Thread:LucidPigeons/@comment-27818776-20151102022644

So, I was reanalyzing my evaluation on Nero, and, through some valid arguments, I've decided that Nero could possibly be a CM. I'll explain why.

First, let's go over what the show is about.  The Story Keepers is a series of Christian animated videos (let's just leave it at that), that takes place during the aftermath of the Great Fire of Rome that occurred in 64 A. D. The series follows the idea that Nero was the one who instigated the Great Fire as a way of pinning the blame on the Christians, because they refused to see him as a god. That, and despite it being a religious show, it does deal with themes such as death, genocide, xenophobia, etc. Heck, one of the characters was even threatened with torture. Anyway, a baker and his wife secretly tell stories about Jesus while they're trying to hide from the Romans. They hope to keep the stories of Jesus alive, hence the title.

Now, when we last talked about the series, I had stated that Nihilus was a CM, because one of his plans involved building a catapult to launch flaming debris into the dwellings of Christians, and that he had repeatedly tried to kill the protagonists several times throughout the series. He also murdered a fellow centurion after he stopped him from publicly crucifying Ben, and he tries to burn Ben's wife and the children to death in their bakery. What should also be noted about him is, despite the theme of redemption being available to anyone who seek it, Nihilus never once considered redeeming himself, ultimately showing that he was without a conscience. He also was the most active threat that the protagonists frequently faced, since Nero himself was inactive.

I had said that Nero himself didn't count, because he seemed to be played for laughs to contrast with Nihilus' seriousness, but now I think that this was a mistake. Okay, let's get the obvious out of the way; he is, without a doubt, a self-centered, egotistical, spiteful manchild with a God complex, but what if he was actually supposed to be seen as laughably evil? While Nero is comedic, he does show that he can be nasty when he wants to. Let's look at his crimes:

1) He started the Great Fire of Rome for an entirely petty reason. "Oh, you won't worship me as a god, will you? Well, you're dead now." He most likely killed thousands of people in that fire just because he was offended that the Christians believed in a king that was more powerful than he was. Not only that, but he shifted the blame onto the Christians, thus condemning several of them to death, imprisonment, etc. Again, all of this, because he hated being seen as second rate.

2) Besides his plans on achieving Godhood, his ultimate plan is to commit genocide on all of the Christians in Rome. That in itself is dark, especially for a religious edutainment show.

3) He is responsible for most of Nihilus' actions. While I firmly believe that Nihilus himself is a CM, Nero was ultimately the one who gave him the task of hunting Christians down. He also wanted to see Ben get publicly crucified.

4) He is ultimately responsible for everything in the series. Whether it be orchestrating the fire of Rome to pin the blame on the Christians, or wanting to kill them all for their refusal to see him as divine, or by making the Christians into scapegoats for all of Rome's woes, Nero could be seen as an antagonist that might warrant some looking into.

keep in mind, that I haven't watched the show for a while (I've been really busy lately), so most of this might be inaccurate. I just thought of giving you some insight in my investigations. 