A sweet country girl with a love for food and a heart of gold.
So, I'm finally making my first NPG Proposal, and following my successful Pure Good proposal for Ian Dietrich, I figured I should tackle some other Attack on Titan characters. I have a handful of candidates in mind from this series and I think a good place to start is with the ever hungry huntress herself Sasha Braus.
What is the work?
Attack on Titan is an Anime/Manga series produced by Hajime Isayama. It revolves around a teen named Eren Yeager who seeks to avenge his mother by wiping out the titans, a mysterious species of man eating humanoids, along the way uncovering secrets and mysteries that reveal more about the titans and the world beyond the walls which protect them.
There are some minor differences between her appearance in the Manga and Anime, this proposal will be a composite of both versions admirable acts.
Who is Sasha and what has she done?
Sasha Braus (or Blouse depending on the version) is one of the major characters in the series, an oddly polite girl from Dauper village with a very kind heart and a seemingly endless appetite, she would join the military following an argument with her father, the Pure Good Artur Braus, about whether they should be accepting the coming refugees from Wall Maria. Before joining the military, Sasha was shown to be rather selfish, fearing the idea of changing their hunting lifestyle to accommodate the refugees, however she would eventually grow out of this mindset thanks to her friends in the 104th Training Corps.
During a training exercise, Sasha would be assigned to a squad consisting of Eren Yeager, Marco Bott, Jean Kirstein, Armin Arlert, Connie Springer and Historia Reiss (at the time Krista Lenz), during the night a group of kidnappers would sneak into their camp to steal their ODM Gear and kidnap Historia. Sasha would help to rescue her, advising the group to seek higher ground to find the kidnappers and blocking off a road with Connie, forcing the kidnappers down a narrower path where Eren and Jean had set up an ambush.
After graduating her training as a part of the top ten, coming in ninth place, she was assigned with her fellow cadets to Trost district, where she would help maintain the wall mounted cannons (and also steal meat from the officer's pantry). Their meaty celebration was unfortunately cut short by the sudden appearance of the Colossal Titan, who proceeds to breach the wall's gate. The soldiers were all knocked off the wall, all of them managed to recover except for a cadet named Samuel Linke-Jackson (Take a wild guess who his name is a reference to), Sasha wouldn't hesitate to jump to his aid, firing a hook at his leg and saving his life.
Later during the battle she is among the cadets stranded within Trost, Sasha attempts to lift her fellow soldier's spirits and motivate them to retake the headquarters, though this is unsuccessful. After Mikasa's "motivational" speech (which was little more than "you're weak, I'm strong, I clear the way and you follow") Sasha is quick the jump back into action, yelling for the other soldier's to join them in the mission. After reaching the headquarters, Sasha is among the soldiers who helps to clear the storage room of Titans, however she fails in executing her Titan, having to be saved by Mikasa. She later helps in the retaking of Trost by luring Titans to the walls for the artillery to kill them.
Sasha would go on to join the Survey Corps and takes part in the 57th expedition beyond the walls, having a close call with a titan but her squad lure it away. Later she would guard the border of the Titan forest following the Female Titan's capture, recognising her scream as similar to that of an animal calling for help and warns Mikasa about the potential danger.
Following the mission, Sasha would be stationed at a fort close to her village. Thanks to her acute sense of hearing, she heard the heavy footsteps of Titans approaching their location and attempted to warn the other soldiers. Not long after they would be informed that Wall Rose had been breached and Sasha would join up with the north squad to warn and evacuate the villages in the north section of Wall Rose, during her travel she found another village under siege by a smaller Titan, who had broken into one of the houses and began eating a woman in front of her young child, Kaya. Sasha would rescue Kaya from the house and lead her out of the village, grabbing a bow and arrows along the way. After crossing a bridge, Sasha sends Kaya off ahead to find help, standing her ground to hold back the Titan with her bow, after missing two shots and reaching higher ground, Sasha is able to blind the Titan with her third arrow and disgards her bow, jamming her final arrow into the his other eye. With the Titan dealt with, Sasha would try and catch up with Kaya, there she would find her father had already picked her up, the two would reunite and make up.
Later, Sasha joins the new Levi Squad and helps as apart of the body double operation, as a cart speeds past and abducts the disguised Armin and Jean, Sasha followed behind and helped rescue them, disarming the ringleader Dimo Reeves as he tries to draw a gun on Mikasa. Following the attack by Kenny and his Anti-Personnel squad, Sasha patches up Levi's wounds and takes part in the raid on the MP outpost, defeating the soldiers non-lethally by crippling their legs. After the Scouts were cleared of all the MP's crimes, she joined her squadmates in raiding the Reiss chapel to rescue Historia and Eren, during the fight she helps to set up the smokescreens and kills a soldier who attempts to shoot Connie.
During the operation to seal Wall Maria and reclaim Shiganshina, Sasha aided in the fight against the Armoured Titan, but when given the chance to kill him she hesitated, initially unwilling to kill her former friend and would cry over his apparent death. He would not long after show himself to be alive causing Sasha and the other scouts to fall back and take cover from Bertholdt's incoming titan transformation, she acts as a diversion along with Connie and Jean while Mikasa fired her thunder spears at the Colossal's nape, but the plan failed. She was quick to engage Reiner once he returned to the battle, firing a spear at him, however Reiner counters it with house debris, critically injuring Sasha and forcing Connie to pull her out the fight.
Following Shiganshina and the revelation of there being life outside the walls, namely the country of Marley who were responsible for Paradis' Titan infestation, Sasha would help in defending the coasts from Marley's scout ships for the next four years. Outside of her duties she would befriend a captive Marleyan named Niccolo, who she would bond with over their shared love of food and cooking, over time they would grow closer with Sasha helping him to overcome his past hatred towards Eldians, and potentially falling in love with one another. Sasha's happiness wouldn't last however, thanks to Eren Yeager's (intentional) recklessness in Liberio, the Survey Corps were deployed to the Marleyan town to recover Eren, his half-brother Zeke and destroy their main naval base. Sasha joined the raid as a sniper, aiding in eliminating enemy soldiers and clearing rooftops to light signal flares. Though many scouts (Particularly Floch and his little band of future terrorists) did claim innocent lives during the battle, Sasha and the rest of the Levi Squad (barring Armin and his port bombing) didn't take part in the inhumane acts. After exfiltrating from the battlefield and onto the airship, she wouldn't take part in the celebrations instead sticking with Jean and Connie, Sasha would hear an odd sound over all of the commotion and turned to check it out, only to be fatally shot by Gabi Braun who had boarded the ship, dying not long after.
What makes her close to being Pure Good?
So here's the TLDR:
- Despite initially being very narrow minded and selfish, she would grow out of these traits as time goes on.
- She helps rescue Historia after she's kidnapped, finding the kidnapper's camp and blocking off the road, forcing them into an ambush.
- She prevents Samuel from falling to his death, diving to save him with zero hesitation.
- Attempts to motivate the cadets into retaking the headquarters, and is quick to join Mikasa as she clears a path.
- Helps to clear out the storage room, although she fails in her attempt.
- Warns Mikasa about the Female Titan's scream and how she could be calling for help.
- Tries to warn the other soldiers about the approaching Titans after hearing their footsteps.
- She saves Kaya from a Titan, facing it down with nothing but a bow and some arrows.
- Made up with her father after their reunion.
- She helps save the disguised Armin and Jean, disarming Dimo Reeves as he pulls a gun on Mikasa.
- She comforts Historia after Levi pressures her to accept her position as queen and fears that he'd threaten her more after becoming queen.
- She patches Levi's injuries following the fight with Kenny and the Anti Personnel Squad.
- She takes part in sieging the Reiss chapel, shooting fire arrows to activate the makeshift smoke screens and saves Connie from an MP that was about to shoot him.
- Blows up one of Rod Reiss's Titan's hands, making him lose balance and allowing Eren to blow him up.
- Despite him being her enemy, she hesitated to kill Reiner and cries after believing he died.
- She bonds with Niccolo over his cooking despite him being a Marleyan, helping him overcome his anti-Eldian beliefs.
- Despite taking part in the Liberio raid, she never kills any civilians or children, only armed Marleyan forces.
- She spares Gabi Braun despite having a perfect line of sight on her and her being a warrior candidate.
While it's unfair to compare her to titan shifters, regiment commanders or Ackermans, we can compare her to other scouts, namely Connie and Jean, despite the two of them having the massive act in helping to stop the Rumbling, Sasha still stands out thanks to her unique act of facing down a titan without any gear and just a bow/arrows to save a life. Sasha is among the most admirable Scouts in the series and uses her resources and keen huntress instinct to the best of her ability.
Overall, she completely overcomes her past selfishness and became a true hero. She definitely passes.
What prevents her from being Pure Good?
Let's start with her most glaring flaw, her gluttony. Sasha will often get ravenous when she's hungry, lunging towards the first food she sees on an animalistic, uncontrollable impulse, most notably during the feast before the Shiganshina mission, she tried to take an entire cut of meat for herself, during this food crazy outburst she had bitten Jean and punched both Marlowe and Mikasa, resulting in her having to be tied up to a pole for the rest of the meal. She also often steals food, most notably being her introduction, munching on a steamed potato she had stolen from the kitchen, offering half (which was more like 30%) to Instructor Shadis after he called her out for it.
She's can also be lethal, mainly following the timeskip, killing several Marleyan soldiers and public security officers during the Liberio raid. However as mentioned before she only killed adult enemy soldiers, no civilians or children, sparing Gabi despite her being a warrior candidate and having a clear shot on her, showing that while she has hardened and become more accustomed to killing she hadn't lost her morals one bit.
Final Verdict?
For me, Sasha's a solid Yes, serving as the heart of the Scouts until her unfortunate death.
I have at least 2 (maybe 3) more proposals planned for Attack on Titan in the near future so keep an eye out.