Sasha Braus (Anime)

"Now, go! Run! Get runnin'!"

- Sasha saves a village child

Sasha Braus (サシャ・ブラウス) is a member of the Scout Regiment and one of the few former members of the 104th Cadet Corps, of which she was ranked 9th out of the top 10. 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 parted slightly on the right cascading down each side of her face and stopping around the middle of her neck. On missions, she wears the standard Scout Regiment 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
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.

Sasha has 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.

Humanity's Comeback arc
On the first day of training, she steals a steamed potato from the kitchen and eats it during initiation. She is questioned by Keith, their head commandant, 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 is made to choose between skipping dinner, or run around the premises until she is on the brink of death. She chooses the latter.

Christa 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 Christa for helping Sasha. Once, she hopefully asks Mikasa for her bread following an argument with Eren, but Mikasa eats it for herself. During training sessions, it is observed that she had uncanny intuition and followed unconventional practices, which makes her inappropriate for group activities. She normally hangs out with Conny and even teases Jean, after having bested the two during one of their training sessions.

At one point during their training, Sasha is approached by Christa and Ymir. Ymir confronts Sasha about the abnormally polite way Sasha speaks to her fellow cadets, guessing that Sasha is ashamed of the dialect used by the people of her village and criticizing her aimless way of living. Christa attempts to stop Ymir's diatribe, but Ymir continues to berate Sasha, telling her to speak as her true self without shame of what others think of her. Christa scolds Ymir, insisting that there is nothing wrong with Sasha's way of living regardless of whether or not she lives as her true self. Ymir still thinks of Sasha as annoying, and Christa reminds Ymir that not all people as are insensitive as her.

Distress
In 848, Sasha is assigned to Marco Bodt's group for a wilderness exercise. When out in the open, Sasha spots a lizard and Jean tries hunting it but is stopped by Eren. Late in the night, Sasha and her group are ambushed by thieves who take Christa Lenz away as hostage, along with their ODM gear. Sasha notes that they should find a vantage point to locate the thieves. They spot campfire smoke and devise a plan to reacquire their mobility gear before the thieves leave. Sasha and Conny block off one of the traveling roads, forcing the thieves to opt for a narrower path. The group successfully rescues Christa and obtain their mobility gear.

A Sudden Visitor: The Torturous Curse of Adolescence
In the year 849, Sasha and the rest of the cadets head to Trost District to practice mock drills using their omni-directional mobility gear. Sasha is in a team for the drill, namely with Conny Springer and Reiner Braun. While training, Jean leads his group out of their designated territory, trying to take down Sasha's group's targets. After practicing, Jean calls out Sasha and Conny while in their fighting stances but their fight is stopped by Reiner. Commander Pyxis overhears their conversation and instead declares a cooking contest between Sasha and Jean.

Sasha heads to the forest to find the alleged boar that dwells in the outskirts of Trost in hopes to obtain its meat. Sasha's group find the boar first, but have a hard time subduing it due to Jean's team behind them. Sasha ensures her victory by killing the boar first. Sasha and Conny show off their victory by parading through Trost with the boar.

With their gathered supplies, Sasha and her group prepare for the contest. She confidently presents Pyxis with her meal - as expected, Pyxis enjoys the meat and finishes the whole dish. it is Jean's turn next, and he presents an omelet to Pyxis. To Sasha's surprise, Pyxis declares Jean the winner and Sasha melodramatically laments her loss. Jean offers her a hand and the two make amends.

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

The Struggle for Trost arc
Sasha, along with Eren and the others, is assigned to maintain the cannons on top of Wall Rose in Trost. She steals some meat from the officers' provisions and offers to share it with them. She enthusiastically predicts that after they retake 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 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 to the ground.

She is later assigned to guard the middle of Trost from incoming Titans, and is among the cadets that are left stranded and unable to retreat to from battle due to running out of gas for their omni-directional mobility gear. Sasha tries to convince the remaining cadets 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 cadets 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 cadets and are placed on standby. While waiting, Sasha attempts to fake having a stomachache in an attempt to get out of returning to battle.

Eve of the Counterattack arc
Sasha decides to join the Scout Regiment, seeing that Jean, Conny, Ymir, Reiner, Bertholdt and Christa were doing the same. She becomes a bit afraid and starts crying when Erwin Smith gives his daunting speech about the scouts' missions. However, she does not back off and remains there, facing the fear of the Titans.

The 57th Exterior Scouting Mission arc
A month later, she is sent out with the Scout Regiment 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 Calaneth District with the Scout Regiment, worn and broken.

Clash of the Titans arc
Sasha and the others are stationed close to her and Conny'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 takes the girl to her horse and attempts to talk with her, but the horse becomes restless and runs off before either could mount it. Sasha calls desperately for her horse and frantically attempts to comfort the child until the Titan emerges from the house. Taking a bow and handful of arrows, Sasha grabs the girl and runs for the main road. As they run, the girl explains that her village was aware of her mother's bad legs but did not come to save her when the Titan arrived. Escaping over the drawbridge, Sasha thinks back to her days in the 104th Cadet Corps.

Fleeing from the Titan, Sasha wonders why she is remembering trivial memories at such a time. She turns to the girl as they run, telling her to keep running until she finds help. Letting go of the child and drawing her bow, Sasha orders the child to get running. The girl runs, and Sasha fires an arrow at the Titan. She considers buying them time by blinding the Titan and climbs a short incline for a better shot. Her second shot misses, leaving her with only two arrows. Her third shot is a direct hit in the Titan's eye, and Sasha prepares to fire her last shot, reminding herself that failure would mean putting the girl's life at risk. She throws her bow away, taking the arrow and charging at the Titan to stab it directly in its other eye. The Titan attempts to grab her, but Sasha manages to shove herself out of its grip thanks to the blood soaking its chest. She runs down the road in search of the girl, eventually coming across a group of civilians on horseback, spotting the girl and her own father.

Sasha then returns from Wall Rose with a message for Hange. Eren, Mikasa, and Armin recognize the name Nick speaks, and Hange realizes that any recruits in the Scout Regiment would be on the front lines at that time. Before they depart, Sasha delivers her message to Hange and receives a steamed potato as a reward.

After the rescue of Reiner, Bertholdt, Conny and Ymir, Sasha laments over the fact that Ymir is a Titan and presents worry over it. When Reiner and Bertholdt revealed themselves as Titans to Eren, it is shown that Sasha was part of a discussion among the Scouts about the possible betrayal of the two. She even offered a suggestion that Annie is truly disguising due to her liking of sweets even though she is grouchy. Sasha is thrown away when Reiner and Bertholdt transformed to their Titans, but she managed to hold onto the top of the Wall. On Eren's flashback of Annie and Mikasa's fight during their training days, Sasha is shown to be thrilled about it. When the Colossal Titan plummeted down to Eren and Reiner's Titan forms and released fountains of steam, Sasha hurried down and embraced Armin, protecting him.

After Eren has been taken away, Sasha is one of the two to ride down towards Dot Pyxis and the other units to inform everyone about the news. She is also part of the team to retrieve Eren from the hands of Reiner and Bertholdt. Upon arriving at the Titan Forest and encountering Ymir's Titan form, Sasha demands her to tell them about where Eren is and she is completely surprised when Ymir ate Christa for safekeeping. When the team caught up with the Armored Titan, Bertholdt and Ymir, Sasha, along with Jean, Conny, Armin and Mikasa attempts to persuade Bertholdt of giving Eren back but to no avail. She gets off the Armored Titan when Erwin brought in Titans to attack. Along with Conny, they took Christa away from Ymir, telling her that they will go home now that Eren has been rescued. She then screams loud when a Titan flew over her head, result of the Armored Titan's flinging of Titans.

Sasha watches in awe as the other Titans all seemingly start devouring the Smiling Titan, and when they turn their attention and start charging towards the Armored Titan, Commander Erwin orders for a full retreat and Sasha rides back to Wall Rose with the others.

The Uprising arc
Some time later, Sasha is selected to be a member of the new Squad Levi assigned to safeguard Eren and Historia in an isolated forest cabin. Hearing her friends bantering, Sasha remarks that things feel like they did in their early cadet days. Armin later catches her attempting to steal a loaf of bread, and her friends confront her.

However, Erwin Smith sends a message warning the cabin's inhabitants that the government is freezing all Scout activity outside the Walls and is demanding that Eren and Historia be handed over. Levi and Hange abandon the cabin with their squads, and Sasha goes with Levi and his squad to Trost District where they hope to avoid the Military Police. There, a carriage comes crashing through and seemingly kidnaps Eren and Historia, though the kidnapped victims are actually Jean and Armin in disguise.

The squad pursues the kidnappers to their hideout, where Sasha helps rescue the two of them. While Mikasa is securing one of the captors, he draws a gun on her and Sasha uses her arrows to disarm him.

Shortly after, Sasha and the others hear the sound of gunshots and go to investigate. They spot the wagon carrying an unconscious Eren and Historia with Levi in pursuit. To Sasha's shock, there is another soldier tailing Levi, who aims a gun at his captain. Levi kills the soldier and orders his squad to chase the wagon and kill their opponents, given the chance. Jean and Armin attempt to retake the wagon, but are unsuccessful, and Sasha and Levi are forced to pull them to safety before they can be killed.

Following the battle, Dimo Reeves agrees to help Levi's squad and tricks two Military Police of the First Interior Squad to come with him to a remote cabin, where Sasha and other members of Levi Squad take them hostage at gunpoint. Sasha and the rest of the squad listen uncomfortably to the screams as Levi and Hange conduct their interrogation. When the two are through, Jean and the others are informed that Eren and Historia are likely being held near Rod Reiss.

After the Scout Regiment is accused of trying to monopolize Eren's Titan powers, the government begins arresting all members of the organization. Sasha and the rest of Squad Levi avoid being captured, and camp out in the woods outside of Stohess. As they are discussing a plan to rescue Eren and Historia, Sasha tells her comrades that she hears people approaching. After Marlo and Hitch have led them to a nearby MP checkpoint, Sasha, along with Conny and Jean, charges at the MP checkpoint in a carriage, breaking down the roadblocks they have erected.

After crippling most of the personnel in the outpost, Levi and his squad escape with a hostage. They interrogate him about Eren and Historia's location while Sasha watches nearby, but he claims not to know anything. Before they can question their hostage further, Sasha hears people approaching on foot and alerts her companions. Sasha, along with her squad immediately prepares for battle, with Sasha taking cover behind a tree and readying her bow. To the entire squad's delight, it is Hange, who informs them that the Scout Regiment has been exonerated, and that they have a lead on Eren and Historia's whereabouts.

Abilities
Raised as an animal hunter, Sasha specializes in archery, horseback riding, and tracking. Sasha is ranked one of the top 10 cadets of her squad, implying good physical abilities. She was also commented to have a better sense of balance than some of the other cadets. Sasha's hearing is also very acute, to the point that she could detect an approaching group of Titans before many of her fellow cadets. 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.

Relationships

 * Conny Springer - Sasha and Conny get along well as teammates and as friends. The pair often make jokes, as they enjoy each other's company. As cadets, 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 Christa. Ymir's words have impacted Sasha's way of speech after that point, as Sasha uses her words more freely.
 * Christa Lenz - In Sasha's cadet days, Christa has shown her a great deal of kindness, though Ymir often questioned the latter's actions. Christa is quick to come to Sasha's defense and trusts Sasha as a comrade. As well, Christa encourages Sasha to be herself and speak her mind when she wants to.
 * Eren Jaeger and Mikasa Ackermann - 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.

Trivia

 * An interview with Isayama's editor in Otomedia's October 2013 issue revealed Isayama originally intended to kill Sasha in the events which would be adapted into Episode 27. 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 in the manga, though the anime adaptation gave her a much stronger presence in the events of the arc following Episode 27.

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Sasha Braus (Anime)