Sorceress Adel

Nikkolas

White Mage
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In many fiction there is at least one or two characters that captured your interest but they never really got enough focus in the story.

Adel is one of those characters for me.

I mean, despite her having almost no dialogue in the game, we get a reasonable amount of information about who she was. She was the ruler of Esthar, she discovered the Lunatic Pandora, she was searching for young girls to take over once she was dead...

Not Earth-shattering character development but hey, it's something. This is FFVIII - you take what you can get.

But what really captured me and made me interested in Adel wasn't so much her personality. It was her presence. FFVIII didn't exactly excel in storytelling but one of the things I think the game did right was impressing upon us the formidability of Adel. For one thing there is the flashbacks of Esthar under her brutal rule. Secondly the current fear of Sorceresses in the FFVIII world was caused by her. Third, the absolute panic at Rinoa releasing her was amazing.

It's usually the all-powerful and unimaginably destructive evil who is captured and later freed to the horror of the helpless onlookers.

Finally,, this line from Odine always stuck out very clearly to me:
Odine: Sorceress Adel is probably in ze process of awakening inside of Lunatic Pandora.
Ultimecia will want to possess Adel, if Adel wakes up. Zat vill be a horrible event. Adel iz a horrible sorceress. If Adel's consciousness wins over Ultimecia, Adel will first destroy this era.

That's a very fascinating idea I thought. Edea and Rinoa, when possessed by Ultimecia, were her powerless pawns. But here is the suggestion, however minor, that Adel could actually prove powerful enough to throw off the control.

oh and then there is this tidbit if you Scan her:

Esthar's ruler before Laguna and company confined her. Released by Ultimecia, and regaining strength.

So when you fought Adel she wasn't even at her strongest. The party only defeated her because she was still feeling the effects of being frozen all this time.

And finally, no matter what anyone says, looks are important.
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Yeah, I think the 15 foot tall chick who could probably pick you up and tear you in half is more intimidating than say a chick with hair horn things.

I guess what I'm trying to say is Adel, even with her rather minor presence in this game, impressed me more than Ultimecia ever did.

What do you all think?
 
I have to say I did find Adel an intimidating presence. She was a powerful Sorceress without a doubt, and her defeat at the hands of Squall's team and Laguna's team were really down to luck and timing.

It is explicitly stated that she's regaining strength, and that she could possibly take over her body again, as you said above, and her appearance is rather large and intimidating.

I do believe that the possession of Sorceress Adel was something of an emergency measure for Ultimecia. She'd probably planned to carry out her entire plan within Edea, but when she was defeated at the end of Disc 2, she transferred herself into Rinoa, and likely had to think about what to do next.

While Ultimecia herself is undoubtedly powerful, I feel that if Adel had even gotten a day to adjust to her freedom, she would have been much more powerful than Ultimecia. However, she would probably have been even weaker was she not taking strength from Rinoa herself.

Despite that, even in her weakened form, she did have access to a number of powerful spells. Holy, Flare, Ultima and its ilk. And as a kid, Adel was faaaaaar more intimidating than Ultimecia. Those radio messages "IWILLNEVERLETYOU FORGETABOUT ME" still creep me out a little. :wacky:
 
and on the subject of looks......Actually I more or less was confused by Adel ,I honestly dont care what anyone says in my mind she is realy a he.
Thats right I refuse to acknowledge him as a her. Arguments for mutated or whatnot aside ive always believed Adel to be male and untill I see proof of boobies I wont relent.
Theories of coruption deforming her body or bulking it up im not listening to I simply dont believe the power of a sorceres turn one into a hermaphrodite.
 
I don't think she particularly looks like a man or a woman though her appearance is certainly striking. I don't think she impresses more than Ultimecia does. Ultimecia is Edea, she's Adel. All we get of Adel's personality is that she might be as strong as Ultimecia, there's no evidence to say who is stronger, and that she was a dictator who started a war with Galbadia. Besides that all there is to her is her appearance.
 
Just because HE's big and muscular((I suspect a body builder!)) doesnt mean he's as scary as Ultimecia,Adel was just a weakling to Ultimecia..

Anyways Looks yeah like a said if Adel IS A SHE,he/she needs to lay off the freaking weights for about 6months!

that aside Adel's power was pretty much just miniscule to Ultimecia,the only reason Ultimecia used adel is because she couldent travel across time yet and she needed Ellone XD that aside Adel was a ok character dident really bother to notice till she kidnaped Rinoa -.- hostage taking basterd err... Basteredette?
 
...do you even have any showings of Ultimecia's power in FFVIII?

Well I guess there is Time Compression but she can't even use that unless the heroes allow her to.
 
It's more implied than anything else. She kills all the white SeeDs in the future and everyone else by the looks of it. How impressive that is, is debatable, though I would assume it's quite a feat. She's able to take control of Edea, I don't think the junction Ellone machine allows people to take control of others, though I could be wrong. Then there's what she does as Edea, she starts a war, kills the head of state, blows up a garden, takes control of another and does serious damage to Balamb Garden. As Rinoa she's able to free Adel and to bring her to Earth as well.
 
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