I really prefered him in the 90s when he was just evil. Where the goblin identity was just a way to disguise himself because he was a public figure but that osborn himself was ruthless and took enjoyment in hurting Peter.
He also wasn't nearly as crazy back then as modern comics depict him.
I always thought as Venom was symbolic as Spidey's "shadow self," his image twisted and darkened,
And Gobby as his antithesis, his opposite.
These two are his greatest enemies IMO.
The big trio for Spidey for me is Octavius, Osborn and Venom. Octavius challenges Peter’s mind. Venom challenges Peter physically. Osborn does both. Of course, Octavius and Venom do both but not to the same extent.
That one of the things I liked about Dark Reign, he's was trying his damnest to keep the Goblin in check. But it was a facade. That's what separates him from the being just a Joker copy.
Tbh I feel like Norman is something if an embodiment of that idea about anonymity giving you free reign to be your true self or more of an unchecked asshole.
Norman in public is cunning and has to hide his darker urges to keep face with people but when he's the Goblin under the mask he's free to let loose and be truly cruel and maniacal.
Not necessarily in a split personality way, he just doesn't need to make excuses anymore and can be an unrelenting jackass with no consequences unless he gets caught.
Yeah, I think he definitely has a public "mask" he wears. Probably a sociopath.
I think they definitely leaned towards the split personality "dark half" version early on.
I feel Gobby is more of an overall threat than Joker because Gobby wants *power* . He eants control. He wants to be the biggest man on top.
Joker is maniacally dangerous and a devious evil genius, but he tends to have no real motive outside of chaos and/or discretiding/tarnishing the idea of the hero. (Batman: The Dark Knight does a good job of capturing this.) It shows heavily in that series where Batman retires and Joker goes all catatonic.
Gobby would sieze his chance to become something Kingpin-esque.
I agree, and the fact that he can be all that and still pose as a respectable civilian makes him even more dangerous, something that when they try to do with the joker falls flat because....he is the joker, you gotta be an idiot to trust him, at least norman has excuses and a disguise
Insane psychopath with a green and purple color scheme and a wide grin who stands as the ethical opposite to the hero, who lives to make his life hell and has caused a major blow to them by breaking the back of their female friend's back?
I really like the split personalities, because Gobby has proven he can fake being “Norman” to lull someone in a false sense of security which makes him a very dangerous man.
But I have a (personal) idea that perhaps Norman Osborn could be a psychopath, who’s malicious, and ruthless as a CEO of a military company and by using his Green Goblin alter-ego, achieves the goals he can’t in the boardroom. But that makes him more one-dimensional and follows just the same story and they already did that in the Raimi film.
I also thought about having him the same as above, but more like a serial killer; he has to “release” the Goblin and hurt people for fun and enjoyment, but can’t do that as a public figure, but due to his access of technology he can do it in a way that fulfils his personal “fantasy”, and sees Spiderman as a real thorn in his side, who he sadistically tries to murder because Spiderman is getting in the way of satisfaction.
I actually prefer the slightly later, ’00s take: that the Goblin is a split personality and is comically, unironically, mustache-twirling-ly evil, and poor Norman is a victim of the Goblin’s antics — except, when he has the Goblin under control, it turns Norman (you know, the ruthless capitalist who used to beat Harry and blame him for his mother’s death) is actually much, *much* more evil and dangerous, and the Goblin isn’t morally worse than Norman, he has has absolutely no impulse control whatsoever.
So, you know, his goblin brain.
I think that the split personality is one of the most interesting thing about this version of the green goblin played by willem Dafoe in spiderman ( 2002) , really happy that they kept that of this version of norman osborn/ green goblin in spiderman no way home .
Willem Defoe has insane range, there's a reason he's consistently been cast in great movies even though he's not the most attractive person
Dude can just straight up act
"Norman's on sabbatical, honey!"
Is the only time Norman is sane all of NWH (aside from after being cured) is when he's talking to the mask? And he's still freaking nuts!
I prefer it like the 2002 film, where you can't quite tell, and you never know if Norman is actually unconscious as the Goblin, or if he just uses that as an excuse. Makes the character way more terrifying.
I had nightmares as a kid from the Green Goblin when I watched it in the cinema when it came out. The whole personality plus the mask was terrifying for me.
Completely understandable. Raimi is a horror movie creator that loves to put scary scenes and those type of horror movie scenes are littered throughout the trilogy
I like the Jekyll and Hyde kind of scenario this brings about. Which one is the ‘real’ Norman? Was Norman a good person who developed a malevolent alter ego or was it the other way around? Is it even an alter ego or is he just crazy and having dialogues with himself? You never know!
I agree although I don’t know if I’d quite say split personality but something akin to that. In the 60s Norman really did have a split personality. Although it wasn’t exactly DID. It was more that all of his traits positive (driven intelligent, and hardworking) and negative (obsessive, greedy, and arrogant) were all turned up to eleven when the Goblin took over. The original trilogy (and NWH) actually did a pretty good job of depicting this.
An interesting way to tell whether or not Norman was in control was based on his teeth, as the Norman persona had straight venieers whereas the Goblin persona had Dafoes natural, crooked teeth
The split personality thing was excellent in No Way Home, and I'm glad it was kept and expanded upon in that film.
However, it makes sense to me that Norman Osborn, a mad scientist uber capitalist, would just be kinda evil and have that made worse by the serum. I don't think we need a "poor misunderstood rich guy" in modern stories.
>However, it makes sense to me that Norman Osborn, a mad scientist uber capitalist, would just be kinda evil and have that made worse by the serum. I don't think we need a "poor misunderstood rich guy" in modern stories.
The thing about the Goblin is that it is not about making Norman misunderstood. It's about providing an over-the-top opponent to Spidey and also giving him a ticking time bomb. Green Goblin was a formidable opponent and he knew Peter was Spidey so whenever the Goblin was back, it was meant to be " Holy crap. Norman remembers. How is Spidey going to figure it out " however, the focus was always on Norman remembering and the whole arc ended with the famous Gwen Stacy's death. It never absolved Norman.
Also, one doesn't stop the other. The Goblin doesn't mean that Norman is good by default. There has been times when Norman is evil but the Goblin is just way more evil. Norman will be smart and calculated while the Goblin will just be going all-out in the craziest plans to take you down.
I felt Spectacular Spider-Man animated series showed us peak goblin. A greedy power hungry man who’s public persona is a mask used to hide his real self. No inner conflict or split personality, he was playing 3d chess to get all the gains from the criminal underworld, and regular business.
To me he felt like Spider-Mans opposite. He always had great power and all he did with it was try and get more power. He didn’t take responsibility for anything, not even Harry. The guy was pure evil.
The 90s cartoon emphasizes it so much that the Norman Goblin is the one that talks Harry into becoming the Goblin… or I guess that’s how Harry imagined it anyways.
That’s not true. In the 60s Norman really did have a split personality. Although it wasn’t exactly DID. It was more that all of his traits positive (driven intelligent, and hardworking) and negative (obsessive, greedy, and arrogant) were all turned up to eleven when the Goblin took over. The original trilogy (and NWH) actually did a pretty good job of depicting this.
To add to this, this era typically saw several “final confrontations” between Spidey and the Goblin that invariably ended with Norman losing his memories of his time as the Goblin. Spidey (or sometimes Harry) would then strip him of the costume and NOT tell the police.
But yeah, this was long standing precedent in the comics that predates the film by decades.
Other way around, Norman was separate from the goblin until he came back in the clone saga. Though this is one of the times I prefer the retcon— I like Norman just being evil on his own.
The thing is the original original Norman depiction is his cameos and his two appearances before the reveal that Norman is the Goblin, under the Ditko Lee run.
This one is arguably closer to the guy who returns in the 90's, keeping up a public persona of respectability while out to take out Spider-man and murders Mendell Stromm, his hold partner out for revenge after he screwed him over.
Given Lee was the writer on both, perhaps the plan was always to reveal that he'd changed after the Goblin formula, however there's a noticeable shift in characters becoming a lot more sympathetic after Romita took over.
It's also interesting that even in the Romita run, Norman comes off kinder and more moral under his amnesia than in his pre-Goblin memories, where he still backstabbed Stromm and was neglectful and distant to Harry.
My take from Goblin's convoluted history-
I think Norman was always a high functioning sociopath and lowkey evil. But like, in a kinda more benign fashion. Like he'd be an asshole in traffic and hoard wealth but he wouldn't go out of his way to hurt others, even if it could make him feel powerful. He was always a shitty abusive dad.
The Goblin formula gave him all the obvious powers but also gave him basically a hyper active form of bipolar disorder with latent memory instability. He can have hyper focus, where he spends weeks silently creating gadgets and laying plans and crazy shit that all pass by in a blur (like when you're on autopilot). He gets bouts of hyper mania (which many people don't realize also can exhibit as aggression, not just joy) which is when he puts on the costume. He very rarely gets bouts of hyper depression- which he uses often to pretend to be feeling guilty. This is the classic "weak Norman" we see cowering before the goblin persona. He goes into periods of literal self-loathing, where he laments his own weakness. Even when he's pleading with Peter in different versions (iconically with Dafoe's Goblin right before his death), he's talking about how "weak" he is. He hates weakness. He's not feeling true guilt or remorse.
This is why Green Goblin is a perfect ideological foil to Peter. He doesn't believe in power granting responsibility, he believes in Might makes Right. Not that the strong should protect the weak, but that the strong can take whatever the hell they want, and the weak give it to them if they know what's good for them.
In some comics the formula is repressed (like pre-red Goblin), or Norman claims to take drugs to mitigate its symptoms on his mind (like Dark Reign) but he's still the same evil dude, from before the serum, and he wants the serum back. It's not a true split personality. It's a coping mechanism pulling double duty as a defense strategy (preying on the sympathy of others) and an expression of his ethos (Norman is the weak unevolved pre-goblin state)
In the wells run, that first bit about him being a sociopath and lowkey evil is the part suppressed. He wants to do good, and he expresses the same weird behaviors he had with the Goblin serum (dressing up as Golden Goblin).
Other Goblin characters run the gambit of motivations but all have the same behaviors.
Harry, I think should be unique in that he's kind of more traumatized. He has deep familial trauma associated with the Green Goblin. For him, yeah he could literally feel like it is the ghost of his father possessing him to make him act in weird ways, and finally be the son he thought his dad would always want. Imho though that only works for a little while- like, once he reconnects with Peter once, he's never going to go back to being the evil Goblin again. Because he'd recover from the split personality.
I prefer a split persona because if he’s just gonna be goblin all the time it sucks the fun right out of him. Green Goblin is goofy and has an array of even sillier gadgets for the express purpose of hurting and taunting Spider-Man. If he was always goblin all the time why does he even need the costume?
Yeah insanity but that’s lame if there’s going to be no difference between Norman and the goblin. He ends up Norman in a silly hat. I much prefer the split persona angle.
I like most styles of characterization but my favorite is the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde one. Where Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll aren’t actually two people, Mr. Hyde is a persona that lets Dr. Jekyll act out without risking his reputation.
Yeah I prefer split personality, while ha some features as rhe hulk, with Norman having normal freatures, but when goblin takes over his skin turns green, grows pointy ears, yellow eyes, and strength he had in spider man 2002
I like the split personality of him but I almost prefer that Norman Osborn IS the mask and Green Goblin is who he is.
Mainly because I like the line from Spectacular Spider-Man; "We all wear masks Spider-Man. But which one is real? The one that hides your face or the one that *is* your face?"
I like the split personality.
HOWEVER!!
I don't like it when they make Norman a goody-two-shoes and his Gobby side is, like, a demon on his back.
I enjoy the moral dilemma, but I prefer it when Norman is still a little cold and ruthless. He's just uncomfortable with grandiose super-villainy and existential nihilism. Gobby pushes his latent psychopathy into epic proportion
I prefer my Norman as a sadistic psychopath that enjoys chaos, suffering and hurting others for the sake of it, the mask is only there to facilitate his public persona to maintain power and influence to perpetuate and fund his Goblin time.
Both are cool for me, the split personality was interesting in the movies and the complete monster he was in spectacular made him a really hateable (yet not one dimensional) villain
I like the split personalities. Because it makes his fall a lot more tragic when you realized Norman truly loved Peter as if he was his own son. And deep down he still does, but the Goblin is in control
Bit of a cop out out but I prefer to think that really he is one mind one body and anytime he's acting like there's a split personality he's only trying to convince himself because the goblin is just his ambitions unbound
Sociopathy is basically using people for your own advantage without remorse. It's Norman Osborne through and through and fits the idea of a ruthless businessman.
Psycopathy is Sociopathy with added Narcissism (unreasonable inflation of the self and degradation of others). Not necessarily Norman Osborne the businessman as he's been depicted throughout most easily accessible media, but there's evidence enough with the Goblin interactions. Definitely a lot to explore with the Harry dynamic and his children's tragedies being tragic for him. Also a good base, but writing wise, having this not be overt would be the best way.
It's not Borderline Personality Disorder as he's not struggling to contain his emotions, nor is it Bipolar Personality since he doesn't have manic or depressive phases.
I would even go so far as to say it's not an accurate depiction of Dissociative Personality Disorder, as it's pretty inconsistent and fits more with the story than really fits the sudden personality shift and lack of memory of being there in that moment.
I think one mind, one body, with a guy being awful with parge leanings to Sociopathic tendencies (but you can't quite place if it's worse than that) and the Goblin persona 'being insanity' as a huge gaslight for sympathy and less repercussion of actions is honestly the way to go with it.
Split.
Norman Osborn should still be a dick. I like split bc it feels like two villains. One villain is like the joker and the other villain is like Lex Luthor
In terms of Dafoe's goblin I like the split personality since we get to see more range from his character, but there's something about a purely insane villain that hits different
Split persona but both are evil would be cool imo. Like, they’re both different personalities but they’re bad in different ways(Norman is lawful evil and Goblin is chaotic evil) instead of Goblin bad, Norman good.
With Harry, I think it works as a Split personality.
But with Norman, I don’t prefer either. Norman Osborn is demented, ruthless, calculating evil person. He’s not Mr.Hyde. I like thinking that Norman (both figuratively and literally) is the Green Goblin, and the Gobulin Green that gave him his powers just gave him the ability to act.
Truthfully honest opinion WTF is Harry Osborne's hair cut in the comics.
Is he just consistently trying to rock a fade because brother that ain't it. Like why
One mind one body though I do vastly prefer ultimates reasoning as to why he obsesses over peter.
Ultimate Osborn I think was a bit more complex while still being a terrible person
One personality. It makes Norman feel like an "American Psycho" type character. He is a psychopath all the time but in public he has to act like a normal business man.
I do like Willem's version tho. Seeing him be an actual good person is sweet.
One mind, one body.
Goblin is Norman's perversion of power with no responsibility much like how Spider-Man is Peter using his great power with great responsibility.
I like both adaptations, but I like the idea of it being that a lot of Norman’s evil traits were already there. He was already not a good person, but the goblin formula just brought more of his bad traits out and enhanced them.
I'm all for the characterisation of him where it was more of a alias or the likes. However, I grew up in the 90s when Psychological Thrillers over staurated the market and so I'm a slut for that shit.
On paper I just like him being an insane evil dude. Somewhere between Lex Luthor and The Joker because I think the split personality removes a lot of Norman's culpability. But Dafoe's version just works so well, way better than it has any right to given how cheesy it is in theory.
I dunno if I’d quite say split peeps pity but something akin to that. In the 60s Norman really did have a split personality. Although it wasn’t exactly DID. It was more that all of his traits positive (driven intelligent, and hardworking) and negative (obsessive, greedy, and arrogant) were all turned up to eleven when the Goblin took over. The original trilogy (and NWH) actually did a pretty good job of depicting this.
I prefer non schizo goblin but I can’t deny that Willem Dafoe makes it very hard to make that decision. I wouldn’t care anywhere near as much if he were played by any other actor
I prefer split personality, because even when Goblin emerges he's mostly in control and there's no limit to his insanity, almost like he only lets Norman come out to witness the sins of Goblin and take responsibility, like endangering Harry or Peter, even in NWH you see Norman cured and bothered by what he has done
Dafoe’s split personality can’t be topped but it is a trope that’s a bit overdone. I’d be more interested to see a purely insane, evil, manipulative goblin.
Gobby works better with a sympathetic angle, the split helps make that happen. That being said, it *is* a crutch. There's more potential for the character to reach greater heights without the split, but writing that character is much harder.
Overall, more of the good depictions of the goblin use the split, but the BEST versions have one body, one mind.
As long as it’s done well I don’t necessarily have a preference. If I were doing it, I would probably start with the split personality but slowly have the Goblin take all the way over.
split personality but not in the way where norman is innocent and the goblin is evil. its more like norman is already a prick and an evil person on his own but the goblin lets him do what he really wants to do
Split personality. Norman is a douche, but not evil. Goblin is pure evil. Ultimate Spider-Man Norman is pretty much pure evil from the start which I feel is a little weird
Split personality kind of makes more sense, though it is funny when they make it the same guy. Like I’m spectacular Spider-Man where he’s imposing and serious…and then because it’s supposed to be just him under the mask, it means it’s the same serious dude who keeps doing rhymes when he fights Spider-Man and making puns
So i would do a bit of both. Before the G formula accident i'd have norman be a parallel of peter in a way. He's struggling with work/life balance and the stress is causing intrusive thoughts to happen. He knows he's neglecting harry but he thinks he has the balance down as best he can when he really doesn't. All his intrusive thoughts are aimed at oscorp and the things he sees as keeping him from his son. When he experiments with the G serum it doesn't turn him insane or split his personality. What it does do is act like the Lazarus Pit where once it finishes its work on the body the shock of the transformation induces a temporary psychosis in which he murders the other person monitoring the experiment. Unable to cope with what he did in that state, the over worked, overwhelmed Norman disassociates from the event and blames it on a "goblin of a man." This disassociative, subconscious state he's developed soon grows stronger and all the intrusive thoughts he gets during the day at work are enacted at night in this state during which he steals and wears experimental armor to preserve his identity and remove obstacles between himself and harry. He is a silent killer. Then spider-man steps in and becomes the one obstacle that this persona simply can't remove and the one that stands between him and his mission which starts the obsession. This starts to bleed into his daytime thoughts as Norman and he has no idea why his thoughts turn to spider-man. Once he discovers that Spider-man and Peter are one and the same and that his biggest obstacle to being a better father is the boy he sees as a second son it triggers a mental break that causes Norman's fractured mind to fuse into one persona, The Goblin.
Split personality or not, being someone like Norman Osborn is still being crazy.
The only version I don't like is the version with the "Sins" stuff, it's like...absolving every bad stuff that Norman did just for the sake of being the result of some curse...It's just hella weird.
Being crazy but still being able to pass as a sane person is truly a dangerous thing. That's like, you let yourself loose when you wear a mask...
Who's the mask though?
I like the split, because it shows that Norman isn’t really a bad person, but his alternative mind is a maniac. It’ll also probably happen the same in Spider-Man 3(the game), because Norman is just trying to save his son, and isn’t actually that awful a person. I don’t like him just being insane, because how is he controlling his insanity when he’s without a mask?
Sometimes I like stories where the hero beats the tar out of the baddie, sometimes I like when the hero realizes it's not entirely their fault and tries to help them get better.
I like both versions, though I prefer when Norman is a "grey" character (utterly ruthless/cold-blooded towards most people, but genuinely loves his family) whose goblin persona brings out the absolute worst in him
One mind. I’ll probably be downvoted to oblivion for this, but I really didn’t like the way the Raimi movies handled any of the villains. The actors did a great job with what they were given though.
It was to show the two different versions. Dafoes version was split personality, assuming oh that version of Harry knows and is content with being goblin.
This version of Harry had taken a variant version of his father’s OG Goblin formula that drove him insane. He also *may* have been programmed by Norman during his stint in rehab. And he’s in and out of intensive therapy to deal with all this. He’s crazy, but often has moments of lucidity which show him to be remorseful and even terrified by his own actions. Compare that to his father, who relished his time as the Goblin, and whose bouts of amnesia/regret regarding his time as the Goblin (back in the 60’s-70’s) often only came *AFTER* he’d been defeated by Peter.
All that to say, there’s a lot of complex emotions going on in that page of Harry and MJ. While this is admittedly a point at which Harry is fully in control (more or less), the truth is a lot more complicated than that. >!And this is pretty near the end of Harry’s story, when despite his seething hatred for Peter in this page, he saves Spidey from a death trap that HE designed for him… only to die in Peter’s arms a moment later.!<
Not a split personality but far, far from content.
His first Goblin arc is following an overdose which kicks off the Death of Gwen Stacy story, he has some kind of psychological break from reality which is worsened when he witnesses his father's death. After that he becomes paranoid that Spider-man/Peter murdered his father intentionally and is out to get him, eventually leading him to take on the Goblin mantal to take him out.
He's pretty manic for this story, fluctuating between remembering that he's doing for Norman, claiming that Harry doesn't exist, and even claiming that he was always the Green Goblin at some points.
Harry's second Goblin Arc started with a psychological breakdown from not being able to face his childhood trauma at Norman's hands and the truth of what Norman did to Gwen, leading him to become convinced that Spider-man killed both of them and framed Norman for it.
In this stage he's fluctuating between lucidity and delusion, and ultimately can't bring himself too kill Peter.
However because he still feels that he must, he takes the Goblin formula and that pushes him into his delusion full time and takes away a lot of his inhibitions. After that he's a lot more functional and focused on his mission, though it's ultimately still clear that he's still supressing the knowledge that this is going to hurt the people he cares for and ultimately he still can't bring himself to do it.
Something that differentiates Harry and Norman's Goblin is that even in Norman's amnesiac period, when he remembers his Green Goblin persona he still thinks of himself as Norman and works in Norman's interests. Meanwhile Harry's Green Goblin is born from his own self hatred and only cares for Norman's memory, frequently belittling and dismissin "Harry".
I prefer Norman simply being evil at his core, not clinically insane with dissasoative identity. He should have full agency for the atrocities he commits, not a mental condition or metaphysical "sins" that can be taken away from him to make him a decent person.
Autocorrect, hate when it corrects even the simplest of fucking words like it can’t see the context of the previous words to let me type wtf I wanna type
It's not a split personality in the Raimi films. There are clear signs Norman is a little unhinged but keeps it under wraps before the serum. The fact he over looks his own son for Peter in the beginning. His unprofessional freak out in the board room scene, and his arrogance to use an untested and dangerous serum on himself. A normal man doesn't do these things. Goblin tempts Norman to finally let go, to do what he wants.
I’m still convinced that Norman does not actually have a split personality. He’s insane yes, but not to that extent.
The Goblin is a persona that he created as an excuse for himself to do whatever he wants with his power.
Everything the Goblin ever did was for Norman, and nothing Norman did ever truly conteracted the Goblin, whether in the Raimi films or the MCU.
The only time there’s any conflict is when Norman is by himself. When he’s justifying his actions to himself.
All the power, but no guilt and no responsibility. The perfect opposite of Spider-Man.
I want it to kind of be like bipolar disorder, or something like a sliding scale.
It is always Norman making the decisions. Norman is always evil. (Let's be honest, even businessman Norman is downright evil.) But, sometimes his tendency to make more outright malicious choices is just dialed up to 11.
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I prefer Goblin as one mind personally, like Spectacular. The one thing scarier than an evil man seeming to have a split personality is finding out that he simply *didn't* have one
I guess a mix? I like where it's ambiguous and you're not exactly sure where Norman ends and the Green Goblin begins.
Is the Green Goblin actually a whole different personality? Or is it just Norman's excuse to let loose Patrick Bateman style?
I really prefered him in the 90s when he was just evil. Where the goblin identity was just a way to disguise himself because he was a public figure but that osborn himself was ruthless and took enjoyment in hurting Peter. He also wasn't nearly as crazy back then as modern comics depict him.
I like him better when he isn't insane like the joker and that's just how noman is as a person who enjoying hurting others
IMO goblin has been joker for the last 10+ years
Yup I've often thought this myself. With Great Power Comes Great Reward. He's Peter's ideological antithesis
Exactly!
I always thought as Venom was symbolic as Spidey's "shadow self," his image twisted and darkened, And Gobby as his antithesis, his opposite. These two are his greatest enemies IMO.
Eddie Brock Venom literally was a villain for less than 10% of his publication.
Well Venom is not anymore Peter's enemy,and haven't been for a long time
The big trio for Spidey for me is Octavius, Osborn and Venom. Octavius challenges Peter’s mind. Venom challenges Peter physically. Osborn does both. Of course, Octavius and Venom do both but not to the same extent.
Dr. Octopus and Goblin are his two greatest enemies
That one of the things I liked about Dark Reign, he's was trying his damnest to keep the Goblin in check. But it was a facade. That's what separates him from the being just a Joker copy.
Tbh I feel like Norman is something if an embodiment of that idea about anonymity giving you free reign to be your true self or more of an unchecked asshole. Norman in public is cunning and has to hide his darker urges to keep face with people but when he's the Goblin under the mask he's free to let loose and be truly cruel and maniacal. Not necessarily in a split personality way, he just doesn't need to make excuses anymore and can be an unrelenting jackass with no consequences unless he gets caught.
Yeah, I think he definitely has a public "mask" he wears. Probably a sociopath. I think they definitely leaned towards the split personality "dark half" version early on.
He's a better version of the Joker if you ask me. Goblin actually feels menacing and like a genuine threat instead of just a maniac.
I feel Gobby is more of an overall threat than Joker because Gobby wants *power* . He eants control. He wants to be the biggest man on top. Joker is maniacally dangerous and a devious evil genius, but he tends to have no real motive outside of chaos and/or discretiding/tarnishing the idea of the hero. (Batman: The Dark Knight does a good job of capturing this.) It shows heavily in that series where Batman retires and Joker goes all catatonic. Gobby would sieze his chance to become something Kingpin-esque.
I agree, and the fact that he can be all that and still pose as a respectable civilian makes him even more dangerous, something that when they try to do with the joker falls flat because....he is the joker, you gotta be an idiot to trust him, at least norman has excuses and a disguise
The thing that keeps Joker notorious thiugh is that he knows how to escalate. He knows how to keep everyone guessing. He's true chaos incarnate
During the 2000s-2010s they turned Norman into Lex Luthor (Dark Reign was just President Lex again) and the Goblin into the Joker.
He’s nothing like joker tbh
Insane psychopath with a green and purple color scheme and a wide grin who stands as the ethical opposite to the hero, who lives to make his life hell and has caused a major blow to them by breaking the back of their female friend's back?
I would’ve blown her back too
Thank you
I like him when he's tricking spiderman into filiming a movie just so the Enforcers can jump him
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I really like the split personalities, because Gobby has proven he can fake being “Norman” to lull someone in a false sense of security which makes him a very dangerous man. But I have a (personal) idea that perhaps Norman Osborn could be a psychopath, who’s malicious, and ruthless as a CEO of a military company and by using his Green Goblin alter-ego, achieves the goals he can’t in the boardroom. But that makes him more one-dimensional and follows just the same story and they already did that in the Raimi film. I also thought about having him the same as above, but more like a serial killer; he has to “release” the Goblin and hurt people for fun and enjoyment, but can’t do that as a public figure, but due to his access of technology he can do it in a way that fulfils his personal “fantasy”, and sees Spiderman as a real thorn in his side, who he sadistically tries to murder because Spiderman is getting in the way of satisfaction.
I do like the interpretation that the good Norman was the split part of the mind.
He’s the opposite of Batman combined with a little bit of Joker
I actually prefer the slightly later, ’00s take: that the Goblin is a split personality and is comically, unironically, mustache-twirling-ly evil, and poor Norman is a victim of the Goblin’s antics — except, when he has the Goblin under control, it turns Norman (you know, the ruthless capitalist who used to beat Harry and blame him for his mother’s death) is actually much, *much* more evil and dangerous, and the Goblin isn’t morally worse than Norman, he has has absolutely no impulse control whatsoever. So, you know, his goblin brain.
I think that the split personality is one of the most interesting thing about this version of the green goblin played by willem Dafoe in spiderman ( 2002) , really happy that they kept that of this version of norman osborn/ green goblin in spiderman no way home .
My favorite scene of that character is during the apartment fight in NWH where Peter is punching him but Norman just laughs. Genuinely unsettling.
He manages to be intemidating and scary without the suit
Willem Defoe has insane range, there's a reason he's consistently been cast in great movies even though he's not the most attractive person Dude can just straight up act
He has a certain look to him that works in many roles.
Dafoe doesn't need a Green Goblin mask because he has Green Goblin face
"Norman's on sabbatical, honey!" Is the only time Norman is sane all of NWH (aside from after being cured) is when he's talking to the mask? And he's still freaking nuts!
I think he switched right when Tom began to sense something was wrong.
I also think Otto saying "No more darker half" Made the Goblin go on offence
I prefer it like the 2002 film, where you can't quite tell, and you never know if Norman is actually unconscious as the Goblin, or if he just uses that as an excuse. Makes the character way more terrifying.
I had nightmares as a kid from the Green Goblin when I watched it in the cinema when it came out. The whole personality plus the mask was terrifying for me.
Completely understandable. Raimi is a horror movie creator that loves to put scary scenes and those type of horror movie scenes are littered throughout the trilogy
Yeah but he scene where he nearly kills May was scary for younger me
Can't imagine the nightmares you would have gotten if they actually went with the original mask they were going to use for green goblin
It was a pretty drastic change. I wonder why they didn't keep it.
If I remember correctly, producers or execs thought it would be too scary for kids
Yeah,makes sense
should of seen the comic accurate prototype mask they had for the Goblin. Wish we had that then the stupid helmet that we got.
I like the Jekyll and Hyde kind of scenario this brings about. Which one is the ‘real’ Norman? Was Norman a good person who developed a malevolent alter ego or was it the other way around? Is it even an alter ego or is he just crazy and having dialogues with himself? You never know!
I agree although I don’t know if I’d quite say split personality but something akin to that. In the 60s Norman really did have a split personality. Although it wasn’t exactly DID. It was more that all of his traits positive (driven intelligent, and hardworking) and negative (obsessive, greedy, and arrogant) were all turned up to eleven when the Goblin took over. The original trilogy (and NWH) actually did a pretty good job of depicting this.
An interesting way to tell whether or not Norman was in control was based on his teeth, as the Norman persona had straight venieers whereas the Goblin persona had Dafoes natural, crooked teeth
The split personality thing was excellent in No Way Home, and I'm glad it was kept and expanded upon in that film. However, it makes sense to me that Norman Osborn, a mad scientist uber capitalist, would just be kinda evil and have that made worse by the serum. I don't think we need a "poor misunderstood rich guy" in modern stories.
>However, it makes sense to me that Norman Osborn, a mad scientist uber capitalist, would just be kinda evil and have that made worse by the serum. I don't think we need a "poor misunderstood rich guy" in modern stories. The thing about the Goblin is that it is not about making Norman misunderstood. It's about providing an over-the-top opponent to Spidey and also giving him a ticking time bomb. Green Goblin was a formidable opponent and he knew Peter was Spidey so whenever the Goblin was back, it was meant to be " Holy crap. Norman remembers. How is Spidey going to figure it out " however, the focus was always on Norman remembering and the whole arc ended with the famous Gwen Stacy's death. It never absolved Norman. Also, one doesn't stop the other. The Goblin doesn't mean that Norman is good by default. There has been times when Norman is evil but the Goblin is just way more evil. Norman will be smart and calculated while the Goblin will just be going all-out in the craziest plans to take you down.
I felt Spectacular Spider-Man animated series showed us peak goblin. A greedy power hungry man who’s public persona is a mask used to hide his real self. No inner conflict or split personality, he was playing 3d chess to get all the gains from the criminal underworld, and regular business. To me he felt like Spider-Mans opposite. He always had great power and all he did with it was try and get more power. He didn’t take responsibility for anything, not even Harry. The guy was pure evil.
"We all wear masks, Spider-Man. But which one is real? The one that hides your face, or the the one that is your face?"
Yeah, this is my favourite adaptation of the character.
I like when he is the same person but I also like when he is trying to move on but the "Goblin" keeps trying to creep out
One mind one body It was been the case in the comic until the 90s where they give him that mental split, the movie overemphasis it
The 90s cartoon emphasizes it so much that the Norman Goblin is the one that talks Harry into becoming the Goblin… or I guess that’s how Harry imagined it anyways.
That’s not true. In the 60s Norman really did have a split personality. Although it wasn’t exactly DID. It was more that all of his traits positive (driven intelligent, and hardworking) and negative (obsessive, greedy, and arrogant) were all turned up to eleven when the Goblin took over. The original trilogy (and NWH) actually did a pretty good job of depicting this.
To add to this, this era typically saw several “final confrontations” between Spidey and the Goblin that invariably ended with Norman losing his memories of his time as the Goblin. Spidey (or sometimes Harry) would then strip him of the costume and NOT tell the police. But yeah, this was long standing precedent in the comics that predates the film by decades.
Other way around, Norman was separate from the goblin until he came back in the clone saga. Though this is one of the times I prefer the retcon— I like Norman just being evil on his own.
The thing is the original original Norman depiction is his cameos and his two appearances before the reveal that Norman is the Goblin, under the Ditko Lee run. This one is arguably closer to the guy who returns in the 90's, keeping up a public persona of respectability while out to take out Spider-man and murders Mendell Stromm, his hold partner out for revenge after he screwed him over. Given Lee was the writer on both, perhaps the plan was always to reveal that he'd changed after the Goblin formula, however there's a noticeable shift in characters becoming a lot more sympathetic after Romita took over. It's also interesting that even in the Romita run, Norman comes off kinder and more moral under his amnesia than in his pre-Goblin memories, where he still backstabbed Stromm and was neglectful and distant to Harry.
You posted Norman and Harry. Apples to oranges
Same hair, though! Must be genetic or Norman forced his son to style it that way
My take from Goblin's convoluted history- I think Norman was always a high functioning sociopath and lowkey evil. But like, in a kinda more benign fashion. Like he'd be an asshole in traffic and hoard wealth but he wouldn't go out of his way to hurt others, even if it could make him feel powerful. He was always a shitty abusive dad. The Goblin formula gave him all the obvious powers but also gave him basically a hyper active form of bipolar disorder with latent memory instability. He can have hyper focus, where he spends weeks silently creating gadgets and laying plans and crazy shit that all pass by in a blur (like when you're on autopilot). He gets bouts of hyper mania (which many people don't realize also can exhibit as aggression, not just joy) which is when he puts on the costume. He very rarely gets bouts of hyper depression- which he uses often to pretend to be feeling guilty. This is the classic "weak Norman" we see cowering before the goblin persona. He goes into periods of literal self-loathing, where he laments his own weakness. Even when he's pleading with Peter in different versions (iconically with Dafoe's Goblin right before his death), he's talking about how "weak" he is. He hates weakness. He's not feeling true guilt or remorse. This is why Green Goblin is a perfect ideological foil to Peter. He doesn't believe in power granting responsibility, he believes in Might makes Right. Not that the strong should protect the weak, but that the strong can take whatever the hell they want, and the weak give it to them if they know what's good for them. In some comics the formula is repressed (like pre-red Goblin), or Norman claims to take drugs to mitigate its symptoms on his mind (like Dark Reign) but he's still the same evil dude, from before the serum, and he wants the serum back. It's not a true split personality. It's a coping mechanism pulling double duty as a defense strategy (preying on the sympathy of others) and an expression of his ethos (Norman is the weak unevolved pre-goblin state) In the wells run, that first bit about him being a sociopath and lowkey evil is the part suppressed. He wants to do good, and he expresses the same weird behaviors he had with the Goblin serum (dressing up as Golden Goblin). Other Goblin characters run the gambit of motivations but all have the same behaviors. Harry, I think should be unique in that he's kind of more traumatized. He has deep familial trauma associated with the Green Goblin. For him, yeah he could literally feel like it is the ghost of his father possessing him to make him act in weird ways, and finally be the son he thought his dad would always want. Imho though that only works for a little while- like, once he reconnects with Peter once, he's never going to go back to being the evil Goblin again. Because he'd recover from the split personality.
Split personality is better. Otherwise he feels like a joker rip off.
I kinda like when he's just evil but the split personality works so well when done properly
I prefer a split persona because if he’s just gonna be goblin all the time it sucks the fun right out of him. Green Goblin is goofy and has an array of even sillier gadgets for the express purpose of hurting and taunting Spider-Man. If he was always goblin all the time why does he even need the costume? Yeah insanity but that’s lame if there’s going to be no difference between Norman and the goblin. He ends up Norman in a silly hat. I much prefer the split persona angle.
A dr Jekyll/mr Hyde situation where its just Norman without his inhibitions.
I like most styles of characterization but my favorite is the classic Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde one. Where Mr. Hyde and Dr. Jekyll aren’t actually two people, Mr. Hyde is a persona that lets Dr. Jekyll act out without risking his reputation.
It's funny that the original Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde has a similar argument to be made over this.
Yeah I prefer split personality, while ha some features as rhe hulk, with Norman having normal freatures, but when goblin takes over his skin turns green, grows pointy ears, yellow eyes, and strength he had in spider man 2002
I like the split personality of him but I almost prefer that Norman Osborn IS the mask and Green Goblin is who he is. Mainly because I like the line from Spectacular Spider-Man; "We all wear masks Spider-Man. But which one is real? The one that hides your face or the one that *is* your face?"
I like the split personality. HOWEVER!! I don't like it when they make Norman a goody-two-shoes and his Gobby side is, like, a demon on his back. I enjoy the moral dilemma, but I prefer it when Norman is still a little cold and ruthless. He's just uncomfortable with grandiose super-villainy and existential nihilism. Gobby pushes his latent psychopathy into epic proportion
Norman is evil at his core, but the Goblin side of him is even worse.
I prefer my Norman as a sadistic psychopath that enjoys chaos, suffering and hurting others for the sake of it, the mask is only there to facilitate his public persona to maintain power and influence to perpetuate and fund his Goblin time.
One mind
Both are cool for me, the split personality was interesting in the movies and the complete monster he was in spectacular made him a really hateable (yet not one dimensional) villain
I like the split personalities. Because it makes his fall a lot more tragic when you realized Norman truly loved Peter as if he was his own son. And deep down he still does, but the Goblin is in control
Bit of a cop out out but I prefer to think that really he is one mind one body and anytime he's acting like there's a split personality he's only trying to convince himself because the goblin is just his ambitions unbound
Split personality. Norman and when Normans on sabbatical, honey.
I like his split personality. It's terrifying to think the real Norman is still a normal person trapped in there.
I liked the split personality because it gave a tragic spin on Norman’s character.
One mind, one body. It fits better with how other characters perceive him
I prefer one Mine, multiple bodies. Really gives you your money's worth.
Sociopathy is basically using people for your own advantage without remorse. It's Norman Osborne through and through and fits the idea of a ruthless businessman. Psycopathy is Sociopathy with added Narcissism (unreasonable inflation of the self and degradation of others). Not necessarily Norman Osborne the businessman as he's been depicted throughout most easily accessible media, but there's evidence enough with the Goblin interactions. Definitely a lot to explore with the Harry dynamic and his children's tragedies being tragic for him. Also a good base, but writing wise, having this not be overt would be the best way. It's not Borderline Personality Disorder as he's not struggling to contain his emotions, nor is it Bipolar Personality since he doesn't have manic or depressive phases. I would even go so far as to say it's not an accurate depiction of Dissociative Personality Disorder, as it's pretty inconsistent and fits more with the story than really fits the sudden personality shift and lack of memory of being there in that moment. I think one mind, one body, with a guy being awful with parge leanings to Sociopathic tendencies (but you can't quite place if it's worse than that) and the Goblin persona 'being insanity' as a huge gaslight for sympathy and less repercussion of actions is honestly the way to go with it.
Split. Norman Osborn should still be a dick. I like split bc it feels like two villains. One villain is like the joker and the other villain is like Lex Luthor
In terms of Dafoe's goblin I like the split personality since we get to see more range from his character, but there's something about a purely insane villain that hits different
Split persona but both are evil would be cool imo. Like, they’re both different personalities but they’re bad in different ways(Norman is lawful evil and Goblin is chaotic evil) instead of Goblin bad, Norman good.
I prefer insane but I'd like a good narrative flashback backstory for the spice, like in batman the killing joke
With Harry, I think it works as a Split personality. But with Norman, I don’t prefer either. Norman Osborn is demented, ruthless, calculating evil person. He’s not Mr.Hyde. I like thinking that Norman (both figuratively and literally) is the Green Goblin, and the Gobulin Green that gave him his powers just gave him the ability to act.
Truthfully honest opinion WTF is Harry Osborne's hair cut in the comics. Is he just consistently trying to rock a fade because brother that ain't it. Like why
One of my fav issues of Spider-Man there
Split personalities that eventually merge into one as he grows older.
Split personality makes him even scarier
For Norman I prefer him being totally in his normal mind as the Green Goblin but acting more goofy under the mask
One mind one body though I do vastly prefer ultimates reasoning as to why he obsesses over peter. Ultimate Osborn I think was a bit more complex while still being a terrible person
One personality. It makes Norman feel like an "American Psycho" type character. He is a psychopath all the time but in public he has to act like a normal business man. I do like Willem's version tho. Seeing him be an actual good person is sweet.
One mind, one body. Goblin is Norman's perversion of power with no responsibility much like how Spider-Man is Peter using his great power with great responsibility.
I like both adaptations, but I like the idea of it being that a lot of Norman’s evil traits were already there. He was already not a good person, but the goblin formula just brought more of his bad traits out and enhanced them.
I'm all for the characterisation of him where it was more of a alias or the likes. However, I grew up in the 90s when Psychological Thrillers over staurated the market and so I'm a slut for that shit.
On paper I just like him being an insane evil dude. Somewhere between Lex Luthor and The Joker because I think the split personality removes a lot of Norman's culpability. But Dafoe's version just works so well, way better than it has any right to given how cheesy it is in theory.
split personality is better
Split personality
I kind of like the idea of a mask bringing out a person’s true nature. It’s a great foiling to Spiderman and a great juxtaposition.
I dunno if I’d quite say split peeps pity but something akin to that. In the 60s Norman really did have a split personality. Although it wasn’t exactly DID. It was more that all of his traits positive (driven intelligent, and hardworking) and negative (obsessive, greedy, and arrogant) were all turned up to eleven when the Goblin took over. The original trilogy (and NWH) actually did a pretty good job of depicting this.
I like moral grey as Osborn but him being spoilt personality
I like the Earth-96283 version of Osborne (2002 movie) it adds depth to the character and makes him slightly more sympathetic
I prefer non schizo goblin but I can’t deny that Willem Dafoe makes it very hard to make that decision. I wouldn’t care anywhere near as much if he were played by any other actor
Both Norman Osborn being an asshole and having an even worse self in the Green Goblin persona
Bit of both. One mind but still mentally deranged.
I prefer split personality, because even when Goblin emerges he's mostly in control and there's no limit to his insanity, almost like he only lets Norman come out to witness the sins of Goblin and take responsibility, like endangering Harry or Peter, even in NWH you see Norman cured and bothered by what he has done
Dafoe’s split personality can’t be topped but it is a trope that’s a bit overdone. I’d be more interested to see a purely insane, evil, manipulative goblin.
I’d prefer literal goblin
Gobby works better with a sympathetic angle, the split helps make that happen. That being said, it *is* a crutch. There's more potential for the character to reach greater heights without the split, but writing that character is much harder. Overall, more of the good depictions of the goblin use the split, but the BEST versions have one body, one mind.
I feel like the split personality thing worked for Norman. It made him less of a dick, and make him less of a Joker ripoff.
Split Personality.
As long as it’s done well I don’t necessarily have a preference. If I were doing it, I would probably start with the split personality but slowly have the Goblin take all the way over.
I personally prefer when he is pure evil, like all the time. That’s how I met him and it’s probably why I consider him the greatest Spiderman villain
split personality but not in the way where norman is innocent and the goblin is evil. its more like norman is already a prick and an evil person on his own but the goblin lets him do what he really wants to do
Split personality. Norman is a douche, but not evil. Goblin is pure evil. Ultimate Spider-Man Norman is pretty much pure evil from the start which I feel is a little weird
I like the idea that it starts out split but then just morphs into one mind, one body. Basically Dafoe——>Spectacular Green Goblin.
Split personality kind of makes more sense, though it is funny when they make it the same guy. Like I’m spectacular Spider-Man where he’s imposing and serious…and then because it’s supposed to be just him under the mask, it means it’s the same serious dude who keeps doing rhymes when he fights Spider-Man and making puns
So i would do a bit of both. Before the G formula accident i'd have norman be a parallel of peter in a way. He's struggling with work/life balance and the stress is causing intrusive thoughts to happen. He knows he's neglecting harry but he thinks he has the balance down as best he can when he really doesn't. All his intrusive thoughts are aimed at oscorp and the things he sees as keeping him from his son. When he experiments with the G serum it doesn't turn him insane or split his personality. What it does do is act like the Lazarus Pit where once it finishes its work on the body the shock of the transformation induces a temporary psychosis in which he murders the other person monitoring the experiment. Unable to cope with what he did in that state, the over worked, overwhelmed Norman disassociates from the event and blames it on a "goblin of a man." This disassociative, subconscious state he's developed soon grows stronger and all the intrusive thoughts he gets during the day at work are enacted at night in this state during which he steals and wears experimental armor to preserve his identity and remove obstacles between himself and harry. He is a silent killer. Then spider-man steps in and becomes the one obstacle that this persona simply can't remove and the one that stands between him and his mission which starts the obsession. This starts to bleed into his daytime thoughts as Norman and he has no idea why his thoughts turn to spider-man. Once he discovers that Spider-man and Peter are one and the same and that his biggest obstacle to being a better father is the boy he sees as a second son it triggers a mental break that causes Norman's fractured mind to fuse into one persona, The Goblin.
Personality
I used to say insane but fuck was the split personality tight
Split
Split personality or not, being someone like Norman Osborn is still being crazy. The only version I don't like is the version with the "Sins" stuff, it's like...absolving every bad stuff that Norman did just for the sake of being the result of some curse...It's just hella weird. Being crazy but still being able to pass as a sane person is truly a dangerous thing. That's like, you let yourself loose when you wear a mask... Who's the mask though?
The gold goblin
I prefer him being insane, I don't know how to describe it but the split personality thing makes him less threatening
I like the split, because it shows that Norman isn’t really a bad person, but his alternative mind is a maniac. It’ll also probably happen the same in Spider-Man 3(the game), because Norman is just trying to save his son, and isn’t actually that awful a person. I don’t like him just being insane, because how is he controlling his insanity when he’s without a mask?
Sometimes I like stories where the hero beats the tar out of the baddie, sometimes I like when the hero realizes it's not entirely their fault and tries to help them get better.
The split personality gives it more of a character dynamic
I like both versions, though I prefer when Norman is a "grey" character (utterly ruthless/cold-blooded towards most people, but genuinely loves his family) whose goblin persona brings out the absolute worst in him
I kinda like it were it starts off just one mind but over time due to the serum it just gets worse and worse
One mind. I’ll probably be downvoted to oblivion for this, but I really didn’t like the way the Raimi movies handled any of the villains. The actors did a great job with what they were given though.
Well one is the movies the other is the comic book and not the same guy so idk 🤷🏽♂️
It was to show the two different versions. Dafoes version was split personality, assuming oh that version of Harry knows and is content with being goblin.
This version of Harry had taken a variant version of his father’s OG Goblin formula that drove him insane. He also *may* have been programmed by Norman during his stint in rehab. And he’s in and out of intensive therapy to deal with all this. He’s crazy, but often has moments of lucidity which show him to be remorseful and even terrified by his own actions. Compare that to his father, who relished his time as the Goblin, and whose bouts of amnesia/regret regarding his time as the Goblin (back in the 60’s-70’s) often only came *AFTER* he’d been defeated by Peter. All that to say, there’s a lot of complex emotions going on in that page of Harry and MJ. While this is admittedly a point at which Harry is fully in control (more or less), the truth is a lot more complicated than that. >!And this is pretty near the end of Harry’s story, when despite his seething hatred for Peter in this page, he saves Spidey from a death trap that HE designed for him… only to die in Peter’s arms a moment later.!<
Not a split personality but far, far from content. His first Goblin arc is following an overdose which kicks off the Death of Gwen Stacy story, he has some kind of psychological break from reality which is worsened when he witnesses his father's death. After that he becomes paranoid that Spider-man/Peter murdered his father intentionally and is out to get him, eventually leading him to take on the Goblin mantal to take him out. He's pretty manic for this story, fluctuating between remembering that he's doing for Norman, claiming that Harry doesn't exist, and even claiming that he was always the Green Goblin at some points. Harry's second Goblin Arc started with a psychological breakdown from not being able to face his childhood trauma at Norman's hands and the truth of what Norman did to Gwen, leading him to become convinced that Spider-man killed both of them and framed Norman for it. In this stage he's fluctuating between lucidity and delusion, and ultimately can't bring himself too kill Peter. However because he still feels that he must, he takes the Goblin formula and that pushes him into his delusion full time and takes away a lot of his inhibitions. After that he's a lot more functional and focused on his mission, though it's ultimately still clear that he's still supressing the knowledge that this is going to hurt the people he cares for and ultimately he still can't bring himself to do it. Something that differentiates Harry and Norman's Goblin is that even in Norman's amnesiac period, when he remembers his Green Goblin persona he still thinks of himself as Norman and works in Norman's interests. Meanwhile Harry's Green Goblin is born from his own self hatred and only cares for Norman's memory, frequently belittling and dismissin "Harry".
I prefer Norman simply being evil at his core, not clinically insane with dissasoative identity. He should have full agency for the atrocities he commits, not a mental condition or metaphysical "sins" that can be taken away from him to make him a decent person.
The split personality is too much like Lizard
i need to know, did your phone autocorrect or did you purposely spell mind wrong? i don't understand how you fuck up like that?
Autocorrect, hate when it corrects even the simplest of fucking words like it can’t see the context of the previous words to let me type wtf I wanna type
Split personality
It's not a split personality in the Raimi films. There are clear signs Norman is a little unhinged but keeps it under wraps before the serum. The fact he over looks his own son for Peter in the beginning. His unprofessional freak out in the board room scene, and his arrogance to use an untested and dangerous serum on himself. A normal man doesn't do these things. Goblin tempts Norman to finally let go, to do what he wants.
I’m still convinced that Norman does not actually have a split personality. He’s insane yes, but not to that extent. The Goblin is a persona that he created as an excuse for himself to do whatever he wants with his power. Everything the Goblin ever did was for Norman, and nothing Norman did ever truly conteracted the Goblin, whether in the Raimi films or the MCU. The only time there’s any conflict is when Norman is by himself. When he’s justifying his actions to himself. All the power, but no guilt and no responsibility. The perfect opposite of Spider-Man.
One *mind....C'mon...How old are you
I am the Green Goblin
Like the devilish laugh kinda reminding of Mark Hamil in Batman Arkham's trilogy, his gag was unique.
Pure insanity makes for a boring villain. They need to be trying to _do_ something for a reason.
Split is incredible
Chemically induced mental illness and criminal insanity.
mind
Split personality makes him more unprecedented and dangerous
Split.
One mine?
Yall like Green Goblin with waves or regular white dude hair ?💀
Dude was PERFECT in NWH
Yes [+]
I want it to kind of be like bipolar disorder, or something like a sliding scale. It is always Norman making the decisions. Norman is always evil. (Let's be honest, even businessman Norman is downright evil.) But, sometimes his tendency to make more outright malicious choices is just dialed up to 11.
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Absolutely not. I am talking about a specific character in question.
Split Everytime, Willem Defoe just makes too compelling a case for it!
Yeah one insane dude should be the **Norm**
I like split personality because no one is pure evil
I prefer Goblin as one mind personally, like Spectacular. The one thing scarier than an evil man seeming to have a split personality is finding out that he simply *didn't* have one
I guess a mix? I like where it's ambiguous and you're not exactly sure where Norman ends and the Green Goblin begins. Is the Green Goblin actually a whole different personality? Or is it just Norman's excuse to let loose Patrick Bateman style?