Why does Sticks exist?

[Oh Noes]

 

I think it's important to separate the concepts of contribution and necessity. To me, necessity in art is a pretty fickle thing to concern one's self about just for the sake of necessity. We don't tell stories based on the most base components needed to merely complete a story; we tell stories based on what's entertaining and thought-provoking at the expense of objectivity. To do otherwise would make for a pretty shit media culture; just nothing but basic stories of protagonists and antagonists with no secondary characters or conflict. Necessity doesn't actually matter much, if at all. Instead, components added to a work should be discussed in terms of their ability to contribute positively to the work as a whole. People dogging Big and Omega only on being unnecessary back then were either focused entirely on the wrong concept, or simply didn't iterate problems with the characters' contributions to the best of their ability.

 

Indeed, I also believe that's how you can (and not should) think about art. Art itself doesn't need to care much about consistency either, many great artists demonstrated that. However, art evolved into an industry, and got very standarized, because that's what always brings the audience, regardless of quality. Of course there's a limit, but it's now a fact that creativity can vary in function of economic ressources, that can also bring pressure.

 

And you can't say that about the era when a lot of characters came to life in the franchise. It was the time of "wouldn't it be cool if", and even if a lot of ideas didn't worked, a lot also did. And what came from this era was a flourishing cast of characters for the franchise as a whole, from Big the Cat to Chip. And most of the time, what made those characters's reputation was their defaults: poor execution, or most of the time, not being pushed to their full potential.

The simple-minded, giantic cat, spends his lazy days fishing, living in a forest, and hiss best friend is a frog, that sounds good enough to be happy forever and be friends with SAWUNIC. He could have brought hapiness to you, too! But can you see him happy? No, because he perpetually have this Derp expression on his face and never, EVER gets to move a eyebrow. And because little to no interaction with SAWUNIC is shown, supposely because the writers didn't cared about him.

What about the pink dog? You have, as a design, a cute, comedy-relief character, that looks useless the first time you see it, but who developps a strong bond with Sonic, and a beatiful friendship. This gets even better with a great plottwist, giving the character both a backstory and purpose, and in the end you're even kind of sad about how the story ends. So what's wrong? His voice actor and how he's annoying, that being done on purpose, which leaves a lasting impression.

 

That's just examples of characters not being pushed up to their full potential, and the reason they're so disliked. Now, combine these two examples and apply them to a character that took 3 months to design, with a crazy-goo-goo personnality, and you get the case of Sticks. But as always, only business forces art to take a certain path.

[SpongicX]

hell I don't even think we've seen her burrow home yet!

 

Yes we have, the show has shown her  home at least 3 times. The first time being in Buster, it showed her house right after Sticks adopts Buster. We also see it again in Eggheads, when Sonic is dashing through everyone's houses, to gather their dna, and we see it again in Aim Low, where Tails, Knuckles, and Amy go to hide from Sonic, and try to figure out a way to get Eggman back to fighting Sonic. The only character who's house we haven't properly seen yet, is Knuckles's house. We only saw his weight bench, but that's it. According to Shattered Crystal's world map, it looks like Knuckles lives in a cave/gym. I find it sad that some people don't find Sticks useful. I think Sticks is very useful in a way. Sticks knows the island better than anyone, since she's lived in the wilderness for so long. She can help her friends navigate through territories they might not be familiar with. Most of all, I think Sticks is a great look out keeper. She's always on the alert, which can come in handy, when her friends actually believe her. Look at the episode The Meteor for example. Although it was just Sonic in Eggman's body, who wasn't wanting to harm them, Sticks was still able to hear Eggman's machines coming from quite a long distance. She actually caught the attention of Amy, without any doubt. Sticks is great for keeping her team on the alert, to do her best to keep them safe. 

[Kuzu]

I can go on a rant about "Necessity vs. Contribution"but I'll save it for later. As for Sticks?

 

 

Meh, she's alright I guess. My problems are more or less what everyone else has said, she's a main character who doesn't really contribute a lot. Granted, this is kind of an issue I have with Boom in general as of late as its starting to feel like how the main branch of games are now. Its pretty much the Sonic(and Tails) & his amazing friends starring Dr. Eggman. Amy, Knuckles, and Sticks don't really contribute much to the show aside from a funny line or two and you can count the number of episodes about them on one hand compared say, Dr. Eggman. 

 

Sticks probably gets the worst of it though, Amy & Knuckles stand out far more when they get the chance compared to her. I guess somebody on the production crew decided they needed a fifth main character...because reasons? I dunno, this isn't exactly an uncommon occurrence in these types of shows. My guess is that they actually did have a fleshed out background for her planned, but it fell through and they can't exactly cut her from the show so she's kind of just there. 

[Ellipsis-Ultima]

Yes we have, the show has shown her  home at least 3 times. The first time being in Buster, it showed her house right after Sticks adopts Buster. We also see it again in Eggheads, when Sonic is dashing through everyone's houses, to gather their dna, and we see it again in Aim Low, where Tails, Knuckles, and Amy go to hide from Sonic, and try to figure out a way to get Eggman back to fighting Sonic. The only character who's house we haven't properly seen yet, is Knuckles's house. We only saw his weight bench, but that's it. According to Shattered Crystal's world map, it looks like Knuckles lives in a cave/gym. I find it sad that some people don't find Sticks useful. I think Sticks is very useful in a way. Sticks knows the island better than anyone, since she's lived in the wilderness for so long. She can help her friends navigate through territories they might not be familiar with. Most of all, I think Sticks is a great look out keeper. She's always on the alert, which can come in handy, when her friends actually believe her. Look at the episode The Meteor for example. Although it was just Sonic in Eggman's body, who wasn't wanting to harm them, Sticks was still able to hear Eggman's machines coming from quite a long distance. She actually caught the attention of Amy, without any doubt. Sticks is great for keeping her team on the alert, to do her best to keep them safe. 

Well about Knuckles's house, Bill has said that in the TV series, he doesn't have one. Instead he's a wanderer, probably for his 'love of nature' personality.

 

Another reason why Sticks is useful is because she saw Eggman's plan in Episode 2, and even predicited an Obliterator bot coming. Sticks is also there for comedy. But she can also fight, as shown more in My Fair Sticksy. But she's there for comedy.

 

Overall I like her, and I'm used to the voice also, and in the comics she's really nice.

[FriendBot]

*in Fastiduous Beaver's voice* Actually, we've seen Sticks' burrow 4 times in the Boom TV show. The fourth time in Unlucky Knuckles when Tails and Amy talk about Knuckles at her place.

 

And I feel the reason why they added Sticks is so they could differentiate the Boom series from the SEGASonic series or something like that. Granted, she had a poor introduction in the games and TV show and in the comics, she also had a pretty sudden introduction as well in the comics but since the comics wasn't meant to be taken seriously for the most part, it didn't bother me too much.

 

Sticks, as a character, is a nice addition to the series but she did became a bit one-note when all she talks about is conspiracy theories and all that. But the comics is defintely the best interpretation of her, she still has that whole conspriacy talk but it also goes a bit into her feral side, where in the first issue, she sniffs up grass, kind of like in My Fair Sticksy. The comics also shows her friendship with Amy a bit, in the third issue, Amy lost her hammer in battle and she's super upset about it, Sticks decided to find a replacement weapon for her until Sonic, Tails and Knux finds her hammer.

 

So yeah, some of the problems people have with Sticks are fixed in the comics. So better read up guys, they're really good!

[SSF1991]

Why does Sticks exist?

 

Because that and stones have to exist for bone breaking so it is more obvious that words would never hurt me.

 

 

...Sorry I'll go now.

[Salamander]

I think Sticks exists essentially because they could.  It was a new branch of the franchise, but with all five main characters shared from the original (Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Eggman), how could they more obviously distinguish between each on a marketing level?  Boom needed a mascot character to exemplify its themes, built from the ground up to do so.  At the end of the day, Sonic & co. still nod fairly obviously to their origins - but look at Sticks.  "Wild" theme, more elaborate costume, less bombastic colour scheme, no gloves - and the kicker, she uses a "boom"erang.  They needed a main cast member who was quintessentially "Boom"... and they kind of blew it by making her late to the party.  She had only a minor appearance in RoL, probably took Amy's place in SC, wouldn't have been in any of the cartoon scripts they'd started working on at the time...

 

I have a feeling this'll get rectified, though.  They probably bumped some Sticks-relevant episodes to the front of the TV production queue, but she'll eventually be integrated more organically, and come to that I wouldn't be surprised if she was integrated into modern Sonic canon, too, since the idea of Boom being a new universe was quietly retconned.

[YoshiAngemon]

Maybe Sticks was a rush job, and was initially meant to be a Second-Season character. OR Sticks could be a descendant of the Ancients, who was abandoned at an early age, or lost her parents the same.

[Oscillo]

Looking back, last weeks episode (Sleeping Giant) has the best use of Sticks thus far. Her role was linked to the plot & seemed to fit her character. She seems to have tribal origins & links to mystical natural forces. It's somewhat similar Knuckles story, but not quite identical, as she's never explicitly stated to be the last of her tribe/species, just that she lived most of her life alone. It makes me hope that, if another Boom game is made (longshot I know) they go into more detail on her background & if she has any particular importance to the Boom universe.

[SSF1991]

he only character who's house we haven't properly seen yet, is Knuckles's house. We only saw his weight bench, but that's it. According to Shattered Crystal's world map, it looks like Knuckles lives in a cave/gym.

Bill has said that the barbells Knuckles has been seen with at the beach is his house.

 

Yep. That's Knuckles' house. On the beach with a set of barbells.

[Multikaris]

They probably created her to sell a new toy in her likeness. 

 

Every Sonic cross-media adaptation has it's flagship characters. AOSTH had the SSSSS Squad and perhaps Sonic's harem, SATAM had The Freedom Fighters, Snively, and Lupe Wolf (check the Deviantart hits for her), Underground had Sonia and Manic, X had Cosmo, Archie used to have about 2 dozen such characters until SEGA clawed their way into the comic, but nowadays, I think the title would go to Eclipse or Relic, Fleetway had their Freedom Fighters, the Sky Pirates, and Ebony, the OVA had Sera and now Boom has Sticks (and Perci).

[Dejablue]

For the longest I thought Stix was going to be playable in Rise of Lyric. It's laughable how badly she's introduced. I know she's playable in Shattered Crystal,but you'd think in RoL she would get at least ONE fully animated cutscene. Which game is supposed to have happened first? Rise of Lyric or Shattered Crystal?

 

But why does she exist?  Heh, why does Cream and Marine exist? Somebody wanted to draw something cute, I dunno.

 

 

If I wanted to saaaay...make a topic discussing headcanon regarding Boom. Because Boom didn't do much world building. (To me Shadow shouldn't even exist in Boom. Unless a Sonic Adventure 2 type situation happened that we never learn about.) Where would the most appropriate place be to make that topic? I'm paranoid that I'll make a topic in the wrong place and will get 10 replies with people just telling me that I messed up.

[Osmium]

I don't think there's actually a real reason for her to exist, outside of being a comic relief character. There's literally like nothing else.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

For the longest I thought Stix was going to be playable in Rise of Lyric. It's laughable how badly she's introduced. I know she's playable in Shattered Crystal,but you'd think in RoL she would get at least ONE fully animated cutscene. Which game is supposed to have happened first? Rise of Lyric or Shattered Crystal?

 

But why does she exist?  Heh, why does Cream and Marine exist? Somebody wanted to draw something cute, I dunno.

 

 

If I wanted to saaaay...make a topic discussing headcanon regarding Boom. Because Boom didn't do much world building. (To me Shadow shouldn't even exist in Boom. Unless a Sonic Adventure 2 type situation happened that we never learn about.) Where would the most appropriate place be to make that topic? I'm paranoid that I'll make a topic in the wrong place and will get 10 replies with people just telling me that I messed up.

 

Rise of Lyric and Shattered Crystal take place in alternate universes. I know, it's stupid and confusing.