Where in the world is...
May. 19th, 2003 08:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
darcydodoNot Carmen Sandiego, oh no. Rather, this is my eventual fleshed out post of my theories of where exactly Sunnydale can be located on the map (originally conjectured as a response to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
monanotlisa's thoughts on "Empty Places"). Sadly, I'll have to conceal my genius behind a cut tag because there are slight spoilers for "Empty Places" and "Touched," here. (So hurry up and watch those episodes, fengshui!)
In the BtVS episode "Empty Places," Spike and Andrew head off to a monastery in Gilroy. For the first time, I think, we have a real place mentioned in such a context as to help locate Sunnydale quite well on the map. It's somewhere between Gilroy and LA, and close enough to Gilroy that Spike can be sure of getting there, taking care of business, and returning in a single night, on his motorcycle, even when starting a couple of hours after dark.[1] However, it's far enough away that Giles would fly, not drive, to Oakland (see BtVS 3x1, "Anne"). So I'd probably place it a bit north of Santa Barbara, more around the San Luis Obispo area. Blatantly none of this, of course, works with the desert, but at least the wooded areas make sense, then. Such a location would work well with the presence of the vineyard, too; the Central Coast is chock full of vineyards, from around Santa Barbara up through Monterey, which is only just southwest of Gilroy.
The one problem with this theory is that in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" Buffy states that Sunnydale is "two hours on the freeway from Neiman Marcus." It takes more like three and a half hours to get from Beverly Hills to San Luis. We know that Sunnydale is by the ocean ("Go Fish," as well as any episode in which the docks feature), so Buffy can't be talking about it taking two hours on the 5; she has to mean the 101, and the quaint little Danish town of Solvang is what's just about 2 hours north of LA on the 101. But she could be rounding off numbers a bit, and I'd say that therefore Sunnydale is at least as far north as Santa Maria, if not a bit further. (It takes 3 hours to get from Santa Maria to Gilroy, so 6 hours round-trip, and assuming that Spike and Andrew left Sunnydale at 9pm or so, and that sunrise is around 6am, that gives them about 2 solid hours to take care of business at the monastery, plus some leeway.)
What can be said with absolute certainty, however, is that Sunnydale is not south of LA, as has been presumed on many an occasion by fans. It's also assuredly further north than Santa Barbara. (Now, if someone would just obligingly give us a zip code....)
[1] In the end, of course, Spike and Andrew spend the night at the monastery, but that cannot be foreseen when they leave. We must assume that a single-night round-trip is possible.
Don't you feel enlightened, now? :)
monanotlisa's thoughts on "Empty Places"). Sadly, I'll have to conceal my genius behind a cut tag because there are slight spoilers for "Empty Places" and "Touched," here. (So hurry up and watch those episodes, fengshui!)In the BtVS episode "Empty Places," Spike and Andrew head off to a monastery in Gilroy. For the first time, I think, we have a real place mentioned in such a context as to help locate Sunnydale quite well on the map. It's somewhere between Gilroy and LA, and close enough to Gilroy that Spike can be sure of getting there, taking care of business, and returning in a single night, on his motorcycle, even when starting a couple of hours after dark.[1] However, it's far enough away that Giles would fly, not drive, to Oakland (see BtVS 3x1, "Anne"). So I'd probably place it a bit north of Santa Barbara, more around the San Luis Obispo area. Blatantly none of this, of course, works with the desert, but at least the wooded areas make sense, then. Such a location would work well with the presence of the vineyard, too; the Central Coast is chock full of vineyards, from around Santa Barbara up through Monterey, which is only just southwest of Gilroy.
The one problem with this theory is that in "Welcome to the Hellmouth" Buffy states that Sunnydale is "two hours on the freeway from Neiman Marcus." It takes more like three and a half hours to get from Beverly Hills to San Luis. We know that Sunnydale is by the ocean ("Go Fish," as well as any episode in which the docks feature), so Buffy can't be talking about it taking two hours on the 5; she has to mean the 101, and the quaint little Danish town of Solvang is what's just about 2 hours north of LA on the 101. But she could be rounding off numbers a bit, and I'd say that therefore Sunnydale is at least as far north as Santa Maria, if not a bit further. (It takes 3 hours to get from Santa Maria to Gilroy, so 6 hours round-trip, and assuming that Spike and Andrew left Sunnydale at 9pm or so, and that sunrise is around 6am, that gives them about 2 solid hours to take care of business at the monastery, plus some leeway.)
What can be said with absolute certainty, however, is that Sunnydale is not south of LA, as has been presumed on many an occasion by fans. It's also assuredly further north than Santa Barbara. (Now, if someone would just obligingly give us a zip code....)
[1] In the end, of course, Spike and Andrew spend the night at the monastery, but that cannot be foreseen when they leave. We must assume that a single-night round-trip is possible.
Don't you feel enlightened, now? :)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-05-19 08:46 pm (UTC)& :-P
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Date: 2003-05-19 09:11 pm (UTC)and the quaint little Dutch town of Solvang is what's just about 2 hours north of LA on the 101
oh god. i'm gonna die laughing...have you ever been to solvang? the quaintness...hahahaha. okay, i'm done.
louis
no subject
Date: 2003-05-19 09:50 pm (UTC)OK, just realized it's Danish, not Dutch, so I'll be editing that post right about now... ;)
Does that include the desert?
Date: 2003-05-29 03:58 pm (UTC)Catharsis