#i feel like these two things may be connected. like i think larson and yellow operate on fundamentally different rules than john and arthur

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

[ @dargonics: Yeah I have thought about this as well. The boring answer to it all is narrative cohesion allows for leeway. The cooler answer is that perhaps the eyes are inconsequential and just collateral. John's type might have different rules in regards to how he senses things. He already perceives things as no human would. That could also just be Arthur's body changing too like with the visions he got post-coma. But we also have to think about other senses that are present for John like hearing. Touch is only the parts he controls and olfactory seems non-existent. So I wonder why hearing is ok? We also have Larson and Yellow that completely negate the idea that there needs to be an exchange. ]

YEAH i was actually also just thinking abt this earlier! larson and yellow appear to share both sound and sight, which suggests that the current understanding they have of john having stolen arthur's vision is not necessarily correct. i think it might be that john does have control over arthur's eyes, since he has use of peripherals like crying, but that might be entirely unrelated to his own ability to see.

headcanon semi-related to the "john may not actually need their eyes to be open to see" thing and also how people can apparently see just by looking at them that something's wrong with arthur's vision: what if john actually has no concept of "focusing" their eyes. he perceives their entire field of view in the exact same level of clarity all at once. john decides where their eyes are pointed as with the rest of the body parts he controls but also has no particular need to look in any direction other than neutrally forward, so he doesn't, which leads to the uncanny impression that arthur never looks directly at any one thing and yet can read and perceive other visual details with ease regardless. somehow.