great visuals, and excellent essay. despite being a quite goodboy, i've always preferred villains over heroes—the latter are usually just so milquetoast. villains not only have more personality, but they're often sexier to me—no surprise that i love gay bears. give me bowser, rocksteady, bluto anyday over their boring rivals~
Haha, yes! Tho I'm more of a Bebop gal myself ;)
I think the fact that villains are sexier has to do with how sexuality is itself vilified. Heroes, and particularly heroines, are supposed to be naive, innocent, pure. So especially in kids media it's only villains who are *permitted* to be sexy. Add to that the queer coding of villains going back decades, and you've got a perfect recipy for crushing on all the baddies.