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.
Conversation
Replying to
Close enough to benefit from the protagonist's path breaking. Far enough away to bail if things get bad.
GIF
1
Replying to
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.
Replying to
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.
1






