Line #31 YMMV/PBGHardcore


1	! As with the main page, many spoilers here are unmarked!
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3	* {{Adorkable}}: Dean's complete lack of survival skill in early seasons came off as this, as well as his general enthusiasm. It sometimes still applies from time to time in later seasons as well.
4	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVT_gO3FPR4 On Ahead (16-Bit)]] -- Using both ''VideoGame/StarFox1'' instruments and the drumline from the game makes for an adventurous track.
5	* BadassDecay:
6	** Barry. Early seasons had him gain a memetic God-like status as the master of Minecraft, and developed a reputation as the player with the best survival rate -- something that was even openly acknowledged in the ''Diablo II'' season -- because he became the SoleSurvivor for ''Minecraft #1'' and ''#2''. But he ended up becoming the first to die in ''Minecraft #4'', ''#5'', and ''#7''. And similar to Jeff, he tends to fare less well in the 2D Survival games, being the first casualty in ''Terraria #1'' and the second casualty ''#2''.
7	** Jeff. He was the [[SoleSurvivor last man standing]] in ''Minecraft #5'' and ''#7'', having managed to reach the Ender Dragon in those seasons and putting up a good fight before being defeated, and was among the final surviving members in several other Hardcore seasons. But he struggles in the 2D Survival games, with most of his deaths in the Terraria seasons occuring because of [[EpicFail stupidity-induced fall damage]] -- especially bad in ''Terraria #3'', where he was trying out his new grapple-hook, miscalculated fall damage, and ended up dying on the team's home base with no monsters around. Even his death in ''Starbound'' was because he accidentally used the teleport function of his equipment and died from the teleportation's resulting fall damage.
8	** [=ProtonJon=]. He lasted impressively long in ''Terraria #2'', despite his overall inexperience of playing the game. But he was the first death in ''Terraria #3'', getting rather anti-climactically crushed by a boulder trap. Although his death did result in giving Lucahjin and Yungtown more of a chance to shine, [[HistoryRepeats similarly to how [=ProtonJon=] became more prominent in the previous season]] through the [[DwindlingParty deaths of the other players]].
9	** [=McJones=]. He was consistently the most knowledgeable member of the group in most of the Hardcore games, and tended to survive for long times. But he ended up dying in the second episode of ''Minecraft #6'' -- the earliest anyone has died in Hardcore since Soah and [[WebVideo/TheCompletionist Jirard]] in ''Minecraft #1'' -- because [[FailedASpotCheck he didn't notice that there was a gap in the floor and he fell into lava]].
10	* BaseBreakingCharacter:
11	** Dean because of his lack of knowledge in playing the Hardcore games and general overconfidence often dragging the group into danger, as well as his tendency to make obscure references. When he ended up dying in a Hardcore season, comments would mourn his death and equally be glad to see him gone. But he has since become more widely accepted and his popularity has increased. His description in ''Minecraft #5'' even [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] this aspect about him.
12	---> ''Dean Elazab: A raucous adventurer with a knack for pushing his luck -- and he knows it. Another word for Dean would be: polarizing; you either love him or hate him. Love him for his ridiculous (and dangerous) antics or hate him for endangering the team.''
13	** Jared. He largely acts as the OnlySaneMan and TeamMom of the group, meaning that more often than not he's just keeping the group safe, and supposedly not allowing them to "have fun". While this ''does'' mean that seasons with him often have the cast survive longer with minimal casualties, it also restricts the pacing heavily in some fan's eyes. Add on his tendency to overreact to death and overall be very dramatic in general, and he's probably one of the most debated players in the fandom.
14	** Dodger, mainly due to her being revived and then dying only a handful of episodes later.
15	** The Trickster in ''Minecraft #6'' ended up polarizing because of his lack of development as a character, and even lower amount of involvement in the events, only really setting the house on fire before it was put out. Some are split as to who his identity is meant to be: actually Todd or someone else. Other viewers found him to be one of the funnier and more interesting aspects of the season, which itself was a divisive one.
16	* BrokenBase:
17	** The general disagreement on which Hardcore series was the best. Popular contenders include ''Minecraft #1'', ''#2'', and ''#5'', ''Terraria #2'', ''#3'', and ''[=MineZ=] #1''.
18	** Larger disagreement comes from which Hardcore series was the worst. Either because of its short length (''Terraria #1'' and ''[=DayZ=]''); behind-the-scenes drama (''[=MineZ=] #2'' and ''Minecraft #6''); unfamiliarity with the game (''[=DayZ=]'', ''Diablo II'' and ''Starbound''); or a lack of entertainment (''Minecraft #3'' and ''#4'', ''Starbound'', ''Diablo II'', and ''Terraria #1'').
19	** Every time a new Hardcore gets announced, fans will end up arguing about which players would make a great guest for that Hardcore. And due to the RuleOfSeven the seasons generally follow, the fans will also argue about which players are worth dropping, which are usually guests, [[BaseBreakingCharacter Dean]], [[AscendedExtra Jeff]], or [[BadassDecay Barry]].
20	** The dubsteb intro used for ''Terraria #2'' is a nice, catchy change of pace or an annoying and unnecessary change to the iconic Hardcore intro theme. Possibly because of its polarizing response, ''Minecraft #4'' went back to the classic theme. Averted with the new theme introduced in ''Minecraft #5'', which has been more well-received.
21	** When the guys split up during ''Minecraft #5'', silhouettes were used for the group whose POV was currently not being observed. While this worked in [=MineZ=] -- the parties were so far apart that, even if one party was in trouble, the other couldn't do anything to assist them, and [=MineZ=] having the feature of a player's death message not appearing if the player in question was far enough away -- some fans complained that this fixed perspective was redundant, and was a cheap way to create false tension and suspense. [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks Especially considering none of the other Minecraft seasons did this]]. And when they split up in the Nether and Dean ends up dying to lava, PBG and [=McJones=] were still relatively close to the other group, and they saw Dean's death message appearing, so there wasn't even a way to replicate a HeDidntMakeIt scenario.
22	** ''Terraria #3'' left people feeling like the season was relying a little too much on clickbait titles, which ended up mostly referring to more unnocuous parts of the video. The episode ''BETRAYED!'' merely refers to the groups splitting up and PBG feeling betrayed because nobody picked him for their team. ''SPIDERS AND DEATH!'' referred to Dean, [=McJones=], and Lucahjin finding a big den of spiders, which they never enter and the death in question belongs to an NPC. And ''LEFT BEHIND'' referred to [=McJones=] accidentally teleporting back to their base and leaving Lucahjin in a cave, but then rushing back to get to her, with neither of them being in any actual danger the entire time. But the complaints stopped appearing by the second half of the season, especially since the episode ''THE JINX'' appeared to be a clickbait title, but turned out to have [=ProtonJon=] becoming the first death of the season.
23	** The group having to choose to resurrect Dodger or [=McJones=] in ''Minecraft #6''. The comments were filled with controversy over there being a choice to begin with, but also pointing out that each player had reasonable defenses towards their revival. [=McJones=] is TheSmartGuy of the group and a veteran, with his death in this season occuring incredibly early on, and only because of a minor misstep of his. But Dodger is the season's guest star, meaning she gets less screentime by default, and she was the one that ''found'' the revival totem in the first place.
24	*** The decision to resurrect Dodger also led to the commments breaking further, with many pro-[=McJones=] viewers calling the season ending in failure, and citing that her inexperience and reckless nature was a detriment for the group. There's also the fact that Dodger ended up dying again three episodes later because her inexperience with the game meant she didn't know how the Nether portal functioned. But this led to further divisiveness in the comments, with some saying that this was a probable mistake to make and [[PoorCommunicationKills nobody explaining how the portal worked to her]], as well as the portal's location being incredibly dangerous, and those arguing if [=McJones=] would have died that way, too, had he been resurrected instead. Especially since PBG was right next to Dodger, waiting for the portal to teleport him back, and ended up attacked by a baby Zombie and knocked out of the portal and into the lava.
25	** Many commenters were torn about the whole twist of ''Minecraft #6'' offering a resurrection. A good chunk of the fanbase didn't appreciate the twist because of the roleplaying elements it introduced, while others disliked it because of the eventual choice between Dodger and [=McJones=], and more disliked it because it led to several uneventful episodes of the adventuring party wandering semi-aimlessly around, without making any progress towards their main goal of defeating the Wither. And even more disliked it because its impact was overall negligible. But most of all, it was disliked because this twist undermined the "If you die, you're dead for good" tagline of Hardcore. And other members of the fanbase liked the ideas behind the twist, and were overall happy with the end result, even if it wasn't executed perfectly. And some want this twist idea to continue in other seasons, but do wish for it to be something other than resurrection.
26	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
27	** LetsPlay/ProtonJon debuted in ''Terraria #2'' and became one of the show's most popular guest stars. He especially had a chance to shine in the second half of the season, once the party was reduced to him, [=McJones=], and Jeff. Those three formed a fantastic dynamic with each other, and [=ProtonJon=] went on to last an impressively long time. When ''#3'' was announced and mentioned to feature a returning guest star, many hoped it was going to be [=ProtonJon=], and ended up pleased to be that way.
28	** A good chunk of the audience felt that both ''Terraria #3'' newcomers, Lucahjin and Yungtown, stole the show in a fashion similar to [=ProtonJon=], because of their warm personalities, knack for humor, and great dynamics with the rest of the members. They quickly became proficient in the game, avoiding many of the pratfalls that other [[NewMeat newbies]] had a tendency to do. Just like with [=ProtonJon=], it helped that they ended up outliving several of the more veteran members, and even managed to defeat the season's FinalBoss. And in a season fraught with absurd, largely avoideable deaths, the two sort of became the [[OnlySaneMan Only Sane Pair]] in the group, saving each other from various dangers themselves. They even coined what became the season's ArcWords, "Follow your dreams", endearing them to the fanbase.
29	* FanonDiscontinuity: ''Terraria #3'' has the 'real' ending where [=McJones=], Lucahjin, and Yungtown end up massacred by the Goblin Army, right after warping home from their victory over the Final Boss, which most of the fans choose to disregard. They favor the 'fake' ending, where the three return home in peace to celebrate their victory. This is usually due to putting it into the same category as the 'battle royales' at the end of ''Minecraft #1'' and ''#4'', and hence not counting any of the 'deaths'. On the other hand, given how death-prevalent many of the other seasons were, some prefer the real over the fake ending.
30	* FriendlyFandoms: With the ''WebVideo/TenWordsOfWisdom'' communities (including some of the communities mutually linked with it, like the ''WebAnimation/BattleForDreamIsland'' fandom), in spite of how different the two series are. A surprising amount of members on the Discord for PBG Hardcore are also members of the TWOW community, including several staff members.
31	* GrowingTheBeard: Hardcore has always been popular, but it started off as mostly a collection of friends playing the game and having fun. Beginning with ''[=MineZ=] #1'', many people noticed that the series felt different now. With the dominating presence of the then-new editor [[WebVideo/SpaceHamster Jeff]], more dangerous enemies, better pacing and cliffhangers, a more focused cast, and the issue of zombie infections adding a significant emotion and suspense to the series, leading to it giving better entertainment. Since then, the show has by and large taken itself more seriously, with the overall production quality having improved greatly.
32	* HarsherInHindsight:
33	** ''Minecraft #2'' Episode 4 has a joke about 'Forever Alone Barry', which takes on a much darker light when he ended up being the SoleSurvivor of the group in that season. He was also the last one around in the first season, having won his duel with [=JonTron=], and was also the last survivor in ''[=MineZ=] #1''.
34	** [=McJones=] yelling, "You trapped me in!" in the intro for ''Minecraft #3'' gets darker when the line's context is finally revealed. He says it when Shane inadverdently traps him into a room filling with lava, leading to his death. Downplayed in that [=McJones=] would probably still have died from the lava, even if Shane hadn't trapped him.
35	** The description for ''Terraria #1'': "The guys venture forth in the strange land of Terraria. Will they conquer all the bosses? Or will they all fall one by one to the dangers of zombies, blobs, and the ever treacherous falling damage? ...Only time will tell." Fall damage isn't a problem in that season, but in the later ones. ''#2'' had three people dying from fall damage, with Dean almost dying from it. And ''#3'' had Jeff die from fall damage, albeit in a rather silly way.
36	** In ''[=MineZ=] #1'', [=McJones=] and PBG talk about the awful luck Dean has had in the season, as he ended up getting infected twice. They don't know because the group had split at that point, but Dean ended up getting infected a ''third'' time.
37	** Between ''Minecraft #4'' and ''#5'', PBG introduced a new show to his gameplay channel called [=PB&Jeff=], where he and Jeff played games together. ''Minecraft #5'' ends up with the two of them being the last two members alive. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Jeff.
38	---> '''PBG:''' Oh, Jeff. It's just me and you... we--
39	---> '''Jeff:''' PB & JEFF!
40	** Throughout the early seasons of Hardcore, Dean would make references to Creator/AchievementHunter. When former hunter Ray joined the cast in ''Minecraft #5'', he and Dean hit it off because of their shared attachment to the series. And then Ray ends up accidentally causing Dean's death in the Nether.
41	** [=ProtonJon=]'s description in ''Terraria #3'' seems much harsher, now that what was described to be his playstyle resulted in his death of that season.
42	---> ''[=ProtonJon=]: Jon's known far and wide for his ability to play a massive variety of games, and he brings that competence to Hardcore as well. No stranger to self-proficiency, Jon's keen to travel solo, quietly finding ways to achieve on his own what would elsewise take many.''
43	** Episode 11 of ''Minecraft #6'' had Dodger being revived. During a joking interrogation, where the others accused her of being an evil clone, she solemnly remarks, "Maybe I should have stayed dead...". She ends up dying three episodes later.
44	* HilariousInHindsight:
45	** ''Terraria #1'' had PBG and Jeff be the last two surviving members. Years later, they went on to make [=PB&Jeff=], a show where the two of them played games together. While [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] in ''Minecraft #5'', this season feels like a pre-cursor.
46	** ''Minecraft #3'' had Jared throw a bow into the crowd, akin to a bridal bouquet. PBG can be heard cheering, "I wanna get married next!". He got married to Unicornism about a year later.
47	** ''Terraria #3'' has PBG use the in-game name of 'Dum Dum Peebs'. Becomes hilarious when his death for that season came about through stupidity.
48	** Jeff tames a pack of wolves and names them all Billy in ''Minecraft #5''. A few months later, he was cast to play [[Franchise/PowerRangers Billy, the Blue Power Ranger]] for an episode of WebAnimation/DeathBattle. [[spoiler:Then becomes harsher in hindsight, given the outcome of that Hardcore season, and that of the Death Battle episode.]]
49	* HoYay:
50	** "[[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext Team One likes touching themselves.]]" in ''[=MineZ=] #1''.
51	** ''Terraria #3'' has PBG ask Luke to meet him up on the roof for a secret meeting, though he wants to swap items. Luke asks if they are gonna be doing romantic things, to which PBG says they might. [[LampshadeHanging The seductive music during the whole exchange]] doesn't help.
52	** Dean has a tendency to address his teammates as 'my boy' or 'my beautiful boy'. He even mentions in ''Terraria #3'' that one of his deaths in the Terraria Hardcore series was him holding hands with [=McJones=], which is how he always pictured his death to be.
53	* MemeticBadass:
54	** Barry became this among the fandom thanks to a combination of his laidback personality, his popularity and fame with WebVideo/GameGrumps, and his being the SoleSurvivor of several seasons.
55	** Smooth [=McGroove=]'s role as the OnlySaneMan and similarities to Barry propelled him into this status in ''Minecraft #3''. [=YouTube=] commenters put him on the same level as Barry, and even claimed he'd be the last one standing. They were right, as Smooth outlived Shane by a few minutes.
56	** "Gunther", the [[TeamPet team penguin]] in ''Terraria #2'', became universally beloved by the fandom, and has recently been deemed the head of a new religion in the subreddit.
57	** The editor since ''Minecraft #5'', Todd, is practically worshipped by some members of the fanbase, and often called on by the players. Gets solidified in ''Minecraft #6'', where he is referred to as the creator of the world, and is a wizard that gives the gang a sidequest to find the Totem of Undying.
58	* OneSceneWonder: Player [=ACrispyWaluigi=] only shows up in Episode 11 of ''[=MineZ=] #2'' for approximately five minutes, but is the one to kill [=McJones=] in combat, causing the group to lose a lot of hope and navigation. Combined with his ReluctantWarrior status, he became a highlight to the season... until behind-the-scenes drama was revealed, turning him into TheScrappy for many.
59	* ParanoiaFuel:
60	** Whenever the group enters the Nether in Minecraft. But some seasons amp this up with nerve-wracking sections of the group building cobblestone bridges over large drop-offs into lakes of lava, all while the screams of the unseen Ghasts can be heard. Special mention goes to ''Minecraft #6'', where the portal ended up suspended over a sea of lava, forcing Jared to slowly build a bridge to safety from scratch, with Ghasts floating in the distance.
61	** PBG and [=McJones=] meeting up and escaping the caves of Sirus in ''[=MineZ=] #1'', both infected and poisoned, leaving each of them with only half of a heart of health.
62	* RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap:
63	** Dean became more widely accepted by the fanbase, with his skills progessively increasing in the games. By the time ''Minecraft #5'' rolled around, his hatedom had died down considerably.
64	** ''Minecraft #3'' had [=JonTron=] return. While some still saw him as being obnoxious, with some of his antics (like building a lavafall inside the house) appearing as more of the irresponsible and dangerous behavior he portrayed in Terraria, others found him to be much more enthusiastic this time around, and were legitimately upset to see him die so early.
65	* TheScrappy:
66	** [=JonTron=] came under a lot of fire during ''Terraria #1'', with many viewing his nonchalant and cynical sense of humor as genuinely disrespectful and a sign that he really didn't want to be there. It was especially jarring when compared to ''Minecraft #1'', where he was much more cooperative and actually took the whole thing seriously. This all culminated in Episode 7, when he event went so far as to jump off of the roof of their house in an attempted suicide joke. All the guys played off of it, but even PBG seemed to be underwhelmed by it, and his response to Jon actually dying in that episode was, "Well, that's a thing that happened". It was so bad, many see it as more than just a coincidence that Jon wasn't in the next season of Hardcore, despite being a regular up to that point.
67	** [=ACrispyWaluigi=] appeared in ''[=MineZ=] #2'' and killed [=McJones=], which first made people actually kind of see him as a harsh highlight in the season. But after the season finished, it became known that the player [[http://imgur.com/a/jnDRZ had been pretty much stalking the group and ruined the recording by offering them items, including the one they were trying to get at the top of the Floating Isles]]. This got so bad that the group even claimed the season was cancelled and logged off for a while, in hopes of him leaving in the meantime. [=ACrispyWaluigi=] became much more disliked.
68	* SpoiledByTheFormat:
69	** Watching what is the last episode of the Hardcore season, and the team is nowhere near their end goal, it can be assured that it will end in failure. This is why PBG doesn't advertise the finale as such anymore, unless the team actually is close to achieving their end goal, but instead uploads them with titles that would fit normal episodes. It's recommended that new viewers watch each season without checking how many episodes there are in total.
70	** The death of any of the players is generally a shocking revelation, often to the point that it's worth rewatching the episode. As a result, the view count on [=YouTube=] tends to spike on those episodes.
71	** Occured and deliberately averted during ''Terraria #3''. Savvy users were able to access the achievement lists of the Hardcore participants on their Steam profiles, seeing that [=ProtonJon=] and Jeff hadn't obtained the achievement for defeating the Brain of Cthulhu boss -- a boss not fought in the previous Terraria season, having been the Eater of Worlds, instead -- and PBG lacking the achievement for killing the Queen Bee boss, spoiling their deaths. But the players caught onto that, and promptly [[WhyFandomCantHaveNiceThings made their achievement lists private to avoid further spoilers]]. Fortunately, this was done in time to avoid spoiling the outcome of the final battle.
72	** Something similar happened with ''[=MineZ=] #2''. The game's server is publically available and the season was announced before it was recorded, leading to many more players going onto the server and causing more player encounters and, notably, people were able to look up the player roster of the server. It was quickly noted that Dean was not on the server, indicating that he had died. This was discovered before the Hardcore season even aired.
73	** The opening of Episode 11 of ''Minecraft #6'' had Dodger's portrayed not grayed out, despite having died in the previous episode. This made it pretty clear that Dodger was the one the group chose to resurrect, and not [=McJones=]. Todd later stated in a tweet that this [[{{Blooper}} was an editing error]], but it ended up pretty convenient.
74	** Before ''Minecraft #6'' even mentioned the Totem of Resurrection, and the ability to revive a dead teammember, savvy viewers could tell there was something different, because everyone's life bar used the regular heart design instead of the one seen during previous seasons.

Context YMMV / PBGHardcore