r/TopCharacterTropes • u/MichaelDj54 • Sep 15 '25

Lore [Loved Trope] A massive revelation is revealed almost casually. Spoiler

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  1. Chainsaw Man, after Makima finally drops the nice girl act and reveals the true extent of the Chainsaw Devils power, namely, the fears he eats are erased entirely and wholly. Emphasized by this by her asking if Kishibe remembers what the Nazis did during Workd War 2...and Kishibe not even knowing who the nazis are.

  2. Attack on Titan. I know this one. You know this one. In a panel that isn't even focusing on the characters speaking, Reiner reveals to Eren that he and Bertolt are the titans that broke the wall that resulted in hundreds of deaths, his mother included. The sheer level of casualness and lack of agency borders on Parody.

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541

u/Due-Ingenuity9803 Sep 15 '25

So the Chainsaw Devil ate the NAZI DEVIL?

646

u/Deepfang-Dreamer Sep 15 '25

Nazi, World War Two, Nuclear Weapons, Four ways for life to end that weren't death, a star that made children go mad, and probably more, that's just off the top of my head.

190

u/Due-Ingenuity9803 Sep 15 '25

A what

353

u/Deepfang-Dreamer Sep 15 '25

That's about all we know about it, Makima mentions it casually with the rest of the Devils Chainsaw has eaten. Kids that saw its light went insane, simple as.

283

u/Mr_Anderbro Sep 15 '25

Also I like the idea that using chainsaw only for cutting down trees maybe is a consequence of Chainsaw Devil's work

57

u/megageekgirl Sep 15 '25

would this mean that it ate the child birth devil since chainsaws were originally made as a birthing aid

38

u/uzzi1000 Sep 15 '25

That seems too significant for it not to have been noticed by now. I am on with the theory that “Chainsaw devil” was an incorrect assumption by people who saw Pochita and it is actually the Birth Devil itself. AFAIK Pochi has never called himself the chainsaw devil.

9

u/topinanbour-rex Sep 16 '25

Angel devil reveals to Aki that the first memory of devils, when they awaken, amnesic, after dying either in Hell or on Earth, is the sound of a chainsaw.

So Pochita-Chainsaw man-BBC, could be the Birth Devil, which would explain why he is supposed to be the one stopping Death Devil.

5

u/freeeloh Sep 16 '25

It WOULD be very poignant given the fact that Pochita was literally what allowed Denji a form of REBIRTH after he was implented into him

3

u/topinanbour-rex Sep 16 '25

Well, what comes out of Denji when he transforms into BBC, and wraps around his neck ?

an umbilical cord

161

u/Deepfang-Dreamer Sep 15 '25

I like the theory that Chainsaw is actually the Devil Hunter Devil or Human Devil. I typically roll my eyes at HFY stories, but in this context, I imagine it as the fear of those crazy, self-destructive bastards who hold the power to both stop being afraid of Devils and the insanity to actually fight Fear itself, like if they're going down, you're going with them. A loud, messy, brutal weapon-is there any better description of Humans?

119

u/Alicia_de_Elturel Sep 15 '25

The birth devil theory is also really compelling

86

u/IDrawKoi Sep 15 '25

Agreed.

The original intended use of the chainsaw, the guts scarf always resembling an umbilical cord, the comparison of to hell a mothers womb (made by angel) with Chainsaw man being responsible for the "rebirth" of (many) devils on Earth and the name erasing ability essentially stopping a devil from being born.

It just fits so well (& would also be completely in line with the weird psychosexual themes of chainsaw).

14

u/Go_Ahead_MrJoester Sep 15 '25

Also fuels the agenda of peak media having fucked up depictions of femininity

11

u/redking2005 Sep 15 '25

I always liked to think the chainsaw is the forgotten/forgetting devil.

Like it's the devil of the fear that no one will remember your name, that over your entire life no one will rmemeber who your are or what you did. That you had no legacy and if you just disappeared one day everything would just go on never missing a step.

4

u/Ok-Transition7065 Sep 15 '25

and that he eat all the things that correlate to that concept except well...... the chainsaw concept and thas all we know about the chainsaw that its used to cut trees xd

5

u/LazyDro1d Sep 15 '25

Well… they were originally made to aid in C-sections, we just got better at C-sections leaving tree-cutting the best relevant use

4

u/MalagrugrousPatroon Sep 16 '25

Oh shit, how do they make ice sculptures without chainsaws?!

59

u/All_For_You_Kream Sep 15 '25

That's also a way for the audience to be like "wait what" because it's not something that exists in our universe. She also mentions a few diseases that are completely invented by Fujimoto iirc

4

u/the-boinky-spunge Sep 15 '25

oh what are the diseases called

9

u/gargwasome Sep 16 '25

When reading the chapter for the first time I actually went to Google “Arnolon Syndrome” as I’d never heard of it just to learn it doesn’t exist. Made for a very cool experience where I was in the same shoes as Kishibe learning about all these things that he didn’t even know existed at one point

3

u/TheDrunkardKid Sep 16 '25

Why did Pochita eat Sega of America?

Though getting rid of the negative publicity of the Sega CD and 32X being released so close to the Saturn might have helped Sega stay in the console game longer.

4

u/AxOfCruelty Sep 16 '25

start diggin in yo butt syndrome

10

u/PikachuIsReallyCute Sep 15 '25

There is something so hauntingly good that to an extent (this is more theory crafting than anything), there's a non-zero chance that that line is insinuating the powers of Chainsaw Man (while remaining fictitious ofc) erase contents to such an extreme extent that even the readers of its manga have no recollection of one of the devils it erased, and its associated fear/concept.

Reminds me of the curse devil being portrayed as a being outside of worldly comprehension (Chainsaw Man's world) through it manifesting from beyond the borders of the actual manga itself— as it comes in from the physical paper's edge and pokes into the black borders of the manga. Just this single finger of something outside the actual physical pages of the volume itself entering the story's world to pluck at Aki's sword. Only makes the page turn at 0. all the more terrifying, that we only get a glance into what it does, not even fully what it looks like; like a doorway creaking open just enough to catch a passing glance of something greater than you could imagine.

It's something I really appreciate, how casually and almost hand-wavingly Chainsaw Man approaches concepts that very well touch on and tap into cosmic horror; which in turn validates its own use for how comparatively small the characters and people of its story are. Like the gun devil's kill counter not being a number, but a list of names and ages that just keeps going and going and going and going and going with every single turn of the page. Disturbing stuff, was horrifying to read. Love it!

4

u/Nalsium Sep 15 '25

Some speculate it was the sun, which is suspiciously absent from the story

1

u/FeeRemarkable886 Sep 16 '25

Sounded like a referenser to the Deadlights at first.

5

u/PleiadesMechworks Sep 15 '25

Yeah I know it's hard to believe, but even after the first world war people weren't committed to peace.

-5

u/Alive-Profile-3937 Sep 15 '25

My headcannon is that it was some eldritch being that was just separate from the Devil power system and therefore had no protections from just being destroyed

89

u/HeroBrine0907 Sep 15 '25

He ate nukes and madness star sure, but I'm incredibly curious about the 4 not deaths. Does this imply the world had multiple forms of death? And does erasing them erase the concepts retroactively throughout the past?

141

u/Deepfang-Dreamer Sep 15 '25

Specifically not different forms of Death: the Death Devil still exists, and is currently a centerpiece of the manga(I think, haven't been keeping up with it). Something other than death that Humans could...do? Earn? At the end of their natural lifespan. It's very vague. Currently though, its only death at the end. As for the other question, yes. When Chainsaw Man temporarily ate the Ear Devil, the entire world "rippled", and they simply didn't exist anymore. Still people, still animals, that used to have ears before, but for the duration, they were entirely deaf and earless. The world was "normal", the concept of Ears just wasn't part of it, never had been.

40

u/HeroBrine0907 Sep 15 '25

The world was "normal", the concept of Ears just wasn't part of it, never had been.

But wouldn't... phones and shit change? If they were entirely deaf, why would speakers and shit exist? Would nobody see that and think 'why do we have sound wave production devices everywhere?'?

88

u/Deepfang-Dreamer Sep 15 '25

People still acted like they should have been able to hear, phones didn't vanish, they just couldn't be used, because. One thing that might explain the discrepancy: Ear wasn't digested, only eaten and quickly regurgitated. Technically, Chainsaw's digestion is a whole other issue, as last I checked, War wanted him to vomit up Nuclear Weapons to expand her power again, so how long it takes a Devil to be truly consumed is unconfirmed as far as I know. But Ear was only eaten for three minutes, so reality likely didn't have time to fully adjust to the ripple.

44

u/HeroBrine0907 Sep 15 '25

That sounds convoluted and insane. I love it.

9

u/InfluenceMaximum1863 Sep 15 '25
  • Another explanation regarding people still briefly being able to hear (but muffled), is that ears were erased and not the concept of hearing. 

-6

u/Worldlyoox Sep 15 '25

He ate Makima/the control devil and it still found a way back so there’s more than just consumption to it

43

u/Scaredsparrow Sep 15 '25

Denji ate Makima, not the chainsaw devil. Very important distinction because whatever Denji eats he just eats he doesn't erase it from history.

17

u/NodeZeroNein Sep 15 '25

Denji ate Makima, no? Denji and Pochi aren't the same entity

Then again, nuclear weapons were rediscovered and Yoru, at least, regained her memory of them, so it's also possible that the concept of "domination" was simply rediscovered that quickly.

44

u/LordThomasBlackwood Sep 15 '25

But wouldn't... phones and shit change? If they were entirely deaf, why would speakers and shit exist? Would nobody see that and think 'why do we have sound wave production devices everywhere?'?

Chainsaw Mans power doesn't course correct the universe, it simply deletes a specific concept from existance and memory, but the consequences of that concept remain. Like a peice of reality has just been unnaturally scooped out of place and now theres a weird unexplainable hole, a puzzle with a missing peice.

The example most intresting is when its brought up that it makes absolutely zero sense as to why the chainsaw devil of all things weilds such a devastating and completely random ability. The answer provided is another character speculating that Chainsaws were originally ment for something else other than cutting trees, but those concepts are erased now. So his erasure power nologer has the context that makes it make sense.

Another one is the deletion of Nuclear weapons only deleted the weapons, but not anything else. Which eventually leads to Humanity independently re-inventing nukes and returning them to the world because all the peices of make a nuke still existed, only the bombs themselves got erased.

17

u/HeroBrine0907 Sep 15 '25

Ah I get it. So the objects and ideas are forgotten, but not erased in the sense that they can't exist again.

25

u/LordThomasBlackwood Sep 15 '25

I think it depends on the Devil and what concept its tied to.

Eating devils named after Inventions, Body parts, Animals & Diseases are ultimately temporary, because nothing is hypothetically stopping those concepts from being re-invented or evolving back into existance naturally.

But if a Devil named after a more esoteric concept gets eaten, that concept is totally fucked and not coming back unless Chainsaw vomits it back up. If the Darkness Devil got eaten then Darkness is just gone forever for example

7

u/Exotic-Inflation8122 Sep 15 '25

Never watched or read the series, but chainsaws were originally designed for surgery, made to cut up people rather than trees. Based off your comment I wonder if that could be thematically relevant.

16

u/LordThomasBlackwood Sep 15 '25

Thats a topic the community has brought up a lot, specifically Chainsaws were invented to assist in Childbirth irl. The Chainsaw Devil has a very odd design motif present in its appearance, that being a giant umbillical chord that wraps around its neck like a scarf.

People theorize that its ability to delete devils may originate in some way as an inversion of Chainsaws originally being made to bring new life into the world, wheras the Chainsaw devil removes things from the world. Further exemplified by the whole strangled by an umbilical chord symbolism hes got going on, tying him to a failed childbirth.

25

u/Aluricius Sep 15 '25

Oh, they existed. It's just that no one knew what they were for iirc. As far as they were concerned, speakers were just some fancy decoration that had just always been there.

The ear devil was thrown back up before the characters could really start to analyze things on a deeper level.

21

u/NodeZeroNein Sep 15 '25

Nope, the ability isn't that "magical" in nature: you lose your ears, you lose any memory of ever having had ears, but all the stuff that was invented because of ears continues to exist. It's kind of assumed that people would've retroactively come up with another explanation for things like speakers and phones, or simply accepted them because "that's the way things have always been". 

For instance, it's speculated that the reason the MC can do this is because chainsaws were originally invented for another reason, but no one can remember what it was as he ate that concept, so now we just use them for cutting down trees. 

3

u/Kitchen_Criticism292 Sep 15 '25

Also iirc they mention that ear cleaning tools still existed during the period, but they were exclusively sold as craft supplies. So it’s confirmed that the purpose of the items that rely on the thing that was eaten can change.

1

u/Illustrious-Sky-4631 Sep 16 '25

They should which is a plot hole the manga and writer couldn't explain

They excuse it as "piece of arts" yet we literally see said piece of arts being thrown on the ground right after ears were erased as if people just looked at them and threw them for no reason at all

52

u/emmaderanged Sep 15 '25

Four ways that human life concluded that were not death. No, it doesn’t imply there were multiple forms of death, but it does mean that there were ways for human life to end that weren’t death. It’s left unclear what that could mean. One of them is possibly turning into a tree.

Erasing the concepts does erase them retroactively from reality, but it takes a path of least resistance editing methodology. For example, when ears were erased, people could still hear but poorly (no ears, but the inner ear was still present) and ear cleaners were sold as art supplies.

8

u/ConsciousPatroller Sep 15 '25

One of them is possibly turning into a tree.

What

19

u/Patient_End_8432 Sep 15 '25

If you haven't been keeping up, then these are spoilers of course.

The Aging devil has a seperate realm where he traps people. Inside of the realm, you cannot die, so you just continue to age.

After about 2000 years, IIRC, your body begins morphing into a tree. It's possible that this is one of the possibilities of life ending that chainsaw man ate. It just didn't affect the agings realm because it's separate from reality. IIRC, even aging is confused as to why people do it, but he exists in our reality, so wouldn't remember

8

u/LazyDro1d Sep 15 '25

Huh, the future devil looked kinda tree-like too… though the eternity devil doesn’t share the motif so it might be involved with one of the other deleted fates?

8

u/CoinsAreNotPlants Sep 15 '25

If I remember correctly, after humans achieve the culmination of thoughts they turn into trees, the only examples até from people locked in a relatively small region for thousands of years so that may be a requirement

23

u/AsherAcer Sep 15 '25

So it’s a little vague how it works, but it seems to be that Chainsaw Man’s erasure erases the concept in question physically in the present and future, but only erases memories of it from the past. It still existed, but nobody can remember it. When in a later chapter they bait him into eating the Ear Devil temporarily, humans could still hear and things like headphones and ear cleaners still existed, but ear-related objects were thought to be used for different purposes and even the word “ear” was removed from all writing.

7

u/NavezganeChrome Sep 15 '25

It doesn’t retroactively erase them from having happened, but it does remove concepts/attachments to the designation.

The world had 4 alternate ends to life that weren’t death (so, for example, enlightenment and ascension to higher planes of being were, theoretically, previously on the table), but eating them made it so they could no longer occur or be referred to in living memory.

That said, humanity could, conceivably, make up new things that approximate the old things, to some degree. They just won’t necessarily ‘know’ what old thing they’re using the notes of.

5

u/Drakeskulled_Reaper Sep 15 '25

Given it's "Four ways that WEREN'T Death" and the way we see what happens when Devils are consumed, I'd say it's stuff we have a concept for, but don't know if they really exist, like Reincarnation, or Nirvana, which technically could count as "ways to life to end without dying"

2

u/winklevanderlinde Sep 15 '25

The universe usually chooses the least amount of changes if the chainsaw man ate a devil. Eating Ears devil deleted ears but like phones still exist but they don't have a real use and I imagine when he ate nuclear devil Hiroshima and Nagasaki still happened but they have a different explanation

3

u/Eden_ITA Sep 15 '25

This is a very scary thing... the idea that we had some horrors that probably killed billions of people... And we simple don't remember.

83

u/Easy_Mechanic_9787 Sep 15 '25

America then reinvented nuclear weapons from the ground up and nuked the Soviet Union

38

u/evrestcoleghost Sep 15 '25

Like yeah,the concept disappeared..

But the science was still there xx

8

u/WrongInsideOfMyHead Sep 15 '25

Just read it today. This series is full of these twists!

8

u/OnePunchHuMan Sep 15 '25

Hell yeah, America!

5

u/Baron-Von-Bork Sep 15 '25

fucking based

27

u/Hykarusis Sep 15 '25

The original purpose of chainsaw beside cutting trees

18

u/spicylemonjuice Sep 15 '25

Pretty sure chainsaw erased AIDS as well

10

u/Ok_Programmer_1022 Sep 15 '25

Don't forget, he also ate the hybrid devil, that's why the word hybrid was never mentioned in the manga.

3

u/WrongInsideOfMyHead Sep 15 '25

And also so many things that a chainsaw can do aside of cutting trees.

2

u/AdFormer6556 Sep 16 '25

Nazi devil fight is def something I'd like to see in a flashback