lost in heaven

timeline

on march 8th, 2018 (EST timezone), I started playing granblue fantasy. originally, I didn't start for sandalphon. rather, what makes the sky blue 2 had started, and my twitter timeline was inundated with clips and fanart of belial. I am a simple man. I had to figure out what was his fucking problem. as such, I signed up. I had zero context of anything happening in the story so I was just kind of blindly stumbling though WMTSB2 and getting the vaguest grasp on things. I don't actually think sandalphon made that huge of an impression in me in the story, aside from he was Sad and Pining and those are traits I like in fictional guys. I did start getting invested in belial/sandalphon very early on because I liked belial teasing sandalphon and sandalphon just going apeshit about it. but I talk about that more on the shipping page.

sandalphon was the second SSR that I got, and honestly the one I used the most early on. WMTSB2 gave out a light element SSR weapon as a prize, and so early on my light team had a major advantage. sandalphon headed the team, which I used for pretty much every main story fight until I got team members and weapons to fill out my other elements. I read his fate episode and I thought it was endearing how much he cared about coffee... and of course, the Vita Classic Trope of pining for someone who is gone.

the real turning point I think, was shortly after I started playing gbf. on march 13th granblue began the yearly white day mini event, where you could give gifts to female characters in the game or receive gifts from male characters. if I recall correctly, this was also the first year they let players ignore the gender of the MC for white day. as in, in previous years you would need to pick the female MC to receive gifts from guys and then swap to the male MC to give gifts to girls. they were v strict about "we aren't rewriting any of the white day messages so you might get misgendered" but I was delighted that I could play my MC as gay even if it wasn't the "intended route"

every year cygames adds some more otome game CG-esque art for a few of the guys. surprise surprise, sandalphon got CG art (so soon after his debut too...). being an otome game enthusiast, it was a Direct Hit.

it was joever for me after that. I was committed. I haven't taken him off my light team since then, even if he's far outclassed by better units now. eventually when I get his light grand unit I'll swap him out. I made his event unit my starred character too, and haven't removed him except for a few brief moments (where I then immediately felt bad and re-starred him LMAO). I've been playing granblue on and off since I started, but I always come back for sandalphon centric events!! or even just ones that he shows up in... his character growth over the years from disgruntled mildly feral guy to guy who truly cares for captain and the crew warms my heart... I do miss his disasterphon self sometimes. I want to know more of what happened in the 2,000 years he was in pandaemonium!! I also just think it's really funny how prickly disasterphon is in the brief glimpses you get of him in his fate episodes and birthday messages.

I ended up giving event sandalphon my first perpetuity ring on january 28th, 2019. I've ringed all his units so far and I intend on keeping doing so as long as new sandalphons keep getting released!!

it took me a whole five years later, but I finally bought the eterno récit sandalphon ring to have an irl representation of our wedding rings... ahahahaha............

I thought for sure at some point I would get tired of sandalphon and move on to another character but even during the phases that granblue hasn't been my forerunning obsession I still think a lot about sandalphon... it helps that since granblue is a live service game I keep getting little pellets of sandalphon media every now and then to keep me coming back. he's also an insanely popular character, topping popularity polls frequently in the fandom, which is a new experience to me. usually the kinds of characters I go after are side guys who have their moment in the spotlight and then fade into the background of the fandom, so it's nice to keep getting official nods to sandalphon.

I wasn't sure where to put this on the shrine but I needed to mention that I got a sandalphon vanity license plate for my car shortly after I got it in 2019. no photos of it because I don't want to dox myself but I needed people to know that

back to top

lovemail

• I think that his hair being super fluffy and covering his ears is very cute. I love his stupid little ahoge.
• his coffee hobby is endearing. super powerful creatures that have a fascination with something terrifically mundane is a favorite of mine... I think his mild snobbery over black coffee is really funny too because again!! it's so mundane. so tiny on the grand scale of things. but he cares about it a lot.
• his big brother dynamic with lyria is super charming... another indicator of how he's gotten closer to the crew in general
• I mentioned this earlier but I enjoy his gradual defrosting with the crew... he reminds me of one of those videos of someone capturing a feral cat and then very slowly they start feeding it and being able to pet it... sandalphon was more "self-pitying and sad" than aggressive but the vibes are still there
• his delicate hands.......
• every single time they post new official art of him he looks more pretty and I can't stand it T_T
• his dynamic with lucio is so funny... lucio always being v excited to see sandalphon and sandalphon is just. This Guy Again.
• Legs.
• I think it's cute how seriously he takes his work. whether it be protecting the skies as the supreme primarch or serving customers at his cafe on the grandcypher
• his voice is very nice!!! his character song is so good... stream ain soph aur.

there was a tweet that said something along the lines of "you should make notes on your F/O's design! and I took an hour to yap about sandalphon's outfits. click for full image.

back to top

lore

there's two depictions I take with vita/sandalphon... one is just my internet persona w/ him in some sort of Vague Modern Domesticity AU b/c I couldn't really drag and drop my persona's design into gbf without some stark changes to their lore. also sometimes (most of the time) I don't want to bother with drawing sandalphon's armor so vague modern times au is an excuse to draw him in casual clothes. there is quite literally zero plot to this depiction I just want to draw him and my persona being cute together!!

the other is actual GBFverse where I have my self insert crew member that ends up dating (and marrying) sandalphon while the two travel together with gran and djeeta. demo (my S/I), is a trans male draph from valtz duchy who works as a blacksmith, and who joins the crew because he wants to see more of the skydom(s) than just his small slice. he claims colossus did his top surgery. he ends up assisting the crew with weapons maintenance! demo meets sandalphon during the first what makes the sky blue event and because they are So Normal they're like "I could fix him." and then what makes the sky blue two happens a year later and now that sandalphon is actually part of the grandcypher crew demo doesn't know what to do now.

he also doesn't want to like, ask sandalphon immediately because the archangel is still Extremely In Mourning so demo just tries to get into coffee like some of the other crew members since that's what sandalphon likes. demo ends up visiting sandalphon's makeshift cafe on the grandcypher often, talking with the supreme primarch over coffee. he takes care of sandalphon's weapons too, with a lot more care than he does the rest of the crew, and it is very obvious to everyone but sandalphon himself that demo is crushing madly on the supreme primarch.

things continue on, what makes the sky blue: 000 happens, and demo is on the backlines for most of that so he doesn't entirely know what happened with sandalphon but he can sense that something has changed. a weight off the supreme primarch's shoulders, so to say. demo still doesn't ask out sandalphon for a while because he's too chickenshit but eventually with the support of cagliostro and ladiva he does!! and him and sandalphon go out for coffee on one of the islands and continue to date casually for a while. sandalphon has appreciated demo's presence and support for his little cafe endeavor for a while. both of them have trouble expressing emotions so they don't say "i love you" for a long time... it takes even longer for demo to propose with a ring he made himself (scariest thing he had done in his life). they haven't actually had a ceremony just because they're both insanely busy with shit blowing up in the skies constantly but they do refer to each other as their husband... demo knows that sandalphon still misses lucifer badly, but also. if lucifer ever comes back Sandalphon Has Two Hands

I'll post art here. eventually. I have nothing right now that's not 5+ years old.

back to top