Conversation

The highest agency people in a story are the ones important enough to be legitimized by the heroes personally, but not mission critical enough to be monitored closely or end up directly in the sights of the villain. Power and trust without accountability or unavoidable risk.
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this seems like another version of the old "power within the organization is inversely correlated to the size of your keychain"
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The villian is normally the one with the most agency, as they often trigger the story, it is just the writer does not generally ascribe it to them as they have a "cartoon baddie" function to fulfil.
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I can suspend my disbelief up to and including infinite probability drives, magic, and elves—but the existence of free will is a step too far. These characters consciousnesses find out what they are going to do right before we do.
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