What-if scenarios of Shinjuku Showdown
As we know, Shinjuku Showdown was an arc long battle with meticulous planning. Many factors were at play, and if some variables were altered even slightly, everything would have changed. Here is a comprehensive(?) timeline of slightly different scenarios that could've played out, as well as what would've happened as a result.
White text is the canon events, Green text is the change, Blue text is a victory as a result of a change, Red text is a loss as a result of a change. The two red arrows represent changes that would achieve "victory", but said change would actually affect the progression of the battle much earlier on, leading to a different conclusion altogether.
Going back and analyzing, it's interesting to see how well things could've played out depending on the circumstances. For instance, if Todo wasn't paranoid about resonance, him and Higuruma would've been a very easy and almost guaranteed win. If Nobara woke up at ANY point during this arc, it was just over for Sukuna, as she can 1) spam resonance (no penalty like Inumaki) 2) unblockable attack 3) way too far away to be targeted (not that Sukuna even knows where she is. Her waking up at the final hour was as convenient as her NOT waking up earlier to completely ruin Sukuna's tempo.
Furthermore, Uraume claimed they only won due to Sukuna being an incarnated sorcerer, and she's mostly right. If Sukuna was purely Heian form, then Yuji's soul attacks wouldn't accomplish anything. Megumi wouldn't be able to sabotage. Jacob's ladder wouldn't do anything. Sukuna wouldn't have 10 shadows, but he could still win without it. However, he wouldn't be able to heal from Maki's soul splitter katana, but the fight likely wouldn't have reached that point to begin with. On the other hand, if Sukuna never incarnated himself, then he would've died a long time ago anyways, so arguably it's just Uraume making excuses.
Posted Jun 23, 2025, 4:29 AM UTC