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I don't mean just the times when she bit the gloves to pull them off her hands, which may be done easier than with her prosthetic hands, but also these two moments:

  1. After she received a puppy doll from Hodgins, she held it with her mouth. When asked why she chose the puppy doll, she replied she was called "Gilbert's dog" by Gilbert's brother, which may be interpreted as an apt nickname for her biting-like-a-dog behavior.

  2. After Gilbert's brooch was bought back from the black market by Hodgins and returned to Violet, she again held it with her mouth while lying on her bed at night.

I found a discussion on Reddit, in which one redditor said

From what I understand it's because Violet's hand can't grip hard enough to put the glove on properly so she used her teeth instead.

I don't completely agree. After all, Violet performed a rear wrist lock on a customer, so she can grip hard enough.

Another viewpoint is that Violet did it because

she lacks feeling in her hands, but she still has feeling in her mouth.

This seem more plausible, but I still think she could feel more by touching with her cheek, which she did initially with the puppy doll.

Is there a better explanation to this curious behavior of Violet-chan?

Gao
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5 Answers5

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She has trouble writing with a pen and in the second episode we see her adjusting her fingers to type better. This means that her prosthetics are not perfect.

I disagree with point 1, it's much more likely that it refers to her following Gilbert around and obeying him like a loyal dog rather than anything biting related.

For point 2 it is very likely the feeling related reason.

ratchet freak
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A part of it could be that, because she's lost her arms, she defaults to her mouth. It's also pretty explicit that Violet is autistic. Something called "mouthing behavior" is fairly common to autistic children (Violet is only 14, remember).

http://www.cwtherapy.com/mouthingbehaviors/

Violet can also be seen chewing her stuffed puppy in her sleep in the shot shown in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9selmtBzwEk

Personally, I think it's a combination of what myself, OP, and Ratchet Freak mentioned.

MPoland
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From what I gathered, her reason for biting things leads back to her inability to hold on with her hands when it mattered most. She is seen trying to drag Gilbert to safety using her mouth after losing both of her arms. She remembers this and is constantly haunted by the fact that she was helpless in that moment. So as a habit when she is feeling sad, lost and helpless she subconsciously repeats her actions in hopes to to do it right this time

Stephanie
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She has prosthetic arms which means that she cannot really touch or feel stuff like you would do with living arms. Imagine you would be given a stuffed toy - you could stroke it with your hands to feel the texture. But she can only do it with her face and mouth.

On top of that, you can speculate that those prosthetic arms probably took quite some time to manufacture and to attach. So for a long time, she had no arms at all. Mouth was the best she had and so she still uses her mouth occasionally.

Seventh Giant
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Well I thought she does that because of Gilbert. When she lost her arms in the war she tried to save Gilbert with dragging him with her mouth. It was the last time she really touched him before he died. I think she does that to feel near to him especially because she mostly does this with things that relate to Gilbert. The dog which she chose because she claimed that Gilberts brother called her "Gilberts dog" and the brooch, which was a gift from Gilbert and a reminder of his eyes also

Ellannka
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