User blog comment:Neetaku/A Think Piece on the Characters of Sasha Blouse and Connie Springer (AKA: Neetaku Rants: Part 1)/@comment-28958062-20170716133149

I think that in Isayama's original draft Connie was supposed to leave the Military after he learned that Sasha died, his whole village was turned into titans and two of his friends were actually the enemy.

I can see Connie having survivor guilt for being the only one left and his resolve to fight completely crumble under the circustances that every person he was close to was either dead or a traditor.

In saving Sasha, Connie got a crutch and stayed with the Survey Corps but this wasn't covered by Isayama's draft so both of them ended as backround sporadic comic relief characters with plot armor.