The Dark Tower Ending - I HATED IT! **SPOILERS**

[Roseasharn]

Yeah, I think saying King never writes a happy ending is a little too pat an answer.
In life, I've only ever seen one truly happy ending. My great grandfather died suddenly and quietly while sitting on the tailgate of his old pick up truck, right next to his, "pride and joy", wonderful strawberry patch. But even that wasn't a truly happy ending because the rest of us were left. In this regard, I think King deals more in realism than people want to give him credit for. There's always hope, but there is also always it's dark twin, dispair. And of course, can it be a true ending if we don't follow all the characters to death? I don't know, endings are really never that great in my opinion.

[LongWalker]

I agree with alot of the posts that King didn't want to end it and I didn't want it to end either. I think the ending King decided to use was appropriate in that Roland would forever do what we the readers know is his greatest love and that is finding the tower. He has a chance to re-live the quest and to make it better by saving his friends and maybe getting the chance to do things different. What if Roland has done this many times and he just doesn't know it? Has he done it different before? Wow! Whole new world!

[intstar]

I'm sorry that so many of you guys hated the ending. For myself I couldn't think of a better way to end it. I still muse over how the Gunslinger would redo the things he got wrong the first time & if he would remember. Kind of like the Buddhist teaching of the Wheel of Life.

[EngravedinFleshBass]

I had a few observations about the end of the book and want to know what you all think. I thought of making a new post, but since this one is about the end of the series, I figured it would belong in here, and I did read through all 16 pages of posts (or at least I skimmed them), and I only saw one post that seemed to correspond with what I think.

The person said something along the lines of we don't know if Roland draws Eddie, Sussanah, Jake, Oy, or any of the other major characters in his next journey to The Tower with the horn. But I think that he will draw them again, and had drawn them before every time he may have traveled to the Tower. My thinking for this is because at the end it returned with Roland following the Man in Black across the desert once again. But the Man in Black was killed by Mordred. So that either means that Flagg was either brought back in time when Roland was brought back in time to the desert (or was Roland really brought back in time, or did the journey take place, and realty had been altered and Roland's memory wiped? If so that creates a third possibility that time was not reversed to before the death of Flagg, but he was brought back to life by the Tower or Beam or Turtle or Ka who damned Roland to repeat the journey). Or was the man whom Roland was following a twin of Randall? If the last is true then it is a possibility that Roland would not redraw Eddie Dean, Sussanah Dead, and Jake Chambers. He may draw Eddie, Sussanah and Jake Toren, but the two men would be far different than the two that Roland had formed ka-tet with. And since Sussanah lived throught the entire ordeal, once drawn back into the world of Roland, wouldn't all of her faded memories come back, being able to tell Roland every hardship that lay in their path far in advance.

But if time were reversed or reality altered, Jake, Eddie, and Suzzanah would all have been replaced their their respective whens. And then what would have been the point of Sussanah of going to the alternate New York? Was it just to give the readers who did heed King's warning to stop a happy ending? The way the book ended all of them could have been dead, except for the artist, but as long as Roland made his trip to the top of the Tower, they would all be brought back, waiting, but not knowing, for Roland to once again invade their lives?

I went on quite a bit longer than I had planned to, but these questions really had me curious about the ending. Which I must say I finished earlier today. My first reaction was shock and a little bit of anger, but after only an hour or two of thinking about it, I have come around and seen it for the genius that it is. And how much more thought provoking it is, than a would be "happily ever after" ending.

[TBlack]

I was upset that The Crimson King

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died by eraser

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I wanted his scalp filletted with his eyeballs popping outta his face

Then I started thinking of what Stephen had said about killing off your heroes in On Writing... after 30 years with Roland on his brain this must have been an extremely difficult thing for him to do.
But now think on this:
If you consider "The Three Faces of Steve"(he threw them in to confuse us all):
#1 Stephen is The Artist (I'm sure none of us here will deny that)
#2 Stephen is The Original Gunslinger--"We deal in Lead"--Think on that---(What's inside a #2 Eberhard Pencil?)
#3 Stephen is in a large part Roland as is Roland, Steve--They created each other through all those years.
You couldn't kill off your main guy! Just as you wouldn't kill off yourself...
You'd say, "We're Damned! BUT.. Maybe we could try again someday... next time maybe I could have a horn?"

[J.P.]

The ending didn't make me feel very good but I agreed with and understood the ending.

[tillyn]

At the moment i'm on 6 so, i'll stop reading these posts because i really don't want to know anymore. I'll jump back in within the next 2 weeks. I've taken the last mth and a half of my reading time and dedicated to finishing this series. Hopefully i won't be to disappointed.

[JoTLoE]

Yeah, don't quit! I have lost track of the amount of times I have been through the book series. It never gets old for me, and in my opinion is one of the best book series ever. The series was ended perfectly, if you want to call it an ending. King is brilliant, and i'll continue the story, and try and convince others to read it...

[karend3]

If you read the ending, Roland has something to learn or he continue to repeat. Each time he repeats he learns something new but somehow is slower than everyone else.

[Richard_B]

I can appreciate why people would have strong feelings about the ending - and I do wonder how many (if anyone?) stopped at the Coda which warns: "And so, my dear constant reader, I tell you this: You can stop here". and the observation: "I hope you came to hear the tale, and not just munch your way through to the ending."

For me it's a painful ending, but it's a true ending, and the more I think about the ending the more I think it was the only possible finale.