Buffy moving to Sunnydale - a coincidence?

Chosen Enemy

Chosen Enemy

Losing my soul
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In the first episode of BtVS ever, when Giles tries to convince Buffy that she can't quit slaying now that she's here in Sunnydale, he tells her that it's not a coincidence that she arrived here and now.

What indicates that? How exactly was the fact that she was here and now a coincidence, in the literal sense? Her mom just moved in, it wasn't even Buffy's decision. The fact that Joyce decided to move to Sunnydale now is a coincidence? How is that? It wasn't really explained.

I hope you understand what I mean here, I couldn't find a way to ask my question clear enough.
 
I think it's one of these "everything happens for a reason" kind of thing, a bit like Jasmine-destiny-crap in Angel...Maybe Buffy's mum was mystically drawn to Sunnydale for some obscur reasons!


(I see what you mean, but can't really answer 😀)
 
I think that there was a certain amount of opportunity seizing, if not outright manipulation on the part of someone, almost certainly the Watchers' Council, in providing Joyce with a bargain on the art gallery in Sunnydale, thus assuring that their latest Slayer would wind up exactly where they felt that she could do the best good.
 
Akitta21
Akitta21
My thoughts exactly :)
L
LoveLoveLovix
That's likely the explanation.
It does make you wonder just how much influence the Watcher's Council had on slayers really, if they did have something to do with making Buffy come to Sunnydale. Makes the whole thing about them being powerful all the more true. Slightly eerie as well.
 
sisterofmercy said:
It does make you wonder just how much influence the Watcher's Council had on slayers really, if they did have something to do with making Buffy come to Sunnydale. Makes the whole thing about them being powerful all the more true. Slightly eerie as well.
Click to expand...

You have to take into account that Buffy was a different kettle of fish altogether. Even before she moved to Sunnydale, she wasn't like other Slayers, because she didn't know what a Slayer was the minute before she was told SHE was the Slayer. So, to wonder how much control the Council had over Slayers has to be looked at differently when it comes to Buffy.

I'd imagine that, with other Slayers, if their Watcher's died, a new one would be sent to her location, because she literally has no one else in the world to turn to. Granted, there might be girls who bolt as soon as they realize they were free, but the fact remains that they were still alone.

Buffy had Joyce (and Dawn, if you want to look at it that way) so the Council had absolutely NO control over Joyce and what she wanted to do with her daughter. If Joyce wanted to move with Buffy, the Council had no authority to tell her that she couldn't. The only thing they COULD do, was point Joyce where they wanted Buffy. We know from 'The Wish' that the Council probably had two choices for Joyce - Sunnydale or Cleveland, as those were the places the Slayer was needed most. I think they would have put a few things in place in either town, cheap options on galleries, good schools in the area, a good deal on a house, and Joyce chose Sunnydale. In the alternate universe of 'The Wish' she chose Cleveland.

The Council are good at manipulating people, they've proven that, so I'm sure it would be no problem to manipulate someone like Joyce into moving where they wanted her to be.
 
M
Ms.Trick
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I thought it was stated somewhen that Sunnydale was the only school that would take Buffy after she was implicated in burning down her previous school's gym (plus the time in the san).

As for cheap deals in Sunnydale - we know that real estate in Sunnydale didn't appreciate the way other , less hellmouthy locations did.

Now you could argue that the Council could have influenced all the other schools' decisions but really i don't think they were that influential (whether they would admit that or not). it was probably the limits of their powers to get Giles in the right place at the right time.

So I think it comes down to 50% wishful thinking and/or manipulation on Giles' part, and 50% truth. 🙂
 
I always thought that the watchers council had organised it so that Sunnydale was the only school Buffy would be accepted into so Joyce had no choice but to move to Sunnydale.
 
Actually, this could really go a way to explaining the money situation. Joyce always did seem rather well off for a single mother running an art gallery outside a big city, but if she got the gallery cheaply, and was given a great deal on the house through the machinations of the Watchers' Council, it all makes a bit more sense.
 
I always wondered about how Joyce had such a nice house, etc. as a single mother, but I would presume that Mr. Summers was paying out the bum in child support (wondering if more money appeared after the monks inserted Dawn??)

I want to know how Giles ended up there. In The Wish, he is in Sunnydale, but at the beginning of S1 they reference that the librarian was new, making me believe the Council put him there simply because Buffy was going to be there. So why was he there in The Wish? And how do they choose which Watcher goes to which Slayer?
 
PassionBecoming said:
I want to know how Giles ended up there. In The Wish, he is in Sunnydale, but at the beginning of S1 they reference that the librarian was new, making me believe the Council put him there simply because Buffy was going to be there. So why was he there in The Wish? And how do they choose which Watcher goes to which Slayer?
Click to expand...

Here's a theory that I've had for awhile. Merrick, Buffy's original Watcher, was assigned to watch over the hellmouth (Buffy was an undiscovered Potential, never recognized until after she was Called, hence no Watcher to train her and explain what was going on) When Buffy actually was Called, the nearest Watcher, Merrick, was sent to take charge of her, probably with the intent of taking her back to the hellmouth with him. He died, Giles was assigned to take his place, both as hellmouth monitor and Slayer trainer, then the plan was put in motion to lure Joyce to Sunnydale.
 
PassionBecoming
PassionBecoming
Mmm, that would make sense. There is always a Watcher watching a Hell Mouth. My mind feels eased.
I haven't actually thought about this before, but now I think that the Watchers council did pull a few strings. Get Giles the job, open up a job space for Joyce, maybe even put the house up for sale.
 
I definitely agree with FetalPig. I think the Council could manipulate a situation so that Sunnydale was the best option for Joyce: making it the closest school that would take Buffy, open up a good position for the gallery, and making homes a good price to purchase.

I think the reason Giles is Buffy's watcher is fate. Giles' makes note of this in Never Kill A Boy On The First Date when he said that his father informed him that he was destined to be a watcher. So we know that some people are destined to be watchers in the same way some girls are destined to be slayers. So before season 1, Giles gets the call (both literally and metaphorically) that he is to be the next watcher to the slayer so he travels to California. All the while the council is setting up to have Joyce move to Sunnydale.

I think the difference in The Wish was that for some reason (be it chance, fate, or simply only by Cordelia's wish) Joyce decided to move to Cleveland, so the council sent another watcher out there to take care of Buffy. We know from Faith, Hope, and Trick that the watcher's council doesn't respect/like Giles enough to invite him, the current watcher of the slayer, to its retreat, so maybe in The Wish universe they just never informed Giles that Buffy went to Cleveland. So he went to Sunnydale, waited for Buffy, but she never came but still got involved with helping people.
 
It seems that Slayers are usually mystically pulled to the place where they are most needed. Take Buffy as the example. She was activated to stop Lothos from conquering Los Angeles, then she arrived on the Sunnydale Hellmouth right before the town would have been overthrown by the Master.

Two years later, her flight from Sunnydale actually turns out to be beneficial when she rescues the trapped people in Hell. My favourite theory is that the Slayer Spirit (the one we see in "Get it Done") is still a semi-conscious entity and subconsciously guides the girls on their journeys.

However, given the fact that Giles has already been the school librarian for awhile when Buffy arrives in Sunnydale, the Watcher's Council must have known months ahead of time where she was going to end up.
 
I don't think it was coincidence. I think the Powers That Be controlled a much bigger part of Buffy's life than she ever fully realized.
 
I always think about this. I think that it is kind of a coincidence but its kinda not. i mean Buffy's mum maybe just chose to live on the hellmouth not that she knew that or maybe Buffy was forced there maybe her mum made the decision because something in her mind told her that Sunnydale is where Buffy and her should start their new life.

it's a hard question to answer but i get what your trying to ask.
 
Actually this was covered in the Buffy Omnibus number 1 (Graphic novel) which basically redid the script from the movie and covered the events that happened between the movie and the start of the series.

The Watcher's Council had a great deal to do with Buffy getting to Sunnydale, they not only manipulated people in Sunnydale itself but they also were responsible for Buffy being expelled from Hemry.
 
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