|Foaly|
Age: Eoin Colfer does not ever tell anyone his character's ages, instead hinting at it in the books and leaving readers to puzzle it out themselves. However, one does get the idea that he is fairly old, younger than Commander Root, but older than Captain Short. Colfer mentions in Book Two that Foaly pioneered "every major development from flare prediction to mind-wiping technology." Considering that Root refers to five hundred years ago as "top-hat and shillelagh days," I'm assuming that there were not flare predictions and mind-wiping technology back then, and therefore guessing that Foaly is somewhere around 300 – 400 years old. But then again, in Book Two, Foaly remarks to Opal Koboi that she was still jealous because he had "won the science medal back in university." If the two had gone to college together, could it be possible that they were the same age, or do centaurs grow more slowly than pixies? Earlier in Book Two, Colfer writes that fifteen years after Koboi graduated from college, she was already plotting with the demoted Briar Cudgeon, meaning that the Artemis Fowl siege had already occurred. This doesn't figure!
Appearance: Well, he's a centaur – ring any bells, people? Half-horse, half-man? Yes, that would be about right. Colfer neglects to add any detail about Foaly's human torso and head, but does refer to Foaly as "horsy" now and then. Root lovingly calls the centaur "pony boy," a rather apt name when one thinks about it. In the first book Foaly wears a tinfoil hat to "prevent [human intelligence agencies] from reading his mind," but in the second book he dispiritedly throws it away in the middle of the B'wa Kell siege.
Heritage: Who knows? What I'd like to know is how the People don't freak out whenever they see half of a man clopping around their Ops Booth.
Personality: Annoying and mouthy. Colfer makes no bones about this in all three of his books: "Every discovery made him less respectful and more annoying." There you have it. In the first book Foaly is described as "paranoid," (hence the foil bonnet), but you don't seem to find Foaly shaking or constantly looking around. Perhaps this paranoia was discarded in Book Two along with the creative foil hat.
Hobbies: Dismantling things, annoying Commander Root and calling him "Julius." The centaur seems to know that he is irreplaceable and does everything he can to take advantage of that.
|Summary of the Foaly|
Centaurs do not have any magic, as is described in Book Two, "Centaurs didn't have magic. Not a drop. They got on by brains alone. That and their ability to trample their enemies underfoot." This doesn't seem to hamper Foaly, who probably prefers technology anyhow. In his Operations Booth, where he appears to live, he has a voice-activated laser and plasma tiles, not to mention his specially-adapted swivel chair. He, as described in Book Two, is jealous and competitive with other companies, as he was with Opal Koboi.