Antimatter said:
I don't get it, he's a God, can't he chose how he wants the festival to go?á I mean, it's HIS festival.
I mean, if Odin descended from Asgard and demanded his followers change a festival, you get your Norse ass it would be done.á
I mean hell, even the previous water maiden returned to Earth due to this shit.
Just because Nagi is a 'god' does not mean he has any real power. In this story he is more like a mushroom - kept in the dark and fed a lot of horse crap.
The only thing the Maidens (and Oba-sama, who presumably is the head priestess of the island) have told Nagi is that he is supposed to give one of the three girls his 'favor'. If it had been any other young male, all three girls would be pregnant by now, which is what the priestesses might have had in mind from the beginning, since the population of the island is dwindling and presumable they are in desperate need of both population increase and genetic diversity. Otherwise, all they have done is dress him up *once* and have him attend a non-public ceremony on the shore (at the giant boulder). For all we know, the island population doesn't know that Nagi is the new Dragon God.
Nagi as the Ryujin is pretty much only a figurehead leader, especially since they have not shown that he has real godly-type powers. Most kings, queens and emperors in modern times are the same - if they wanted to do something they usually have no legal authority to force it through. The only power they have is the power to raise public opinion against something.
In Japan, even before the end of WWII the Japanese Emperor did not have a lot of authority and power (there are some that say he supported the war until it was apparent that they were going to lose). Today the Japanese Imperial Family does ceremonial and religious events and that is all. Same with the British Royal Family - they have to follow the orders of their security and civil government officials, and have to be very careful to not give political opinions that would be divisive.
The priestesses on the island have been in
de facto power and control since the last Dragon God supposedly appeared and left. That's hundreds of years where there have made the decisions, where they only answer to themselves, and have indoctrinated each following generation to do the same. So what do they do when some snot-nosed outsider kid who they did not raise and do not have positive control of arrives on the island and meets the conditions they have been propounding for hundreds of years? This can the result if they have been corrupted and are doing this to maintain their control, or if they are True Believers and honestly think they have to go forward with the ceremony to protect the island and it's residents.
Question: What is more likely and realistic in occurring? A ferryboat captain agreeing to cancel trips for a week because a sixteen year old girl asks him to? Or because a island elder (and probably political/government official) asked him to?
Last thing - There is a reason that Shizuku has been isolated and venerated for most of her life - it makes it a lot easier to indoctrinate and program her that way. Especially if she believes that by sacrificing herself with the Dragon God, not only will she be protecting the people of the island, she and Nagi will happily be together in the hereafter.
