Just Finished Dark Tower 7 Want Opnions (TOTAL SPOILERS)
- Thread starter Merlion
- Start date
Tom Cashel
First Post
I read the first two and then stopped, a long time ago.
Tell me the ending!!
Tell me the ending!!
Tom Cashel
First Post
So tell me both.
In order.
Please.
In order.
Please.
Merlion
First Post
**********************************************************
SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSPOILERS
Ok, ending number 1: The world has been saved because the Breakers have been disbanded and the Beams will regenerate. The Tower is not going to fall.
However, Eddie and Jake have both been killed in the proccess (this being Jake's 3rd death).
Susanah goes through a magical door to what may or may not be one New York or other, leaving Roland to continue
With some help, Roland defeats the Crimson King, and we see him enter the tower. Thats it for that part.
Then, we go back to Susanah who has in fact arrived in a new york where Eddie and Jake are still alive, but in this world they are brothers. They both remember her. Basically, they live happily ever after.
Ending number 2 (Coda)
Roland enters the tower. He realizes the Tower is alive, that it is the "Body of Gan (God)". Each room depicts a scene from his life. Finally, he reaches the top, and theres a door marked ROLAND. He goes through...and finds himself in the Mohaine Desert again, back at the begining of book 1. Aparently, he has been through this cycle several times, each time losing memory of the last.
The only difference is, he still has the Horn of Eld, which in the previous run he had left lying at Jericho Hill.
I'm not really to happy with the last part, because it basically invalidates the whole rest of the story. We dont know if time rolls back for the whole universe, or if Roland has died and gone to purgatory, or what.
SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSPOILERS
Ok, ending number 1: The world has been saved because the Breakers have been disbanded and the Beams will regenerate. The Tower is not going to fall.
However, Eddie and Jake have both been killed in the proccess (this being Jake's 3rd death).
Susanah goes through a magical door to what may or may not be one New York or other, leaving Roland to continue
With some help, Roland defeats the Crimson King, and we see him enter the tower. Thats it for that part.
Then, we go back to Susanah who has in fact arrived in a new york where Eddie and Jake are still alive, but in this world they are brothers. They both remember her. Basically, they live happily ever after.
Ending number 2 (Coda)
Roland enters the tower. He realizes the Tower is alive, that it is the "Body of Gan (God)". Each room depicts a scene from his life. Finally, he reaches the top, and theres a door marked ROLAND. He goes through...and finds himself in the Mohaine Desert again, back at the begining of book 1. Aparently, he has been through this cycle several times, each time losing memory of the last.
The only difference is, he still has the Horn of Eld, which in the previous run he had left lying at Jericho Hill.
I'm not really to happy with the last part, because it basically invalidates the whole rest of the story. We dont know if time rolls back for the whole universe, or if Roland has died and gone to purgatory, or what.
Alright then. This begs the question... what is the lunch special at the pub where the Priest and Eddie had their battle?
I mean, this begs the question
I mean, this begs the question
what does the Horn of Eld do? What can Roland do with it? What difference does it make at all?
physicscarp
Explorer
Merlion said:
I found it quite clear, especially since King prefaced the entire Coda portion with a discussion of how it's the journey that is important, not the ultimate goal. He's simply driving this home to you, by beginning Roland on his journey again.
Time was not turned back, Susannah is still with Eddie and Jake, but Roland has returned to the point in his quest where he realizes that he will reach the Tower. The Horn is merely symbolic, showing us (and Roland) that things can be different this time.
Merlion
First Post
If time didnt turn back, how can there be another time? See this is what I wonder. If the universe hasnt reset except for Roland being back at the begining again....then what? The Tower is already saved. Walter/Flagg etc is dead. The Eddie and Jake that Roland would draw again are dead.
It just doesnt really make sense to me.
Also...and I want to express that I did enjoy the book extremely but...also there were a number of other points I thought were a bit weak.
Mordred was pretty anticlimatic, and linked to that, so was the Crimson King. I'd gotten the impression that the Crimson King was some Sauron-like super baddie and he turns out to be a screechy old guy with Sneetches. Also, in Black House we learn that he's supposed to be trapped in (in fact probably at the top of) the tower, and has been for some time it seems. In the Dark Tower it says he only reccently went there, and seems to indicate he was just a powerful evil king.
We never really find out what the Taheen are. And supposedly the can-toi/low men are human/taheen hybrids, but in what way they are truly different from rat-headed taheen isnt really explored.
I really think Jake and Eddie's deaths seemed a bit tacked on, but it would have been ok if he'd stuck with the 1st ending.
The whole deal with the Prim and the Beams and all is dealt with in a somewhat confusing way. I wish he had stuck more strongly to the theme of the foolishness of trying to replace spirituality with "rationality."
Patrick seemed pretty much tacked on...like he was there only because of the stuff in Insomnia...he wasnt really worked into the plot, just stuck in there.
Walter/Flagg in this book, and his death, seemed like anticlimax. He and the Crismon King were both spoken of previously as being ancient and very peculiar beings and I just dont think that was really followed through.
However, one area that was strong I thought was all the stuff about the todash darkness...he really showed his Lovecraftian roots with that, but in an individual way. The sequence under Fedic with all the doors and corridors with noises and smells and distorations and all, followed by the creature, was very nice.
It was a really fun book but in terms of the end of such a deep and epic series I felt a bit let down.
Merlion
First Post
I think Carp is right in that it simply symbolizes that things can be different for Roland. But, if time hasnt turned back, I dont see what difference it makes since its all already done.
It would work if he's in some sort of purgatory where he has to keep doing it till he gets it right.
Furtive Noise
First Post
I was really disappointed with this book, maybe I just expected too much from the ending. I've kind of liked the Dark Tower series less and less after book 4, not really sure why, maybe because it seemed to be less about this epic journey than about scrambling around back and forth between this world and different times.
Specific things about book 7:
A lot of time was spent working Mordred up but he turned out a big disapointment. I mean, he easily kills Walter (or Randall Flagg, etc.) who was one of my favourite villains throughout a lot of other King books. This kind of surprised me, but it made me think Mordred was going to be an even more potent foe that would perhaps be the final obstacle in the quest. Not some pitiful follower that we're supposed to feel half sorry for and ends up little more than a speedbump before the Tower. (Ok, he serves to give Oy a heroic death, but I knew the final member of Roland's band was going to die anyway) What happened to Mordred's 'spooky' mind control powers- in the end he's just a hungry spider.
The Crimson King was an even worse disappointment- An evil father Christmas?! Who throws sneetches and hurls lame insults back and forth with Roland as a final confrontation? C'mon. I thought he was some nigh-all powerful force with a legion of followers besieging the Tower. Instead he's got an old illusionist minister and a pleasantville town w/ 60 good ol boys keeping the breakers breaking.
Finally, the coda. I figured my other complaints would fall by the wayside once we finally got to go with Roland inside the tower. King writes about how the journey is all that matters and we shouldn't even bother wanting to know what goes on in the tower. BS; a powerful ending helps to frame and support what leads up to it, validates the quest somewhat. Roland finally gains entrance to what is supposed to be the ultimate metaphysical center and support for all reality- and its just a summation of his life leading up to a lame twilight zone twist. A big trap for him, a cheap mind-f**k. "But wait, I'll throw the readers a bone, now he's got the Horn of Eld so it might work out after all." Bleh. This whole thing is just so lame and out of the blue- I think King knew it was lame and tries to fend off potential criticism w/ his whole 'don't read the end' thing.
Don't get me wrong, the book wasn't utterly terrible. Very readable and page turning. Roland and Sussanah actually going about the ardous final journey was great. I didn't even mind King putting himself into the story so much, kind of made a certain sense seeing as how its his lifes work and cross references so many other of his books. I'm just venting because the story seemed to have the potential to have been so much better and the end was so disapointing.
Specific things about book 7:
A lot of time was spent working Mordred up but he turned out a big disapointment. I mean, he easily kills Walter (or Randall Flagg, etc.) who was one of my favourite villains throughout a lot of other King books. This kind of surprised me, but it made me think Mordred was going to be an even more potent foe that would perhaps be the final obstacle in the quest. Not some pitiful follower that we're supposed to feel half sorry for and ends up little more than a speedbump before the Tower. (Ok, he serves to give Oy a heroic death, but I knew the final member of Roland's band was going to die anyway) What happened to Mordred's 'spooky' mind control powers- in the end he's just a hungry spider.
The Crimson King was an even worse disappointment- An evil father Christmas?! Who throws sneetches and hurls lame insults back and forth with Roland as a final confrontation? C'mon. I thought he was some nigh-all powerful force with a legion of followers besieging the Tower. Instead he's got an old illusionist minister and a pleasantville town w/ 60 good ol boys keeping the breakers breaking.
Finally, the coda. I figured my other complaints would fall by the wayside once we finally got to go with Roland inside the tower. King writes about how the journey is all that matters and we shouldn't even bother wanting to know what goes on in the tower. BS; a powerful ending helps to frame and support what leads up to it, validates the quest somewhat. Roland finally gains entrance to what is supposed to be the ultimate metaphysical center and support for all reality- and its just a summation of his life leading up to a lame twilight zone twist. A big trap for him, a cheap mind-f**k. "But wait, I'll throw the readers a bone, now he's got the Horn of Eld so it might work out after all." Bleh. This whole thing is just so lame and out of the blue- I think King knew it was lame and tries to fend off potential criticism w/ his whole 'don't read the end' thing.
Don't get me wrong, the book wasn't utterly terrible. Very readable and page turning. Roland and Sussanah actually going about the ardous final journey was great. I didn't even mind King putting himself into the story so much, kind of made a certain sense seeing as how its his lifes work and cross references so many other of his books. I'm just venting because the story seemed to have the potential to have been so much better and the end was so disapointing.
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