Francis

“They're NOT DOLLS. They're ACTION FIGURES. WITH REAL FIRE-PUNCHING ACTION.”

—Francis, Super Paper Mario

Francis is an antagonist in the Wii video game Super Paper Mario, who serves as the main boss of Chapter 3, The Bitlands. Francis is a chameleon, strongly personified as a stereotypical nerd, who kidnaps Tippi after declaring her a rare collectible and vowing to take pictures of her and place them on the website, Digibutter.nerr, a forum filled with geeks and neards of all sorts. He names Tippi 'Francine' and calls her that throughout the entire game. Amongst his many obsessions, Francis enjoys watching Anime, collecting and/or playing video games, cats, and “hot babes”. He lives in his own domicile, Fort Francis, where he has a large number of MeowMaids that are responsible for guarding the fortress as well as tidying his Anime collections or recording his favorite television shows. Francis also has the 'habit' of saying "hi-technicaaaaal!" if he beleives something is cool, awesome, or "schweet"

Francis’s lack of social skills disables him from being able to communicate with others face-to-face, and as a result has no offline friends. When he is confronted by Princess Peach he is unable to talk directly to her, and instead plants the two into a dating sim entitled Swoon.exe, where they pass a short discussion.

Francis has an array of attacks against the player: his ability to blend in with his surroundings allows him to become invisible and avoid attacks, as well as temporarily blinding the player with the flash of his camera. Francis can also swallow the player whole and slowly damage them while inside him, or can use his laptop to call upon an army of Meowbombs. Upon defeat he runs from the player, and Tippi is released.

Francis can optionally be fought once more later on in Castle Bleck, after Mimi transports him to the castle to finish off the player.

If the player returns to Fort Francis after beating the game, he can purchase Tiptron from Francis for 999 coins.

Trivia

• One of Francis' animes features Tubba Blubba; additionally, some of Francis' posters have images of Bow, Bootler, and Petuni on them. There's also several X-Naut related television shows and games (such as Starship X-Naut and The Grodus Chronicles, and the videogame Starship X-Naut: Space Bloops), as well as a videogame featuring Larry Koopa. He owns several dolls of Princess Peach, Whacka, Petuni, Punio, Vivian, the Yoshi Kid in all colors, a Bub-ulber and Pennington from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. On his shelf, players will also find multi-colored Yoshi Eggs next to the aforementioned dolls. He also wants an Excess Express train set, a Ms. Mowz doll with "real smooching action", a product called Cyborg Wart, a Magnus Von Grapple action figure, and a Tanooki Suit made with real Tanooki fur. Francis also has an NES, indigo GameCube, a SNES, and a Virtual Boy on his shelf. When the player flips Mario into 3D, they will find a large television screen with a Wii and a Wii Remote.
• His first love was apparently an anime character.
• Francis claims that Tippi is his "only offline friend"; he also seems to have no family other then his unseen mother.
• Shortly after release of the game, a real digibutter.nerr forum was created, where mostly discussion of Super Paper Mario is made.

Tattles and Stats

HP: 40

Attack: 1

Tattle: That geeky chameleon is Francis. He's a little obsessive about his hobbies... Max HP is 40. Attack is 1. He can also make himself invisible... You can't hit what you can't see, so wait for him to reappear... But he is still there. Look at the floor and find his shadow... Yech... Just looking at him brings back bad memories.