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like I'm not expecting a 1:1 adaptation and if it was just kind of plot points being changed or reordered I'd be fine with it, but like they completely changed Veronica and JD's characters to the point they're unrecognizable from their movie counterparts. like if it was an original story, I'd probably love the musical, but because I know what the original is, I get so irrationally upset at the changes. I just need to list off the few changes that piss me off the most.

1.Starting with something relatively minor, but JD's confrontation with Kurt and Ram in the cafeteria.

In the movie, JD shoots them both with blanks from a real gun, which Veronica finds hilarious and interesting. It's unclear whether or not she actually saw it happen, but she's making jokes about it with the Heathers afterwards and flirts with JD about it. Heather Chandler literally says that JD should be sent to jail for bringing a real gun to school but Veronica laughs it off and says it's not a big deal. Also, Veronica and JD had a flirty conversation before the confrontation and had been making eyes at each other, which again changes the dynamic.

In the musical, JD just beats up Kurt and Ram (which, I can see why audiences in the 80s vs audiences in the 00s-10s would respond differently to a student bringing a gun to school, but still it's a very different character choice for JD. movie JD doesn't ever beat a guy up or something, he always uses weapons and the only person he physically attacks is Veronica). Also, plenty of people beat each other up in high school, even in the 80s. Bringing the gun with the blanks shows that JD's violence is in a different caliber than average jocks and bullies. And then Veronica, in response, sings "Fight for Me" which shows she sees JD as this cool underdog antihero. She also later says she wanted to be protected by him, which I don't think ever occurred to movie!Veronica. And this is before they've spoken properly with each other. Overall, it's not a huge change, but it does set a very different tone imo

2. Jumping ahead, the Kurt and Ram death scenes have a massive change that fundamentally changes Veronica.

In the movie, Veronica missed the first shot at Kurt, JD chased Kurt around, while they're running around she inspects Ram's body, realizes he's probably dead, JD chases Kurt back to where Veronica is, tells her to shoot, and she does again, this time killing Kurt.

You're telling me in the musical, she doesn't even kill Kurt???? JD ends up killing both Kurt and Ram, because after she misses Kurt, he chases Kurt, and then shoots him himself. This leads to a very different line:

versus

You see the difference right???? "we" vs "you." In the movie, Veronica is somewhat complicit in JD's violence. She does kill Kurt, slightly under the false pretense of the "Ich lüge" bullets, but she was already suspecting that they were real after inspecting Ram. Like yeah, still less of a murderer than JD, but still pulled the trigger, she's at least at manslaughter. But like in the musical, she's just a victim, and at most an accomplice. Like movie!Veronica and him are still together a little bit after this, but she's keeping her distance and breaks up with not long after (less than 10 mins later in the movie) meanwhile musical!Veronica sings "Seventeen" at the same part of the story.

Anyways I think Veronica loses so much her original character. Like the "woobifiedness" (forgive the term) of JD does get brought up when comparing the two, but what did to Veronica is worse in my opinion. Also when researching this part, I was double checking the plot of the musical on wikipedia, and since I've only listened to the soundtrack before, what do you mean Veronica confesses???? in the movie literally nobody even suspects them, let alone does she confess to anything to anyone. that's off topic but it's just another sign of the difference between the Veronicas. Movie!Veronica feels guilt, but she never even considers telling people what she did.

3. The "Veronica fakes her suicide and JD finds her and talks about his mass murder plan" scene shows how different the JDs are

So the musical swaps the order of events here. Again, I don't really need all the events to happen in the exact same way, but with the flipped order, comes a huge character change.

In the movie, JD finds Veronica's body first before monologuing about his plan to blow up the school. Now a lot of that monologue is pulled word-for-word for the song "Meant to Be Yours" where JD explains the plan in the musical. The change they make is when JD finds Veronica's body.

In the movie he reacts this way:

He's shocked yeah, but he's still kinda apathetic to it. Remember, this happens before he explains his plan. He then goes on about the petition and blowing everyone up in front of (what he assumes) is her dead body. This is important because movie!JD is largely apathetic to life and suffering, particularly Veronica's suffering. He likes her enough that he's surprised and caught off guard, but it's only a dent in his plan.

Meanwhile, in the musical. JD explains the plan to what he assumes is Veronica, and then at the end opens her door to find her "dead." To which he reacts like this:

At this point, he's a different character entirely. A character that is interesting and cool, but not JD. And I love this song. Like seriously, I do, but it's not JD. And that is the core of my issue here is that it's a great musical and a bad adaptation.

4. The confrontation at the school in the boiler room has Veronica saying completely different things. Like astronomically different.

Okay, first point is in the movie Veronica is the one who points out that the stuff in the boiler room is meant to light the packs of thermals upstairs, while in the musical it's JD who says it. Little detail, but I like in the movie that she figures out what the bomb plan is on her own and I wish she could have had that moment in the musical too.

Moving on, let's look at all the things Veronica says to JD in the boiler room:

Let's see what she says to him in the musical:

It's soooo different it's almost comical. What do you mean "I wish you'd come with me"??????? And this pisses me off more because they already made Veronica much more of a victim in the musical and now they made her more sympathetic to JD. Much like the thing with JD, they're just completely different characters. Like so different. Which is why I think it's a bad adaptation, because the musical versions are like unrecognizable to the movie.

But that's not what pisses me off the most

5. Veronica's reaction to JD committing suicide is so different it's making me insane

In the movie, Veronica stumbles out of the boiler room after turning off the bomb and shooting JD. JD shortly follows after, reveals he's tied the bomb to himself and is going to go blow himself up at the front of the school. This how the scene shakes out

She doesn't say anything, just pulls out her cigarette. Many people before me have talked about this scene's importance. Earlier in the movie, Veronica self harms by burning her hand with a cigarette lighter and JD responded by lighting his cigarette on her burn. Now, Veronica lights her cigarette on JD's suicide. She is crying a little bit in this scene, but in a resigned way. She knows it has to happen and doesn't try to stop him in any way shape or form. It's a great scene and a great way for their relationship to end. There's an understanding there. After his mistreatment and abuse of her, she returns to him the same indifference to his suffering that he gave her.

And then the musical:

The movie was a great scene about the abuse JD did to Veronica and it's a display of the power that JD finally recognized in her at the end. You could argue then that musical tries to take a more "redemption/forgiveness" approach. But it just doesn't work for me, especially because Veronica is more of a victim here. I'm not here to criticize the musical, but you can see how these are leagues apart from each other.