Barry Buns (Duo-Franchise)

Banana Pepper (formerly known as Barrington Augustus Buns III/Barry Buns/Centrosomes) (real name: Eddie Caputo) (currently known as is one of the three main antagonists of the Duo-Franchise show’s Grizzly Empire myth arc serving as the hidden tertiary antagonist of the Duo-Franchise 100th Anniversary Edition, the main antagonist of Summer Movie Mondays, the sole antagonist of Birthday Game: 25th Anniversary Edition and an overarching antagonist of the Farewell saga. He also serves as the true main villain of the entire Duo-Franchise franchise having corrupted Shelby Forthright into being his accomplice. He is Zachary Delightful’s arch-rival and Kiff Chatterley’s former best friend turned arch-nemesis. After moving with the rest of Table Town to the Myles Bots’ hometown, he makes his debut as Centrosomes by torturing and aiding in the murder of Lincoln Loud. Because of this, Bluey pays all of his crimes in kind by brainwashing him into thinking he is really a dog with her temporary vampire state. Afterwards, Buster Bunny pulls a prank on Barry and places a hypno-collar on him making his doggy delusion permanent. Because of this, Barry is complacent and now has all of the darkness and bad behavior he had purged out of him thus becoming Buster Bunny’s pet dog and the Myles Bots family pet.

History

Early Life

He went through the same childhood as the prime Eddie Caputo as he became Chucky’s accomplice when he came of age. After betraying Charles Lee Ray before his death and the subsequent attack on the accomplice's life, he uses the same spell Chucky used to turn himself into a killer doll to transfer his soul to a nearby rabbit making him the first character in history to be akumatized.

Meeting Shelby Forthright

Over time, he became more intelligent and manipulative than he ever was. After Artax drowned in the Swamps of Sadness, Eddie manipulated his owner and turned him into his accomplice and partner in crime. In doing so, he ended the young boy’s quest and turned him into a tyrannical criminal with no remorse for the victims killed by the Nothing.

Dating Candice

After fully molding the hero boy into becoming Shelby Forthright, he created the Grizzly Empire and recruited a handful of multiversal variants from other dimensions or timelines to become his followers. After sending Forthright off to found Buy N Large, he met and fell in love with Candice Parker who was in a relationship with Peter Friedkin. He convinces her to have an affair with him without batting an eye for Peter’s emotional state. Before the North Bay Bridge Collapse, he impregnated Candice and she planned on leaving Peter for Caputo. However, Candice and her unborn child were killed due to being on Death’s List which not only drove Peter to the deep end but caused the Flight 180 plane crash predicted by Alex Browning and the subsequent highway pile-up predicted by Kimberly Brown. Realizing no one lives forever, Eddie Caputo changes his name to Barrington Augustus Buns III and decides to commit one last crime as Eddie before leaving New Jersey for Table Town.

Manipulating Events

Around the 1st birthday of Zachary Delightful (the main protagonist of the franchise), Barry snaps the neck of a surgeon and tries to harm the then-infant Zachary when he suffers a hernia attack. However, he was thwarted by the timely intervention of hospital staff and Barry manages to avoid being arrested by escaping through the window. He then leaves America and allows Shelby Forthright to take the blame for the crime. After moving to Table Town, he pretends to be a little kid and creates a clone family consisting of Bunny Buns, EB Buns, Mary Buns, Harry Buns, Terri Buns and Kristophe Buns. At one point, during a swim, Terri pulls a practical joke and makes him think a monster from the deep called the Terrible had marked him and will get him if he comes back into the water not only making him temporarily unable to swim but driving him to the point of paranoia as he vows to unmask the Terrible and kill them.

Chance Encounter with Kiff Chatterley

During the year 2016, he meets 16-year old Table Town civilian Kiff Chatterley and introduces himself to her with the intend of manipulating his way into his life. Over time, they became best friends with Kiff being unaware of his true nature. In the year 2021, Kiff and Barry watch a movie called Chubbles Wubbington. Having discovered Tilly Green is the childhood identity of Chubbles Wubbington and that she is being painted as a folk heroine, he decides to use her as an ally to turn everyone against each other.

Beginning his Career as Centrosomes

Near the end of 2022, he disguises himself as Lola Loud and aided Nucleus (who disguises himself as Clyde McBride) and Mitochondria (who disguises himself as Lily Loud) while enlisting three followers to disguise themselves as Lori Loud, Leni Loud and Lana Loud. Together, they relentlessly torture Lincoln Loud into thinking his sisters and best friend were never really his loved ones. When Lincoln is at Mitochondria's mercy, the rabbit watches as the criminal stabs a crying and screaming Lincoln fatally which was witnessed by Lucas Svan. He then recruits Svan into his Grizzly Empire cult while Lincoln was rescued by a mysterious character named the Vatican who takes him to the hospital. However, it was a futile effort as Lincoln passed away in his hospital bed much to the heartbreak, grief and pain of his little sister Lily Loud. He then works under Forthright’s rule as the villainous CEO continues to aid him in gaslighting Zachary Delightful into becoming his weapon. However, Zachary shoots Shelby and kills him for good ending the Buy N Large corporation and erasing it from existence.

Gaining Control of the Grizzly Empire

After regaining control of the Grizzly Empire, he resurrected Lincoln Loud and lobotomizes him into becoming a nonsapient dog. However, it results in Lily’s other grandfather Leonard Loud being killed by Skye. Willing to keep his true nature from being unmasked, he hires Carl Winslow to drown Lincoln killing him for good and subsequently killing the rest of the Louds through Rosa Casagrande leaving Lily Loud an orphan. He also orchestrates the crimes committed by Emperor Falco and Debbie Goldman including Sanjay Patel’s transformation into Dark Mayhem which non-canonically causes the events of the Thundermans franchise.

Unmasked as the Killer

After he frames Zachary and makes everyone think the young man is a boogeyman, he turns Lucas into his accomplice and inspires him to frame Lily, 2010 sole survivor Spike the Dragon, resurrected veteran Woodstock and former underwater critter Hank the Whale as the boogeyman's spectral acolytes. He then proceeds to discreetly manipulate Kiff and fellow survivor Sprig Plantar into thinking the Myles Bots are aliens from Saturn who fart bubbles that destroy the ozone layer nearly turning the two against the Myles Bots. He also has Rosa assassinate Zachary Delightful by gouging out his eyes in an attempt to ensure he dies the mastermind of the killings. Unfortunately for Barry, it only results in Zachary’s long-awaited transformation into empowered pariah Iscream and the now-rabbit becomes the fifth Myles Bot. After an Unga Bunga incident, insecure father turned enchanted cameraman Randall Fox discovers the secrets kept by the Myles Bots with Barry’s true identity and nature explained to him. However, Mr. Fox decides to help the team and Tracker. Meanwhile, Barry proceeds to try and crush Kiff’s spirit and ruthlessly poisons her mother. However, Kiff catches him but thinks Barry is brainwashed. After Barry and Kiff embrace each other, he makes a foreboding remark and finally reveals his true nature to her and Sprig as he literally stabs her in the back. After revealing most of his origin to them, he captures them and realizes Mr. Fox had officially joined the team and helped them escape. Not willing to let Kiff and/or Sprig deceive him too, he has them bound and gagged as the three drive off.

Throwing off Suspicion

Sometime afterwards, he manipulates Kiff and Sprig into believing there is good in him thus throwing off suspicion. After Kiff’s half-brother Simon and his partner-in crime Alecto Secretary aka Grandpa Shark temporarily gaslight Zachary into becoming a villain, Barry leaves the two in charge while he continues to manipulate Kiff and Sprig. However, he reveals his true nature as Centrosomes anyways and is revealed to have murdered Tilly Green. After a pool incident, he sees a vision of the Terrible marking him and subsequently fakes his death in order to act as his Centrosomes alter-ego undetected. However, he abandons his plan so he can continue manipulating Kiff for his own personal gain.

True Colors

When Kiff is scorched by a critic known as SmartyPrance116 (really a venting Zachary Delightful), she, Barry and their friends make a video about Table Town. However, the gang was attacked by Ghost Wolf but were saved by a mysterious littlest pet shop day camper. After a Dancing on the Tables show was sabotaged, Kiff admitted they cheated with the day camper wearing magic socks and apologizes. Unfortunately, Barry reveals his true sinister nature saying Kiff will be sorry and imprisoning her and the others in the White House dungeon. After the group escapes, Barry confirms the Myles Bots as dizzy dusters while framing Kiff, Sprig, Eleven, Chip, Bluey, Bingo, Bubbles and a random unidentified kwami of being dizzy dusters too making everyone in Amity Park believe them all to be evil ghosts. He orders the entire town to find the Lucky Ten, Sprig and Kiff so they can pay for their “betrayal”, to find the Myles Bots so that Alec can be immortalized forever as a hero and to find Zachary Delightful so that Barry can kill him as Centrosomes.

Permanent Defeat

After finally facing the original five Myles Bots, Bluey Heeler, who had turned into a vampire, permanently hypnotized him into thinking he is really a Saint Bernard. After Bluey loses her vampire powers, William Manta’s illegitimate son Buster Bunny pulls a prank on Barry using a hypno-collar on the evil rabbit to keep him in his doggy delusion. As a result, he is trapped under Bluey’s distorted spell never to wake from his trance again. He later is transformed into a lookalike of Nana and becomes Buster’s pet dog thus never posing a threat to the Myles Bots again. Furthermore, Barry is renamed Banana Pepper and starts acting like an elderly female dog as he is trapped in the mind and body of a dog therefore receiving his comeuppance for the crimes he committed and avenging the people he killed. To this day, he remains a nonsapient dog in body and mind, his inner psyche is now trapped in an everlasting sleep and his mind has been shattered beyond repair thus suffering a fate worse than death for his wickedness.

Appearance

He resembled Eddie Caputo before his transformation and resembled Barry Buns after his transformation. As Centrosomes, he looked exactly like Lola Loud. After being permanently enthralled by Bluey Heeler through her temporary vampire powers and Buster Bunny through a hypno-collar and being truly convinced that he is really a dog, he resembles Nana from Peter Pan and is renamed Banana thus no longer showing any threat towards the ones he once viewed as enemies.

Personality

At first glance, he appears to be a ditzy yet kind and gentle bunny and cares very deeply for Kiff. He also tends to be scared easily and spent a whole decade being paranoid towards a premonition of his fate in the hands of a monster named the Terrible but is able to hide his fears to save the world from a demon thus painting him as a hero in the eyes of the public. However, it is all a facade to hide his true nature: a remorseless, irredeemable, devious and cold-hearted criminal. He is very manipulative as he is able to persuade Kiff into believing his false ditziness and kindness was real for years. He shows no empathy or remorse for the people he had hurt or killed and the lives he had ruined and even showed no concern over Kiff’s broken spirit. He bails himself out of trouble with lies with the easiest lies being told through the push of a button. In short, he is a monstrous sociopath. However, his personality drastically changes after being hypnotized. He had lost all of his darkness and had become truly convinced he is really a Saint Bernard thus no longer posing a threat to the protagonists. He is now playful, slobbery and had become Buster Bunny’s new pet dog. He also had become delusional as he thought he was an elderly female dog and had lost all higher cognition right down to not being housebroken and no longer displaying evilness or any form of aggression whatsoever and is taken in by Buster Bunny thus being the fallen villain’s new master.

Trivia

• There are a few hints that foreshadow his true colors:
  • When Barry is mistaken for a high schooler and Miss Deer Teacher asks how she missed the “signs”, Principal Secretary says it’s the ones they least expect.
  • Barry says he’s a monster when he fears Kiff will be brainwashed by the harp like Miss Deer Teacher and Dr. Lyon.
  • Barry shows some signs of paranoid behavior as shown when he becomes aggressively protective about Slent’s journal.
  • When Eddie Caputo was a child, he resembles a human younger Barry Buns.
  • Before Barry is seen weeping over the town being trapped in the harp’s power, he is heard breathing which shows Barry is actually pretending to be sad to throw Kiff off his trail.
  • During the school trip to the Foreverangees National Park, he was visibly affected when Kiff says she doesn’t even know why they were ever friends which is shown later to be an emotional low blow for him as he realizes he had officially lost a pawn in Kiff.
  • When Barry went manic, he tries to attack his friends which shows that he only cares about himself and fueling any delusion of him being the hero.
• Shelby Forthright was advertised as the villain of the Grizzly Empire myth arc but Barry Buns is revealed to be one of the masterminds as he had bigger plans than anyone else.
  • Furthermore, he turned out to be one of three main villains of the myth arc as Mitochondria and Nucleus serve as his partner-in crimes.
    • After his brainwashing and subsequent final defeat, he is no longer a threat and is incapable of any crime, heinous act or any bad behavior of any kind or sort as he had now become a nonsapient dog completely under Buster Bunny’s control. Afterwards, he had become the Myles Bots family pet leaving the remaining two masterminds to step in and take center stage for the rest of the myth arc.