Today, two rockets struck a house near our tent. My children were terrified, trembling and crying uncontrollably. They are living surrounded by danger, explosions, rats, insects, and constant fear. Instead of enjoying a peaceful childhood, they are growing up burdened by fear and trauma.
As a mother, it breaks my heart to see them suffer while I am unable to provide the safety they deserve.
Please help us leave Gaza and reach a safe place. Every donation and every share gives my children a chance to live with safety, peace, and hope. 💔🙏🏻https://chuffed.org/project/173104-save-my-family-in-gaza
✅️Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is ( #739 )✅️
Remembering that which is forgotten: An analysis of The Forgotten Man.
The Forgotten Man is a fascinating topic of discussion, but I feel like my interpretation is wildly different from what the fandom consensus seems to be.
This is one of those things that a lot of people disagree with me on, but, please hear me out here. I think that people generally are looking at The Forgotten Man in the wrong way.
I often see people reading The Forgotten Man as this, like, really abstract and symbolic character- a manifestation of something relating to Kris, a trauma response.
This is an extremely hot take, but I do not think that this is what The Forgotten Man is. I feel, personally, that a more literal interpretation of this entity is more accurate- and still thematically resonant.
I will readily admit that this reading may perhaps be something that I am biased in seeing. Maybe I just see what I "want" to see. But I hope that I can convince at least a few people of this vision.
PHASE 1: WHY HE'S "REAL"
I feel like the first thing I want to establish is that The Forgotten Man Is Real. Like, this, to me, is the biggest reason I'm against a more symbolic interpretation of this guy.
For starters, he exists in the Light World.
And, the Eggs that he gives us are also very real, in that Susie is able to acknowledge them:
This, to me, is slightly weird if The Forgotten Man is somehow a manifestation of something relating to Kris.
If anything, it seems he's somehow some sort of Lightner. He's not part of the Dark Worlds.
But, perhaps, more importantly than that, is the fact that... he doesn't just talk to Kris.
He spoke with Noelle, too. And this, to me, is foundational in understanding The Forgotten Man.
I actually want to take a moment to talk about this in detail:
Behold, Noelle's post on Cat Petterz. In this, she recounts that she likes to use mods in Cat Petterz 2, but due to the nature of the mods, it was risky to allow eggs to hatch, since there was a chance of this leading to a crash.
She says that she was actively scared of this interaction happening. So scared, in fact, that she would play the game "wrong", punishing her pets so that they never fell in love, and if an Egg did somehow appear, she'd throw it out instantly.
Until one day. That phrasing, combined with the fact this is a link, inherently suggests that the link will explain what changed this. She used to have this fear, but no longer does, because of this one day.
So what happened?
She describes trying to get the Secret Cats by constantly grinding out eggs. Notably, this is clearly a different scenario from the one she just described- In the original post, she was talking about mods breaking eggs (leading to her fear), and in this one, she clearly is fine to do this. But, as mentioned, we should assume there's a direct relation between what happens in this post and her fear of the eggs, so we should keep reading. Additionally, she later acknowledges that this was a modded instance of the game, so we can assume that maybe the reason she's not scared is that this method of obtaining eggs should be fine. This makes sense, given there's no cat breeding involved, it presumably just picks from an existing list.
Anyway:
She describes getting an egg that's "Special". She was excited at first, but then realized the egg never hatched, and was not going to. Her fear- the fear of something being wrong, of a glitch, of the game breaking- crops up again, and she attempts to do what she always did before- to trash the egg, to get rid of it. Just like she would get rid of potentially broken modded eggs.
...But it doesn't work. She can't. She can't run from her fear this time.
She is so freaked out that she completely deletes the game and reinstalls it... and it's still there. She. cannot. run.
After panicking some more, thinking that she was haunted, she decides to do the only thing she can: She faces her fear.
And because she does this, she realizes that the Egg... is not actually scary! She brushes it, she treats it like a pet. She does the exact sort of thing she was so scared of doing before, she's actually "playing the game" properly this time.
By the end of the day, she has completely come around on this thing, and she wants to figure out how to put it online as a mod.
But, of course...
She hesitated, and we all know you can only hold onto an egg for so long.
The thing that strikes me as fascinating about this tale here is that... Did the Forgotten Man not help her? Sure, she was scared, but... she got over her fear. She was originally terrified of the Eggs in her game because of the potential for a glitch, but through her encounter with The Forgotten Man, she got over it. She was forced to face her fears and overcome them. She was helped.
You may think it strange that she didn't mention meeting The Forgotten Man...
...But how could she?
How could she write about what she cannot remember?
To be clear, I don't necessarily think the forgotten man was like, literally in her house or something, but I think it's clear this was, somehow, a real interaction the two had, even if through strange digital means.
This whole interaction is even more meaningful in my eyes, but we'll get to it later. For now, I'd like to move my attention to another scene.
PHASE 2: THE ART THERAPY SCENE
The Art Therapy scene in Chapter 4 is heavily analyzed. I understand where people are coming from. But I would like to share my own personal take on what is actually happening in this scene.
People, as mentioned before, generally seem to take a very symbolic reading of this scene. This makes sense, it's a very strange scene and it almost feels like we should be reading into it as immense symbolism, that the man is a coping mechanism for something darker.
But... at least personally, I think there's perhaps value in actually treating this scene literally. Here's what I mean.
Kris picks up their pencil. They attempt to sketch what they had seen behind the tree.
They attempt to draw The Forgotten Man, who is standing right next to them.
What is a photo but a memory?
Before we had photos, we had art.
The Man cannot be remembered, but Kris will attempt to remember him anyways by drawing him.
However... The Man cannot be remembered, even through this, and so the line errs. Because Kris is attempting to draw something that categorically cannot be drawn. To keep a memory the universe itself has decreed they cannot.
Determined, Kris does this over, and over, practicing, but they keep struggling to get it right, their hand automatically trying to draw something else instead, as though they were constantly losing track of the objective at hand.
Eventually, through sheer repetition, they learn, they learn to be faster, to get it right so quickly that there simply isn't time for anything to intervene,
And through this, they are able, just barely, to complete a sketch of The Forgotten Man, but in the process of doing so, it's barely recognizable as him. Even the completed sketch doesn't really help.
The narration pauses here. There's a (...) .
And then, it continues, describing that a Tree was painted over this, painted over it all, leaving nothing but the simple still life of the tree. Because, after all, there wasn't anything to look at in the room besides a single tree.
By the time Kris managed to successfully draw The Forgotten Man... they can no longer even remember what they were supposed to be drawing.
Our minds are designed to make sense of the present. I'm not an expert in psychology, but to my understanding, it's a very real psychological phenomenon that our brains will kind of just make stuff up to attempt to explain why we're doing what we're doing even if it's not actually true, be it our past actions or our current ones.
And, in the same way that Kris' hand "autocorrected" of a sort into drawing other things when they were attempting to sketch the forgotten man, as they forgot the Forgotten Man's existence, their brain, again, "Autocorrected". What were they drawing? Uhh... they were drawing what they saw in the room, right? What was in the room? It was just that tree, right? We should be drawing that. No clue what this monochrome thing is. This, to me, is the purpose of the narration pause. It's emphasizing that pause, that brief moment of thinking that leads to the next action.
The narration pauses, yet again, after the tree is complete. Kris gets up. It appears, to them, to the best of their knowledge, that this painting is complete.
The narration pauses yet again.
And Kris notices something. Their hand is smudged with graphite. Their hand is still moving, still imbued with the muscle memory of the initial sketches.
Kris attempted to draw The Forgotten Man. To create a symbolic representation of his existence. If they cannot maintain a conscious memory, perhaps they can create a physical one.
This is a task doomed to be failed, because The Forgotten Man is forgotten. He cannot be remembered. Not by people, and not by things.
By the time Kris manages to actually make a depiction of The Forgotten Man, proving it theoretically possible... they no longer can remember what the depiction is meant to represent, and immediately destroy it.
...And yet... in spite of all of this.
Their hand is still smudged with the graphite. Physical proof that the initial sketch still happened.
Their hand still has the muscle memory from learning to draw the man to begin with.
And, try as they might later, to unknowingly remove this evidence, to destroy the last physical proof that the Man did, in fact, exist...
They cannot wash it all away.
Where am I getting at with all of this? Allow me to explain.
PHASE 3: CHOICE
Have you ever thought about a world where everything is exactly the same...
Except you don't exist?
Everything functions perfectly without you...?
The Forgotten Man lives in that world every day of his life. He cannot be remembered. He cannot be thanked for any thing that he does.
And yet... DELTARUNE tells us that his choices still matter.
Because even if he is forgotten, even if he forgets what he's done himself, even if the people who he helps are unable- despite actively wanting to- recall his assistance or his presence...
They will never forget his kindness.
Noelle may not remember that someone helped her through her fear, as mundane as it may have been.
But she will remember that she got over it. She will carry the fact that she is no longer scared with her for the rest of her life.
Because even if you are forgotten, even if nothing you do will be seen, or heard, even if nobody will ever thank you for it...
You will leave your mark all the same.
Even if that mark is a pencil smudge on someone's hand, a pencil smudge they cannot consciously explain to themselves, and a mark that can never be washed away.
Kris does not understand what the pencil smudge means, they do not understand why their hand is still twitching, what that muscle memory is learned for... but the remnants still exist, proof of The Forgotten Man's influence. Proof that he existed. He still mattered.
Despite being someone whose choices by all means "shouldn't matter", The Forgotten Man still chooses to be who he is. He still chooses to be a cheery person who just wants to help, even as the world rejects him. Because even a forgotten person's choices matter. Even if you are never thanked for your actions, even if nobody even realizes it was you who helped them, they will never forget how the end result made them feel. And that makes all of the difference in the world.
You can never. wash it all. away. No one can.
I believe, roughly, that The Forgotten Man is basically Deltarune's thesis statement on choice imbued into one character.
What should you do in a world where your choices don't matter?
You shouldn't do anything different.
Because even if you are a Forgotten Man, your help is still always appreciated from those who you impact.
PHASE 4: GASTER SHARDS
This is perhaps a jump but I want to go a step further.
It is my belief, currently, that The Forgotten Man is inherently related to Gaster. Specifically, I believe, as I have believed for a long time now, that The Forgotten Man is a different "piece" of the doctor.
Obviously, these are both strange cryptid characters with potential emphasis on memory, who speak in all caps. Additionally, if you believe Gaster to be the Mysteryman, then an easy comparison can be made between the ch1 egg room and the gray door. I hope I don't need to spend too long explaining why Gaster and The Forgotten Man are linked.
What I specifically believe is that The Forgotten Man is a different piece of him. Gaster was "Shattered" across space and time, and we do know that wasn't just metaphorical.
My vision is such: The Forgotten Man is everything that Gaster- the "main" gaster, the one who speaks to us all the time relating to DELTARUNE, who I will henceforth refer to as "Gaster Prime"- is not.
Gaster Prime inherits Gaster's scientific side. He is an extremely big picture thinker, obsessed with HIS DELTARUNE. He wishes to CREATE A NEW FUTURE with us. He wants a personal connection with the player, he wants to change the world, he desperately needs to share his creation with everyone. Gaster Prime understands, deeply, What he is doing and How to accomplish it. But in the process, I believe that he maybe doesn't understand for Who the mission is being done or necessarily Why. Maybe on a technical level he understands "why" he is doing this, but I think he maybe doesn't understand it on a deep personal level. He sees DELTARUNE as the NEXT EXPERIMENT, as his project.
In stark contrast, The Forgotten Man is everything that Gaster Prime is not. He is, perhaps, the more emotional side. He is very scatterbrained and rambles about things that maybe don't matter. And he doesn't necessarily seem to understand What is occurring or How to help. The way the Valentines Letter is phrased kind of makes it seem like he's just going off of vibes. But what he does understand is the emotional motivation. He understands, deeply, that he wants to help someone. Even if he doesn't understand what that really entails, he just wants to help someone. He sees the small picture, he understands Why this matters and even if he doesn't know the exact details he feels this and understands "who" it matters for, even if he doesn't actually know specifically who that actually is.
Gaster is, at least in some respects, an author figure. I would personally argue that the way that the general community has come to understand this is flawed, but I think it's undeniable that he is, on at least some level, an author. I believe that The Forgotten Man is a foil to him in this way.
Gaster is a visionary. He's very big picture. He is the voice of the creator who wishes to see their work spread, to see how people treat it. He personally announces the release of every new DELTARUNE chapter, he talks to us at the end of Chapter 4 to aurafarm about HIS DELTARUNE, he's very in your face and he desires to create big change with our help. He's the extrinsic motivation. He is motivated by sharing his work with the world and seeing what the world thinks.
The Forgotten Man, on the other hand, is the more intrinsic side of creation in this metaphor. He does what he does not in the name of some massive vision, but simply because he believes it to be right. He understands the value of simply helping someone- one person- even if he is forgotten by the masses.
PHASE 5: A PERSONAL ANECDOTE
To attempt to give an actual example for what I am talking about, in hopes that it makes my point clearer, I'm going to share my own personal story.
Years ago, in 2020, there was this really niche youtube webseries I became really invested in. I'm not going to name it for a handful of reasons, but know it was very small scale- I think the channel only ever had, like, 20k subscribers.
Eventually, a discord server for this webseries was created, and I went there. (I was actually the very first person to join it...) I met a lot of people there.
The times changed, and eventually that webseries was cancelled and came to a premature end. The discord server was shut down, and all that remained was the splinter server that I had created for my friends in the main server.
I still talk to those friends. In fact, if it weren't for some of those friends, I don't think I would have been able to create The Disciples of Aren Geih. The other developer for our game is someone I only met because of this series.
I know people who are getting married. Because they met in the splinter server I made. Because of this niche webseries.
Needless to say, my life trajectory was completely altered. I know many people whose life trajectories were completely altered.
Because of this random youtube video series that nobody's ever heard of or cares about.
When the original creator set out to create this series... they could not possibly have known what they were doing. They could not possibly have anticipated how many lives would be positively impacted by their work. Even now, it's hard for me to really appreciate just how impactful of a decision it was for me to get invested in that series.
I will readily admit that I am biased here. It is entirely possible that my own opinions on creation, on art, and my own experiences, are clouding my judgement here.
But when I see The Forgotten Man... I see this. I see so much of this.
W.D Gaster, The "Prime" Gaster, the "main" gaster, in my eyes, is the side of the creator that yearns to be popular, to achieve success, to be "the Next Toby Fox" or whatever. To change the world, to be recognized, to be known.
But you don't need to be all that to make a difference. Even if you cannot be Gaster, even if you cannot be a world changing global phenomenon, even if you are forgotten... Your choices still matter. The things you create, the things you do, they still matter to someone. You can never know how many lives you will affect when you do something nice, when you help someone, when you create something. So even The Forgotten Man's choices matter.
As a creator, I often feel like these two sorts of philosophies are at odds. There is always a part of me who yearns to be seen, to have my work be recognized, to "succeed". But there is also the part of me who is okay with maybe not getting into the spotlight, because I know, I have seen, that even the most niche media of all can completely change someone.
The extrinsic desire to share vs the intrinsic desire to create.
Gaster Prime, the in your face visionary, and The Forgotten Man, the apparent afterthought.
PHASE 6: FURTHER THOUGHTS
I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that this sort of theming appears elsewhere in DELTARUNE, and from Toby Fox.
Queen makes a point of pointing out that ANYONE can create a Dark Fountain if they are simply determined enough to do so. I cannot read this in a way that is not basically Toby Fox telling you, "Anyone can create good art".
Gerson's stories of Lord of the Hammer were only created because he simply wanted to entertain his children. A simple story, for such a simple purpose, spiraled into something well beyond him.
This is the majesty of words. And, in my eyes, the majesty of The Forgotten Man.
There is also the obligatory A Message from Toby Fox.
I am not going to recount the entire thing here, but I feel if you watch this (Which you should, if you haven't already), you will see how this relates to what I'm talking about.
There are likely more examples, but I hope you get the point.
CONCLUSION
As I said, maybe this reading is just my own biases and ideas clouding my judgement.
But I really do believe that The Forgotten Man truly does just want to help.
I really do truly believe that The Forgotten Man is, in a sense, DELTARUNE's commentary on choice distilled into one character.
And, I think I do believe that The Forgotten Man is meant to be a sort of foil to Gaster, a reminder that even if you feel your voice is not heard, you should still do what you do anyways.
💔 From Gaza… where suffering has become daily life 💔
I am from Gaza — a father whose only goal is to keep his children alive.Our home was destroyed 🏚️,
and we no longer have a place to shelter.We move from one place to another, searching for safety, warmth, and a piece of bread 🍞.
My children go to sleep hungry 😢,and my wife and daughter were injured and are still living with pain 💔.
There is no work, no income, and no certainty about tomorrow — only fear.In Gaza, we do not dream big dreams.We only dream of a day that passes in peace 🌅,
a meal that fills our children’s stomachs,and a night where they can sleep withouut the sound of bombing.This is not just a story of sorrow,but the testimony of a human being trying to survive,clinging to life despite everything.Gaza is not numbers.
Gaza is faces, children, and hearts that grow tired — but never surrender 🇵🇸
Hi, I'm Raven, and I'm running this campaign on behalf of my friend Ayoush. Any money raised will go to her in full. Please note the campaig
Hello friends 💗Thank you all for your continued support. I am very sorry to tell you that we recently experienced heavy shelling near us.
As a result, we lost everything. My handmade crochet work was burned and destroyed, and now I have to raise money again to buy the basic supplies I need, including crochet hooks, yarn, and threads.
The prices have become extremely high. Right now, I need only $200 to purchase the essential materials and start creating new pieces again.
You can see my previous work on my crochet Instagram page, and you are welcome to message me there if you would like.click here
Please support me in any way you can. If you cannot donate, please consider sharing my story and talking about it with others.
Even $15–$20 could make a real difference in my life.
Thank you for your kindness and support. ❤️
You can watch the video of the shelling through this link.
Click here
These are some of my previous handmade creations. I miss being able to make pieces like these again.
My name is Maram, I am 25 years old from Gaza. I dreamed of a peaceful life, spending my life with my husband and my three children... but the war turned this dream into an impossible one 💔😭. We lived through this genocide with all its painful details and we are still suffering from it😭. We were so happy when the ceasefire was announced, and we returned to our homes in northern Gaza after being displaced for a year and a half in a tent in the south of the Gaza Strip. After repairing a small room in our destroyed house, we began to live there and start over. Unfortunately, the war came back, and it was even stronger than before 💔. Now, we have no shelter or source of income. We have used up all our savings during the war. I know I created my campaign very late, but that's because I have no other means to help my family 🙏. I am completely confident and hopeful that someone here will help us as much as they can and save my family in these tough circumstances 😔.
I know how painful and frustrating it is to start over from scratch, but I hope to get any amount for my family 🥺🙏.
My name is Maram, a Palestinian woman from Gaza. I am 26 years old and a mother of three children: Malik (8 years old), Ibrahim (6 years old
So, please, donate to my campaign, even if it's a small amount—it will have a big impact on us 🥺. May God bless you, my friend 🥰❤️.
Subject : collecting money for my father's emergency operation in his head
Current process :
USD 2,051 / $2,513
Vetted by @sar-soor
Vetted by @opencommunion
Vetted by @el-shab-hussein
I am raising funds to support my elderly parents who are currently living in extremely difficult condition… Mohammed H needs your support f
💔 Urgent Appeal for My Father’s Life 💔
I never imagined that I would have to write these words and beg for help to save my father’s life.
My father suffered a severe head injury after a nearby bombardment. Since that day, his condition has been extremely critical, and sadly, it continues to deteriorate day after day. Doctors have stressed that he urgently needs surgery as soon as possible to prevent further complications and give him a chance to survive and recover.
Thanks to the kindness and generosity of many compassionate people, we have been able to collect part of the required amount. However, we still have $462 remaining, and we must raise it as quickly as possible before it is too late.
Every day that passes without the surgery puts my father in greater danger. Watching him suffer while being unable to help him is a pain beyond words. We are doing everything we can, but we cannot do this alone.
I am pleading with you from the bottom of my heart: if you are able to donate, no matter how small the amount, your contribution could make a real difference and help save my father’s life. If you cannot donate, please share this appeal with your friends and family. A single share may reach someone who can help.
Please do not leave us alone during this difficult time. My father deserves a chance to live, and your support could be the reason he gets that chance.
Thank you for your kindness, your prayers, and your support. ❤️
im not gonna lie it was fucking delicious i would fucking do it again. wait shit youre the fucking wizard in disguise seeing if ive learned my lesson arent you. fuck.
i've been thinking about the implications of movie genres on deltarune for a bit now following the phenomenal carol holiday essay which briefly touches on asgore's affinity for cowboys and superheroes as related to them being genres where justice is really forgivable and simple, where one good guy stops bad guys for a just cause, and always gets the girl (even if he had to lie and kill to do it), and since then i've been also really intrigued with the other genre that gets a lot of attention in deltarune, actually Way More thus far, which is horror, and it's everywhere. because susie identifies with monster movie monsters (susiezilla) and noelle loves horror movies, and then you kind of see it everywhere.
i was recently raving about the use of horror in deltarune because it is often the subversive space, it's the space where villains and final girls dominate the footprint of the genre, and it's famously historically (very problematically) queer. because it was always telling stories that stood in for cultural anxiety, it depicted characters who were different and it's become an affirmative and often reclaimed and celebrated genre in spite of and because of its history. carol clover's Men, Women, and Chainsaws explores the nuanced relationship of horror and gender politics — one of the things i remember is the androgyny of horror in killers and survivors alike;
The Final Girl is boyish, in a word. Just as the killer is not fully masculine, she is not fully feminine... (...) Lest we miss the point, it is spelled out in her name: Stevie, Marti, Terry, Laurie, Stretch, Will, Joey, Max. Not only the conception of the hero in Alien and Aliens but also the surname by which she is called, Ripley, owes a clear debt to slasher tradition. (40)
clover was criticizing the genre for this (for valid reasons), but i think it's also this semi-androgynous soup of heroes and villains in horror, plus the fact that villains become the face of the film and girls become the heroes, and the whole thing is always a bit camp and hyperbolic, that they attract the disenfranchised as an audience. for a brief moment, the gaze might be flipped on its head.
a movie like Evil Dead 2 which is the blatant real-world "Blood Crushers 2" (susie hasn't seen the first, and the protagonist's severed hand attacks... Basement), is the reverse case. you have a male protagonist named Ashley (whom clover considers a "Final Boy"). the movie is a cult classic with a comedic edge, and Ash is doing all sorts of looney tunes-esque gags against his own hand. it's not a movie that takes itself and its protagonist as seriously as a western or an average superhero flick. that noelle and susie are attracted to horror instead is reflective of their worldview, where things that are scary or strange might not be.
and, also, i recently watched Aliens so thinking of the blatant xenomorph inspiration with queen's design has been really hitting. like oh... of course. the xenomorph, a species with a queen mother... a character who represents a maternal horror. the queen xenomorph is not really an intentionally malicious force as Aliens presents it, rather, just a mother making the logical conclusion towards protecting and proliferating its species/its offspring, a simple survival calculation. the queen only actively attacks ripley in vengeance. for dess and noelle, who watched horror together, and who both certainly have complicated relationships with their mom, the xenomorph imagery on queen comes through in what it means to have a monster mother. and it comes through in queen's behaviour, as she makes a calculation seemingly to do what's best for the lightners, even if it doesn't hold up under the human morality microscope.
just so much to think about with how horror and movie monsters get employed in deltarune, how they weave themselves into the story. how they stand as the angle through which noelle and susie can put a subversive worldview to words. susie aligns herself with the movie monster only to find out... she is maybe the final girl. i am also led to think about the framing of the girl as a second hero alongside the contradictory prophecy panel "And last, the girl / at last, the girl". I don't think i have a central thesis for this analysis, but it's very fun seeing the bits and pieces of a genre leaking its way into this game's story and having it mean something... quite subtle.
it's fun to think about going into chapter 5 that susie identifies so heavily with susiezilla, which goes without saying is a godzilla reference — the guy with a FAMOUS destructive beef with japan. chapter 5 will hopefully have a lot of interesting generic interplay in this regard....
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