Reginald de Curry wrote:
The horn is the key. It is the only thing Roland didn't have the last time around (or the few hundred before that), which suggests that he now has a real chance to break out of the prison he's in.
Whoops. What I meant by that was, why did he deserve to get the horn this time around? I got that the horn was the key to his redemption, but not why he got it.
Reginald de Curry wrote:Dominique wrote:Was this his first time travelling with others?
I'd say no, though it may be the first time he allowed himself to truly care for them.
Yeah, that was pretty much what I thought, too. Although one friend of mine suggested that maybe he travelled alone before, or maybe he always travelled with different people, since there was nothing in the Tower after the lobstrosity--he didn't see anything that specifically indicated Eddie, Susannah, and Jake, the way he saw Susan Delgado's stake and smelled his mother (and boy, was that Freudian). I don't think I buy it, but I wanted to toss it out there.
Reginald de Curry wrote:It's an interesting theory, though I don't agree. As I understand it, Roland has been reliving the same events over and over again (Why does he think ka will provide? Because it did the last thousand times.)
Right, but I feel like there was something that must have been different this time around that allowed him to get the horn. Maybe it was just something along the lines of "Roland Deschain, this is your ONE THOUSANDTH TIME entering the Dark Tower! You win . . . A NEW HORN!!!"
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
But I'm wondering if it was something he did, which I realize is impossible since we have no basis for comparison to previous times, but it's a fun exercise.
Reginald de Curry wrote:This suggests, at least to me, that the Tower overrides the "you can't go back" rule that all other doorways seem to follow (and is the only thing that can).
Point. If anything did, it would be the Tower.
Reginald de Curry wrote:Besides, it wasn't Jake's life he needed to save, it was King's.
Right. But what I'm getting at here is that Roland and Jake both knew that one of them needed to die in order to save King, and Roland wanted to be that one instead of Jake. Since the big thing that seems to have damned him to searching for the Tower is his single-minded obsession that allows him to let pretty much anyone else die, and his willingness to die in Jake's place proves that he's come to value something else more than he values seeing the Tower, I think that may have been his first proof that he was starting to improve.
Reginald de Curry wrote:Frankly, I think the only chance Roland has of escaping his prison (his domain, if you will) is to not let Jake fall under the mountain. As a reminder of ka-tet, the horn may be just the thing to make a difference.
That could very well be the case. I also wonder whether he needs to start trying to save the Tower for its own sake rather than for the sake of having it still be up so he can find it.
Huh . . . never thought of it as a domain, but it works.
![Twisted Evil :twisted:](./images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif)
That's one doozy of a curse Roland has. "Just when you find what you're looking for, you'll have to go find it all over again! Also, everyone in your ka-tet will either abandon you or DIE!"
Reginald de Curry wrote:I wouldn't go quite that far, but...
![Twisted Evil :twisted:](./images/smilies/icon_twisted.gif)
You get the feeling King was rather was p!$$3d at himself when he wrote Book 7? "If he had done what he was supposed to do, we wouldn't be in this mess."
Heh. Yeah, that was the one thing that was making all the self-conscious self-insertion a bit better. Because
wow, Roland hated King . . .
"I'd really love a cup of tea, but it would be, like, blood or death or evil or something."
~Matteo Brazi, Borcan thief, Day 3 of Bleak House