- "James Gordon, we could have a good thing, you and I...You just had to go and ruin it."
- —Sofia Falcone to Jim Gordon[src]
Sofia Falcone is a prolific mob boss who succeeded in dismantling Oswald Cobblepot's criminal empire and initiating the Falcone Home and School for Orphans.
Sofia is also the estranged daughter of the late Carmine Falcone, the sister of the late Mario Calvi and the ex-lover of Jim Gordon.
Sofia had resided in Miami with her father, Carmine. Sofia's reign came to an end shortly after she had killed her father when she had attempted to kill Jim but she was shot in the head by Lee Thompkins and put into a coma.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Sofia was born inside the criminal Falcone family. She was the only daughter of Carmine Falcone and the sister of an unnamed man and Mario Falcone, later Calvi. While Sofia grew up, she did not experience much warmth from her father who was busy leading his criminal empire. But Sofia still managed to get a good look behind the machinery of Carmine's criminal network. When she was 13 years old, Carmine sent Sofia away from Gotham to Miami to prevent her from being corrupted by the city. Instead, Sofia tended to Carmine Falcone's businesses in the southern US.
Life in Miami[]
- "What do you think I've been doing down south the past ten years?"
- —Sofia Falcone to James Gordon[src]
About 10 years later, Jim Gordon travelled to Miami to persuade Carmine Falcone to help him topple ruling crime lord Oswald Cobblepot and met Sofia, horse-riding prodigy. Gordon begged Falcone to help him restore order to Gotham to which Sofia had offered to help, but was shut down by her father.[1]
Return to Gotham[]
Sofia paid a visit to Penguin in Gotham, accompanied by Giovanni and Rinaldi, who wanted her to resume leadership of the Falcone crime family. Oswald overpowered her, and had Victor Zsasz kill the capos. In return, Sofia invited Oswald to Janos Szabo's restaurant where she served goulash inspired by Oswald's mother, Gertrud Kapelput's, recipe.[2]
After tailing Sofia to a meeting with Mayor Burke, Zsasz reported to Cobblepot that she was up to something - in fact, renaming a historic orphanage to the Falcone Home and School for Orphans. Cobblepot visited Sofia at the Home and befriended an orphan, named Martin. Noting mayor Burke's absence, Cobblepot secretly asked Martin to spy on her.
Professor Pyg gatecrashed a charity dinner for the Home, held the guests hostage, and forced them to eat pies containing human organs. When Sofia protested, Professor Pyg stabbed her in the hand. After they were freed, Martin witnessed Sofia kissing Gordon and reported this fact to Cobblepot.
War with Cobblepot[]
Cobblepot, who thought Sofia was interested in him, confronted Sofia over her affair with Gordon and handed her over to the torturer, the Dentist, who let her go after she threatened his family. Then, she was abducted by the Sirens who try to ransom her off to Cobblepot. Instead, Cobblepot had Zsasz to blow up their base. Gordon puts Sofia on a train to Miami under the alias Vanessa Harper. She was accosted midway by Zsasz, but released after revealing she had Martin hostage. Sofia met Cobblepot under the Crownpoint Bridge to hand over Martin, but Cobblepot appears to explode the boy with a car bomb before declaring war on Sofia. Back at Falcone Manor, Carmine berated his daughter for her actions and forced her to return to Miami. In the driveway, an unmarked van opened fire on the family, crippling Sofia and killing Carmine. Rumor spread that Cobblepot was to blame. Sofia testified to Cobblepot killing Martin and he is arrested, which tips Gordon off to her schemes and when confronted, she reveals that she was the mastermind behind Pyg's killings.
Becoming the new Don Falcone[]
With Penguin in Arkham, Sofia took control of Gotham's criminal underworld. After a cryptic phone call to Gordon, Sofia invited Lee Thompkins to the Falcone Mansion to reminisce about her brother and Lee's husband, Mario Calvi. As concerned leader of the Narrows, Lee questioned the illegal 30% tax on one of Gotham's poorest neighborhoods, which Sofia justified as a necessary sacrifice. Later, Sofia met with Lee in the Narrows to ask her to hand over ownership of the neighborhood. Tensions escalated and shooting broke out, ending when Sofia crushed Lee's hand with a hammer, leaving Sampson in control of the Narrows.
After Edward Nygma had rescued Martin, Sofia ordered Victor Zsasz to kill Cobblepot in Arkham. Cobblepot escaped and she had ordered the Sirens to capture Nygma. They did and the Dentist tortured him for Cobblepot's location to no avail.
Victor Fries arrives with Penguin frozen in a block of ice, demanding a reward. But it's a ploy to rescue Nygma. Meanwhile, Sofia's bookkeeper, Mr. Penn, had gone missing and Zsasz finally tracked him to Spa Bo'sh Sumka. Sofia, her hired thugs, Gordon, and Bullock arrive at the spa and initiate a shootout.
Coma[]
Gordon killed two thugs in the kitchen before Sofia had arrived and shot him in the shoulder. Without bullets after attempting to shoot her, he staggers to the next room with Sofia following. As she approached, she accused Gordon of being arrogant and repeating her father's short-sighted mistakes. She gave him a chance to start over again, by begging for his life and asking for forgiveness. He replied by telling her to go to hell, which resulted to Sofia preparing to finish him by saying that their story ends here. Suddenly, Lee entered the kitchen and shot Sofia in the abdomen, turning around and realizing her mistake, and again between the eyes, putting her in a coma.
Legacy[]
Jim Gordon's Guilt[]
Sofia's plan to make Gotham City suffer for Mario's death by sending Pyg on a killing spree, left Jim Gordon with guilt over the cops that were killed by both Pyg and Sofia herself, due to the fact that he had (reluctantly) got involved with the latter.
Valeska brothers fills power vaccum[]
Sofia entering a coma created a power vacuum, one that Jerome Valeska and Gotham's other criminally insane competed to fill. Jerome's death followed by the rise of his twin brother, Jeremiah Valeska.
No Man's Land[]
During the No Man's Land era of Gotham, Penguin harbored lingering resentment against Sofia for her betrayal. Victor Zsasz also remained loyal to the Falcone name and resisted joining Cobblepot's gang as long as he could. Cobblepot also tried to convince Mr. Penn that they are in fact friends, especially for what they went through against Sofia, so Scarface does not kill him.
Personality[]
Despite being raised in the Falcone family, Sofia (initially) appeared to be a kind, caring, selfless, polite, respectful, and naive individual. She is also far more honorable than her father, Carmine Falcone, as she appeared to have no grudge against Jim Gordon for killing her brother, Mario Calvi, as she was completely aware of the fact that he was infected by the Alice Tetch virus and stating to Jim that "you did what he had to do".
Sofia also came across as a brave, manipulative, intelligent, and calculating individual, with the appearance of an innocent woman. She also appeared to be remorseful when seeing her father's remaining loyalists being murdered by Victor Zsasz in order to gain Oswald Cobblepot's trust, proving that she has a moral compass.
But after Cobblepot's downfall and Sofia's father Carmine Falcone's death, it was revealed that most of these traits were nothing more than a facade in order for Sofia to hide her true nature. Despite stating that she had understood Jim's reason for killing her brother, her campaign in Gotham was nothing more than a vendetta to avenge him, no matter how many deaths it would take to achieve it. Although her relationship with her brother is never seen, it is assumed that it was a caring one; given her true personality, it is possibly another facade.
In truth, Sofia is actually an arrogant, cowardly, cold, cruel, dishonorable, egotistical, overconfident, selfish, sadistic, ruthless, immoral, and unstable individual who has no guilt, shame, or remorse for any of her despicable actions. She also has no regard for the safety of children, as she is more than willing to kidnap a child that Cobblepot is fond of and places him in danger in order to draw him out. Due to these traits, her father considers her a complete disgrace to the Falcone name and would have had her killed if she was not his daughter.
Sofia's arrogant and egotistical traits are to the point of being delusional. For example, she goes as far as to kill her own father, Carmine, when he refuses to allow her to rebuild his criminal empire, as she simply thinks of him as ungrateful. Therefore, her hunger for power pushed her far enough to have him killed in order to claim his place as the leader of his empire.
Sofia also has a sense of arrogance and smugness, reveling in outsmarting, outplaying, and outmaneuvering others with both words and body language, making clear her sense of superiority over others, such as when she had viciously mutilated Lee Thompkins and then had her thrown into the streets just to be spiteful. But her arrogance, egotistical, and overconfidence traits proved to be her downfall, as she had made a lot of enemies who would later unite against her and hunt her down.
One of Sofia's most notable traits is how delusional she truly is, as seen when she tries to defend her actions of killing her father, Carmine, believing that he had brought it upon himself.Physical appearance[]
Sofia is a petite, dark-haired woman with bushy brows. She wears a little light makeup and bright red lipstick. Her most iconic outfit is a pinstripe suit with black leather gloves, but she is often seen wearing low-cut black cocktail dresses with red accessories.
Abilities[]
- "She's making alliances with politicians, building a fortress, all the while she's pretending to be my friend. She's been planning a war."
- —Oswald Cobblepot[src]
- High-level intellect: Sofia is a highly intelligent individual with a decade of experience of running her father, Carmine Falcone's mob business in Miami. She is also a skilled tactician and capable leader, maneuvering the Falcone crime family to accumulate great wealth and avoid run-ins with the law.
- Expert of deception/Manipulator: Although Sofia comes across as innocent and naive, she is highly calculating. She had tricked the police detective, Jim Gordon; into a long-term relationship and manipulated him into taking down her rival, Oswald Cobblepot.
- Intimidation: Sofia commands an intimidating presence, capable of turning the most seasoned capo.
- Network: As a member of the Falcone family, Sofia has access to almost unlimited resources, as well as complete influence over Gotham's criminal underworld.
- Skilled markswoman: Sofia is capable of using firearms and counting her opponents' bullets.
Weaknesses[]
- Arrogance: Due to being a member of the Falcone family; Sofia has a massive ego to the point of underestimating her opponents. For example, she did not consider Lee Thompkins a threat to her, as well as the fact that she did not consider how the latter would retaliate, after she had mutilated sister-in-law and then had her thrown into the streets. Sofia's arrogance prove to be her downfall; just as she was about to kill Jim Gordon, she was suddenly shot, she then turned around and saw that the individual who had shot her was Lee. She realized too late that she had made the mistake in underestimating her sister-in-law which resulted in her being put in a coma.
Appearances[]
Trivia[]
- In "They Who Hide Behind Masks", Sofia had stated that; she had moved away from Gotham City when she was 13 and later had stated that; she had spent the last 10 years living there, meaning that she is 23 years old at the time of her debut.
- During the second quarter of Season 4, Sofia appears as the hidden Bigger Bad, the force behind Professor Pyg, as she was secretly planning to take over the Gotham Underworld. She later becomes the main antagonist during the third quarter before Jerome and Jeremiah Valeska take over.
- Sofia Falcone is the third and final villain who had managed to completely destroy Penguin's criminal empire, following Theo Galavan and Edward Nygma.
- As of "A Dark Knight: Queen Takes Knight", Sofia is the last surviving member of the Falcone family.
- As of "A Dark Knight: The Sinking Ship, The Grand Applause", Sofia is in a coma.
- As of "Legend of the Dark Knight: The Beginning...", it is unknown whether or not ofia is still in a coma or if she had come out of it. If Sofia did come out of her coma (off-screen), she would go to prison for all the crimes that she had committed, such as her role in the Pyg murders.
Behind the scenes[]
- In DC comics, Sofia made her debut in Batman: The Long Halloween #6 (May 1997) as one Carmine Falcone's three children. She later appeared in the sequel series Batman: Dark Victory (1999-2000) as the Hangman Killer, murdering Harvey Dent's associates to avenge her father's death. Like her relatives, she was designed to resemble a member of the Corleone crime family from The Godfather novel, Sonny Corleone in particular, due to Sofia's fiery temper.
- Due to Sofia's more tactical and calculating nature, she in Gotham is more comparable to Michael Corleone.
- This version of Sofia is the first live action version of her character.
- Crystal Reed informed fans at Warsaw Comic Con in October 2018 that Sofia Falcone won't return to Gotham in season 5.
References[]
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