Gotham was more often about enemies than it was friends. The series saw Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon frequently make the difficult decisions to ally with those who would be villains. That didn’t mean there weren’t some genuine friendships in Gotham city.
While the audience watched Bruce Wayne grow up to be Batman, they also watched him develop a friendship with future Catwoman Selina Kyle. Jim Gordon went from enemies to friends to enemies with so many of his allies over the course of the show that it could be hard to keep track. Of course, many of the villains of the show also tried to keep their friends close with some not-so-great results. The best friendships of Gotham were ones of mutual respect and understanding, while the worst were full of betrayal.
Best: Barbara And Tabitha
Barbara and Tabitha’s relationship had their ups and downs. There was, after all, that one time Barbara went off the rails and Tabitha and Butch conspired to kill her. More often than not, however, Tabitha and Barbara were both firm believers in women supporting other women, and that extended to one another.
Despite both of them being violent individuals who gave in to their baser natures, both women wanted to make the best of bad situations. They supported one another in conflict, searched for solutions to their problems, and usually worked well together. Tabitha and Barbara tried to be better versions of themselves once they were running the Sirens club together and attempting to help the women and children stuck in the middle of gang warfare in Gotham city.
Worst: Oswald And Ed
Oswald and Ed’s relationship was a great one to watch unfold in the series. They were funny, unhinged, and always making power plays. It’s that last one that actually makes their friendship the worst.
Despite how much Oswald cared about Ed, he was controlling and obsessive. He killed the one person Ed thought he could grow to care about to make sure he was the most important person in Ed’s life. Likewise, when Ed’s Riddler persona came out, he was more worried about having more power than Oswald than anything else. The two stabbed one another in the back almost as often as they went after the rest of Gotham.
Best: Selina And Bridget
It’s a shame that Bridget AKA Firefly became relegated to a minion in someone else’s gang war in Gotham. When the series gave the audience a glimpse into her friendship with Selina, Bridget was a much more sympathetic character.
Selina met Bridget while living on the streets, and the two often helped one another out as kids. The former even convinced the latter to stand up to her brothers and strike out on her own. Selina went back and tried to help Bridget out of tight spots repeatedly, never forgetting the people who had helped her out when she was down on her luck. If Bridget had been a larger character toward the end of the series, Selina might have had a great ally and friend. The writers gradually phased Bridget out of the show though.
Worst: Barbara And Jim
It’s entirely possible that these two had a real working friendship once Gotham made its final five year jump forward in time. For the bulk of the show, however, these two were a mess. Barbara and Jim began the series in a romantic relationship that clearly didn’t make either of them happy, no matter how much they cared for one another.
When Barbara accepted her psychopathic leanings, she obsessed about either getting Jim back or hurting him before the two became tentative allies. As allies working together to clean up Gotham, they seemed to be more like friends. Of course, they also spent a lot of time betraying one another before Barbara became pregnant with the future Batgirl. There was just too much conflict between them for the audience to believe that Barbara and Jim would ever truly be friends.
Best: Jim And Harvey
Gordon and Bullock started off as an odd couple detective partnership. Harvey didn’t care about playing by the rules as long as he got paid. He also didn’t care if criminals remained on the streets as long as he survived another shift. Jim, on the other hand, was about doing the right thing all of the time.
Over time, they made each other better. Jim learned how to bend the rules to still work his cases, and Harvey came to care about Gotham and innocent people again. They gave one another hope that the city could still change, and they stuck up for one another - no matter what.
Worst: Oswald And Ivy
The friendship between Oswald and Ivy was born out of necessity rather than genuine affection for one another. Ivy was clearly the better “friend” in the situation since she found Oswald and nursed him back to health, then also helped him get himself out of a kidnapping situation after he treated her poorly.
The two teamed up to gather an army of “freaks” and worked together for a while, but like most of the times either of them worked with anyone, it didn’t last. Constantly arguing, never seeing the same sides of any issue, they didn’t maintain a working friendship.
Best: Jim And Alfred
Though these two had a lot of different approaches to situations, Jim and Alfred were essentially two peas in a pod. They both wanted to do the right thing, and they both were willing to do whatever it took to make sure they achieved their goals.
With Jim and Alfred often on the same side of the conflict, they didn’t have the chance to argue a lot. When they did, they both understood where the other was coming from, and united again on another issue. There was a lot of respect between the two and a mutual desire to both protect and help Bruce Wayne. They might not have been the closest of friends, but they were definitely one of the best friendship pairings in the series.
Worst: Fish And Anyone
Fish was a lot like Oswald. Always making power grabs, she just couldn’t be trusted. The only person she seemed to genuinely care about was Harvey Bullock, and even then, she was willing to kill him if it meant advancing her hold on the Gotham underworld.
Fish was a fun character to watch as she made her plays to take over the gangs in Gotham, but she was definitely not someone anyone could trust to have their back. She didn’t have friends; Fish had employees and business associates.
Best: Bruce And Selina
Bruce and Selina were like the heroic versions of Tabitha and Barbara. Though they had a lot of ups and downs, and sometimes found themselves on opposite sides of a conflict, they ultimately had each other’s back.
These two brought out the best in one another. Bruce helped Selina see that she could look out for other people besides herself. Selina helped Bruce see that money wasn’t always going to solve his problems for him. Their romantic feelings for one another could complicate their friendship, but they always found their way back to one another. The only major downfall was that Bruce left Selina behind in Gotham for five years, effectively placing their friendship in limbo until he returned as the Batman.
Worst: Selina And Ivy
Childhood friends Selina and Ivy who teamed up to escape more powerful gangs and squatted in Barbara Kean’s apartment were the best of friends. That’s why it hurts so much that they wind up being one of the worst friendships in the series.
They could have been like Barbara and Tabitha, sticking by one another’s side and taking care of people who weren’t as strong as them. Instead, Selina left Ivy behind repeatedly to help Bruce and Ivy lashed out for being ignored as a result. Though Ivy used her plants to save Selina’s life, she also later decided to manipulate the one person she knew Selina cared about with her plants: Bruce. Ivy tried to use Bruce against Selina, and that might have been the moment that ultimately broke their friendship.
