- "Nerrrrr herrr herrrr herrrrrr! This is so hi-technicaaaaaal!"
- — Francis
Francis is a tremendously nerdy chameleon that lives in his castle, Fort Francis. Fort Francis is in The Bitlands, a pixilated world, explaining Francis’s appearance. Francis acts as the Chapter 3 Boss, as well as an optional Chapter 8 miniboss.
Francis is very lazy, and so he created several MeowMaids. MeowMaids are robotic kitty servants that do Francis’s bidding. Francis also created Meowbombs and robots that fire them at intruders. Francis also likes to get as many collectibles as he can, and so he sends MeowMaids to retrieve them for him.
Game History[]
In the game, when Mario and co. arrive in The Bitlands, Francis appears. Francis is a member of the website Digibutter.nerr, where people take pictures of digital or pixilated butterflies, like Tippi. Francis freaks out about finding one, steals Tippi and goes back to his lair. Mario and co. learn from a pixl named Barry how to find Fort Francis. Barry stays behind, but Mario and his allies chase after Francis.
Back at Fort Francis, Francis put Tippi into a miniature cage and is taking pictures of her. Tippi is very annoyed at this, but Francis is not. Francis says that Tippi is his first offline friend, showing Francis’s loneliness and nerdy qualities. Tippi wishes for Mario to return and stays in the cage.
When Mario and his allies reach Fort Francis, they realize that they need two keys to open the door to Francis’s room. They can tell that it is his room through the keyholes. When Mario finds the two keys, they discover that only either “Francis or hot babes” can enter. So, it is up to Princess Peach to get Tippi back.
Francis is extremely shy around females and becomes flustered. Francis cannot talk to girls directly, so he uses a program called Swoon.exe, a Nerr2Babe communicator. Francis talks with Peach, eventually talking about marrying her. Peach ends up using Boomer to crash his laptop.
Francis becomes upset as Mario and the rest enter the room. Francis is angry for Peach destroying his laptop, and discovers that they are there to take Tippi away from him. So, Francis decides to fight back.
After Mario and his allies defeat Francis, he runs away and Tippi is released. Tippi feels so happy that Mario rescued her that she releases the fourth Pure Heart. The heroes go home with the fourth Pure Heart, leaving Francis in his lair.
In Chapter 8-2, Mimi is disguised as Merlee and asks Mario what some of his favorite things are. If you choose Francis, Mimi leaves and makes Francis appear. Francis says that he was thinking about Tippi lately and comes to a conclusion that his Reclinatron 4500 must have teleported him to Tippi. So, Francis fights back for her. Francis is the exact same as last time, with the same attacks, stats and everything. Because you have Tippi, this is the only time you can tattle on Francis in-battle. Francis is an easy miniboss, considering his stats were the same, and the heroes move on, confused.
Battling Francis[]
Francis has 40 HP, 1 Attack and 0 Defense. Francis attacks by sticking out his chameleon tongue to hurt Mario and by dropping Meowbombs from the ceiling. The Meowbombs make sense dropping from the ceiling of Fort Francis, but it is unknown how they can drop from the ceiling of Castle Bleck. Francis can also take a picture of Mario, temporarily blinding him. Francis has an ability being a chameleon by blending in to the background and becoming invisible. Mario has to flip to 3-D and see Francis’s shadow in order to tell where he is.
Mario can defeat Francis by using Thoreau to pick up the Meowbombs and throw them at Francis. Thoreau could also be used to pick up Francis and throw him. Mario could also use Boomer to try to make an explosion near Francis. Bowser could use his Fire breathing abilities as well.
Fort Francis[]
Fort Francis is a huge castle owned by Francis. Fort Francis is filled with spikes, puzzles, MeowMaids, and Meowbombs. It is required that Mario and every ally he has do something in order to beat the fort.
Fort Francis starts out with a huge main hall, with the door to Francis’s room. The door, however, requires two separate keys to open. There are two rooms on opposite sides of Fort Francis with a MeowMaid, each having a key. The MeowMaid will ask you personal questions about Francis, which are all true, and then ask you for the four-digit code. The codes are posted on two walls in Fort Francis, and if you do not put in the correct code, the MeowMaid shoots a laser at you. If you get the codes right, the MeowMaid smiles and gives you the key. The codes for the two rooms are different.
Fort Francis has a bridge on the outside that connects to the second part of the castle. Flying Meowbombs attack intruders on the bridge. Inside Fort Francis are two rooms where Francis sticks all of his collectibles. One giant MeowMaid guards each room so that no one steals his collectibles.
Personality[]
Francis is often summed up in one word: nerd. Francis goes onto several websites, loves butterflies, has no offline friends, is obsessed about video game collectibles, can create robots by himself (kitty robots, too), his first love was an anime character, he has strict comic book buying rules to get the mint condition ones and other qualities that makes him a nerd. Francis also says “schweet” and “hi-technicaaaaal”, also adding to his nerd quality. Francis also may be considered lonely. It is obvious that Francis never had a girlfriend or a wife, and his first love being an anime character, so he never had a companion. Francis also has no offline friends, except for Tippi, who does not even like him. Francis mentions a Mother, but the Mother is never seen, so it is unknown what their relationship is. Francis creates his friends as robotic MeowMaids, but they are obviously not enough to compare to living beings with personalities.
Collectibles[]
Francis shows his nerdy qualities by all the collectibles that Francis owns. Fort Francis has two main rooms where Francis stores there. Francis owns dolls of Princess Peach, Whacka, Petuni, Punio, Vivian, the Yoshi Kid in all colors with a Yoshi egg next to the set colored Yoshi, Bub-ulb and Pennington. Francis also owns posters of Bow, Bootler and Petuni.
Francis not only owns object collectibles but electrical objects as well. Francis watches an anime featuring Tubba Blubba in it, and Francis also watches Starship X-Naut and The Grodus Chronicles. There is a video game based off of Starship X-Naut called Starship X-Naut: Space Bloops. Francis also owns a video game featuring Larry Koopa.
Francis owns not only electronic games and TV shows but owns the systems to play them. Francis has an NES, a SNES, a Gamecube and a Virtual Boy. If Mario flips in the collector’s item room, you can see a large television set with a Wii and a Wii Remote.
Francis shows other non-seen items he has from his Swoon.exe website. Swoon.exe reveals that Francis also owns a platinum Action Figure, a Vintage Cyborg Wart” comic book, an OOP Anime Illustration Book, a Best Anime Anthems Mix Tape, a Limited Edition DVD Set, a Schweet New Video Game, a Rare Card Collection, and a “Pink Princess” Signed Poster.
Francis has many collectibles as proven from this, but he still wants more. Francis also wants an Excess Express train set, a Ms. Mowz doll with real smooching action, a Cyborg Wart item, a Magnus Von Grapple doll and a Tanooki Suit with real Tanooki fur.
Relationship with Pixls[]
Francis has some sort of a relationship with many pixls, but that might be surprising, knowing Francis’s knowledge of technology. It is already said what Francis’s relationship with Tippi is, but he knows other pixls as well.
In Fort Francis, there is a cage that has the pixl Carrie trapped inside. When Mario frees Carrie, Carrie tells Mario that Francis locked her up thinking that she was “hi-technicaaaaal”. Carrie also hates Francis, thinking he is a big nerd, and joins Mario so that she can get back at Francis.
After you beat the game, you have the option of going back to Fort Francis. If you talk with Francis, Francis says he missed Tippi and is working on a robotic version of her. Francis shows Mario Tiptron, who is programmed to have all the same powers as Tippi and even think that she IS Tippi. Tiptron has a very similar personality to Tippi before Francis was defeated, which is the only personality that Francis knows. You can buy Tiptron for 999 coins, the maximum amount of coins Mario can carry, so it is hard to pay for it. But if you do, you get Tiptron and Francis says he will work on Tiptron Mk. II, the new and improved version of Tiptron.
Francis also has a relationship of some kind with Barry. All that we know is that Francis tried to lock Barry up like he did with Carrie, but Barry somehow managed to escape. Barry has a very similar disliking to Francis as Carrie does; thinking he is a big nerd who he hates. Barry must hate Francis because he gives Mario the information needed to reach Francis and kill him.
Tattle[]
Super Paper Mario: 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...
Trivia[]
- Digibutter.nerr has become a real website where people talk about video games.
- Swoon.exe is a parody of the Dating Simulation Game.