History Main / FoodChains

* ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': One of the [[AllThereInTheManual DVD bonus features]] explains that monsters were an ancient tribe of hominids that were driven away from the mainland by the earliest humans and stumbled upon an enchanted island and started taking on strange shapes and sizes from the fruit and vegetables growing there. Upon realizing their newfound monstrous looks, they decided it was time to take revenge on humanity by scaring them.

* [[PerfectionIsAddictive After you eat the food, all human food tastes like dust or similar, and nothing else can and will ever be appetizing.]] In some cases, it may also have the nutritional value of dust, making regular meals not an option; with both versions, unless you have a steady supply of extranormal food, you're likely to waste away from starvation. [[ImpossiblyDeliciousFood Maybe it only tastes unappetizing by comparison.]]

* Inverted in ''Literature/{{Thornhedge}}'': Toadling was [[ChangelingTale taken by the fairies]] as a newborn before she consumed any human food, even her mother's milk, so her new life in the LandOfFaerie caused her to [[{{Metamorphosis}} become a new fairy]].

*** Incidentally, the ''exact'' reason the seeds made her stay in the Underworld is... well, we [[RiddleForTheAges have no idea]]. The oldest surviving record of the myth had that part ''torn out'' at some point.

*** An AlternateCharacterInterpretation suggests Persephone knew damn well what the pomegranate seeds would do, and ate them anyway to make a point to [[MyBelovedSmother Demeter]] (or become the undisputed queen of the Greek underworld).

** In ''Literature/TheMetamorphoses'', Proserpina (the Roman name of Persephone) ate six pomegranate seeds while in the underworld, and is thus forced to stay there for six months out of every year. Her mother Demeter, goddess of the harvest, gets depressed when she's gone, [[JustSoStory and now we have seasons]].
*** Variants of this history narrate that Ascalaphus, an inhabitant of the Underworld, saw her doing that and he tattled to Hades that. Persephone (or Demeter according to other versions) was obviously ''very'' angry and she [[ForcedTransformation morphed]] him into an owl.

** In ''Literature/TheMetamorphoses'', Proserpina (the Roman name of Persephone) ate six pomegranate seeds while in the underworld, and is thus forced to stay there for six months out of every year. Her mother Demeter, goddess of the harvest, gets depressed when she's gone, [[JustSoStory and now we have seasons]]. That's the story with any mythological World of the Dead. Or elves. Or with the Lotophagi.

** In ''Literature/TheMetamorphoses'', Proserpina (the Roman name of Persephone) ate six pomegranate seeds while in the underworld, and is thus forced to stay there for six months out of every year. Her mother Demeter, goddess of the harvest, gets depressed when she's gone, [[JustSoStory and now we have seasons]]. (In the Mediterranean, the nasty season is the ''summer'', when everything is too dry to grow food.) That's the story with any mythological World of the Dead. Or elves. Or with the Lotophagi.

** The [[Literature/TheMetamorphoses legend of Persephone]] (Roman name: Proserpine) in [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Greco-Roman mythology]]: Persephone ate six pomegranate seeds while in the underworld, and is thus forced to stay there for six months out of every year. Her mother Demeter, goddess of the harvest, gets depressed when she's gone, [[JustSoStory and now we have seasons]]. (In the Mediterranean, the nasty season is the ''summer'', when everything is too dry to grow food.) That's the story with any mythological World of the Dead. Or elves. Or with the Lotophagi.

** Incidentally, the ''exact'' reason the seeds made her stay in the Underworld is... well, we [[RiddleForTheAges have no idea]]. The oldest surviving record of the myth had that part ''torn out'' at some point.