Sad that the pope passed from being a powerful antagonist to a cringe man. Author failed deeply.
Yeah, and his revealed motivation is now strange. He wants to be able to change and control the future, but is limited to only knowing the future and hates that. This makes sense.
However, we've gone through multiple arcs where Mel has changed the
written foretold events with the Pope/ church being the behind the scenes big bad. Even if the book didn't tell him about the more minor changes Mel was making (and completely missed appearing early Dominick), how did he not notice something was different the moment Mel starts interfering with the churches plans? Why did he get Sheria to antagonise her sister when Mel is clearly acting outside of expected events?
Shows a lack of forethought by the author, which is disappointing.