History Main / YouAreWhoYouEat

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* Parodied in Creator/GKChesterton's ''The Napoleon of Notting Hill'', where an extreme British nationalist who preaches [[Literature/AModestProposal cannibalism of non-British people]] discovers, to his horror, that this trope is true, and therefore he is now slowly turning into an Italian organ-grinder -- which is apparently the only type of edible foreigner he could find in London.

* In the music video for "Music/BestFriend" by Music/FosterThePeople, a supermodel devours other supermodels whole and alive and so she can take on desired aspects of their appearance and further her career. Over the course of the video she eats a woman for her beauty mark, another so she can have her [[LegFocus legs]] among others. However over time with all the clashing body proportions she starts to look less like a beautiful woman and more like a [[BodyHorror spindly, freakishly tall, disproportioned alien.]] By the video's end she winds up barfing up the dress of a woman she had eaten, chokes on it, loses her newly acquired features, and dies on the catwalk.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece'', Wapol "of Tin" ate the Munch-Munch Fruit, which made him an ExtremeOmnivore. With his "Munch-Munch Mutation" power, Wapol can transform himself into objects based on what he's recently eaten, such as cannons, a house, and other miscellaneous snacks to turn himself into a massive tank.

* In one ''Series/SesameStreet'' sketch, Cookie Monster goes on a cookie binge and falls asleep. In his dream, he is confronted with a former monster who loved cookies so much that he literally became a Monster Cookie.

* ''Film/{{Phantoms}}'' (1998) featured underground creatures that absorbed the memories of the humans they ate. The film claims flatworms can do the same thing but that was disproven long before the script was written.

* In ''[[OurGhoulsAreCreepier The Throne Of Bones]]'', ghouls' tendency to assume the appearance and identities of those they devour -- even to the point of forgetting that they're ghouls -- is pivotal to most of the stories.

Most non-humans do this in order to maintain a {{Masquerade}}, and [[KillAndReplace pose as human]]. Especially {{Tragic Monster}}s may be doing this because they want to BecomeARealBoy. Especially monstrous ones will enjoy ShowingOffTheNewBody. If the non-human ''doesn't'' eat people, whether out of [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire niceness]] or inaccessibility, they will revert to their ShapeShifterDefaultForm. Things may turn FromBadToWorse from there though if that entails turning into an [[FateWorseThanDeath unthinking]], horrific monstrosity that can never fit in among humans. And of course things will [[GoneHorriblyWrong Go Horribly Wrong]] if their cannibalism is also caused by a HorrorHunger, and deprivation has the nasty side effects of making them [[WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere dangerously hungry]]. Subtrope of CannibalismSuperpower, CollectorOfForms, FaceStealer.

* In ''Manga/OnePiece", Wapol "of Tin" ate the Munch-Munch Fruit, which made him an ExtremeOmnivore. With his "Munch-Munch Mutation" power, Wapol can transform himself into objects based on what he's recently eaten, such as cannons, a house, and other miscellaneous snacks to turn himself into a massive tank.

* ''VideoGame/TheVisitor'' and its sequels focus on a small, blob-like alien that takes on the characteristics of the animal it eats. By the end of the second game the alien has so many abilities, there are a total of [[MultipleEndings six endings based on which of the abilities you use to destroy the trailer owner's wife.]]

* In the music video for Music/BestFriend a supermodel devours other supermodels whole and alive and so she can take on desired aspects of their appearance and further her career. Over the course of the video she eats a woman for her beauty mark, another so she can have her [[LegFocus legs]] among others. However over time with all the clashing body proportions she starts to look less like a beautiful woman and more like a [[BodyHorror spindly, freakishly tall, disproportioned alien.]] By the video's end she winds up barfing up the dress of a woman she had eaten, chokes on it, loses her newly acquired features, and dies on the catwalk.

[[folder:Other Sites]]
* ''Website/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-974 SCP-974 ("Treehouse Predator")]]. While in its standard form, after SCP-974 kills and eats a child of age 6-12 it will change to that child's form over a period of 10-12 days. In its enhanced form it can kill and devour adult human beings and take their form in a short period of time.
[[/folder]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'', Cy-Bugs become whatever they eat. In the beginning, a Cy-bug eats a gun and sprouts {{ArmCannon}}s. [[spoiler:A Cy-Bug who starts eating the landscape of ''Sugar Rush'' becomes candy-coated. In the finale, a glitch-infected King Candy/Turbo is eaten by a Cy-Bug. Ralph then has a show-down with a terrifying glitch-infected King Candy/Turbo/Cy-Bug monster.]]

* ''LightNovel/RebuildWorld'': Non-sapient example. OrganicTechnology based monsters left behind by the NeglectfulPrecursors called the Old World, originally designed to serve as security for facilities, evolve and change their capabilities based on what monsters they eat, creating wildly different subspecies based on the assimilated capabilities. They do this via {{Nanomachine}} that also infect their brains allowing them to be controlled (however due to an obvious lack of maintenance from their creators, this programming is usually corrupted.)

* ''Wiki/SCPFoundation'', [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-974 SCP-974 ("Treehouse Predator")]]. While in its standard form, after SCP-974 kills and eats a child of age 6-12 it will change to that child's form over a period of 10-12 days. In its enhanced form it can kill and devour adult human beings and take their form in a short period of time.

* In the music video for Music/BestFriend a supermodel devours other supermodels whole and alive and so she can take on desired aspects of their appearance and further her career. Over the course of the video she eats a woman for her beauty mark, another so she can have her legs among others. However over time with all the clashing body proportions she starts to look less like a beautiful woman and more like a [[BodyHorror spindly, freakishly tall, disproportioned alien.]] By the video's end she winds up barfing up the dress of a woman she had eaten, chokes on it, loses her newly acquired features, and dies on the catwalk.

* In the music video for Music/BestFriend a supermodel devours other supermodels whole and alive and so she can take on desired aspects of their appearance and further her career. Over the course of the video she eats a woman for her beauty mark, another so she can have her [[ShesGotLegs legs]] among others. However over time with all the clashing body proportions she starts to look less like a beautiful woman and more like a [[BodyHorror spindly, freakishly tall, disproportioned alien.]] By the video's end she winds up barfing up the dress of a woman she had eaten, chokes on it, loses her newly acquired features, and dies on the catwalk.

Most non-humans do this in order to maintain a {{Masquerade}}, and [[KillAndReplace pose as human]]. Especially {{Tragic Monster}}s may be doing this because they want to BecomeARealBoy. Especially monstrous ones will enjoy ShowingOffTheNewBody. If the non-human ''doesn't'' eat people, whether out of [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire niceness]] or inaccessibility, they will revert to their ShapeShifterDefaultForm. Things may turn FromBadToWorse from there though if that entails turning into an [[FateWorseThanDeath unthinking]], horrific monstrosity that can never fit in among humans. And of course things will [[GoneHorriblyWrong Go Horribly Wrong]] if their cannibalism is also caused by a HorrorHunger, and deprivation has the nasty side effects of making them [[WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere dangerously hungry]]. Subtrope of FaceStealer and CannibalismSuperpower.

* The D'Anjainy in ''TabletopGame/AnimaBeyondFantasy'' play this overlapping with {{Face Stealer}}s, as they skin the face of the person who want to copy and place it over theirs to look as the previous owner of that face. The game says nothing about what happens to the unfortunate victim, by the way.

* In the ''TabletopGame/ChroniclesOfDarkness'', [[OurSpiritsAreDifferent Spirits]] commonly consume other Spirits for their Essence; if the meal isn't a spirit of the same type or of a type that makes thematic sense for the spirit to be eating (like a wolf spirit eating a rabbit spirit), the meal's Essence can infect and alter it, sometimes to the point of creating a hybrid "Magath" mishmash of concepts.
* As in the source material, some of the shapeshifting powers in ''TabletopGame/TheDresdenFiles'' work like this -- notably Mimic Abilities (and, it's at least implied, to a lesser extent Mimic Form). The former is even explicitly called out as "a bit of an "evil people eater" power" [[FootnoteFever by Will]].
* In ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'', Mongrelmen are descended from beings that had this ability. Mongrelmen themselves are MixAndMatchCritters comprising aspects of all the humanoid creatures their ancestors consumed... and a few clearly non-humanoid for good measure.
** At least, [[DependingOnTheWriter that's one version of their backstory]]. The more common one is simply that they are what happens when you breed together enough humanoid races.
* Lunar Exalted from ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'' can take the form of any creature whose heart's blood they've tasted.
* Skin-Changers from ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' Monster Hunters are embodied spirits who can shapeshift into any animal (including humans) by wearing their skin. Unlike the Film/MenInBlack example, Skin-Changers are clever enough to preserve the skins, and save them in jars when they're not being worn.
* In ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'', several alien species have this trait, but the two most prominent are the Kroot and the Tyranids:

* The unreleased arcade game ''VideoGame/ChimeraBeast'' as the VillainProtagonist as one of a HordeOfAlienLocusts appropriately known as Eaters. By using your bite move on organic enemies, you can gain similar abilities to them.
* How mutating works in ''VideoGame/{{Cubivore}}.''
* In ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3'', the Feeders are creatures that have become Necromorphs because they were desperate enough to eat Necromorph flesh.
* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, some [[OurVampiresAreDifferent vampire]] bloodlines have an unusual inversion of this trope. The longer they go without feeding, the ''more powerful'' they become, as well as becoming more [[GlamourFailure monstrous]] in appearance, which tends to give away their vampiric nature. Further, they risk going irrevocably insane and feral if they go ''too long'' without feeding, becoming "Bloodfiends". The vampire bloodlines the PlayerCharacter can join in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'', vanilla ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsOnline Online]]'' function in this way. (The ''Dawnguard'' DLC for ''Skyrim'' changes up the functionality, giving access to the Vampire Lord SuperMode form instead.)
* ''VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'' is able to [[PowerCopying assimilate the special abilities]] of many of his enemies by swallowing them. Fan works often exaggerate this to Kirby assuming the characteristics of anyone ''and/or anything'' he eats.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}'', Alex Mercer's disguise ability works like this. When he consumes the individual, he uses their genetic code to reproduce their appearance and voice while their memories are directly absorbed.
* The flash game ''VideoGame/TheVisitor'' and its sequels focus on a small, blob-like alien that takes on the characteristics of the animal it eats. By the end of the second game the alien has so many abilities, there are a total of [[MultipleEndings six endings based on which of the abilities you use to destroy the trailer owner's wife.]]

* In ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'' [[spoiler: Rogal Dorn]] asks the Emperor if he's familiar with the phrase "you are what you eat." Because he's apparently acting like an ever-growing pile of screaming psychic children.[[note]]The Imperium sacrifices thousands of Psykers (including children) to make sure the Emperor can keep shining the beacon in the Warp.[[/note]]

* Ghouls in ''Webcomic/BloodyUrban'' have this ability.
* This appears as a RunningGag for Kirby in ''Webcomic/BrawlInTheFamily''. He inhales something or someone and (usually) obtains that victim's ability.
* Changelings in ''Webcomic/CharbyTheVampirate'' change by absorbing whomever they are changing into, taking on their memories and often seeking their previous form since they appear to have gone missing without realizing that they've killed someone in a very BodyHorror fashion whom they probably considered a friend.
* In ''Webcomic/DemonEater'', this is the main way of growing in the demon world. Demons must eat demons, or be eaten themselves.
* This is apparently the method that Vel'akar (sentient demons) in ''Webcomic/{{Drowtales}}'' use to appear more humanoid, since by default they resemble {{Blob Monster}}s. Khaless, Snadhya'rune's protector twin, is actually such a demon that devoured the original Khaless and seems to have taken over her role, and she later inflicts the same thing on [[spoiler:Lulianne and Sael Dutan'vir]] and is able to pose as them without anyone noticing.
* In ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'', zombies have to [[http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/weekly/071219 eat the brains]] of the living or they'll lose their own intelligence.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'''s fairy tale episode, Pinocchio wants to be a real boy by eating human flesh, specifically Billy's.
** And then there's this line:
-->'''Mandy:''' If you are what you eat, I could be you by morning.
* In the ''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'' episode "Dark Harvest," Dib tells Zim that he knows he's an alien because humans don't have a squeedlyspooch, and Zim doesn't have any normal human organs. Zim's solution is to stalk his classmates, steal their organs, and stuff them inside himself. This trope is played with, however, in that Zim doesn't so much eat the organs as teleport them out of his victims' bodies.
-->'''Dib:''' I suppose you have a heart?
-->'''Zim:''' Six of them.
-->'''Dib:''' Intestines?
-->'''Zim:''' Large and small.
-->'''Dib:''' Spleen?
-->'''Zim:''' In three different colors.
** At one point the nurse tells Zim he's extra human for having multiple organs, while Dib almost gets hauled off by the MIB for missing some. Oh, and for having a cow-in-the-box for lungs, but you know what we mean.

* In ''WesternAnimation/StrokerAndHoop'', a group of cannibals steal and consume the vestigial organs of humans under this reasoning ("Eat a human, be a human!"). After Stroker pisses them off and they decide to cannibalize him completely, he tries to convince them that, as a guy who eats burgers, he is in fact a burger and they'd be violating their own beliefs. They ignore him.

Most non-humans do this in order to maintain a {{Masquerade}}, and [[KillAndReplace pose as human]]. Especially {{Tragic Monster}}s may be doing this because they want to BecomeARealBoy. Especially monstrous ones will enjoy ShowingOffTheNewBody. If the non-human ''doesn't'' eat people, whether out of [[FriendlyNeighborhoodVampire niceness]] or inaccessibility, they will revert to their ShapeShifterDefaultForm. Things may turn FromBadToWorse from there though if that entails turning into an [[FateWorseThanDeath unthinking ]], horrific monstrosity that can never fit in among humans. And of course things will [[GoneHorriblyWrong Go Horribly Wrong]] if their cannibalism is also caused by a HorrorHunger, and deprivation has the nasty side effects of making them [[WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere dangerously hungry]]. Subtrope of FaceStealer and CannibalismSuperpower.

For the non-human, this will allow them to [[{{Humanshifting}} shapeshift into a human form]], potentially [[CannibalismSuperpower that of the eaten]], though it may only allow them to become a human version of themselves. The non-human may use non-cannibalistic methods as well, for example a [[TheFairFolk fae creature]] might steal [[TheShadowKnows the shadow of a human]] to maintain their {{Glamour}}, a {{Mutant}} might graft skin or [[AppendageAssimilation new appendages]] from healthy humans to avoid PowerDegeneration, a robot or alien may use ReplicantSnatching, and a vampire may have to drink blood to avoid [[OneWingedAngel turning]] into a [[EvilMakesYouMonstrous hideous monster]]. It's worth noting that perfectly normal humans may be able to do this through a spell, ritual, or if they have the CannibalismSuperpower.

* Everyman of the Franchise/DCUniverse actually only needs to eat a tiny bit of whoever he wants to turn into. But it turns out he really ''likes'' the taste of [[ImAHumanitarian human flesh.]]
* ''ComicBook/{{Excalibur}}'': The Warwolves leave their victims' skins and wear them, in a manner similar to the Bug in ''[[Film/MenInBlack Men In Black]]''. "We wear who we kill!"
* In ''Comicbook/LoveAndRockets'', the monster [=BEM=] disguises itself by killing action hero detective Castle Radium and stealing his body. However, due to the brain damage it suffered while breaking out of prison, [=BEM=] gradually begins to believe it is Radium, and becomes obsessed with tracking down and capturing itself.
* In ''Comicbook/{{Lucifer}}'', predatory Jin En Mok demons Cestis and Saul take on the forms of humans they have eaten. It turns to horror for Cestis when she find herself [[ModeLock trapped]] in the body of [[spoiler: Elaine's father]] with his thoughts gradually [[TheMindIsAPlaythingOfTheBody taking over]].
* Creator/MarvelComics villain Dirt Nap gains the appearance and powers of people he swallows. The victims can survive if he coughs them up within a certain time frame. For some reason, he can't do anything about the smiley face symbol that always appears. He also winds up stuck in the form of a rat for much of his history. Eventually he becomes an ally to ''ComicBook/GenerationX.'' He is even able to separate M-Plate back into the twins and Emplate by sucking them up and separating them, though [[spoiler: this ends up killing him.]]
* Inverted for ''ComicBook/{{Revival}}'', where ordinary humans try eating reviver flesh in order to become revivers themselves. In at least one case it works.
* The Saurians in ''[[Creator/CrossGen Sigil]]'' (and the one who appears in ''Negation'') take on beneficial attributes of whatever creatures they eat, including physical and mental traits and even information. Having long ago become the apex predators of their homeworlds, this power was forgotten and rediscovered when they went to war with humans and decided not to waste the corpses of their fallen foes.
* The Chitauri of ''ComicBook/TheUltimates'' can only shape-shift into the body of somebody by eating that person. Herr Kleiser threatens to do this to the Wasp, but is interrupted before he gets an opportunity.

* Tamaki Amajiki, one of the Big Three of UA in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', has the Quirk "Manifest". He can shapeshift his body into things based on what he's eaten in the last twenty-four hours. In the debut of his power, he turned his fingers into tentacles from some takoyaki, his left hand into a clamshell from some clams, and grew bird wings and talons from some fried chicken.

* The vampires in ''Film/{{Daybreakers}}'' have to drink human blood or else they transform into subhuman monsters. Expanding on this, drinking ''vampire'' blood (even their own) causes the mutation to accelerate.

* In the ''Series/FearItself'' episode "The Eater", the eponymous SerialKiller Claude Mellor consumes parts of his victims in order to assume their forms. It works.

* In the music video for Music/BestFriend a supermodel devours other supermodels whole and alive and so she can take on desired aspects of their appearance and further her career. Over the course of the video she eats a woman for her BeautyMark, another so she can have her [[ShesGotLegs legs]] among others. However over time with all the clashing body proportions she starts to look less like a beautiful woman and more like a [[BodyHorror spindly, freakishly tall, disproportioned alien.]] By the video's end she winds up barfing up the dress of a woman she had eaten, chokes on it, loses her newly acquired features, and dies on the catwalk.

* When the Wolf [[TrueStoryInMyUniverse from the fairy tale]] swallows the protagonists' grandma whole in {{Series/Charmed1998}}, he automatically shapeshifts into her appearance, as a distillation of the original story.