Roland Deschain

Roland Deschain is one of the main protagonists of the Stephen King Mythos, serving as the main protagonist of the dark-fantasy series The Dark Tower and a minor character in the novel, Insomnia. His alias is "the gunslinger" and he is last of an order of gunslingers.
He first appears in the first book The Gunslinger where he is hunting the Man in Black (Randall Flagg). He also made some friends along the way.
He was portrayed by Idris Elba, who has previously played John Luther in the titular BBC show, Luther, Stacker Pentecost in Pacific Rim, Bloodsport in the DC Extended Universe, and Heimdall in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and also voiced Truck in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Fluke in Finding Dory, and Knuckles in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
==Overview==
Roland is a man who hails from Mid-World, specifically Gilead in the barony of New Canaan. He became a gunslinger at the age of fourteen after defeating his teacher, Cortland Andrus, in combat (his weapon of choice being David the hawk). He is the last known living descendant of Arthur Eld, the legendary king of All-World and his world's analogue of King Arthur, and is therefore sworn to protect the Dark Tower. He seeks the Tower and will stop at nothing to reach it.
==Powers and Abilities==
Roland's realm is filled with supernatural beings and occurrences, watched over by god-like entities with different desires and goals. As such, supernatural abilities and skills aren't uncommon for many of the denizens of this realm which includes Roland.
===Abilities===
*Marksmanship: Before the fall of Gilead, gunslingers are oftentimes trained extensively in the use of their guns even before they've fully earned their guns. Roland himself is able to shoot down targets at extremely long distances, even against smaller targets such as crows. With his accuracy, he has been able to hit invisible opponents by ricocheting his bullets, gun down a sniper through their scope as he's being stalked, and even shoot his own fired bullet
*Reloading Skills: Roland's reloading is supernaturally fast due to his unconventional methods at doing so. He has been shown to reload 6 bullets at once into his revolver and his gunfire has been described to resemble machine gun fire
===Powers===
*Enhanced Senses: To compliment his marksmanship, Roland's hearing, smell, and vision is acutely enhanced, being able to hear blood drip from across a village, track down Jake on his own, and see an enemy from miles away
*Hypnosis: Roland has been shown the capability to hypnotize vulnerable targets though he mostly uses it to extract information from them. Some of the applications of this skill includes gaining information on Jake Chamber's past in The Gunslinger and even on Stephen King to gain information on his role in the grand story of The Dark Tower
*Mind Reading: Occasionally without the use of his senses or hypnosis, Roland has managed to gain information on people he encounters. He has been affected by a small amount of supernatural power known as "The Touch" which allows him to read the minds of nearby people
==Equipment == 
*The Guns of Deschain: A pair of revolvers forged from the melted-down steel of the Excalibur belonging to Roland's ancestors. While requiring the same maintenance as the average revolver, it is capable of firing bullets which have unique properties. Any target hit by said bullets will have their resurrection negated should they die from the shot. Roland carries specialized cleaning tools and gun belt in order to keep these revolvers usable throughout his journey
*Combat Knife: Described to "never loses its edge", it is Roland's primary weapon for hand-to-hand combat and survival uses 
*The Horn of Eld: A mysterious object which Roland receives at the end of the loop described in the story. It possibly possesses the ability to break the loop he is stuck in as he had never started out a loop with this object in his possession. 
==Personality==
Roland is often dry and unemotive, can be callously straight with the other members of his ka-tet, will do whatever it takes to learn more about and reach the Dark Tower (even if that means having to sacrifice a member of his ka-tet), and will kill anyone or anything he needs to in order to continue his quest, whether that be man, woman, adult, child or animal.
==In Other Media==
===Marvel Comics===
Marvel Comics released the story of The Dark Tower series in comic form, telling the story of Roland's past, events of The Gunslinger, and events of The Drawing of the Three. Each of those are separated into 3 story arcs with 30, 30, 25 issues respectively. The Gunslinger and The Drawing of the Three are mostly faithful to the books they are based on with only few minor changes. However, other events that have happened before the beginning of the novel are further explored and gain extra additions which will be explained in this section.
====The Fall of Gilead====
Taking place after Roland killed his mother, his father found him as he held his dead mother in his hands. However as Steven inspected his wife's corpse, he finds a dagger meant to kill him, realizing that she had been tricked to try and assassinate him. Roland ends up imprisoned for his act which contradicts the events of The Wind Through the Keyhole.
His team still visited him while his father rode off with some companions to hunt down Flagg. As controversy began to stir on the civilians of Gilead, Roland was freed by one of his classmates, Aileen Ritter. During their escape, they find one of their tutors who specialized in riddles dead. To make things worse, some guards had been killing off the gunslinger's father and his friends. Now the job of defending Gilead lays in the hands of Roland and his friends. 
Farson's first invasions were stopped by traps set up by Roland's team though they failed to realized that some guards had been killing off civilians in the background. 
====The Battle of Jericho Hill====
7 years after the events of The Fall of Gilead, Roland's group watches as the remains of Gilead continues to be crushed after its fall. They were able to find Sheemie Ruiz who had been separated from the group for a while. He notifies the group of his vision regarding the 6 mythical beams holding up their realm with one of them getting close to being destroyed. 
Roland decides to make a plan to follow the remains of the heavily damaged beam, possibly leading to the Dark Tower. His group agrees and after 9 years, they still failed to reach the Dark Tower and instead end right back in the ruins of Gilead. During a break, the group discuss the plans of Farson with a new addition to their crew. However, one of his teammates was considering betraying the team and side with Flagg.
Before the conspiracy can conspire, Roland and his team perform the oil rig attack event within the flashbacks of Wizard and Glass. Said teammate, named Randolph, had lost his wife to Flagg who was disguised and was able to get him to kidnap Sheemie. The team never figured out this betrayal and Randolph continued to work for them though Alain did became suspicious of him.
The group was planning another attack of Farson's base with the help of a military commander, believing said base to be located in a place called the Rimrocks. Said commander however was killed off while investigating the place and finding it to be abandoned which allowed Alain to confirm his suspicions. 
Roland and Cuthbert on the other hand managed to find a nearby encampment of Farson's men which Randolph never reported. During the fight however, they accidentally shoot Alain, thinking him to be one of their enemies. With his dying breath, he tells the team of Randolph's betrayal. Cuthbert ends up confronting the traitor who ends up killing himself.
As Roland is trying to figure out what to do with this situation, he is visited by Flagg who had come to taunt him. He was quickly forced to flee when the gunslinger attempts to shoot him without hesitation. Just then, Farson and his men attack, beginning the titular battle of Jericho Hill.
Aileen was impaled with a spear while Jamie de Curry dies trying to protect Roland, adding further contradictions to the events of The Wind Through the Keyhole. Cuthbert dies due to a crossbow bolt hit and in the end, Roland is the last one alive despite suffering from gunshot wounds. 
Despite all these losses, he refuses to surrender and ends falling into darkness. As Farson is gathering up and piling the bodies of the dead, Flagg believed that he had won. Little did he know that this is merely the prologue. 
===2017 Movie===
Roland is featured in 2017 live action movie also named The Dark Tower where he is portrayed by Idris Elba. The movie has many issues with the most blatant being the fact that all the books and chapters were crammed up into one movie.
Roland himself first appears after Jake Chambers successfully flees from the psychiatrists and enters a portal, explaining his motives on wanting to hunt down Walter Padick, another of Randall Flagg's aliases. This time however, he seeks revenge for his father's death and the destruction of the gunslingers in the hands of Flagg. 
With that introduction, the two go to a village in order to get confirmation on Jake's visions, revealing that the machine Roland is looking for is 6 months on foot to reach and in Flagg's base. Flagg on the other hand discovers the danger the teenager may bring to his plans and sends in an army of his minions to attack the duo. The gunslinger was able to easily kill off many of them though he ends up injured. 
The duo decide to go to earth in order to get some medical attention for Roland while Jake learns on the location of the portal he had used previously. Once the two were finished with their issues, they decide to check on the teenager's home, finding his mother vaporized. As Jake grieves, Roland promises to avenge her death and teach him the skills of a gunslinger.
During that period, Roland at some point had to replenish his stock at a gun shop. Inside, he ends up getting attacked by Flagg. Upon recovering, he finds that Jake had been kidnapped by the Man in Black who is now back in his base. The teenager was able to warn the gunslinger of a code as he fights off henchman and eventually reach the portal in the base. 
He and Flagg were sucked into the portal, ending up in New York where after a fierce fight, Roland managed to shoot down his opponent with some encouragement from Jake. With that victory, the gunslinger invites the teenager to accompany him in his journey.
==Gallery==
===Novels===
File:Roland book cover 2.jpg|Roland Deschain featured in the cover of "The Gunslinger" novel
File:Roland book cover 1.jpg|Roland Deschain featured in the cover of "The Dark Tower" novel
File:Roland book illustration 1.png|Full body illustration of Roland Deschain
File:Roland book illustration 2.png|Novel illustration of Roland Deschain
File:Roland_book_illustration_3.png|Roland featured in a novel illustration
===Comics===
File:Roland comic cover 1.jpg|Roland Deschain featured in the cover of the "Gunslinger Born" Issue
File:Roland comic cover 2.png|Roland Deschain featured in the cover of the "Battle of Tull" Issue
File:Roland comic cover 3.png|Roland Deschain and Jake Chambers featured in the cover for the third chapter of the "The Way Station" Issue
File:Roland comic cover 4.jpg|The whole ka-tet minus Oy featured in the cover for the fourth chapter of the "The Drawing of the Three" Issue
File:Roland comic cover 5.jpg|The whole ka-tet minus Oy featured in another cover for the fourth chapter of the "The Drawing of the Three" Issue
===Movie===
File:The Dark Tower Poster.jpg|Roland Deschain in the poster for the 2017 movie
File:The Dark Tower Poster 2.png|Roland Deschain in another poster for the 2017 movie
File:Roland movie illustration.png|Roland Deschain featured in promotional image for the movie
File:Roland and Jake 1.png|Roland Deschain and Jake Chambers in the city
File:Roland and Jake 2.png|Roland Deschain and Jake Chambers in another part of the city
File:Roland and Jake 3.png|Roland Deschain and Jake Chambers sitting at the entrance of the latter's apartment
File:Roland and Flagg 1.png|Roland Deschain facing off Randall Flagg
==Trivia==
*Roland's story has connections to Arthurian legends such as the claims of his family being descendants King Arthur which in the Dark Tower story is named Arthur Eld, his guns being made of metal from the Excalibur, and his son being named Mordred
==External Links==
*Roland Deschain in the Dark Tower Wiki
*Roland Deschain in the Stephen King Wiki
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