AAAHHHchoooo....
Colorado
Las Vegas
Ingoring dream and trying to survive
Dead (Captain Trips)
Other (specify)
AAAHHHchoooo....
Love "The Stand", just read it for the first time last year after finishing "The Dark Tower". For a long while, I loved everything except the ending, and I hated the ending. But slowly, after thinking about it more and hearing fans of the ending explain all the crucial orchestration of events...it's started to grow on me and it seems less of a sudden, cheesy ending.
Something I found interesting, unless I've grossly misread the book in which case feel free to pummel me with vicious insults, that adds to his less-than-perfect bad guy personality, is that there's no indication that Flagg actually started the devastation. Unless it's so heavily implied by his being the villain that it didn't need to be stated more explicitly. The miniseries does show a crow perched outside the military base in the beginning, but I recall no such imagery in the book and so I stick by my point. After reading the Dark Tower and knowing Flagg was the villian of "The Stand", I'd gone in assuming he was responsible for unleashing Project Blue, but it doesn't seem to be the case.
He's not a mastermind, he's just a mischievous opportunist who popped into this level of the tower at the right time. He won't fight you, but he might spread rumors around until someone else will...probably because it's funnier. He's a juvenile delinquent on a massive scale, a mystical troublemaker who stumbled upon a country-sized ant hill that he could stir and play with for a little while.
This type of villain is very intriguing, and contributes to Flagg/Walter's mask of intimidation who ultimately is more talk than anything. He might've caused some trouble once he got to Vegas and started calling in all the lowlifes, but it's stretch to say he 'brought one world to its knees as Randall Flagg', as he thinks to himself in DTVII. He even lies to himself to build up a false reputation.
I voted "other" in the poll. I'm clumsy and I'm a creature of comfort. Not really top survival traits in a post apocalyptic world.... If the Captain Trips didn't get me, the lack of electricity would.
Donna
"What can I tell you, baby? I've always been bad."--Spike
absolutely. That's almost verbatim (only yours is better) how I always argued why no Big Confrontation between him and Roland was ever to be expected.Originally Posted by JRSly
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree. Flagg just shows up at the right time.
Buddy, you think you look strong? You’re wearing a cape.
Same here. He was much more reputation than actual power. Running like a bitch at the end of the Stand convinced me of that long before he showed up in the DT books.
The kindness of close friends is like a warm blanket
I feel the same as KaLikeaWheel. I think I'd be the ones that died in the aftermath of the flu.
Yes, but before he showed up in the DT books, I thought he was a minion of the Devil who knew when to get out of dodge. It seems to me that King ran out of ideas for him when he got to DT VII and decided to make him more like a freelancer with some magical powers.
But that is the thing. I always considered him that even in the Stand. I never got the impression he was working for anyone like we did with Mother Abigail. More just an opportunist that saw a way to cause some mischief.
Which is cool, I don't blame him but I never got the impression he was working for the Devil or anything.
If there was the devil at work, it was in releasing the thing in the first place imo
The kindness of close friends is like a warm blanket
I am inclined to think the same. Also, those who read The Eyes of the Dragon may have noticed that he makes there such idiotic mistakes no Devil Boss would have ever allowed.
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No, absolutely not.
Pure human fuckery was the root cause, and that's part of the beauty of The Stand. Flagg was just there to take advantage of it. Maybe when we do it for real some guy like Flagg will be there waiting....?
I thought that to start with too. However, there is a certain scene where one fo the guys (Stuart) is making his way out of the clinic place where he was left. Everyone else there was dead and dying. He came across a notice on one of the doors, the name of a staff member. The name was Flagg.
I'll try and find the location and quote.
I'm not suggesting he created the virus (although I think it's quite possible) but I wouldn't be surprised if he was at least partly responsible for it's release. He could have just been there as a spy of course, biding his time for the folk to mess up... but I thought that little snippet was interesting.
I don't recall that notice...
Buddy, you think you look strong? You’re wearing a cape.
Wow! Me neither and I've read that book 200 times.
I never thought of Flagg as having THAT kind of power. Besides, I think King really wanted to make the point that humans have the ability to destroy themselves, that they don't really need any outside help.
Buddy, you think you look strong? You’re wearing a cape.
And even if the notice was out there in West Virgina (where Stu was taken I think), didn't the virus start in Texas?
I would have to look that up. I thought we never got to visit the actual place where it originated except in the very beginning.
Didn't it originate in California? I thought that was where the Campions began their escape roadtrip which ended at the gas station in Texas.And even if the notice was out there in West Virgina (where Stu was taken I think), didn't the virus start in Texas?
I would have to look that up. I thought we never got to visit the actual place where it originated except in the very beginning.
That is correct, I thought California and just remember Stu being from Texas
I need to read my copy again.
I, too, thought that was the point
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dead from the plague=easier=less like hard work
Stu was taken to a facility in New Hampshire, from which he escaped and ran into Fran and Harold, who were from Maine.
John
the plague started in california (i always thought it was by the nevada border - remember all the talk about it being in the middle of nowhere and campion talking about which way the wind was blowing and there not being anything around) because some of it escaped and the maglock doors didn't close in time. there was like a 30 second lag or something one of the top guys said, and campion even said if he had looked up 30 secs later he'd have been stuck but i always figured that for hyperbole on his part.
i don't remember anything about an employee named flagg or anything. i do remember someone lying/sitting on the floor with a sign around his neck reading "now do you believe it works" and i think that was in the plague facility where stu ended up (after they evacuated stovington). but i might be wrong about that.
The point is..."Stu Facility", other side of country from where plague started right?
Right.
John
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