The Old Ones Should have a presence

When exploring a series as expansive and deep as Stephen King's The Dark Towerit's easy to get lost in the heart of the story and forget all the little details that make that story as vast and engrossing as it is. The heart of the story, Roland the Gunslinger's quest to protect the Dark Tower from the evil Crimson King, is always at the forefront of the narrative. And yet, there are so many other figures and characters involved in the story that deserve a place in Mike Flanagan's upcoming adaptation. One group of people who deserve a voice in the series is The Great Old Ones.

Also known simply as the Old Ones, this group was an ancient race of people who lived thousands of years before Roland and his house of Gilead existed. They were instrumental in building not only the cities and landscapes of All-World, but also the machines and technology that Roland comes into contact with along his journey. Most importantly, they had a hand in how the Dark Tower exists in Roland's time, blending science and magic in ways that would impact Roland's journey forever. For this and many other reasons, the Great Old Ones deserve a presence in Mike Flanagan's The Dark Tower.

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The Old Ones, explained

A powerful race of humans who mastered technology and science at a rapid pace, the Old Ones were instrumental in the ways the Whole World would one day exist, much like humanity before the bombs fell. Fall out. They helped create a wonderful society built on technology, founding great cities like Lud (a main location in book 3 of the series, The Waste Lands). They were also key in creating powerful machines like Blaine the Mono, an advanced artificial intelligence fused into a train that could travel over 800 miles per hour. They would later become an enemy of Roland and his band of heroes.

The society's culture is very unfamiliar, never having been experienced in books or comics before. But according to the man in black, aka Randall Flagg, they were responsible for curing cancer, traveling to the moon, and even mastering artificial insemination. However, once they gained near-divine control over their technological advances, they began to turn against each other, using their works to destroy each other instead of uplifting each other. Corporations like North Central Positronics emerged, using their technology to fuel their own greed and in the process poisoning the air with pollution and radiation.

Their greatest achievement was mastering the ability to manipulate the fabric of the multiverse itself, such as the energy beams that hold it and reality in place. They could replace or merge them with their technology and use the Tower's many doors to travel to different worlds and time periods. They used the doors to travel to tragic and important moments in time for entertainment. This trip also influenced how much All-World and Keystone World had similarities to each other.

It was discovered that the Great Old Ones and their destructive behavior were influenced by none other than Maeryln, the ancient entity and agent of chaos who was one of Arthur Eld's greatest enemies. He helped North Central Positronics find a way to merge their technology with magic. However, all this war and greed led to the sterilization of their people. All of their vast knowledge and ability to maintain the technology they had built was lost once their people finally disappeared.

Impact on Mike Flanagan's Dark Tower

The Old Ones have a great impact on the world of the Dark Tower. While a television series would allow for greater exploration through flashbacks and discoveries throughout the various seasons of time in which the Old Ones operated, the biggest impact it would have is on the technology and machines on who left them behind. The tower itself, through the use of doors to travel between worlds, has the biggest impact by far. This is instrumental in Roland's recruitment of new heroes to his cause.

There is also the use of massive machines known as Guardians, which were built to protect the integrity of the beams that serve the Dark Tower. As each beam is destroyed or weakened and without any maintenance, these machines go berserk, often becoming like untethered, rabid animals that attack on sight. One such guardian, Shardik, attacks Roland and his group, as does another robot named Andy later in the series. The lack of knowledge on how to take care of these machines creates a lot of chaos that descended upon Roland's world.

The weapons they built also played a major role in Roland's life, from the RPGs and machine guns that were used to attack Roland's men to the screaming bombs known as sneetches. These, along with other inventions and technologies, either help or hinder Roland's progress towards the Dark Tower. They also make up much of the backstory and history that Roland's world occupies. Any successful adaptation of The Dark Tower he should take the time not only to bring these creations to life, but also to explore the Old Sea in much greater detail.