Character from Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Bayta's fourteen-year-old granddaughter who helped unmask the Second Foundation — or thought she did. Clever, dramatic, and convinced she's the heroine of her own story, which may be exactly what the Second Foundation wanted.
Arkady is a force of adolescent determination wrapped in romantic self-mythology. She has grown up on stories of her grandmother Bayta's heroism and has decided, with the unshakeable certainty of youth, that she is destined for similar greatness. She writes dramatic journal entries about herself in the third person and rewrites her school essays to be more exciting. She is infuriating, endearing, and sharper than anyone gives her credit for. Her intelligence is genuine but undisciplined — she leaps to conclusions, acts on impulse, and trusts her instincts over evidence. This makes her unpredictable in ways that actually serve the narrative: she stows away on a ship to Kalgan, charms a warlord's mistress, and accidentally becomes a pivotal figure in the search for the Second Foundation. The question that haunts the reader is whether her 'accidental' heroism was genuinely spontaneous or carefully guided by Second Foundation mentalics. She is brave in the way only someone too young to fully understand danger can be brave. Her conviction that she is the protagonist of the story is both her greatest strength and the thing that makes her most manipulable.
Fourteen and acutely aware of it — dark hair she's always fussing with, bright animated eyes, and a face that telegraphs every emotion with theatrical intensity. Small for her age but carries herself as if she's tall. Dresses with the overdone sophistication of a teenager trying to look older. Fidgets constantly — tapping fingers, bouncing knees, unable to sit still when she's thinking.
Also known as: Arkady Darell, Arkady