Sally Po

Sally Po (サリィ・ポォ, Saryi Pō) was a doctor and Major in the United Earth Sphere Alliance who became a key ally of the Gundam pilots during the After Colony wars. Initially assigned to colonial peacekeeping operations, she became disillusioned with the Alliance’s brutal tactics and defected to lead a guerrilla resistance against OZ. She later served as a battle commander aboard the battleship Peacemillion and eventually joined the Preventers conflict prevention agency under the codename “Water”.

Overview

Sally Po represented the moral conscience within the United Earth Sphere Alliance military. As both a doctor and a soldier, she struggled with the Alliance’s increasingly brutal methods, particularly General Septum’s order to use poison gas against colonial civilians. When OZ staged its coup d’état against the Alliance, Sally refused to submit to the organisation’s authority and instead led Alliance loyalists in guerrilla resistance.

Her medical background gave her a unique perspective amongst the military personnel involved in the conflict. She treated the Gundam pilots as patients first and soldiers second, showing particular concern for Heero Yuy when he was brought to her hospital. This compassionate approach earned her the respect and trust of pilots who were otherwise suspicious of authority figures.

Throughout the war, Sally demonstrated exceptional tactical skill and courage, piloting mobile suits in combat despite her primary role as a medical officer. Her ability to work with the Maganac Corps, coordinate with the Sanc Kingdom, and eventually serve as battle commander of Peacemillion showcased her versatility and leadership capabilities.

Appearance

Sally Po stood 166 centimetres tall and weighed 51 kilogrammes at age twenty-seven. She had brown hair typically worn short in a practical military style, and dark blue eyes that conveyed both intelligence and compassion. Her fair complexion and features suggested Western European and Chinese ancestry.

During her time with the United Earth Sphere Alliance, she wore the standard Alliance military uniform with Major’s insignia. After her defection, she adopted more practical guerrilla fighter attire suitable for combat operations. When she joined the Preventers following the Eve Wars, she wore the organisation’s distinctive uniform.

Personality & traits

Sally Po possessed a strong moral compass that guided her actions throughout the war. Her background as a doctor instilled in her a profound respect for life, which put her at odds with the Alliance’s increasingly brutal military policies. When General Septum ordered the use of poison gas against colonial civilians, Sally attempted to convince him to reconsider, demonstrating her willingness to challenge superior officers when she believed they were wrong.

Despite her medical training and compassionate nature, Sally was no pacifist. She understood that sometimes force was necessary to protect the innocent and oppose tyranny. When OZ staged its coup and began systematically executing Alliance loyalists, Sally immediately organised armed resistance, showing she could adapt from healer to warrior when circumstances demanded it.

She possessed exceptional courage, repeatedly placing herself in danger to help others. She piloted mobile suits in combat despite limited training, hijacked enemy units to cover her allies’ escapes, and commanded Peacemillion in its suicidal ramming attack against Libra to disable its main cannon. Her bravery inspired others, particularly Chang Wufei, whom she helped understand that strength came from the will to protect others, not just raw power.

Sally demonstrated remarkable tactical intelligence and adaptability. She successfully coordinated disparate resistance groups, worked effectively with the independent-minded Gundam pilots, and transitioned seamlessly from military officer to guerrilla leader to battle commander. Her ability to maintain relationships with figures like Lucrezia Noin from opposing factions showed her diplomatic skill.

Biography

Early life and Alliance service

Sally Po served as a Major and medical doctor in the United Earth Sphere Alliance military. Her mixed Western European and Chinese heritage gave her a unique perspective on the conflicts between Earth and the space colonies. At age twenty-seven, she was assigned to Colony A0206 as part of the Alliance’s peacekeeping operations in After Colony 195.

During this assignment, Sally witnessed firsthand the Alliance’s brutal approach to colonial dissent. When General Septum decided to use poison gas to “cleanse” the colony of resistance fighters, Sally attempted to convince him to abandon this inhumane tactic. Her protests went unheeded, demonstrating the growing extremism within the Alliance military command.

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing

Hospital service and encounter with Heero Yuy

After the mobile suit force at Colony A0206 was wiped out by a Gundam attack, Sally pulled back and was reassigned to work in an Alliance hospital in Japan. It was there that she encountered Heero Yuy, one of the five Gundam pilots sent from the colonies to defeat OZ.

Relena Darlian had found Heero unconscious on a beach and called for medical assistance. When Sally examined him, she was amazed at his physical conditioning, noting he was extraordinarily built even though he was just a boy. Before she could provide treatment, Heero escaped, but this brief encounter left Sally intrigued by the mysterious pilot.

OZ coup and resistance formation

When the five Gundams were tricked into killing Alliance leaders who were calling for peace and demilitarisation, OZ launched its long-planned coup d’état. Simultaneously, OZ sleeper agents embedded in all Alliance bases began systematically executing Alliance loyalists. The coup caught most Alliance personnel by surprise, but Sally managed to recognise the danger and quickly organised a brigade of loyal troops to resist OZ’s takeover.

At the New Edwards base, Sally’s brigade attempted to stop two OZ soldiers from arming bombs intended to destroy the Gundams, but they were too late to prevent the activation. Unable to stop the countdown, Sally called out to Heero Yuy through the base’s loudspeaker system, asking him to disable the bombs at close range with his Gundam’s precision. Her quick thinking and trust in Heero’s abilities saved the base and prevented OZ from destroying the Gundams.

Alliance with Chang Wufei

OZ eventually located Sally’s guerrilla brigade and prepared to annihilate them. The resistance fighters would have been killed had it not been for the intervention of Chang Wufei and his Shenlong Gundam. However, Wufei immediately declared Sally and her troops “weak”, dismissing their combat effectiveness and questioning their will to fight.

When OZ attacked again, Sally demonstrated to Wufei the true meaning of strength—not mere physical power, but the determination to protect others and fight for one’s principles. Her courage and her troops’ willingness to stand against superior forces inspired Wufei, enabling him to pilot his Gundam with renewed conviction. This encounter marked the beginning of a mutual respect between Sally and Wufei that would deepen throughout the war and beyond.

Recovery of the Gundam Sandrock

When the Gundam pilots returned to space, Sally attempted to destroy the remains of Quatre Raberba Winner’s Gundam Sandrock before OZ could recover and study it. However, as she prepared her explosives, she was confronted by members of the Maganac Corps, a group of desert fighters fiercely loyal to Quatre who planned to steal back the Sandrock once OZ finished repairing it.

Sally quickly detonated her bomb, but amazingly, it failed to completely destroy the Gundam components. The explosion set off alarms throughout the facility. Recognising the Maganac Corps’ loyalty to their Gundam pilot, Sally assisted their escape by hijacking a Leo mobile suit and providing covering fire as they loaded the Sandrock pieces onto their transport aircraft. This act of cooperation demonstrated Sally’s pragmatic approach—she prioritised preventing OZ from studying Gundam technology over strict adherence to her original plan.

Recovery and protection of the Wing Gundam

Later, Sally located the Wing Gundam that Heero Yuy had left behind on Earth when he went to space. She arranged to transport it to safety, but her carrier was attacked by OZ forces and she was captured. However, she managed to hide the Wing Gundam before her capture.

Whilst imprisoned, Sally realised that OZ was keeping her alive only until they verified the carrier’s contents. She deduced from rumours she heard that the Gundam pilots were returning to Earth, which gave her hope. As she worked to break free from her restraints, she was assisted by former OZ soldier Lucrezia Noin, who had her own reasons for opposing OZ’s current leadership.

The two women successfully recovered the Wing Gundam together. Sally allowed Noin to take the Gundam, correctly suspecting that Noin represented the Sanc Kingdom, which was actively opposing the Romefeller Foundation’s actions, despite Noin never explicitly stating her affiliation. This decision showed Sally’s ability to read situations and make strategic choices based on limited information. She later passed information to Noin that the Maganac Corps had recovered the Sandrock, which Noin relayed to Quatre.

Battle commander of Peacemillion

Following White Fang’s declaration of war against Earth, Sally met Heero Yuy as he prepared to return to space in the Wing Zero. She revealed that she had located Trowa Barton’s Gundam Heavyarms and travelled with Heero into space. Shortly after recovering Wufei and his damaged Altron Gundam, their transport reached the battleship Peacemillion, where the other Gundam pilots had gathered.

For the remainder of the conflict, Sally served as battle commander aboard Peacemillion, coordinating operations and providing strategic oversight for the Gundam pilots’ final battles. During the climactic engagement with White Fang, she made the critical decision to have Peacemillion ram into Libra to disable its main cannon, preventing it from destroying Earth. This suicidal attack succeeded in crippling Libra’s primary weapon, but left Peacemillion severely damaged.

Sally and the Peacemillion crew transferred to the OZ satellite MO-II and watched the remainder of the conflict from there, witnessing Heero and Zechs Merquise’s final duel and the destruction of Libra.

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz

Following the Eve Wars, Sally joined the Earth Sphere Unified Nation’s newly formed conflict prevention agency, the Preventers, operating under the codename “Water”. At age twenty-eight, she brought her combat experience and strategic skills to the organisation’s peacekeeping operations.

When the Mariemaia Army staged its coup, launching a surprise attack from Colony L3 X-18999, Sally took decisive action. She single-handedly liberated the colony by infiltrating the Mariemaia forces and using knockout gas to incapacitate their soldiers, demonstrating both her medical knowledge and tactical prowess. This operation prevented the colony from being used as a staging ground for further attacks on Earth.

At the conclusion of the Mariemaia uprising, Chang Wufei joined the Preventers, becoming Sally’s new partner. Their professional relationship, built on mutual respect developed during the wars, promised to be an effective partnership in maintaining post-war peace.

Later life

By the time of New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop, set in the Mars Century era, Sally Po had died. Her daughter, Kathy Po, had followed in her mother’s footsteps by joining the Preventers, carrying on Sally’s legacy of protecting peace and preventing conflict.

Skills & abilities

Sally Po possessed a rare combination of medical expertise and combat capability. As a trained doctor, she understood human physiology, pharmacology, and emergency medicine, skills she used both to treat injured allies and, when necessary, to incapacitate enemies non-lethally using knockout gas and other methods.

Despite her primary role as a medical officer, Sally demonstrated proficiency in mobile suit combat. She successfully piloted OZ-06MS Leo units in battle, providing covering fire and engaging enemy forces to protect her allies. Whilst not as skilled as the Gundam pilots, she was competent enough to hold her own in combat situations and make tactical use of her mobile suit’s capabilities.

Her leadership and tactical abilities were exceptional. She successfully organised and led an Alliance guerrilla resistance following the OZ coup, coordinating operations against a superior force. Later, as battle commander of Peacemillion, she demonstrated strategic thinking at the fleet level, making critical decisions that influenced the final battles of the war.

Sally possessed strong interpersonal and diplomatic skills. She successfully worked with diverse groups including Alliance loyalists, the independent Maganac Corps, the Sanc Kingdom through Lucrezia Noin, and the notoriously difficult-to-manage Gundam pilots. Her ability to earn trust and coordinate disparate factions was crucial to the resistance against OZ and the Romefeller Foundation.

Relationships

Chang Wufei

Sally’s relationship with Chang Wufei evolved from initial mutual dismissal to deep respect and professional partnership. When Wufei first rescued Sally’s guerrilla brigade, he declared them “weak”, judging them by their lack of raw combat power. Sally responded by demonstrating that true strength came from the will to fight for one’s principles and protect others, not mere physical might.

Her courage and determination impressed Wufei, helping him understand that warriors came in many forms. Throughout the war, they developed mutual respect based on their shared commitment to justice, though they expressed it differently—Sally through protecting the innocent, Wufei through punishing the guilty. After the Eve Wars, Wufei joined the Preventers and became Sally’s partner, cementing their professional relationship in peacekeeping work.

Heero Yuy

Sally first encountered Heero Yuy when Relena Darlian brought the unconscious Gundam pilot to her hospital. Despite the brief encounter, Sally was struck by Heero’s extraordinary physical conditioning. Later, when OZ attempted to destroy the Gundams at New Edwards base, Sally’s quick thinking in asking Heero to disable the bombs demonstrated her trust in his abilities.

Throughout the war, Sally served as a reliable ally to Heero, locating and protecting his Wing Gundam when he was in space, and later accompanying him back to space with Trowa’s recovered Heavyarms. Their relationship was professional but built on mutual respect and shared goals.

Lucrezia Noin

Sally and Lucrezia Noin developed a bond based on their shared opposition to the Romefeller Foundation’s agenda despite coming from opposite sides of the original conflict. When Sally was captured by OZ whilst protecting the Wing Gundam, Noin helped her escape and together they recovered the Gundam.

Sally demonstrated remarkable trust in Noin by allowing her to take the Wing Gundam, correctly deducing that Noin represented the Sanc Kingdom even though Noin never explicitly stated her affiliation. This act of faith proved justified, as Noin delivered the Gundam to those fighting against Romefeller. The two women continued to cooperate throughout the war, sharing intelligence and coordinating resistance efforts.

Quatre Raberba Winner and the Maganac Corps

Sally’s encounter with the Maganac Corps during their recovery of the damaged Gundam Sandrock demonstrated her practical approach to alliances. Though she had initially planned to destroy the Gundam to prevent OZ from studying it, she quickly adapted when she discovered the Maganac Corps’ plan to recover it for their beloved leader Quatre Raberba Winner.

Rather than fight over the remains, Sally assisted the Maganac Corps’ escape by hijacking a Leo and providing covering fire. She later passed information about the Sandrock’s recovery to Lucrezia Noin, who relayed it to Quatre, helping reunite the pilot with his Gundam. This pragmatic cooperation showcased Sally’s ability to prioritise larger strategic goals over rigid adherence to original plans.

Behind the scenes

Conception and design

Sally Po was created as a supporting character for Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, representing the moral conscience within the United Earth Sphere Alliance military. Her character served to show that not all Alliance personnel supported the organisation’s brutal tactics, providing a human face to the Earth forces that contrasted with OZ’s ruthless efficiency.

Her dual role as doctor and soldier reflected the series’ themes about the cost of war and the difficult choices faced by those caught between conflicting duties. Her mixed Western European and Chinese heritage was likely intended to emphasise the global nature of the Earth Sphere conflict.

Voice acting

In the Japanese version, Sally was voiced by Touma Yumi. In the English dub, she was voiced by Moneca Stori and Samantha Ferris.

Reception

Sally Po was well-received by fans as a competent, moral, and courageous supporting character. Her practical approach to the conflict and her ability to work with the Gundam pilots without trying to control them made her a popular figure. Her relationship with Chang Wufei, evolving from his dismissal of her “weakness” to professional partnership, was particularly appreciated for its character development implications for Wufei.

Appearances

Sally Po appeared in the following works:

Mobile Suit Gundam Wing (anime series, episodes 3-49)
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz (OVA)
New Mobile Report Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop (novel series, mentioned as deceased)
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing Endless Waltz: Glory of the Losers (manga)
SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays (video game)

External links

Sally Po on the Gundam Wiki