Barry the Time Sprout
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Barry the Time Sprout, also known as Barry the Holy Guardian Sprout, is a fictional character who appears in some of Robert Rankin's novels as an assistant to the main characters.
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[edit] Barry's Origins
Barry's precise origins are unclear, with two alternative explanations for his existence having been presented over the course of Rankin's novels. In his original appearance, Barry was the result of genetic engineering on a distant alien planet who watched Earth history as a television show, the idea being that Barry would be capable of travelling back in time and changing history to avert a recent nuclear war that had rendered Earth boring for the viewers. In "Waiting for Godalming", by contrast, Barry's alternate origin as a Holy Guardian is established, the reason for his new status allegedly being that God has run out of Guardian Angels due to a supply shortage, forcing God to hand out Guardian Vegetables in order to make up the numbers. In "The Witches of Chiswick", Barry reveals both these origins to his new partner Will Starling as possible explanations for his existence, but later tells Will that the Holy Guardian story is his true origin
[edit] Personal History
Originally, Barry debuted in "Armageddon: The Musical", when he was created by an alien race who watched Earth history as a TV show in an attempt to undo a recent nuclear war that had made the show far more boring. To this end, Barry was sent back to prevent Elvis Presley from joining the army- the reasoning being that without Elvis's example, a significant portion of teenagers wouldn't join the army either, and thus wars such as Vietnam would never take place-, only to end up working with Elvis on a time-travelling escapade to vanquish the Antichrist with the aid of Rex Mundi, a man from Earth's present who becomes involved in Elvis's quest. To this end, Elvis goes so far as to travel back to Biblical times, but this unintentionally creates an alternate timeline where Elvis is hailed as a god and he and Barry are separated, with all his memories of his time with Barry apparently erased.
Subsequently moving on to private detective Lazlo Woodbine (Although Laz's uncertain status as a character makes it difficult to be sure), Barry aided Woodbine on a number of cases, including the apparent murder of God himself ("Waiting for Godalming"), but later travelled even further back in time in an attempt to aid Hugo Rune in establishing a golden age in the Victorian era ("The Witches of Chiswick"). Allying himself with Rune's temporally-relocated future descendent Will Starling, Will and Barry attempt to preserve an age of advanced technology that Rune's actions have created, but the effort is opposed by an insane alternate version of Will who has allied himself with Barry's misguided 'brother' Larry the Sprout, who provides the other Will with time-travel abilities that allow him to erase that reality. At the conclusion of the novel, Will destroyed his other self by coming in contact with him, thus causing a massive explosion as two sets of the same being attempted to exist simultaneously; whether this killed the version of Barry from that timeline, or Barry managed to escape before the explosion occurred, is unknown.
[edit] Personality
Personality-wise, Barry is known to be fairly short-tempered, never actually getting angry but commonly being frustrated at the attitudes of those he is assigned to; he is commonly annoyed at Lazlo Woodbine's high opinion of his own deductive abilities and grew frustrated at Will's occasional refusal to take his advice and simply do what he wants. However, Barry has also been shown to be very loyal, growing attached to Rex and Elvis during the Armageddon trilogy and showing a great deal of sympathy for Rex's loss when he was forced to erase Elvis's memories of the time they had spent together. He tends to refer to his partners as "Chief" while working with them, and generally does what he can to help them without breaking any of the occasionally ill-defined 'rules' involved in his time-travelling abilities (Such as being unable to take them to the right location to stop the crisis, even when he knows where to go, unless his hosts themselves know where it is, thus preserving free will).
[edit] Powers and Abilities
As a Holy Guardian, Barry is capable of communicating with his chosen subject while being inaudible to everyone else, allegedly residing in the head of his current partner. He is also able to communicate with other Holy Guardians and plant thoughts in the minds of other human beings, although he cannot directly communicate with other Holy Guardians as it is against the 'rules'. Whether as a Holy Guardian or a genetic experiment, Barry has also shown himself to be capable of travelling in time and space to an apparently unlimited degree; while he initially grew fatigued and weak after too long in the real world, this defect has long since been either cured or forgotten. However, although he is often shown to be aware of the full details of the problem faced by his hosts, and thus know where to go in order to save the day often before even they know, he cannot take them there unless they know themselves where they need to be, thus preserving free will.
[edit] List of Appearances
To date, Barry has appeared in the following novels;
- Armageddon: The Musical (Origin as a genetic experiment; teams up with Elvis Presley and Rex Mundi)
- They Came and Ate Us (Armageddon II: The B Movie)
- The Suburban Book of the Dead (Armageddon III: The Remake) (First works with Lazlo Woodbine; unintentionally creates an alternate world where Elvis is worshipped as a god)
- Waiting for Godalming (Origin as a Holy Guardian Sprout; no reference made to his time-travel abilities)
- The Witches of Chiswick (Attempted to work with Hugo Rune, but eventually settled for Rune's temporally-relocated descendent Will Starling; explains both his origins but states that the Holy Guardian one is the 'true' origin)
