Sally Acorn

Princess Sally Acorn is the daughter of the former King Maximillian Acorn and brother to the current king, Elias Acorn. She was sent to the sanctuary of Knothole Village by her father when the Great War was going badly for the Mobians, and led the Knothole Freedom Fighters against Dr. Ivo Robotnik when he took over five years after the Great War's end. She continues to play an active role fighting against the evil Dr. Eggman despite her royal obligations.

Early Life
Sally is the daughter of King Maximillian and Queen Alicia Acorn. She has a long-lost older brother named Elias, whom she initially does not even know exists. (StH: #69)

Sally's family ruled over Mobotropolis for several generations. Their dynasty ended shortly after the Great War, after which a treacherous Warlord named Julian Kintobor-a defector who helped King Acorn win the war- staged a coup d'etat and took over the kingdom. Re-christened Ivo Robotnik, the newly-proclaimed dictator turned the city into a industrial wasteland. In addition, he used his roboticizers to transfigure the city's population into mindless robot slaves called Robians. The five-year-old Sally was hidden from Robotnik's grasp and sent to live in the protected Knothole Village hidden within the Great Forest. Sally grew up to lead a band of ragtag rebel militiamen from Knothole starting at age 10, living alongside her friends, her governess Rosie, and the elderly Julayla (who Sally sees as her grandmother). (StH: #50, #71, #120 #142, #143)

Freedom Fighter
The ultimate goal of the Freedom Fighters was to oust the oppressive tyrant Dr. Robotnik and restore the Kingdom of Acorn. Hidden deep within the Great Forest in their rebel headquarters of Knothole, the Freedom Fighters carried out guerrilla attacks on Robotnik's operations. Seeing the Princess as a threat to his control, Robotnik made her capture a top priority. A scheme to replace Sally with a malevolent robotic double nearly worked, with a secondary plan of creating a whole line of robots modeled off of each of the Freedom Fighters lined up. The real Sally uncovered this plot, unmasked the fake Sally, and destroyed the rest of Robotnik's duplicates. (PSM: #1, #2, #3)

Robotnik later managed to infiltrate Knothole with a duplicate of Sally's father, King Max. The traitorous Freedom Fighter named Drago arranged for Sally's assassination, pinning the blame on Sonic in an elaborate frameup. Robotnik then appeared unexpectedly in Knothole after the fake King Max leaked its location. After arriving at the Freedom Fighters' doorstep and holding them all hostage, Robotnik announced his plan to use the rebel headquarters as a testing ground for his super-weapon, with which he intends to eradicate all non-robotic life on the planet. His "Endgame" scheme is nevertheless foiled by the rebellion, and Robotnik is vaporized during the weapon's backfiring. (StH: #47, #50)

In the wake of Robotnik's defeat, Sally worked hard to re-establish the old kingdom. The desolate wasteland of Robotropolis was difficult to rebuild, and discrimination against Robians threatened to spark a civil war. A new Robotnik arrived from a alternate reality and quickly retook Mobotropolis. He was destroyed in battle, but through the digital transfer of his mind into a new robotic body, he was able to live on as "Dr. Eggman". For a time, Sally presided over the newly-established Kingdom of Knothole, a haven from Eggman until he too, like Robotnik, learned of its location. (StH: #51, #75, #76, #78)

After living in Knothole for a short time, Princess Sally lost her mentor Julayla when she passed away. Immediately afterward, she was sent a "friend" in the form of NICOLE, a sentient compact super computer that originates from an alternative future where Sally is Queen. Feeling that her past self would seriously need a friend, Sally had Rotor design NICOLE and send her back in time. (StH: #119, IYF)

Return to the Front Lines
After Robotnik was killed, Sally was put in charge of reconstruction of Mobotropolis. With Sally busy behind the scenes, other Freedom Fighters took on the role of field commander, with Sonic himself occasionally filling that role. With the return of her parents, Sally could not properly rule either. Sally became frustrated with a lack of control over her life, which culminated in an arranged marriage with Antoine. The wedding was quickly annulled when her groom turns out to be Patch, an evil version of Antoine from a parallel universe. After her brother Elias took the throne and her father fell ill, Sally returned to taking a more active role in overseeing the Freedom Fighters, even joining them in combat. (StH: #50, #78, #93, #94, #99, #155, #156, SSS: #2, #4)

Sally agreed to be the maid of honor at Bunnie and Antoine's wedding, with Sonic serving as best man. Not long after the ceremony, Sally became Eggman's prisoner during the aerial bombardment of Knothole, but was promptly freed by a rescue mission mounted by the few who weren't taken prisoner: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and NICOLE. With Knothole completely crushed, Dr. Eggman turned his sights on New Mobotropolis. Sally once more led the charge against the enemy forces herself, resulting in the the Freedom Fighters and Chaotix defeating Eggman's Egg Beater battlesuit. Just prior to this, her shoulder-length hair was restored to its original length and style by Bunnie, symbolizing that she was her old self again. (StH: #175, #176, #177)

Not long after, she interrupted a duel between her brother Elias and Tails' father Amadeus Prower, both of whom were leading separate factions in a schism that threatened to plunge New Mobotropolis into civil war. Reminding them of her own ruling experience, she managed to bring the battle to an end and worked with them to establish a new system of government. Though the new ruling body called for seven council members-including Elias-Sally declined running, apparently quite fine with leaving politics behind for a while. Sadly, her relief at the averted crisis was short-lived, as Dimitri the Echidna arrived with horrifying news: Enerjak had returned. (StH: #178, #179)

Sonic the Hedgehog
Over the years Sally has had numerous flirtations and love-interests, the largest being Sonic the Hedgehog. During their battles against Dr. Ivo Robotnik as Freedom Fighters, the two kept their feelings for each other mostly to themselves, though the idea of marriage had come up on occasion, mostly as a joke. Additionally, because of their clashing personalities, both were reluctant to make anything more out of their relationship. Their mutual feelings for each other became far more obvious when Sonic discovered Sally had survived Operation: Endgame and the two shared a kiss. (StH: #18, #50)

When King Max discussed the topic of marriage with his daughter shortly after he'd been freed from the wizard Ixis Naugus's control, Sally requested that Sonic be her future husband. The aged king flat-out refused this offer, saying that the Source of All would ultimately decide who her husband would be, as it had dictated Max's wife and his father's wife before him. (StH: #60)

Sonic and Sally spent the next few months apart, while Sonic was chasing after the Ixis Naugus around the planet with Tails. Shortly after his return, Dr. Eggman began his campaign to retake Mobotropolis and roboticize the Mobians, which prevented Sonic and Sally from getting close. To make matters worse, after the Kingdom of Knothole was formed, Sally was forced to be home schooled while Sonic and the others went to public school. Sally's duties as princess kept her both busy and distant from Sonic for some time. When Sally finally attempted to visit Sonic, she caught him being kissed by Mina Mongoose. After this, Sally believed Sonic had moved on. The two later recovered and fully admitted their love for one another when Sonic freed Sally from the bounty hunter Nack the Weasel. (StH: #58, #66, #94, #99, #123)

After almost a year had passed since Max's original decision to force Sally to marry Antoine, his opinion had drastically changed, after Sonic had proven himself a worthy candidate for a spouse. Max accepted Sonic and Sally's request for marriage, but shortly after this, the Xorda's attack on Mobius occurred, which resulted in Sonic being lost in space for over a year. (StH: #124, #125)

Upon Sonic's return from space, the two wasted no time rekindling their love for one another. However, their relationship took a turn for the worse when Sally was put in charge of the kingdom and requested Sonic stay by her side, as opposed to risking his life on numerous combat missions. Sonic chose the life of a hero, and this resulted in the two breaking up. Since then, Sonic has dated Fiona Fox, but the two broke up when Sonic discovered Fiona actually was interested in his evil double, Scourge the Hedgehog. Recently, after Antoine and Bunnie announced they were getting married, Sally admitted she missed Sonic and felt jealous that it wasn't her who was getting married. (StH: #130, #134, #151, #172, #173)

Geoffrey St. John
When Geoffrey St. John first met Princess Sally, he assisted her in training the Substitute Freedom Fighters and foiling Dr. Robotnik's scheme of creating robo-duplicates of the Freedom Fighters. After seeing St. John's heroics, the skunk gained a place in Sally's heart, nearly rivalling Sonic. After the events of Project: Endgame and Sonic's revival of Sally, St. John realized her heart belonged to Sonic, but continued to clash with Sonic on numerous occasions. Some time later, Geoffrey St. John established a relationship with Hershey the Cat, eventually marrying her and loosing his feelings for Sally. (StH: #46, #50, #130, PSM: #3)

Knuckles the Echidna
Sally had known Knuckles even before she met Sonic, during her father's regular visits to Angel Island. The two quickly became friends as neither one had anyone else their age to play with. Years later, when Knuckles came to Knothole to fight against Mecha Sonic, the two reminisced about their childhood days. Sally even showed signs of interest in Knuckles at this point, especially due to the anger she felt towards Sonic, who everyone thought had deliberately allowed himself to be roboticized. Not long after this however, Knuckles was perused by the fellow Echidna Julie-Su, who is currently Knuckles' girlfriend and soul mate. Sally and Knuckles' friendship was temporarily damaged when the latter decided to remain on Angel Island rather than assist the Freedom Fighters on Mobius against Dr. Eggman, though the two repaired their friendship over time. (StH: #136, #165, KtE: #28, #29, SMM)

Background Information
When the four-part saga "EndGame" was first written, the intent of the writers was to remove Princess Sally from the comic permanently. The idea was to kill the character with enough dignity to not drive away any of the character's fans. During a mission inside Robotroplis, Sally is slain after her rappel wire is cut, sending her falling several stories to the ground; Sonic was framed for her death. The reasoning on the part of the writers was that the arrival of King Max would displace Sally's power, making her unnecessary, and that the restrictions placed on the book by SEGA made it too difficult to continue writing the character as having a relationship with Sonic. SEGA, however, had promotional plans for the character and ordered her to be revived. The character's return was written into issue #50, which interfered with scheduling and caused several pages to be cut. The issue was later revised and reissued as a Sonic Super Special.