#don’t make me factor in Butler re: the cocktail of parental neuroses Artemis has because it just gets even messier LMAO

[orangerosebush]

IMO, Artemis i, ii, and Angeline are codependent in a way that doesn't result in yelling matches per se, but rather codependent in the sense of, “I love you so much I want to put you in a snow globe and look at it for hours in a quiet room”.

On the one hand, Artemis II acts like he's the parent despite being 15-17 — and then on the other hand, Angeline and Artemis I see every awful thing that happens with the People as if it were happening to Artemis circa age 6.

All this is complicated by Artemis being thee baby of the family/the Original Heir***. There’s a tension in Artemis thinking that he needs to puppeteer his parents for the good of The Family, whereas his parents hold that maybe the world did end when Artemis died (TLG) and to pretend otherwise is insane.

***"Thee baby" not in the sense of youngest or most infantilized. Of course, in TEC, Fowl Sr grieves at the sight of the adult-like Artemis in front of him during the hospital visit, as does Angeline in TAI during a phone call.

Rather, I joke about this in the sense that like... Angeline and Artemis I never get to see Artemis grow up. Not to mention, Artemis was born into an era of the Fowls where it would be reasonable to worry that someone would do ill by Artemis to hurt the family due to him being the only heir (at the time). Myles and Beckett are born into a wholly different world than Artemis was. So much of the anguish over Artemis has to do with that context!