Whenever you think Jervis Tetch, who do you think of? Most will say Benedict Samuel from the series, 'Gotham.' You will rarely find a Jervis story that isn't a Gotham fanfiction. This means that the Mad Hatter is more recent choice for love interests in Batman fanfiction. It's quite easy to write Jervis out of character and this guide aims to aid in write Gotham's favourite Lewis Carroll fanboy as a love interest.
WHAT TO DO AND WHAT NOT TO DO;
REMEMBER JERVIS ONLY LOVES HIS 'ALICE'
A part of Jervis' motive as a villain is his love for 'Alice,' a delusion that he projects onto various women especially blondes (and sometimes men based on Arkham Knight.) Having Jervis see his love interest as Alice is very in character and should be implemented into your fanfiction. This is a HUGE part of his character so ignoring this wouldn't be wise. Also Alice isn't his sister. While there are many ways to see 'Alice,' I personally see her as a figure he created out of a desire for love, his love for Alice isn't because of incest. Gotham's Mad Hatter isn't very comics accurate.
DON'T NEGATE JERVIS' MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS
Jervis is a rare Batman villain in that he's clearly suffering from a mental illness and does deserve psychiatric treatment as oppose to prison. Though there's never truly been a proper diagnosis, Jervis shows various symptoms of both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Other than delusions and hallucinations, Jervis' symptoms include states of mania and depression as well as clanging (which is a type of speech characterised by 'association of words based on sound' which includes rhyming and alliteration. Jervis' speech pattern is quite indicative of his mental state. He frequently quotes both 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and 'Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There,' including the poems such as 'The Jabberwocky' and 'The Walrus and the Carpenter.' Ignoring Jervis' mental illnesses and writing him with out them makes Jervis incredibly out of character and often makes Jervis unrecognisable.
JERVIS IS DELUSIONAL MURDERER, KAREN
Writing Jervis like a 'sane person' is very out of character. Jervis is loving in a psychotic way. His debut episode in Batman: The Animated Series, 'Mad as a Hatter,' is a great source to refer to. His main problem is that he feels entitled to Alice, he can't see her as a human and, projects his fantasies of rainbows, unicorns and tea parties onto her. While unlike some villains Jervis does feel romantic attraction, it doesn't mean he's going to be traditionally caring and loving towards your character.
DON'T TURN THE MAD HATTER INTO CASANOVA
Jervis isn't a suave guy who will love your character like Gomez Addams and be a bigger flirt than Roy Harper. Making him a romantic is kind of insulting to his character because it turns him into a bland character. This takes away from the uniqueness of Jervis in terms of his character, especially his personality. He's very much a fucked up, manic hopeless romantic and should be written that way because that's his character. Morphing the Mad Hatter into a character he's not shows disrespect for the character, if you want a more traditional romance pick a character that works for that because Jervis ain't fit for that, Courtney.
CONCLUSION !
Jervis is an interesting love interest choice that has a lot of unexplored potential. He's not fit for traditional or healthy romances. Remember that Jervis is a visibly mentally ill character and has various 'quirks' due to them such as those in his speech patterns. The Mad Hatter isn't a casanova, he's a hopeless romantic who happens to be very delusional and a murderer.
