i think \u201cagency\u201d is mostly shorthand. any fictional characters we create, by rule of the fact that they are characters we create and control in the first place, do not actually have agency. they do what we write them to do. agency in fictional characters does not exist, really.
\nagency, then, becomes shorthand for a larger discussion and analysis and just a general\u00a0feel\u00a0of \u201cis what the character doing work for the character, or is this done for the thrill of the audience\u201d.
\ni\u2019ll give an example from comics. rogue is a pretty well liked member from the x-men, right? and black widow has her own pretty good share of fans, both from the movies and the comics.
\nin A+X #2, an avengers and x-men teamup book, chris bachalo writes a story where rogue and black widow have to team up and fight a sentinel. but, he writes a scene which feels pretty clearly not for the characters, but for the audience.
\n![](\"/media/tumblr_inline_ndhqieOaFl1rxz6j3_7896530bb42e.png\"/)
of all the ways for rogue to get natasha\u2019s knowledge, there\u2019s tons - nose to nose contact would have done it, and rogue herself knows her powers well enough that she doesn\u2019t need to be told that she can just absorb the knowledge from natasha on how to fire a sniper rifle. what\u2019s more, the info she absorbs/remarks almost immediately turns to natasha\u2019s private romantic/sexual life, and rogue remarks on what a good kisser she is. the scene, the plot, was put together to get them to kiss, everything else be damned.
\nit\u2019s a scene that breaks any illusion of agency, because it comes off pretty clearly \u201ci wrote a scenario to get the two hot girls to make out\u201d, and like, exists solely for that. it\u2019s not\u00a0for\u00a0the characters, it\u2019s for the audience and it feels like, to some degree, the author themselves.
\nthis isn\u2019t even going into the horrible Emma Frost/Black Widow team up, which is a million times worse.
\nnatasha and rogue do not have agency, flat out. they\u2019re fictional characters, and they do what they are written and drawn to do. however, a writer and artist can construct a story, a narrative, where what the characters do feel like they are doing\u00a0for\u00a0the characters, and not\u00a0for\u00a0the author, and much more pertinently, the audience. discussion of camera angles and focus in any medium would be useful here, not just story choices - what the camera focuses on and how it frames characters very much changes internal feelings and ideas about a character\u2019s \u201cagency\u201d.
\nagency doesn\u2019t exist in fictional works, but how media frames characters, how they setup their stories, actions, and reactions, determines whether we feel like the character is being themselves, or if the character is doing something that raps on the glass of the TV screen or the glossy pages of the comic book and makes it\u00a0clear\u00a0that they have no agency.