Ending of the Dark Tower Series

[Denie Alconn]

Oi, just read it...."Weaverine" ? nice one

[Allanon]

he should have avioded all conflict and run away with susan but then could you have walked away from the whole walter thing? i couldn't and from then on once you start the journey where does it end? it cant. you have to see it through and from then on you just have to keep to the path and hope it leads you right!

[weaveworld]

Originally Posted by Allanon

he should have avioded all conflict and run away with susan but then could you have walked away from the whole walter thing? i couldn't and from then on once you start the journey where does it end? it cant. you have to see it through and from then on you just have to keep to the path and hope it leads you right!

Allanon, hello there, how's you?

Roland could have ran away with Susan, but would it have lasted?, Roland's need for the tower was too strong and unfortunately Susan had to go.

Me personally, I would not have walked away from Walter because he was a swine, that is the only word that comes to mind.

Exactly where does it end? Roland could go back, marry Susan and have loads of wee Roland babies, he could have left Susannah, Eddie and Jake in their own world, he could have stopped Walter before he started, kicked a few people into touch, saved Father Gallaghan (from himself).

So many questions, I could go on but I don't want to bore you.

[Allanon]

i agree entirely with you!

[weaveworld]

Originally Posted by Allanon

i agree entirely with you!

What? That I am boring you?

I sure hope not...

[His Divine Shadow]

Originally Posted by weaveworld

Jake, Eddie, Oy 'technically' died but they did return in a different reality, so that was good.

Was it really them or just "copies"? I guess it wasn't spelled out enough for my tastes, it gave the impression but to me it wasn't certain. I did feel quite cheated that Roland had to go to the tower alone and killing all his ka´tet.

The ending and the last few books wasn't very good either IMO as people have said. Especially not with the important characters seemingly changing in nature. Walter went from a very impressive bad guy to just some schmoe who got killed by a spider, same for the CK. Bumhug.

[madrussian58]

Hi i am new at this and i have not finished the series. There is no opening like the Gunslinger (book) ever in my history of reading. The way the descripitions are artful, creative, not easy, and how he doesn't expaline EVERYTHING but leaves it for those with higher understanding levels. How the world is dark, disgusting, putrid, yet sad and filled with nastalgia. I agree with the cat lady under one cercumstance. My english teacher stated once that in a poem or book, to get the full understanding look for the "keystone" or symbolic image. Once you find, understand it, if you do, you will understand the rest in a way you have never experienced before. The ending of "loose ends" and restarting to the beginning for the chance of completion-don't think in the view point of Stephen King, think GUNLSINGER -ROLAND- always and you will see, everything was for Roland, not you or the loose ends. Roland found out the answers to much he did not know, why would he re understand the things of the past if not necessary, he does not need to add more past to complete the Roland character. ---those of you who have patiently sat through this rant and read it thankyou. you may think i am biest but for you who have read Firestarter, The Tommyknockers, The Stand, The library policeman, The langoliers, will understand how this is true story telling and not jumping around pasts and futures and different characters. thankyou
buh bye

[dustinzgirl]

IMO, anyone who thinks the ending of DT was cheating, never really got the jist of the story. The whole point, of everything, is quite simply that everything is connected, worlds intertwine, they are the same and different. Jake and Eddie were not just twins, although the simplicity of that statement makes it easier to swallow, but they WERE Jake and Eddie, on different histories. And susana forgot, because remembering would have totured her, as it did Jake in earlier novels...if you notice how suz has this amazing survival ability, more so than ANY of them (including roland, who survives by force and will alone) Suz adapts, becomes, changes--not just who she is, but how she thinks.

Roland reaches his tower, his dream and entire reason for being. He knows it is wrong, he knows the doors will lead him no where. But he perseveres anyways--because that is his will, not god's or man's, but Roland's alone.

There has never been an ending that so completely emulsifies humanity. Our willpower and faith (Roland), Our imagination and creative force (The Artist) Our future and emotion (Jake) Our laughter (Eddie) Our survival (Suz), Our fears and realities (The Crimson King). And all this, laying atop of one another and part of one another, as Roland steps through the door to his tower--his mind, really. You could almost think of the tower as a mirror, the same way Odetta and Detta faced one another to become Suz...the door forces Roland to face himself, and in his deepest hearts, he both loves and hates his journey, himself, and his tower---but he NEVER learned to let go. Eddie did, Jake did, Suz did. But Roland, never. Too darn stubborn and willfull, that boy is.

[nancydeee]

I read the books... I saw the point.. I still thought it was awful, and I agree that the last few books were awful... it started out so great.. that the end was disappointing, as well as a lot of the later books... I mean to me this seemed all about the self promotion of steven king himself and stephen king's novels, I mean how many allusions to his previous works do we really need. Although, if you look at the series as go find all the allusions, at least it has a facinating where's waldo quality

[Wiggum]

The ending made me want to rip my eyeballs out.

If he would have ended it with Roland doomed to repeat everything, that would have been fine.

Even an eraser killing the Crimson King.


But to do that crap with Suz, Eddie and Jake and then say "I only added this in because most of you would be stupid to accept the unfinality of Roland's ending" was the most sanctimonious peice of self-serving, and reader insulting crap I've ever been subjected too.

To have been reading those books for nearly 20 years only to be called dim and have the figurative bird flipped at me was ridiculous.

[Allanon]

Originally Posted by His Divine Shadow

Was it really them or just "copies"? I guess it wasn't spelled out enough for my tastes, it gave the impression but to me it wasn't certain. I did feel quite cheated that Roland had to go to the tower alone and killing all his ka´tet.

The ending and the last few books wasn't very good either IMO as people have said. Especially not with the important characters seemingly changing in nature. Walter went from a very impressive bad guy to just some schmoe who got killed by a spider, same for the CK. Bumhug.

no i think that that time round he had to kill the ka'tet but as he goes round and round and does things slightly different as in having the horn this time he will eventually end up with his whole ka'tet, maybe new and old and solve the tower and save everyone. he's a clever lad is old roland, that tower will not beat him. anyone who has read it a few times will agree here. he's a determined old dog

[dustinzgirl]

Originally Posted by Allanon

no i think that that time round he had to kill the ka'tet but as he goes round and round and does things slightly different as in having the horn this time he will eventually end up with his whole ka'tet, maybe new and old and solve the tower and save everyone. he's a clever lad is old roland, that tower will not beat him. anyone who has read it a few times will agree here. he's a determined old dog

To the contrary, I believe that the tower did beat Roland, it doomed him to repeat his history. It feels like there is something Roland needs to learn, that he does not, and so he is doomed to repeat his life---Hell, I would call Roland's level of the tower. Perhaps he was supposed to learn to let go, to love, to live free. But, he never did, and so his curse was to repeat his torment.

The Tower Pwned Roland.

[nixie]

There was a lesson to be learned that Roland never grasped, until he learns he is doomed to repeat his journey over and over again.

[markrracer]

I think everyone seems to miss the whole point of him having Robert Browning's poem at the end of the book. In the stanzas starting in 29, it tell us then ending of the book. I think that this is what Steven King had in store for Roland from the first book. In fact, SK tells us of the peom in every book. Maybe he was trying to warn us or atleast have us read it.

You can't be mad at the ending of the book. Of course, SK could have it end anyway he wanted but he followed the poem. He even goes as far as giving back the horn that Roland lost.

As for him having to do the journey over and over, I think every time he does it something changes. Why give the horn this time if you did the same thing last time? It's like the movie "groundhogs day". He was doomed to repeat the same day until it was a perfect day (or he became a good person). Roland doesn't have gift of remembering the past but he atleast gains items that could change his hear. Maybe this time around, it will make him a person who deserves the top of the dark tower.

"Ka is a wheel" -Roland-

[Krystal]

I personally like the ending although many of the points are good specially how easy "Walter" die, I would have love to see another confrontation between him and Roland. But for me it was a strange journey and it ends strange. So I wasn't dissapointed. It was a great series.