History Main / AbstractEater

** In "[[Recap.DoctorWhoS31E07AmysChoice Amy's Choice]]", the psychic pollen that placed the Doctor, Amy and Rory in a shared dream state fed off the darkness in its victim's minds, creating the image of the Dream Lord as a manifestation of the Doctor's own self-hatred.
-->'''Amy''': But why didn't it feed on us, too?\\

* And let's not forget about the Babelfish from ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. That little creature feeds on the thought processes around its host and excretes a neuronal matrix into the hosts brain. Incidentally, this enables the host to instantly understand any form of communication whatsoever. It is said, that the poor Babelfish has wreaked more havoc on sentient life in the universe than all armies that ever marched combined due to obliterating all boundaries to understand one another.

-->'''Diablo''': How tastes your fear!
-->'''Raynor''': You can't taste fear, it's an emotion!

->'''Diablo''': How tastes your fear!
->'''Raynor''': You can't taste fear, it's an emotion!

* The tutorial of HeroesOfTheStorm has fun with this idea.

* GrrlPower: Vehemence is "an innate user of vehemic energy ... sometimes called vistric energy." The layman's version:[[spoiler:he gains power from violence.]] He makes his debut by sticking around an all out super brawl between a super hero team and a team-up of villains. Only when it's over does he enter the fray himself, now strong enough to go toe-to-toe with one of the most powerful super beings in the world [[spoiler:and only making himself stronger for it]].

* GrrlPower: Vehemence is "an innate user of vehemic energy ... sometimes called vistric energy." He gains power from violence. He makes his debut by sticking around an all out super brawl between a super hero team and a team-up of villains. Only when it's over does he enter the fray himself, now strong enough to go toe-to-toe with one of the most powerful super beings in the world and only making himself stronger for it. [[http://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1533 Here]] he is explaining it all. OhCrap indeed.

** The Weeping Angels send people back in time so they can feed on the lives they never lived. To resurrect an entire cave system of dying angels one crashes a star ship into it that happens to harbour one of series five's cracks in time, the Angels have a feast on all the lives the crack had stolen from existence, until the crack starts swallowing ''them''.

** The planet sized creature known as the Old God from the episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E07TheRingsOfAkhaten The Rings of Akhaten]]" fed on stories. The people living in his system used items of sentimental value as currency so they could be given as offerings to it and taught their Queen of Years all the stories of their culture so that if it ever awoke he could feast on her rather than their entire system. They even believe that the Old God made the first life in the universe, possibly to create tasty stories for it to feast on.

In fiction, almost anything can be food. Many characters have BizarreTasteInFood, but they still eat things recognizable as food. Many characters are {{Extreme Omnivore}}, but at least they eat physical objects. An AbstractEater eats things which aren't so much things but concepts.

Individuals with these tastes will feed on anything from lost possibilities to sanity, love or even coolness. Though they may also enjoy the material as a side dish, all of these foodies get some kind of benefit from the abstract dish of their choice.

The process of eating something abstract could be portrayed in any number of ways, as it's up to the creators of the work to describe was it looks like to see something intangible get devoured.

This can often be HorrorHunger, as it often leads to the Eater of the Abstract feeding of the actions or traits of folks like us, leading to humans in behaviour farms and/or a deficiency of the tasty concept in the world or it's previous host. A common aspect of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, naturally.

* Creator/DianeDuane's Franchise/StarTrek novels have the Iruhe, who eat the minds of sentient beings, leaving only breathing but mindless bodies. They appear briefly in ''[[Literature/{{Rihannsu}} The Romulan Way]]'', where they devour the minds of two ships' worth of Romulans (who have just left Vulcan and were in the process of looking for a new homeworld, and were lured in by the Iruhe's illusions of a water-rich, habitable planet); the rest of the fleet barely escape. The Iruhe are also the villains of her TNG book ''Intellivore'', where they have gained the ability to move their planet about to prey on planets rather than just starships.

* Drowzee of ''{{Pokemon}}'' fame takes after it's Baku inspiration and eats bad dreams

In fiction, almost anything can be food. Many characters have BizarreTasteInFood, but they still eat things recognizable as food. Many characters are {{Extreme Omnivore}}, but at least they eat physcical objects. An AbstractEater eats things which aren't so much things but concepts.

* Creator/DianeDuane's Franchise/StarTrek novels have the Iruhe, who eat the minds of sentient beings, leaving only breathing but mindless bodies. They appear briefly in ''Literature/{{Rihannsu}} The Romulan Way'', where they devour the minds of two ships' worth of Romulans (who have just left Vulcan and were in the process of looking for a new homeworld, and were lured in by the Iruhe's illusions of a water-rich, habitable planet); the rest of the fleet barely escape. The Iruhe are also the villains of her TNG book ''Intellivore'', where they have gained the ability to move their planet about to prey on planets rather than just starships.

** The minotaur from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS32E11TheGodComplex The God Complex]]" eats faith and lives in a maze designed to show it's inhabitants fears that will cause them to call onto their faiths, "cooking" them.

* And let's not forget about the Babelfish from ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy''. That little creature feeds on the thought processes around its host and excretes a neuronal matrix into the hosts brain. Incidentally, this enables the host to instantly understand any form of communication whatsoever. It is said, that the poor Babelfish has wreacked more havoc on sentient life in the universe than all armies that ever marched combined due to obliterating all boundaries to understand one another.

* ''AdventureTime'' has a few examples; a character who eats drawings from within the paper they reside, and Marcelline, a vampire who eats not blood, but the colour red.

* And let's not forget about the Babelfish from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy franchise. That little creature feeds on the thought processes around its host and excretes a neuronal matrix into the hosts brain. Incidentally, this enables the host to instantly understand any form of communication whatsoever. It is said, that the poor Babelfish has wreacked more havoc on sentient life in the universe than all armies that ever marched combined due to obliterating all boundaries to understand one another.

* The babel fish from ''TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' feeds on brainwave energy and excretes a matrix formed from the conscious frequencies and nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain. A handy side effect of this is that if you stick one in your ear, [[TranslatorMicrobes it will allow you to instantly understand any spoken language]].

* Drowzee of {{Pokemon}} fame takes after it's Baku inspiration and eats bad dreams

* AdventureTime has a few examples; a character who eats drawings from within the paper they reside, and Marcelline, a vampire who eats not blood, but the colour red.

In fiction almost anything can be food. Many characters have a BizarreTasteInFood, but what they eat is organic, that is not this trope. Many characters are an example of an ExtremeOmnivore, but even they eat things you can put on a plate, that is not this trope. AbstractEater eats things which aren't so much things but concepts, that is this trope.

Individuals with these tastes will feed on anything from lost possibilities to sanity, love or even cool. Though they may also enjoy the material as a side dish all of these foodies get some kind of benefit from the abstract dish of their choice.

The process of eating something abstract could be portrayed in any number of ways as it's up to the creators of the work to describe was it looks like to see something invisible get devoured.

This can often be a HorrorHunger as it often leads to the Eater of the Abstract feeding of the actions or traits of folks like us, leading to humans in behaviour farms and or a deficiency of the tasty concept in the world or it's previous host. A common aspect of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, naturally.

EmotionEater and SpacetimeEater are subtropes where the abstract food is human emotion and the fabric of the universal respectively When prayer is what's eaten this overlaps with GodsNeedPrayerBadly.

!Examples

* AdventureTime has a few examples; a character who eats drawings from within the paper they reside, and Marcelline, a vampire who eats not blood, but the colour red.

** The weeping angels send people back in time so they can feed on the lives they never lived. To resurrect an entire cave system of dieing angels one crashes a star ship into it that happens to harbour series five's crack in time,the angels have a feast on all the lives the crack had stolen from existence, until the crack starts swallowing them.
** The minotaur from TheGodComplex eats faith and lives in a maze designed to show it's inhabitants fears that will cause them to call onto their faiths, "cooking" them.
** The planet sized creature called Akhaten from the episode bearing his name fed on stories. The peoples living in his system used items of sentimental value as currency so they could be given as offerings to Akhaten and taught their Queen of Years all the stories of their culture so that if Akhaten woke he could feast on her rather than their entire system. They even believe that Akhaten made the first life in the universe, possibly to create tasty stories for it to feast on.

* The Trickster (from ''Series/DoctorWho'' spin-off ''TheSarahJaneAdventures'') and his minions, the Trickster's Brigade, feed on the chaos created when an established timeline is altered in some way.

EmotionEater and SpacetimeEater are subtropes where the abstract food is human emotion and the fabric of the universal respectively When prayer is what's eaten this overlaps with GodsNeedPrayerBadly. ----!Examples

[[AC:AnimeAndManga]] * [[TheDragonSlayer Dragon Slayers]] in ''Manga/FairyTail'' each have their own [[ElementalPowers signature element, which they use to attack]]. They can also replenish their energy by eating that same element. Elements, of course, don't usually count as abstract concepts... except the specific case of [[CastingAShadow darkness]], which is really only absence of light. ** This gets even weirder when you think that the Shadow Dragon Slayer is paired up with the [[LightEmUp White Dragon Slayer]]. If the White Dragon Slayer eats light, then surely he creates darkness... [[MindScrew which then the Shadow Dragon Slayer can eat?]]

[[AC:Literature]] * The grammasites, from ThursdayNext. Parasites that live in books, examples include adjectivores, spelling vyruses, and the like.

[[AC:LiveActionTV]] * ''Series/RedDwarf'' has the emohawk, a domesticated breed of the EmotionEater ploymorph that instead feeds on personality traits, during it's episode it enjoys a meal of Rimmer's bitterness and Cat's cool. While this left the Cat in his bumbling and useless Duane Dibbley persona, it radically helped Rimmer, who became his heroic parallel universe persona Ace Rimmer. What a guy! * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' season five BigBad Glory had to manage her hell god composure by eating human sanity. Leaving her victims gibbering wrecks. * ''Series/DoctorWho'' has a few examples; ** The weeping angels send people back in time so they can feed on the lives they never lived. To resurrect an entire cave system of dieing angels one crashes a star ship into it that happens to harbour series five's crack in time,the angels have a feast on all the lives the crack had stolen from existence, until the crack starts swallowing them. ** The minotaur from TheGodComplex eats faith and lives in a maze designed to show it's inhabitants fears that will cause them to call onto their faiths, "cooking" them. ** The planet sized creature called Akhaten from the episode bearing his name fed on stories. The peoples living in his system used items of sentimental value as currency so they could be given as offerings to Akhaten and taught their Queen of Years all the stories of their culture so that if Akhaten woke he could feast on her rather than their entire system. They even believe that Akhaten made the first life in the universe, possibly to create tasty stories for it to feast on. * The Wraith in ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' consume human life forces via organs in the palms of their hands. * The babel fish from ''TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' feeds on brainwave energy and excretes a matrix formed from the conscious frequencies and nerve signals picked up from the speech centres of the brain. A handy side effect of this is that if you stick one in your ear, [[TranslatorMicrobes it will allow you to instantly understand any spoken language]]. * The Trickster (from ''Series/DoctorWho'' spin-off ''TheSarahJaneAdventures'') and his minions, the Trickster's Brigade, feed on the chaos created when an established timeline is altered in some way.

[[AC:Myths & Folklore]] *The baku in [[JapaneseMythology Japanese folklore]] eat dreams.

[[AC:TabletopGames]] * ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' ** Several monsters eat the psionic energy of psionic creatures, such as Brain Moles, Cerebral Parasites and Intellect Devourers. ** The undead known as a shadow drains the strength of other creatures. * The ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' setting has [[http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Dendar Dendar the Night Serpent]], an EldritchAbomination who feeds on the nightmares of mortals and deities alike. Among the duties of the Chultan god Ubtao is guarding the Realms against Dendar's emergence from beneath the Peaks of Flame. If Dendar defeats Ubtao, legend has it his next meal will be the universe itself.

[[AC:VideoGames]] *Drowzee of {{Pokemon}} fame takes after it's Baku inspiration and eats bad dreams * [[ProhumanTranshuman Keine Kamishirasawa]] from ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}'' is a were-hakutaku, whose ability is to eat history in human form, and create history in hakutaku form. It is unexplained how she eats history, but the effect seems to conceal the thing whose history is being eaten, without actually removing its existence.

[[AC:WesternAnimation]] *AdventureTime has a few examples; a character who eats drawings from within the paper they reside, and Marcelline, a vampire who eats not blood, but the colour red.