Francis

Francis was a nerdy chameleon and the main antagonist in Chapter 3 in Super Paper Mario. He was also the hidden true main antagonist of the 2nd half of the Anime Arc. After his death, his character was killed off from the series.

The beginning
His first appearance was a brief cameo in "SMG4: AREA 64" at Bowser's birthday party.

In SMG4: Doki Doki Mario Club, he, along with Fishy Boopkins and Lemmy Koopa, protested that his waifu be made real. However, he and Lemmy were both shot by a giant minigun, while Boopkins escaped.

The Anime Prohibition incident
In SMG4: Mario's Illegal Operation, he made a reappearance as the boss of the Anime Cartel, a faction whose purpose is to smuggle anime ever since its ban in SMG4: Mario and the Anime Challenge. He got angry when Mario lost the merchandise, so he had SMG4, Fishy Boopkins, and Bob escort Saiko Bichitaru to Japan, while he made Mario stay and open a lemonade stand to recover his lost profits and merch.

In "SMG4: Mario's Lemonade Stand", he and the rest of the Anime Cartel arrived at the street where Mario sells lemonade across the Moo Milk Factory to fight with Jeeves and his gang. After Meggy arrives to harshly lecture them for their behavior, he and Jeeves eventually reconcile.

In "SMG4: The Japan Trip", Saiko shows a video on her phone to Axol where the Anime Cartel fought with the A.S.S. when the Anime ban passes for 3 weeks, which leads to a disaster.

In "SMG4: Mario Saves Anime", Saiko called them to show them Axol, a famous manga artist. He and the rest of the gang "praised" him and later helped them unban anime.

Francis' Machinations
In "SMG4: Mario and the Experiment", it was revealed that Francis was the kidnapper of the Inklings and Axol, and was using the Ink Weaver for his own desires. He planned to use the Inklings' ink to fully power up the Ink Weaver so he could create his own “Waifu Island”.

In SMG4: World War Mario, he drew up Sephiroth and revealed himself as the real mastermind, but gets "defeated" by Mario and SMG4's teamwork, and the Ink Zuccer 2000 stopped draining Meggy's ink. However, he suddenly went as far to kill Desti via Sephiroth impaling her on his katana, much to everyone's horror of what he just committed, all while laughing about it.

Death
In his final appearance in SMG4: Final Hours, Francis appeared at the beginning, showing completely no remorse about Desti. He then proceeded to summon 100 Sephiroths, though they get dealt with. Francis attempted to draw more, but when he finishes, nothing happens because the Ink Weaver ran out of ink. Francis attempted to run away, but he was stopped, beaten up, and launched into The Ink Zuccer 2000, cracking it. Now with a 100% Ink Weaver, Francis summons Goku. While Goku beats up the group, he missed Axol, who kicks Francis and retakes his pen, summoning Shaggy Rogers as a result. While Goku and Shaggy fought, Francis had been left vulnerable. A vengeful Saiko picks up a terrified Francis, throws him into a spare zuccer, and turns on its maximum power. Due to this, he screamed in pain and agony as he was slowly erased from existence.

Francis dies fully along with his goons, when Anime Island gets destroyed by a huge explosion caused by Goku.

Personality
Francis was an obnoxious, egotistical, and commanding chameleon who has an obsession towards two things; anime and his waifus. He was shown to be very stingy and never tolerate his failure, as he forbade Mario to join with his friends to go to Japan and ordered him to recover his profit that he lost to him.

It was later revealed that he was a power hungry and sociopathic person who was very possessive of the Ink Weaver, and was obsessed with his plans to create an island full of waifus for his own greedy desires. It is possible that the Ink Weaver drove him insane with power, and he would have probably betrayed the rest of the Anime Cartel and not grant their wishes, as Axol attempted to warn two members of the Cartel that he will do so. Though his master plan was somewhat goofy, he was also completely heartless and sadistic, as he went far to stab Desti at the hands of his own creations, and even laughed insanely at the group for not paying attention to him. He also didn't care about the risk of Meggy dying via The Ink Zuccer 2000, even stating that she would live anyways, much to Axol's disgust.

Despite it all, Francis is a coward when defenseless, as he relied purely on the Ink Weaver's power. He begged Saiko that he meant "no harm", but she then proceeded to kill him slowly and painfully in vengeance.

Appearances

 * SMG4: AREA 64
 * SMG4: Doki Doki Mario Club
 * SMG4: Mario's Illegal Operation
 * SMG4: Mario's Lemonade Stand
 * SMG4: The Japan Trip
 * SMG4: Mario Saves Anime
 * SMG4: Mario and the Experiment
 * SMG4: World War Mario
 * SMG4: Final Hours

Trivia

 * Francis is the second character to get killed off. The first being Desti.
 * Francis being the antagonist was foreshadowed. Tari warned Mario that the Anime Cartel were bad news, as she mentioned in SMG4: Mario's Lemonade Stand. Furthermore, Bob asked if someone who liked waifus would ever resort to kidnapping, though it was also a joke. He also knew of the Ink Weaver. His base of operations is known as Anime Island.
 * Francis is considered by many fans to be the most evil villain in the entire SMG4verse, due to his mass kidnapping and brutal torture of hundreds of inklings, attempted murder on Meggy, his lack of any sympathetic or redeeming qualities, and lastly, his murder of Desti.
 * Among the arc villains, he is the first arc villain not to get redeemed at any point and is also the first arc villain to be killed in the end.
 * Francis shares his characteristics with Lotso from Toy Story 3.
 * Both of them started off as being nice and friendly towards protagonists.
 * Both of them are known as a dangerous criminal for their mass kidnapping. Francis kidnapped all of the Inklings and bring it to Anime Island while Lotso kidnapping all of the toys and bring it to Sunnyside Daycara Center.
 * Both of them imprisoned their victims. Francis imprisoning the Inklings on the tubes, Meggy and Axol in their cells, while Lotso imprisoning the toys in the Caterpillar Room.
 * Both of them use their abusive methods towards their victims. Francis using the The Ink Zuccer 2000 to absorb all of the ink from the Inklings while Lotso kept the toys being tortured in the Caterpillar Room.
 * However, unlike Lotso, who was tied up on the truck's front grill with a few other toys the same garbage man has collected earlier, Francis sucked to death in a zuccer by Saiko, then dies when Anime Island exploded.