you know people talk about 'john apologism' but
I have not seen people hold Arthur accountable at *all* for Yellow. Not in the sense of how mean he was to Yellow (and he was), but that he was a 'thing' at all.
And if you think about that for more than five seconds, *that* is horrifying as all shit.
Because imagine someone you love, when they are alone and scared, missing you, said: 'yeah, you can totally erase their entire life, just give them back to me so I'm not alone'. All the choices you've made, all the things you've decided, all the ideas you've had? Just gone. It is the *most* dehumanizing thing in the entire fucking show: who he is? dun care, but I want my emotional support voice back.
Because that *includes* the memories he got back from the encounter with the King, cause Yellow didn't know anything of that. Arthur knew about it. So as far as Arthur knew, he was entirely erasing everything that John was *and* the memories he'd paid for with his mistakes that made his choices have meaning in comparison. And that Arthur still had feelings about (aka was still very much willing to hold against him).
And to be clear, Kayne was real specific. Arthur was real specific. This was not about John being "safe": it was about Arthur getting him back. And Arthur thought that was more important than all the things John had done, the decisions he'd made, the transformation he'd gone through. More important than John understanding who he is and why he made these choices.
Arthur lost his shit at the idea of having five seconds erased in a life of 34 years (rightfully so! that was shitty, John) but he was a okay with erasing everything that John was and had become, including what memories he had of his existence before Arthur. Eons upon eons.
And no one really mentions it. Arthur has *never* apologized for it. Arthur has never even acknowledged how horrific that is to John, never treated it as something questionable let alone wrong. John's memories and sense of self, John's personhood is... whatever, apparently.
