As far as IT, Pennywise is a monster that capitalizes on fear to hunt his victims. The fact that he can transform into any frightening form the human mind can conceive makes him a villain that anyone can be afraid of.
Pennywise is one of Stephen King's most inspired and unique characters, and it's hard to deny that IT is the horror master's magnum opus of villains. However, there are elements of Pennywise's story and characterization that just don't seem to make any sense. Some of them are mysteries about IT that are left unexplained, some of them are characteristics that contradict each other, and some of them are just plain logic fails. This list focuses on the latter, and it's been updated to showcase a few more odd things about the character.
Updated on December 7th, 2020 by Derek Draven: As mentioned above, we've added a few more logic bombs to this list of things that just don't make sense about Pennywise. Perhaps Stephen King will write a novel explaining some of these mysteries, or perhaps it's best left to fan speculation. Either way, these are some true head-scratchers.
No Outside Scrutiny
Pennywise is able to cast a shadow of influence over the town of Derry which makes its adult inhabitants look the other way when it comes to the disappearances of its children. It's an insidious device the creature uses to mask his trail and make people forget what's really going on.
That influence doesn't extend outside of Derry, however. Missing person reports would still be filed, and eventually, someone would have noticed a disturbing trend. It probably wouldn't be long before the FBI was tasked on Derry to investigate, and it's doubtful Pennywise would have the time to indoctrinate these outsiders and make them go away.
Why Not Come In Through The Front Door?
Every child has nightmares about the monster under the bed, which makes it a perfect tool for Pennywise to exploit. Yet, such an attack never seems to occur. The creature doesn't invade children's homes at night whilst they sleep and snatch them from their beds, nor does he wait in the closet until the lights go out.
Pennywise appears forced to attack his victims by luring them away from their safe spaces long enough to pounce. This usually occurs outdoors, which suggests that he cannot attack children in their homes. Yet, there have been instances where Pennywise has engaged his prey indoors, which makes this conundrum all the more confusing.
Why Eat?
The creature's true form is largely unfathomable to humans, and the sheer sight of its deadlights can lead to utter madness. Clearly, humanity is not dealing with an average monster, but something far beyond the scope of our collective understanding.
This begs the question as to why Pennywise needs to eat at all. With such immense powers that border on the cosmic level, this creature should be inherently immortal and completely above the need for physical sustenance. Either his particular brand of the munchies is recreational in nature, or the act of devouring prey gives him a kind of abstract symbolic energy in the same vein as the Ritual of Chüd allows mere mortals to battle him and win.
Why Not Kill More Adults?
Pennywise never seems to bother offing the older folks in Derry, but he has taken out older teenagers and young adults as well as children. It's established early on that Pennywise prefers the taste of children over other types of prey, but such a diet would undoubtedly raise too many questions.
The creature's psychic influence over the adults in the town might have something to do with it, but it seems like an awful lot of energy to expend in order to go after a particular delicacy. With a town full of conditioned subjects, Pennywise wouldn't need to be particular.
Why A Clown?
While fear of clowns is (interestingly) one of the more common human phobias, it makes little sense for Pennywise to choose such a form given that it doesn't seem to scare very many children. For instance, Pennywise makes several kills throughout the novel and movies that do not include "salting the meat," a reference to spiking fear in children to make them taste better.
Young Georgie is the first example of this when he meets Pennywise at the beginning of the first movie. Either the creature was starving and wanted a quick meal, or he wasn't interested in playing the long game. This doesn't make sense given that Pennywise spends an extraordinary amount of time building fear within the Loser's Club.
His Survival On Earth
So something that really sticks out about Pennywise as a character is that he has been on earth for millions, if not billions, of years, but he's a character who feeds entirely on humans and their sense of fear. However, if he's been on earth for even half as long as it seems like he has, how has he survived for this long? His existence on Earth seems like it might predate the existence of humankind altogether, so if his main food source is people then what was he doing to keep himself alive for all of that time before?
It's possible he found a way to feed off other lifeforms that predated mankind, although it certainly couldn't have been in the same complex, emotionally-based way as humans were targeted. That said, a creature of such immense power can't be underestimated.
The Scope Of His Mind Control
One of the more curious aspects of Pennywise as a character is his mind control. It's clear that his powers are quite advanced within Derry, but the fact that the Losers Club completely forgets his existence once they leave the town suggests that it exists outside of Derry as well. That begs the question - if Pennywise is powerful enough to control people's minds, no matter how far they are from him or how long they've been away, then why isn't he controlling the minds of people around the world?
Perhaps Pennywise can't influence the minds of those he hasn't encountered directly, thus limiting his control to those who've lived in or spent considerable time in Derry over the years. It's also possible controlling minds saps Pennywise's strength, and he can only influence a certain number of people at a given time.
Its Changing Limitations
Something that's very hard to discern about Pennywise in IT is what his limitations are and how they seem to constantly change. It's actually pretty safe to assume that that's an intentionally confusing aspect of his character because the fact that he can create illusions that are indistinguishable from reality obviously means that he can make his targets believe he is or isn't capable of whatever he wants.
But the fact that he can take an iron spike through the head without dying in human form but is also nearly choked to death by Eddie in another human form seems very inconsistent. Considering how complex and unknown IT's biology is, perhaps the monster's vulnerability is also directly affected by the resistance displayed by a given target.
His Changing Weaknesses
One of Pennywise's main weaknesses as a character is that although his true form is something nearer to god than to human when he transforms into a specific appearance then he takes on the weaknesses of the form that he is appearing as. Obviously, he doesn't take on those weaknesses entirely, but it's enough that it has a significant effect on him.
Taking that into consideration, why is it that when Pennywise finds himself in any kind of legitimate danger he doesn't just transform into something else that doesn't have the weaknesses that are currently being exploited and used against him? It's possible Pennywise becomes subject to a kind of shape-shifter "mode lock," in which once an encounter has been initiated with prey in one form, Pennywise is bound by those limitations until there's been a break in the confrontation.
The Forms That He Takes On In General
And in that same vein, if Pennywise needs to obey the laws of whatever form he's inhabiting at the time, why doesn't he just take on the forms of something that is super strong or nearly impossible to kill?
He's a genius at exploiting other people's fears, so he undoubtedly can figure out forms to take on that aren't nearly as weak as something like a clown or Beverly Marsh's father. Pennywise definitely seems more durable than the average person even when he's in human form, but if his safety or life is at stake, why not transform into a more powerful shape? Perhaps IT ends up weighing the pros and cons of each particular transformation, respective to the fears level it would cause in prey. For personal reasons, Beverly is likely to hold a much deeper fear toward her father than a giant monster, and it's fear that salts the meat, so to speak.
