Hari Seldon (Raven)

"*You came here hoping to save your world. I’m asking you to dream bigger. Why stop at one world? Why not save the galaxy?*"
—Hari Seldon to Gaal Dornick[src]
**Hari Seldon** is one of the main characters of the Apple TV+ series *Foundation*. An eccentric mathematical genius, Hari Seldon develops Psychohistory, an entirely new science that allows him to calculate the future with stunning accuracy. His predictions foresee the fall of the Galactic Empire within five hundred years, followed by a period of barbarism that would plunge the galaxy into darkness for thirty thousand years. Hari sets out to create a Foundation to soften the fall and preserve science and civilization for future generations. He is portrayed by Jared Harris, first appearing in the episode "The Emperor's Peace".

## Biography

### The *Raven*

When Gaal Dornick arrives on the *Raven*, she is carrying the knife that Raych Foss used to kill Hari Seldon. The knife interacts with the door controls of the *Raven*, allowing Gaal access but also being the process of downloading a digitized version of Hari, taken from the moment of his death aboard the *Deliverance*. This Hari comes into being aboard the *Raven*, reliving the moment of his death.

His form is not complete and is writhing as he was after being stabbed by Raych Foss. The computer aboard the *Raven* states that this is due to an incomplete neural uplink, with the source being the Raych Foss Arrival Protocol. Hari begs Gaal to help him and is asked to concentrate to Gaal's voice to break himself from the loop of past events. After exiting the loop, he explains to Gaal he had a data unit implanted in his brain after leaving Trantor which was synchronised with the knife Raych used to kill him. It contained all Hari's memories, thoughts, and other things up to the moment he died. He says something must have gone wrong with the uplink.

He converses with Gaal about what is happening as understands they are going to Helicon. When he asks how long they have been travelling, Gaal says 34 years. He realises at this point that Gaal is not supposed to be there and wonders where Raych is. He tells Gaal she should have gone to Terminus, and thinks Lewis Pirenne - now in charge of the Foundation - will not be able to get the Foundation beyond the settlement phase. He is shocked to hear Raych dies, and his digital self begins to glitch. This leaves life support systems turning off, with Gaal suffocating. Hari authorizes life support systems to reactivate and begins communicating with Gaal again.

Hari explains to Gaal how his death was essential to the plan succeeding. The Foundation needed more than just him leading it, it needed a long standing myth to inspire the citizens. He states that this worked with the mortality rate projected at 34.2% for Foundation members predicted initially being nearly half that. When questioned about his motives for killing himself, he says to Gaal he had Lethe Syndrome, inherited from his father. The plan was for Hari to kill himself and for Raych to explain why, but Hari tells Gaal that it was Raych's love for her that changed that. In order to get Raych to leave Gaal, he had to kill Hari and then leave afterwards. After Gaal gets angry with him, Hari tells Gaal how she made a choice to be involved in this.

Hari wants to establish with Gaal why she went to Hari's apartment on the day of his death. Together they deduce Gaal can tell the future, and knew about Hari dying. Hari explains to Gaal about the second Foundation, with the first one drawing fire and the second one being kept a secret. He does not tell Gaal any more, but does cite on Helicon they can study Gaal's abilities. This causes her to want to leave the ship and Hari watches on. He hears one last plea from Gaal as she threatens to destroy the heat transfer system that is keeping the interior of the ship from getting too hot. He says to her that if he tells her everything, the second Foundation will be put at risk. After she destroys it, thus risking her life, he tells Gaal he could program the cryopod to go where he wants it to go. After hearing Gaal state her reasons for leaving, he opens the door and lets her leave the ship. As Gaal leaves the *Raven*, she takes the knife containing Hari's digital concsiousness with her.

### Trapped

When Gaal enters cryosleep for her trip to Synnax, Hari's consciousness remains awake for the one-hundred and thirty-eight year trip. When Gaal arrives on Synnax and meets Salvor Hardin, she transfers Hari's consciousness to the Prime Radiant, trapping him inside. It takes an appearance by Yanna Seldon to help free his mind and he deduces that it is not Yanna, rather it is a representation of Kalle. She helps Hari realise he can escape the Prime Radiant and asks him to meet her on Oona's World once he is free. He escapes the Radiant and appears on the *Beggar's Lament*, telling Gaal they need a reckoning.

Hari tells Gaal that she ruined the plan for the Second Foundation by coming to interrupt Raych killing him. Salvor interrupts Hari's tirade and demands he help them fix the ship. He and Salvor are able to fix the ship and they take off. As the ship is in space, Hari explains they can't interfere with the pending war between the first Foundation and Empire. The Second Foundation is designed to be used by those who understand Psychohistory and the Plan and to quietly change Empire's course if needed and act as a counter to the First Foundation. Hari sits down with Gaal and Salvor to discuss how they may influence the coming future chaos as a result of the Plan being off-course.

The best way for Gaal to get a clearer vision of the future is for her life to be in danger. Hari understands this, and helps to create conditions where Gaal can't breathe so she can have that vision of the future. In the future, Gaal encounters the Mule but also discovers that the Second Foundation was built. Hari helps Gaal interpret her vision, and the trio deduce they need to travel to Ignis to find the Mentalics mentioned in Gaal's vision.

The trio arrive at their destination, though Hari tells Gaal and Salvor that where they are not at Ignis and is in fact on Oona's World, where Kalle told him to go. In response to Gaal and Salvor's anger at this, Hari responds that he will not allow the *Beggar's Lament* to leave until he completes his mission. With Gaal still refusing, Salvor wants to get off this planet so forces Gaal to take Hari to the mountains ahead.

Hari and Gaal make their way to the mountain, and he tells her of his relationship with Yanna and how the Radiant came to be. At the entrance to the mountain, Gaal is able to open the door and Hari greets Kalle. He tells Gaal to leave and if he’s not back in six hours, she and Salvor should leave the planet. As they do so over six hours later, they find Hari lying on one of the statues - in a human body.

### A New Start

Onboard the *Beggar's Lament*, Hari has a dream of the moment Raych kills him, followed by a new moment where Raych appears on the ship and accuses Hari of letting him die. Waking, Hari stabs his hand with the knife that killed him draws blood. Approaching Ignis, Hari tells Salvor and Gaal that he really doesn't remember how Kalle gave him a mortal body. After crashlanding on the planet due to negative ion particles reboot the ship during descent, Hari runs diagnostics on the ship with Gaal as Salvor detects someone watching them on their descent and goes to find them.

Apologising for mentioning the vision with Raych to Gaal, Hari hears more about Gaal and Raych's relationship. As Hari and Gaal sees Salvor approaching with Hugo Crast, Hari ensures Gaal hides the Prime Radiant from everyone - including him - as he talks to Salvor through the comm. Suspecting Hugo is not who he says he is, he runs a series of scans from the ship which confirms this. This is confirmed as multiple contacts approach the ship and Hugo reveals his true form as a stranger who attacks Salvor. The assailants make their way aboard the ship and after a struggle, Hari, Gaal and Salvor are taken unconscious as prisoners.

The trio awaken and Hari follows Salvor and Gaal who hear whispers. They find a group surrounding a child in white claiming to be Tellem Bond, a bodily incarnation of the goddess Pa'a. Introductions take place and Hari sees the child doesn't cast a shadow and her true form is revealed. She explains how the place is a refuge for mentalics who can read memories and lives. She was responsible for Hari's vision of Raych and wanted him to consider his death and resurrection so she could read him.

In the morning, Hari sits on the beach, reliving the memory of stampede. Salvor] approaches, up early because of weird dreams and she believes that other Mentalics' dreams are leaking into her mind. Hari, Salvor and Gaal later meet with Tellem. She reveals that Gaal's thoughts have told her about the First Crisis, the Second Crisis, and the Foundation. Tellem doesn't care about the Empire, she just wants to keep her people out of the way so they are not killed. Hari tells her about the rise of the Mule in the future, and Gaal shows her the vision she had.

Hari and Salvor talk on the beach, with the conversation again turning to Hari's resurrection. Salvor is still unsure why Kalle did it. Hari believes that it is part of the messianic side to his story, about death and resurrection. Salvor points out that already happened with the version of Hari on Terminus. Her theory is that someone was worried that Hari would reduce everything down to numbers so wanted him to have some actual skin in the game. Hari knows that Salvor thinks he is a bad influence on Gaal, but all Salvor wants to for Gaal not to forget that there are actual people on the planets to be saved. Hari reveals that he didn't known about Gaal and Raych's relationship until the night he died and that Gaal is angry at him rather than face the truth: Raych knew everything and still went along with it. Salvor is worried that Gaal will turn into Hari.

As Hari and Salvor fish, he realises that it must be hard on Salvor. Salvor admits that she feels like she is raising an army to fight the Foundation. Hari clarifies that the Second Foundation is not meant to fight the First, but to nudge it where necessary. The other version of Hari was edited and doesn't know the full plan, and has no idea about this Hari's existence or the intent to create a Second Foundation. Salvor realises that for that to work, Hari would need to be able to monitor his other self and realises that the Vault and Prime Radiant are connected. The Prime Radiant is a single object outside of space time, existing in two places at once. Gaal arrives with Tellem to reveal their arrangement; Hari wants to know Tellem offered and points out that Tellem can put anything into her mind. When Tellem refers to an incident on Macoda Mesa in Hari's youth, Hari angrily tells them if they can't trust their own minds, then what else do they have?

Salvor goes after Hari, knowing that what Tellem said about Macoda Mesa got to Hari. Hari realises that all day he could not shake the memory, and that Tellem was gouging it from his mind. Hari tells Salvor that they are after the Prime Radiant, and that it is hidden on the *Beggar* and doesn't look like itself. He implores Salvor to protect it and Gaal before hurrying away.

Tellem takes Hari prisoner, staging his disappearance to look like he took the *Beggar's Lament* and flew away. In reality, Hari is chained up in a tide pool with water up to his neck. Tellem stands over him, telling him that Loron will fly the *Beggar* out of range so they can continue their search for the Prime Radiant. Tellem intends to let Hari drown, an act that she does not consider to be murder since they would never kill one of their own. She tells Venik to stand guard until his drowns. As moments from his life pass before him, Hari drowns.

Hari, however, was not dead. During a violent confrontation between Gaal and Tellem aboard the *Beggar's Lament*, Hari arrived and bludgeoned Tellem to death from behind. Salvor doesn't know how Hari came back to life, and Hari and Gaal explain how Hari never died in the first place. Gaal felt like she was drowning with Hari, and couldn't breathe. She reached out and influenced the guard by giving him a need, as Tellem had taught her. Gaal controlled Hari's body and overpowered the guard, drowning him. The best illusions are bound by reality and indeed everybody saw Hari's body, thanks to Gaal. Gaal and Hari built a bridge of shared sensations and to hide this from the Mentallics, they counted primes together to shield their thoughts. Gaal explains to Salvor how she had to mask what they’d done from everyone, including Salvor, for fear of their plan being exposed. Salvor realises her trick with the coin nearly ruined the situation, but she is reassured by Hari that without her coming to save them, they would all be dead.

They are interrupted by the arrival of the Mentalics who want to speak to them. Not willing to come out straight away, they stay in the ship. After the Mentallics explain that they mean no harm and are now free, the trio exit and the Mentalics bow towards them. Later, Hari and Gaal discuss Tellem’s longevity as they sit with the Mentalics. Gaal wanders off and Josiah points a gun at her. Salvor jumps in front of him as he shoots and takes the shot as she throws a knife into his chest. Hari watches over him as he dies, where he explains how Tellem took over his body but is now fully dead. Gaal tends to Salvor who dies in her arms, noting that indeed the future can be changed. Hari and Gaal later watch over Salvor’s funeral pyre. Looking at the Radiant some time later, Hari tells Gaal they won’t know if Salvor helped nudge the plan back on course until the time comes.

Later, Hari and Gaal discuss next steps to which Hari says Gaal needs to go into cryosleep for 150 years when the next crisis will take place. He will watch over the Mentalics and teach them what they need to know. Gaal is unsure of this, arguing for Hari to go into cryosleep with her as she does not want to watch him die and also both can teach the Mentalics twice as fast. Hari agrees and the pair go to the cryopods. Hari is nervous of this and his heartrate rises. He is steadied by Gaal who uses the same language Raych used with her. The pair sleep while counting primes.

## Appearances

* Season One
	+ "Upon Awakening" (First appearance)
	+ "Mysteries and Martyrs"
	+ "The Missing Piece"
* Season Two
	+ "In Seldon's Shadow"
	+ "A Glimpse of Darkness"
	+ "King and Commoner"
	+ "The Sighted and the Seen"
	+ "Why the Gods Made Wine"
	+ "A Necessary Death"
	+ "Long Ago, Not Far Away"
	+ "Creation Myths"

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "In Seldon's Shadow", based on information for the main Hari Seldon.
2. ↑ "Upon Awakening", based on information for the main Hari Seldon.
3. ↑ "The Missing Piece"
4. ↑ "The Emperor's Peace", based on information for the main Hari Seldon.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "King and Commoner"
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 "Mysteries and Martyrs"
7. ↑ "Upon Awakening"
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 "The Missing Piece
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "A Glimpse of Darkness"
10. ↑ "In Seldon's Shadow"
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "The Sighted and the Seen"
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 "Why the Gods Made Wine"
13. ↑ "Long Ago, Not Far Away"
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 "Creation Myths"