Stickler

"UMM, EXCUSE ME."

—Stickler's catchphrase

**Stickler** is a major character *The Cuphead Show!*. He originally was a recurring anti-villain in Season 1 and 2, but by Season 3, served as the overarching antagonist of the show.

He is a character original to the show and is voiced by Andrew Morgado.

## Profile

### Appearance

Stickler is a short, teal-green demon with a large cranium to indicate his smarts. He has pointed ears, a devil's tail, small horns, and eggplant purple eyes. He wears a large, blue polka-dotted bowtie on his neck, white cuffs on his wrists instead of gloves, and white spats on his feet. He also keeps a pencil behind his ear and can often be seen carrying the book of souls. In "Release the Demons!", his skin is a little richer-coloured.

### Personality

Stickler is exactly what his name suggests. When the Devil wants to have a party celebrating their most productive year in a millennium causing chaos and mayhem across the world, Stickler keeps bringing up the fact that Cuphead's soul has not yet been collected and insisting that his soul has to be collected before any celebration can take place. This prompted the events of "Sweater Off Dead". He reacts defensively when others criticize his work ethic, as seen when refusing to apologize for doing his job, in response to The Devil’s henchman condemning Stickler for pestering the former into retrieving Cuphead’s soul. Still, he does show a positive trait in being industrious and committed to his job as an accounting officer, that he seems to live solely for, and refuses to let anything incorrect fly regardless of if he benefits from it or not. He knows everyone hates him for how annoyingly rules-driven he is, but since his job is an important one, he carries on without fail, regardless of others' complaints.

Despite his generally unpleasant demeanour, he's generally correct whenever he calls someone out. Best exemplified when he forcibly puts an end to Ms. Chalice constantly distracting the Devil from claiming his half of their deal and later tells the Devil straight up "Your hubris will be your downfall" which has proven true many times, but most especially the dance-off in the season finale.

## Appearances

### "Sweater Off Dead"

When the Devil is hosting a party celebrating the capture of many souls, Stickler holds the party back while others celebrate, much to the annoyance of the Devil’s henchmen. He insists that the Devil cannot rest because Cuphead's soul has not yet been captured. When the Devil leaves, Henchman condemns Stickler for his behaviour, to which Stickler condescendingly refused to apologize for doing his job. After the Devil fails at capturing Cuphead's soul due to the invisible sweater, Stickler still insists that his soul must be captured. The Devil lies that he did, to which Stickler reminds the Devil that each soul must be registered in order for them to count as being captured, to which the Devil irritatingly responds by destroying Stickler's book of souls, announcing that they must all be counted again. Stickler woefully leaves, as he is the one that must count and log all the souls again.

### "Sweater Luck Next Time"

While Stickler does not physically appear in this episode, he is mentioned in the beginning by The Devil when he admits to Henchman that he lied about having collected Cuphead's soul to buy himself more time before Stickler finds out, adding that he "hates that guy."

### Season Two

#### "Release the Demons!"

Stickler reappears at the end of the episode, where he stops the Devil from breaking into Cuphead and Mugman's cottage, reminding him that Cuphead's soul debt has expired. When the Devil then attempts to fry him with his pitchfork, it is revealed that Stickler survived due to wearing the invisible sweater, much to the Devil's frustration. The two then go back into the elevator as Stickler then sings a soul variant of "*99 Bottles of Beer*" but counts down from 999 million, thus further tormenting the Devil.

## Relationships

### In General

It's implied nobody in the Underworld likes Stickler and can't stand him because he's such a nerdy killjoy, yet they still put up with his presence because he's the main auditor of soul collection in the Underworld. Therefore, they can't just get rid of him. He knows everyone hates him for how annoyingly rules-driven he is, but since his job is an important one, he carries on without fail, regardless to others' complaints. So far, he is only seen interacting with two demons, the Devil and Henchman, who both hate his guts and want nothing to do with him.

### **The Devil**

Stickler is the Devil's main auditor. He shows absolutely no respect or fear of his boss, the actual Devil, and has absolutely no hesitation with causing a problem for him and interrupting his celebration, which leaves the latter exasperated. He is lucky that the Devil only responded by destroying his ledger. In "Release the Demons!*"* he tries it again, and this time the Devil flat-out tries to kill him. The only reason Stickler survives is because he's wearing the sweater Mugman knitted for Cuphead out of brotherly love, rendering him impervious to the Devil's attacks. This also means he can freely speak his mind to the Devil without fear of reprisal.

In Season 3, it would later be revealed that if the Devil does not collect any souls or decides to do anything else besides the aforementioned task, he would revoke his possessions, hence the Devil's main goals over the span of the show.

### **Henchman**

Aside from the Devil, Henchman is the only other demon Stickler is seen interacting with. While they're not seen interacting that much on-screen and judging by his reaction upon seeing Stickler coming in in "Sweater Off Dead", where he says, "Not this guy.", it can be assumed that Henchman does not have a positive view of The Devil's auditor. He expresses annoyance with him as he keeps pestering the Devil about how he hasn't collected Cuphead's soul yet, even frantically motions for him not to bring it up and gets angry at him for ruining the latter's party, only to be met with Stickler reacting defensively and refusing to apologize for doing his job. Despite this, his annoyance towards him doesn't stop him from giving Stickler the invisible sweater so that the Devil can't kill him, indicating that he does seem to actually show some concern for him. However, it cannot be said that the feeling is mutual.

As of the second season, Henchman is also shaping up to be the perfect opposite of Stickler. Personality-wise, Henchman is a tad dopey but emotionally intelligent and caring towards his boss, where Stickler is a highly intelligent auditor with a brain like a machine but relentlessly takes his own boss to task over bureaucracy despite the very real dangers of doing so. They also have opposite relationships with the Devil - Henchman is the closest thing the Devil has to a friend, whereas Stickler is completely and totally despised by Old Scratch. This culminates in an attempt by the Devil to flat out try to kill Stickler, only thwarted by the impenetrable, invisible sweater. Furthermore, Sticker either cannot or refuses to pick up on the Devil's mood swings. Henchman, however, is likely the only person in the setting who can safely counter his boss' volatile behaviour and calm him down.

## Gallery

### Screenshots

The Devil and Henchman annoyed with Stickler"Stickler! What are you doing here?"The Devil enraged
### Concept Art

Source: Adam Paloian's TwitterSource: Adam Paloian's TwitterSource: Adam Paloian's TwitterSource: Adam Paloian's Twitter
## Trivia

* Despite being commonly mistaken as such, head writer Deeki Deke has confirmed that Stickler is not an Imp.
* His job and personality make him very similar to Terry, the antagonist of the Pixar film *Soul.*
* Stickler's name comes from the word "stickler", which is defined as a person who insists on a certain quality or type of behavior, traits that the character possesses in regard to the souls that the Devil has captured.
* In the French dub, he is called "Dumaniac", with 'maniac' meaning 'finicky'.
* Stickler seems to suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder. He has an adamant insistence that every soul that needs to be collected must be collected, even to the point of bothering the Devil and other imps and preventing them from enjoying a party until they retrieve and register it. He even bothers the Devil about pursuing Cuphead after the latter’s soul contract expires, as his pursuit is supposedly “unauthorized”.
* Head writer for the show, Deeki Deke, has mentioned that several characters they worked on, including Stickler, are queer, suggesting that he is a part of the LGBTQ+ community.