The Eyes of the Dragon

Evil in The Eyes of the Dragon is represented by Flagg and Flagg alone. The rest of the characters operate in shades of gray. Flagg’s evil is close to all-powerful. He is like Sauron in The Lord of the Rings; he is ancient, sees all, and patiently bides his time as he brings tragedy to Delain. In the glimpses the reader gets of Flagg’s magical abilities, it seems unlikely that any mortal character can defeat him, and there is nothing really stopping Flagg from destroying Delain or worse. There is no force of good that measures up to his power and no moment when his manipulation of individuals doesn’t work as it is intended. The heroes of the novel defeat Flagg only due to a series of fortunate events and small kindnesses that defy the odds.

Even those fortunate events and kindnesses could not possibly defeat Flagg on their own. The novel suggests that Flagg ends up failing in the end because evil, by its nature, undoes itself eventually. This is a larger theme in King’s oeuvre; the evil entities rarely predict that their own instincts for mischief will end up hurting them too.