Emotion Eater / Live-Action TV

• In Alice (2009), the Queen of Hearts keeps the residents of Wonderland happy (and controlled) by harvesting positive emotions (with flavors like "Bliss", "Calm", "Excitement", "Passion") from captive humans and selling them to the populace as flavored "teas" through "Tea Shops", like the one Hatter owns/operates.
• Buffyverse:
  • The demon Gachnar from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode "Fear Itself" feeds off of people's fear and can make people hallucinate — a bad combination. Fortunately, when the Scoobies actually fight him, he's three inches tall.
  • When Clem returns in season 9 of Buffy, he reveals that he feeds from emotions, specifically embarrassment. This becomes Hilarious in Hindsight when you see who he's spending all his time with in seasons 6 and 7.
  • The Thesulac from Angel feed off fear as well, and are known for cultivating the world's paranoia. They're not so easy to kill as Gachnar the Fear Demon.
• Barbas in Charmed (1998) is the demon of fear, and feeds on the greatest fear of his victims. Hilariously, his Mirror Universe Good Counterpart is the demon of hope.
• Cloak & Dagger (2018): Tandy has the power to see the hopes of anyone she touches. She eventually discovers she can also consume their hopes, gaining all those positive feelings for herself and leaving them angry and depressed. They seem to recover within a day or so, but it is still not portrayed as a good thing, and in fact is shown to directly parallel Tandy's drug abuse. Presumably, Tyrone (who can see fears) could do something similar, though there is no reason he would want to.
• An episode of Crusade features a mystical creature in a habitation bubble that is brought aboard the titular ship. Everyone has a different reaction to it, and Galen comes to believe that it's getting everyone all riled up to feed its own hunger. He is proven wrong in the end.
• The Rowdy Three from Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency feed on human fear and distress. They mostly rile up such emotions by smashing stuff up and making a ruckus in public.
• Doctor Who:
  • "The God Complex" features a minotaur alien which feeds on faith, such as belief in a religion or in a person, by bringing out their greatest fear and causing the person to fall back on their strongest faith. The episode also uses a tear jerking version of I'm Not Afraid of You to cut off the minotaur's supply. Amy is about to be devoured, because of her faith in the Doctor, so the Doctor purposely makes himself a Broken Pedestal — pointing out all the times he's failed, the danger he's gotten her into, the childhood he ruined, and how vain he is — so that Amy will stop believing in him and be saved.
  • In "The Rings of Akhaten", the Doctor encounters another Emotion Eater in the form of a sentient star that has to be kept asleep by constant singing, and when it wakes, it seeks to devour The Queen of Years, a young girl who has been taught all the lore and songs of her people. The Doctor gives it a serious case of psychic indigestion when he force-feeds it the memories of his over 1200-year life.
    The Doctor: I walked away from the Last Great Time War. I marked the passing of the Time Lords. I saw the birth of the universe and I watched as time ran out, moment by moment, until nothing remained. No time. No space. Just me! I've walked in universes where the laws of physics were devised by the mind of a MAD MAN! I've watched universes freeze and creations burn. I have seen things you wouldn't believe! I have lost things you will NEVER understand! And I know things. Secrets that must never be told. Knowledge that must never be spoken. Knowledge that will make parasite gods blaze. SO COME ON THEN! TAKE IT! TAKE IT ALL, BABY! HAVE IT! YOU HAVE IT ALL!
  • In "Time Heist", the Teller apparently feeds on the guilt of other living beings.
• Dollhouse: "The Attic" is a simulation which forces people to constantly fight horrible terrors, which are actually computer problems which the people are using their neural and emotional energy to solve.
• Farscape:
  • In one of the weirder examples, there is a sort of species of spider (which can take human form, natch) that first augments the strongest features of its prey's personality — sexuality, self-control, anger, greed, determination, logic, and intelligence, in the cases of various lead cast members at the time — and then steals them, resulting in an abrupt about-face in behavior. Chiana, for example, kisses D'Argo and has him grope her, and she doesn't even feel a tingle; D'Argo doesn't even get slightly angry when kicked in the mivonks.
  • The Evil Sorcerer Maldis, though primarily a psychic vampire, often encourages his victims to excesses of anger and fear as an appetizer.
• Knox from Heroes can absorb the fear of others and use it to boost his own strength.
• Kamen Rider:
  • Kamen Rider OOO has the Greeed, which create Yummys which eat whatever the victim (Greeeds drop a coin in the victim to create Yummys) desires... Well, at least Uva's. Kazari's Yummies possess the victim and force them to eat.
  • The Utopia Dopant, the Big Bad from Kamen Rider Double, doesn't actually eat emotions but rather gains power by drawing upon the positive emotions of those around. So when our heroes charge in full of righteous fury and hope... he pounds them into pudding. Eventually defeated when Shotaro exploits the fact that inanimate objects don't have emotions to draw upon, and the emotion behind him and Phillip during the final battle is too much for Utopia to take. Katsumi Daido also exploits a weakness of Utopia's powers, as it can't draw emotions from dead things, and Katsumi just happens to be a Necro-Over.
• Madan Senki Ryukendo: "Minus Energy", created from chaos and fear, is the primary collection goal of the Jamanga.
• Once Upon a Time in Wonderland: The Jabberwocky feeds on fear.
• Red Dwarf:
  • In "Polymorph", the eponymous shapeshifter drains negative emotions, such as fear and anger, from whoever they touch. It turns into a snake and tries its main form (which happens to be an eight-foot-tall, armor-plated alien monster) to scare Lister so that it can drain his fear; it turns into a cat woman to drain the Cat's vanity; it turns into Rimmer and tells Kryten that Cat getting attacked was Kryten's fault so that it can drain his guilt; and it turns into Rimmer's mother and sleeps with Lister in order to drain Rimmer's anger. Getting their emotions sucked out results in the crew going through personality changes: a fearless Lister becomes a Fearless Fool obsessed with sacrificing himself in order to kill the Polymorph in the most violent way possible; the Cat losing his vanity turns him into a filthy bum who doesn't care about himself in any way; Kryten with no guilt becomes a Jerkass who insults everyone at every opportunity and wants to hand the others over to save himself; and an angerless Rimmer becomes a sort of hippie who thinks that attacking the Polymorph means fundraiser concerts and tee-shirts.
  • In "Emohawk: Polymorph II", the Emohawk drains dominant personality traits. The Cat is turned into his geeky counterpart Duane Dibley (from losing his coolness), but Rimmer gets turned into his heroic alternate universe self Ace Rimmer (what a guy!) because he lost his cowardice as well as his bitterness and negativity.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: The Original Series:
    • "Wolf in the Fold" has Redjac, the immortal entity that was "Jack the Ripper" and many other serial killers feeds off horror and terror (and prefers to go after women because they're more "easily and deeply terrified". Sexist much, Mr. Spock?). The episode also mentioned the Drella of Alpha Carinae V, which derived nourishment from the emotion of love.
    • "Day of the Dove" has a big glowy entity that feeds off of negative emotions and is turned off by good ones. Kirk manages to get rid of it by laughing with a few Klingons.
  • An inverted version occurs in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Man of the People". Rather than feeding from emotions, an alien uses victims as receptacles for disposing of harmful emotions.
• In the Supernatural episode "Sam, Interrupted", a wraith is roaming the halls of a psychiatric hospital, feeding on the hormones produced in the brains of the patients. Its presence can also heighten latent mental instability in people, to give it more food.
• Super Sentai/Power Rangers:
  • Juken Sentai Gekiranger and Power Rangers Jungle Fury feature Chinese Vampire enemies who grow stronger from the power of fear. Any enemy can do this, but the primary application is to allow Mooks to upgrade to Monster of the Week.
  • Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Power Rangers Samurai use an indirect version: the water level of the otherworldy Sanzu River rises with humans' sorrow and despair, and the monsters need Sanzu water to survive and keep from drying out.
  • In Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger, Deboss is one of these and his followers harvest feelings of anger, sorrow and joy for him to feed on, in order to thaw his frozen heart. Halfway through the series, they add hate to the mix in an attempt to combat the Kyoryuger's bravery.
• Teen Wolf:
  • The Nogitsune, the Big Bad of Season 3, is an evil Asian Fox Spirit and trickster that feeds on chaos, strife and pain.
  • Then there's the Anuk-Ite, the Big Bad for Season 6, a Supernatural Fear Inducer which feeds on the discord, paranoia and violence resulting from the fear it inspires in the communities it targets.
• Twin Peaks: BOB feeds on fear and pain.
• Two Sentence Horror Stories: In "Elliot" the janitor literally feeds on people's pain, first giving different bullied kids an instrument which can make them feel what their tormentors inflicted, and then feeding on theirs as she keeps them prisoner.
• What We Do in the Shadows (2019):
  • Colin Robinson is a so-called energy vampire, which he explains is probably the most common sort of vampire. Unlike the real vampires he is housemates with, he doesn't feed on blood, but the negative energy which humans emit when they are bored or annoyed. As a result, he hunts by either boring his victims with tedious and uninteresting stories and facts, or making them angry through constant small annoying acts.
  • Colin develops an antagonistic relationship with his co-worker Evie, who he discovers is an "emotional vampire"; she feeds off people's pity by being needy or weepy around them.

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