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My thoughts on Stephen King’s The Dark Tower VII – This article contains Spoilers!

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Warning! This article contains spoilers. If you haven’t finished reading The Dark Tower Book VII, leave now!

Special thanks to The Dark Tower Forums. Some of the ideas in my theory about the ending come from there. Although the ideas were on the tip of my tongue, I couldn’t actually put them into words until I read them on those forums. But what Roland finds at the top of the dark tower comes directly from me.

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!!!!!!!!!SPOILERS BELOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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How many times I cried

  • When Pere died.
  • When Jake called Roland “Father”, and Roland open his arms to Jake.
  • Eddie’s last words before dying.
  • The entire chapter “In the Haze of Green and Gold” specifically,
    • Jake telling Mrs. T., “tell my father I love him” before dying
    • Roland’s funeral speech and Oy’s “I Ake!”
    • Oy deciding not to die alongside Jake’s grave
  • Oy’s death
  • When Roland reached the tower and called out the names of all those who died during his quest. That was the greatest moment in all of The Dark Tower series.
  • Susannah in New York – I cried knowing that Eddie and Jake were okay and together, although I didn’t care anything about Susannah’s happiness.
  • When Roland begged for mercy and pity from the Tower and Gan.

My Favorite Parts

  • The man in black / Walter’s death. Having loved The Stand, I was absolutely shocked by his death and totally freaked out by the way he died.
  • The ka-tet’s reunion in Experimental Station 16
  • The 3 SKs at the Red King’s Castle palaver
  • Roland’s speech upon reaching the dark tower

My Thoughts on the Dark Tower and the Ending

The Dark Tower epic is about Roland’s most important loop in the Tower – his second to last. Roland actually made it to the tower in his first trip – he’s just been stuck in it ever since. The Tower is allowing him to redeem himself and make up for all those he has sacrificed in his journey to the Tower. We can only imagine what Roland did and how many people died to reach the Tower the first time. Through repetition, the Tower teaches Roland that there are more important things in this world than just reaching the Tower.

On this second to last trip, we hear Roland’s thoughts when he is reunited with Jake in The Drawing of the Three, “No Jake, I’ll never let you drop again. But then again Roland wonders if that is true.” In Book VII, Roland decides in the truck on the way to save SK that he will die in Jake’s place. However, Ka intervenes, Roland’s leg gives out, and Jake jumps in front of the runaway truck. His willingness to die to keep Jake safe is his saving grace and breaks the loop once and for all.

This time in the loop it will be different and it will be his last trip to the Tower. We know this because of how SK chose to put the poem “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came” at the end of the book right after the coda. According to the poem, Roland blows his horn at the base of the dark tower.

Roland has been drawing the same Jake, Susannah, and Eddie on each loop. How else could they have these skills? Also, the first time they were on horseback, Eddie thought he had done all of this before. There are probably many other hints throughout the books, but I don’t have the time to reread them all.

And lastly, what is at the top of The Dark Tower?

After Roland calls the names of all he’s lost, he blows his horn at the base of the Dark Tower. The doors open for him for the final time. He walks into the Tower and sees the symbols from all the critical moments on his life and throughout every trip to The Dark Tower. Slowly he starts to realize just how old he really is and just how many times he’s been to the dark tower as he examines every room. When he reaches the top, the door, instead of saying Roland, it says, “Redemption”. As he opens the door, he hears the sound of his horn reverberate throughout the Tower, possibly blown by Gan himself. He sees every name he called at the base of the tower smiling at him, including his father, his mother, Cort, Vannay, Curberth, Alan, Susan, and his ka-tet, even the one with the gold-rimmed eyes.

Roland runs towards their outstretched hands as they stand in the clearing at the end of the path.

Tell SK thankya for such a great series of books.

Long days and pleasant nights.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    October 10, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    October 15, 2004
    I think that upon his next--and most likely final--trip to the top of the Tower, Roland will find it empty. He then will be able to rule all the worlds from the top of the Tower, preserving the power of the White for eternity. As he said, there will be no clearing for him.
  • Anonymous
    October 18, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    October 18, 2004
    Yep, I made it up, because i needed the closure. But now i'm really starting to like this theory:

    http://thedarktower.net/forums/ -> "The Dark Tower" Discussion (book 7) -> DT7 Spoiler Topics and Discussion -> What The Dark Tower Really Is!

    Yeah, that's my favorite theory now, because just imagine if Roland hadn't let Jake die. A lot of things were set into motion because of Jake's initial death. He won't let him die this trip and his entire ka-tet will reach the tower.
  • Anonymous
    October 19, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    October 22, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    October 22, 2004
    If you made that up, I think you can give Sai SK a run for his money in the writer's market. That's a very good thought to help me grabble with the end of this series that I started reading 13 years ago.
  • Anonymous
    October 22, 2004
    grapple instead of grabble :)
  • Anonymous
    October 23, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    October 23, 2004
    thanks all for the feedback! I really, really can't thank http://www.thedarktower.net/ enough for their DT7 Spoiler forum. It was truly my anti-depressant for a good week after reading the ending.

    Right now, i'm reading The Tailsman. Jack, Jake, at some point, they all become the same character, so i feel like the Dark Tower series is still continuing for me on some level. =)
  • Anonymous
    October 29, 2004
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  • Anonymous
    April 10, 2005
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  • Anonymous
    April 21, 2005
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  • Anonymous
    April 28, 2005
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  • Anonymous
    May 22, 2005
    i have been overwhelmed since finishing the series two days ago. first, dissapointed: not because of the ending (it was fitting, there couldn't have been another way for it to end), but because i came to know these characters intimately, and i don't want to say good-bye. especially jake and oy. second: very sad, 'cause i've had to say good-bye. i know i sound like an anti-social freak. i'm a freak, that's for sure, but, i'm moderately well-adujusted. it's just that...i don't know, of course i would like to know more. like, how many times HAS roland gone on this journey? and what is the ending of his next journey like? does he find redemption on the door (great theory, sara) or does his journey continue yet again? yes, letting jake fall the first (was that indeed his first journey to the tower???) time around was bad "ka" but, what about letting susan burn? wasn't that bad "ka", too? see, too many questions still. i have a feeling, though. i believe that stephen king isn't done. mayhap tis my own intuition or wishful thinking. but ka is a wheel, is it not? there's more to be written, still. roland might find his way to the clearing.
  • Anonymous
    June 07, 2005
    Many,MANY gripes here but my main one is this...WALTER WASN'T KILLED BY THOMAS. Which is what was "promised" in "Eyes of the Dragon". Storyline has been sorely lacking since book 4 (Which was still fairly short in the "originality" area.But King usually is,even his physical "dualism" i.e. Twinners,would have been really creative if practically the same concept wasn't put forth in Piers Anthony's "Apprentice Adept" series.But I guess all "authors" can't be imaginative,some are just bottom-feeding commercialized plagurists with smaller vocabularies.
  • Anonymous
    August 25, 2005
    I have grown to accept the ending, even if Sai King has not. He alludes to not being completely satisfied with the ending, but that's no excuse for not fleshing it out. For me, it would be complete with the addition of one detail:

    How many fingers does Roland have?
  • Anonymous
    September 09, 2005
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  • Anonymous
    November 02, 2005
    I always kind of saw it as being maybe a second to last trip through too. If you look back through the story, he talks about losing Cuthbert's horn at Jericho Hill, I think it was. But at the end of the seventh book, he's back right where the first book started, except that somehow he has the horn again. I think someone else commented on how "if he could keep it through the cycle" or something like that. But he lost it before the cycle, not during. So it would seem an outside change in the cycle. Something guiding him on a different path, or at least a change that would give him a chance to do things differently.
  • Anonymous
    November 09, 2005
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  • Anonymous
    November 21, 2005
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  • Anonymous
    November 21, 2005
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  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2005
    Kudos!! I never thought of it that way, about it being Rolands 2nd to last trip, but now that I've read it, it brings a smile to my face. And I think it is right that he begs Gan for mercy and pity, to not have to go all through it again, realizing that he does have to do it again, after all he's been through and all the sacrifices, it just shows his human side once and for all. Again, ty for opening my eyes to an alternate ending.

    "We are ka-tet. We are one form many"
  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2005
    Kudos!! I never thought of it that way, about it being Rolands 2nd to last trip, but now that I've read it, it brings a smile to my face. And I think it is right that he begs Gan for mercy and pity, to not have to go all through it again, realizing that he does have to do it again, after all he's been through and all the sacrifices, it just shows his human side once and for all. Again, ty for opening my eyes to an alternate ending.

    "We are ka-tet. We are one form many"
  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2005
    Kudos!! I never thought of it that way, about it being Rolands 2nd to last trip, but now that I've read it, it brings a smile to my face. And I think it is right that he begs Gan for mercy and pity, to not have to go all through it again, realizing that he does have to do it again, after all he's been through and all the sacrifices, it just shows his human side once and for all. Again, ty for opening my eyes to an alternate ending.

    "We are ka-tet. We are one from many"
  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2005
    Kudos!! I never thought of it that way, about it being Rolands 2nd to last trip, but now that I've read it, it brings a smile to my face. And I think it is right that he begs Gan for mercy and pity, to not have to go all through it again, realizing that he does have to do it again, after all he's been through and all the sacrifices, it just shows his human side once and for all. Again, ty for opening my eyes to an alternate ending.

    "We are ka-tet. We are one from many"
  • Anonymous
    December 11, 2005
    Why does Roland's cycle not start from the begining (at least from after his challenge with Cort) starting from the does not make sense with what previous posters have said about the hor being lost on Jerhico Hill. I too was angered by the ending at first, and then realised the challenge that SK faced, he would never please everybody with what he wrote and a happy ending would give the story (the journey) no justice at all. I would have rathered Roland sacrificing himself(in an epic battle) to take out the Crimson King to save the Tower myself.
    Great books though. Long days and pleasant nights to you all.
  • Anonymous
    December 11, 2005
    Cbardis: Roland's cycle starts in the desert because that was the first time he thought he could actually reach The Dark Tower. Up until that point, he was all about saving it. As he got closer and caught the beam after Tull (if you read the first version of The Gunslinger, he's travelling SE, but in the second version, he's travelling due East), he thought he could actually reach it and climb to the top. I believe "Little Sisters" (in Everything's Eventual) doesn't describe Roland as reaching the tower, but more along the lines of saving it, since "Littel Sisters" happens before Tull.

    I got this theory from "The Road to the Dark Tower", i think (it's been a while).

    Also, i read somewhere, probably in "The Road to the Dark Tower", where SK said that from day one Roland's story was going to end in a loop. Hence, why there was so much "Ka is a wheel" stuff going on. Of course, you would have to look for these sort of comments and hits from Books 1-4; otherwise, it doesn't count.

    I'm still hoping T3 explains it all. =)
  • Anonymous
    February 11, 2006
    I love your theory, but....

    My theory is that King is repeating the theme of the characters being aware of themselves as characters in books, written by an author. Just as the ka-tet are aware that time is different, "slower", between the books (see the beginning of the Wolves of Calla), Roland does what every character does at the end of his book. He goes back to the beginning, for the next reader. And the beginning is his first steps in the desert.

    I like that Stephen King wrote in that there is hope for it not to go on and on and on, but the fact is, I think it will. Just because Gan says it "may" be different this time doesn't mean it will be. Roland is a character in a book, and at the end of each reading, he goes back to the beginning for the next reader.

    I know it's a bleak theory, I like your theory better because it allows for an actual ending. But I think Roland will go on and on, so long as he has readers.
  • Anonymous
    February 11, 2006
    Question.
    If time in the Keystone world only goes one way, how can this story loop?
  • Anonymous
    March 06, 2006
    It's Buddhism. Roland will repeat his life three times, the third time he will get it right. Acquire all the necessary knowledge. Become enlightened. He will become Buddha.  Who knows what you'd call it in Mid-World. He will rule all worlds from the top of the Tower. Three is an important number. Just as important as 19.
  • Anonymous
    March 08, 2006
    I just had a thought reading these comments....basically time flows differently at different points becuase different readers read at differeing speeds...does that make sense....and time slows nearer the tower becauase as Roland and Ka Tet grow closer the time betweeen the books grows....I have to admit that i loved the official ending....all that about the wheel turning and the world moving on and stuff......I have only one comment to add.....how about Mordred being "IT" any suggestions?

    Matt
  • Anonymous
    March 24, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    May 11, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    May 15, 2006
    I've struggled with the ending for going on a long while now, hoping that my bitter disappointment would morph into some clear, resolute epiphany that it was indeed all I had hoped and the digestion process of my mind simply had too much on its plate to provide the satisfaction of completing the journey. The disappointment has lingered and as much as I hate to admit it to myself, let alone on a public forum, I think the series was a failure. For me, the story seemed to have lost its way right and/or crumbled under its own weight. I don't think Stephen King is being completely honest in the telling of the last two books - I think he handed over the reigns to someone else to complete it. Perhaps that is the brilliance of it all and I'm just too blind to see it - at least that's what I hope I can convince myself of anyway.
  • Anonymous
    June 09, 2006
    Just finished DT7, just got done with a 5 hour marathon reading session.  I liked Sara's ending, but there are many other open possibilities, and I think King meant to leave the ending open to interpretation for the reader.  Basically, like many of you have said, if he made a concrete ending there would be people who disagreed with it...this way, you can decide whatever ending makes you happy =)

  • Anonymous
    June 19, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    July 08, 2006
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  • Anonymous
    August 28, 2006
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    September 01, 2006
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