Dark tower series- new understanding of the end

Roland_Deschain

Roland_Deschain

Transcending what is, with what could be.
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SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do not read if you have not read them.




So it took me two times to fully read these through in order to fully understand and interpret the ending... and its happier than I thought.

At first I was a little saddened to find out he was going to be placed in an endless loop... but than I realized... KA IS LIKE A WHEEL!!!!!!

The answer is within the poem "childe Roland". The poem exclaims that Roland will blow the horn at the tower and achieve his means.

Roland aquires the horn on this loop! (he is thousands of years old), he has made this voyage before... but NOW... he has the horn. He got the horn in the top of the tower.

The ending to the Dark tower series is the 2nd to the last time he will make the journey... and he WILL be victorious!!!!!!

This gives closure to our great hero and protaganist.
 
i thought that was pretty self-explanatory

it was the perfect ending to it though, and the one i hoped it would had. stephen king always said he thought the opening sentence to the gunslinger is the best thing he's ever written, so it makes good sense that he would end it in the same way.
 
Wow, the ending of Little Mermaid must have blown you away

That was the entire point of the ending, to show that not all cycles are the same, that Roland may eventually succeed in his quest. Save Susan, Eddie, and Jake, and everything else he failed to achieve. I disagree that that was the second last cycle though. For all we know he has had the horn before and broke/lost it on the way.
 
Well of course it was obvious that not all the cycles were the same... that was flat out obvious.

What I am talking about is that its the 2nd to the last cycle, unless he somehow loses the horn.

This draws up the question of... how did the horn get in the tower in the place, and is this something stephen king is going to to address in the 4.5 novel he intends on releasing next year? I sure hope so.


Wow, the ending of Little Mermaid must have blown you away
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just once it would be nice to post an discuss in these threads without your backhanded comments towards me. Its the reason I don't visit this website as much, and its the reason I may leave permanently sometime. Nobody likes it... and its a bit rude.
 
It wasn't backhanded, it was a direct insult

That is a weird thing to say, there is no point saying it is the second last cycle unless it isn't the second last cycle. Like I said we have no idea if he has had the horn before or not, maybe this was one of the few times he didn't have it. I think there are many others things he did wrong that have to be done right for him to achieve 'the perfect quest' apart from the horn

What do you mean the horn was in the tower?
 
roland picked the horn up from cuthbert allgood's dead body. when he is facing the open door at the top of the tower, it says how he wished he'd picked it up at jericho hill because blowing it there would make everything right. cuthbert was the last gunslinger to have had possession of it at the battle of jericho hill when john farson's men finally won the war, but he was shot through the eye by a sniper and roland neglected to pick it up in his final charge
 
That is what I thought happened to the horn all right, I don't ever recall people saying it was in the tower at any point. It came from Arthur Eld, and Roland berates himself for not taking the few seconds to pick it up
 
Well...let me explain, because i think you are not giving what i'm saying a chance to settle. Let me explain in pieces

Gunslinger - Roland is in a daze, remembering cuthbert and the battle of jericho hill, and remembering the horn "which is lost."

the horn was found in the tower in the 7th, it has to be so (one way or another... he was placed with it). He is wisked away into the start... except this time he has found the horn... and has the horn.

In the poem Childe Roland (which i believe to be the key here), Roland blows the horn at the tower, the victory horn is it not? This means that for Rolands journey to end he will have the horn when he reaches the tower... a time when he would have been able to use it (according to the porm). But unfortunately for Roland... this is not the time. Yet I believe its a symbol of how close his saga is from completetion.

Now obviously it doesnt SAY he found the horn in the tower....but in a way he MUST have... because he had it afterwards... brand sparkling new. So you can bet your ass that finding the tower, found him that horn.

I believe this is a pretty significant interpretation that hints that he is very close to fufilling his ultimate destiny. If he has the horn now, and reaches the tower and blows it... well it will be just like the poem (if you read that). This is why I say... 2nd to the last time he has to make the journey.

There are vast number of ways to interpret the story... and nobody is more correct than the other. Thats why they are interpretations.

My previous thoughts before I read the poem... is that Roland was a tool of Ka, being used to substain the tower in different worlds and times. In a way he could be viewed as a fool of a tool. Always on a mission that is forever keeping exsistance in motion by always stopping the beams from being broken, and always arriving... to find out there is more to be done.
 
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That is absolutely no reason for the horn to be at the tower, this cycle was different to the last. In this cycle he took the ten seconds to pluck up the horn. It is one tiny motion in a an ocean of such moments, that change the story. In the same way he took pity on Rhea and lost Susan, which changed who he was. The cycle is not starting at the point where Roland is awakening in the dessert ,I don't think, that is simply where we pick up the story

There is nothing that points to this being the penultimate cycle
 
Nathan Drake said:
That is absolutely no reason for the horn to be at the tower, this cycle was different to the last. In this cycle he took the ten seconds to pluck up the horn. It is one tiny motion in a an ocean of such moments, that change the story. In the same way he took pity on Rhea and lost Susan, which changed who he was. The cycle is not starting at the point where Roland is awakening in the dessert ,I don't think, that is simply where we pick up the story

There is nothing that points to this being the penultimate cycle
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Is there not more evidence to suggest that it is?

The last line is exactly the same as the first one. He is back in that dessert, chasing the man in black. Its the same begin, but with a potential different end. The difference is that he has the horn. Wether he got it from the tower, or picked it up in jericho hill... its all a mute point not worth debating anyway.

The point is that the last picture in the poem, the very last line,

For "one" more picture! In a sheet of flame.
I saw them and I knew them all.
And yet dauntless the slughorn to my lips I set.
And blew. Childe Roland to the dark tower came.

My interpretation is that the end of the 7th book, is the start of his LAST journey. Keep in mind that its a 1st person told poem... so he told it, after it was finished. So thanky sai
 
Nope there is nothing to suggest that is the second last cycle, or that's it's ten thousandth last, or just somewhere in the middle. There is no evidence that he has never picked up the horn before, or that even if this is the first time he picked it up, that there will still be multiple more cycles till it works out right

It is not the same beginning, he has the horn now, meaning many things may have already happened differently compared to the last one. Yes when he succeeds he will blow the horn at the tower, but that does not mean now that he has the horn he will make it to the tower with the horn

He got it from Jericho Hill, that is what happened
 
Well you can interpret it as you want, as I will. I mean the pages don't say either for sure... which is why I hold my belief the there is a larger picture to see. I think only we and our katets can figure it out =). After reading a lot of his stories, and reading his poems I can only see one thing. They all have endings, yet this does not. Its not like king. I think the ending might even be given away in the middle.

I mean wouldnt it be wild if Roland picks up the horn in 4.5? Like they say... time is funny. And different worlds... time runs different. I how come Ka willed Roland to let his katet veiw him killing his mother? What if because they were in the thinny, passing through worlds (where there time doesnt sync up), Roland hears his future katet in the pink orb, and doesnt even kill his mother. What if by some miracle... Rolands 2nd katet... has actually rendered their journey? Even the poem says that there are those by the hillside who seems him as he blows his horn.

Im just rambling what ifs. but it is fun to think about. I mean king could totally mind rape usif he wanted to. Which I hope he does. King has endings, and so far we do not have one. I will look to make some sense of things before I read the new one, and see what happens.


childe roland verse VII of XXXIV

Thus, I had long suffered in this quest,
heard the failure prophesiesd so oft, been writ
so many times among "the band" to wit
The knights who searched to the kings towers search addressed
"their steps - that just to fail as they, seemed best
and all the doubt was now - should i be fit?"

I mean think about it... gotta be an ending to this. How come a verse so early in this poem... speaks of the tired agony of this quest... as if it should be line thirty. Their steps failing seeming best. hahaha stoned mayhem. I am down... King is going to bitchslap us across the face with something... I just have a feeling.
 
if roland picked up the horn in '4.5' then he should have had it with him throughout the entire series, which he did not. also, this whole 4.5 business is basically the novelisation of the graphic novels, and in none of them does he pick it up.

i do agree though that you're lead to believe that this new cycle will be the last, but there's definitely no confirmation of it, or even that this is the first time he's picked up the horn. it's mere narrative.
 
Mal said:
if roland picked up the horn in '4.5' then he should have had it with him throughout the entire series, which he did not. also, this whole 4.5 business is basically the novelisation of the graphic novels, and in none of them does he pick it up.
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Heh, wouldnt be the first time time something in these books have surprised me though. I mean the doors, the different worlds and times and dimensions, so who knows. Perhaps he will pick up the horn and be forever stuck in his own temperal causality loop haha.
He is a novel man, not a comic man. I would be happy if he said screw the comics and left those to display a realty that will be changed within the novels. I highly doubt that its going to be as cut and dry and obvious as many think... that would in no way be kings style. I mean he goes for shock and awe and surprise. I think if he knew his readers already "thought they knew the ending", he would change it just on principle. I hope he does anyhow =)


i do agree though that you're lead to believe that this new cycle will be the last, but there's definitely no confirmation of it, or even that this is the first time he's picked up the horn. it's mere narrative.
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Yeah i guess it just depends on how you interpret it. Honestly the poem leads me to believe that its heading to the last cycle more than the stories did.
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king wrote the stories for the comics, so he'll be sticking to whatever's on paper there.

there's isn't any two ways about it. the horn was not in the tower, it was left on jericho hill (and i think farson's men burned it along with cuthbert's body) and that's just the way it is.
 
Mal said:
king wrote the stories for the comics, so he'll be sticking to whatever's on paper there.

there's isn't any two ways about it. the horn was not in the tower, it was left on jericho hill (and i think farson's men burned it along with cuthbert's body) and that's just the way it is.
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First of all you must be joking. Your trying to tell me that king started writing his masterpeice epic in the SEVENTIES... just so some other guy could make comics based on them in 2007??? Thats nonsense lol. Have you even read his introductions? His original inspiration was the lord of the rings and the good the bad and the ugly. And he says himself that his goal was to write one of the longest america epics... You should read those introductions. He may care about them now and whatnot, but you have to be naive to think that they are the reason he wrote the series.

Second of all nothing can be certain until its in print... you are not writing the stories. So if I am wrong and everything plays out exactly as you expect it... well you can say you told me so. But if it doesnt than I can say it =). For all we "know" he is going to let the comics portray one reality that has become changed by the future of his katet in a different world and time. It wouldnt be the first time he has told two stories at once.

He is a novelist... not a comic book writer. you saying king wrote this stories so someone else could write comics 25 years later is almost like an insult to his intergrity haha.
 
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i didn't say someone else wrote them, stephen king (the author of the dark tower) wrote the stories for them. i'd say that makes them fit pretty much right in with the timeline of the main story. it doesn't matter when he wrote them or what he thought at the time, that's what has happened.
 
Yes we don't know what will happen, this is true, That doesn't mean we should entertain all theories though. Picking up the horn would make no sense, he didn't have it subsequently, and so much of it was about him not taking the few seconds to pick up the horn. As Pooley pointed out, King was part of writing the graphic novels, try reading next time
 
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