Tian Yao character discussion

i just finished watching back from the brink (i know i’m very late😭) and i’m obsessed with it!! i think it broke me out of my drama slump, because i haven’t completed a drama in a very long time :’) i just finished it yesterday, but i’m starting my rewatch today >_<

the character i’m most confused about is tianyao, and i’m curious as to how everyone interprets his character?

his expression is often stoic (bc of how he closed his heart off from the world due to suying), so sometimes it’s hard to interpret how he’s feeling.

🌟 i’m mainly confused about him because i’ve read comments saying that he started off manipulating yanhui for his own benefits, and i’m just curious why does he need yanhui’s help to retrieve all his body parts (is it because she has the heart protecting scale?).
there was a particular flashback where it shows tianyao saying he would not have cared for yanhui if she didn’t have the heart protecting scale, does that make him a cold and heartless person because he basically made use of her for his own benefit?
when i first watched it i couldn’t telll he was manipulating her. i felt like his kindness towards the granny and yanhui were genuine. but was he just making use of them? (also why did he have to pretend to be a doofus?)
i know tianyao slowly opened his heart, but did he open his heart just to yanhui or did he bestow kindness genuinely to others as well?
what are y’all interpretation of his character? is he selfless or selfish?

i just wanted to know if there’s any back from the brink hardcore fans that can have a conversation w me about him (even though i’m ages late to the fandom-) 🥺
thank you 🤍

I would say he was definitely acting selfishly at first, since he was overcome with hatred and bitterness. He was only trying to use YH and kept tricking her, and also stabbed her quite a few times, like ouch. But he slowly warmed up to her afterwards, after all the time she spent trying to protect him and help him, he probably felt that she could br trusted. But even when he fell in love, he resisted against it, cuz he fears weddings and love and romance. He overcame that slowly, took him a while to really get over that dark shadow of his past. We also saw him as a dragon king before meeting that bish, he was pure of heart, kind to all, and a good king. 

Overall, I think his character is originally one of only pureness and goodness, which turned bitter due to betrayal, but healed with the love of FL. He is now no longer as pure, but has gone through tribulations and learned of the ways of the world. The way we saw him being naughty and sly, and claiming he 'learned from FL', I feel that is the perfect sum up of his character. Still good, but also learned to be just a bit 'bad' sometimes