The Thing vs. Pennywise: Who Survives?

credit: The Thing

Reading through the various opinions on a fight of this magnitude is interesting since a lot of people believe that Pennywise, or It, would be completely dominant in such a fight, and they’re not entirely wrong. The reality of this matchup is that the Thing from John Carpenter’s movie has one glaring drawback that could also end up being an advantage if things worked out as would be needed. Looking at this from a certain perspective, one has to be able to admit that the Thing might be able to find a way to bother Pennywise for a bit, especially if the two creatures don’t fully understand each other.

The main difference, though, is that while the Thing is an extraterrestrial that can absorb and replicate the DNA of any living organism, Pennywise, or It, is a cosmic presence that has no natural predators on earth and yet somehow can be fended off with words and a decided lack of fear. This makes things confusing to be certain since by taking away one of the elements that It really needs to be effective, the Thing gets a serious leg up, no pun intended. 

credit: It

Could Pennywise discover what the Thing is afraid of and use that?

There is one advantage that Pennywise might have over the Thing initially, and this is the fact that the Thing doesn’t like fire or extreme cold since both elements could very easily shut the creature down and keep it from regenerating or copying the DNA. On that note, the Thing is a versatile character since every part of it, every single cell, will seek to survive in one way or another, as was shown in the original 1982 movie.

Even the blood that was subjected to a hot wire made an effort to evolve quickly and flee from the unwanted stimuli. This would be one of the reasons why It could take the offensive against the Thing since realizing this fear and using it would be fairly easy. But it’s easy to guess whether the Thing is really afraid or is simply acting to preserve itself due to a strong survival instinct. There’s an entire debate that could be had on this subject, but for the sake of this article, it’s fair to say that this might be a way for Pennywise to press the advantage. 

The Thing might be able to copy Its avatars and consume them, but the key word is ‘might.’ 

It can be argued that Its avatars, such as the spider, the clown, and anything else it takes on, could be consumed and copied much as it does with any other living thing. But this brings into question the idea of whether Its avatars are in fact real enough for the Thing to replicate. There’s also the idea that It doesn’t have a true form that can be copied, though this theory is something that could possibly be tested if Pennywise didn’t find a way to burn the alien to cinders.

Trying to argue for any dominance by the Thing in any fashion would need to ignore the fact that It is a less-than-intelligent creature that runs solely on instinct and laps up fear to sustain itself before going in for the kill. To be honest, both creatures appear to work heavily on instinct and intelligence in equal measures, but what this battle would come down to is experience, intelligence, and how each creature would seek to press its advantage. 

credit: It

Pitting a cosmic being against a terrestrial creature is kind of difficult. 

In terms of age, it’s tough to say who’s older since, in the form that so many know about, It can’t be said to be older than the earth itself, but that’s where being a cosmic being comes into play, since it’s very likely that It could have been soaring through the cosmos long before the world ever formed, and it’s been mentioned in the book and by fans that it’s very likely.

There’s no telling how long the Thing has been around either, but it does feel likely that this is a creature that has evolved throughout thousands or millions of years since it is intelligent, but it also feels finite, unlike the creature from It. That could play into this fight quite a bit since the eons of experience in dealing with one creature or another and coming up with various ways to harm other sentient beings could work to Its advantage. 

In the end, it does feel as though It would win. 

At the end of the day, we’re talking about a cosmic-level being taking on a terrestrial creature that relies on flesh and blood to replicate and copy itself onto others. While it’s possible that the Thing could copy the avatars of the creature from It, one can’t help but think that Pennywise would overwhelm the creature one way or another.