Frankie

[Medikor]

Like I said, I'm not opposed to a darker past. I wouldant mind it if Frankie's past is a dark one as long as it's handled well.

[Howard]

Pardon me, but why does Frankie's past have to be necessarily dark? I have known people who were raised in decent families that still had more issues than Marvel Comics. Maybe Frankie's curiosity with IF's got her as a little girl and she decided to work with same.

[Voxxyn]

It can be conflicted without being overly dark or scary, like with Wilt's past in GWH. His life began happily, until a very unfortunate event occurred that ruined it, which remained hidden inside of him throughout the show until the Creator/Friend reunion, making him go on a journey that eventually leads to him finding redemption and resolution. Frankie's hypothetical movie could play out using that same setup(in a different way, of course, instead of just cloning GWH).

I know the crew said that they will not deal with the subject of death... but they had an IF pizza and balloons killed for the sake of comedy. If they could do that, I wouldn't mind if they incorporated the subject of death in a way that was serious yet classy and touching.

[One Radical Dude]

Mr. M's theory would make since. I mean, I, myself, can't rule out the possibility of Frankie's parents not being around anymore in the Foster's world. Another possibility would be Frankie not being very close to her parents at all, thus having her spend much more time with Madame Foster.

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by Voxxyn

It can be conflicted without being overly dark or scary, like with Wilt's past in GWH. His life began happily, until a very unfortunate event occurred that ruined it, which remained hidden inside of him throughout the show until the Creator/Friend reunion, making him go on a journey that eventually leads to him finding redemption and resolution. Frankie's hypothetical movie could play out using that same setup(in a different way, of course, instead of just cloning GWH).

I know the crew said that they will not deal with the subject of death... but they had an IF pizza and balloons killed for the sake of comedy. If they could do that, I wouldn't mind if they incorporated the subject of death in a way that was serious yet classy and touching.

The show's creators have at least touched on the subject of death more than once, in spite of them saying they weren't going to do that. I guess probably they meant, like, having a major character die on the show, but several characters have mentioned their fear of death, and Mr. Herriman made a reference to Heave in that Episode I Shall Not Name.

I personally believe that Frankie's parents are deceased, and they must have both died at the roughly the same time, in a car crash, possibly. I think that the crew could probably(and in my humble opinion, NEED to)tackle the subject of what happened to them in the same way that the death of Lilo's parents was covered in Lilo and Stitch: "It was raining, and they went for a drive..." Still a bit dark, and poignant, but not to the point that little kids will have nightmares for weeks about it. It's no worse, honestly, than the way they dealt with Wilt's injuries and 30-year guilt trip. I also really wish that they'd have another episode dealing with the emotional struggle that Frankie is going through, choosing between following the crowd, and following her heart, something most of us have to face at one point or another. That would really be something realistic, another way for the audience to connect with a character on the show, that they touched pretty strongly on in the DVD commentary, and show how her memories of her parents might influence that. I for one don't get the extremely "dark" and violent fanfics, why so many believe that Frankie's parents were absolutely horrible drunks and junkies who abused her, emotionally, physically, and even sexually, murdering her siblings and torturing her every day. Frankie does not seem like someone who's been through that, and the one time she speaks of her parents on the show, she speaks of them as with fond memories, not horror.

pitbulllady

[Mr. Marshmallow]

I honestly don't recall when she ever talked about her parents on the show. But I still stand by my belief that Frankie's parents are indeed dead. It seems the most likely of scenarios considering how extremely air tight Frankie has kept not only her personal life but her family life as well.

No one on the show or in the audiences had any idea Frankie HAD a social life with dates, boyfriends etc. until "Frankie my dear". So if she could easily hide how what's going on in her school life and personal life, hiding something as dark and depressing as a traumatic death in the family could easily be hidden.

Plus, I still find this whole "too dark" thing to be a load of crap. What exactly is too dark? it's DEATH it happens, and it happens whether you watch cartoons or don't watch cartoons. Ignoring it's existence is stupid and pointless unless you have a "Tom and Jerry" cartoon where they can be blown up on a regular basis.

Foster's ISN'T one of those kind of shows, and people like Frankie and Mac can't get burnt into a pile of ashes and then suddenly appear fine in the next scene. Kids can't get nightmares over the word "death", images maybe but not the word. She could say they died or "there not around anymore".

It's an easy way to state what happened and at the same time, it could show the still tender sensitivity of the issue to the viewers. Frankie hides alot. As weird as that sounds it's true, you look at what we know about her back story and I gurantee you you'll be finding alot of blank spots in her time line.

I consider dark material to be like blood, horrific images, or scary looking things like that. I don't see saying the word "dead" or "died" as something so horrific Cartoon Network's viewers would go to sleep shaking in their sheets. Besides, look at Wilt. He's the nicest IF around and he's got a shady past.

Granted no one died but feeling rejected, deformed, and basically living your whole life with self pity is pretty shady stuff to deal with too. I agree with pit bull also in that I think both her parents died at the same time, I don't think it was something as simple as like they moved away or got a divorce.

While I admit divorce seems another likely idea, I kind of doubt that consider Frankie would first and foremost live with ONE of the parents before she'd live with her grandmother. And don't bother saying possible "circumstances" preventing Frankie from staying with her parents and forcing her to Foster's.

I don't buy that theory. Only because that leaves way too much speculation available, and would require more explanations and in depth into the circumstances. Which we all know they won't do as I can't see the show putting this much time on Frankie's life unless she had a special like Wilt did.

So like I said before, I'm sticking with the idea that her parents died.

[Voxxyn]

Originally Posted by pitbulllady

I also really wish that they'd have another episode dealing with the emotional struggle that Frankie is going through, choosing between following the crowd, and following her heart, something most of us have to face at one point or another. That would really be something realistic, another way for the audience to connect with a character on the show, that they touched pretty strongly on in the DVD commentary, and show how her memories of her parents might influence that.

I too would love a Frankie-centered episode like that.

[pitbulllady]

Originally Posted by Mr. Marshmallow

I honestly don't recall when she ever talked about her parents on the show. But I still stand by my belief that Frankie's parents are indeed dead. It seems the most likely of scenarios considering how extremely air tight Frankie has kept not only her personal life but her family life as well.

Frankie mentions her parents in only one episode, "Who Let The Dogs In". When she finds Mr. Herriman(dressed in what he apparently considered appropriate battle gear), in the kitchen, ranting about the killer "hounds", she tries to get him to convince himself that there are no dogs in the house by telling him, "Just do what my parents told me to do when I was little and I was afraid of ghosts-say, 'there's no such thing as dogs'...OK, maybe not THAT...". This is the only time I've heard any mention of Frankie's parents whatsoever. When she spoke of them, she didn't sound like someone who'se memories of them were unpleasant, nor did it seem like whatever happened to them, she had trouble dealing with it to the point of being unable to talk about them comfortably, either. If her parents were simply divorced, you'd think that she would still have contact with at least one of them on a regular basis, and that would hardly necessitate her leaving them at an early age and going to live with her grandma, since couples divorce all the time, and one usually winds up with the kids. I too, think that her parents were killed when she was a child, and Madame Foster was her nearest living relative.

pitbulllady

[Mr. Marshmallow]

Originally Posted by pitbulllady

If her parents were simply divorced, you'd think that she would still have contact with at least one of them on a regular basis, and that would hardly necessitate her leaving them at an early age and going to live with her grandma, since couples divorce all the time, and one usually winds up with the kids. I too, think that her parents were killed when she was a child, and Madame Foster was her nearest living relative.

This also does help semi-clear up one question that was floating around, I think Frankie has no siblings then and is an only child. Because like we both said, a child would go directly to one of the parents if they were in fact divorced.

And if Frankie did have a brother or sister they wouldn't split them up, they'd send both to the only living relative, Madame Foster.

[kageri]

My theory is just that we never see Frankie's parents because... well, it's a cartoon, and that might not hold the attention of the kidlets. It's horrible, but their target audience unfortunately does not watch the show for the adult characters, much less the parents of the adult characters. I think the possibility of them being dead (if all the Foster's fans' theories were correct, everyone we've only heard about would be dead) as, say, not spending a lot of time with her. Maybe she was just closer to her grandmother than her parents. Hey, it happens.

I don't think everything has to have an in-show explanation, but that's just me. As much as I'd like to see a Frankie-centric episode should they decide to reveal that information on the show, for the moment I'm content with assuming she lives with Madame Foster because Craig and Co. wanted Foster's to be run by a kooky old lady and a younger, less kooky lady.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that whatever happened in Frankie's past, I doubt it's something that could be in E! True Hollywood Story accompanied by slow zoom-ins and grave, intoning narrative.