#john farson

By Devon “The Man of your dreams” James

Greetings, Nerds of All-World. I come from the Prim to bring you this week's Anti-Hero. I here by swear on the Christ and the Man Jesus that it is none other than Roland Deschain, the Gunslinger. 

So who is this lone gunman in this strange land? I'll tell ye.

Roland technically was given life in 1978 when Stephen King published the first part of his story in a Fantasy/Sci-Fi Magazine, although, a satirical character was developed before him that may have inspired the character. He was then published in 1982 in a full fledged book entitled Dark Tower: the Gunslinger, which as far as I know, deviated very little from the magazine publications. For those of you who say that there were huge differences, that's probably because you read the 2003 revision which changed a lot of the story, some of which I disagree with. This series spanned 8 books, the latest of which was published early this year. Lucky for me, I was born in the late 80's and didn't start reading Dark Tower until high school, so unlike the first dedicated fans of the series, I did not have to wait 30 years to get the full story. A shout out to those dedicated fans for their patience. 

Most of you probably look like this by now.

Roland was born and raised in Gilead, a flourishing kingdom in In-World that is ruled by the ways of the Gunslinger. The world itself seems to exist either in the far future or in an alternate universe from our own entirely, though despite being heavily influenced by the Wild West, there is evidence that there is a connection to the modern world, such as Roland recognizing the lyrics to "Hey Jude" albeit with slight differences. At the age of 14, Roland took his trials early in order to become a full fledged 'slinger so that he can earn his guns to kill the wizard who is sleeping with his mother (you know, typical teenaged shenanigans). Roland accomplished this by beating his teacher, Cort, which would be like challenging Andrew Jackson to a duel, or General Patton at anything. Roland's weapon was a Hawk named David who died in the encounter. Cort himself told Roland that Hawks could not be tamed and that they were "god's gunslinger". Roland's companionship with David told you two important things about his future: 

1. He can tame the super natural and has command of tools that only the gods were thought to control.

2. He is willing to kill his friends, seeing them nothing more as means to an end, thus indoctrinating him into the bloody tradition of Anti-Heroism. 

To Cort's surprise, Roland beat him and earned his guns at an unprecedented age, though, his father interrupted him while he was banging a hooker at the celebration and sent him on a mission to Mejis of the Eastern Barony, and it was here that he first encountered the army of John Farson, the Good Man, a murderous a**hole bent on killing the Gunslingers and overthrowing the government by manipulating the sympathy of the people. 

The scary bastard up there is John Farson manipulating the sympathy of the people... by force!

Roland succeeded in foiling the Good Man's plan, but after incurring the wrath of Rhea the Witch, Roland's love interest was burned alive, he became addicted to a mystical artifact, and his mother died due to natural causes of a gunshot wound from Roland's guns while he was in a trance. 

Sometime later, Roland encounters the remnants of Farson's army lead by Randall Flagg from the Stand  (and main antagonist throughout the series). It is during this battle that Roland watched all his friends die and became the sole survivor of the once proud line of Gunslingers. Despite all this tragedy, Roland has never failed to stop owning it. 

Pictured: Roland owning it. 

After this, Roland began his quest for the Dark Tower, the lynch pin to all existence that keeps all worlds, even parallel universes connected. He is traversing a desert to interrogate a Wizard, the Man in Black, which is where the first book in the Dark Tower series opens. In the first book alone, he kills Ally, his love interest, shoots and kills everyone in the town of Tull, and sacrifices a boy by letting him drop to the jagged rocks of a mountain to gain an audience with the Man in Black. From there, the violence gets truly epic. The story gets confusing from time to time, but there are tons of guns, battles, heroine, psychopaths, robots, marauders, satanic puppet masters, and Harry Potter references to keep any ultra violent american satiated. 

So how does it end? All I can say is that its a long way to the Dark Tower, and Roland has a habit of killing everyone in his path, friend and foe alike. 

He kills his friends, but only to put a bullet in the grey matter of his enemies. He has great capacity for compassion, but somehow balances it out with being a stone cold bastard. He murders indiscriminately, but only so he can enter the Dark Tower to protect all existence ever. Who can really put a price on that last one? For these reasons and more, I award my Anti-Hero of the Week to Roland Deschain.