after the psychologist Jonathan Crane declares him mad. As it turns out, Crane had been Falcone's link to a much bigger criminal network, which had been responsible for a large portion of the drugs. Crane reveals this to her after leading her to an underground facility in which his gang have been pouring the drugs — a compound that must be breathed in to induce fear to an extreme degree — into Gotham's water. The organization (known as the League of Shadows) has also managed to steal a vaporizer capable of affecting Gotham's entire water supply. Crane sprays Rachel with the drug, and calls the police when he hears Batman arrive. Instead of waiting for the SWAT team to provide back-up, Gordon goes straight into the building, meeting up with Batman and helping him by carrying Rachel out while Batman distracts the police. When the League actually begins to enact its plan of hitting Gotham with the drug compound with the intention of destroying the city, Gordon and his fellows begin closing off the bridges to the island. Rachel, fully recovered, arrives on the scene to provide Gordon with an antidote, given to her by Batman. As the fear spreads, he injects himself with the antidote, watching in horror as the city begins to devour itself. Growing more and more desperate, he radios the police commissioner to ask for more men, only to discover that all of the available officers are already on the island, rendered useless as well as a threat by the fear gas. However, Batman arrives on the scene just in time, trusting his car, the Tumbler, to Gordon, instructing him to drive it to Wayne Tower and shoot down the towers supporting the train tracks, as the train is carrying the vaporizer and will spread the fear gas over the entire city if it does indeed reach the tower. Gordon manages to complete the task just in time, from which point the city begins to try to rebuild itself. At the end of the first film, it is revealed that Gordon has been promoted to Lieutenant, and has had a Bat Signal installed on the top of the police building. The Batman expresses his approval, and Gordon mentions that things might only keep getting worse as a result of escalation and the inmates of Arkham who are still at large after having escaped during the fear gas incident, going on to ask Batman to pay particular attention to an inmate who has been leaving Joker playing cards at each crime he has committed. When he mentions that he never got the chance to thank Batman for what he'd done, Batman tells him he'll never have to. THE DARK KNIGHT Picking up not too long after the events of Batman Begins, The Dark Knight reveals that it has become a custom to turn the Bat Signal on every now and then without any real expectation that Batman will come. Instead, it's used as a measure to dissuade criminals, and though official protocol is to arrest Batman on sight and the official report is that the police are investigating Batman's identity, neither are given much regard. Sal Maroni, the new head of the Falcone crime family, is under heavy scrutiny, but has managed to avoid trouble so far. Frustrated by the fact, the new DA, Harvey Dent, meets with Gordon and demands to be let in on the plan to stop the mob. They come to a tentative agreement, neither man trusting the other as both are convinced their respective departments have moles in them. The police have been using marked bills to track mob money, but when they hit the five mob banks, they discover that all the money has been moved, and the marked bills left behind. This leads to further tensions between Dent and Gordon, as both believe that leaks in the other's department led to the money's disappearance. They appeal to Batman to help, who agrees to capture the man responsible for moving the money. When the man gives up all of the names of his clients in exchange for immunity, Gordon performs a mass arrest of the mob bosses as well as their lackeys. During this time, the criminal known as the Joker has risen to prominence, most shockingly with a video of him murdering a Batman imposter and stating that each day that Batman does not turn himself in, he will kill more people. The body is hung in front of the windows of the office of the mayor, and is carrying a Joker card. Three sets of DNA are discovered on the card: Judge Cirilo's (the judge overseeing the arrests), Harvey Dent's, and the current police commissioner's. As the police try to move to protect all three individuals, Cirilo is blown up in her car, and the police commissioner is poisoned. However, Dent manages to escape thanks to Bruce Wayne's intervention. Following another lead, the police find two more civilians murdered by the Joker, as well as a blatant clue as to who the Joker's next target will be. In a newspaper at the crime scene, it is discovered that the Joker has had an obituary of the mayor published. The next day, at the funeral procession for the police commissioner, an attempt is indeed made on the mayor's life, but Gordon manages to take the bullet instead, and presumably dies from the wound. At a press conference, Harvey falsely reveals himself to be Batman, and is taken away into police custody. The convoy is attacked by the Joker, who in turn is attacked by Batman. In a mano-a-mano, Batman rushes the Joker with the Batpod, but is unable to hit the Joker, instead swerving and falling from the motorcycle. Just as the Joker is about to kill him, Gordon appears, pointing a gun at the back of his head and then arresting him. Gordon had faked his death in order to ensure the safety of his family while the Joker was still at large, and is promoted to police commissioner by the mayor following the Joker's arrest. During the Joker's interrogation, Gordon reveals that Dent never made it home before leaving the rest of the conversation to Batman. The Joker tells them that Harvey and Rachel have been taken to different locations, both hooked up to oil rigs set to detonate, and that Batman will have to make the choice as to who to save. Batman chooses Rachel, and sends the police after Harvey. However, the Joker has given them faulty information, and Batman rescues Harvey while the police arrive too late to save Rachel. In the meanwhile, the Joker escapes from his cell, using a cell phone bomb he'd planted earlier. Gordon visits Dent (who has half of his face burnt horrifically) in his hospital room following the incident to express his regret and guilt, but Dent rejects the sentiments, telling him that he isn't truly sorry about Rachel's death. As he leaves the hospital room, he runs into Sal Maroni, who tells him where the Joker will be later that day. On TV, an employee of Wayne Industries has come forward to reveal the identity of the Batman after piecing things together, but the Joker calls in to the show, saying that he no longer wants to know the Batman's identity, and that if the employee isn't dead within the hour, he will blow up a hospital. Gordon immediately sends officers to the hospitals in the city, though the priority is Gotham General, and takes the employee into custody. Their escape car is given away when another police officer attempts to shoot the employee, though Gordon manages to divert the shot. A truck heads immediately toward them with the intention of smashing into the car and killing the employee, but Bruce manages to intercept it by crashing into it himself. Back at the hospital, the Joker convinces Dent that Rachel's death was Gordon's fault before leaving and blowing the building up. The escalation continues as the Joker rigs two ferries to blow, one full of civilians and the other full of criminals, giving each the choice of blowing the other up, and threatening to blow both up if they don't make a choice by midnight. Gordon and Batman track the Joker to a skyscraper, and Gordon panics when Batman asks for time to find the Joker himself, wracked by guilt over Dent's face and screaming that he has to save Harvey. In the midst of this chaos, he receives a phone call from his family, who have been kidnapped by Dent. He abandons the scene to pursue Dent, and upon arriving at the warehouse where his family is being held, he is promptly knocked to the ground. Dent stresses his belief that Gordon is responsible for Rachel's death, and threatens to kill Gordon's son. Batman arrives on the scene and tells Dent to point the gun at those truly responsible. Dent agrees, and using a coin toss to make his choice each time, shoots Batman, doesn't shoot himself, and is in the middle of flipping the coin for Gordon's son when Batman tackles him over the edge over the warehouse floor. Dent is killed by the fall, and Gordon laments that Gotham will lose all hope in seeing how low its hero had fallen. Batman tells him that he will take the blame for the death of the police officers Dent had killed following his escape from the hospital as well as responsibility for the death of Dent, himself, so that Gotham will continue to have a good hero. As the police arrive, he flees from the scene. Gordon is last seen smashing the Bat Signal, as well as delivering the eulogy at Harvey Dent's funeral. THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Eight years later, Batman hasn't been seen since that fateful night, Bruce Wayne has become a recluse, Harvey Dent Day has become a city-wide holiday, and Gordon has been living with the guilt of having told such an enormous lie, which, among other things, has led to his separation from his wife, who has moved to Cleveland with their children. The investigation of the disappearance of a congressman leads the police down into the sewers, where an explosion incapacitates most of the officers there. Gordon is dragged further into the sewers and brought face-to-face with the criminal Bane, who takes the speech that Gordon had tucked into his coat pocket (detailing the true events of the night of Dent's death as well as Gordon's resignation), as well as the group of men that he has fostered there. Gordon manages to escape by throwing himself into the water flow, and is found by Officer Blake in the sewer drain and promptly taken to the hospital. There, Gordon's colleague Foley doesn't take his descriptions of Bane's underground operation seriously, though Blake does, and is promoted to detective as a result. Batman comes to visit Gordon in his hospital room later, and Gordon tells him about Bane, stressing that Batman will have to return and save Gotham. Unfortunately, Bane manages to take control, blowing up all but one of the bridges leading to the city, trapping almost the entire police force in tunnels below the city, and introducing a nuclear bomb that he says one person in Gotham has the trigger to, and that he will set off if there is any outside interference. As he frees those in Gotham's prisons, he reads Gordon's speech aloud, revealing the truth about Dent much to the horror of Gotham's citizens. Chaos breaks out in the city, with the richest citizens torn down and tried in a kangaroo court headed by Jonathan Crane. Gordon, Blake, and Foley assemble the remaining police to create a small resistance force, communicating with the trapped police via notes passed to and fro through sewer grates. As five months pass, Gordon's forces dwindle, with Foley withdrawing to his own home. Government officials manage to sneak into the city disguised as food couriers, and as Gordon and Blake explain that the bomb is actually set to go off in a matter of time instead of solely at a triggered detonation, they are apprehended and taken to court. They are sentenced to walking across thin ice, but Batman intervenes and saves them, telling Gordon to light up a flare with leads to a huge fire in the shape of a bat on one of the Gotham skyscrapers, instilling hope within the city's population. Using the explosives on the Batpod, Batman creates a route out of the sewers for the trapped policemen, leading to a full-on march by the Gotham PD upon City Hall, where Bane and his men have set up headquarters. With the battle in full swing, Gordon sets off to find the bomb in an attempt to deactivate it, finding the truck in which it is being driven around the city and managing to counteract the detonation, though the bomb's decay means that it will go off soon, anyway. Catwoman manages to crash the truck in order to stop it, and Batman arrives to get rid of the bomb, attaching it to his aircraft in order to carry it out over the water, where it will detonate without affecting the city. As Batman prepares to leave, Gordon asks who he is. Batman tells him that anyone can be a hero, noting Gordon's actions to comfort Bruce when his parents had died. As the realization that Bruce is Batman dawns, Batman flies off, successfully preventing the bomb from going off in Gotham but presumably dying in the blast. It is directly after piecing together Batman's identity that he will be arriving on the Tranquility. Personality: Above all other things, Jim Gordon is a good man caught in bad circumstances. His dedication to the force is evident from the first time that we meet him, and throughout the series, everything that he does is motivated by a want to see to the greater good, though, notably, he almost always manages to remain practical in doing so. In the events of Batman Begins, it is made clear that the police have nearly no power in the city, a fact that leaves Gordon frustrated and unhappy, though he is not so foolhardy as to go directly for Falcone. He knows how much of the police force is already in the gangster's pocket and refuses to endanger his family by putting himself up against something he has no chance of defeating. He does, however, know exactly what he would theoretically need in order to take Falcone down, and it is armed with this knowledge that the Batman manages to make his first real impact upon the city. Gordon's refusal to put his family in the line of fire is further evidenced in The Dark Knight when he fakes his own death in order to keep the Joker from going after them. When Two-Face seizes them, later, he is shown at his most desperate, brought to near tears when he thinks that his son is going to die. He is a hard man to break from the outside, but when it comes to dealing with personal guilt, he is at his frailest. His guilt over his failure to save Rachel Dawes and the effect that her passing has upon Dent is the most obvious example of this, as he loses his composure completely in stressing how important it is to save Harvey when he goes missing following the hospital explosion, going so far as to say that he has to save Dent (a move that shows he takes deep personal responsibility for what the police does and doesn't do). Though a sensible man for the most part, his need to do good can occasionally drive him to desperation. This manifests in a much slower burn in the events between The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises; he covers up Harvey's fall and pins the blame upon Batman for what he believes to be the greater good, knowing that the revelation of Dent's change would destroy all hope in Gotham for a truly good hero. The lie takes its toll upon him as he buries himself in his work in order to try to forget about it, to the extent that his wife leaves him and he becomes something of an object of ridicule for how hard he works. Still, despite the cost, he keeps the lie, knowing that Gotham is the better for it. The lie is the only one that we ever see him tell, and even that is for Gotham's sake. Everything that he does, he does for the sake of others, even if it is to condemn himself. That said, he is aware of the restrictions that structure puts upon how much the police can do, which plays a large part in why he supports Batman so firmly. He knows his own boundaries — sometimes a cause for frustration — and he knows that the city needs Batman in order to survive and thrive. Though he himself plays by the book, he recognizes the need for rule-breaking from time to time, so long as it is for the betterment of people as opposed to their damnation. Despite the circumstances under which he has worked, he is still shown to be capable of kindness and sympathy, beginning with his comfort of the young Bruce Wayne, to his clear concern for his family, to his fostering of Blake within the police department. However, the betrayal of this sort of emotional trust is not something he takes lightly, as seen with his disgust with his corrupt former police partner, Flass, as well as with Deputy Commissioner Foley when he withdraws from the efforts against Bane. Abilities, Weaknesses and Power Limitations: GOTHAM'S FINEST | ABILITY A long-time servant of the Gotham City Police Department, Gordon is in good physical condition for his age, and adept with firearms as well as hand-to-hand combat. Inventory:
 Gary Oldman as Jim Gordon Standing at 5'10", Jim Gordon is a relatively slim man, with blue eyes, short, greying brown hair, and a mustache. He usually wears glasses. He has several scars from wounds received during service, and his face is lined with age, but he has no other particularly distinguishing features. Age: Jim's age is never canonically stated. Based on Gary Oldman's age, the release dates of the first two films (2005 and 2008), and the gap of eight years between the events of The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, I would guess that Gordon is in his middle/late fifties. AU Clarification: N/A SAMPLES Log Sample: Gotham isn't necessarily a beautiful city by most standards. The rich neighborhoods are beautiful, sure, but that doesn't change the slums, or the more industrial parts of the city. But Jim Gordon loves Gotham (sort of, anyway — he'd never have stuck around this long otherwise), and that love has nothing to do with its image. It has to do with the people, and the fact that, despite taking hit after hit, the city has yet to fall. In a similar way, he doesn't much care for the Tranquility — science fiction has never really been his thing — but the people, resilient as they are, are what's caught his interest. He hasn't been around long, but he's already heard stories, some of kindness and others of horror, and by all appearances it looks like the whole manifest has been through a lot. He has to give them a little credit for that. Displacement this severe isn't exactly the easiest thing to work with. (The lack of a concrete structure gets on his nerves, but he doesn't voice that particular qualm just yet. He, more than some others, knows the strictures of structure, and it seems like the oddball hierarchy that is in place has served the people on board pretty well so far.) For the first few days, he just wanders in an attempt to acquaint himself with the ship at large, a task that proves harder than it looks considering the Tranquility's sheer vastness. But he manages it, one way or the other, though he doesn't doubt that, somewhere along the line, he'll end up getting lost anyhow. (He still wears his badge and his gun, though both are concealed under his jacket. It's part force of habit and part security blanket. He might not be in Gotham anymore, but he's still a police officer. Granted, there's no law here, but a personal moral code comes close enough. It's only when he gets back to his room that the badge and gun get put aside.) At length, he arrives in one of the kitchens, offering up a cursory nod to the first person he sees. "Afternoon." Comms Sample: [ The comms device turns out to be easy enough to use, much to Gordon's relief (he's no Luddite, but the leap between what's available on the ship and what he's used to back home is still fairly vast). He chooses the voice function, first, preferring not to offer his image to the public until he has a better grip on what's going on. ] This might give me up as a bit green, but — I've heard there's some kind of security team around here, and I'd like to get in touch. [ There's a pause in sound as he weighs the pros and cons to signing (so to speak) his name to the statement. ] Thank you. [ Then, silence. If anyone needs his name, they'll ask or they'll find it out on their own. No point in giving away too much of the game. ] for extra reference, a ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small} dear_mun post here! |