The Conclusion And Continuation Of Roland's Quest For The Dark Tower **SPOILERS**

[Jason87]

Having just finished The Dark Tower, I am both surprised and not surprised by the way it ended. Doesn't Roland deserve to be stuck in purgatory after all those he has taken advantage of for his own personal gain? I admit that I was disappointed at first that Roland didn't get to have his moment of triumphant glory atop The Tower, but at the same time it is very fitting. It speaks to his imperfections and makes him seem that much more real and relatable. The fact that he starts over again from the beginning with the horn in his possession provides chance and hope that if he can learn from his mistakes and correct them then maybe he will still in fact one day reach the top of The Dark Tower as he envisioned it---- if we can correct our own faults and learn from them then we still have a chance to reach our own goals and aspirations. We each make our own destiny and the decisions we make along the way shape it.

[GNTLGNT]

Exact-a-mundo!!!

[Pucker]

if we can correct our own faults and learn from them then we still have a chance to reach our own goals and aspirations. We each make our own destiny and the decisions we make along the way shape it.

Like a great deal of popular literature, it's essentially about hope. You've hit the nail pretty much right on the head here, Jason, but I can't help but wonder if maybe that hope is the ultimate joke on poor, deluded Roland. We're given to understand, throughout his journey, that Roland has been missing the point for a good long time, and that he's been through the cycle over and over again, and yet, when we meet him, he is still happily sacrificing everyone he meets -- friend or foe -- in pursuit of his obssession, and does not appear to have learned anything at all during his figurative forty days and forty nights. I like to think that Roland picking up the horn is destiny's way of saying that it could be different . . . but it won't.

Death . . . but not for you, gunslinger.

Either that, or I am entirely wrong.

[frisbee]

Personally, I don't think that the tower is about "deserving". I think the point is that Ka is a wheel and that we have to live with the choices that we make. I wonder if the journey is exactly the same time for Roland every time he is set back on his path. I also wonder whether or not he would make different decisions even if he knew what we knew. I guess that's the point.

[muskrat]

Having just finished The Dark Tower, I am both surprised and not surprised by the way it ended. Doesn't Roland deserve to be stuck in purgatory after all those he has taken advantage of for his own personal gain? I admit that I was disappointed at first that Roland didn't get to have his moment of triumphant glory atop The Tower, but at the same time it is very fitting. It speaks to his imperfections and makes him seem that much more real and relatable. The fact that he starts over again from the beginning with the horn in his possession provides chance and hope that if he can learn from his mistakes and correct them then maybe he will still in fact one day reach the top of The Dark Tower as he envisioned it---- if we can correct our own faults and learn from them then we still have a chance to reach our own goals and aspirations. We each make our own destiny and the decisions we make along the way shape it.

YES YES YES! This should be copy/pasted after the comments of every douche bag who wants to whine about the ending of TOWER! Sure, the ending is kind of a bummer, but it's the only ending that makes sense. Well done sir, well done.

[Drumbum]

The Tower is Roland's redemption.

[arsepoetica]

Roland is who he is because of his quest. He winds up exactly where he belongs, doing what he was made to do, existing as he was meant to exist forever, although there are, of course, hints (namely his horn) that his final time is upon him. In his way, the perpetual nature of his quest is his heaven.

[Turd Ferguson]

I agree with the sentiments on this thread. The first time I read the last novel, I had a WTH moment when I got to the ending. It was a good WTH moment, though. I felt that Roland doing the quest over again and the revelation that he had done it before was the only proper ending.

[bluesology]

I had a similar reaction to the ending - it's so tragic and at the same time so appropriate. One thing I always take from the stories is the notion that endings rarely are smooth or easy. There are any number of books out there which wrap everything up into a nice, neat feel-good package where everything comes out all right. They can be entertaining on an airplane but I don't think they are very genuine to the human experience. Reading The Dark Tower, I feel more in touch with the humanity of the characters which I think is more important than a paper thin plot designed to make me feel better.

[Asmodeus_Y]

Maybe my take on the ending was a bit different from the consensus... I could never reconcile with that the Tower would be in danger again and again and that the Crimson King would start a new assault again and again as Roland repeats his quest. In my mind that would lock the entire multiverse into the cycle, which didn't appear to be the case since there WAS a time when the Tower was strong and the world had not moved on.

They way I saw it Roland didn't reach the true Dark Tower. He reached the true Dark Tower in Mid-World a long time ago, the first time he got there. On the way he sacrificed his friends and stopped the Crimson King from destroying the multiverse. When he reached the top he faced judgement for the sins he had committed during his quest. Since then he is trapped in a pocket multiverse (created by the Tower specifically for him) where he is doomed to repeat his quest over and over again until he learns from his mistakes and finds redemption. That's why there was no entity at the to floor of the tower, only a door with Rolands name on it. In this pocket multiverse he is he most important character and it basically only exists to teach him a lesson.