best waifu

Last week Vantage covered for me while I was at Anime Boston and he said there wouldn’t be waifu posting. How wrong he was, for this weeks episode of Attack on Titan is focused on my favorite waifu, Sasha. In the beginning of the show Sasha had some much needed moments of levity in a series with her potato moments, and as time has gone on she has developed into a much more interesting character whose actions make a lot of sense for her backstory. That being said we finally reached the point where her backstory is explained and one where the manga made me absolutely fall in love with Sasha. Before we get that we do get peppered with some fun information from Hanji and Levi, with Father Nick refusing to say anything he doesn’t have to about the titans in the walls.

Now that the titans seem to have breached Wall Rose every member of the team, without weapons in many cases, are going to warn towns of the titans coming. Sasha goes on her own to warn her town and we learn about her backstory. Sasha’s family were hunters whose territory was being overrun with a surge of people once wall Maria was breached. Due to this Sasha was going hungry and even fought her father for food, until he revealed to her they would be giving up their way of life in order to farm and feed more people. Sasha wasn’t happy about this but her father told her she can’t expect anyone to help her when she is in need of it if she won’t help others.

It does a lot for Sasha’s character to realize why she stole food, why she wasn’t always focused on friends, and why she even speaks the way she does. It must have taken a great deal of personal growth for her to endanger her own life in order to help people and it comes full circle in this episode when she takes on a small sized titan without maneuver gear. In a moment of pure inexplicable badassery she saves her life as well as the life of a child by first shooting one of the titans eyes out with an arrow and then, in order to make sure she didn’t miss, stabbing it in the eye with her last arrow. Mikasa and Levi may be the most tactically impressive of the group but to see Sasha outright stab a motherfucking human eating monster with an arrow to save the life of a child is so fucking monstrously cool I can’t help but adore her. If Sasha was in my high school classes I would’ve drawn her in my notebooks with hearts around her.

Sasha ends up saving the girl who actually saves her, her father riding by in time to save the girl who let them know Sasha was behind them. Sasha’s father tells her he is happy with what she did and who she has become, and meanwhile Conny’s life sucks and his house is crushed by a titan whose body is too big for its legs. Well, people have to die in this show or it doesn’t make money! On top of that I really have to give a hand to the insane talent these animators and scriptwriters have. In the manga when these scenes happened I couldn’t care less other than yay Sasha is cool. In the anime I am always 100% more fucking terrified, so good job Director! 😀

The appearance of the titan calls into question how and why these titans are here. Ultimately this suggests that the titans are here through another method than breaching the walls. I can’t pretend to be impartial or curious since I have read the entire manga up to date, but it is always fun to watch these crazy kids embark on their journey towards the horrifying truth! Let’s keep watching as their lives crumble around them, their society turns on them, and more of their friends turn out to be traitors. . . Attack on Titan yaaaaay!!!!

At least we have Sasha.

Oki