Shapeshifters: A concerning question I thought about at work.

February 5th, 2026

Would eating a shapeshifter be considered cannibalism? Yes, and No.

So there I was at work minding my own business. I was seated down, placing chocolate moulds into racks for them to later visit the chiller when I thought about something close to a shower thought:

You know those scenes in movies where the main protagonist's significant other dies or sacrifices themselves for the protagonist to survive? Super sad, I know. During these scenes, some stories show that the character has a piece of that character's icon or an item that reminds them. Are you following me? I hope so. Hold on to that.

Shapeshifters, right? There can be many ways to introduce them.

1. A human with the abilities to transform or mimic the appearance and behaviors of other living or non living things.

2. A other worldly being that can transform into anything. Anything.

So, holding these two thoughts together, I think you can see a little on what I'm about to ask.

There are really gruesome stories out there such as The Walking Dead, The Boys, Berserk, and many other rated R medias. Some of the gore and graphicness can be necessary for a story, other times it is generally agreed to be unnecessary. What communicates a storyline where a character must eat something that can change form?

I actually searched this up and I'm not shocked I'm not the only person who has thought of this. Searching around, I am kinda surprised at how apparent this question is though. Rather than find anger, I found a lot of "think about it."

I actually ran into a bigger rabbit hole than I realized.

So... the answer from what I can tell is Yes and No.

Yes, the shifter is another human and should be respected with human rules and expectations/morals. No, it is not human and can be considered an animal such as a Chicken or Cow.

Here is what I would think in relation to the first trope:

If there is a human character who is dying because of the plot and offers to sacrifice their bodies (via transforming into a bigger animal) for the survival of the starving group, while I can understand the honor they might be intending, I would unfortunately have to side that it would be considered cannibalism.

If were to be a animalistic character like an animal companion... maybe not? If it can transform but can't speak, would that still imply anything? This also questions a lot more if it is uncertain if the animalistic shifter is only animalistic based off how long they've been shifting for (if they are under a modification that removed their humanity).

A character that challenges this would be FooFighter in Jojo Pt.6.

For those who don't follow Jojo, this is going to sound WACK... but you are reading this write so...

Anyways, The plankton that make her up have a stand, aka, an extension of a fighting spirit based on soul of it's user. But the colony of plankton that builds FooFighter isn't human, but it can speak and hold thought. But why was it showing her going to heaven with the golden wind? Does that confirm she is considered human?

I don't know what to think of this weird and abstract troupe in media.

What do you think?

I took a shower before writing this thing... I think I need another one.