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) is 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. A compulsive food hoarder with an overly polite way of speech, Sasha originates from Dauper, a village in the southern territory of Wall Rose.

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

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

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

Possibly due to her younger years of struggling to hunt and find food, Sasha has 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 has proven willing to steal food from the infantry stores and/or kitchen and has 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 is a capable soldier and cannot stand by when others are in trouble.

Sasha is afraid of thunder storms, lighting, and food shortages.

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. She is also present as Ymir chides Krista for helping Sasha. She is in the cabins, asking Mikasa for her bread, but Mikasa eats it for herself. During training sessions, it is observed that she had uncanny intuition and followed unconventional practises, which makes her inappropriate for group activities. She normally hangs out with Connie and even teases Jean, after having bested the two during one of their training sessions. Her fellow trainee Ymir taunts her for speaking overly politely and lady-like and ignoring her home village's dialect. Ymir asks her to remove the mask she was putting on herself and speak her original dialect. This causes her and Krista to fight each other about it. Krista opines that she 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 Linke-Jackson from falling off the Wall.

She is later assigned to guard the middle of Trost from incoming Titans. As the trainees are stuck in Trost unable to climb the Walls to escape, Sasha tries to convince the remaining trainees to try retaking the headquarters together. When Mikasa arrives and Armin blurts out the names of the fallen of Eren's squad 34, she along with the others discover Eren and his squad did not survive. After Mikasa's speech and subsequent attempt to escape Trost, Sasha mocks everyone in an attempt to motivate them. She successfully reaches the headquarters, where Armin devises a plan to clear the supply room of Titans. During the execution of the plan, she messes up, not cutting deeply enough through the Titan's neck. As it turns to eat her, Mikasa kills it and Sasha is immediately grateful to her.

The Female Titan arc


Sasha decides to join the Survey Corps, seeing that Jean, Connie, Ymir, Reiner, Bertolt and Krista were doing the same. She becomes a bit afraid and starts crying when Erwin Smith gives his daunting speech about the Corps' missions. However, she does not back off and remains there, facing the fear of the Titans.

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. Being on the left flank, she does not encounter the  Female Titan. 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 her scream to be similar to that of a cornered animal screaming for help. She realizes that they should be much more careful than before and warns Mikasa, who is about to run into the fray, about it. Later, she returns back to the Karanes District with the Survey Corps, worn and broken.

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 lady'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.

As they walk through the city, they are surrounded by angry citizens who accuse them of wasting their taxes without giving results, and in the commotion, Eren and Historia are seemingly kidnapped by a rushing wagon; actually being Jean and Armin in disguise as a trap for the persecutors.

Sasha helps in the rescue operation and saves Mikasa when the leader of the gang, Dimo Reeves, was about to shoot her, knocking his gun to the ground with an arrow.

She is present with the squad as Levi and Hange interrogate Djel Sannes about the murder of Minister Nick. Meanwhile she and the rest of her comrades have a conversation about his part on the revolution. She wonders what would happen if they fail and she seems surprised when Armin suggests creating an accident. She remains silent after he says that they are no longer good people.

She is present with the squad, Dimo and Dimo's son when Levi and Nifa reveal that the Reiss family is the true royal family. After Levi harasses Historia to make become queen, Sasha goes to comfort her. However, things go wrong: Dimo Reeves, along with his subordinates, are killed by Kenny Ackerman and Eren and Historia are kidnapped.

The squad goes into hiding in Stohess District when they are blamed for Dimo's death. 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. Finally Mikasa tells them to trust the captain and make the decision to follow him or not.

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. They see the Military Police Brigade using the anti-personnel vertical maneuvering equipment against Levi, and watch with a horrified looks as Levi kills all of them.

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. Levi tells Armin to aim for the closest level ground to the left and tells Sasha and Connie to lead the horses. He orders Jean to return gunfire and takes Mikasa to help him with the escape using their vertical maneuvering equipment. Sasha then watches in horror with the rest of the squad when Jean is held at gunpoint by a Military Policewoman.

After the battle, Sasha is tending to Levi's wounds in a cottage while Mikasa exchanges shifts to guard with Jean. In the night, Sasha is standing guard while the rest of the squad eats and drinks around a camp fire. She listens to Jean, with a melancholic expression, saying that he hoped Levi's ways of thinking and acting were wrong, that he never wanted to kill other people, but he affirms that next time, he will shoot first.

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. At night, Sasha is seen with Levi, Mikasa, Jean and Connie in the cornfields of the First Interior Squad headquarters holding a gun while Levi states that they can be the aggressors now.

Moments later, Sasha is standing guard with Connie wielding her bow and arrow as Levi interrogates someone from the Military Police about the whereabouts of Eren and Historia. Sasha then hears multiple targets coming, warns the rest of her squad and readies her bow, while the rest of her squad readies their weapons. However those targets Hange, Marlowe, and Hitch, who 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 does not fight directly but instead supports the squad. First she shoots barrels full of gunpowder and oil with gas canisters attached at them with fire arrows, making them explode and creating a smoke screen that hides the squad. She shoots those barrels several times in order to make the enemies run away due to the smoke, making them easy to dispatch.

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 just as Historia is thrown by a burst of steam from Rod's Titan while trying to free Eren. 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 and then soon finds it and thanks Eren for saving them. She then follows the squad to the 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 Garrison begin their attack on Rod with concentrated cannon fire, but he withstands the attack and climbs up the Wall, looking over it onto the city. 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, when Historia finds the correct piece of flesh and cuts through it, killing her father.

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.

When Connie stands up saying that he is going to bed, Sasha questions his reasons, and Connie states he would like to return to Ragako Village. After he leaves, Sasha wonders if they will be able to change the village inhabitants back to human form. The conversation turns on Eren's memories about an unidentified man that Grisha met after the massacre in the Reiss chapel, and when Eren realizes he was their old drill instructor, Keith Shadis, he declares that he will visit Keith in the morning.

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 to 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 roof tops by Eren, Hange orders the scouts 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.

After the Battle for Shiganshina, a year passes and the use of the Titan guillotine clears Wall Maria from all Titans. Sasha is among the Scouts to lead an Expedition beyond Wall Maria, and finds a Titan whose limbs were so small that it could only crawl. She was among the Scouts to arrive at the ocean.

Abilities
"Lightning fast, with uncanny intuition. But her eccentricity makes her unfit for group operations."

- Keith Shadis on Sasha as a trainee

Raised as an animal hunter, Sasha specializes in archery, horseback riding, and tracking. Sasha is ranked one of the top 10 trainees of 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. She is proven to be a skilled thief, as she often manages to steal food from the infantry storage without getting caught.

She contains 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 get along well as teammates and as friends. The pair often make jokes, as they enjoy each other's company. As trainees, they frequently got in trouble together. In spite of that, they defend each other if need be.
 * Ymir - Ymir and Sasha share a strained relationship. Towards Sasha, Ymir oftentimes acts crass and nit-picky. As such, Ymir disapproves of her behavior and is easily 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 have impacted Sasha's way of speech after that point, as Sasha uses her words more freely.
 * Historia Reiss - In Sasha's trainee days, Historia has shown her a great deal of kindness, though Ymir often questioned the latter's actions. Historia is quick to come to Sasha's defense and trusts Sasha as a comrade. As well, Historia encourages Sasha to be herself and speak her mind when she wants to.
 * Mr. Blouse - Before Sasha left to become a soldier, Mr. Blouse thought of his daughter as fainthearted and a coward. Still, Mr. Blouse cares extremely for her, but gets irked when she eats their food supply. Three years later, Sasha reconciles with her father and he is proud of her accomplishments as a person.
 * Levi Ackerman - Levi's exterior intimidates Sasha to an extent. However, that does not stop Sasha from confiding in him.
 * Eren Yeager and Mikasa Ackerman - Sasha admires their bravery and strength to a certain degree. Though they do not really share a close acquaintanceship with Sasha, they are on good terms as teammates.

People Killed

 * One unnamed member of the Military Police Brigade

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.
 * Sasha is almost killed by the same Titan that killed Mina Carolina after a failed assassination attempt, but the Titan is killed by Mikasa.
 * 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 is one of the most popular characters in the series, and has even become a small internet phenomenon, often being referred to by her nickname "Potato Girl" (芋女).
 * 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 is one of the few characters to survive an encounter with a Titan without using her vertical equipment.
 * Isayama states that there is not any food Sasha dislikes.
 * Sasha shares a birthday with Dina Yeager.

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