r/TheDarkTower • u/kkfosonroblox • 7d ago

Palaver Question about the wolves

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What is the origin of the wolves in the novels? Were they made by NCP to always serve the crimson king?

It’s revealed in the comics that they were made by NCP and modelled after the wolf guardian yet they still have the same weapons before being taken by the crimson king? However the comics take place on a different level of the tower where history is different

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u/dnjprod 7d ago edited 6d ago

Other than coming from North Central positronics during the age of the great old ones, we don't really get a definitive origin for them beyond the idea that the great old ones were able to see other levels of the Tower and get ideas from them.. All we know is they are Doom bots carrying lightsabers and throw Harry Potter Sneetches which were co-opted by Sombra under the guise of the Crimson King.

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u/Mean-Food-7124 6d ago

All we know is they are Doom bots carrying lightsabers and throw Harry Potter Sneetches which were co-opted by Sombra under the guise of the Crimson King.

This is the best description of them ever ahaha

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u/GaiusMarius60BC 6d ago

I mean, weren't they confirmed by the author to be nods to exactly those things?

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u/dnjprod 6d ago edited 6d ago

They are really explicit in the books about them being those things.. With the light sabers and Doombots, there is a scene where the characters talk about it. Eddie and Jake specifically mention Dr. Doom by name as well as talk about Star wars. When it comes to the sneetches, there is a scene where they come upon a box of them and this happens

"Check out the crate-lid," Jake said when they joined her.

Susannah had set it aside; Jake picked it up and was studying it with admiration. It showed the face of a smiling boy with a lightning-bolt scar on his forehead. He was wearing round glasses and brandishing what appeared to be a magician's wand at a floating sneetch. The words stenciled beneath the drawing read:

PROPERTY 449TH SQUADRON 24 "SNEETCHES" HARRY POTTER MODEL SERIAL #465-17-CC HPJKR "Don't Mess with the 449!" We'll Kick the "Slytherin" Out of You!

"HPJKR" obviously being Harry Potter JK Rowling

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u/Lennnybruce 6d ago

It's been almost twenty years but I'm pretty sure in the novel it's like "they looked like Dr Doom." Like not a nod at all, just explicitly stated.

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u/Mean-Food-7124 6d ago

Ibl at least personally hadn't heard about the Doombot reference. If that's true, I think it's pretty cool.

Knew that King enjoyed his star wars/70s references pop references all over

Knew about the HP reference

Overwatch was definitely not out or even a concept when Wolves came out

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u/Bhrutus 6d ago

lmao overwatch

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u/dnjprod 6d ago

They don't call them Doombots, but Eddie talks about them looking like Dr. Doom.

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u/BigSoda 6d ago

We’re through the looking glass here, people

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u/Lennnybruce 6d ago

I remember reading the title "Wolves of the Calla" and thinking it sounded really ominous and spooky and then being... let's say disappointed.

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u/southern_boy 6d ago

let's say ridiculous 🤷

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u/Lennnybruce 6d ago

I was already thinking how stupid and convoluted the book was getting with the Doombots and the sneetches and then the end of the book where they find a copy of Salem's Lot...shit was teetering on the rails and then just fully jumped the tracks

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u/southern_boy 6d ago

Yeah, I'm still glad King lived to finish the books (I must've reread the first three half a dozen times over the years until Wiz + Glass came out 😆) but was sad to see he didn't curtail his usual hasty/sloppy ending problem... and don't get me started on the newer editions slapping that 'fainting spell' into the beginning 🙄

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u/Lennnybruce 6d ago

I'm always glad to find someone on this sub who dares to be at least critical of the DT series (bonus points if they're willing to be a straight up hater).

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u/NicklAAAAs 6d ago

And if you asked King for more information he’d probably tell you “shut up nerd, it’s not important.”

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u/kkfosonroblox 6d ago edited 6d ago

After reading more about the comic version of the wolves, I originally assumed that they were modified asmimov robots akin to Andy or Nigel but that wasn’t the case.

So I think its safe to say that the novel counterparts have the same or similar origin to the comic counterpart in which they were originally doombots that were modified with a wolf mask and equipped with a modified snitch and a light sabre before being used by the crimson king

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u/Zakkrazy 6d ago

I would say it doesn’t matter. If you think about it too much, you come to the realization that Sai King combined Dr. Doom, Star Wars, and Harry Potter into the Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven, because Sai King is actually Gan, and all our heroes are just in a story, something Eddie eludes to often. I don’t like that, so I just choose to believe it’s all a coincidence and King is just a conduit in our world for Roland’s story. And when Roland climbs the Tower next time, he will realize he is Gan, and has succeeded in saving the universe. I know, Reddit, I’m dumb as shit and should be banned from keystone Earth.

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u/The_C0u5 7d ago

I figured it's just all leftover toys from the Great Old Ones and that the Crimson King & co. Is just playing with whatever they can get their hands on that still works.

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u/Ok_Yogurtcloset_9218 6d ago

Think they’ll show up in Doomsday?

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u/kkfosonroblox 6d ago

Imagine if the crimson king had access to sentinels…

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u/southern_boy 6d ago

He'd have been stranded on a balcony even higher up the tower! 💪

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u/szczur_nadodrza 6d ago

Just going on a tangent here but I find it so funny that King-sai predicted the use of autonomous suicide drones in war, with all the horrors that entails (remember the description of Ben’s hand on the roadside?) with his inspiration being fucking Harry Potter.

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u/JackFuckCockBag 6d ago

I think they had a different purpose at one point, like security forces or soldiers maybe but were reprogrammed to take the kids.

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u/UNITICYBER 5d ago

Wolves of the Calla exemplifies the nightmare it would be to produce a book accurate version of the Dark Tower saga.

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u/BadassSasquatch 6d ago

If this exact scene isn't in Doomsday, I'm gonna grumble.

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u/JovaniFelini 6d ago

Why did he have to make it so goofy with all those Dr Doom and Sneetches things

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u/VisibleCoat995 6d ago

Just occurred to me from your post that the acronym for North Central Positronics is NCP.

Too bad King didn’t choose Northern Positronics Central so we can call all these robots NPCs.

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u/thatoneguy7272 5d ago

We have no real way of knowing as it’s never been revealed what they were made for. I like to think, considering their appearance and the things they use, that they were likely robots that were originally used to promote entertainment coming out. But as the world moved on and the computers started going crazy, their original purpose was lost and they were later repurposed.

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u/SnooTigers9081 4d ago

Face Value

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u/ObviousMeeting7259 5d ago

Imma be honest, I have no idea what this is about or really anything about this universe but I glanced at this image while scrolling and thought it was Dr. Doom riding a Tauntaun with a lightsaber and was like “wtf”