Artemis Fowl II

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For the first book in the series, see Artemis Fowl (novel). For the series itself, see Artemis Fowl (series).

Artemis Fowl II (born September 1st, 1990) is the titular character of the Artemis Fowl series of children's books by Irish author Eoin Colfer.

Character traits

His birthday is mentioned as being "01/09" in The Lost Colony, and in the first book it is said of Juliet Butler that she is four years older than Artemis. This would make his full birth date September 1st, 1990. To further provide some sort of timeline, in The Eternity Code, which takes place 18 months after the kidnap incident during Christmas time, Jon Spiro mentions that Artemis will be fourteen in six months.

Artemis Fowl II, a criminal mastermind and, intellectually, a child prodigy and a polymath, is twelve years old in the first book of the series. He was born into a rich, prominent and above all criminal, Irish family, the Fowls, and is accustomed to an obscenely wealthy lifestyle. The character resides in Fowl Manor with his father, Artemis Fowl I (famed crimelord), his mother, Angeline Fowl, and the Manor's two servants and guards, Juliet and Butler.

Artemis' name comes from Artemis, the Greek goddess of hunting (among other things). In the third book in the series, Artemis admits that his name is generally a female name, but says that it is the name of a great hunter, and that every once in a while a man comes along who has such a talent for hunting that he has the right to have that name, and that he is such a man. Artemis was, however, named after his father.

He is portrayed to be rather hard to fathom, thanks to his lack of expressions. He prefers to mask his emotions rather than display them openly.

Artemis is said to have inherited his father's deep blue eyes, and has black hair. His skin is pale from spending most of his free time indoors and in front of computer screens, a trait which, coupled with his cold attitude, once led a waitress to believe that he was a vampire.

At his young age, he 'discovered' a lost Mozart opera, which, of course, he wrote himself. At the age of thirteen, he showed signs of an intellect greater than that of any human since Mozart, having beaten European chess champion Evan Kashoggi in an online tournament, patented over 27 inventions, won the architectural competition to design Dublin's new opera house, forged over a dozen Impressionist paintings, and written a computer program that diverted millions of dollars from various Swiss bank accounts to his own. As a criminal mastermind, he also forged and auctioned the Lost Diaries of Leonardo Da Vinci. The character has also written articles on human psychology which were referred to by his own school counselor. It is interesting to note that the pseudonym he employed when submitting articles to scientific journals was "Dr. F. Roy Dean Schlippe", a pun on the phrase Freudian Slip. A pseudonym used in Opal Deception, Sir E. Brum, was a pun on cerebrum, the largest part of the brain. A pseudonym he used for posting articles on the internet is "Emmsey Squire", which seems like a pun for E=mc²(E=mc squared). Another pseudonym in Lost Colony is Dr. C. Niall DeMencha, a pun on senile dementia, which is the only one which was noticed by anybody apart from Artemis himself.

Despite all his intellect, Artemis seems to suffer from an almost complete lack of social skills. We are told that he isolates himself from his 'lesser-minded' peers as much as possible and prefers the company of Butler, who plays the role of Artemis' bodyguard and best friend. However, Colfer made sure that despite Artemis's anti-social nature, he has managed to make several new acquaintances during his various exploits, most notably the fairies Holly Short, Foaly, and Commander Julius Root. He also became friends with the young human Minerva Paradizo at the end of Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony, who could be a potential love interest. He has a father, Artemis Fowl the First who was recently reclaimed from a gang of kidnappers in Russia and lost a leg, and a mother, Angeline Fowl, who had been suffering from depression. In the fifth book, he found out that his mother has given birth to a pair of twins.

Other points of interest mentioned in the books are that he only enjoys wearing designer suits, is ambidextrous (although his left hand has slightly greater precision) and that he also has the 'highest tested IQ in Europe.'

He enjoys caviar, Irish springwater, and Earl Grey tea. Badly tailored suits irk him, psychologists irritate him, he doesn't like lollipops, cracking knuckles is a habit he detests (although he cracks his knuckles in the first novel while preparing to decode the fairy Book), and he suffers from a slight dust mite allergy.

His family motto is Aurum potestas est (Latin for "gold is power"), while his personal motto is "Know thine enemy."

Personality

When we are introduced to him in the first book in the series, Artemis is a cold, calculating and cynical individual. He possesses a dry, sarcastic sense of humor and a ruthless, almost psychopathic nature. However, he is evidently not pure evil as he never actually kills anyone, and does care about his mother's rapidly declining mental state (it says that he only made the wish so he would not have to be removed from his home and his PC's and other things that help him with his dasterly deeds). He is also very concerned about his missing father's whereabouts, although that said he is still more concerned with his plan to extort the fairies. He also exhibits pity for Holly Short and harbors some feelings of guilt with regards to his actions although he covers them up well.

In Book 2 he has become a somewhat less selfish individual and goes so far as to join forces with Holly and the LEP to help them defeat the villainous Opal Koboi and her partner-in-crime Briar Cudgeon in exchange for them helping him rescue his father from the Russian Mafia.When he finds his father and after Holly Short has confirmed that he is alive Artemis sinks to the ground with sobs of relief even if only for a few moments. In the third book he is even less hard-edged and actually breaks down into tears when Butler is nearly killed. At the end of the book he displays concern that he will revert back to his vile and despicable attitude in the first book, although he may actually have just been saying this to persuade the LEP not to mind-wipe him. In The Opal Deception after being mind-wiped he has reverted back to his greedy self-centered persona but with slightly more compassion and remorse than he did before as a result of the positive influences subconsciously absorbed from his time around the LEP staff. When his memories are restored he goes back to the altogether more human personality he had acquired in the third book and retains this personality in The Lost Colony. However, he is still just as obsessed with accumulating money and power even though he is more concerned about others than himself. In Book 5 he meets Minerva Paradizo, a child prodigy who, despite her high intelligence, is still less skilled than Artemis in several areas. Artemis is disturbed by her disregard for others wellbeing (possibly only because he realizes that he himself must have been similar in previous books) but believes that there is hope for her and the two form an unspoken attraction.

Artemis is very reminiscent of Hans Gruber, the villain from the action-movie Die Hard. Both dress immaculately in smart suits, both capture feisty female heroines and are accompanied by thickset henchmen and attempt to become rich by cruel and dishonest means. Both also possess a dark sense of humour and very refined tastes. Eoin Colfer has acknowledged the similarities between the characters saying that Artemis Fowl is like "Die Hard with fairies".

Character history

The Fowl family is an Irish criminal family going back at least to the Norman Conquest, which has amassed a fabulous fortune through both legitimate and illegitimate means. These fortunes have been placed in danger by Artemis' father, Artemis Fowl I, who invested a huge amount of the Fowl fortune in founding new shipping lanes to the country of Russia, following the breakdown of communism there. Artemis Fowl I is injured and held hostage following an attempt on his life by the Russian Mafia.

Artemis, who was around eleven at the time his father disappeared, decides to regain the Fowl fortune. Following leads on the Internet, Fowl discovers the existence of an underground world of fairies, and at age twelve attempts, and succeeds, to steal their gold.

Valuables and Possessions

Artemis Fowl II considered many possessions important throughout the series. Those include his collection of impressionist art, his mobile phone, and later his fairy ring phone, and his computers. Possessions he found important include his Learjet, the family Bentley Red Label, and Fowl Manor, a late medieval, early modern castle on 200 acres. One of his most prized possessions was given to him by Holly Short, a fairy coin which has been shot dead center, leaving a hole. He also has a fondness for his C Cube, his inventive amalgamation of stolen fairy technology and cutting-edge human technology, although after he reacquired it in The Eternity Code, he hasn't mentioned or reused it since.

Role in Books

There are currently five books (a sixth book is confirmed to be coming soon) in the series:

Artemis Fowl, in which the twelve-year old Artemis attempts to steal fairy gold by kidnapping LEP Captain Holly Short.

Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, in which Artemis discovers that his father is still alive and, with help from the fairies, tries to rescue him from the Russian mafia. At the same time, he has to help the fairies put down a goblin rebellion ochestrated by Opal Koboi, a pixie/criminal mastermind rivaling Foaly and an ex-LEP officer, Briar Cudgeon.

Artemis Fowl: The Eternity Code, in which Artemis, in what he considers to be his last criminal act before his father completely recovers, creates the C Cube, a mini super-computer which is decades ahead of normal human technology. He plans to make a deal with the Chicago business man Jon Spiro, but faces horrible consequences when Spiro double-crosses him and steals it, so Artemis has to take it back.

Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception, where Artemis has to regain his lost memories after the events in the third book because of the return of an old rival, Opal Koboi. Opal plans to kill all of those who had been against her in the past, starting with Julius Root, Holly Short, Foaly and Artemis, while still remaining undetected by tricking the public into belief of her continued coma.

Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony in which Artemis helps the fairy people to rescue the eighth family of fairy kind (The Demons), prevent them from being exposed to human beings and rescue a young imp (the larval stage of a Demon) from another child genius named Minerva Paradizo. Artemis Fowl travels to the island of Hybras (along with Holly Short and two demon-warlocks called Qwan and No1), an island inhabited by Demons which has been literally lifted out of time into Limbo. Artemis ends up saving Holly from dying. When Artemis returns, although he spent less than one hour on Hybras, three years have passed. Holly and Artemis have also switched eyes, now having both a hazel and blue eye. He is reunited with Butler (who had to inform Artemis' parents everything he knows about fairy-kind to explain the criminal mastermind's 3 year absence, though they are reluctant to believe him) and at the end of the book Butler refers to Artemis as a "big brother" and makes reference to "the twins" implying that the Fowls have had more children since Artemis disappeared. Artemis also gains a small amount of fairy magic in this book. He retains some at the end, but it is unclear just how much he has left, but there are suspicions that it will play a major role in the 6^th book.

The Lost Colony also contains a humorous sub-plot involving Artemis' struggle with puberty, and a new character is introduced who may well become a girlfriend for Artemis in the form of 12 year old (or when Artemis returns from his 3 year mission on Hybras, 14 going-on 15 year old) Minerva Paradizo, a young master-criminal apparently Artemis's intellectual equal. At the end of the book Butler informs Artemis that she has been visiting regularly, talking repeatedly of Artemis. Although he assures Holly that he has puberty "under control" when she kisses him on the cheek.

A Branch out book, The Artemis Fowl Files, has also been published. This book contains two short stories: "LEPrecon" and "The Seventh Dwarf," as well as several tests and quizzes designed by the author, and a key to the Gnommish alphabet.

Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel has also been published. It is a fully colored comic version of Artemis Fowl.