Leave Cthulhu Alone.

[Kolby Jack]

Yea, well there are other monsters besides Godzilla. Does anybody EVER mention Gamera, or Mothra? Hell, we're lucky if someone even references Mecha-Godzilla. But no, all it ever is is "Gojira!" this and "Gojira!" that.

Lighten up dude. It's fiction. Really disturbing, creepy fiction. If people want to make jokes about Cthulhu, they can. Nobody ever said "Beam me up, Scotty" or "Luke, I am your father" or "Elementary, my dear Watson" in their respective franchises. It's not worth getting worked up about.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Yeah, I always thought Dagon should be the one getting the attention, or at least one of the other Elder Gods invented by the Lovecraft Circle. Hastur needs more love, seriously. So does Tsathssogua. Of which I've probably butchered the name.

As has been said before, Chtulhu just happens to ring truer with pop culture as a whole for some unexplainable reason. Maybe it has to do with how Gygax more or less had to face legal action for including him in the Second Edition bestiary. That spawned the Mind Flayers and folks who played D&D started paying attention to Lovecraft and, well...

Full circle. Something like that, I guess.

 

[Carbonyl]

Man, I frigging love my Lovecraft compendium, I cradle it tenderly when I read it. And yeah, it's annoying that people know and talk about Cthulhu but have no idea what any of it is from, and are unwilling to even check out Lovecraft because READING, EW.
But Cthulhu can also act as a gateway for people who aren't familiar with the nerd/eldritch horror/old-timey fun-times to approach them from a place of minor knowledge and feel like they are accessible.
There are some people who want to mindlessly quote a meme they know nothing about so they can get internet points to buy ego power-ups, many of these people hate reading because it is "boring" and "not cool". Screw those guys. With a titanium-coated pineapple.
But some people are familiar with Cthulhu, and if you mention something as being related, will be interested to see more. These people don't deserve to be chased off by people calling them posers and feeling like the Mythos is something they'll never be welcome to.
As much as my need to be one of those hipster I-liked-the-Mythos-before-Cthulhu-was-cool nerds burns in my soul, I'd rather deal with a hundred stupid references if it means someone develops a newfound passion for Lovecraft and other Lovecraft-inspired works because they saw something with Cthulhu in it in a mainstream source.

 

[Richardplex]

To be fair, Cthulhu saves the world has more members of lovecraft's universe. What I wish people would stop doing is that one story games keep reusing. You know the one. A village full of incestuous outsider-haters with a church in it where all the members worship old ones and are actually cannibals. Seriously game developers, stop it. It gets stupid when the moment I realise a village doesn't like outsiders I know every plot point in the village.

 

[Helmholtz Watson]

I'm a fanboy. Let's get that out in the open right away. I can take some humor in knowing this, and I'm aware how silly we can be. So, try to take all things I say with a pinch of salt concerning this topic.
NowI got something to say; Would you, all of you, leave Cthulhu alone?
I'm getting sick and tired of having to read about Cthulhu here, Cthulhu there, Cthulhu saves the world, Cthulhu can be summoned in fucking Little Big Planet, Cthulhu in South Park, blah blah.
How about Yog-Sothoth? Or Shub-Niggurath? How about everyone start learning the god-damn mythology of H.P Lovecraft, perhaps also actually reading a novel or two (for yes, I seriously doubt that most of you who have ever heard of big C have ever, ever read a single one of his works), instead of parroting Cthulhu into yet another internet-meme.

In short: Shut up, read more books, and stop throwing around a mythos you know nothing about (especially considering that Cthulhu isn't even the most frequently mentioned Great Old One, not by far).

Well in order to make you happy

Spoiler: there are people that focus on other aspects of Lovecraft and they have even made videos of it

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

Then you enjoy the books and let everyone else enjoy the memes etc. Fact it enters into games and cartoons shows there is love for it and for his stories. Some might just go and look for books to read based on is mythos. An if this happens then maybe In The Mountains Of Madness will finally get filmed.

Maybe your annoyed that your "niche" thing is liked by many, enough so that its become mainstream. I was like that with Asian and European horror movies, used to order them straight from overseas for years before it became a fad, and i was annoyed when the whole "Its cool to like foreign horror" thing set in. An my little niche thing became mainstream when they released those movies in the UK and made remakes.

Its best just to accept what is and enjoy what you have and enjoy the fact that others will now pick up his books and love them the way you do.

 

[DJ_DEnM]

Ye blind idiot, ye noxious Azathoth shal arise from ye middle of ye World where all is Chaos & Destruction where He hath bubbl'd and blasphem'd at Ye centre which is of All Things, which is to say Infinity....

What I'm currently reading:

http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/103250000/103251003.jpg

Now I'm not too far in, but I do believe there are better stories than the Call of Cthulhu, like The Cats of Ulthar. One of my favorites so far.

Hey, I've got that on my shelf as well! Haven't read it yet though since I own most of Lovecraft's work as various single books anyway but it's nice to have it collected in one too.

But I have to disagree with the Cats of Ulthar, I really did not like that story much at all. To me it was a tad bit confusing and not really scary. Now Shadow over Innsmouth, that was a truly frightening piece of literature, I actually didn't sleep well due to mild paranoia for weeks after that.

I don't see how it's confusing as most of Lovecraft's stories are about supernatural things. Also it doesn't exert the fear factor as much, which makes it not too scary.

 

[Zen Toombs]

This seems relevant.

But in all seriousness, Cthulhu is pretty cool. Though I would appreciate more Yog-Sothoth love.

 

[Quaxar]

Ye blind idiot, ye noxious Azathoth shal arise from ye middle of ye World where all is Chaos & Destruction where He hath bubbl'd and blasphem'd at Ye centre which is of All Things, which is to say Infinity....

What I'm currently reading:

http://img2.imagesbn.com/images/103250000/103251003.jpg

Now I'm not too far in, but I do believe there are better stories than the Call of Cthulhu, like The Cats of Ulthar. One of my favorites so far.

Hey, I've got that on my shelf as well! Haven't read it yet though since I own most of Lovecraft's work as various single books anyway but it's nice to have it collected in one too.

But I have to disagree with the Cats of Ulthar, I really did not like that story much at all. To me it was a tad bit confusing and not really scary. Now Shadow over Innsmouth, that was a truly frightening piece of literature, I actually didn't sleep well due to mild paranoia for weeks after that.

I don't see how it's confusing as most of Lovecraft's stories are about supernatural things. Also it doesn't exert the fear factor as much, which makes it not too scary.

I'm not sure, that's what I remember about it. Been some time since I read it so I might be confusing something. Anyway, I still prefer the classical Lovecraftian horror over the Cats.

 

[Woodsey]

So, what you're trying to tell us is that... you never asked for this?

 

[Carbonyl]

instead of parroting Cthulhu into yet another internet-meme.

Now you know why people do this.
Now you also know why they will never, ever ever totally stop doing it.

Just look at the damn page for TvTropes Cthulhu Mythos! [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CthulhuMythos]

Remember these words or Cthulhu is gonna come for us all.
[small]That was kinda mean, I'm sorry.[/small]
[sub]But Cthulhu won't be...[/sub]
[sub][sub][small][small][small]Sorry[/small][/small][/small][/sub][/sub]

WHY DID YOU LINK TO TVTropes WHY. IT'S BEEN FOUR HOURS SINCE I CLICKED THE LINK FROM YOUR POST.

.....My captcha is "face the music".
Time for my lab report.

 

[Realitycrash]

The frog people of innsmouth are pretty interesting, although seemingly linked in with cthulhu. Their influence on popular culture is alot vaster, if you think about it. Resident evil 4's village? Innsmouth. Alan wake's Bright falls? Innsmouth. It's practically a trope of it's own, the town with a dark secret, a secret that demands blood and sacrifice. Personally, I'm a fan of the rats in the walls. A terrifying beast is one thing...

Spoiler

finding out you are the monster is altogether another.

I think what attracts people to Cthulhu is that it's plausible. We know less about the depths of our oceans than we do about the surface of the moon. Who's to say something isn't down there, something ancient, massive, and evil? Matter of fact...look up "the bloop" if you feel like questioning reality.

The frog-people are actually spawns of a mix of an unnamed sea-race and humans, along with the worship of Dagon, just FYI.

 

[Doclector]

The frog people of innsmouth are pretty interesting, although seemingly linked in with cthulhu. Their influence on popular culture is alot vaster, if you think about it. Resident evil 4's village? Innsmouth. Alan wake's Bright falls? Innsmouth. It's practically a trope of it's own, the town with a dark secret, a secret that demands blood and sacrifice. Personally, I'm a fan of the rats in the walls. A terrifying beast is one thing...

Spoiler

finding out you are the monster is altogether another.

I think what attracts people to Cthulhu is that it's plausible. We know less about the depths of our oceans than we do about the surface of the moon. Who's to say something isn't down there, something ancient, massive, and evil? Matter of fact...look up "the bloop" if you feel like questioning reality.

The frog-people are actually spawns of a mix of an unnamed sea-race and humans, along with the worship of Dagon, just FYI.

Yes, of course. What I was trying to say is it's become a popular template, something that takes ordinary people, either given or taken, and changes them somehow, usually within a single town. I definately remember cthulhu being mentioned, though...Maybe in one of the main character's deranged rants.

 

[Realitycrash]

The frog people of innsmouth are pretty interesting, although seemingly linked in with cthulhu. Their influence on popular culture is alot vaster, if you think about it. Resident evil 4's village? Innsmouth. Alan wake's Bright falls? Innsmouth. It's practically a trope of it's own, the town with a dark secret, a secret that demands blood and sacrifice. Personally, I'm a fan of the rats in the walls. A terrifying beast is one thing...

Spoiler

finding out you are the monster is altogether another.

I think what attracts people to Cthulhu is that it's plausible. We know less about the depths of our oceans than we do about the surface of the moon. Who's to say something isn't down there, something ancient, massive, and evil? Matter of fact...look up "the bloop" if you feel like questioning reality.

The frog-people are actually spawns of a mix of an unnamed sea-race and humans, along with the worship of Dagon, just FYI.

Yes, of course. What I was trying to say is it's become a popular template, something that takes ordinary people, either given or taken, and changes them somehow, usually within a single town. I definately remember cthulhu being mentioned, though...Maybe in one of the main character's deranged rants.

Yes, it's a popular template, one that can be seen through horror-film history ("Tommyknockers "comes to mind right away). And yeah, several Elder Gods/Great Old Ones are usually mentioned in each story.

 

[ElPatron]

ITT: I liked it before it was mainstream.

instead of parroting Cthulhu into yet another internet-meme.

You keep using that word.

I do not think it means what you think it means.

 

[Lunar Templar]

sure, I'd rather see more Khrone, Tzeenth, Nurgle or Slaanesh at random then some ... thing with an octopus head anyway

 

[Realitycrash]

ITT: I liked it before it was mainstream.

instead of parroting Cthulhu into yet another internet-meme.

You keep using that word.

I do not think it means what you think it means.

Parroting: Repeating mindlessly over and over, especially something that you have overheard but have no real experience with.

Yeah, it means exactly what I think it means.

 

[ElPatron]

Parroting: Repeating mindlessly over and over, especially something that you have overheard but have no real experience with.

Yeah, it means exactly what I think it means.

Except I was talking about internet meme.

Hint: it doesn't mean "expression used by everyone and their mum on Reddit"