ye olde OOC post
Apr. 14th, 2005 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lastgunslingerNineteen Things about Roland Deschain
1. Roland is not a feminist. Neither is he a misogynist. He shows respect to people who deserve it. That's all.
2. The business in Tull -- when a preacherwoman who believed she bore the child of the Crimson King turned the town against him and Roland killed every last one of them -- was a bad one, and he knows it. He's not sorry he did it. But it bothers him. Sometimes he dreams of it.
3. Roland believes that Joe Manco was set in his path by ka, and Roland honestly likes him, even ifhe doesn't always understand Joe's views on things. To him, Joe is like Eddie and Cuthbert without the nonsense. This is also why they piss each other off, because Roland knows how to manipulate Cuthbert and Eddie. Joe is much more resistant to this.
4. It has done Roland a world of good to see Cuthbert again -- but he'll always go to Eddie first with gunslinger business. The world has moved on; this is part of it. The other part of it is that he knows well that Cuthbert will follow him without question, whereas Eddie hasn't known him long enough to do such a thing without protest.
5. He really, truly, and honestly does not want to know what happens to him when he leaves Milliways.
6. Roland Deschain loves Jake Chambers more than anyone else in the world. More than his parents. More than Susan. More than Death. And almost more than the Dark Tower.
7. Steven Deschain is much on his son's mind these days. Face. Voice. Smell of the road. Mostly because he knows he'll lose Jake, and now he truly understands everything behind his father's actions the morning after Roland's trial -- when his father told him that if he had lost Roland, he would have died.
8. Eddie has Susannah. Jake is off by himself. Alain reminds him of the second-greatest atrocity of his life. (The first, of course, being when he let Jake drop.) And now that Cuthbert and Susan are together -- he's not sorry they're together. He believes they both deserve happiness. But this is the first time in Roland's life that he has been left behind as the world moves on.
9. This is why Fleur Delacour is good for him. He'll never love her as he loved Susan Delgado, but he is becoming fond of her. He appreciates the fact that the only thing she seems to require from him is respect and to be good in bed. And as she gives the same in return -- she makes him happy.
10. His affection for Fleur does not mean that he has forgotten Death. He hasn't. It hurts when he thinks of her.
He thinks of her a lot.
11. Inasmuch as anyone belongs to any particular Endless, Roland is Death's. Desire, however, runs a very close second. If Roland had chosen to stay with Susan and give up the life of a gunslinger, he would have belonged to Desire. It wasn't just the duel that made Roland so mistrustful of Desire -- even if it was mostly subconscious.
12. Roland didn't much care for Vannay's lessons -- but it was Vannay who made him believe (in a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of way) that he had no imagination.
13. This is why he will never believe anyone who tells him that he has a talent for storytelling. Never.
14. Deep down, Roland knows that if Gilead hadn't fallen, he would never have been happy as dinh of the Tet of the Gun -- that his deep disdain for the bullshit fripperies and lies disguised as courtesy of court life would have driven him to take any and every assignment away from the court, and out on the range.
15. The first few nights after he turned his back on Gilead and rode on the trail of the man in black, Roland tried to say prayers for the dead. He gave up the ritual. It took too long.
16. Milliways is the first time that Roland has had friends outside his ka-tet since before Gilead fell. This is another reason why the fight with Eddie bothered him -- he perceived Eddie's position as suggesting subtly that he shouldn't have friends outside his ka-tet.
17. The best night of his life was the night they killed Walter o' Dim.
18. The things that Roland makes are functional, with little sense of the aesthetic about them. This is why he deeply appreciates beauty, whether it's women or nature or architecture -- it's something he can't create for himself.
19. Roland really, truly, and honestly believes the idea behind his tagline -- 'Fucking Milliways'. He doesn't like the place. Doesn't trust it. Mostly because the reappearance of many of those he loves has made him hesitate to leave...and that scares him.
1. Roland is not a feminist. Neither is he a misogynist. He shows respect to people who deserve it. That's all.
2. The business in Tull -- when a preacherwoman who believed she bore the child of the Crimson King turned the town against him and Roland killed every last one of them -- was a bad one, and he knows it. He's not sorry he did it. But it bothers him. Sometimes he dreams of it.
3. Roland believes that Joe Manco was set in his path by ka, and Roland honestly likes him, even ifhe doesn't always understand Joe's views on things. To him, Joe is like Eddie and Cuthbert without the nonsense. This is also why they piss each other off, because Roland knows how to manipulate Cuthbert and Eddie. Joe is much more resistant to this.
4. It has done Roland a world of good to see Cuthbert again -- but he'll always go to Eddie first with gunslinger business. The world has moved on; this is part of it. The other part of it is that he knows well that Cuthbert will follow him without question, whereas Eddie hasn't known him long enough to do such a thing without protest.
5. He really, truly, and honestly does not want to know what happens to him when he leaves Milliways.
6. Roland Deschain loves Jake Chambers more than anyone else in the world. More than his parents. More than Susan. More than Death. And almost more than the Dark Tower.
7. Steven Deschain is much on his son's mind these days. Face. Voice. Smell of the road. Mostly because he knows he'll lose Jake, and now he truly understands everything behind his father's actions the morning after Roland's trial -- when his father told him that if he had lost Roland, he would have died.
8. Eddie has Susannah. Jake is off by himself. Alain reminds him of the second-greatest atrocity of his life. (The first, of course, being when he let Jake drop.) And now that Cuthbert and Susan are together -- he's not sorry they're together. He believes they both deserve happiness. But this is the first time in Roland's life that he has been left behind as the world moves on.
9. This is why Fleur Delacour is good for him. He'll never love her as he loved Susan Delgado, but he is becoming fond of her. He appreciates the fact that the only thing she seems to require from him is respect and to be good in bed. And as she gives the same in return -- she makes him happy.
10. His affection for Fleur does not mean that he has forgotten Death. He hasn't. It hurts when he thinks of her.
He thinks of her a lot.
11. Inasmuch as anyone belongs to any particular Endless, Roland is Death's. Desire, however, runs a very close second. If Roland had chosen to stay with Susan and give up the life of a gunslinger, he would have belonged to Desire. It wasn't just the duel that made Roland so mistrustful of Desire -- even if it was mostly subconscious.
12. Roland didn't much care for Vannay's lessons -- but it was Vannay who made him believe (in a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of way) that he had no imagination.
13. This is why he will never believe anyone who tells him that he has a talent for storytelling. Never.
14. Deep down, Roland knows that if Gilead hadn't fallen, he would never have been happy as dinh of the Tet of the Gun -- that his deep disdain for the bullshit fripperies and lies disguised as courtesy of court life would have driven him to take any and every assignment away from the court, and out on the range.
15. The first few nights after he turned his back on Gilead and rode on the trail of the man in black, Roland tried to say prayers for the dead. He gave up the ritual. It took too long.
16. Milliways is the first time that Roland has had friends outside his ka-tet since before Gilead fell. This is another reason why the fight with Eddie bothered him -- he perceived Eddie's position as suggesting subtly that he shouldn't have friends outside his ka-tet.
17. The best night of his life was the night they killed Walter o' Dim.
18. The things that Roland makes are functional, with little sense of the aesthetic about them. This is why he deeply appreciates beauty, whether it's women or nature or architecture -- it's something he can't create for himself.
19. Roland really, truly, and honestly believes the idea behind his tagline -- 'Fucking Milliways'. He doesn't like the place. Doesn't trust it. Mostly because the reappearance of many of those he loves has made him hesitate to leave...and that scares him.
