Stephen King’s ultimate villain isn’t Randall Flagg (it’s someone worse)

While Randall Flagg is known to most Stephen King Fans, even if they haven’t dived into his books, he’s actually not the worst villain of the King of Horror. Stephen King’s books are remarkable in the sense that they are unremarkable – the horror usually starts slowly, in a small town, or unfolds in an everyday scenario that suddenly goes nightmarishly wrong. The protagonists who fight this evil are usually not mythical heroesBut everyday people, the kind you might make small talk with while waiting in line at the grocery store, or wave hi to while walking your dog.

It is the arrangement of his settings and of his characters that makes Stephen King’s villains so memorable. His villains also take all forms, with the author ready and eager to spread the horror around; Stephen King’s villains are human, supernatural and otherwise. A confused dog, a possessed car, an unhinged nurse, a malicious vampire, a resurrected child, a psychotically sentient monorail, and a cosmic entity can all play prominent antagonistic roles in the universe Stephen King has created. Some of his villains are particularly terrifying. yet, Even they bow to one even greater – Stephen King’s worst villain of all.

Randall Flagg is Stephen King’s most recurring villain – but not the worst

Randall Flagg has appeared in many universes wearing many faces

It is understandable that when people think of Stephen King’s worst villain, they immediately think of Randall Flagg, or even Pennywise, especially if they have only watched movies and not read his books. It is understandable. Randall Flagg is King’s version of the devil: a shifty, immortal deal-maker who has walked our Earth and others for millennia, sowing chaos, discord, violence and death. His presence is as undeniable as it is evil; Randall Flagg is a relentless, creeping blight, a malevolent god who can change his face as he pleases.

His ambiguous nature and immortal life are what make him such a great Stephen King villain; He is able to change to suit whatever villain the story needs, which is why he appears in so many, not only The stone. The Ageless Stranger, The Walkin’ Dude, The Man in Black, Marten Broadcloak, The Dark Man, Walter Padick, The Man With No Face, The Harcase, Walter O’Dim, and more, perhaps even He Who Walks Behind the Rows, Randall Flagg is Legion and the most constantly recurring Stephen King antagonist. even so, There is one villain even Randall Flagg fears, and even Randall Flagg bows to, and that is the Crimson King.

Who is the Crimson King (and what is his purpose in Stephen King’s multiverse)

His goal is simple: to destroy the multiverse

actually, The Crimson King is Randall Flagg’s master. While Randal Flagg often seems to serve his own purposes – and he is – his greater purpose is to serve the Crimson King and carry out his bidding. The things he does, the discord he sows are all in the service of his ultimate master. The Crimson King is a Lovecraftian demonic entity, similar to Pennywise, but much stronger. Born of an illicit affair between the mythical gunslinger Arthur Eld and the demonic Crimson Queen, the Crimson King arose from the Prime, the primordial soup from which all things in all universes were born.

As the living embodiment of the Prime, All the Crimson King desires is chaosUnending chaos and destruction. His overarching goal is to destroy the beams that hold up the Dark Tower, the center of not only our universe, but of all universes, and tear down the Dark Tower to throw all universes into chaos. After the Dark Tower is destroyed and the multiverse in ruins, he will rebuild it in his image – dark, chaotic, and especially brutal, with all beings in all multiverses bowing to him.

These goals put him in direct opposition to Gan, who is also born of the Prime and is the equivalent of King to God, a creator whereas the Crimson King is a destroyer. how so The crimson king leads the red – the agents of chaos and destruction in the multiverse – while Gunn leads the Whites, the agents of all that is good. While the Red seeks to break the beams and destroy the Tower, the White wants to protect it and keep the multiverse from falling into ruin.

Why the Crimson King is so much worse than Randall Flagg

He is the monster the other monsters fear

To put it simply, The Crimson King is the villain of villains. As terrifyingly powerful and evil as Randall Flagg is, the Crimson King is more powerful and much worse. He is unimaginably powerful: omnipotent and able to exist in multiple levels of the Dark Tower simultaneously, and thus in multiple universes simultaneously. That would make him bad enough, but he also possesses the powers of necromancy and dark magic, creation shifting, elemental manipulation, telekinesis and mass mind control, the ability to control the weather and the dangerous primordial energy known as the Deadlights, which fans of it will recognize.

His power is so vast and his influence so strong that the Crimson King manipulates Pennywise to gain more strength and power, and uses Randall Flagg to carry out his dark orders. He also controls a lot of other minor Stephen King villainsSuch as vampires like Salem’s placeS. Kurt Barlow, Atropos, and John Farson. If Randall Flagg is an immortal monster, that makes the thing the monster serves—what the monster fears—even worse.

The Crimson King is the villain behind the villain, the Puppetmaster controlling the rest. He’s not on the page that often in Stephen King’s books, but he doesn’t need to be. Like all great mythical figures, His legend is shaped by the whispers and stories and fears of other charactersAnd their words alone are enough to distinguish his cosmic evil.

With so many of Stephen King’s short stories and books The Dark Tower, The Crimson King’s existence and will be so intimately tied to the destruction of the Tower makes him the author’s ultimate villain.. When Randall Flagg achieves his goals, he wipes out a town in one book or thwarts a character’s destiny in another. In the grand scheme of the multiverse, his destruction is small and surgical, serving a greater end. If the Crimson King achieves his aims, however, the multiverse—the multiverse Stephen King created—is destroyed. All his stories, all his books, all his characters, all crumble and tear apart. And this, more than anything, makes the Crimson King the greatest Stephen King Villain.