Like I've always said on my past reviews, this is an opinion. There is no offense intended here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This video brings back a memory from LA in 1969. Three years earlier, the Church of Satan was officially founded in San Francisco. (Five hours away from LA). During the first years of the Church, the highest rank that could be achieved was the "High Priest" one. The creation of a Papal rank and the succession by blood is, most probably, a creation of Tobias. (Please keep this in mind)
Now let's dive into the action right away.
The first thing we come up with is the video of a song, and then it's live performance in L.A. Is in this concert that we see Sister Imperator touching her belly ( 2:30 ) and then getting rid of a girl that was smoking next to her. This, in my opinion, indicates that she was in the early stages of pregnancy, but it seems obvious Papa didn't know about it. It's most probably that she found out the day of the concert. This scene reminded me of Game of Thrones (07x07 ; 8:26) where Cersei makes a rather similar gesture that indicates her pregnancy and also gets rid of something that could be damaging for her baby, in this case, wine.
The idea of Imperator pregnant opened a lot of questions in my head. There is a strong theory in the fandom (which I also support) claiming that Cardinal Copia is her son. If we follow this idea and assume the baby Imperator is expecting, is indeed Copia, it would make him the firstborn child of Nihil ; A forty-nine year old child that is coming to take what's his by right.... the Papal Chair.
Of course this is just a theory, since we don't have explicit information as regards the confirmation of her pregnancy, if that child is Copia or if there was a previous baby . What do we do know, or can strongly assume , is that the Emeritus Line did not come from Imperator's womb.
Now I might be stretching things a bit too far, but let's analyze this Bloodline. During the first chapter we hear Papa Nihil claiming "My father was papa, his father was papa..." but, does the bloodline reach that far? I'm not sure about that. If we go to the Dance Macabre video, we find out how Papa Nihil was "selected and brought" into the Church. He was a random young boy that happened to have the right aura and or "requirements" the Clergy needed. There is no information of his father or grandfather being part of the Clergy...and taking into account that the Clergy was founded in 1966...it seems rather impossible for Nihil to have direct ancestors in the Church...not officially at least. This would mean that Nihil belongs to the founding bloodline...a bloodline that is not over yet.
In a rather more personal note, and following the theory I presented before, I find a parallelism between Imperator / Copia with Morgana /Mordred. Im not sure if Tobias knew that side of the story, but I do know he and Martin made a certain reference of the Arthurian Legend in a MCC song.
To make a quick summary, Mordred is Arthur and Morgana' son and she always tried to place him in court and force Arthur to recognize him (since that child is a bastard). In the end Mordred becomes a knight and it is said he and his father killed each other during the battle of Cammlann.
Now, Imperator is trying, by all means, to make Copia reach the high ranks within the Clergy, even when he didn't win a Grammy (like Emeritus III did) or when he seems to be a child in a grown man's body. The real reason behind her actions seemed to be clear and hidden at the same time. Remember what she said to Nihil. "You are not seeing the big picture."
Does this means that Nihil knows, deep within him, that Copia is his son?
And if we follow the Arthurian parallelism...Will Copia kill Nihil?
And if Copia is really Imperator's son...Would that explain why she murdered the Emeritus in cold blood?
And above all...what did she gain with lying about that child? What will she gain with Copia being Papa?
In my opinion, the answer to these questions may come in the following chapters. I also think that this one in particular, gives us a bit of background on certain topics, feed some theories and invites us openly to speculate...yet I can't help to think that this chapter must have come before the seventh...but again, it is my humble opinion.
