Gun Goddess' debut proves how little fans know about Chainsaw Man's power system

Modified Sep 25, 2024 15:30 GMT

While the Chainsaw Man fandom had plenty of theories for what to expect from chapter 178, mangaka Tatsuki Fujimoto defied all expectations in the best way possible. Officially released on Tuesday, September 24, 2024, the issue revealed that it was the Gun Goddess, a massive skeletal creature with a rifle-like appendage, whom War Devil Yoru summoned.

Chainsaw Man chapter 178 saw the Gun Goddess fire a single, unaltered index finger at Pochita in Japan, explaining why 400,000 Americans lost their index fingers. It also showed a level of destruction matched only by the Gun Devil’s various attacks, emphasizing how powerful the Gun Goddess is.

In turn, this also highlights how little fans know about the power system of Chainsaw Man, with the Gun Goddess seemingly being a new type or class of Devil fans haven’t yet seen before.

Gun Goddess’ debut teases a whole new world of Chainsaw Man powers and strength waiting to be discovered

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The most significant implication of the Gun Goddess’ reveal in Chainsaw Man is that one fear can be large enough to manifest as two distinct creatures: a Devil and a Goddess. The presumption of the amount of fear being a prerequisite makes sense, given how large the fear of guns is in the series’ world. Their reliance on an anti-Devil weapon led to a rise in gun crime, eventually resulting in the birth of both the Gun Devil and Goddess, given chapter 178.

This, in turn, points out further unknowns regarding the series’ power system, which is implied by the Gun Goddess’s reveal. How much fear is required to birth a Goddess? How are they different from Devils? Are they a subset of the larger group? Can they also make contracts? Is it a contract that lets Yoru, a Devil, control a Goddess? Did Yoru create the Gun Goddess in the same way she calls herself the Gun Devil’s mother?

While these questions are based on presumptions, there is definitive information that can be taken from the Gun Goddess’ reveal. Firstly, it’s clear that this is not the Gun Devil in any capacity. The Statue of Liberty is based in New York City in the United States, and the American president in-series used their Gun Devil flesh to summon a portion of the Gun Devil to fight Makima.

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Assuming that 20% of the Gun Devil’s flesh was destroyed along with the death of the Gun Fiend Aki Hayakawa, this is not the Gun Devil. Furthermore, the form the Gun Goddess takes doesn’t resemble the Gun Devil the US president summoned. There’s also the fact that none of the Gun Devil’s trademark special abilities were activated by War Devil Yoru or the Gun Goddess.

Chainsaw Man fans can also confirm that the Gun Goddess was trapped within the Statue of Liberty. This could be a clue to the origins of Goddesses, possibly being something revered by people to the point where a Goddess is born from it as opposed to Devils being born out of fear. This would explain why National Pistol Association of America members had their index fingers sacrificed.

It’s also possible that Goddesses represent something associated with what they’re imprisoned in. The Statue of Liberty is heavily associated with the American Revolutionary War, to the point where the real statue’s tablet has the date of the Declaration of Independence’s signing on it. In Fujimoto’s series, the tablet not only had this date but also the date for the Storming of the Bastille in the French Revolution.

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Both revolutions used firearms and are arguably the two most notable in world history. This could explain how reverence for guns gave birth to the Gun Goddess, as symbols that can be associated with freedom and independence when viewed through the proper lens. This would also explain why Goddesses are seemingly imprisoned in large structures like statues.

However, this is all speculative as of this article’s writing, with nothing confirmed but the Gun Goddess’ existence and the circumstances surrounding its debut. Thankfully, with no break week for the series following chapter 178, fans can expect to get more information when the series returns with chapter 179.