Francis

Francis was a nerdy chameleon and the main antagonist in Chapter 3 of Super Paper Mario. He was also the hidden true main antagonist of the 2nd half of the Anime Arc. He is the first recurring villain to be killed off in the SMG4 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 Inkweaver for his own desires. He planned to use the Inklings' ink to fully power up the Inkweaver so he could create his own "Waifu Island".

In SMG4: World War Mario, he drew up the False 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 Inkweaver 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% Inkweaver, 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 supposedly dies fully along with his goons, when the 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 failure-intolerant, 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 Inkweaver, and was obsessed with his plans to create an island full of waifus for his own greedy desires, and if anyone dare opposed him, he would go as far as death. It is possible that the Inkweaver 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 goofy on paper, he was also completely heartless and sadistic, as he went as far as stabbing Desti at the hands of his own creations, murdering her in the process, 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 Inkweaver'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 recurring character to get killed off. The first being Desti, his victim.
 * 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 Inkweaver. His base of operations is known as Anime Island.
 * Francis is considered by many fans to be the most evil antagonist in the entire SMG4verse (even more so than Waluigi and SMG3), 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 (though it should be considered that he never physically commit the murder but rather had False Sephiroth do the deed.)
 * Among the arc antagonists, he is the first arc antagonist not to get redeemed at any point and is also the first arc antagonist to be killed in the end. (Though it is not officially confirmed that he was killed and people speculated he did, but chances are he more likely was killed from the violent explosion and under the influence of the spare Ink Zuccer.)