#dr arada

Both Arada and Murderbot are commonly read as neurodivergent and both display a variety of traits classically associated with autism, ADHD, and/or anxiety. While Martha Wells has come to identify as neurodivergent[4][5], she does not write MB as neurodivergent[6][7]. Her personal revelations came in part as a result of fan connection to the personal experiences and feelings MB represented for her[4][5]. As a result, a neurodivergent reading of one or both characters is contrary to the original author intent, but is consistent with canon[7]. However, this contrast is still apparent from the beginning of ASR; a neurodivergent interpretation of both characters contrasts Arada and MB more strongly, as characters with a similar collection of traits expressed differently. (The humans' role as individual and collective narrative foils for MB is intentional, at least partially. In a 2024 interview, she describes the humans in All Systems Red as important because they are "the diversity of personalities [she] wanted to have in there" for it to "see their interactions as friends" and interact with it [5]. Her explanation focuses on the group dynamics, but it is clear she was intentional as she made them individually.)

In social situations, Arada tends to be behind in her reactions to large issues. It takes her longer than the other characters to recognize potential problems before they're spelled out, and she sometimes needs direct prompting from Overse. In contrast, Murderbot reads the room immediately and picks up on that form of subtext very quickly.

For example, during the discussion before the team heads to the DeltFall habitat in All Systems Red, MB enters the room as Mensah says, "I’ve checked the big hopper’s specs and we can make it there and back without a recharge" [8]. From that information and the fact that they can't contact DeltFall, MB "could wince a lot without any of them knowing," as it recognizes the potential threat awaiting them there and the bad situation, potentially including the death of all or part of DeltFall. In fact, it clearly knew going in, as it later notes that the wince was because "they could just drown" (as in, the wince is about the likelihood its clients would choose to go visit DeltFall and die on the way) and not a new realization about the DeltFall group's chances of survival. It knows DeltFall is probably dead from the start.

Meanwhile, Arada, who has been in the room the whole time and likely involved in the conversation about what to do and why, does not realize the potential problems for the DeltFall group until Overse tells her outright that "If they aren’t answering our calls, they might be hurt, or their habitat is damaged," at which point "Arada looked like it was just occurring to her that everybody over at DeltFall might be dead." Every other character picks up on the subtext of the conversation, the fear that DeltFall might have been hit by something really dangerous, before Arada does. Yet once she's aware of the underlying possible problem, she can keep up with everyone else just fine. For instance, the end of the rogue reveal scene later in the same book transitions into discussions about who might be trying to kill them, and she makes an astute observation, asking "If it isn't the company that's doing this, who is it?". The possibility of a third group had not been directly stated at that point, only implied. Knowing there's something out of the ordinary happening, Arada makes conclusions at the same speed as everyone else in the group.

Furthermore, Arada is good with interpersonal interactions and understanding, equally or better than MB. In All Systems Red, during their escape in the hopper, she shuts Gurathin down by saying "You need to give it time. It’s never interacted with humans as an openly free agent before now. This is a learning experience for all of us." Her tone is at the right place for the rest of the humans to recognize that the conversation is at the end, as they all nod and move on afterwards. If she hadn't been running on the wrong assumption about Murderbot (namely, she doesn't know yet that it doesn't like to be touched), she would have effectively smoothed over the interaction on all sides. And she adjusts her behavior to accommodate MB's touch-aversion, as in Exit Strategy when she "didn’t hug me, though she bounced up and down and waved her arms" [9]; now that she understands what MB needs, she can adapt and interact with it without issue. This extends to handling larger interpersonal issues as well. In Network Effect, during her first introduction to ART, "Arada and Thiago [exchanged] a brow-lifted look [...] they had both noticed that ART had deliberately not answered the direct question"[10]. Arada picks up on the issue at the same time MB does, but doesn't immediately challenge ART the way MB tends to, because she doesn't think it's the best way to handle the situation, and she's right.

Even when she gets nervous, such as with Leonide, her anxiety only partially overrides her interpersonal skills. ART tells her she's "talking too much" and she hesitates in the wrong points, but at the same time, she can negotiate with Leonide largely unaided. Her choice to go to Leonide's ship herself is not an accident or a mistake on the small scale, to her. She says it will "save us a lot of time" later, but at the time, she seems to do it because it's what Leonide would expect; the problem is with her large-scale social analysis which tells MB she's making a dangerous choice. This is consistent with earlier characterization of her in comparison to Murderbot, as she knows how to interact with people interpersonally, but doesn't immediately extrapolate those interactions into a larger context without prompting.

On MB's part, it can also analyze small-scale social interactions. For instance, in the scene before visiting DeltFall in All Systems Red, it picks up on the less obvious subtext of Overse's interaction with Arada in the scene and the implications it has for their relationship. Another time, in a conversation shortly after ART makes its demands clear in Network Effect, it catches that "ART paused for 8.3 seconds for no reason I could think of except to make the humans think it wasn’t going to answer the question" [10]. Each time, it picks up on the small interpersonal details the same way Arada does, as it analyzes the situation before it acts.

The contrast between Arada's large-scale issues and MB's competence in multiple areas of social interaction develops Murderbot's character. MB does not believe it is capable of interacting with humans as an equal; it calls itself "awkward with actual humans" early on [8], and it does not improve its opinion of its social skills throughout the series. Even in Network Effect, it still doesn't think it knows how to interact with Farai at the festival or with Mensah at the end [10]. However, when you compare its behavior with Arada's, it is clear that Murderbot is good at socializing with others and intuiting their meaning [11].

Notes

[1: Peter Auger, The Anthem Dictionary of Literary Terms and Theory, with Internet Archive (London ; New York : Anthem Press, 2010), 114, http://archive.org/details/anthemdictionary0000auge.]

[2: She appears as a major character in All Systems Red and Network Effect, as a secondary character at the end of Exit Strategy, and receives mentions in Fugitive Telemetry and System Collapse.]

[3: Mensah and Murderbot's close relationship is similar but deeper. It would be interesting to contrast Arada as Mensah's narrative foil in the context of these different client and SecUnit relationships.]

[4: Martha Wells, "Martha Wells Reflects on 'Murderbot' S:01 | Creative Conversations (WORLDCON 2025 LIVE) - YouTube," (Seattle Worldcon), Ink to Film, August 29, 2025, Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=700&v=W-JRHSABM24.]

[5: Martha Wells, "I Didn't Know How Non-Neurotypical I Was until Murderbot - YouTube," New Scientist, June 21, 2024, Video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=276&v=lZ0wIHRXq0Y.]

[6: Martha Wells, "Book Tour 33: Martha Wells -- System Collapse | Tales from the Trunk," Tales from the Trunk, November 6, 2023, Audio, https://www.talesfromthetrunk.com/e/book-tour-33-martha-wells-%e2%80%93-system-collapse/.]

[7: Martha Wells, "Introduction to the Subterranean Edition of The Murderbot Diaries," October 21, 2021, https://marthawells.dreamwidth.org/564808.html.]

[8: All Systems Red]

[9: Exit Strategy]

[10: Network Effect]