That's an interesting view, and not one I wholly disagree with! (Mean to imply that Fresh is just a mindless parasite though, doin' my bboy so dirty.. (very lighthearted and joking))
I know from my own thoughts, I've considered the nutcracker's body (the big part that actually looks like a nutcracker) to actually be more like a shell- definitely some kind of machine or contraption rather than a creature, with hinges and gears and all sorts of bits and bobs holding it together. It's about as much of a creature as a hermit crab's shell is- Important, but replaceable, and not living any longer
Meanwhile, the eye inside is what is actually controlling it- I think while a large part of not moving while the eye is exposed is due to the very confusing visual it could cause (if they only see movement, imagine how strange it is to see while moving!), another part could potentially be that the eye creature can't REACH the legs when it's pushing the head up and out of the way- the arms are in reach, sure, but those parts of the machine are too far. All the actions taken are decided by the eye, "wearing" the machine for protection
That's part of why I feel like this isn't very relatable to fresh directly, perhaps, but it CERTAINLY is relatable in a meta-perceptive way. For one heehoo visual similarities of course (one eye'd creature inside a humanoid thing), but alongside that, Fresh is only ever seen in the way the parasite itself acts- because of course, it is the one in full control of the body, and strives to take actions that will keep itself safe. There's also an implication of weakness without the body- limited movement, limited defenses, etc of the same.
This does reveal an interesting phenomena however, in that people rarely think too much about the person that is the current host of fresh. It IS thought of, to be sure, you can find comics and ask blogs exploring that concept, BUT in just general art of fresh? People who are drawing him just to put him somewhere, or have him smiling at the audience? There is very rarely a thought given to the nature of that host, the one that Fresh is smiling with. It may as well be just a powerless, mechanical body with no free will of its own, for all of the impact it has...
This is likely much more than you bargained for with this post but ohoho. I truly do find it intriguing. They say very little about each other in reality (The nutcracker being far more violent you could argue, set amongst a dangerous cast in a role of home defender with a confirmed kill count as high as the times you've died to it while fresh is a generally speaking silly individual who happens to be hiding some very dark and dire secrets while trying to survive for purely his sake alone) but in design what they say can reveal a lot more to dig your hands into- the nature of perception, perhaps!
