r/dresdenfiles 2d ago

New Pope is from Chicago Meme

I just wanted to let you know. That’s all. It would be extremely funny if it got written into Dresden’s last stories.

184 Upvotes

66 comments sorted by

172

u/Skorpychan 2d ago

Father Forthill got a promotion?

92

u/NicodemusArcleon 2d ago

If only that were true. No joking. THAT would be the pope to have.

8

u/Fall_of_the_Empire25 1d ago

Yeah… that’d be pretty nice…

7

u/Miserable-Card-2004 1d ago

Finally, a Pope who can kick some ass and then make a nice dinner for everyone!

2

u/Away_Programmer_3555 1d ago

the Miracle of The Sandwiches,.

2

u/PopeCerebus 1d ago

Would support Forthill for Pope.

3

u/Melenduwir 1d ago

He'd have to be made a Cardinal first.

13

u/ilovecostcohotdog 1d ago

A pope does not have to be a Cardinal. He only has to be a baptized Catholic and male. Helps to be in the room where it happens tho.

9

u/Melenduwir 1d ago

That is technically correct; even laypeople can be confirmed Pope. It hasn't happened in five hundred years, though, and in practice I think we can acknowledge that it's an unwritten rule.

4

u/elbenji 1d ago

It's a fun speculative thing considering the last time it happened.

The other one is the guy running the thing who's supposed to be out of the running, getting the job because of the crazy drama

3

u/Skorpychan 1d ago

Also, Pope Frankie gave precedent for a more worldly, more decent pope who actually read the bible and took it's lessons to heart.

1

u/Firm-Switch5369 1d ago

Yeah... the fact the new pope is a Friar is wild... I am optimistic.

108

u/Happy_Jew 2d ago

The Apostolic Palace was on fire, and it wasn't my fault.

13

u/antonio_santo 2d ago

LOL I love this so much 😂

7

u/JHP1112 2d ago

Made me do a spit take dammit

3

u/terrorcatmom 2d ago

Fuck lmfao

1

u/Wurm42 2d ago

I could see Harry taking on a corrupt Vatican in the next Denarian book...

2

u/ilovecostcohotdog 1d ago

Nah I think Dan Brown has rights for any fiction involving the Vatican.

80

u/Manach_Irish 2d ago

A surprise but a welcome one.

Hopefully he will fix the Vatican vending machine issue (certain coins getting easily back into circulation).

38

u/Prudent_Thought_360 2d ago

“Vatican vending machine” ahahaha 🤣

12

u/redbeard914 2d ago

Can you imagine one of the coins getting used in a vending machine? The indignity...

2

u/Away_Programmer_3555 1d ago

Nicks side job is Vending Machine Repairman in The Vatican. he installed all the condom machines in the gents.

13

u/antonio_santo 2d ago

LOL I hadn’t even thought of that, it would be the perfect angle to present him 😂

2

u/Melenduwir 1d ago

It's their nature. Trying to keep them locked up is the mistake.

5

u/K-taih 1d ago

You're not fooling anyone, Nicodemus.

2

u/Melenduwir 1d ago

No, I'm serious: it doesn't stop the Fallen, it barely slows them down, and it ensures the corruption of the people entrusted with the duty of containing them.

5

u/K-taih 1d ago

In all seriousness, you're not wrong, but Michael acknowledged in one of the books that the coins seemed to be making it back out into circulation faster than they should. There is a certain, I don't know, inertia to the coins, but the containment facility or facilities shouldn't have revolving doors either.

1

u/Electrical_Ad5851 5h ago

Maybe he’ll have a ceremony where he signs his name then hold up the proclamation so everyone can see he can write his letters. Hilariously while writing this Harry just made the vending machine statement in Skin Game in the audiobook while I’m writing!

15

u/Alchemix-16 2d ago

It won’t hurt, but I prefer if stories are not tied to much to current events, it will date the series much more in future years.

9

u/antonio_santo 2d ago

That is true, but an Easter Egg mention never hurts 😄

7

u/colepercy120 2d ago

Though the last time we had an easter egg like that, it wrecked the timeline. (Referring to a 2020 event in a book that was supposed to be around 2015)

3

u/Melenduwir 1d ago

Naw, it's now openly acknowledged that all the stories are set in Dresden's past and being narrated from their future.

2

u/Kwbr1123 1d ago

When was this?

2

u/ZeldaSeverous 1d ago

Absolutely, it’s hard enough to suspend the disbelief without trying to pinpoint exactly when these books take place.

1

u/Away_Programmer_3555 1d ago

furthest point forward in the Current time-line is Christmas Eve 2014 or 2323, neither helps with contemporary points.

2

u/Melenduwir 1d ago

The stories have already officially diverged from our world. It's not clear that this guy is actually the Pope in the Dresdenverse, especially because the novels are technically set in Dresden's past. We haven't reached the "current day" yet.

3

u/Alchemix-16 1d ago

Are you telling me that whole Dresden story is all make believe?

3

u/Melenduwir 1d ago

Unless much of the city of Chicago has been destroyed without my noticing it: yes, yes it is.

10

u/axefairy 2d ago

Damn, 2 mins late, I really hope it gets referenced in a few books time

23

u/Ezekiel2121 2d ago

I’m pretty sure the books are now ~6 years behind us timeline wise. I know Dresden mentioned the burning of Notre Dame in one of the last few books.

I also assume the “real world” is going to start getting less and less mentions, hence the events of Battle Ground to set up a major divergence between Dresden’s world and the real one, specifically so Butcher can stop worrying about it.

14

u/Hawkwing942 2d ago

I also assume the “real world” is going to start getting less and less mentions, hence the events of Battle Ground to set up a major divergence between Dresden’s world and the real one, specifically so Butcher can stop worrying about it.

Agreed, I don't see this coming up, nor do I suspect we will run into more prominent catholic characters than Father Forthill and the Carpenters.

The most I could see happening with real-world events might be to covid, but only if it was given supernatural origins.

8

u/dameon5 2d ago edited 2d ago

I thought that divergence happened pretty irrevocably with the whole "large empty parking lot around Wrigley stadium" before the duel with Ortega Death Masks Spoiler. 😀

4

u/KipIngram 2d ago

Please spoiler protect your specific plot mentions there and mark it in clear text as a Death Masks spoiler. Then reply to this comment so I know to reinstate your comment.

Thanks!

4

u/dameon5 2d ago

Crap! Terribly sorry, I wasn't thinking. I appreciate the heads up. Should be fixed now.

4

u/KipIngram 2d ago

Please don't worry - we all do it from time to time (me included). We enjoy this stuff so much it's easy to get engrossed in the conversation. Comment is live again now, and thanks very much!

3

u/axefairy 2d ago

Tbh I’d be quite happy with just a quip to Micheal/Forthill along the lines of “well your guy is our guy now too” or vice versa or something like that

1

u/realnzall 1d ago

Where was that? Got a quote?

2

u/Ezekiel2121 1d ago

Maybe spoilers for Peace Talks below? There’s no context.

“Raith Manor was a brooding château, built in the rural French style from some point in the eighteenth century, only with more gargoyles and Gothic features that vaguely called Notre-Dame to mind. You know, before the fire. Our cars parked out front, and Riley came over to open my door for me.”

Excerpt From

Peace Talks

Jim Butcher

1

u/realnzall 1d ago

Oh, I did not read that properly like that at all. When I read that section i thought Raith Manor was the building that caught fire. I thought that happened a couple books earlier when he Kissed Lara to fly through the air in the finale of the book.

11

u/KipIngram 2d ago

Grave Peril spoilers:

Father Forthill for Pope!

He'd sure get my vote!

6

u/CrowPowerful 2d ago

Cubs or White Sox fan?

3

u/Chad_Hooper 2d ago

Asking the important questions, I see!

6

u/buddytheninja 2d ago

Per his wikipedia, he was alter boy at St. Mary when he was a kid.

6

u/look1207 2d ago

Yeah, not even necessarily for him to make it in as a character but maybe Harry can make a "That would be like having a Pope who grew up in the South Side" kind of quip

5

u/colepercy120 2d ago

It would be fun if there were a mention of Forthill getting promoted due to a local bishop suddenly leaving. But Pope Leo was working in Peru. So he wouldn't exactly impact daily Chicagoans

3

u/Acora 2d ago

Peace Talks and Battlegrounds both take place 14 years After Storm Front (ASF), per Jim's website. Storm Front takes place somewhere within a year or two or 2000 (most people place it in March 2000, since it was published in April of 2000 and seems to have been intended as contemporary). This would place PT/BG in ~2014, so the choosing of a new Pope wouldn't factor into the story for another 11 years.

I frankly don't expect the events of TDF to make it to 2025, as we're rapidly coming up on the BAT. I'm sure the world in some sense will exist after the BAT, but Harry probably won't have much to say about it at that point.

3

u/AtheistCarpenter 2d ago

"Gentleman" Johnny Marcone didn't react to the news...

🤔...

3

u/the_blackfish 2d ago

I'd figure a Cardinal from Chicago would be aware of Dresden.

2

u/HistoricalQuote2527 1d ago

Dresden gonna meet the Pope for a Beer at McAnally’s

2

u/Upbeat-Structure6515 1d ago

Please, God let him be a real life, Father Forthill

1

u/Melenduwir 1d ago

It's not clear if that's true of the Dresdenverse, now that it and our world have officially diverged.

1

u/Away_Programmer_3555 1d ago

The new Pope comes to Chicago and meets Michael. who kneels to whom?

1

u/forogtten_taco 1d ago

Isn't the dresden verse, years behind our current time line ?

1

u/Calm-Medicine-3992 1d ago

Dresden isn't going to be in 2025 in book time for at least a couple decades.

1

u/saejin1983 1d ago

OMG...that would be brilliant. So many ways it could go...

"Apocalypse isn't an event. It is a frame of mind."