TheRPGSite

Ok based on the Dear Howard thread, we have some differing theories as to why Cthulhu didn't end the world or drive everyone mad when R'lyeh rose in the story Call of Cthulhu.  What's your take.

He gets hit with the boat, but he reforms/heals whatever damage it did.
He chases away the sailors and then goes back to his crypt and Rlyeh sinks again.
Maybe the time wasn't really 'right' for him to arise.
The immediate danger, as portrayed in the story, isn't so much Cthulhu as it is the worldwide cult that is seeking to revive him... and keeps tracking down/murdering folks who find out about it.
Either way, nothing in the story suggests the characters did much harm to Cthulhu or his long-range plans.

The 'Dunwich Horror' is a better example of mankind actually winning out over the big beasties.

Quote from: Simlasa;384985He gets hit with the boat, but he reforms/heals whatever damage it did.
He chases away the sailors and then goes back to his crypt and Rlyeh sinks again.
Maybe the time wasn't really 'right' for him to arise.
The immediate danger, as portrayed in the story, isn't so much Cthulhu as it is the worldwide cult that is seeking to revive him... and keeps tracking down/murdering folks who find out about it.
Either way, nothing in the story suggests the characters did much harm to Cthulhu or his long-range plans.

The 'Dunwich Horror' is a better example of mankind actually winning out over the big beasties.

I basically agree.

"The stars were not THAT right".

He said "I hate Mondays," hit the snooze bar on the apocalypse and went back to bed for another thousand years.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;384987He said "I hate Mondays," hit the snooze bar on the apocalypse and went back to bed for another thousand years.

Yeah, nothing in the story leads me to the assumption that he actually wanted to be woken up... but some folks get driven nuts by his dreams invading theirs... then there is all this annoying chanting from the neighbors and then these pesky guys open up the door to his bedroom and let the light in... so he shoos the fly away and goes back to bed to dream his dreamy dreams...

Maybe cthulhu was surprised by the fact the little monkeys had advanced to the point they could make things like the steamer that conked him.

I've always thought the old ones, elder gods, etc represented stagnation and decay, and that while humans may be weak they have the power to advance and create. Maybe that's something the older gods have problems dealing with. The steamboat may have come as a nasty surprise to the big C and he decided to go back to sleep and think on this whole "progress" thingie.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;384987He said "I hate Mondays," hit the snooze bar on the apocalypse and went back to bed for another thousand years.

Heh heh, no matter what dimension or plane of existence you're on, mondays suck.

As HPL said "As a foulness ye shall know mondays."

A giant Mr Stay Puft wrestled him to the ground and sent him packing.

Quote from: CRKrueger;384984Cthulhu himself was supposed to enact some rite upon awakening, getting his head stove in messed with his timetable.

This makes plenty of sense, Cthulhu being a priest of the Old Ones and all.

Quote from: Cylonophile;384992I've always thought the old ones, elder gods, etc represented stagnation and decay, and that while humans may be weak they have the power to advance and create.

This smacks me as being more of that "only humans have imagination/love/creativity/anuses/cream pies" nonsense that I hate with a passion when it comes up in bad Star Trek episodes or other touchy-feely humanist drek.
To my mind the Lovecraft's whole horrific point is that we are NOT unique special snowflakes... we're just a passing shadow in the corner of an eye that's not paying attention.

Tentacle porn had not yet come to be.

Quote from: Simlasa;384997This smacks me as being more of that "only humans have imagination/love/creativity/anuses/cream pies" nonsense that I hate with a passion when it comes up in bad Star Trek episodes or other touchy-feely humanist drek.
To my mind the Lovecraft's whole horrific point is that we are NOT unique special snowflakes... we're just a passing shadow in the corner of an eye that's not paying attention.

Actually the 'elder things" had creativity and intelligence too, if you read "At the mountains of madness" but they eventually succumbed to decay and decadence. For now humans are at least advancing in some ways while dead cthulhu waits dreaming.

Sorry if that offends you, but it's the feeling I get from lovecraft.

Quote from: Insufficient Metal;384987He said "I hate Mondays," hit the snooze bar on the apocalypse and went back to bed for another thousand years.

I've come to think of the old ones like old stoners. One of these days I'm going to get up and (inhale) destroy the world. But today, it's so cozy under the ocean, I'll just take a nap.
 
If they haven't done anything for thousands of years, the odds of them doing anything soon are remote. Tired of beign bothered by humans, they made up a story about strs aligning, which would take a while to occor and for humans to figure out. The powerful and terrible beings have been around foro so long and become so decadent they just want to be left alone. They get annoyed when lesser beings (human or alien) start bugging them.
 
For an interesting take on the Mythos, try The Red One, a short story by Jack London, which actually predates the majority of Lovecraft material (it's possible that he was influenced by it). It points to the real source of horror and madness.
http://london.sonoma.edu/Writings/RedOne/redone.html

Quote from: Cylonophile;385101Sorry if that offends you, but it's the feeling I get from lovecraft.

I'm never 'offended'... I just strongly disagree. Lovecraft seems like the wrong place to look for tales about the nobility and potential of mankind.

He does provide man with a fairly long future though... he drops nuggets about the Tsan Chan/Dark Conquerors... some earthly human empire in the far future...

Quote from: Angry_Douchebag;385009Tentacle porn had not yet come to be.

Actually, tentacle porn was alive and well.

Enlighten yourself to The Secret Origins of Tentacle Rape. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tentacle_porn)

Whether he was exposed to it is another matter.

I believe C-Lo did what any self respecting Elder God / Rapper would do after a couple of Aeons of ruling the universe and then sleeping it off - voted himself back to bed after deciding he'd get to whatever it was he needed to get to in the next millenia or so.  No rush or whatever.

Next time you get busted, or don't call into work or your wife tells you to log out of WoW - just say "the stars are not right" and see if it can stand up to scrutiny as well as the Chewbacca Defense.

There is something terribly wrong about Tentacle Porn/Rape.
It's part of this "acting up the weirdest fantasies we can possibly come up with" behavior that really makes me wonder about the sanity of the Japanese people at times.

Island cultures, you know... but seriously, if tentacle porn is the thing that makes you wonder about the Japanese, clearly you don't know them all that well. These are the guys who invented Maid.

RPGPundit

Cthulhu was still asleep and dreaming. This was just him sleep walking (still half dream of terror himself.)

Copernicus removed the earth from the center of the universe, and by extension from the center of god's attention. This kicked off a trend that seems to me to have culminated with Darwin. It seems to me that this is the point of HPL's fiction, but whatever.

Quote from: RPGPundit;385594Island cultures, you know... but seriously, if tentacle porn is the thing that makes you wonder about the Japanese, clearly you don't know them all that well. These are the guys who invented Maid.

RPGPundit

Let me put it this way: there is a part of Japanese culture I absolutely love - it's the history, the culture, the philosophy, the Samurais and Geisha, in the historical, non-geek sense of the terms, the "Classic" stuff if you will.

Then, you've got "modern" garbage: Japanese TV, anime, acting up on various taboos and fixations the Japanese people have (like for the "Cute", for instance)... all that stuff is crap, and I absolutely despise it.

So I'm conflicted, as far as Japan is concerned.

Quote from: Benoist;385631Let me put it this way: there is a part of Japanese culture I absolutely love - it's the history, the culture, the philosophy, the Samurais and Geisha, in the historical, non-geek sense of the terms, the "Classic" stuff if you will.

Then, you've got "modern" garbage: Japanese TV, anime, acting up on various taboos and fixations the Japanese people have (like for the "Cute", for instance)... all that stuff is crap, and I absolutely despise it.

So I'm conflicted, as far as Japan is concerned.

Yeah I don't know what the hell happened.  Something tells me the Japanese Psyche really wasn't meant to be westernized.  Or maybe this is what happens when you modernize a shame culture without turning it into a guilt culture via christian conversion first.  I don't know.  

Maybe it's just the Japanese need for perfection.
We make transistors, they made the best solid transistors.
We have money shots, they have Bukkake.
We have BDSM, they have that crazyass white-rope tying art.
We have loud obnoxious kids cartoons, they have Pokemon and Dragonball-Z.

Someone needs to bring back the Shogunate, get the kids to drop the Wii and pick up a fucking Katana. :D

The traditional culture was also brutal and restricting - some of the weirdness is working out how to keep parts of tradition without being as fucked up as in the past.  There was also the turmoil of going from medieval to 20th century tech in a couple of decades, which produced the militant culture that created the Pacific part of WWII.  Then they got their ass kicked and nuked, which caused them to reassess their culture.

Quote from: CRKrueger;385765Someone needs to bring back the Shogunate, get the kids to drop the Wii and pick up a fucking Katana. :D

Damn right!

Quote from: Nicephorus;385766The traditional culture was also brutal and restricting - some of the weirdness is working out how to keep parts of tradition without being as fucked up as in the past.  There was also the turmoil of going from medieval to 20th century tech in a couple of decades, which produced the militant culture that created the Pacific part of WWII.  Then they got their ass kicked and nuked, which caused them to reassess their culture.

That sure participated to it. Now, my wife's an absolute fan of Japanese culture, and VERY knowledgeable about it (and Egyptian too). When I talk about this with her, her explanation basically comes down to this oppressive aspect of Japan's traditional culture. In other words, the societal pressure is such that at some point, the individual has to let out some steam, one way or another, and finds outlets such as the entertainment business, various weirdo fixations and the like.

You're all wrong. Proximity to nuclear explosions alters your genetic material and introduces mutations which turn your offspring into nerdy perverts.
I know this because I live in New Mexico.
Anyone want to see my octopus fleshlight?

The Japanese have always been a copycat culture, they just switched from China being the inspiration to "the west", to specifically America after WWII (a case of worshiping the conquerors, as it were).

But they put their own innovative spins into everything they acquire, its never done in quite the same way as it was originally; they add both a touch of genius and a heavy dose of Weird Island Culture Neurosis.

RPGpundit