(Hated trope) Remember all these stories and characters we followed for so long? Welp now it’s all reset.

[u/FullBrother9300]

1: using another flashpoint to create the tomorrowverse (Justice League Dark: Apokolips war) after 80-90% of the cast is killed off and billions lives are fated to die Flash and Constantine hatch up a plan to kill baby Darkseid to prevent the entire story from happening which just leads to an entirely different universe being formed and even erasing some characters from existence.

2: Jim travelling to the beginning (Tales of Arcadia series) after multiple characters die including Toby Jim uses a magic gem to travel back to the very first episode but instead lets Toby find the amulet… this changes things how?

[u/Faceofferrus]

To this day I dont get this. Did they just wipe out all demons and make it a normal world? If not, how on earth could that be considered better?

[u/OrdinaryResponse8988 → u/Faceofferrus]

Demons still exist but Pochita erased himself. Which changed history. Even though that hasn’t happened for any of the other people, things or concepts he’s eaten before.

[u/Faceofferrus → u/OrdinaryResponse8988]

I feel like people have explained this to me before, but every time I feel like there must be something im missing. So Denji is completely fucking powerless in a world assaulted by demons? How is that good?!?

[u/Ghost_Star326 → u/Faceofferrus]

Because now Denji no longer has to be chainsaw man.

As Pochita puts it, Denji's life from the start was so shit that there was no saving it. He's too accustomed to being treated like trash, that even after he got his freedom as Chainsaw man, he could dream of better things or even mature. And Denji was constantly being hunted down by many people.

So Pochita thought that the best solution is for Denji to lead a dull life instead. He merely got lucky with Power saving him through a butterfly effect. Not to mention that Makima is replaced by Nayuta, he doesn't have to deal with her again.

[u/ahilltodieon12 → u/Ghost_Star326]

Except this nayuta is the exact same as makima because she was raised by the govt to control the special division, so nothing improved and they'll all prob die

[u/Canai97 → u/ahilltodieon12]

From what I understood, Chainsaw Man AKA Pochita before meeting Denji was already known and hunted by the government. His existence and powers motivated them to seek out greater power like the Control Devil's. And thus, leading her to be captured and raised in a controlled and lonely environment, which leads to her becoming Makima. Now, without Pochita, the government weren't pressured to seek out greater power. So now the Control Devil, who still got captured but wasn't raised to be a countermeasure for Pochita, turned into Nayuta.

What I'm still scratching my head over is, if this assumption is correct, why is she a kid in this different timeline?

[u/Eskimobill1919 → u/ahilltodieon12]

But there’s no chainsaw man, the main thing driving Makima to fuck over the world. At worst, Nayuta becomes a dictator.

[u/Toxiclam → u/Eskimobill1919]

Still pretty bad

[u/Eskimobill1919 → u/Toxiclam]

But not for Denji

[u/fake_user_34 → u/Eskimobill1919]

That we know of. He still lives in a fucked up world but powerless now. He will be an easier victim.

Reminds me of the Phantom Liberty ending of Cyberpunk. Yeah, V lives, but they are so powerless that they become a target for everyone else. I wouldn't call that living so much.

[u/Eskimobill1919 → u/fake_user_34]

He’s not powerless, he’s got a contract with Power, and there’s no target on his back inviting the actual dangers to go after him.

[u/Wisterosa → u/Eskimobill1919]

for all you know, the next day after the final chapter, he gets assigned to a devil beyond his fighting skill and get murked

also, the story just completely ignored all the other dangerous shit erased by pochita in the past which now should exist, like "The star that drive children crazy" or "the ends of life worse than death"

[u/satans_cookiemallet → u/ahilltodieon12]

The thing is, I dont wanna defend it, Nayuta is already different for....

Some reason.

Makima was cold and indifferent because of her being raised by the government. Meanwhile Nayuta is different persoanlity wise in the new timeline because....she was raised by thr government? Iunno

[u/New_dude_bro → u/satans_cookiemallet]

Raised by the government for a different purpose I guess? One as a leader, one as a living weapon?

[u/WinterAd825 → u/ahilltodieon12]

Ehh, a big part of the story is that the mere existence of the Pochita pushed both devils and the government into an arms race.

Without the threat of non existence hanging over everything everyone is generally more chill

[u/Erick_Brimstone → u/Faceofferrus]

Denji isn't powerless in the new timeline.

Yes he almost died when fighting zombie devil. But Power (Blood Devil) save him and make contract with him. So it's all good.

[u/Faceofferrus → u/Erick_Brimstone]

Wut

[u/Smythatine → u/Faceofferrus]

There’s a theory that the devil that attacked him before the time reset stuff was a nightmare devil (their design looks like it could be) and he’s trapped in a trance where everyone he cares about (minus Pochita) is happy and life as a whole is a lot simpler

Of course, this relies on a part 3 where he realises something is fundamentally missing from his life, and tries to break out from this Truman show situation, given the choice between a better life and reality (this being the flame devil’s prophecy). But this is looking kinda dead rn

[u/Forikorder → u/Faceofferrus]

everytime denjis life gets better it actually gets worse, so pochita erased the first domino

[u/Objective-Tea-3219 → u/Faceofferrus]

Basically, Denji was caught in a vicious cycle when he was Chainsaw Man: everytime something bad happened or he got hurt, he'd just retreat into being chainsaw man instead of learning or coming to terms with things. This repeated over and over, with the consequences being worse each time. Pochita realises that Denji will never get better as a person and work towards new dreams and ambitions while he has the ability to become Chainsaw Man, because Denji is so obsessed with being Chainsaw Man and being powerful that he loses sight of basically everything else. By erasing Chainsaw Man from existence, Pochita breaks Denji out of the cycle.

Chainsaw man is about demons but it's also about Denji's arc and character growth, and the conclusion that Pochita comes to is that Denji will never grow or mature if he can just be Chainsaw Man all the time. Being Chainsaw Man did help him, but then he couldn't let go of it and so he became stuck. That's why he says 'Keep dreaming Denji!': he wants Denji to find new things to work towards. The important thing is that Pochita cares more about Denji's wellbeing than about the demons, but by erasing himself he also takes care of much of the devil problem, because the devils (especially Makima) were all interested in finding Chainsaw man.

It's a bittersweet message about growing up and accepting that things can't stay the same forever, and so the fact that a bunch of people got really mad about it because they wanted Denji to stay as Chainsaw Man forever is quite ironic... JJK actually had a very similar conclusion with the 'cycle of curses' thing: it's a common manga trope probably because of the buddhist cultural context.

[u/random_confusion208 → u/OrdinaryResponse8988]

I will add that I think he still exists/gets reinvented. I don't think the pochita heart is metaphorical, I'm pretty sure when Asa call Denji "Chainsaw Man" it like reinvents him.

[u/meth_adone → u/Faceofferrus]

Devils still exist, denji is literally a devil hunter and part of public security in this chapter

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

Just a new world but without Pochita where conveniently bad people are dead and good ones who were originally dead are alive

[u/Blupoisen → u/Faceofferrus]

They just wiped out Pochita

Which somehow also wiped out Makima???

[u/RedNUGGETLORD → u/Blupoisen]

A lot of Makima's actions are revolved around Pochita, my assumption is that without him, she never makes the contract with the Prime Minister and ends up just being killed by a devil or something

[u/Deepfang-Dreamer → u/Faceofferrus]

By the time Pochita ate himself, the apocalypse had already happened. It's still a terrible ending, but "dangerous world full of Fear-Monsters" is objectively better than "digesting for all eternity in a thousand pieces".