I know Jellal would've been stronger than any Oracion Seis member if he hadn't been injured, but I still doubt he could single-handedly beat 4 members all by himself. In fact, even if you forget the Reflector's limits, when Midnight used his illusion on Jellal, he made him wide open for REAL attacks. He didn't even tell his comrades Zero wasn't real, he literally paused the fight while everyone could've attacked.
As for the Reflector's limits, sure, it wouldn't work on attacks as exaggerated as Achnologia's, but it does seem pretty powerful: It overpowered Byro's Nullification, so it's probably an even better "magic-nullifier" than it, and the Nullification was enough to resist Gildarts' Crush magic (so logically, even Gildarts can't break through Midnight's Reflector except with hand-to-hand combat). I may not remember much of Jellal's spells, but I'm pretty sure they're not as deadly as Gildarts' (sure, they have more range and zone-effect, but they still probably deal less damage).
But I can agree with your other explanations.
Why not? Cobra was strong enough to mid-high diff pre 2nd origins Erza, but we know how much of a powerup 2nd origin was (I mean, Max was above base Natsu before 2nd origin). Cobra is, at best, LFD Natsu level post 2nd origins. Midnight scales to a bit above Cobra. And Racer & Angel are weaker than Cobra.
Jellal is a bit above Jura, and it was said that even Mira and Erza combined couldn't take down Jura. Whether you believe that hype or not is upto you, but the hype for Jellal (scaling from Jura) is out there. If you don't want to consider Jura's hype (of being able to solo Erza and Mira), consider this: Laxus, who extreme diff'd Jura, low diff'd Tempesta......and Tempesta was able to stalemate or at least give high diff to LFD Natsu.
Maybe he can't let them know? He's creating a massive illusion, it would encompass everyone. If he tells them about the nightmare, Jellal would likely hear it and know about the illusion as well. And, even if other members knew it was an illusion, they're trapped in it as well. They wouldn't know where to attack, since they're also in the same nightmare Jellal was in.
But yes, Midnight himself could've attacked. I agree there
That is true. I guess Midnight could've reflected Grand Chariot. But I don't think he could've reflected the impact of a meteor on him, that's expecting too much. But, I suppose it is possible. We may never know because Mashima nerfed Midnight in that fight.
But you can accept that, without Midnight's reflector hax, Jellal would have no problem soloing OS, right? Hax creates complications in matchups lol. I mean, asking "why didn't Midnight use reflector" question can be applied to pretty much every villain fight in FT - all Spriggan fights are filled with these questions, as well as almost all main villain fights (Hades, Mard Geer, Laxus in FF arc, Jellal in TOH arc etc) .........short answer to this is: Mashima doesn't know how to make his good guys win, if bad guys use their ability properly.
