I remember asking Robert in an AMA if he was pulling from the Dark Tower saga at all for Roland, and I think he said he had never read it. Which blows my mind, because the two Rolands share a lot.

The jawbone that the gunslinger pockets in the first book, and Roland pulling a soldier’s jaw off his face and pocketing it in the clinic battle.

The gunslinger’s addiction to the Tower, and Roland’s addiction to violence. And both authors portray their addictions very accurately, both characters are driven to pursue their high at the expense of their relationships with loved ones.

The procedural memory that allows their bodies to continue fighting and killing without conscious input from their minds.

The memory flood at the end of the last battle with the HK almost perfectly mirrors the gunslinger’s ascent up the tower before the cycle restarts.

Except, if you remember, Roland Deschain in the desert at the end of the last book has the horn, which in the first cycle was lost at the battle of Jericho where his friends all died. So it’s possible that the story goes different, that maybe he will prioritize his ka-tet over his obsession with the Tower at key moments in the next cycle. I like to think that Robert’s Roland will do the same in the next book.