History YMMV / TheDarkTower

** [[GodOfEvil The Crimson King]] is the demonic offspring of Arthur Eld and the GreaterScopeVillain of King's multiverse. A sadistic entity who proclaims the glory of chaos, or "The Red", the Crimson King presides over a court of nightmare and slaughter while sowing evil and chaos across the realms. [[TheManBehindTheMan The being behind all the evil and destruction]] of [[Literature/TheStand Randall Flagg]]; the rampaging armies of John Farson; and agents such as [[Literature/{{Insomnia}} Atropos]] and [[Literature/BlackHouse Munshun]], the Crimson King has the nation of Gilead annihilated and its people slaughtered, while having psychic children known as Breakers taken to have them sucked dry so their powers may be used to help open the path to Franchise/TheDarkTower. The Crimson King's ultimate goal is to ascend to the top of the Tower and [[OmnicidalManiac consume all the multiverse]], ending everything that exists so the King may rule the primordial chaos that results. At last poisoning his own court to become undead and losing his mind and power, the Crimson King faces Roland while seeking to ascend the Tower and end all reality.

** It's made to look like the Tick Tock Man will be the first villain to present an actual phsyical threat to the gunslingers, being a muscle-bound badass who might actually be ''faster'' than Roland himself. Nope, he's defeated by Jake once, then brought back just to get unceremoniously gunned down a second time without ever putting up a fight.

* VillainDecay: [[spoiler:In the final book, Walter o'Dim/Randall Flagg and the Crimson King, the two main villains up until that point, are reduced to almost non-entities. In particular Flagg, who had once been considered King's 'ubervillain', is easily dispatched in one chapter by a newly introduced character, who finds him pathetic. This is especially troublesome to some fans, since Flagg has been especially troublesome to numerous Stephen King characters over the years, even surviving (or, more accurately, respawning after) a nuclear blast. Having Mordred kill him is obviously to establish Mordred as even more sinister and dangerous than Flagg, but that's a bit hard, if not impossible, after developing the Flagg character for decades and across numerous books. Made worse by the fact that Mordred's death is very anticlimactic (weakened by food poisoning due to eating the disease-ridden corpse of Lippy the horse, Roland kills him with one shot)]].

* FoeYay: At the very least, ''Literature/TheGunslinger'' has a bit of suggestive subtext between Roland and The Man in Black towards the final chapter.

** [[TheDreaded Los' the Red]], best known as the [[HumanoidAbomination Crimson King]], is the demonic offspring of Arthur Eld and the GreaterScopeVillain of King's multiverse. A sadistic entity who proclaims the glory of chaos, or "The Red", the Crimson King presides over a court of nightmare and slaughter while sowing evil and chaos across the realms. The being behind all the evil and destruction of Randall Flagg; the rampaging armies of John Farson; and agents such as Atropos and Munshun, the Crimson King has the nation of Gilead annihilated and its people slaughtered, while having psychic children known as Breakers taken to have them sucked dry so their powers may be used to help open the path to Franchise/TheDarkTower. The Crimson King's ultimate goal is to ascend to the top of the Tower and [[OmnicidalManiac consume all the multiverse]], ending everything that exists so the King may rule the primordial chaos that results. At last poisoning his own court to become undead and losing his mind and power, the Crimson King faces Roland while seeking to ascend the Tower and end all reality.
** [[SatanicArchetype Randall Flagg]], real name Walter Padick, has lived for so long and accumulated so much power that he has become the emissary for [[{{Satan}} the Crimson King]]. Flagg earns [[TheGunslinger Roland Deschain]]'s [[ArchEnemy undying hatred]] for beating and sleeping with Roland’s mother, and for aiding the revolutionary John Farson in causing the destruction of the city of Gilead. Flagg also forces Roland to let his preteen companion Jake Chambers die, and drives a girl insane by telling her the trigger phrase which causes a formerly dead man to [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow recount the afterlife to her]]. Corruptive, treacherous and sadistic, Flagg's ultimate goal was to [[TheStarscream betray his master]] and climb to the top of the Dark Tower in order to become God of all.

* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/StephenKing here]].

* CompleteMonster: Randall Flagg. See [[Monster/StephenKing here]].

* CreatorsPet: Susannah is easily the most disliked character of the Ka-Tet, largely due to her annoying split personalities. She's also the only one other than Roland who gets an entire book dedicated to her, and the only one that [[spoiler:gets an (arguably) happy ending]].

%%* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Mocked in ''Literature/TheWastelands''.

** The Tunnel Demon in ''Literature/{{The Dark Tower|2014}}''. A giant albino worm chasing after Roland and Susannah through the tunnels between Fedic and the Badlands for God knows how long. They only survive because it is sensitive to light, but their Sterno (artificial fire) gets notably less and less in time. The light at the end of the tunnel comes as a great relief to both Roland and Susannah and the readers.

** The Tunnel Demon in ''Literature/TheDarkTower''. A giant albino worm chasing after Roland and Susannah through the tunnels between Fedic and the Badlands for God knows how long. They only survive because it is sensitive to light, but their Sterno (artificial fire) gets notably less and less in time. The light at the end of the tunnel comes as a great relief to both Roland and Susannah and the readers.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The FilkSong "Terror Train" by Music/DemonsAndWizards portrays Blaine as a pathetic PsychopathicManchild with an InferioritySuperiorityComplex, who is still a legitimate threat. The chorus: "No one really knows the pain I'm going through (My final ride is almost done!) / The world has moved on, now it's time to go (My final ride is almost done!) / Come lift my spirit up, I'm BLAINE!". [[SarcasmMode Aww]], he's ''[[TheWoobie lonely]]!'' But he's also batshit insane and suicidal, and [[TakingYouWithMe misery loves company...]]

* CompleteMonster: It is revealed that Randall Flagg has lived for so long and accumulated so much power that he has become the emissary for the [[{{Satan}} Crimson King]]. Flagg earns Roland Deschain's undying hatred for beating and sleeping with Roland’s mother, and for aiding the revolutionary, John Farson, in causing the destruction of the city of Gilead. Flagg also forces Roland to let his preteen companion, Jake Chambers, die, and drives a girl insane by telling her the trigger phrase which causes a formerly dead man to [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow recount the afterlife to her]]. Corruptive, treacherous and sadistic, Flagg's ultimate goal was to [[TheStarscream betray his master]] and climb to the top of the Dark Tower [[AGodAmI in order to become God of all.]]

* MagnificentBastard: The Man In Black, Marten, Randall Flagg, and Walter. Why, you ask? [[spoiler:Because they are the same person.]]

* EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory: Mocked in ''Literature/TheWastelands''.

* {{Squick}}: Rhea examining Susan in ''Wizard and Glass''. In fact, Rhea in general.

%%* TheScrappy: Aileen
* TearJerker: ''Fall of Gilead'' and ''Battle of Jericho Hill''.

** Mordred's birth

** It's made to look like the Tick Tock Man will be the first villain to present an actual phsyical threat to the gunslingers, being a mucle-bound badass who might actually be ''faster'' than Roland himself. Nope, he's defeated by Jake once, then brought back just to get unceremoniously gunned down a second time without ever putting up a fight.