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're replacing my plants with violins."

- Sticks the Badger

Sticks the Badger is one of the main characters that appears in the upcoming 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 Sonic and his friends, however, she forms a strong bond with the group, particularly with Amy Rose.

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.

Personality
Sticks is energetic and rather primal, like a wild animal. She has sharp animal instincts and is a fearsome combatant and tenacious hunter. Because of her isolated life, Sticks has become a little quirky, eccentric and thinks others are living in an alternate world. In spite of her background, she is intelligent, though her manner of speaking comes off as strange to other people as she speaks in a primitive dialect she taught herself.

Sticks loves spending time in her burrow and returns to it for safety when a situation becomes too bizarre for her.

Because of her wildness, Sticks' social skills need plenty of work. She is not the most trusting individual and is full of outrageous suspicions (which are always proven right) and senses danger everywhere at all times. 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. She has extremely sharp survival skills and is also a good hunter. She has as well fearsomely great combat skills, as it is noted no one has to worry about her in battle. She is also well-versed in the usage of boomerangs.

Weapons
Sticks is armed with handmade weapons at all times, most notably a handmade boomerang that she keeps in tow.

Amy Rose
Among her new friends, Sticks' best friend is Amy Rose, who is the one Sticks wants to get closer to the most. Amy helps Sticks adapt to civilization and in turn Sticks is willing to go to extremes to protect Amy. The two are also shown to work well together in combat.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric/Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal
Sticks is set to appear in Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric for the Wii U and Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal for the Nintendo 3DS, which serves as a prequel to the TV series. She will be a playable character in Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal and will play an integral role in the story after Amy gets kidnapped by the ancient villain Lyric the Last Ancient. In Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal, she can perform the Homing Attack and use her boomerang to attack enemies and solve puzzles.

Archie Comics
It was revealed on July 16th 2014 that Archie Comics are set to publish a comic book series based on Sonic Boom which will feature Sticks.

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. Both characters have similar hairstyles and wield boomerangs as their main weapons.
 * 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 Sonic's team who does not wear any gloves.