Day of the Barney Trilogy

Long, long ago, back in the ancient year of 1993, Brian Bull released a short Barney and Friends fanfiction (and we use the term fanfiction very lightly) known as Day of the Barney. To summarize it as simply as possible, Barney, who is being broadcast from the United States Capitol, sends thousands of children into an unstoppable killing spree when he tells them the adults are trying to take him away from them.

Unlike many Barney-themed hatefics, this one was extremely well written, darkly funny, and even genuinely creepy. Despite it's shortness, it even developed a cult following.

And then part two was released.

Although keeping some of the dark comedy the first part had, part two and three took a much more serious turn. Aside from being much longer and written in a novel format, it also expanded greatly on Barney and Baby Bop's characters, portraying them as demonic creatures who were born at (and caused) the very end of the dinosaur reign, as well as many historic disasters. Yes, really. Part two takes place about six years after the events of part one (known as "The Great Act of Love") in the apocalyptic wasteland that was once Washington D.C. Many adults have already been killed off and Barney rules as a God-like figure over the children. It's there we are introduced to our main characters, Jeremy and Fran Phillips, two thirteen-year-old twins who learn the horrible truth about Barney and his plans for the children and the world.

It is something that really must be read to be believed. It can be found here and here.

A fourth story that takes place in the same continuity, Son of Barney, can be read here.

Tropes used in Day of the Barney Trilogy include:

• Adaptational Villainy: Barney and Baby Bop.
• Adult Fear: Well, maybe not the whole "Barney is a demonic monster who kills adults and rules over children" plot, which is more like a corny horror film than anything, but in part three where Jeremy's children are kidnapped might invoke this trope.
  • Actually, even though it is Barney, the thought of an authority figure easily brainwashing your child could very well invoke this.
• After the End
• All of the Other Reindeer: Maca'hzar isn't exactly loved by Barney and the other Loved Ones due to the fact that he's Fran's test-tube son. The only reason he was left alive was so he could be used as the Chew Toy.
• You Fail History Forever: In part 3, it features Adolf Schicklgruber making the decision to change his name to Adolf Hitler after having been befriended and corrupted by Barney. The basis of the "Adolf Hitler could've been Adolf Schicklgruber" meme is that his father was born with the surname Schicklgruber, but successfully changed it to Hitler. Adolf Hitler never bore the surname Schicklgruber at any time in his life.
• An Arm And A Leg: Barney is grievously injured in Part II when his right arm explodes at the elbow.
• Back from the Dead: See Not Quite Dead below.
• Bad Boss: Barney is portrayed as one in Part 3, sucking the life from Baby Bop and murdering a Loved One by tossing him into a pit. However, his previous incarnation (though he insults a Loved One for attacking Jeremy before he signaled him to do so) is angry at Jeremy for murdering his spawn, (and according to the narrator would be incensed if he found out that Jeremy killed Baby Bop and destroyed his secret nursery).
• Bait The Dog: Barney and Baby Bop seem like kind and loving dinosaurs, though the children were misguided to kill adults after finding out that they wanted to separate them from Barney. But in truth, they killed the adults simply so that they could stay in power, and plan to do the same to anyone who reaches thirteen, eventually replacing them all with the Loved Ones.
• Big No: Jeremy has one in part 3 when Barney tricks him into believing the purple dinosaur killed his children.
• Big Damn Heroes: the mother T-rex.
  • And to a lesser extent, Lt. McKintyre and her troops.
• Bittersweet Ending: Part 2 has Fran and Jeremy defeat Barney or so they think, but a large number of adults and teenagers have been brutally murdered during the Purple Holocaust, which has also basically wrecked social infrastructure. Part 3 has Barney defeated once and for all, but Jeremy's children have been traumatized so badly that they need serious therapy.
• The Black Death: Barney is revealed to be at least partly responsible for this
• Break the Cutie: Fran finding out the truth about Barney's nursery.
• Brutal Honesty: Barney admits to his friends that there are people who DON'T want him near their kids.
• Chest Burster: How The Loved Ones reproduce. Jeremy puts an end to this grisly operation by destroying the Loved One nursery.
• The Chew Toy: Maca'hzar was this to Barney and the other Loved Ones.
• The Chosen One: Maca'hzar sees Jeremy as such.
• Corrupt the Cutie: Barney entices all of his young fans to kill any adult they meet in the Great Act of Love and made Caligula and Hitler into the evil dictators we came to know them as by visiting, befriending, and corrupting them when they were young.
• Crack Fic: A shockingly well-done one at that.
• Crap Saccharine World: What the world turns into after the Great Act of Love for the remaining children. Life is great for them as Barney's Special Friends up until they turn thirteen.
• Crapsack World: If you are over the age of twelve, the world under the reign of Barney crosses over the border of Crap Saccharine World right into this. The social infrastructure has been destroyed, necessitating surviving teenagers and adults to forage for food and hide from Barney, Baby Bop, and the Loved Ones. Add to that the fact that the adults and children are afraid of each other. The adults and teenagers are afraid of being killed by children and the children have been taught by Barney to fear the Bad Ones, as he calls the teenagers and adults who survived the Great Act of Love. And if you have lived for any period of time as a child during the Purple Holocaust, you now have to hide from Barney, who you had come to love and trust, but now can't because he's out to kill you.
• Cruel And Unusual Death: Those who are decapitated by Barney (which are the boys) get off easy compared to the girls that give birth to Barney's children. They claw their way out through their stomachs.
• Dangerous Thirteenth Birthday: If you are a kid, things are awesome for you during the Purple Holocaust. You are one of Barney's Special Friends, you don't have to go without food or affection, and when you turn thirteen, he gives you a "Special Gift" that turns out to be decapitation with a machete if you are a boy and impregnation with a Half-Human Hybrid that you die giving birth to if you are a girl.
• Dark Comedy: Even when Barney is killing and maiming people, it is still really funny, especially when it is accompanied by an Ironic Nursery Tune. Also, who can't laugh at the idea of Barney being the one responsible for corrupting Caligula and Hitler?
• Dark Fic: Lord yes.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Maca'hzar.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to the original Barney and Friends? Yeah, just a little.
• Death Fic: Eventually. For real this time.
• Deadpan Snarker: Adult Fran has a few moments.
• Death by Childbirth: The girls' "Special Gift" that they receive upon turning thirteen. Barney rapes them so that they end up pregnant with Loved Ones, which are then born by clawing their way out of their mothers' bellies.
• Devour the Dragon: Barney consumes Baby Bop in part 3 to replenish his power.
• Does This Remind You of Anything?: In Part 3, certain young "skeptics" claim that Barney's reign of terror never happened, despite the fact that there are living survivors who can attest to the horrors of it by virtue of having lived through it. To make it more obvious, they call this period the Purple Holocaust.
• Do Not Adjust Your Set: Barney's master plan in part three. It ends up becoming part of his undoing, as the army was able to track on to his transmission and become Big Damn Heroes.
• Downer Ending: the first book, though Barney gets his comeuppance later...
• The Dragon: Baby Bop to Barney.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: In the end, Jeremy is severely injured, and his children are traumatized to the point of needing serious therapy, but Barney truly is dead this time.
• The End of the World as We Know It: The brutal murder of every adult and teenager Barney and his loyal crew of young fans could get their hands on is said to have taken place "across the country" so presumably, only the United States was affected. For the duration of the Purple Holocaust, there is certainly a Societal Collapse as Barney's Special Friends are left to forage for their own food in the fields of grain tended by the Loved Ones and every surviving teenager and adult presumably either practices subsistence farming or forages for food in abandoned places. If Jeremy and Fran hadn't defeated Barney, it would have most likely resulted in the extinction of the human race due to the adults having to hide from Barney and his followers and the children not reproducing with each other (or so we hope). Eventually, every full-blooded human being would die off, leaving only Barney, Baby Bop, and the Loved Ones.
• Faux Affably Evil: Barney. His whole modus operandi is manipulating the children to do what he wants and convincing them that he's the only one who loves them, but it is made clear that his intentions are, through and through, anything but good.
• Foreshadowing: The Loved Ones that Barney and Baby Bop employ as their servants didn't start appearing until after the Great Act of Love had begun, which leaves the audience wondering why they didn't show up before. And they don't seem interested in the children.
• Genre Shift: Not too much, but parts 2 and 3 take a much more serious approach than part 1. However, if you're comparing the story to the Barney and Friends tv show... um... yes... very much so.
• Gorn
• The Gump: Part 3 reveals that Barney and Baby Bop were alive and present at the extinction of the dinosaurs and are hinted to have caused it. The list of historical events they are shown to have caused is long. Since the extinction of the dinosaurs, they are revealed to have met and corrupted Caligula, caused the spread of The Black Death, saved the life of and met Adolf Hitler, and befriended Anne Frank, only to betray her and her family to the Nazis after learning that she is a Jew.
• Half-Human Hybrid: Loved Ones. Presumably, Barney wishes to replace the human race with a half-human race that is more obedient to him so that he can stay in power.
  • More are created in Son of Barney.
• Hate Fic: Lord yes. You'd have to have stopped reading the original story midway through to possibly think that this was in any way a fan fic.
• Heel Realization: Thorton Marshall realizes his beloved Barney may not being a loving as he thought. Jeremy and Fran finding out may count too, although they never actually did anything harmful themselves.
• Hypocrite: Oh dear god Barney, where to start? Spreads messages of peace and love, while decapitating 13 year olds en masse with a machete? SERIOUSLY?
• Immortality: Barney was apparently a Type IV in part 2, promoted to Type III in Part 3.
• Ironic Nursery Tune: This story expands upon Barney and Friends's motif of Glurge-y lyrics to already-existing nursery tunes by having them sing these in horrifying situations as well as singing disturbing variations on the lyrics.

"I love you, you love me, let us join with Lord Barney...with a great big kiss and hug, from me to you....let's purge the world of adults too...."

• Luke, I Am Your Father: Maca'hzar turns out to be Fran's test-tube son and Jeremy's nephew.
• Meatgrinder Surgery: Barney, Baby Bop, and a set of Loved Ones perform a variant of this on Thornton Marshall as they sing gleefully about how injured he is to the tune of "Old MacDonald"
• Medical Rape and Impregnate: Part of the "Special Gift" given to girls who turn thirteen during the Purple Holocaust. They are taken away, raped by Barney, and are impregnated with Loved Ones which they die giving birth to. Fran, however, turns out to have mothered a Loved One through in-vitro fertilization and it was only because Jeremy rescued her that she didn't end up having it in her body at all.
• Morton's Fork: Yes, in this story, Barney is unquestionably evil and no one can doubt he is. He not only led multiple children to murder adults, including their own parents, indiscriminately and without mercy, and killed and raped them when they became teenagers, his evildoing is shown to pepper the course of history. He's also corrupted Caligula and Hitler and is responsible for the Black Death and the extinction of the dinosaurs. Wait, the extinction of the dinosaurs was one of the reasons why humans were able to evolve to the point that they did. So if Barney caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, we actually owe our existence as it is to him. He's evil and is a clear threat to the human race, and yet we have him to thank for the human race in its current form.
• Next Sunday A.D.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Barney delivers one to Jeremy in Part 3.
• Not Quite Dead: Barney and Baby-Bop.
• No Sell: It's indicated that Barney kills teenagers because he doesn't have power over them, just as he doesn't have power over adults. Given Thorton's behavior however, not every adult is immune to his powers.
• Offing the Offspring: Jeremy uses a petrified shard of the egg Barney hatches from to summon Barney's mother, who kills Barney once and for all.
• One-Winged Angel: in part 2, when Barney sees his control over the children slipping away, he mutates into a much more dinosaur-like form with yellow eyes and sharp, jagged teeth.
• Patricide: At least some of those who were children at the time of the Great Act of Love did this. Maca'hzar helps along with bringing Barney down once and for all, so he counts as well.
• Properly Paranoid: The government wasn't wrong to burn all Barney and Baby Bop merchandise. Prolonged exposure to it can corrupt your mind if Thorton Marshall's behavior is an indication.
• Psychopathic Manchild: Thorton Marshall. Hitler is also implied to have been this, by virtue of having been the only person in history who was visited by Barney outside of childhood.
• Puzzle Boss: Barney in Part 3 cannot be killed by normal means. Thankfully, Maca'hzar's gift comes in handy...
• Really 65 Million Years Old: Barney turns out to be this, as well as Baby Bop.
• Redemption Equals Death: Barry Clements in Son of Barney.
• Released to Elsewhere: During the Purple Holocaust, all children receive a "Special Gift" upon turning thirteen. They are taken to the White House for a birthday party in the Oval Office. Then Baby Bop takes whatever girls are among the thirteen year olds away for their "Special Gift" while the boys stay behind so that Barney can give them theirs. Barney writes the number 13 on their foreheads, tells them to close their eyes and kneel and then he beheads them with a machete. It later turns out that the girls are taken away to be raped by Barney (presumably by being injected with his sperm) and subsequently die giving birth to the Loved Ones. The other children are told that the thirteen year olds have gone on vacation.
• Sealed Evil in a Can: or Sealed Evil in a Crystal, implied to be the final fate of Barney. Although it is entirely possible that the crystal is actually giving Jeremy a glimpse into Barney burning in hell.
• Self-Made Orphan: The Great Act of Love consists of Barney encouraging the children to kill off all of the adults. By default, at least some of those who were children at that time are these.
• Sugar Apocalypse: The End of the World as We Know It caused by Barney. After all of the adults have been killed or driven into hiding, Barney creates an idyllic existence for his Special Friends where all of their needs are attended to by himself, Baby Bop, and the Loved Ones and they all sing songs and play games like on the original show. Then Jeremy and Fran discover that it is really a Crap Saccharine World, after which Fran shoots Barney and they lead the effort to set things right.
• Take Over the World: Barney's motive.
• Teen Pregnancy: Part of the "Special Gift" the girls get when they turn thirteen. Barney rapes them, impregnating them with Loved Ones, which eventually kills them.
• Time Skip: Part 3 takes place twenty years after part 2, whereas part 2 takes place about 6-7 years after part 1.
• Too Dumb to Live: Thorton Marshall.
• Token Heroic Orc: Maca'hzar is a good and helpful Loved One, partly because he was rejected by the others as Fran's test-tube son.
• Took a Level in Badass: Jeremy. Fran somewhat too (she was the one who shot Barney in part 2), but she doesn't actually do much near the end.
• Trauma Conga Line: Happens to Fran and Jeremy in Part 3.
• Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: In the first story, Barney encourages his fans to kill any adult they can. We even directly see two children kill their mother with knives!
• The Watcher: Maca'hzar is presented as one, as he affirms that his magic wouldn't work on Barney, so he can only help Jeremy indirectly. However, the trope is subverted: Maca'hzar gives Jeremy the item he needs to defeat Barney, and frees him from his bonds when Barney has him in captivity, making him more active than your average Watcher.
• Wife Husbandry: Barney happily takes up responsibility of caring for the children after he entices them to kill all of the adults and then as soon as the girls turn thirteen, he takes them away and then rapes them at least partially for the purposes of impregnating them with Loved Ones.