Itzpapalotl, "Obsidian Butterfly", "Clawed Butterfly", or "Butterfly of Obsidian Knives" is the ruler of Tamoanchan and the leader of the Tzitzimimeh, murderous creatures associated with the stars that hunt down people during the night and solar eclipses.
Itzpapalotl, as the leader of the Tzitzimimeh, shares their physical features, and so does Kara in her character design! I will be using these illustrations of Itzpapalotl from different codices, and an illustration of a Tzitzimitl from Codex Magliabecchiano.
First I'll list the things Itzpapalotl and the Tzitzimimeh have in common, then I'll get more specific into Itzpapalotl's iconography.
First of all, the Tzitzimimeh have skeletal bodies, and their heads are just their skulls with eyes inside the eye sockets . Quoting Mexicolore again here, these eye sockets are particularly blue. Kara has a mask of a skull with bright blue eyes.
*Using this image again, I believe there was a reference to the Tzitzimimeh's paper banners in ep4 when Agent K gestures to her mask with his hands (also note that on her head are hearts AND HANDS!)
Itzpapalotl and the Tzitzimimeh have sharp claws for hands and feet (varying from jaguar claws to eagle talons), just like Kara
The Tzitzimimeh also have small faces on their joints, their hands and feet, each with blue eye sockets. Kara has these buttons on the back of her hands that turn into the same blue when they light up
Finally, these star creatures were generally female. The Aztecs believed that pregnant women could become Tzitzimimeh. Itzpapalotl alternates between having a skeletal and a flesh body. Kara is a feline based alien, but unlike the cat brothers, she's anthropomorphic, she has a female humanoid body.
Getting more specific with Itzpapalotl's iconography now, the goddess' name means "Obsidian Butterfly", and she's illustrated with butterfly wings, although sometimes she's given feathered wings as well
Kara might not have wings herself, but she has other possible butterfly elements. Itzpapalotl is based on a moth, the Orizaba silkmoth.
I thought the shape and color of her ears resembled the moth's antennae
Also, Kara has a song called "Killing Butterflies" in her official playlist
This song has the sound effect of a butterfly flapping its wings multiple times. You can hear a similar sound in ep1 whenever Kara dashes, but it's even more clear in this scene in ep4.
Edit: @hi-im-a-rat mentioned that her ship might be designed to look like a butterfly cocoon
Her name can also be translated to "Butterfly of Obsidian Knives", because she is depicted with flints (tecpatl) either in the tips of her wings or around her body
And we see Kara using similar shaped blades at the end of ep3
This could be also why she's paired with Agent K! Agent K is Itztlacoliuhqui. They're both obsidian related deities, and in some cases he's considered the male counterpart to Itzpapalotl. His name is commonly translated as "Curved Obsidian Knife" (although there are other translations of his name that I will mention in his post). In a way, he is part of Kara's Itzpapalotl iconography, being named "obsidian knife" himself
Itzpapalotl was believed to be the ruler of Tamoanchan. This is a paradisiacal realm where the first humans were created. This place is visually represented with a tree cut in half with blood sprouting off of it.
This symbol is very often close to Itzpapalotl. It reflects how the goddess broke the tree, and she was then banished from Tamoanchan because of it (Snippet from Gods Of Mexico by Lewis Spencer, page 225)
It's possible that Kara cutting the desk in half when intimidating Shrike was a reference to the tree?
There's also this moment here where it looks like she's copying the pose of a stone relief of Itzpapalotl in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City (image taken also from Gods of Mexico, page 223)
The Tzitzimimeh are murderous creatures that kill people in the dark. They'd come down to Earth during the night and solar eclipses. I mentioned them in Shrike's post, this current era was prophesized to end with earthquakes, and once the world was without a Sun, all the Tzitzimimeh would come down from the night sky and kill all of humanity.
Kara is an assassin, killing people is her job. And not only that, her job requires her to be stealthy. She tends to stay in the shadows before going in for the kill
When she's in public and she can't do that, she'll stay in a high place, then she comes down when it's the best moment to strike.
