A Crime in Plain Sight

The crime? Vandalism. The objects? Portraits of famous Neopians. The suspect? Unknown.

Deep in the shadows of recent events it is sometimes hard to focus on the ‘lesser’ crimes happening in Neopia. With Faerieland in its newly formed crater, people tend to forget that we as Neopians face not just major Neopia shaping events, but we also face the lowly petty crimes committed every day by Neopia’s villains.

I am talking, of course, about the defaced portraits of one of Neopia’s most famous faeries and some of our most notorious evil villains. The victims in this series of vandalism are none other than Illusen, Kass, Gormos, and Eliv Thade. At first a seemingly random selection of portraits...

But then again, are they?

Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

Illusen has long been an object of intense hatred to Jhudora, the dark faerie. They say that Illusen once witnessed Jhudora perform a great evil deed of which neither will talk about. It is for this reason that there has festered an intense rivalry between the two. Surely there is no better reason for Jhudora to lash out at Illusen in any manner possible...

Being the dark faerie of Neopia, Jhudora prides herself on her evil plans. In order to avoid suspicion and eradication she never personally has a hand in any of the dark deeds she’s concocted, relying instead on others to commit these crimes for her. Perhaps behind the facade of our well known Neopian villains is a wicked puppet master, intent on bringing darkness into Neopia by twisting the minds of the innocent and creating evil masterminds. If this were true, each time Jhudora is failed by her puppets, it is well within her personality to lash out at the failures in a hidden and concealed manner. Perhaps it is just simply that Jhudora wishes to be the most evil Neopian there ever was and is targeting those she deems lesser than herself; in this article we aim to examine both sides of the coin.

Let us now examine both possibilities. Aside from the defaced portrait of Illusen, we can assume that the other three victims were, at one point in time, the petty minions of Jhudora. Perhaps she is, in fact, the one who helped shape their minds as the evil villains we know today. These minions may have failed a mission for her, causing their expulsion from her “school” of evil doing, and their defaced portraits to appear soon after said disappointments.

Or maybe their portraits have been defaced in her fury that they have become bigger than just her evil servants. With other evil villains out there to challenge her, Jhudora is in constant fear of being overtaken as the most evil Neopian out there. Is it possible that our local dark faerie feels threatened by the height of villainy performed by her former students?

Now lets take a look at some other villains known to roam about Neopia, and why they’ve yet to be swept away in the flood of defaced portraits.

One such villain who has yet to be defaced is the Pant Devil. Those of us in Neopia live in constant fear of his thievery, even buying Pant Devil Attractors to keep our items safe. There are three possible reasons he may not have been defaced in a portrait. One reason is perhaps Jhudora is worried he would steal all her evil artefacts if she did deface a portrait of him. After all Jhudora spends a lot of her time collecting items from brave Neopians, fearless enough to find their way to her cloud and be given a quest to complete by non other than herself. Maybe it is the opposite; not content enough with the trinkets she collects from questing Neopians, the Pant Devil is a current loyal minion of hers, stealing items from Neopians to give to her. The third reason is as simple as it gets: there is no portrait of the Pant Devil for her to doodle on!

We can assume the same is the case with the Tax Beast, Jhudora either doesn’t want to be taxed, or she is on the receiving end of all his tax invasions. We may never know which is true. As for Sloth, we all are well aware of why he hasn’t been defaced in a portrait yet: as the first evil Neopian out there, even the toughest of villains would never challenge his authority!

After examining the whos and whys, it is now time to ask the real question that needs to be examined here; just who is acting for Jhudora in these defacings? It is common knowledge that Jhudora herself has never had a direct hand in evil deeds save one. She does this in order to stay safely in her place amongst the other Faerieland residents and to protect her own interests.

Being a jealous villain set against any form of beauty, our prime suspect for the defacing of the portraits would have to be none other than Vira. Spending most of her time destroying others’ beauty, the most plausible act of revenge would be to vandalise someone’s appearance in a picture. Vira’s jealousy lends itself to the theory of Jhudora as a puppet master; it would only be too easy to manipulate the villain into destroying the portraits, making use of her emotions about other’s appearances. The best sense of vengeance that Vira could gain against the inhabitants of Neopia would be to deface a portrait of someone, making them look ridiculous. This not only satisfies her evil mentor, but also makes Vira herself feel better about her own appearance while other people are subject to looking ridiculous in their portraits.

With all the latest ruckus in Faerieland, it even seems likely that the latest puppet of Jhudora's malice could be none other than the very person who brought Faerieland crashing to the ground. Xandra’s jealousy of the faeries only serves to make her vulnerable to the suggestive evil of Jhudora. Will we be expecting a defaced portrait of Xandra next? Only time will tell.