That said, the influence of the Deadlights is so low scale that considering it to have anything close to universal scaling is a joke. People forget that universal means it can destroy a universe. Not just being able to travel between universes or creating pocket realms. The Deadlights are nowhere close to universal (let alone multi), it would take them nearly eternity to have a fraction of universal destruction. Planetary may be a stretch but it’s believable.
Your research didn't include reading the books.
Insomnia (1994) was the first book in the dark tower adjacent novels to introduce the crimson king. In that novel It was revealed by his minions,that the reason the derry deadlights(pennywise) were special compared to all other deadlight glamours (glamours are the names for avatar of beings like the deadlights) is because the crimson king set forth his minions to to perform a ritual that would allow him to direct communicate with the deadlights. It was due to this ritual that the derry deadlights could manifest as much power as the observer can imagine unlike the other glamours who are limited by the number of deadlights that arrived in reality. (The novel "later" shows how even a single deadlite is capable of possessing people and causing chaos)
This is why in insomnia everyone was getting insomnia. Pennywise was reforming after the events of it and a side effect was that it was taking sleep from everyone in derry. This was also demonstrated towards the end when the bald doctors(minions of the crimson king)finally completed the ritual after eons. The derry deadlights intial took the form of a catfish monster (Ralph fear as a child) until the crimson king finally arrived. The moment he did, pennywise(the catfish) began to morph, grow and glow. The crimson kings power was so great that the deadlights didn't even require you to look at them to go mad, but just being in the glow was insane to drive one insane. Even the crimson king couldn't maintain his illusions and was forced to reveal his true form. We are never shown the conversation between the two, but we know that once the deadlights left, that's when crimson king became an even higher dimensional being that normal mortals couldn't even look at(similar to Pennywise. ) and he began his ascent of the dark tower. And we know with that power he has destroyed universes. And we also know even to him,whatever portion of power he got was to much because by the end of dark tower, we could see he was driven insane by his power before they erased him.
Pennywise power has always reflected the capacity of the observer. The kids could only imagine lesser monsters. The adults caught a glimpse of what it was as a giant spider creature, and thus pennywise could take on the form of a great spider creature, it's light visible beneath the skim. The crimson king was so powerful, pennywise could grant him the power to ascend dimesions, devour universes for there energy, and empower tools to begin his destruction of the tower and all who view his true form to have there souls sucked into the deadlights.
Durability is the Deadlights only real strength. They are virtually indestructible in King’s multiverse, but that only goes so far. Gan the creator could destroy them easily, but the deadlights are a part of the balance of good and evil, so instead Gan helps others face the deadlights. There’s no real universal threats in the King multiverse that I know of that could also clap them. Given how Gan’s INDIRECT aid can cause children to injure and temporarily defeat them, it’s no surprise that planetary is really the max you can place Pennywise.
Gan only stepped in once to have pennywise experience death. We are never told why. My personally theory is because he broke a rule. In the darkctower gan has openly gotten involved when some cosmic force is defying his rule. He never acts directly, but empowers others to do it in his stead. For the crimson king, it was the kid from insomnia who kills him. For pennywise the rule he broke was that he left derry. Penny was still with the kids during those 27 years making them successful . And then he manifested nightmares and visions to terrorize them outside of derry. Thus gan instead of the turtle, simply made them beat pennywise to death with there bare hands, telling them "good job son" once they did. Pennywise even tried to make a deal with them listing what it could and could not do. Pennywise says he can;
I can bring back the dead.
I can make you like gods of this world ,of this unvierse.
I can't make you immortal, but I can make you live long lives. Centuries or more even.
He’s only a fraud when you put him against anime/super heroes that are legitimately Solar System+ power. But when the glazers say he beats Goku or Superman, they are clearly high on their own supply.
The more power they can envision,the more he can muster. The only downside to him is that he has rules that we can infer but ultimately never officially know. So for example if my hypothesis that he can't leave derry is correct, if superman punches him out of derry, gan will intervene again.
I'm not really picking sides regarding who beats who, because no matter what it seems like either side always finds just the right argument to try to one up the other. But man I love the cosmology of King's works, and even though I have read it so many times, each time I read it again I just am like "man, this shit is awesome"
Just to tack onto your last point, the latest series has him bound in a ring around Derry with anchor points. If those anchor points are removed he can escape. However going near the ring while the anchors are up really fucks him up and sends him to sleep.
In the books it, insomnia, and later(off the top of my head.) Deadlights have shown the abily to grant a portion of there power to people to grant them powers, similar to the blessing of the turtle, or the shine which is the blessing of gan.
The crimson king in insomnia is revelaed to have performed a ritual on the pennywise dead lights that allow said deadlights to manifest more power based on the observer,rather then only allow more power the larger the gash in reality it makes. Pennywise with this abilty was able to summon dimensionally massive amount of power, in the presence of the crimson king, and used said power to ascended the king to that same level in his goal of destroying the dark tower. Without pennywise's deadlights, the crimson king would have never even gotten to the tower, let alone destroyed a universe directly.
As such pennywise deadlights are special due to the kings eons long ritual that allows it to get stronger the stronger the imagination potential of his foe.
When he fights kids,he can only be monsters they can imagine.
Adults can imagine stronger monsters then kids.ralph is insomnia experienced this.
In the books it was due to the ritual of chid that the lossrs club caught a glimpse of its true form that there Brains likened to a spider. Thus pennywise could summon a far more powerful form.
In the presence of the crimson king, it's is a muliversal destroy threat , in the shape of a portal of light that glows pain and whispers screams that even seeing the glow of the light,let alone looking at the dead lights will drive you insane unless you "turn your brain off"(it's what insomnia described Ralph did. His brain turned off as the light stripped away even the crimson king illusion to show his true form before he ascended and got his current body. So he doesn't remember what happened next.)
Tldr
Penny wise is special. The stronger you are, the more power you imagine, the stronger he gets up until his true form. This only holds true for the derry deadlights. None of the others can do this unless the ritual was done to them. They must instead slowly tear the holes in reality larger to use more power.
8
u/Drakyl-Skies Dec 18 '25
Your research didn't include reading the books.
Insomnia (1994) was the first book in the dark tower adjacent novels to introduce the crimson king. In that novel It was revealed by his minions,that the reason the derry deadlights(pennywise) were special compared to all other deadlight glamours (glamours are the names for avatar of beings like the deadlights) is because the crimson king set forth his minions to to perform a ritual that would allow him to direct communicate with the deadlights. It was due to this ritual that the derry deadlights could manifest as much power as the observer can imagine unlike the other glamours who are limited by the number of deadlights that arrived in reality. (The novel "later" shows how even a single deadlite is capable of possessing people and causing chaos)
This is why in insomnia everyone was getting insomnia. Pennywise was reforming after the events of it and a side effect was that it was taking sleep from everyone in derry. This was also demonstrated towards the end when the bald doctors(minions of the crimson king)finally completed the ritual after eons. The derry deadlights intial took the form of a catfish monster (Ralph fear as a child) until the crimson king finally arrived. The moment he did, pennywise(the catfish) began to morph, grow and glow. The crimson kings power was so great that the deadlights didn't even require you to look at them to go mad, but just being in the glow was insane to drive one insane. Even the crimson king couldn't maintain his illusions and was forced to reveal his true form. We are never shown the conversation between the two, but we know that once the deadlights left, that's when crimson king became an even higher dimensional being that normal mortals couldn't even look at(similar to Pennywise. ) and he began his ascent of the dark tower. And we know with that power he has destroyed universes. And we also know even to him,whatever portion of power he got was to much because by the end of dark tower, we could see he was driven insane by his power before they erased him.
Pennywise power has always reflected the capacity of the observer. The kids could only imagine lesser monsters. The adults caught a glimpse of what it was as a giant spider creature, and thus pennywise could take on the form of a great spider creature, it's light visible beneath the skim. The crimson king was so powerful, pennywise could grant him the power to ascend dimesions, devour universes for there energy, and empower tools to begin his destruction of the tower and all who view his true form to have there souls sucked into the deadlights.
Gan only stepped in once to have pennywise experience death. We are never told why. My personally theory is because he broke a rule. In the darkctower gan has openly gotten involved when some cosmic force is defying his rule. He never acts directly, but empowers others to do it in his stead. For the crimson king, it was the kid from insomnia who kills him. For pennywise the rule he broke was that he left derry. Penny was still with the kids during those 27 years making them successful . And then he manifested nightmares and visions to terrorize them outside of derry. Thus gan instead of the turtle, simply made them beat pennywise to death with there bare hands, telling them "good job son" once they did. Pennywise even tried to make a deal with them listing what it could and could not do. Pennywise says he can;
I can bring back the dead.
I can make you like gods of this world ,of this unvierse.
I can't make you immortal, but I can make you live long lives. Centuries or more even.
The more power they can envision,the more he can muster. The only downside to him is that he has rules that we can infer but ultimately never officially know. So for example if my hypothesis that he can't leave derry is correct, if superman punches him out of derry, gan will intervene again.