aka please stop the infantilization of 'evil' characters
You know the type. There's this young bad guy (and they're typically white and somewhat attractive) and in the source material they're terrible people performing terrible actions, but for some reason some part of the fandom insists on making them seem like misunderstood, poor babies that only need love and they'd be perfectly fine (see also TV tropes' Woobiefication).
I've discussed in some length why Loki isn't a pitiful, lonely sweetheart and others have done the same with Kylo Ren. What prompted this talk, however, is my return to the Gotham fandom (season 2 just started on free TV). The most prominent recipient of the woobie-treatment is Oswald Cobblepott aka the Penguin himself. And while he is pitiful and others do treat him awfully, pretending that he's actually just poor and misunderstood, ignores an integral part of his character (apart from being an all around questionable attitude to have towards one of the most sadistic characters of the show).
At least in season one Oswald deliberately plays into people's perception of him as a pathetic loser. He pretends to be silly and submissive and ultimately harmless in order to make others underestimate him (which works out brilliantly mostly). But don't be fooled by his manipulative act. He's only pretending. There's nothing innocent or salvagable about him. It's all part of his meticulous plan. Remember how he even planned for Jim to be the one to execute him, so that he might survive. The first episode of season two shows us the Oswald he really is. Sure of himself, in power and in control, rejoicing in murdering and intimidating his enemies. People will probably always make fun of him and his reaction to that will always be to cut them up in response.
This is the reason why I mostly stay away from fanfiction where Oswald is paired up with someone, because most of the time he's characterized as a somewhat decent person who's just broken and lonely and that love will somehow set things right. Just reading the descriptions makes me feel slightly uncomfortable, because I feel like those stories ignore all the unnecessarily cruel things he does just for fun and the fact that a lot of his pitiful, self-conscious behavior is simply an act.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that people shouldn't write these kinds of stories. I'm a strong advocate of everyone writing whatever the hell they want. I'm only saying that there's a certain danger in fully ignoring all the horrible stuff characters do in favor of infantilizing them.
Satori likes Oswald just the way he is portrayed in the show - awful and messed-up
