On Wednesday, June 24th of 2026, acclaimed episodic indie RPG Deltarune received an update; this update, as I'm sure most reading are intimately aware, contained the latest addition to the Deltarune story—Chapter 5, subtitled "Festival Day." Chapter 5, in my humble opinion, was great—I'm still undecided on whether or not it's my favourite chapter thus far (it's got some pretty steep competition), but it's certainly up there. The music, particularly "Garden of Hopes and Dreams," was phenomenal; the art direction and landscapes were consistently breathtaking; the gameplay struck an incredibly nice balance between well-developed new mechanics and upping the difficulty on mechanics of old, and the writing and new characters, though a personal sticking point, were still fun, serviceable and, at times, thought-provoking. However, I'm not here to talk about Deltarune Chapter 5; I'm here to talk about yuri. Thankfully for us, Chapter 5, prior to the Dark World in Flower King, had plenty of yuri to offer; let me tell you, this was, bar none, my favourite part of the entire chapter.
The scene, albeit short, involved two characters—troubled school bully Susie and quietly hurting goody-two-shoes Noelle Holiday—finally deciding to act upon their sapphic will-they-won't-they teased relentlessly throughout the game's first four chapters. The scene was nothing short of beautiful, and I'll admit that it left me crying like a baby; this ship meant a lot to me, and to see it so gracefully accepted into canon after eight long years seemed to break something in me. Truthfully, I'd planned on writing an ILU issue about Susie and Noelle a week or two before Chapter 5 released—it was one of my most anticipated issues, honestly—but I'm glad I waited, because we're eating good tonight. Let's talk a little about the history of Suselle, why it means so much to me and tons of other Deltarune fans around the world, how the two characters are written and what their relationship means for the rest of Deltarune. I'll be spoiling the entire game up to this point indiscriminately, so be careful if you haven't gotten around to it yet and wish to. Don't be sorry if you have to skip this one—after all, there are seemingly new yuris to enjoy every single day...
First of all, I'd like to properly introduce both halves of the pair, beginning with Noelle. Noelle Holiday, while a seemingly innocuous character, is arguably the centrepiece of Deltarune's plot—I'd venture to describe her as the game's beating gay heart. First of all, she's player character Kris's childhood friend, and though the two had seemingly drifted apart sometime before we assumed control of Kris's body (as did both of their families—sorry, Tenna), their relationship seemed to naturally repair itself with our unsolicited help. Secondly, she's the daughter of Carol Holiday, the mayor of Hometown (where the story takes place)—this means that her mother is often busy with work, and seeing as Noelle's much more present father, Rudy, has recently been hospitalized and has fallen (perhaps terminally) ill, her relationship with her mother has grown quite strained. Factoring in her missing older sister, December (or Dess), Noelle has been alone without anyone to protect her for a while—a fact which Rudy quietly despairs over while bedridden—and given her meek nature (made worse by the constant social pressure of keeping up her academic performance and being the mayor's perfect role-model daughter), she finds herself increasingly unable to fend for herself, opting to run from her problems by acting cheery all of the time, pretending to forget that she misses Dess and playing Dragon Blazers (an in-universe adaptation of Deltarune's prophecy, which is the centrepiece of Hometown's religion) by her father—her only remaining source of comfort—'s hospital bedside.
Holy cheese and crackers...
(Also, this article is about the normal route. Trust me, I've a lot to say about Side B, but that's for another time.
That damn lake, am I right? Noelle just can't catch a break from it.)
Then we come to Susie. We don't know a lot about Susie before the plot of Deltarune, save for the fact that she moved a lot and implicitly had a poor home life—a home life that seemingly hasn't improved, given her constant attempts to sleep anywhere but her apartment (whether it be at the Dreemurr household or the school's supply closet Dark World) and refusal to speak to her parents unless absolutely necessary (a line she draws much more liberally than most would). As Susie recalled to Tenna at the end of Chapter 3, her constant moving from town to town led her to emotionally withdraw from both every place she'd ever lived and everyone person she'd ever met; to protect herself from being picked on as the chronic "new kid," she took to bullying, violence, and a detached, cruel sense of ironic humour that, while protecting her from being made fun of, only served to further isolate her from her peers, resulting in a girl that felt as though she had been cruelly discarded from society. This pattern continued when Susie moved to Hometown, and even by Chapter 5, it's safe to say that Susie only has a few positive relationships here; Toriel Dreemurr, who comforted Susie and treated her to lunch at QC's Diner after she found Susie crying alone in the graveyard sometime before the events of Chapter 1; Kris Dreemurr, who she bonded with after accidentally discovering and adventuring through the school's supply closet Dark World together, and Noelle Holiday, who lent her a candy-cane-themed pencil one day in school (a bold departure from the "you Suz, you lose" treatment Susie was used to getting from her classmates). By Chapter 2, after bonding with Kris and abandoning her violent ways with the encouragement of Ralsei, she begins to come out of her shell a little bit more—and it's at this point that Susie finally crosses paths with Noelle for real.
It's a well-established fact within Deltarune's narrative that Noelle has had a crush on Susie for about as long as Susie's been in town—there's no dialogue to suggest that Noelle has ever had eyes for anyone else, both before or after Susie arrived in Hometown. This crush is signalled directly to the player when Noelle abruptly stops Kris and Susie from visiting the supply closet Dark World by offering Susie a box of chalk (Susie's favourite snack) and inviting her to study with herself and Berdly in Hometown's "librarby," where, unbeknownst to them all, another Dark World awaits. Susie seems to catch on to the romantic undertones of Noelle's invitation—noting, in particular, her blushing and stammering—but seems to either think better of the whole thing or deliberately pretend to misunderstand in front of Kris, worrying aloud that Noelle is onto their adventures in the Dark Worlds (which, to Susie's credit, Noelle did come alarmingly close to discovering by accident). Now that we've established the plights of both characters, let's examine how and why their relationship works, in the same order—starting with Noelle, then moving onto Susie.
Noelle's crush on Susie, while seemingly just a cute bit of comedy and levity, is incredibly telling of a lot of aspects of her character. It's safe to say that Noelle admires Susie because she's unapologetically strong, mean and confident, or, in other words, because she's everything that Noelle isn't. It's not hard to see exactly why Noelle would want a girl like this in her life—Noelle is used to someone, whether it be Rudy or Dess, sticking up for her when she can't stick up for herself, and now that one's bedridden and the other is missing respectively, the prospect of having a girlfriend who would defend her from the increasingly suffocating troubles of her day-to-day life seems incredibly appealing to her. It reads to me that Noelle is perhaps most directly seeking a substitute for Dess. Susie is often seemingly erroneously associated with Noelle and Dess within the narrative's internal logic, particularly in her shared usage of the song "Lost Girl," a song originally associated only with the daughters of the Holiday family, as well as a scene in Chapter 4 where Susie casually breaks into Dess's room (which became forbidden to outsiders after her disappearance) and takes her iconic guitar to play it for Noelle, who, upon her mother coming home and discovering the ordeal, frantically explains to her that she "just wanted to hear someone play it again." Noelle, who, according to her own confession to Kris in Cyber City, is fine with being scared if it means that someone (referring to Dess) would comfort her afterwards, views Susie's outwardly cruel and sadistic displays of strength to be comforting to the point where, as we learn in Chapter 5 if the party returns to the church after the events of Chapter 4, Noelle would gladly accept becoming a victim of Susie's torment if she was, for whatever reason, unable to become her girlfriend. Anything that reminds Noelle of her older sister—even if it's painful or scary to her—comforts Noelle, and, in my reading, that's exactly why Noelle is so infatuated with Susie.
Similarly, the fact that Susie is even willing to give Noelle a chance is not only indicative of a lot of fascinating things about her character, but it's actively tied to the progress of her character development. For example, in Chapter 1, Susie is as mean as she ever was—for reasons we have already gone over—and, as such, she's entirely disconnected from Noelle past the incredibly low bar of not bullying the shit out of her (for reasons we've already gone over). This isn't to say that their relationship isn't relevant to the plot at all, mind you—quite the opposite, given that Noelle asks Kris for information about Susie near the end of the chapter—this is a uniquely "Susie-side" development, and it's tied directly to the fact that she, at this point, is deathly afraid of letting anyone into her life. Following the lowering of her proverbial shield by the end of Chapter 1, Susie seems to be more inclined to socialize the following morning in Chatper 2; she arrives to class on time specifically to see Kris, waits for them outside of the classroom after they sleep through the entire school day, and immediately takes them to the closet Dark World (where the two bump into Noelle, as previously mentioned.)After being exiled from Castle Town by Ralsei until Kris and Susie work on their school project (something they easily could fake doing, as Ralsei has no means of entering the Light World, as explained at the beginning of Chapter 3), Susie arrives at the library to study with Noelle and Berdly, courtesy of a conveniently formed traffic jam. As we all know, this doesn't go according to plan—Noelle and Berdly are wrapped up in a Dark World, requiring Susie and Kris to carefully extract them under the pretense that they were all in a dream—but, with newfound confidence, Susie tightens her bond with Noelle (and, begrudgingly, Berdly). Though Susie is only in the Light World for a couple of minutes in Chapter 3 (thanks, Kris), the anecdote she tells to Tenna in an attempt to give him hope for the future after being discarded in a way similar to herself seems to help her come to terms with her own feelings, as in Chapter 4, Susie is not only more willing to socialize—she begins to actively pursue Noelle romantically, seemingly catching feelings during the events of Chapter 2, and by Chapter 5, the two go on their first date. Susie is an incredibly dynamic character, and her willingness to soften up—symbolized by gaining an interest in healing magic in Chapter 2 and silently increasing the power of her healing spell over the course of each chapter, in correspondence with her character development—is directly linked with her willingness to pursue her relationship with Noelle. Getting attached is scary for Susie; she's been the "new kid" all her life, and who's to say that Susie won't just move away in a month or two, anyway? To unlearn this fear and tackle her problems head on by letting herself be soft and sentimental for a change is Susie's primary struggle in Deltarune, and the better she gets at it, the further her relationship with Noelle, the most meek and mushy character in the entire cast, progresses. For Noelle, loving Susie is easy; for Susie, loving Noelle is perhaps one of the most difficult challenges she's faced in her life.
Like all romances in real life, each member of the relationship is in it for separate reasons. Those reasons may overlap—Noelle wants someone strong like Susie, and Susie wants someone soft like Noelle—but they're never fully in sync. It's often the case that how the motivations of each member of a relationship interact and evolve over time are the deciding factor in whether or not two people are (or remain) compatible. Thankfully for these two girls, they've both got a lot to learn from one another. As I suggested earlier, Noelle is seemingly attracted to Susie based on Susie's strength reminding her of Dess—however, as I'm sure a few of you noted upon reading that claim, Noelle doesn't only love Susie because she reminds her of Dess, even if that may be what caught her eye in the beginning. It seems to me that Noelle enjoys Susie's company because Susie teaches her how to be strong, particularly in learning to stand up for herself—something she learns from her experience with the ever-controlling and never-listening Queen in Chapter 2 (a clear metaphor for Noelle's relationship with her own mother)—which she would have never been able to do without Susie's example. Since Chapter 2, Noelle has applied these lessons from Susie in numerous areas in her real life; after following some additional examples set by Susie in Chapter 4, Noelle was finally able to both reject Berdly's romantic advances on both herself and Susie and stand up to Carol by ignoring her incessant phone calls pertaining to Noelle going on a date with Susie during Hometown's festival (of course, that's not what those phone calls were actually about, but that's not relevant here). Similarly, and as explained before, the mere act of Susie dating Noelle is a testament to her increasing ability to let herself get attached to others. I find it incredibly sweet that, while Susie had to set an example for Noelle in order for her to eventually act bravely on her own, all Noelle had to do to help Susie was exist nearby. This is especially cute if you remember that Susie was initially uninterested in Noelle romantically—how the tables have turned, right?
Additionally, Noelle and Susie both use these lessons on each other in the mere act of publicly being together in a town like Hometown; while not an explicitly predominately conservative town (there are other gay couples around like the Royal Guards and the yet-to-get-together Ms. Alphys and Officer Undyne, both reprising their gay relationships from Undertale; Kris is non-binary and no-one seems to question it at all; etc.), the town's small population size, hostile attitude toward newcomers (like Susie), heavy emphasis on religion (the town's church is directly next to town hall, for fuck's sake) and creepily high amounts of townsfolk pretending Dess never existed if they aren't directly related to her adds up to, to say the least, an oppressive atmosphere for a young lesbian couple. It is Susie's strength and Noelle's compassion that allows such a relationship to exist regardless of what the outside world thinks—perhaps best represented by Susie defiantly making a demonstration out of holding Noelle's hand upon being accosted by Catti for causing Noelle to "[slip] into darkness" in Chapter 5—which is a powerful symbol that I'm sure many young queer people find impactful and inspiring, particularly given how things have been for queer people around the world lately.
One of my favourite aspects of Deltarune is that it essentially gives players a tutorial in deciphering symbolism. In the world of Deltarune, if a Dark Fountain is created inside of a room, causing the room to be darker than darkness itself, a twisted form of light will begin create a new world—a Dark World—and animate previously inanimate objects inside of the room. This means that every wacky character the player faces within the Dark Worlds—friend or foe—is an abstracted version of an object in Hometown that they can later track down (which is to say that every character the player faces is symbolic of something, and the game actually tells players what each character symbolizes if they care enough to check). Queen, in her constant yet futile attempts to understand human behaviour and cater to their misjudged needs and desires, is symbolic for internet content algorithms (itself internally symbolic for overbearing mothers (it's complicated lol))—and, as such, is represented in the Light World by a laptop; Mr. "Ant" Tenna, in being an eccentric and extravagant game-show host who wants constant attention, is symbolic for the dying medium of television (itself internally symbolic for people with abandonment issues)—and, as such, is represented by a dusty, unplugged CRT; so on, and so forth. This is all to make you understand that Deltarune directly trains its players in the art of decoding symbolism—likely because Deltarune is "chalk" full of symbolism that it doesn't spell out for the player, all of which are vital to understanding its characters and themes; for example, Ferris wheels.
Ferris wheels (commonly associated with romance in popular culture) first appear as a symbolic motif in Chapter 2, where Noelle comments on a poster of a Ferris wheel in Cyber City, saying that it reminds her of the Ferris wheel at the festival. She asks Kris if they think Susie would ride a Ferris wheel with her, to which the player can speak through Kris and tell her that she would, wouldn't, or that they would (if you pick anything other than "Susie would," you will not see the light of heaven). This is foreshadowing for the iconic cutscene at the tail-end of Queen's Mansion later on in the chapter, where, after successfully convincing Noelle that the Dark World is a dream, with no other choice, Susie accompanies Noelle on a Ferris wheel ride across the water and over to the Fountain. This moment is a landmark one for the two, as it's the first time they're both alone for long enough to even consider flirting with one another. For Susie, it's a little awkward; for Noelle, it's (quite literally) a dream come true. The two half-flirt for a while, and both come out of the experience thinking upon it positively—however, when Noelle wakes up in the Light World, she begins to forget the experience, under the impression that it was nothing but a wish-fulfilling dream of hers. At this point, Ferris wheels are associated with childlike and ultimately unrealistic depictions of love and romance, and seeing as the Ferris wheel ride is the closest the two girls had gotten up to that point, it instantly associates Noelle getting in a relationship with Susie with those same negative attributes. After the two grow closer throughout Chapter 4 (in response to Susie's character development in Chapter 3), Susie proclaims to a furious Carol that she's going to take Noelle to the festival happening tomorrow—bringing us back to the festival imagery the Ferris wheel was initially associated with. Finally, in the beginning of Chapter 5, the two go on their first date—accompanying one another to the festival—and are able to ride the Ferris wheel together in real life. It's a small, quick and insignificant moment—a tiny, hastily scribbled and easily discarded sentence in the smallest margin of the grand tapestry of Chapter 5—but its symbolic relevance is great and vast.
The progression of this motif is just one example of the wider notion that Susie and Noelle's relationship culminates emotionally with their date at the festival, and I chose to tell you about this motif specifically because of how unceremoniously it resolves itself. This is evidence of one of the sweetest parts of Noelle and Susie's relationship, at least in my opinion—how natural it feels. This may just be in part due to the fact that Toby Fox is scarily good at writing lesbians (I did not mean for both issues of ILU so far to be related to himedanshis, but oh well), but their relationship is played incredibly casually throughout Deltarune. The lake scene in Chapter 5 (the Suselle one, you sick fuck) is about as much screen-time as the couple has received in an exclusively, undeniably romantic context—the song that plays during that scene is even titled "I Guess I'm in Love." She guesses. The two are seemingly so intimately comfortable with one another that the fact that they're in a relationship seems boring and insignificant, even when, as I have demonstrated, that couldn't be further from the truth. It's an incredibly realistic depiction of romance, and, all in all, it couldn't have made me happier.
As Deltarune marches toward its final two chapters, Noelle seems to be joining the party for good (if the end credits of Chapter 5 are anything to go by); however, the relationship eight years in the making seems to be the quiet narrative thread holding this entire story together. It seems to me that, given how uncompromisingly positive the two's relationship has been thus far, dark clouds overhead foretell an oncoming storm; the phone call that abruptly ended the two's first date seems to be the first sign of a drastic paradigm shift for the couple in the future (sound familiar...?). I wouldn't be surprised if these girls are in for a bad time, and, if you want my opinion (without getting too much into my own personal theories on the narrative's future), it seems that letting Noelle in on the secrets of the Dark Worlds is the catalyst that will ultimately destroy the happy ending that this story could have had. Let's not think about that now, though. After all, like Fox said himself, "Let's turn around and watch the sun, before it goes down completely."
-Kim
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