>>50241295
>If they weren't, they would be called another thing. No, just because some gods may associate with them doesn't make those gods celestials.
No, "gods" are not an exclusive group and can often also be categorized within other groups. Oomura-no-Kami is explicitly named as a Celestial in Touhou, and his name makes it obvious that he's also considered a god. Many gods are counted amongst the Celestials, Miko gaining power from faith means she should probably be considered a god, too, and even humans can be gods. There's absolutely nothing that indicates that Celestials and gods are completely separate concepts within the setting of Touhou.
>Zun said that Hecatia was more powerful than anything in Gensokyo and Lunar Capital, with Gensokyo also including the Dragon God, since he is their patron deity
The Dragon God is not included in Gensokyo, not having been seen since the Barrier was established, and generally being believed to be able to travel between the Netherworld, Heaven, Hell, and the Outside World without any difficulty. It's far beyond Gensokyo.
>Patchouli and Alice are nowhere powerful magicians, and Marisa is basically a human apprentice. PMISS mentions that powerful enough magicians can beat anything, as long they aren't caught in surprise
There's at least three things wrong with that statement:
One is that Patchouli and Alice are never considered weak magicians, with Alice being able to wield spells which are ancient and powerful enough to even draw Eirin's attention.
Second is that PMiSS only claims that with enough preparation they can take on any kind of "youkai". This obviously does not include much higher-class entities like Celestials and Lunarians.
Third is that Akyuu is not an expert on powerscaling, knows little about Celestials, and her book explicitly makes an effort to make the youkai look better than they are. It is not a reliable reference.
>Kasen is a weak hermit, and her full form took a Tenshi + Reimu duo to take her down. The crucial part is that full form Kasen was drastically nerfed because the three Kasens were fighting each other for control, this after Arm-chan handled Reimu like nobody's problem
Kasen's power is enough to impress Miko, so she clearly has a natural talent despite her lack of real discipline. Ibaraki-douji is also not weakened at all and the Arm is easily able to mentally dominate in the merger. There's also no indication that Tenshi was all that serious in that fight since her goal was clearly to let Reimu get the win. She just needed to keep the oni busy.
>The thing is celestials are pretty much implied to be extremely powerful, but static in that power. The profile on Tenshi mentions that she didn't get her immense power because of special training, but because of her celestial nature. A trained celestial might not be that powerful compared to an untrained one, unlike the abysmal difference between Hecatia and Okina, and the Yorigami sisters
A completely baseless hypothesis that reeks of video game logic. There's nothing in Touhou that implies that Celestials don't have a hierarchy (quite the opposite, in fact, as seen in Iku's article), and such a hierarchy could not be enforced if those at the top didn't hold more power.
Characters in-universe also believe that Celestials vary in skill and ability, such as Komachi at the tail end of Wild and Horned Hermit, and nowhere does it ever assert any equality.
Celestials simply start at a ridiculous baseline and only go up from there.
>Not anymore, Heaven is closed, so no more celestials. And Seiga, who comes from a land filled with hermits, has personally stated that she doesn't want to become one, implying that even if she had the chance, she would decline it . Maybe she knows something that we don't? Hermits can also become gods and saints (whatever this means in touhou context) too
Closed to virtuous souls judged worthy of Nirvana by the Yama, but nothing is said about it being blocked to hermits seeking to ascend in the flesh.
Seiga is a wicked hermit who doesn't want to become a Celestial because that requires her to become a better person, which she doesn't want to do. She enjoys her life as a hermit on Earth well enough and there's no indication she's particularly dedicated to hermit training, either.