History YMMV / It

** Richie's musings on Bill rival Eddie's in their admiration, especially as kids, where he describes Bill as being the most handsome, decides that he's 'strong and sure and perfect' as he watches Bill's 'broad' back, and willingly goes into numerous situations he absolutely does not want to go into because he won't let Bill go alone.

** [[spoiler:Richie is the last person Eddie talks to, and Richie kisses him goodbye after he dies.]] There's also several passages where Eddie's hero-worship of Bill is described as love, and on a couple of occasions Eddie muses that his younger self would have died for Big Bill.

** In the book, [[spoiler:Richie is the last person Eddie talks to, and Richie kisses him goodbye after he dies.]] There's also several passages where Eddie's hero-worship of Bill is described as love, and on a couple of occasions Eddie muses that his younger self would have died for Big Bill.

** IT's true form, or at least [[YouCannotGraspTheTrueForm the part of it human can perceive]], is a giant spider-like creature. This fits quite well with IT being an impossibly old AbstractApotheosis of the concept of predation, as the top predators of humanity and other land-based vertebrates' lungfish ancestors were prehistoric arachnids.

** Although sex is the last "IT" to reach before adulthood, so it does have metaphorical power. Of course not everyone sees it this way.

*** This is justified. Mike fears Rodan because he was attacked as an infant by a bird while in his crib. Pennywise bypassed Rodan and went straight to the original fear, hence the attack by a giant bird.
*** Mike was never afraid of Rodan. He recounts the time he and his father were watching it on TV, his father telling him to "Get that bird, Mikey!" while Mike made finger gun motions at it. As previous troper has pointed out, Mike's true fear is of the bird that attacked him as an infant, as well as the story his father told of the giant bird he saw circling the jazz club he frequently as it was burning down. Rodan served to trigger the memory of the story and of the crow.

* SelfFanservice: For a rare non-sexual example, despite being overweight to the point of it potentially being dangerous, fanart depicting Ben often has him as a bit less fat than he is in canon. The fact that [[FormerlyFat he'd lose his gut as he got older]] definitely helps.

* SelfFanservice: For a rare non-sexual example, despite being overweight to the point of it potentially being dangerous, fanart depicting Ben often has him as more chubby than fat.

* CantUnHeartIt: Just ''try'' to read the book without hearing the characters' voices from the [[Film/It1990 miniseries]] or [[Film/It2017 movie]] (and its [[Film/ItChapterTwo sequel]]).

* CompleteMonster: [[AntagonistTitle IT]] is an [[EldritchAbomination ancient demonic being]] that awakens from hibernation every twenty-seven years to murder and [[ChildEater devour the children]] of the town of [[TownWithADarkSecret Derry, Maine]]. Often using the avatar of a [[MonsterClown jovial clown named Pennywise]] to lure children into its clutches. IT prides itself on using its shapeshifting and hallucinogenic powers to torment its victims, [[EmotionEater preying on]] their phobias and acquired fears and likening the cultivation of their terror to "salting the meat". From 1740 to 1743, IT was responsible for the disappearance of three hundred Derry Township settlers. In 1957, IT killed Bill Denbrough's six-year-old brother, George, and devoured Patrick Hockstetter alive while in the form of his [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes greatest fear]], leeches. IT also drove [[TheBully Henry Bowers]] to madness, then killed Bowers's friends after they succeeded in luring the Losers' Club into the sewers. After waking up in 1984, IT kills a man named Adrian Mellon before resuming its violent killing spree of children. IT proceeds to manipulate Henry Bowers into trying to kill the Losers, drive Bill's wife, Audra, catatonic by exposing her to its deadlights, and even manages to kill Eddie before its final defeat. Cruel, sadistic, and with a twisted sense of humor, IT stands out as one of the most vile creatures Stephen King ever came up with.

* CompleteMonster: [[AntagonistTitle IT]], a.k.a. [[MonsterClown Pennywise the Dancing Clown]], is a [[EldritchAbomination primordial being]] as old as time. IT awakens from its hibernation every three decades and proceeds to murder and [[ChildEater devour the children]] of the town of [[TownWithADarkSecret Derry, Maine]], often using the avatar of a jovial clown named Pennywise to lure children into its clutches. IT prides itself on using its shapeshifting and hallucinogenic powers to torment its victims, [[EmotionEater preying on]] their phobias and acquired fears and likening the cultivation of their terror to "salting the meat". From 1740 to 1743, IT was responsible for the disappearance of three hundred Derry Township settlers. In 1957, IT killed Bill Denbrough's six-year-old brother, George, and devoured Patrick Hockstetter alive while in the form of his [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes greatest fear]], leeches. IT also drove [[TheBully Henry Bowers]] to madness, then killed Bowers's friends after they succeeded in luring the Losers' Club into the sewers. After waking up in 1984, IT kills a man named Adrian Mellon before resuming its violent killing spree of children. IT proceeds to manipulate Henry Bowers into trying to kill the Losers, drive Bill's wife, Audra, catatonic by exposing her to its deadlights, and even manages to kill Eddie before its final defeat.

** Look at {{Squick}}, please. Yes. That scene. An unusual example for this trope in that it's the most maligned moment of an otherwise well regarded work.
** Less infamously (and actually appearing in the adaptations) from the first chapter, Georgie meeting and being killed by Pennywise who appears underneath a sewer drain.

** Pennywise noting that the Losers' resistance to it is a new thing that's happened [[WesternAnimation/Frozen2013 "for the first time in forever."]]

* HarsherInHindsight:
** [[spoiler:"Take it from me Spaghetti Man (Eddie), better dead than wed!"]]
** Pennywise himself becomes this or HilariousInHindsight depending on how you look at it: In 2016, a bunch of "Creepy Clowns" started showing up scare-pranking innocent pedestrians.

* BigLippedAlligatorMoment: The infamous prepubescent sex orgy in the sewer, which is only in the original novel. It largely comes out of nowhere (save for one ''very'' brief bit of foreshadowing towards the beginning of the book), has minimal impact on the plot, and really only serves the purpose of [[{{Squick}} being gross]] overall[[labelnote:*]][[WordOfGod There are a few actual explanations out there]], the most common one claiming that they needed to re-gain energy after getting tired in the sewers, but how making an underage girl lose her virginity, a process that would involve ''spending vigorous amounts of energy'', fixes that [[VoodooShark only raises more questions]][[/labelnote]]. Unsurprisingly, the scene is AdaptedOut from pretty much every [=IT=] adaptation that exists, and many people tend to get pretty up-in-arms about its existence since, by its nature of it being a [=BLAM=], people are only really able to assume the worst as to why it was even included (see DontShootTheMessage below).

* {{Squick}}: In the novel, the gang, drained of energy after their first encounter with It in Its lair in the sewers, re-power themselves by losing their virginity with Bev. Regardless of whether you believe it adds anything to the story, it's still a bunch of ''underage children'' having sex one after the other in a sewer.
** There's also the scene where Beverly encounters an old woman who is IT in disguise. See NightmareFuel for details.
** To say nothing of the [[ItMakesSenseInContext fart-lighting contest scene between Henry and Patrick.]]
*** Less the fart-lighting scene, which is hilarious enough that Bev has a hard time not laughing both when witnessing it and while remembering it 27 years later. What happens directly after Belch and Victor leave, however, fits the term squick to an alarming degree.

* CriticalResearchFailure:
** In the book, the producer of Audra's movie (being shot in England) is stated to have once bowled a century at cricket. "Century" in cricket terminology is an individual score of at least 100 runs, a significant landmark for a batsman. Bowling a century can be used ironically to refer to a bowler who gives up over 100 runs in an innings, but it's obviously not an achievement to brag about in that case.

* DontShootTheMessage: Stephen King has defended the scene of the [[ItMakesSenseInContext prepubescent sex train in a sewer]] by questioning critics why they were fine with the gruesome and brutal child murders but children having consensual sex with each other (in technical, not legal terms) is not okay. While there are those who would advocate the censorship and social attitudes of extreme violence versus basic human sexuality ''are'' grossly uneven, you'd have some trouble trying to defend your view with a ''[[{{Squick}} prepubescent sex train in a sewer]]''.

* {{Squick}}: In the novel, the gang, drained of energy after their first encounter with It in Its lair in the sewers, re-power themselves by losing their virginity with Bev. Is it emotionally significant to the story? Yes, but it's still a bunch of ''underage children'' having sex one after the other in a sewer.

* JerkassWoobie: Victor Criss was far from a nice kid, but he had far more sense than Henry, and over the course of the book starts realizing how far gone his friend really is. There's even a hint that at one point he tried to talk to the Losers about leaving Henry's gang and joining them (though we don't actually see it depicted). But at the climax of the 1950s story, he and Belch follow Henry down into the sewers only to [[spoiler: be decapitated by IT,]] and it's implied that [[spoiler: IT is temporarily brainwashing them to get them to go along with Henry]].

** Look at {{Squick}}, please. Yes. That scene.
** Less infamously there's also Georgie meeting Pennywise in the sewer drain.

* SignatureScene: Look at {{Squick}}, please. Yes. That scene.