The Dark Tower/Fridge

Fridge Brilliance

• When Stephen King tries to warn you off at the end of The Dark Tower, at first it seemed to me, like it seemed to most people, kind of lame. Like I wasn't going to finish the story that I'd been reading for the last decade of my life. The more I think about it, though, the more I like the warning. Throughout the series King managed to play havoc with the line between fiction and reality, drawing multiple worlds together, including many of the worlds he created, and, perhaps, our world. At the very end, though, the line between us and Roland is completely torn apart when we're given the same decision he is: accept the happy ending that we've earned, or keep pressing forward, despite the fact that reality has been saved and there's no more NEED to see the Tower. Just like Roland, we have to push on, despite being warned, and that puts us right there with him in a way that mere narrative alone, without the author's warning, wouldn't have been able to do. The line between fiction and reality has blurred one more time, and we're consciously deciding to be there with Roland at the end. None of that sense of participation would have been possible without that warning. Awesome. - Hitchopottimus.
  • And to make it even more awesome, it's foreshadowed. When Roland and Susannah reach the Crimson King's (former) palace, the guardians there tell them explicitly that there's no need whatsoever for Roland to go further: the Crimson King undid himself by trying to scale the Tower, which then trapped him outside for all eternity. The guardians also resolve the other biggest hanging issue in the books, which is whether the Tower remains in danger with only two Beams, one damaged, one true, left securing it. The guardians indicate quite clearly -- as the Beam itself did at Algul Siento -- that, given time, not only will the Beam of Bear and Turtle repair itself, but in time it will actually respawn the other six Beams as well. The Crimson King can't access the world anymore, and thus the threat to the Tower really ended when Roland and his ka-tet freed the Breakers at Algul Siento. Going further Roland risks everything since he risks freeing the Crimson King.
  • The whole Villain Decay in the Dark Tower: at first, you would think that King was just being lazy and/or did not know how to conclude his story. Then I thought about the objective of the Crimson King was to destroy the order of the universe and remake it from the Todash darkness or rule the Todash darkness: the fact is the Crimson King did a good job in screwing up the universe by destroying most of the Tower's Beams. Or, one of the recurring theme of the Dark Tower verse is that the universe is degrading, becoming insane on a cosmic scale: The universe is losing its sanity thanks to the effort of the Crimson King, who become insane as well: Using the Fisher King trope on the Big Bad was brilliant: The goal of the Crimson King was to un-make the universe, but being himself part of the universe, damaging it damaged him and made him unable to win in the end. This also give a new meaning to the Reset Button at the end of the cycle: Roland is reliving his life again and again and again until he becomes able to face the Crimson King before he becomes insane and therefore before he starts screwing up the Universe – Nixou
    • Not quite. In the post-script sections of the prequel comics (Long Road Home, Treachery, etc.), Robin Furth goes into detail about some characters' origins or motivations. The Crimson King's mentions that he isn't insane because he's NOT intertwined with the world. (That's Gan.) He's insane because he's the potentate of the non-place Todash, where chaos rules, and he's stuck outside of it. Furthermore, he loathes creation because it is everything that his home isn't and seeks to topple it so Todash can rule alone as it did in the beginning.
• More on The Dark Tower: Stephen King in the last three books has this weird obsession with the number 19. Now then: Stephen King actually meets Roland of Gilead in Song of Susannah, and they first speak on page 289. Think about it for a second. I bet you now have a hunger for a big old cup of WTF. -- Saintheart.
  • Further to this: when they do first meet, the implication is that King and Roland are almost twins. Eddie goes further: "Could you mistake them for twins? Maybe not. Father and son? Definitely." Now then, what is Roland's full title? Roland Deschain, son of Steven, of Gilead. More to the point, is anyone surprised that Roland is the son of Steven, and that the principal antagonist in the piece is the Crimson King? -- Saintheart
  • Pretty good, but sort of diluted by the fact that Roland's father is seen.