Flaky

Name: Flaky Gender: Female Animal: Porcupine Episode: 37 TV Count: 2 Kill Count: 9 Deaths: 29 (26 from Episodes, 3 from Smoochies) First Death: Treasure These Idol Moments First Victim: Disco Bear from Rink Hijinks Appearance: Water You Wading For Voiceactor: Nica Lorber

Character Bio
A red porcupine whose quills are full of dandruff, thus the name. Flaky is one of the most popular characters in series and has the identifiable personality of being a very shy and timid character ever since she had a traumatic childhood event. She is also afraid of chicks as seen in "From A to Zoo".

Flaky has often been viewed as a coward. However Flaky's actions in both the internet shorts and the TV series go against this as she had been brave and in several occasions and had saved her own life several times. Additionally, when hanging around with Cuddles, Flaky is often forcefully dragged into situations that lead to one's or both their demises, despite her warning Cuddles about possible dangers that could occur. Her deaths tend to involve either getting skinned or bursting apart.

Flaky is a helpful character, as evidenced by a couple of the TV episodes. All these factors suggest that Flaky is not only overly cautious (as opposed to being a coward), but also one of the more intelligent and kind characters of the series; for example, daring to organize a surprise birthday party for Flippy, a character who is well-known for being mentally unstable. However, as seen in the episode "Snow Place to Go" she is somewhat unstable herself - near the end of the episode "Snow Place to Go", she begins to go insane and makes a companion with a garden gnome and singing "Rock-A-Bye Baby" to it after being trapped in the Arctic with no food or civilization.

In "Party Animal", it is revealed that she is allergic to peanuts, as she gets a purple rash, big lips, and bloats like a balloon. She also has a fear of flying, and is prone to vomiting. The fact she is a porcupine often causes trouble - her quills often impale other characters and destroy objects unintentionally. Because of her quills, Flippy even once used them as a weapon with which he killed Cuddles in "Keeping it Reel". Also, she is sometimes skinned, as in "Class Act" and "Let it Slide", when she falls down a tight space, her quills stick-out when going down. When she comes out of the other end, her muscles are exposed.

The excessive dandruff has sometimes been exploited by other characters. In the Second Serving DVD, she was given her own breakfast cereal called Flaky Flakes, which resemble cornflakes with red and white pieces mixed in. Her dandruff is also used to create a snowing effect for a play in "Class Act".

Flaky's first and third kills were done after she herself has been killed. In the episode, "Rink Hijinks", when Disco Bear pushes her, she falls onto Lumpy's floor buffer, causing her quills to fly out of control and pierce Disco Bear to death. In "Party Animal", after she got popped like a balloon by the Mole, her quills pinned him to the wall. Her second kill is from "Let It Slide", because Lumpy accidentally turned off the water, she puts her quills all over the water slide, separates the water slide and dies, and later on when Cuddles goes onto it he dies also, sliced in two by the separated slide; due to this, it is assumed Flaky caused Cuddles' death.

When looking at the storyboard for "Flippin' Burgers" on the "Second Serving" DVD, it is Flaky who is drawn in place of Petunia working at the grill; she is also killed by Flippy in a gory manner.

Many fans assume that Flaky is male due to her lack of a distinguishing feminine appearance; female characters tend to have long eyelashes, whereas Flaky has none. Series creator Rhode Montijo one stated that he initially created Flaky as a male, however, Mondo Media claims Flaky is a female character. Her gender has caused much confusion; even the Happy Tree Friends website is ambiguous to her true gender, but most of the creators refer to Flaky as a female. This is most obvious in the DVD commentaries where they regularly refer to Flaky as a "her", such as the commentary for "And the Kitchen Sink". Among the traits that Flaky exhibits to strengthen the argument of her character being female are her interactions with Disco Bear, her feminine sounding screams and speech, and the way she makes bashful feminine movements when afraid or nervous. It has been argued by fans on the contrary that these traits would seem to create more of an ironic character such as Handy if Mondo had decided to keep Flaky's original gender male, thus making her a more interesting/humorous character.

In the "Collect Them All" section it reveals that she was banned from balloon shops due to her quills.

Starring Roles

 * Water You Wading For?
 * Treasure Those Idol Moments
 * Boo Do You Think You Are?
 * Hide and Seek
 * This Is Your Knife
 * Happy Trails Part 2: Jumping the Shark
 * Rink Hijinks
 * Class Act
 * Let It Slide
 * Ski Ya, Wouldn’t Wanna Be Ya!
 * From A to Zoo
 * Party Animal
 * Wingin' It

Featuring Roles

 * Happy Trails
 * Out of Sight, Out of Mime
 * Ski Patrol
 * The Wrong Side of the Tracks
 * Take a Hike
 * Snow Place to Go
 * Dunce Upon a Time
 * Mime to Five
 * Chew Said a Mouthful
 * See What Develops
 * Idol Curiosity
 * Aw, Shucks!
 * Wipe Out!

Appearance Roles

 * I Get a Trick Out If You (unseen, but her shriek was heard)
 * Keepin' it Reel
 * Stealing the Spotlight
 * From Hero to Eternity
 * And The Kitchen Sink
 * Ipso Fatso
 * Concrete Solution
 * Who's to Flame?
 * A Change Of Heart
 * Easy Comb, Easy Go
 * Double Whammy

Occupations and Careers

 * 1) Soccer Goalie - A Change of Heart
 * 2) High Wire Walker - Mime to Five
 * 3) Grocer - See What Develops
 * 4) Explorer - Idol Curiosity
 * 5) Water Dunk Game Victim - Aw, Shucks!
 * 6) Student Driver - Easy Comb, Easy Go

Seen on Computer and on TV

 * 1) Treasure Those Idol Moments: Hit by Lumpy with a car, who happens to be driving in a playground, while hanging from a jungle gym. Windshield wipers wiped all of her blood (idol-induced).
 * 2) Hide and Seek: Strangled and hung from a wire from Flippy.
 * 3) Boo Do You Think You Are?: Melted by lava from a cauldron, leaving her as a mere skeleton, save for the upper part of her head.
 * 4) This Is Your Knife: Thrown into the campfire by Flippy while hiding in her sleeping bag.
 * 5) Happy Trails Part 2: Jumping the Shark: Murdered by Flippy, Lumpy, Handy, and Sniffles for puncturing their escape raft with her quills.
 * 6) Rink Hijinks: Shredded by Lumpy's floor waxer after being accidentally pushed by Disco Bear, causing her spines to fly around the room.
 * 7) Class Act: Skinned after falling through chimney after Lifty & Shifty dropped her, then dies in an explosion.
 * 8) Keepin' it Reel: Strangled by Flippy, who then uses her as a mace and hits Cuddles with her quills. She is decapitated seconds later.
 * 9) Let it Slide: Goes down the dehydrated slide, which skins her as her quills get stuck in it on the way down. Lumpy later used her skin as a robe.
 * 10) Ski Ya, Wouldn't Wanna Be Ya!: After sliding down the mountainside with her arm stretched out, and foot stuck in a wooden plank with a nail, she is thrown towards Disco Bear's cabin and sliced into cubes by a chain-link fence around it.
 * 11) From A to Zoo: Has a panic attack seeing chicks and Cuddles's dead body. She is the only survivor on the bus at the end, but she apparently dies when the baboon crashes the bus (her death is debatable, since the crash occurred offscreen).
 * 12) Flaky's Baseball Smoochie Catch: Gets hit in the eye by a baseball so hard that it pops out.
 * 13) Flaky's Baseball Smoochie Bat: A wooden bat and a metal bat fall between Flaky. She chooses to use the pretty metal bat over the ugly wooden one, only to be struck by lightning when swinging it. Her charred upper body is then effortlessly knocked away by a wayward baseball.
 * 14) Flaky's Baseball Smoochie Gum: Suffocates after blowing and popping a chewing gum bubble that covers her entire face.
 * 15) Ski Patrol: Lumpy accidentally flipped the ski lift lever, which caused the ski lift to zoom out of control, flung her off the seat, smacked towards the cliffside, and gets crushed into pieces by a ski lift seat.
 * 16) From Hero to Eternity: Sucked into whirlpool and burned by lava.
 * 17) And the Kitchen Sink: Gets hit by chunk of wall while trying to cross the street.
 * 18) Party Animal: Has an allergic reaction to peanuts causing her to get a purple rash, and her mouth and lips to grow big and her to bloat like a balloon, twice. She got popped like the balloon by the Mole.
 * 19) Concrete Solution: Possibly dies when bridge collapses.
 * 20) Who's to Flame?: Impaled through mouth by siren.
 * 21) Take a Hike: A mother eagle grasps Flaky and flies away. Later, got turned into a birds nest.
 * 22) Snow Place to Go: Eaten by an orca.
 * 23) Dunce Upon a Time: Electrocuted and impaled through mouth by fork while hiding behind a piece of toast in toaster.
 * 24) Mime to Five: Cut vertically in half by Cuddles' intestine.
 * 25) Chew Said a Mouthful: Jaw broken by umbrella.
 * 26) See What Develops: Drowns in a store after it fills with water.
 * 27) Idol Curiosity: Devoured by flesh-eating flowers.
 * Aw, Shucks!: Head knocked off by a huge piece of popcorn.
 * 1) Wipe Out!: Barely escapes getting eaten by dozens of sharks surrounding her. Head bashed by a coconut, then eaten by seagulls. A hermit crab takes her head for his new home and scuttles away.

Seen on Comics

 * 1) Making a Good Bleed: Dies in car explosion.

Seen on Computer and on TV

 * 1) The Wrong Side of the Tracks: The roller coaster kart where Flaky is riding and gets stuck in an upside-down position and she vomits.
 * 2) Wingin' It: Vomits once upon sight of the airplane and again in the plane's bathroom. She is later attacked and nearly eaten by a shark, but is quickly spit out,due to what is beleaved to be Godzilla scaring the shark away (Flaky is also thought to have been killed by Godzilla after the episode ends, but there is no proof of this as of yet).
 * 3) Easy Comb, Easy Go: A bottle of hair tonic hits her head, which makes her quills grow longer like real hair, killing Handy in the process.

Number of Kills

 * Cuddles – 1 (Let It Slide)
 * Giggles – 0
 * Toothy – 0
 * Lumpy – 0
 * Petunia – 0
 * Nutty – 0
 * Sniffles – 0
 * Handy – 1 (Easy Comb, Easy Go)
 * The Mole – 1 (Party Animal)
 * Disco Bear – 2 (Rink Hijinks, Ski Ya, Wouldn't Wanna Be Ya!: Not on purpose)
 * Russell – 0
 * Mime – 1 (Wingin' It)
 * Lifty – 0
 * Shifty – 0
 * Pop – 0
 * Cub – 0
 * Cro-Marmot – 0
 * Flippy – 0
 * Splendid – 0
 * Generic Tree Friends – 0
 * Others – 3 (3 chicks From A to Zoo)

Trivia

 * Even though Flaky is afraid of birds, in "Take a Hike", she actually tried to help a little baby bird that fell off the nest. She ends up getting killed by the parent of the chick and using her carcass as a new nest.
 * Flaky, Lumpy, Handy, and Russell are the only characters without visible ears.
 * Flaky likes corn dogs, as seen episodes "The Wrong Side of the Tracks" and "Double Whammy".
 * Flaky suffers motion sickness, as seen in the episodes, "The Wrong Side of the Tracks" and "Wingin It".
 * Flaky is considered to be a "tomboy]" because she is always friendly towards male characters and her Smoochie is baseball-themed. Despite Flaky being a tomboy, she likes a flower pattern on anything, even on her surfboard and suitcase.
 * Flaky's Quills are considered to be her hair, as they grew with hair tonic from "Easy Comb, Easy Go"