I firmly believe we will not have a successful movie adaptation of It until the director accepts that the focus of the story is not horror.
The clown doesn’t fucking matter. It’s not about him. It’s about growing up in a shitty town with people who suck as much as you do. I don’t give a shit about mr clown and even less of a shit about that good for nothing turtle. The only clown I care about is Richie Tozier and he’s in thin ice for a completely separate reason.
eddie: the getaway driver. he spends his free time working on vintage cars that they’ve stolen when the owners die. drives like an absolute maniac but he gets them where they need to go and fast, and he’s never once left someone behind even if they’re cutting it down to the wire because he knows he can make it.
stan: the attorney, the acceptable face of the organization. most of the work they do isn’t exactly above board, but stan knows the law front and back and can get them out of any scrape. can usually be found cleaning up richie’s messes.
ben: the architect. always learns the layout for the places they go until he could walk through the place with his eyes closed. he knows where all of the security cameras are, every guard post, and almost instinctively knows when there’s a change that they didn’t see coming.
richie: the guy in the chair. he’s insanely smart (the losers do the cliche “in english!” w him all the time). he sometimes gets too cocky and almost gives them away. is always tinkering with some gadget (think mission impossible). they have quite literally blown up in his face before. his eyebrows are very patchy.
mike: the archivist. he keeps meticulous records of everywhere they’ve been, everywhere they want to go. he does the deep research, gets the blueprints for ben, knows everyone involved. maintains inventory and is essentially their weapons manager. he knows how to handle anything and everything.
bev: the decoy, the fighter. bev’s good at making herself invisible—or being the most noticeable person in the room. she’s an absolute chameleon. she’s also the most professionally-trained martial fighter out of all of them—the others know basic defense (even richie, who’s rarely out in the field) but bev blends together five different fighting styles at any given moment to be the most effective and deadly killer.
bill: the leader. he was born into this life and he’ll die in it, too. he decides their next target, coordinates where everyone goes, and keeps tabs on everyone. he has connections everywhere, and the money to keep them close to his chest. all of his work is leading up to one goal that not even the others know about: finding and killing the man who took his little brother’s life.
okay i unironically think it's time we start talking more about the orgy scene. i KNOW we all ignore it because it is wildly graphic and uncomfortable, which is understandable, but in the end it is still a part of the novel. and the problem with refusing to discuss such an essential part of the book is that it doesn't actually erase the scene from our consciousness; it just means that we're thinking about it in a manner that's completely uninformed by analysis of the text, which is never ever a good thing. because it leads to utterly shitbrained takes that would be refuted with two seconds of serious thought, like the idea that bev raped eddie, which is not only wrong but reductive to her entire character.
bev and richie are platonically dating in a 'smoke break during study hall in the girls' bathroom' and a 'tell me anything, im not judging' kinda way while stan and bev are platonically married in a 'tell me, and i'll pretend i didn't know' and a 'wanna get high before meeting up with everyone?' kinda way while stan and richie are platonically dating in a 'insults in a caring, i love you way' and a 'dance parties after a shared bottle of beer that neither of us really liked' kinda way while stan and bill are unofficially married in a 'i'll hold you till the monsters are gone' and a 'lying together under the sun holding hands' kinda way while bev and mike are best friends in a 'bottoms up, six beers down' and a 'i understand, dont say it if you dont want' kinda way while richie and eddie are ringpop married in a 'holding your hand even when were apart' and a 'late night phone calls to talk through nightmares' kinda way while eddie and ben are study buddies in a 'come over to study and start 30 minutes late because we got sidetracked' and a 'ice cream before heading to that pizza place because it was closer and we felt like it' kinda way while-