About

The Forgotten Man, also known as The Man Behind The Tree is a mysterious character that can be found in secret areas throughout the first five chapters of Deltarune. The mysterious scene has led to several fan animations and songs. In July of 2026, fans recreated the "man behind the tree" scene in other videogames on sites such as Twitter / X and Bluesky.

Origin

The man behind the tree first appears in Deltarune: Chapter 1, which released on October 31st, 2018. In the chapter, walking back and forth multiple times between two specific areas of the field area will eventually bring you to a room with only a tree standing in the center. Upon walking behind the tree Kris encounters a man who offers them an egg. The background music for the trees in Chapters 1 & 2 is an unlisted track only known as "man.ogg".^[1]

The fifth and presumably final tree is found in Deltarune: Chapter 5, which released on June 24th, 2026. In this room, a piano arrangement of the Scarlet Forest music from Deltarune: Chapter 1 plays. If the player is missing any eggs from previous chapters, the man will point to show a tree in the distance similar to the one the player is currently standing by, and beyond that tree was yet another similar tree. If the player has found all previous eggs, the player will feel that they no longer need to look for the man anymore despite not ever having done so to begin with.

Spread

On September 1st, 2025, YouTube^[2] user Wallium posted a fan animation which adds lyrics to the song man.ogg. The video received over 274,000 views in over ten months.

On June 20th, 2026, YouTube^[3] user Garden Grove posted a fan animation and fanmade song using Deltarune character W.D. Gaster as the man behind the tree. The video received over 220,000 views in over one month.

On July 12th, 2026, YouTube^[4] user quillowp posted an animation that uses the locations of the hidden tree in each Deltarune chapter along with various other scenes from the game to the piano arrangement of Scarlet Forest used with the hidden tree from Deltarune: Chapter 5. The video received over 120,000 views in over two weeks.

Videogame Recreation Trend

On July 26, 2026, Twitter / X^[5] user DaCrazytete posted a fake screenshot from the SNES game Super Mario RPG in which Mario finds the tree. The post received over 251,000 views and over 15,000 likes in two days.

About four hours after DaCrazytete's post on July 26h, 2026, Twitter / X^[6] user ItsFreakingSara posted an edited screenshot from Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen with man.ogg played in the game's soundfont. The post received over 9.4 million views and over 33,000 likes in three days.

Also on July 26h, 2026, Twitter / X^[7] user ISammer_ posted the tree, but recreated in Minecraft and with man.ogg recreated using note blocks. The post received over five million views and over 29,000 likes in two days.

The trend has also spread to Bluesky. On July 27th, 2026, Bluesky user killeroutlet^[8] posted a recreation of the tree in Kirby's Adventure. The post received over 1,200 likes in two days.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References