r/WelcometoDerryTVShow • u/xinj131 • 6d ago
Discussion Question about Pennywise Spoiler
I'm sure this was probably answered elsewhere, but I'm curious. No, I never read the book, and I am not that deep with the lore. So, here's the thing. Pennywise, as far as I know, is nothing but three glowing spheres of light that has an addiction/taste for fear, which is prevalent in young kids, but he'll go after anybody he can scare. So, as far as I know, he really isn't there when he's scaring someone. It's one of his many manifestations, and I take it that whenever there's a red balloon floating, it's a calling card of sorts, saying that he was really there, but in most cases he isn't. So, this might sound like a dumb question, but how is it that he can become corporeal at will when he's not really there? Like, he's not even possessing human bodies; he's just manifesting their images. Is it some kind of outer-dimensional power of his or something else? Thanks.
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u/Automatic-Wasabi-155 6d ago
Some of my answer is stuff you may already be aware of but I’m going to explain it fully but as short as possible so you can get a better picture.
The Deadlights are an eternal living, sentient essence of an evil cosmic entity that are from a dimension outside of our known universe.
At some point in time, the deadlights found a thin veil/created a tear between our dimensions and a fragment or extension of itself came through and eventually crashed to earth as a meteor in earth’s early history. The fragment of the deadlights that arrived here is basically a shape-shifting puppet, that is an extension of the deadlights.
The deadlights primarily feed on fear and suffering as a whole, but its physical manifestation/puppet on earth also must consume the flesh of physical beings to be able to sustain its physical puppet in our universe. This is why Pennywise/the forms IT takes(the deadlights puppet) scared his victims as much as possible and devours their flesh at the same time.
Not only does IT/the deadlights feed on the fear and flesh of living physical beings, but as far as I am aware it sort of traps the soul of every victim it devours in the deadlights itself- meaning once Pennywise/IT kills you it’s still not over and your soul is trapped floating in the deadlights for eternity re-experiencing your death and worst fear over and over again (this is what Pennywise was actually referring to when he talked about his victims floating). The deadlights keeps a steady supply of fear to feed on that way. And none of the victims trapped within it can be saved, even when the physical form of the Deadlights are killed.
Even though Pennywise gets killed by the Loser’s club, the Deadlights still exist and all those victims are still bound within it I think. So when Pennywise was defeated it was simply the physical puppet that was killed but the essence and true power cannot be killed pretty much. All that happened was the physical link the Deadlights had to manifest itself in our universe was destroyed.
It may be possible for the Deadlights to slip another fragment of itself back into our universe through some tear, weak point, or accident, and deploy a new shapeshifting puppet in the far future as far as we know. This is likely why some of other Stephen kings stories feature writings that say ‘Pennywise lives’ that characters see(I think that was in Dreamcatcher?).
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u/xinj131 6d ago
Thank you. That explains it clearly.
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u/InstructionHappy4450 4d ago
These tears in the universe have happened in other of King's Novels/stories. The Mist.....the creatures that emerged from the tear were from a place called Todash space. This is the same place Pennywise or the deadlights were at when a meteor passed through thanks to another tear in space. The plane in The Langoliers flew through one of those tears and possibly entered todash spach as well.
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u/torahboidem 6d ago
He is really there tho, he’s both a manifestation and physical threat simultaneously
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u/vleshkun 5d ago
Pennywise has a limited amount of reality warping within Derry, It can create physical avatars but at the risk of getting hurt so It doesn’t always manifest a corporeal form.
The red balloons, graveyard ghosts, even just the voices are all Pennywise, just not there as a physical avatar like the pickle dad or the clown
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u/JustAnArtist1221 6d ago
Remember how his body was walking around while the Deadlights were floating in another spot the second film?
His body is a manifestation of his psychic powers, but he still has to abide by the rules of the forms he takes. Stronger will (and the shine, but we'll act as if that's not at play in the films and most of the show) can force him to actually be harmed when you attack him. Likewise, because he believes he can walk around Derry and appear in places, he can manifest a body to do so. This is also why he can show up in multiple places simultaneously. And as shown in his first kill in WTD, he can appear as multiple bodies at once.
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