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The Court of Owls
The Court of Owls
- Adaptational Origin Connection: In the comics, the Court has very little connection to the League of Assassins, let alone being led and manipulated by Ra's al Ghul himself.
- Ancient Conspiracy: They are implied to have been around for a long time, and stayed in the shadows during all of it.
- Animal Motifs: Its members wear owl masks when conducting Court business.
- Bodyguard Betrayal: The Shaman has the Talons kill the rest of the Court.
- Disc-One Final Boss: They're the main antagonist of Bruce's story, and eventually Jim's, for the bulk of season 3 - then the Shaman orders them all killed a few episodes before the end, with Greater-Scope Villain Ra's Al Ghul stepping in as the final enemy of the season.
- The Dragon: A Talon serves as this for the Court of Owls. However, like the mythical Hydra, when one Talon dies, another would take its place. Later, during season 3, it's shown they had more than one active Talon.
- The Dreaded: Those who know of their existence are absolutely terrified of crossing them.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: They are aware of this, it seems, keeping a list of members' loved ones so that they can be spared from any Court-orchestrated attacks.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Of most of the major antagonistic plot threads of the first three seasons, including the Waynes' murders and Hugo Strange's experiments at Indian Hill.
- I Did What I Had to Do: When called out by their leader for murdering the Waynes, they tell him it had to be done because Thomas was interfering with their plan.
- Immortality Seeker: They are obsessed with immortality. The whole reason for Hugo Strange’s experiments is to successfully bring the dead back to life with their memories intact.
- Karmic Death: They ordered the death of the Waynes behind their leader's back. They all get betrayed by their leader when he has them all stabbed to death in the back.
- The Man Behind the Man:
- They’re the ones pulling Hugo Strange’s strings and providing him backing and protection.
- They also secretly controlling Wayne Enterprises.
- The Worf Effect: The showrunners admit in the season 3 DVD extras that the whole reason for having them killed off so suddenly is to make Ra's look more impressive on his arrival in Gotham.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After they create the Tetch weapon, the Shaman has all of them executed.
Leadership
The Leader (spoiler)
Ra's Al-Ghul
See his entry on the Criminal Groups page under The League of Shadows.
Within the Court
The Shaman
The Shaman
Played By: Raymond J. Barry
One of the leaders of the mysterious Court of Owls, an organization which controls the city of Gotham.
- Arc Villain: Is the main antagonist of the second half of Season 3 as the man who controls the Court of Owls, is responsible for corrupting Bruce Wayne, and the orchestrator of the Alice Tetch virus bomb. Although the final three episodes of the season reveal that he and the Court are merely puppets of Ra's Al-Ghul, the true main antagonist of the series.
- Character Death: Alfred shoots him dead when he saves Bruce from his clutches.
- The Corrupter: Is responsible for briefly indoctrinating Bruce into the Court's philosophy.
- The Dragon: Even though he is the head of the Court of Owls, the Shaman tells Bruce that someone else pulls their strings. This is eventually revealed to be Ra's al Ghul.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite Thomas Wayne making trouble for the Court he did not want him to be killed. He eventually kills the rest of Court as punishment.
- Evil Mentor: For Bruce Wayne.
- Evil Old Folks: He's an elderly man, and the ruthless ringmaster of the Court of Owls.
- No Name Given: He's only credited as "the Shaman" or "Temple Shaman". Ra's calls him "the Sensei
". - Red Herring: He was introduced around the same time that Ra's Al-Ghul was announced, so many fans speculated that he's actually an elderly Ra's, who would eventually find a Lazarus Pit and become younger by the season finale. The ending of "Pretty Hate Machine" confirms that the two are in fact separate people.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: The Shaman orders the Talons working under the Court of Owls leadership to assassinate them once the Tetch virus bombs are completed.
Kathryn Monroe
Kathryn Monroe
Played By: Kit Flanagan (Season 2), Leslie Hendrix (Season 3)
A member of The Court of Owls; who acted as their representative.
- Arc Villain: Of the first half of Season 3. Subverted, as she's merely The Dragon to the Court's real leader, the Shaman.
- Death by Irony: She kidnaps Barnes, and later sends him after Jim when the latter betrays the Court. Barnes later kills her when she gets in the way of his own quest.
- Disappointed in You: Despite the Gordons being assets, their meddling is troublesome.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Is shown to be disgusted by the rampant chaos during Jerome's riots in season 3, to the point of seriously considering stepping in with the Court's troops to stop it.
- Evil Old Folks: Appears to be quite elderly, as well as being the leader of a nefarious organization.
- The Handler:
- She acts as liaison between the Court and Hugo Strange, giving him his marching orders.
- She also appears to be in charge of overseeing the Court’s control of Wayne Enterprises.
- And she has some sort of deal worked out with Carmine Falcone, though it appears to be under duress from his end.
- Hate Plague: She plans to use Alice Tetch's blood to infect Gotham City.
- The Heavy: While not the leader of the Court, she's their representative and the main member Gordon and allies are up against for the bulk of Season 3.
- I Gave My Word: Except, according to the leader of the Whisper Gang, she doesn't.
- Iron Lady: Is clearly feared and respected among the Court's ranks.
- Laser-Guided Karma: The woman whose power came from commanding others is murdered by a psychopath she foolishly believed she could control.
- Mouth of Sauron: The most prominent member of the Court seen, who gives the other agents of the Court their orders. She is also clearly the highest-ranking under the Shaman.
- Off with Her Head!: Courtesy of Barnes when she tries to stop him.
- Too Dumb to Live: When Barnes runs in shooting up everyone he sees in sight while assaulting the GCPD, she stupidly runs up to him, calls his beliefs stupid, and demands that he escort her back to her base. Unsurprisingly, she gets killed by the madman she shouted at.
Agents
The Talons
The Talons
- Empowered Badass Normal: They're insanely strong, fast, and durable - not to mention skilled enough to fight the series' best combatants, like Gordon and Alfred, on even terms and defeat them. It takes the advantage of numbers, serious firepower or the Tetch Virus to defeat them.
- Legacy Character: Kill one of them? Another one would spring up in their place, continuing right where the last one left off.
- Made of Iron: While it is possible to defeat a Talon if you are able to match up against their fighting skills and their peak physical conditions, it is damn near impossible to kill them, unless you have heavy firepower or are specially trained like Jim or Alfred are.
Dr. Hugo Strange
Dr. Ethel Peabody
Dr. Ethel Peabody
Played By: Tonya Pinkins
- Ancient Conspiracy: Is an agent for the Court of Owls.
- The Dragon: To Dr. Strange
- Dissonant Serenity: For her first several appearances she always had a calm little smile regardless of whatever horror she was watching (or performing).
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Not to her boss’s degree, but she no empathy whatsoever for the subjects of their experiments.
- Even Bad Women Love Their Mamas: Fish insulting her mother is enough to prompt her to approach and threaten her.
- I Warned You: She tells Dr. Strange multiple times that his acceleration of the resurrection experiments is incredibly risky.
- Karmic Death: Is killed by Marv, one of the patients she helped experiment on.
- Not So Stoic: Her Oh, Crap! moment when Dr. Strange decides to personally tell Theo Galavan his backstory as Azrael.
- Oh, Crap!: When Dr. Strange decides to put his life on the line to help Theo Galavan "remember" who he is. It just goes to show, despite her reservations about what he's up to, she does care about him at least to some degree, and her reaction to his doing something at a personal risk, even if towards his own goals, sells it.
- Pragmatic Villainy: In her disagreements with Strange she can sometimes sound like his Morality Pet, but really her concerns are driven by being less conspicuous and more valuable as employees of the Court of Owls.
- Rapid Aging: This is ultimately how she meets her demise, after Marv (an Indian Hill patient who has the ability to quickly age people until they die) uses his power on her under Fish's orders.
- Servile Snarker: To Dr. Strange.
514 A
514A
Played By: David Mazouz
An Indian Hill escapee who looks identical to Bruce Wayne.- Covered in Scars: Due to Strange's experiments, but the Court of Owls fixes this problem in-order to make him perfectly identical to Bruce Wayne.
- Feel No Pain: He burns his arm and takes a punch to the face without feeling a thing.
- Identity Amnesia: Like most Indian Hill patients, he as no knowledge of his life before.
- Never Given a Name: While he matches with the exact appearance of Bruce Wayne, the clone himself doesn't have a name outside of designation of 514A.
- Tyke-Bomb: He easily matches Alfred in boxing and thrashes two criminals.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: After Alfred has figured him out and then Selina attempts to kill him, 514A departs and is not seen again in any following dealings with either the Court of Owls or the League of Assassins. Considering his health condition, perhaps it doesn't matter anyway.
- Would Hit a Girl: 514A pushes Selina out of a window, nearly killing her, after she threatens to tell Alfred with the truth of him not being Bruce and Bruce himself being kidnapped by the Court of Owls.
- You Are Number 6: He is only known as 514A, never having any other name.
- You See, I'm Dying: Because of the flaws in his creation, 514A is now slowly dying with Deadly Nosebleed being a factor.
The Executioner
See Captain Barnes' folder at Gotham - GCPD
Associates
Carmine Falcone
See Gotham Mob
Aubrey James
Other Court Members
Frank Gordon
Frank Gordon
Played By: James Remar
- All for Nothing: Kills himself after convincing Jim to join the Court and take them apart from the inside - but while Jim's dealing with their Tetch virus bomb, a completely unrelated storyline has the Shaman having them all killed to convince Bruce of his destiny with Ra's, rendering Frank's sacrifice moot.
- The Atoner: He strives to make up for what he did to his brother by destroying the Court from within.
- Cain and Abel: Was the Cain to his brother Peter's Abel, until having him assassinated on the Court's orders.
- Evil Uncle: Subverted. He's probably the one good egg in the current Court, and Jim looks to be following in his footsteps, to finish what he'd started.
- Heel–Face Turn: Had one pre-story, after his loyalty to the Court led to him murdering his brother.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Shoots himself in the head as the perfect excuse Gordon needs to join the Court and enact his plan.
- Token Good Teammate: Despite having done some terrible things for the Court, he comes to regret them and genuinely convinces Gordon to join so they can destroy it from the inside.
- Walking Spoiler: Tropes regarding him can't help but contain information about his role in the Court and eventual turning on them.
- You Killed My Father: Gordon is not particularly happy to know he had ordered Peter Gordon's assassination. He does regret the hit, though.
Peter Gordon
D.A. Peter Gordon
Played By: Michael Park
Jim Gordon's father, member of the Court, and former DA of Gotham City. Was assassinated in a staged car accident years before the series.- Cain and Abel: Was the Abel to his brother Frank's Cain.
- Odd Friendship: With Carmine Falcone, despite his being a Mafia overlord. In the present, the respect Carmine had for Peter is enough for him to excuse many of Jim's rasher actions.
- Posthumous Character: Is dead at the start of the series, and only appears in a dream sequence.
- Token Good Teammate: Was this within the Court, until being killed by his brother.
