WMG / Heathers

As a WMG subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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Heather Duke was in love with Heather Chandler

Certainly justifies why she put up with her for so long and could explain why she is so viscious to Heather Macnamara: jealousy over Mac being treated better by Chandler.

Could explain why Chandler bullies her? Because Chandler dislikes Heather Duke because she might know or because Chandler herself is Bisexual and feels the same way somewhat? Maybe it’s her way of taking out her confused anger out on Duke? Or Duke is not in love with Chandler and Chandler is the one in love with Duke alone? Maybe she resents Duke for not feeling the same way?

Heather Duke is paranoid about Veronica being a More Popular Replacement

Veronica is roughly The Smart Guy of the group thanks to her forgery skills. Duke is the only core Heather confirmed to read, used to be friends with a nerds (or at least Martha), and is known for her work on the Yearbook (at the very least, requires some social skills which Chandler could have exploited); being the smart one was originally HER bit. Indeed, she seems to be the Heather Veronica has the most actual rapport with. Duke is under so much stress because she's worried she's going to be replaced. And she's eager to take over Chandler's place because at least she has a position that can't be so easily usurped.

• The addition in the musical of “Never Shut Up Again” seems to lean in to this interpretation - Duke isn’t putting any time and effort in to asserting her new power over Heather Macnamara, and instead her taunts and jabs are aimed at Veronica.
• Building off that, did Heather Duke put Kurt and Ram up to their spreading the story about Veronica sleeping with them? It could easily have been a preemptive tactic to secure her position before Veronica even had a chance to try to step into Chandler’s scrunchie, and she’s the first one to bring up the events of the pasture, not Kurt and Ram themselves.

In the musical, the ghosts of Heather Chandler, Kurt Kelly, and Ram Sweeney actually are ghosts, but

They're stuck on earth and able to communicate with only Veronica because of her guilt. Ghost!Chandler walks around and gives commentary for a while before Veronica hears her. Additionally, Chandler, Kurt, and Ram all know down to the exact second when JD breaks into Veronica's room. This all makes the interpretation that "it's all in Veronica's head" a little implausible, but the fact that they're only able to be heard by Veronica implies that there's a special reason for it.

JD was actually expelled the day he pulled the blanks on Kurt and Ram in the cafeteria.

Just that it wasn't strictly enforced, especially with the “suicides” happening. JD is never seen in class, yet he’s skulking around in empty halls and classrooms. The only times he is in the presence of a teacher inside the school building is during the cafeteria camera shoot and during the day of the pep assembly — both could be waived by busy/cautious-of-suicide faculty.

• Or he just doesn't go to class. Any attendance disciplining for tardies and suchlike is Bud's problem, and Bud, being who he is, doesn't care enough to do anything about it.

JD had another co conspirator to the killings besides Veronica... Pauline Fleming.

Both she and JD's reactions to the "suicides" are uncomfortably similar, i.e they both rejoice in the deaths of the popular kids but have No Sympathy for them. There's also an interesting bit of dialogue after Veronica fakes her death. Pauline upon seeing Veronica alive and well exclaims that JD had told her that Veronica had killed herself which in itself doesn't make Pauline's reaction strange but the fact that nobody else besides her and JD were surprised to see Veronica alive meaning that A) Pauline hadn't told anyone about Veronica's supposed death and B) JD had only relayed that information to her begging the question what was so special about her? It’s possible that after JD's "shooting" spree he was sent to see Pauline and they discovered they had a certain kinship?.

• He did tell other people, though. Veronica's parents say that he told them she was going to commit suicide. Telling Fleming might have just been to screw with her - especially since her apparent reaction was to make a tribute and not "holy shit, cancel the pep rally".

JD is Veronica's Tyler Durden-like Split Personality

Okay, no, because that would be ridiculous and make no sense. But their relationship is a bit Fight Club-like, and it does match how he just wants to kill people who've wronged Veronica (at first, anyway). Maybe he's an actual person but was only called into being by Veronica's suppressed resentments? He's the Tom Riddle-like evil spirit of her diary!

• Would explain his more credulity-straining abilities, like tracking down Veronica's house with no apparent contacts in town, or chasing her down at the end after severe blood loss.
• But he definitely is capable of interacting with other people independently of Veronica.

JD doesn't die but goes on to become Jeff the Killer

According to Christian Slater JD actually survives the events of the film. Seems unlikely, but regarding the above guess about the ghosts of Heather, Ram and Kurt, there's a possibility the story has some supernatural qualities. Let’s face it: Jeff and JD's personalities are eerily similar. One of Jeff's multiple backstories is him being burned alive by some bullies for protecting his brother and then going on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. Both are bully hunters and both wind up badly burnt!

Heather C. and Veronica were once childhood friends

This fan animatic shows that Chandler and Veronica were once childhood friends, until their separate life choices caused them to drift apart. It explains why Heather C. welcomed Veronica into her clique: she more or less cared about Veronica but didn't want to admit it openly.

The red scrunchie Heather Chandler wears is actually an Artifact of Doom which corrupts the personality of anyone who wears it.

Heather Duke Took a Level in Jerkass immediately after she put it on. Heather Chandler, Kurt and Ram specifically tell Veronica she's "earned that red scrunchie" in 'Yo Girl' and notably Veronica doesn't put it on when she steals it from Duke, but rather puts it on her wrist instead, thus negating its power.as it can only control you if it's close to your brain.

• In the movie and in most musical productions, Veronica actually does put on the scrunch.
  • In which case, it's only a matter of time before Veronica becomes indistinguishable from her predecessors.
  • However, maintaining an actual friendship may negate it. Note that in the finale Veronica jumps straight to asking Martha if she wants to spend time with her.

Bud Dean’s job wasn’t the only reason he and J.D. moved around a lot...

J.D. is clearly shown as unstable at the start of the movie with firing blanks at the jocks. He also knows how to handle the death of Heather Chandler with the suggestion of faking her suicide and much less horrified than Veronica... almost as if he’s had experience. Part of the reason that he’s moved around so much could be that Bud Dean somehow realized his son’s thirst for murder and was trying to prevent him to get revenge.

• You'd think that turning him into the police would be more efficient, though. Maybe J.D. only started acting out after his mom died, and by that point Bud was too emotionally checked out to actually do anything besides move.

Both Heather Duke and Martha have eating disorders

It’s very common for children with binge eating disorder to be teased for being overweight and not being able to control their appetite. At some point in adolescence/late childhood the resulting complex and their ED tendencies cause them to develop anorexia or bulimia.

We know that Martha shows signs of mental illness considering she believes Ram loves her and she attempts suicide.

Heather Duke and Martha were childhood friends in part because they had binge eating disorder and could relate to each other. They aren’t extremely fat in their childhood photo because at that age their parents prevented them from binging too much. At some point Chandler encouraged Duke’s bulimia to allow her to join the Heathers. And of course Duke relentlessly mocks fat people as a form of aggression against herself in childhood or against those who teased her.

JD faked his death and eventually ended up in Gotham City

JD and the Joker both:

• Rant about about the absurdities, failures, and stupidities of society
• Embrace the power of chaos as a tool to set things right by their own standards, but only chaos that they control
• Manipulate people into helping them - to their own detriment - by being charismatic as hell and exploiting their emotional and habitual blind spots
• Won over a lasting Misaimed Fandom
• Talk like Jack Nicholson
• Make their own explosives, but have trouble with the detonator

JD's full name is Jason Dean Van Horn and he faked his death and became a bank robber

Slater and Hamm are about the same age and there is a comfortable 30 year gap.

Veronica is a potential Slayer

She's capable of surprising feats for a seemingly ordinary high school girl. If I remember right she also wears a rather masculine leather jacket over her usual ensemble at some point, just like a few iconic shots in the original '92 Buffy movie.
The only reason she's not an outright Slayer is because she lives around the same time as Buffy.

J.D. has a Nazi Grandpa

Stay with me here. He talks about his grandpa scoring Ich Luge bullets in WWII? Now, sure, he was lying a lot there, but considering how quickly he thought it all up, I'm inclined to believe there's at least a grain of truth in there, so it's probable he did at least have a grandfather who fought in WWII.

J.D. describes the actual mass suicides in Berlin with a more-than-passing familiarity, as though they had some significance to him or the supposed grandfather. Of course, in real life, those suicides weren't faked (more obfuscation on J.D.'s part, no doubt) and Americans didn't make it to Berlin while the war was on. So it doesn't make much sense for an American soldier to have been around for those events.

On top of that, J.D. knows enough German to come up with "Ich Luge" on the fly. He implies he took it in school, but plenty of people take foreign languages in school and don't retain anything, and JD's education has probably been pretty patchy due to his frequent moves. Knowing that much German suggests he has an actual German-speaker in his life.

Veronica has undiagnosed bipolar disorder

She's prone to extreme self-loathing and self-harm, indicating a depressive cycle, and a somewhat reckless and impulsive attitude, indicating a manic cycle (particularly where J.D. is concerned; there might even be some implication of hypersexuality there, given the frankly weird circumstances in which she, ah, meets with him). She swings pretty rapidly between the two cycles, but that's Hollywood Personality Disorder for you, and anyway she's under some pretty extraordinary stress.

• "Mixed" episodes aren't unheard of.
• Given her partial detachment from the consequences of her actions, and some signs of superficial charm, it's entirely possible she has something else.

Martha has Abusive Parents or at least a bad home life

Even in kindergarten, she showed signs of being obsessive and clingy towards anyone kind to her, staying up during naptime and staring at Ram while he slept for half an hour. Most people remember very little from kindergarten, but Martha is so desperate for affection from anyone that she remembers Ram being nice to her a handful of times like it was yesterday. And if she does have an eating disorder (as in the "Heather Chandler and Martha both have eating disorders" WMG above), it also could be a sign that something is wrong at home.

• I'd bet her parents are at least neglectful. Neither of them noticed that she was depressed enough to attempt suicide until it was too late, despite multiple very recent teenage suicides? Sure, they weren't actual suicides, but the parents don't know that.

It's actually for the best that JD doesn't go to therapy

He doesn't really seem to want to change. Yeah, maybe in "Seventeen", but then he breaks into Veronica's house and tries to blow up the school anyway.

Equipping him with therapeutic terminology so he can further rationalize and justify his actions would be bad. Think The Sopranos and Dr. Melfi's conclusion that all she's done is enable Tony's criminal behavior, except in high school.