Sasha Blouse

"I guess...I'll never be able to go back home."

- Sasha fears for her village

Sasha Blouse (サシャ・ブラウス) was a member of the Survey Corps and one of the few former members of the 104th Training Corps, of which she was ranked 9th best, that decided to join the regiment, upon coming into contact with Eren's strong desire to eliminate the Titans. A compulsive food hoarder with an overly polite way of speech, Sasha was from Dauper, a village in the southern territory of Wall Rose.

Appearance
Sasha was a young woman with light gold eyes and brown hair kept in a ponytail that reached the base of her neck. Her bangs were slightly parted to the left, cascading down each side of her face and stopped around the middle of her neck. On missions, she wore the standard Survey Corps uniform with a light gray shirt underneath. When not on missions, she wore a simple long sleeved blouse with a skirt that slightly covered her boots. On some occasions, she even wore a sleeveless vest over her blouse. She had a slender figure and was of average height.

In the year 854, she had grown taller and her hair was shorter but with longer bangs, exposing more of her face. While in Marley, She wore a black Survey Corps uniform with with belts and support rods for her vertical maneuvering equipment along with a rifle.

Personality
Sasha was a friendly, fun-loving girl with a compulsive appetite. Originating from Dauper Village, she had a local accent, but actively hid it out of embarrassment by using formal speech, even when conversing with her fellow trainees.

Initially, Sasha was shown to be somewhat timid and prone to make mistakes when under stressful situations. She was rather simple-minded and eccentric, but her intuition was very sharp. Sasha was also surprisingly courageous, and she was considered a wise judge of circumstances and danger.

Possibly due to her younger years of struggling to hunt and find food, Sasha had developed an incredible appetite; eating provides her with considerable gratification and relief, especially during times of great stress, and food is often the only thing on her mind when at ease. So compulsive in her desire to eat, she had proven willing to steal food from the infantry stores and/or kitchen and earned herself the nickname "Potato Girl" (芋女) after stealing a potato and absent-mindedly explaining herself when her superior caught her. Despite her gluttonous tendencies, Sasha was a capable soldier and could not stand by when others are in trouble.

In the year 854, Sasha had adapted to her role as a sniper, agreeing with Jean that, as time has passed, killing other soldiers had become easier. Despite her newfound cold professionalism in the field, Sasha still appeared to be incapable of killing civilians and especially children, exemplified when she had Gabi Braun in her sights yet could not take the shot.

History
Sasha lived with her father from Dauper Village in the mountains, located in the southern district of Wall Rose, before joining the 104th Training Corps and then later the Survey Corps. Dauper Village is a low populated village which specializes in hunting for food, hence her knowledge and skills for hunting and animal instincts. She left the village to join the military after getting into an argument with her father when he told her they might have to give up their traditional lifestyle of hunting in favor of farming to support the large number of refugees moving to the area after the fall of Wall Maria.

104th Training Corps arc
On the first day of training, she steals a steamed potato from the kitchen and is questioned by Keith, their head instructor, while he performs the "Rite of Passage" ritual on them. In shock, he wonders why she was eating a potato during training, and she says it is natural for humans to eat potatoes. She rips off the smaller half of the potato and hands it to him, grinning. As punishment, she runs around the premises for 5 hours, or until she is on the brink of death.

Krista Lenz sneaks in some bread from the dining hall to help Sasha out after she passes out from the exercise, and Sasha greedily steals it.

Like many of her fellow trainees, Sasha gradually begins to slack off during training exercises that will not go towards helping her graduate in the top 10. This lack of motivation among the trainees leads to a confrontation between Eren Yeager and Jean Kirstein over the way the training corps operates, which garners Keith's attention. In order to spare Eren from getting in trouble for starting a fight, Mikasa Ackerman claims that the commotion was caused by Sasha passing gas, a lie which she atones for by giving Sasha her loaf of bread after Keith has left.

During training, it is observed that she has uncanny intuition and follows unconventional practices, making her inappropriate for group activities. During a training session in which the trainees practice their maneuvering skills against Titan mannequins, Sasha tails Connie and Jean as they search for Titans, stealing their kills once they have located them. Jean confronts them afterwards, and Sasha simply ridicules him for complaining. The argument is interrupted when they overhear Marco Bott admitting that he allowed others to kill the Titans he found, wanting to act as "bait" for the Titans the way he would in an actual combat scenario, prompting Sasha to claim that she would like to serve in a squad led by Marco in an actual combat scenario.

At one point, Ymir taunts her for speaking overly politely and ignoring her home village's dialect, telling her to remove the mask she was putting on herself and speak her original dialect. Krista disagrees, opining that Sasha should speak those words as and when they come to her.

Sasha later graduates in the ninth position among the top ten trainees.

Battle of Trost District arc
Sasha, along with Eren and the others, is assigned to maintain the cannons on top of Wall Rose in Trost District. She steals some meat from the Officer's provisions and offers to share it with them. She enthusiastically predicts that after they reconquer Wall Maria, they will be able to keep cows and sheep. This puts everyone into high moods as they accept the meat and get back to work. Suddenly, the Colossus Titan appears out of nowhere and breaks the gate of Trost with its foot. Everyone is knocked off the Wall and Sasha manages to save Samuel from falling off the Wall.

She is later assigned to guard the middle of Trost from incoming Titans, and is among the trainees that are left stranded and unable to retreat to from battle due to running out of gas for their vertical maneuvering equipment. Sasha tries to convince the remaining trainees to try retaking the headquarters together, but is unable to convince them. After Mikasa decides to try to reach the headquarters, Sasha elects to join her, mocking the other trainees to try to motivate them to join in the attack.

She successfully reaches the headquarters, where Armin devises a plan to clear the supply room of Titans. Sasha is one of seven soldiers that are selected to kill the Titans in the supply room, once they have been drawn in and blinded with gunfire. During the execution of the plan, she messes up, not cutting deeply enough through her assigned Titan's neck. As it turns to eat her, Mikasa kills it and Sasha is immediately grateful to her.

After escaping the headquarters, they reunite with their fellow trainees and are placed on standby. While waiting, Sasha attempts to fake having a stomachache in an attempt to get out of returning to battle.

The Female Titan arc
Sasha decides to join the Survey Corps, seeing that Jean, Connie, Ymir, Reiner, Bertolt and Krista were doing the same. Though she begins to break down and cry when Erwin Smith gives his daunting speech about the Survey Corps's mortality rate, she is not deterred, and chooses to join the corps.

A month later, she is sent out with the Survey Corps on their 57th expedition. She is positioned on Line 2 and File 3 in the enemy detection formation and is on relay duty. On the way, she is attacked by a Titan, which was unassumingly hiding behind a building. Her squad members successfully lure it away and she returns to her assigned position.

Later, she is assigned to guard the border of the Titan Forest, after the middle flank successfully lures the Female Titan in. After the Female Titan's capture, she recognizes its scream to be similar to that of a cornered animal screaming for help, and warns Mikasa that they should be careful.

Clash of the Titans arc
Sasha and the others are stationed close to her and Connie's villages as they await orders. They do not seem to understand why they were stationed there. Sasha hears multiple heavy footsteps coming from a distance and they soon learn that Wall Rose had been breached and that they must act quickly. She joins the North Squad to help evacuate the villagers in the northern part.

She worriedly returns to her own village noticing that a certain Titan had headed straight for it. She enters a house, wherein a 3-meter Titan is biting away at a 's leg while her child was sitting nearby, paralyzed out of fear. Sasha takes the child away and grabs a bow and four arrows. Sasha, upon realizing that the 3-meter Titan is following them, tells the little girl to find help right away. Once she is gone, Sasha tries to hold him off with the bow and arrows. The only way she could buy some time is if she takes out the Titan's eyes. Sasha succeeds by jamming the last arrow in the Titan's other eye and its blood is slippery enough for her to slip away from its grasp and save herself. She later encounters a group which is providing horses to people. Her father is there, and he finds himself proud of her for the first time and Sasha is glad to be reunited with her father and the villagers.

The Uprising arc
After two weeks have passed, she is hand picked by Levi alongside her friends of the 104th Training Corps as a member of the new Squad Levi, and is stationed with them in a lone house within a forest, where they are hiding in order to protect Eren and Historia. She talks to Armin about the reasons why they were chosen despite being new recruits, and suggests it is simply because they are good. After she is discovered stealing bread from the few supplies that are already present, a discussion with her comrades arises which reminds Eren to the old squad.

During Hange's Titan experiments with Eren, Sasha helps stand guard around the place. Later, the group receives some mysterious instructions from Erwin to abandon their hut. Shortly after, they watch from a distance as the hut is stormed by the Military Police Brigade First Interior Squad.

After Armin and Jean are kidnapped, Sasha helps in the rescue operation and saves Mikasa when the leader of the gang, Dimo Reeves, prepares to shoot her, knocking his gun to the ground with an arrow.

She is present with the squad, Reeves and Reeves' son when Levi and Nifa reveal that the Reiss family is the true royal family. After Levi harasses Historia to become queen, Sasha goes to comfort her.

After Reeves is killed, the squad goes into hiding in Stohess District. They have a conversation about their new lives as fugitives and criticize captain Levi. Sasha says how Levi may want to threaten Historia once she is queen.

After Levi's battle with Kenny, Sasha hears gunfire and Armin realizes that the Military Police Brigade have found Levi. The squad then rides on their horses and commandeer a carriage and follow the casket wagon.

Levi arrives on the carriage and tells the squad to stop pursuit of Eren and Historia because it is a trap to get all of the Survey Corps members killed, ordering Sasha and Connie to lead the horses.

After the battle, Sasha tends to Levi's wounds in a cottage. In the night, Sasha is standing guard while the rest of the squad eats and drinks around a campfire.

After the squad catches Marlowe and Hitch and Levi interrogates them, he orders Sasha to leave them tied up in the forest but Jean intervenes, saying that he would like to do it instead.

Later that night, Sasha and her squad attack the First Interior Squad's headquarters, capturing one of the officers. She and Connie stand guard as Levi interrogates him for the whereabouts of Eren and Historia. Sasha then warns the squad that she hears multiple people incoming. Hange, Marlowe, and Hitch arrive and tell the Squad that the Survey Corps are exonerated and they are no longer being persecuted. After this, they decide to rescue Eren and Historia, since Hange knows where they may be.

When they find Eren and Historia under the Reiss chapel, Sasha takes part in the operation to rescue them. She shoots barrels full of gunpowder and oil with gas canisters attached with fire arrows, making them explode and creating a smokescreen that hides the squad.

During the fight she saves Connie's life by firing an arrow at the soldier who was about to shoot him, killing a person for the first time. However, the battle is suddenly stopped when Rod Reiss transforms into an enormous Titan, surprising everybody and making the whole cave fall apart.

Sasha and the squad arrive and Eren is freed, but the squad is pushed back against the Wall due to the heat and force of the steam emitted by Rod Reiss' Titan. Eren notices a bottle labelled "Armored-Braun," and in a last-ditch effort to save the squad, crushes it in his mouth while transforming.

While transformed, Eren manages to control his hardening powers and stops the cave from falling. As the squad retrieves Eren, Sasha starts looking for an exit. She follows the squad to Orvud District, where they plan to fight the now transformed Rod Reiss. Sasha waits at the top of the Wall at dawn with her comrades.

As Rod approaches the Wall, the members of the Levi squad douse themselves in water to endure the extreme heat from the steam. Sasha takes part in the operation to kill the Titan by blowing apart one of his hands with a gunpowder barrel with built-in shooters made by Hange. When he is crippled, he loses balance and Eren takes the opportunity to transform into a Titan and shoves gunpowder into his mouth, causing the steam to ignite it and explode Rod. The squad tries to cut the flying pieces in order to kill the main body.

Some time later, Historia is crowned as queen. Sasha follows Historia while they talk about punching Levi, following the promise that Historia made to Dimo Reeves. However, when Levi appears and Historia punches him, everybody is surprised as he just smiles at them and thanks them.

Two months later, Sasha is on the orphanage with the rest of the squad carrying some boxes while getting her hair pulled by one of the children. Later on, Sasha is in the farm eating some soup along with the rest of the 104th Training Corps. Marlowe and the rest of the 104th Squad who have just joined are excited about the Titan guillotine and the prospect of taking back Wall Maria. Sasha asks Marlowe if Hitch tried to stop him. He said she tried to convince him of the benefits of staying in the Military Police Brigade, but he refused, claiming that he was wrong about her. This makes everyone to comment on how much of an idiot he was for not realizing Hitch's feelings towards him, except for Eren, who does not notice it either.

Return to Shiganshina arc
In the morning, Keith is visited by Eren, Hange, Mikasa, Armin, Levi, Jean and Sasha at the training camp and Eren asks him to tell them everything he knows. They are in a house, with all of them sitting on chairs except for Sasha. Keith remembers that he summoned Sasha in the past to rake her over the coals. Keith then tells the story of him and Grisha Yeager. The story ends with Keith finding Eren in a forest, unconscious, after eating Grisha and Keith bringing him back to the shelter. Hange then berates him for leaving the Survey Corps and withholding valuable information from them while Levi tells her to be quiet.

Time passes, and the preparations for the retake of Wall Maria are finished. The day before the operation, the soldiers have a special dinner full of meat and delicious food, but without letting the civilians know about the dinner. After seeing a big cooked portion of meat, Sasha goes crazy and tries to eat it all by herself. Connie and Jean try to stop her, with Jean being successful in removing the meat from her. However, Sasha then begins to bite Jean's hand. Marlowe receives a punch after stating that it is pitiful that the Survey Corps hardly gets to eat meat. Sasha then futilely punches Mikasa in the abdomen, who then tells Connie to choke Sasha out. Finally, Connie stops her and restrains her with Eren's help. Sasha regains her senses and tries muffling in vain for them to untie her. After the dinner is done, everyone walks out of the building, ignoring Sasha as she tries to get their attention to untie her.

The following day, Sasha is ready to go to Shiganshina District, along with the rest of the Survey Corps. They are surprised when the civilians start cheering for them. In response, Sasha, Jean, and Connie begin cheering with them. When the operations starts, Sasha goes with Squad Levi, riding towards Shiganshina at dawn.

After arriving in Shiganshina, Sasha watches Eren seal the hole in Wall Maria alongside her fellow Corps soldiers. After Eren successfully seals the hole, Sasha and the rest of her squad begin to go to meet up with the rest of the Survey Corps, but stop and take up positions atop the Wall after he shoots a signal flare into the air. From there they witness Reiner's emergence from within Wall Maria, and the appearance of the Beast Titan and his army.

As Eren and Reiner fight in their Titan forms, Sasha and her squad surround the two and prepare to help Eren. After Hange and Mikasa manage to blind Reiner, Sasha and the rest of the squad use their Thunder Spears on his Titan form's nape and expose his human body. Although both Sasha and Connie find themselves unwilling to kill Reiner, Jean manages to convince them to carry on with their mission. As Sasha and Connie cry over Reiner's apparent death, a tearful Jean tries to convince them not to mourn for him. The three are stunned when Reiner's Titan form suddenly begins to roar.

Sasha is among her colleagues when Bertolt is thrown about Shiganshina in a barrel. As the team quickly retreat, Bertolt appears and jumps down from his barrel. Sitting on rooftops by Eren, Hange orders the Corps to finish off the Armored Titan while Armin speaks with Bertolt. After a failed attack by Mikasa, Bertolt leaves their sites and goes over head to transform. Sasha braces herself for the explosion with her comrades and watches in horror as all the other soldiers who were surrounding Reiner, including Hange, are caught in the fiery blast. After Bertolt's transformation, the squad looks in horror and wonders if they are the only ones who survived.

The Colossus Titan begins throwing burning houses in the air, searching for them. Connie begins to panic and laugh, prompting Sasha to hit him on the head at Jean's request. Armin begins to panic as well, unable to strategize for them and this causes him to hand command over to Jean who orders the team to get on Eren to save gas as they move to the river and then devises a plan in which Eren will keep Bertolt distracted from the commander's group. Soon after, Eren yells at Bertolt for attention but is ignored. Sasha worries that they cannot use vertical maneuvering equipment around such hot steam. The squad then scatters as Eren begins a direct attack to Bertolt's ankle. However, Bertolt lifts his leg with Eren still grasping and throwing him into the top of the Wall as his team looks on in horror. Sasha and her friends lose hope in amidst their dire situation. Jean formulates a plan in which Sasha, him, and Connie will act as the diversion while Mikasa fires the Thunder Spear at the Colossus Titan's nape. As soon as the Colossus Titan lets out Titan vapor, Sasha steers clear but notices that Connie has breathed in some of it and burned his throat.

After Reiner's return to the battle, Sasha participates in Squad Levi's attack to keep him from reaching Eren and Armin. While Jean acts as a decoy to keep Reiner's attention, Sasha and Connie attempt to use their Thunder Spears to blow open Reiner's mouth. However, Sasha is severely injured when Reiner uses debris from nearby houses to defend himself, and her Thunder Spear misses its mark. As she loses consciousness, Sasha is carried away from the battle by a panicked Connie.

After Reiner is defeated with the help of Hange, Sasha's unconscious body is attended to by Connie. Still unconscious, Sasha is carried to the roof by Connie where the others have a debate on who will use the serum. When Armin wakes up, he finds Sasha next to him. Though not completely unconscious, she is still worn out from the battle. She mumbles quiet words to reprimand her comrades from talking so loud.

The surviving Survey Corps members then return to Trost where Sasha is recovering from her injuries while her comrades debrief the military on the knowledge gained in Shiganshina. She eventually regains consciousness and eats a few apples as she rests. Later, she rejoins her Survey Corps comrades to be exonerated with a medal for her role in the recent battle.

After the Battle of Shiganshina, a year passes and the use of the Titan guillotine clears Wall Maria from all Titans. Sasha is among the Survey Corps to lead an Expedition beyond Wall Maria, and finds a Titan whose limbs were so small that it could only crawl. The Survey Corps arrives at the ocean and Sasha playfully experiences it with her friends.

Marley arc
Sasha volunteered to be part of the group of Survey Corps soldiers sent to meet with the survey ship sent from Marley. She witnessed Eren beaching the ship with his Titan form and the resulting exchange between Hange and Yelena. She later fell asleep, only to be woken by Mikasa. A year later, Sasha went with Connie, Jean, Armin, Mikasa and Eren to meet several nations when the latter started discussing who should receive his Titan powers when his tenure expires in five years. Sasha volunteered along with the others, yet argued back and forth with Connie over who's more intelligent. Eren then tells them all that he values their friendship too much to choose any of them, and resolves to select someone else.

In the year 854, Sasha took part in the Survey Corps' attack on Liberio. Together with Connie, she was tasked with killing any armed combatants entering the internment zone with her rifle, and setting up light markers throughout the city. After finishing, Sasha and Connie reunited with the rest of the corps, and watched from a safe distance as Eren and Mikasa attempted to defeat the War Hammer Titan. When the Jaw Titan begins interfering, Sasha and her fellow soldiers attempts to help Eren, but are quickly forced to take cover from a barrage of gunfire from the weapons equipped on the Cart Titan. Regrouping, Sasha and her allies prepare to face off with their enemies, as the Beast Titan arrives.

Sasha takes cover behind a destroyed artillery gun as the Cart Titan's gunners are engaging her comrades. Seeing the opportunity, she aims at one of the gunners and kills him via a single bullet to the head. The enraged Titan charges at her, but Sasha escapes as Jean and the other soldiers fire a barrage of Thunder Spears at it.

Eventually, Sasha regroups with the other Survey Corps members aboard the airship. Commenting about how she is ready for supper, she hears something over the cheering of the other soldiers. Sasha turns around and sees a girl aiming a rifle at her; before Sasha can do anything, the girl shoots her in the chest. As Connie and Jean rush to her side to try to stop the bleeding, Sasha wonders aloud what is going on and why everyone is yelling. As she drifts in and out of consciousness, she asks for some meat. Despite the efforts made by the other soldiers, Sasha bleeds out and dies next to Mikasa and Armin.

After the Survey Corps return to Paradis, Sasha and the rest of the soldiers who died in Marley are buried. Mikasa remains at her grave after the funeral service, reflecting on what needs to be done for the Eldians to live.

Abilities
Raised as an animal hunter, Sasha shows high level skills in archery, horseback riding, and tracking. Sasha is ranked one of the top 10 trainees in her squad, implying good physical abilities. She was also commented to have a better sense of balance than some of the other trainees. Sasha's hearing is also very acute, to the point that she could detect an approaching group of Titans before many of her fellow trainees. As well as physical abilities, Sasha has good knowledge of wild animals and utilizing her hunter experience (shown when the Female Titan screamed), she knew exactly what the scream meant (a distress cry; danger) and that they should be wary of it. She also seems to be athletic and useful with bow and arrow, injuring a 3m class Titan alone with just a bow. She is later shown to be able to disarm a person without any injury to the said person with archery alone.

Four years after reclaiming Wall Maria, she has proven to be very proficient in using bolt action rifles, fatally sniping down multiple Marleyan soldiers from a rooftop in only a couple of seconds and sniping a gunner through a narrow opening in the middle of a firefight. She is proven to be a skilled thief, as she often manages to steal food from the infantry storage without getting caught.

She possesses at least a small amount of medical knowledge; being chosen to attend to Levi's wounds after he was attacked by Kenny Ackerman and the First Interior Squad.

Relationships

 * Connie Springer - Sasha and Connie got along well as teammates and as friends. The pair often made jokes, as they enjoyed each other's company. As trainees, they frequently got in trouble together. In spite of that, they defended each other if need be. It is implied that the two were extremely close due to the look on Sasha's face when Connie said that they were special to him.
 * Ymir - Ymir and Sasha shared a strained relationship. Towards Sasha, Ymir oftentimes acted crass and nit-picky. As such, Ymir disapproved of her behavior and was unimpressed by Sasha's actions. For example, Ymir questioned Sasha's way of speech, deeming it too sickeningly polite. Ymir was held back by Historia. Ymir's words impacted Sasha's way of speech after that point, as Sasha used her words more freely.
 * Historia Reiss - In Sasha's trainee days, Historia had shown her a great deal of kindness, though Ymir often questioned the latter's actions. Historia was quick to come to Sasha's defense and trusted Sasha as a comrade. As well, Historia encouraged Sasha to be herself and speak her mind when she wanted to.
 * Mr. Blouse - Before Sasha left to become a soldier, her father thought of her as fainthearted and a coward. Still, he cared extremely for her, but got irked when she ate their food supply. Three years later, Sasha reconciled with her father and he was proud of her accomplishments as a person.
 * Eren Yeager and Mikasa Ackerman - Sasha admired their bravery and strength to a certain degree. Though they did not really share a close acquaintanceship with Sasha, they were on good terms as teammates. However, as time passed, Sasha appeared to grow closer to both of them, to the point where her death distressed them immensely.
 * Nicolo - After the capture of the first Marleyan team sent to recon Paradis, Nicolo was put to work cooking for his comrades and his Eldian captors. Sasha seemed especially sympathetic towards him, and was overjoyed at the many new foods Nicolo introduced her and her comrades to, calling him a "genius" when she first sampled his seafood cuisine. The two grew close over time and Nicolo was so moved by Sasha's love of his food that he gradually abandoned his ingrained prejudice towards the islanders. Nicolo risked his safety to visit Sasha's final resting place, and was visibly traumatized at the news of her loss. He then offered to cook for her grieving family in honor of her memory.

People killed

 * One member of the Anti-Personnel Control Squad
 * Carlo
 * At least 2 Marleyan Public Security Authority guards

Failed attempts

 * Reiner Braun

Trivia

 * Hajime Isayama named Sasha after comedic actor to reflect the fact that he intended for her to provide a comedic element to the series.
 * An interview with Isayama's editor in Otomedia's October 2013 issue revealed Isayama originally intended to kill Sasha in Volume 9. However, he was persuaded to change his mind by the editor, who apparently went to the bathroom and cried when presented with the ending. This accounts for Sasha's absence during the majority of the Clash of the Titans arc, though she would later receive a stronger presence in the arc during its anime adaptation.
 * The official manga guidebook features original character design sketches that show Sasha's design was originally quite different.
 * Sasha's name is short for "Alexandra," which comes from the Greek "Alexandros," meaning "defender of humankind." "Blouse" (Brauss) comes from the German saying "in Sauß und Brauss leben," meaning "to live off the fat of the land," a phrase she herself quotes.
 * She was one of the few characters to survive an encounter with a Titan without using her vertical equipment.
 * Isayama stated that there is not any food Sasha dislikes.
 * Sasha shares a birthday with Dina Fritz.

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