character application info

basic info

Name: Selina Kyle / Catwoman
Age: 34
Canon: Batman Returns
History: Movie Plot Synopsis

personality

Strengths: Though Selina was once a timid welcome mat of a secretary, she's got confidence in spades at this point. She's confident in her goals, confident in her body, and confident about what (and who) she wants. She no longer feels a need to play nice with others in order to meet the status quo, and instead of working hard to please others in her life, she now states her desires and feelings quite plainly. Even before her mental breakdown she showed signs of being unhappy with her role in life, and once she became Catwoman, she broke the chains of society's expectations and transformed herself into someone strong, independent, and intensely motivated.

This confidence leads to overflowing charisma. She knows how to flirt, tease, and manipulate. While her motivations may be self-serving, it's not always harmful. Her feelings for Bruce Wayne were sincere, and she wanted him just because she liked him rather than trying to use him as a pawn in her schemes. She takes care of her appearance and isn't afraid to turn on the charm 110% no matter who she's dealing with. ...Unless they piss her off, of course.

Though Catwoman is technically a villain, she falls into a sort of moral grey area in that she really isn't evil. She straight up murders a rapist (or at least severely maims him), and indicates irritation at the Penguin for lying about his plans to merely 'scare' the Ice Princess after he kills her. She seems to have a soft spot for women and cats, and shows signs of protectiveness for both. In fact she has little love for villains in general, though she may use them for her goals. Her loyalty will be shaky at best, though.

Flaws: OH BOY HERE WE GO! Selina is mentally unbalanced, and not just a little. Her jinxed murder completely pushed her over the edge, releasing all of the anger, humiliation, and frustration she'd been keeping to herself over the years. But though this imbued her with confidence, it also stripped away her inhibitions when it comes to basic morality. The law failed to protect her while it served only to grant more power to men like Max Shreck, so she lost all faith and respect in the justice system. While she wouldn't go out of her way to kill a policeman (and she does show mercy to security guards after chasing them off), she isn't above theft, public destruction of property, and murder. She has her own moral code, and refuses to follow anyone else's rules no matter how good they might be.

She's also ridiculously vindictive. While she might not have a problem with most people just doing their own thing, betrayal and opposition are met with a vicious hatred and resentment. The Penguin disgusted her, but she didn't have a problem with him up until he tried to kill her. Same with Batman. He tried to interrupt her plans to exact revenge on Shreck, so they were doomed to fight. Selina holds a grudge tight, and it's next to impossible to get her to let go of hard feelings. Even when Batman says he tried to save her, she still tries to stab him with her claws. Forgiveness is rare.

There's also a small part of her that still struggles with her true identity. When Bruce asks her who she thinks she is after she reveals her plan to shoot Max Shreck, she tearfully tells him she isn't sure anymore...just before breaking down into helpless laughter. She's broken inside, and she knows it. There's no way she could live a normal life, and she can't go back to who she was before. She's not even sure she wants to. While she may maintain more clarity than most other villains in Gotham City, she's still far from sane and isn't likely to be fixed.

Miscellaneous: As mentioned above, Catwoman is a little more kind toward women and cats. She doesn't seem to have much tolerance for women who can't defend themselves, as she shows when lecturing the young woman she rescued from the rapist in the alleyway, but she still isn't willing to turn a blind eye. Dark faction villains would be wise to conduct their nasty business elsewhere, because she'd be likely to protest via a kick in the face.

If someone has something she wants, she might be willing to work alongside them as a partner, but never as an underling. She has little patience for people who show signs of disrespect or sexual objectification, and is likely to just leave if she's annoyed. She's not particularly loyal to the Warlord, and secretly resents him. The first chance she has to escape from under his thumb, she'll take it, but she also won't ally herself with the Empress even if someone does find a way to remove her control band.

Also she'd rather backflip instead of walk. ...Just kidding. Mostly.

game plans

Starting Faction: Warlord
Goals: Though she's likely to be more of a cocktease than actually follow through with her seductions, I'd mostly just like to get some good CR with the dark faction folks. It might be fun to have her develop a grudge against the native werewolves (because lol cats and dogs hilarious forever), or even help a few female slaves escape just to undermine the warlord in secret when she can. I don't mind taking consequences if that happens. Having a sexy rivalry with one of the light faction heroic men could also be a lot of fun if the CR for that kind of situation presents itself.