So, The Dark Tower is by far my favorite story ever!!! I've gone to Mid World at least 20 times over the years, and literally screamed with joy years ago when news hit that the last three books were finally being written.

Anyway, I'm currently rereading the series - I just started Wizard and Glass - and an interesting thought hit me.

In the end, Roland finally reaches The Tower, only to find himself back in the Mohaine Desert, hunting down The Man in Black... only this time, he had the Horn of Jericho - an important relic that he let fall in a battle long before meet the gunslinger.

This implies that every time he gains The Tower he has the opportunity to fix one important wrong from his past, or possibly just a mistake he made on his quest to The Tower.

Now.

Here's my thought.

What if Roland was originally responsible for the damage to the Tower, the Beams failing, the rise of The Crimson King and his lieutenant, Flagg?

What if, on his original trip 'round the Wheel of Ka, Roland didn't choose David for his test with Cort, lost, and was sent west; whereupon his soul was slowly corrupted more and more until, when he finally gets to the Tower, it's his own corruption that starts the 'world moving on'?

I imagine a Dark Roland reaching the Tower for the first time... An actual friend to Flagg and the Crimson King, both members of his dark Ka-tet. All three reach the Tower. The King gets trapped on the balcony, Flagg is banished to our world in the 1980's, and Roland - whose only redeeming quality at this point is that he's the last of the Line of Eld - is trapped in a loop which will lead to the Tower's eventual salvation

Anyway. That's my thought.

My theory