DT Comics to Wind Throught the Keyhole timeline error? ***SPOILERS***

So I haven't read WTTK yet but based upon the snipet that says Rolands dad sends him out to find the skin-man after suffering the loss of his mother I feel the comics present a timeline error.

It's pretty clear that after Roland kills Gabrielle and goes to prison for it in The Fall of Gilead, his dad does not survive long after Roland is broken out. When does Steven have time in between there to send him on this journey?

I think it's just the freedom King allowed in the comic series but did anyone else pick this up?

Wind negates some other material from the Marvel series, too.

The comics mean nothing. They were not written by King, so take anything in them with a pinch of salt. Only King's writing of The Dark Tower series matters.

I'd figure that much. The comics tell great stories, like the battle of Jericho hill and the loss of Alain and Cuthbert so I enjoyed that part of them. I really wasn't sure the continuity betwixt the two.

The comics have contradicted the book's canon numerous times so I'm not too concerned. They don't "count" IMO. So if King's new book is actively contradicting it, then all the better.

Yes, I feel whatever King writes takes precedent over anything Furth and Co. write. The comics while they can be entertaining are more fanfiction, imo.

I enjoy the comics and see no problem considering them as canon. There are a few ways to reconcile any contradictions that may arise between novels and comics.

The first and easiest explanation is offered to us by Roland himself in Wizard and Glass:

"....I must put my past to rest as best I may. There's no way I could tell you all of it - in my world even the past is in motion, rearranging itself in many vital ways - but this one story may stand for all the rest."

Although the past events we see in comics and novels happen, the timings when such events occur are always shifting due to the breakdown of the Beams.



The other explanation is also pretty simple. We know from Wizard and Glass that the events in Mejis take place over a period of months. We also know from the comic book adaption, The Gunslinger Born, that many of these events we see in the novel take place off panel in the comic and that sometimes even quite large gaps of time pass between one panel and the next.

My suggestion is that the same applies to all the other comic arcs too. For example, we know from the novels it takes Cort

Spoiler:

nine weeks to die after being poisoned.

This means that between some pages and panels of the comic, entire weeks go by. In such a way, we can place events we dont see in the comics within these sections of missing time. The events of The Wind Through the Keyhole seem to fit best between pages 7 and 8

Spoiler:

(with Steven and co traveling back to Gilead on page 7, Corts death beginning on page 8 )

of issue 3 of Fall of Gilead. In this gap,

Spoiler:

Steven and co have arrived back in Gilead, Roland has been released from jail and been visiting Cort, his father has summoned him to get the skin-man while the "official" published version of Gabrielle's death (suicide) is going the rounds, Cuthbert's dead father is being prepared for Cuthberts viewing, the skin-man is killed, Roland goes back to Gilead, Cort dies, the official version of Gabrielle's death is now beginning to be scoffed at by the common people, and Roland is locked up again in preparation for a public trial to appease the public.

Etc.



Of course, as I count everything, I was more surprised to learn about Maerlyn than any possible timeline worries. I wonder how

Spoiler:

he turned from the Outer Dark to become the White Wizard of his former enemy, Arthur? Was he infected by the White akin to Jonas being infected by a shard of the Outer Dark's Laughing Mirror? Or did he switch his allegiance when he discovered what the Crimson King was up to? Maerlyn always did seem to be working for himself and wanting to become a part of the multiverse:

"Where Gan saw paradise, Maerlyn perceived only a land he was barred from entering. He saw himself excluded, locked out, caged in the twilight of the Outer Dark which now hovered above the Prim, and he was angry."

Maerlyn might see the destruction of reality as forever trapping him in the Outer Dark, thus the change to the cause of the White (and, consequently, enduring the Red King's "Tyger" punishment for doing so).

A very different side of Maerlyn is seen in The Wind Through the Keyhole from that portrayed in the comic series (iirc). Did anyone else notice this? The comics are great, but King's own work takes precedence over all else.

As others have said, almost from the very start the comics have contradicted parts of the books, so it’s hardly Kings responsibility to make them gel together perfectly now all of a sudden.

The timeline in the marvel series also never worked for me. In "Wizard and Glass" Roland said the Mejis story was his first mission as a gunslinger, one of many, and that it should be viewed as a representation of all those missions that followed. The impression I got from that was that Gillead didn’t fall until several years later, and TWTTK built on this by giving the impression that Gabriel did something that pushed the fall of Gillead a few years further down the line.

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Originally Posted by Tik

I was more surprised to learn about Maerlyn than any possible timeline worries. I wonder how

Spoiler:

he turned from the Outer Dark to become the White Wizard of his former enemy, Arthur?

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In The Wind Through the Keyhole

Spoiler:

Maerlyn states that he was child once. I got the impression that Robin Furth's Maerlyn appeared as a full formed adult from the prim. Thus, it's not possible for the latter to become the former. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if he had a dark period, (he is mentioned as creating the Wizard's Rainbow after all- although in this book he is mentioned as just having the keeping of it for a while, but 'keeping' doesn't negate 'creating'.) but I think this Maerlyn is essentially human.

As a way of reconciling these contradictions,

Spoiler:

the old widow (I forget her name) mentions to Tim* that there are those that believe the White wizard Maerlyn turned to evil. If there are such legends I'm sure there are others where he was always depicted as evil.

In other word's, maybe Furth's story is just a myth after all rather than historical fact. Or it could be that this novel's story is the fiction (from the perspective of Roland and co, I mean) , but I feel more inclined to side with this version as truth. Or mostly truth.

I do wonder at the relationship between Maerlyn and Walter as described in The Sorceror though as Furth states in her afterword that she got that story from King himself!

*Or was it Sam? What's wrong with me? I've only just finished the book, and I'm already forgetting their names...

The fall of Gilead occurs about 2 years after the events in Mejis, if memory serves, so as previously stated the comics can be slotted in place.

Again, it's Maerlyn that's more of a mystery:

Spoiler:

The thing about Maerlyn is that we know he has a very dark reputation to the point that Flagg is often mistaken for him. That reputation must come from somewhere and the fact that Maerlyn's Rainbow is so evil suggests it doesn't come from myth, it's a very real fact. Maerlyn must have been evil at one point. And since Maerlyn is good from Arthur Eld's time onwards, the change must happen there.

As I said, I count both versions of the character as canon so I like to find in-universe explanations for things. Of which there are usually quite alot.

In the end, maybe the simplest answer is best - there are simply two Maerlyn's abroad in Mid-World, one good and one evil. Twinners. White Maerlyn eventually vanquishes the Outer Dark Maerlyn and, his job complete, retires to the Cave.

"The fall of Gilead occurs about 2 years after the events in Mejis, if memory serves, so as previously stated the comics can be slotted in place."

What’s annoying about the comic’s timeline, is that the fall of Gillead doesn’t come off as 2-3 years after Mejis, more like a couple of weeks.

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What’s annoying about the comic’s timeline, is that the fall of Gillead doesn’t come off as 2-3 years after Mejis, more like a couple of weeks.

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I know but equally we know Wizard and Glass takes place over a period of months and we dont get that impression from the comic either. Just bear in mind that time can skip in-between panels/pages and it's all fine.

Oh, don’t take me wrong, it doesn’t bother me that much. I’m just saying King is not the one that screws up the timeline, Marvel is completely responsible for that. Roland spends a redicously long time in prison in the Marvel comics, if we are to assume things took years rather than weeks.

I just feel the need to say, that I am glad we have the comics, it’s good to have more DT material. That being said I think the original 5 stories (the comics I have read) suffer from the fact that Roland doesn’t have much screen time in book 2-4, and that I expected way more to happen in them.