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Opal Koboi and Associates
Opal Koboi
Opal Koboi
The most significant threat throughout the entirety of the Artemis Fowl series, Opal Koboi is a megalomaniacal pixie and Evil Genius, constantly dreaming up fiendish schemes to Take Over the World.- Adaptation Dye-Job: In the original books, she's described as having black hair and dark brown eyes. The graphic novels give her red hair and eyes.
- Arch-Enemy:
- To Artemis Fowl. Not only is she by far the most recurrent villain in the series, but she is the one villain who serves as The Dreaded for Artemis. Even in one book where she's not even the villain, Artemis is hesitant on even relying on technology produced by her. The feeling is very mutual on Opal's side, and she grows to hate Artemis and has plotted to have him murdered several times.
- To Holly Short. Opal Deception reveals just how much Opal despises the elf, with a revenge scheme she plotted to hurt Holly in every way possible, having Julius Root murdered, framing Holly for said murder, and then repeatedly attempting to get Holly killed.
- Ax-Crazy: most prominently when she attacks Cudgeon for treachery.
- Big Bad: Effectively serves as this for the whole series, being part of a Evil Duo in the second book, and the Big Bad in the fourth book, the sixth book (although her involvement is only revealed quite late in) and the eighth and final book.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Briar Cudgeon, in book two. She ends up killing him for plotting to betray her.
- Breakout Villain: Was first introduced as a secondary villain in the second book, where she was the Evil Genius to Briar Cudgeon. She eventually became the closest thing the series had to a Big Bad.
- Brought Down to Normal: She implants a human pituitary gland into her brain in the fourth book. This ends up draining her magic reserves.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Shes the CEO and founder of Koboi Laboratories and wicked to the core.
- Cute Is Evil: Her Fairy subspecies, Pixies, are famous for being child-like, cute and adorable-looking. Doesn't prevent her from being easily one of the nastiest characters in the whole series.
- Daddy's Little Villain: Subverted hard. Well back when she was young, she admired her father and wanted to follow in his footsteps. After he tried to dissuade her from studying engineering (as he expected his daughter to follow the normal path in life for female pixies: basically, getting married to a suitable husband), she drove him insane, committed him to an asylum, and took over his company. Not necessarily in that order, either.
- Dark Messiah: Expects to become this in Book eight; she envisions the more warlike elements of fairy society rallying around her and making her empress, after her plan to destroy humanity comes to fruition.
- The Dog Bites Back: She is finally killed by Oro after he is released from her control and she still tries to order him to kill Nopal.
- Enfante Terrible: When she's posing as a human in The Opal Deception.
- Evil Counterpart: Or perhaps Eviler Counterpart to Artemis Fowl. Both are the World's Smartest Man for their respective people and both were criminal geniuses that aspired to be greater and waged war on the Fairy People. However, while Artemis was raised in a criminal family and ended up learning humility which led to him pulling a Heel–Face Turn and becoming a better person, Opal was a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing who posed as a righteous person and even wanted to be seen as a hero alongside Briar Cudgeon, but her defeat corrupted her and she ended up descending more into insanity with increasingly megalomaniacal schemes. In essence, Artemis's defeat turned him into a hero, while Opal's defeat made her even worse of a villain.
- Evil Genius: Her IQ is over 300 and it's implied that shes even smarter than even Artemis himself.
- Evil Is Hammy: Not so much in Book Two, but Book Four shows signs, and by Book Six she is irretrievably a Large Ham.
- Evil Is Petty: The reason she hates Foaly so much? His invention won a prize over hers when they were in college.
- Fur and Loathing: She has the seats of her private shuttle lined with animal fur, symbolizing of her rejection of fairies in favour of humans.
- Genius Sweet Tooth: One of her favourite foods is chocolate truffles.
- A God Am I: Prone to delusions of godhood, especially when Her magic gets supercharged in books six and eight.
- Hijacked by Ganon: In Book 6, it turns out she'd been using Damon for quite some time.
- Insufferable Genius: Just like Foaly she loves to show off how smarter she is than anyone she happens to be in the room with.
- It's All About Me: In book six, she's outraged about the fact that the LEP confiscated her source of a key ingredient of her Super Serum just because they needed it to cure a disease that had already killed a quarter of the population of the entire fairy world.
- Kick the Dog: Not only did she kill Root, she tricked Holly into speeding up his demise by shooting the bomb wrapped around his waist, claiming there was a weak spot.
- Kill All Humans: Her ultimate plan is to manipulate the ghosts of dead fairies into killing all of humanity.
- Mad Scientist: Shes the creator of various LEP's weaponry and transportation craft. She also later experiments on endangered animals to use their brain fluid to increase her powers.
- The Man Behind the Man: While the B'wa Kell has not always worked for her, she and Cudgeon helped orchestrate its largest historical campaign against the LEP. She is also this to the Extinctionists in book six.
- Narcissist: Calling her egocentric is putting it mildly.
- Never My Fault: She blames Foaly for her decision to implant a human pituitary gland in her skull. The logic involved is probably of the insane troll variety.
- Our Pixies Are Different: As a pixie, she looks like a young human children to the point that small surgical adjustments could allow her to pass as a human. Pixies in general are noted to be far shorter than other Fairy races like elves and are also characterized as being exceptionally intelligent, with Opal being so smart she is a contender for the World's Smartest Woman of the Fairy Race.
- Properly Paranoid: Sets up an elaborate deathtrap for Holly and Artemis in Book four, with a videofeed so she can watch their demises from her shuttle. When the videofeed shorts out moments before they get devoured by trolls, she decides to proceed with her plan as though they survived and are hunting her down. Given who she's dealing with, this is the right course of action.
- Psychopathic Womanchild: In the graphic novel of the second book, Opal is depicted as wearing what looks like a thick sweater and "footy pajamas".
- Revenge: Her prime motivation in all titles from The Opal Deception onwards, particularly against Artemis Fowl, Holly and Foaly.
- Sanity Slippage: After waking up from her coma, her mental health declines significantly, due to having developed a mental disorder called Narcissus syndrome from spending so much time with only herself for company. This malady is later cured.
- Sinister Sweet Tooth: She's a treacherous, murderous would-be dictator with a love of chocolate.
- Smug Snake: Even though she's one of the most competent and dangerous bad guys in the series, she still slips into this, largely thanks to regularly bragging about her plans and accomplishments. In The Opal Deception, she sets up an underwater TV monitor for no reason other than to taunt Artemis and Holly, which ends up simply providing motivation for both after they survive.
- Tempting Fate: In the fourth book, she arrogantly proclaims that magic is of no use to her, and she will rely on science instead. When she needs to use her mesmer powers on a human at the end of the book, it backfires on her.
- Trademark Favourite Food: Chocolate. Especially truffles.
- Villainous Breakdown: Experiences this in book 4 after Artemis tricks her into detonating the charges needed to complete her plan on her own shuttle, ensuring that her Evil Plan will fail and leaving enough evidence to show that she was behind everything.
Briar Cudgeon
Briar Cudgeon
A LEP officer who's more interested in playing politics than saving lives or protecting the People, and uses questionable shock-and-awe tactics in an attempt to end the Fowl Manor siege early and curry favour with the Council. After this fails, he's booted out in disgrace, and quickly turns to plotting against his former employers.- Ambition Is Evil: His 'favourite daydream' of a Council seat leads him to one questionable act after another, leading to the following tropes.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: With Opal Koboi in book two.
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Not only does he turn against the government and police in book two, he has plans to betray the B'wa Kell and Opal.
- Combat Pragmatist: On his first arrival at the Fowl Manor, he wanted to blue rinsed the whole place immediately. Quick, clean, unexpected, and completely against the rules.
- Death by Irony: Is killed when he is knocked into an open plasma pipe. The plasma is active, because he activated it himself; the narration even notes the irony (and that it probably did not have time to occur to him before he was fried).
- Drugs Are Bad: When Root shoots him with a tranquilliser dart in Book 1, the drugs in the dart end up reacting badly with some illegal stimulants he was taking, ultimately leaving him with several deformities and "a complexion like melted tar".
- Engineered Heroics: He was always planning to backstab Opal and undo her sabotage, allowing him to present himself as a hero who 'foiled' her plot.
- Engineered Public Confession: Foaly sends a conversation of him admitting his plans to betray Opal to Artemis' mobile phone near the end of book two.
- Eviler than Thou: Subverted. In book 2 he is presented as the more evil of the Big Bad Duumvirate; he had the personal grudge, the greater screen time, and more malice than Opal. In the end he plots to betray the B'wa Kell goblins and Opal, and his betrayal makes him out to be worse than his more trusting companions. Post book 2 however, Opal becomes far worse than Briar could ever hope to be.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: He used to be relatively attractive. But when Root accidentally shot him with the dart finger Foaly gave him in case he needed it while meeting with Artemis, the sedative reacted badly with some mind-enhancing chemicals he was experimenting with, and he ended up seriously disfigured.
- Fallen Hero: One of the few on a First-Name Basis with Root because of their long friendship and the former's respect for his integrity and sense of duty. Then he lets his ambition get the best of him.
- Fatal Flaw: Ambition. In book one, he lets his dreams of a council seat get the better of his morality and good judgment, and he ends up disgraced for it. Then in book two, he ends up snatching defeat from the jaws of victory due to his inability to share power.
- High-Voltage Death: Gets fried when he's thrown into a reservoir of active plasma.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Opal kills him by ramming him into exposed plasma he himself had activated.
- Lady and Knight: Has this Dynamic with Opal Koboi The Artic Incident. Opal is the ojou who does her techo-wizardy from a safe distance and Cudgeon is the Fallen Hero in the thick of things. As he himself puts it: "I shall be the hero of the resistance and you shall be my princess."
- The Man Behind the Man: The B'wa Kell Triad may officially be run by its generals, but in reality, Briar's the one calling the shots.
- The Man Behind the Monsters: In this case, goblins. The B'wa Kell goblin triads were just a public nuisance until he organized and armed them.
- Never My Fault: He blames Foaly, Root, and even Artemis for ruining his career, even though he torpedoed it himself when he decided to send a troll into Fowl Manor.
- Sanity Slippage: Noticeably more unstable in Book 2, thanks to a sedative reacting badly with some illegal mind-enhancing chemicals he was using.
- Smug Snake: Pride outstreching his ability is the reason for his fall.
- Villainous Breakdown: While he's not exactly an outright villain yet, his appearance in Book One ends with him screaming angrily and trying to attack Foaly after his plans blow up in his face and it becomes clear Root and Foaly are going to give evidence against him.
- We Used to Be Friends: He used to be Root's friends and they grew up together, but his actions during the first book end up alienating Root from him and in book 2, it's clear that their friendship is now dead.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Julius calls him out on using a troll in the Fowl siege.
The B'wa Kell
The B'wa Kell
A goblin criminal syndicate, whose own incredible idiocy kept them from being a serious threat to the Lower Elements for many years. This all changes when they receive the backing of Briar Cudgeon and Opal Koboi.- Big Bad Triumvirate: They are led by a triumvirate of goblins consisting of Generals Scalene, Sputa and Phlebum.
- False Flag Operation: Cudgeon and Opal have provided them with weapons and plans in order to use them as puppets, even staging attacks on Koboi's facilities to put her above suspicion.
- Kill It with Fire: Their favourite method of dealing with things.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: For all their stupidity, they very nearly manage to beat the LEP in Book 2. Only Foaly regaining control of Police Plaza's defence systems manages to put down their rebellion.
- Our Goblins Are Different: They are reptilian creatures who shed their skins and use them to make clothes. They have the ability to produce fire as well as near-complete immunity to it. And they are incredibly stupid.
- Playing with Fire: It comes out their nostrils.
- Stupid Crooks: The lot of them, from the lowliest grunts all the way up to the top leadership.
- Stupid Evil: Colfer will not let you forget that goblins are dumb.
- The Syndicate: Appear to fill this kind of role in the goblin criminal underworld.
- Too Dumb to Live: A general, one of their best and brightest, was caught using a forged credit card because he used his real name.
- Took a Level in Badass: They go from a relatively minor nuisance to a very serious threat after Cudgeon and Opal ally with them, thanks to them being supplied with both illegal weaponry and a reliable source of energy for said weaponry.
Mervall and Descant
Mervall and Descant Brill
A pair of none-too-smart lackeys who assist Opal Koboi during the events of The Opal Deception.- Punch-Clock Villain: They have no personal investment in Opal's plans— they're just motivated by pay and fear.
- Shiny New Australia: In light of Opal's growing narcissism and madness, the only thing keeping them loyal, aside from fear of punishment, is the thought of sipping alcoholic beverages on the beaches of the Carribean after Opal's world conquest.
- Spanner in the Works: Ironically, their own incompetence is one of the key reasons why Opal's Evil Plan in The Opal Deception falls through — they don't bother changing the default code on the handcuffs used to lock Artemis and Holly together, helping them to escape the troll nest and eventually foil Opal's plot.
- Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey: While Opal Koboi is probably the most dangerous villain throughout the series, as an Ax-Crazy psychopath who wants to Take Over the World, Mervall and Descant are a cowardly, often incompetent Bumbling Henchman Duo.
Other Villains
The Russian Mafia
Er, the Russian Mafia. Or more specifically, a pair of its enforcers who are guarding a captive Artemis Fowl Senior, having taken none too kindly to his attempt at muscling in on their turf.
The Russian Mafia
- Even Evil Has Standards: When Artemis Fowl II seemingly has his own father assassinated, they're genuinely shocked and horrified.
- Karma Houdini: Britva, the leader of the group.
- No Full Name Given: Britva and Kamar.
- Oddly Small Organization: Their total presence in the books amounts to a mob boss and his two enforcer henchmen. Though there were a hundred guards mentioned at some point and it's heavily implied that the two henchmen are doing one small task out of a big organization.
- Ruthless Foreign Gangsters: Inverted as it was the Irish Gentleman Thief who moved on their territories and they showed him he was not welcome by hitting the ship he was on with a stinger missile.
Jon Spiro
Jon Spiro
An arrogant multimillionaire Corrupt Corporate Executive, who steals advanced reverse-engineered tech from Artemis and nearly kills Butler after the boy genius makes a somewhat naive attempt to extort him.- Bad Boss: Apparently used to toss complaining employees out of high-rise windows before the laws became tighter. He resents having to give employees basic amenities like decent wages and insurance and those working for him are constantly in fear of having You Have Outlived Your Usefulness and/or You Have Failed Me pulled on them.
- Big Bad: Of Book Three, given he holds the MacGuffin that the heroes must acquire back from him.
- Colour Motifs: White. He wears white clothing, and just about everything in his personal quarters is white.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Aside from Artemis himself being a Villain Protagonist in the first book, Spiro is the only main villain who is a human rather than a fairy.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: See Bad Boss above. Even if his underworld connections and use of illegal means to undermine his competition didn't qualify him for this, his willingness to have a teenage boy murdered to get his hands on very advanced technology definitely does. Its also implied that Phonetix outstrips his company due to him cutting corners.
- Crazy-Prepared: Holly describes his company's security system as being the most state of the art she has ever seen for a Mudman. It's telling that Foaly concludes they could not pull off infiltrating it without his help.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: His company's relationship with Phonetix seems very reminiscent of that between Microsoft and Apple.
- Eviler than Thou: He lampshades this toward Artemis, who was still using his criminal mastermind cred, he might not be the better mastermind but Spiro is way better at being a criminal since he doesn't mind dirtying his hands.
- Evil Tower of Ominousness: The Spiro Needle, a very tall and thin Chicago office building that serves as his company's headquarters.
- Faux Affably Evil: He cracks a lot of jokes and makes bets with his employees, but he also has ties with the mob and won't hesitate to kill a kid.
- Idiot Ball: Unfortunately grabs it pretty hard during the climax of the book. For most of the story's he's careful and well-prepared, and Artemis is only able to match him by calling in help from his fairy allies with advanced technology and magical powers. He correctly guesses that Artemis' initial surrender is a ruse and is waiting inside when Artemis breaks into his vault. But when Artemis has been apparently "beaten for real" and unlocks the C-Cube, he's easily goaded into celebrating by driving over to the highly secure corporate headquarters of his rival tech giant in the middle of the night and personally breaking in to steal their research, confident that this is a great idea because the C-Cube can supposedly hack the electronic security systems and activate tanks of sleeping gas hidden in the vents as a security measure to disable the guards. Dumb because of the many ways such a plan could go wrong even if the C-Cube actually did those things, but more importantly, because he immediately trusts that the Cube is actually doing anything it claims to be doing once Artemis unlocks it.
- Lean and Mean: Described as being "thin as a javelin".
- Light Is Not Good: He's heavily associated with the colour white, and is a Corrupt Corporate Executive par excellence.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Spiro has a taste for expensive suits. Like just about everything else he owns, they're white.
- The Rich Have White Stuff: Everything in his apartment is white, including a painting titled Snow Ghost that's just a solid white canvas.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: To The Mafia, no less.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Though this doesn't save him from getting his just deserts after being caught breaking into Phonetix headquarters.
- Smug Snake: He is fairly competent, and he did almost get Artemis killed at the beginning of Book 3, but he is just not as good as he think he is. In the end, Artemis completely outdoes him.
- Straight Edge Evil: Spiro never smokes (he does chew and suck on the end of a cigar, but never lights it), and hardly ever drinks non-decaf coffee. It's implied that this is because he's a health nut, and strictly follows his doctor's orders.
- Villainous Breakdown: After realising he has been the victim of an elaborate Batman Gambit and is destined for prison he starts shrieking like a madman and seemingly goes insane.
- Villain in a White Suit: Wears all white suits, and is a ruthless Corrupt Corporate Executive with ties to the mob.
Arno Blunt
Arno Blunt
Jon Spiro's burly, antagonistic bodyguard.- The Dragon: To Jon Spiro.
- Fangs Are Evil: One of his sets of false teeth is pointed, like a shark's.
- Foil: To Butler. Both are bodyguards to highly-intelligent, criminal masterminds. However, Blunt is loud and calls attention to himself with his appearance, whereas Butler makes himself as inconspicuous as possible. He's also extremely pragmatic, does not hold to any code of honor in a fight, and he's relatively unprofessional (trying to hold pointless staring contests with Butler). He's also nowhere near as loyal to Jon Spiro, as Butler is to Artemis; the moment things go south for Spiro, he tries to high-tail it out of there.
- Heel–Face Turn: A forced one at that.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: After losing his teeth.
- Tattooed Crook: Though not to the same extent as Loafers.
- The Tooth Hurts: He has all of his teeth blown out as a result of Artemis detonating a sonic grenade during their first meeting, and spends most of the rest of the book wearing dentures.
"Loafers" McGuire
Loafers McGuire
An Irish hitman for the Chicago Mob, hired by Jon Spiro to travel to Fowl Manor and kill Artemis.- Bond One-Liner: Keeps a notebook of quips to make after he kills people.
- Entertainingly Wrong: When he overhears Mulch refer to himself as a "fairy dwarf", he assumes it's the name of a gang (though he notes that it's far from an intimidating name). An understandable conclusion to make for somebody who doesn't know that literal fairies exist.
- Expy: He's pretty much an Irish version of Tommy DeVito or Nicky Santoro, being a short tough guy with a bad temper and involvement in organized crime.
- Going Native: After his memory was altered, he changed his name to "Nuru" and went to live among an East African tribe.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Which Mulch gladly exploits.
- Humiliation Conga: He ends up mind wiped and sent to live among African villagers.
- Identity Amnesia: After Juliet knocks him out, he gets his memory altered and forgets who he actually is.
- Kill Tally: Loafers gets a new tattoo every time he completes a hit. Hardly any of his skin retains its original colour by the time of the third book.
- The Napoleon: Well below average height for a human man, and known for his bad temper.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: Despite being only five feet tall, he's one of the Chicago Outfit's best hitmen. And he doesn't need his weapons to be scary, either; he once defeated seven larger mobsters in a brawl.
- Sarcasm-Blind: Mulch's sarcasm makes a slight whistling noise as it sails clean over his head
- Tattooed Crook: He gets a new tattoo after every successful job. By the time he gets hired to go after Artemis, he hardly has any skin retaining its original colour left.
Pex and Chips
Pex and Chips
A pair of comedically moronic goons working for Jon Spiro.- Bumbling Henchman Duo: While Pex seems marginally smarter and more competent than Chips, neither of them show much in the way of intelligence and Mulch easily tricks them into letting him escape with some Briar Patching. Spiro's downfall happens at least partly because they end up being mesmerized by Holly after losing a fight to a teenage girl.
- Dumb Muscle: They were hired purely for their strength (Pex is said to be able to crack open a walnut with his bare hands) and neither has much in the way of brains.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Really, they're so dimwitted and childish you can't help but feel sorry for them.
- Manchild: They're fans of Barney the Dinosaur. That tells you all you need to know about their maturity.
- Never Learned to Read: If some of Spiro's thoughts are any indication, they're both illiterate.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: "Pex" for his impressive pectorals, and "Chips" because he's often eating chips.
- Too Dumb to Live: They make the goblins look like paragons of intellectual prowess.
- Trademark Favourite Food: Chips' is... well, chips.
Ark Sool
Ark Sool
The replacement for the late Commander Julius Root after his assassination. Ark Sool is an immoral Bad Boss who is eager to push Holly as a criminal and have her arrested or killed for her crimes.- Bad Boss: Is extremely abrasive and refuses to so much as consider the possibility of Holly being innocent.
- Corrupt Bureaucrat: He tries to let the demons be wiped out.
- Face–Heel Turn: Played with. He was never a saint to begin with, being an immoral Corrupt Bureaucrat and Bad Boss. However, after being fired from LEP, he officially switches over to the baddie's side by joining Turnball's gang.
- General Ripper: In Book 4, he is absolutely obsessed with placing the blame on Holly, constantly refusing any further investigations or research that could help prove her innocence.
- Hate Sink: He was already this even when he was supposedly a Hero Antagonist, being nothing but contemptible and trying to tarnish Holly's reputation and brand her as a criminal. Trying to let the entire Demon race die off only cements him as this. And then as icing on the cake, he decides to join the villain's side altogether and allies with Turnball's gang.
- It's All About Me: He only cares about his own career, and nothing else.
- Jerkass: Sool is an incredibly unlikable individual, as cemented by his willingness to let the whole Eighth Family die off.
- Kick the Dog: On too many occasions to count, but one of the biggest he had was when he tried to let the whole demon people die. This ends up costing him his career.
- Lean and Mean: He's a good deal skinnier than most gnomes.
- Obstructive Bureaucrat: Holly mentally refers to him as "the king of red tape" at one point.
- Out of Focus: Him joining Turnball in Book 7 is merely a footnote in the story. Rather than dwell on his enmity with Holly and the rest of the LEP, Sool's just sorta there hanging out with Turnball's other mooks.
- Smug Snake: Just about everything he does screams unwarranted self-importance.
- Tyrant Takes the Helm: He takes over the LEP after Julius' death. Holly immediatly quits.
Leon Abbot
Leon Abbot
The leader of the demons' militaristic society.- Big Bad: Of Book Five.
- Control Freak: He demands complete loyalty from the other demons, to the point of choosing names for them during their adulthood ceremonies, and inflicts humiliation and punishment on those who dissent or challenge his authority.
- Create Your Own Hero: Attempting to sent Number 1 to his death started a chain of events that led to his downfall, which Number 1 played a key part in.
- Demonic Possession: By Qwan's apprentice Qweffor, in an exceedingly rare heroic example.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul": He chose the name Leon Abbot, after a character in a human romance novel. His real name in N'Zall, which translates into demon language as 'Little Horn'.
- Evil Overlord: Rules over the demons during their exile on Hybras.
- Fake Ultimate Hero: Talks himself up as a brave hero who fought a multitude of humans and stole treasured possessions from them. In reality, he was merely given the possessions by Minerva.
- Fusion Dance: It's revealed he has magic abilities stemming from his body merging with that of Qwan's apprentice Qweffor in a ritual gone wrong.
- Humiliation Conga: He ends up having his body taken over by Qweffor, then his consciousness gets transferred into the body of a guinea pig.
- Hypocrite: He detests magic, and magic-using warlock demons, but is not above using it to mesmerise other demons into obeying him, or heal himself to get rid of humiliating injuries.
- Irony: In more than one way: He mesmerized Number 1 into leaving because he feared the young warlock might become a threat. This ended up leading exactly to the chain of events that caused his demise.
- It's All About Me: In the end, he cares for nothing but his own personal power.
- Large and in Charge: A large and physically imposing demon, and self-appointed ruler of Hybras.
- Magic Knight: He has the strength and stature of a demon warrior, and a pool of magic power which he stole while sabotaging a warlock ritual.
- Narcissist: Rivals Opal in this department. There are few depths he won't sink to for the sake of satisfying his sense of self-importance.
- Our Demons Are Different: Another in-universe example: He possesses magic abilities through a Fusion Dance he had with a warlock named Qweffor.
- Sealed Evil in a Teddy Bear: His mind ends up being transferred into the body of a guinea pig against his will.
- Smug Snake: While he's more clever and intelligent than he might seem at first glance, he's still not as smart as he thinks he is.
- Straw Hypocrite: Yeah, he talks a big game about going on the warpath against humans when the time comes, but it's all for show; he knows full well that trying to take on humanity would end very poorly. His militant rhetoric is just a tool he uses to stay in power.
Billy Kong
Billy Kong aka Jonah Lee
An infamous underworld figure hired by Minervera to act as muscle.- Anime Hair: Invoked by his spiky, multicoloured hair, which the narration refers to as "manga hair".
- Beware the Silly Ones: Holly comments he looks more like a member of a boy band than a hardened criminal who killed his partner with a kitchen knife. He is extremely dangerous and even Butler commented that it's gonna be a problem if he is part of the antagonists.
- The Blade Always Lands Pointy End In: Averted when he demonstrates his skill by knocking out Minerva's father with the hilt of his throwing knife. Minerva lampshades that he was half a revolution away from facing murder charges.
- The Dragon: To Minerva.
- Dragon with an Agenda: He actually has his own reasons to work for Minerva; he plans to kill all demons by sending a powerful bomb into their dimension. He ends up betraying Minerva and holding Nº1 hostage because of it.
- The Dreaded: When Artemis asks Butler about him Butler takes a long breath before saying he should be avoided, he also keeps to himself how dark Billy's reputation is in the Underworld as someone that will get any job done no matter how dirty.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: The reason he tries to wipe out the demons is because he thinks they killed his older brother and wants to avenge him.
- Freudian Excuse: His older brother Eric made up stories about him fighting shapeshifting demons to cover up his nightly gang escapades. When Eric was murdered in a gang war, Billy (still known as Jonah at the time) refused to accept the police's explanation and was driven to kill the demons that supposedly took his brother's life.
- Karma Houdini: Subverted. It seems like he'll only be punished for property damage, leaving his more serious crimes unaccounted for... but then Butler reveals to the Taiwanese police that he has an active arrest warrant for murder under his birth name, Jonah Lee.
- Misplaced Retribution: He wants to wipe out the demons in retribution for the murder of his older brother Eric... something they had absolutely nothing to do with, as Eric actually died in an incident of gang violence. Downplayed, however, in that he fully believes they were responsible.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: While he's very dangerous in combat, he's still no match for Butler.
- Psycho for Hire: Though he does have an agenda beyond just killing people, that's not to say he doesn't enjoy it.
- The Starscream: He ends up taking over Minerva's operation.
Damon Kronski
Damon Kronski
- Another Corrupt Corporate Executive who leads the Extinctionists, a club for card-carrying Evil Poachers who want to personally finish off the last members of endangered species.
- Chekhov's Gunman: A hotel bears his name in book four.
- Disc-One Final Boss: He's built up as Book Six's main villain, only to be defeated about two-thirds of the way through. The rest of the volume is dedicated to trying to stop Opal.
- The Dragon: To Opal Koboi, though he doesn't realize it.
- Egomaniac Hunter: He leads the Extinctionists, a club for people who want to push as many endangered species as possible into extinction.
- Evil Is Hammy: Thanks to seeing his preacher father in action, he is really good at making grandiose speeches. Shame they're about exterminating other species.
- Evil Poacher: He drives animals to extinction.
- Exploited Immunity: He organises a meeting with Artemis in a leather souk, hoping that the smell of leather-tanning chemicals will unnerve Artemis. Since he doesn't have a sense of smell, the chemicals don't faze him at all.
- Faux Affably Evil: Though he puts on a charming air, it's glaringly obvious that he's an asswipe.
- First Time Feeling: During a fight with Holly, he ends up getting his sense of smell restored by her healing magic. Unfortunately for him, he happens to be in a particularly foul-smelling souk at the time, so he falls to the ground, writhing in agony.
- Freudian Excuse: His hatred of animals stems from an incident in his childhood, when he was mauled by a koala.
- Hijacked by Ganon: Or more accurately, by Opal.
- Knight Templar: The narration implies that unlike most of his friends he actually believes the crap about exterminating a species since humans are at the centre and should only keep the animals that help them.
- Preacher's Kid: Those revival tent sermons led him to develop his fearsome oratory prowess.
- Villainous Breakdown: When Artemis makes it look like he's passing off a human teenager as a fairy and trying to have her killed under false pretenses, thus turning his own club against him, he drops his composure. He's driven even further over the edge when Holly restores his sense of smell at the worst possible time. Since it's implied his mental health was already shaky due to him being repeatedly mesmerized by Opal, it seems likely he went completely insane.
Turnball Root
Turnball Root
Julius Root's older brother, an infamous Diabolical Mastermind who was defeated by his brother and has been safely locked up in prison for a very long time. Unfortunately, this means that everyone has forgotten just how dangerous he really is.- Abduction Is Love: No amount of sympathy and affability can change the fact that Leonor Carsby crash-landed on an island, and Turnball used magic to brainwash her into marrying him.
- Affably Evil: Walks the line between this and Faux Affably Evil. He is very polite and respectful to allies and enemies alike. While he does do a lot of horrible things, he sees it more as Necessarily Evil to reach a means to an end and never takes any sadistic pleasure in what he does.
- Anti-Villain: Somewhat. His motivations in The Atlantis Complex are sympathetic, but it's made clear that he has been anything but an Anti-Villain throughout his career. Artemis states at the end that he finds it hard to really see Turnball as a villain.
- Bad Boss: Played with. Usually he is a Father to His Men with his henchmen being very loyal to him and Turnball treating them with respect. However, on occasion he won't have a problem with leaving one behind to to die if they have outlived their usefulness as was the case with Vishby.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: In "LEPrecon" (in The Artemis Fowl Files), he swallows a lethal spider rather than let his brother take him back to prison. Julius manages to save him, though.
- Big Bad: Of both the prequel story "LEPrecon" and The Atlantis Complex.
- Cain and Abel: With his brother Julius.
- The Chessmaster: Probably the biggest one in the series save for Artemis himself. He masterminds the entire events of the Atlantis Complex, from hacking the space shuttle and making it turn rogue, turning the entire wrestling ring crowd against the Butlers, orchestrating his prison escape with the help of a Brainwashed and Crazy prison guard, and has a Near-Villain Victory in his ultimate goal in securing Nº1 to heal his human wife.
- Dirty Cop: He tried to flood a section of Haven in an attempt to wipe out a competitor who was muscling in on his illegal mining operation.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: For all his villainy, he genuinely cares for his wife.
- Evil Genius: In addition to being The Chessmaster, Turnball is described as being the number one expert on runes in the world. He's able to use a combination of a Thrall Rune and one magic spark from rice wine to take control of his subjects.
- Interspecies Romance: He fell in love with a human woman who he ended up marrying. His motivation for The Atlantis Complex was to keep her alive.
- They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Insists on being addressed as captain despite obviously no longer holding that rank in the LEP.
- Thrown from the Zeppelin: In The Atlantis Complex, Turnball asks a shuttle full of prisoners (including many members of his old gang) for volunteers to join him in his next venture and depart the shuttle under dangerous circumstances. The first three people who choose to follow him survive. The prisoners who decide to stay behind, ask to join him too slowly for his tastes, or seem too nervous and desperate while asking to join him are all left behind and die when the shuttle is destroyed to cover his escape.
- Underestimating Badassery: It's frequently noted throughout The Atlantis Complex that it's been so long since Turnbull was an active threat that the LEP has forgotten about him. This means he gets relatively cushy treatment in prison and is able to turn one of the guards to his side, eventually enabling his escape, while the wardens are very Properly Paranoid about Opal Koboi.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Pulls this on Vishby, who had been right-hand man for the majority of Atlantis Complex but he had no problem with leaving Vishby behind in the escape pod full of criminals before the whole pod got crushed and the occupants liquefied by the satellite.
Lord Teddy
Lord Teddy Bleedham-Drye
- The Ageless: How his immortality seems to work. It's implied he could have been trapped at the bottom of the sea for all eternity but a shark wanting to wear him is treated as a credible threat.
- And I Must Scream: He ends The Fowl Twins trapped wrapped in cellphane underwater and could be trapped forever due to his immortality. The sequel says his brain had to be transferred into a clone body and he was awake during the procedure.
- Big Bad: The main antagonist of The Fowl Twins.
- Body Backup Drive: The sequel says his brain was put into a clone body but he doesn't want to do this again due to the expense.
- Cannot Tell Fiction from Reality: Has memory problems as a side effect of his brain transplant and asks if Australia and Narnia are real places.
- Flying Car: Has pre-ordered one that the Myishi Corporation is working on.
- Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Says "My word, my blooming word" when Beckett breaks his shoulder. The narration says this is as close to swearing as he normally gets due to his breeding.
- Gratuitous French: His first words to Lazuli are "Au contraire, mademoiselle".
- Immortality Seeker: Is trying to find troll blood so he can live forever.
- Meaningful Name: He plans to drain a troll of its blood.
- Mugged for Disguise: He knocks out and steals clothes from an ACRONYM guard.
- The Needless: His immortality seems to allow him to be trapped forever underwater without air or food.
- Punny Name: His name is a play on "bleed 'em dry".
- Uncertain Doom: At the end of The Fowl Twins, he's trapped underwater with a shark about to eat him and a Myishi Corporation worker on the way to rescue him.
- Villain with Good Publicity: He's the Duke of Scilly and widely respected.
- Would Hurt a Child: He intends to kill the Fowl twins and looks forward to hearing them.
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