It’s a difficult one alright, I don’t believe the dragon is a bad person, but as confirmed in this weeks chapter he was suffering from his slow decay and took out his anger/fear out on Ha-on. I mean, despite the rape the dragon does take care of him, making a bath for him after sex and feeding him these berries is supposed to heal the marks of sex.
And the regret is obvious on him in present times
I absolutely agree! The lack of care towards humans can show us, how he sees humanity (under him, weak and a tool). He's a dragon that wants to keep on living and is desperate with the solution, he doesn't understand feelings nor he can maturely identify it.
All those years can show us how he grew up and the regret of his actions (even if in the past he didn't know better) he doesn't sugarcoat it and wants to tell the whole truth but I want him to suffer more lol.
Also the author and the story don't treat his actions as something good or unavoidable. That is a good way to deal with delicate themes.
as much as i would have appreciated not having the non con / dub con (sorry idk the exact term that'd apply here) part of the past , i do think that since the ml is essentially not human, so we can't apply human standards to him? this isn't me trying to justify what he did in anyway nor I am trying to say anything bad about the story because its def intriguing to read and too soon to judge the characters and the plot and I want to see how everything plays out. I do believe that there are other ways a creator can show such characters without adding the forced parts but this is just me trying to see what other reader's opinions are because at present the character development/personality difference is very stark Indeed.