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. Helping round off the cast, 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.

According to Bill Freiberger, the impetus for creating Sticks is very often to deliver his message, and represents his point of view and belief system. This is the reason why Sticks will say something absurd, only to be proven correct in the end. In Freiberger's opinion, Sticks brings a healthy dose of cynicism to the series to counter the heroism of her friends, making her more akin to an anti-hero.

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.

Appearance
Sticks is a humanoid badger only slightly shorter than Amy. She has orange fur with long hair on the back of her head, which she keeps in two thick locks with auburn strings, and two stripes of brown fur over each of her eyes and bushy round ears that reach the end of her hair. Additionally, she has a peach muzzle with a small black nose, blue eyes and a medium-long bushy tail. Her attire consists of a tube top and a skirt with an auburn rope belt, each made of worn-down grey fabric stitched together, and tan fur-skin boots, one with a fur cuff and the other with metal bands. As accessories, she has a golden band on her right upper arm, a spiral bracelet on her left wrist and a necklace braided with seashells and a gold ring.

For the Awardy Awards, Sticks wore a black one shoulder dress with white hemlines and black medium-heeled shoes.

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 a plot to destroy them with an "Obliterator Bot". Though she was dismissed, Sticks' fears were confirmed after Eggman kept Sonic and Tails up all night, where he revealed he lied about his lair to exhaust Sonic and Tails, and summoned his Obliterator Bot to destroy them. However, the robot got Eggman's orders wrong and attacked his lair instead. Agreeing to help Eggman, Sticks, Knuckles and Amy distracted Obliterator Bot 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 Mega. While the others 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 give 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 got Buster under control 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.

During Team Sonic's visit in the village as it was 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 since 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 struggled 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 Awardy Award from Leroy and agreed to teach Amy to listen to her instincts.

While Sticks was helping Amy with lunch for their team, they met 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, Sticks and the team 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, leaving Sonic to go warn the doctor.

When Sticks fought Eggman's Octopus Bot with her team, they were caught in a rockslide triggered by Tails' faulty Unbolterizer. After defeating Eggman, Sticks grew mistrusting of Tails, who decided to leave the team until he could get his Unbolterizer working. No sooner, the crew met T.W. Barker and his traveling circus who was lacking performers for his next show. Volunteering to help, Team Sonic gave a great show the following evening. Afterwards, Barker revealed his plan was to keep them as his performers and imprisoned Sticks and her friends. Fortunately, they were saved by Tails, and after taking care of Barker, Sticks apologized to Tails.

While Sticks and Amy met Knuckles, who was upset over losing to Sonic, Sticks told him this was due to a shift in the luck balance of the universe and convinced him to inflict brutal misfortune on himself to burn through his bad luck. Tails and Amy tried convincing Sticks to talk some sense into Knuckles before he hurt himself, but she had confidence in him. She and her team later tried stopping Eggman when he invaded the island, but Knuckles' bad luck and Eggman's current good luck ruined their chances. Fortunately, they beat Eggman by letting Knuckles temporarily join the doctor and have his bad luck cancel out Eggman's good luck, thus neutralizing them both. Soon after though, they discovered that bad luck had moved onto Tails.

While camping, Team Sonic located a meteor crashing close by which briefly knocked Sonic and Eggman out when they tried to take it. As Sticks and the team continued their lazy day however, Eggman came and said he was Sonic in Eggman's body. Sticks did not buy it and drove Eggman off, but he quickly returned with his army. During the fight though, Sticks and the rest met Tails who verified that the meteor had indeed switched Sonic and Eggman's minds, and they quickly got them back to normal. After having destroyed Scorpion-bot, Sticks and her team discovered Eggman was sinking into a slump which subsequently made the doctor lose all motivation. As they were driven nuts by Sonic who grew restless from the peace, Sticks and her team tried to re-motivate Eggman by tricking Sonic to fight him. Though Sonic was not fooled as intended, their plan still lead to Sonic and Eggman resuming their battles.

When Sticks was picking beige berries for a pie to enter the pie festival with, Tails accidently ruined the orchard with a machine he made to help her. Sticks thus forced Tails to replant the orchard while she and the rest went to the festival which she won. When they returned however, Tails had gone to join the Lightning Bolt Society and the seeds he had planted had turned into mutant plants. Sticks and Knuckles therefore held the plants off while the other got Tails back, who saved them from the plants with his machine, and Sticks and Tails made peace. When Sticks later helped Sonic beat Eggman and his Moth Bot, Eggman sued Sonic for breaking his neck unprovoked. During the trial, Sticks was interrogated by Eggman's lawyer, T.W. Barker, and accidently made the case worse for Sonic, but thanks to Amy, the trial was stopped when Eggman was revealed to be okay.

Tired of Tails working on his work, Sticks and her team took him to town where Eggman was selling tomato sauce which Team Sonic thought was poisoned. However, the sauce proved clean, so Sticks and her crew let Eggman sell it to the villagers. Weeks later, where Sticks had trouble with her electronics, she and her team saw Eggman reveal on a TV interview that his sauce cans had turned their electronics into robots to conquer the island. Having fought a small robot army, Sticks' team confronted Eggman while Tails tried to reclaim his weaponized plane. Sticks and her team was soon overrun by Eggman's robots, but Tails came and stole Eggman's remote and shut the robots down just as Eggman ruined his plan by revealing it on television.

When Sticks and her team were attacked by Crab Bots before having a game, they kept Sonic out of the fight (Sticks in particular) because he had begun creating a horrible noise when running. Eggman soon after appeared, claiming the attack was not his doing, to help Sonic. Sticks insisted Eggman could not be trusted, but Sonic took the offer anyway and later returned with new shoes that muted his noise. No sooner Eggman attacked with his Giant Robot which Sticks tried fighting, but it just got stronger the more Sonic ran with his new shoes. Despite Sticks skepticism, Sonic saved them by overloading the Giant Robot with power by running excessively. During a movie night with her team, Sticks and her friends were attacked by Eggman in his Egg Tank. Amidst the battle, Eggman had an unlikely accident that created a time loop which made the day repeat itself endlessly, something no one, except Eggman, were aware off. Eventually, Eggman sought Team Sonic's help to stop the time loop. Creating a container which Knuckles had to use to quell the loop's reaction, Sticks made Knuckles, who refused to help since he a dentist appointment the next day, follow the plan by pulling out his bad tooth and let them break the loop.

When a Granifier Giganticus named Rocky attacked the Village, Sticks and Amy met up with Sonic, Tails and Knuckles who awoke the giant. However, they realized Rocky was just trying to sleep and when Amy failed to sing it a lullaby, Sticks gave it a shot, and though she sang horribly, it made Rocky sleepy. As Team Sonic lured Rocky away to keep it from blocking a road, Eggman appeared to capture Rocky but failed. Amidst the battle, Sticks was kidnapped by Rocky who took her away to make her sing for him, but Sticks' friends came to her rescue. They then lured Rocky to Eggman's lair where they made him fall asleep to a recording of Sticks' singing. Sticks later helped her team fight Eggman again, only to see Sonic and Eggman get trapped in Buddy Buddy Temple. As Knuckles and Amy arguing over who should lead Sonic's rescue, Sticks stayed out of it until she, along with her team and Orbot and Cubot, fell into the temple as it caved in. Reuniting with Sonic and Eggman there, the two got everyone to safety through a hidden path just in time, and Sticks left with her team.

While Sticks and her team ate at Meh Burger, Orbot and Cubot arrived to be their friends after leaving Eggman, but Sticks was dubious. A short while later, Eggman, Orbot and Cubot came for Team Sonic's help to stop a computer virus named Nominatus who had taken over Eggman's tech to destroy all life forms. With Eggman's robots attacking them, Sticks kept them away with her friends' help until Tails, Eggman, Orbot and Cubot destroyed Nominatus. The battle now over, Sticks and her friends returned to being Eggman's foes.

The Big Boom
While her team were fighting Dr. Eggman Sticks saw the Rock-cyborg 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's 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 Amy's House, Sticks watched Amy sob over her loss which only was worsened by Sonic, Tails and Knuckles. To stop it, Sticks kicked the boys out to look for the hammer, while she helped Amy find a placeholder for it in her arsenal. However, Amy's failed to use them and only got Sticks and Knuckles injured. Fortunately, Sonic finds the piko hammer and Sticks went home, 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 aid them defeat Eggman with the Rock of Justice, but no one believed it was the weapon she claimed it to be and ignored her despite Sticks begging her team to use it. Eventually, 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 casually discarded the Rock of Justice in a pile of rocks.

Boom Shaka-laka
Stick and her team came to help Sonic when Dr. Eggman attacked him with his minions, though they let Eggman escape. Later at Meh Burger, Team Sonic met Eggman again who sought help to operate his Eggtoberfest's rides. Sticks and her friends complied to it, though only to keep an eye on things, where they soon after found Eggman's army attacking the villagers. After defeating the army, Sticks and her team were hailed by the villagers.

Some time later, Sticks and the team arrived in the nick of time to defend Sonic when he was attacked by Eggman's Courier Robot. The robot then transformed into a video phone which Eggman contacted Team Sonic through to challenge them to a race in the Go-kart Pan-island Grand Prix which prohibited robots, weapons and powers. While the others accepted the challenge, Sticks refused to participate despite her friends urgings as she believe the race was a trap to copy their data with scanners into one of Eggman's robots and that Eggman's kart would then become a "dragon-mech". Regardless, Sticks came to watch the competition, where she, to her bemusement, saw that almost all suspicions were correct: Eggman had indeed rigged the race, the go-karts were equipped with scanners, and now Eggman was attacking Sonic in his Spiderkart for the first place in the race. At the finish line, Sticks came to Sonic's aid and climbed the Spiderkart to attack Eggman while her other friends distracted him. After Sonic won the race, Sticks' team helped attack the Spiderkart until it exploded, which sent Sticks flying into the jungle. There, she found a strange portal and a mysterious person emerging from it.

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. She also has her own battle cry which is a high-pitch shrill. 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, something that unnerves friends and enemies alike. However, she does not like having herself and theories written off as crazy, as she insists whole-hearted she is correct (which she often turns out to be).

In spite of her background, Sticks 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. Also, there is a definite method in much of her madness, and her hair-brained ideas can sometimes stray into a stroke of brilliance that leads to solutions that no one else could have thought of. As result of living in the jungle, Sticks 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. Outspoken to a fault, she always speak her mind, even if it comes across as socially uncalibrated, and her wildness sometimes gets her into trouble during social situations. She is not the most trusting individual and is full of outrageous suspicions and paranoia (which nearly always turns out to be true), 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, though she is also completely comfortable being on her own, 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.

As Sticks has demonstrated, she has a horrible singing voice, which has been liken to "bagpipes in a wood chipper" and was bad enough to set off Tails' Disasterometer.

Powers and abilities
Sticks possesses unparalleled and quite accurate animal instincts, and is a skilled jungle survivalist and an outstanding hunter. She is also quite swift and agile, capable of dodging successive laser fire with little trouble, and possesses acrobatic skills on level with a circus acrobat.

In battle, Sticks is a great warrior due to her wild side. She has fearsome 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 pinpoint accuracy. She is also skilled in weapon crafting, which is exemplified in the self-made weapons she uses.

After eating an Evil 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 melee weapon. Besides that, she 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.

Miles "Tails" Prower
Miles "Tails" Prower is one of Sticks' teammates and close friends, though there is an opposing dynamic between them. As opposed to Sticks who is generally suspicious and has crazy ideas, Tails is an inherent optimist and relies on facts and science, which causes a great deal of bickering between them.

Friends/allies

 * Team Sonic
 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Prower
 * Knuckles the Echidna
 * Amy Rose (Best friend)
 * Buster

Enemies

 * Dr. Eggman
 * Orbot
 * Cubot
 * Lyric the Last Ancient
 * T.W. Barker
 * Nominatus

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.
 * Sticks can play the banjo.
 * Unlike the other main characters, as seen in the opening of the Sonic Boom TV series, Sticks is associated with the color green and not the primary color of her body.
 * However in Sonic Boom: Shattered Crystal she is giving an aura based on her primary color like the other characters.
 * Sticks is the only main character from the Sonic Boom franchise who is a new character. All other main characters are new versions of their mainstream counterparts.
 * Sticks is the first character not made by the Sonic Team to get her own wallpaper on Sonic Channel.