* i live in my house / with a tin roof *

When you see “love” and “butterfly” together, it’s pretty instinctual for someone versed in Greek mythology to link back to the story of “Amor and Psyche” as depicted by Lucius Apuleius in The Golden Ass. Psyche – a mortal princess who ascends to divinity after undergoing trials to marry Eros (Cupid) – is often depicted with butterfly wings. Both her name and the butterfly motif represent the human soul. But before we can dive into this myth’s connections to Blue, we have to look at Plato’s Symposium.

Plato’s Symposium tells the story of a many-times-removed account of a symposium where a bunch of philosophers discuss their ideas of Eros, the god of passionate love. The important idea for my analysis is Socrates’s comparison of the Lover to the Philosopher. Basically, love is the mean between ignorance and wisdom, and the mortal and divine. Because love is of the beautiful, and wisdom is beautiful, the Lover is like the Philosopher – starting from a place of mortal ignorance and aspiring towards divine wisdom.

Lucius Apuleius, the author of “Amor and Psyche”, was a Platonist philosopher. You can easily read “Amor and Psyche” as the mortal soul’s journey from ignorance to divine wisdom. If you don’t know the myth, here’s a summary by OSP because it can be a bit complicated to summarise succinctly.

Like Blellow and M. Butterfly, Eros and Psyche’s relationship concerns Integrity and Justice in the discourse of love. Their initial relationship is unequal – Eros is a god lording over the mortal Psyche, denying her sight and knowledge of who he truly is, keeping her literally in the darkness of ignorance. Psyche’s curiosity for the truth is what frees her from Eros’s imposed relationship and allows her to truly fall in love with him. Thus, Integrity leads to Justice in love.

Due to Aphrodite and Eros secluding themselves, love “vanished from the earth”, implying that love comes from the divine. But Psyche’s “insatiate heart and burning curiosity” is what causes her to prick her finger on Eros’s arrow and “unwitting, yet of her own doing… [fall] in love with Love”. Her pursuit of knowledge about Eros is what brings about a new age of mortal love that is elevated to the divine. 

Yellow shares some similarities with Eros – he’s ordered by Flowery to oppose the heroes’ love, “Love is blind” but is a “far-famed archer” while “Justice is blind” “But they’s a pretty good shot”, both hurt themselves (or try to, in Yellow’s case) instead of their beloved, and both are the pursuing lovers in the first part of their stories (see: Yellow wanting to make a “blue-quet”).

However, as mentioned in my M. Butterfly analysis, Yellow doesn’t impose his ideas of love onto Blue like Eros does to Psyche. His attempts to punish himself are more like Psyche’s suicidal despair after losing Eros. Like how the Soul cannot bear to live without Love (and vice versa), Justice cannot live without Integrity.

As for Blue, his motifs of love and butterflies can be easily linked to Psyche. Like Psyche, he betrays Yellow by stealing his special petals before pursuing him and mending their relationship with his bouquet. As the embodiment of Integrity, Blue too searches for truth. But he also resembles the nature and gods who help Psyche in her trials, guiding the heroes with Evidence, healing them and providing cloud platforms for them to ascend. He even takes pity on them like the gods do with Psyche in his Integrity ACT, reviving all party members with a 100+ HP heal.

This spiritual ascension through love can also be seen in Blue’s connections with Miss Mizzle. She is the first Darkner to mention Blue, chatting, “The Bluest Flower, A disciple of my speech / Shy to no camera, and a specimen of / Elegance and kindness. / Should you meet, Please give my regards.” From examining their shared flowery language, healing rain and idealistic view of love, we see that love based on Integrity brings one closer to the divine.

Miss Mizzle is a larger Mizzle that resides in the HolywaterCooler in Chapter 4. Compared to regular Mizzles, she speaks in a flowery language that one would expect from a lady in a medieval romance. While you might assume that her Light World equivalent is the church’s holy water, recruiting her reveals that she is “A regular "Mizzle" who, after ages of worship, falsely believes herself to be of great royalty. Isn't even "HOLY" elemental.” Regular Mizzles are the Dark World forms of holy water (referred to as such in the game files), while Miss Mizzle is probably the large pitcher of water in Alvin’s study. 

Using the Embezzle ACT on Miss Mizzle can get you a BitterTear which heals all HP to MAX. According to the Check description “Bitter water that fell in droplets from the sky.” and Susie’s comment “...Isn’t that rain?”, it’s safe to say that this BitterTear in the Light World is a raindrop. Guess who else has Healing Rain?

Even if Miss Mizzle isn’t as holy as her regular Mizzle counterparts, she is significantly stronger than regular Mizzles, she is one of two sources for getting the rare and powerful BitterTear healing item, and she is one of the few beings in Deltarune that can heal using magic (rather than through items or food) (credits to Vampinvogue on twt for the list). The thing that turns Miss Mizzle into a stronger Mizzle is emphasised by her Check information: “A Mizzle transformed with affection.”

“Affection” – or simply, love – is portrayed as something that elevates ordinary rainwater back to the healing power of the divine. But this love must also be sincere, as shown by Miss Mizzle enjoying meaningful reverence over superficial flattery. If you succeed in revering her enough to SPARE, she turns pink like the other Mizzles, referencing water turning into wine. The other magic healers in Deltarune have similarly idealistic (or naive) views on love. Thus, to elevate the ordinary towards the divine, love must be based on Integrity.

Further connections between Blue, love and divinity can be seen in Yellow’s reference to lapis lazuli – a precious deep blue rock speckled with yellow/gold pyrite. The stone’s Persian name is the root word for “blue” in some languages (e.g. azul in Spanish/Portuguese, azure in English). Historically in Europe, it was imported and ground up to make ultramarine pigment, which in the Renaissance and Baroque period was largely reserved for central figures like the Virgin Mary due to how expensive it was.

The Madonna is also tied to certain medieval ideas of love and chivalry (see: ma “my” + donna “lady” -> milady). There’s the idea that selfless love for one’s lady can inspire one into becoming a better person/performing good deeds (see: Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart or The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle). This concept is similarly expressed in Plato’s Symposium: earthly love and appreciation for beauty can lead to divine love and knowledge. Likewise, Blue supports the heroes’ quest and ascension due to the sincerity of their earthly (romantic, platonic and familial) love.

To conclude, Deltarune’s Blue and Miss Mizzle reveal how Love based on Integrity leads to spiritual ascension of the mortal soul, transforming the ordinary and elevating it towards divine wisdom. These idealistic and sincere views on love drive healing, strength and justice not only for Blue and Miss Mizzle, but also for those around them.