Tear Jerker / Granblue Fantasy

Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Granblue Fantasy in general is very lighthearted but there are moments in events that would bring a player to tears.

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Main Story

• Chapter 174 has the crew successfully destroy the Otherworld Dragon after all the efforts put in to defeat it... at a very heavy cost. Said cost is Katalina's death from protecting Lyria from the aftermath of the dragon's death throes. Lyria does NOT take this well and completely breaks down crying, begging Katalina to wake up. And another equally awful moment afterwards is having to relay the tragic news to Vira. Vira initially seems to take it somewhat well, noting how Katalina fulfilled her duty as a knight to the last, but it's all an act, as Gran/Djeeta later overhears Vira in her office wailing in utter despair over Katalina's death.
  • It becomes even worse when you look back at Grand Vira's fate episode, which had her suffer a nightmare over Katalina dying, causing her severe mental turmoil. And now, that nightmare has come true.
  • Granted, this gets mitigated due to Katalina's playability in Granblue Fantasy: Relink, which is set after the "Wayfaring Astral" arc, but it's still a sombering sight to see and read.

Events

"What makes the sky blue?"

• Many, many moments in the event "The Inner Light". Not helped that the event page plays a solemn and sad tune as a Background Music. To note:
  • The story of why Mary left Sidheros. Clayus sold her and the remaining kids out to the officials of Epice and the kids with her sacrificed themselves to prison while making sure Mary left. But Mary was under the impression that Galthazar abandoned them and sold them out for the jewel and so took the chance to leave instead. Even as the event ended, her SR version's introductory fate episode shows that she isn't really over the betrayal despite knowing that Galthazar wasn't the one that sold her and the other kids out.
  • A majority of Galthazar's actions to the children. Sure, he wasn't really a bad person and just brainwashed, but most of his actions to the children that loved him can be seen as borderline abuse when the kids failed the task during the course that he was brainwashed. It's rather heartbreaking to see.
  • Galthazar's motivations and the reason he collects and keeps the gemstones. All he wanted was to bring back Sidheros to the former beautiful nature filled island it once was. The gemstones are the only reminders he could have to remember of the old days. Unfortunately, said gemstone had the sealed spirit of the primal beast Avaritia and is brainwashing him to collect more of those jewels so she would be unsealed.
  • The Bittersweet Ending of the event itself. While things will get better for Galthazar and the family, the children and Galthazar won't be seeing each other for a long time.
• "Ranger Sign: Bravo" will reduce you to tears by the end of it.
  • The sheer devastation of Walder learning that Jade is the monstrosity terrorizing his home. Even worse when he learns that this is Jade's natural state and there's nothing Lyria can do to calm her down normally.
  • Torn between killing his best friend or letting her destroy his home, Walder ultimately decides to finish her off himself. He tracks her down to their old forest ranger base and starts telling her stories of his travels, at the same time preparing his dagger to kill her. In the end, it turns out that Jade knew what Walder wanted to do all along and Walder can't bring himself to kill his dear friend.
  • Made all the more heartbreaking in the event's rerun a year later in the sixth chapter, where you have to play a scripted battle with Walder crying out for his friend, begging for Jade to remember him.
• By the end of "What Makes the Sky Blue II: Paradise Lost", Lucifer has been slain and decapitated. Sandalphon's reactions are just heartbreaking, from crawling through the rubble to look for any piece of Lucifer left to cradling Lucifer's severed head in his arms. When the remains of Lucifer blessed Sandalphon with the wings of the Supreme Primarch, did his emotions turn into rage for reminding him of his fate as Lucifer's backup? No. Instead, Sandalphon said this line in a seemingly saddened tone:
  These wings... they don't belong to my back.
• The event "Together in Song" is rife with these, starting with its premise of a relief concert taking place on Perfetto Island, which has been ravaged by a natural disaster. While the island was known for its art and music, people have become jaded by the disaster and lash out against Elta, Selfira, and Caro for trying to ease their pain with music. Selfira becomes insecure about her music, wanting to ease their pain but not knowing how to use her music to do so. She and Elta end up crying together in their pain.
  • The event's villain is an unwilling Caro himself. He is actually the primal beast Arte and the patron guardian of Perfetto Island, but the people's negativity about the arts makes his power grow unstable, and the paintings he created for the island's relief effort end up spawning monsters. In the end, he has to be put down by the crew and goes into a deep slumber for a hundred years. Realizing their mistake for antagonizing him, the villagers sing his song as his body disintegrates into light.
  • The field notes for Caro and Arte are this as well. Caro's mentions that he developed an interest in people and the arts, which is why he has taken on his disguise to interact with people. Arte's reveals that he was created to have that interest, but after his frail body couldn't take the Astrals' experiments and he fell into a deep sleep, he forgot that his interest was predetermined when he reawakened.
• The Love Live collaboration villain, Nihilith, has Hope Crusher abilities. Anyone who had suffered under depression before would have seen the lines she used to put the heroes in despair as something that hits close to home.
  Nihilith (To Gran/Djeeta): That sword is what made you a hero... Without it, you are nothing...
• "Reflections for a White Clover" had a few.
  • The story features the past of Sevilbarra and Krelkrulkil, Sevilbarra's brother in law before things went to hell.
  • The ending itself can count. Even though Sevilbarra finally got the revenge he wanted, the demon blade that started it all is now in the possession of his brother-in-law whose now on the deep end due to his grief. In his point of view, it's a heartbreaking Pyrrhic Victory.
• "What Makes the Sky Blue III: 000" has its moments too.
  • Azrael and Israfel, the other pair of angels of instruction with Halluel and Malluel. Halluel and Malluel were shocked to find out that the two angels had become Fallen Angels stuck in Avatar's body and driven to insanity. It's heavily implied that the two are stuck in a Two Beings, One Body situation, with the stitched-together body bag hiding whatever Body Horror they've been through in the past 2000 years. Among the duo, only Israfel still maintained a level of sanity while Azrael is too far gone by the time of "What Makes The Sky Blue III: 000".
    • Then we have flashbacks to the pair's friendship before things went to hell. Look at how happy they were in those flashbacks, and look at them now with Halluel and Malluel forcing themselves to fight the duo to restore them.
    • Their final fates. Israfel took control at the last moment and stabbed the sword to their own bodies so they won't hurt Halluel and Malluel anymore. To tip it off? We are treated with one final flashback after this scene, of Azrael making them promise that they'll get cakes together again someday after their missions are over. That never happened. Malluel's cry at their fates is heartbreaking.
    • The ending brings happy tears though; as Halluel and Malluel settle into normal lives, Cagliostro reveals that she's managed to save Az, and Iss is still inside her.
  • Sariel also becomes tragic as it is quickly made apparent how Belial became a False Friend to him in the past in order to goad him into becoming one of the Fallen Angels. Even after being restored from his Brainwashed and Crazy state in the present, he still trusts Belial... only to be betrayed and have his wings ripped off.
    • This is reversed as it turns out said wings ripping turns out to have purified Sariel of Avatar's influence and leaving him barely alive (he's found and healed up). Maybe Belial wasn't such a false friend after all.
  • For all his actions, Lucilius does hold a well deserved anger over two halves of a god that kept dragging the Astral, Primals and Skydwellers into a universe-consuming eternal proxy war between themselves. It's because of this that he decides to end it all in order to Screw Destiny.
  • Sandalphon's farewell to Lucifer, and the acknowledgement of their role reversal is truly beautiful.
    Lucifer: The heart is a mess of contradictions.
    Lucifer: Even should the world deny your forgiveness, even should people throughout time look upon you with hatred, you are and always shall be my solace.
    • Also, if one recalls some earlier dialogue, they'll notice that Lucifer is repeating a line said by Belial, when he implied that he has romantic feelings for Lucilius. Take that as you will.
• No Rain, No Rainbow is a story filled with a heartwarming ride akin to Together In Song in a lesser extent and has a few moments that brought tears:
  • Mood Whiplash comes when Jamil and Ladiva talked about how Gran/Djeeta are feeling down and enlist the help of Morphe and Phoebe to find out why... the reason? Gran/Djeeta is a Stepford Smiler hiding their loneliness of a missing father and mother and only recently, in this very event, that the loneliness and frustration comes to bite them when they read the letter their Disappeared Dad sent to them back in the start of the story. Even though Vyrn cheered a young Gran/Djeeta up that they still got him around in that dream flashback, it doesn't change the fact that Gran/Djeeta grew up feeling lonely with a longing of a picture perfect family. The loneliness felt so real and to those who lived with parents who are always out for work and little time for them, this very scene alone would hit close to home.
  • When Ladiva and Phoebe found out, they are both at a lost at what to do and Ladiva herself laments that she can't completely understand what Gran/Djeeta went through. She can empathize the loss of a parental figure, but Gran/Djeeta's parents are still around and out there while Ladiva lost hers and she is beating herself up for it for a while that she can't completely help her friend.
  • There are no villains in this event but the Final Boss? It's Ladiva herself, who decided that the best way to help Gran/Djeeta out of this is to fight them.
• Gunther asking his former friend Siegfried to kill him at the end of SIEGFRIED event. Even after turning himself into massively powerful dragon, all he wants is to be with his deceased wife and child that Siegfried failed to protect in a war.
• Trying to view Fire Yuisis's New Year's Message brings up this:
  "No messages are available as Yuisis is currently mourning"
• After trying to fulfill its duty for so long, the Joya is just finally broken by the 2019 New Year's event as it explains to the inquisitive Joy. And worse, it didn't happen because of simple wear and tear, no, it was because Raizo deliberately stole it to be used as a weapon of mass destruction without caring for the potential consequences he would inflict, both on the Joya or anyone in its vicinity.
  Joya: (upon defeat in battle) Finally I can rest...
• The final boss of Spaghetti Syndrome event is Yatima, a Moondweller girl who was left behind on Sky Realm many eons ago. Abandoned along with other sky realm-sided Moondwellers due to fuel cost, she eventually merged with an Automagod to stretch her own lifespan in place of Moon-race's standard procedure. She went on to become a robotic Mission Control of the Society that eventually ends with her Automagod side taking over her completely, raving non-stop about "going home" and putting so many lives in danger just to achieve that, even after the old Yatima is long gone. And all this happens in the middle of The Society vs The Foe (from the Moon) conflict that has been going on for ages. The final battle feels less like a confrontation with villain and more like putting a suffering girl out of her misery.
  • Earth-bound Moondwellers giving their technologies for Skyfarers to fight their own kin from the Moon in the future, seeing their very nature as a threat to Sky Realm. It's unclear why exactly those who masquerade as The Foe paint a target on Central Axis (Fear? Revenge? Gratitude toward skydwellers?), but having to fight one of their own is a displeasing idea all the same.
  • At the end of the event, Cassius is gravely wounded Taking the Bullet for Lyria and the Captain, and due to his body being integrated with moondweller tech, his best hope for survival is for Issac to take Cassius back to the moon. As the rocket makes its way to the moon, Cassius cries the whole way as he laments the friends and memories he's leaving behind. And the worse part, his people end up extracting his brain in order to study how its changed during his time in the Sky World, leaving his body simply floating in a stasis tube.
• Scent of Fate at Sky's End has one during it's seventh day cutscene with Tanjiro Kamado and Kyojuro Rengoku telling about their siblings', ending with Kyojuro welcoming Tanjiro to his home to meet with his younger brother; however many who have read the Kimetsu no Yaiba manga will know that this will not be a heartwarming moment and this comes off as Harsher in Hindsight due to the events that will happen shortly after they return and forget about the adventures they had in the Sky realm.
• Old Bond explores Gran/Djeeta and Vyrn's dynamic quite deeply, and in particular how the latter feels he is no longer needed when the captain has so many other people they can connect with both inside and outside of the crew. It gets to the point where he lets Galleon absorb his power voluntarily, rather than subject the captain to any further trials, so as to stop holding everyone else back. Gran/Djeeta is devastated when they realize this happened, because Vyrn has been with them since they were a baby.
• And You has Orologia attempt to create an ideal path for Gran/Djeeta to minimize their hardships, but no matter how positive the path looks, some things were just not meant to be.
  • Even with Gran/Djeeta growing up with their father, a route where they are not separated is completely impossible.
  • Orologia eventually realizes that they cannot accompany the captain on their journey due to it always ending in their death, and is forced to influence things from far away, making it so that they never meet.
  • Artemisia has a peaceful death thanks to a pain-dulling medicine, and Eugen never leaves in search for a cure, which means the rift between him and Apollonia never occurs. Sadly, the development of the medicine results in the creation of deadly super soldiers, leading to ruin. This means that Eugen leaving to search for a cure, and the rift between Eugen and Apollonia must occur.
  • Increasing the number of monsters causes Vane to be killed when he was just a child, leaving Lancelot without someone to lean on, and grows into a very vengeful and angry monster slayer.

Fate Episodes

• Danua's backstory. Her parents and brother were violently killed in front of her, which left her so traumatized, she lost the ability to speak in complete sentences. Prior to joining the party, her only companions were the living dolls, Hansel and Gretel who acted as her partial mouth piece.
  • At the end of her third Fate episode, Danua loses not just the doll version of her parents but also her companions Hansel and Gretel, as they all pull a Heroic Sacrifice to stop the Rogue Puppeteer from dragging Danua to hell with him. Danua spent several days sobbing after having been separated from her family a second time. At the very least, she gets her voice back.
• Aletheia gives his greatsword Andalius to his son Lucius in the latter's 5★ episode. The scene implies that Aletheia is prepared to let go from his role as a swordsman, and let his son take over the role instead.
• Aside from explaining her new outfit, Anna's SR Fate Episode also explores her relationship with her late grandmother. In particular, Anna laments having failed to follow in her grandma's footsteps. She then discovers a letter written by her grandma, in which the latter basically tells Anna that she can live a normal life if she so chooses. Anna breaking down in tears upon this discovery may hit too close to home for anyone who's lost a loved one.
  Anna: Sniff… Sniff… Waaaaaahhh! Grandma! I'm sorry!
• In his Fate Episode, Shao assists a sickly elderly woman being chased by her debt collectors for a very expensive medicine. He knew that the elder woman had an illness beyond treatment, and that the men gave her a poisonous "medicine" that would keep her ill so that the they would extort more money from her. For a long time, she suffers both debt and illness. The medicine Shao gave her temporarily relieved her pain before she passed away the next day. What's worse, the woman was unable to directly say "Thank you" to Shao, only relaying the message to one of her neighbors when Shao would later come visit her funeral. His line hits close to home for doctors who undergo the challenge of trying to save a person from death's door.
  I may be a healer, but I'm not an omnipotent god with the power to cure all illness.
• In Narmaya's final 5★ episode, she finally meets Eahta face-to-face after many years. And the first thing that they did? Fight each other. There is actually an implied explanation as to why Eahta reacted that way, but to Narmaya? She only wanted to meet and talk to him again after all these years, and had never expected that it would turn out this way. In the entire scene, the player gets to hear Narmaya's Internal Monologue, who keeps on reminiscing past memories and thinking why Eahta chose to fight her instead of simply talking. Fortunately, Fif arrives in time to stop both of them, and allows each side to speak their thoughts. What makes this gut-wrenching to watch is Narmaya nearly breaking into tears when talking to the Eternal (her face is covered in black, implying that she did cry while the voice acting really set the emotion).
• Albert's Level 100 Fate Episode. Due to corrupt nobles, Yurius's regicide of the former king was leaked and Albert, Yurius and Mina are all sentenced to death. Yurius lashes out at those gathered, angered that the kingdom would punish good people like Albert for his own past sins, and transforms into his chimera form, declaring his intent to tear down the kingdom to purge its corruption. Albert manages to defeat him with the full power of the Skyblade, redeeming him in the eyes of the people, but Yurius still flees. Long afterward, Albert thinks back and realizes that perhaps Yurius didn't actually go berserk, but instead pretended to so that Albert could come out of the situation as the "True Hero of Levin". Albert can only cry alone after realizing this.
• Even though the backstories of the Evokers can come off as Freudian Excuse for some players, the ten have been through emotionally wrecking times, tragic enough to fit Cygames' goal of presenting them as Seinen characters.
  • Nier is being deprived of treatment and affection the moment her parents found out that she is inferior to Corrie. Minus her Yandere tendencies, Nier's story hits too close to home for those who have been treated as The Unfavorite sibling and has suffered depression along the way, with the most common symptom being suicidal.
  • Maria Theresa has almost the same situation as Nier, with the difference where Theresa's is more politically-inclined instead. Her characterization is one that is broken between multiple ironic events. One thing that stands out is how her desire for free will can go against what people expect her to act. This is similar to children of political parents - those who are expected to uphold the dignity or lineage of their family, even if that desire goes against what they truly want to do with their lives... Those who suffer for pursuing freedom.
  • Caim was abandoned because his biological family couldn't stand his intelligence all too well. And he unintentionally (and some, intentionally) caused the end of many of his foster families all because he wants to know why the people around him acted the way they did. Caim ask them in the way a child who doesn't know how the world works would, but he doesn't know that his questions ended up hurting them and none of the adults around him tried to correct him because of how he worded them.
• Ferry's fate episode for her Grand version finally confronts her with the undeniable truth that her little sister has passed on. What makes this so heartbreaking is that, while Ferry herself said that this was very likely, as a century had passed since their last meeting, Ferry's very theme song "Sora no Michishirube", that was addressed toward her sister, was all about being certain of their "miraculous reunion", turning her yearning into destiny and how their parting words from back then still kept her moving on to this day. That illusion is only truly shattered when she arrives at her sister's grave. Unable to fully accept what's right in front of her (despite repeatedly telling herself she'd move on), she starts feeling pure despair, fearing that she may be unable to reach the afterlife, instead cursed to roam the world for eternity, never to see her beloved family ever again. While the episode ends on a more positive note, culminating in Ferry's renewed conviction that her existence has a purpose and that she'll be able to see her loved ones again one day, we're still left with the words of the episode's antagonist, an otherworld being that only affirms Ferry's worst fears (though it's questionable whether the being is telling the truth, as its objective was to manipulate her).

Anime

• When Ferry regains her memories, she immediately runs off to the place on the island where she said farewell to her little sister. A flashback is shown where it's rather obvious that she put on a brave face at that time, of course expecting to see her again eventually. When the scene cuts back to the present, she breaks down crying amidst the field of white flowers, probably realizing at that moment that her little sister is gone forever.

Misc.

• A subtle one in the official Mother's/Father's Day artwork, while everyone is enjoying time with their parents, Percival is conspicuously alone because of what happened to his parents.
  • This one also ends up being much Harsher in Hindsight, because a few months after it was posted, Agielba's voice actor, Unshō Ishizuka, passed away from cancer.
• Eugen and Apollonia's rocky relationship. Apollonia never forgave her father for not being by her mother's side during her last moments. Meanwhile, Eugen hasn't forgiven himself either, as he knows he should've been around more. It's in his Grand version's fate episode that we learn about how even after the doctors told him there was no cure for Artemisia's disease, he still wouldn't give up on her. He searched all over the skydom for a cure, but when he finally found one...she'd already passed on.