#project cataract

What is a cataract? It’s a cloudy area in the lens of the eye (the cornea) that leads to a decrease in vision. It results in a white discoloration of the surface of the eye. Let’s just… consider that a moment. It’s usually white, so… there’s that. A bit literal and on-the-nose for the white color Vision’s body ends up being. But also… it results in a decrease in vision. Obviously, this is mean to be taken literally, as a decrease in the ability to see, but naming the project “cataract” could also have some chilling metaphorical meanings as well. It could mean a decrease in a more philosophical kind of sight. Clouding someone’s vision often means their judgement is affected, their ability to reason or to see situations for what they truly are is diminished. Well one could argue that Hayward’s vision is clouded, and that Vision’s judgement is now a clouded version of what it once was. It’s a diminishing of who and what Vision once was by a misguided man with poor judgement. Clouded vision all around.

It is almost as if Hayward took into account the name of the being he was destroying and enslaving, Vision, and choosing a project name that would reflect what they were going to do to him. I can’t imagine that the choosing of Project Cataract’s name was purely meant to be cute or solely due to the white color of Vision’s refurbished body. Hayward knew exactly what he was doing. Either he never considered Vision to be a real, live being with thoughts and emotions who could experience physical and psychological pain, and therefore didn’t feel badly for doing what he did, or he did believe it… and he didn’t care. That’s a very scary notion.

Also consider for a moment what the eyes represent. “The eyes are the windows to the soul.” The goal of Project Cataract was to remake Vision into a weapon, something he never wanted. They also take away his access to his own memories. A cataract clouds the lens of the eye… literally obscuring the window into the soul. In a sense, S.W.O.R.D. is attempting to remove his soul, or what makes him Vision, by removing his personality and emotional capacity and turning him into something he never would have wanted to become. This very literal loss of the soul of Vision is accompanied by a visual loss as well, his eyes changing from his usual kind, human-like eyes to more robotic, metallic, blue eyes. So there is a philosophical loss of Vision’s soul, who he was as a person, and the literal physical obstruction to “seeing” him in the visual changes to his eyes.

By not granting White Vision access to his own memories, they prevent him from seeing clearly, from seeing the truth of things, from having free will, and from remembering himself. They prevent him from truly being Vision. When Westview Vision restores access to White Vision’s, thereby returning to him what makes him Vision, he restores not only memories but presumably emotional capacity and conscience as well. White Vision’s eyes then change from cold, robotic, and blue, to more human-like. They’re now the eyes he once had as Original Vision. His soul has been returned to him, the windows to it made clear once again. He realizes this too, obviously feeling different about himself, for even if he doesn’t know what to do and decides to leave and think things over on his own, he still announces before he goes, “I am Vision.”