Bruce Wayne (''Gotham'')

Season 1

In the pilot episode of the series, Bruce witnesses a mugger murder his parents, Thomas and Martha. As the Gotham City Police Department arrives, detective Jim Gordon comforts Bruce at the scene and promises to find his parents' killer. Though Gordon and Bullock find the alleged killer and gun him down, they later realize that mobster Fish Mooney framed him and that the real killer is still at large.^[2] Bruce becomes obsessed with finding the real killer, and with training himself to become a vigilante. Alfred Pennyworth (Sean Pertwee), the Waynes' butler and Bruce's guardian following their deaths, is troubled by Bruce's behavior, but nevertheless agrees to train him in armed and unarmed combat, and becomes his guide and mentor.

Bruce later meets street orphans Selina Kyle and Ivy Pepper, Selina having witnessed the murder of his parents and Ivy being the daughter of the wrongly accused murderer. Bruce and Selina become close as Selina temporarily stays at his house for shelter, then takes him through the streets of Gotham, but Alfred later becomes wary of their new friendship. Bruce becomes skeptical of how his father's company is run and is convinced that someone in the company wanted his parents dead, and with Selina's help, infiltrates Wayne Enterprises and gains access to crucial information.^[3] Though the executive he was trying to spy on catches him, Bruce encounters Lucius Fox in the aftermath of being caught. Fox offers to help him, revealing that Thomas Wayne did not approve of the corruption behind the company. Alfred and Bruce later find a secret cave underneath Wayne Manor belonging to his father.^[4]

Season 2

Continuing off of the events of season 1, Bruce digs further into Wayne Manor also finds a letter from his father telling him to choose between "happiness or truth". He also finds a computer that appears to have vital information about Wayne Enterprises, but Alfred attempts to stop Bruce from investigating further out of concern for his safety, even smashing the computer. Bruce refuses to back down and fires Alfred, but later relents and hires him back under the condition they work together and fix the computer.^[5] Bruce, Selina and Alfred later attend a charity ball that is infiltrated by criminals led by Jerome Valeska and Barbara Kean. When Alfred's life is threatened by the intrusion, Bruce goes back for him and is almost killed himself before Theo Galavan, a wealthy industrialist, intervenes and kills Jerome. Theo turns out to actually be the leader of the criminals, masterminding the event to make himself look like a hero while secretly planning to seek revenge against the Wayne family.^[6] Theo poses as a father figure to gain Bruce's trust, and Bruce even grows close to Theo's niece Silver St. Cloud after Alfred tells Selina to stay away from Bruce. Although Bruce gains more information about his parents' killer through Theo and Silver, Theo eventually reveal his intentions and kidnaps Bruce and Silver. Thanks to help from Selina and Theo's sister Tabitha, Bruce escapes and saves Silver's life, leaving Theo there before Gordon and crime boss Oswald Cobblepot confront and kill Theo.^[7]

The second half of season two has Bruce continuing to track down his parents' true killer. Alfred eventually confronts Bruce over it and confirms the name of the killer as Patrick "Matches" Malone. After receiving a gun from Selina and finding Matches' location, Bruce confronts Matches in the latter's apartment, only to find that Matches vaguely remembers killing the Waynes and was contracted by another source that he refuses to name. After realizing Matches does not want to live anymore, Bruce decides not to kill him, leaving the gun with Matches, who then uses it to commit suicide.^[7] Bruce then decides to live in the streets with Selina in order to train himself and learn more about what it takes to fight crime in Gotham. He returns once Lucius Fox fixes his father's computer, and through further research, Bruce, Fox, and Alfred discover that Hugo Strange, a former colleague of Thomas Wayne, was the one who ordered the hit.^[8] Strange had been conducting mutation experiments within the Pinewood Farms program of Wayne Enterprises when Thomas shut down the program, angering Strange. When the GCPD refuses to indict Strange due to a lack of evidence, Bruce personally heads to Indian Hills labs with Selina to confront Strange, who unleashes the mutated monsters onto the city of Gotham and captures Bruce, Lucius, and Alfred. The GCPD intervenes when Strange threatens to blow the facility up, arresting Strange and freeing the captives. Strange's monsters continue to roam the streets, however, one of them including a teenage boy who resembles Bruce himself. ^[9]

Season 3

Upon further investigation, Bruce encounters the Court of Owls, an organization revealed to be pulling the strings in Wayne Enterprises. The leader of the Court, Kathryn offers Bruce a deal: to stop investigating them in exchange for his life, which Bruce reluctantly agrees to.^[10] Season three involves Bruce encountering and dealing with his doppelganger, facing off against a resurrected Jerome, entering a relationship with Selina and breaking up, and getting kidnapped and trained by a mysterious Shaman, later meeting Ra's al Ghul in the process. In the season's final scene, a masked Bruce saves a family from a mugger.

Season 4

As he trains to fight crime, Bruce starts investigating Ra's al Ghul, and learns that the mysterious terrorist wants to gain possession of a millennia-old dagger. Bruce buys the dagger at auction to draw Ra's out, but Ra's retaliates by killing Bruce's young friend Alex. Bruce becomes obsessed with avenging Alex, and confronts Ra's - who surprises him by begging Bruce to put him out of his misery. Bruce refuses, but when Ra's threatens his loved ones, he loses control and stabs Ra's with the dagger. Bruce feels guilty for killing Ra's in cold blood, and falls into a deep depression. He numbs the pain by partying nonstop, fires Alfred and gives up his plan to protect Gotham. When he is attacked by Ivy Pepper and dosed with her hallucinogenic plant toxin, however, he sees a vision of a fearsome, mysterious entity - implied to be his future self as Batman - telling him that he cannot escape who he really is. That night, he reconciles with Alfred, and prevents Ivy from killing a crowd full of Gotham's social elite at a charity auction.

Meanwhile, he befriends Jerome Valeska's twin brother Jeremiah - unaware that he is just as insane as his brother and planning to destroy Gotham. He is also unaware that Ra's has returned from the dead, and is conspiring with Jeremiah. When Ra's and Jeremiah reveal their plan, they both tell Bruce that they are destroying Gotham for his benefit, to help him become the "Dark Knight" he is destined to be. The two criminal masterminds kidnap Alfred and dose Bruce with Jonathan Crane's fear toxin, plaguing him with hallucinations of Alfred going insane and attacking him. When it wears off, he returns with Alfred and Selina to Wayne Manor - where Jeremiah appears and shoots Selina in the stomach, severing her spinal cord. After seeing Selina off to the hospital, he goes to confront Ra's and Jeremiah, who have destroyed all bridges leading outside of Gotham, turning the city into a "No Man's Land". During the ensuing struggle, Barbara Kean, Ra's' onetime lover and protegé, puts the dagger in Bruce's hand and forces him to stab Ra's, mortally wounding him. As he dies, Ra's tells Bruce that he must choose between simply being Bruce Wayne and becoming the "Dark Knight". After Gotham is evacuated, Bruce decides to stay behind and help Gordon fight the criminals who have taken over the city.