Pennywises's Transformation Troubles.

[ZBliss]

First post, my grandmother has been a fan of Stephen King since his first book and has collected them all to date, technically they are all mine though now because she wanted me to inherit them, but she said I was old enough to understand and appreciate Kings work for what it is. So I decided IT should be the first one I read, being that I had been a fan of the movie for so long. I managed to finish it in one week exactly, but thinking about it, I noticed something that I wonder if it was deliberate or Pennywise (IT,technically) had a hard time holding his transformations. Here are some examples (SPOILERS)

When Ben encounters him for the first time on the ice, IT uses the form of Pennywise to entice him over, and it almost works too, because Ben wants a balloon that floats against the wind, but right as he begins to approach Pennywise. IT uses the form of a Mummy to scare him. Which obviously, is his intentions. Why does he do that so close to the capture. Ben escapes, and this proves to be a costly mistake. Was the clown form to hard for him to hold? Just like Georgie, using the clown form the whole time was easy enough to not only capture Georgie, but scare him as well. This should work for all of them, so why does he mess around so much? IT later takes the form of the leper, then the form of Pennywise as a fallback but by then it's too late.

I know it seems like I'm trying to point out flaws in pointless things, but It just made me wonder, he was much more powerful and a more superior being and having what IT believed to be dominion over humans, do you think that just made him a bit lazy? I just feel like he wasn't using his ability to it's best extent.

[GNTLGNT]

Welcome to the MB multi-verse ZB! I don't think you're pointing out flaws-I always felt that Pennywise liked to "play" with his "prey", feeding on their terror, revulsion and hate-before moving in for the "kill".

[ZBliss]

Hey, thanks for the welcome, I understand what you mean, it's sort of like how a cat may play with an insect before it finally decides to kill it or eat it. I was mostly considering on the line if there was anything tactical about the way used the transformations in the situations where it did little help to him. Unlike the encounter with all of the Losers at 29 Neibolt Street. If it worked then it should have just used the same strategy the whole time and it would have been more beneficial on it's part.

Also, I had one other question regarding Beverly's father in the scene where he confronts her about playing in The Barrens. I read that he was under the influence of Pennywise, so was Pennywise in the form of her father, or did he just confront Al Marsh and tell him what she had been doing similar to how he communicated with Henry Bowers? Somehow I either missed that, or didn't pick up on the context clues.

[Craig Zadow]

Well I think your missing the point of the transformations a little bit. I think that It is actually way more interested in scaring It's prey than killing them. I'm pretty sure that if It simply wanted to kill them It could pretty much do that at will(at least till the Losers formed) given his powers.

[Rand]

Also need to remember that we're not talking about transformations in the traditional sense. It's not a physical being standing there and changing shape like a werewolf, it's a telepathic creature that's projecting an image into the mind of the victim. The part you mentioned isn't the only time IT loses it's apparent form, is pushed into taking another shape, or is forced to vanish. Remember Stan and the bird mantra he used to completely shut IT out?

[BlaineThePain]

Its transformations are Its strength and Its weakness. It uses the clown to lure the kids in, then takes from their mind their fears and changes into them, usually scaring the kids stiff enough to get them. There's also a line somewhere in the book about how their fear kind of...marinades the meat of whatever he eats from them. (From the movie: "You all taste so much better when you're afraid!") But on the flip side, whatever form It takes he takes on that form's vulnerabilities, as seen when Its werewolf form both gets a face full of sneezing powder and then the silver slug in the eye which almost killed It. An another side of this, It is quite a demented, evil being, and It's old. Very old, so the whole playing with your food thing fits in well to alleviate boredom, maybe. It kinda reminds me of the James Bond villains explaining their plots before trying to kill Bond instead of just outright killing him. From a story telling standpoint, it's so much a better read that he scares the living daylights out of the kids before killing them.

[Lencho_of_the_Apes]

Didn't it also say somewhere that what it fed on was the EMOTIONS of his victims? The mummy and the leper evoke the terror emotions that it feeds on ...

We all float down here.

[Flipsk8emerica]

Also need to remember that we're not talking about transformations in the traditional sense. It's not a physical being standing there and changing shape like a werewolf, it's a telepathic creature that's projecting an image into the mind of the victim. The part you mentioned isn't the only time IT loses it's apparent form, is pushed into taking another shape, or is forced to vanish. Remember Stan and the bird mantra he used to completely shut IT out?

What I always got from the story is that IT, Pennywise was a physical being standing there in front of them. If IT wasn't really there and was just a telepathic projection how would The Losers have really hurt it for example when shooting the werewolf with the silver slugs and why would there be a popping sound each time IT vanishes( the air rushing to fill IT’s previously occupied space). When you shut off a hologram there is no sound of air rushing to fill that previously occupied space even though the holographic image has vanished suddenly. Also a telepathic projection couldn't really drag people off like Patrick Hockstetter. I'm not criticizing your view in any way so please don’t take this as an attack I just am stating my thoughts and I thought your take on IT being just a projection was interesting. Does anyone else have thoughts on this same matter? Is IT, Pennywise all projection or is he actually there?

[sam peebles]

What I always got from the story is that IT, Pennywise was a physical being standing there in front of them. If IT wasn't really there and was just a telepathic projection how would The Losers have really hurt it for example when shooting the werewolf with the silver slugs and why would there be a popping sound each time IT vanishes( the air rushing to fill IT’s previously occupied space). When you shut off a hologram there is no sound of air rushing to fill that previously occupied space even though the holographic image has vanished suddenly. Also a telepathic projection couldn't really drag people off like Patrick Hockstetter. I'm not criticizing your view in any way so please don’t take this as an attack I just am stating my thoughts and I thought your take on IT being just a projection was interesting. Does anyone else have thoughts on this same matter? Is IT, Pennywise all projection or is he actually there?

IT's true form is some massive God-like entity made up of glowing orbs at the edge of the Universe. This is what Bill sees when he enters the Ritual of Chud to actually kill IT once and for all. That being said, I do think Pennywise is a physical manifestation of that God-like entity, not just a telepathic projection. Pennywise is really there, and you can hurt IT with silver slugs, you just can't kill it.

[Cowboy]

I'm okay with the transformations...what worries me is when IT is in the form of clown, how can he sleep on his belly with those giant "ball" buttons???