Sticks The Badger

Sticks the Badger (スティックス・ザ・バジャー Sutikkusu za Bajā?) is one of the main characters in the Sonic Boom series. She is a wacky anthropomorphic jungle badger, the only descendant of Jebediah Badger,[2][3] and a force of nature in every way. Since her childhood, she has lived and flourished alone in the wilderness and is therefore new to friends in general.[1][9] She eventually formed a strong bond with Team Sonic and joined them as their wild card in their ongoing battles against Dr. Eggman.

At the Awardy Awards, Sticks wore a black one-shoulder dress with white hemlines and black medium-heeled shoes.[4]

For cold weathers, Sticks wears a pair of yellow ear warmers, an apple green winter jacket, a yellow scarf, tan mittens with yellow cuffs, and tan winter boots with fuzzy yellow cuffs.[11]

For high-altitude trips, Sticks has an advanced white spacesuit with orange boots, belt and arms, and a white helmet with an antenna, cylinders to accommodate her hair locks, and a transparent visor.[6]

When playing for the Pin Dashers, Sticks wears a dark blue and white-striped bowling shirt with matching bowling shoes. Her shirt is likewise emblazoned with the team's logo.[12]

For soccer matches, Sticks has a soccer uniform that includes a white and blue t-shirt with a blue chest logo shaped like Sonic's head, long white socks, and white shoes with blue laces and red soles.[13]

At the olympic games, Sticks wore a pair of black bike shorts in addition to her regular clothes.

On holidays, Sticks has been known to wear a green and white Santa Hat, a white shirt, a green skirt with black lederhosen suspenders, and green and white versions of her regular shoes with white fur balls on the toes

Personality

Sticks is energetic, free-spirited,[14] and primal. She has sharp animal instincts, is a fearsome combatant, a tenacious hunter, and will enter a feral frenzy when she is angry.[9][15] Because of her isolated life, Sticks has become off-kilted, obtuse, mental and just plain nutty,[9][16] and she thinks others are living in an alternate world different from the normal one,[9] something that unnerves friends and enemies alike. While Sticks recognizes that she is a kook,[17] she does not like having herself and her ideas written off as crazy by default (as she often turns out to be right).[18][19]

In spite of her background, Sticks is intelligent, especially when in her right element, though her manner of speaking comes off as strange to other people as she speaks in a primitive dialect she taught herself.[9][15] Also, there is a definite method in much of her madness, and her hair-brained ideas can sometimes be strokes of brilliance that lead to solutions that no one else could have thought of. Due to living in the jungle, Sticks has no concept of formal behavior, a fact she is aware of and worries will embarrass her in fancy situations.[4] She is also disgusted by anything cute, adorable and fuzzy.[7] Despite this she has no problems with Miss Tomatopotamus and found the idea of Tails being in love adorable.

While not quite a tomboy, Sticks is far from feminine and has no understanding of this concept.[3] However, she does have her rare moments of girly-ness.[20][21] She loves spending time in her burrow and returns to it for safety when a situation becomes too bizarre for her.[9] Like Tails, she is passionate about arts and crafts and makes things from what she finds in nature.[22] Unlike Tails though, Sticks usually considers technology her enemy because it "can't be trusted."[23][24] Regardless of her standpoints however, she is willing to compromise her principles for the right reasons.[24] She has also curiously enough displayed an unlikely amount of affection for otherwise dangerous or disgusting robots, such as D-Fekt and Buster.

Sticks describing a curse, her paranoia at its zenith.

Sticks' social skills need plenty of work.[9] She always speaks her mind, even if it comes across as socially uncalibrated, and her wildness sometimes gets her into trouble during social situations.[25] Sticks is not the most trusting individual and is full of outrageous suspicions and paranoia (though her instinctive skepticism often turns out to be quite accurate).[9] She is very superstitious and senses danger and conspiracies everywhere, which leaves her in a state of constant stress.[15][26][27] She also exhibits personality traits based on various conspiracy theorist stereotypes, in that she suspects the government of being behind a lot of shady activities, including mind-controlling the public, and often thinks about toppling it.[28] As such, she has equipment prepared for even the oddest situations.[4] Sticks is also one who believes in speaking the truth, and cannot stand the real stories being withheld.[24][29] Despite her dislike of lies, however, she is not a snitch.[29]

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[5] (though she is also completely comfortable being alone[25]), and is fiercely loyal to them. Perhaps most noticeably, she is unwilling to rat out her friends, even when they do something she does not disagree with, although she expects them to come clean in the end.[29] However, her loyalty also means that she feels very hurt when her friends do not trust her enough her when she needs them to.[17] Her closeness to her friends 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.[9]

Sticks has a horrible singing voice, which has been likened to "bagpipes in a wood chipper" and was bad enough to set off Tails' Disasterometer.[30]

Powers and abilities

Sticks possesses unparalleled and quite accurate animal instincts.[9] These include an expert sense of smell accurate enough to let her sniff out specific targets, like an animal.[31] She has extremely sharp wilderness survival skills in various areas, such as creating shelters and fires, knot tying (being capable of tying an entire net in a flash[32]), bird calls, identifying edible mushrooms, navigation, and time measurement without modern instruments.[9][33] She is also an excellent swimmer who can pull off undersea traversing where regular people need wetsuits.[34] Sticks is as well a talented hunter who can take down any prey with her signature equipment.[1][9][14] Physically, Sticks is very swift and agile and has acrobatic skills on level with a circus acrobat,[35] being capable of dodging successive laser shots[4] and making high leaps with little trouble and minimal reaction time.

In battle, Sticks is a great warrior with fearsome combat skills due to her wild side.[4][22] Sticks is proficient in the usage of several forms of weaponry (including expert archery[36][37]), but she is most well-versed in the usage of boomerangs. She can throw boomerangs with absolute precision and without fail, including make-shift boomerangs made from things such as ladles and robot parts.[1][4][5] Even without her weapons, Sticks is an adept martial artist and has descent skills in hand-to-hand combat.[17] She is also skilled in weapon crafting,[5] which is exemplified in the self-made weapons she uses. Also, while technology is not her forte, Sticks has some skills in programming missiles due to her past experiences of being caught in missile silos.[33]

Sticks has an uncanny sense of foresight, and often predicts the occurrence of unexpected situations long beforehand. Her imagination and awareness together make her very capable of devising uniquely effective solutions. 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.[38]

Weapons

Sticks' boomerang

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Sticks is armed with handmade weapons at all times, most notably a handmade boomerang that she keeps in tow[9] which she uses for not only long-ranged attacks that pack significant power, but also as a melee weapon.[26] She also has an arsenal of additional weapons available which include a crossbow,[36] a slingshot,[39] nunchucks,[40] a net,[41] a bō,[42][43] a club,[44] and a giant metal mace.[43]

Relationships

Team Sonic

Amy Rose

Sticks and Amy hugging.

Among her new friends on Team Sonic, Sticks' best friend is Amy Rose, who is the one Sticks wants to get closer to the most.[9] The two of them are very tight, with Sticks having acknowledged that Amy is the one person that will stand by her side, no matter what.[2] The arguably greatest example of their friendship was when Amy had Sticks' back every step of the way during the time the Village turned against the badger. As thanks for her help, Sticks had the Village renamed after Amy.[2] Also, as a symbol of their friendship, they each own a joinable BFF necklace.[16]

While Amy helps Sticks adapt to civilization, Sticks is in turn willing to go to extremes to help and protect Amy, even when she doubts her.[9][27][33] In fact, when Lyric the Last Ancient kidnapped Amy, Sticks immediately took off to save her without a plan or a clue. Also, just like Amy's shares her knowledge of civilization with Sticks, Sticks share her knowledge of the wilderness and the perks of instincts with Amy, showing that their relationship works both ways.[4][33][45] Similarly, Sticks is willing to be the calm-minded one of them when Amy is in need of emotional support.[43]

When working together, Sticks and Amy are a solid team, displaying well-oiled collaboration in different situations, like combat and wilderness survival.[33] They also occasionally have girls-only activities where it is just the two of them hanging out together. While their different personalities make it difficult for them to find common ground during such events, they nonetheless always manage to make compromises that satisfy both of them, showcasing the strength of their friendship.[3][45]

Sticks herself holds Amy in high regard, viewing her as the smartest person around (even more so than Tails), selfless and honorable.[2] She is also more dedicated to Amy's finer instructions than the rest of her team.[46] Their relationship is far from easy though, as Sticks has a hard time understanding Amy's civilized manners and attempts to have her act more lady-like, while Amy does not always concur with Sticks' primal and simple nature.[3][4] Also, regardless of her affection for her, Sticks does not always agree with Amy's bossy attitude, nor is she very fond of her ideas for group activities.[3][47][48] There are as well times where Sticks may act inconsiderate towards Amy, though she still appreciates her as both a teammate and a friend, and will try making up with her whenever she has upset her.[48] In fact, Sticks cannot stand watching Amy cry.[49]

Sonic the Hedgehog

Sticks hugging Sonic in gratitude.

Another one of Sticks' closest friends and teammates is Sonic the Hedgehog. Sticks and Sonic are rather alike in regards to how they "go running into danger without a plan, a direction, or a clue," though Sticks is usually kept in line by Sonic. In terms of leadership, Sticks accepts Sonic as her team leader, though she does not really trust him (or anyone in charge).[50] Regardless, Sticks loves being friends with Sonic and enjoys hanging out with him, and will protect and help him the best way she knows how, even when he doubts her.[9][27] Likewise, she truly appreciates Sonic for what he is willing to do for her sake.[4] However, she does has her limits for how much of Sonic's ego she can take and is not above putting him in his place when he deserves it.[32][33]

Miles "Tails" Prower

Sticks upset at Tails.

Miles "Tails" Prower is one of Sticks' teammates and close friends, though there is an opposing dynamic between them. While Sticks 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 the two.[10] This part of their relationship is even more strenuous due to Sticks' unease about technology, which Tails constantly uses.[26][51] For some reason, she is also very much against having Tails lead her.[50]

Like many of her friends, Sticks tends to distrust Tails due to her exceeding paranoia; once she even thought he was a double-agent.[35] She also does not really acknowledge him as the smartest in their group (since she has given that honor to Amy), although she still recognizes his skills and appreciates his aid.[24] At the end of the day, despite their differences, Sticks loves having Tails as a friend and enjoys hanging out with him, and will protect him rather fiercely, even when he doubts her.[9][27] In one instance, she even found him more adorable than tough.[52] Also, despite their disagreements, Sticks will always make peace with Tails sooner or later as they come to appreciate each other's differences and contributions.[35][51]

Knuckles the Echidna

Sticks attacking Knuckles after thinking he insulted her.

Knuckles the Echidna is another of Sticks' friends and teammates. Out of everyone on her crew, Sticks tends to treat Knuckles as a more disposable member, having suggested more than once to destroy him when she deems its necessary;[53] once, when she thought Knuckles had appeared out of thin air, she wanted to kill him with fire.[54] She will also not hesitate to violently assault Knuckles, usually when he has angered her or for a bigger cause, like pulling out his bad tooth.[55][56][57]

Like her friends, Sticks does not find Knuckles very smart, although she is not bothered as much about it as the others. In fact, Knuckles is often the only one who believes in Sticks' theories. Similarly, Sticks has demonstrated remarkable confidence in Knuckles, namely when she was sure he could tip the luck balance of the universe in his favor before he got himself killed.[18] While Knuckles gets on Sticks' nerves sometimes, she nonetheless loves having Knuckles as a friend and enjoys hanging out with him. She will likewise protect him rather fiercely when she wants to.[9][27] To Knuckles, Sticks also helps fill out the kind of loneliness he gets about being the last of his kind by being the family he longs for.[41]

Dr. Eggman

Sticks facing Dr. Eggman.

Like the rest of Team Sonic, Sticks' sworn enemy is Dr. Eggman. However, they have a rather complex relationship. On one hand, Sticks always fights Eggman to foil his plans for domination. When not fighting though, they keep a more passive relationship where they let each other be nearby without starting to brawl.

On her part, Sticks sees Eggman as a reasonable threat, having underlined how his robots destroy everything and supposedly put songs in people's head that they cannot forget.[53] She also does not trust the doctor under normal circumstances when he claims that he is not up to something (noticeably even less than her friends) and instead suspects that he has an evil scheme in play (which is usually correct).[55][58] In spite of that, Sticks still thinks that Eggman himself is a total joke.[59] Because of her constant victories over him, Sticks has a tendency to underestimate Eggman and forget how dangerous he can be.[32]

Buster

Sticks after kissing Buster.

Buster is a Slime Bot created by Dr. Eggman, and Sticks' former pet. Despite Buster's grossness and origin, Sticks loved him dearly and showered him with kindness, something which she has never done to anyone. Captivated by him on sight, Sticks finds him adorable since she is disgusted by cuteness. She was likewise protective of Buster, so much that she stopped being a hero to keep him safe. During their brief time together, Sticks made a strong bond with Buster. Initially, she choose him over her team, and when Eggman turned Buster against her, she refused to hurt him. In the end though, Sticks understood Buster was too.