Summary
In any great story, a hero always needs a truly great villain. The hero or protagonist in a story must face a great challenge and battle a villain or antagonist who is the antithesis of the hero in every way possible.For Batman, that villain is the Joker, Spider-Man has the Green Goblin, andSupermanhas Lex Luthor. While other villains and challenges come and go, one villain constantly challenges the hero in the most twisted yet plot-forward way. In Stephen King’sThe Dark Towerseries, that villain is The Crimson King.
Essentially, the madman behind the curtain, the Crimson King, is the mastermind who orchestrates the events that lead Roland to find the Dark Tower. The all-powerful monster is the one who all the beasts, monsters,and villains of the Dark Tower seriesthat Roland and his allies face serve, with many using his sign, the all-seeing crimson eye, as their sigil or call to arms. With Mike Flanagan’s upcoming adaptation of the Dark Tower series, understanding who the Crimson King is and why he is vital to the journey Roland, the last of the gunslingers, finds himself on has never been more crucial.
The Crimson King’s Legacy In The Dark Tower
The Crimson King’s story begins with his origins as the son of the Crimson Queen, a powerful and ancient insectoid being who emerged from the Prim, the ancient primordial source that came before the worlds were born. On the eve of Arthur Eld’s coronation, she infiltrates thecelebration with the sorcerer Maerlynand has an affair with the man who built the kingdom of Gilead and his knights into what would later become the gunslingers. Before she could end his life afterward, however, one of Arthur’s knights saved the king, albeit at the cost of his life.
The Crimson King was born sometime after this, not as a human being, but a shape-shifter who sometimes takes human form. His true form is often that of a giant spider, with him often being referred to as a were-spider. As the son of Arthur Eld, he and Roland Deschain are also distantly related, with Roland being a descendant of Arthur Eld. That makes their rivalry and villainous battles much more profound, leading to much of the death and destruction Roland witnesses throughout his life. It is the Crimson King that John Farson pledges himself towhen he begins his campaign against Gilead and the gunslingers. The Crimson King sought to get Roland thrown out of Gilead by failing the gunslinger test, only to be thwarted when Roland passed the test.
The Crimson King also has a loyal servant in Randall Flagg, aka the man in black. Flagg gained his shapeshifting abilities from the Crimson King, whom he met as a young child thousands of years ago. He is shown to be the one who is working to tear down thebeams that hold the Dark Tower in place, hoping to bring chaos back to the world and return to the Prim once more. As time goes on and his madness continues to worsen, his realm of Discordia becomes the sight of a massacre he orchestrates, ending the lives of all his servants and the people of his kingdom, including himself. This makes him undead, and thus immortal and immune to Roland’s signature weapons, a problem that would prove impossible in their final confrontation at the series' end.
The Crimson King’s Place in the Upcoming Series
For all his power, the Crimson King is not the main featured villain of the series. Randall Flagg, the man in black, is the series' main antagonist, and yet the Crimson King is the master who controls all of Flagg’s moves. The villain has had his hand in many events throughout the Dark Tower and in many of Stephen King’s other books.InInsomnia, he orchestrated the events of that book that nearly cost the life of Patrick Danville, a gifted young child who is destined to help Roland in his final push to the Dark Tower. While inBlack House, it is revealed that the missing children were led to the Crimson King’s plans to find breakers. These influential telekinetic individuals can break the beams holding the Dark Tower in place.
When theDark Toweris finally brought to life, the Crimson King needs to be a central figure of the story being told, but one that is hinted at for a long time. The series' main antagonist needs to be the man in black, yet all roads eventually lead to the Crimson King.His shapeshifting abilities, his monstrous appearance, and his manipulation of not just one world but several worlds hold ramifications for so many stories throughout theDark Towerseries. The being that some consider the Satan of theDark Toweruniverse should be a season-long mystery that fans eagerly anticipate for years, and one that strikes terror into viewers' hearts for years to come.
