The Dark Tower/Characters

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Unmarked spoilers ahead!

The Ka-Tet

Roland Deschain of Gilead

• Anti-Hero: Type III-V, depending on level of character development.
• Badass
  • Badass Beard
  • Badass Grandpa
  • Badass Long Hair
  • Badass Normal
  • Handicapped Badass: Starting with book two.
  • Heartbroken Badass
• Body Horror
• Blue Eyes
  • What Beautiful Eyes!
• Brutal Honesty
• Chick Magnet
• The Comically Serious
• Dark and Troubled Past: So, so troubled...
• Determinator
• Eternal Recurrence
• Fastest Gun in the West
• Good Is Not Nice
• Guns Akimbo: As is common among gunslingers, though after he loses his right index finger he can only effectively fire with his left hand.
• The Gunslinger: Surprisingly.
• The Hero
• I Am Roland Son of Steven
• I Hate Past Me: How he feels toward the end of the story.
• I Let Gwen Stacy Die
• Improbable Aiming Skills
• Iron Woobie
• I Was Quite a Looker: Proven true in Wizard and Glass.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold
• Knight Errant
• Last of His Kind
• Like a Son to Me: Jake
• Loners Are Freaks
• Mommy Issues: And how.
• Moral Event Horizon: Subverted. The slaughter of Tull and sacrifice of Jake almost put him into Complete Monster territory, if he weren't so darn sad.
• Morality Pet: Jake
• Nice Hat
• Omniglot: He mentions that he speaks five languages and used to know a sixth one, but he has "forgotten everything but the curses."
• One-Man Army
• Perma-Stubble
• Pet the Dog: Which makes so much worse when he...
  • Shoots The Dog
• A Real Man Is a Killer
• Really Seven Thousand Years Old
• Sole Survivor: Of the Battle on Jericho Hill.
• The Stoic
  • He does have a sense of humor, but it's normally as dry as the Mohaine Desert. Upon losing two fingers from his right hand:

At least I jerk off left-handed.

• Tragic Hero
• Walk the Earth
• What the Hell, Hero?: Letting Jake fall, among other things.

John "Jake" Chambers

• Back from the Dead
• Badass
  • Badass Adorable
    • To the point that an 11 year old girl tells him she wants to do it in a closet.
  • Badass Bookworm
• Beware the Nice Ones
• Blue Eyes: Over time described as looking more and more like Roland's.
• A Boy And His Bumbler
• Break the Cutie
• Cute Shotaro Boy
• Hair of Gold
• Parental Neglect: His parents didn't give much attention to him, and he was actually closer to the housekeeper than them.
• Tagalong Kid
• Took a Level in Badass: Between books four and five.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: After getting no affection from his real father, he turns toward Roland for acceptance.
• Wise Beyond Their Years
• The Woobie: Who doesn't want to hug him?

Edward Cantor "Eddie" Dean

• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
• Deadpan Snarker
• Disappeared Dad: He finds the Mid-World expression "forgotten the face of my father" ironic, because he wouldn't recognize his father if he met him. When he introduces himself as "Eddie Dean of New York, son of Wendell" in Calla, he thinks that leastwise, his mother always said that.
• Full-Frontal Assault: In the second book.
• Genre Savvy
• Going Cold Turkey: Better than going baked turkey.
• Hazel Eyes
• The Lancer
• Sad Clown
• Sarcastic Devotee
• Took a Level in Badass
• Young Gun

Susannah Dean (formerly Odetta Holmes)

• Action Girl
• Handicapped Badass: Her legs were cut off above the knee a few years before the events of the series. That does not slow her down.
• The Smart Guy: Odetta for literature, Detta for mathematics.
• Split Personality: Odetta Holmes and Detta Walker.

Oy

• Badass
• Tanuki: It's unknown if this was intentional or coincidental on King's part, but as a racoon/dog hybrid with a penchant for mimicry . . .
• Team Pet

The Original Ka-Tet

Cuthbert Allgood

• Bully Hunter
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass
• Deadpan Snarker: Not quite as much as Eddie, but he still has his moments.
• Lethal Joke Item: Slingshot beats gun.
• Plucky Comic Relief
• Sad Clown
• Shirtless Scene
• The Lancer
• The Smart Guy

Alain Johns

• Adorkable
• Beware the Nice Ones: At least according to Roland, Alain was generally gentle, patient, and understanding, but you do NOT want to piss him off.
• Friend or Foe: Roland and Cuthbert kill Alain after mistaking him for an enemy scout.
• The Quiet One
• Spider Sense: The Touch.

Susan Delgado

• Beauty Equals Goodness
• The Chick
• Death by Origin Story
• Human Sacrifice
• Plucky Girl
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Roland.

Baddies

Randall Flagg / The Man in Black

• Alas, Poor Villain: Your Mileage May Vary, but what a nasty way to go.
• Arch Enemy: To Roland. Until Mordred comes along...
• Black Knight
• The Chessmaster
• The Dragon
• Dropped a Bridge on Him
• Evilly Affable
• Evil Chancellor
• Evil Sorcerer
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Started out as a miller's son.
• Giggling Villain
• "Have a Nice Day" Smile
• I Have Many Names: Including but not limited to Walter o'Dim, Walter Padick, Marten Broadcloak, Rudin Filaro and other variations of R.F.
• Large Ham
• Magnificent Bastard
• The Man Behind the Curtain
• Manipulative Bastard
• Person with the Clothing
• Rape as Backstory
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old
• The Starscream
• Theme Initials
• Villain Decay
• Walking the Earth
• The Worf Effect
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds

The Crimson King

• Anticlimax Boss
• Big Bad
  • Bigger Bad: Of Stephen King's metaverse.
• The Caligula: Gleefully murdered his entire court.
• The Devil Is a Loser
• Feet of Clay
• Giant Spider: Implied to be his true form
• Half-Human Hybrid: In the Expanded Universe of the comics.
• Hell Is That Noise: EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
• Hidden Villain
• Humanoid Abomination
• Orcus on His Throne
• Omnicidal Maniac
• Red Eyes, Take Warning - He has blood red eyes that hypnotize all who look into them. They're even the only things left after he's erased!
• Shout-Out: To the band King Crimson.
  • His real name, Los, is one to William Blake.
• Villainous Breakdown
• Villain Decay

Mordred Deschain

• Fetus Terrible
• Has Two Mommies: And two daddies.
• Hyperactive Metabolism: Holy crap! Within a few hours after he was born ate two people, one of whom was Randall Fucking Flagg, and several animals, and he's still hungry!
• Kick the Son of a Bitch: What he does to Flagg.
  • Your Mileage May Vary, as this made fans hate Mordred even more.
• Madness Mantra: Mordred's a-hungry....
• Replacement Scrappy
• Tragic Monster. King says so himself!
• Were Beast and Giant Spider: Were-spider
• Wizard Needs Food Badly: His only other motivations aside from a burning hatred of Roland and his Ka-tet are his constant hunger and a morbid fear of starvation.

John Farson

• Aggressive Negotiations: Join The Good Man's revolution or lose your head.
• Armies Are Evil
• Army of Thieves and Whores
• Complete Monster
• Decapitation Presentation: Taking bets on how far he can hit a victims head with the broadside of his sword.
• Dead Guy on Display: Displays his enemies heads to discourage resistance against his armies.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Began his career as a small time Harrier (outlaw) before forming his army.
• Great Offscreen War
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Farson's eyes glow red behind his mask.
• Improbable Weapon User: Wields a broadsword, shield and machine gun, all while wearing heavy steel armor.
• Malevolent Masked Men
• Mark of the Beast: Uses the all-seeing eye of the Crimson King as his sigul.
• Predecessor Villain: In the comics, Walter is subservient to Farson as an agent of the Crimson King.
• President Evil: Farson is a crafty politician and great public speaker, who wants to replace the Gunslingers with his own version of "democracy".
• Shoot the Messenger: Has Clay Reynolds tortured when Reynolds informs him of his oil tankers being burned.
• The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized

Tick-Tock Man

• Berserk Button: "So Fell Lord Perth."
• Dropped a Bridge on Him
• Eye Scream
• Large and In Charge: When Jake first meets him, he notes that Tick-Tock is a very big man, and the only one of the Grays he's seen that looks healthy.
• Starter Villain
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Naked to the waist the whole time.

Gasher

• Dead Man Walking: Due to the mandrus, some sort of extremely nasty disease; the common name "whore's blossoms" implies it's an STD.
• Evilly Affable: He's yer old pal, Gasher.
• Gonk
• Heterosexual Life Partners: Gasher and Hoots, another Gray, were always butt-buddies of old, says Tick-Tock. Hoots even writes down the password for gaining entry to the Cradle of the Grays and gives it to Gasher to help him remember, which Gasher seems quite grateful for (even though he can't read).
• Kick the Dog
• Pirate: Not the dashing kind.
• Poisonous Person

Blaine

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot
• Ax Crazy
• Complete Monster: Thinks that driving another AI to suicide is the height of humor.
  • Blaine claimed that Patricia had essentially had a mental breakdown and would not stop crying. He removed certain restraints from Patricia's programming so she could kill herself by going over a broken trestle into the Send, and so he wouldn't have to listen to her anymore.
• Cool Train
• Deus Est Machina
• Disc One Final Boss
• Jerkass
• Laughing Mad
• Logic Bomb: Eddie dispatches him with these, much to the surprise of the rest of the ka-tet.
• No Indoor Voice
• Riddle Me This
• Shock and Awe: Blaine electrocuted the last person who tried talking to him before Roland's ka-tet came along.

Rhea of the Cöos

• Complete Monster
• Karma Houdini / What Happened to the Mouse?: Sort of. It's implied that Roland killed her at one point but it's never elaborated upon.
• Wicked Witch

Eldred Jonas

• Badass Grandpa
• Evil Counterpart: A failed gunslinger.
• Minion Shipping: With Coral.
• Terrible Trio: With Clay and Roy.
• Vocal Dissonance: Described as having a thin, quavery voice.

Roy Depape

• The Bully
• Butt Monkey
• Too Dumb to Live

Clay Reynolds

• Evil Redhead
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here

Jack Mort

• Complete Monster
• Death by Irony: Killed by the same train he pushed Odetta under years ago.
• Man On Fire
• Serial Killer: By pushing people or objects onto people.

Others

Cortland Andrus

• Drill Sergeant Nasty
• Eye Scream: during his duel with Roland, Roland's hawk David claws out his bad eye, which was already blind.
• Made of Iron: Gunslingers "graduated" from his class by beating the crap out of him; at least one of his predecessors had died during these coming-of-age duels. In the end, it was poison, probably, that killed him and not the duels.
• Training from Hell

Gabrielle Deschain

• All Girls Want Bad Boys
• Death by Origin Story: She was accidentally shot by a paranoid Roland after he discovered a plot to undermine Gilead; she was apparently going to try to make amends, but Roland's reflexes took over when he heard someone entering his room.
• The Mole: Worked with the resistance leader, who was her lover.

Sheemie Ruiz

• The Fool
• The Rainman: Despite being mentally handicapped, Sheemie is revealed to be a powerful Breaker.

Henry Dean

• Erudite Stoner
• Jerkass: A number of flashbacks in The Waste Lands show that Henry could often be pretty mean to Eddie, especially if he saw that Eddie was better at something than he was, such as basketball.

Father Donald Frank Callahan

• The Alcoholic: In his backstory. At one point, Callahan wonders at having been a walking stereotype: an Irish Catholic priest with a drinking problem.
• Badass Preacher
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Having fully regained his faith, he kills ancient vampire lords in the Dixie Pig with his bare hands before being overwhelmed and deciding to shoot himself.
• Fail O'Suckyname: His nickname in Calla Bryn Sturgis, "the Old Fella", is slang for 'penis' in some circles in Real Life.
• Sixth Ranger: To Roland's ka-tet.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: A huge chunk of Wolves of the Calla is taken up by his explanation of what happened to him after the events of 'salem's Lot and how he ended up in Roland's world.