I read your most recent post about She Li and I wanted to ask because I've talked to some fans and some like to ship buzz cut boy/Baldie with She Li. I haven't formed an opinion yet. I just wanted to know your opinion on it and how it could work.
Good evening, dear anon-san! (_ _)
“I read your most recent post about She Li”
I’m assuming you’re talking about this ask about my thoughts on SL’s sexuality. Just to make sure people reading have the necessary context available. (^_^) That post also points readers to my thoughts on SL-related ships I’ve talked about before, but to summarize, I don’t ship SL with either MGS or JY. Overall, I find SL and romantic love a very difficult combination to really say much about. It’s mostly just my own mullings and vibes I’ve gotten.
“I just wanted to know your opinion on it and how it could work.”
Perhaps a bit surprisingly after everything I’ve said about SL, I’m one of the people who ship him with Cuntou. (I’m going to use that name instead of Buzzcut because it forms the other half of their shipname, LiTou.) It’s kind of difficult to explain why I ship them...But I guess I can try. This post will probably make me sound very weird... (^_^ ‘‘) I get it if not everyone can really understand what I’m talking about.
Before anyone misunderstands where I’m coming from, let me clarify that I don’t think this ship has any base in canon. I don’t think they’re romantically interested in each other whatsoever or ever will be. To me, this ship is purely based on my own fanon and mostly about self-indulgence. Pairing SL with Cuntou allows me to see SL in a light I personally want to see him in. The ship offers me scenarios that bring out the sides of him we haven’t seen in canon but which I wish he has. I have many dark ships involving antagonistic or otherwise dysfunctional characters, and they help satisfy my need for someone seeing the “bad guys’” other sides. I tend to fall in love with the antagonists more often than not because I relate to them on various levels. Their hate, bitterness, loneliness, jealousy, envy, and pettiness resonates with me. My personal craving is some other character seeing behind all that and still loving them and caring about them.
To me, LiTou is one of those ships. It offers me content of someone “good” caring for someone “bad”. SL would love Cuntou in his own way, and Cuntou would understand and accept his way of loving. Cuntou would bring out a softer and more caring side to SL. He would be dark, broody and give off a dangerous aura but Cuntou would smile at him anyway and not be scared off. And SL would find some kind of peace around Cuntou and overall show his more vulnerable sides with him.
Regardless of the ship itself, I think Cuntou’s character could be the kind that is able to form connections to someone who is generally speaking rejected by others. I think he has that kind of relationship with MGS (ch. 154):
He might see MGS as his “boss” and be a bit scared of him but I think he also got closer to MGS than others. Before HT, JY, and ZZX got involved, I think Cuntou might have been the closest thing MGS had for a friend. He was a part of MGS’s group and kind of expected to follow him, but I think MGS might have opened up to him at least a little. He was the only one who would always walk out with MGS. I picture those sides of Cuntou being present in LiTou, too.
Another thing that appeals to me in LiTou is that it combines two opposites. (I have a thing for those kinds ships which is I why often end up shipping antagonists and protagonists.) It’s abundantly clear that SL is very much the antagonist in 19 Days. He’s dangerous, violent, manipulative, and twisted. Cuntou is a part of MGS’s delinquent gang but he still comes across as a good kid at heart. The way he and the other boys keep following MGS around and calling him their “boss” makes them look precious and pure rather than threatening. That combination of “good/earnest/precious” and “bad/dark/twisted” is very much my jam when it comes to ships.
As I said, self-indulgence and very little to do with canon. I imagine not many people can quite make that reach, and SL’s character especially is probably difficult to connect with. But this ship makes me feel a certain way and feeds my personal shipping cravings. I don’t know if my explanation as to why I ship them helped you see how it “works” but I’m glad to hear your mind is open. It’s okay if you don’t end up shipping LiTou, but it’s always a good sign if you’re curious to see others’ perspectives.
Thank you for your question, dear anon-san! (_ _)
PS: If you’re interested in LiTou content to see how you would feel about it, I recommend @hien-neih‘s art. It’s adorable and fits how I see the ship.
