Jedi Fallen Order: Dark Temple #4: "A Truce, A Trap, and a Traitor" by Matthew Rosenberg

Jedi Fallen Order: Dark Temple #4: "A Truce, A Trap, and a Traitor" written by Matthew Rosenberg, illustrated by Paolo Villanelli and Arif Prianto

     This mini-series is so good!! If Star Wars authors keep coming up with stories this engaging and full of life (not to mention the absolutely gorgeous artistry--see below) with newly developed characters, I am all in for it! I don't need stories about the characters we're all familiar with if the stories are this tantalizing. Also, I finally broke down and bought an Xbox One/Jedi: Fallen Order bundle on Black Friday so I'm super curious to see how this series plays in to the video game!!
     We start off in the present with the Inquisitor and her troopers entering the now revealed temple to find nothing other than the remains of the conflict taking place in the past timeline! In a twist, Threelo is found in disarray but still functional and he blames the evident destruction on the Jedi! What terrible thing could have befallen the people of Ontotho to make this true?!?
     We then get sent to the past with Master Cordova pledging to enter the temple and find out what the Fylari are trying to hide and what the Daa Corporation wants so badly. He asks Cere to wait outside but we all know her impetuousness by now and she inevitably enters the temple a few minutes behind her master. Unfortunately for the two Jedi, Daa has sent his soldiers into the temple to kill them! But the temple itself fights back with every booby trap it holds.
     I LOVE how the relationship between Master Cordova and Cere Junda keeps paralleling that of Anakin and Obi-Wan. The similarities are familiar and fun while not making the relationship seem "done before." Of course maybe I just have a soft spot for the Anakin/Obi-Wan duality...that could be it. An example is when Master Cordova says to Cere, "Over the years I have learned to recognize the chaotic clatter that comes from Cere Junda not listening to me from quite far away." Hahaha! Wonderful dialogue.

     There's also a deep but brief discussion in this issue about what is more important--the great truths the temple could hold (see image below) or the people who's lives are at stake outside the temple. And of course there's the undercurrent worry that the Fylari aren't being as upfront as Cere thinks they are being. It all seems to harken back to that situation in the very first issue between the monks and the Trandoshans where it turned out the Trandoshans were in the right and the monks were in the wrong. I have a feeling though that the situation on Ontotho is going to be much more complicated than a black and white, bad guy/good guy scenario. I can't wait to find out in the next and final issue!!!