I don’t think people who assume Dragon Boy(might use Liang Long just cause it’s easier to type) joined Yan Mo and is happily going along with him understand his character, even saying he wasn’t manipulated and groomed.
Liang Long is a victim who grew comfortable in his abuse. He’s not going to argue or be upset like many other victims portrayed in media, and that sets the idea that he’s doing this of his will and enjoyment, but that’s not what’s happening.
To start, I think we have to start with what Yan Mo promised Liang Long and Liang Long’s description of what he means by trash.
I’ve seen some people think he means ALL people or bad people, and while bad people isn’t inherently wrong it’s still too ambiguous.
We are told upright just by his character sheet that all people aren’t trash to him, he helps children cross the road and participates in volunteer work, it’s clear just by that that Liang Long is someone who cares, about people—and since it’s not clarified what volunteer work—it can be assumed he does all sorts of different community service, so someone who cares for the environment as well.
Bad people, as I said, is too ambiguous in my opinion, not giving a good view of who he thinks as bad people, we don’t know the criteria, but there is something I would think of as a better descriptor:
We’ve seen Liang Long call quite a few people trash, in every scenario being in a fight(I say as though we’ve seen him out of a fight before) with the only one exception—the first he ever saw as trash—his parents as they leave him to drown.
Each of these occasions happen when Liang Long is or was in danger, even if we don’t know the context of the PV we know they were criminals, who didn’t seem to be implied as simple robbers. They had weapons and masks and nothing else, it’s very easy to assume they were or were planning to attack someone.
Liang Long views someone who’s willing to hurt someone—including himself—as someone who is trash and needs to be cleaned up. What Yan Mo essentially promised to Liang Long is that he will have the power to get rid or dangerous people if he becomes Zero, if he becomes Zero, he and other people will be safe.
That’s even in his power. Liang Long will get more powerful the more hits he takes, so he always makes sure to start on the defence, never making the first move. He makes sure he stays in a position of self-defence, till he’s able to eliminate the threat.
Yan Mo promised eventual safety to an abuse victim if that abuse victim follows through with what he says. He tells that victim that he will go through more pain and—as long as he can handle it—he will become strong enough to be safe.
Liang Long doesn’t enjoy working with Yan Mo, he enjoys coming a step closer to the safety that was falsely promised to him.
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