I am new here and I may be posting points you have already discussed/disregarded… but I have been reading the DT series for around 4 years (I deliberately had breaks between the books in order to enjoy the journey and to allow a sense of time between the stories). I finished the last book yesterday and first of all, I loved the ending. It is tragic and horrific, however at the same time gives a beautiful sense of hope for, what I believe, will be Roland’s final journey to the Tower.

Obviously you have all been through this ending before, and have undoubtedly encountered the enormous amount of unanswered questions. I do not wish to bring up things you are sick of hearing about, but I am really hoping you may have collectively worked out some answers/ideas to these questions.

Before I go on, I need to make it clear that some of these may be silly questions, I have only read through the series once after all.

• Why did a different version of Jake from Dutch Hill start remembering the death of the version from under the Way Station? Could it be that Roland, Jake, Eddie, Susannah and Pere are in a way immune to the realities of the worlds (in particular keystone earth and death) due to Ka from the Tower itself, at least until their fates have been fulfilled? It would also explain why Jake and Eddie Toren started to dream about Susannah (probably after the other versions of Jake and Eddie died). It would also explain why Jake knew Pere was going to die for good – because he had finished fulfilling his destiny.

• How, if in the Keystone world time runs one way, can Roland and Eddie have returned to 1977, then Roland and Jake to 1999 only weeks afterwards? Is this because you can travel forward in time, but not backwards? If that is the case then why couldn’t Roland and Jake have gone to, say, 1998?

• When Roland returns to the start of his journey at the end of DT7, do the beams reset? Does Jake return to class and Eddie return to heroin addiction? (I.e. does everything skip back in time?) Or does time stay and only Roland himself get sent back, and is this why he has been walking for such a massive amount of time? I can’t really remember the first book but I feel like I remember people commenting on the fact that Gilead fell thousands of years earlier. Could this be because he has been stuck in this loop? If this is the case, then would that mean he would have a new ka-tet each time, as time marches on normally while Roland starts his quest again and again.

• LAST QUESTION (sorry!): exactly how much power is Stephen King (fictional) supposed to have in the stories? I know they have to go back to save him, but if he didn’t write/finish the stories what exactly was supposed to have happened? Because if he plays a monumental part, then it would be quite different this time round as Roland has the horn…

Anyway, like I said, sorry I am a newbie -- I am just looking for some insight, ideas, and ideally (but unrealistically) answers.