I think one of the biggest ideas around Parallax and what he represents is the idea of control. In the early 90s, Hal's main focus was regaining control over his own life by returning to what he perceives as his glory days: he's back near Coast City again, he's friends with Tom again, and he wants to be with Carol again. As he says in Green Lantern (1990) #25, "My name is Hal Jordan. I used to be the Green Lantern of Earth. Now I'm coming back. Coming to take my life back." Green Lantern (1990) is all about setting Hal back to the status quo-Green Lantern lore had been shaky throughout the 80s and now we're establishing the Guardians back in the known universe, the Green Lantern Corps is rebuilding itself, and finally, halfway through Gerard Jones run, Hal is reestablishing himself on Earth.
I think a necessary bit of knowledge around the destruction of Coast City is that Hal was not set there for a long time. He worked out of Coast City for the first 49 issues of his original solo title, and then afterwards would only be in Coast City for a few issues of a time. In fact, he probably worked out of L.A. longer than he did Coast City. Coast City is a very old form of nostalgia at this point in time.
Throughout the main Green Lantern title up until Green Lantern (1990) #45 and his appearances in the two side Green Lantern titles (Guy Gardner: Warrior and Green Lantern: Mosaic, both of which were also written by Jones), a narrative begins to appear. Hal is desperate for control and unwilling to return to the uncertainty and moral ambiguity of the 80s. This is his main conflict, in fact, with John and Guy during this era. He has his very certain ideas of what a hero should be and what a hero should do, and he enforces that ideal not only on himself, but also on Guy and John. In fact, Sinestro himself says, "But aren’t Hal and I just different sides of the same thing? Control, control, control?" (Green Lantern: Mosaic #15). The comparison to Sinestro is most interesting in light of the renewed focus on Sinestro's dictatorship due to Green Lantern: Emerald Dawn II. Comics throughout this time are trying to have Hal emulate some of the most dangerous aspects of Sinestro: his desperate need for control, for order instead of focusing on justice.
Now, one underappreciated aspect of the destruction of Coast City is that it happened while Hal was not on Earth. He was on the opposite side of the galaxy, being mind controlled and declaring he wouldn't be anyone's puppet again. He had lost control-the one thing he had been so desperate to keep, and then he returns home.
Home was not there. Everyone he knew and loved within this city, everyone who trusted him to protect them, was dead. This is a continued loss of control, and this time it is in violation of what a hero should be. A hero should protect his city, a hero should do anything to protect his city. He even mentions in Green Lantern (1990) #46, the issue where he first learns of the tragedy, "part of the anger-pain wants to wash out. To use the ring to bring it all back." He's angry. He has lost the one thing he was sure of. He tries to kill Mongol. He is no longer trying to hold back.
Now skip ahead two issues to the end of Green Lantern (1990) #48. Throughout this issue, Hal has been losing the veneer of being in control. We know from Guy Gardner: Warrior #21 that he was in there for 18 hours. We don't see his full mental breakdown, but what we do see is him slowly losing control. At the beginning, we have as close to reality as the issue gets: Martin Jordan not caring about him and then going off to get blown up. Hal acts like he's not in control at this moment, as he says, "Please, come back. I can't go through that again" (Green Lantern (1990) #48). However, by the end of the issue, Hal is in full control; he evens forces the Martin projection to say he's proud of him, even though previously both Hal and the Martin projection said that he wasn't and he never had been. Then, the Guardians take his regained control away from him! They deny him of his power, what he defines himself as. He is always in his Green Lantern guise throughout the issue, even when pretending that his life is normal. They removed his control over the situation, and that is when he stops holding back.
There are two main ways Hal himself describes his actions as Parallax (pre-retcon): him having no choice but to do what he did and then him not holding back during that era. Parallax is a representation of power and what it could mean when he wasn't under the control of anyone else. He's not tearing down the messed up ideas of authority and power in his mind, merely trying to gain the most power so that he's most in control. This is about regaining control and what that means to him. It is firmly rooted in both Martin's abuse and the Guardian's abuse. Hal is a man focused on order and control, and he wants to act like abuse of power is a form of control because that's what everyone else has acted like to him. The Guardians haven't cared about the lives of the Green Lanterns. He does, or at least he believes he does. He never wanted to hurt his brothers and sisters, he claims in Green Lantern (1990) #0, he just wanted to make everything right.
The role of Parallax is firmly rooted in Hal Jordan's ideas of what is control and how to take back from a loss of it. He's continuing the tradition of the so-called greatest Green Lanterns of them all (Sinestro and Yalan Gur, both of who tried to use their power to enforce their control and were directly compared to Hal in this manner pre Parallax). He is Parallax. He is everything Hal could be if he stopped holding back. He is control, and the way Hal feels like that means he has no choice but to abuse and hurt others in the quest for control, justice, and order.
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