Sticks the Badger

"You can doubt me, but I'll protect you anyway because I'm a good friend and because it distracts me from the government agents that are replacing my plants with violins."

- Sticks the Badger

Sticks the Badger is one of the main characters in the Sonic Boom series. She is an anthropomorphic jungle badger and a force of nature in every way. She has spent most of her life living alone and flourishing in the wilderness and is as such new to friends in general. After meeting Team Sonic, however, she forms a strong bond with the group, particularly with Amy Rose, and joined the team as their wild card.

Concept and creation
According to Hiroyuki Miyazaki, Chief Content Officer for the Sonic Brand, Sega of America, "Sticks is a significant addition to the Sonic Boom universe and the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise" and is meant to form the core ensemble featured throughout the Sonic Boom franchise alongside Sonic, Tails, Amy and Knuckles. She is meant to bring a quirky personality and perspective to the team dynamic and her character adds an endless amount of humor and surprise to the Sonic Team.

Early artwork of Sticks shows she was supposed to have white sports tape for her hair locks and only have one eyelash. The sports tape was eventually changed to auburn strings and she ended up having two eyelashes.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Sticks appeared as a non-playable character in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric at Bygone Island. If interacted with, Sticks will tell the player that if they could find Shinies, she will exchange them for Crowns. She was then last seen at the village after Team Sonic defeated Lyric, taking an item and thanking them for their help.

Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, Sticks entered a ravine for the purpose of "gettin' info from the rocks" where she was caught in a rockslide, but was saved by Sonic, Tails and Knuckles and Amy. Back on safe ground, Sticks told her friends that an underground army would rise and destroy them all, but was met with severe skepticism. Later on, Sticks teamed up with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles to track down and save Amy who had been kidnapped by Lyric and his robot army, who sought to use her archaeological knowledge to find a Lost Crystal of Power and seize unlimited power.

TV series
When visiting Tails' house, Sticks and her friends saw that Sonic and Tails housed Dr. Eggman, Orbot and Cubot while their lair underwent repairs. Sticks however, believed it was an evil plot to destroy them with an "Obliteratorbot". Though she was dismissed, Sticks' fears were confirmed after Eggman had kept Sonic and Tails up all night, where Eggman revealed he lied about his lair to exhaust Sonic and Tails, and summoned his Obliteratorbot to destroy them. However, the robot got Eggman's orders wrong and attacked his lair instead. Accepting to help Eggman, Sticks, Knuckles and Amy distracted Obliteratorbot while the others reached its kill switches, though they were too late to save the lair.

As Sticks, Sonic, Knuckles and Amy relaxed on the beach, Tails showed them his universal translator UT. However, UT created tension between Sticks and the others by translating their private thoughts from the subtext of their speech. When Tails and UT returned the next day though, UT "translated" their comments into insults. As everyone began fighting, Tails discovered this UT was a fake send by Eggman to tear them apart. While Tails went to save the real UT, Sticks and the others stayed, not thinking UT was worth saving. Later, UT returned to them where it gave a message from Tails and translated it into a call to rescue him from Eggman. Coming to the lair, Knuckles and his friends freed Tails and beat Eggman's guard robot. While Amy had found peace with UT, Sticks quickly threw it into the sea. While the other had taken a liking to UT, Sticks had not, and threw it into the sea.

When Team Sonic saved the village from Eggman's Anti-fire Bot, Sticks showed a kitten ill treatment which made her team-mates convince her to get a pet to learn compassion. While out shopping for a pet with Sonic, Sticks chose a disgusting robo-dog she named "Buster". While Sticks loved her new pet, Buster was an annoyance to her other friends. After Buster ruined the team's chances to stop a robbery made by Orbot and Cubot, the others tried to make Sticks get up Buster, but she refused. Eggman then came by with a gift for Buster and revealed he created him. However, Eggman's gift turned Buster into a larger robot that caught everyone except Sticks. However, Sticks assumed control over Buster and had him release her friends and get rid of Eggman. Knowing though that Buster was too dangerous, Sticks released Buster after a heartfelt goodbye.

While Team Sonic visited the village as it was being bombarded by meteors, Sticks used a defense system she had prepared for this occasion to save the village. Later, Sticks got a letter that said she was nominated for an Awardy Award for saving the town. However, Sticks refused to go to its associated gala because she would embarrass herself, until Amy promised to teach her to be a lady. With Sonic as her escort, Sticks got the basics down, though she still truggled with manners at the gala, where she learned Eggman was also a nominee (by cheating). When Eggman lost the award to Leroy the Turtle and retaliated with his robots, Sticks refused to fight as "a lady doesn't fight." When her friends got caught however, Sticks dropped her composure, freed her friends and drove Eggman off. With the gala saved, Sticks took the Award Award from Leroy and agreed to teach Amy to listen to her instincts.

While Sticks was helping Amy with lunch for their team, they were met by Dr. Eggman who wanted to hire Amy to redecorate his lair for Modern Lair Magazine. To Sticks' shock however, Amy agreed, having felt unappreciated by the others. Later, Sticks and the team began to miss Amy, so they went to Eggman's lair to check on her. Eggman claimed Amy had chosen to stay, but Team Sonic did not believe it and broke into the lair where they freed Amy from imprisonment and she made peace with the others. Team Sonic then trashed Eggman's lair and his robots on their way out, which cost Eggman his place in Modern Lair Magazine.

On a visit to Sonic's Shack, Sticks found a batch of cookies and ate one. However, it turned out to be an evil cookie made by Eggman which turned Sticks into a clone of Eggman. Now evil, Sticks joined Tails, Knuckles and Amy (who had also eaten the evil cookies) under Eggman's tutelage where they plotted Sonic's destruction. When Sonic came to save them, Amy and the others cornered him, but they then started fighting over the honor of capturing Sonic. During the fight, Sticks and the others were returned to normal by Sonic and Eggman (who Sonic turned good with a cookie containing his DNA). Eggman now thought they would work together, but Team Sonic did not like the idea, so Sticks restored the doctor to normal. Sticks later came with her friends to see Sonic and Knuckles play coconut hurl when Eggman dropped by to attack them with Cowbot, a robot which would create a massive explosion if they destroyed it. As such, Sticks and her team kept Cowbot down while Tails reprogrammed it, which caused Cowbot to seek out and destroy Eggman at his lair, forcing Sonic to go warn the doctor.

The Big Boom
While her team were fighting Dr. Eggman Sticks saw a "cyborg rock golem" rise up from underground beneath Tails' house and leave with the whole house. She soon found Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy and told them how Tails' house had been taken (initially referred to the house having been "robbed") While her friends tried to make a plan, Sticks found the Rock-cyborg's footprints and followed them while sniffing the grass, which made her team think she got the robot's scent. When she finally explained herself, she had lead the group to the Rock-cyborg. There, Sticks climbed up the Rock-cyborg to check Tails' gutters for wired tapes where she helped Tails knock the Rock-cyborg over as a part of the team's ambush, giving Sonic the chance to destroy it and bring Tails' house back on its foundation.

Not long after, Sticks faced Dr. Eggman's Big Boy mech with Sonic, Tails and Amy. During the battle, Knuckles appeared and trapped his own team, claiming he now worked with Eggman since was he tired of Amy criticism, though Sticks went ahead and trapped herself in her own cage. As they were loaded into the Big Boy, Knuckles revealed to them that he was faking being Eggman's ally to fool him. As Knuckles left to defeat Eggman, Sticks freed Sonic who in turn broke them out of the Big Boy while Knuckles made Eggman retreat. Shortly after the team took care of Orbot and Cubot though, Sticks found Amy in a panic over having lost her piko hammer. Back at Tails' house, Amy's hysteria was worsen by Sonic, Tails and Knuckles, so Sticks seent the boys out to look for the piko hammer, while she calmed Amy down and convinced her to find a placeholder in her own arsenal. However, Amy's inability to use the weapons only got Sticks and Knuckles injured. Fortunately, Sonic returned with the piko hammer and Sticks went home for the night, where she found the Rock of Justice, an ancient weapon she had spent years searching for.

As her friends were cornered by Dr. Eggman's upgraded Big Boy, Sitcks came to defeat Eggman with the Rock of Justice, but no one believed it was the weapon she claimed it to be and went back to the fight. Sticks fruitlessly begged her team to use the Rock of Justice, until she used it herself by throwing it at the Big Boy, causing the Rock of Justice to ricochet into the mech and destroy it. After they scared Eggman and his lackeys off, Sticks received apologies and congratulations from her friends, but then discovered that the Rock of Justice's power was used up. After mourning her loss, Sticks was taken home by Tails and Amy, where she causally discarded the Rock of Justice in a pile of rocks.

Personality
Sticks is energetic and primal, like a wild animal. She has sharp animal instincts and is a fearsome combatant and tenacious hunter, and when angry she enters a feral frenzy. Because of her isolated life, Sticks has become off-kilted, obtuse, mental and just plain nutty, and she thinks others are living in an alternate world different from the normal one. In spite of her background, she is intelligent, though her manner of speaking comes off as strange and grammatically incorrect to other people as she speaks in a primitive dialect she taught herself.

As a result of her background, Sticks is far from civilized. She has no concept of formal behavior, a fact she knows and worries will embarrass her in fancy situations, and she is disgusted by anything cute, adorable and fuzzy. She loves spending time in her burrow and returns to it for safety when a situation becomes too bizarre for her. Like Tails, she is passionate about arts and crafts and makes things from what she finds in nature.

Because of her wildness, Sticks' social skills need plenty of work. She is not the most trusting individual and is full of outrageous suspicions and paranoia (which are always proven right), and senses danger everywhere at all times, which means that she is always stressed. As such, she has equipment prepared for even the oddest situations. While the concepts of sharing, compassion, and friendship are foreign to her, Sticks has a good heart and a genuine desire to get closer to Sonic and his friends, and is fiercely loyal to them. However, this also creates an internal struggle for her; on one hand she is not sure she can handle the life outside her burrow, but on the other hand she loves her friends and wants to hang out with them.

Powers and abilities
Sticks possesses unparalleled and quite accurate animal instincts, along with extremely sharp survival skills and outstanding hunting skills. She is quite swift and agile, capable of dodging successive laser fire with little trouble.

In battle, Sticks is a great warrior due to her wild side. She has fearsomely great skills in combat and it is noted no one has to worry about her in battle. While she has skills in wielding weapons, she is most well-versed in the usage of boomerangs, being able to throw even a boomerang made from a ladle with such precision that it hit Dr. Eggman's wrist controller upon its return. She also has skills in crafting weapons, which is exemplified in the self-made weapons she uses.

After eating a cookie infused with Eggman's DNA, Sticks briefly gained genius-level intelligence. However, it reverted back to her normal level after being cured.

Weapons
Sticks is armed with handmade weapons at all times, most notably a handmade boomerang that she keeps in tow which she uses for not only long-ranged attacks, but also as a short-range melee weapon. Besides the boomerang, she also has an arsenal of additional weapons available which include a staff and a giant metal mace.

Amy Rose
Among her new friends, Sticks' best friend is Amy Rose, who is the one Sticks wants to get closer to the most. They even each have a BFF necklace with two pendants that can be joined together to form a whole.

Amy helps Sticks adapt to civilization and in turn Sticks is willing to go to extremes to protect Amy or help her get back on her feet when she is in emotional distress. The two are also shown to work well together in combat.

Trivia

 * Sticks bears a very strong resemblance to Marine the Raccoon.
 * As such, many fans initially mistook Sticks as a supposed Sonic Boom incarnation of Marine before she was revealed to be a new character.
 * Sticks also bears a resemblance to Aika from Skies of Arcadia and Cham-Cham from Samurai Shodown. Both characters have similar hairstyles and wield boomerangs as their main weapons. Cham-Cham and Sticks also grew up and live around nature.
 * Sticks is the only member of Sonic's crew to not wear sports tape.
 * However, her boomerang has sports tape on it.
 * Early concept artwork of her also depicted her having sports tape for hair bands.
 * Sticks is the only member of Team Sonic who does not wear any gloves.