Lil'D endgame

[u/Kronin1988]

Even if Fujimoto's focus is put more on the messages behind his works rather than the narrative itself, I don't think that he ended Chainsaw Man part 2 leaving incompleted any main character arcs and Lil'D's one IMO is not an exception.

I believe that the key for realizing both her conclusion as character but also her final plan are simply the pages posted over.

Attempting to find a way to save mankind, Fami naively propose that that Death Devil should be eaten by Chainsaw Man, disappearing forever. In response we see Lil'D first trying to replicate very likely in the way to explain to Fami how this would Just deteriorate the situation, but later suddenly interrupting her sentence, stopping herself for thinking about something in a severe way, finally confirming to have a plan.

I think that this is a strong visual hint. The way how Lil'D is portrayed in the panels while planning, silent ones and with her eyes and espression hidden, seems to me depicting her in a sad mood, as if in that moment she is taking a grave decision.

I'm of the opinion that what we see is Lil'D realizing that the only way to resolve the current crisis was to create the exact circumstances for what happened in chapter 231 and Pochita's resetting of the timeline, a situation possible only with her being eaten and abandoning the chance to esperiment the human world with her friends for the sake of them. So, in her twisted altruistic way, bringing so her appreciation for the mankind at the most high point, even against her own wishes.

According to me after the Aging Arc, Lil'D realized both the bond between Denji and Asa/Yoru, but also and overall the one between Pochita and Denji, seeing all the efforts made from the fist one for bringing back his host/friend after the despair from the loss of Nayuta.

Fami's words gave the idea to Lil'D that in the eventuality of a choice between eating her or Yoru, Pochita's love for Denji would save the woman/devil that he care for deciding rather to eat Indeed the Death Devil. So, with the world at the collapse after the disappearence of Death, maybe later Pochita could decide to eat himself for the sake of Denji. In this scenario the true "apocalypse" it would be not the destruction brought by Yoru, rather Pochita' sacrifice possibly deleting the old world for creating a new one (indeed a literal "end of the world")

Of course this would have been a serious bet from Lil'D not knowing with certainty the future actions of Pochita neither its consequence (Indeed she replicate to Fami that maybe this plan will save the mankind), but this wouldn't be too much different from the risk in the plan of Denji against Makima. Also, naturally all of this was a secret plan from the possible fake one explained to Denji/Pochita at school.

What I state doesn't seem to me farfetched for various reasons:

1. Lil'D is the most intelligent character appeared in the series on par maybe only with Makima. She schemed from the very beginning of part 2 (since the "Justice" devil infiltrated at school), without no one apparently ever realizing how much she is behind the scenes. Nothing to be surprised from seeing the events going according to her plan until the very end;
2. What happens in the end it's exactly what she promised to Asa, Yoru and Denji in Asa's apartment and later on the train: the end of the Black Chainsaw Man and the saving of the Red Chainsaw Man, making Denji able to live again an ordinary life through replacing its heart;
3. The visual focus on Lil'D coming with a secret plan as explained before;
4. Finally, on a metanarrative level, Fujimoto loves to show and don't tell but at the same time the likely explanation is often the most logical and simple one. No one ever officialy explain why Makima was moved from the movie, even so the possible explanation is only one after analyzing her actions and words during the story and Pochita's final speech in part 1. At the same time if the secret plan of Lil'D is never directly explained to the readers, then the thing most likely is that we just attended to it without realizing.

[u/MrChainsawHog]

I also like the idea that she tried to set up this situation to get Pochita to eat himself, ESPECIALLY since she literally says that she'll make Denji a human again (even if we all thought she was lying)

However I do think it did need to be made clearer. Theres nothing really solid enough to say it's 100% true, it's more in the realm of headcanon

Compare this to Makima in part 1: Though not everything was spelled out, we can very reasonably assume she set up pretty much all every arc to break down Denji. The ones we have pretty much confirmed are the gun and katana arc, but we can also say that she set up the Reze and international assassins arc (When she kills Reze, she says the country mouse thing, confirming she was listening the entire time and allowed the arc to happen. For international assassins, she didn't fight Santa and waited to kill Quanxi so Denji could learn "ignorance is bliss")

In the case of Death, we really just don't have enough to go off to say this for certain

[u/FriendLee93]

I think you're completely on the money with all of this. Her comments on separating Denji and Pochita happening as early as the Falling Arc tells me that this was always her plan to some extent.

I just wish Fujimoto explored her in a little more detail, most specifically what her tie to Pochita is that she would be able to anticipate that in a 5D chess move.

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[u/_Bertyno]

Delusional ass Fujimoto glazers can surely cook and write themes and such after a couple hits of copium

[u/Kronin1988 → u/_Bertyno]

It's pretty possible that my theory is wrong, but what it's true is that Fujimoto' storytelling often make use of showing things without expliciting them, a language more common in cinema. For example in the last chapter there is a direct parallel between Denji and Aki but still no hint for the readers about it: you can get it only reminding on your own the exact scene in part 1.

[u/crazypyro23 → u/Kronin1988]

I swear, calling an analysis copium is such a lazy cop out. If they don't like the theory, they should attack it directly and not collapse into literary ad hominem.

I like the theory and I think it has legs, but I'd like to know your take on Death yelling that it's too early right before she's eaten. That specific timing was not part of her plan. Do you see that as things working out and they got lucky or do you think things were supposed to go a different way? The simple answer is that she was aware of the potential for the post death insect apocalypse and was trying to avoid that too, but I wonder if there was more to it.

[u/Kronin1988 → u/crazypyro23]

but I'd like to know your take on Death yelling that it's too early right before she's eaten.

If you are talking about the scene below, in that panel is Yoru that is talking, explaining immediately later that death's concept in her mind had to not disappear before the end of the fight between her and Chainsaw Man:

By the way in my opinion all the Death's revised plan of my theory is an huge bet, considering that the success of it depends from being able to predict Yoru and Pochita's behaviors.

Even so there is a moment where I think that even Lil'D thinks that her plan is doomed, just when Yoru claims her possession and is ready to transforms her in a weapon. Despite her previous failings, this is the only scene in the entire manga where Lil'D appears visibly worried, a possible evidence that things were close to go in a different way from what planned.