Preface: I haven’t read the manga but I have a general idea of what happens though that doesn’t really factor into this meta. 

Thank you for stating the obvious, Sing. 

Yut Lung Lee and Ash Lynx are pretty clearly established as foils. Yut Lung is 16, Ash is 17, and both of them are trapped in this system that created their trauma and cages them now, and both paradoxically seem to believe the only freedom is in death while wanting to survive. This quest to survive and to live free reflects itself in their respective relationships with Eiji, as well, as they both tread different paths (currently): Ash is determined to fight until he escapes and makes vital connections with loved ones, whereas Yut Lung closes himself off because he believes there is no hope of escape, so instead he fixates on revenge.

It kind of all comes down to this scene, in which Yut Lung offers Ash a choice that the story seems to be continually offering its characters:

This scene sets up the choices both of these foils are making in that it asks Ash to make a choice in an escape, and explicitly tells him that there is no way out of a literal torture house if he prioritizes revenge. But if he prioritizes saving the people he cares about (Eiji, Max, Ibe, also Shorter’s body), then he can escape. Yut Lung makes the opposite choice, leaving Dino’s house only to return to his brothers, because he is currently prioritizing revenge.

Everything about Yut Lung and Ash appears to be an inverse of the other, from their appearances to their family situations.

Yut Lung comes from a family of power. Ash comes from nothing–a runaway. Yut Lung’s brothers abuse him and pimp him out to creeps, and his mother whom he’s implied to have loved deeply was murdered by these brothers. Ash’s brother raises him, and his biological father abandons him and his adoptive father figure (Dino) abuses him and pimps him out to creeps. Ash is rash, active, rebellious openly; Yut Lung is methodical, outwardly passive, and subtly manipulative. Ash is expected to rise in leadership; Yut Lung is not. Ash just wants to escape but doesn’t believe he can and essentially wants to fight until he dies; Yut Lung wants to burn it all down from the inside, and himself with it.

This manifests itself in their different responses to Eiji as well. Ash repeatedly tries to get Eiji to leave him. Ash wants Eiji to run.

But Yut Lung’s advice to Eiji is to accept it and assimilate.

We also know Yut Lung both resents and covets Eiji–or an Eiji-like figure, someone who can care about him no matter what–which Yut Lung seems to view as a kind of freedom within a cage.

And Yut Lung finds himself giving similar advice to a foil for Eiji (and for himself, and for Ash): Sing. Sing is already a part of the world Yut Lung lives in, and yet Yut Lung tells him he does not want him treading deeper into his world.

But Yut Lung then seems disappointed when Sing acquiesces–leaving precisely to maybe seek revenge on Ash, as Sing tells Yut Lung, instead of staying with him. 

Sing in some respects seems to be both an Eiji potential figure to Yut Lung, but also a younger brother, giving Yut Lung the opportunity to be a protective brother figure like his brothers should have been for him, instead of abusing him. However, Yut Lung’s plans to work from the inside to destroy things make me highly skeptical that he isn’t going to slowly find himself becoming more and more like the brothers he hates, especially if he keeps pushing people away and repressing his emotions (more on the repression in a moment).

As for Ash, we’re recently seen him struggling with that choice Yut Lung gave him yet again, and when he veers closer to the revenge aspect as well, the story punishes him for it and points out that he, too, is becoming like the people he hates. Eiji calls him out on it in the most recent episode.

Murdering people begging for mercy is something that the people Ash hates would do. Revenge is something that perpetuates an abusive cycle rather than letting you escape it.

But Ash comes closest to escaping when he’s vulnerable, when he reveals his emotions, specifically with Eiji.

Yut Lung is too focused on revenge to open up to Sing, or to anyone. Ash expresses his emotions in tears such as in the above scene whereas Yut Lung represses. This scene with Shorter is so fascinating (as @aspoonofsugar pointed out to me) because we know from Yut Lung’s monologue that he agrees about the older Lee clan.

But Yut Lung can’t say what he feels. Shorter is the one who cries, but his tears fall on Yut Lung’s face. Yut Lung relies on others to do the emotional work, whereas Ash usually expresses his emotions even if not in the best of ways.

Continuing along these lines, if we return to the scene wherein Sing tells Yut Lung he hates Ash because he is just like Ash, we see again that Yut Lung both hates Ash for being able to express the emotions he cannot, and also envies him. 

Like Eiji with Ash on his murder gang war spree, Sing calls Yut Lung out on being what he doesn’t want to be. Yut Lung wants to be close to people, and it’s that want that gives me hope for him. 

Ash’s ability to express his emotions connects him with people, and he wears his heart for the people he cares about on his sleeve, perhaps a bit unwisely even at times as it’s a weakness everyone notes. 

But the tragic irony of the situation is that while Ash is desperate to protect his friends, he’s not to protect himself. He repeatedly puts himself in danger for the sake of helping his loved ones and for revenge as well. That’s another trait Ash and Yut Lung share: neither of them appear to believe they deserve to live. 

They hate themselves, probably as a result of the way they are repeatedly abused and commodified by their abusers. Like, these scenes are clear parallels in that they occur in adjacent episodes. Both are forced to dress up to please Dino’s sick desires. 

Ash heads down this path with Banana Fish out of a desire to find out what happened to his brother and a desire to stick it to Golzine, but the people around him routinely complicate this and ask him to deviate to save them, but in saving them Ash has the opportunity to save himself. However, he’s yet to fully realize what it offers. The ability to love people matters, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see Yut Lung have to make a similar choice at some point if he actually develops care for someone. 

Both of them are afraid to live, because they aren’t sure they deserve to. And if Ash and Yut Lung are afraid to live, so is Eiji. But unlike the former two, Eiji has the chance to live free. Ash, because he connects with Eiji, admires this.

Yut Lung, who refuses to open up to anyone, appears to resent it. 

The thing is, regardless of their choices, their loved ones will always be in danger if they dare to have them. Eiji is kind of like a symbolic light in that he knows the danger of caring for Ash and for the others around him, but he chooses to do this anyways, and in doing so, in taking that risk, he is ironically freer than he was before. Sing, though his character has not been fully delved into just yet, also seems to care deeply for people (like Shorter) despite knowing the risks. 

Because of their trauma, we know why Ash is terrified of keeping Eiji close, and why Yut Lung refuses to allow anyone close. But if they want to ever break free, they’ll have to figure out how to take this risk and in doing so, they won’t be able to pursue revenge anymore since the story couldn’t be clearer that the two choices do not go hand in hand. Yet their struggle to do so is again so sympathetic and so understandable, because they are both traumatized children, and it’s heartbreaking and highlights the horror and lifelong effects sexual abuse can have. which is, given current events in the US, perhaps a message certain politicians should hear