I mostly agree with you, but I think it's about extremes.
The King took his obsession with the MC to mean he has to cut everyone else out of MC's life to "protect" him, even killing others who he felt might tempt MC to leave him. Being a king has tainted his view of people and he does not value anyone else outside of his brother.
Hyo-un has killed people but unintentionally and he never confined MC, clung to him like a baby, but not forced him to not interact with other people. He still gives MC freedom to be who he wants to be. I think Hyo-un likes his solitude but he does not mind people; as shown with the village he put up with a lot of abuse but still wanted someone to care for him.
I do think there are a lot of parallels between them, especially with their backgrounds and a lot of consent in terms of romantic forwardness. Ironically the King looks better in this regard, he is axe-crazy but it does not seem he has forced MC at all sexually despite his obvious obsession unlike Hyo-un who kept crossing boundaries.
You're not wrong.
Both the dragon and the brother even used their own lives as a bargain to make him stay.
*lack of consent I meant
The only difference I really see is that the dragon IS actually still young in the flashback. There could be hope for him (we know how it turns out later on, so I guess not really) but I still feel a little sorry for the young dragon. He grew up physically overnight, but is still a child mentally. A line should have been drawn from the beginning. While there was still a chance. The adult giving in allowed it to go on.
That being said, I completely agree that they both have unhealthy attachments and are stressing this man out.
While I wouldn’t say he forcibly held mc captive he definitely shows similar behavior with the reincarnated mc. He expects him to stay by his side no matter what and panics if mc goes to work or even leaves him to go outside. Sure he’s younger self hasn’t done it and sure during that time he was irrational due to fever but because I as a viewer know how he’ll become I can’t help but think they’re the same dude but with different circumstances. If dragon was put in a position to kill whoever wants to take mc away no matter the reason he would, but he hasn’t because of narrative. If i remember corrected he wrapped himself around a plane or at least caused a major storm during a flight—he def didn’t care about anyone else’s safety but mc’s :/
while I agree with everything you said, thr plane thing and him not caring for everyone elses safety is actually wrong considering he landed the plane down on safe land and made a portal for everyone else to go back to a more safer area and without taehyuk telling him anything
Again, I’m speaking from memory and I don’t know what exact chapter it is to check but I thought he landed it safely because mc asked him to, not out of his own consideration. If he did it without being told I misremembered and I’ll be wrong though it still is reckless to do that in the first place.
It was chapter 26 and I did misremember while it was careless to do that he set it down safely first and send people away before talking to mc. My mistake
Call me crazy but I don’t really see a fundamental difference between the dragon and the king. They both force mc to do stuff he doesn’t want to and have an unhealthy attachment to him. He was their savior because of childhood trauma and he watched them grow up. The only difference is that it would either be a brother x brother relationship or father x son which sucks either way. I don’t understand hating the king and not hating the dragon when they are the same person but in different circumstances. Like genuinely tell me, if mc decided to run away from both of them would their responses be THAT different.