I actually kind of do want to see Vox 'downgraded' back to box-form but approached as the grotesque whumpy horror concept it is. like that is quite literally one of Vox's worst nightmares, right up there with 'irreparable public humiliation' in terms of things Vox would flat out rather die than have to endure. whether by necessity or an external force his body is being altered against his wishes in a way he considers deeply and intrinsically degrading + deprives him of functional abilities he's come to take for granted. like imagine how isolating and disorienting it would be to be hooked up to a whole technological network and have the internet in your brain and an internal clock and the ability to send calls at will and all the rest of it, only for it to be abruptly ripped away from you all at once. the actual physical shape takes time to readjust to and when he finally does get used to it that's worse because it hits him all at once that he's starting to process this thing he doesn't want as part of his body instead of an invasive foreign object he's temporarily been made to host. and insult to injury almost no one can understand what makes it all such a big deal.
it's just. we could make it so fucked up. I feel like because a lot of people find Box!Vox cute and he seemed happier or at least more comfortable with himself during that period there's an automatic assumption that regressing back to that would be a positive or at worst neutral experience for him. And generally this reads to me as ignoring his actual values as a character in favor of projecting a preconceived set of priorities onto him—swapping one's entire head out is not a small thing and there are reasons he has made the extremely active and intentional choice to have the body he has now. reversing that decision would be an overwhelming violation of his body, mind, autonomy, and identity all at once, and I think that's fantastic.
I think everyone in-universe should ALSO keep telling Vox that this is a good thing. That the upgrades were hurting him. That this is his genuine realest self and he doesn't need to be constantly improving in order to have value and be loved. Which is almost an affirmation, but Vox doesn't want to be some anachronistic relic stuck in permanent 1950s stasis and all he hears is that he has no control over who he is, that every accomplishment is just a costume he was putting on, that he can never be more than what he is so he should just. stop. trying. and he is very normal and well adjusted about all of that
no. no. listen. alastor giving him all these not-quite-compliments that make it REALLY clear he likes vox better this way and is willing to reward him in the form of semi-explicit validation, and it's driving vox insane because he can finally have a sliver of Alastor's genuine approval but only by changing in a way that makes him hate himself. and contrary to all expectations the fact that Alastor apparently likes him more now does nothing to mitigate how awful it feels
(alastor, for the record, knows EXACTLY what he's doing, and it's the only reason he's being so openly nice in the first place)
"you got horrific detransition metaphors in my ableism!", "you got ableism in my horrific detransition metaphors!" and then the analogies kissed and the depressed queers with chronic health conditions got catharsis through a tv's suffering.
