Freddy Krueger VS Pennywise

 

"Extreme fear can neither fight nor fly."

-William Shakespeare 

Freddy Krueger, the bastard son of a hundred maniacs and Springwood Slasher from A Nightmare on Elm Street

Pennywise, Derry's eternal killer clown, otherwise known simply as IT.

What is your greatest fear? Heights? Stage fright? Bugs? The ocean? Whatever the case, those thoughts and fears alone cannot harm you, as what is not real cannot hurt you - unless it also came in the form of these wise cracking soul eaters. When two of the greatest horror icons collide, who will be sent back to their horrific grave in a DEATH BATTLE?

Background

Freddy Krueger

"Welcome to prime time, bitch!"

Frederick Charles Krueger, also known as the Springwood Slasher, also known as the bastard of a hundred maniacs, was known throughout his town as a serial killer targeting children specifically until he inevitably got caught by the police.

By some reverse-miracle however, Freddy was released due to the warrant for his arrest having the wrong address making him once again a free man, however he would face judgment at the hands of family and friends of his victims. While Freddy was in the boiling room where these killings happened, the parents set the entire room ablaze, killing Freddy in the process…or so it seemed.

Suddenly, Freddy was confronted by entities known as the Dream Demons who gave him power beyond comprehension, the ability to delve into the minds of his victims to enter their dreams and kill them in their sleep. On this day, The Nightmare of Elm Street was born.

Freddy Krueger would then go on to terrorize the youths of Springwood as revenge for what their parents did to him. No matter what they did to him, Freddy Krueger always seems to find some way back and show Springwood, and soon the world, true terror in their most vulnerable position: while they are asleep. You can try to stay awake as much as you can, but everyone has to sleep at some point. Eventually, when your will gives out and your eyelids close, Freddy Krueger will be waiting for you - and you'll encounter a nightmare you may never wake from…

Pennywise

"Want your boat, Georgie? And a balloon? I’ve got red and green and yellow and blue... They float! And there’s cotton candy... They float... they float... they float, Georgie, and when you’re down here with me, you float too."

If you decide to take a trip to the small town of Derry, Maine, you might find the quaint town to be odd in some ways. Maybe the folk can be a little brash, maybe you'll hear trip trapping when you cross a bridge, or maybe you'll see a clown with sharp teeth eating a person alive. Whenever things seem to just not be right, when the moon calls and a great, unexplainable evil beckons you forth, that phenomenon can only be described as It.

Pennywise the Dancing Clown brings his circus to town every 27 years, and in those years, children may mysteriously end up going missing. Some people may believe that a paranormal force is behind that, but only children can believe such fairy tales. It is the boogeyman hiding under your bed, It is the grief you feel over a loved one lost many years ago, It is the anxiety you feel when you go to school. 

In truth, It comes from a great dark abyss beyond the universe, who peers into our realm with the eternal Deadlights. Those who would peer back into the light may find themselves food for this great psychic beast - but until then, be content with your time in Derry, and if you are a child, remember to never talk to strangers. You never know what shadow is lurking behind the light.

Equipment 

Freddy Krueger

Knife Glove

Freddy's iconic weapon of choice, a glove with four blades attached to the finger sections, which he created to murder children. However even after his death, Freddy continued using the glove to attack his victims in their dreams. This glove has also proven useful against physically superhuman foes, such as Jason Voorhees.

While Freddy traditionally only has the one glove, for his guest appearance in 2011’s Mortal Kombat he was equipped with two. The game explains this change in his bio, where it’s claimed he created the new pair of “demonically enhanced” razor gloves for an upgrade after a thrashing from Shao Kahn.

Necronomicon

With the help of Jason Voorhees, Freddy was able to obtain the Necronomicon, an ancient book containing many spells and incantations. Some of these include resurrecting the Kandarian demon, an entity capable of creating Deadities, demons known for possessing mortal bodies in order to directly target and steal their souls, the ability to revive the dead, as well as even giving potion brewing instructions, such as the time The Wise Man followed certain instructions to create a potion capable of making someone sleep for an entire century. The Necronomicon also has the ability to absorb living creatures in order to gain characteristics of said creatures, as well as create portals to other dimensions.

However, probably the most important aspect of the Necronomicon when under Freddy's use is that it allows him to use all of his dream powers in the real world, our dimension being essentially the same as a dream to him, as he gains the same level of control over it.

After spending so much time with the Necronomicon, Freddy Krueger actually fused with it and became one with the book, attaining all of its powers and abilities without a physical book being needed to be present.

Pennywise

Balloons

Pennywise is rarely seen without his famous red balloon, a common imagery he used to terrify the Losers Club. Technically not a piece of equipment, rather a specific item he really likes conjuring up with his powers. He’s used these red balloons in a variety of ways - in the 1990 miniseries, the balloons often exploded into a burst of blood, and in 2019’s IT Chapter Two, one of them grew so large that when it popped, it threw back and temporarily deafened the Losers Club. He can use them to float safely to the ground, or summon a swarm of hundreds of balloons whenever he desires.

Abilities

Freddy Krueger

Dream Manipulation 

In the world of Nightmare on Elm Street, skilled dreamers are able to manipulate the events in their own dreams, being able to change attributes within it to whatever they want. As a dream demon, Freddy Krueger is especially powerful in this regard. Within a dream, he can do practically anything he wants. With just a thought, he can change the entire location into another one, or even transform others into whatever he wants, such as a cockroach. Strangely, one of his more common usages of his dream powers is to trap people in dreams within dreams, so that they would have difficulty telling if they are in the real world or still dreaming.

His dream manipulation is so powerful that he is able to overcome even the effects of lucid dreamers who can also change the reality of their dreams, and even defeated an Aztec dream demon whose sole purpose was to defeat dream demons within the dream world. The only real limitations to his control over the dream world is his power source, mainly being fear - however, over the years, Krueger has used other power sources that do not require his opponent being afraid of him, such as by stockpiling souls or using the Necronomicon.

Real World

Even when Freddy is in the real world, he still isn't completely defenseless. In the real world, he can still use telekinesis, induce hallucinations, has super strength, survive being reduced to a head, combust things into fire, and possess his own corpse to fight. Something that is worth noting is that Freddy Krueger by himself has been shown to be able to move between Hell, the Dream World, and the real world at will whenever he wants.

Transformation

Krueger's dream powers are not limited to affecting the world and people around him, but also his very body. He can take the form of anything he likes, be it mundane objects or esoteric monsters. Krueger can also make his normal body invisible or intangible, and his anatomy appears to be made of… Whatever he wants at that given time. He is even able to assume the form of entire locations, including the entire moon, and can take the form of multiple people in dreams at once, as well as duplicate himself however many times he wants. This could suggest that Krueger possesses a sort of pseudo-omnipresence within the dream world.

Possession

One of Freddy's odder powers include his ability to possess anything and everyone from the dream world. Once possessed, he can control their actions in the real world, and even use them to materialize himself in the real world as well. He is also capable of doing this with animals, such as birds. Also, Freddy is capable of possessing both the living and the dead, on certain occasions Freddy was even able to retain some knowledge from victims under his possession, such as when Freddy possessed Dr. Hawke and was able to thoroughly explain what he believed was the cause of a client’s blindness.

Immortality

Krueger not only has overpowered killing methods, but he is insanely, insanely hard to put down for good. Any wound that may appear on his body can be instantly healed, and damage in general doesn't even seem to be a factor to Krueger's immortal spirit. He's been completely destroyed in the dream world multiple times before, only for him to survive, such as how he came back fairly quickly after being completely erased in the original Nightmare on Elm Street ending - on this point, it is worth noting that when Krueger or anyone else interacts with the dream world, they do so as a spiritual entity. Freddy Krueger himself has been called a spiritual entity many times, as well. This means that when Krueger is being destroyed in the dream world, he is literally having his soul destroyed as well - yet despite this, he still manages to recover. He can even regenerate from other people's blood. Most dangerously, it has been suggested that the true source of Freddy Krueger's immortality is the concept of hate itself - as long as hate exists at a certain threshold, Freddy will always still exist in some fashion.

Soul Manipulation 

One of the many ways Freddy gets stronger throughout the franchise is his ability to absorb the souls of his fallen victims, not only adding to his vast power, but also slowly helping him break the gap between reality and the Dream Realm. However, as seen in A Nightmare On Elm Street 4, the souls ended up being used against Freddy to rip him apart from the inside, leading to his temporary demise. On certain occasions, Freddy traps the souls of his victims into a form of punishment forever, such as the time he trapped some victims in a hell where they crash into a wall at 150 MPH for eternity. Freddy Krueger does not actually need to keep souls inside of him to gain power from them anymore, as he has created a dream called the "Pool of Souls", where he gains the power from the souls of the citizens of Springwood as they sleep.

Mind Manipulation 

Along with the rest of Freddy’s bizarre abilities and powers, he is also capable of delving into the minds of his victims…literally. Freddy is capable of looking through the minds of someone to gain information and possibly more from whoever he’s targeting. An example of this is in Freddy vs. Jason, where he reads Jason’s fears by stabbing a claw into his head. He reads Jason’s mind again in the Freddy VS. Jason VS. Ash comics, where he searches through his memories in order to find information on the location of the Necronomicon. In addition to this, he has also shown to directly mind control others, other examples being making John Saxon believe that he was his fictional role of Don Thompson in New Nightmare, as well as making Alice repeat her actions in a loop, forgetting what she did in A Nightmare On Elm Street 4. Finally, it appears that Freddy Krueger has defenses for his own mind, as Jacob, a telepath, was unable to discern his real intentions by looking into his mind.

New Nightmare

The most terrifying aspect of Freddy Krueger may as well be the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise itself. In the real world- our real world, Wes Craven devising the character of Freddy Krueger created an evil entity, who became trapped in the Elm Street franchise as the fictional character known as Freddy Krueger. However, should it escape the metaphysical confines, Freddy Krueger would come into the real world and terrorize real life people, as well as the cast behind the Elm Street movie franchise.

Pennywise

Manipulation

Pennywise doesn’t do all of its dirty work itself. In order to better instill fear into the people of Derry, Pennywise makes a habit of manipulating the inhabitants in a number of ways. The most prevalent example is manipulating the adults to become emotionally distant and to overlook the mass deaths and disappearances. Pennywise also subtly influences the people of Derry to make them more hateful and violent, causing them to lash out and attack others. If it wants to be more direct, Pennywise is skilled at luring in children and making them trust it. The entire purpose of the clown form was to appeal to children. Worst of all, Pennywise can persuade particularly wicked people to do its bidding, such as manipulating Henry Bowers to kill his father and hunt down the Losers Club. Pennywise has become so ingrained in Derry over the years that he caused the people of the town to become more distant, violent, and… homophobic.

Shapeshifting

(Art by Ellejart)

One of its most iconic powers, Pennywise is able to transform itself into virtually anything. This includes, but is definitely not limited to, specific people, groups of zombies, various horror movie monsters, giant birds, massive versions of itself, and a huge pregnant spider. It uses this technique to specifically target the fears of its victims, making them more afraid so that they will provide more nourishment. It can transform between forms in mere moments and has done so in the middle of fights to gain an advantage. This shapeshifting also grants Pennywise incredible regenerative abilities as it can reform itself after taking significant damage. However, a limitation that comes with these transformations is that It must abide by the rules and laws of said physical form.

Feeding on Fear

(Art by Matt James)

It’s primary source of energy is the fear of others. Pennywise is innately capable of sensing fear by smell alone and usually uses its other powers to induce greater terror to make its victims more satisfying meals. Pennywise can feed on the fear of anyone, but usually prefers children as their greater imaginations cause their fear to be more delicious. It is likely that this feeding can kill the victim if too much fear is extracted, similar to how another member of the species, Dandelo, nearly killed its victims by draining life by feeding on their emotions.

Psychic Abilities

Owing to its nature as a being of belief, Pennywise has a number of mental powers. It can create vivid illusions or make its creations completely unnoticeable to specific people. Pennywise can sense the deepest fears of others and obtain other information through unknown means. It is also heavily implied that Pennywise repressed the Losers Club’s memories of their time in Derry, forcing them to each need to slowly regain their memories in order to combat it. Even a victim’s dreams are not safe from Pennywise’s influence. Most impressively, if Pennywise is attacked psychically, it can pull the attacker’s consciousness into the Macroverse to engage them with its true self.

Reality Warping

Outside of simple illusions, Pennywise can manipulate reality around itself to give it an advantage. This can involve changing the layout of the environment, materializing objects out of thin air, teleporting, bringing pictures to life, creating hostile creatures, giving people illnesses, controlling technology, entering photos or televisions, and making people float. These effects om reality are technically not "real", but are psychosomatic effects intended to make individuals believe they are real, thus making it real to them. Pennywise can make two different people view something differently at once.

The Deadlights (Avatar)

The three bright orbs inside Pennywise’s head are the physical embodiment of its original self. Those who look into the Deadlights will become prey for It, as it will move their soul across the cosmos for later consumption by the true form of It.

The Deadlights (Macroverse)

(Art by monstah)

Born at the beginning of everything, the Deadlights are the true form of Pennywise, existing deep in the larger Macroverse. Due to their esoteric nature, they cannot exist fully in our universe, only able to form an avatar to feed. This avatar is intrinsically linked with its Macroverse self and the death of one will result in the death of the other. Despite not being able to summon the full, extra-universal might of the Deadlights into physical combat, psychic combat is a different story. If an opponent were to engage in a psychic battle with Pennywise, they would run the risk of being pulled into the full form of the Deadlights, where their soul will be absorbed alongside all of the souls of Pennywise’s previous victims and make them go mad.

Cosmology

Freddy Krueger

It is important to preface that the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise shares a continuity with Friday the 13th and The Evil Dead. For most aspects of the cosmology, this would not make very large of a difference, however it does mean that there is a set multiverse with various different parallel universes. In addition, we know that there is a "Hell", which Freddy can enter to and from the dream or real world when he wishes. Outside of Hell and the various universes is the Dream World, where Freddy has dominion over. In the NoES franchise, dreams work a little differently from real life, in that the Dream World is not technically a mindscape but rather an entirely different dimension that we access when we sleep. When we sleep, our souls access the dream world through two gates, a positive and a negative one. In the Innovation comic line, Nancy Thompson's spirit survives as a Guardian of the "Beautiful Dream", a positive counteract to the Dream World that Freddy has control over, likely a reference to the positive and negative gates of dreaming. In simpler terms, the Dream World is an Astral plane with two different gateways and "sides", however any action done to a person's spirit in the Dream World will materialize itself in the material universe, as well as any objects made within it. This is because by pulling these things out from the aforementioned realms, what is "not real" becomes material and "real". Above all of this is a meta-narrative "real world", where the entire Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, and presumably the other franchises connected to it, are fictional properties like in our world. However, there appears to still be a Dream World present within this real world, which Freddy can manipulate. The reasoning for this is because when Wes Craven visualizes a story or idea, that idea becomes its own entity and needs to be sealed within a fictional medium or else it would wreak havoc on the real world (yes really).

Pennywise

The Stephen King multiverse’s cosmology is very nebulous and still up for debate. However, there are numerous elements that can be deduced from its various descriptions across The Dark Tower series, the It novel, Stephen King’s other books, and Stephen King’s The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance. Here are some of the major concepts we can state with confidence.

• There are infinite universes comprising every possible timeline.

• At the center of these universes is The Dark Tower, which is kept in the universe of All-World. The Dark Tower is infinite in size and it contains doors that connect to countless points in time. The Dark Tower maintains this infinite multiverse.

• The Dark Tower is upheld by six metaphysical beams that span the multiverse and are capable of shaking the multiverse if they fall.

• One universe is nearly identical to the real world (our real world). This universe contains the Rose, which is a physical incarnation of the Dark Tower. It also contains Stephen King (yes really) whose stories are influenced by an extra-universal force. These stories act as the guidelines for the events of The Dark Tower’s events and subsequently the events of the entire multiverse.

• In between each of these infinite universes is an infinite space called Todash Space. Todash Space can be used to weaken barriers between universes and cross between them. This space also contains countless awful monsters and probably a whole lot of mist.

• All of the aforementioned is held on the back of a giant, abstract space turtle, named Maturin. Maturin is one of the twelve guardians of the beams and has vomited up entire universes.

• Maturin and the guardians incarnate as avatars to interact with the multiverse. These avatars do not contain the incomprehensible size or power of the originals. 

• There are many other major cosmic entities like Maturin and the guardians. These include beings such as The Crimson King and the true form of It. They all exist in what is called the Macroverse.

• The Macroverse was originally a primordial nothingness called Prim but was shaped by an entity known as Gan. Gan is the origin of all creation and the writer of the stories that the multiverse follows. Gan incarnated himself as the Dark Tower and if the tower is destroyed all of the multiverse and possibly parts of the Macroverse will fall with it. However, it is believed that many of the cosmic entities would still survive in the nothingness.

Feats

Freddy Krueger

Overall

• Killed every single child in Springwood

• Even in the real world without most of his powers, brutalized and nearly defeated Jason Voorhees

• Defeated the Aztec dream demon Nahuaque, who was specifically intended to defeat people exactly like Freddy Krueger

• Overpowered the control of someone who trained in lucid dreaming

• Took over the entire United States of America 

Power

• In the real world, telekinetically shakes some cars, causing one stack to collapse (NoES 3)

• Destroyed a massive portion of ground (NoES 2)

• Created a small planetoid (NoES 4)

• Upon entering the real real world, caused a massive earthquake (New Nightmare)

• Launched an entire house into outer space (Freddy's Dead)

• Created a nuclear rocket which is implied to be able to destroy the planet, given the theme of the episode is the end of the world. He also makes a (possibly not actual size) nuclear explosion in space earlier in this episode (Freddy's Nightmares S1:E12)

• Can cause a Solar Eclipse (Freddy Krueger's Tales of Terror)

• Turned into the moon and moved to Earth in a short time period before turning into a giant razor, because a girl wanted to fuck the moon (Freddy Krueger's Seven Sweet Dreams)

Speed

• Can transform into a motorcycle and move so fast it leaves steam behind (NoES 5)

• Can move something as heavy as a house at 2% the speed of light (Freddy's Dead)

• Can move himself while as the moon at 40% the speed of light (Freddy's Krueger's Seven Sweetest Dreams)

• Able to contend with Ash Williams, who can react to his own shotgun after it was fired

• Able to contend with and dodge machete swings from Jason Voorhees, who is relative to Uber Jason, who can move within a nanosecond

Durability 

• Being stabbed with a knife repeatedly does not even phase him (NoES 2)

• In the real world with the Necronomicon, recovers after a point blank blast from a tank (Freddy vs. Jason vs. Ash: The Nightmare Warriors)

• Easily tanked a magic lightning attack with little to no damage (NoES 3)

• Laughs off getting a huge hole blasted in his chest, healing it instantly (NoES 4)

• While transformed into "Super Freddy", bullets simply bounce right off of him (NoES 5)

• Even in the real world, survived multiple attacks from Jason Voorhees, including being thrown through a roof; later, he took several machete slashes and kept fighting after, and even managed to still put up some resistance after getting punched through the chest and having an arm torn off  (FvJ)

• Jason can seriously injure Uber Jason, who survived being in the middle of an explosion large enough to reach the space station from ground level

• In the real world while heavily injured, survived a massive propane explosion that launched him into Crystal Lake, managing to swim back after (FvJ)

• Winks at the audience as a severed head (FvJ)

• Regrows his arms after getting them lopped off by Jason (FvJ)

• In the dream world, came back after being completely destroyed due to colliding with an alternate good version of himself. This destroyed them both in a similar manner to matter and antimatter. Freddy revived because, at least in the continuity of this story, he is an embodiment of hate who will exist as long as hate exists (Freddy Krueger's Seven Sweetest Dreams)

Pennywise

Overall

• Terrorized the people of Derry for centuries

• Killed all of the 340 original settlers of Derry and left no trace of them

• Successfully manipulated several Derry residents into going on murderous rampages

• The thought of facing Pennywise again drove Stanley to suicide

• Managed to outlive Maturin, the Space Turtle that created the universe

Power

• Can easily pull apart a shower drain and the floor around it (1990 Miniseries)

• Created a storm large enough to flood Derry

• It’s death caused an earthquake strong enough to completely level a large portion of Derry (comparable to 9.0 Earthquake or about 500 megatons of TNT)

• In the Macroverse, It exists beyond the standard multiverse, which contains infinite universes atop of infinite universes and extends beyond the concept of size itself

Speed

• Can pursue Bill and Ritchie while they are riding on bikes 

• Described to move as fast as an express train (70 mph)

• Crashed on Earth as a meteor, which usually move at 41.5 kilometers per second

• It's form as the Deadlights could potentially move at the speed of light

• It's true form exists beyond the concept of size or distance 

Durability

• Survived being impaled through the head (It 2017)

• Had half of its face melted and its head broken open and managed to escape alive (It 1990)

• Survived crashing into Earth with enough force to create a massive crater (2 gigatons of TNT)

• Survived being frozen under the Earth for thousands of years

• Managed to escape the first Ritual of Chud alive

Weaknesses

Freddy Krueger

For as powerful as Freddy Krueger is, he's not without his very notable faults. To begin with, he is no assassin. He constantly toys with his victims before killing them, his overconfidence in his own abilities has allowed his prey to escape more than once before. In addition, Krueger's power source is not always the most reliable. Although he can nullify his previous weakness of requiring his opponent to fear him through things such as stored souls or the necronomicon, they all rely on an outside source aside from himself. Should they reject him, Krueger will be left without a power source to continue fighting. In fact, even the dream demons themselves can and have rejected Krueger before, which would remove all of his powers.

Pennywise

Pennywise’s power is based on belief and imagination.  While it can usually use this to its advantage by playing on the fears of the prey, this can also be its greatest weakness. If It's opponent is not afraid of Pennywise, it cannot feed on them and becomes vulnerable.  Even more dangerously, if the opponent truly believes that they can hurt Pennywise, their attacks will deal much greater damage, even if the attack lacks any real power.  Pennywise is also weak to attack from other Macroverse entities with opposing powers, such as the Turtle or the Shining.  Similarly, when in a psychic battle, optimism, imagination, and comedy are Pennywise’s kryptonite.  Also, if It’s physical avatar is destroyed, the true form will die along with it.

Summary

Freddy Krueger

"This… Is God."

Advantages:

• Generally has better showings in the stat trinity

• Has actually been in combat situations with other supernatural foes more often

• His reality warping could nullify Pennywise's perception manipulation as well as exploit his weakness

• Generally a lot harder to kill 

• Consistently better transformations without as many limitations

• Has a killing bitches on the ceiling factor

Disadvantages:

• Way less experienced compared to Pennywise

• True Form Pennywise completely outshines Freddy in almost every way

• Power sources might be susceptible 

• There's a pussy underneath

Pennywise

"This isn't real enough for you Billy? I'm not real enough for you? It was real enough for Georgie!"

Advantages:

• Much older and more experienced at killing

• True form is far more esoteric and cosmic in scale than anything Krueger has had to combat before 

• Can potentially exploit Krueger's outside power sources

• Skill with manipulating murderers could be used to trick Freddy

• The Derry Maine attraction, every 27 years

Disadvantages:

• Despite the greater age, has not dealt with other supernatural foes as plentiful as Krueger has

• Avatar loses the stat trinity

• Avatar is generally a lot easier to kill than Krueger, which would kill It's true form in its entirety.

• That one part in the book. You know the one.

• The TRUE Ritual of Chud

Before the Verdict

“Pennywise Lives”

Later Steven King works had made numerous references to Pennywise’s continued existence after the events of the It novel. These include a mysterious sewer clown being spotted in Derry in The TommyKnockers, which takes place two years after the ending of It. The 1994 novel Insomnia includes a scene where a character senses an aura coming from a Derry storm drain. Finally, and most importantly of all, in Dreamcatcher a memorial is left by the members of the Losers Club to honor those who have died in Derry over the years due to It. The memorial is found to be graffitied with the words “Pennywise Lives.”

So does this mean that Pennywise survived the ending of it? Not necessarily. The ending of It does make Pennywise’s death pretty certain. It's heart had been destroyed causing it to collapse, it lost all power in its body, and the deadlights had gone out. Maturin, the cosmic space turtle, was also confident that the Ritual of Chud would be able to permanently defeat it and Bill was confident that It was dead for good. Also, Steven King himself has no plans of writing a story with It ever again. Furthermore, some of these appearances contradict Pennywise’s normal 27 year hibernation, such as appearing in 1987, when It should be asleep.

But then how do we explain all of the above examples of Pennywise existing after the events of It? Simple, these are Pennywise’s children. In the climax of It, the Losers Club discovers that Pennywise has laid eggs, a lot of them. Ben believes he got all of them, but he could not be sure and it is unclear if he was even able to properly kill the eggs. Therefore it is entirely possible that one of these eggs hatched and that a child of the original It began haunting Derry. Assuming that this child would have all of the powers of the old It, the child could easily account for all of the aforementioned references.

In summary, it is most likely that Pennywise did die permanently at the end of It and all subsequent sightings were really offspring of the original.

Verdicts

tmk

scared mantis!

This is one of the weirder matchups I've had to research. Both A Nightmare on Elm Street and It are super, super weird franchises, and these are super weird characters as well. Comparing how their abilities work in conjunction with one another has been interesting, but it's also fairly complex and requires a bit of context. Before I do that however, it's time for me to sell this matchup to the skeptical crowd. I used to dislike this pairing too, but after going through all of their media I can pretty comfortably say that these are the few people who compliment and bounce off of each other in both a character and dynamic sense.

Freddy Krueger and Pennywise are both massively well known horror icons from the 1980s who kill youths by manifesting their fears, griefs and insecurities in a form that looks real, but is in actuality not real, and have been defeated by recognizing such. Both A Nightmare on Elm Street and It also deal with a similar theme of youths having to learn to take on a dangerous foe while the adults are ignorant of their ongoings, their actions actually hampering the youths at times. They both also use dark humor and will joke and toy with their victims, and eat souls to fuel themselves, as well as are usually restricted to a single town (Springwood and Derry) and regularly transform. 

So yeah, it's pretty thematic in my opinion, however anyone can make a wall of text with anyone and call it a good matchup. What really sells me here is a combination of their status as massive horror icons in the genre, the fact that their abilities have such specific similarities and can bounce off the other pretty well in a fight, and their dark and comedic personalities meshing together like cereal and milk. Imagine the two insulting each other throughout the whole fight, adding deep cut after deep cut while reality morphs around them. Also, these two actually have a pretty interesting history with each other. In the 1990 It miniseries, they actually planned to have a Freddy Krueger cameo, but it was scrapped - then, at the ending scene in the 2017 It Chapter 2 movie, they actually included a Nightmare on Elm Street cameo. But who wins? Well to answer that, we will need to clear up discrepancies and myths surrounding the two, because given how strange the two are ability wise, the amount of additional content they have outside of the movies, and the fact that they are both presented as stupidly powerful within their own media, they are bound to create internet gossip on vs battle boards that may be, at times, misconstrued from the truth.

Let's address the big, macroversal sized elephant in the room first. Tall tales of Pennywise's true form have permeated members of battle boards and servers and what have you, but recently it was thrown into question. So, is this "true form" standard for a fight? Is it outerversal? Is it even real??? As with most things in life, the answer lies in the middle.

What people call Pennywise’s true form is a massive core of light outside of the universe in what the novel calls the "macroverse". This core of light is, of course, the unrestrained form of the Deadlights which Pennywise's victims fall prey to. It uses a portion of it to peer into the universe, as well as manifest avatars to feed on the souls and fear of Derry. It's influence and interaction with the universe is limited, however, as whatever form it takes must abide by the rules of the universe, which It cannot circumvent. 

I have seen two main arguments for the inclusion of It as a regular force in the battle. The first being that because Maturin, another creature that exists in the macroverse choked on a galaxy, that must mean that It can interact with our universe just fine. The second is that because this fight would presumably take place in It's dreams, Krueger would have to be fighting a dream version of It's true form, in It's own mindscape. While they sound reasonable on the surface, I don't necessarily agree with either argument.

Tackling the initial argument first, you have to remember what I said about the nature of It's true form. It is not some big monster lurking right outside our universe, It is a massive core of light that requires a physical form to interact with our universe. Maturin, on the other hand, is literally just a big ass turtle that vomited out the universe. You might find parallels between the two, but they are in fact very different entities that do not function in the same way at all or even in a similar manner, outside of being entities that exist in the macroverse, of which they aren't even the only ones. The whole thing about Maturin choking on a galaxy is a little weird contextually, too. The idea is that Maturin is this being that created the universe with his own vomit, however if these celestial objects where comparable to him in size to such a degree that he could choke on a galaxy, then wouldn't that contradict the whole weird Dark Tower cosmology if they are supposed to be infinitely above infinity, such and such? I think what happened here is that as Stephen King was writing the Dark Tower series, he wanted to retcon a lot of the weird stuff he made while he was on crack to make room for better metaphysical jargon. Not once in the It novel did it utter the word "multiverse". Whatever the case, if It could just gobble up the universe whenever it wanted, why didn't It do that when It was severely weakened and knew It was about to die at the end of the book? This argument relies on too much headcanon that is not supported by, and is in fact contradicted by the source material for me to take seriously.

As for the second argument, the reason this is problematic is actually because of additional context for how both of their worlds work that was not caught by many people. If you read the Freddy Krueger cosmology section, you would know that the Dream World is not just a mindscape, but it is actually a completely different dimension that our souls go to when we sleep. This dimension does not follow the same rules as the macroverse, thus we have to assume that It would need to use It's deadlights to manifest here as well. Important to note, we have actually seem Pennywise inside of a dream before - and of course, it was as the clown avatar. Even if this were the case, Freddy could simply just leave to the real world where he has the same powers thanks to the necronomicon. The fight does not need to take place in It's mind at all.

So, is that it? Does It have no way of entering the fight? Well, not so fast. Pennywise has one way of bringing it in, being the famous Deadlights. There has been some confusion over how the Deadlights work in our universe, but essentially what they do is drag your soul across the universe and the macroverse before finally bringing you into the full form of It's light. This is how It feeds itself, after all. How practical this may be against Freddy Krueger is another story, but this is a possible way to bring it into the fray.

So where do we go from there? Do we use the standard stats vs stats dance? Mmmeh, given how their powers work, trying to attribute their feats to their physical capabilities may get a little wonky. Generally, you can argue their feats being at similar levels, though technically Freddy has a more consistent and solid advantage when it comes to such things. However, what I think matter more in this regard are categories such as their survivability, their reality warping potency and their transformative capabilities, and in these regards, Krueger has many advantages over the clown.

Pennywise's reality warping is, in short, technically not reality warping. What It does is produce visual effects to make victims think reality is a certain way, even if it isn't so. In doing so, it becomes real to the victim. It's a placebo, nocebo, gazebo kneevils. It's based on psychosomatic effects, a real thing that is told metaphorically through Eddie's story of taking placebo medicine. While I think this is an interesting ability conceptually, it is not going to do well against a confident dream demon who changes reality to whatever he wants. I don't think this means just about anyone confident in their abilities can defeat Pennywise, but when It's being put up against someone who already changes reality to his whim, then Pennywise's psychosomatic effects can be relatively easily nullified by Krueger just… Thinking that reality is instead something else. Even besides that, Freddy Krueger has experience against lucid dreamers - including an especially skilled one, and an Aztec demon who is intended to kill people exactly like Freddy Krueger - and has overcome and overtaken their abilities. There's no reason he can't do the same here. 

This goes for affecting Pennywise, by the way. Although the movies outright confirm it is the case, the book also delves into the concept multiple times that the Losers Club can affect Pennywise with items just because they believe they could. Pennywise is going to have very little defense against Fredster just, turning him into a cockroach, or really whatever he wants. When Pennywise makes a transformation, it has to abide by the rules of physics, meanwhile Freddy's transformations do not. Freddy Krueger can clone himself, become invisible, intangible, or heck, technically he doesn't even need to be there and can just control the Dream World or reality without a physical form present - which he has actually done before. No matter what way you slice it, Freddy’s got the better reality warping and can genuinely do almost anything he wants, whereas Pennywise has very clear limits to what It can do, limits that Krueger does not have.

So with that said, does Pennywise at least take survivability against the Kruegster? Hell no. Pennywise was mortally wounded by the silver bullet and needed to retreat to heal, and the avatar's heart being destroyed is enough to destroy the entire, true form of the Deadlights. Freddy Krueger on the other hand is able to survive having his entire soul destroyed and come back relatively quickly, he is infamous for just how unkillable he seems to be. 

The best advantage Pennywise seems to have appears to be It's experience that comes with the super old age, however even then, Pennywise spent most of that time tricking little children. Unlike Pennywise, Freddy Krueger has actually fought other supernatural entities before and knows more of what to expect from them. This means that, even though both may be arrogant and toy with their victims, Krueger is much more likely to attempt to go for the kill first once he sees that this clown is not what It appears to be than vice versa.

OK so Freddy may have a lot of advantages, but I did say that Pennywise's true form could potentially come into play if Penny could catch someone in the Deadlights. Will this be enough to tip the scales? Eh not really. As I mentioned earlier, Freddy is likely to go for the kill first. Freddy may be kind of cocky and toys with his victims, but so does Pennywise, and Freddy has faced more supernatural entities in his past and has more solid speed arguments in general. But let's say that Pennywise did catch Freddy in the Deadlights, for the sake of argument. Would this be enough to win? Well even then, it's not guaranteed to really end the fight. 

We know that Freddy Krueger can reform from having his soul destroyed, and we know that he can exit to other dimensions. He has shown to move between Hell, the Dream World, and the real world before even without the necronomicon. The greatest threat to him here is how the true form of It induces insanity in those that witness It… however, this process is not instantaneous. We see from when Bill interacted with the Deadlights that seeing them does not instantly make someone insane. Rather, it moves your soul through the universe and macroverse before you arrive at It's true form. Bill was able to have an extended conversation and battle with It before he could have been sent to It's true form, so there's no reason Freddy can't just escape back to the main universe or Dream World. Freddy Krueger also has mental defenses, and can potentially feed on the souls already trapped within It. Besides, we're not sure that "inducing insanity" would actually end the fight here. OK so he's insane now, does that mean that he just gives up and stops fighting? It says that you are still conscious while in It's form, just insane, which could mean any number of things. 

Oh yeah, speaking of Freddy's resistances, Pennywise not being able to read his mind is going to hamper him a lot in this fight. On the flipside, Pennywise has no such immunities without going into very theoretical guesswork. This is important, because both of them rely on using fear against their opponents to defeat them. As such, it is important to ask who is scarier, and who is easier to scare?

Again, Freddy has the advantage. As I've already mentioned, Freddy is immune to mind reading and Pennywise is not. That alone gives him the edge here, but we can go even deeper. 

If you've read the novel, you know what scares Pennywise. Pennywise is so cartoonishly full of himself that just his avatar being injured had completely terrified him to the point of paranoia. Just imagine how scared he would be of someone who can not only harm It, but also nullify It's abilities and survive It's Deadlights. Now this may surprise you, but I have actually failed to find a moment where Freddy Krueger himself was explicitly stated to be scared of anything, and he has dealt with powerful entities before. It's likely that he could make Pennywise fear him, making him even more powerful. 

I haven't mentioned this yet, but technically Freddy does have a direct counter to Stephen King's cosmology, being how he was able to escape into the real world in New Nightmare. In Dark Tower, Keystone Earth is similar, but it's also treated as an alternate universe within the multiverse rather than a higher plane of reality. If you wanted to use them at their "peak" Freddy even has a way of matching the true form in power.

While there is certainly a lot to go over here, Freddy just has the advantage in almost every area. I know that it sounds weird for what many people know as a cheesy 80s villain to defeat this cosmic entity who is the center of internet legend, but surprisingly enough, Freddy has the tools to pop this clown's balloons and send It to rest for the final time. The great evil known as It shall float no more, as it sinks into an endless nightmare that It shall never escape.

76SUP

I’d like to thank ya-boi-benny on Reddit, who’s Pennywise and Freddy respect threads were invaluable while I was helping out on this blog. Keep an eye out for his upcoming Castlevania Dracula thread, which I helped out with.

Freddy VS Pennywise, this is a matchup that’s been going around for years. I, personally, like it a lot. What horror matchups generally tend to lack to me is a good dynamic between the two characters. As popular as it is, I really don’t like Michael VS Jason since… well, it’s two quiet guys with knives walking slowly at one another, and turning into an anime fight with them teleporting around throwing flurries of punches doesn’t feel like the characters to me. Also, the strongest version of Michael gets ground into a fine powder by even the weakest version of Jason, so I find it boring on that level too. Freddy VS Pennywise though, has a lot more of a debate. Or does it? Let’s find out.

Since we’re using composite versions of both characters, I think Freddy ends up having a lot more advantages than Pennywise. Part of that is of course due to the wider breadth of material Freddy gets to pull from - Stephen King hasn’t really licensed It into a huge franchise of comics and spin-off books and TV shows and Evil Dead crossovers, no matter how much I want Pennywise to be in Dead by Daylight. All Pennywise gets from the compositing process is the old TV movie adaptation and the two recent movies, which mostly just adapt things from the book anyways. Meanwhile Freddy gets too many new sources to list.

I’m going to analyze this fight as if it took place in the real world, between Freddy and It’s avatar, since while a fight in the dream world’s possible, I think a battle in the real world is probably what people are thinking of when they hear about this matchup.

Freddy easily has the advantage in physical “hand-to-hand” combat. His fights with Jason show he’s able to throw down with other supernaturally-strong entities even in the real world. His other feats also show that he’s a fair bit quicker than It’s avatar. We’ve never really seen It’s avatar in a fight with another super-strong being like that. Add on the Necronomicon, which aside from letting him access a whole slew of new magic, lets him use his dream powers in the real world. Normally, I’d find it a bit weird to actually try and scale him off of his dream feats as if they’re real, but the Necronomicon flips that around. In dreams, he’s been shown using his reality warping on a much, much higher scale than anything Pennywise ever displayed with his own reality warping, and the Necronomicon lets him use that even in a fight against Pennywise’s physical form. Freddy’s used his reality warping in ways better suited to combat more often - he’s healed his own wounds almost instantly, he’s become intangible, and he uses reality warping to “fight dirty” all the time, like teleporting around, transforming others, turning invisible to beat a kid up, etcetera.

Freddy’s also harder to kill. Again, both have regeneration, but if we’re using composite, Freddy’s is just way, way more ridiculous. Freddy can totally kill Pennywise by crushing his heart, and even his true form (we’ll get to that later). Meanwhile composite Freddy, in one of the books, has a feat for reviving after getting completely destroyed in the dream world like matter and antimatter. He specifically claims that he’s an embodiment of hate who will exist as long as hate does. Pennywise, strong as he is, can’t destroy hate. Only the Care Bears can do that.

So Freddy’s a better fighter than Pennywise is, has better reality warping, he’s faster, and he’s tougher. Does Pennywise really have anything here? Usually on whatever debating forum you look at, the arguments for Pennywise winning essentially boil down to “he has an omniversal true form who godstomps Freddy.” Yeah, I don’t really put much stock in that. With how It works, Pennywise’s true form is not going to get involved in the fight - the true Deadlights are locked in the Macroverse, the true form isn’t a transformation Pennywise can take or something. Plus, the true form is linked to the avatar, and if the avatar’s destroyed, the true form is destroyed as well. It’s not like Freddy’s going to kill the avatar, and then the true form’s going to pop out and beat him up. That’s not how it works.

As for Pennywise using the Deadlights to put Krueger in a trance or drive him insane, I don’t really see that happening consistently. Since he’s faster than the avatar is, Freddy could probably just avoid them somehow, defeat Pennywise before he tries to use them, or as Galaxy Video suggests, whip up a pair of sunglasses and a cheesy pun to protect himself. Freddy has displayed some psychic resistance before and is a supernatural being himself, so it’s possible he won’t be as affected as much as or in the same way as the various humans exposed to the Deadlights.

I could get into how Pennywise’s power over you draws from how much you fear him, and how if you believe you can hurt him you can, but I feel like most other points after the few I’ve laid out are somewhat tertiary. In my opinion, this isn’t really a fight where you need to dive into the cosmology of both universes, the possibility of mental combat, or any meta shit from New Nightmare, or whatever. Though when you do dive into that stuff, it always ends up helping Krueger and not the clown, as you’ll see in the other verdicts. Composite Freddy, with his better reality warping thanks to the Necronomicon and his ability to revive as long as hate exists, takes this fight rather handily in my eyes. And that’s about it.

TheoryCrafter

At first glance, Freddy and Pennywise might seem like a weird matchup.  Pennywise is a psychological horror villain, focused on breaking people down and using its powers to marinate them with tasty fear.  Freddy is much more simple, with his slashing, swearing, and slandering.  It uses Pennywise as a vector for a story about growing up, facing your fears, and leaving the past behind.  A Nightmare on Elm Street uses Freddy for puns and gore, with little focus on the actual development of the human characters.  One single-handedly made an entire generation afraid of clowns.  The other is one of the biggests faces in campy horror.  In a movie genre that has no shortage of villains to pull from, pitting these two against each other might raise some eyebrows.

However, these two are a well made match for a versus setting.  They share many of the same abilities: shape-shifting, mental manipulation, reality warping, etc.  Both also counter the other’s more unique abilities in suitably unique ways.  They both also get cosmic in scale when using the full extent of their powers, which gives this fight a nice escalation from two human sized nightmare monsters to cosmic monstrosities.  Pennywise’s true form and New Nightmare in particular allow for a lot of mind boggling imagery.  Oh yeah, true forms.  I have been on this blog twice and both times I was researching a character with a cosmic level true form.  Guess that is my niche now.  Well enough of my babbling, time for what you are here for.

In the interest of making this verdict easier to understand, I am going to organize it in a special way.  If you have read enough of these kinds of blogs, whether from here or from the people we are shamelessly ripping off, you have probably noticed that a lot of information gets thrown at your face and most of it has little to no impact on the verdict.  So my explanation will be divided into two parts: “What Doesn’t Matter” and “What Matters.”

What Doesn’t Matter

To probably no one’s surprise, Freddy’s claws and Pennywise’s balloons will not affect this fight much at all.  While Freddy does definitely have higher showings of power than Pennywise, these are more related to the power of his reality warping abilities rather than his physical prowess.  After all, he was overpowered and temporarily defeated by Jason, who has far weaker showings of strength than Freddy’s higher ends.  So I doubt that the claws would be able to effortlessly cut Pennywise to ribbons or anything.  Besides, Pennywise has been stabbed before and reformed without issue.  Pennywise’s balloons will be even less useful.  They could MAYBE be used to daze and deafen Freddy, but that is unlikely to happen and even then it would only be a temporary stun. 

Both characters have a myriad of mental abilities and while some of them are useful, many of them get completely countered.  Freddy’s mind control and telepathy will not work on Pennywise given the completely esoteric consciousness that is It.  While his powers have worked on zombies like Jason Voorhees, It is a massive parasitic psychic entity whose full form can drive people insane just by witnessing it.  Freddy has never shown the ability to manipulate the minds of beings on that level.  Similarly, Freddy’s possession will likely not work due to the avatar of the Deadlights that Pennywise’s body possesses, which are capable of absorbing souls directly and transporting them to the Macroverse.  Pennywise’s mental abilities will be mostly restricted as well.  Freddy has shown resistance to having his mind read and his control over the Necronomicon seems to suggest a resistance to mental control.  This would prevent Pennywise from being able to perform direct mental trickery such as learning information about Freddy, messing with his memories, or putting Freddy into a trance.  This would also prevent Pennywise from learning Freddy’s fears through psychic awareness.  Pennywise feeding on Freddy’s fear is not likely to happen anyways given Freddy’s confidence in his own immortality.

If you were hoping for one of these two to defeat the other with some awesome meta-narrative ability, then I have some bad news for you.  Meta-narrative shenanigans will not be a factor here.  New Nightmare and the true form of It counter each other in this regard.  Freddy can enter the “real world” and directly attack the actors and writers of his franchise.  Similarly, the Stephen King cosmology contains a multiversal narrative written by Stephen King himself on Keystone Earth, which is also meant to represent the “real world.”  The full power of the Deadlights exist completely above and outside of this multiversal narrative.  Neither of these two have shown the full extent of these meta-narrative abilities but from what we have seen, they should roughly cancel each other out. 

What Matters

We are onto the real meat and potatoes now.  I will start with comparing some of their shared abilities before moving onto their different abilities.  Excluding what I have already mentioned, Freddy and Penny share the abilities of shape shifting and reality warping.  Both are capable of transforming themselves into almost anything they want but Freddy’s shapeshifting is overall superior.  Pennywise has never shown the ability to grow to the size of a MOON like Freddy has and Pennywise’s transformations can be influenced by the beliefs of those that witness them.  For example, silver bullets were super effective against Pennywise’s werewolf form because his intended victim believed they would be.  Freddy’s various forms have no such weaknesses.  When comparing their reality warping abilities, I again have to give the edge to Freddy.  Pennywise can do some wild things with its powers, but Freddy’s applications have consistently been more cosmic in scale.  Freddy’s control over dreams allows him to bend the entire universe to his will and the Necronomicon grants him that ability in the real world as well.  While Pennywise’s own reality warping abilities will allow it to resist Freddy just casting it into the abyss or something, Freddy still will have overall better control of the battlefield and have more options for attack.  Freddy’s ability to duplicate himself only furthers this advantage.

In terms of raw stats, Freddy has another clear advantage.  Even if his muscular strength is not crazy impressive, his abilities have the potential to obliterate planets and move moons which is far above the 500 megatons that Pennywise has demonstrated.  Freddy is also far faster than Pennywise with his numerous relativistic feats.  In terms of durability however, Pennywise’s avatar actually has better showings.  Freddy was able to be overwhelmed and cut apart by Jason Voorhees while Pennywise was able to survive colliding with Earth with enough force to create a massive crater.  Pennywise could also use its own reality warping abilities such as teleportation, creating pocket dimensions, and warping the surroundings in order to protect itself from Freddy’s higher showings of power.

So does that mean that Freddy just cannot hurt Pennywise?  Nope.  Freddy has own major advantage that allows him to get past Pennywise’s defenses.  His own ego.  Pennywise’s powers are based heavily around belief.  If an opponent believes they can hurt It, they can.  This has allowed the Losers Club to seriously wound Pennywise with things as small as a spike, a slingshot, and even an aspirator.  Freddy’s massive self-confidence would make him fully believe that he could kill Pennywise, thus making his attacks able to harm It.  This coupled with a major speed advantage would let him get a bunch of meaningful hits.

But let’s finally address the elephant, or rather the incomprehensibly massive, parasitic, psychic spider entity, in the room.  How does the true form of It affect this fight?  As we put in the advantages and disadvantages section, It’s Macroverse form completely eclipses Freddy in almost every way.  The Deadlights are beyond the very conventional ideas of time, space, and power themselves, something that Freddy has never even come close to matching.  But the issue is that It’s full form cannot manifest in lower realities.  It needs to use an avatar, which is far weaker than the original.  Therefore this insane power is only applicable if Freddy enters the larger Macroverse.  

Can that happen?  Yes.  Pennywise can pull victims into the Macroverse through multiple means.  For example, if Freddy were to attempt to mentally or spiritually attack Pennywise, whether through mind control, possession, or other similar abilities, Freddy would likely be pulled into the Macroverse, much like how Bill Denbrough was when he performed the Ritual of Chud.  Pennywise can also just open its face and show Freddy the Deadlights to pull him into the Macroverse.  Once Freddy is in the Macroverse, It can use the full extent of its power.   It could pull Freddy into itself driving him mad due to being beyond human comprehension and then absorb his soul for all of eternity.  While Freddy does probably have some resistance against madness inducement, he has never experienced anything on the level of It, which is a massive psychic parasite comparable to beings able to destroy meta-physical beams that uphold the multiverse.  This madness could also cause the Necronomicon or his dream demons to turn on Freddy, which has defeated him in the past.  It might even completely absorb all of the souls that Freddy keeps inside his body as well, stripping him of yet another source of power. Freddy might try to feed on the souls within It, but it is unlikely he could wrestle them away from It’s form before being consumed himself.

Given the incredible power of It’s true form and the specific ways in which it exploits some of Freddy’s weaknesses, I believe It devouring Freddy could be a very reliable win condition for Pennywise.  However, this is not without its flaws.  When someone is pulled into the Macroverse, they are not immediately in the full presence of It.  It needs time to pull the victim towards itself to consume them.  This has allowed Bill Denbrough to survive two separate Macroverse encounters with It by combating the true form and then escaping.  Given Freddy’s own psychic abilities, ability to open portals, and the versatility of the Necronomicon, Freddy could fight back and then escape before being driven mad.  

There are still some other things that were not discussed, such as Freddy potentially having conceptual immortality along as hatred exists.  I am a bit iffy on this to be completely honest given how it seemed to be more that Freddy used hate to keep himself alive rather than being intrinsically linked with human hatred.  There is also that Curtis died believing fully that Freddy could someday be killed.  Regardless, even if Freddy did have this immortality, I believe that having his soul trapped for eternity in madness would still count as a victory as he would then be a part of Pennywise.

But Freddy has one particular win condition himself, and ultimately, it ends up being this clown’s curtain call.  It’s true form will die if its avatar is destroyed.  This means that if Pennywise is killed by Freddy, the fight is over.  Unfortunately for Pennywise, Freddy killing him is a lot more likely than him killing Freddy.  The Losers Club were able to kill it by psychically damaging the Deadlights in the Ritual of Chud before ripping out the avatar’s heart and crushing it.  Freddy’s psychic prowess, enormous self-confidence, and experience with manipulating the paranormal give him the tools he needs to properly weaken Pennywise in a manner similar to the Ritual of Chud.  Then, all that is left is for Freddy to kill the weakened clown with his far superior stats and abilities.  

Pennywise will not go down easily and I do believe that It has some chances of winning.  Theoretically, Pennywise could manipulate Freddy into a trap before taking him to the Macroverse or Freddy might just accidentally do that to himself by trying to attack Pennywise psychically/spiritually.  But in most scenarios, Freddy will deal a killing blow before It can consume him whole.  While consuming fear may be It’s Maine thing, it appears that it has finally met its worst nightmare.

TreyDaGoat

Welcome to primetime, bitch! Better stay awake like a meth head! Spread red on your bed spread till you’re lying there in your- alright let me stop. Happy Spooky Month and thanks for taking the time to read through this blog, everyone did a great job and it was pretty fun to work on a VS Blog like this for the first time, especially for an interesting matchup like this one. Both characters are completely and utterly busted in terms of their powers, so looking into both more was definitely fun, but that’s not what this part of the blog is about, now I’ll get into who I think wins and why.

First off, stats. Generally speaking, Freddy has the higher stats when compared to Pennywise due to his Dream World feats, that’s something that I think could definitely be agreed upon seeing as he can get somewhat close to FTL speeds while the Deadlights are Pennywise’s only way to really get to FTL, and even then that’s mainly just a possibility, and Freddy clearly wipes the floor with Pennywise in Strength and Speed. However, these are feats from when Freddy was in the Dream World, wouldn’t he get absolutely wiped out in the Real World? Nope, the Necronomicon gives Freddy all of his Dream Realm powers that aided these feats, plus the fact that generally speaking Pennywise isn’t too OP stat wise, Freddy definitely has that advantage over the Dancing Clown.

In terms of experience, I’d say it goes both ways for both Freddy and Pennywise. While Pennywise has been around way longer than Freddy and probably has larger knowledge of how to target his victims, Freddy has way more experience fighting against opponents on the supernatural side, even looking at their average victims shows the difference seeing as Pennywise’s main targets are young children who don’t really have the ability to defend themselves, whereas Freddy definitely doesn’t discriminate by age.

Next up and probably most importantly, their powers and how they could take advantage over each other. Looking from a general point of view, it seems like both Pennywise and Freddy are on the same level in terms of their powers, both of them being able to literally bend reality to how they want it to be in order to drive their victims insane. Freddy Krueger however has the advantage of being able to do literally whatever the hell he wants, he isn’t restricted from doing anything, he’ll if he wanted he could turn into a 10,000 lbs water bottle cap and just crush someone to death, meanwhile Pennywise is mostly able to transform into more advanced beings and forms when his victim fears him more. Speaking of fear, Pennywise needs his victims to fear him in order to become stronger, which is exactly why he decides to mostly target young children and when his victims don’t fear him, it’s shown that it weakens Pennywise and ultimately leaves him more open to fail, all the while Freddy doesn’t need someone to be scared of him to be strong.

The Necronomicon gets rid of the argument of Penny standing a chance in the Real World as I stated earlier since it gives Freddy his Dream World powers in the Real World, but as you’d imagine it also gives Freddy the powers of the Necronomicon, with which he could use to overwhelm Pennywise even more with his powers. Freddy being able to manipulate minds helps him as well as it could help him learn of the weakness Pennywise’s avatar, which is the fact piercing/destroying his heart kills Pennywise, and since Freddy already has the powers to do anything Pennywise has and better, this gives him an even more viable way of taking Penny out for good. Plus, Freddy has the ability to duplicate into a bunch of different Freddies, which can lead to Freddy just completely overwhelming Freddy.

Freddy already has a pretty busted healing factor, but seeing as he can use his duplication to turn his blood into an army of mini-him’s helps out even more with the overwhelming argument.

One of Pennywise’s main wincons that originally had me set on him winning were The Deadlights, simply gazing into them sends you into the Macroverse where Pennywise gains a huge advantage over Freddy, however while this could possibly lead him to victory, there are multiple ways Freddy can use this to his advantage. First off, seeing as the Macroverse has many souls of past victims and Freddy is capable of absorbing souls to power himself up, it’s likely that Freddy can use this to his advantage by powering himself up. This also somewhat leads into my next point, as Freddy is also capable of teleporting back into the Real World or Dream World, which would definitely help him along with the fact that his mental defense would stop him from immediately going insane, hell it could stop him from going insane in general. Lastly, the Deadlights themselves can be weakened, so the effectiveness of the Deadlights in general could possibly be tampered with by Freddy in order to completely fuck over any chance Pennywise has.

Overall, while Pennywise is definitely no slouch and is definitely capable of putting fear in the hearts of many, he simply can’t compare to Freddy Krueger’s completely mindbending powers and abilities, which makes me believe that the winner of this debate is Freddy Krueger. In the end, Freddy had the IT factor to put Pennywise in a Nightmare he couldn’t wake up from. Happy Halloween everyone!

Team Freddy Krueger - tmk, 76SUP, TheoryCrafter, TreyDaGoat

Team Pennywise - None

Next time…