MovieChat Forums > It (2017) Discussion > How intelligent is Pennywise?

How intelligent is Pennywise?

posted 4 years ago by kuatorises (7467)
4 replies | jump to latest

He has degree of psychic abilities, but never struck me as overly intelligent. Almost like an animal. He acts on instinct more than anything. He doesn't care about anything but eating. Literally, nothing else. It seems to know things, but not necessarily understand them. He's not cunning or wise, he just scares and eats.

Could it even talk before it arrived here or did it gain that ability once it landed here and started reading people's minds?

[–] aliensalmon (5855) 3 years ago

I think he's intelligent enough to use form of trickery, but yeah.

[–] kuatorises (7467) 3 years ago

I don't know if It gets so hungry that it can't control itself or it's actually just not that smart, but there's something about it's behavior that doesn't seem intelligent at all. It shows no interest in anything outside of eating. It barely talks and when it does, it's just to scare people so that they taste better. It has no interests outside of that. Even some wild animals are seen playing with others. Pennywise? Literally nothing but eating.

[–] Oskar (315) 3 years ago

I don't think IT always knows what things are or mean - as you say, it's acting on instinct, just regurgitating the things it picks up from IT's psychic abilities.

You could read a passage of Chinese if it was spelled out phonetically, and if it had annotations to show what emotions each section should have, but you wouldn't truly UNDERSTAND it.

[–] kuatorises (7467) 3 years ago

Yeah. It absorbs the information and can use it against It's victims, but doesn't necessarily understand it. At least, Skaarsgard's version. It sort of reminds me of a vampire or rabid animal. All instinct and violence, no thought put into it's actions whatsoever.