#opal deception

i drew my own version of artemis and holly for the cover of the opal deception :D

first image is the original cover, not drawn by me

second image is my drawing

third image is original+mine (the original was edited to remove artemis and holly)

i loved how epic artemis and holly look in the original cover and wanted to draw my own take on it! my version of holly looks a little wonky but oh well

not sure if the lighting of the original cover affected holly's skin tone, but i coloured her darker in my version just to make it a little more accurate :)

1. trolls have dreadlocks. every single one of them. do the maths on that

2. ‘pixies with their large brains and massive intelligence’ - brain size ≠ intelligence but has been used in the past as such

3. this excerpt which gives me bad vibes in terms of autism stereotypes + people only viewing autistic people as children

Image description:

A page of a book that reads;

The two janitor pixies, Mervall and Descant Brill, we’re outside Opal’s room, picking up dust with static brushes. Pixies made wonderful employees. They were methodical, patient and determined. When a pixie was instructed to do something, you could rest assured that thing would be done. Plus, they were cute, with their baby faces and disproportionately large beads. Just looking at a pixie cheered most people up. They were walking therapy

Holly teases about keeping an eye on him and Artemis laughs it off; he's already got his parents and Butler doing that. And then Holly says something utterly profound and compelling: "Well then, maybe it's time you let them."

I have always seen The Eternity Code as Artemis' key turning point from villain/criminal to hero/anti-hero. I was wrong. While it was undoubtedly a big step in the right direction, Artemis does not fully embrace the new direction -he did, after all, make that massive charitable donation irreversible in case he became weak later and decided to steal it back. Before he could try embracing it, the mindwipe robbed him of further improvement in that area. Basically, his development in The Eternity Code was the foundation for the actual key turning point of his character that we see in The Opal Deception.

When he tells Holly that he already has two parents and one bodyguard trying to keep him on the straight and narrow, it's got a weight to it; I picture him sort of scoffing at it, implying they're efforts are not only unsuccessful, but a wasted effort. Useless. Holly's reply is so profound and so obvious I expect it hit Artemis upside the head. "Well then, maybe it’s time you let them."

Up to now, Artemis has paralleled the patterns of every villain he's faced to some extent. Ever since the first book, our favorite genius has been stuck in the same vicious cycle, maybe learning new lessons and strengthening his conscience each time, but always falling victim to the same basic flaws and cycling through the same mistakes, despite the helping hands and watchful eyes of his loved ones. So far, every villain Artemis has faced has been a friendless, ambition-at-all-costs kind of bad guy. And so far, Artemis has been the same way himself. But what if he wasn't anymore? What if he came to value friendship above greed and ambition? What if he took the chance to become the hero? What if he let Butler and Holly and his parents help him?

I was reading Artemis Fowl: The Lost Colony again and I noticed an exchange that is really making me wonder now that I think about it. On p.129-130, Artemis and the others have tracked down Minerva to her home/headquarters, and it is described to be a virtual fortress. There are cameras everywhere, several guards, etc. I won’t explain everything, but Butler goes as far as to say, “I think I saw this place in a Bond movie once.” But then there’s this exchange:

Artemis: No problem for you, surely?

Butler: I’m a bodyguard, Artemis. A human bulletproof vest. Breaking into fortified castles is not my speciality. 

Artemis: You have rescued me from more secure locations than this one. 

Butler: True. But I had intel, an inside man. Or I was desperate. 

This got me thinking. The first time I had read this exchange, I had assumed that the previous rescues that Artemis was mentioning were just the rescues we see with the fairy folk, but once I started thinking about it, I’m not so sure now. See, up until this point, the four times that could be considered rescue scenarios for Artemis are 1) Cudgeon holding him hostage in Arctic Incident, 2) Blunt’s attack in the beginning of Eternity Code, 3) the entire plan involving Spiro in Eternity Code, and 4) Opal’s revenge plot against Artemis and Holly in Opal Deception.

The problem is that none of these situations sound like what Artemis and Butler are talking about in the above conversation. With Cudgeon, yes the situation was dire there for a few moments, but a reinforced door was the only thing keeping Butler from Artemis when the danger arose, and comparing that to a “fortified castle” is a bit of a stretch. 

Blunt’s attack is even more of a stretch. There’s no denying that Butler was desperate when that happened, but the public restaurant it took place in was hardly a secure location, and Artemis wasn’t rescued from the location so much as rescued from the event that just happened to take place there. It wasn’t a retrieval mission like their above conversation alludes to.

The Spiro mission would probably be the most like the situation Butler and Artemis are talking about, but the problem is that Butler wasn’t involved in that plan at all. He wasn’t even there, much less actually doing the rescuing like the incident they’re talking about. 

Finally, with Opal’s revenge plot with Artemis and Holly, it always appeared to me that Mulch and Butler’s real struggle to rescue them wasn’t actually getting into the theme park so much as getting there in time. Butler and Mulch spent much more time getting a vehicle to take them there than it did for Mulch to tunnel through the ceiling and... use his talents to help Artemis and Holly. While the theme park was definitely a dangerous place to be, it wasn’t exactly secure like other locations like the Spiro Needle were, seeming much easier to get in than get out. 

Opal:

Opal: