This Week in HMC History: October 19 to 25

Every so often we dig through the back issues to see what this site was up to on the same week, years ago. This week: a fight about Anya, a kidnapping, and a very angry Matt.

2002: “Selfless,” and Matt picks a side

“Selfless” aired on October 22, 2002, and Matt’s rant went up the next day. His opening verdict: “Emma rocks. Period…end of discussion.” He also took Xander’s side in the big Buffy and Xander argument about killing Anya, and he was not quiet about it. Twenty-four years later, people are still having that fight. If you want to see how Emma Caulfield Ford’s career went after Anya, she’s in Where Are They Now.

2003: The Master, and “viewer discretion”

On October 19, 2003, Coach Jon kicked off the Big Bad Series in Weekly Ascension, starting at the beginning with the Master, and asking why everybody kept fighting over who the best Big Bad was. (We are still fighting about it.)

Five days later, Matt reviewed Angel’s “Hell Bound” in a rant titled, and we’re quoting, “Matt writes Rant naked, Viewer Discretion Advised”. The WB had promoted the episode with a viewer discretion warning, and Matt was not impressed: “Aren’t you sick of these false advertisments and hyperbowls that they throw in your face.” He named his inner demon “Mr. Pissy.”

2004: Eric takes a hostage

The October 23, 2004 update was posted by Eric, who announced he had kidnapped the Poobah and wanted “1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 in unmarked rubles” to give him back. The same update pointed readers to Aeryn’s new Divine Musings column, “Hope”, let everyone know Hellhound Con was postponed, and pushed Buffy Season 7 DVD pre-orders at $38.99. Wow-wee, as he put it.

That same week, Matt was counting down every Angel episode in Bottom to Top over in The Dimension, and on October 25, Dust started Askewed Reviews with “Welcome to the Hellmouth,” which opens with a complaint about the Sunnydale High electric bill.

2008: Baby news

On October 22, 2008, Matt broke the news that Alyson Hannigan and Alexis Denisof were expecting their first child, with a dig at People magazine for good measure. Willow and Wesley, parents. We felt old then. We feel older now. Both of them are in Where Are They Now: Alyson and Alexis.

See you next week in the archive.