Franky

Franky is one of the main characters in *Penguinronpa* and one of the participants in the killing game. His talent is the **Ultimate Lead Singer** due to his status as the Penguin Band's lead singer, and he often enjoys collaborating in making music with Cadence. He was killed by Cadence in the third chapter.

## Appearance

Franky is a yellow penguin wearing a brown cowboy hat—an attribute shared with his other bandmates—and red sneakers with white laces and soles.

## Personality

Franky is often a cheery and excitable penguin, especially when it comes to music. However, he is shown with a very impulsive and easily scared attitude in stressful situations, which results in a few panicked reactions and unwise decisions. He deeply cares about his bandmates, as he frequently references their missing status and worries over their wellbeing. He also has a tendency to point flippers at who seem to be obvious culprits, though he becomes defensive when blame and judgment is placed on him.

### Spoilers for Chapter Three

In Chapter Three, Monobert shows recorded footage of a conversation between Cadence and Franky in the Hidden Lake. The conversation emphasizes Franky's care for the Penguin Band, as he becomes hopeless and despondent from the belief that the members of the Penguin Band are dead—this belief sourcing from the execution simulation that he experienced when he interacted with the Thin Ice arcade machine.

## History

### Main Story

#### Prologue

Franky first appears in the Coffee Shop along with the other eleven remaining penguins on the island. He explains Aunt Arctic's rallying of a majority of the penguins found around the island and gathering them all in the Coffee Shop. During Cadence's introduction, he joins in her excitement to dance, spilling Gary's coffee in the process. When he finally introduces himself, he introduces himself as the Ultimate Lead Singer and proceeds to point out the missing status of the rest of the Penguin Band and the other penguins on the island; however, he rests his faith in the wellbeing of his crew and hopes that their safety also brings "sick beats."

When the penguins arrive at the Snow Forts and Monobert announces his plans to "get rid" of them, Franky nervously tries to contradict the idea of Monobert killing them directly by bringing up the fact that Monobert could teleport them off of the island—though this is not Monobert's plan. Once Monobert disappears and advises them all to return to their igloos, Franky informs that he did not see as many igloos as there used to be, thus contributing to the suspicious as to where the rest of the island's penguins could be.

#### Chapter 1

When Monobert first confirms the presence of a traitor, Franky demands that the traitor reveal their identity and claims that it could save them "a whole lotta trouble;" unsurprisingly, this approach does not work. Once Monobert leaves, the participants split up to investigate the island, and Franky joins Cadence and Rory. During their investigation, they attempt to enter the Night Club via both the normal entrance and the Boiler Room, but they report over pizza with the others that both places were locked—the Mine Shack now having a metal door blocking the entrance.

The next day, the participants gather at the Coffee Shop, only for an argument regarding the traitor to break out. Franky claims that Aunt Arctic's leadership is suspicious and implies that she could perhaps be the traitor. He leaves along with the rest of the exiting penguins.

When Aunt Arctic's murder brings the first Dimensional Trial held within the Box Dimension, Franky contributes by using the newly found information of her secret identity as the Director and her suit's ability to turn her into a shadow to conclude that the murderer could have believed her to be the traitor due to her shadowy appearance and the suspicious that could be drawn from it, thus confirming that the murderer could not have known that they murdered Aunt Arctic due to her appearance and subsequently attacked her out of suspicion and paranoia.

The group finally concludes the culprit to be Sensei and witnesses his execution, and Franky expresses shock at the sight of the brutal execution.

#### Chapter 2

On the morning after the execution, Franky joins Agent, Paige, and Jet Pack Guy to investigate the Lighthouse, where they find a mysterious piano arrangement of an unknown song (later dubbed "The Sleepy Song"). Upon the request of the others, Franky plays the song, which causes the others to fall asleep. He wakes them up using an electric guitar, thus proving that only a loud noise can awaken the sleep induced by the song.

After Monobert reveals the second motive, Rookie suggests that they host a party at the Lighthouse in order to distract them from the motive. Franky and Cadence are initially excited to provide music for the party, but they show up late to a planning meeting that happens the next day and express their suspicions of the party before deciding not to attend. When the party ends with the attendants falling asleep due to the aforementioned Sleepy Song and abruptly waking up to a loud noise, Cadence and Franky appear to warn the others both of the Ice Rink's burning and Rockhopper's death.

Once the second trial begins, Franky and Cadence are initial suspects due to their absence at the party, their supposed retrieval of a knife when they went to the Pizza Parlor that morning, and Franky's ability to play the Sleepy Song. They clear their names by explaining the events that transpired before they decided not to attend the party—they received separate notes threatening them not to attend the party from the killer of Rockhopper, so they planned to attack the murderer by hiding outside of the Lighthouse with a knife and Cadence's prototype headphones in order to listen in on the Lighthouse's party. However, this plan did not work, as Franky fell asleep as soon as he heard the Sleepy Song, and Cadence's scream reacting to the explosion at the Ice Rink woke him up in time to warn the others. Agent further proves both of them innocent by explaining that since they set off the Body Discovery Announcement, they could not be the killers.

Once it is revealed that the remote control jet pack was the murder weapon, Franky jumps to blame Jet Pack Guy quite a few times due to the close correlation between the agent's hobbies and the weapon as well as his faulty alibi. However, the killer is revealed to be Paige, whose mention of the disturbing dreams coming from the Sleepy Song seems to make Franky nervous. After witnessing her execution, he remarks that he "can't deal with anymore deaths" before returning to his igloo.

#### Chapter 3

The next morning, Cadence and Franky leave the Coffee Shop early to investigate the island. They are not seen until nighttime, where Agent sees Franky rush out of the Night Club in a panic. He warns Agent not to play the game Thin Ice before he and Cadence leave together. They do not show up until the day after, where they rush to the Ski Village at the sound of Jet Pack Guy's rehearsal of his screams for Rookie's play. At Rookie's suggestion, they decide to watch his play, "Super Rookie Saves the Day." However, he and Cadence seem unimpressed with it and leave. They do not show up for the rest of the day, but when Agent wakes up and attempts to find Rory by going down to the Hidden Lake, they discover Franky's body.

During the third Dimensional Trial, it is revealed that Cadence killed Franky before Rory killed her. Monobert proceeds to show a recording of the transpiring events where it shows Cadence and Franky's plan for Franky to kill Cadence and Klutzy in order to escape to the New World and reunite with the Penguin Band. However, he refuses to and retreats to the Hidden Lake, and he reveals to Cadence that his dream from the Sleepy Song and the Thin Ice game showed that the Penguin Band's other three members were dead. The belief of their death prevents him from following through with the plan, and out of distress for his current state of despondence, Cadence kills him by drowning him in the lake with her scarf.

### Bonus Content

#### Penguinronpa Holiday Special (2020)

Franky appears as one of the main characters in 2020's Holiday Special. He is dressed in an elf's costume, and he debuts through his informing the other characters of Rockhopper's missing status. Along with Agent, Cadence, and Dot, he searches all over the island for him until they find him and join him on his endeavor to receive a third sprite from Tofu. The world begins to fall apart at the concept of a third sprite for Rockhopper, and Franky freaks out over his hat's originally red strip being switched to a brown strip, though this change is accurate to the original Club Penguin design.

#### Penguinronpa Valentine's Day Special (2021)

Franky appears with Cadence as a ship presented in Shadow Guy and Gamma Gal's "Rate that Ship." Shadow Guy comments about how this ship "might sting" following the events of Chapter Three while Gamma Gal attempts to form potential ship names: Cadenky, Songbirds, France, and Fracankdencey.

#### Penguinronpa Halloween Special (2021)

Franky makes a brief cameo when Jeff the Ref and Skip the Bellhop accidentally teleport into the Penguinronpa Holiday Special of 2020. He says his debut line as usual, only for Skip to comment about how the "vibe is already down" due to his and Jeff's whistle being missing. He appears in the end credits alongside Cadence as the organizers of the music for the production. He appears as a ghost in his t-shirt and jackets from his later designs, which is a reference to the song Ghosts Just Wanna Dance.

#### Penguinronpa Holiday Special (2021)

On the eleventh day of the Twelve Days of Penguinronpa, Franky and Cadence appear, bringing along the other three members of the Penguin Band to add the eleventh line: 'Leven Bangin' Tunes."

## Trivia

* Tofu considered adding the other three Penguin Band members alongside Franky as participants in Penguinronpa, but they decided only to add in Franky due to all four of their personalities being similar.
* Franky's hat is incorrectly colored; the red strip on his cowboy hat is a brown strip in the original Club Penguin design.
	+ This fact was added as a gag in the 2020 Holiday Special. When the world begins to fall apart, Franky's hat reverts to its accurate design in accordance to the original Club Penguin design. Tofu comments on this by saying, "Cadence and Franky's clothing items are the right colors! ...Wait, that one's not bad."
* Franky's introduction code translates to, "All your friends are gone," referencing the missing status and potential death of the Penguin Band.
* In the Q+A of the Fallen Participants, Franky seems familiar with the song, "Do You Like Waffles?"
* According to the Fallen Q+A, Franky likes jazz, though this could only be a references to the "Ya like jazz?" meme from The Bee Movie.
* Franky says in the Fallen Q+A that he believes he was chosen to participate in the killing game out of the four Penguin Band members because he is "the leader of the bunch."
* Tofu has said in the Penguinronpa Q+A of 2021 that Franky has grown on them due to their writing him in Penguinronpa.