the Forgotten Man, healing, and bake sale donuts
so apparently you get fully healed when you finish talking to the Forgotten Man in chapter 3.
i didn't really notice it while playing, despite the sound effect and everything, maybe because Kris' sprite changing got my attention more? scr_healall(999) specifically heals all party members to full; the only other places it's used are 1) after the dojo matches (which makes sense for technical reasons), 2) when a party member falls below half health in Tenna's hell board fight, and 3) that 'for some reason you felt healthier to a minuscule degree' joke with Gerson in chapter 4, where Kris' health permanently increases by 1 for the bit, lmao
it doesn't happen after other Forgotten Man encounters, just the chapter 3 one. the fact that this one happens at the same time as Kris goes from their Light World to Dark World sprite makes me wonder if it's at all tied to some theme of feeling healed by brief engagements with nostalgia, as long as you don't overstay.
that'd kinda make sense to me, since Mancountry is styled the way it is, and how Forgotten Man tells you that you must depart because it'll disappear soon, it's ephemeral in nature, etc. literally speaking, idk if it's supposed to be the Forgotten Man himself healing you, but the. 'obligatory hospital pianos' and the ch4 art therapy egg room do kinda strengthen the association with healing, so.
ok well there's also the donuts thing.
like, you know how selling donuts at bake sales for charity has been a thing since Undertale. Spider Donuts and Spider Cider in that case
it doesn't say the proceeds from the spider bake sale are for medical fundraising specifically, rather they're to 'reunite the spider clans,' and save all the spiders trapped in the RUINS. but there's a couple other things that do frame donuts as a symbol that's associated with doctors, or the concept of a doctor: first, there's Scared Donut Guy
pictured above, Scared Donut Guy is a scared-looking guy holding a donut. he's like this because the donuts at the Hotland spider bake sale are very expensive, and he felt so intimidated by Muffet that he bought one anyway.
more importantly, Scared Donut Guy happens to be one of the only 3 characters in the game with a Gaster Follower counterpart. of the few things we know about Gaster through these Gaster Followers, one of the only completely certain pieces of info we have is that he's a doctor. Scared Donut Guy's counterpart, Gaster Follower 2, is the one who notes that 1) Alphys works faster than Gaster did, 2) her predecessor one day vanished without a trace, 3) is rumored to have shattered across time & space, and 4) he knows this is true because he "has a piece of him right here." replacing the donut held by the original sprite, there appears to be a nondescript, vaguely humanoid head. literally, a donut interchanged with a piece of Dr. Gaster, in two different sprites of the same guy.
the second thing symbolically tying donuts to doctors is thankfully something that lends more legitimacy to the first thing, because it's partially an Earthbound reference, which UTDR is heavily inspired by; i've only played MOTHER 1 and 2 so far, but Dr. Andonuts is a prominent character in Earthbound, an eccentric scientist type who makes crazy flying machines and time machines and shit, probably one source of inspiration for Gaster's character but definitely not the only one. he has a line where he asks if you want a donut. he literally has 'donuts' in his name. i swear to god it's a thing lol
anyway. bake sales, and donuts, and donut bake sales, are reintroduced as motifs in Deltarune; there's a bake sale in ch1's Card Kingdom dark world, and the Forgotten Man in ch3, when describing his schedule, says "ON THURSDAY, I GO TO SELL THE DONUTS."
in fact, his schedule as described seemingly just revolves around the process of him making, selling, and disposing of donuts, with no disclosed reason. with the Forgotten Man's predicament, it seems like it's tough even for him to know the true meaning of the things he's talking about most of the time. but if we do try just taking it at face value, what might it imply about him that he recalls his schedule being more about selling donuts than anything else?
well, it seems to be at least partly a clue for ch3 players, to retroactively indicate that he can first be found not too far from the Bake Sale in ch1. i'm not sure what kind of player would somehow just stumble through the psychological gauntlet into Mancountry in ch3 without even knowing who the Forgotten Man is, as that's the only demographic that this schedule would be serving as a guide for. but what that part of the riddle does otherwise is emphasize an association between the Forgotten Man, and donuts, and selling baked goods; i.e, bake sales. you don't technically even enter the Forgotten Man's room directly from the bake sale in ch1, you enter it in between the Starwalker and Revolving Darkness rooms in the same area. but when you exit the ch1 egg room, it doesn't put you back in either of the rooms forming the junction where you entered it-- it literally just transports you straight back to the Bake Sale.
and what are the bake sales in UTDR selling donuts for? for charity!
if you pay attention to the specific stalls at the ch1 bake sale, to what they're selling and why, you'll notice something interesting:
the Rudinn is selling Choco Diamonds for Rudinn Relief Funds.
and Hathy is selling Hearts Donuts for Hathy's Health.
so basically. bake sales connect to donuts which connect to doctors and health. the Forgotten Man connects to selling donuts which connects to bake sales. bake sales connect to fundraising/charity. selling donuts at a bake sale equals selling donuts for charity. and in Deltarune, selling donuts for charity is specifically associated with medical fundraising.
so, when the Forgotten Man says in a valentine that he 'wants to help,' that 'there was someone he wanted to help.' and when your conversation in ch3 involves him telling you there's 'no shame in an egg' and ends with you being completely healed of damage. and when he's briefly framed as a medical professional in a hospital setting in the ch4 egg room, where Kris tries to draw what they saw behind the tree because 'art is therapeutic.' and when the Forgotten Man is associated with piano, and pianos are associated with hospitals. and donuts in both UTDR and in one of its greatest sources of inspiration are, unironically, a motif tied to doctors/scientists. and when the Forgotten Man describes his schedule and it's all about making donuts from scratch in order to sell them, in the game where selling donuts at a bake sale is done for medical fundraising in particular. and when the Forgotten Man shows up in the Light World, in a traffic jam, right next to where Scared Donut Guy of all people is sat in his own car, making commentary about donuts and jam, all right in front of the Hometown Hospital.
then maybe it's really not that big of a stretch to guess that the Forgotten Man is meant to be associated with the concept of healing in some way, and maybe even is/was a literal doctor. of course, i think healing in this game is actually a bit of a double-edged sword and not necessarily a guarantee of good intent, not unlike love and LV. but for whatever reason, the Forgotten Man clearly feels a strong inclination to help others, or to help someone, just. without the ability to remember any of the necessary specifics or context needed to do so. without any of the who, how, when, where, what, or why, about anyone, or anything. including himself.
he just has vague memories of making & selling donuts for a bake sale. trying to help someone.
