It Chapter 2: Every Character Ranked Worst To Best

14. Webby & The Homophobic Bullies

Strangely not subsequently proven to be a projection by It - though surely they SHOULD have been, given what they do to the young gay couple who partly end up being Pennywise's first victim - the gang of four bullies, lead by Jake Weary's Webby, terrorising the fairground are typical Stephen King characters.

They seek out the vulnerable or the easily targeted - in this case, an "outside" gay couple - and seek to destroy them. For them to have gotten so much of an active role in the opening is actually quite a surprise, but they're an important part of Derry. Not a welcome one, but an important one: because it's key - in King's logic - that Derry would hold a lot more horrors than It, because it's designed to be a place people always want to leave.

They're still no more than a narrative device with limbs and they SHOULD have been retrofitted as It's use of the couple's fear against them (because it makes so much sense), but you can't have everything.