Theory about Wesker's eyes
Recently, my moot on tiktok asked a reasonable question: why are Wesker's eyes the way they are? This reminded me of my old theory, which I briefly described to her in one message, to which she replied that it was genius, so I decided to write out this theory in more detail and post it here. Actually I'm posting this mostly because of her lol
I wanted to examine the change in his eyes from a scientific point of view and apply my knowledge of biology and medicine to this issue. In addition, I will also periodically touch on other aspects of the virus's effect on Albert's body.
Let's start by looking at how his eyes changed throughout the series:
RE0 and RE1 - in these parts, he has pale blue eyes, which is his natural eye color. He has no abnormal powers here.
RE: The Umbrella Chronicles - here his eyes are the same shade of blue, only there is a big BUT! When he wakes up after his death, his eyes glow red for a second, and then during the game I noticed that his eyes flash a dull yellow color, but the game itself does not show this change in his eyes, although on the game covers his eyes look different. I attribute the fact that his eyes remain unchanged to Capcom's laziness, because they sometimes do that.
RE CODE: Veronica - here we see the changed eye color and pupil for the first time. Here he is already infected and his power is at its peak, which he actively boasts about.
RE: The Darkside Chronicles - here he has blue eyes again, just like in REUC, which I also attribute to Capcom's laziness.
RE4 -The old model was used here, so he remained with blue eyes.
RE4R - his eyes are somewhere between green and orange. Keep this in mind, as it was one of the factors that led to my theory.
RE5 - throughout the game, his eyes were orange, sometimes turning red when he experienced outbursts of anger. But I want to note that in the concept art for the final scene, his eyes took on their original form, which I also plan to discuss later.
I think you already get that his eye color changes throughout the games, even though canonically his eyes are always shown as cat/snake-like with an orange hue. So, the question is: why is that? We know for sure that it's because of a virus, but what exactly is happening to his body?
Firstly, his pupil, which changes shape in a strange way throughout the games. My theory is that his pupil changed after his “death,” which he experienced after Tyrant pierced him through, triggering the virus that began to fight for Albert’s life by restarting his entire organism and nervous system. Because of this, he developed Beloglazov's symptom, or, more simply, “cat's eyes,” which usually appears 10-15 minutes after death and is one of the early signs of biological death. Perhaps the virus causes such a reaction in the body at its peak when it is strongest, causing the brain to confuse its state with death, because in fact Albert is no longer human and his body may well do so under the influence of the virus.
Secondly: his eyes, which constantly change color. The eyes began to change color and glow because there was a spike in melanin, which made the eyes become more golden/orange. We know that a virus can cause a person's hair to lose its color, which happened to Jill under the influence of P30*, so why can't the Prototype virus have the opposite effect, but with the eyes of the infected?
* [ EDIT!! @sukei-dot-exe corrected me here, thanks for that!! <3 here's his quote ]
"There’s a common misconception surrounding P30.
It’s stated in RE5 that Jill’s hair changed colour during her medically induced coma, before the P30 trials had begun.
This means the pigmentation change was likely due to the t-Virus, as it’s stated she’s producing unusual antibodies after the virus variant returns and subsequently disappears."
But as for the fact that eyes can turn red from flashes of rage or some other strong emotions, maybe later they began to fill with blood (like in RE5 when he was overdosed, his vision also became cloudy and covered with a red veil. Perhaps it's a mix of nausea, headache, and blood rushing to the eyes. I don't know how to describe it more correctly here) or just simply change because of strong emotions, because in Umbrella Chronicles he mentions the virus altering the host depending on their current mental state, the more aggressive he becomes the more red his eyes are. The less aggressive, the more human-like they are.
Let's look at some examples:
In UC, Wesker's eyes glow yellow at certain moments, which is when the virus has just begun to evolve and synthesize with its host.
In RE4R, he is in an average state, as indicated by his greenish-yellow-orange eyes with normal pupils. In the context of the theory, this means that he was controlling his condition to some extent and was in an intermediate state, i.e., he did not allow himself to reach a critical point that would make him vulnerable.
In CV and RE5, his eyes are yellow-red/orange-red with cat-like pupils, and it was in these parts that his power was at its peak. This makes me think of two things: over time, the virus progresses, making his eye color deeper (more orange, with yellow remaining only around his pupil), and it is also possible that over the years, the frequency of serum doses increases due to the virus further developing his body and his abilities becoming more difficult to control (making him taller, developing his muscles, in general making him bigger in all senses. At least that's how I try to explain the fact that in RE5 The Mercenaries mode it says that he is 190 cm (6'3") tall, while in the main game he is about 200 cm (6'7") tall, and in his Uroboros form he becomes even taller. Perhaps when he returns to his normal state, he takes on his usual form, shrinking, so to speak).
And this is where I want to talk about the concept art with the ending that Capcom originally planned, where you can see Wesker's blue eye with its normal pupil. My theory is this: in the ending, he wasn't supposed to be overdosed, but rather, they were going to somehow deprive him of his injections, which would cause him to lose his superpowers, becoming weaker and more vulnerable, which would cause his eyes to take on their original appearance. At least this fits well with my theory about melanin and Beloglazov's trait (cat's eye).
So, we understand what is happening with his eyes, but what about his vision?
In my personal opinion, he has perfect 20/20 vision, but his eyes could potentially become more sensitive to light due to constantly wearing shades. Maybe he just has sensitive eyes or has migraines.
I also believe that in the 80s and 90s he wore glasses not only to “hide his emotions,” but also to hide his fatigue, because his model from RE1R clearly shows how tired his eyes are, with dark circles under them. He worked for Umbrella and S.T.A.R.S. at the same time, so it's no surprise that he was tired most of the time. (I'm not talking about the model from UC, because he literally died then. It would be strange if he didn't look tired after he was actually killed by being pierced through)
Based on all of this, I draw the following conclusions:
Wesker's eye color and pupil shape are not constant and change due to the virus and PG67A/W injections. The Prototype virus can change the color of the eyes, making them darker (to a yellow or red hue) as melanin is produced, as well as changing the appearance of the pupil, possibly due to the fact that the body may think that the virus carrier is dead, thereby causing the Beloglazov symptom. And let's not forget about periodic bio-illumination, which occurs when the virus is at its peak.
Without regular injections, the carrier's eyes may lighten due to a decrease in the production of this pigment, and the pupil takes on its original human form. This may also be related to disorders in the central nervous system or hormonal balance, which is very likely in Albert's case. And yes, the virus makes his eyes glow, but it does NOT allow him to see in the dark, as confirmed by what we see in RE5 during the boss fight when the projectors had to be turned off.
… or maybe Capcom just screwed up because they were too lazy to refine the models, replacing the eye textures.
As for his eyes in RE4R, they could have simply revised the shape of the pupil and made his mutation more realistic by simply making his eyes yellow-orange (they may look green because blue and yellow mix together, making the eyes appear green. People with green eyes may notice the same thing in themselves, by the way.)
That's all I have to say about his eyes for now. This is the first time I've written something like this; I've never written down my theories/headcanons before, so I apologize if I've written this in a confusing way and repeated the same things several times. Thanks for taking the time to read! ^.^
P.S. While editing the text, I decided to see if anyone else had written similar theories and came across this post by Cenori. It's not just about Wesker's eyes, but also about how PG67A/W affects his abilities. To my delight, we have similar thoughts! I highly recommend reading it if you haven't seen this post yet, it's a great piece of work :з
https://cenorii.tumblr.com/post/747203730972213248/drunken-theory-about-eyes
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