Did Pete's temple get moved twice?

[MasterAbsinthe]

I wanted to confirm with you guys exactly what happened to the temple throughout the comic, this is what I've gathered so far, in chronological order:

- Henry Milton (before dying) finds the temple somewhere in Arabia while investigating a legend from ancient Mesopotamia
- He makes a deal with Pete and uses his money to move the temple into the forest some distance away from Babylon Gardens
- The temple is now sitting in "the grove" which is so far away that Peanut comments: "we must be in the next county by now"
- Zach finds the temple and activates the mana pool, releasing Pete
- In "dog days of summer", when Pete, Dragon, and Kitsune are arguing about the celestial game, Pete says that "Dragon moved the temple"
and Dragon says "it was not me, it was a third party". This means that the temple was moved AGAIN without Pete's consent.
- Before the first "Temple Crashers" arc, Keene Milton confronts Herman Steward about an "agreement" that they previously had (which had
never been revealed to us before). He's referring to Pete's temple, and comments that "it's sitting in our backyard".

So this "agreement" must have been the second transportation of the temple, the one that Pete complained about, when the temple was moved from "the grove" (which is far away from Babylon gardens), to the Milton's "backyard". Is there anything I missed, or is this canon?

[Obbl]

No the temple was only moved once, when Henry Milton had it moved from the desert to his very extensive back yard

[MasterAbsinthe]

No the temple was only moved once, when Henry Milton had it moved from the desert to his very extensive back yard

Then why did Pete complain to Kitsune that someone moved the temple against his wishes? He wanted Henry to move the temple, so he wouldn't be complaining about it, right? Some other person moved the temple AGAIN which made him angry.



If the temple was only moved once, did Pete want the temple to be moved or not?

[Obbl]

So first thing to remember is Rick wrote Dog Days of Summer well before he had a solid idea of where he was going to take the plot, so the wording may not perfectly reflect what Rick would have written had he known how things were going to end up.
That said, the wording is also extremely vague. Pete's tone hints that it was moved against his will, but that is not explicitly said, so you're free to interpret it liberally. If you need a good in universe excuse, it's possible that Pete is stalling for time / creating a distraction to help take the heat off of him later. Cause yeah, Pete definitely wanted the temple moved to a place exactly like the one Henry Milton moved it to, and there are plenty enough references to the temple as being moved by Henry Milton to its current location that tell us that it hasn't been moved since.

[MasterAbsinthe]

there are plenty enough references to the temple as being moved by Henry Milton to its current location that tell us that it hasn't been moved since.

Such as?

[Obbl]

I don't have as much time as I used to to go hunting for every mention of things like this. You may be right that there is no explicit mention that Mr. Milton had the temple moved to the exact location it is now, but there are several mentions of him importing it, it's currently located on the Milton property, and there have been exactly 0 mentions of someone else moving it.
Pete's mention
Thomas's mention
One of Keene's mentions

Occam's Razor strongly favors that the wording on Pete's dialogue in Dog Days of Summer is a little unclear and lacks motivation in hindsight rather than that Rick intentionally introduced a plot point about someone moving the temple after Henry that is then never brought up again.

[MasterAbsinthe]

there have been exactly 0 mentions of someone else moving it.

Except when Pete mentions that someone else moved it...

Occam's Razor strongly favors that the wording on Pete's dialogue in Dog Days of Summer is a little unclear and lacks motivation in hindsight rather than that Rick intentionally introduced a plot point about someone moving the temple after Henry that is then never brought up again.

Pete is very clear. He accuses Dragon of moving the temple against his wishes. If we ignore him or assume he's lying, then yeah, Occam's razor tells us the temple was only moved once. If we believe him, then Occam's razor says the temple has been moved twice. This would also explain how the temple moved from the neighboring county to Milton's back yard. The Temple is pretty small, so it wouldn't be too hard to move anyway.

[Amazee Dayzee]

Though I'm not sure since inside it does have a ton of floors which are elaborate and even if it is small it looked like it was made of stone which is gonna be a pain to move anyway.

[MasterAbsinthe]

Though I'm not sure since inside it does have a ton of floors which are elaborate and even if it is small it looked like it was made of stone which is gonna be a pain to move anyway.

Don't forget that Milton moved the temple from the middle of the desert in Arabia halfway across the globe to America. Compared to that, half a dozen miles is nothing.
Also, although the temple had a hundred subterranean floors in the "Temple Crashers 2" story arcs, it only had a single room when Zach activated the mana pool. So I think the inside of the temple exists independently from the outside, where it's always been shaped like a box maybe 50 meters across.

[Amazee Dayzee]

I still think that from the outside it looks really heavy and that most likely Henry probably had to hire people or get equipment to go move it. Anyway with doing that there is NO way he wouldn't be able to get attention first from the authorities in Arabia and then in the US and then from the people of Babylon Gardens.

I doubt that anybody could really be THAT oblivious honestly. I am now thinking it was probably moved by magic.

[D-Rock]

At the club I work at, there was literally a small church imported. Temple seems bigger, but it's not unmanageable if you have the money.

[Amazee Dayzee]

That is true. And I did see on a show a few years ago that someone actually brought a HOUSE (or some big building) to a new location by PICKUP.

[NHWestoN]

When I was six, we moved to a small house with a one-car garage. My dad sold the garage and the buyer hired a big truck, raised the garage off its foundation, and put it on a flatbed. I remember watching with amazement as the truck moved the garage down the driveway, onto the road, and down that road went the garage like house on wheels. Life's a marvel when you're six...….

[VeryAngryDeer]

At the club I work at, there was literally a small church imported. Temple seems bigger, but it's not unmanageable if you have the money.

Churches that get moved around on lorries tend to be made of wood. Even brick buildings have been relocated, though its even more difficult.

Im not a human-built stone temple could survive being moved in the same way. Pete's temple probably seems like its made of stone, but probably doesn't have the same structural properties as stone.

[D-Rock]

Yeah, it was brick. And I've seen plenty of home renovation shows to know that it is completely possible to move the whole building if need be. The church I was told was disassembled then reassembled, though.

[MasterAbsinthe]

I think it's safe to assume that Pete can control the physical properties of the temple to some degree. He could very well have made the temple much lighter for transportation, or even shrink it. Also, in order to reach the temple, Peanut and Grape had to take a very specific path that Grape knew only because Pete showed her in her dreams, a path that apparently only the forest critters knew how to take. So it's possible that Pete can control who is able to reach the temple or even see it, so that it doesn't raise any suspicion. Remember that Dragon cursed the temple with the "Mysterious Temple" curse