[Spoilers] (my) Chainsaw Devil Power Explanation

tldr:


This is a diagram I made to explain my theory on how the Chainsaw Devil power works:



So this diagram shows that your mom still existed in the timeline but AFTER the Chainsaw Devil ate her then every memory and understanding of her existence disappeared. The deletion power doesn’t retroactively delete ideas.

Another theory I’ve more picked up on then heard said, is the idea of once a the Chainsaw Devil eats something it is completely erased from the timeline and we now live in a world totally without that thing every existing. The diagram below shows how I perceive what people think about the Chainsaw Devil’s powers due to words like “never existed”, “erased from existence” which in my theory I don’t perceive as accurate.



I reject this thought process for a number of reasons.

1. Logically Inconsistencies
I think of Fujimoto as a smart man who thinks a lot of how his abilities impact the world, so I doubt he wouldn’t be at least aware of this problem.

If Denji eats the Your Mom Devil and the existence of your mom was completely erased, then who birthed you? To use an in universe example, after the Chainsaw Devil ate the Ear Devil then everything in the entire story would change. Characters can’t speak to each other and would be unable to hear each other throughout the entirety of the story, if the idea of erasing is to be believed. Same goes for the eating of the Mouth Devil which presents a bigger paradox, if the Chainsaw Devil ate the Mouth Devil and the Mouth Devil has never existed then how did the Chainsaw Devil eat the Mouth Devil in the first place? It is shown at the end of Chapter 174 that the eating of the Mouth Devil did affect the Chainsaw Devil and thus would make a loop that would be easier to avoid with my theory.

2. Direct Evidence in the Manga
Evidence in Chapter 174 hints to my theory being more correct but not fully. It shows that ear picks, I’m guessing that’s a generic name for q tips, were still made and sold, making my theory seem more legitimate but the problem is the line after that where Fumiko says “Only for arts and crafts”, whether she says this in the original Japanese I do not know as Viz does things like add lines or change lines to make more confusing dialogue more readily understandable even at the confusion of readers who are paying attention, the Big Mom One Piece fiasco is an example of this. This could be evidence that the universe does correct to try and make things make sense, but would not explain the existence of radios and headphones.

3. Limitation of Ability
If the Chainsaw Devil was able to erase the existence of all devils by eating them then the Chainsaw Devil would basically be barred from fighting devils like the Death Devil in the future. As if the Chainsaw Devil eats the Death Devil then every character who “died” never died. So Denji and the crew are still stuck in the Eternity Devil’s stomach as even after Denji sliced the Eternity Devil’s heart it never died. The idea of total erasure from existence basically neuters the ability and makes it too limited in its use, only being allowed to eat devils that are conveniently minor, like the Nazi Devil.

4. Understanding by the Characters
Kishibe in his conversation with Makima discussing the Chainsaw Devil never said he didn’t know what WWII was. He only said he had no idea what a Nazi was. Meaning if you opened a history book it would say a party rose to power in Germany and started WWII maybe not even that and could say Germany started WWII. The thing is though that if the Nazis never existed then by extension WWII as we know it never occurred and many countries would be affected. Namely the Soviet Union and the US. The US only came to be a world superpower akin to pre WWII Britain or France because of WWII, not only due to the huge power vacuum by France and Britain being destroyed but also by the industry that was formed during and before US involvement in WWII. It can then be assumed the US would be a mid tier power at best in a world where WWII never happened, not someone who seems to have a large network of connections and access to powerful devils as shown in the manga. A similar thing can be said about the Soviet Union.
(Side Note: Kishibe wouldn't know what WWII is anyway because Chainsaw Devil ate the WWII Devil. (erm source??(I don't know if this was even confirmed)))

After writing all this though I feel I have a firm answer on what I believe and I believe that we just don’t know enough about the Chainsaw Devil’s power to concretely say this is how it works, but I think the Chainsaw Devil eating the Aging Devil will firmly set how the Chainsaw Devil’s powers work as it is similar to the Death example given above.

Feel free to comment to talk about this topic.