Moral Agency

**Moral Agency** is the ability for a character to know and make actions based on what is morally right and morally wrong. These characters have an understanding of morals and what is good and what is evil. In addition, they know what actions are appropriate to make and how it can impact others and self-awareness of what they are doing to others.

Moral Agency of characters are likely going to be: clear for those who knows right from wrong, bounded for those who have a clear personality but no capacity to understand right or wrong, and vague for characters that lacks a personality and cannot comprehend morals or is neither good or evil.

## Types of Moral Agency

### Clear

On the Moral Spectrum, all Pure Good (Rank 1 +) and all Pure Evil (Rank 1 -) characters possess clear moral agency. Other characters can also possess clear moral agency.

#### In General

All characters on the Moral Spectrum except for those under Pure Neutral (Rank 0) and some who are Completely Ambiguous (Rank 0) can have clear moral agency. Different types of heroes and villains each can have clear moral agency based on their characteristics and their understanding of how their actions impact the setting.

#### Pure Good

To make Pure Good characters stand out for how heroic and noble they are they know what is the right thing to do and the wrong thing to do, but chooses to do what is right. They understand that they can do the morally wrong thing but makes the choice to not do it. These characters are capable of doing bad and evil deeds, but chooses to not do it.

#### Pure Evil

To make Pure Evil characters stand out for how evil they are, they know what is morally right and what is good, but chooses to not do what is right. These characters are capable of stopping their evil ways and doing the right thing whenever they want, but chooses to continue their evil actions.

### Bounded

There are some characters who are Near Pure Evil (Rank 2 -), Inconsistently Heinous (Rank 3 -), Villainous Benchmark (Rank 4 -), Heroic Benchmark (Rank 4 +), Inconsistently Admirable (Rank 3 +), and Near Pure Good (Rank 2 +) who do not have clear moral agency due to their mental health, being made of good or evil itself, or having been altered in some capacity. These characters will only be bounded to their actions based on their characteristics that influence their moral agency.

They **do not** have a clear moral agency which means they **do not** know right from wrong. They can give the impression that they know right and wrong by their actions and characteristics and they possess a distinguishable personality. For example, these characters can engage in fluent discussions with people and can express emotions over the outcome of their actions. Some examples of these characters include Aku from *Samurai Jack*, Kid Buu from *Dragon Ball Z*, and Raava and Vaatu from *The Legend of Korra*.

### Vague

This is for a type of character that is either Pure Neutral or Ranks between Rank 3 + to Rank 3 -. These characters do not have a clear moral agency.

For Pure Neutral characters, these characters possess a moral agency that is unlike what is good or evil. They have their class of moral agency that is not understood well by people.

Other characters that are good or evil lacks an actual personality and are often written to be one-dimensional characters that in most cases do not speak. These characters tend to either be artificial intelligence or supernatural beings. Example include GOLB from *Adventure Times*.

## Moral Spectrum

The image above shows what type of character on the Moral Spectrum can possess which type of moral agency.