Talk:Randall Flagg

This is the talk page for discussing improvements to the Randall Flagg article.
This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject.

Put new text under old text. Click here to start a new topic.
New to Wikipedia? Welcome! Learn to edit; get help.

Article policies

Find sources: Google (books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL

Archives: 1, 2

view · edit

Frequently asked questions

Q: I think George Stark/Andre Linoge/Pennywise is really Randall Flagg because he is an evil wizard/can shape-shift/wants world domination. Can I add that to the article?

A: The problem with this and any fan speculation is that it falls under original research. If Stephen King didn't explicitly confirm it, then it needs to be brought up in a reliable source. For example, while the character of Raymond Fiegler from Hearts in Atlantis was not identified by King as being a manifestation of Flagg, the connection was brought up in The Complete Stephen King Universe, a book written by Christopher Golden and Hank Wagner.

Q: When was it revealed that Walter o'Dim and Marten Broadcloak from The Dark Tower were manifestations of Randall Flagg?

A: It was revealed in Wizard and Glass that Marten was Flagg. When King revised The Gunslinger, he wrote that Walter was the same person as Marten. Later books in the series confirm that all three characters were one and the same.

Randall Flagg has been listed as one of the Language and literature good articles under the good article criteria. If you can improve it further, please do so. If it no longer meets these criteria, you can reassess it.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
July 22, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
December 4, 2006	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
December 16, 2006	Peer review	Reviewed
May 27, 2007	Good article nominee	Not listed
November 23, 2007	Peer review	Reviewed
December 4, 2007	Good article nominee	Not listed
January 28, 2008	Good article nominee	Listed
January 31, 2008	Peer review	Reviewed
February 14, 2008	Guild of Copy Editors	Copyedited
February 27, 2008	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
September 20, 2008	Peer review	Reviewed
October 25, 2008	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
March 3, 2009	Peer review	Reviewed
January 1, 2012	Peer review	Reviewed
February 7, 2012	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
March 6, 2013	Peer review	Reviewed
July 5, 2013	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
January 27, 2017	Peer review	Reviewed
August 9, 2017	Featured article candidate	Not promoted
Current status: Good article

Film

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Film. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please refer to the documentation. To improve this article, please refer to the guidelines.FilmWikipedia:WikiProject FilmTemplate:WikiProject Filmfilm

Horror High‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Horror, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to fictional horror in film, literature and other media on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, you can edit one of the articles mentioned below, or visit the project page, where you can join the project and contribute to the general Project discussion to talk over new ideas and suggestions.HorrorWikipedia:WikiProject HorrorTemplate:WikiProject Horrorhorror
High	This article has been rated as High-importance on the project's importance scale.

Fictional characters

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Fictional characters, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of fictional characters on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.Fictional charactersWikipedia:WikiProject Fictional charactersTemplate:WikiProject Fictional charactersfictional character

Guild of Copy Editors

This article was copy edited by Miniapolis, a member of the Guild of Copy Editors, on June 10, 2013.Guild of Copy EditorsWikipedia:WikiProject Guild of Copy EditorsTemplate:WikiProject Guild of Copy EditorsGuild of Copy Editors

Images

I removed the comicbook image for the time being. Unfortunately, WP is clamping down on fair use images for featured articles. The first thing that will happen when we put it up for Featured status is that it will be considered 'decorative' and not adding anything to the article. There was a time when the article actually had quite a few illustrations, one of which was Flagg from the comics, and they were all removed.

As it is, I'm not even sure if the image of Walter will be permitted when the time comes even though that shows Flagg's second major persona. I won't stop anyone if they want to put it back, but an image of Flagg from the comic will be the first to go when it gets nominated again.--CyberGhostface (talk) 20:35, 5 March 2012 (UTC)[reply]

It's better to have no images than the klingon sorcerer who looks nothing like this description: "Later, he attributed Flagg to an image of a man walking the roads in cowboy boots, denim jeans, and a jacket, a notion which "came out of nowhere" when he was in college. Flagg's character and the nature of his evil have been the subject of considerable critical attention." — Preceding unsigned comment added by 217.195.240.130 (talk) 21:25, 21 September 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Well again the image of Flagg as a sorcerer is one of his major personas throughout the different books. He only has the denim outfit in a few of his appearances.--CyberGhostface (talk) 17:42, 19 June 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The Crimson King

Just wanted to let you all know that this article is looking great. I was hoping that whoever was working on this article could they do the same for the article on The Crimson King, Flagg's associate and master. The article is in a state of severe underdevelopment and needs to be expanded upon significantly.--Paleface Jack (talk) 17:30, 14 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I will try looking at it if I get some time but I don't think there's as much real-world information (I.e. King discussing his conception, general critical analysis) about the CK as there is for Flagg.--CyberGhostface (talk) 18:06, 14 August 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Reference 3 is a "mega reference" but with pages (shouldn't have)

Ref. number 3 currently reads as "King, Stephen (1990). The Stand: The Complete and Uncut Edition. New York: Doubleday," but then it goes on to say "pp. 214–215." The problem is that it is cited something like 13 times. All those different spots in the article are clearly not referring to those two pages!

On Internet Archive, pages 214–5 are an early-ish scene where General Starkey is walking among the dead bodies in the germ lab. It's clearly nothing to do with the description of Flagg's face, the warhead exploding, or many other places this reference is used.

What now:

Get page numbers for all references? (Best option, but I don't have time)
Delete page numbers & leave as generic reference to whole book? (I guess so, but I didn't want to do that either. The current number has a link to Internet Archive that's kind of useful. And it's maybe a reminder or placeholder that each reference ought to have page numbers?)

Officiallyover (talk) 10:42, 7 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Personally I think page numbers should be provided rather than asking readers to hunt through a book that's over 1K pages long to verify claims made in the article. That said, it doesn't necessarily have to be done in any sort of hurry per WP:NODEADLINE, but at minimum something should be done to address the fact that many of the statements being linked to the book likely aren't supported by the provided page numbers. DonIago (talk) 13:46, 7 February 2025 (UTC)[reply]