Why Did Makima Kill Power In Chainsaw Man?

Makima, the control devil, was an enigma in Chainsaw Man. Her motives and goals were shrouded in mystery, until that fateful day where Power showed up with a cake at her doorstep for Denji’s birthday.

Without even a warning, she blows apart the torso of the unsuspecting blood fiend, leaving Denji utterly shocked.

While Makima goes on to explain the reason behind actions, it is too much to take in, not just for Denji, but even for us. It seems as if almost everything that happened in the manga and to Denji, was somehow orchestrated by her.

But why did Makima kill Power, and how did it become a vital cog in her huge masterplan?

More on this in the next subhead…but before that, let’s understand Makima’s actions, which she herself explains in chapter 82 of Chainsaw Man.

After having lived an unremarkable life, marred by poverty, Denji experienced happiness when he was living with Aki and Power, something which he never had before. While he was content living with Pochita, Denji did yearn for more back then. And Makima hangs the carrots in front of him, which he readily follows.

This new life with Aki and Power had become the norm for him.

Over the time they spent together, Power and Denji got closer. In Makima’s own words, Power had come to play the role of a bratty little sister in Denji’s life.

Making Denji happy was an essential part of Makima’s plan. She wanted him to live a better life and when he would feel all comfortable, she would make his entire life come crashing down around him.

When Denji submits to Makima, he was already going through the trauma of having killed Aki. He came there to recover and to run away from the guilt he was harboring.

However Makima only haw more pain in store for him.

Here Denji was, in front of her, all vulnerable and beaten up. It was all too perfect for the Control Devil. And so, when Power comes to deliver Denji’s cake for his birthday, Making delivers the final blow of her elaborate plan by killing the Blood Fiend right in front of Denji’s eyes. This leaves him with permanent damage and in an almost catatonic state.

But, why? Why would she want to break Denji to an extent that he is no longer able to live a normal life.

Why did Makima want Denji to suffer so much?

Makima wanted Denji to suffer and unable to live a normal life because she wanted to break the contract that he had with Pochita.

To understand this, we have to take a look at what the contract between them is.

In chapter 1 of Chainsaw Man, Denji and Pochita form a contract, where Pochita asks Denji to live a normal life and show the devil his dreams in return for becoming his heart.

Somehow (and I don’t know how) Makima came to know of these terms of contract between the two.

By killing Power and breaking Denji completely as a result, she believed that she would be making him unable to keep up his part of the contract, and thus breaking it.

We have discussed Makima’s goal in a separate post, so let’s just focus on the contract breaking part here.

Also Read: What is Makima’s goal in Chainsaw Man?

From what Makima understood about the contract between Denji and Pochita, she assumed that breaking Denji beyond repair would also break the contract that these two had.

However, it seems that Makima overlooked the possibility of the contract between these two being more complex than what was known to her.

Due to this minor oversight, Makima did not succeed in achieving what she intended to do by killing power, i.e. break the contract between Denji and Pochita.

Also Read: What is Denji and Pochita’s contract?

While the Chainsaw Man does appear in its whole glory after Makima kills power and makes Denji enter an almost catatonic state, it is not because their contract broke, rather, it was to save Denji. Read the explanation about Denji and Pochita, mentioned above, to understand this more!

We see that Pochita is still Denji’s heart even after the events that happened towards the end of the manga.

While that explains Makima’s side of the story, there is still a burning question left in the minds of the readers!

Why did Denji let Makima kill Power?

To understand why Denji let Makima have her way, we’ll first have to understand his mindset. Let’s roll back to his fight with Aki, the Gun Fiend.

Denji only killed Aki, because the latter had turned into the Gun Fiend, posing a threat to the lives of civilians. Denji made the right choice in killing Aki, but it was the worst and the hardest choice he ever had to make.

As he himself explains in Chapter 80 of Chainsaw Man, when Denji was with Pochita, he only had to think about ways to survive. However, as his life got better and he got a job, he had to think about a lot of other things too.

All of this felt too exhausting.

When he thought about the reason why he killed Aki, Denji felt that there could have been a better way to go about the whole thing. Maybe, if he were more of a genius, he would have found a way to resolve the situation without killing Aki.

This thought slowly began to eat away at him, and messes up his head real bad. No matter what he does, the guilt of having killed Aki slowly drowns Denji, to an extent where he becomes depressed.

If this was the price Denji had to pay for making decisions on his own, then he did not want to do that anymore.

He sees Makima as someone who is smarter than him, and so he decides to submit himself to her, to listen to whatever she says, because she would know better.

In his worst state of mind, he chooses to trust Makima, and she takes complete advantage of it.

So, when Makima declares that she would kill Power, Denji is in a lost state. He doesn’t want to make any decisions for himself, but he also wasn’t comfortable with the idea that Makima suggested.

But before he could make up his mind, Makima just goes ahead with a ‘bang’ and kills Power.

This is the real reason why Denji is unable to do anything and just watch on as a helpless spectator.

Do you think there is something more behind Makima’s motivations for having killed Power? Could Denji have handled the situation better? Let me know your opinions in the comments below!