I’ve had a few thoughts since I wrote that long blogpost. One was, “Do I really have enough free time to obsess this much about Peathers Veronica?” Others included, “I can’t believe people on tumblr read that,” and, “Is the idea behind Veronica really that fucking complicated?”

I questioned that when I watched Peathers creator Jason Micallef in this promo talk about the basis of Heathers 2018’s philosophy: It’s a story about American violence.

https://youtu.be/Zjnd-oUOwdw



Under that lens, Veronica’s characterization becomes a lot clearer. While I think it’s true that she wants to transcend labels through love but is unable to do so due to the damaging system of labeling surrounding everyone in Westerburg, Veronica makes more sense when thought of not according to her emotional arc but when you consider the character herself as a criticism of America.

Veronica is indecisive. Heather Duke’s analysis of the three remaining characters in Hellscape episode 9, while comedic, says it all:

Veronica Sawyer… “Question mark?” What can I say? Rich and pretty can only get you so far when you don’t have anything in your heart. At least J.D. and Heather pretend to have depth. Veronica can’t even decide between cold-hearted psycho or basic bitch! … She’s “Leave it blank.” … Remember, Veronica, everyone’s gotta be something. Have fun being nothing. Thanks for fixing my casket angle though. Love you.

There’s no better way to put it. Veronica practically has no personality, but what she does have is contradicting: Is she someone normal, boring, ordinary, or is she an individualistic, psychotic killer? And exactly why is the answer both?

If Jason’s blueprint when creating Heathers 2018 was the issue of American violence, doesn’t it make sense that he would examine this most closely through the main character? J.D. is the most outwardly violent, and the Heathers are certainly emotionally violent. But it’s Veronica at the end who reconnects that bomb—even though she’s the only one really concerned with being a good and normal person. If she’s the most violent, what is that saying?

I’ve heard it said that America is a country that has an overly idealistic view about its own morality—that it feels it’s wholly good in a way that no other country is. Yet it’s also true that American philosophy (and I don’t say this as a jab) is in some ways the most selfish and individualistic. We care less about society than what you as a person are saying with your existence. Are you happy, rich, successful? And with a high value in capitalism we encourage people to compete for these titles. And it’s no secret America started with a hefty dose of violence. To be independent, we took land from the natives and conquered them to do it. (Consider the graffiti’d “ESKIMO!” in the episode six intro, harkening back to the Moby Dick story, as well as tales of General Westerburg’s morality even as we see him behead a Native American and hear of him raping one at Butcher’s Bridge. Heathers wants us to remember America’s bloody beginning.) It’s part of our history and that influences who we are. A large number of recent shootings today is certainly part of the American violence Heathers wishes to examine. So America is a country that considers itself wholly “good,” while also always wanting to be individualistic and different, at times (according to the show’s worldview) resulting in extreme violence. Sounding a little like someone you know?

But Veronica’s character being criticism in part isn’t a reason to dissociate from her. She’s the protagonist, and at the times the show’s philosophy really seems to see things from her side. Regardless of what people on here will tell you, Heathers 2018 isn’t didactic. It examines issues in a satirical way and doesn’t tell you what to think. I think somewhere in the girl who blew up Westerburg there still is that “good person” she hopes exists.

Compared to the other characters, she’s not. The most “good people” of Peathers are the victims, the stereotypes like Trailer Parker and Dylan who don’t try to fight back against the system but still resign themselves to its violence. Even Heather Duke and MacNamara make the cut for prom heaven. Veronica to the show is perhaps the worst person, ending in a horrific afterlife. But I argue in some ways that she’s still “a good person.”

In a very specific way, she is more of a good person than anyone else on the show.

When we first meet Veronica, she’s friends with the Heathers because it beats being at the bottom, but she clearly hates the way they abuse their power and hurt others. Heather Chandler’s character assassination of Ram is what causes Veronica to finally lash out at her after fantasizing about burying her in the ground. J.D. convinces her to get revenge with the helpful assurance, “Don’t think of it like we’re hurting Heather Chandler. Think of it like we’re helping everyone else.” I would argue Veronica goes after Heather C. in part because she longs for a Westerburg where everyone can be free. And she’s clearly disgusted when Betty Finn continues the cycle of abuse after Heather Chandler is gone. When Betty offers her a seat on the council of the “new Heathers,” Veronica wants no part in it.

While the show moves on from Heather MacNamara’s death rather quickly, it’s clear that it remains in Veronica’s head more than in any other character’s (Heather Duke comes second in this regard). Heather M. haunts Veronica in a daydream, and Veronica gets pissed when J.D. skips out on her funeral. Moreover, in episode 4, she murmurs in the car, “I was thinking about Heather, Heather M. Like if there was more I could have done. … Like if I had sent a text at the right moment or something.” The show also makes a point of referencing Heather M. both in Heather Chandler’s finale speech and Veronica’s whirlwind epiphany after, as if to say Heather MacNamara falling victim to Westerburg’s vicious cycle plays a big part in why Veronica did what she did at the end. We’ll cover Veronica’s crazier episode 4-6 antics in a minute, but Heather MacNamara’s memory also plays a huge role in episode 7. Until the finale, the only time Veronica herself knowingly kills someone is to avenge Heather M.’s death and make sure Mr. Waters can’t take advantage of any more girls. And it’s after this she tells J.D., “No more.” For her, the nightmare involving Heather M. is largely over, and she feels free and normal in that moment. She’s free, until more trouble with J.D. arises.

In episodes 9 and early 10 we can also see how her ideals of goodness totally counteract whatever feelings she might have had for J.D. But she does give us a surprising move in episode 8 when she recommits to the Heathers—obviously stressed over the possibility of the Heathers finding out her violent past but seemingly more frustrated by J.D.’s nonchalance about prom.

So you can argue that Veronica is in some ways a good person. While J.D. distributes vigilante suicides and the Heathers fight to remain on top, Veronica when she’s not busy gaslighting her boyfriend is actually trying very hard to be good. So where does she go wrong, and how does she end up the most violent?

The way I view Veronica, at her core she is an ordinary, carefree girl. She wants to live a normal teenage life, happy and average. She wants to fall in love with a boy who adores her completely. She wants to do well in school. She wants to grow up and have a decent future. She wants to be unremarkable.

But she lives in a culture where to be unremarkable is to be nothing. The world of Heathers is one that labels relentlessly, and exposes youths to the psychological violence of perfectionism and constant judgment. Even as a young girl she as frustrated. As a teenager, she is totally miserable. In a world where everybody’s gotta be something, it is impossible for a person who wants to be ordinary to be happy. They will always feel the pressure of a violent society.

In my interpretation, it’s this knowledge that causes Veronica to fall in love with violence—in herself and in her boyfriend, J.D. Her kind and normal heart is what draws her so much to Ram. But her knowledge of how the world really works is what makes her lust after J.D. A life with Ram would never really work. But J.D., J.D. represents individuality and enacting change. Combining an ordinary soul with the sort of cutthroat psychological environment Heathers seems to be depicting is America, you get someone who needs to express their individuality and enact violence just to be normal. There’s no hope in normalcy—but Veronica doesn’t give up. By shaking things up—killing Lucy, killing Heather, killing Westerburg—maybe Veronica will find another life where she can just be herself. She doesn’t. But, she tries.

Veronica’s love for violence blooms in the society that celebrates it. When she expresses her “real self,” she is “nothing” in their eyes. And when she finally gives in to the realm of violence, she finally has society’s approval as they hail her the engineer of the mass suicide. Yet paradoxically, she commits the act of violence for herself, as an individual. She does it because she can’t see any other way to be happy.

When I don’t keep this in mind, Veronica’s love for violence becomes puzzling. Her erratic actions against J.D. in episodes 4-6 seem illogical—doesn’t she see that J.D. represents violence, a way out? But for her it’s not as simple as that. She doesn’t only want a way out—such a fundamental part of her wants to be normal, to have a faithful boyfriend, to have fun with her best friend Heather Duke, to go to prom with J.D. But it mixes with how fucking pissed off she is at the whole damn world for its bullshit—she ends up lashing out at anybody to express herself. She wants to be a good, happy person and she will cut up anyone who stands in her way. Her psychopathic tendencies always serve the underlying motive of her wanting to be normal and happy in a society where no one else wants that—everyone’s busy with their plotting and power plays. Even when Veronica discusses wanting to be different “from all of them” and how J.D. and she have something unique and special, I still think that’s mostly because that’s how it feels to deep down want such basic desires at a school where everyone’s so backwards and self-obsessed. Veronica’s bloodthirst, her need to be an individual, it’s all because this school doesn’t recognize her. People need to impose their will most when they’ve been erased, and there’s no room at Westerburg for Veronica’s innocence.

Veronica is no saint. In fact, she’s the worst person on the show, singlehandedly pulling the trigger on a high school full of innocent students. But also, when you really think about it, Veronica is the only character on Heathers who’s entirely focused on being a good and happy person, even though she does insane things in the name of that. When I watch her in that way, when I stop trying to figure out what’s going on in her head and realize she’s the most straightforward person on screen, her emotions are entirely evident. She’s not trying to create some big change or even to become number one. In a country that says it isn’t enough to be human, Veronica is trying not to be nothing, to break away from violence through violence. Her trademark color blue, unnatural and tightly clung to, yet even somewhat cliché, represents this fixed hope: that she’ll move beyond the chaos and aberrant conformity around her, somehow find peace without compromising for anybody. Everyone is ready to answer the question, Who is Veronica Sawyer? But if you shut up, Veronica would tell you. She’s just her.

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