Screen Rant recently published a think-piece asking, of Randall Flagg from The Stand and Pennywise from It, which Stephen King villain is the author’s greatest? And King later weighed in himself, throwing a curveball into the entire argument over the two baddies, recently portrayed by Alexander and Bill Skarsgård, respectively.
But before we get into King’s hypothetical response — it’s worth noting that the article eventually made the case that Flagg is the ultimate villain. As the author of the piece explains, while Pennywise seems to be tethered to Derry, Maine, Flagg essentially has free range in The Stand.
For as menacing and bone-chilling a Stephen King villain as Pennywise is, he basically limits his carnage to Derry, Maine. Flagg turns up just about everywhere, always ready to prey on humanity’s weaknesses to serve his own ends, and as seen in The Stand, capitalize on the very apocalypse as a chance to ascend to the throne he feels he deserves. Pennywise probably won’t bother someone who never visits It‘s cursed town of Derry, but Flagg is so malevolent he feels like someone who might try to actually employ Pennywise’s services, unleashing the clown worldwide if possible. Pennywise may embody the emotion of fear, but Randall Flagg embodies the very concept of evil, ever-watching, ever-plotting, and always ready to make things worse.
Fair enough, that seems like a well-reasoned argument. However, King took things a step further by pointing out the inherent flaw in the question itself.
“Screen Rant asks the question America cares about most (not),” the 74-year-old quipped. “Who is the greater villain, Randall Flagg or Pennywise. Have they not considered the possibility that THEY ARE THE SAME ENTITY?”
You have to admit that it kind of makes sense since Flagg is basically The Man in Black from The Dark Tower series, as well as the evil wizard from The Eyes of the Dragon, and is generally synonymous with the devil himself. So if that’s true, could Flagg represent all evil in the Stephen King universe, as most of his novels are intertwined in one way or another?
But even King’s logic isn’t without flaws. As one Twitter user pointed out, Randall Flagg is not the same entity as the Crimson King, the ultimate villain of The Dark Tower series — but whether the Crimson King and Pennywise are the same entity is a different story. (This is all very confusing!)
One user observed that Pennywise is a non-terrestrial monster or demon, whereas Randall Flagg was supposedly at least once human. Although, that doesn’t exactly help clear things up either.
Another user added that the greatest villain is Stephen King himself, for inserting himself into the Dark Tower VII.
Others argued with King about whether or not this concept was obvious from reading his books.
In either case, whether King was just trying to stir the pot or if this is what he’s presumed all along, we’re going to need a flow chart or something, at minimum, to help us wrap our heads around this.