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 made 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.
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?