As some of you may know, Artemis Fowl (review coming soon) is one of my favorite book series of all time. When I was younger I didn’t read the Harry Potter stuff, I didn’t even really want to. I didn’t care about a school of wizardry and the bespeckled boy who attended it. I was more interested in a secret underground fairy civilization and a teenage mastermind who tried to exploit it. Since Eoin Colfer wrote his series about four years after J.K. Rowling wrote hers and at the time there were many Harry Potter knock offs, many people assume that Artemis Fowl is one of those knock-offs. It very well might be, but that’s not what I’m here to talk about today. Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about Sherlock Holmes. There was a lecture about him at my local library a while ago and I’ve recently become a fan of BBC’s Sherlock. At the lecture I attended the speaker noted that many famous duos (crime solving or otherwise) are based off of Sherlock and Watson (the example she gave was Batman and Robin). My mind instantly jumped to Artemis and Holly and then my brain went nuts making other connections between Holmes and Fowl. Now, as a disclaimer, I don’t really know much about Sherlock Holmes beyond what I’ve been told and what I’ve seen in Sherlock. I’m planning on reading some of the short stories soon, but until then I’m going to base all of my connections on the TV show (which seems kind of awful, but I’m going to do it anyway). Okay, with that out of the way, let’s get started, shall we? An obvious parallel can be drawn between the main characters, Artemis and Sherlock: they are both egg heads. In book three (The Eternity Code), Artemis states: “I never tell anybody exactly how clever I am. They would be too scared.” And in Sherlock Holmes (I don’t know which book, I just Googled it, man!) Sherlock says: “It’s my business to know what other people don’t.” So both are genii and both know this. They’re both rather arrogant as well, though out of the two I’d have to say Artemis is more braggish. The final similarity that I’ll list is that they are both a tad socially awkward. Sherlock has proven himself capable of behaving normally in society when he is undercover, but even when Artemis chooses a disguise he is always someone who is distant from human interaction (for instance, “Alfonse” in The Opal Deception). In the television show, Sherlock says that he has no friends and Artemis is of a similar disposition, though both develop close bonds with others over time. Speaking of close bonds, let’s talk about our smarty-pants’ closest pals. There is no dispute over Sherlock’s BFF, but when trying to find a match for Watson in the Artemis Fowl stories we have two options: Butler and Holly Short. Butler has known Artemis since birth and at the beginning of the series he is the only person Artemis trusts. Like Watson, Butler carries the gun rather than the brain, but has enough experience to know what he’s doing. These comparisons make Butler out to be the Watson to Artemis’ Sherlock, but more convincing argument can be made for Holly. She has the same qualifications as Butler, in that she carries a weapon and Artemis trusts her very highly. On top of that, Holly also has the ability to magically heal people (and with the many injuries the crew receives she’s getting very good at it) much like a doctor… kind of like Doctor John Watson. And finally, on top of that Holly’s rank is Captain, the same as Watson. Out of Holly and Butler, I really think Holly is a closer match to Watson, but that’s just my opinion.
Let’s talk about villains, shall we? James Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes and Opal Koboi from Artemis Fowl. To be sure, there are plenty of villains in each series, but these two are the most poignant. They share many, many traits - probably more that Artemis and Sherlock do. Here are some of the main ones: Both are said to be an equal match for their “good” counterpart in the brains department, though you wouldn’t know it by looking at them. Both have many eccentricities and both are well funded. Both are willing to make great sacrifices for the good of their plan (I can’t tell you the details because that would be spoiling, but they go to drastic measures to get what they want). Both really, really like killing people - Opal once saying: “Why can’t I solve this problem by killing someone?” and Moriarty regarding life as near worthless because dying is “what people do” (not sure if that’s in the books, but it’s in the show). I think the main difference between them is how they view their “arch-nemeses”. Opal is aware that Artemis is intelligent and knows that a certain amount of skill and thought are needed to best him, but she tends to underestimate him, viewing him more as a child to be put in his place. Moriarty, on the other hand wants someone to be as smart as he is so that he can find a way to outsmart them, he’s bored and wants a challenge, which is what he thinks Sherlock is. They’re goals also differ. For Opal it’s all about world domination. Moriarty is of the mind that if he really wanted to, he could take over the world, but in the end he’s really just bored. That covers the main villains, but we know there are others. How about Irene Adler? For one thing, I don’t know much about Ms. Adler beyond what is in the TV show (and I had to fast forward a lot of the parts she was in), and for another, I don’t like her character. Similarly, I don’t recall much about Minerva Paradizo, and I’m not very fond of her character. Neither of these women are lacking in the brain department. They are both beautiful and manipulative. Both of them have garnered the attention of the title character. While we’re not entirely sure that Sherlock feels romantically about Irene, when Artemis first sees Minerva we get the idea that he has a slight crush.
In conclusion (I know, finally, right?), Artemis is really less of a Harry Potter knock-off and more of a Sherlock Holmes wannabe. It’s funny, I hadn’t even considered Doyle’s character to be an inspiration for Colfer’s until I had that one passing thought. And now I have a giant blog post about it. Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much with my rambling. I had a lot of fun thinking about this and if you are a fan of either of these series I hope you had fun too.
What are some similarities you noticed? Do you think Arty is basically just a younger Sherlock? Should I do a post like this again or do you not really care about this sort of thing? Tell me what you thought in the comment section below! I’d love to hear from you. Considering the game is afoot, I’d probably best be off! Thanks for reading! Comments are closed.
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