Did Big Mom Eat Mother Carmel & the Other Children in One Piece?

Big Mom, full name Charlotte Linlin, was one of the Four Emperors from the manga One Piece. She is also the matriarch of the very large Charlotte Family, whose many children make up the infrastructure of her crew. Her history is quite intriguing and in this article, we are going to analyze one specific aspect of Linlin’s personality. Namely, there are theories that Linlin is actually a cannibal and that she has eaten both other people as well as her own children in the past. In this article, we are going to tell you whether Big Mom ate other people in One Piece.

Although it was never explicitly shown, Charlotte Linlin (a.k.a. Big Mom) did eat Mother Carmel and the other children back when she was younger; this is how the lot actually disappeared during one of Linlin’s hunger crises. Also, it is known that she unconsciously committed filicide by eating her own children later on, during said crises.

Did Charlotte Linlin eat Mother Carmel and the other children?

In order to give you an answer to this question, we have to explain who Mother Carmel was and how her story is connected to the story of Charlotte Linlin. Carmel first started selling children in the underground market around the age of 30, 113 years before the start of the series. In particular, she sold John Giant, the first Giant of the Navy, to the World Government.

About thirteen years later, after the Giants’ crew disbanded, some of their members were captured by the Navy. Carmel worked with the government, and they staged an execution ceremony in which Carmel acted as if she was trying to block the execution in order to prevent a war and work for coexistence between the races.

The giants believed it, and Carmel opened an orphanage called Sheepfold on Erbaf, becoming known as Mother Carmel. She took children there who didn’t belong regardless of their race. Through her ties to Erbaf, she was directly responsible for promoting John Giant through the ranks of the Navy. During the execution of the Erbaf Pirates’ crew, Carmel went to the scene and stopped the pirates from being executed, saying Heaven wants a less barbaric solution.

She faced the Navy, wanting all races to live happily together, and said that their death would engender the wrath of the Gods of Erbaf. Carmel knew Charlotte Linlin early in her life, having raised her after Linlin’s parents abandoned her. Carmel always forgave Linlin no matter what damage she caused. She encouraged Linlin to persevere during Erbaf’s twelve-day fasting period.

When Linlin lost her mind, Carmel tried to stop Yorle from attacking her. In order to put out the village fire, she called upon the abilities of the Soru Soru no Mi and created Pandora. She passes off this event as a miracle from the Sun God of Erbaf. She then manages to convince Yarle not to kill Lilin, knowing that she was going to leave the country with the latter.

Shortly after, Mother comes into contact with members of the Cipher Pol. She eventually convinces the men to buy Linlin from her for a huge sum of money. She finally announces that this is her last sale. Shortly after, she is seen celebrating Linlin’s birthday with the other children. When Linlin finished eating, Mother and the other children disappeared leaving torn clothes. From what we know, Linlin’s Hunger Pangs disorder kicked in and she unknowingly ate everyone around her; it is not known whether she realized, at some point, what she had done.

During all of her Tea Parties, Linlin places a picture of Mother Carmel in front of her on the table. If Carmel’s image is damaged, Big Mom then goes into a psychological crisis, which leaves her vulnerable enough to be harmed physically. To this day, Linlin has no knowledge of Carmel’s true nature.

Big Mom’s eating disorder explained

Big Mom has an undisclosed illness called “eating disorder” (食いわずらい Kuiwazurai) food she wants to eat. She suffered from this disorder before the age of 5, which is why she was banished from her homeland and why the giants hate her so much for destroying one of their villages and killing Jorul during a massacre.

In this state, she will destroy everything and everyone in her way, including her own castle, her own subordinates, and – horribly – even her own children, until she eats the food she wants. When she rages, her pupils go wild and swirl. Once her cravings are satisfied, she becomes more affable and has no memory of her actions during her kill.

Although she suffered from this disorder for most of her life, she seems completely unaware of this psychosis. Big Mom seems to remain somewhat conscious in this state, as Perospero managed to convince her to go after the Straw Hats by lying that they stole leftover wedding cake (the food she wished for in the era). However, the fact that she so easily indulged in such a lie shows her lack of rationality.

Her mental instability in this state also means she cannot make rational decisions, as shown when she attacked the Thousand Sunny with a huge tidal wave, which she believed to be wearing the wedding cake, after which she felt like she could have sunk the ship and ruined the cake. She was also ready to leave the Thousand Sunny to hunt the Fire Tank Pirates’ ship when she saw them with the cake, although she had the perfect chance to destroy the Straw Hat crew at that time.

She can issue simple commands to Homies to help them pursue any perceived targets. However, to some extent, she is able to recognize others in this state, as she recognized her daughters Pudding and Chiffon while angrily questioning them for going out with the Straw Hats. She also remembered what Prospero said about the wedding cake and managed to remember the threat she made to Perospero that she would kill him if he lied about the cake.

Did Big Mom ever eat her own children?

Despite appearing to be a loving family, Linlin cares very little for her children as she forces them to marry other people without regard for their opinions. When she goes into one of the cravings she has shown that she can unintentionally murder her own children. This has never been explored in-depth, but we do know that she had committed filicide unintentionally over the years. Which of her children perished during said cravings is unknown, but we can only feel sorry for them; it must have been a horrible way to go.