Sasha Blouse

Sasha Braus (サシャ・ブラウス), incorrectly translated "Blouse", is a former member of the 104th Trainees Squad, of which she was ranked 9th best. A compulsive food hoarder with an overly polite way of speech, Sasha originates from the Dauper village (a southern district of Trost) and was one of the new recruits that chose to join the Survey Corps alongside Eren, despite being terrified of Titans.

Personality
Sasha is a friendly girl with an impulsive appetite. Hailing from Dauper Village, she has a local accent; she tends to use formal speech even when conversing amongst other trainees to hide her accent. She is rather simple-minded and has an eccentric personality.

Possibly due to her younger years, struggling to hunt and find food, Sasha developed an incredible appetite; she displays a form of pleasurable gratification and feeling calm after eating when stressed. So impulsive in her desire to eat, she will steal food from the infantry stores and/or kitchen to eat; she came to be known as "potato girl" (芋女), after stealing a potato and explained to her superior she did it because it tasted best when still hot. Although a food hoarder, she has proven to be very capable in combat 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 hot potato from the kitchen and got into trouble for eating it while Keith, their head instructor, was performing the "Rite of Passage" ritual on them. As punishment, she had to run around for 5 hours. Krista snuck in some bread from the dining hall to help Sasha out after she passed out from the exercise. 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 with the ninth position among the 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 and they 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. She was later found trying to convince the remaining trainees to try retaking the Headquarters together. When Mikasa arrives and hears of Eren's death, she scurries off towards the headquarters, and Sasha mocks everyone, calling them "Cowards, Weaklings, Idiots!". She successfully reaches the headquarters, where Armin devises a plan to clear the supply room off Titans. During the execution of the plan, she messes up and Mikasa and Annie save her. She immediately becomes grateful to Mikasa. During the reconquest of Trost, she was involved with the decoy team.

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

A month later, she involves herself with the Survey Corps's 57th expedition. She was postioned 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 shed. Her squad members successfully lure it away and she returns back 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 it was time to 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, paralysed out of fear. Sasha takes the child away and grabs a bow and a 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 it's 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.

After two weeks had passed, she is shown to have survived the ordeals within Wall Rose and was handpicked as member of the new Levi Squad stationed with her friends in a lone house within a forest stealing bread from the few supplies that are already present. Sasha states she is reminded of the days they all were recruits, commenting to a puzzled Armin they were chosen because they were good.

Eren is reminded of the old Levi Squad with a grim expression on his face as he watches her and the others.

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

Raised as a hunter, Sasha specializes in archery, horseback riding, and tracking. Sasha is ranked one of the top 10 ten trainees of her squad implying good physical abilities. She was also commented to have one of the better senses of balance out of her trainee squad. 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's also proven to be a skilled thief, as she often manages to steal food from the infantry storage without getting caught.

Notes & Trivia

 * In a volume 11 sideart, Isayama portrayed several characters shifting into Titans the sole one missing being Sasha making her the only one from the Graduates to have not shifted into a Titan in any way.
 * Sasha's name is short for "Alexandra", which comes from the Greek "Alexandros", meaning "defender of mankind". "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.
 * Sasha is almost killed by the same Titan that killed Mina Carolina after a failed assassination attempt.
 * An interview with Isayama's editor in Otomedia's October 2013 issue revealed he originally intended to kill Sasha in Volume 9. However, he was persuaded to change his mind.
 * The initial draft of chapter 1 shows that the current version of Sasha's design was changed from her original.
 * 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.jpg

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