Gotham’s Robin Lord Taylor says Penguin/Riddler ship Haters Aren’t Really Mad

The 3rd season of Gotham has gotten everyone talking from Gotham fans to non-watchers alike for the recent romance between The Penguin (Robin Lord Taylor) and The Riddler (Cory Michael Smith). The budding romance (at least in Cobblepot’s eyes) stems from their newfound friendship in Season 2 when Nygma cared for Cobblepot after the death of his parents. I won’t put too many spoilers out there for you fans who haven’t seen yet 🙂

Taylor discussed this romance at Rhode Island Comic Con and why he believes it’s a natural obsession and evolution for Cobblepot :

“I truly believe had it been Barbara or Tabitha or, you know, Butch [laughs] — I believe if it had been anyone else that was there in that capacity, that he had that sort of connection with, regardless whether they were male or female, he would have had that same sort of obsession.”

Taylor’s comments led him to make a larger point about the current Penguin/Riddler storyline. Taylor took the time address the specific strain of fans that claim to have no problem with Oswald Cobblepot being gay on the show, but do have a problem with the fact that it goes against comic book canon.

“I have to say, that that’s a bunch of horse s**t,” said Taylor. “You can’t say that to me if you also didn’t have the same amount of condemnation about [Tim Burton’s] ‘Batman’ ’89 when Joker killed Batman’s parents. That is a total departure from the ‘canon’ characters. You can’t tell me that unless you were just as upset that in our own show, we have Batman and Catwoman growing up together, running around Gotham City growing up together. If you weren’t as equally upset about that — which is changing canon characters. But you come to me and you say to me, ‘I’m okay with you being queer but I’m upset you’re changing a character,’ what you’re saying to me is, ‘I am homophobic, and I am afraid of gay people and queer people.’ That is exactly what you’re saying. So everyone should really check themselves and check their privileges and check their prejudices.”

Gotham airs Monday nights at 8pm ET/PT on FOX.