![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_zimmerAlso reviews for the latest episodes of My Adventures With Superman, Harley Quinn, and Spidey And His Amazing Friends.
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King
The Dark Tower
This is a book that gets better and better every time I read it. I hesitate giving it five stars because there are things in it King does wrong (mostly involving the character of Mordred). But I dunno, it feels like a rare ending that lives up the promise of what King has been writing about for 22 years. There are things I don't like (and I'll talk about them for sure) but it's like with the horrible exception of Randall Flagg, King checked off the wishlist of nearly every fan. What happened with Flagg is travesty, but the rest of book is so amazing, that while I won't accept it, I'll maybe live with it.
Let's start of with the first chapter. The final Dark Tower book is so big, one of King most important characters, Father Callahan is killed off in the very first chapter. It is purely brilliant. What's exceedingly clever on King's end is the fact that his death devastates the Tet, as they have come to think of him as one of their own. For both Callahan and the reader however, it's a happy ending to a character who seemed to be doomed to a miserable one at the end of :"'Salem's Lot". Screw "Revival", I believe Father Callahan is with God now.
What's amazing about his redemption is that he was granted the one thing that set his initial damnation into place by not having it: time to think it over. I firmly believe if Callahan had had time to think about what Barlow was proposing in "'Salem's Lot", his faith would have held, and he could have if not defeated him, at least not have been damned. Barlow's victory and his utter ruin happens because the situation itself goes down so quickly that Callahan has no time to consider the actual consequences and weight of the proposal. Time and wisdom has Callahan agreeing here not to throw away the cross, but to meekly put it away. He got a do-over from the worst mistake in his life and finally made the right choice. Better yet, he repents for his regressive and cruel abortion stance in the fifth book. Callahan grows and changes into the man he always wanted to be before our very eyes. And him being killed by vampires, but putting a bullet in his own head before they turn him is a victory, and something readers have waited decades to see for him. I feel like the first chapter resonates with the final Coda. The Coda asks can people change and make the right decisions? I feel like with time and proper tools, like perhaps of the Horn Of Eld, yes, maybe they can.
Let's talk about that ending. King says in the afterward he doesn't want to hear people complaining about it. And there will be people who will. But King himself says he wasn't crazy about it personally, but it was the right ending. He's definitely right on the second point, but I don't think he's giving himself enough credit on the first. The genius thing about the time loop ending, that I appreciate more and more upon each reread, is the echoes of the voice of the Tower in the desert speculating that maybe THIS time things will be different, and our attention is brought to the fact that in THIS version of the timeline, Roland picked up the horn of Eld after the Battle of Jericho Hill. The ending is Roland's damnation with the promise of hope, that even if this loop goes similarly, small things will build and change each time he loops, and maybe Roland will one day decide to go through the door with Susannah after all, and be part of his Tet's happy ending instead of fruitlessly questing for and obsessing over the Tower. The book's themes focus on repetition and damnation, and the hope and possibility that these things can be broken in the future. It might take Roland a few more loops past this. But the Horn of Eld being present says the Tower itself is on Roland's side and WANTS him to break the cycle. Eventually, if not this time.
It's interesting that Roland's damnation and biggest fear is achieving the knowledge he was seeking all his life, and understanding it is fleeting and will be gone moments later. It's not the repeating that Roland objects to. It's the forgetting. If he remembered, he wouldn't repeat for a second time, not to mention multiple times. Frankly, this is why I fear death and the possibility of oblivion. The possibility that all that I am and know will simply cease to exist like I was nothing and didn't matter. I hope there IS a Higher Power out there and that they are as gracious as the Tower is for Roland. And if they are as tough on me as the Tower is on Roland, I hope they give me the tools to end my life at the clearing's path gracefully.
See, King feared people would feel ripped off by the ending. But it's not just the right ending for the story. It's a huge enough mindblowing concept that it does justice to the science fiction aspects of the story. And yeah, The Dark Tower IS more sci-fi than fantasy. And the ending goes full circle there. Literally, in fact.
I can talk about a couple of things I didn't like. Randall Flagg's ending is probably the worst storytelling decision of King's career. Arguably the child orgy in "IT" was worse, or possibly the real-world negative consequences to "Rage" deserve even more scrutiny. Both both "IT" and "Rage" were single books. Their failures were their own and we moved on from them. King unfortunately got a little TOO sci-fi here and fell into an unfortunate genre trap. King often claims to be a sci-fi fan, but I don't find that evident in his works of fiction or pop culture articles. If he perhaps were a fan of sci-fi, and if his superhero preferences were more mainstream than Plastic Man, he could have avoided this trap.
The genre convention and cliche he fell into is that often when a genre show introduces a new villain, they beef up their "bonafides", and say they are the genuine threat to the heroes, by having them dispatch the previous Big Bad, (or in Flagg's case Ultimate Evil) easily to supposedly make the reader / viewer think "And I thought the villain just killed was bad! If he's taken out this easily by the new guy, the heroes are really in trouble!" It rarely works out that way. The notable exception being Spike killing the Anointed One on Buffy The Vampire Slayer in his debut episode, which felt weirdly appropriate, and was played for laughs because nobody in the audience really ever took the Anointed One seriously because he was played by a kid who was aging out of the role. In all the other cases I can think of the trope being used, it's met with annoyance from the viewer / reader at best, and fury at the worst.
The worst thing about King using it here is I would argue it's the single worst use of the trope of all time. Not a single other example of the trope being used involved a character as important to not just the project in question, but the entire franchise if the project was a part of something larger, as Randall Flagg / Water O'Dim was for Stephen King readers. If that's not bad enough (and it already made it the worst use of the trope in fictional history) the reader also feels ripped off not merely because we feel Roland should have been the one to kill him, but because the epic conflict that had been teased between the two since the third book, hinting at an epic crossover and continuation of the events of King's most beloved book "The Stand", were actually a bust, and a narrative dead end. That is not something King should have EVER promised us without delivering a final conflict between the characters. I don't think it ever could have been as epic as the fans had made it in their heads, but I probably imagined the same thing about Roland reaching the Tower back in the day, and King handled that fine. It feels like King only lost that specific thread not because Gan stopped speaking to him, but because he was lazy. It's the one part of the book King indulged his inner hack, which very present in the 1980's and his cocaine-fueled days and something he's struggled to work out of to become a literate writer in the years since
In fairness to King, it might have been a case of the van accident spooking him THAT much. Maybe he thought "I could totally make an excellent final confrontation between those two. But it would probably take an additional five to ten years of thought and planning to navigate it and tell it properly." He might have not only not wanted to leave the fans hanging for that long, but maybe he wasn't willing to risk those ten years of his mortality on the saga not being completed if he died suddenly in the meantime. After that specific accident I don't blame him for that mindset, if that was what made the decision, but King's still alive NOW. It would have been better for the saga and his entire output if he had put in the time and effort to finesse that after all
I also have to say I didn't much care for King's use of Patrick Danville. "Insomnia" is still SORT of canon in that Roland thinks the book is "tricksy" when the Tet Corporation in modern day New York gives it to him, and the reader is led to believe a lot of the Tower lore in it would be inaccurate, but I would be far more impressed with King's writing (and his foresight) if he had made the Little Bald Doctor's prophecy of Danville's fate to die saving the lives of two men important to saving the Dark Tower fit into the last book itself.
Low Men In Yellow Coats's Ted Brautigan's role is much more successful. Of course Ted's story was only a few recent books ago, and his fate was a lot more ambiguous than the corner King might have felt he painted himself into with Patrick. But the use of Brautigan and Dinky Earnshaw from the novella "Everything's Eventual" felt especially rewarding to me.
Ted's immense power and value being that of a "facilitator" tracks with everything we saw in "Low Men In Yellow Coats" so King deserves praise for that too.
Okay, I've talked about things I didn't like. Time to talk about the things I did. While I AM ambivalent about the deaths of both Eddie Dean and Jake Chambers, I will say the Tet being broken sets up a far more interesting and personal dynamic between Roland and Susannah in the second half of the book. We see aspects of both characters we've NEVER seen before, and I won't say I finally like or approve of Susannah or Detta Walker (although Detta being the one to comfort Patrick when he's freaked out is a beyond interesting narrative choice). What I will say is this is the first and only book I don't hate her or feel embarrassed for her. She's not exactly been empowered. But King doesn't degrade her in the story either, for the first time ever in my mind.
Look at the scene where Susannah notes a bit of sullenness and pettiness in Roland's voice when he snaps at her. It frightens her because she's never heard it before. They kiss on the mouth a couple of times too, and while it's not really sexual, or even romantic, it's not sisterly, (or fatherly for that matter) either. There is legit tension between them in that department for the first time ever. Roland going to his knees begging her to stay, is an amazing scene, both for Susannah's horror over it, but our own as well. And Roland apologizing for speaking harshly to Oy over his dead body makes you believe this guy truly should have apologized to an animal when he had the chance. Or treated him better.
I think the thing I like best about Susannah and Roland's time alone together is it's something we never saw before. We've seen Roland's dynamics when it's just him and Jake, and later him and Eddie, but he's always related to Susannah as a part of the Tet, and not as an individual. It might be the sole reason I didn't mind her character this time out. A fictional woman being given a little agency, especially if they were previously denied that, will often make me come around.
Controversial opinion: I think Oy's death was handled better than Eddie or Jake's. Eddie's death played up the drama to the hilt, but it's ka and random bad luck that takes his life, not the bravery and sacrifice of Oy's death. Similarly, Jake is already dead by the time Roland is able to get back to him after speaking to Stephen King. Oy's death hits me right in the feels, especially his last word not being ""Ake", but "'Olan" instead. That killed me on every level.
King notes in the Afterward his putting himself in the story is known as metafiction, and is something he personally dislikes, and I get the concern there, but truly the moment with the Uffi is weird and unpredictable enough that I almost have changed my mind and want to see a film adaptation of the entire Dark Tower series JUST to see King play himself in that scene. Well, maybe not. But that bit tempts the hell out of me.
I felt a lot of Roland and Susannah's final adventures on the road to the Tower felt very much like fairytales. The fact that the Uffis speak in riddles and different personalities has a fable quality to it, and Dandelo's stuff doesn't just harken back to "IT". It seems to be a riff on Hansel and Gretel and other similar storybook tales too.
I love that the Tet correctly speculates that Ted's role in Hearts In Atlantis is his untold "Connecticut Adventure". And they are allowed to be right while knowing so little because it's a work of fiction and King can write it how he pleases. The Deus Ex Machina at Dandelo's House is stupid for the same reason, but another case of me looking down at King from the storytelling judicial bench and saying, "I'll allow it. But tread lightly with this line of questioning, Sai King."
I loved Roland's adventures in New York, especially him meeting the current Tet corporation and a still alive Moses Carver. Finding out what happened to Calvin Tower, Aaron Deepneau, and John Cullum is King dotting his narrative i's and crossing his story t's. Unfinished business is all that was, and King finished it brilliantly. The book explores a LOT of mindbending themes, but truly the most mindblowing to me is is Carver's daughter and Depneau's niece actually have read the entire Stephen King canon. There are fictional characters in King's canon who know absolutely everything about King's work everyone who has read all his books knows and know every single secret in every single story. In that regard and knowing, the younger Carver and Depneau have more power and knowledge than Randall Flagg, Mother Abigail, Maturin, or Roland himself. They are two of King's most mortal and vulnerable characters. But I envision they have read everything King has written PAST The Dark Tower, and will probably read and know everything about what goes down in his stories when he himself eventually goes into the clearing. That idea boggles my mind. It also make me feels as if I myself and the other Constant Readers contain a certain level of power in these stories as well. If my theory is wrong, why would King dedicate the last book to us? I think the introduction of the next generation of the Tet Corporation might have been a sly way for King to empower the Constant Readers in the Narrative itself. It certainly makes me feel more powerful for what I know if thinking about knowing King's output is a important life's goal for some on the characters on one of the levels of the Tower.
The stuff in Blue Heaven is both gross and interesting in equal measure. I don't love the stuff with the Taheen and slow mutants eating boogers and burst zits. But the interesting thing about that section of the book is how well-rounded King makes the characters. The Taheen, can-toi, and most of the Breakers are working to destroy the Dark Tower and all of creation. But to them, that's just their day job. It's nothing personal. They are more concerned over office politics and making the facility run smoothly. Ted being genuine friends with one of the low men is super interesting, as is Pimli Prentiss being weirdly religious, and Fimli O'Teegan being amused by human culture. Really the most uncouth people there are Prentiss's human housekeepers who nearly come to blows over the dude's open homosexuality. It feels like the people who eat boogers and pimples have more class and professionalism than those two trashy reality show rejects.
Sheemie's ending isn't great, but you never really expected to get back to him at ALL, so I'll take what I can get there. I can't afford to be a choosy beggar in regards to Stanley Ruiz's fate. I never expected him and Roland to be reunited at ALL.
King Connections Of Note: There are a lot and it took me a week to finish the book so I probably will miss reporting some. For example, I missed noting the can-tois from "Desperation" in my review for the last book, but I'll point out that's what the Turtle idol is here. It's been speculated that Joe Collins / Dandelo is the same species as the alien psychic vampire Pennywise from "IT". This is not confirmed in the Narrative itself, but his visage turning into that of a clown in his death throes makes that the most likely conclusion. Maturin was also first seen in "IT", and the robot Stuttering Bill is a reference to Stuttering Bill Denbrough from that book. "Insomnia" is referenced both as a book and a mislead to Patrick Danville's actual fate. Pere Callahan's end is a redemption to his damnation in "'Salem's Lot". Ted Brautigan is from "Low Men In Yellow Coats" from the collection "Hearts In Atlantis" and Dinky Earnshaw is from "Everything's Eventual" from the short story collection of the same name. "The Long Walk" and "Cujo" are mentioned as books King has written and the miniseries version of "It" (and the movie version of "Cujo") are discussed as well. Randall Flagg first popped up in "The Stand". Walter Paddick's backstory in Delain is a reference to both "The Eyes Of The Dragon" and the rape of him in the poem "The Dark Man". The second thing is currently frustratingly out of print and is the most major work of King's I haven't actually read yet.
Let's go over Susannah's ending, and the ending of the franchise in general. I am underwhelmed by the reality of the Crimson King, but maybe that's the point. Still I believe Walter woulda made a better final obstacle than the guy who screams "EEEEEE!" in the same way as the crazy Maitre'd Guy from the short story "Nightmare At The Gotham Cafe" from "Everything's Eventual".
King's prose is very literate near the end, and he does a lot of narrative callbacks, including referencing previously mentioned, bizarre, and interesting facets to Roland like that he's the man who straightens crooked pictures in hotel rooms (a memorable and fascinating quirk to give the Gunslinger), and returns to the phrase of "He darkles and tincts". These callbacks made the journey feel complete and satisfying and as if we are going full circle. And since the ending is about a time loop, full circle is exactly where we want to be.
Susannah in New York is good and bad. I like that she is essentially given back everything she's lost, and although King as the story's Narrator will not go so far as to declare it a happy ending, I'll disagree with him and say it's a rare day and he actually delivered one. Still, there are aspects that bother me. Susannah starting to forget her time in Mid-World is King taking after the ending of his worst long novel (IT) which is infuriating on some level. At least it's a worry instead of given, but damn it, King, everybody HATED how that book ended, even people who liked the book. IT's second worst aspect after the child orgy should not be turned into a freaking recurring theme in his work. I also don't like her throwing the gunslinger gun away. It's done as a sort of symbolism, and her breaking ties from her old life, but if you ask me, it's the wrong symbolism. I also think making this final version of Eddie and Jake brothers is too cute by half. It makes it a truly happy ending (especially with Sai King speculating a dog very much like Oy is in their future) but if I had written the book I simply wouldn't have killed Jake off in the first place, and had him go with her to New York. I mean it would have changed a LOT of the interesting aspects between Roland and Susannah, but I would have preferred that to this cutesy idea.
King's critiques about putting himself in the story as metafiction is sort of innacurrate. The actual metafiction is King overstepping his clinical Narrator bounds at Eddie's death and asking the readers to remember the joy of the Tet in the moment before it occurs, and the beginning of the Coda asking the reader to accept the happy ending shown and not read further. I love that crap. SO much. It's my favorite type of storytelling. Treating the reader honestly and like an adult is something I do in my own work, and whenever King does it (and he did it in "Eyes Of The Dragon" and "Black House" as well) I go bananas. What I love is the actual ending is hopeful if you examine the situation thoroughly, and is if not the happy ending King wanted you stop at, at least the hopeful ending we deserved. King offers some bold opinions about endings too. He suggests he does them not because he likes them, but because it's "the custom of the country". I find that fascinating.
I love endings. Most people do. I like that King writes endings because people like them. Greg Weisman doesn't like endings either. But his cartoons are all the worse for always feeling unfinished and unfulfilled. King's way is the right way. Even if you feel endings are too much like goodbyes, and are permanent, they HAVE become The Custom Of The Country, and something I think it is not unreasonable for the reader / viewer to want, or even expect. And best thing about this is the insights it not only gives about King as a writer, but as a fan. And not just that, but as a creator who believes he has an obligation to his fans, whether he likes it or not. And while I have done a ton of reviews stating that fandom wants and desires for most genre projects, (especially superhero-related ones) tend to be both toxic and bad for the story, don't for one second believe that means I think creators should never strive to to please their audience. While I do often say that fans are the worst judges of quality from our given fandoms, I also repeatedly note that we aren't the bad guys, and don't deserve to be repeatedly punished for loving a franchise and its characters. King's mea culpa here might actually not even be his true feelings on the subject, and just narrative b.s. to worry the reader about the conclusion to follow. But regardless, his expressing disdain for closure, and the reader demand for Knowing How It All Came Out is especially appreciated by me because he damned those torpedoes and gave them us the ending he warned us we didn't want anyways. And the delicious irony is not just that it's the right ending. It's that King is wrong for not being crazy about it and it's a perfect and amazing ending too.
I felt uncomfortable giving an imperfect book like "Wolves Of The Calla" five stars. But I did. But as much as I hated certain parts of it (and those parts I REALLY hated) the great stuff in it earned it. And the same is true for this book. Except the great stuff is even better and bad stuff is not as bad. I always believed Wolves was my favorite Dark Tower book. I've reread that book and this one multiple times. Upon this last reread, the seventh and final book has overtaken it in my heart. It's just amazing, Randall Flagg's crappy ending excepted. *****.
Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came by Robert Browning
For an Appendix to the saga, King has reprinted the entire damn Robert Browning poem from the 19th Century that inspired the saga. I find it utterly confusing. I give it the respectable four star grade I do not because I enjoyed it that much. But because I respect the fact it became the muse for arguably King's crowning (Towering?) achievement. ****.
Book Overall: *****.
My Adventures With Superman "Zero Day: Part One"
I don't feel like this episode was very well-written. At least not compared to everything else. The story and dialogue felt a bit arch and hamfisted. And I HATE Vicky Vale.
That being said, the ending of Superman being ambushed and taken by the villains was legit dire and tense, and landed big. Maybe the characters talked a little too "big" in the episode to be believable. But the "big" ending? Landed and was totally effective and worrisome. Very good cliffhanger there. And yes, the General is both evil incarnate and almost certainly Sam Lane.
Trouble ahead. The episode was hit and miss though. ***.
Harley Quinn "Metamorphosis"
I didn't like it, but the last line of Harley wondering if she's dreaming hints there might be something larger going on. But really, this show shouldn't be killing off Nightwing.
What's interesting and horrible about Joker's return to evil is that he doesn't have to give up his wonderful family he loves and who loves him. He's already won them over. So they are on-board instead of appalled. It's something I really don't like seeing, and I feel a lot of the characters behavior in the episode was the show at its nihilist worst.
I hope Harley is right that something going on is hinky. Because that did not sit right with me. *.
Spidey And His Amazing Friends "Stolen WEB-Quarters / Spideys In Space!"
Stolen WEB-Quarters
New subtitle for the season means new heroes and villains in the main title.
Let me be blunt. They shouldn't be putting Armin Zola in a preschool show. I don't care that they gave him the same design as Nickelodeon's Face, he's an inappropriate character to adapt for little kids. This show shouldn't be showing Punisher, Red Skull, or the Purple Man either.
Whatever. It's not like the cartoon was any good, so maybe that entire rant is just me complaining about the wrong thing. *1/2.
Spidey In Space
It's both cynical and obnoxious that the new premise and subtitle mostly exist to sell toy repaint variants. Remind me why little kids should watch this show again. *.
Episode Overall: *.
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower by Stephen King
The Dark Tower
This is a book that gets better and better every time I read it. I hesitate giving it five stars because there are things in it King does wrong (mostly involving the character of Mordred). But I dunno, it feels like a rare ending that lives up the promise of what King has been writing about for 22 years. There are things I don't like (and I'll talk about them for sure) but it's like with the horrible exception of Randall Flagg, King checked off the wishlist of nearly every fan. What happened with Flagg is travesty, but the rest of book is so amazing, that while I won't accept it, I'll maybe live with it.
Let's start of with the first chapter. The final Dark Tower book is so big, one of King most important characters, Father Callahan is killed off in the very first chapter. It is purely brilliant. What's exceedingly clever on King's end is the fact that his death devastates the Tet, as they have come to think of him as one of their own. For both Callahan and the reader however, it's a happy ending to a character who seemed to be doomed to a miserable one at the end of :"'Salem's Lot". Screw "Revival", I believe Father Callahan is with God now.
What's amazing about his redemption is that he was granted the one thing that set his initial damnation into place by not having it: time to think it over. I firmly believe if Callahan had had time to think about what Barlow was proposing in "'Salem's Lot", his faith would have held, and he could have if not defeated him, at least not have been damned. Barlow's victory and his utter ruin happens because the situation itself goes down so quickly that Callahan has no time to consider the actual consequences and weight of the proposal. Time and wisdom has Callahan agreeing here not to throw away the cross, but to meekly put it away. He got a do-over from the worst mistake in his life and finally made the right choice. Better yet, he repents for his regressive and cruel abortion stance in the fifth book. Callahan grows and changes into the man he always wanted to be before our very eyes. And him being killed by vampires, but putting a bullet in his own head before they turn him is a victory, and something readers have waited decades to see for him. I feel like the first chapter resonates with the final Coda. The Coda asks can people change and make the right decisions? I feel like with time and proper tools, like perhaps of the Horn Of Eld, yes, maybe they can.
Let's talk about that ending. King says in the afterward he doesn't want to hear people complaining about it. And there will be people who will. But King himself says he wasn't crazy about it personally, but it was the right ending. He's definitely right on the second point, but I don't think he's giving himself enough credit on the first. The genius thing about the time loop ending, that I appreciate more and more upon each reread, is the echoes of the voice of the Tower in the desert speculating that maybe THIS time things will be different, and our attention is brought to the fact that in THIS version of the timeline, Roland picked up the horn of Eld after the Battle of Jericho Hill. The ending is Roland's damnation with the promise of hope, that even if this loop goes similarly, small things will build and change each time he loops, and maybe Roland will one day decide to go through the door with Susannah after all, and be part of his Tet's happy ending instead of fruitlessly questing for and obsessing over the Tower. The book's themes focus on repetition and damnation, and the hope and possibility that these things can be broken in the future. It might take Roland a few more loops past this. But the Horn of Eld being present says the Tower itself is on Roland's side and WANTS him to break the cycle. Eventually, if not this time.
It's interesting that Roland's damnation and biggest fear is achieving the knowledge he was seeking all his life, and understanding it is fleeting and will be gone moments later. It's not the repeating that Roland objects to. It's the forgetting. If he remembered, he wouldn't repeat for a second time, not to mention multiple times. Frankly, this is why I fear death and the possibility of oblivion. The possibility that all that I am and know will simply cease to exist like I was nothing and didn't matter. I hope there IS a Higher Power out there and that they are as gracious as the Tower is for Roland. And if they are as tough on me as the Tower is on Roland, I hope they give me the tools to end my life at the clearing's path gracefully.
See, King feared people would feel ripped off by the ending. But it's not just the right ending for the story. It's a huge enough mindblowing concept that it does justice to the science fiction aspects of the story. And yeah, The Dark Tower IS more sci-fi than fantasy. And the ending goes full circle there. Literally, in fact.
I can talk about a couple of things I didn't like. Randall Flagg's ending is probably the worst storytelling decision of King's career. Arguably the child orgy in "IT" was worse, or possibly the real-world negative consequences to "Rage" deserve even more scrutiny. Both both "IT" and "Rage" were single books. Their failures were their own and we moved on from them. King unfortunately got a little TOO sci-fi here and fell into an unfortunate genre trap. King often claims to be a sci-fi fan, but I don't find that evident in his works of fiction or pop culture articles. If he perhaps were a fan of sci-fi, and if his superhero preferences were more mainstream than Plastic Man, he could have avoided this trap.
The genre convention and cliche he fell into is that often when a genre show introduces a new villain, they beef up their "bonafides", and say they are the genuine threat to the heroes, by having them dispatch the previous Big Bad, (or in Flagg's case Ultimate Evil) easily to supposedly make the reader / viewer think "And I thought the villain just killed was bad! If he's taken out this easily by the new guy, the heroes are really in trouble!" It rarely works out that way. The notable exception being Spike killing the Anointed One on Buffy The Vampire Slayer in his debut episode, which felt weirdly appropriate, and was played for laughs because nobody in the audience really ever took the Anointed One seriously because he was played by a kid who was aging out of the role. In all the other cases I can think of the trope being used, it's met with annoyance from the viewer / reader at best, and fury at the worst.
The worst thing about King using it here is I would argue it's the single worst use of the trope of all time. Not a single other example of the trope being used involved a character as important to not just the project in question, but the entire franchise if the project was a part of something larger, as Randall Flagg / Water O'Dim was for Stephen King readers. If that's not bad enough (and it already made it the worst use of the trope in fictional history) the reader also feels ripped off not merely because we feel Roland should have been the one to kill him, but because the epic conflict that had been teased between the two since the third book, hinting at an epic crossover and continuation of the events of King's most beloved book "The Stand", were actually a bust, and a narrative dead end. That is not something King should have EVER promised us without delivering a final conflict between the characters. I don't think it ever could have been as epic as the fans had made it in their heads, but I probably imagined the same thing about Roland reaching the Tower back in the day, and King handled that fine. It feels like King only lost that specific thread not because Gan stopped speaking to him, but because he was lazy. It's the one part of the book King indulged his inner hack, which very present in the 1980's and his cocaine-fueled days and something he's struggled to work out of to become a literate writer in the years since
In fairness to King, it might have been a case of the van accident spooking him THAT much. Maybe he thought "I could totally make an excellent final confrontation between those two. But it would probably take an additional five to ten years of thought and planning to navigate it and tell it properly." He might have not only not wanted to leave the fans hanging for that long, but maybe he wasn't willing to risk those ten years of his mortality on the saga not being completed if he died suddenly in the meantime. After that specific accident I don't blame him for that mindset, if that was what made the decision, but King's still alive NOW. It would have been better for the saga and his entire output if he had put in the time and effort to finesse that after all
I also have to say I didn't much care for King's use of Patrick Danville. "Insomnia" is still SORT of canon in that Roland thinks the book is "tricksy" when the Tet Corporation in modern day New York gives it to him, and the reader is led to believe a lot of the Tower lore in it would be inaccurate, but I would be far more impressed with King's writing (and his foresight) if he had made the Little Bald Doctor's prophecy of Danville's fate to die saving the lives of two men important to saving the Dark Tower fit into the last book itself.
Low Men In Yellow Coats's Ted Brautigan's role is much more successful. Of course Ted's story was only a few recent books ago, and his fate was a lot more ambiguous than the corner King might have felt he painted himself into with Patrick. But the use of Brautigan and Dinky Earnshaw from the novella "Everything's Eventual" felt especially rewarding to me.
Ted's immense power and value being that of a "facilitator" tracks with everything we saw in "Low Men In Yellow Coats" so King deserves praise for that too.
Okay, I've talked about things I didn't like. Time to talk about the things I did. While I AM ambivalent about the deaths of both Eddie Dean and Jake Chambers, I will say the Tet being broken sets up a far more interesting and personal dynamic between Roland and Susannah in the second half of the book. We see aspects of both characters we've NEVER seen before, and I won't say I finally like or approve of Susannah or Detta Walker (although Detta being the one to comfort Patrick when he's freaked out is a beyond interesting narrative choice). What I will say is this is the first and only book I don't hate her or feel embarrassed for her. She's not exactly been empowered. But King doesn't degrade her in the story either, for the first time ever in my mind.
Look at the scene where Susannah notes a bit of sullenness and pettiness in Roland's voice when he snaps at her. It frightens her because she's never heard it before. They kiss on the mouth a couple of times too, and while it's not really sexual, or even romantic, it's not sisterly, (or fatherly for that matter) either. There is legit tension between them in that department for the first time ever. Roland going to his knees begging her to stay, is an amazing scene, both for Susannah's horror over it, but our own as well. And Roland apologizing for speaking harshly to Oy over his dead body makes you believe this guy truly should have apologized to an animal when he had the chance. Or treated him better.
I think the thing I like best about Susannah and Roland's time alone together is it's something we never saw before. We've seen Roland's dynamics when it's just him and Jake, and later him and Eddie, but he's always related to Susannah as a part of the Tet, and not as an individual. It might be the sole reason I didn't mind her character this time out. A fictional woman being given a little agency, especially if they were previously denied that, will often make me come around.
Controversial opinion: I think Oy's death was handled better than Eddie or Jake's. Eddie's death played up the drama to the hilt, but it's ka and random bad luck that takes his life, not the bravery and sacrifice of Oy's death. Similarly, Jake is already dead by the time Roland is able to get back to him after speaking to Stephen King. Oy's death hits me right in the feels, especially his last word not being ""Ake", but "'Olan" instead. That killed me on every level.
King notes in the Afterward his putting himself in the story is known as metafiction, and is something he personally dislikes, and I get the concern there, but truly the moment with the Uffi is weird and unpredictable enough that I almost have changed my mind and want to see a film adaptation of the entire Dark Tower series JUST to see King play himself in that scene. Well, maybe not. But that bit tempts the hell out of me.
I felt a lot of Roland and Susannah's final adventures on the road to the Tower felt very much like fairytales. The fact that the Uffis speak in riddles and different personalities has a fable quality to it, and Dandelo's stuff doesn't just harken back to "IT". It seems to be a riff on Hansel and Gretel and other similar storybook tales too.
I love that the Tet correctly speculates that Ted's role in Hearts In Atlantis is his untold "Connecticut Adventure". And they are allowed to be right while knowing so little because it's a work of fiction and King can write it how he pleases. The Deus Ex Machina at Dandelo's House is stupid for the same reason, but another case of me looking down at King from the storytelling judicial bench and saying, "I'll allow it. But tread lightly with this line of questioning, Sai King."
I loved Roland's adventures in New York, especially him meeting the current Tet corporation and a still alive Moses Carver. Finding out what happened to Calvin Tower, Aaron Deepneau, and John Cullum is King dotting his narrative i's and crossing his story t's. Unfinished business is all that was, and King finished it brilliantly. The book explores a LOT of mindbending themes, but truly the most mindblowing to me is is Carver's daughter and Depneau's niece actually have read the entire Stephen King canon. There are fictional characters in King's canon who know absolutely everything about King's work everyone who has read all his books knows and know every single secret in every single story. In that regard and knowing, the younger Carver and Depneau have more power and knowledge than Randall Flagg, Mother Abigail, Maturin, or Roland himself. They are two of King's most mortal and vulnerable characters. But I envision they have read everything King has written PAST The Dark Tower, and will probably read and know everything about what goes down in his stories when he himself eventually goes into the clearing. That idea boggles my mind. It also make me feels as if I myself and the other Constant Readers contain a certain level of power in these stories as well. If my theory is wrong, why would King dedicate the last book to us? I think the introduction of the next generation of the Tet Corporation might have been a sly way for King to empower the Constant Readers in the Narrative itself. It certainly makes me feel more powerful for what I know if thinking about knowing King's output is a important life's goal for some on the characters on one of the levels of the Tower.
The stuff in Blue Heaven is both gross and interesting in equal measure. I don't love the stuff with the Taheen and slow mutants eating boogers and burst zits. But the interesting thing about that section of the book is how well-rounded King makes the characters. The Taheen, can-toi, and most of the Breakers are working to destroy the Dark Tower and all of creation. But to them, that's just their day job. It's nothing personal. They are more concerned over office politics and making the facility run smoothly. Ted being genuine friends with one of the low men is super interesting, as is Pimli Prentiss being weirdly religious, and Fimli O'Teegan being amused by human culture. Really the most uncouth people there are Prentiss's human housekeepers who nearly come to blows over the dude's open homosexuality. It feels like the people who eat boogers and pimples have more class and professionalism than those two trashy reality show rejects.
Sheemie's ending isn't great, but you never really expected to get back to him at ALL, so I'll take what I can get there. I can't afford to be a choosy beggar in regards to Stanley Ruiz's fate. I never expected him and Roland to be reunited at ALL.
King Connections Of Note: There are a lot and it took me a week to finish the book so I probably will miss reporting some. For example, I missed noting the can-tois from "Desperation" in my review for the last book, but I'll point out that's what the Turtle idol is here. It's been speculated that Joe Collins / Dandelo is the same species as the alien psychic vampire Pennywise from "IT". This is not confirmed in the Narrative itself, but his visage turning into that of a clown in his death throes makes that the most likely conclusion. Maturin was also first seen in "IT", and the robot Stuttering Bill is a reference to Stuttering Bill Denbrough from that book. "Insomnia" is referenced both as a book and a mislead to Patrick Danville's actual fate. Pere Callahan's end is a redemption to his damnation in "'Salem's Lot". Ted Brautigan is from "Low Men In Yellow Coats" from the collection "Hearts In Atlantis" and Dinky Earnshaw is from "Everything's Eventual" from the short story collection of the same name. "The Long Walk" and "Cujo" are mentioned as books King has written and the miniseries version of "It" (and the movie version of "Cujo") are discussed as well. Randall Flagg first popped up in "The Stand". Walter Paddick's backstory in Delain is a reference to both "The Eyes Of The Dragon" and the rape of him in the poem "The Dark Man". The second thing is currently frustratingly out of print and is the most major work of King's I haven't actually read yet.
Let's go over Susannah's ending, and the ending of the franchise in general. I am underwhelmed by the reality of the Crimson King, but maybe that's the point. Still I believe Walter woulda made a better final obstacle than the guy who screams "EEEEEE!" in the same way as the crazy Maitre'd Guy from the short story "Nightmare At The Gotham Cafe" from "Everything's Eventual".
King's prose is very literate near the end, and he does a lot of narrative callbacks, including referencing previously mentioned, bizarre, and interesting facets to Roland like that he's the man who straightens crooked pictures in hotel rooms (a memorable and fascinating quirk to give the Gunslinger), and returns to the phrase of "He darkles and tincts". These callbacks made the journey feel complete and satisfying and as if we are going full circle. And since the ending is about a time loop, full circle is exactly where we want to be.
Susannah in New York is good and bad. I like that she is essentially given back everything she's lost, and although King as the story's Narrator will not go so far as to declare it a happy ending, I'll disagree with him and say it's a rare day and he actually delivered one. Still, there are aspects that bother me. Susannah starting to forget her time in Mid-World is King taking after the ending of his worst long novel (IT) which is infuriating on some level. At least it's a worry instead of given, but damn it, King, everybody HATED how that book ended, even people who liked the book. IT's second worst aspect after the child orgy should not be turned into a freaking recurring theme in his work. I also don't like her throwing the gunslinger gun away. It's done as a sort of symbolism, and her breaking ties from her old life, but if you ask me, it's the wrong symbolism. I also think making this final version of Eddie and Jake brothers is too cute by half. It makes it a truly happy ending (especially with Sai King speculating a dog very much like Oy is in their future) but if I had written the book I simply wouldn't have killed Jake off in the first place, and had him go with her to New York. I mean it would have changed a LOT of the interesting aspects between Roland and Susannah, but I would have preferred that to this cutesy idea.
King's critiques about putting himself in the story as metafiction is sort of innacurrate. The actual metafiction is King overstepping his clinical Narrator bounds at Eddie's death and asking the readers to remember the joy of the Tet in the moment before it occurs, and the beginning of the Coda asking the reader to accept the happy ending shown and not read further. I love that crap. SO much. It's my favorite type of storytelling. Treating the reader honestly and like an adult is something I do in my own work, and whenever King does it (and he did it in "Eyes Of The Dragon" and "Black House" as well) I go bananas. What I love is the actual ending is hopeful if you examine the situation thoroughly, and is if not the happy ending King wanted you stop at, at least the hopeful ending we deserved. King offers some bold opinions about endings too. He suggests he does them not because he likes them, but because it's "the custom of the country". I find that fascinating.
I love endings. Most people do. I like that King writes endings because people like them. Greg Weisman doesn't like endings either. But his cartoons are all the worse for always feeling unfinished and unfulfilled. King's way is the right way. Even if you feel endings are too much like goodbyes, and are permanent, they HAVE become The Custom Of The Country, and something I think it is not unreasonable for the reader / viewer to want, or even expect. And best thing about this is the insights it not only gives about King as a writer, but as a fan. And not just that, but as a creator who believes he has an obligation to his fans, whether he likes it or not. And while I have done a ton of reviews stating that fandom wants and desires for most genre projects, (especially superhero-related ones) tend to be both toxic and bad for the story, don't for one second believe that means I think creators should never strive to to please their audience. While I do often say that fans are the worst judges of quality from our given fandoms, I also repeatedly note that we aren't the bad guys, and don't deserve to be repeatedly punished for loving a franchise and its characters. King's mea culpa here might actually not even be his true feelings on the subject, and just narrative b.s. to worry the reader about the conclusion to follow. But regardless, his expressing disdain for closure, and the reader demand for Knowing How It All Came Out is especially appreciated by me because he damned those torpedoes and gave them us the ending he warned us we didn't want anyways. And the delicious irony is not just that it's the right ending. It's that King is wrong for not being crazy about it and it's a perfect and amazing ending too.
I felt uncomfortable giving an imperfect book like "Wolves Of The Calla" five stars. But I did. But as much as I hated certain parts of it (and those parts I REALLY hated) the great stuff in it earned it. And the same is true for this book. Except the great stuff is even better and bad stuff is not as bad. I always believed Wolves was my favorite Dark Tower book. I've reread that book and this one multiple times. Upon this last reread, the seventh and final book has overtaken it in my heart. It's just amazing, Randall Flagg's crappy ending excepted. *****.
Childe Roland To The Dark Tower Came by Robert Browning
For an Appendix to the saga, King has reprinted the entire damn Robert Browning poem from the 19th Century that inspired the saga. I find it utterly confusing. I give it the respectable four star grade I do not because I enjoyed it that much. But because I respect the fact it became the muse for arguably King's crowning (Towering?) achievement. ****.
Book Overall: *****.
My Adventures With Superman "Zero Day: Part One"
I don't feel like this episode was very well-written. At least not compared to everything else. The story and dialogue felt a bit arch and hamfisted. And I HATE Vicky Vale.
That being said, the ending of Superman being ambushed and taken by the villains was legit dire and tense, and landed big. Maybe the characters talked a little too "big" in the episode to be believable. But the "big" ending? Landed and was totally effective and worrisome. Very good cliffhanger there. And yes, the General is both evil incarnate and almost certainly Sam Lane.
Trouble ahead. The episode was hit and miss though. ***.
Harley Quinn "Metamorphosis"
I didn't like it, but the last line of Harley wondering if she's dreaming hints there might be something larger going on. But really, this show shouldn't be killing off Nightwing.
What's interesting and horrible about Joker's return to evil is that he doesn't have to give up his wonderful family he loves and who loves him. He's already won them over. So they are on-board instead of appalled. It's something I really don't like seeing, and I feel a lot of the characters behavior in the episode was the show at its nihilist worst.
I hope Harley is right that something going on is hinky. Because that did not sit right with me. *.
Spidey And His Amazing Friends "Stolen WEB-Quarters / Spideys In Space!"
Stolen WEB-Quarters
New subtitle for the season means new heroes and villains in the main title.
Let me be blunt. They shouldn't be putting Armin Zola in a preschool show. I don't care that they gave him the same design as Nickelodeon's Face, he's an inappropriate character to adapt for little kids. This show shouldn't be showing Punisher, Red Skull, or the Purple Man either.
Whatever. It's not like the cartoon was any good, so maybe that entire rant is just me complaining about the wrong thing. *1/2.
Spidey In Space
It's both cynical and obnoxious that the new premise and subtitle mostly exist to sell toy repaint variants. Remind me why little kids should watch this show again. *.
Episode Overall: *.
no subject
Date: 2024-01-09 03:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-09 03:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-01-10 09:32 pm (UTC)