General Overview

Edward Nygma was an employee in the electronics division of Wayne Enterprises - personally hired by Bruce Wayne himself (well, they hadn't met before, but his name was on the hire slip). He's often described (in the movie and other official media) as obsessed, sycophantic, megalomaniacal, and brilliant, as well as awkward and - most fittingly - nerd supreme.
Regarding Bruce, Edward is (pretty obviously) obsessed with him, going so far as to decorate the opposite wall of his cubicle with magazine covers, photographs, and articles Bruce is featured on (you could consider it...ehm...a shrine *cough*) and having his Wayne Enterprises hire slip framed.
(Later in the movie he also essentially cosplays Bruce down to the mole on his face)
He's very fond of riddles and puzzles, and is incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to computers and tech (and...generally anything), having invented a mind-reading device that manipulates brainwaves to beam TV signals directly into the brain (therefore, putting the viewer "inside the show") named the Remote Encephalogram/Encephalographic Stimulator Box; or, simply, The Box.

My Interpretations

Though his motivations to create The Box are a little muddy (he literally only says one sentence about it), as the neural effects weren't planned (as far as I know) and only came to light during his experimentation with Stickley, I'd wager he created it out of unhappiness with his life.
When you have nothing but your job where everyone hates you, a tiny (and admittedly pretty shitty) apartment, and deep-seated jealousy for the man you work for, you're bound to want something more out of life. Something different. An escape.
This is mostly backed up by pages 18 and 20 of the novelization, where he ruminates on his lower middle-class homelife, and his explanation of The Box to Bruce . Further, if music from the movie is anything to go by, Bad Days is essentially his theme considering it plays during the scene in his apartment and aligns a lot with him in general, so that could be considered proof as well.

In both the script by Akiva Goldsman and the novelization by Peter David, Edward is a lot more... intense, for a lack of a better word. Consider these examples (click for high-res):

His overt clinginess, jealousy, and intense anger towards Bruce (though all primarily caused by things not going his way), coupled with his former idolization and almost stalkerish behavior (along with everything else I've listed on this page), has led me to, inevitably, theorize about his mental state and what could be going on with him to cause this. And yes I do think he has BPD we're all waiting for it so i'll just say it outright.

What Edward Means to Me

Getting a little serious here, as someone with BPD, representation is everything to me - BPD is incredibly horribly stigmatized which does impact my thoughts on myself in regards to it. That, coupled with the lack of resources (or, I guess, honestly just the lack of wanting anything official in fear of my quality of life being hindered) which causes the "I'm going to be like this forever" feeling (and how it takes up a lot of who I am), does not make me feel any better about my situation.
Normally I'd go on a whole spiel about how I learned about him in "a difficult time in my life" but I'm not real sure how that's going right now...I can't even brag about being content with my life, since I really don't know what I'm doing with it or who's even making the decisions at this point. ...well, when I put it that way, I guess I kinda did learn about him during a difficult time, and he has made it marginally brighter. Bonus points?
Though Edward is far from the perfect rolemodel and...probably shouldn't be seen as one at all, it's nice to just have someone to relate to (even if just through headcanons), at the very least; and there's a lot for me to relate to when it comes to him...much more than I'd like to admit, a mental disorder is really only the tip of the iceberg here. A more accurate way to describe it would be...
"You experience the same things as me, and I like you a lot, so maybe I can like myself, too".
(I'm also just a massive sucker for cute dorky guys..)
On a lighter note (and so this isn't just me talking about my mental problems..), I've bought one of the Fleer trading cards of him, specifically the one pictured at the top of this page. I'll link a picutre here and probably reformat this section a bit when it comes in the mail... I'm not sure where I'll put it, but hopefully I'll have enough desk space to put it where I can see it - admittedly (and pretty damn obviously), seeing him makes me happy.

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