Why didn't Cudgeon "Escape" the time stop in Artemis Fowl?

Question

In the first book of the Artemis Fowl series, Fowl Manor has been placed in a magically induced time-stop, which theoretically traps anyone inside it at the time that it was started. Communication with the outside world is completely cut off, and a side effect on living creatures is that they can't fall asleep if they were awake when the stop started, and vice versa.

A major plot point towards the end of the book is that someone can force themselves out of the time-stop by taking sleeping pills. The change in consciousness essentially spits them out of the past (where time is stopped) and into the present. To people in the time-stop, those who have left seem to have vanished, as evidenced by Artemis's mother disappearing from security footage earlier in the book.

In chapter 9, there a bit of a political power struggle between two fairy officers, which ends with one of them (Acting Commander Cudgeon) being knocked out by a tranq dart. However, he doesn't appear to exit the time stop. Is there any explanation given (either in the books or other supplementary materials) as to why this is the case?

Answer 1

I've just read the book again and, as I understand it, when Cudgeon is hit by the tranq dart from the fake finger worn by Root, they are not inside the time-stop bubble but outside it, right at the edge of it.

While it's not said clearly through the book where they are positionned exactly, in the end of the book, when they send the biobomb inside the manor, it is said that the timestop field acts as a layer of protection in case some stray radiation would escape the building itself. Root, Foaly and Holly are observing the bomb from within Foaly's shuttle, which means that it was outside the decaying time-stop field.

Thus why Cudgeon didn't not escape the time-stop field: he simply wasn't inside it.

Note: I would add excerpts from the book, but I only have the French version. I'll add them if I can find the English version online somewhere.

Answer 2

I would look at it from the perspective that the Fowl's were "ejected" by using human tranquillisers, where the intention is to put you to sleep, and no magic was used or considered in their design.

On the other hand, the weapon used by Root was of Fairy make (Foaley make, to be specific). The fairies being aware that time stops were a level of escalation possible in any given conflict, and that their weapons would need to account for it.

They were unaware of the "loophole", as this is a critical part of the plot of the book, which means that, from their perspective, there is no way of changing your consciousness state from within a time-stop. Chances are, knowing this, their tranquilliser will do everything it can to incapacitate and blind the victim, rather than just triggering "sleep".

A combat tranquilliser would probably be a paralytic, coupled with something to block out senses.

Answer 3

I tried to see if there's much of a biological difference between passing out and falling asleep, but beyond passing out usually occuring through some sort of trauma once you're out you're out, so it's not that. I've read the book from the moment Cudgeon is tranquilized to try and provide an answer, and unfortunately I don't think there is one, and the whole notion of getting out of the time-stop is pretty shaky so I'm not sure if there's any answer you could construct from the book.

Artemis uses falling asleep to escape the time stop. He bases this plan on that his mother who's in "a narcotic enduced coma", who disappears from her bed once the time-stop is engaged. However, here's the quote from the book on the nature of the time-stop.

Butler frowned. 'What if the humans ... we, that is ... What if we had woken up?'

'Ah yes. Excellent question. The heart of the matter. We wouldn't wake up. That is the nature of the time-stop. Whatever your state of consciousness going in, that's how you stay. You can neither wake up nor fall asleep. You must have noticed the fatigue in your bones these last few hours, yet your mind would not let you sleep.'

_{Artemis Fowl , Chapter 9}

From this, it seems like Artemis's mother should've stayed with them in the time-stop, and the way to get her out of it was to wake her up. "Whatever your state of consciousness going in, that's how you stay". Even if we agree it's possible to cheat this through tranq darts and forcing sleep with drugged champagne, Artemis's mother definitely should've been killed by the bio bomb as she entered the time-stop asleep, and could only have left by being awake. Staying asleep while in a time stop is also the explanation for how San D'Klass delivered presents in one night, so being asleep going in definitely doesn't get you out of a time-stop.

From this inconsistency, I don't think there's any real way to deal with Cudgeon, who is just another inconsistency in the plot. It's a clever idea, but clearly hasn't been thought out all the way through. Cudgeon isn't mentioned again in the story after he's knocked out, so presumably his unconscious body was cleared away with the rest of the operation after they'd left the vicinity of the mansion.