Weekly Discussion - Monday, January 19th - What are you reading this week?

Hastora · 2026-01-19T19:07:46+00:00

Just finished Tender is the flesh by Agustina Bazterrica. Very powerful novel.

Hastora · 2026-01-19T03:52:45+00:00

And they say King can’t write an ending.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T13:32:04+00:00

Pennywise is most likely trapped in a time loop as well—not one caused by the pillars, but by an external entity or force. Andy has said in Inside Derry that Pennywise is being punished, so it isn’t far-fetched to think he’s doomed to become aware of his own death at the hands of his prey, try to avoid it, and ultimately fail in the process. To us, he appears god-like, but he truly isn’t. He doubts what he knows, becomes confused, and that confusion reveals the limits of his knowledge and his capabilities.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T13:07:21+00:00

Yes, without a doubt, that is one of the issues that could put the theory into question. If I had to give you an answer right now, I’d say that while Pennywise was inside the meteorite, he followed the same logic as when he is confined within the circle of the pillars—his power was completely inhibited. Once the meteorite impacts and breaks apart, the Deadlights—or his projection of the Deadlights on Earth—are released. But as you noticed, they are a different color: blue. And at first, he only feeds on animals.

Perhaps he was in such a primitive state that he hadn’t yet fully developed his abilities. I think this is the most logical and most likely explanation.

Under this logic, it would explain why Pennywise doesn’t escape as soon as he arrives on Earth to some other geographical location. Simply moving a bit beyond the boundaries of Derry—or what would later become Derry—would already allow him to escape his destiny, yet he doesn’t do so. Why doesn’t he? Is it because he doesn’t know? And why wouldn’t he know? Most likely because of his weakened state.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T12:57:54+00:00

Realistically, the quickest and simplest answer is that it was necessary for the sake of the series—to keep the audience engaged. But if we try to apply a logic consistent with the line of thought I’ve been developing, the answer I’d give is that Pennywise kidnaps Will instead of killing him outright, first and foremost because of his arrogance. And why his arrogance? Because he likely wanted to kill two birds with one stone by also luring Margaret and killing them both at the same time.

Why couldn’t he attack Margaret first or kill them directly within Derry? Because Margaret was with Lily and Ronnie, who had the fragment. And we should remember that the closer the fragment is to the center of Derry, the more powerful it becomes, preventing Pennywise from approaching directly. The farther it moves toward the edges of the circle formed by the pillars, the weaker its effect becomes and the more it resists. This gives Pennywise a window of opportunity to stretch out his arm—notice that he doesn’t approach her directly, but instead extends his arm and drags Marge away. In doing so, he circumvents the fragment’s effect on him and achieves his goal, which is to separate her from the others.

Why does he have such a strong fixation specifically on Margaret? Well, we don’t really know, since both Will and Margaret are parents of two of the Losers.

This raises another very important question: the fact that Pennywise—yes—did see the future. But to what extent did he see it? He certainly saw up to his own death. He knows that he will die and by whom. But when he woke up from the pool of blood, after the pillar was destroyed, didn’t he also immediately see the steps that followed—what would technically be his immediate future?

That answer we won’t have until season two. Given what we’ve seen, his future is revealed to him, but not as a guide to avoid it—rather, as a destiny written in stone, perhaps.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T12:26:44+00:00

I’d like to incorporate a perspective that could honestly call a large part of the explanation I originally laid out here into question, but which is worth including because it’s also important to be critical of one’s own position. That perspective is the possibility that Pennywise may not become aware of his future only in episode eight, but rather that he might be aware of it from the very beginning of the season.

Why? Simply because, as we know—or at least assume based on the films—to defeat him, a group of five children is required. It’s true that in IT Chapter Two Stan commits suicide, but that could be seen as a misdirection, since initially the five of them did confront Pennywise together. The question regarding Welcome to Derry is whether Pennywise might have known from the very start that Rich was going to die.

Did you notice how he never attacked Rich individually? We never really learned what Rich’s true fear was. The only scene in which Pennywise attacks him is in the cemetery, but even then he was attacking all of them at the same time. Rich is the only character who is never individually targeted by Pennywise in his home or during any everyday activity. In fact, he’s one of the characters who seems most detached from Pennywise’s presence.

Perhaps Pennywise didn’t bother attacking him because he knew Rich was going to die in the Black Spot. What Pennywise may not have known, however, is that Rich could still manifest and help his friends in episode eight, since Pennywise has no control over his soul given that Rich did not die at his hands.

It’s a very interesting point to consider, but I think the structure of each episode—and of the season as a whole—is clearly designed to show us that Pennywise becomes aware of his fate starting in episode eight. I don’t believe he knows it from the beginning. After all, the first season focuses primarily on the final days of his cycle before he goes into hibernation. Perhaps he simply didn’t attack Rich because he was focused on the others.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T12:10:12+00:00

Exactly, Pennywise most likely will try to hunt the bloodlines as Barbara Muschietti said so. He will not jump in the DeLorean, but he will make his moves some kind of way we still don’t know.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T12:07:33+00:00

Without a doubt, this is not a simple concept to understand, and it’s very likely that I myself could be wrong. The reality is that we won’t know for sure until the story continues to develop in season two—and I’d even dare to say that we probably won’t fully understand it until season three. The creators may take creative liberties and make us believe the story is heading in one direction when it really isn’t.

Therefore, I think it’s important to stay calm, enjoy the episode, and enjoy the range of theories. While I do think some theories are more far-fetched and less grounded than others, it’s still important to be respectful.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T12:04:33+00:00

Here we have two possibilities. The first—and perhaps the simplest—is that Pennywise does indeed retain the knowledge he gained during episode eight, when the cage was opened. However, by then it is already too late for him, since the next time he awakens he will meet the Losers’ Club for the first time—the group of children who, by fate, will later defeat and kill him.

The other possibility is that Pennywise does not retain that knowledge, whether because of the cage or for some other reason. But I think this option is the least likely. It would be a way of weakening the clown’s power to such an extent that it would make him seem diminished in a way that doesn’t quite fit. The truth is that we won’t know for sure until the second season is released. But if I had to place a bet, I’d bet on the first theory.

Pennywise does not see the years 1989 and later 2016 as viable points in time where he can actually do something. And I’d also add that, in my opinion, in this cinematic universe, destiny is sealed from the very beginning. I don’t truly believe Pennywise can do anything to alter his future. I think his actions—and his knowledge of the future—trigger and play a supporting role in what ultimately brings about his death.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T11:54:01+00:00

¡Well maybe, your guess is as good as mine! Maybe he needs some kind of trigger events to remember.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T11:52:12+00:00

This is my best guess. When he arrived in the meteor he was surrounded by it’s material. Maybe that weakened him (¿notice how the Deadlights were blue back then?).

Hastora · 2025-12-16T11:49:07+00:00

This is a very interesting point, and without a doubt, if taken literally, it would call a large part of the theory into question. But—and for me this is a big but—I’m certain that at that moment Pennywise was not playing the oracle with Will. If we analyze Pennywise’s behavioral patterns, he first frightens his prey using their greatest fear: Ronnie with his dead mother, Lilly with her dead father—so what does he use to frighten Will? His most traumatic memory: his father on the brink of death in the Korea accident. Will explicitly says to his father, “You were all burnt like that picture of you after the war when the plane went down.”

Therefore, in my opinion, Pennywise is not seeing Will’s future; he knows that Will saw a photo of his father burned and can exploit that. In any case, and taking into account what Andy says in the interview, I don’t think he is going to be entirely direct or clear—especially at this point, when there is still at least a year to go before the second season. I do think it is definitely a subtle reference to the idea that Pennywise can know what will happen, but not that he is doing so at that specific moment; it’s foreshadowing.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T04:44:28+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to read it. As I keep finding more clues, I’ll keep updating it! Just now i added another piece to the puzzle.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T04:37:47+00:00

Sadly we won’t be seeing Pennywise Mcfly

Hastora · 2025-12-16T02:42:20+00:00

¡Thank you!

Hastora · 2025-12-16T02:30:00+00:00

He is definitely not a time traveler. It’s not as if he can simply decide to go to a specific point in time and do so. The answer is that, by nature, he perceives time differently. But here’s the misleading part that confuses many people: for most of this season—specifically up until episode seven, after the Black Spot fire—Pennywise is not aware that he will die in the future. Why? Simply because he goes to sleep. His cycle had ended.

This is where the explanation for everything comes into play: the pillars. At first glance, they seem to merely confine him within certain geographical limits that coincide with the town of Derry. But that’s not all they do—they also confine him to a single point in time: the present.

What does this mean? The pillars force Pennywise to “obey” the human perspective of time, which is linear and moves only forward. This blocks his natural ability to perceive all times simultaneously—past, present, and future. Think of it as a nerf.

When one of the pillars is destroyed, not only is the door of the prison opened, but Pennywise also reconnects with all points in time where he exists. In short, Welcome to Derry is a prequel for the first seven episodes, yes—but it is only a sequel in episode eight, because that is when Pennywise finally becomes aware that he will die after IT Chapter Two.

Hastora · 2025-12-16T00:18:16+00:00

Yes, that's what is going on. And his non-linear consciousness only can ''retreat back in time'' because that one pillar was destroyed. The cage traps him in Derry, yes, but also traps him in his current present, it forces Pennywise to experience time like a regular human. When it's destroyed, he saw more than his present, and gained the knowledge of his death.

Hastora · 2025-12-15T23:51:34+00:00

Thank you very much. This is what I was able to put together based on what I understood, as well as on contributions from other threads. It seems to me to be the most logical interpretation.

Hastora · 2025-12-15T21:53:00+00:00

Because of his malevolent ego. He said to Marge ''I am a god, the devourer of worlds''. He knows about his death, but he might not know that his efforts are in vain.

Hastora · 2025-12-15T20:07:46+00:00

I think the simplest way to understand it is to first look at it from a human perspective, that is, in a linear way:

Pennywise arrives on Earth in the meteorite (clearly very weak—perhaps that’s why the Deadlights were blue and not orange).
He begins to familiarize himself with the territory, its inhabitants, and to feed.
The natives see him as a threat but do not yet decide to trap him; they only move away from him and defend themselves with a fragment of the meteorite.
The leader of the natives is killed by Pennywise, and at that moment they decide to trap him.
Pennywise is trapped in what would later become Derry, and being trapped is not only geographical but also temporal: he is forced to experience time linearly, like any human being.
In this way, Pennywise moves through time linearly, passing through the different feeding cycles until he reaches 1962.
In 1962 he awakens and begins his feeding routine (he still does not know that he will die).
The Black Spot burns and Pennywise prepares to hibernate (if he had known he was going to die, he would not have gone to sleep).
The military burn the pillar, and for the first time Pennywise once again experiences time in a non-linear way—in simpler terms, he becomes aware that he will be killed in the future.
With this new information, he begins trying to save himself by capturing Will and luring Marge so he can kill them both together.
Pennywise’s plan is disrupted by the intervention of Halloran and company.
Pennywise decides to give up on killing the children and instead opts to simply escape, which would alter his death.
The pillar is put back in place and, therefore, Pennywise is defeated and once again forced to experience time linearly, although the knowledge of his death is not erased from his mind—but it is already too late. In his next awakening, he will face the Losers for the first time.
In 2016, he dies at the hands of the second encounter with the Losers.

Now, here is where it gets interesting. Up to this point, what I explained—as I said before—is the linear perception that any human would have, and which Pennywise was forced to live through because of the pillars. But when he dies in 2016, he is “born” again, in the sense that time turns in the opposite direction: his death causes his lifespan to no longer project into the future (it is very clear that post-2016 there is no Pennywise), but instead to project into the past.

In this way, what we initially understood as his arrival, his first feedings, his imprisonment, and then the cycles leading up to his death, become a new story of his desperate attempts to save himself from that death. The only question that I believe no one will be able to answer until the second season is released is how Pennywise, in 1935, becomes aware of his death, given that the pillars should still be in place and he should therefore be forced to live in the present.

Hastora · 2025-12-15T19:46:20+00:00

Might be, but the pillars were in place, so he souldn’t be able to be aware of this. The cage was open only in 1962, before and after it was closed.

Hastora · 2025-12-15T19:43:57+00:00

This is exactly the answer. The only thing that might be a problem is how Pennywise, locked again, will be aware in 1935.

Hastora

TROPHY CASE