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* <nowiki>[[Ka-tet#Ka-tet|ka-tet]]</nowiki> The anchor (#Ka-tet) has been [[Special:Diff/68093226|deleted by other users]] before. <!-- {"title":"Ka-tet","appear":{"revid":20239235,"parentid":19499736,"timestamp":"2005-08-04T04:02:07Z","removed_section_titles":[],"added_section_titles":["Ka","Ka-tet"]},"disappear":{"revid":68093226,"parentid":68093137,"timestamp":"2006-08-07T00:00:12Z","removed_section_titles":["Dark Tower Glossary","Char (root word)","Commala","Thinny","Manni","Ka","Ka-tet","Khef","Roont"],"added_section_titles":[]}} --> |
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==Anti-hero== |
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==CAN SOMEONE FIX ROLAND'S PICTURE?== |
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:Why is he described as an anti-hero in the introduction? I suppose he's not your typical hero, but he seems to have more hero qualities than not. [[User:Beach drifter|Beach drifter]] ([[User talk:Beach drifter|talk]]) 21:07, 6 June 2008 (UTC) |
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::Considering Lawrence and Jewett's ''the Birth of the National Monomyth'', in ''The myth of the American Superhero'', it does seem fair to consider Roland a hero, rather than an antihero... He appears to tick most boxes of their analysis. He might be considered a flawed hero, or possibly a tragic hero, but antihero is much to harsh, I'd say. --[[Special:Contributions/83.81.92.141|83.81.92.141]] ([[User talk:83.81.92.141|talk]]) 14:59, 14 June 2009 (UTC) |
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His head is cut off.[[User:Saltforkgunman|Saltforkgunman]] 21:25, 2 April 2006 (UTC) |
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:That's just what this particular painting (taken from ''DT II:The Drawing of the Three'') looks like. - [[User:Dharmabum420|dharm]][[Wikipedia:Esperanza|<font color="green">a</font>]][[User:Dharmabum420|bum]] 07:52, 3 April 2006 (UTC) |
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:::It's the fact that time and again, he sacrifices his ''Ka''-mates rather than give up his obsessed quest for the tower. It's why Sai King himself felt that the series was not worth continuing with such a dark and grimly obsessed protagonist already back in the late 70s, and was only spurred on to every new book by his fans. In any case, he sort-of redeems Roland by having him kind of "retrieve" Jake in ''The Waste Lands'' and by having all members of Roland's ''Ka-Tet'' repeatedly say they would sacrifice themselves for his quest ever since ''The Drawing of the Three'', so Roland starts feeling other, more humane attachments and responsibilities beside the tower and whenever he sacrifices anybody, it's consensual now. --[[Special:Contributions/79.242.222.168|79.242.222.168]] ([[User talk:79.242.222.168|talk]]) 21:40, 19 March 2016 (UTC) |
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=== Mortensen or Owen? === |
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== Eastwood == |
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"Actor who could play him: Viggo Mortensen or King Arthur (movie) 's Clive Owen." |
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It should be noted that at least once throughout the series, Roland's appearance is also compared to [[Clint Eastwood]]. The one time I definitely remember is in ''The Waste Lands'' where Jake sees a poster for a Sergio Leone western with Eastwood on it and Jake notices that his eyes are a lot like Roland's, only that Roland's are even colder and grimmer. I distantly remember there are other instances where either Eddie or other people compare Roland to Clint Eastwood, but I can't tell the exact moments off the top of my head and where they appear in the books. --[[Special:Contributions/79.242.222.168|79.242.222.168]] ([[User talk:79.242.222.168|talk]]) 22:49, 19 March 2016 (UTC) |
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Is this statement based on any verifiable fact? Are either of these two actors in talks to portray the character of Roland? Has Stephen King suggested them as potential actors for the role? Or is this statement merely conjecture? If so, it should be removed, though I agree that both are fine choices. {{unsigned|129.215.13.84|May 3, 2005}} |
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:More sources for the Eastwood connection: |
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:Is there even a Dark Tower movie in production? Great idea, but I don't know who would try and take it on. {{unsigned|209.6.183.80|November 25, 2005}} |
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:*Robin Furth notes that Roland was initially based mainly on Eastwood as the [[Man with No Name]] in his ''Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance'', p. 121 [https://books.google.de/books?id=fWvcU83jsooC&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=%22roland+deschain%22+%22man+with+no+name%22&source=bl&ots=cHzqtz4ZyQ&sig=uRsNNzeec5ps5UDxb8V3vKKHyTo&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjj0Mrzz87LAhUCAZoKHamaD54Q6AEIUTAK#v=onepage&q=%22roland%20deschain%22%20%22man%20with%20no%20name%22&f=false], |
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::There is a Marvel Comic book series coming in 2007, but no known movie deals.. personally I believe Hugh Jackman could play the role if he aged 10 years :) {{unsigned|70.179.36.71|February 23, 2006}} |
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:*Bev Vincent's ''The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus'', p. 222-223 [https://books.google.de/books?id=kS_7dBOcoloC&pg=PA222&lpg=PA222&dq=%22roland+deschain%22+%22man+with+no+name%22&source=bl&ots=1HlFoHPyN-&sig=LexAg5jLKumqlot9-vRE4rQ9xlE&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjj0Mrzz87LAhUCAZoKHamaD54Q6AEIZDAN#v=onepage&q=%22roland%20deschain%22%20%22man%20with%20no%20name%22&f=false], cites the fictionized version of Stephen King from ''Song of Susannah'' that Roland began as "a version of Sergio Leone's Man with No Name" (in King's book, the quote even goes on with, "...a fantasy version of Clint Eastwood", but then he sort-of changed into "the antihero, or no hero at all"), states that in a movie he would be portrayed by Eastwood (or Paul Newman), as well as points out the above-mentioned incident where Jake compares Eastwood's eyes with Roland's in ''The Waste Lands'', |
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:*Paul Simpson, in ''A Brief Guide to Stephen King'' [https://books.google.de/books?id=XSWeBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT83&lpg=PT83&dq=%22roland+deschain%22+%22man+with+no+name%22&source=bl&ots=ciyNY8sg6b&sig=B0RlVYCQsp-dphYrVmaz404n8dY&hl=de&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwju5oTl0c7LAhVjQZoKHZhZArI4ChDoAQgbMAA#v=onepage&q=%22roland%20deschain%22%20%22man%20with%20no%20name%22&f=false], even calls Eastwood in ''The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly'' the "achetype" of Roland, |
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:*and in his review of ''Song of Susannah'', Paul Allen calls Roland "a cross between Clint Eastwood's legendary Man With No Name of Sergio Leone's 1960s spaghetti westerns fame and the quasi-historical King Arthur".[https://bookpage.com/reviews/3519-stephen-king-dark-tower-vi-song-susannah] |
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:Also, I'd like to clear up a misunderstanding before it's gonna lay root in this article which I've come across here and there, which is that Roland would be "ancient". True, he may have cycled his quest many times before, but physically, he's rejuvenated every time, and mentally, his memory is blanked or reset. At one point, he may tell his ''Ka-Tet'' that he's been seeking the tower "for a thousand years", but he didn't age much during that time (much like Christian Bale's character didn't age much in ''Interstellar'' (2014)). For instance, when he wakes after the palaver with the Man in Black at the end of ''The Gunslinger'', his body has aged ten years, but the world around him has aged either a hundred or a thousand years, and it's suggested that Roland has experienced other such "long sleeps" during his quest where he ages less or not at all. Personally, from King's description I gather he's about in his mid to late-50s physically by the beginning of ''The Drawing of the Three''. --[[Special:Contributions/79.242.222.168|79.242.222.168]] ([[User talk:79.242.222.168|talk]]) 08:08, 20 March 2016 (UTC) |
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:::The only actor that could ever play Roland is mentioned in the book itself: Clint Eastwood, but the movie would come a bit late for him. |
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Christian Bale wasn’t in Interstellar. The star who played the astronaut who travelled far into space and came back hardly aged was Matthew McConaughey. [[User:NapoleonX|NapoleonX]] ([[User talk:NapoleonX|talk]]) 06:36, 7 December 2020 (UTC) |
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:I don't see that statement anywhere in the article, what exactly are you referring to? Conjecture about who "could" play him isn't really encylopedic and doesn't belong in the article, although if there were talks about a movie (none that I've heard) that would change. - [[User:Dharmabum420|dharmabum]] 08:34, 23 February 2006 (UTC) (Edit: Ah, I see, the lack of formatting or signing confused me, and this is referring to a statement that used to be in the article. Reformatting to make things clear) |
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== Quote mistake == |
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=== Why arent Jake, Sussanah, or Eddie in the table at the bottom? === |
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The article incorrectly says that Cuthbert algood said that the gears in Roland's head turn slowly but grind exceedingly well. (I didn't use quotes because neither does the article). There is no citation for this (because he didn't say it). |
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I dont see why 3 vital charachters are left out of the table while many minor charachters remain. |
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--I agree to, and wish to reiterate this point. This seems to be a major hole here, not to mention that Oy as another character and ka-tet member has also been neglected. |
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== Ammunition == |
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Doesn't ''Drawing of the Three'' specifically state that Roland uses .45 Winchester ammunition? I know that is stated within the original edition of the book - or is that something that is contradicted later in the series, or is it something that King changed in a later edition? (The only one I have access to is the original.) |
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From ''Drawing of the Three'': |
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"He turned the pages slowly. No... no... no... |
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He had almost lost hope when he saw it. He looked up at the clerk with such blazing excitement that the clerk felt a little afraid. |
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"There!" he said. "There! Right there!" |
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The photograph he was tapping was one of a Winchester .45 pistol shell. It was not exactly the same as his own shells, because it hadn't been hand-thrown or hand-loaded, but he could see without even consulting the figures (which would have meant almost nothing to him anyway) that it would chamber and fire from his guns." |
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If anyone has more information on this, that'd be helpful. |
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[[User:Fedallah|Fedallah]] 04:22, 22 March 2006 (UTC) |
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: He only uses "Winchesters" after he takes them from Mort's when. Otherwise, his guns do use .45s, just the originals were hand-made. [[User:PrometheusX303|PrometheusX303]] 01:07, 16 May 2006 (UTC) |
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::That's understood, but the article states that he uses Long Colt, which I understand to be a different round. EDIT: I just did a bit of research and apparently the Winchester .45 handgun round is often colloquially referred to as Long Colt. Works for me. [[User:Fedallah|Fedallah]] 02:22, 16 May 2006 (UTC) |
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No, the above comment does not wash. Someone above asked for information; let some be provided. The .45 Long Colt is a particular cartridge designed by the Colt firearms manufacturing company, whereas Winchester .45 Magnum is a completely different cartridge designed by Winchester. The legendary .45 Long Colt cartridge is not "colloquially" referred to as anything other than .45 Colt or .45 Long Colt. You will find .45 Long Colt manufactured by Winchester (as well as by Federal, Remington, etc.) but if you walk into a firearms store and ask for .45 Winchester, you are not going to be handed .45 Colt. If you see "Winchester .45 Colt" it means only that it is .45 Colt ammo produced by Winchester. The only "Winchester .45" cartridge in existence is the .45 Win Mag, which is actually an automatic pistol cartridge, not a revolver cartridge. This is not to say that auto pistol cartridges cannot be used with revolvers: there are some very popular revolvers chambered to fire such cartridges; a special "clip" attachment (similar to a speed loader) is employed. I made an edit to the Wiki, regarding the "curiosity" that Roland's ancient revolvers would chamber automatic pistol cartridges from the modern world, rather than using rimmed revolver cartridges. Apparently someone had a problem with that because it was promptly removed. An alternative way of thinking, if this bugs anyone, is just to figure that the .45 Win cartridge mentioned by King is a fictional, Old West "shoot-em-up" revolver cartridge along the lines of the .45 Colt, rather than the very real, very specific .45 Win Mag automatic pistol cartridge. Any other contrivances are just a way of standing the truth on its ear. {{unsig|75.33.83.74}} |
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:I removed the statement from the article, and my "problem" with it is that it is [[WP:OR|original research]] and was worded as speculation. To continue into a little original research/speculation of my own, there have been millions of hints that Roland's world is ours in a far, far future. Why couldn't the gun that was handed down generation after generation be a .45? It takes a lot of machining to make a firearm, and a good amount to make a shell; since the world has "moved on" those capabilities no longer seem to exist. Which means that Roland's ''hand-loaded'' [[Cartridge (firearms)|cartridges]] would have to be spent casings from the past that are [[handloading|reloaded]] since it is obviously not a [[muzzleloader]]. In the end, if King says he used a certain kind, then that's what the article says, because that is what is [[WP:V|referenced]]; it's a fictional novel world, so it doesn't have to be "right." — <span style="text-decoration: none;">[[User:Revragnarok|<font color="#696969">RevRagnarok</font>]] <sup>[[User_talk:Revragnarok |Talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Revragnarok|Contrib]]</sup></span> 11:48, 2 March 2007 (UTC) |
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Wouldn't a simpler solution to all this simply be to say ".45" and nothing else? Long Colt is never mentioned (though certainly a logical inference) in any of the books themselves, so why put it in at all? Even Winchester is in dispute, as it may be referring to a type of pistol round or just some manner of .45 pistol ammunition made by Winchester. Simply sidestepping the question and leaving .45 as the only reference would solve the problem elegantly enough. -willC- <small>—Preceding [[Wikipedia:Signatures|unsigned]] comment added by [[Special:Contributions/68.227.201.231|68.227.201.231]] ([[User talk:68.227.201.231|talk]]) 00:56, 6 January 2008 (UTC)</small><!-- Template:UnsignedIP --> <!--Autosigned by SineBot--> |
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== Move to "Roland Deschain" == |
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I like this move (by [[User:CyberGhostface|CyberGhostface]]) from "Roland of Gilead" to "Roland Deschain", but do you think it would be beneficial to give a full series of titles to Roland in the opening of the article? To make it clear, the current article says: |
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:'''Roland Deschain''' is a gunslinger... |
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and I'm thinking of something like this: |
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:'''Roland Deschain of Gilead, son of Steven, the line of Eld,''' is a gunslinger... |
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Bolding could be dropped after the initial "Roland Deschain" if that would be preferable (I slightly prefer it), giving us: |
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:'''Roland Deschain''' of Gilead, son of Steven, the line of Eld, is a gunslinger... |
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Thoughts? - [[User:Dharmabum420|dharm]][[Wikipedia:Esperanza|<font color="green">a</font>]][[User:Dharmabum420|bum]] 10:16, 31 March 2006 (UTC) |
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:No, I don't like it. There's just something that's very "ugh" about it --[[User:Scott w|Scott w]] 09:19, 10 November 2006 (UTC) |
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::Yeah. Definitely a perceptable "ugh"-ness about it.[[User:Jiminezwaldorf|Jiminezwaldorf]] 09:07, 11 August 2007 (UTC) |
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== Terminology == |
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It might be helpful to clarify the meaning of "darkling" and "tinct" as verbs here. -- [[User:219.165.164.126|219.165.164.126]] 02:56, 12 April 2006 (UTC) |
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As soon as Stephen King defines these words, I'll get right on it. [[User:ROG 19|ROG 19]] 17:06, 12 October 2007 (UTC) |
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== Roland's Titles == |
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As far as I can tell, he should be Baron of New Canaan (where Gilead is located -- mentioned in the original version of [[The Gunslinger]]). And, as the only living descendant of Arthur Eld (except possibly for [[Mordred|Mordred Deschain]] and the [[Crimson King]]), shouldn't he be King of All-World? Perhaps a new section should be added. Any thoughts? [[User:LordRattor|Ratter]] 13:34, 16 April 2006 (UTC) |
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== Cleanup == |
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I'm cleaning up [[The Dark Tower Characters]] and am thinning the ''Roland'' section considerably, since there is a main article on him. For legacy, or pasting into this article, here is the original text: |
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Roland Deschain, son of Steven Deschain, was born in the fictional Land of Gilead. Roland is the last gunslinger, charged with finding the Dark Tower (it is unclear if the hope of reversing the erosion of time and the universe that may be solved upon finding it is actually a goal of Roland's or if it is simply finding the Tower he cares about). This quest is obsession, monomania and [[geas]] to Roland: the success of the quest is more important than the life of his loved ones, family and friends. He is a man who lacks much imagination, and this is one of the stated reasons for his survival against all odds: He can't imagine anything other then surviving to find the Tower. |
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As the series opens, he is chasing Walter o'Dim, aka the Man in Black, across the seemingly endless Mohaine Desert. He finds Jake Chambers, an 11-year-old boy from 1977 [[New York City]], at a way station and befriends him. Jake was walking down the street one day when someone pushed him under a [[Cadillac]], then he woke up at a way-station in Mid-World and was found soon after by the gunslinger. Roland's relationship with Jake in ''The Gunslinger'' defines his personality: He can be friendly but is usually distant; he is wise and skilled but ignorant of our ways; he has no real sense of [[humor]] and is noble. However, he fails Jake: when confronted with the choice of saving Jake, who is dangling from a railroad trestle above an abyss, or finally confronting the Man in Black, he lets Jake fall. He catches up with Walter, the Man in Black, who tells Roland's fortune using some sort of Tarot cards during a very long palaver. Roland falls unconscious, to finally wake up (seemingly significantly aged) next to what seems to be Walter's skeleton. He makes his way to a beach, where he is attacked by a swarm of bizarre lobster creatures (called ''lobstrosities'', [[portmanteau]] of ''[[lobster]]'' and ''monstrosity''). One of these creatures catchs an exhausted Roland sleeping and devours the top two fingers (the index & middle finger) of his right hand and the big toe of his right foot. These wounds become [[infected]] from the lobstrosities' [[toxic]] [[Venom (poison)|venom]] and Roland begins to fall gravely ill. |
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He eventually recruits a new ka-tet for himself from a set of doors he finds along the beach, and heals his body as well with medicines from the other side. By the end of the 7th book, however, his ka-tet is either dead or gone, leaving him to climb the Tower on his own. And at the top, he finds...himself. Siguls or signs of his past life are scattered in various rooms. He walks through that final door (engraved on it is his own name) only to find to his horror that it opens up into the Mohaine Desert, sending him back to do his quest all over again like countless times before. His memory is wiped, he is made young again, and his fingers and guns are returned to him whole. The Tower, however, seeing that Roland has progressed so well from a soulless killer to a man of compassion for those who need him, gives him the Horn of Eld, an heirloom he lost long ago, as a symbol that perhaps things will be different next time he reaches the Tower. And so, "the man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." |
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— <span style="text-decoration: none;">[[User:Revragnarok|<font color="#696969">RevRagnarok</font>]] <sup>[[User_talk:Revragnarok |Talk]] [[Special:Contributions/Revragnarok|Contrib]]</sup></span> 00:09, 23 July 2006 (UTC) |
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== Physical Appearance == |
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As Roland had taken over somebody else's body at the time, and the reference is about the way he acted, i feel the comparison to the Terminator doesn't belong here. I'd correct this myself, but my english isn't all that, so... |
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I agree. The comparision to The Terminator is due to the pauses that occur as Roland consults the 'Mortpedia' to find out how to say something. This is similar to the way The Terminator talks. It is not a physical reference at all. I will edit out. |
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== Cleaning == |
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I think this article needs cleaning up with some headers put in. I think there's too much of the article that doesn't look right somehow. Any volunteers to help clean it up? --[[User:Scott w|Scott w]] 09:21, 10 November 2006 (UTC) |
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== Picture == |
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Would it be too bold to suggest an additional picture of Roland? A younger picture of him, such as the one from the cover of The Gunslinger seems like it would be appropriate to add. I can get the cover picture quite easily, seeing as I have a copy of the book, and I could scan it in, however, I am not sure of the copyright details of the subject. |
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Thoughts? --[[User:Damuna|Muna]] 08:48, 26 November 2006 (UTC) |
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:Not a bad idea. I think that at least one picture of [[Jae Lee]]'s depictions of a teenaged Roland from ''[[The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born|The Gunslinger Born]]'' might also be a good addition to the article. --[[User:Pennyforth|Pennyforth]] 12:06, 7 April 2007 (UTC) |
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==Prounounseeashun== |
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Don't throw rotten vegetables at me, but should we add a pronunciation at the beginning? I always pronounced it "DESS-CHANE" but I can see how it might be looked at sort of as if it's French in origin, like: "DISHAIN". Anyone know the actual pronunciation? I'm hoping I'm right. - [[User:Jiminezwaldorf|Jiminezwaldorf]] 09:14, 11 August 2007 (UTC) |
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==Fair use rationale for Image:Marveldarktower.jpg== |
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[[Image:Nuvola apps important.svg|70px|left]] |
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'''[[:Image:Marveldarktower.jpg]]''' is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under [[Wikipedia:Fair use|fair use]] but there is no [[Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline|explanation or rationale]] as to why its use in '''this''' Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the [[Wikipedia:Image copyright tags/Fair use|boilerplate fair use template]], you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with [[WP:FU|fair use]]. |
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Please go to [[:Image:Marveldarktower.jpg|the image description page]] and edit it to include a [[Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline |fair use rationale]]. Using one of the templates at [[Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline]] is an easy way to ensure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page. |
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If there is other fair use media, consider checking that you have specified the fair use rationale on the other images used on this page. Note that any fair use images lacking such an explanation can be deleted one week after being tagged, as described on [[Wikipedia:Criteria for speedy deletion#Images.2FMedia|criteria for speedy deletion]]. If you have any questions please ask them at the [[Wikipedia:Media copyright questions|Media copyright questions page]]. Thank you.<!-- Template:Missing rationale2 --> |
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[[User:BetacommandBot|BetacommandBot]] ([[User talk:BetacommandBot|talk]]) 14:43, 8 March 2008 (UTC) |
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==spoiler warning== |
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can we put a spoiler warning tag on this? |
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Latest revision as of 07:09, 17 February 2024
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Anti-hero
[edit]- Why is he described as an anti-hero in the introduction? I suppose he's not your typical hero, but he seems to have more hero qualities than not. Beach drifter (talk) 21:07, 6 June 2008 (UTC)
- Considering Lawrence and Jewett's the Birth of the National Monomyth, in The myth of the American Superhero, it does seem fair to consider Roland a hero, rather than an antihero... He appears to tick most boxes of their analysis. He might be considered a flawed hero, or possibly a tragic hero, but antihero is much to harsh, I'd say. --83.81.92.141 (talk) 14:59, 14 June 2009 (UTC)
- It's the fact that time and again, he sacrifices his Ka-mates rather than give up his obsessed quest for the tower. It's why Sai King himself felt that the series was not worth continuing with such a dark and grimly obsessed protagonist already back in the late 70s, and was only spurred on to every new book by his fans. In any case, he sort-of redeems Roland by having him kind of "retrieve" Jake in The Waste Lands and by having all members of Roland's Ka-Tet repeatedly say they would sacrifice themselves for his quest ever since The Drawing of the Three, so Roland starts feeling other, more humane attachments and responsibilities beside the tower and whenever he sacrifices anybody, it's consensual now. --79.242.222.168 (talk) 21:40, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
Eastwood
[edit]It should be noted that at least once throughout the series, Roland's appearance is also compared to Clint Eastwood. The one time I definitely remember is in The Waste Lands where Jake sees a poster for a Sergio Leone western with Eastwood on it and Jake notices that his eyes are a lot like Roland's, only that Roland's are even colder and grimmer. I distantly remember there are other instances where either Eddie or other people compare Roland to Clint Eastwood, but I can't tell the exact moments off the top of my head and where they appear in the books. --79.242.222.168 (talk) 22:49, 19 March 2016 (UTC)
- More sources for the Eastwood connection:
- Robin Furth notes that Roland was initially based mainly on Eastwood as the Man with No Name in his Stephen King's The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance, p. 121 [1],
- Bev Vincent's The Road to the Dark Tower: Exploring Stephen King's Magnum Opus, p. 222-223 [2], cites the fictionized version of Stephen King from Song of Susannah that Roland began as "a version of Sergio Leone's Man with No Name" (in King's book, the quote even goes on with, "...a fantasy version of Clint Eastwood", but then he sort-of changed into "the antihero, or no hero at all"), states that in a movie he would be portrayed by Eastwood (or Paul Newman), as well as points out the above-mentioned incident where Jake compares Eastwood's eyes with Roland's in The Waste Lands,
- Paul Simpson, in A Brief Guide to Stephen King [3], even calls Eastwood in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly the "achetype" of Roland,
- and in his review of Song of Susannah, Paul Allen calls Roland "a cross between Clint Eastwood's legendary Man With No Name of Sergio Leone's 1960s spaghetti westerns fame and the quasi-historical King Arthur".[4]
- Also, I'd like to clear up a misunderstanding before it's gonna lay root in this article which I've come across here and there, which is that Roland would be "ancient". True, he may have cycled his quest many times before, but physically, he's rejuvenated every time, and mentally, his memory is blanked or reset. At one point, he may tell his Ka-Tet that he's been seeking the tower "for a thousand years", but he didn't age much during that time (much like Christian Bale's character didn't age much in Interstellar (2014)). For instance, when he wakes after the palaver with the Man in Black at the end of The Gunslinger, his body has aged ten years, but the world around him has aged either a hundred or a thousand years, and it's suggested that Roland has experienced other such "long sleeps" during his quest where he ages less or not at all. Personally, from King's description I gather he's about in his mid to late-50s physically by the beginning of The Drawing of the Three. --79.242.222.168 (talk) 08:08, 20 March 2016 (UTC)
Christian Bale wasn’t in Interstellar. The star who played the astronaut who travelled far into space and came back hardly aged was Matthew McConaughey. NapoleonX (talk) 06:36, 7 December 2020 (UTC)
Quote mistake
[edit]The article incorrectly says that Cuthbert algood said that the gears in Roland's head turn slowly but grind exceedingly well. (I didn't use quotes because neither does the article). There is no citation for this (because he didn't say it).
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