Sunnydale facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sunnydale
The "Welcome to Sunnydale" sign
Buffy the Vampire Slayer location
Created by	Joss Whedon
Type	Fictional city
Notable locations	Sunnydale High School The Bronze The Magic Box UC Sunnydale
Notable characters	Buffy Summers Rupert Giles Xander Harris Willow Rosenberg Cordelia Chase Angel Daniel "Oz" Osbourne Spike Riley Finn Anya Jenkins Dawn Summers Tara Maclay

Sunnydale is the fictional setting for the U.S. television drama Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003). Series creator Joss Whedon conceived the town as a representation of a generic California city, as well as a narrative parody of the all-too-serene towns typical in traditional horror films.

Sunnydale is located on a "Hellmouth"; a portal "between this reality and the next", and convergence point of mystical energies.

History

Prior to Buffy's arrival

Long before humans settled the area, an entrance to the Hellmouth existed at the site of the future town of Sunnydale.

In ancient times, a magic scythe was used at the site of the Hellmouth "to kill the last pure demon that walked upon the Earth." After this, the scythe was hidden, and its last guardian remained, waiting in a pagan temple that would somehow remain unnoticed for centuries.

Centuries later, Navajo and Chumash peoples lived in this area. One or more groups of monks or friars also settled in this area. As in general California history, these friars can safely be assumed to have been Spanish Franciscans, who arrived in California in the late 18th century. In 1812, there was an earthquake in the Sunnydale region that caused a cave-in during which an entire mission was lost; the very existence of the mission was soon forgotten. (The Mission La Purisima Concepción, originally sited near Point Conception and relocated to Lompoc would fit this description.)

Richard Wilkins arrived in California in the late 19th century, looking for gold. He founded Sunnydale (after considering the alternate names "Happydale" and "Sunny Acres") in a demon infested valley after a Navajo Slayer died there in 1899. He made a pact with the demons to found a town atop the Hellmouth for them "to feed on", in return for the promise of immortality by becoming a pure demon himself. Wilkins became Mayor of Sunnydale.

In the 1930s, there was at least one more major earthquake in Sunnydale. This caused a cave-in that swallowed up the Master and his lair.

Sometime in the 1980s or 1990s, Richard Wilkins was again elected mayor, now under the name of "Richard Wilkins III", and served more than one term.

By the 1990s, Sunnydale appeared to have become a typical town on the California coast, with a popular mayor, a police force that Principal Snyder describes as "deeply stupid," and a local newspaper (the Sunnydale Press). However, Mayor Wilkins had instructed the police to cover up any supernatural or mysterious violence occurring in the city, and had instructed Principal Snyder to cover up supernatural violence occurring at Sunnydale High.

Mystic artifacts

At some point in Sunnydale's history, the following mystic artifacts were hidden throughout the town's cemeteries and perhaps elsewhere:

• the du Lac Cross (found in "What's My Line, Part One")
• some, but not all, of the scattered remnants of the Judge (found and reassembled in "Surprise"); other pieces were found elsewhere and shipped to Sunnydale
• the Glove of Myhneghon (found in "Revelations")
• the Amulet of Balthazar (found in "Bad Girls")
• the Gem of Amarra (found in "The Harsh Light of Day")

During the series

The series begins when Buffy Summers, the current vampire slayer, moves to 1630 Revello Drive, and begins attending Sunnydale High School. There she meets new friends, including Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, and her new watcher, Rupert Giles. This "Scooby Gang", eventually including popular cheerleader Cordelia Chase and Willow's boyfriend Oz, often hangs out at the Bronze, the Espresso Pump (a local coffee house with a retro gas station motif) and the Sun Cinema. Buffy's mother, Joyce, works in an art gallery in Sunnydale. (It is not clear whether or not she owns the gallery.)

During their time in high school, Buffy and her friends fight a number of vampires, most notably the Master, Angel a vampire with a soul, who fell in love with Buffy; Spike, Drusilla, and Angelus (when Angel had lost his soul). Another slayer, Faith, arrives in their senior year of high school (Season 3) and lives at the Downtowner Motel until she joins forces with Mayor Wilkins.

In the third season episode "The Wish", Cordelia angrily wishes that Buffy Summers had never arrived in Sunnydale, and her wish is granted by vengeance demon Anyanka. Cordelia finds herself in an alternate universe where The Master has risen to the surface and completely taken over the town, with the surviving human population living in terror of the vampires. The school is sparsely populated; curfews are strict; humans wear crosses and drab colors to avoid attracting vampires; and almost all of the people she knew are either dead or have been turned into vampires.

At the end of the third season (June 1999), Sunnydale High School is destroyed in a great conflict that kills Mayor Wilkins and Principal Snyder. After this point, there is no mention in the television show of the political leaders of the city. The police occasionally appear, but the police chief does not. There is no further discussion of the police covering up supernatural evidence, although one newspaper headline suggests this may have continued.

As the fourth season begins (fall 1999), Buffy and Willow begin attending the University of California, Sunnydale. There they discover that the United States government was operating a "black" (secret) military unit, The Initiative, and has a laboratory and demon confinement complex in a cavern beneath the UC Sunnydale campus. The Initiative is closed down at the end of the season (spring 2000) after a climactic battle with the cyborg Adam. By this time, Tara Maclay and Anya have been added to the Scooby Gang. Later this same year, Giles purchases a magic shop named The Magic Box.

Sometime between the fourth and fifth seasons (during the summer of 2000), the mysterious "Key" is transformed into Buffy's younger "sister", Dawn Summers and the evil goddess Glory arrives in the town, leading to an increase in the number of mentally ill patients due to her ability to suck the sanity from their brains to maintain her own. The next year brings the deaths of Joyce Summers and Buffy herself (although Buffy is returned from the grave by a magic spell cast by Willow). After this point, Buffy and Dawn become co-owners of the family house.

Before Season 5's end, a scene in the city would be shown at least once in the second season of Buffy's spinoff, Angel. In the episode "Disharmony", Cordelia Chase calls Willow from Los Angeles when her high school friend Harmony Kendall turns up. We see Willow's side of this call in a rare Sunnydale scene for this series. Angel himself returns to Sunnydale at least four times in Buffy seasons 4, 5 and 7.

At the end of the sixth season (spring 2002), the Magic Box is demolished in a battle between Willow and Buffy. At the beginning of the seventh season (fall 2002), Sunnydale High School is rebuilt on the same location as before — directly over the Hellmouth.

By this time, knowledge of supernatural phenomena seems to be slowly growing in the town. Sunnydale's population is also revealed to have dropped to 32,900.

In the second half of the seventh season (early 2003), supernatural manifestations at Sunnydale High reach unprecedented levels. Within less than a month, virtually the entire population of the town flees in a mass evacuation. Soon thereafter, the cataclysmic showdown between the Scooby Gang, the Potential Slayers Buffy has gathered together, and the First Evil results in the complete obliteration of the town. Sunnydale collapses into a giant pit, closing the entrance to the Hellmouth.

During the weeks between the series finale of Buffy and the Season 5 premiere of Angel, Lindsey McDonald makes an off-screen trip to the crater and digs up the amulet worn by Spike in the final battle. He sends it to Angel at Wolfram & Hart where it releases an incorporeal Spike. The destruction of the city is mentioned several times during Angel's final season, mainly tying into Spike's brief ghostly status. It is seen one more time when a military general oversees the crater in Season 8. The destruction of the town has also led the U.S. government to brand the Scooby Gang and their Slayers an international terrorist group.

In the final arc of Season 8, the Scooby Gang return to the ruins of Sunnydale to secure the Seed of Wonder, an artifact that is the source of all magic on Earth, and serves as a battleground between themselves and a massive legion of extra-dimensional demons.

See also

In Spanish: Sunnydale para niños