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Eating the Enemy

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Now that's beating your greens.

"When Escargoon and Dedede order up a bunch monsters from NME, Kirby knows there's only one way to beat 'em. If you can't beat 'em, eat 'em!"
— As stated in a 4Kids Entertainment commercial for Kirby: Right Back at Ya!.

Oh boy. You and your friends have been cornered by monsters made of food that want you dead. You've tried everything you can think of to get rid of the edible enemies. You tried beating them down but your hands and feet just get stuck. You've tried slicing and blasting them to bits, but they just keep regenerating. You're running out of options. Only one thing left to try — if you can't beat 'em, EAT EM!

This trope occurs whenever the characters find that the best way to destroy their opponent for good is to eat their opponent. This often happens when the heroes are dealing with evil Anthropomorphic Food or monsters made of an edible substance. However, this trope isn't restricted to food-based enemies. The only requirement is that character(s) invoking this trope end up finding that the best, if not, only option to dispatch the foe is to eat them. Of course, the trope can also apply if eating sentient beings becomes the being's method of choice for dispatching foes. Keep in mind though that mere predation (as in eating a sentient being merely for sustenance) is not this trope. The key criteria here is that whoever is invoking this is doing this as a means of defeating their foe or for some special purpose.

More often than not, the characters will hesitate a lot before resorting to this out of disgust at the prospect of having to eat a sentient being alive. However, a Big Eater, Extreme Omnivore, or an individual with a Black-Hole Belly will do this without a second thought. And if there's only one such individual in a group, it's often up to them to defeat the scrumptious scourge.

This trope being invoked by a good guy is an effective way of establishing them as a Token Evil Teammate or Sociopathic Hero and serves as a good reminder that often Good Is Not Nice. As for villains, this often is used to show just how grievous and abhorrent they are, and it's the perfect way to have them sail into the Moral Event Horizon for a sensitive audience. A desperate villain might try this as a last resort if they can't win through conventional means. Villains will often attempt this after they become a more monstrous One-Winged Angel, especially Big Bads. Also done frequently by Eldritch Abominations, Killer Rabbits, and incredibly huge beings.

As you can expect, this often doesn't go well. When a character manages to eat their opponent, but ends up suffering for it, you have Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth. When done by a big being, this can lead to a "Fantastic Voyage" Plot or Womb Level that'll often end with the eaten beings being able to escape, but not before doing serious damage to the being that ate them, if not outright defeat them.

When done to others of their own kind, it's I'm a Humanitarian. When done to humans in particular, it crosses with To Serve Man. When this happens between characters who all display sapience, you have Sapient Eat Sapient. A tactic potential victims will use to try to avoid this is say that You Won't Like How I Taste.

Don't confuse this with Just Eat Him. In that trope, the character in question is in the perfect position to be able to devour their foe, but doesn't for some illogical reason.

Often done by foes with a Vacuum Mouth or Multipurpose Tongue. Furthermore, see Swallowed Whole for well, when the victim is swallowed up. A Muck Monster or Blob Monster might invoke this by enveloping their foe into their slimy bodies.

This trope naturally goes hand in hand with Cannibalism Superpower where using this tactic allows one to copy the foe's abilities. Also see You Are Who You Eat.

If someone invokes this by having something else eat the character for them, you have Fed to the Beast. And if the user gets the foe to consume themselves, you have Autocannibalism.

If the villain in particular gets eaten by something in the end, it's Just Desserts.

Eating Solves Everything often comes into play for this.

Compare Eat the Bomb where the character decides to eat a bomb or some other dangerous object rather than a sentient being.

Contrast Eat Me where the being allows/wants themselves to be eaten to gain an advantage like being able to hit a weak spot from the inside.

Before reading, keep in mind that this often ends up being a Death Trope (for one of the parties involved), so be wary of spoilers.

And as a side note, this trope happens to be the backbone of a variation of Rule 34 known as vorarephilia. Be careful searching this up online if you're not into that.


Examples

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Bleach:
    • While Hollows generally consume people and fellow hollows for sustenance, some are able to gain powers and steal the forms of their victims. A notable example is Aaroniero, the 9th Espada. He has the ability to consume Hollows and Soul Reapers alike and take all their forms, powers, and memories. This allows him to pull off some serious Mind Rape against his enemies. He can also display the features of all his victims at once, which makes for quite the Body Horror.
    • Mayuri Kurotsuchi's Bankai takes the form of a giant caterpillar with the torso of a baby. On top of its Poisoned Weapons, it can actually consume his foes. He tries this against Szayelaporro, an Evil Genius Espada. He technically does get eaten but when he does, he's in his Resurrection mode which allows him to to hijack the Bankai and then revive himself from Nemu. Unfortunately, this lands him with a Cruel and Unusual Death.
    • Baura, the doll of the bount Sawatari, is a Reality Warper that can tear holes in the the space-time continuum and reappear freely at will. One of his main tactics is bursting out beneath his enemies and engulfing them whole. Inside they end up in a Pocket Dimension where they're eventually broken down into oblivion.
  • Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo:
    • Kabeo was a giant, wall monster who could eat his enemies by absorbing them through his chest and steal their Super Fists. He did this to the former commander of the C-Block base after he was beaten by Gasser and wanted gobble Gasser to get his Fist of the Back Wind. Fortunately, Bobobo was able to hold Gasser back from getting himself killed and Kabeo himself really ate it when Bobobo blasted the base away Super Mario World style with him still in it.
    • Czar Baldy Bald III, Big Bad leader of the Former Chrome Dome Empire, upon realizing that Bobobo is a Living Macguffin, does everything he can to get his Hair Ball. Desperate to get it, he eventually decides to swallow Bobobo in one gulp via a longue tongue along with Don Patch. Unfortunately, the One-Winged Angel form he assumes afterward isn't like he was expecting. And soon Bobobo shows Bald just how wacky he is and is able to burst right out in spectacular fashin.
  • BOFURI: I Don't Want to Get Hurt, so I'll Max Out My Defense: this is one of the means that the protagonist uses to defeat her enemies in the VRMMO she plays (and no, she doesn't have too much strength due to all her stats outside of defense being literally zero, except for her defense). It helps that in her game, eating enemies is equal to a Life Drain, and doesn't require Strength.
  • Cells at Work!: Since the main characters are anthropomorphic blood cells living in a human body, phagocytosis is depicted as the white blood cells chopping up and devouring slain bacteria.
  • Chainsaw Man:
  • In Delicious in Dungeon, Team Touden cook and eat the monsters they kill during their Dungeon Crawling, initially to save on the cost of rations, but quickly becoming completely normal for them. They abide by a strict "no demihumans" rule, however, so goblins, sirens, etc. are off the menu. Interestingly, they end up weaponising this as one of the few ways of permanently putting down an immortal or resurrecting foe, eg: a phoenix, the series reasoning that meat loses its original identity once it has been digested by, and become a part of, another creature.
  • Dragon Ball:
    • During the Ribbon Army saga of Dragon Ball, Goku and an android that had betrayed General White to help corner the general in the top room of the tower, only to fall through a trap door he set. They end up plummeting into a put where he houses a giant beast that they use to dispose of prisoners. The monster's tough hide prevents Goku from getting a good hit on it and it nearly eats the two of them with him its long sticky tongue. Luckily, Goku gets the idea of shattering a nearby wall to allow the extremely cold air of outside to flow in and freeze it. Once the monster's frozen solid, he then shatters it with a kick.
    • Out of all Dragon Ball Z villains, Cell was particularly infamous for this trope. Using his bizarre tail, he could absorb his foes into his body and steal their powers. He most notably did this to Android 17 and 18 in order to achieve his Perfect Form.
    • Just as sinister a user as Cell would be the Arc Villain to follow him, Majin Buu. Majin Buu invoked this trope in two ways. One, he could use his Chocolate Beam to morph his targets into a sweet food that he could easily eat. His second and more gruesome method was detaching parts of his that he'd command to envelope his enemies. He can then have the blobs rejoin onto his body and gain the intelligence and abilities of his victims. He notably did this to Super Gotenks and Piccolo in order to outmatch Ultimate Gohan and then did it to Gohan when Goku arrived and Gotenks unfused inside him.
    • Tie-in videogame Dragon Ball FighterZ features Android 21, who is basically a female successor to Cell with added DNA from Majin Buu. As such, she is literally addicted to devouring others via Buu's Chocolate Beam attack, even though she doesn't want to eat people. Her cannibalistic cravings are so intense that she ultimately undergoes a case of Literal Split Personality, and even then, her "good" self still yearns to eat people. In the True Ending, the good 21 commits a Heroic Sacrifice to ensure both she and her evil self are destroyed, because she can't bear to live with this possibly irresistible hunger.
  • Fairy Tail:
    • Fukaro, an Ominous Owl man, eats his opponents and digests them to to absorb their magic and make it his own. He was able to eat Natsu after using his jetpack to give to give Natsu motion sickness. When Gray comes in later, he's able to attack him and Happy with Natsu's fire powers. However, the powers he takes aren't as potent as the original user's and this keeps him from being able to harm Gray much. Thus he tries to take Gray's ice powers as well, but Gray proves too cold for him to eat and the Ice Mage is able to beat Natsu out of him before he's digested.
    • Cosmos, one of the Garou Knights tasked with executing prisoners, wields plant magic. Her favorite method of executing prisoners is to create big Man Eating Plants to devour them. She tried to do this Wendy but was freed by Mirajane. Then she tried to have a giant flower eat them all up with its Vacuum Mouth after Kamika subdued them. But they're able to free themselves thanks to Wendy using her air magic.
    • Zirconis was one of the dragons opposed to befriending humanity that Future Rogue enlisted to help him take over the world. His reason being that he finds humans to be delicious. During his fight against Wendy and Laxus, he was actually going to eat them. Luckily, Ultear hitting the temporal Reset Button in her Heroic Sacrifice gave them a second chance to avoid getting devoured.
  • Fullmetal Alchemist gives us Gluttony, an Extreme Omnivore will eat anything and can never be satisfied. Needless to say, he has no qualms about making a snack out of people and devouring enemies is his method of choice for eliminating them. He even has a One-Winged Angel form where he turns into a horrifying Belly Mouth.
  • JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: This was one of Santana's, the first pillar man Joseph encounters, tactics of choice. He's notable for having the ability extend his ribs out of his body to attack his enemies. And his chest powers don't stop there, for he can actually devour people through his chest. He did this to a a vampire the facility sent in to test him and tried to do this to this Joseph. Too bad for him, Joseph wanted him to do this so he could fill the demon with Hamon energy.
  • Kirby: Right Back at Ya!:
    • Just as he does in his game series, Kirby will do this to beat his enemies at times. Not that often though.
    • The quote comes from a commercial made by 4KidsEntertainment.
    • Several of the monsters King Dedede ordered/used tried to do this to Kirby.
      • In The Big Taste Test Popon, disguised as Chef Shitake, was going to try to eat Kirby until Kawasaki intervened. He then turned into a giant Blob Monster and tried to dissolve everyone with his segments until Kirby cooked him as Chef Kirby.
      • In Flower Power, King Dedede got Kirby to eat a Noddy which put him a Deep Sleep that could only be broken by a sniff of the Pukey Flower. However, it's a Man-Eating Plant that nearly eats everyone. Fortunately, Tuff managed to get a petal to Kirby who woke up, became Needle Kirby, and allowed Meta Knight to roast the bloom with a torch.
      • In A Half Baked Battle, Belly Buster, a pie monster who becomes enraged after the taste of his pies is insulted, turns into a giant stomach and manages to get King Dedede, Escargoon, and Kirby inside of it. Dedede tries to get themselves out with a bomb but Kirby sucks it up, becomes Bomb Kirby, and blows the monster up from the inside.
      • In Power Ploy, Red Viper is sent to destroy Kirby after Kirby loses his energy from an energy sapping drink. After beating him around, Red Viper then tries to swallow Kirby who has just enough energy to hold his mouth open. Fortunately, Kawasaki is able to through energy filled curry mix to Kirby who then proceeds to beat the monster down and Hurl It into the Sun.
      • In episode Shell Shocked, Escargoon has his snail shell broken by King Dedede. He eventually puts one on from Nightmare Enterprises which turns him into a demon beast called Maimaigoon. The beast zaps everyone and tries to eat Kirby with its massive tongue. But then Dedede charges at the beast. Kirby sucks up his hammer and is able to become Hammer Kirby and wallop on the beast's shell, turning Escargoon back to normal.
      • In Frog Wild, Dedede ordered the Heavy Anaconda to do this to Kirby after Kirby become possessed by the Demon Frog. Unfortunately, by the time the snake arrives, King Dedede took the frog for himself and ends up getting eaten himself. Fortunately, Kirby is able to burn the beast to a crisp with Fire Kirby.
  • In the world of MÄR, people fight with enchanted weapons known as "ARM". They come in a wide variety and some are able devour their foe. A great double example occurs during the 2nd round of the War Games where Dorothy goes up against Bishop ranked Chess Piece. She sens out a pawn ARM to test what he can do, and he reveals his ARM to be a Blob Monster called Vacua that envelops his enemies and dissolves them instantly. After destroying some of her weak ARM's he sicks Vacua on her. Unfortunately for him, he doesn't realize that she's a ruthless Blood Knight and is WAY out his league. She decides to bust a real ARM and in a flash, the Chess Piece finds his monster ARM sucked into a portal and devoured with chucks spat out. Out of the portal emerges Dorothy's own enemy-eating ARM, Toto a giant, blue dog with a Black-Hole Belly. Suddenly, the poor Mook finds himself on the receiving end of this trope as Dorothy has the beast suck him into the abyss that is its stomach.
  • Naruto
    • Orichimaru is a fiendish Snake Person. Not only can he summon massive snakes to devour his enemies, but he can actually turn into a giant snake made of smaller ones and consume his opponent in order to steal their body. He tried to do this Sasuke when Sasuke double-crossed him. Unfortunately it backfires on him as Sasuke is able to reverse the absorption process and consume him.
    • Naruto found himself getting ingested by both Three Tails and Four Tails during his scuffles with them.
    • An exaggerated example is revealed when we're introduced to the Gold and Silver Brothers. Long ago, the two got eaten by Kurama while fighting with him. And inside his stomach, they subsist by eating his flesh which ultimately gave him ulcers and led to him spitting them out. And from this they ended up gaining a portion of his massive amounts of chakra.
  • In Neon Genesis Evangelion, Unit-01 brutally devours Zeruel after weakening it critically.
  • No Longer Allowed in Another World: Being the "Fallen Angel of Gluttony", Kashiwahara posses the Divine Gift "Glutton", manifesting a massive pair of jaws capable of eating anyone or anything.
  • One Piece:
    • The Big Bad of the Drum Island arc, Wapol, was the eater of the Munch-Munch Fruit which effectively turned him into a fat combination of Extreme Omnivore and Big Eater who could devour practically anything from boats hulls to people. On top of that, he can splice the things he eats together to create entities with their powers combined. He does this to his two right hand men. He tried to eat several notable characters including Luffy who was to chewy for him to swallow.
    • Played for Laughs in Luffy's first fight against Crocodile. While he ends up getting getting curb-stomped, Luffy actually stretches his mouth wide and tries to eat Crocodile. He actually gets him in his mouth, only for the sand man to erupt out more pissed off than ever. What makes this even more hilarious is that earlier Luffy shouted that both bananas and crocodiles are food, with Crocodile saying that he should try eating one. Guess he should have been clearer on the type of crocodile.
    • Played more seriously and brilliantly when Luffy fought Charlotte Cracker. His Devil Fruit powers enabled him to conjure up very tough armor and soldiers made of biscuits. But then, Luffy realized the Logical Weakness; they may be tough, but they're still made of biscuits, and Luffy is a notorious Big Eater.
  • Pig God from One-Punch Man has this as his superpower; he's capable of swallowing enemies whole, even if they are larger than he is.
  • In Pokémon: Jirachi: Wish Maker, Butler uses Jirachi's power to create a Groudon. But the Groudon that's summoned isn't like the Groudon he's familiar with at all. In fact, it proves to be a remorseless monster bent on destroying life. Not only does it kill all the plants it walks near but it uses tentacles made of slime to capture and absorb all people and Pokemon into its body. Once caught, they can be seen trapped in bubbles in its transparent stomach.
  • Puella Magi Madoka Magica: This ended up becoming the center point of the Wham Episode that was episode 3. Mami was such an accomplished Magical Girl that she wound up fighting very recklessly against the witch Charlotte. This becomes her undoing as just when it seems she won, the witch takes on a monstrous worm-like and bites her head off and then eats the rest of the body soon after. It's very unsettling, even with the Gory Discretion Shot.
  • Sonic X: During the final battle with Meterax, the Big Bad Dark Oak is able to amass the Chaos Emeralds and use them to fuse with his commanders to become a One-Winged Angel plant dragon. Eventually, he gives Sonic an offer that We Can Rule Together, but Sonic naturally declines. His response is having a burst of water sending the hedgehog flying down his throat. The gang are able to save him later though.
  • Tokyo Ghoul: Ghouls normally eat just humans for food. However, ghouls will resort this as a defense against other ghouls and CCG soldiers. In fact, certain ghouls in world have begun to take to eating their fellow ghouls in order to gain extraordinary powers. This includes the protagonist Kaneki himself who, after finally being broken, pinned his tormentor down and devoured his kagune.
  • Ushio and Tora: Hitostuki the eastern Snake Monster ends up dueling his western counterpart Shibumori, who's stronger and has a steely skin impervious to the former's staff and snake limbs. Hitotsuki manages to triumph by blocking Shibumori's serpent heads and by swallowing Shibumori's body whole, rapidly digesting him.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh!, this is how Leon's Forest Wolf attacks its enemies. It's not permanent, however; if Forest Wolf is destroyed, the monster it ate is released back to the field.
  • In Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, this is how the Solid Vision system animates D.3.S. Frog's attack against another monster.
  • Zatch Bell!:
    • Certain mamodo spells seem to be capable of doing of this. An example is the ancient, plant wielding mamodo Kalura's spell "Bazu Agurozesu" which creates a giant man-eating rose. It almost consumes Zatch but Wonrei is able to destroy it.
    • Faudo is a colossal, living demon weapon that was made on the mamodo world but sealed away due to its absurd power. And its digestive system is filled with traps designed to grind intruders and dissolve them into nutrients to fuel itself. It takes everything Zatch and his friends have to avoid these traps as they infiltrate the beast after its reactivation.

    Comic Books 
  • Death Vigil: Mia is the Heroic Host of an Eldritch Abomination, and is more than happy to nom on other eldritch horrors.
  • In 1982, Marvel Comics published a Fantastic Four comic titled Fantastic Four Roast, modeled after Dean Martin's Celebrity Roasts. The guests of honor are feted, praised and chided by many other superheroes and villains. However, a shadowy subversive launches attacks on members of the Four individually, and one of these is an ice cream monster aimed at Ben Grimm. Ben responds by grabbing a spoon, giving a Battle Cry of "It's slobberin' time!" then devours the monster then and there.
  • Matter-Eater Lad from the Legion Of Superheroes could technically do this, but rarely ever does.
  • In Old Man Logan, the cannibalistic Hulk does this during a fight with Logan. Unfortunately for Hulk, Logan uses his claws to tear himself free from the inside, killing him.
  • The Golden Age Plastic Man villain Mister Aqua had the ability to turn into water. He was defeated when Plastic Man's sidekick, Woozy Winks, drank him.
  • In Lucifer Mazikeen finds herself fighting one of the Jin En Mok who have a pretty serious Healing Factor that's counteracting her attacks despite her generally being stronger in combat. She decides to counter this by eating it piece by piece.
  • The Ultimate Marvel version of The Incredible Hulk is an infamous cannibal, with it being explained as Hulk's status in this universe as one-part Bruce Banner's unrestrained, bestial ID and one part the living antithesis of Bruce Banner. Because Bruce is a vegetarian who won't eat any sort of meat due to moral reasons, Hulk takes the taboo-breaking to the logical extreme by feasting on humans (and aliens) who get in his way.
    • While not done with the intention of eating him, 616 Hulk once defeated Mr Fantastic by swallowing him, chewing him up before spitting him out. Uggg..
  • Venom has resorted to eating — or at least trying to eat — his opponents when the symbiote goes berserk or is bonded to an evil host.

    Fairy Tales and Mythology 
  • At the climax of Puss in Boots, Puss defeats the shapeshifting ogre by tricking it into turning into a mouse, which he then kills and eats.

    Fan Works 

    Film — Animated 
  • In Hercules, the first monster the titular character faces is the Hydra, a dragon-like beast that's able to swallow him up. Miraculously, he cut himself out of the beast's throat before he hit the stomach. Unfortunately, he soon finds that whenever the beasts head is chopped off, multiple new ones grow in its place. Eventually, the monster gains many heads and pins him to a wall. It then tries to eat him again but Hercules is able to crush the beast under a rock slide before it can.
  • In Hotel Transylvania 2, the elderly gremlin eats one of the bat beasts during the final battle.
  • The Lion King (1994) has this as a chilling case of Just Desserts. When Simba corners Scar, Scar shamefully tries to get Simba's sympathy by by saying it was the hyenas' idea. Unbeknownst to him, the hyenas had overheard his attempt to throw them under the bus. After Simba throws him off a cliff, the betrayed hyenas decide to devour him out of spite.
  • Done by proxy in DreamWorks Animation's Shrek to prevent Princess Fiona from being locked into a loveless marriage to the villain Lord Farquaad. Donkey arrives at the cathedral with his dragon fiance, and the dragon gulps down Farquaad in one bite. This leaves Fiona free to marry Shrek.
  • In The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, we never see a Beast that no one had met and returned to tell the tale. We only hear that resident Big Eater Obelix found it very tasty.
  • This is what German falcons in Valiant do to the English messenger pigeons once they've intercepted their messages.

    Film — Live-Action 
  • This is how the title monster from The '50s horror movie The Blob deals with adversaries. The most indicative example has an uniformed policeman confront the monster, and repeatedly shoot his service revolver at it to no effect. Being Too Dumb to Live, it never occurs to the officer to retreat, so the monster merely engulfs and devours him.
  • Captain Marvel (2019): Goose the cat is actually a Flerken, an alien capable of extending huge masses of tentacles from her mouth to ensnare enemies and gulp them down like so many kitty treats.
  • Return to Oz: After Dorothy solves the Nome King's riddle and frees four of her five friends from their emerald imprisonment, the Nome King decides to go back on his deal with Dorothy and eat her and her friends by becoming a One-Winged Angel rock monster. He's able to eat Gump's couch body and is about to eat Jack when all of a sudden, Billina pops out of Jack's head. Out of fright, she suddenly lays an egg that falls right into the Nome King's mouth. What the gang didn't know up until that point was that chicken eggs are the Nome King's weakness and the egg kills the Nome King.
  • Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed: Scooby and Shaggy hide in a room to escape some monsters and in that room is a giant Cotton Candy monster. Unfortunately for the monster, the Big Eater duo take care of it by doing what they do best.
  • The Spiderwick Chronicles: In the climactic scene, Jared tricks Mulgarath into shape-shifting into a bird by throwing the field guide off the roof. Mulgarath morphs into a bird to catch it, then Hogsqueal eats him!
  • Venom (2018): Unlike the comics version, this Venom doesn't need an evil host or a rampage to eat his enemies; it starts out as his de facto solution to any bad guy, and even with Eddie reining the symbiote in he'll gladly devour anyone he allows.

    Literature 
  • The Fred Saberhagen Dracula does this to one of his kidnappers after being knocked unconscious with a wooden weapon and starved for weeks.
  • In Dragon Pearl, it's mentioned that tiger spirits used to do this to their prisoners. Captain Hwan, a particularly vicious tiger spirit, doesn't actually do such things, but the main character pretends he does while she's shapeshifted into him to make some prisoners cooperate.
  • In the Fallocaust series, the only way of permanently killing an immortal consists of pumping a massive dose of seistic radiation into their brain, then eating it.
  • The Homestuck Epilogues: A favored combat tactic of Lord English, who tries to eat both Dave and John when they fight him. He bites off Dave's head, and attempts to swallow John whole, though John escapes. This is also how his is ultimately defeated, as the dead cherub eats him, finally defeating him.
  • In Sourdough, by Robin Sloan, when a radically new type of food expands out of control and takes over the farmer's market, it's defeated by being eaten by humans, crickets, and goats.
  • Witches Abroad: One unfortunate vampire in bat form is devoured by Greebo the tomcat before he can feed on the protagonists.
    "Vampires have risen from the dead, the grave and the crypt, but have never managed it from the cat."

    Live-Action TV 
  • Fat Guy Stuck in Internet: Our heroes land in the lair of The Balognataur (one quarter man, three quarters baloney sandwich), and in the middle of his badass speech,they simply pick him up, rip him in half to share and start eating him.
  • Monty Python's Flying Circus: In one episode the Earth is threatened by an invasion of giant blancmanges from outer space who plan to defeat England by changing everyone in the country into Scotsmen and winning Wimbledon. Just as it appears that they will succeed, two people run onto the Wimbledon finals court and eat the tennis-playing blancmange.
  • A few Monsters of the Week take this approach in the Power Rangers franchise.
    • "Power Ranger Punks": The Terror Toad neutralizes the Power Rangers by devouring them. First by transforming them into energy balls before eating them, and then just swallowing them whole.
    • "Welcome to Venus Island": The Invenusable Flytrap shoots a beam from its open chest that pulls the Rangers into its body, trapping them inside.
    • "Hard Heads": Serpentina transforms into a giant snake and swallows up four of the Rangers.
  • Klingons do this in Star Trek: Discovery, eating Captain Yeoh's body after she's kill in battle inside their ship.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine a child named Taya tells Odo the story of how an evil Changeling was tricked into turning into a loaf of greenbread, and was gobbled up.
  • Ultra Series:
    • Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey: Demonzoa tries to do this to Glitter Tiga, only for the latter to blow her up from the inside, defeating her.
    • Ultraman Taro: Birdon eats the ant-like monster Kemujira alive after defeating it in battle, being its natural predator and all.
    • Ultraman Mebius: Bogarl eats many Kaiju she defeats in battle throughout her arc, including a whole pack of Sadoras, a Twin Tail and a Gudon.
  • The X-Files: The episode "Humbug" has Mulder and Scully investigating a monster terrorizing a community of circus freaks. The monster is defeated when one freak, the Conundrum, eats it. It was previously established that the Conundrum will eat anything.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Warhammer 40,000:
    • This is the overall strategy of the Tyranid Hive Fleets, what isn't eaten in battle will eventually be broken down and absorbed after all resistance is annihilated.
    • In early editions, a bad roll for a Shokk Attack Gun (a gun that sends tiny goblins into a tunnel through hell, popping out completely insane and frenzied inside the target) meant that the pilot of the targeted dreadnought or Terminator knows how to react to the sudden apparition of a crazed snotling next to his head, voiding itself in his ear: turn his head and take a big bite, resuming the battle as if nothing had happened.
    • In the fluff, Space Marines can absorb memories from what they eat. They'll do this to native animals of a planet they're attacking, to pick up the appropriate survival instincts and skills. They'll also do this to captured enemies as a form of interrogation. This gains more prominence in Deathwatch.
    • The Wrath are infamous for devouring the bodies of slain enemies during and after battle — as the battle begins to ebb, their warriors fall upon the mangled corpses on the battlefield and start to savagely devour their flesh and drink their blood.
  • Warhammer Fantasy: One of the options for a giant's grab attack is to simply eat the target.

    Video Games 
  • Kelvin from Battleborn does this with Chomp ability. Using his gigantic skeletal maw to bite enemies, he can gain a permanent health upgrade if he kills them with it. An augment to this ability can make it that a portion of the damage dealt by Chomp is returned to Kelvin as health.
  • Squiggoths and Greater Knarlocs from Dawn of War avert this: while many of their melee animations show them chomping down on enemies, they don't actually eat them, just toss their corpses far off (in canon, of course, it's a different matter).
  • Digital Devil Saga has this trope as half of its premise, the other half being Hindu Mythology. Everyone in your party can turn into demons, but, as tradeoff, they suffer from Horror Hunger, that can only be satisfied with human or demon flesh. After each battle party eats defeated enemy, earning Atma points, that are used for learning new skills. There are also so-called Hunt skills, that let you eat the enemy right away, them being essentially Eaten Alive. In-game all of this thankfully shown in stylised way; "enemy turns into red orb and flies into character's mouth", but the novelisation doesn't shy away from colorfully describing all the gore that takes place.
  • In SSI and Westwood Studio's Dragonstrike, a game set in the Dragonlance world during the War of the Lance, your dragon will occasionally get hungry and requests that you land so it can eat. If you do, there'll be an animation of your dragon eating an enemy knight. Even good dragons like the taste of human flesh and if it's from an evil warrior, all the better.
  • Turning enemy species into food is the whole point of E.V.O.: Search for Eden, although this involves killing them first before you can consume them. Survival of the fittest is the name of the game in each era, just like it was in real natural history. Kill, and you get a meal with which to restore your health and gain experience to evolve new features or upgrade pre-existing ones to take on bigger and stronger enemies; or else, you die and become a meal instead (or would, if Gaia didn't break the rules and revive you as the chosen one each time).
  • In the Fallout: New Vegas DLC Dead Money, the quickest way to make sure the Ghost People will stay dead apart from dismembering their corpses is to have Dog eat them.
    • Apart from the cannibalism perk, there is also "Them's Good Eatin'" which gives most dead bodies large chance to drop consumables called "Blood Sausage" and "Thin Red Paste". They're increasing large numbers of health for some reason and despite the perk image, it's not really related to cannibalism.
  • Final Fantasy
    • Final Fantasy VIII: You can use the ability Devour on enemies, though the screen switches to Relax-o-Vision when you do it...
    • Final Fantasy IX: Quina eats enemies to gain new spells. The only reason the character joins your party is so he/she can eat things.
    • Final Fantasy XIV: Role-reversed; some enemies have moves that devour you.
      • In the Lost City of Amdapor, the Decaying Gourmand will mark a party member, then suck them into its gullet. Unless the rest of the party succeeds in doing enough damage to said gullet in a timely fashion, the accumulating damage will eliminate that party member.
      • The Cerberus in The World of Darkness can potentially eat you if you step into the purple goop the Wolfsbane enemy leaves behind. If you do, the Cerberus will scamper towards the stuck players and feast upon them, killing them instantly. You can turn this against the beast by getting hit by an attack that shrinks you beforehand, allowing you to be swallowed whole and beat up the Cerberus from the inside.
      • In The Weapon's Refrain Ultimate raid, the Ultima Weapon absorbs the three Awoken primals (Garuda, Ifrit, and Titan), becoming supercharged and glowing blue. It then proceeds to summon them against you throughout the fight.
  • In Guilty Gear Strive, this is Faust's throw attack. Although he gets a stomach ache afterwards, so he opens a portal to remove them.
  • Kid Icarus: Uprising:
    • Tempura Wizards have the ability to turn Pit into shrimp tempura that they eat for a One-Hit Kill.
    • In Chapter 23, the Big Bad, mean, old Hades, tries to do this to Pit. After chasing him, Hades sucks and swallows Pit up which leads to a Womb Level. After battering his heart up, Dark Pit smashes into Hades' chest to free himself.
  • Kirby:
    • Kirby's trademark power is his ability to inhale his opponents, gaining their powers.
    • Kirby: Triple Deluxe introduces the Miracle Fruit which turns Kirby's stomach into a black hole, allowing him to eat enemies too big for him to swallow in his normal state.
    • King Dedede can inhale enemies too, although he doesn't copy their powers like Kirby.
    • In Kirby Mass Attack, the Big Bad Necrodeus will send his Skullions after your Kirby gang in the final boss fight to abduct them. If you don't free your Kirbys in time, Necrodeus will have the the Skullions bring the Kirbys to him and eat them.
  • The Legend of Zelda:
  • Little Nightmares: The Guests will try to do this to Six if they spot her. Six later turns the tables and does this to the Lady (the woman feeding children to the guests), stealing her powers and finally escaping from the Maw.
  • The Lost World: Jurassic Park: The Compy, Raptor, and Rex regain health from eating dead enemies.
  • Metroid Fusion: Samus is injected with Metroid DNA to save her from X Parasite infection, and as the Metroids were the X Parasites' only predator, she is now able to eat X Parasites herself.
  • Namu Amida Butsu! -UTENA-: Karuraten and King Konjikikujaku are divine birds who eat kleśas, the enemies of the game, though the latter vehemently dislikes it.
  • NetHack: One way to neutralize a troll's Healing Factor is to eat, or have your pet eat, the corpse before the troll regenerates from it.
  • In OMORI, the titular character learns a skill named "Bread Slice" which creates health-restoring bread if it kills the enemy. Don't think too hard about the logistics of that especially since it's all in Sunny's head anyway.
  • Pac-Man:
  • Paladins:
    • Moji can One-Hit Kill enemies by using her Ultimate to transform them into doggie treats and then feed them to her trusty steed, Po-Li.
    • Yagorath's Ultimate, Devour, grants her an additional 4000 HP and slowly pulls an enemy towards her to eat them. If the 4000 HP are depleted, the enemy is freed. Otherwise, it's a One-Hit Kill.
  • Pikmin
    • This how the grand majority of Pikmin enemies will deal with your horde. The Plasm Wraith of the third game is a notable example as it's the only enemy that'll devour your Pikmin for reasons besides hunger or self-defense. In its case it'll begin eating your Pikmin in an attempt to keep you from saving Olimar. The Rock Pikmin can No-Sell this though, so they're the best ones to fight it with.
    • In return, the grand majority of enemies in the series once beaten will leave behind a some form of carcass that your Pikmin can carry back to their Onions to produce Pikmin seeds. This also happens to be the only way to kill a a Bulbear or Gatling Groink for good, because if you don't reduce them to Pikmin seeds via the Onion when above ground (in a cave you'd use the Research Pod), they'll come Back from the Dead...
  • Plants vs. Zombies:
    • The standard attack most zombies have to directly fight the plants is progressively chewing on them until they eat them whole.
    • On the plants' side is the Chomper, which can instantly kill a zombie by devouring them. It then takes a while to chew and swallow the zombie, after which it is ready to eat another one (in contrast to most other instant kill plants, which are single-use). It can't eat a Gargantuar, though, and if one approaches it will instead bite the Gargantuar to do small amounts of damage.
  • Pokémon: Despite its name, the move Swallow is actually not this trope. What the move actually does is use energy the user stored from Stockpile to restore health. For that matter, the main games for the most part avert this trope as well as little to no mention of Pokemon eating each other or people is made in the main games. Although, this apparently does happen if the Pokedex entries are credible.
  • Primal Carnage: The Tyrant class dinosaurs' (Tyrannosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Acrocanthosaurus) main attack is a bite which will instantly kill any human caught by it and restore a chunk of the Tyrant's health. The human is treated to an animation of themselves being Swallowed Whole, which also functions as the visual cooldown for the attack.
  • In Spelunky, the Mantraps will do this to you. As well as pretty much every other enemy, including frogs, monkeys, cavemen, and angry shopkeepers.
  • In Sunless Sea, the Genial Magician's storyline ends with him journeying into a dream to fight his dream-snake arch-enemy, begging you to kill him if he comes back possessed. If he does come back possessed, most characters get the options to keep him on, leave him in port, or carry out the Magician's last pre-possession wish. Characters with Unaccountably Peckish also get an option to devour the possessed Magician instead, expressing curiosity about how a possessed person will taste.
  • Super Mario Bros.:
    • A tactic many enemies will try on you. Across the various series, these include the Pirahna Plants, Boss Bass, Lungfish, Sockops, and Sandoons.
    • Yoshi from Super Mario World and the Yoshi's Island series, is a Big Eater dinosaur who swallows enemies with his long sticky tongue and turns them into eggs. Yoshi's New Island introduces massive objects like Mega Guys which he can use to create large Eggdozers.
    • Also from Yoshi's Island, in the original game, the boss of Stage 3-4 is Prince Froggy. Kamek doesn't enlarge him like he does with every other boss in the game, but he does shrink Yoshi, causing Prince Froggy to eat him. Yoshi must escape from Prince Froggy's stomach by tossing eggs at Prince Froggy's uvula.
    • Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door: Hooktail, the evil dragon that haunts Petalburg Meadows, is infamous for tricking enemies on the verge of defeating her and then gobbling them up when their guard is down.
    • Mario And Luigi Super Star Saga: Attempted by Bowletta during the final boss fight. She pretends to be defeated, only for a bomb to knock out the bros, and she inhales them up. Unfortunately, this becomes her undoing as it leads to a Womb Level where the bros are able to take on her heart and destroy it, thus ending Cackletta for good.
    • Super Mario RPG: Belome, a dog like monster found in Kero Sewers, will eat your party members after a while. Fortunately, Mario and the other members can beat him into spitting them out. Later on, you encounter Belome a second time, and he reveals that he can make copies of your party after he eats them. Likewise, using a Yoshi Cookie in battle summons Yoshi and he'll eat an enemy to convert them into an item. If the enemy can't be eaten, you'll get a Yoshi Candy instead.
    • Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: After eating the Vacuum Shroom, Bowser gains the ability to suck things up Kirby-style. This ability is essential in a lot Bowser's boss fights.
    • Super Mario 3D World introduces the potted Pirahna Plant which characters can pick up and use to eat other enemies, including ones that can't be beaten normally like Fuzzies. They can even eat other Pirahna Plants.
  • Tales of Maj'Eyal: One of the Wyrmic skills is Swallow, which can instantly kill an enemy if it brings them below 1/6th to 1/4th of their maximum health and replenishes health and Equilibrium.
  • Tooth and Tail's story plays the logical extreme of this trope for all the Black Comedy it can muster: A kingdom of intelligent animals where everyone wants to eat meat + the only source of meat is the intelligent animals + a shortage of the Slave Race everyone used to eat = a Civil War where the winners will feast, and the losers will be dinner. None of the units actually do this during battle, but several do use weaponized condiments and chef's tools as weapons.
  • One of the ways to defeat Vegetoid monsters in Undertale is to use the "eat" action on them. However, this doesn't kill them, since the player character only takes one bite.
  • Various Daylife has a less direct version. Dealing the finishing blow on a targeted opponent with the Cook's ability "Full Course" turns said opponent into a Lunch Box that can then be consumed to recover lost health while traversing through the wilderness in expeditions. This method also works on some bosses.
  • Warcraft III: Kodo beasts and some high-level monsters like dragons can devour an enemy whole, slowly digesting it (unless killed, in which case the unit is returned slightly harmed). The ability is based on levels, so it's entirely possible for the kodo to eat something its own size.
  • Warframe has Grendel, a large, overweight frame with a jagged Belly Mouth. His entire reason for existing can be summed up as "eat everyone and everything." Most enemies can be inhaled and devoured, up to and including Sentients. Only bossses and select miniboss-like units are immune to his hunger — all other enemies are just a buffet-in-waiting.

    Webcomics 
  • Erika and the Princes in Distress : When Erika and her group get ambushed by a pack of man-eating cherries, Pita figures that since they're still just cherries, she can simply charge at them and eat them all. This turns out to be a terrible strategy, as the cherries reveal themselves able to open their mouth much wider than her.
  • Girl Genius: Jägers get rather excited about fighting the Other's wasps, because not only do the things cause mind control which the Jägers revile they're also tasty bugs that the Jägers love eating.
  • In Homestuck, Hearts Boxcars kills Eggs by biting his head off, to the command "Attempt to eat Eggs".
    Your attempt is an overwhelming success.
  • Done by proxy in Bill Holbrook's webcomic Kevin & Kell for Thursday 9 January 1997 when baby Coney devoured the tiger who was about to snitch on Kell being domesticated. Instead of Kell being fired, the tiger's head hangs as a trophy in Coney's room.
  • Sergeant Schlock from Schlock Mercenary routinely eats enemies he doesn't care to leave alive — or their ashes, if he had to shoot them first.
  • At one point in the Punyverse arc of Sluggy Freelance, the Gofortron pilots reminisce fondly of the time their nemesis made a Kaiju out of a cow and embued it with the power of barbeque.

    Web Original 
  • Several of the fights in DEATH BATTLE! end this way:
    • In Rainbow Dash vs. Starscream Rainbow Dash is able to use the Sonic Rainboom to reduce Starscream to scrap. But his undying spirit remains so Rainbow Dash eats it.
    • In Pikachu vs. Blanka The battle reaches its climatic head when Pikachu clash with lightning abound. Then Blanka bites Pikachu's head off and puts the rest in a blender and drinks it.
    • In Venasaur vs. Blastoise vs. Charizard, After killing Charizard who had itself killed Venusaur, Blastoise eats the flower from Venasaur left behind.
    • In Lion-O vs He-Man, Battle Cat eats Lion-O after He-Man killed him.
    • In Bowser vs. Ganon, Bowser swallows Ganon, who kills him from the inside.
    • In Natsu vs. Ace, Natsu can eat fire and Ace is made of fire, so the former attempts this trope on the latter. It doesn't quite work, but it forces Ace to remain in his human form, rendering him more vulnerable and ultimately costing his life.
    • A non-lethal example is where Discord turns Bill Cipher into a Dorito and eats him, only for his head to explode into confetti moments later. Neither of them die from this, and the fight continues as if it didn't happen.
  • It Came From Lantrum is an online vore fetish-insired adventure game that revolves around the Gemuse Empire abducting Clara, one of the three protagonists from Some Bullshit, with plans to weaponize her ability to digest shielded Gemuse for its own sinister ends. Before they can do so, a Gemuse resistance movement known as the Freedom Rebellion breaks her out of prison, and reluctantly puts her appetite to use for their fight to take down the Empire — Clara is literally the only being in the Gemuse Empire who can actually kill a shielded Gemuse. Gameplay is built around this aspect, with combat consisting of beating enemies until their shield overloads and then having Clara gulp them down.
  • In the Sock Series, Uquorion (A god) gets half-eaten by a little demon just for accidentally putting off their cigarette.
  • The stuffing fetish-inspired online game Some Bullshit contains several examples of this trope, as one of the three protagonists, Emmie, is both The Ditz and has mystical powers due to being possessed by a demoness of hunger:
    • Early in the game, Emmie gets separate from her guardian, Pro, and has to explore a cave system to reunite with him. Along the way, she finds herself attacked by slimes, which she learns taste absolutely delicious. Being completely inept at physical combat, she instead settles for devouring them.
    • One boss fight against a giant squid centers around Emmie biting off its tentacles and swallowing them.
    • After slaying a hydra in one boss fight, Emmie eats it whilst her companions are busy investigating the cave it was guarding.
    • In an optional late-game sidequest of ambiguous canonity, the game's three heroes find themselves facing off against the Gemuse Empire; alien invaders who resemble sapient, talking vegetables. Emmie starts eating them on sight, which is rather odd considering that she canonically is revolted by the idea of eating people. Pro reluctantly tolerates this because a) the Gemuse are unrepentantly evil, and b) the Gemuse's personal forcefields make them impossible to defeat any other way. The third party member, Clara, joins Emmie in her Gemuse-devouring rampage after discovering the "sucrose shields" they use basically make them candy-coated — Clara having a Sweet Tooth so strong that sugary food is basically a Fantastic Drug to her.
  • Sonic for Hire:
    • In this series, Kirby is portrayed as an Ax-Crazy psychopath who murders without remorse and more often than not he does it by simply eating people just like he does in his series.
    • In the episode Mortal Kombat , after Soniqua brutally runs down Goro of who was pummeling Sonic, she then devours his flesh.

    Western Animation 
  • 2 Stupid Dogs: One of the Super Secret Squirrel shorts featured the titular character facing against a deranged gingerbread man named Greg, who sent an army of ants to steal as much candy from stores to create a giant monster with it. When the monster traps Squirrel and Morocco, they quickly realize they can just eat it.
  • Ben 10:
    • One of Ben's aliens from the original series, Upchuck, is a Gourmand and is a Big Eater capable of devouring practically anything inorganic. In his first appearance, Ben uses him to eat a robot machine that hijacked his grandpa. Strangely, while he can eat inorganic things, he can't digest organic matter.
    • In the finale of Ben 10: Alien Force, Vilgax's ship crashes into the ocean during his fight with Ben who just acquired the Ultimatrix. But with the ship submerged, Vilgax is able to assume his One-Winged Angel form, a giant squid monster. He then captures and swallows Ben. But fortunately, Ben was able to somehow escape and emerge from the water as Jetray.
    • Ben 10: Omniverse:
      • The Egomaniac Hunter Khyber tries to invoke this trope in his hunt for Ben by using a device called the Nemetrix which contains DNA for feral species that are natural predators to the sapient species in the Omnitrix. He attaches the device to feral beasts he controls and uses it to turn them into predators to try to hunt down and devour Ben.
      • After Malware, a mutated Galvanian Mechamorph, takes control of Galvan Prime, he's able to turn into a giant, corrupted Muck Monster. Ben tries fighting him with Way Big, but Malware only gets bigger and bigger. Eventually he gets big enough to absorb Way Big into his body. Too bad for Malware, this allows Ben to reunite with Feedback and defeat him.
  • Codename: Kids Next Door:
    • In the episode "N.O.P.O.W.U.H", Grandma Stuffum, a Cordon Bleugh Chef, invades the kids headquarters and force feeds them her sentient Anthropomorphic Food when all their weapons are out of power. It's then that Big Eater Number 2 tries to invoke this trope by eating all the food but ends up getting too full. Just when it seems Granny's won, the KND hamsters return from their vacation and devour all the food and Number 2 then sends Granny flying on his catapult.
    • Granny returns later in the episode "F.O.O.D.F.I.T.E", where this time she tries to invoke the trope on the KND. After fighting with her food mininons for a while she summons Slamwich, a giant sandwich monster that gobbles up the KND. But fortunately, Number 2 was able to call upon their hamster Joaquin who used the growth ray to get big and eat the sandwich back, freeing the KND.
  • Dan Vs.: In the episode "Vegetables", Dan accidentally creates a giant broccoli monster. Naturally, the monster threatens to eat Dan. A group of vegans and vegetarians (who are starving because of a vegetable shortage... that Dan also caused) save Dan by overpowering and eating the broccoli monster.
  • Dave the Barbarian: In "A Pig's Story", Chuckles the Silly Piggy brings an army of Pretzel Men to destroy the barbarians. Not even Dave is afraid of the giggling, wide-eyed snack people. Oswidge swiftly defeats the Pretzel Men with a jar of mustard and his appetite.
  • El Tigre
    • In the episode "Night of the Living Guacamole", Manny's father and grandpa turn into guacamole monsters after he gives them tainted guacamole he was given by Chipotle Jr. in disguise. He then has to literally run all the way to South America to buy the authentic guacamole that he was supposed to get in the first place. When he opens the jar it releases a light so bright the guacamole is blasted off them. But then it accumulates to form a giant guacamole monster. The monster grabs his dad and grandpa and is about to eat them. Manny tries to fry it again, but its skin is too tough, so he jumps into the monster's gut to blast it from the inside.
    • Manny has another run-in with Chipotle Jr. and his Guacamole Monster in "Mustache Kid" where Chipotle Jr. secretly creates a mustache for Manny that's capable of acting on its own. Just as Manny had bonded with it, Jr. has it steal his belt and he gives the belt to his Guacamole Monster to help him conduct his next heist. But with help from Frida, he's able to get the mustache back on his side and with it he creates a giant tortilla ship and throws it into the Guacamole Monster which then proceeds to eat itself out of existence.
    • El Mal Verde is a MASSIVE green bandit who is feared as a Hero Killer. His most grievous trait is his penchant for eating foes.
    • In "A Fistful of Nickels", Sartanna storms into the Riveras' home, enraged over Manny stealing from her. In the ensuing fight, she has her minions combine to form a giant Bone Zombie beast that quickly eats the Riveras and Frida in one bite, but they're able to break out and defeat Sartanna with a spinning Combination Attack.
  • The Fairly OddParents!:
    • In the episode "Imaginary Gary", Timmy decides to wish back his old Imaginary Friend Gary out of nostalgia. But he unfortunately proves to be a Jerkass that's sour at Timmy for forgetting him. To spite him, he steals all of Timmy's friends and the attention of his parents. Fed up, Timmy tries to wish Gary back into his mind, but Gary being a part of Timmy, is able to wish him there as well. This leads a Battle in the Center of the Mind that Timmy is able to ultimately win by thinking up a mosnter sized version of Vicky to eat Gary whole. Unfortunately, after Timmy leaves, the Vicky spits Gary out because she hates the taste of cool.
    • In the episode "So Totally Spaced Out", Mark enlists Timmy's help to save his planet Yugopatamia from an Alien Invasion by a race known as the Gigglepies which are cute little bunnies that are disturbingly cute and jolly. However, they prove to be Killer Rabbits as they use their cuteness to make their victims submit and then blow up the victims' planet when they're done. Yugopatamians, being terrified of of all that's cute and nice, are too scared to resist. Timmy and his fairies are unable to resist their cuteness. Just when all seems lost, Cosmo says they're cute enough to eat and actually tries to eat one of them, only to find they're made of manure which coincidentally happens to be a Yugopatamian delicacy. Timmy then wishes for the Yugopatamians to be freed from their cages with empty bellies, and they then eat all the Gigglepies.
  • One episode of Garfield and Friends features Garfield and Nermal being threatened by giant, mutant, guppies from the sewer. Garfield runs to the kitchen and gets something from the fridge, returning to Nermal, Nermal asks if it's a special anti-guppy weapon. Garfield says no, as he puts on a napkin and pulls out a knife and fork announcing it's tartar sauce. The mutant guppies scream in terror and immediately retreat to the sewers.
  • On the Gravity Falls episode "Summerween", Dipper and Mabel are pursued by the Summerween Trickster, a creature made of all the Summerween candy that no one likes. He is defeated by Soos, who actually likes that type of candy. This actually makes the Trickster happy, since all his life he just wanted someone to think he tasted good.
  • The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy: You can play a Drinking Game out of how often characters eat each other in this show. And in many cases, they come back later like nothing ever happened. Some notable instances:
    • In the early episode "It's Hokey Mon", Billy has Grim bring their Mon cards to life and they predictably cause utter chaos. To put an end to it, Mandy has Grim make a Hokeymon out of a card she made which fires Transformation Rays that turn whatever they hit into toast. Once all the monsters are turned into toast, they're then disposed of by pigeons.
    • In the movie Wrath of the Spider Queen, Velma Queen who was an old friend of Grim's from school, unleashed her spider army onto Endsville with the goal of world domination. And to top it off, she intended to devour Grim's head to take his title of reaper from him after he apparently cheated to get the title. However, at the climax of the movie, Grim reveals that it was a big misunderstanding, she drops her plan to eat him.
    • In the movie Underfist, Billy gives Hoss Del-Gado a weapon called the Candy Blaster that he states is able to One-Hit Kill any single piece of candy. Near the end of the movie, Irwin and Hoss find themselves locked in a combat with a massive monster comprised of all the mutated chocolate monsters from before. Seeing no better moment, Hoss decides to use the Candy Blaster on the monster...which turns out to be Billy...who then proceeds to devour the entire beast and winds up with a big Balloon Belly to boot.
  • Hero: 108:
    • In "Pitched Battle of the Navies", a Blob Monster made of soil arrived off a meteorite and began sucking up all the islands near as well anyone who tried to get near. When First Squad goes to confront it, it near sucks them and Sammo Whale up and very nearly eats up Mighty Ray. Fortunately First Squad is able to break away. From a safe distance, they then bat one of Mighty Ray's eyes into the beast and fry it into a fine dust statue.
    • In "Pitched Battle of the Air Force", Mighty Ray decide to use Woo the Wise's fusion machine to mess around with the defeated High Roller, Zebra Brothers, Bearstomp, and Bald Eagles. While it's funny at first, the beast he ends up creating is very dangerous. Woo the Wise warns to stop his nonsense, but before he can reverse High Roller eats the device meaning First Squad has to deal a giant chimeric monster. The monster manages to capture Jumpy, Sonia, and Might Ray as they fighting the air force. The three free themselves in the middle of the fight though and try battering up his body parts, only to get caught by the tentacle from High Roller's mouth part and swallowed. Luckily, they're freed when Lin Chung and the air force use a rocket to literally blow the monster apart.
    • In "The Ghost Ship" the massive Lantern Fish King uses his Mind Control powers to hypnotize Stingray King and Octopus King into his mouth. Later he captures Commander Apetrully and inside him the hypnotized Octopus and Stingray king try to throw Apetrully into his stomach acids. Fortunately, Lady Green and Lin Chung are able to save him.
  • Johnny Test:
    • In the episode "Tom and Johnny", Johnny's sisters turn Johnny into a mouse by cashing in one of their experiment coupons for an experiment. Unfortunately Mr. Mittens crashes in and freezes Mary, Susan, and Dukey, and upon realizing Johnny is a mouse, he then spends the whole episode trying to catch and eat him while Johnny constantly foils him Jerry-style.
    • In the episode "Johnny Trick or Treat", Dark Vegan tries to destroy Johnny with traps he set a haunted house. Unbeknownst to him, his daughter Jillian is with them dressed as a ghost. Eventually they run into a giant worm monster that sucks them up, but not before it sucks of Jillian's bed sheet. Dark Vegan then has a My God, What Have I Done? moment and rushes down to save his daughter. Fortunately, Johnny is able to tickle the monster's insides with pillow feathers until they're coughed up. Dark Vegan then repays them by getting them to the Halloween Costume Party before it ends.
  • Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness: Thanks to Po, an evil Pig is able to re-assume his real form, a dragon demon named KeePa. Eventually, he's able to drain Po of his Hero's Chi and free his army of demons. Just as all seems lost for the world, he's able revive himself with the power of a peach tree sapling which also greatly enhances his chi to the point that he can use to vanquish the demons. But after he destroys all his demons, an enrage Ke-Paa comes upon, bent on destroying. After giving him a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown, Ke-Paa then drops him and tries to eat Po as he falls—only to get a face full of superpowered Hero's Chi from the heroic panda.
  • In the Ninjago season 2 finale, Lloyd, being the legendary Green Ninja, confronts his dad who had transformed into the evil Overlord Dragon, the bearer of darkness and evil. In the climax, the Overload envelops Lloyd and his Golden Dragon in darkness and tries consume him. But within his mouth, Lloyd and the Golden Dragon combine their bright energy to to blast the Overload into oblivion.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998): In the episode "Beat Your Greens", Townsville finds itself the victim of an Alien Invasion of sentient broccoli aliens seeking to take over Townsville. By the time girls discover the veggie villains, all the adults in town have already been poisoned and Mind Raped. The girls try destroying them, but the broccoli men have a Healing Factor. Running out of options, Blossom decides to do the one thing the girls wanted to avoid: eat the broccoli. Realizing that eating the broccoli is the only way to get rid of them, the girls get all the kids in town to help the eat the vegetable menace. Giant buckets of melted cheese are involved.
  • The very first episode of The Adventures of Sam & Max: Freelance Police features a monster created from the Geek's lab experiments combined with a TV dinner. In a variation, the monster actually wants to be eaten, so Sam agrees to eat it while watching Hawaii Five-O.
  • The Secret Saturdays: After Zak and his cryptid friends foil a trap Argost set for his mom and Drew, he sicks his swarm of firecracker beetles. Just as they're able to close in on Zak and Zon, Komodo leaps in front of them and eats the whole swarm in one gulp. Zak's not sure if he should be impressed or disgusted.
  • Static Shock: In the Grand Finale, Ebon and Hot Streak, in all their quarreling, create a new Big Bang explosion which gives them and Virgil and Ritchie's powers back. However, in the case of Ebon and Hotstreak, it works too well as the two fighting so close to the explosion causes their powers to meld together, ultimately fusing the two into a big fiery, shadowy Eldritch Abomination. The monster catches and tries to eat Gear but Static is able to free him, then the monster's stomach turns into a suction vortex. Before they can get sucked in, Static is able to throw an oil tank into the portal and blow the beast up.
  • Supernoobs: In the episode "Noobies vs. Smoothies", a parasite infects the smoothie mix during Tyler's date with Amy and turns into a giant smoothie monster. To defeat it, Tyler slurps it up through a straw, and gains a massive Balloon Belly as a result.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012): In the episode Pizza Face, the titular pizza monster uses his tainted pizza and pizza minions to brainwash the entire town with the intention of putting all the people in calzones and eating them. The only one not to get brainwashed is Michelangelo. Mike goes to confront the monster but only gets subdued by his cheese. The monster is about to eat April when Mike realizes the only for him to get out his mess is too eat his way out. He eats his way out of the cheese and jumps into Pizza Face's mouth. He then eats Pizza Face from the inside out and reduces him to a single slice and forces him to clear everyone's minds.
  • Teen Titans (2003):
    • The villainous Rubber Woman Madam Rouge is sent by the Brain to get a Titans communicator and ends up targeting Hot Spot. Eventually Hot Spot destroys the communicator to keep it out of her hands. Fed up, Rouge decides to end Hot Spot by reeling him in and absorbing him into her body. Too bad for her, he's able to burn right out of her body. It's a basically a more literal case of Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth.
    • In the first episode, the Titans are tussling with Plasmus, a Muck Monster, without Cyborg. Eventually, Plasmus gets blown into multiple pieces, which regenerate into several smaller beasts that attack the Titans individually. While Robin gets away and is saved by Cyborg, the other titans getting consumed off-screen. But they in turn are saved by Robin and Cyborg's combination attack.
  • Timon & Pumbaa: The episode "Washington Applesauce" gives us an exaggerated example. In the episode, Timon and Pumbaa are tasked with catching a worm that's eating all the town's apples. Over the course of the episode, the worm gets bigger and bigger until it becomes a giant monster and eats the two. However, the two then turn the tables on it by eating the whole beast from the inside out and become big Balloon Belly'd oafs themselves.
  • T.U.F.F. Puppy: In the episode "Internal Affairs", Dudley gets himself shrunk by messing with a Shrink Ray. At the same time, he and the Chief, a flea, have to stop the Chameleon who has used his form-shifting suit to infiltrate the government in order to launch a missile at T.U.F.F Headquarters. They went to stop him, only to get quickly eaten up. After a "Fantastic Voyage" Plot, the two escape. The Chameleon tries to eat them again, but the Chief anticipates this, grabs his tongue, and slams him around into submission.
  • Uncle Grandpa:
    • In the episode "Uncle Grandpa Ate My Homework", Uncle Grandpa eats a boy's Egyptian diorama that he needed to pass his class. To make it up to him, Uncle Grandpa helps him get an actual pyramid from Egypt. But it breaks on the way back. Dennis decides to just tell his teacher what happened. At the same time, an evil Mummy emerges from the pyramid and chases Uncle Grandpa all the way to Dennis's classroom. It catches U.G and Dennis, stating that he'll swallow them whole. Just then Dennis gets the idea to have him and Uncle Grandpa eat him first. They each put a banadage in their mouths and suck him up like spaghetti.
    • Speaking of spaghetti, one of Pizza Steve's tall tales has him fighting a giant spaghetti and meatball monster to the death. He puts up a good fight against the beast with his Italian Karate but it's to no avail. Just as the monster is about to stomp, he remembers a tip his master taught him and eats the spaghetti monster up.
  • Xiaolin Showdown: Every 1500 years, Dojo takes on a Superpowered Evil Side in the form of a giant two headed dragon with Horror Hunger for Shen Gon Wu. And he'll eat anyone that gets in his way. The only way to prevent this is if stays inside a magical little box for the whole day. In the episode "Enter the Dragon", Omi allows himself to be tricked by Dojo into letting him go and he then proceeds to devour everyone in temple, the Shen Gon Wu, and Jack Spicer. Fortunately, Omi is able to escape through Dojo's sweat glands and then challenges him to a Xiaolin Showdown over the Silk Spinner. The challenge is to see who can catch who first and throughout the whole challenge Dojo tries to eat Omi again. But in the end, Omi is able to trick them into the magical box, returning Dojo to normal.

    Real Life 
  • This is how many plants and animals deal with pests and parasites they can't eliminate themselves. When plagued by parasites or other pests they can't get rid of, they often enlist the help of other animals to eat the pests off them. A good example is the cleaner wrasse. Many fish are plagued by parasites they can't get of on their own so they queue up to have cleaner wrasse eat the parasites off them.
    • Ocean sunfish will float sideways near the surface of the water and allow seagulls to pick parasites off of them. Being how weak and easily injured the fish are, the gulls could easily just eat the fish but usually don't.
    • Speaking of infections, this happens on a micro level, too, when a multicellular creature with an immune system gets infected by a bacteria-based disease. Macrophages even have their job description in their name; it literally translates to "big eater".
  • Many cultures eat pest insects like locusts when they swarm. While it's often not a particularly effective way to ensure control unless the insect in question is a slow breeder, it does ensure a source of food until the infestation clears up.
  • Many predators will consume the corpses of territorial rivals of a different species if they kill them during a scuffle or decide that they can overpower them. Its also the fastest way to get more calories after a fight.
    • This is generally why species that are cannibalistic are that way. After all the best way to prevent another member of your species from competing for the same resources is to kill them, and you might as well not let the corpse go waste right?note 
  • This has been advocated as a means of controlling invasive species.

 
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Mario vs Pizzaface

When met with Pizzaface getting in his way, Mario ends the whole thing in seconds by leaping at him and eating him whole.

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