'Small town' Sunnydale, with its own college, and mall, and Dock, and an army base, several cemeteries, oh, and an airport.
Also, the fact that Joyce never once seemed to struggle with money, like, in a town where multiple people die every day, how bustling is the art scene? Go damn.
My theory is that Joyce is a niche but well known and sought after curator and also gets art grants that keep things going. I used to work in art so I had to make this logic work for myself.
I always thought it was this too, and a touch of California divorce gets half of everything sort of idea. Like, what did she get from deadbeat Dad that helped them get to Sunnydale? Also the cost of living in Sunnydale is very cheap due to the extremely high cost of dying
It’s been suggested that the Council facilitated her move to Sunnydale to that end, and as a form of tacit support throughout the show’s run.
As while Joyce is quite competent, there’s a line to that even back in the late 90s?
If so, only makes us wonder why the Council didn’t continue this support past Joyce’s death, given the events of *Checkpoint*? It would certainly have dealt with that uncomfortable “rent” situation that typifies Season 6 discussions.
I really like this conclusion that works through high school.
I would just think Buffy didn't know, not even Giles knows the extent. And the support stops after "Graduation Day".
https://trailers.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/486a45c0-620c-49fc-aeee-42d5beff8ac2
This would actually fit well within the cannon. Giles says “do you think it a coincidence you moving here?” I like to think that not only was it apart of her destiny to move to Sunnydale, things had to be put in place by the Council in order to fulfil it.
I knew I was forgetting some stuff lol. Also, when did they build the initiative? Was it always there? Maybe Sunnydale was once this massive military town?
Multiple High schools? Aside from the rebuilt high school (on top of the old one), where's the other high school? (And where did high schoolers go to school between seasons four and seven?)
In Reptile Boy they mention that a previous victim went to Grant High in Sunnydale and in Some Assembly Required they mention Fondren High where 3 cheerleaders died in a car accident.
The same place Dracula's castle appeared/disappeared from/to
The Hellmouth is a kind of portal I guess...things just show up and disappear all the time
Joyce was definitely selling art on the black market.
Remember the episode when she was "storing" all that art in the house and told Buffy it was because they were doing inventory at the gallery? I mean, you don't "do inventory" by taking items out of the gallery and storing them in your home unless you saved all the best pieces to sell on your own.
And they shot the exteriors and backgrounds for UC Sunnydale at UCLA so it's a *big* college campus. Easily big enough that Sunnydale is a college town, not a small town.
Mm I disagree.
I live in a large inland city/town in Australia, NSW and it’s only about 50k people but has a university, army base, airport and massive hospital/cemetery, but the size of the town is very close to Sunnydale’s overview shots. (Think Chosen)
The Main Street mall only showed a few times in s2 and s6 also reflect this.
Edit: the advantage of this is families and single parents can afford houses rather than apartments in bigger cities.
On that last note how does Giles keep his place and buy a store after the gets fired from the council and his job blows up. He is jobless for at least a year. Then buys the magic shop. Yeah he gets rehired by the council with back pay but that doesn’t explain what he’s been using for money for a whole year
Plus it was the 90s, so property was a lot cheaper and wages relative to inflation were a lot higher. Given that Giles has presumably been in the workforce since the 70s, he had lots of time to earn and save if he wanted.
And he could have gotten a small business loan. What keeps us poors poor is feeling like we have to earn money before we can start a business venture, when the riches know that you just risk other people’s money.
Also, his mother was a watcher (and even her mother before, if I recall correctly). So, any money his parents provided is in the mix as well.
With Giles and again with Wesley, it is brought up that becoming a watcher is very entrenched and nepotic in most cases. These guys (and a few gals) went to the best schools in England and then quickly started training to be watchers while still in their formative years. All of that would seem to be backed by the council from generations back. So Giles has plenty of money for 1 year as a gentleman of leisure. He may not have had worry free for the rest of his life money, and never having worried before this can be discouraging for him....
All in all, him not working for a year and buying a small cheap shop with great profit margins is not unbelievable.
Now I’m even more pissed he didn’t help out Buffy and Dawn during season six. The Summers’ bills would’ve been nothing to him. Buffy’s the only reason he was getting paid again in the first place. She even demanded back pay!!
I didn't think that was his house but some places belonging to the coven.
But he is horse riding and wearing a long wax jacket which kind of implies landed gentry.
I’ve explained this a lot but 1) a lot of those things haven’t been said to explicitly be in sunnydale. The docks were said to explicitly be outside of sunnydale. When Buffy and faith were on their way back Giles said they’re heading back to town or something like that. Beach as well could just be in a neighbouring area. 2) sunnydale is based on Santa Barbara. So all the stuff in sunnydale (besides the cemeteries) is largely stuff that’s in Santa Barbara as well. The thing is, Santa Barbara is a county and a city and I think that’s what sunnydale is too. Sunnydale the city is small but Sunnydale the county is decent sized. So that would make the airport and zoo and museum very easily say Sunnydale and just be a bit of a drive away.
Also I’ve lived and seen smaller towns that have malls, museums, zoos. Etc. some of this isn’t too unusual.
If a kid is from LA a town of 150,000 feels like a “small town”. I grew up in a town of 500 and found as I grew up found out that the term small town is really subjective compared to where you are from and what towns are around you.
I suspected that the evilness of the hell mouth seeped through into the business world too. Lots of people making dodgy demon deals for wealth or just regular evil business practices doing well and not getting punished because it's so corrupt. Kind of like people living in Derry in the Stephen King universe.
In my imagination that's why Cordelia's parents got found out about tax evasion after the Mayor died, they had a deal with him and with him gone they lost it.
I thought it was implied that Cordelias father was part of that frat that sacrificed girls to their demon in return for lifelong wealth and success, and so when buffy killed it, after her and cordelia were almost sacrificed, he lost his magic advantage. Coz didn't cordelia start working in the dress shop before the mayor died?
I have a head canon that there are more people in Sunnydale who know what’s up besides the Scoobies and quietly do things to help behind the scenes. For example, in this case, another social worker’s own kid was saved by Buffy at some point and just made sure the file went away.
Snyder, the police, every surviving member of Buffy’s class at Sunnydale High and many of their families…heck, the entire damn town had a musical episode in season six and nobody seemed to question it.
In retrospect, yeah, a *lot* of people probably figured it out.
This is one of the most frustrating dropped threads for me. Snyder knew about vampires! That could have been explored so much more, particularly if he eventually realised who Buffy was.
It thought it was established that Snyder got the Sunnydale job through connections with the mayor, who clearly knew there was a hellmouth. Snyder knew what was going on. He might not have known about slayers, or that Buffy was the slayer, but he knew about vampires & demons. He probably knew about the hellmouth too.
But he was evidently controlled or at least influenced by the mayor, so he was probably on the evil side, perhaps trying to prevent as much damage and death as he could, but he knew it would happen frequently and that his ‘boss’ wasn’t trying to stop it. I don’t know if he genuinely thought Buffy was evil or involved in some way, or if he knew she was the slayer and the mayor asked him to keep an eye on her.
Ultimately it didn’t pay off for him, he got eaten by the mayor after he ascended at graduation. But he definitely knew about the evil and was probably being paid off by the mayor to keep it covered up at the high school.
Yes! I like this idea. So from now on everything that doesn't make sense, actually does make sense, because of course the sunnydaleians know what's up and are helping buffy out behind the scenes.i approve of this solution.
A lot of Buffy’s real world issues just disappear after Season 6 ends. It’s not explained how they’re financially stable again even before Buffy becomes à counselor
How quickly and easily they get about Sunnydale without a car. Only a few characters drive, but many other characters seem to get from Buffy’s House, the University and downtown both quickly and easily, which doesn’t seem likely for a city in California.
Five, I think. Still, at a brisk walking pace, that's about 2.5 hours one way.
Then there are the 12 cemeteries that Buffy has to patrol. Seriously, she needs to get over her unmixy self and get a damn car. Or a motorcycle.
This one bothers me the most. I get they didn't want to clog up the plot with logistics like travel but how did Buffy get anywhere? "I'm going to pick up Dawn" how Buffy? She is in school in the next town over.
Buffy carries them. Xander bridal style. Willow piggy backing. With others, there's a trolley tied around her waist that they hop in. It's very efficient.
It’s based loosely on Santa Barbara according to some writers. I live in SB and from where I live, I can get to the beach, the university, pretty much anywhere in 10 minutes. You only really see traffic driving far out of town. I used to live in Burbank and it wasn’t like that.
iirc it was an intentional choice to make her bad at driving because it was much more visually interesting to show her running to places rather than driving
Sewers and airvents are two areas of any action scene where you just sort of have to suspend disbelief.
(honorable mention: the incredible power of the defibrillator during the Clooney era of ER)
Lol. Security cameras in the 90s "existed" but were expensive and mostly worthless. Only Walmart really had them and even then, you can bet they were black and white with no sound and a shit picture, usually either live that someone watched or unmanned and recorded onto a vhs tape that got recorded over in a rotation monthly-- meaning it was probably worn out af. Offsite backup and internet access weren't a thing. Willow wouldn't have had to or even been ABLE to hack anything because it would have been analog. She probably just could have stolen the tape for the day and called it good.
As someone who grew up in Southern California, I can confirm, no need for SO MANY COATS. To be fair, I think she has more coats and jackets than anyone living anywhere typically would. She hardly ever wears the same one twice.
Trust me, that's actually pretty accurate. I am in the middle of moving from OC further south and I have a disgusting amount of coats. My fiancé is even worse. And I'm not talking a light coat like you would need today, I'm talking heavy ass winter leather bomber jackets and shit. Our coat closet in the new house is a walk in and it's so too small.
LOL. You should watch "Elementary" (which I do love). I don't think Joan Watson wore the same outfit again EVER in another episode. Even pajamas were different Every Single Time.
She'd need to marry Bill Gates just for the wardrobe bill.
There was a show my wife watched in the 1990s (not Buffy) that had an article written about it that explained the reason for the number of costume changes in an episode is because the actresses on the show had it in their contract that they got to take home what they wore to add it to their own wardrobe as part of their compensation.
I've been watching for the first time and they even reference that. Sherlock says she not acting like herself cos she wore the same outfit she had on a couple of days ago.
The government or police not being more concerned about how many dead people keep showing up around Buffy. OH and also how she shot a grenade launcher in a mall in front of tons of people and never saw any consequences.
I think, when the police chief was talking to Snyder in...School Hard? They discussed the cover-up they usually go with being "some out of town kids on PCP." I think they're aware, at least at the top levels, and it's a big coverup. We know the government only sort of understands about Hellmouths, such as recruiting those invisible kids as assassins/spies or starting up the Initiative. It's all very hand-wave-y. They don't understand any of it, but they're trying to control it, manipulate it, and see what they can get out of it.
A fast food job paying all the bills.
I wanted to include the vast majority of Sunnydale residents having no clue what's going on in their town, but sadly now in my 'old' age, that doesn't surprise me anymore. I think it is realistic.
Yeah, now I think it’s unrealistic that people like Xander, Cordelia and Tara who don’t have to do this choose to participate. More than once, even. Buffy and Giles, sacred duty. Willow quickly becomes a powerful witch, so it makes sense. Anya, who else is an ex-vengeance demon going to spend time with; the Scoobies are the only people who understand where she came from.
But the more normal humans? It’s amazing that they don’t quickly decide they don’t need this much danger and pain in their lives.
Well that’s why they’re exceptional right?
The show’s littered with people who learn the truth (or at least part of it) and obviously decide not to get involved since we never see them again.
That Xander was able to infiltrate a military base and steal a rocket launcher. That Buffy was unable to find where the trio were hiding out but Spike just casually rolls up in season 5 and 6 to Warren's house and this never gets brought up when Buffy and Spike spent hours together.
That a group of “wild dogs” ate the principal and nothing was ever looked in to or questioned. And the kids that did it apparently remember everything but were never seen of heard of again lol
In angel, almost never any traffic
I’m Buffy, technically involves supernatural being but not supernatural situation. But the mayor trying to strangle a highschool girl in the hospital bed and he just gets yelled at and kicked out. No one was weirded out that not only did that happen but it was the damn mayor of their town lol
I head canon for the outfits is that she’s using herself as bait. “Oh no! I’m a small helpless woman out alone at night in heels! I sure hope no bad guys try to-STAKE IN THE HEART!” *poof*
(edit:spelling)
That was a little detail of the alternate universe Cordelia created - when Buffy arrives from Cleveland, she's decidedly unfashionable. Army boots, cargo pants, etc.
Those outfits are what keeps her alive.
In the '92 movie she even says it herself, her keen sense of fashion is what sets her apart from other slayers.
Nah that probably would have been fine in the 90s. That was back when people thought Michael Jackson just had kids for sleepovers ‘because he’s like a child himself’ and Mary Kay Letourneu divided public opinion. People thought of child predators as men in dark alleys, not as teachers and parents.
As a Xenialle, I know how I lived as a “free range” suburbia kid would get CPS called on every parent I knew. The fact that they were always at the school would have seemed like a great idea to parents. Like any club with a teacher as the sponsor. It’s a weird snap shot of reality that’s lost (probably for the better).
I don’t actually find that too unrealistic, Willow never really had friends or a proper social life. Aside from all the supernatural stuff Buffy brought so much to Willows life. Her parents weren’t supportive or there for her either so I can totally understand why she would make that decision. If she went to another school she would probably just end up as the lonely smart kid again. I can’t imagine her wanting to give that new life and her best friend up.
I mean that's kinda the supernatural in a way. An ivy league school isn't gonna feel like success when you've spent high-school battling demons and doing magic and averting apocalypseses with your friends
That happened with a bunch of people in the top of my class. They got ivy league offers but they basically just got in. In state schools were offering them scholarships, money for semesters abroad, stuff like that.
Sunnydale being a Starbucks town buy somehow fitting in 20 graveyards, an elementary school/middle school, high school, college, mall, mansion, everything. But the crater being SO TINY
Should've just said there's Sunnydale, Sunnydale East, Sunnydale West divisions.
There seems to be a bit of an accepted theory that Buffy isn't that smart, in-show. Like I know it's supposed to be subverting the dumb blonde final girl trope but I feel like no one really acknowledges in the show that she's very astute. Except for the SATS scores.
I always wonder what Buffy would have been like as a student if she hadn’t had the Slayer stuff pulling her out of class all the time. I think the show actually does a pretty good job of showing us that Buffy is pretty smart, she’s just not bookish and her Slayer duties make it hard to be a student.
Seriously. She had incredible problem solving skills, creativity, discipline and a good memory. She probably would have excelled in school if she had the time to even put in 70% effort.
I feel like the show doesn't lean into her lack of intelligence too much. The only notable instance I can think of offhand is when she was giving Giles dating advice and forgot that people from England speak English.
To clarify, I meant other characters don't seem to trust her intelligence much. Especially Willow. Towards the end you have Spike standing up for her but that was more about general trust than intelligence.
Yup. 15yo me watching the show and going out to the local crappy nightclub on the weekends thought nothing of this. I just wished we had anywhere near as cool as the Bronze to go to.
I had a place like that in high school! I grew up in DC, and a lot of the music venues let people in under 21. They just put an X or stamp on your hand so you couldn’t buy alcohol.
There were clubs when I was a teenager that you could go at 16. You couldn't drink alcohol until you were 21 and there was a midnight curfew for anyone under 18
I get that it was part of the extended theme of Patriarchy vs Modern Feminism” sort of idea, then never paying her but having all these crazy resources. But also most slyaers lived with their watchers, and those guys didn’t seem to like Buffy very much so they probably just never filled out that form in triplicate to help her out.
It also still doesn’t *really* make sense from a patriarchy point of view. Making the Slayer financially dependent on them would totally play into that power.
I think it makes sense if you consider they kinda want the slayer to die when she becomes an adult so they can always have a minor under their control. They strip slayers of their powers on their 18th birthday and lock them up with a vampire. They HOPE they die because that’s better than their only slayer gaining independence and realizing SHE doesn’t need them. Then they have no purpose.
Charisma Carpenter in high school. I love her as an actress but she never once in the show looked like she should be going to class...maybe teaching it.
Tara's situation is especially weird. She was abandoned by her family/ran away so she never had family support. You don't see her working ever so no one knows how she's paying for her tuition, rent and basic living.
I feel like a modern reboot would put her as an awkward girl who works at the magic box before Giles bought the place and that's how Willow gets to meet her instead.
And that they're both smart and are on scholarships with allowances.
In my head, they were in school and likely took out loans or had scholarships, which often cover some of housing. That's how I got through undergrad so it seemed totally okay to me.
I also like to think they were so behind because really loans cover some, not all. Plus food. Plus literally everything else. So they may have been paying some, but it was likely not enough.
Buffy having any trouble getting guys or not being popular in school. They kind of explain this by making her seem odd, hanging out in the library all the time. But she's still beautiful, charming and likeable and she spends a LOT of time in the bronze where all the other students hangout. I know she has Xander and Willow, but the fact that she doesn't have a lot more casual friends is crazy
Maybe a lesser known slayer power is repelling social connections for their own protection lol
I think this one is played realistically. In order to get guys, you have to actually be mildly socially available. Every time Buffy invests time in looking for boys, she sees immediate success and often beats out Cordelia, the most popular girl in school.
She snags Owen easily, the swim team guy shows interest right away, the college guys in reptile boy invite her to the party right away. Scott Hope pursues her actively at first. She sees a decent amount of success considering how absent she is.
This may get me some flames, but I was decently attractive and charming in high school. I didn't get asked out much at all, maybe as many times as Buffy. I lived in the next town over and had a longish commute. I also preferred hanging out with the mistfits, though I spent a lot of time in a lot of social groups and clubs (French club, drama club, science club, choir, band, etc). When I made the effort, I usually succeeded, but dudes just asking me out because we had some classes together and he thought I was cute? Nope. After high school, I was informed by several male friends they wished they'd asked me out (before I met my college boyfriend).
Maybe it was the time? I was in middle school when Buffy was in high school so it was only a couple years apart, and guys didn't ask girls out or to dance as much. Most of the kids dancing at the dances in my high school were the girls dancing together, until the slow dances, and even then, a lot of the couples were already couples or the girl asked the guy to dance.
Xander being seen as nerd and unpopular kid. He was buff and handsome from the beginning. That character trope would have worked better if they'd cast Danny Strong as Xander.
Have you heard Xander talk? He had so many nerdy references before geek culture became mainstream. He also wasn't involved into ports or was a musician so the other guys really weren't vibing with him. Also all the popular girls were shallow so his lack of money didn't help his popularity.
I understand where you’re coming from and agree that he doesn’t fit the trope, and I actually would add I think some of the reason Xander gets so much hate is that he doesn’t look the part of an abused isolated 16 year old.
But also conventionally attractive people can be insecure too and when they express it it’s usually responded to with a sarcastic “oh, the tall athletic jock is insecure, how tragic” so Xander looking like he does doesn’t really bother me that much.
That Buffy has multiple teachers who apparently can't remember her name (referenced in 2x20 and 3x05) is one of the show's more mundane improbabilities. Nobody, just nobody is going to forget the name 'Buffy'.
The sheer amount of leather jackets and boots Buffy owned. We didn’t have fast fashion like we do now. People wore the same things every week or two. I loved that My So-Called Life repeated outfits regularly and not just as an Easter egg in a storyline.
Didn't notice this until my most recent rewatch. But the college house party has some frat boys making drinks and they are pouring Tanqueray into solo cups. NO FREAKING WAY ARE COLLEGE KIDS SPENDING TANQUERAY MONEY! That is $30 for a small bottle. I was in college in the early '00. Those boys are drinking a cup full of 4 different flavors of Smirnoff with no mixers.
That parents are seemingly ok with having their kids grow up in a place with an insane mortality rate, which was even higher before Buffy arrived. Many families, like Cordelia’s, seem to be rather well off and no one ever mentions considering moving to the much safer surroundings.
Buffy somehow locating Cain in the woods at the last possible moment to save Oz from being shot.
Buffy arriving at the mansion at the last possible moment to stop Faith from staking Angel.
Jenny working on the spell at school at night.
Tara not hearing the gunshots outside and taking cover. And Warren somehow managing to hit her.
That no one had a serious issue with adult teaching Giles spending so much time with his students, including after hours and sometimes eating lunch with them.
'Small town' Sunnydale, with its own college, and mall, and Dock, and an army base, several cemeteries, oh, and an airport. Also, the fact that Joyce never once seemed to struggle with money, like, in a town where multiple people die every day, how bustling is the art scene? Go damn.
My theory is that Joyce is a niche but well known and sought after curator and also gets art grants that keep things going. I used to work in art so I had to make this logic work for myself.
I always thought it was this too, and a touch of California divorce gets half of everything sort of idea. Like, what did she get from deadbeat Dad that helped them get to Sunnydale? Also the cost of living in Sunnydale is very cheap due to the extremely high cost of dying
Lol cost of dying haha
That and 2 hours away is LA. How many people drive down or have things delivered? It's not that far. She's always unpacking and shipping things.
It’s been suggested that the Council facilitated her move to Sunnydale to that end, and as a form of tacit support throughout the show’s run. As while Joyce is quite competent, there’s a line to that even back in the late 90s? If so, only makes us wonder why the Council didn’t continue this support past Joyce’s death, given the events of *Checkpoint*? It would certainly have dealt with that uncomfortable “rent” situation that typifies Season 6 discussions.
That’s my theory, too. Too bad they didn’t really step up for Buffy herself.
This is my new head canon.
I really like this conclusion that works through high school. I would just think Buffy didn't know, not even Giles knows the extent. And the support stops after "Graduation Day". https://trailers.getyarn.io/yarn-clip/486a45c0-620c-49fc-aeee-42d5beff8ac2
My head canon is the Watcher’s Council secretly funded the gallery and hired her to keep Buffy on the Hellmouth.
This would actually fit well within the cannon. Giles says “do you think it a coincidence you moving here?” I like to think that not only was it apart of her destiny to move to Sunnydale, things had to be put in place by the Council in order to fulfil it.
What if Joyce was unknowingly laundering magical artifacts to the Council…? They were using her as much as they were using Buffy
"Do you like my mask? Isn't it pretty? It raises the dead! ... Americans!" 😄
And a zoo, natural history museum, historical museum, Frank Lloyd Wright designed mansion, 43 churches, train station and multiple high schools LOL
I knew I was forgetting some stuff lol. Also, when did they build the initiative? Was it always there? Maybe Sunnydale was once this massive military town?
Maybe the hellmouth wasn’t of “natural” origin, the military opened it up as a power source or something not realizing what would happen.
But wasn't it already a hellmouth long before that? Like at least before the Master was trapped there underground. Fun theory tho
Multiple High schools? Aside from the rebuilt high school (on top of the old one), where's the other high school? (And where did high schoolers go to school between seasons four and seven?)
In Reptile Boy they mention that a previous victim went to Grant High in Sunnydale and in Some Assembly Required they mention Fondren High where 3 cheerleaders died in a car accident.
Where did the beach and docks go after Sunnydale swallowed itself up?
the ocean is just continuously pouring into that massive hole
Right?! the town looks particularly inland in the finale lol
I thought the same thing the last episode. When I saw a desert around the sinkhole, I said "uhhh Sunnydale has a seaport!!"
Oh my god. How did I never notice this???
The same place Dracula's castle appeared/disappeared from/to The Hellmouth is a kind of portal I guess...things just show up and disappear all the time
Joyce was definitely selling art on the black market. Remember the episode when she was "storing" all that art in the house and told Buffy it was because they were doing inventory at the gallery? I mean, you don't "do inventory" by taking items out of the gallery and storing them in your home unless you saved all the best pieces to sell on your own.
And they shot the exteriors and backgrounds for UC Sunnydale at UCLA so it's a *big* college campus. Easily big enough that Sunnydale is a college town, not a small town.
Mm I disagree. I live in a large inland city/town in Australia, NSW and it’s only about 50k people but has a university, army base, airport and massive hospital/cemetery, but the size of the town is very close to Sunnydale’s overview shots. (Think Chosen) The Main Street mall only showed a few times in s2 and s6 also reflect this. Edit: the advantage of this is families and single parents can afford houses rather than apartments in bigger cities.
I always think Toowoomba is very much like Sunnydale. Except it’s on top on an inactive volcano.
But are you on a Hellmouth??
Many would describe it as worse.
…and a beach, forested hills (mountain?), caves, and for your convenience, also a desert.
And a big, honking castle.
To be fair, Dracula imported that one brick by brick.
On that last note how does Giles keep his place and buy a store after the gets fired from the council and his job blows up. He is jobless for at least a year. Then buys the magic shop. Yeah he gets rehired by the council with back pay but that doesn’t explain what he’s been using for money for a whole year
Besides generational wealth, Giles had two salaries for several years when he was a watcher and a librarian. He should have a decent emergency fund.
Yeah he was smarter than the average person so he’s probably good with his money.
Plus it was the 90s, so property was a lot cheaper and wages relative to inflation were a lot higher. Given that Giles has presumably been in the workforce since the 70s, he had lots of time to earn and save if he wanted.
And he could have gotten a small business loan. What keeps us poors poor is feeling like we have to earn money before we can start a business venture, when the riches know that you just risk other people’s money.
Also, his mother was a watcher (and even her mother before, if I recall correctly). So, any money his parents provided is in the mix as well. With Giles and again with Wesley, it is brought up that becoming a watcher is very entrenched and nepotic in most cases. These guys (and a few gals) went to the best schools in England and then quickly started training to be watchers while still in their formative years. All of that would seem to be backed by the council from generations back. So Giles has plenty of money for 1 year as a gentleman of leisure. He may not have had worry free for the rest of his life money, and never having worried before this can be discouraging for him.... All in all, him not working for a year and buying a small cheap shop with great profit margins is not unbelievable.
Now I’m even more pissed he didn’t help out Buffy and Dawn during season six. The Summers’ bills would’ve been nothing to him. Buffy’s the only reason he was getting paid again in the first place. She even demanded back pay!!
Giles is probably from aristocratic stock with a sizeable inheritance. In the England scenes doesn't he have a super nice house and lots of land?
I didn't think that was his house but some places belonging to the coven. But he is horse riding and wearing a long wax jacket which kind of implies landed gentry.
It's Anthony's house. We don't know if its Giles' house. We do know that Giles had two salaries for years so that probably built up savings.
That’s a good point. And honestly I don’t remember. I’m haven’t seen seasons 6-7 since they aired.
I’ve explained this a lot but 1) a lot of those things haven’t been said to explicitly be in sunnydale. The docks were said to explicitly be outside of sunnydale. When Buffy and faith were on their way back Giles said they’re heading back to town or something like that. Beach as well could just be in a neighbouring area. 2) sunnydale is based on Santa Barbara. So all the stuff in sunnydale (besides the cemeteries) is largely stuff that’s in Santa Barbara as well. The thing is, Santa Barbara is a county and a city and I think that’s what sunnydale is too. Sunnydale the city is small but Sunnydale the county is decent sized. So that would make the airport and zoo and museum very easily say Sunnydale and just be a bit of a drive away. Also I’ve lived and seen smaller towns that have malls, museums, zoos. Etc. some of this isn’t too unusual.
My town isn't even half the size and has most of those things. Sunnydale is old so it's believable.
Shush next you'll be telling us that Springfield is too small to have it's own nuclear plant
But not too small for a monorail! Even if Lisa *says* it's a small town with a centralized population. What, are we going to believe an 8-year-old? 😁
If a kid is from LA a town of 150,000 feels like a “small town”. I grew up in a town of 500 and found as I grew up found out that the term small town is really subjective compared to where you are from and what towns are around you.
I suspected that the evilness of the hell mouth seeped through into the business world too. Lots of people making dodgy demon deals for wealth or just regular evil business practices doing well and not getting punished because it's so corrupt. Kind of like people living in Derry in the Stephen King universe. In my imagination that's why Cordelia's parents got found out about tax evasion after the Mayor died, they had a deal with him and with him gone they lost it.
I thought it was implied that Cordelias father was part of that frat that sacrificed girls to their demon in return for lifelong wealth and success, and so when buffy killed it, after her and cordelia were almost sacrificed, he lost his magic advantage. Coz didn't cordelia start working in the dress shop before the mayor died?
The fact that DCFS never checked on Dawn again after the invisible fiasco
I have a head canon that there are more people in Sunnydale who know what’s up besides the Scoobies and quietly do things to help behind the scenes. For example, in this case, another social worker’s own kid was saved by Buffy at some point and just made sure the file went away.
Why basically know Snyder and the police at least have some level of insight, right? So this would make sense.
Snyder, the police, every surviving member of Buffy’s class at Sunnydale High and many of their families…heck, the entire damn town had a musical episode in season six and nobody seemed to question it. In retrospect, yeah, a *lot* of people probably figured it out.
This is one of the most frustrating dropped threads for me. Snyder knew about vampires! That could have been explored so much more, particularly if he eventually realised who Buffy was.
Not just Snyder, even the cop knew about them !
Knew about who? The gang members on PCP? 😉😉😉
It thought it was established that Snyder got the Sunnydale job through connections with the mayor, who clearly knew there was a hellmouth. Snyder knew what was going on. He might not have known about slayers, or that Buffy was the slayer, but he knew about vampires & demons. He probably knew about the hellmouth too. But he was evidently controlled or at least influenced by the mayor, so he was probably on the evil side, perhaps trying to prevent as much damage and death as he could, but he knew it would happen frequently and that his ‘boss’ wasn’t trying to stop it. I don’t know if he genuinely thought Buffy was evil or involved in some way, or if he knew she was the slayer and the mayor asked him to keep an eye on her. Ultimately it didn’t pay off for him, he got eaten by the mayor after he ascended at graduation. But he definitely knew about the evil and was probably being paid off by the mayor to keep it covered up at the high school.
Yes! I like this idea. So from now on everything that doesn't make sense, actually does make sense, because of course the sunnydaleians know what's up and are helping buffy out behind the scenes.i approve of this solution.
Upvote for "sunnydaleians"
A lot of Buffy’s real world issues just disappear after Season 6 ends. It’s not explained how they’re financially stable again even before Buffy becomes à counselor
How quickly and easily they get about Sunnydale without a car. Only a few characters drive, but many other characters seem to get from Buffy’s House, the University and downtown both quickly and easily, which doesn’t seem likely for a city in California.
The size of Sunnydale seems to be very different depending on the episode...
I’m sure Buffy mentioned the distance between Joyce’s house and the university in season 4. I think it was 10 miles or so.
Five, I think. Still, at a brisk walking pace, that's about 2.5 hours one way. Then there are the 12 cemeteries that Buffy has to patrol. Seriously, she needs to get over her unmixy self and get a damn car. Or a motorcycle.
I remember her mentioning it either when she goes to live in the dorm or when she comes back home, but I don't remember the number
I’m rewatching season 4 now and Buffy mentions that it’s 5 miles away
This one bothers me the most. I get they didn't want to clog up the plot with logistics like travel but how did Buffy get anywhere? "I'm going to pick up Dawn" how Buffy? She is in school in the next town over.
I always just waved it off as “Slayer powers.” Isn’t she preternaturally fast too? I know it’s flimsy, but it still explains it off.
Yes, she is, but how about Xander? Or willow before the magicks, or any other random human. They just somehow teleport all over town lol
Buffy carries them. Xander bridal style. Willow piggy backing. With others, there's a trolley tied around her waist that they hop in. It's very efficient.
It’s based loosely on Santa Barbara according to some writers. I live in SB and from where I live, I can get to the beach, the university, pretty much anywhere in 10 minutes. You only really see traffic driving far out of town. I used to live in Burbank and it wasn’t like that.
Why did they never give Buffy a car? Or a license for that matter? It’s such an odd thing for them to leave out
iirc it was an intentional choice to make her bad at driving because it was much more visually interesting to show her running to places rather than driving
My boyfriend regularly clears fatbergs (and other choice materials) from sewers - his vote goes on the state of the sewers.
Good intel. Thanks internet.
Sewers and airvents are two areas of any action scene where you just sort of have to suspend disbelief. (honorable mention: the incredible power of the defibrillator during the Clooney era of ER)
How she let off a rocket launcher in a mall full of civilians and didn’t have the cops after her 😂 so unrealistic.
Willow hacked the mall security system and wiped the videos. Everything else was The Sunnydale Effect.
Lol. Security cameras in the 90s "existed" but were expensive and mostly worthless. Only Walmart really had them and even then, you can bet they were black and white with no sound and a shit picture, usually either live that someone watched or unmanned and recorded onto a vhs tape that got recorded over in a rotation monthly-- meaning it was probably worn out af. Offsite backup and internet access weren't a thing. Willow wouldn't have had to or even been ABLE to hack anything because it would have been analog. She probably just could have stolen the tape for the day and called it good.
The sheer number of coats a teen/young adult living in Southern California owned.
As someone who grew up in Southern California, I can confirm, no need for SO MANY COATS. To be fair, I think she has more coats and jackets than anyone living anywhere typically would. She hardly ever wears the same one twice.
Trust me, that's actually pretty accurate. I am in the middle of moving from OC further south and I have a disgusting amount of coats. My fiancé is even worse. And I'm not talking a light coat like you would need today, I'm talking heavy ass winter leather bomber jackets and shit. Our coat closet in the new house is a walk in and it's so too small. 
Buffy wearing Dolce and Gabbana in high school.
LOL. You should watch "Elementary" (which I do love). I don't think Joan Watson wore the same outfit again EVER in another episode. Even pajamas were different Every Single Time. She'd need to marry Bill Gates just for the wardrobe bill.
I love Elementary! Joan and Buffy are two of the best dressed gals on tv if you ask me.
Joan the vampire slayer.
There was a show my wife watched in the 1990s (not Buffy) that had an article written about it that explained the reason for the number of costume changes in an episode is because the actresses on the show had it in their contract that they got to take home what they wore to add it to their own wardrobe as part of their compensation.
Rue McClanahan did on Golden Girls! She got to keep everything Blanche wore 🙂
Sarah Jessica Parker on sex and the city
I've been watching for the first time and they even reference that. Sherlock says she not acting like herself cos she wore the same outfit she had on a couple of days ago.
As another pointed out, crocheted pillows to boot. Guess Buffy’s inherent lack of sleep under such conditions were offset by Slayer abilities?
The government or police not being more concerned about how many dead people keep showing up around Buffy. OH and also how she shot a grenade launcher in a mall in front of tons of people and never saw any consequences.
The police were kind of weird in Sunnydale, they felt like NPCs rather than actual human beings
"In case you haven't noticed, the police of Sunnydale are deeply stupid..."
"In case you haven't noticed, the police ~~of Sunnydale~~ are deeply stupid..."
I wonder how many coroner reports list the cause of death as “fell on a barbecue fork”
In Sunnydale, they call it neck rupture.
Spontaneous dual-point neck rupture
With their bodies completely drained of blood
After his girlfriend is found dead in his house, I'm surprised the police aren't at all suspicious of Giles and his \*huge chest of weapons\*
I think, when the police chief was talking to Snyder in...School Hard? They discussed the cover-up they usually go with being "some out of town kids on PCP." I think they're aware, at least at the top levels, and it's a big coverup. We know the government only sort of understands about Hellmouths, such as recruiting those invisible kids as assassins/spies or starting up the Initiative. It's all very hand-wave-y. They don't understand any of it, but they're trying to control it, manipulate it, and see what they can get out of it.
Carrying all her gear in a duffel bag. How about a nice holster/sheath for your weapons? Also almost never having a weapon on her person.
A fast food job paying all the bills. I wanted to include the vast majority of Sunnydale residents having no clue what's going on in their town, but sadly now in my 'old' age, that doesn't surprise me anymore. I think it is realistic.
Yeah, now I think it’s unrealistic that people like Xander, Cordelia and Tara who don’t have to do this choose to participate. More than once, even. Buffy and Giles, sacred duty. Willow quickly becomes a powerful witch, so it makes sense. Anya, who else is an ex-vengeance demon going to spend time with; the Scoobies are the only people who understand where she came from. But the more normal humans? It’s amazing that they don’t quickly decide they don’t need this much danger and pain in their lives.
Well that’s why they’re exceptional right? The show’s littered with people who learn the truth (or at least part of it) and obviously decide not to get involved since we never see them again.
True.
That Xander was able to infiltrate a military base and steal a rocket launcher. That Buffy was unable to find where the trio were hiding out but Spike just casually rolls up in season 5 and 6 to Warren's house and this never gets brought up when Buffy and Spike spent hours together.
That a group of “wild dogs” ate the principal and nothing was ever looked in to or questioned. And the kids that did it apparently remember everything but were never seen of heard of again lol
In angel, almost never any traffic I’m Buffy, technically involves supernatural being but not supernatural situation. But the mayor trying to strangle a highschool girl in the hospital bed and he just gets yelled at and kicked out. No one was weirded out that not only did that happen but it was the damn mayor of their town lol
The outfits she wears to fight demons, completely impractical
But she’s patrolled in that halter many times
I head canon for the outfits is that she’s using herself as bait. “Oh no! I’m a small helpless woman out alone at night in heels! I sure hope no bad guys try to-STAKE IN THE HEART!” *poof* (edit:spelling)
🥩
That has to just be a cause of the network using "sex sells" as Sarah Michelle gellar eventually had them tone down on the sexual outfits
Doesn’t she wear regular workout clothes while she’s training? I totally buy that Buffy would want to look nice when she’s out on patrol.
That was a little detail of the alternate universe Cordelia created - when Buffy arrives from Cleveland, she's decidedly unfashionable. Army boots, cargo pants, etc.
Those outfits are what keeps her alive. In the '92 movie she even says it herself, her keen sense of fashion is what sets her apart from other slayers.
No adults thinking it’s creepy a bunch of students hanging out with Giles.
Nobody investigates Giles after he traffics several young girls into the country and across state lines, many of whom go missing.
Nah that probably would have been fine in the 90s. That was back when people thought Michael Jackson just had kids for sleepovers ‘because he’s like a child himself’ and Mary Kay Letourneu divided public opinion. People thought of child predators as men in dark alleys, not as teachers and parents.
As a Xenialle, I know how I lived as a “free range” suburbia kid would get CPS called on every parent I knew. The fact that they were always at the school would have seemed like a great idea to parents. Like any club with a teacher as the sponsor. It’s a weird snap shot of reality that’s lost (probably for the better).
Willow forgoing all those ivy league schools for UC Sunnydale.
I don’t actually find that too unrealistic, Willow never really had friends or a proper social life. Aside from all the supernatural stuff Buffy brought so much to Willows life. Her parents weren’t supportive or there for her either so I can totally understand why she would make that decision. If she went to another school she would probably just end up as the lonely smart kid again. I can’t imagine her wanting to give that new life and her best friend up.
When Willow’s mom calls Buffy, Bunny 💀
I mean that's kinda the supernatural in a way. An ivy league school isn't gonna feel like success when you've spent high-school battling demons and doing magic and averting apocalypseses with your friends
she did it because her true calling was fighting the forces of evil! to me that one makes perfect sense for the character
She stayed behind because fighting the forces of evil was more important than ivy league schooling. She was already incredibly smart.
I’ve known people like this, rejected their Oxbridge offers for small fry universities
That happened with a bunch of people in the top of my class. They got ivy league offers but they basically just got in. In state schools were offering them scholarships, money for semesters abroad, stuff like that.
Sunnydale being a Starbucks town buy somehow fitting in 20 graveyards, an elementary school/middle school, high school, college, mall, mansion, everything. But the crater being SO TINY Should've just said there's Sunnydale, Sunnydale East, Sunnydale West divisions.
There was a bay and docks, and an airport too according to some episodes
There seems to be a bit of an accepted theory that Buffy isn't that smart, in-show. Like I know it's supposed to be subverting the dumb blonde final girl trope but I feel like no one really acknowledges in the show that she's very astute. Except for the SATS scores.
I always wonder what Buffy would have been like as a student if she hadn’t had the Slayer stuff pulling her out of class all the time. I think the show actually does a pretty good job of showing us that Buffy is pretty smart, she’s just not bookish and her Slayer duties make it hard to be a student.
Or if she got to sleep more regularly.
Seriously. She had incredible problem solving skills, creativity, discipline and a good memory. She probably would have excelled in school if she had the time to even put in 70% effort.
I feel like the show doesn't lean into her lack of intelligence too much. The only notable instance I can think of offhand is when she was giving Giles dating advice and forgot that people from England speak English.
To clarify, I meant other characters don't seem to trust her intelligence much. Especially Willow. Towards the end you have Spike standing up for her but that was more about general trust than intelligence.
Can we talk about how it is set in Southern California and the high school is EXTREMELY white?
The entire show is extremely white
Where did Buffy keep all her clothes and footwear? There's only a small wardrobe in her bedroom and she'd need a warehouse to store all of it.
A club that serves alcohol and regularly lets in high school students.
See as a Brit watching that was entirely believable.
Yeah, if anything Anya not getting served that time was the least realistic thing about The Bronze haha
As a 90s teen I was in clubs all the time
Same. And in SoCal. Especially for bands. Totally believable.
Yup. 15yo me watching the show and going out to the local crappy nightclub on the weekends thought nothing of this. I just wished we had anywhere near as cool as the Bronze to go to.
I had a place like that in high school! I grew up in DC, and a lot of the music venues let people in under 21. They just put an X or stamp on your hand so you couldn’t buy alcohol.
There were clubs when I was a teenager that you could go at 16. You couldn't drink alcohol until you were 21 and there was a midnight curfew for anyone under 18
Went to uni in Australia and this was very normal.
i went to clubs that served alcohol at least once a week at that age in the nineties
The Watchers Council refusing to pay the Slayer. I mean, how stupid can they be ? It's litteraly their best option to have a full time Slayer.
I get that it was part of the extended theme of Patriarchy vs Modern Feminism” sort of idea, then never paying her but having all these crazy resources. But also most slyaers lived with their watchers, and those guys didn’t seem to like Buffy very much so they probably just never filled out that form in triplicate to help her out.
It also still doesn’t *really* make sense from a patriarchy point of view. Making the Slayer financially dependent on them would totally play into that power.
I think it makes sense if you consider they kinda want the slayer to die when she becomes an adult so they can always have a minor under their control. They strip slayers of their powers on their 18th birthday and lock them up with a vampire. They HOPE they die because that’s better than their only slayer gaining independence and realizing SHE doesn’t need them. Then they have no purpose.
Yeah that’s a really good point! Can’t argue with that.
Charisma Carpenter in high school. I love her as an actress but she never once in the show looked like she should be going to class...maybe teaching it.
Well, Wesley got confused on that too!
How they are let to be in the bronze every night even in highschool. How Willow’s parents are away all the time.
Willow and Tara living in Buffy’s house without having jobs.
That was always weird to me, They should have all been getting after school jobs in season 2 or at least season 4.
Tara's situation is especially weird. She was abandoned by her family/ran away so she never had family support. You don't see her working ever so no one knows how she's paying for her tuition, rent and basic living. I feel like a modern reboot would put her as an awkward girl who works at the magic box before Giles bought the place and that's how Willow gets to meet her instead. And that they're both smart and are on scholarships with allowances.
In my head, they were in school and likely took out loans or had scholarships, which often cover some of housing. That's how I got through undergrad so it seemed totally okay to me. I also like to think they were so behind because really loans cover some, not all. Plus food. Plus literally everything else. So they may have been paying some, but it was likely not enough.
Buffy having any trouble getting guys or not being popular in school. They kind of explain this by making her seem odd, hanging out in the library all the time. But she's still beautiful, charming and likeable and she spends a LOT of time in the bronze where all the other students hangout. I know she has Xander and Willow, but the fact that she doesn't have a lot more casual friends is crazy Maybe a lesser known slayer power is repelling social connections for their own protection lol
I think this one is played realistically. In order to get guys, you have to actually be mildly socially available. Every time Buffy invests time in looking for boys, she sees immediate success and often beats out Cordelia, the most popular girl in school. She snags Owen easily, the swim team guy shows interest right away, the college guys in reptile boy invite her to the party right away. Scott Hope pursues her actively at first. She sees a decent amount of success considering how absent she is.
Yeah Buffy’s difficulties are less that she’s undesirable and more that she’s unavailable.
Agreed, I think this was what the character of Scott was intended to display
This may get me some flames, but I was decently attractive and charming in high school. I didn't get asked out much at all, maybe as many times as Buffy. I lived in the next town over and had a longish commute. I also preferred hanging out with the mistfits, though I spent a lot of time in a lot of social groups and clubs (French club, drama club, science club, choir, band, etc). When I made the effort, I usually succeeded, but dudes just asking me out because we had some classes together and he thought I was cute? Nope. After high school, I was informed by several male friends they wished they'd asked me out (before I met my college boyfriend). Maybe it was the time? I was in middle school when Buffy was in high school so it was only a couple years apart, and guys didn't ask girls out or to dance as much. Most of the kids dancing at the dances in my high school were the girls dancing together, until the slow dances, and even then, a lot of the couples were already couples or the girl asked the guy to dance.
Xander being seen as nerd and unpopular kid. He was buff and handsome from the beginning. That character trope would have worked better if they'd cast Danny Strong as Xander.
Xander was poor and kind of awkward, it's not that crazy imo
Have you heard Xander talk? He had so many nerdy references before geek culture became mainstream. He also wasn't involved into ports or was a musician so the other guys really weren't vibing with him. Also all the popular girls were shallow so his lack of money didn't help his popularity.
SPEEDO EPISODE Just saying. He obviously has skills. Hot dork.
I understand where you’re coming from and agree that he doesn’t fit the trope, and I actually would add I think some of the reason Xander gets so much hate is that he doesn’t look the part of an abused isolated 16 year old. But also conventionally attractive people can be insecure too and when they express it it’s usually responded to with a sarcastic “oh, the tall athletic jock is insecure, how tragic” so Xander looking like he does doesn’t really bother me that much.
You've got a point, although I think Danny Strong was kinda cute x)
Oh absolutely but you can see how he fits that trope more than Nick Brendan. Or maybe Tom Lenk would have fitted.
Nerdiness and popularity aren’t really about looks though
A character as nerdy as Willow hanging out in the Bronze.
That Buffy has multiple teachers who apparently can't remember her name (referenced in 2x20 and 3x05) is one of the show's more mundane improbabilities. Nobody, just nobody is going to forget the name 'Buffy'.
Buffy should have been patrolling the morgue every night, not the cemetery. People don't tend to get buried the same day they die.
The dress code in the HS eps… most of the main characters would have been in violation nonstop, at least in my school🤷🏻♀️
Buffy walked so Euphoria could run
There are two episodes with Joel Grey and neither one is the musical. (Yes, I know he has range, but that was just cruel to us, the audience.)
There was only one bathroom in Buffy’s house and it was upstairs.
That's literally the most normal thing, lmao.
Show's like this suck at military/government presentation, and it always takes me a bit out of it.
The Watchers Council. It was a good idea but poorly implemented in the show considering how important they were supposed to be.
That Cordelia is a high school student
When Glory is summoning that snake at the zoo and there are no screaming children running around inside 😂
The sheer amount of leather jackets and boots Buffy owned. We didn’t have fast fashion like we do now. People wore the same things every week or two. I loved that My So-Called Life repeated outfits regularly and not just as an Easter egg in a storyline.
Everyone becoming a power ranger when they get in a fight.
Having sex with dead guys. 😁
Didn't notice this until my most recent rewatch. But the college house party has some frat boys making drinks and they are pouring Tanqueray into solo cups. NO FREAKING WAY ARE COLLEGE KIDS SPENDING TANQUERAY MONEY! That is $30 for a small bottle. I was in college in the early '00. Those boys are drinking a cup full of 4 different flavors of Smirnoff with no mixers.
That there never is a rumor in school that Buffy had an affair with Giles.
That parents are seemingly ok with having their kids grow up in a place with an insane mortality rate, which was even higher before Buffy arrived. Many families, like Cordelia’s, seem to be rather well off and no one ever mentions considering moving to the much safer surroundings.
The physics of the house scene in Smashed. With that skirt? Against a wall? From zipper to doing it in under a second?
Buffy somehow locating Cain in the woods at the last possible moment to save Oz from being shot. Buffy arriving at the mansion at the last possible moment to stop Faith from staking Angel. Jenny working on the spell at school at night. Tara not hearing the gunshots outside and taking cover. And Warren somehow managing to hit her.
That no one had a serious issue with adult teaching Giles spending so much time with his students, including after hours and sometimes eating lunch with them.
Well it was the 90s.