im tempted to watch it next time I go over my friends house.
not out of any real interest in the setting, i just think it might give us some "what the fuck were these guys smoking" type laughs.
Apparently it's mostly japanese pop culture references. There's an entire blog dedicated to explaining them.
Okay, real talk for a second here, how the fuck do lovecraftian entities work? Like, number one how do they get cultists to start with? Are you telling me there are entire groups of people who can look at them and not go insane long enough that they decide 'hey, I'm gonna worship that!'? Like, why is this power seemingly not available to the rest of the population? And secondly, how do people even perceive them if they are apparently things we technically can't sense them quite right? Like, if that was the case, why don't I just kind of fill in the blanks with whatever eldritch horror looking like Obama or Putin?
... I hate lovecraftian horror stories okay?
They actually do explain this in a few stories. Most of the cults relating to these things are formed with intermediaries. Cthulhu is worshiped by humans that learned about him and interbred with the deep ones, his much less insanity causing fish-people spawn. So there's layers of beings between your weak fleshy mind and the octopus god you can't comprehend and they are the ones telling you about him.
Other times they are considered to be mythical creatures, worshiped like people used to worship earth spirits.
The only instance I remember of direct connections is with Nyarthrahotep. (
http://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/crc.aspx) The thing about him is that he is described as being a shape shifter and really the only old god with the ability to understand and manipulate humans. In the poem linked above, the narrator describes how he came and gathered converts via "miracles" and manipulated the populace by putting a mask of benevolence over the reality of his actions.
An alternative explanation can be found in the "Laundry" series by Stross in which cultists to the dark powers are either trying to manipulate these powers, don't know exactly what it is they're worshiping or more often than not are a product of fatalism. The specific idea being that these things are coming, there's literally no way to stop them, so the best you can do is try to get on their good side and hope you are allowed to survive or at least die painlessly.
The idea of "Going insane the instant you see them" is actually not used that often in the original works either. Very few beings seemed to possess that level of strangeness. Most of the time it just so offended the 1900's sensibilities of the gentlemen in question as to cause them to become very distraught, but not completely insane.
-nyarko-san-
RRRGHRYGHUTHSTSHTYFJTUTHTF
no japan
no
no ruining concept of Nyarlathotep for me
bad
From what I hear they use lovecraft names and aliens but the aliens are portrayed as more...aliens than incomprehensible otherworldly god beings.