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 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.

Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric
Sticks is set to appear as a non playable character in the Wii U version of Sonic Boom on November 11th 2014.

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 Sticks and her friends visited Tails' house, they discovered that Sonic and Tails were letting Dr. Eggman, Orbot and Cubot stay here while their lair underwent repairs. Sticks however, believed it was an evil plot by the doctor to destroy them with an "Obliteratorbot". Though her paranoia was dismissed, Sticks' fears were confirmed two days later, after Eggman had kept Sonic and Tails up all night and exhausted them, where Eggman revealed he lied about his lair to exhaust Sonic and Tails, and summoned his Obliteratorbot to destroy them, as Sticks predicted. However, the robot got Eggman's orders wrong and attacked his lair instead. Convinced by Eggman to help them, Sticks and her team got to the lair where she, Knuckles and Amy distracted Obliteratorbot long enough for the others to reach its kill switches, though they were too late to save the lair.

As Sticks was relaxing with Sonic, Amy and Knuckles on the beach, Tails came and demonstrated his invention UT, a robot capable of translating any language, to them. However, tension was created between Sticks and the team when UT translated their private thoughts from the subtext of their speech. The next day, Tails and UT came back where the robot "translated" their comments into insults. As every began fighting, Tails learned this UT was a fake send by Eggman to tear the team apart. However, Sticks and the others did not come with Tails on hismission to save the real UT, thinking UT was too troublesome. Later, UT returned to Sticks and the others with a message from Tails and translated it into a call to rescue Tails from Eggman's lair. Sticks and the team soon got to Eggman's lair where they freed Tails and defeated Eggman's guard robot. While the rest of her team liked UT now, Sticks did not and threw it into the sea.

When Eggman attacked the local village with his Anti-firebot, Team Sonic came and put a end to it. After the mission though, Sticks showed a kitten ill treatment which made her team-mates convince her to get a pet to learn compassion. While out finding a pet with Sonic, Sticks chose a disgusting robo-dog who 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 Orbot and Cubot from robbing a warehouse, they tried to make Sticks get rid of Buster, but she refused. Eggman then came by with a gift for Buster and revealed he created the robo-dog. However, Eggman's gift turned Buster into a large robot that caught everyone except Sticks, but Sticks managed to assume 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.

Archie Comics
While her friends were fighting Dr. Eggman Sticks saw a "cyborg rock golem" rise up from underground beneath Tails' house and left with the whole house on top of it. In panic, Sticks hurried out and found Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy and told them that Tails' house had been "robbed". However, it was first when Sticks brought her friends to the former site of Tails' house that they understand what she meant and she explained what had happened to the house.

While her friends tried to make a plan, Sticks found the Rock-cyborg's footprints and began following them while sniffing the grass out of enjoinment (which gave the others the impression that she had picked up the robot's scent). When she finally cleared up the misunderstanding though, she had lead the whole group to the Rock-cyborg. There, Sticks climbed up on the top of the Rock-cyborg to check Tails' gutters for "illegal wire taps" as Sonic was leading it into an ambush. There, she met Tails who told her to get to safety, but she believed she would be safer up here. As Amy and Knuckles crippled the Rock-cyborg, Sticks and Tails struck it from behind and made it fall, giving Sonic the chance to destroy it and bring Tails' house back on its foundation. With the battle over, Sticks was liking how the Rock-cyborg's remains adorned the surroundings.

Personality
Sticks is energetic and rather primal, like a wild animal. She has sharp animal instincts and is a fearsome combatant and tenacious hunter, though when angry she enters a feral frenzy. Because of her isolated life, Sticks has become a little quirky, eccentric and overall 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.

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 and paranoia (which are always proven right), and senses danger everywhere at all times, which means that she is always stressed. 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. She is capable of not only using the boomerang for long-ranged attacks, but also as a short-range melee weapon.

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.

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.