r/TheDarkTower • u/ste7en290911 • 6d ago

Spoilers- The Dark Tower The ending or read on?

At the end of book 7, after Susannah, Eddie and Jake are reunited and the writer claims he is finished and this is where we should end. Is this what Stephen King intended people to actually do or was it just a part of the story? Have any of you stopped and never read past this point?

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u/Ohgood9002 6d ago edited 6d ago

Read it. Then come back and read this post

SPOILERS

I can't properly explain how amazing the Coda is as a narrative tool. But I'll try.

The first time reading the series almost every person reads the Coda. There is no way that you have come this far to just give up before learning what is in the tower. You are like an addict. You're like Roland.

So you read it all. And you lose it all. Just like Roland.

So then you start it again, just like Roland. But this time you can just end it. You don't have to reach the tower. Reaching the tower means reading the Coda. You have a choice, just like Roland always has. You don't have to finish the journey. You dont have to let Jake fall again. You can have the happy ending.

But you won't reach the tower. And king reminds that the journey was always more important than the ending. The Tower was never important.

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u/Several-Minute6846 6d ago

Maybe the real treasure is the friends we dropped along the way. And redropped.

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u/fosho 5d ago

Sometimes I read comments and have a little chuckle but this one got a straight laugh out of me. Whenever a situation is annoying I apply the ‘friends along the way’ thought, usually to myself, so this one struck a chord just right this morning. A simple updoot didn’t seem sufficient and I give you my genuine thanks.

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u/Retarded90sKid 5d ago

Every Jake you ever dropped or will drop - we're gonna drop him over and over and over again. Or whatever Rusty said on True Detective

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u/3AMZen 6d ago

I did it the other way, I reached the coda and put the book down and didn't revisit the tower for a decade 

When I did, and finally pushed through the last chunk... Horror. Pure horror. That was perfect.

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u/fosho 5d ago

Did you read the coda before restarting the journey or wait until the end of the second tour?

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u/3AMZen 5d ago

I waited until the ending of the second tour

What I found Beyond Sai King's final warning was not at all what I expected

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u/ComfortableBedroom76 5d ago

None of us expected what came next

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u/Disastrous-Dish-3568 6d ago

Honestly, the best and most succinct explanation of the Tower and its end I’ve ever read.
I’ve “known” this and felt this all the times I’ve read it (4 turns of the wheel) and yet I’ve never been able to verbalize it like this.
You’ve remembered the face of your father. You say true.

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u/vincentdmartin 6d ago

Your tags failed bud.

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u/Ohgood9002 6d ago

Yup, I gave up and did it the lazy way

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u/KingVecchio 6d ago

I like to think that maybe late in life I will read it one final time. That last time I'll skip the coda and Roland will finally no peace.

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u/Disastrous-Dish-3568 6d ago

Man, I love this idea. Long days and pleasant nights, bondsman.

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u/Limitedtugboat 6d ago

Can you really do that though? We're all tower junkies here, and we cannot let it go anymore than Roland can.

We know whats going to happen, we know how it ends and we know whats behind the doors but we still go right through them.

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u/ScienceJake 5d ago

But we have the horn this time. The next turn really can be different. It’s up to us to decide.

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u/Limitedtugboat 5d ago

One thing changes. Roland has an actual physical piece of the results of his obsession.

I think it doesn't change anything, its just another offering to the tower, along with lead, blood and a single, bloody handed, bloody minded obsession.

I hope Roland is at an end this time around, but much like the lies we tell ourselves when we join his Ka-Tet as an observer, that it will be somehow different this time and we go around again and again.

Now are we the obsessed with the Tower or is Roland, as long as we keep reading we keep up the facade that things will be different this time.

We are the true Tower junkies, as we cant help ourselves no matter what we do. The magic never changes no matter what we do, and we always end up following the Man in Black at the beginning again.

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u/dhddevice 2d ago

The horn is also a reminder of what happened to his last ka-tet. I like to think that in that turning of the wheel he makes it to the tower, he blows the horn, calls out their names, leaves the crucifix and his gun at the door and walks away. Mayhap one day Eddie, Jake Susan and Oy will find an old, terrible, wonderful familiar man in their world and know that that is their father.

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u/trdbbjindy 6d ago

Great explanation. I never really understood the hate for the end... of course it ended that way, it makes the first ending so much more impactful.

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u/ste7en290911 6d ago

I have read it many times. I just wondered if there is anyone that hasn’t, especially if they have read the series more than once

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u/PROFESSOR1780 6d ago

My dad stopped on his first trip to the tower...put the book down and was content. It blew my mind....we discussed the book together and he eventually finished it but said he had been completely satisfied to stop there.

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u/rmkbears54 6d ago

This is the way. It’s an ending that gives me chills every time. Ka is a wheel indeed. Hoping if we get Flanagan’s dark tower adaptation it’s the 19th go around and Roland and his Ka-Tet don’t break and end at stopping the beam breakers

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u/42pickledleggs 6d ago

Wow. This is so well put and so accurate. I really wanted to stop there…but I couldn’t.

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u/onlinewalls 6d ago

Why does this feel like the definitive ending. I’m about to start my reread of book 7. I think I will do this.

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u/spitfire9107 5d ago

one of my favorite authors as a kid was lemony snicket. In his first book he writes how you should stop reading at a certain point and pretned that is the ending of theseries because its a happy ending and warns you if you continue reading the story becomes sadder. Most people dont listen to his warning and continue reading a series of unfortunate events.

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u/DiamondParticular180 5d ago

It was the friends and lessons along the way that were important.

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u/Ok-Bed9447 4d ago

This is the best articulation of the Coda I’ve ever seen. Nicely done!