"And we made Francis bad because, who the hell would like this guy? Look how punchable his face is!" - Luke Lerdwichagul, creator of SMG4
After the success of my first CM proposal for RAT, I've decided to propose another villain. And who better to propose than Francis, the weeaboo who single-handedly became the most malicious and diabolical villain in the entire history of SMG4!
What's the work?[]
SMG4 is an Australian adult-animated web series created by Luke and Kevin Lerdwichagul. It follows Mario and his friends, including SMG4, Luke's avatar, as they embark on wacky adventures.
While, primarily a comedy series, it is also dark and serious at times, especially in their arcs. While the Waluigi Arc and the Rapper Bob Arc are notable examples, perhaps it's most famous, and most serious, is the Anime Arc, released in 2019. A two-part arc, it follows Mario and the gang as they try to lift the anime ban in the Mushroom Kingdom in the first part, and as they try to save one of their members Meggy Spletzer from the Anime Cartel in the second part.
Who's the villain?[]
Francis is the leader of the Anime Cartel. Like his original counterpart, he is an obnoxious nerdy chameleon with an unhealthy obsession with anime. However, in this continuity, he is an anime kingpin, dealing and smuggling the majority of the outlawed anime goods in the Mushroom Kingdom.
In the first part, Francis is a pretty decent guy. He's definitely ruthless, but he's still willing to help SMG4's Gang in unbanning anime. However, after meeting the famous manga artist Axol and his Inkweaver, a pen which can bring any anime it draws to life, he goes mad with the thought of real-life anime waifus and kidnaps Axol, stealing the Inkweaver.
He and the cartel then set up base on Anime Island and, since their ink can power the Inkweaver to it's maximum, he kidnap almost every inkling and octoling in Inkopolis, including Meggy and Desti. However, SMG4's Gang rallies an army and attacks Anime Island. In the final battle, Francis is grabbed by Saiko Bichitaru and thrown in one of his 'ink zuccers', which he uses to extract inkling ink, sucking out all his life and finally killing him.
What has he done?[]
Being the single darkest SMG4 villain to date, Francis obviously has himself a lengthy rap sheet. This is them all:
- Smuggling illegal anime in and out of the Mushroom Kingdom and threatening those who fail to do so.
- Participating in gang riots.
- Kidnapping Axol and chaining him up as a prisoner just to obtain the Inkweaver.
- Kidnapping the majority of the inkling population and putting them in ink zuccers, risking their lives.
- Numerous war crimes from the Battle of Anime Island.
- Putting Meggy through immense torture by putting her the Ink Zuccer 2000.
- Trying to kill SMG4's Gang with 100 false Sephiroths and Super Saiyan God.
- Most famously, causing the death of Desti. This, along with kidnapping Meggy and the inklings, is his crossing of the moral event horizon.
Mitigating factors[]
First of all, as mentioned above, Francis is somewhat neutral in the first part of the arc. While not entirely a good person, he is willing to help SMG4's Gang lift the anime ban, if only for the anime. However, after his first moral event horizon crossing of kidnapping the inklings, he turns to the dark side and stays their, solidifying his role as a villain. Furthermore, comedic sound clips are often used for most of the characters, including Francis, which, combined with his outrageously petty reasons, could prevent him from being taken seriously. However, his second moral event horizon crossing fixes that and, while the sound clips are still used, he is taken far more seriously.
Moral agency[]
Unlike someone like Ztar, Francis is a basic nerd who seems to have a clear understanding of morality and willing chose to kidnap and kill.
Heinous Standard[]
As would be expected, Francis stands out from most other SMG4 villains in terms of seriousness. Mario, Bowser, Saiko Bichitaru and Toad often serve as genuinely heroic protagonists, and their crimes are often played for laughs. Bob did betray SMG4's Gang, but this was only for his rapping career, and he redeemed himself. SMG3 and the Luigi Dolls can serve as dangerous threats, but aren't taken seriously a lot. Enzo's serial murders are pretty mediocre compared to other villainy in the series, and he also redeemed himself. Desti and Leader are only low-scale rivals of Meggy. Grand Dad also seems to truly care about his bootleg brethren.
The only two villains who compare to Francis are Waluigi and Ztar, and even then, Waluigi was never willing to kill anyone, rather turning them in T-Pose zombies, and redeemed himself anyway, while Ztar is detracted by his aforementioned amorality and his Toad personality. Francis also made a large impact on the series, both causing Desti's death and Meggy's transformation into a human, which would serve as major problems for the rest of the 2019 episodes.
Final verdict[]
In short, Francis definitely qualifies.