Eating Optional

"Feeding a mortal army is a constant burden. With zombies, it is a constant motivation. Feeding is why they fight. Feeding is why they are feared."

— Jadar, ghoulcaller of Nephalia, Magic: The Gathering, "Walking Corpse" flavor text"

This trope is a trait of some supernatural beings. These beings are not bound by the natural limitation of needing to feed to survive, yet for one reason or another, they do so anyway.

The being in question might have once been human and eats because they still enjoy the taste of food. Or they might eat because they are among Muggles and need to maintain the Masquerade.

In stranger cases, the being has no need to eat but still hungers. If this is the case, then they can be vulnerable to a Fate Worse than Death. They can be trapped or imprisoned without food indefinitely, forever starving, yet never starving to death.

Such beings also vary in intelligence and in their choice of food. Some are as sentient as any human and enjoy the same foods normal humans do, while others are mindless man-eaters.

If a story has man-eating monsters, then having this trait makes them even more monstrous. Most natural beings eat so they can survive. These guys don't even have that excuse.

A Sub-Trope of The Needless. See also Eating Machine, No Such Thing as Dehydration, and Perpetual-Motion Monster.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• In Attack on Titan, the Titans don't need to eat, as it's implied that they get all of the energy they need from sunlight. They don't even have any digestive organs. They still eat humans, and only humans, then vomit out what's left of their victims after a few hours. Why they do this is a mystery at first. It turns out that they're not trying to eat humans, but instead are instinctively looking for Titan Shifters. Once a mindless titan consumes a Shifter's spinal fluids, they'll regain their human form and intelligence, and inherit their power of being able to shift from human to Titan at will.
• Cardcaptor Sakura: Due to The Power of the Sun, Cerberus/Kero generates his own energy. Regardless, he loves eating, especially sweets.
• In Death Note, Shinigami have no need to eat, since their species can't be killed by any of the things that would typically result in the death of a human. Nonetheless, Ryuk enjoys gorging himself on apples whenever he gets the chance; unlike other examples of this trope, it doesn't make him more likable or more human. Since he's stuffing his face without purpose, it displays that Ryuk is self-centered and greedy, not helped by his table manners (he can eat an entire apple, core and all, in just a few bites) or the fact that apples in general have a drug-like effect on him. Other Shinigami also enjoy eating human food; one of the Shinigami who shows up later enjoys chocolate.
• Digimon Tamers: Ryo claims that you don't need to eat in the Digital World because you don't have a physical body that needs sustenance. You can eat if you want but it serves no purpose. Given that Jenrya and Takato manage to escape from a cave by deciding that they don't actually need to breathe air and could breathe water instead if they wanted, Ryo's probably right.
• Dragon Ball:
  • The Namekians, a race of plant-like slug people, only need to drink water to live. Piccolo is seen eating fish, however, and he can eat the oh-so-useful Senzus with no problem, and his previous incarnation Great Demon King Piccolo enjoys a (really gross) feast in Dragon Ball. Since Earth has far less sunlight than Namek (which has multiple suns in perpetual daylight), it's possible that he actually has to eat while living there. This is backed up by Kami telling Mr. Popo it was hard to find food when he first arrived on Earth, before Demon King Piccolo split from him.
  • The dead have no need for food because they're... well, dead. That doesn't stop Goku from eating and begging for food despite being dead. He eats just as much as usual, too. Lampshaded by the Kaiō and Kuririn/Krillin.
  • Dr. Gero's human-derived Androids only need to drink water. Their engines power not only their cybernetic implants but also their biological components. Despite this, 17 and 18 still have fully functioning digestive systems and can eat food despite not needing to.
• It's mentioned in Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex that full-body cyborgs don't need to eat, but novelty food and drink are made for those who want to recapture the experience, and can attune their cyber-brains to make it taste like the real thing. The fake food is still edible and nutritious, but tastes awful, at least to normal humans and to the Major. Batou on the other hand happily chows them down when he gets the chance.
• One Piece: Brook doesn't need to eat since his devil fruit already keeps him alive (though he claims milk helps him regenerate).
• Outlaw Star: Melfina is a highly advanced bio-android, created by Professor Gwen Khan. Even though eating isn't necessary to her vital function, she finds she enjoys certain foods, after being prompted by Jim to try some. She was even surprised to learn she could distinguish different tastes.
• In some continuities of Tenchi Muyo!, Ryoko does not need food as a side effect of being an artificial lifeform, and may not even have a sense of taste. She eats to be social and drinks because she enjoys being drunk.
• Stated pretty soon in Ushio and Tora: Youkai such as Tora himself and many others claim to enjoy devouring humans, either their flesh, organs or souls, but eating for them really is optional: Tora himself, despite his forced permanence in his dungeon, was starved from the ordeal, but not fatally so, being more than capable of fighting off well-fed, modern Youkai with ease, and despite his boasts about devouring humans for lunch, he ultimately settles for Hamburgers.
• The girls in Zombie Land Saga don't need to eat, but they do it because they still enjoy food. When they go broke and can no longer afford groceries, Sakura says she's glad they don't need to eat in the first place.

Comic Books

• A particularly horrifying example comes from Empowered. Willy Pete, a fire elemental, has stated that he doesn't need to eat, but he still likes to. However, he burns so hotly that almost anything he tries to eat turns to ashes when he tries. He gets around this by cannibalizing superbeings, because their flesh is just cooked nicely by him — and that's not even getting what else he does to them...
• Zombies in Marvel Zombies have no need to eat, but are driven by an insatiable, uncontrollable hunger to devour human flesh anyway. (Zombie flesh does nothing for the hunger and tastes absolutely awful to them.) After long enough without feeding — exactly how long is uncertain, but it's at least several years — the hunger will actually dissipate entirely.
• The Sandman (1989): Hob Gadling is made immortal because of a whim Morpheus had. When they meet during a period where Hob's life has had a dramatic downturn, he asks Morpheus if he has any idea just how hungry a man who can't die can become. He still chooses to continue, though.
• Superman: In many continuities, Superman, Supergirl, Power Girl, and other Kryptonians don't need to eat (since they get all the energy they need from the sun), but often will out of habit or because they enjoy the taste. At least one continuity has Superman mention that food functions as a backup energy source of sorts and while he could sustain himself entirely through his powers eating regular food allows him to channel the solar energy that would have been used for that for other power uses instead.
• Wonder Woman: Traditionally, the Amazons are immortal while on Paradise Island, meaning they don't need to eat, but do for enjoyment and to improve their quality of life. Off the island they're just as mortal as anyone else, if a bit stronger and hardier, and need to eat like any other human. Iterations of the Amazons following the completion of Volume 1 are generally less consistent on this rule and how it works.
• X-Men:
  • Nate Grey, a.k.a. X-Man, states that he doesn't need to eat, drink, or even breathe after his powers reach their full potential in his 'Shaman' state — it gets to the point where he admits that he only does things like that to reassure other people around him, and at one point, doesn't even notice that he's standing in a room full of nitrogen gas. Unusually, prior to his powers being stabilised, he had spurts of being a Big Eater to try and support his malfunctioning metabolism, and after he undergoes a De-power, he needs to eat just like everyone else.
  • The Juggernaut is sometimes stated to not need food, though this doesn't necessarily mean he's immune to hunger. He once spent a month trapped underground, forcing his way through bedrock — despite not needing to eat or breathe, it was still a brutal experience.

Fan Works

• The Bridge (MLP) has the grown-up Godzilla Jr. from the 1990s continuity as one of its protagonists with those movies as canon. While as a youngster he still ate physical food as an omnivore, when he grew into his adult form as the new Godzilla, he got all the energy he needed from his nuclear reactor of a heart and sunlight. He hasn't eaten physical food in the two decades since but shows he's still capable of it when Captain Blueberry Frost forces him to try some Canterlot pub hayfries.
• Empath: The Luckiest Smurf: In "Days of Auld Lang Smurf", the "resurrected" parent Smurfs are in a state of existence that they claim is better than that of the physical existence the Smurfs have, as Papa Smurf notices that they hardly even eat at all. As it turns out, though, they aren't really "resurrected", but rather memories given physical substance by Chlorhydris' Auld Lang Syne spell which was cast upon them, affecting only the Smurfs that actually had parents that died.
• A Force of Four has Power Girl, who doesn't need food for as long as she has access to sunlight... although she is always willing to wolf down a good sandwich.
• For the Love of the Gods: Gods do not need food or sleep as mortals do. That is not to say that they don't enjoy either when they can.
• Hellsister Trilogy: Supergirl still eats physical food because she likes the taste (and the sense of normalcy), but she gets as much energy as she wants from yellow sunlight.
• A Hollow in Equestria presents several examples:
  • Ulquiorra doesn't need to eat, as he can sustain himself through mana absorption. However, while he doesn't specifically need to eat, he has experimented with a few foods on occasion.
  • Celestia and presumably Luna also don't need to eat, but they do because it makes a nice indulgence.
• Hope for the Heartless has an inversion in the form of the Horned King, who is a lich. He doesn't feel hunger like mortals do, but his body needs nourishment now and then like with mortals. However, since he lacks the sense of smell and taste, the mandatory act of eating is pleasant neither for him to experience nor others to witness. It is implied that he can require sustainment through other means, but those other options aren't available for him at any point.
• I Woke Up As a Dungeon, Now What?: Living things can, in a pinch, sustain themselves on pure mana. It's not pleasant and will leave you weakened, but you can't actually starve to death unless you're in a very mana-poor region like Central.
• Last Child of Krypton: Having Kryptonian DNA, Shinji does not really need to eat, but he does anyway because he likes the taste of food. In chapter 3 he eats a toast as he ponders that he is not hungry and can't even remember having been hungry.
• The Last Daughter: Taylor, a Kryptonian, doesn't need to eat as long as she has access to yellow sunlight.
• Neither a Bird nor a Plane, it's Deku!: Izuku's Kryptonian biology allows him to survive indefinitely without food for as long as he has access to yellow sunlight. But he still feels hungry and enjoys the taste of food. K.E.L.E.X. nags him over this, because it's technically a waste of time he could be spending training or studying and recommends fasting when Izuku complains. Izuku just ignores him and goes off to find lunch.
• Paragon (Kitsune Heart): Much like Amethyst, members of Steven's crew like to eat even though they don't need to. Army of the four remaining members of the Ruby Squad is willing to try anything once; even when she declares a pepper disgusting, she still swallows it, and her first time eating a Cookie Cat was to slam her face into the bowl Steven had given it in and devour it in seconds.
• Son of the Sannin: The process that brought Rin Nohara Back from the Dead eliminated her need to eat food, though she still does so because she likes the taste. She does need to drink water, however.
• Superman of 2499: The Great Confrontation: Being a Superman's descendant, Alan Kent doesn't need to eat thanks to his Kryptonian DNA. He doesn't like dwelling on it, though, because it makes him feel less human.
• Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: After discovering her powers and her Kryptonian origin, Asuka realizes that she has never been hungry and thinks she probably does not need to eat because she is sun-powered. However, she likes food, so she keeps doing it.
• The Utonium Trials: It's implied that the Powerpuff Girls don't need food (or at least they can go without food for longer than normal humans).
• The Vampire of Steel: Played straight with Supergirl, and weirdly inverted with Zol-Am, who didn't need to eat — thanks to his Kryptonian metabolism — before being turned into a vampire.
• Will-Powered: Casket, having a soulless body, does not need to eat. In fact, if he does, whatever he consumes doesn't even get digested. Quite possibly the most tragic aspect of the story, considering Sanji's a thing.

Films — Animated

• In Vexille, the nanite-transformed metallized humans still eat as a way of maintaining a semblance of normalcy in their lives, despite no longer needing food.

Films — Live-Action

• In A.I.: Artificial Intelligence, the Robot Kid David not only doesn't need to eat but really shouldn't. After being taunted by his human sibling, he gets into an eating race, only for the food to damage his internal components and cause him to break.
• A few versions of this show up in Pirates of the Caribbean.
  • In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Barbarossa's crew are cursed with this, as they are physically incapable of eating as food turns to ash when they do. Unfortunately for them, they don't need to eat anymore but still feel hunger pains.
  • In the second and third movies, Davy Jones' crew also don't seem to need to eat. They might just eat fish, but considering that decapitation won't kill them, food is probably a non-issue.

Gamebooks

• Legend of Zagor allows you to obtain a magic ring at one point, which staves off starvation and eliminates needs for sustenance (you obtain said ring from a knight in the castle's dungeons, where he's trapped there for several weeks, and the ring's magic is what's keeping him alive). However, you can still consume meals to recover Stamina points if necessary.

Literature

• Anpanman gets sustenance out of the red bean paste inside his head. However, when he was a child, he mentioned eating a good amount of food from a picnic lunch he had earlier.
• The Atomic Time of Monsters: The Kaiju don't have to eat or drink once they reach maximum size, as they get all the energy they need from Yamaneon, the Green Rocks that give them their powers.
• The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: The protagonist confronts Ward after exploring the catacombs under his ancestor Joseph Curwen's farm. When he mentions the abominations that have gone unfed for the month since his commitment to the insane asylum, he replies:
  Damn 'em, they do eat, but they don't need to! That's the rare part! A month, you say, without food? Lud, Sir, you be modest! ... Devil take ye, those cursed things have been howling down there ever since Curwen was done for a hundred and fifty-seven years gone!
• The Cosmere:
  • Elantris: The zombie-like Elantrians don't die from starvation but are even hungrier than normal. Every time a new Elantrian enters the city, the others jump him and fight over the small basket of food included in the funerary rites. The only reason they don't eat each other is that for some reason, Elantrian flesh tastes so horrible that not even the hungriest can keep it down.
  • Warbreaker: The Returned only need one Breath (part of a person's soul) a week to survive, but most eat food anyway because food tastes good.
• In A Discovery of Witches, vampires can eat nuts and drink wine but must have blood to survive though can go for periods without it.
• Discworld:
  • Death likes takeaway curries. Don't think about how he manages to swallow, or where the food goes next.
  • In Thief of Time, the incarnated Auditors are technically able to eat, but they don't need to and actually have to avoid it. Because they don't normally have bodies, they're so unprepared for the sensation of tasting that a flavorful food like chocolate makes them lose concentration and evaporate.
• The Dresden Files: In one book, Harry meets up with a vampire in a bar to thrash out the details of their duel. When Harry expresses his surprise that the vampire orders a beer, that vampire explains that he doesn't derive nourishment from the beer, but it still tastes good.
• Every Heart a Doorway: When Nancy "goes still" and becomes a living statue, it slows her metabolism so much that she could survive for a month on a few spoonfuls of pomegranate juice and a bit of cake. This freaks her parents out during her return to Earth, because it looks like she's trying to starve herself.
• When Harry Potter visits Nearly Headless Nick's deathday party in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, there's a banquet of rotten food laid out for the ghosts. Harry figures they let the food rot so that the flavors are strong enough for the ghosts to actually taste.
• Haruhi Suzumiya: Yuki Nagato is an artificial humanoid interface, which is either a fancy way of saying she's a Ridiculously Human Robot, or an alien operating via A Form You Are Comfortable With. Whichever is the case, she explains to Kyon that she doesn't need to eat and only does so to blend in, which is necessary in order to observe Haruhi.
• Hurog: Oreg is near-immortal, so he doesn't need to eat. When he pretends to be a normal human being, he can eat to avoid suspicion.
• In Immortals After Dark, all races of immortals eat normal food as children, but some stop as they become fully immortal. Females are required to eat, however, if they wish to become pregnant, and presumably until they give birth. Among the non-eating races are vampires, Valkyries, and succubae/incubi.
• No one can die in the Land of Oz (at least by conventional means), making death by starvation impossible. However, hunger still exists, and being without food can still be quite uncomfortable.
• Modern Magical Girls in Magical Girl Raising Project don't have to eat or drink. Some of them take advantage of this by staying transformed so that they don't have to buy food. Most of them still eat anyway because they like it or to regain energy.
• Dead Boy from Nightside doesn't need to eat, but he does so because acting like a living being helps him feel more human.
• Free Magic elementals in Old Kingdom don't need to eat, though many of them enjoy it. Mogget and the Disreputable Dog (Free Magic beings with the shape of a cat and dog, respectively) are generally fond of foods appropriate for their apparent species, and less pleasant entities may snack on people. Lirael is more than a little annoyed when she finds this out, given the trouble she had to go to to keep the Dog fed.
  Dog: Not for nothing! For me!
• Ravirn: Cybermancy:
  Food is something webgoblins indulge in mostly for the pleasure of it, since they draw the bulk of their power from the mweb itself, both personally and for spells. They have the capacity to tap the power of the Primal Chaos directly, and until the mweb came back up, that’s what we’d have to do for spells. But chaos is dicey stuff, and most of us and our familiars try to avoid dealing with it in the raw, preferring the predigested version that the master servers channel into the mweb. Minus that reliable power source, if Melchior didn’t feel like running the risks of a direct tap, he had to fall back on chemical or electrical energy—food or the light socket. I’d have made the same choice.
• Saintess Summons Skeletons:
  • Since Alith is undead, she doesn't actually need to eat, but she usually ignores that unless she's in a situation where food is tight. In which case, she volunteers to be emergency rations for Sofia, since she can chop off an arm and then be healed with mana; distasteful, but it avoids starvation.
  • Demonic apostles don't need to eat or drink, but after a very long imprisonment, the first thing Zerei wants is to cook herself a meal of Brogerfell.
• A Song of Ice and Fire: Melisandre doesn't need to eat but does so to conceal this fact. She comes off as though she Forgets to Eat, which doesn't raise the same questions.
• Sunshine: Vampires can consume some non-blood substances, though it doesn't do much for them compared to blood. Constantine accepts a bit of water and raw beef when he's in rough shape from a long captivity; Rae is a bit put out that she can't indulge her Sweet Baker inclinations and feed him properly.
• That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime:
  • Rimuru has no need to eat for sustenance, but as a former human, he still indulges in it once he figures out a way to overcome his inability to taste.
  • In fact, this is a quite common among sufficiently evolved monsters or humans, as after a certain a point (such as becoming a primarily spiritual-based life-form) or beings already at that point, physical needs like consuming food become unnecessary to survive and is mainly done for pleasure. Veldora (a True Dragon) and Milim Nava (a True Demon Lord who is also the daughter of a True Dragon) are both noted to not require food, but they still eat because they love the taste of good meals.
• Under the Pendulum Sun: The Artificial Human changelings don't need food but still feel hungry when they go without. Ariel is a shamelessly Big Eater, which takes a sobering turn when she reveals that her human family starved to death around her in a workhouse.
• The Zombie Survival Guide describes at length how zombies not only don't need to eat but are incapable of digesting what they do, which leads to distended stomachs that eventually burst open due to pressure. The zombies go on eating due to the virus messing with their brains.

Live-Action TV

• In both Being Human (UK) and Being Human (US), vampires can eat human food, though they don't gain any sustenance from it. In the US version, Aiden explains to Sally that it appears to be for keeping up appearances.
• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, vampires only need to drink blood, but some enjoy eating human food and drinking alcohol (for example, Spike likes onion blossoms and Weetabix, for starters). Vampires can get drunk, but in one episode, Angel clarifies that eating food will not help him survive, only drinking blood.
• Good Omens (2019) makes it clear that neither angels or demons really need to eat, but both Aziraphale and Crowley do. Aziraphale in particular loves sushi. In the first episode Gabriel even calls him out for it, claiming it "sullies the temple of a celestial body" to eat human food. In fact, one of the arguments against Armageddon that Crowley uses on Aziraphale is that there are no restaurants in heaven.
• Kamen Rider:
  • Mirror monsters from Kamen Rider Ryuki are an unfortunate aversion. Their diet consists of humans, and they are everywhere. They can eat each other too, but only if they kill their prey first. Some monsters make contracts with Riders to hunt for them in exchange for power.
  • Undead from Kamen Rider Blade are immortal and thus have no need for sustenance. Hajime apparently needs to eat as human do for reasons unknown.
  • Fangire from Kamen Rider Kiva prey on human life force, but they don't need it to survive. It's just that they consider humans to too low under them on the food chain to bother with and it's what they can do and desire to do.
  • Greeed from Kamen Rider OOO don't need to eat because they are not actually alive and can't even enjoy eating much, because their senses are quite bad compared to humans. It doesn't stop Gamel from eating a mountain of sweets because he wants to. Ankh is the only Greeed able to enjoy eating because he is a Puppeteer Parasite of a human body, which needs to be fed at least every now and then, and something else than ice pops.
  • Averted in Kamen Rider Gaim. Invess don't and can't eat earth food, but they can starve if stranded away from their home dimension. While they don't eat humans like mirror monsters, but a native fruit, they spread an aggressive plant and no less aggressive disease.
  • Ganma from Kamen Rider Ghost have no need for sustenance of any kind while in their artificial bodies and scoff at both the action itself and the mortal lifeform that need to perform it, so the question whether they could enjoy it is never answered. On the other hand, they do need to eat when in their real, mortal bodies and they can enjoy it probably even more than regular humans.
  • Bugsters from Kamen Rider Ex-Aid don't have to eat as they are digital beings, but they apparently can enjoy food as evidenced by Poppy and Graphite stealing Hiiro's cake on separate occasions.
  • Vice the demon from Kamen Rider Revice doesn't even have a corporeal body without outside assistance, so he obviously doesn't need to eat. That doesn't mean he doesn't like it. It takes him roughly half the series to finally get his hands on a plate of curry. Then it gets subverted when Vice and Ikki switch places after first trying the mysterious Rolling Vistamp. Vice himself is as fine as ever, but they quickly find out that Ikki still needs food even though he's now a spirit living in Vice's body, meaning they have to reverse the situation quickly before Ikki starves.
• In an early episode of Lois & Clark, Lois asks Superman if he eats food, to which he answers "I don't have to, but I like to." Of course, if people never saw Clark Kent eating, that might begin to raise eyebrows.
• Played with in Stargate Atlantis with the Wraith. They don't eat food, they "feed" on lifeforce through a sucker on their hands. While it functions essentially the same, it is its own distinct process. Though one 'cultured' Wraith is shown to enjoy eating regular food, he admits that he just savors the taste but gains no sustenance from doing so.
• Star Trek:
  • In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Odo doesn't eat; as he tells Kira in one episode, he can do so and tried it once after assuming humanoid form, but it wasn't satisfying for him, as he does not have taste buds. He claims that it was "messy" too, likely because he had no idea how to chew. Odo later comes up with a way to give the appearance of eating in order to better fit in during socialization. Since he's a shapeshifter whose true form is a gelatinous liquid, he forms a cup in his hand (made out of himself) filled with a beverage (also made out of... himself) which he then "drinks", reabsorbing his own mass.
  • In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Lt. Commander Data eats even though he does not have to, in order to more closely emulate human behavior.
• In Supernatural, angels do not have to eat, but some choose to do so, as they enjoy it.

Mythology & Religion

• The Bible: Jesus ate with his disciples after his resurrection to prove he was real and not a ghost or vision. The pre-resurrection Jesus did get hungry, as seen with the temptation in the wilderness, but after getting better he no longer needed to eat. Word of Dante is that Christian believers in Heaven will be able to eat as much as they like, but not actually need it nor need to worry about getting fat. Foodstuffs specifically mentioned as being available in Heaven include milk, honey, manna, wine, and of course bread.
• In Classical Mythology, the gods don't hunger or thirst, but they are capable of eating. In the myth of Hades and Persephone, the latter refuses to eat or drink while in the underworld, partly in protest of her abduction and partly because eating the food of the underworld would trap her there. She eventually eats six pomegranate pips, and as a result must henceforth stay six months in the underworld and six months on earth. It's usually depicted as her being overcome with hunger; however, her being a goddess and therefore not subject to hunger has given rise to various Alternative Character Interpretations as to her motives in doing so.

Tabletop Games

• Dungeons & Dragons:
  • Outsiders are sustained by energies from their home plane and do not need to eat (though they can choose to do so if they wish). Demons in particular are fond of hunting and devouring other creatures since they are Always Chaotic Evil and enjoy inflicting suffering. However, whether celestials and fiends need to eat varies from edition to edition and sometimes even writer to writer.
  • In most editions, ghouls have an overwhelming hunger for dead flesh but suffer no ill effects for not consuming it. (In the Fourth Edition, however, a ghoul that doesn't eat for too long might turn into a ghast, an even stronger variant.) The same applies to some other undead creatures.
  • The Warforged from Eberron do not need to eat or drink, as they are Mechanical Lifeforms, but they can eat if they wish.
  • The Elan are metamorphosed humans with innate Psychic Powers who can choose to spend one power point per day to suspend the need to eat or drink. Even the weakest Elan has a single power point that regenerates daily, so they can sustain themselves indefinitely in theory.
• Exalted:
  • Spirits have no need for food, but many Terrestrial gods are liable to consume offerings made to them, and Celestial gods have a tendency to convert the prayers made for them into lavish feasts, as well as consuming the specially produced peaches of immortality (the gods are also immortal by default). Several kinds of demon, most notably the blood apes, have their own Trademark Favorite Foods.
  • Several types of Exalted can learn Charms that replace the need to eat. Also, all Alchemical Exalted are capable of going without food indefinitely by living off of ambient Essence, though that has the drawback of keeping them from regaining any Essence they spend on using magic.
• GURPS has the Doesn't Eat advantage, which can be used to represent characters who can eat (to help blending in mostly) but do not have to.
• In Nomine: Angels and demons don't need to eat, although they often do so to maintain the Masquerade while on Earth, or, especially in the case of demons, because they like it.
• Princess: The Hopeful:
  • Princesses of Clubs have access to a Charm that suspends the need to eat or drink for as long as the Princess keeps spending a daily Wisp. Moreover, when the Princess lets the Charm lapse, she will be no hungrier or thirstier than when she first invoked it.
  • On the other side of the War of Hope, Darkened with the Hunger Means Nothing Umbrum can no longer die of starvation or dehydration. Of course, being a power derived from the All-Consuming Darkness, this Umbrum comes with some nasty side effects. The Darkened can no longer taste food or derive nourishment from it, and though starvation won't kill him it will leave him weakened.
  • In addition, a certain number of Darkspawn lurking in the Dark World beneath a Tainted Place can sustain themselves off the ambient Light leached from the world by the Taint.
• Vampire: The Masquerade: Vampires find it beneficial to the Masquerade to be seen eating normal food, but they draw no nourishment and cannot even digest it properly, since their stomachs no longer work. Anything they swallow must be expelled later. Unless you take a specific Merit at character creation, Vampires also have no sense of taste for anything except blood and might as well be eating dirt for all the enjoyment it brings them (characters with the Merit still cannot digest food, but they can taste and fully enjoy it — at least on the way down).
• Warhammer 40,000: Most Tyranid organisms don't actually have a functioning digestive system, as they're bio-engineered killing machines and such a thing would take space and energy away from muscles, reinforced endo- and exoskeletons, weapon-biomorphs, etc. If they aren't killed by the enemy first, they will eventually starve to death. Many of them still have instinctive drives to feed, though, as it makes them attack the enemy even when not under control of the synapse creatures. The Ripper swarms are the most obvious example, as their whole purpose is to eat any biomass they come across in order to transport it to the reclamation pools to be digested and fed to the Tyranid hive ships. Organisms meant to operate away from the Hive Fleets for extended periods of time, such as Genestealers and Lictors, are also given digestive systems due to needing to be functional creatures instead of simply living weapons.

Video Games

• Dragon Age: The darkspawn don't actually need to eat, the taint they carry sustains them. But they like to eat people alive anyway and are even known to eat each other if there are no people around.
• Dwarf Fortress: Werebeasts do technically still have to eat and drink, but their transformation once every month resets their physical needs before they can die from starvation or thirst.
• Persona Q: Shadow of the Labyrinth: Rei is a Big Eater. You will always see her talking about food of some kind even if the conversation has nothing to do with it. Tragically, it's because she's in denial. She's actually Dead All Along by the time you meet her, and eating is her way of convincing herself that she's alive.
• Touhou Project:
  • Several youkai races have this trait. According to the Universe Compendium Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, fairies don't need to eat but do so in an attempt to imitate humans. Magicians also don't need to eat. Alice Margatroid eats anyway, as she is a former human (at least according to the book) who became a youkai magician and still isn't used to not needing to.
  • Hourai immortals technically don't need to eat, but not eating will eventually cause them to feel hunger pains, which can become unbearable if ignored long enough. Fujiwara no Mokou, for instance, feels it's more her style to just endure some pangs of hunger, but if it gets too out of hand, she will go and find something to eat.
• World of Warcraft: During the fantasy counterpart of Thanksgiving, one of the Forsaken chefs wonders why they go into so much trouble preparing the feast considering that, being undead, they don't need to eat anymore. He ends up shrugging it off and decides that "tradition is tradition".

Visual Novels

• Dies Irae: Users of the form of magic known as Die Ewigkeit don't need things such as food or even oxygen as they can just use souls for sustenance instead. That doesn't stop them from eating or breathing normally anyways. Most of the time, it's just because it's just simpler that way or the character in question doesn't want to waste their precious resources on such banal things unless they have to.
• Nasuverse:
  • In Fate/stay night and related material, Servants don't need to eat or drink, as they get all their sustenance from absorbing Mana or consuming souls. They are fully capable of eating, especially Saber (in fact, Saber has to eat because of her poor Mana supply from Shirou). In Fate/Apocrypha, Jack the Ripper's Master Reika insists on cooking meals for Jack. Jack gets confused and points out she doesn't have to eat, but tries it and enjoys it. However, Ruler actually has to eat because she is possessing the body of a woman named Laeticia.
  • Tsukihime: The primary difference between the two classes of vampire, Dead Apostles and True Ancestors, is that the True Ancestors don't actually need to drink blood to survive, while the Dead Apostles do. True Ancestors feel a hunger for blood regardless, but if they do start drinking blood, they turn into psychotic, violent beings known as "Demon Lords", so they try as hard as possible to avoid it.

Web Animation

• Darkmatter 2525: In the God and Jeffrey clip "If Man Obeyed God", Adam and Eve refuse to eat from the Tree of Knowledge and remain immortal. Thousands of years later, God (who'd actually expected them to eat it) tries to talk Adam into eating the apple after all, only to be told that Adam gave up eating centuries ago: he can't die, and not eating means he doesn't have to deal with the icky business of doing his business, so why bother?
• Dragon ShortZ: 18 admits that, thanks to her cyborg body, she no longer needs to eat, but considers a life without burgers a life not worth living.
• HFIL: Eating is optional, but the inmates do it for various reasons anyway, most common of which is just to pass the time. Remember: they're in hell, and their souls are indestructible anyway.

Webcomics

• Apocalyptic Horseplay: One of the Horsemen of the Apocalypse, Femine, likes to hang out in the pub enjoying some pie. When Mot states that he doesn't need to eat, his answer is that he likes to. It appears that he's only one of Four doing that, so it might be connected to him being a personification of hunger.
• Close to Your Heart: Cube finds her first meal with Blixer and Lycan interesting, and then asks why they're putting the stuff in their mouths. Blixer is beyond puzzled to learn that Cube has never eaten before, with the line of "How are you not dead?" Lycan guesses that she's immortal.
• Kid Radd: Sprites can eat and drink, though they won't suffer if they don't. Word of God explained that since sprites are human creations, they're imprinted with various human drives and habits.
• Kill Six Billion Demons: Angels are immortal Energy Beings whose bodies incinerate anything they eat or drink, but some enjoy the experience or the ritual of food preparation anyway. White Chain keeps coffee in their apartment "for friends", and they and The Dragon Juggernaut Star both enjoy brewing tea in fine porcelain.
• Nebula: Being the nigh-immortal Anthropomorphic Personification of a planet, Jupiter doesn't actually need to eat. He chooses to, though, in hopes of one day growing large enough to overthrow Sun and rule over the solar system. (It... doesn't seem to be working.)
• Orange Marmalade: Ma-ri is a vampire living in a society that fears and hates her kind, so she has to hide the truth at all times. To keep up this, she eats human food in her classroom every day at lunch, then flees to the bathroom to throw it up as her body naturally rejects it and drinks fresh pig's blood from prepared blood packs before returning to class.
• The Order of the Stick: Since Xykon is an undead lich, he doesn't need to eat. In the prequel book Start of Darkness, though, we find that when he was still mortal, he was extremely fond of coffee, and part of his rage against everything is that now that he's a lich, he can no longer taste it.
• Slightly Damned: When in their respective realms of heaven and hell, angels and demons don't need any food, but Death mentions that some demons choose to eat anyway (while angels don't have any food in heaven). However, this only applies when in their home realms; when they are on Medius, they need sustenance just like everyone else. It's also stated that demon infants don't have to eat, but if they aren't nursed or fed in some way when young, they end up smaller and weaker than they would have been otherwise.
• Super Stupor: One strip has a homeless kid who doesn't need food or water to live. He still experiences hunger and pain from food deprivation, he just doesn't die from them.
  Scientist: You never get hungry?
  Child: Oh, no. I get very hungry.
  Scientist: But it doesn't hurt to—
  Child: My pain is the stuff of legends.

Western Animation

• Castlevania (2017): Vampires can eat food, but only get nourishment from blood. Food is considered an indulgence for them.
• Class of the Titans: The gods eat, even though they don't need to. Hercules is partial to fried chicken, and Athena bakes.
• Invader Zim: Being a robot, GIR doesn't need to eat, but he does anyway out of enjoyment of Earth food.
• Steven Universe:
  • None of the Gems need to eat because their gemstones create their bodies and provide them with energy. Amethyst does it anyway because she enjoys it (and happily takes advantage of the fact that nothing can phase her) while Pearl refuses to eat because she thinks it's disgusting. When Amethyst, Garnet, and Pearl are fused together as Alexandrite in "Fusion Cuisine", Pearl's disgust with eating clashes with Amethyst's desire to eat shrimp and causes the fusion to fall apart. Word of God states that since Gems don't require food, they lack a digestive tract and must manually shapeshift one in order to process it.
  • Lion eats sometimes, but not nearly as much as typical for an animal of his size. Steven doesn't normally leave food out for him, and he's never seen hunting anything larger than an iguana. Lars stops being hungry when he becomes like Lion, heavily implying that Lion doesn't need to eat because they're both a sort of undead being sustained by Rose/Steven's power.
• Superman: The Animated Series: Clark mentions that he doesn't have to eat, but does anyway because he likes it.
• Transformers: Unicron, a dark god in robot form, doesn't need to eat anything, being a god, but does it anyway. He's a particularly horrifying example too. He eats entire worlds because he hates everything in creation that isn't him.

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