Parlax: Bad Guy or Good Guy?

Parlax is a Split Grundo who from his early teens worked for the resistance against Dr. Sloth. He had a partner, another Grundo named Gorix. Parlax and Gorix were both good friends who grew up together when they were young. Both of them joined the Resistance due to the memories they had of the troubling times of when Sloth first tried to take over with his own personal army of Grundos. Like so many others, they believed Sloth would one day return to finish what he had started.

According to Gorix, Parlax was quite a reliable, good friend who had got him out of many sticky situations. They were a good team. Everything was fine until they got a mission to go infiltrate one of Sloth’s many labs. It turned out to be a trap and Sloth’s drones ambushed them. All of them were captured and Parlax and Gorix were separated from each other. Gorix assumed Parlax had perished under Sloth’s rule.

Many years later and the realisation of what the Resistance feared, Sloth’s return had indeed come true. Sloth’s new plan was much like the old one except instead of just mutating Grundos, he had plans to mutate all Neopets everywhere. Gorix was sent to fetch a Cybunny Scout with important information on Sloth’s new plan, which could give the Resistance an idea on how to tackle Sloth but instead, due to a twist of fate, Gorix met a Cybunny called Cylara and accidentally made the mistake of thinking she was the Scout.

Luckily, thanks to Cylara’s help, the Resistance managed to save all of the civilians on the Space Station including Cylara’s parents after it had been took over by Commander Garoo on Sloth’s orders and got the proper Cybunny Scout back to the Resistance headquarters with the important information on Sloth’s plans. At that time, a civil war was waging between the Grundo brothers, Xarthab and Zorlix who run the Kreludor mines. Being brothers, the two had quite the sibling rivalry and it did not help both of them being hot headed. According to the Scout, Sloth was experimenting with Kreludite, a substance mined in the Kreludor Mines. Kreludite is very unstable and the radioactive decay of Kreludite releasing gamma waves, which reacts to carbon found in all Neopets. If gamma waves bombard you for a long amount of time, they mutate the body cells and cause mutation.

They believed that Sloth had sent a traitor into Xarthab and Zorlix’s camps to increase the tension between the two brothers and make the feud even worse. This way, the Kreludian Grundos would be kept busy and Sloth would be free to mine for his precious Kreludite to his heart’s content without being disturbed. Due to this information, the Resistance were forced to act immediately and sent Gorix and Cylara to travel to Kreludor to defuse the hostilities between the brothers and find the traitor. Gorix and Cylara did find the traitor, a split Grundo called Parlax.

Parlax was now working for Sloth. His mission was to increase the tension between the two brothers, letting them fight so the mines would be quiet for Sloth to mine for Kreludite and in a way, Parlax did complete his mission as the brothers had feuded for years due to Parlax. He played the role of Xarthab and Zorlix’s advisor. Due to Xarthab being orange and Zorlix being purple, it would have been a problem for a normal Grundo to perform as their advisor, but not for Parlax. With Parlax being a split, all it took was two different space suits, one orange and one purple, and a very carefully placed mask and Parlax could transform into a purple and orange Grundo with ease.

He would have gotten away with it if Gorix had not noticed him, thanks to the scar that runs through Parlax’s eyes. He was exposed as a traitor to the brothers and locked up in a jail cell. Gorix assumed Parlax had perished last time they had met, but now he believed that Parlax told Sloth about the mission and where the team would be and with that information, Sloth planned the ambush. Just before Gorix and Cylara left to go find the Space Faerie’s token (which had the power to defeat Sloth) on Sloth’s ship, Parlax escaped from the jail cell.

Later while Xarthab, Zorlix, the Resistance and the other Grundos fought Sloth’s army, Gorix and Cylara found the Space Faerie’s token on Sloth’s ship. They almost got caught but luckily enough, thanks to Sloth’s vile temper, Commander Gormos let them pass. Once they had reached the room where Sloth was located, they found he was not alone. Parlax had returned to his master.

While Parlax and Gorix fought, Cylara chanted the Space Faerie’s incantation and the token’s magic was activated. Sloth was sucked into the token and sealed inside. Just before Sloth had been sealed inside the token, he pushed the ship’s self-destruct button, which activated the ship’s self-destruct sequence allows Gorix and Cylara three minutes to escape from the ship. The ship went boom and exploded, but Gorix and Cylara managed to escape and at the Resistance headquarters, they were treated like heroes for stopping Sloth. As for Parlax, nobody knows what happened to him. Some say he perished and went up with the ship and others think he escaped using his own personal ship. Parlax is assumed deceased by the Resistance and Gorix, but who knows? Parlax might still be out there living…

After reading all that, you probably see Parlax as the total bad guy for doing what he did. He betrayed his friend, made a fiery feud become even hotter and worked for a crazy evil doctor who wanted to take over Neopia. Pretty bad! One question you are probably wondering is why do I have my article’s title called “Parlax: Bad Guy or Good Guy?” You are probably screaming right now the words “Bad Guy!” as you read this article, and you would be right in saying Parlax is a bad guy after all that he did, or would you?

Was that the real Parlax we witnessed do all those awful deeds or was it just Parlax with a different mind and heart that was forced to commit those crimes? You are probably wondering at what I am trying to get at, so I will try to explain it as simply as I can so here I go. I am basically challenging the fact that Parlax was a bad guy or even better, challenging the fact that he didn’t do those awful deeds under his own free will.

I think Sloth mutated Parlax to make him do whatever Sloth wanted. Parlax is the perfect Grundo to use. He has knowledge of the Resistance, he’s quite strong and a fighter and he was perfect to use to spark off the tension between the two Grundo brothers, Xarthab and Zorlix. A simple costume change and Parlax was perfect to use against them. I think Sloth got to him and mutated him with Kreludite or maybe something else?

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article about split paint molecules and how they differ from other paint molecules. In it, I wrote about how a discovery that was made by scientists uncovered that split molecules, which are made out of orange and purple molecules were not gelled together like they should be. The orange and purple molecules should have been gelled together, but instead, they were repelled by each other and it seems like the two different molecules wanted to separate from each other as though they were enemies. A theory was devised about the molecules. In this theory, it talked about how the molecules were based on good and bad, orange representing good and purple representing bad. The two can live in perfect harmony if parted away from each other but if joined together, the two do battle and eventually one falls and the winner takes over. It appeared that the split paint molecules were stable, but it was believed that if a certain substance, unknown to us, came into contact with a split pet, it would act like a catalyst and start off a deadly chain reaction which would cause the molecules to do battle for supreme rule and then only one would win, either good or bad.

I believe this to be the case for Parlax. Maybe Sloth had invented a catalyst for the molecules and needed a test subject to try it on? Parlax might have been one of the first ever splits to go through this horrible process. All Sloth needed to do was to drop the tiniest drop of the catalyst on Parlax’s skin and the battle would start. Sadly for Parlax and the whole of Neopia, the good side fell victim and the bad side ruled and took over Parlax. It makes sense considering Parlax was the perfect friend and ally to Gorix and the Resistance. I know, Gorix said Parlax had a manipulative power-hungry streak to him but I don’t think that would be enough for someone to betray their best friend and forget their entire life as they know it.

As for the ambush, maybe Sloth got to Parlax before they went on that mission or maybe it was just bad luck on the day and they got unfortunately ambushed. Of course, we can’t prove any of this yet as thanks to Sloth; his ship went boom along with any evidence which was on that ship. I inform the Resistance of my theory, thanks to my cousin, Sylva, who used to work for the Resistance. He made contact with them and they are now searching the Space Station and other places where Sloth might have been dealing with the catalyst. I do hope they find something.

I will leave you with this final thought assuming Parlax perished on Sloth’s ship: Should Parlax be remembered as the split who betray his friend and Neopia or should Parlax be remembered as a Resistance hero who sadly was forced to do dreadful things?

Dr. Boomy Tornado

Head of Mystery Island Research

File report number: #43978521

A big thanks to Krystal, Heather, Rachael and Ghost for supporting me with everything! P.S. Parlax rocks!