Attack on Titan's blackest moment.....
Four years ago today, and it still hurts to know it came to this for her. A character who was so iconic and beloved, a girl who seemed destined for so much more.
Four years ago, the last we saw of our beloved Potato Girl, Sasha Braus.
She truly had a great thing going, an strong, energetic, yet frightened young woman who nevertheless fought through the ugliness of the world inside the Walls, and grew into one of its most able protectors when the call came. She often seemed out of place in the Scouts, but truly represented what they stood for.
She had everything to be even greater and stronger, perhaps one of the heroes of humanity in the final fight against Eren.
And all of that was thrown away.....And for what? FOR THIS:
Gabi Braun will always be a vile, obnoxious, and unnecessary sack of shit who existed only to hold down the entire series, by stealing Sasha's rightful place in a circle of characters where she will always be the odd one out that NEVER should have been.
I don't give a fuck what her defenders say, and for them to continue she's a well written character is all in service of Isayama's worst deceit. All of Attack on Titan's final act exists only to push this goddamn little usurper, with every trick in the book pulled to pry sympathy for a character who was given zero likable traits and was too late to the scene for any investment to feel legitimate. All for the most contrived and dishonest character arc in the history of anime. There's a right and a wrong way to do redemption arcs, and Gabi Braun is a prime example of how it can be abused at the expense of the story. This is what happens when you let an author show open disrespect to the fandom by blatantly playing favorites through the entire context of the story, which essentially carried Gabi all the way to the end by forcing her into the main plot in the worst way imaginable.
The fact that any chance Sasha had at an ongoing arc in season four, to take part in the final fight against Eren and the fact that her killer was given a fucking happy conclusion at the expense of her own is a grave insult to someone who was not even allowed to go out with any real dignity. One who had been with us ever since the beginning.
No worse image than that of Sasha bleeding out, unable to speak, with her memory exploited by Isayama at every turn simply to push whatever agenda he sought to fulfill with the biggest bitch in anime.
Such a grave injustice. And we so richly deserved to see Gabi receive some for what she did.
Should have let Kaya finish the job, Mikasa. You OWED Sasha that much. NONE OF YOU owed anything to that fucking little shit.
And she's certainly not owed any of our sympathy. This kid had no conscience to speak of before her life was directly threatened.
Was what we lost REALLY worth it all?
Assassin's Bullet is and remains one of the WORST things I've ever seen in my life, and it singlehandedly tainted my experience with both manga and anime. It'll forever be one of the worst things in any anime, and we still deserve more and BETTER from Sasha Braus. The only redemption I want is a redemption from this travesty's very existence.
Forever remember Sasha Braus. Her big heart, her laugh, her kindness, her hunger for all the good things in life, her incredible integrity and selflessness........It's a loss that still feels far too real. And she deserves better than to be remembered as a mere tool for such a shameful and manipulative sideshow as what Hajime Isayama dealt us.
To the real heart of Attack on Titan, I will love you always Sasha Braus.
There is no Attack on Titan without Sasha.
