Pennywise

**It** (sometimes capitalized as **IT**), more commonly known as **Pennywise, the Clown**, was the main antagonist of the novel and the film of the same name. He was a demonic entity, who would disguise himself as a clown or other terrifying things (generally based on the subject's worst fears) to attract children, so he can capture and kill them as they are an easier target.

It apparently originated in a void containing and surrounding the Universe, a place referred to in the novel as the "Macroverse" (a concept similar to the later established Todash Darkness of the Dark Tower Novels). Its real name (if, indeed, It has one) is unknown—although at several points in the novel, It claims its true name to be Robert Gray—and is christened It by the group of children who later confront it. Throughout the book, It is generally referred to as male; however, late in the book, the protagonists come to believe that It may possibly be female (due to Its manifestation as a monstrous female spider). Despite this, Its true form is never truly comprehended. Its final physical body is that of an enormous spider; this is, however, the closest the human mind can get to approximating its actual form. Its natural form exists in a realm beyond the physical, which It calls the "deadlights". Bill comes dangerously close to seeing the deadlights, but successfully defeats It before this happens. As such, the deadlights are never seen, and Its true form outside the physical realm is never revealed, only described as writhing, destructive orange lights. Coming face to face with the deadlights drives any living being instantly insane (a common Lovecraftian device). The only known person to face the deadlights and survive is Audra Phillips.

Its natural enemy is "The Turtle", another ancient Macroverse dweller who, eons ago, created our Universe and possibly others. The Turtle shows up again in King's series *The Dark Tower*. The book suggests that It, along with the Turtle, are themselves creations of a separate, omnipotent creator referred to as "the Other" (who may be the entity Gan) The Turtle and It are eternal enemies in a battle of creation against consumption. It may in fact be either a twinner of or the actual one of the six greater demon elementals mentioned by Mia in *Song of Susannah*, as the Spider is not one of the Beam Guardians. It arrived in our world in a massive, cataclysmic event similar to an asteroid impact, in the place that would, in time, becomeDerry, Maine.

Through the novel *It*, some events are described through Its point of view, through which It describes himself as the "superior" being, with the Turtle as someone "close to his superiority" and humans as mere "toys". It describes that it prefers to kill and devour children, not by nature, rather because children's fears are easier to interpret in a physical form and thus children are easier to fill with terror, which It says is akin to salting the meat. It is continually surprised by the children's victories over It and near the end, it begins to question if It is not as superior as It had once thought. However, It never believed that the individual children are strong enough to defeat It, only through "the Other" working through them as a group.

## History

### Film

It was part of the disasters that occurred every 30 years in the Maine town of Derry.

Unlike many horror monsters before him, Pennywise the Dancing Clown was never against killing children. In fact, he actually preferred to kill children as they were an easier target. That was probably why he chose the form of a clown, a figure that both entertained and terrified many young children. It had razor sharp teeth that he could use to kill people.

As the film progressed, a group of children known as the Lucky Seven (also mockingly referred to as the "Losers' Club") banded together to kill Pennywise and end his murderous reign (after he had killed the brother of one of them) and apparently succeed after they tracked him down to his lair. However, Pennywise, being a lesser-aspect of a higher being, was not going to stay dead forever and he swore revenge on the gang for his defeat before he vanished into nothingness.

30 years later, Pennywise kept his promise and came after members of the gang, who were all adults in the present day, to kill them. That prompted the gang to reform and battle Pennywise again in order to kill him yet again and save themselves from his wrath. At the end of the film, the gang *did* manage to defeat Pennywise again, but in that final battle, he took the form of a spider-like monster that was revealed to be his true form) rather than the clown disguise (which he used for most of the film). He was killed when they pulled out his heart. After they killed it, the gang left its corpse to rot.

### NovelEdit

The film lacked many elements of It that the novel included. In the novel, It was an eternal entity that was almost as old as time itself. It was the natural enemy of Maturin (The Turtle), who both existed in the Macroverse.

After It arrived on Earth, It would sleep for approximately 28 to 30 years at a time, and then awoke to wreak chaos and feed (primarily on the fear of children). It was able to take many more forms than the film depicted, including werewolves, bats, leeches, and even *Jaws*. Anything that a child was afraid of, It could become.

Also in the novel, It was only able to be stopped when Bill performed the Ritual of Chüd.

It apparently originated in a void that contained and surrounded the Universe, a place referred to in the novel as the "Macroverse" (a concept similar to the later established *Todash Darkness* of the *Dark Tower* Novels). Its real name (if, indeed, It had one) was unknown—although at several points in the novel, It claimed its true name to be **Robert Gray**—and was christened It by the group of children who later confronted it. Throughout the book, It was generally referred to as male. However, late in the book, the protagonists came to believe that It may possibly be female (due to Its manifestation as a large female spider). Despite that, Its true form was never truly comprehended. Its final physical body was that of an enormous spider; that was, however, the closest that the human mind could get to approximating its actual form. Its natural form existed in a realm beyond the physical, which It called the "deadlights". Bill Denbrough came dangerously close to seeing the deadlights, but successfully defeated It before that happened. As such, the deadlights were never seen, and Its true form outside the physical realm was never revealed, and was only described as writhing, destroying orange lights. Coming face to face with the deadlights drove any living being instantly insane (a common H.P. Lovecraft device). The only known person to face the deadlights and survive was Bill's wife, Audra Phillips.

Its natural enemy was the "Turtle," another ancient Macroverse dweller who, eons ago, created our Universe and possibly others. The Turtle showed up again in King's series, *The Dark Tower*. The book suggested that It, along with the Turtle, were themselves creations of a separate, omnipotent creator referred to as "The Other". The Turtle and It were eternal enemies (creation versus consumption). It may in fact, be either a twinner of or the actual one of the 6 greater demon elementals that were mentioned by Mia in Song of Susannah, as the Spider was not one of the Beam Guardians. It arrived in our world in a massive, cataclysmic event that was similar to an asteroid impact, in the place that would, in time, become Derry, Maine.

Throughout the novel *It*, some events were described through Its point of view, through which It described himself as the "superior" being, with the Turtle as someone "close to his superiority" and humans as mere "toys". It described that it preferred to kill and devour children, not by nature, rather because children's fears were easier to interpret in a physical form and thus children were easier to fill with terror, which It said was akin to marinating the meat. It was continually surprised by the children's victories over It and near the end, it began to question if It was not as superior as It had once thought. However, It never believed that the individual children were strong enough to defeat It, only through "the Other" working through them as a group.

## Cycle

For millions of years, It dwelt under Derry, and awaited the arrival of humans, which It somehow knew would occur. Once people settled over It's resting place, It adopted a cycle of hibernating for long periods and awoke approximately every 27 years. Its awakening was always marked by a great act of violence, and another great act of violence ends Its spree and sent It back into hibernation:

* 1715 – 1716: It awoke.
* 1740 – 1743: It awoke and started a 3-year reign of terror that culminated with the disappearance of over 300 settlers from Derry Township, much like the Roanoke Island mystery.
* 1769 – 1770: It awoke again.
* 1851: It awoke when a man named John Markson poisoned his family, and then committed suicide by eating a white-nightshade mushroom, causing an excruciating death.
* 1876 – 1879: It awoke and went back into hibernation after a group of lumberjacks were found murdered near the Kenduskeag.
* 1904 – 1906: It awoke when a lumberjack named Claude Heroux murdered a number of men in a bar with an axe. Heroux was promptly pursued by a mob of townsfolk and hanged. It returned to hibernation when the Kitchener Ironworks exploded, and killed 108 people, 88 of them children who were engaged in an Easter Egg Hunt.
* 1929 – 1930: It awoke when a group of Derry citizens gunned down a group of gangsters known as the Bradley Gang. It returned to hibernation when the Maine Legion of White Decency, a Northern counterpart to the Ku Klux Klan, burned down an African-American army nightclub which was called "The Black Spot".
* 1957 – 1958: It awoke during a great storm which flooded part of the city, and murdered George Denbrough. It then met its match when The Losers' Club forced It to return to an early hibernation when It was wounded by the young Bill Denbrough in the first Ritual of Chüd.
* 1984 – 1985: It awoke when 3 young homophobic bullies beat up a young gay couple, Adrian Mellon and Don Hagarty, and threw Mellon off a bridge (echoing real life events in Maine). It was finally destroyed in the second Ritual of Chüd by the adult Bill Denbrough, Richie Tozier, Beverly Marsh, Eddie Kaspbrak and Ben Hanscom, though that triggered the collapse of the water tower, and flooded the town.

In the intervening periods between each pair of events, a series of child murders occurred, which were never solved. The book's surface explanation as to why those murders were never reported on the national news was that location mattered to a news story—a series of murders, no matter how gruesome, do not get reported if they happen in a small town. However, the book's implied reason for why the atrocities went unnoticed was far more sinister: It never let them.

## Powers and Abilities

* **Shape-shifting**. It could immediately transform itself to any kind of being, and took the frightful image directly from the victim's mind, regardless of the size or nature. It took the form of a giant plastic statue, several small life entities - flying leeches - or several human-sized entities, when Eddie was confronted by the cadavers of Greta Bowie, Patrick Hockstetter, and Belch Huggins at the baseball court. Between shape-shifting, It was an orange amorphous goo, which was somewhat close to Its true form.
* **Partial Invisibility**. That was clearly stated in several cases, notably when Beverly encountered Pennywise at the house where she used to live or when Richie encountered It in the public library, which suggested that only those who could see It were those who actually believed, or had knowledge about Its existence, although It could become fully visible to anybody, when it was necessary -- whenever It chose. One notable moment was when It helped Henry Bowers to escape from Juniper Hill, one of Henry's roommates and then, the guard also witnessed It next to Henry.
* **Illusions**. It could create many different illusions, which were actually real. Those illusions included balloons floating against the wind, moving photographs, blood gushes and streams, small but shocking entities, such as a cricket, a mutant fly, teeth, and eyeball, which were hidden in the fortune cookies at the Lucky Seven's reunion, different noises and music (including human speech), and various smells (popcorn, cotton candy, rotting). The partial invisibility ability fully applied on all of those illusions, as only the chosen victims could actually see and sense those. After a period of time, or when the witness actually saw through the illusion, those would cease to exist. It was imperative, however, to see through the illusion perfectly.
* **Quick Regeneration**. While It was clearly not invulnerable, and in fact, could be wounded and damaged in smaller-bigger degrees, It could almost spontaneously regenerate. That ability of It appeared to be untrustworthy, as seen at the young Mike Hanlon's encounter with the giant bird. After Mike hit the bird's eye and its feet with broken tiles, It quickly decided to retreat. At the other hand, when Bill and Richie encountered It in its werewolf form at 29 Neibolt Street, It could almost instantly regenerate itself after Bill's headshot with the Walther PPK, and it chased the boys for a somewhat long period. It was unclear, how It utilized its quick regeneration abilities, but it might be a necessarily-corporeal ability. Opinions differed about whether or not It could be killed merely with heavy firepower and weapons, or at least Its physical form.
* **Telepathic Perception**. It could read people's mind in its close vicinity. That was the ability It exploited mostly, when it took a form, but in several cases, It could clearly read the Lucky Seven's thoughts, and used them to its own advantage.
* **Telepathic Communication**. It could communicate telepathically, as seen in the scene of the library with the adult Ben Hanscom, or the Juniper Hill scene with Henry Bowers.
* **Mind control ability**. It has the power of brainwashing several minds, even simultaneously. This also suggests that It has the ability to erase particular things out of a person's memory or knowledge. At the two confrontations between The Losers Club and It, Bill discovers this, and warns his friends that "Derry is It" and that "any place [they] go, they won't see, they won't hear, they won't know." massively effects the minds of the locals who live within Derry, making them indifferent about the tragic events that are taking place. Generally, it would appear that the weaker willed citizens and visitors succumb to It's powerful mind control. This mind control ability presumably has no effect on people outside Derry's boundaries.
* **Teleportation**. It could teleport itself to limited distances by disappearing without a trace, and re-appearing somewhere else a little bit later. Although a very useful and effective ability, It didn't seem to exploit that too often.
* **Pollution Inducement**. With a touch, It could instantly cause plants to die. It was seen when Eddie (young and adult) encountered It in its leper form. It must be distinguished from the illusions mentioned earlier, as that effect persisted long after Its appearance, although it did not serve any practical purposes.
* **Telekinesis**. It could manipulate lifeless objects to fall, float around, and behave supernaturally. That included locking doors, and electronic devices.
* **Atmokinesis**. It may have the effect on the weather in Derry's region. On more than one occasion, when the Losers faced It, the weather changed into a thunderstorm. Most notably at the final confrontation, which actually devastated Derry's downtown region.
* **Activation and Deactivation**. The power to make the television in Audra Phillips (Audra Denbrough's) hotel room switch itself on, and showed an image of Pennywise holding the severed head of her film director, Freddie Firestone.
* **Acrobatic Expertise**. It also appeared to be an expert at gymnastics because after Its head was cracked open revealing the "deadlights" before being killed It escaped by somersaulting over the Lucky Seven and disappeared down the sewer drain.
* **Photokinesis.** It had the ability to unleash dangerous lights from his eyes called the Deadlights.

## Weaknesses

Despite It seeing itself as the superior being, and actually stating that its brain embraces the whole continent, It is far from being almighty. Though It does seem to have significant power above Derry and over its denizens, It displays several weaknesses, which the Losers would exploit and eventually overcome.

For instance, It clearly underestimates and scorns all of mankind, including the Losers. It is notable in many cases that It leaves an open escapeway for the victims and lets them run away. This was seen when the young Ben Hanscom encounters the mummy and when Eddie sees the leper under the porch of 29 Neibolt Street. Because of this, It constantly makes mistakes and does illogical things. When Henry Bowers and his sidekicks chase the Losers into the sewer tunnel system, It attacks Henry's gang instead and turns on the Losers only after killing Henry's two friends. It is also mentioned in the novel that It killed a child named Frederick Cowan by emerging from the toilet, and yet, It was unable to finish off the Losers one by one using this same method only because it doesn't believe that it needed to do such things to kill them.

It is a psychically sensitive entity, so courage and heart can overcome It, even in its most diabolical forms. Once the Losers are together, their strong will and the love for each other successfully overpower It and its fiendish machinations. Their strong faith in their various methods of fighting It eventually leads them to victory. The Losers' assault on 29 Neibolt Street made It quickly retreat after being hit by a silver slug (because of the Losers' common sense solution of using silver against supernatural entities).

The novel also states that when It transforms into a shape, It must obey the laws of that form. This clearly means that It is not invulnerable, and its physical forms can bleed and can be significantly damaged and perhaps even destroyed.

It goes to hibernation for approximately 30 years between the cycles. During that time, It may be extremely vulnerable to surprise attacks. However, despite having been defeated for good, it has been heavily implied in other books (such as the Dreamcatcher and Hearts in Atlantis) that It may be still alive. It's natural enemy, The Turtle "Maturin" is mentioned in The Dark Tower series and the character Father Callahan even managed to defend himself from a large group of demons using a cross and the Turtle image, in spite of the latter having "*died*" during this novel. So, it can be speculated that only Its physical form was destroyed.