Due to the nature of this work, all spoilers will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
On July 23rd, 2012, a relatively small YouTube channel named PBGGameplay
(the secondary Let's Play channel of PeanutButterGamer) uploaded a video called, "Minecraft HC! - Part 1". Thus would begin PBG Hardcore, a series of let's plays revolving around PBG and his friends trying to complete an objective in a game, but with the catch that if any of them die, they're eliminated for the rest of the season.
The series would quickly blow up, becoming the most popular series on the channel for many years. In the process, it would spawn many imitators fascinated by the premise, which slowly but surely developed into a community of its own; the Hardcore Community, which spawned so many shows of its own that it'd be impossible to list here accurately. A link to the official wiki can be found here.
While the quality of these fanon series ranged, one series in particular known as Boiled Peanuts would pop up on July 17th, 2017. While beginning as nothing too distinct from any other series at the time, by the time of their third season, the series had found its voice in the form of its heavy editing, belligerent Black Comedy, and uniquely tight pacing, which helped make it something of a cult favorite in the community, which carried on into its future season #4 and spin-off.
However, by the time of the fifth season, things shifted noticeably; beyond the over 6 month gap between it and the Terraria spin-off series, by this time the peanuts had done a face reveal and upped their editing and presentation even more beyond their original prowess. So expectations were high, and come the trailer for the 5th season releasing in September of 2021, they were only made higher with two reveals; every peanut was playing, and the mafia twist was returning.
And so came the beginning of BP Minecraft Hardcore 5, the final season of Hardcore format on the channel. And boy, did they go out with a bang! Lasting 21 episodes in total, each spanning over twenty minutes in length, the series took a very different turn, instead presenting itself as a grand conspiracy with heavy ARG elements, presenting the titular peanuts as a cast of potential victims desperately trying to beat the game, which has itself been made far harder by a long list of mods (found in the description of every episode), while also trying to avoid being murdered by two traitors among them.
It managed to maintain consistent viewership over the course of its run, and sparked community wide debate and theories about where the series was going all the way up until the finale.
Following the season conclusion on December 22nd, 2021, it was confirmed via a post show podcast that the series was over.
The entire season can be found here, and the Boiled Peanuts channel can be found here.
BP Minecraft Hardcore 5 contains examples of:
- Anyone Can Die: From the first episode it's made clear, unlike a standard Minecraft playthrough, if at any point you die, you're dead for good. Come the series finale, and there are only 4 of the original 12 left, and by the end of the episode, it's half of that.
- Bittersweet Ending: Harris and Jack managed to defeat the Enderdragon, and the mafia are dead, but so are the rest of their friends. Considering the circumstances of the series, though, this is about as close to a Golden Ending as one could hope for.
- Darker and Edgier: Come the second half of the series following Phillip's death, and things become much more intense within the group, with the knowledge that the mafia has officially laid traps and are out for blood permeating amongst them to a point where nobody trusts each other.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Ryan and Jage are dealt with about halfway into the series finale, leaving the Enderdragon as the final threat for Harris and Jack to overcome.
- Dwindling Party: Over the course of the series, the cast is slowly whittled down bit by bit. By the end of the series, Courtney, Mikey, Dylan, Phillip, Niko, Joey, Garrett, Guy, Ryan, and Jage are dead, with Harris and Jack as the only survivors.
- Face–Heel Turn: It's revealed that Ryan covertly recruited Jage into the mafia around the 7th episode.
- The Mole: Among the group, two of them are secretly out to get them, conspiring together to murder the rest of the cast before they can accomplish their goal of slaying the Enderdragon. In the end, the original mafia is revealed to be Ryan, who then recruited Jage.
- Naïve Newcomer: Courtney knows very little about Minecraft, to a point of Niko coaching her through a majority of the first episode on how crafting works.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Courtney's death during the 4th episode helps set in stone the reality of the game moving forward.
- Sacrificial Lion: Meanwhile, Phillip throughout much of the first half of the series is hyped up as one of the team's best, most careful players, tending to everything with a sort of ruthless efficiency. His death halfway in triggers a significant tone shift into far more serious territory.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Early on, Courtney, Dylan, Mikey, and Ryan are all signaled out as the worst at the game, and as a result, are the least suspected of being the mafia and serve as something of Plucky Comic Relief. By the 10th episode, all but Ryan are dead...And then its revealed at the end of the series that Ryan was in all actuality Evil All Along, being the original mafia.
- Ten Little Murder Victims: Let's see; twelve people are on an island with the goal of killing the Enderdragon to leave, but two of them are secretly in cahoots to kill all of them for their own gain. Certainly sounds like a murder mystery when you put it like that.
- Rather ironically, come the end of the series, 10 of the original 12 are dead, meaning there were exactly ten little murder victims.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Courtney and Mikey die just short of a quarter of the way through the series.
