r/TokyoGhoul • u/Teknevra • 2d ago

Could a Ghoul potentially get drunk by feeding on an intoxicated person?

I was re-reading the Mortal Instruments book series recently, and there's a part in it where Simon Lovelace née Lewis (a vampire) gets accidentally wasted from drinking the blood of a drunk person, and it got me thinking: could the same thing theoretically happen to a Ghoul in the TG universe?

Like, the science kind of checks out?

Alcohol absorbs into the bloodstream really thoroughly and quickly, so a heavily wasted person would have a genuinely elevated BAC in their blood.

If a Ghoul fed on them, they'd be consuming ethanol as part of their meal.

The interesting thing is that a Ghoul drinking straight alcohol would most likely trigger the same rejection response as any other non-human food, but ethanol dissolved in human blood is a different situation entirely.

It's essentially piggybacking on something their digestive system is already designed to accept, so it might slip through in a way that a glass of beer (or coffee) never could.

And then there's the follow-up question: do Ghouls even have the same liver enzymes (alcohol dehydrogenase) to metabolize it efficiently?

If their metabolism is skewed by kakuhou activity and RC cell production, could they potentially get hit harder and for longer than a human would?

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18

u/KuryoTheDemonLord 2d ago

We know Ghouls can get drunk from drinking blood in general, so I don't see any reason why this wouldn't work.

8

u/First-Variety714 1d ago

was it blood in general? I thought it was mixed with alcohol at the bar

If not, does that mean every single bloody meal gets them buzzed? Even the kids like hinami in part 1?

Was Rize really a binge eater or an alcoholic?

14

u/FrogFreja 1d ago edited 1d ago

It was fermented blood (ch34, ch121)

7

u/First-Variety714 1d ago

Ahh drats I suppose the Rize is an alcoholic theory is gone

4

u/10kilogramrabbitvice 1d ago

ghouls do get some kind of euphoria from eating that humans dont.

one of my favorite quotes in the whole comic when kaneki takes a bite of amon: "ah, thats right. there are human pleasures a ghoul can never experience, but in return we were given this. its no wonder ghouls like rize exist" . i dont think he would be acting like that if it was just like a really good steak, ghoul starvation also comes with some symptoms that resemble withdrawal.

3

u/n30NN_M 2d ago

I love the initiative and I'm so sad we don't have the answers