This is a featured article!
That means it's considered to be one of the best articles the SuperMarioGlitchy4 Wiki has to offer. |
"STOP IT. THIS IS NOT OKIE-DOKIE." Francis is a highly controversial character among the SMG4 fanbase. Reason: Being the main cause of Desti's death and Meggy becoming a human. |
Francis was a major antagonist in the SMG4 series, and the posthumous overarching antagonist of its spin-off Sunset Paradise. He is the main antagonist of Season 9 and the Anime Arc, the posthumous overarching antagonist of Season 10, SMG4 Movie: Meggy's Destiny and Season 11, and a posthumous antagonist in following seasons, particularly having an influence in SMG4: War Of The Fat Italians 2022 and SMG4 Movie: WESTERN SPAGHETTI.
Francis was a geek chameleon originating from Super Paper Mario. The founder and leader of the Anime Cartel, Francis first starting smuggling all things anime in and out of the Mushroom Kingdom, including anime-based citizens like Saiko Bichitaru, and later roped Mario and Tari into working for him to pay off Mario's accidental loss of their product. After Axol helped lift the Anime Ban, Francis was left feeling betrayed once Axol left him and the cartel behind without bringing their dreams to life. Also, intrigued by the power of Inkweaver, Francis reorganized the Anime Cartel into a full-on terrorist cell, capturing Axol and establishing Anime Island, kidnapping countless Inklings in order to fuel Inkweaver, which he had also stolen previously. He is also Meggy Spletzer's arch-nemesis and Axol's archenemy.
Legacy[]
Despite his demise, Francis' actions had left serious repercussions, especially on Meggy. The trauma he inflicted on her caused her depression and to win the final Splatfest tournament, resulting in her not knowing what to do. His actions would also end up indirectly creating Shadow Meggy, as they are a heavy part to the cause of Meggy’s insecurities and negative emotions. Francis' actions also had more outcomes such as making Axol a recurring member of the crew following his team-up with the gang, and the death of Desti. Even after Francis' death, it seemingly was hard for the crew to get back to normal lives. However, in Meggy's Destiny, it is shown that the natives of Inkopolis have moved on from the kidnapping incident and was never brought up ever. It should be noted that while some characters moved on, Francis is still hated by some characters. An example can be found in Mario's Smash Or Pass: All Mario Characters when Mario saw Francis' picture on the screen, he grabbed a shotgun and destroyed the wall that his image was in and hi-fives Meggy right after doing so. This showed that Mario still hated Francis years after he killed Desti and hurt Meggy really badly.
Personality[]
Francis was an obnoxious, egotistical, and commanding chameleon who was known to have an obsession with two things; Japanese pop culture, 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 in SMG4: Mario's Illegal Operation. In his roles earlier in the Anime Arc, Francis had a commanding and strongman-type attitude to the point were the characters were loyal to him and scared of him. In SMG4: Mario's Lemonade Stand, Tari was shown to know who Francis was and warned Mario to not involve himself with him. Adding to his earlier influence and fear. That same episode, he was willing to help Mario and a crying Tari after Jeeves' gang destroyed their stand. Although this could be because it benefitted him and the cartel.
It was later revealed that he was a power-hungry sociopath who was very possessive of Inkweaver, and was obsessed with his plans to create an island full of waifus for his own and his cartel's desires, and if anyone dared 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 ridiculous 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. Although it was hinted that Francis may not have known that Meggy and the rest of Inkopolis may die in the process as hinted in SMG4: World War Mario.
Despite it all, Francis was a coward when defenseless, as he relied purely on the Inkweaver's power. When being cornered by the SMG4 gang, he attempted to make Desti's murder sound justified and stated they should be "rash'. When being held by the throat by Saiko, he claimed that he meant "no harm", but she then proceeded to kill him slowly and painfully in vengeance. Even with his attitude, Francis proved to be someone with many connections and could easily be an ally of someone if he wanted. Such as Saiko and Axol, however it was also shown later in the Anime Arc that Francis can betray them quickly, despite being a fan of Axol whom he saw as an idol of sort.
Criminal Record[]
- Kidnapping: Francis kidnapped Meggy and all the other Inklings for his operations. It is estimated that half of Inkopolis' natives were kidnapped.
- Illegal Operations: Francis was the leader of the Anime Cartel which dealt in smuggling banned material and escorting illegal people.
- Theft: When Axol was also kidnapped, Francis stole the Inkweaver and claimed that Axol didn't deserve that power.
- Murder: Francis was the person behind the death of Desti as he commanded a false Sephiroth to murder the Octoling.
- Illegal Smuggling: Francis operated a cartel that specialized in smuggling banned Japanese material in the beginning of the Anime Arc.
- Torture: Francis frequently tortured Meggy, Axol, and other Inklings. He seemingly had fun doing so and didn't give much reaction to them.
- Attempted Genocide: He attempted to kill half of the Inkopolis population in order to to create his Anime waifus. Although it was hinted that Francis may not have been aware that they would die in the process.
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 was 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 the only Arc villain that was defeated by being killed and not by a song.
- In The Waluigi Arc, Waluigi was defeated by hearing Wario's true feelings for him, making his rejection powers disappear & feeling accepted.
- In The Rapper Bob Arc, Saiko and the gang made a Music video revealing all of Bob's schemes that he used them in to get famous, leading to Bob losing all his fans to Saiko. Waluigi later showed Bob that his friends mean everything to him, making the Garo tell his old fans that he's retiring from his rapping career, leading to having his relationship redeemed with SMG4 & the others, officially accepting Bob as a member of the gang again.
- In The YouTube Arc, after being defeated by SMG4, his friends, and even his own gang in the rap battle, Susan Wojcicki banishes SMG3 to The Internet Graveyard for all the stuff he's done to her, Mario, SMG4 and his gang, & even his own.
- In the Genesis Arc, Niles was briefly defeated after Melony entered his mind in the Rap Battle and was slain from the inside by killing off Axol inside as a result.
- In The Lawsuit Arc, Lawyer Kong lost after the rap battle that was hosted by Judge Kirby.
- Among the arc antagonists, Francis 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 by the violent explosion and while being sucked to death by the spare Ink Zuccer.)
- Francis is the latest major character in SMG4 to originate from a pre-existing franchise.
- Francis is the latest major character in SMG4 to originate from the Mario series since Fishy Boopkins' debut in SMG4 N' Pals: Seaside Stupidity Part 1, nearly three years earlier.
- His body is flat (Thin front on and back on and fat sideways).
- Francis shares his characteristics with Lotso from Toy Story 3.
- Both of them started off on the heroes side.
- Both are considered extremely vile.
- Both are the arch-nemesis of a major character. Meggy Spletzer for Francis, Jessie for Lotso.
- Both of them are known as dangerous and tyrannical for their mass kidnapping. Francis kidnapped all of the Inklings and bring them to Anime Island while Lotso imprisoned numerous toys and in the Sunnyside Daycare Center.
- Both of them imprisoned their victims. Francis imprisons the Inklings in tubes, Meggy and Axol in their cells, while Lotso imprisoned the toys in the Caterpillar Room.
- Both of them use their abusive methods towards their victims. Francis uses The Ink Zuccer 2000 to absorb all of the ink from the Inklings while Lotso had toys tortured in the Caterpillar Room.
- However, unlike Lotso, who was tied up on the truck's front grill with a few other toys with the same garbage man has collected earlier, Francis was trapped inside a zuccer by Saiko, then dies when Anime Island exploded.
- Francis' eyes might be very small because, in SMG4: World War Mario, when his glasses are knocked off, he has small square dot eyes underneath.
- According to Luke and Kevin, their reason for making Francis the villain of the Anime Arc was because they found him unlikable and his face very punchable.
- This also explains his adaptational villainy since his character in Super Paper Mario in personality are nothing alike except their love for anime.
- Francis was referenced as one of the "arc villains" in SMG4's 10 Year Anniversary MOVIE Trailer, but being presumably dead, he's the only one who doesn't make an appearance in The SMG4 Movie: 10 Year Anniversary Special except through a callback montage.
- Francis is one of two arc villains to never redeem themselves at any point in the SMG4 series, and instead killed off, the other was SMG0.
- However, it was revealed SMG0 was not evil intentionally in SMG4 Movie: REVELATIONS, he was just controlled by Niles, so technically it goes to Niles.
- Francis’ death is arguably one of the more gruesome ones in the series, as he has his bodily fluids sucked out of his body via a spare Ink Zuccer and is then fatally incinerated in the explosion of Anime Island.
- Ironically, in terms of writing, Saiko's actions towards Francis are not justifiable despite Francis not being innocent. Saiko's, the hero, gruesome murder of Francis doesn't differentiate her actions from the villain's. That, alongside Saiko not having any consequences as a result of her actions, makes Saiko look as bad as Francis. It also contradicts Axol's pacifism and condemnation of violence which he told to the gang, which includes Saiko, in SMG4: Mario Saves Anime as he sees violence causing more problems than solutions.
- Francis was ranked by Luke and James as the 4th powerful "D-Tier" character in the "SMG4 Character Powerlevels" tier list (Following after Wario, Bowser Jr., & Dr. Pootis) during the 5,100,000 Subscribers livestream.
- Francis is the only arc villain to never appear in a thumbnail.
- Francis is the third character who’s death was taken seriously, after Clone Mario and Desti.
GMOD model[]
Due to many Nintendo-related addons being removed on the GMOD workshop by Nintendo, some of or all the models below might be unavailable or have missing textures. If this is the case, please click on the [download] button next to the hypertext if included (note that the model could still have missing textures, so make sure to download all the needed models). You can also check the "GMOD Pretendo's ARCHIVE" Discord server, which archives Nintendo and non-Nintendo addons and also allows you to save addons yourself. (The hyperlink being underlined means that the addon it link to have missing textures.) (Even if the model is still currently available on the workshop, this template and the [download] button can be added in case it eventually gets deleted, so please don't remove it.) |