The Dark Tower. The final installment of the series that shares the same name. I heard from a large handful of people that I wouldn’t like the end because it was a “major letdown.” While it definitely wasn’t the ending I wanted, I can say with complete sincerity that it was the ending that was needed.
Let’s take a hot minute here and talk about some of the characters. I’ll go from least favorite to bae (good god I feel like I’m too old to say that word). Ready?
Susanna. It wasn’t that I hated her by any stretch of the imagination. I liked her. In a vast sea of interesting people, though, she just wasn’t as interesting to me. Her other two personalities you meet when you first come across her in The Drawing of the Three, however, were amazing. Total polar opposites. Detta will forever be my hero; she was a blast, if crude and rude and all around nasty to everyone most always. But Susanna was just a steady middle ground between the prissy high-class Odetta and the take-no-shit Detta. I fell out of love with her when she got her mind under control.
Jake. I didn’t have anything against him. There just wasn’t very much about him that was memorable, aside from him telling Roland at the very beginning, “Go then. There are other worlds than these.” (Awesome tattoo idea, by the way.)
Roland. What a dick. Just kidding, but seriously, though. He’s so single minded and selfish that it’s infuriating. He’ll do anything so long as it gets him closer to the tower. And you know what? That’s what I love about him. He’s got this anti-hero dynamic about him that the reader (or me, at very least) loves to hate. He’s not above saving people and telling them to fuck off immediately afterward. Cold, calculating, and better than you in almost every way, but with certain touches that border adorable, like his mispronunciations and literal attitude. He’s not a monster; he can feel love and loss, but he pushes it to the back of his mind so he can accomplish his quest. Misunderstood, I suppose, is a good word to describe him.
Oy. Oh, god, how my heart bleeds for Jake’s best friend. I have a soft spot for animals anyway, but make them talk, and I’m head over heels in love. But Oy is more than a cute mimicking pet. He’s hands down the most fiercely loyal of the ka’tet. Everyone is willing to die for the cause, and that’s all good and grand, but Oy is willing to stay even after he has literally no reason to. The same can’t be said for the others, in my humble opinion.
Alright, that brings me to the man of the hour, Eddy. This sarcastic, wise-cracking street-smart druggie was destined to be my favorite the moment Roland entered his mind in the second book. The reader is with him through his transformation of body and mind, with Roland teaching him the ways of a gunslinger and him dealing with withdrawal and learning to let go of his past. He might not be the smartest of the ka’tet, but he has a way with words and can talk his way into and out of most anything. He’s not above making jokes even at the most inappropriate of times, but he has a heart of gold that makes up for it. I’m unashamed to admit that he was my book crush for the series, but I really don’t think I’m alone in that respect.
Some quick thoughts about The Dark Tower itself: The first half of the book made me want to vomit, what with the pus and snot and people eating of the people (and not-so-people) in the city where they break the beam. The last half of the book made me want to cry, what with all the dying, some definitely more unexpected than others. Mordred was terrifyingly evil and every time he was mentioned my skin would crawl. The final battle was a bit of a letdown for me. I wanted more than anything for Roland to have this epic showdown with the Crimson King with lots of one-liners and action sequences and instead I got…
SPOILER ALERT
…erased from existence MS Paint style. For how much the Crimson King was talked up throughout the series I thought it would be more drawn out (lol), or at very least he would be dealt with by Roland exclusively.
But such is life. What can ya do?
Now, this ending, the real ending, the moment I was waiting for from the first time I picked up The Gunslinger years (and years and years goodness gracious this series took me a long time to get through and there were a lot of breaks between books for me) ago. I’ll keep it short, because I’ve been rambling for longer than what I intended to make this. Was this the ending I wanted? Of course not. I wanted him to find what he was looking for with his ka’tet at his side and finally be at peace. He had been working so hard for so long, he just needs some damn rest! Instead, he walks up and up, reliving every painful memory and mistake room by room, floor by floor, until he reaches the top and is pulled back into the loop, destined to repeat his journey to the Dark Tower once more. Roland is stuck in purgatory, and who knows how many times he’s been through the journey before now? This wasn’t the ending I wanted for Roland, but I believe deep down that it was the ending that Roland deserved. He’s sacrificed everything for the tower: strangers, friends, even family, without even knowing what was inside, without ever questioning. He was obsessed and greedy and just couldn’t leave well enough alone with saving the beams. I hope his next journey that he plays his cards right and is able to get the ending we all want for him and he can finally stop fighting.
Before I end this, here’s a couple links that are my headcannon theme songs for Roland and the tower.
Roland and his quest:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKh2Hb7mcU0
The Dark Tower to Roland:
Have you read The Dark Tower? What did you think?
Manda Kay Writes 