I Think The ​jekyll And Hyde Route For Green Goblin’s Character Is Much More Fitting When It’s Harry Who’s The Goblin - Blog Posts

Also, to add onto this because I literally discovered this seconds after seeing this post completely on accident. This post inspired me to go watch the show on yt and I was just scrolling through the compilation video of the first season and somehow happened to stumble on this specific scene.

Like, his face is illuminated by harsh shadows, he’s speaking in the same voice, he’s making the same face, all while talking about unmasking the Green Goblin. This was foreshadowing.

I think what this scene says most of all though is that he always wanted to be discovered. He always wanted to be unmasked. Because if we were supposed to actually believe Norman Osborn wasn’t him than as the audience, then there’s no way he would have been gleeful about it being “too late” to unmask the vigilante who’s stealing all his equipment and putting his company in shambles.

His testament about the mask being your real face and your face being a mask was supposed to be an admission to wanting his literal face to be discovered this entire time so he can live out life with his true one.

So yeah, I’d definitely say it’s a relief for him. More then.

And the thing is… I’ve literally never thought of this scene before? Lol. I don’t even remember it. Like I swear I found it completely on accident right after seeing this post.

I love the little smirk Norman has when his identity is found out; It speaks volumes because of how it feels atypical to the character, but not to his alter-ego. The way “Norman” would act would probably be more… grim frustration, a snarl. But instead we have a cheeky “Oh look at that! I’ve been caught!” smile that is so much more Green Goblin. He went through all that trouble to hide his identity but when it’s found out, he may as well revel in the chaos it causes because why not?

The logical Norman side should be frustrated at being exposed, but the goblin who loves to torment others over anything else digs into how much turmoil it’s inflicting on his son. There’s a deep-down playfulness that wanted to be caught, it’s the same attitude that led to Norman acting like that at all because he always wanted to, and he wanted to not have to bother with any mask. Dare I say there’s relief.

It really sells that Norman and the Green Goblin are the same, that we get to see Gobby through Norman’s face instead of abstracting one as the other. “And you saw me limp away” plus his final line in the show really lean into Norman with Green Goblin mannerisms and I’d have loved to see the character just go full ham and rhymes and poetry to disperse any doubt. Make it clear it wasn’t the serum that affected his behavior, it was the mask, which ironically made him go mask-off. I bet the writers had a moment like this planned, possibly for the final scenes of the character, before the cancellation.