At first, the “blue spider lily” in Demon Slayer felt less like a plot device and more like a whispered legend. A flower that supposedly held the key to immortality, and always out of reach. Always just beyond Muzan Kibutsuji’s grasp.
His obsession stretches across centuries, but in the end, he never holds it in his hands. That failure has always fascinated me.
The surface-level explanation is simple: the flower is rare, maybe impossibly rare, and he just couldn’t find it. But the story treats it as more than that. To me, the blue spider lily feels symbolic; a reminder that even the most powerful being in the Demon Slayer world can’t conquer everything. Muzan can slaughter Hashira and spawn armies of demons, yet he can’t control life itself.
For all his strength, Muzan is still bound by the same rules of nature that he tried to defy.
So when people ask, why did Muzan fail to get the blue spider lily? I’d argue the better question is: was he ever meant to? To me, the flower isn’t about immortality at all. Some things remain out of reach, no matter how desperate or powerful you are. And that’s exactly what makes his downfall satisfying.
Also Watch As: Black Myth: My Master is Wukong
- Part 1: The Plot of Demon Slayer and Muzan’s Quest for Immortality; Why Is Muzan Looking for the Blue Spider Lily?
- Part 2: Why Is Muzan Looking for the Blue Spider Lily? The Mystery of the Blue Spider Lily in Demon Slayer
- Part 3: Why Is Muzan Looking for the Blue Spider Lily? Some Thoughts – Why Muzan Was Doomed From the Start
- Part 4: What If Muzan Found the Blue Spider Lily?
- Part 5: Why is Muzan Looking for the Blue Spider Lily? After Demon Slayer – Similar Stories to Watch on Reelshort
Part 1: The Plot of Demon Slayer and Muzan’s Quest for Immortality; Why Is Muzan Looking for the Blue Spider Lily?
To really get Muzan’s obsession, you’ve got to go back to the root of his story. Unlike a lot of anime villains who just want power for power’s sake, Muzan’s drive feels more primal; he’s terrified of dying. He was born frail, cursed with a weak body, and told by doctors that he wouldn’t live long. From the very start, death hung over him like a shadow.
That’s where the blue spider lily first shows up, tucked into his origin story. Muzan’s doctor tried to treat him with a strange medicine that used the flower as an ingredient. It saved him, but at a cost; it twisted him into the first demon. He gained speed, strength, and the ability to regenerate, but the cure wasn’t complete.
The one thing the medicine couldn’t fix was his weakness to sunlight. For demons, the sun isn’t just inconvenient. It’s instant death. That flaw became the obsession of his entire existence.
From then on, Muzan spends centuries chasing a ghost. He searches, sends demons, does human experiments… but nothing works. His desperation spikes again after the Swordsmith Village arc, when he learns Nezuko has done what he never could: she can stand in the sun.
For him, Nezuko basically becomes the walking embodiment of the blue spider lily, proof that the perfection he craved was possible.
What makes the flower so clever as a plot device is how simple it is. On the surface, it’s just a plant. But for Muzan, it’s everything he doesn’t have. All his armies, all his bloodline experiments, all his strength… none of it means a thing if he can’t survive daylight.
And the cruel irony? He spends centuries obsessing over the lily, when the answer to his problem was growing inside his own demons the entire time.
Part 2: Why Is Muzan Looking for the Blue Spider Lily? The Mystery of the Blue Spider Lily in Demon Slayer
What makes the blue spider lily so compelling isn’t just that it’s rare — it’s that it’s full of meaning. Fans always circle back to the same question: how could Muzan, with centuries at his disposal and armies of demons at his command, fail to track down a single flower?
On paper, it sounds absurd. But the reasons run deeper than just “he didn’t look hard enough.”
For one, the flower itself plays a cruel trick on him. It only blooms for a handful of days each year, and only in the daylight. For demons, that’s basically an impossible barrier. Muzan couldn’t step into the sun without dying, which meant the one thing he needed most appeared only in the place he could never go.
Even if his minions searched, finding it without the bloom was next to impossible.
Then there’s his pride. Muzan despised humans too much to ever truly trust them, even though they were the only ones who could walk freely under the sun and maybe succeed where demons failed. That arrogance was his blind spot.
He would rather waste centuries failing than admit that humans could help him achieve the one thing he wanted most.
And the symbolism? That’s where it really gets interesting. The blue spider lily mirrors the red spider lily, or Higanbana, a real flower in Japan tied to death, partings, and reincarnation.
The “blue” version doesn’t exist in reality, which makes it the perfect stand-in for Muzan’s impossible dream: immortality without consequence. Just like compassion, or trust, or human warmth, it’s something forever out of his reach.
Even his attempts to play scientist highlight his failure. He tinkered with demons, experimented on medicines, tried to force the world into giving him what he wanted. But science without humility has limits.
Part 3: Why Is Muzan Looking for the Blue Spider Lily? Some Thoughts – Why Muzan Was Doomed From the Start
I don’t think the blue spider lily was ever supposed to be “found.” The story treats it less like a missing ingredient and more like a mirror of Muzan’s biggest flaw: his arrogance mixed with impatience.
Think about it. Muzan lived for centuries. He had armies at his command, endless resources, and time itself working in his favor. Yet he failed. Not because the Blue Spider Lily was impossible to find, but because he refused to admit he needed people.
His hatred for humans ran so deep that even when it made perfect sense to use them—daylight searchers, loyal hunters—he ignored it.
That’s the tragic part for me. His pride had already sealed his fate long before Tanjiro ever swung his blade.
And then there’s his blindness. Nezuko’s immunity should’ve been a giant red flag, a sign that sunlight resistance wasn’t some mythical flower but a trait that could actually evolve. If he’d slowed down, studied his demons instead of tossing them aside the moment they “failed,” maybe he would’ve seen the truth. Maybe he even could’ve won.
But that wasn’t Muzan. He wanted control, not partnership. And in the end, that obsession wrecked him more than any Hashira ever could.
From a storytelling angle, I really like how the Blue Spider Lily plays out. It could’ve been nothing more than a MacGuffin, some shiny object for the villain to chase. But it wasn’t. It turned into a mirror for Muzan’s character.
You can’t bend every law of nature to your will. The lily proves that. It’s not just rare, it’s a reminder that power has limits. And the fact that Muzan never understood that makes it hit even harder.
The next show is awesome.
Part 4: What If Muzan Found the Blue Spider Lily?
Muzan’s centuries-long obsession with the Blue Spider Lily is one of the great ironies of Demon Slayer. He built armies, wiped out families, reshaped history itself just to chase this one flower. And still, nothing. Not a single success.
But here’s the thought that gets me stuck: what if he had found it? Would the story really change? Maybe he would’ve walked in the sun, maybe the Corps would’ve fallen faster. Or maybe not. Muzan’s problem wasn’t sunlight. It was pride. It was his need to control everything and everyone. Even with the lily, that flaw doesn’t disappear.
That’s why I’d argue he was doomed from the start. The spider lily wasn’t the missing piece. His own humanity was.
Why the Flower Always Escaped Him
The blue spider lily isn’t just rare, it’s practically impossible to track. It only blooms for two to three days a year, and only in daylight. At night it can appear completely different, and in some years, it doesn’t bloom at all. Over centuries, only a handful of people in the Demon Slayer world ever see it.
So why didn’t Muzan simply use humans to search during the day? Just speculation, but:
- Exposure risk – A large human search effort would have drawn the attention of the Demon Slayer Corps.
- Control issues – Muzan trusted demons over humans, since demons could be silenced or destroyed if they failed him.
- Arrogance – His belief in demon superiority blinded him to the obvious: humans could have combed the world by daylight far more effectively.
In the end, it wasn’t carelessness but pride that doomed his search.
If Muzan Had Found It
If Muzan had acquired the lily, everything would hinge on how the “complete medicine” worked. His first incomplete dose gave him immortality but left him vulnerable to sunlight. A perfected version might have erased that weakness. If so, Muzan could have walked under the sun, making his domination of humanity inevitable.
But even then, victory isn’t guaranteed. Muzan’s character is his own worst enemy. With sunlight immunity, he might have turned on his Upper Moons out of paranoia, seeing them as rivals rather than tools.
His obsession with control was always stronger than his instinct for survival. In that sense, his downfall may have been inevitable — not because of the Demon Slayers, but because of Muzan himself.
Clearing Up Fan Confusion
Some fans wonder: did Nezuko or Tanjiro ever consume the blue spider lily? The answer is no. Nezuko’s sunlight immunity came from her unique evolution as a demon, not from the flower. In fact, no demon in canon ever eats it. If one had, the results would likely echo Muzan’s own transformation; increased power, but with unpredictable side effects.
The Real Tragedy
Muzan’s failure wasn’t just missing the flower. It was never realizing that the path to true survival lay elsewhere — in trust, patience, and the natural evolution of his demons. By refusing to believe in anything but his own control, Muzan doomed himself long before Tanjiro ever lifted a blade.
Part 5: Why is Muzan Looking for the Blue Spider Lily? After Demon Slayer – Similar Stories to Watch on Reelshort
After finishing Demon Slayer, I found myself craving stories with villains like Muzan — characters whose obsession with immortality or perfection ultimately destroyed them. If you’re like me, Reelshort offers plenty of anime with similar themes.
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood – This series is a perfect companion. Its main villains, the Homunculi and their creator Father, are obsessed with achieving godhood. Just like Muzan, Father’s arrogance blinds him, and the “Philosopher’s Stone” becomes his own version of the blue spider lily.
Naruto (Orochimaru Arc) – Orochimaru, much like Muzan, is terrified of death and endlessly experiments on others to escape it. His pursuit of immortality through forbidden jutsu mirrors Muzan’s desperate experiments with demons. Watching his schemes collapse reminded me of Muzan’s futility.
Attack on Titan – While not about flowers or demons, the series explores obsession with survival and power. Characters like Zeke and Eren grapple with the same fear of mortality and what they’re willing to sacrifice for their goals. It’s another reminder that chasing eternal life often costs one’s humanity.
Jujutsu Kaisen – The curse users and cursed spirits in this series echo Demon Slayer’s themes. Characters like Mahito embody the arrogance of believing one can reshape life and death at will. Again, it’s the same hubris that undid Muzan.
For me, what ties these shows together is a single question: what’s life worth if it isn’t fleeting? Muzan wanted forever, but in chasing that, he lost any chance of actually living. He had power, time, everything people dream of, yet he spent it all searching for more.
That’s why the blue spider lily sticks with me. It’s not just a flower. It’s a reminder that some things aren’t meant to be bent to your will. Some things only matter because they end.
