Character Profile: Frankie Styx Jr.

Birth Name: Francisco Mariscal Gonzalez (México) / Francisco Mariscal Jr. (USA)
Born: 18 March, 1982
Height: 1.81 meters
Weight: 88 kilos
Known Powers: Superhuman ability to summon Pixel, ability to say the exact wrong thing at the worst moment and laugh about it, extreme annoyance, life-wasting gaming skillz which Pixel and his mates still beat him at. Unjustified Arrogance.

Biography: Frankie grew up in a nice family with a brother he enjoyed playing with more than his brother enjoyed playing with him. Throughout school, he was very popular and happy, though his grades were always a cause for concern. Though they were not terrible grades, but they paled in comparison to Pixel’s continual straight A’s.

Frankie had an annoying brother mentality even with people who weren’t Pixel. Frankie and his cousins always fought or got along in such a way as to amuse Frankie and annoy everyone else. This did not seem like a pattern to anybody then, but in retrospect seemed quite evident to anyone who could recall.

However, Frankie became the social bug to Pixel’s inadequacies with human interaction. Frankie was a foil for Pixel’s lack of any discernable skills, interest in sports or games, or abilities to make friends. As they grew older, Frankie only became more and more popular, though he was not without heart. In fact, though he had a terrible way of showing he cared, it was obvious to anyone who knew him that he really did care about people.
In high school, he often let his brother tag along with him and his friends as they went out and had fun. This was in spite of what his friends said.

Frankie graduated high school in 2000 with a huge group of friends he loved.

In the Series: When Carver’s BT started, Frankie was gone. At first, the series led us to believe that he had gone on to college and was going to be the advice-giving brother ever so stereotypical of other works of fiction, but the writers had a different plan. Frankie soon realized that Uni life wasn’t about studying. He joined a fraternity, was kicked out of his home by his ‘best’ mates, failed all of his classes, and moved home.

When Frankie had gone, Pixel had become accustomed to living relatively sibling-less and did not adjust well to his return. Fortunately, neither did Frankie, for even without friends, fraternities, or non-self-induced distractions, Frankie failed to go to any classes and failed yet again. His solution was to join the army.

When Frankie told Pixel about this, he did not believe him at first. Pixel was proven wrong some months later as his parents had a final dinner with the two of them and everyone held hands. Pixel can still remember everyone crying but himself.

Frankie went to boot camp, graduated, and sparingly saw his family every six months or so from then on. The September after he joined, two sibling towers in a large city in America were destroyed by commercial airliners. There was much debate amongst the fans as to whether this was a good idea, but inevitably, the series changed from then on. There was a legitimate fear of Frankie’s death and Pixel became quite a bit more political (though it is doubtful whether this was the cause).

In truth, Frankie didn’t die, the actor’s contract negotiations went smoothly and he appeared sparingly throughout the rest of the series. What happened was far worse. The character of Frankie became an asshole.

Once the antagonist, now he was just an annoyance every time he came. He and Pixel would inevitably argue whenever Frankie came to visit.

Also, it seems as if Frankie never outgrew gaming. He now is a Paladin at a local game of D & D, plays Warhammer 40,000, and various video games he claims he is good at.

Frankie has experienced disappointment and disillusionment continually since he graduated high school. As the people he considered his mates moved on to bigger and better things, Frankie remained with a wide social net and no confidants. His fraternity brothers and army friends were not what he needed as friends. Actually, what he needs as friends he cannot find as his mannerisms and way of interacting preclude this very real need for him to matter to people.

Above all things, Frankie sees himself as a social person who truly cares about everyone he knows. And this may, in fact, be the case, but in reality, the face he shows the world is that of an independent person, too tough to approach who thinks his own amusement is shared by everyone he interacts with.

(As could be seen from when he spent twenty minutes gathering static electricity to shock his wife and mother-in-law, or when he went around his family and tried his basic training’s chokehold on everyone he knew– including his mother–, or his forcing games of Risk with his family again and again.)

Regardless, in December 2003, Frankie and married a Colombian named Yanira whom he had known for six months. Their relationship appears to be gearing up for a b-plot of a future episode, though it is just as likely that the writers will kill off Frankie in desperation for new ideas. Many fans think that the comment he made in a recent episode of him ‘working in Iraq for two years to earn $200,000 to come back and show up his former mates in his ten-year high school reunion’ is a gilded lily to this exact outcome.

Whatever the series may yet yield, Pixel has steeled himself for it. The brother he knew and loved is no more. Or rather: he remains painfully conserved as what he once was, but in a world and body that no longer allow for the same life he so needs.

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Character Profile: Grandpa Styx

Birth Name: Genaro Mariscal Marrufo
Born: 2 March, 1931
Height: 1.62 meters
Weight: 55 kilos
Super Powers: Wisdom, super ability to entertain youngsters, charisma, ineffable luck.

Biography:
Grandpa Styx was born the sixth of 13 children, but only ever met about half of his siblings. Many would not survive into their teens and the rest had haphazard connections with each other.

In school, he was so poor that his classmates and teachers sometimes bought him food because they knew that without it, he might not eat that day. Grandpa Styx tells stories of being unable to study due to his blinding hunger.

Later on, Grandpa Styx met his future bride, Yolanda Landin. For a time they were both teachers, a profession that would follow the family for years. They married in the 1950s and had four sons.

Each son later married and had two children (a total of eight: four boys and four girls. The symmetry was not lost on Grandpa Styx who insisted on his ineffable luck all throughout his life. And the more time you spent with him, the more you believed it).

Pixel Q. Styx is the youngest son of the youngest son.

Yolanda died on Halloween 1989, when Pixel Q. was 4 and Grandpa Styx was 58. Grandpa Styx was left alone to keep the large house for many years afterwards. For several years in the ’90s, Pixel Q. and his family would visit Grandpa Styx every Sunday.

Most weeks they were the only visitors he received.

Those memories are crucial to Pixel’s psyche. It is from his grandfather that “El Señor Bandido” (Mr. Bandit) character comes from, whom Pixel blames for all actions not directly witnessed to be done by him. Pixel clearly remembers playing in the nearby park or in Grandpa’s old brown station wagon. Whenever his family would leave, Pixel would stare out the back window and see Grandpa Styx waving to them until they were well away. In Pixel’s eyes, Grandpa stayed there forever, waiting until the next time when he would see them again.

Grandpa Styx won the lottery a few years ago, but had a stroke soon after and retired to live with his other son in central Mexico.

In the Series:
Grandpa Styx was a staple of holiday merriment in Carver’s BT: The Series. Even when they’d visit Pixel’s mother’s family, Grandpa Styx would come along. In fact, Pixel hadn’t seen his other grandfather since he was a young boy. And, as Pixel had no surviving grandmothers, Grandpa Styx was the totality of his grandparently experience.

In a recent season, Grandpa Styx suffered from a brain tumor. Having said “I love you and if I never see you again, you’ve made me proud” to Pixel in the prior season, many fans assumed the writers were going to kill off Grandpa Styx. Their decision to not and have his tumor removed was a contentious one, especially as the operation was not a stunning success.

For the following season, every time Pixel saw his grandfather, he saw an old man who was a fraction of what he once was and could hardly remember Pixel. This saddened Pixel greatly as Grandpa Styx had been crucial to his developing while growing up. This previous season, Grandpa Styx remembered Pixel from after his operation, but not before. Now, upon Pixel’s return with short hair from Carver’s BT: Australia, Grandpa Styx was given an illness which sent him to the hospital. When Pixel went to visit later, his grandfather did not recognize him. Some fans argue that the lack of recognition was because of Pixel’s new hairstyle, but explanations aside, Pixel was affected deeply.

Grandpa Styx now speaks of himself as dying soon. Fans wonder if this time the gilded lily shall be paid in full or whether the writers will take another tromp of emotional trauma on Pixel’s psyche.