me, as a kid: *asked to explain why I like the antagonists of my favourite cartoons and games better than I do the protagonists* they're cooler, I guess?? I don't fuckin know.
me, as an adult: *being competent in modern media analysis and having come to grips with my queer identity* there is a significant overlap between the tropes we use to code characters as queer and the ones we use to code them as villains, deviants, outsiders.
also me, as an adult: jessie and james are fuckin cool, tho.
@Alexis
OG team rocket and Jessie and James for goddamn life, yo.
@Alexis SAME! I had no idea at the time why I gravitated to them so much and why I was "rooting for the villains" (other than the fact they were quintessentially not actually bad people, just they were in with the wrong crowd but had good hearts when it really came down to it. they just treated it like a job and they were hard working and loyal to TR), but I just adored how much confidence they had in themselves, and how they just did not give A Single Fuck about society's rules on gender.
@Nine They were coded extremely queer, and were both unapologetic and super confident about that, of COURSE I latched on to them!