OK hot take, (probably) but I think that Adrian Graye is actually a powerful witch just like the rest of the covenheads.
I say this because there's a lot of people who think that Adrian is a lot weaker than the rest of the Covenheads because of Gus beating him in Labyrinth Runners.
I will say that granted, his magic is illusions and yeah illusions have no physical aspect to them, but there's two things I'd like to add here:
Even though illusions aren't a physical magic, they're more about deceptive measures and at most psychological in nature.
Adrian finds a way around the lack of the physical aspect by hiding the scouts he has under his illusions to have them interact with people. (So when you think about it, he's quite clever for doing that since he could focus on keeping up the illusion and keeping himself safe)
Technically a third but when you think about it, if Gus can make it look like a witch's powers aren't working, as shown in Through the Looking Glass Ruins:
Then, Adrian could do that too however, with way more ease than Gus as he said it took him a lot of concentration to maintain it.
Of course, since Gus has the ability to force people to see their worst memories, so can Adrian.
If we want to go further with it, Adrian can totally make an entire illusion labyrinth just like Gus too but it'd be more controlled since he's more experienced than Gus.
Yes there's the scene where he asks Gus "how" is he making the labyrinth, but this could just be him being surprised that an illusion that powerful is coming from a 12 year old as younger witches shouldn't be able to make complicated spells. (Gus is an extreme outlier in this)
(Not only that but Gus’s labyrinth was induced by his emotions getting out of hand and was therefore accidental)
Also real fast, I'm pretty sure being forced to see your worst/darkest memories would render anyone in the state that we see Adrian in last. So I don't think it's just "a him" thing.
Moving on and going further with this, Adrian could go full on Mysterio on his enemies asses. Anyone seen Spider-Man: Far From Home?
From tricking the target to using the real (unillusioned) environment against them:
To using psychological horror and using their emotions against them about a beloved person's death:
To faking his own death:
To making it look like someone close to the target is in danger:
To altering the entire perception of the playing field at a massive scale:
The person won't be able to figure out what's an illusion and what's reality until it's too late:
This is also not to mention the other post I have about the extensions of illusion magic and its effects (which I think both Gus and Adrian can do to varying extents based on their experience with illusions).
What I'm getting at is that Adrian is definitely powerful in his own right at illusion magic (and can very well do these things).
It's just that we don't get to see the full potential because of how the writing favored Gus's powers over Adrian's in Labyrinth Runners due to the shortening.
I'm not trying to diminish Gus’s abilities as an illusionist, I'm just saying both of them are powerful in their own ways (Gus having raw power for his age, yet needs to refine and control his powers and Adrian having experience and control with his magic yet his ego gets the best of him and he underestimates his opponents)
Not to mention his vague feedback to the scouts often works against him unknowingly.
Like honestly, if the show wasn't shortened there'd be more time allowed for him to be a more terrifying threat in Labyrinth Runners or other episodes with him.
TLDR: Ya'll are sleeping on what could've been an even more epic version of Labyrinth Runners and Adrian's powers. Like yes, we can still make fun of him being beaten by Gus, but let's just acknowledge that it would've been really cool to see two skilled illusionists fighting 1v1.
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idea:
vampire pete and ybcpatrick au
pete is kidnapped by the Vixens cult, he's The Music Guy of the Chicago hardcore scene and he's got a little too close to figuring out their operation
patrick is an experiment of the Vixens, a kid born from locally famous musicians that they kidnapped and brainwashed into a yellow-eyed, hook handed, violent monster
the Vixens are working to see if the same brainwashing would effect Pete since he is nonhuman, but it doesnt work
the brainwashing in patrick is failing, the Vixens notice this and vocally plan to kill the two of them, which Pete overhears.
Pete shares this plan to Patrick and the two have to work together to break out before they kill them
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Luffy not knowing about Zoro promising Sanji to kill him if he ever ends up losing himself makes me go feral because that's something they can only know about. Because Zoro's respect for life and death goes beyond anything, and Sanji knows he understands. Sanji knows that if somebody has to kill him, it's him.
And I don't even think it's because Sanji assumes Zoro's opinion of him is hatred and it would hurt less for him to do this, but because Sanji knows only Zoro would be able to treat the promise as it is. Because he would put Sanji's wishes before any feelings he has for him. It's not that Zoro doesn't care, but I think he respects people's ideals and decisions to the extent of being able to kill Sanji if he so desires.
That being said, he'd do it if there's no other way to fix it. If it's either dying or living as an emotionless machine, which is the same as dying for Sanji, Zoro would fulfill his promise. And there is just... Something about Luffy not knowing. Their captain. The man they're devoted to the most as if he were their God. Luffy doesn't know. It's something only the captain's wings are aware of and the thought of these two keeping this from Luffy until the end is just insane. Not even trying to make it romantic here, but the bond and respect these two have for each other is crazy.
Maybe it's the poetry of it all, too. Somebody like Zoro, who has looked at Death in her face multiple times and said "no", ending Sanji's life, who wants to give in to death to not experience a fate worse than death for him.
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