Are they a specific subspecies of fluffy, created by a chance mutation or a fluffy-hating mad geneticist? Or will any fluffy become a cannibal-fluffy if it eats “da wed nummehs”?
(For clarity, I’m talking about the full-on stronger, cleverer, swirly-eyed fanged fluffy wendigos here.)
In so far I recall those are a uncommon mutation.
But don’t quote me on that.
Seems to vary. Some works treat them as a separate sub-species, others are a rare variant and others based on environmental factors (any fluffy can be ‘converted’ in the right situation).
I don’t like the concept in general, so I haven’t exactly read many stories so couldn’t say which concept is more common or more associated with the full on weird eye type.
I just think their fluffies that just turned to cannibalism
On the booru the swirly eyes type was most common.
The swirly-eyed, fanged, physically stronger and tougher version strongly pointed to them being a mutation of some kind. There were stories of them showing up in contaminated environments more frequently, like around toxic waste dumps.
A fluffy learning to eat meat is a different form of cannibal but still basically a regular fluffy.
A fluffy eating a foal is a cannibal, just not a mutant. They are probably the most common type of cannibals.
AFAIK they are a mutation in ferals in most headcanon. Theres a lot of instances of fluffies committing cannibalism in multiple different stories but actual sharp toothed, wiry muscled swirl eyed cannibal fluffies are a seperate thing (from for instance Drain, Culvert, and the Sewer Fluffies eating “tummeh skettis” in TFOC).
It all depends on your headcanon.
They’re lame, is what they are. Objectively speaking.
I do not care about headcanons.
They almost always seem to be a way to slip edgy donut steels under the radar
I believe they started as a mutation, which might then have been deliberately bred into a subspecies. Either way, they’re born with it - as funny as it would be for fluffies to basically gain superpowers by eating enough foals, it’s not particularly viable.
Sadly, they’re rarely used in interesting ways, so I don’t pay too much attention to their content… It feels like they mostly exist to eat other fluffies without having to feel bad about it or carry trauma.
Personally, in my headcanon, “cannibal fluffy” is a bit of a misnomer. It colloquially refers to any carnivorous fluffy and many of the exaggerated traits are false, though they do get swirly eyes and do become generally smarter or sharper of wit.