Sasha Blouse

Sasha Burausu (サシャ・ブラウス) is a member of the Survey Corps and one of the few former members of the 104th Trainees Squad, of which she was ranked 9th best, that decided to join. 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 grey 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.

Early Days
Sasha seems to have lived with her father from the Dauper Village from the mountains, located in a southern district of Wall Rose, before joining the Survey Corps. The 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 Trainees Squad arc
On the first day of training, she stole a steamed potato from the kitchen and was questioned by Keith, their head instructor, while he was performing the "Rite of Passage" ritual on them. In shock, he wondered why she was eating a potato during training, and she said it was natural for humans to eat potatoes. She rips off the smaller half of the potato and hands it to him, grinning. As punishment, she had to run around for 5 hours, or until she was on the brink of death.

Krista Lenz sneaked in some bread from the dining hall to help Sasha out after she passed 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 was observed that she had uncanny intuition and followed unconventional practices, which made her inappropriate for group activities. She has been seen to interacting with Connie and even teasing 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 caused 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, was assigned to maintain the cannons on top of Wall Rose in Trost District. She stole some meat from the Officer's provisions and offered 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 Colossal Titan appeared out of nowhere and broke the gate of Trost with it's 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 tried 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's on the 57th expedition. She is positioned on Line 2 and File 3 in the enemy detection formation and was on relay duty. On the way, she was 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 was assigned to guard the border of the Forest of Giant Trees, after the middle flank successfully lured 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 was about to run into the fray, about it. Later, she returns back to the Karanese 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 was 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 was following them, tells the little girl to find help right away. Once she's 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 it's blood was slippery enough for her to slip away from its grasp and save herself. She later encountered a group which was providing horses to people. Her father was there, and he found 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 had passed, she is hand picked by Levi alongside her friends of the 104th Trainees Squad 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 was 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.

She is later seen reunited with Levi and the rest of the squad listening in silence as they discuss Armin's idea of sealing the hole in Wall Maria using Eren's Titan hardening abilities, as well as the recent murder of Pastor Nick at the hands of the Military Police. At the end of the discussion, she and Jean leave to stand guard outside the hut. She is seen with the group in a flashback where Historia reveals her past, her mother's murder and the events that led to her enlistment in the Survey Corps.

During Hange's Titan experiments with Eren, Sasha helps stand guard around the place. Later, the group receives some mysterious instructions from Erwin that leave them in shock, and they abandon the hut to follow the plan. Shortly after, they watch from the distance the hut being stormed 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, attaching his gun to the ground with an arrow.

Later, when Levi is dealing with Dimo and demands receiving black tea as one of the conditions to give him Eren and Historia, Sasha exclaims excited about how wonderful that idea is.

She is present with the squad as Levi and Hange interrogate Djel Sanes about the murder of Pastor 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, looking at Historia with a shocked expression on her face. When Levi grabs Historia by the collar of her shirt, Sasha is shocked and she goes to comfort Historia when Levi drops her down. Levi shouts at Historia to make her become queen, and she reluctantly agrees, while the rest of the squad gives them an angry look. However, things go wrong: Dimo Reeves, along with other people, are killed by Kenny Ackerman and Eren and Historia are kidnapped.

Some days later, the squad is hidden on the Stohess District because they are blamed by the death of Dimo Reeves and some other people. 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 Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear 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 Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear. 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.

In the morning, Mikasa and Levi ambush Marlo and Hitch who were hunting for Survey Corps members, using Armin as a bait. Levi tells 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 Central Military Police 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 are Marlo and Hitch, who told the Squad that the Survey Corps are exonerated and they are no longer being persecuted. This makes everyone very happy and makes Sasha hug Hitch. 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, making her kill 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. Levi, Jean and Connie try desperately to unlock Eren's chains while the ceiling is falling. They succeed but are pushed back against the wall due to the heat and force of the steam emitted by Rod Reiss' Titan. Everyone looks at Eren as he notes how useless he is while denying being the hope of mankind. He notices the bottle labelled "Armored-Braun", and turns to Levi looking for guidance. Levi then apologizes and tells him to make up his own mind as Eren then hesitates for a moment and crushes the armor bottle in his mouth.

While transformed, Eren manages to control the hardening powers and stops the cave from falling, however he does not remember these events when he regains consciousness. 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 where Mikasa asks her if she has eaten anything, to which she replies that she is not hungry.

Eren then realizes that everyone is tired and filled with regret from the previous battle, and that they are all worried for the fight ahead. However their conversation is stopped when Rod Reiss approaches the city, marking the beginning of their battle.

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 Trainees Squad. Marlo 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 Marlo 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. Eren asks him to tell him 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. Marlo receives a punch after stating that is 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.

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's 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 extremely cares 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 doesn't stop Sasha from confiding in him.


 * Eren Yeager and Mikasa Ackerman - Sasha admires their bravery and strength to a certain degree. Though they don't really share a close acquaintanceship with Sasha, they are on good terms as teammates.

Trivia

 * 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.
 * 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".
 * Sasha's name is short for "Alexandra", which comes from the Greek "Alexandros", meaning "defender of humankind". "Blouse" (Braus) comes from the German saying "in Saus und Braus 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 3DMG.

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