Whedonesque Mobile : Comments on 20882 : Sunnydale is one of the worst fake cities on Earth.

July 03 2009

Sunnydale is one of the worst fake cities on Earth. io9 has a list of the most unpleasant fake cities and towns that appear in scifi and fantasy. They include Sunnydale as a particularly dangerous location. Who can blame them? Surprisingly, they did not include Cleveland.

marion.crane | 00:37 CET | 21 comments total | tags:

They forgot Push, NV. (Something else that needs releasing on DVD.)

The One True b!X | July 03, 00:43 CET

Eerie, Indiana. I know it's a real place but that show was awesome.

Bull people, lulz.

FaithsTruCalling | July 03, 01:35 CET

I want that Sunnydale map! Does anyone know where to find it?

thepikey | July 03, 02:13 CET

I always thought Cabot Cove, Maine was much worse the Sunnydale. There were a lot of murders in that town.

Edited to eliminate a typo.

[ edited by crazygolfa on 2009-07-03 04:38 ]

crazygolfa | July 03, 03:23 CET

Great post, even though I'd like to live in half of those cities. That map of Sunnydale is awesome. And how could they not include Cleveland? I know it's not a fake city, but I live 45 minutes away and I feel the pull of eternal damnation everyday. :-)

[ edited by steph424 on 2009-07-03 04:37 ]

thegingerpire | July 03, 04:36 CET

Nice. I was listening to an NPR story at work the other day about some ongoing crappiness in Cleveland (can't remember what it was now) and I said out loud 'that's because it's over a hellmouth duh'.

I liked Push, NV - haven't thought about that one in a long while...

onthedrift | July 03, 05:10 CET

I also wonder where exactly that Sunnydale map came from. Like for the first two or three seasons they were presumably by the water, given the harbor scenes, but at some point when I wasn't paying attention exactly--maybe when they sprouted a university or international airport-- they seemed to become nestled in a valley and then finally the middle of nowhere so they whole town could sink into a crater without dealing with the CGI to flood it.

Is Hill Valley really that terrible though, given what happens in the rest of these cities?

orangewaxlion | July 03, 05:16 CET

I think Sunnydale is meant to be like Santa Barbara or Santa Cruz, on the coast, but backed by mountains. This isn't uncommon for California towns.

Shapenew | July 03, 07:40 CET

Was asking myself the same about the map - where the frilly does that come from? I'd love to get my hands on one.

Harridan | July 03, 09:13 CET

Is Sunnydale actually a city? Sure it may have its own university, airport, harbour, castle and a beach which happens to be 20 miles inland but is it really a city? Cause if it is then I'd rather live there than Silent Hill.

Simon | July 03, 11:06 CET

I'm assuming they mean city in the alternative way that Australians may also use the word � not just for the really big town which probably has a cathedral - but also to describe what in the UK would be a Council/local government area with a mayor. Here in Australia we sometimes have "city of..." for what in England might be called a borough.

purplehazel | July 03, 12:29 CET

Simon, you forgot major hospital, army base, secret underground army base...

All this for a place that three Scoobies could search on foot in twenty minutes in the first season.

zz9 | July 03, 14:25 CET

I always understood that Sunnydale was where Santa Barbara is: between the coast and the mountains, as mentioned above. And it does indeed have a branch of the UC, and an airport, and a port. I really, really doubt, however, that it has one club frequented by the town's teens and the university population...

ManEnoughToAdmitIt | July 03, 15:37 CET

Just realized -- Cleveland wouldn't be on this list because it is, oddly enough, real ...

Shapenew | July 03, 16:31 CET

A very nice person sent us a tweet to say that the map is from an Inkworks card.

http://www.nonsportscardforum.com/showthread.php?t=72

Simon | July 03, 16:45 CET

Just realized -- Cleveland wouldn't be on this list because it is, oddly enough, real ...

Lies.

The One True b!X | July 03, 17:25 CET

If the Welcome To Sunnydale book for the Buffy roleplaying game had been published, it would have included a shiny two-page map. Which, as a playtester, I recall looking enough like the Inkworks version that I reckon it's about right.

And the list stays in-genre, otherwise Cabot Cove, St. Mary Mead and the Midsomer Hellmouth would have to be included for their grotesque murder rates.

Craig Oxbrow | July 03, 18:55 CET

What's the name of The Oblong's city?

If they will go for secure cities, my vote will be to Jericho. No radiotivity preciptation there.

Brasilian Chaos Man | July 03, 20:55 CET

Wasn't Raccoon City the name of the city in Resident Evil? I'm surprised they didn't put that one in there.

bscpantherfan | July 04, 19:36 CET

I've always thought that any area that houses a fictional private detective is bad news. I've noticed that whenever a private detective resides somewhere, the murder rate immediately soars - or God forbid, if the detective is on vacation (for example, never, ever, ever enter any kind of hotel or conveyance that is shared by Hercule Poirot.) I'm not a huge mystery novel fan, but I'm fond of the Brother Cadfael series, and have to nominate Shrewsbury during English civil war between King Stephen and Empress Maud as a Very Bad Place to live.

barboo | July 06, 17:37 CET

Rome Wisconsin? Twin Peaks Idaho?

And there's an arbitrary numerical threshold defining a "city" as over X number of people (several such definitions, actually, in different systems) and by any measure 39K+ is a city, technically.

DaddyCatALSO | July 06, 20:36 CET

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