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For the similarly-named progressive rock band, see King Crimson.

The Crimson King is one of the main villains of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. He goes by other names, notably Los among his most trusted Lieutenants and Abbalah in the novel Black House.

Contents 1 Character history 1.1 Contradictions 1.2 Fall from power 1.3 Death 2 Trivia 3 External links

[edit] Character history

The Crimson King is an immortal being with incarnations on most (if not all) levels of the linchpin that holds Stephen King's multiverse together, the Dark Tower, He first appeared as an actual character in King's novel Insomnia, controlling a citizen of Derry in order to commit an act of terrorism. This incarnation was wounded and possibly destroyed by Ralph Roberts.

He reappeared in the novel Black House, co-written with Peter Straub. At the climax of the book, the Crimson King's forge is destroyed by a future breaker -- a human with psychic powers.

In the Keystone World in which the physical manifestation of the Dark Tower exists, the Crimson King resides in an abandoned castle of men left behind from the Old Ones' war. He and his servants have access to a wealth of technology there, including travel between alternate dimensions and weaponry far beyond any in practical use throughout the rest of the world -- however they do not fully understand it and are unable to replace or repair it.

After slaying nearly all of his subjects and committing suicide by swallowing a razor-edged spoon, his now-undead form -- vulnerable to more permanent forms of death hitherto protected against -- races ahead of Roland to the Dark Tower to try and enter it first and bring the multiverse down by his own hand.

[edit] Contradictions

Some see contradictory features of the Crimson King are mentioned in various books. In Insomnia and Black House, he is portrayed as an omnipotent, omnipresent, god-like force of evil, a Satanic figure creating the evil in King's multiverse. He is also revealed to be the true power behind such major villains as Atropos and Randall Flagg.

However, when the Crimson King is finally confronted at the very end of the Dark Tower series, he is an insane old man who has fled his own castle only to end up locked out on a balcony at the top of the Dark Tower, limited to flinging hand-held seeking grenades (called 'sneetches' here) at the Gunslinger and his companion Patrick Danville. The character was received as a particular letdown by some fans due to the fact that the majority of his final conversation with Roland consists of high-pitched, guttural shouts of "EEEEEEEEE!" They felt it difficult to resolve the incongruity between the Gunslingers' greatest foe being reduced to such a pathetic state^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] Fall from power

Others see things differently. While the Crimson King projected the image of omnipotence in some stories and was certainly powerful, his omnipotence was in some sense the product of distance and fear. Like Randall Flagg, his weapons were fear, intimidation, illusion and ultimately the power to convince others to do his will. In particular, The King was never shown to be completely sane. The goal of all his plots after all was the nihilistic desire to bring down the tower and destroy the multiverse. As the gunslinger drew nearer to the Crimson King, the truth of his kingdom was revealed. He was an old man surrounded by weak-willed followers using the last pieces of failing technology from the past to work his will through others. Broken in spirit by the failure of his plot to bring down the tower, he attempted to take it for himself only to fail and end up trapped.

There has been some speculation among those who see a radical change in the character; one theory suggests that after the events of Black House he lost most of his power. Another theory suggests that he is, in fact, the archetype which many of King's other villains, such as It, Flagg, and Mordred Deschain are iterations of in different worlds connected to the Dark Tower. This would mean that several events, such as the endings of Black House, It, and The Stand, served to weaken the Crimson King by disrupting several of his different incarnations simultaneously.

A "unified" fanon theory suggests that the Crimson King is a representative (or possibly an avatar) of It on certain levels of the Tower. Therefore, when It was defeated, the King lost most of his power, forcing him to act through others (i.e. Atropos, Lord Malshun, and Flagg). This theory gathers most of its evidence from the King's nature as a "were-spider," as well as his mastery of illusions and description of himself as "the Kingfish" (which It called Itself on occasion.)

Another possibility is that the Crimson King's weakness in the Dark Tower may represent Stephen King's judgement on the nature of evil. Rather than being a seductive or mysterious force, such as it appears from a distance in King's other works, evil is finally revealed as being ultimately pathetic and will eventually destroy itself without its opponents having to compromise themselves. That what is ultimately necessary to destroy evil is confront it and make a stand against it at which point it will collapse in on itself. This idea is similar in theme to those in The Stand.

There is another theory concerning the Crimson King that he consists of two separate entities. The first of these is trapped at the top of the Dark Tower in a physical form in which he cannot escape. His second entity is the omnipotent/spiritual form from Insomnia and Black House. This form cannot affect the worlds in a physical way, but works through psychological influences to influence beings toward his will. Atropos and Lord Malshun are two examples of the King's work. The many events that weaken the King affect both his physical and spiritual manifestations.

[edit] Death

The Crimson King was partially erased from existence by Patrick Danville, a character from Insomnia who was foretold to defeat the King, leaving only his floating red eyes behind, forever trapped on the balcony to gaze over the Scarlet Field. Though having the ultimate villain defeated by a character which had only just appeared may seem anticlimactic (even though said character was an important character from a previous novel), The Artist did require Roland's blood (mixed with crushed petals of a Rose) to make the paint he used to draw the Crimson King. This procedure resulted in the loss of another of the Gunslinger's right hand fingers, completely preventing him from using this hand effectively from then on.

[edit] Trivia

Image:Court3.jpg

• The character's name may have been influenced by the band King Crimson, particularly their first album, In the Court of the Crimson King. It may also have been inspired by the 1895 collection of short horror stories The King in Yellow.

• The metal band Demons & Wizards released Touched by the Crimson King in June of 2005, which referenced the character. The album featured Dark Tower related songs such as "Crimson King", "The Gunslinger", and "Terror Train". The cover art does not represent the king himself but does include an image of a rose which is a recurring element in the Dark Tower series.

[edit] External links

• Theories on the Crimson King