Geographic Flexibility: Difference between revisions

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The geography of a fictional location becomes extremely flexible as more and more is added to it.

The most common way this occurs is when the story is set in an ostensibly [[Small Towns|small town]]. Small towns [[Quirky Town|have]] [[Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here|their]] [[Small Town Boredom|advantages]] [[Everytown America|for]] [[Where the Hell Is Springfield|fiction]], but they may not have every location the plot requires. The plot calls for a dock, so the town has one. The plot calls for a university, and it's there. The plot calls for an industrial district, and it's there. None of this is inherently unreasonable, since many small towns do have those, or are even built around them. But having ''all of them''? Suddenly the town's not looking so small anymore.

The most common way this occurs is when the story is set in an ostensibly [[Small Towns|small town]]. Small towns [[Quirky Town|have]] [[Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here|their]] [[Small Town Boredom|advantages]] [[Everytown America|for]] [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|fiction]], but they may not have every location the plot requires. The plot calls for a dock, so the town has one. The plot calls for a university, and it's there. The plot calls for an industrial district, and it's there. None of this is inherently unreasonable, since many small towns do have those, or are even built around them. But having ''all of them''? Suddenly the town's not looking so small anymore.

In [[Egregious]] cases, the [[City of Adventure]] may gain or lose major geographic features like mountains, or may move to a different climate zone when no one's looking.

[[Where the Hell Is Springfield|Places whose location are never given]] are particularly prone to this. Compare [[Chaos Architecture]], [[Traveling At the Speed of Plot]].

[[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|Places whose location are never given]] are particularly prone to this. Compare [[Chaos Architecture]], [[Traveling At the Speed of Plot]].

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== Literature ==

* ''[[Nancy Drew]]'''s small hometown of River Heights seems to have whatever experts, businesses, universities, or other resources that are needed for any particular book.

** Ditto for the [[Hardy Boys]] and their hometown of Bayport, they've done a little better in more recent stories, ever since they [[Where the Hell Is Springfield|pinned down where the two towns actually are.]] Now, they've made the two towns suburbs withing one-day's driving distance from Chicago (River Heights) and New York (Bayport.) Nowadays they just go visit, call, or e-mail when they need help.

** Ditto for the [[Hardy Boys]] and their hometown of Bayport, they've done a little better in more recent stories, ever since they [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|pinned down where the two towns actually are.]] Now, they've made the two towns suburbs withing one-day's driving distance from Chicago (River Heights) and New York (Bayport.) Nowadays they just go visit, call, or e-mail when they need help.

* In the first ''[[Harry Potter (Literature)|Harry Potter]]'' book, it's stated that the geography of Hogwarts magically changes around from time to time - staircases move, steps vanish, doors don't always open and sometimes pretend to be solid walls. [[JK Rowling]] has explained that she established this early on as a ready-to-fire [[Justified Trope|justification]] in case this problem ever manifested itself, which, of course, it did.

** This is especially true in [[Harry Potter (Film)|the movies]]. Throughout the films, Hogwarts has changed in the following ways:

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* ''[[Teamo Supremo]]'' was constantly summoned by The Governor to save the state, but exactly which state the series takes place in is never revealed/stated.

* ''[[Family Guy (Animation)|Family Guy]]'': Quahog, Rhode Island is seemingly a suburb of Providence (with its skyline in the background), which has a modest metropolitan population of 1.6 million in real life, and a city proper of less than 200,000. Despite this, Quahog has an international airport, a subway system, and other "big city" features that even Providence lacks. Sometimes the small skyline resembles Providence well, other times it looks like a huge sprawling metropolis. Some could argue that some of the scenes take place in Boston, about 40-50 miles away, but most of these big-city scenes do not resemble Boston either. Earlier episodes resembled the real-life area more (Peter Griffin even jumps off a skyscraper resembling one in Providence), whereas later episodes drifted apart from the real-life counterpart, where Quahog has a split personality between small town and bustling metropolis depending on the nature of the plot.

* Ponyville in ''[[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' seems to acquire a system of gem-loaded caves, a really big mountain, a large cliff, and who knows how much other stuff when the episode calls for it.

* Ponyville in ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (Animation)|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' seems to acquire a system of gem-loaded caves, a really big mountain, a large cliff, and who knows how much other stuff when the episode calls for it.

** The most egregrious example would have to be the sudden [[Schizo Tech|hydroelectric dam]], skyscraper construction site and deadly unguarded cliffs in "The Mysterious Mare-Do-Well".

* Bikini Bottom from ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' is shown to be this, as well. In most episodes it's a typical small town (small towns are '''usually''' underwater, right?), but other episodes have shown that it contains a mall, a racetrack, and an Olympic stadium, among other things.

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[[Category:Universal Tropes]]

[[Category:Geographic Flexibility]]

[[Category:Trope]]

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