Ok, so I'd like to take the time to talk about how well Gus's skills with his illusions is well built up. (I may or may not be making this post because I saw a comment saying that Gus's illusion skills came out of nowhere in Labyrinth Runners)
So anyways let's start!
There is the (quick) line from Gus that he moved up a couple of grades, and he was pretty good at conjuring up illusion clones in "I Was a Teenage Abomination"
In Something Ventured, Someone Framed, we see Gus conjuring up illusion clones for him and Luz.
But if we look closer, he manages to replicate the spell circle he drew. In the scene he just swipes his hand in the air and the spell circle is "copy and pasted" as he swipes it, so to speak.
Up to this point, we haven't seen another witch do this, and the only other instance I can think of that comes remotely close is when Eda was fighting Warden Wrath or even Lilith, where she was still drawing each circle.
Gus has also powered up the entire Owl House which was proven to be quite the feat as Amity and her then friends couldn't animate a doll. (Granted, Willow is there too, but the point still stands)
Gus was shown to also power up Willow's plant with his magic in "The First Day", and he was able to make clones from far away in "Agony of a Witch" to help Luz get the healing hat. He also seemed to be concentrating quite hard to pull it off, which will come back later.
A much bigger showing of his power comes from "Through the Looking Glass Ruins", where he was able to conjure up an illusory horror to frighten Bria.
In this entire sequence, this is the most area that he's ever covered in his illusions, up to this point.
Bria wasn't even concerned about it until he made it look like her magic wasn't working. Gus made it look like her spell circle was breaking.
Which by the way, was only ever seen again when Raine did it to Warden Wrath.
Hell, he was able to get the illusion of her petrified in stone to actually touch her.
Which was accomplished by again, hard concentration. Well, that and putting himself behind his own illusion. So he's capable of pulling something like this off again, but he has to put the effort in.
Now to the finale, Labyrinth Runners.
Where do I begin? How about the fact that Gus was the only one who saw through Adrian Graye's ruse, which in turn protected the students from getting coven sigils. (Literally everyone is saved thanks to him)
After that Gus's powers were acting up because of his emotions when Adrian tried branding him, which resulted in the famous labyrinth that overtook the entire school.
Let me repeat, the entire fucking school. There were so many moving parts that it was fixed when Adrian stabilized it with his amplifier. Adrian was surprised at how much power he had. Sure, Gus did it accidentally, but it's still a part of his magic.
(Let me also throw in the reminder that magic being tied to emotions has also been shown with Willow, so it's not just him)
It was also quite difficult to navigate through, as it was hard to tell what were fake steps from real steps, and a wall from a room.
Then it all comes to a climax when Gus gets overwhelmed again, and he was able to encase himself in an illusory sphere of his magic while dealing Adrian with his worst memories. Which incapacitated him.
And if we go back to another post I made about this scene, Gus basically mindfucked Adrian.
Again, sure it's accidental, but it's still the power he has. A power that he can definitely get control of given time.
And if this is what Gus can do accidentally, imagine what he can do when he gets focused and controls his emotions to refine his abilities. And on purpose.
Titan, help us all.
That's it, that's my analysis on his powers and how well they've been sprinkled within the show. Hope you enjoyed.
