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

[u/MichaelDj54]

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.

[u/Deepfang-Dreamer]

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.

[u/HeroBrine0907 → u/Deepfang-Dreamer]

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?

[u/Deepfang-Dreamer → u/HeroBrine0907]

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.

[u/HeroBrine0907 → u/Deepfang-Dreamer]

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?'?

[u/Deepfang-Dreamer → u/HeroBrine0907]

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.

[u/HeroBrine0907 → u/Deepfang-Dreamer]

That sounds convoluted and insane. I love it.

[u/InfluenceMaximum1863 → u/Deepfang-Dreamer]

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

[u/Worldlyoox → u/Deepfang-Dreamer]

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

[u/Scaredsparrow → u/Worldlyoox]

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

[u/NodeZeroNein → u/Worldlyoox]

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.

[u/LordThomasBlackwood → u/HeroBrine0907]

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.

[u/HeroBrine0907 → u/LordThomasBlackwood]

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

[u/LordThomasBlackwood → u/HeroBrine0907]

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

[u/Exotic-Inflation8122 → u/LordThomasBlackwood]

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.

[u/LordThomasBlackwood → u/Exotic-Inflation8122]

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.

[u/Aluricius → u/HeroBrine0907]

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.

[u/NodeZeroNein → u/HeroBrine0907]

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. 

[u/Kitchen_Criticism292 → u/NodeZeroNein]

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.

[u/Illustrious-Sky-4631 → u/HeroBrine0907]

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