Editing Heather Willis (Queen of the Willis)

{{DISPLAYTITLE: Heather Willis (''Queen of the Willis'')}}
{{Infobox character
| name       = Heather Willis
| series     = [[Queen of the Willis]]
| image      = [[File:Heather Willis.png|100px]]
|caption = 
| first      = "[[Pilot (Queen of the Willis)|Pilot]]"
| creator    = [[Ava Zinn]]
| voice   = Ava Zinn
| nickname   = 
| gender     = Female
| species    = Crustacean
| occupation = [[wikipedia:Writer|writer]]
| other_names = {{ubl|Heather Tur|Heather Moffitt}} 
| family     = {{unbulleted list
 | [[Angie Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Angie Willis]] (owner)
 | [[Ava Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Ava Willlis]] (owner)
 | [[Tom Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Tom Willis]] (owner)
 | [[Deanna Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Deanna Willis]] (owner)
 | [[Shushu Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Shushu Willis]] (owner/best friend)
 | [[Tabby Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Tabby Willis]] (owner/best friend)
 | ?? (father)
 | Alexandra (deceased mother)
 | Other brothers and sisters
 | Claire (cousin)
 | Scrappy Heather (deceased niece)
}}
| spouse = [[Zoey Tur (Queen of the Willis)|Zoey Tur]] (divorced)<BR>Nadine Willis (transgendered wife)
| significantother = John Zoidberg (ex-boyfriend)<BR>Bill Rose (ex-boyfriend)
| children = {{ubl|[[Rumer Moffitt]] (daughter)|[[Arthur Tur]] (son)}}
| nationality = American
| lbl21             = Education
| data21            = [[wikipedia:Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis|IUPUI]] 
}}
'''Heather Alexandra Willis''' is a fictional character from the American [[wikipedia:animated series|animated television series]] ''[[Queen of the Willis]]''. An anthropomorphic lobster voiced by [[Ava Zinn]], she is one of the show's main characters as a member of the [[Willis Family]]. She primarily works in the series as a less-than-adept writer struggling to find herself, attempting essays, novels, screenplays, and newspaper articles.

She first appeared on television, along with the rest of the family, in a 15-minute [[wikipedia:short film|short]] on December 20, 2003. Heather was created and designed by Zinn herself. Zinn was asked to pitch a pilot to ATE Media, based on [[Frank's Life and Frank & Brittani|''Frank's Life'' comic strip and ''Frank & Brittani'']], two shorts made by Zinn featuring a young male character named Frank, an older female middle-aged character named Brittani and an intellectual pet, Amber. After the pilot was given the green light, the Willis family appeared in the pilot episode. Heather's appearance is a redesign of Amber the Goldfish from Zinn's previous show.

Heather has also made [[wikipedia:Crossover (fiction)|crossover]] appearances in the other Zinn-produced shows, such as ''[[Amanda & Elisa]]'', ''[[Hoosier Anchorwoman!]]'' and ''[[Brandi & Deanna]]''.

As a character, Heather has been very well received by critics and fans.

==Role in ''Queen of the Willis''==
[[File:2014 Chevrolet Malibu LS 2.5L front 6.13.18.jpg|thumb|right|A Chevy Malibu, similar to the one Heather drives. However, this image is real life, but the producers have made it comical.]]

Heather is a pink-shelled [[wikipedia:anthropomorphism|anthropomorphic]] lobster wearing a black dress. She can talk, generally walks on her hind legs (using her front legs as arms), has opposable thumbs, drives a [[wikipedia:Chevrolet Malibu|Chevy Malibu]] (with the [[wikipedia:Vehicle registration plates of Indiana|license plate]] "HAW-LO"), and often acts more rationally than the other characters in the series. She is the pet lobster and close friend of the [[Willis Family]], and, although anthropomorphic animals are not a regular element of the show, Heather's human attributes receive little acknowledgment and no explanation; she is largely treated as a human character, as much as Shushu and Tabby. Heather has a particularly close friendship with [[Shushu Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Shuhsu]] and [[Tabby Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Tabby]], and many of the show's sub-plots center around them. They are occasionally at the center of the plot, for instance in the [[Back Home Again In... (Queen of the Willis)|"Back Home Again in..."]] episodes. Heather, Tabby and Shushu have a [[wikipedia:love-hate relationship|love–hate relationship]] in which they constantly argue and humiliate each other, and yet show appreciation for each other several times. In the episode "[[Brian and Stewie]]", they admit that they love each other as friends, and give each other's lives purpose.


In "[[Pilot (Queen of the Willis)|Pilot]]", "[[Ten Years to Life]]", and in the afterparty of ''[[RAGStory]]'', she used the phrase "Whose caviar do you have to hump to get a cocktail around here?", which has become a recurring mantra for her, despite only using it three times. She also has a particularly sharp wit. 


Heather is very fond of [[wikipedia:Martini (cocktail)|cocktails]] and is seen to have [[wikipedia:Drug withdrawal|withdrawal symptoms]] in various episodes when she is told or forced to stop drinking. These episodes suggest that heather is possibly an [[Alcoholism|alcoholic]]. She [[wikipedia:Tobacco smoking|smokes]] and vapes occasionally, although she smoked until "[[Ten Years to Life]]" and begins vaping the end of that episode. She also regularly vapes [[wikipedia:marijuana|CBD Oil]] and menthol/mint [[wikipedia:electronic cigarette|e-liquid]]. 
She discovered that her smoking habit stemmed from her mother and her drinking from her father abandoning her for which she saw a therapist. She has also made references to either making, being in possession of, or watching [[wikipedia:pornography|porn]] in numerous episodes. In "[[Into That Final Good Night in Quillsville]]," Heather is shown to have an orgasm. 

She is the daughter of Alexandra and an unnamed father, who were normal lobsters and crabs, though Heather's human attributes have been present since she was a squid. She claims her mother is sexist and racist, and Heather seems to have inherited these tendencies. Heather received an Ivy League education, having attended IUPUI, as seen in "Heather Goes Back to College" but was shy one course from graduating. She is also an Iraq War veteran because Tabby (known as Rags at the time) signed them both up for the Army, in "[[Saving Private Heather]]". ''Queen of the Willis'' uses a floating timeline in which the characters do not age much, so the show is always assumed to be set in the current year. However, several of the characters, such as [[Ava Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Ava Willis]] and [[Angie Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Angie Willis]], have aged two to five years since the show's [[Pilot (Queen of the Willis)|pilot episode]], while others, such as [[Tabby Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Tabby]], [[Shushu Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Shushu]] and Heather, have aged very little. At the start of the series, Heather was 8, but is currently 9 years old. Heather has shown conventional crustacean behavior on occasion. She snaps her claws at anchovies yet "gets very sad on weekends", she greatly favors a fish and seafood diet.

In several episodes, events have been linked to specific times, although this timeline has been contradicted in subsequent episodes. An example of this is when in "Heather Wallows and Angela Swallows", Angie is shown in a flashback finding a fully grown Heather as a stray when Ava and Heather were vacationing in Maine. However, in "The Girl with Two Heathers", heather tries to regain attention from the Willis family by showing them home videos of her as a squid, although none of the videos of her as a squid showed any member of the Willis family, so it is possible that the videos were filmed by a previous owner. She also has two human children: a daughter named Rumer Moffitt, who was a regular marijuana smoker, before Heather managed to turn Rumer's life around, from a violent, uneducated teenager, to a well-mannered friendly young woman; and a son Arthur, who was concived in "[[The Rape of Heather Willis]]" and gave birth to in "[[The Steak Nazi]]"<ref name=Heather-Pregnant>Heather was pregnant for eight episodes. </ref>. Tabby and Shushu are very confused upon how Heather as an 9-year-old lobster can have a teenage daughter, and Heather's remark about it being in crab years confuses them even further.


Heather is a [[wikipedia:Modern liberalism in the United States|political liberal]], who supports legalizing marijuana, [[wikipedia:Same-sex marriage|gay marriage]] and ending the "[[wikipedia:war on terror|war on terror]]". She is also a Methodist like most of the Willis Family.

Despite appearing to be well-read, Heather's intelligence is generally average, if not below average. She often tries to impress others of how smart she is but is frequently corrected by others, mainly Tabby and Shushu. 

Heather sees herself as a romantic and has had several relationships over the years, mainly with human men and on occasion [[wikipedia:trans woman|transgender women]]. Heather will often abandon her own personal beliefs and personality in order to make herself more appealing to the men she's attracted to and sometimes resorts to lying in order to make herself look good. These relationships often end badly due to her inflated ego or being caught in a deception. Her longest lasting relationship was with Hank Wilcox, a beautiful but dim witted boy who Heather dated in season 6. She eventually moves in with him but is unable to pay rent. This eventually leads to a fight when Heather reveals she didn’t want to move in with him. She later tries to win him back but discovers he's now dating [[Nicole Pence (Queen of the Willis)|Nicole Pence]], leaving her heartbroken.


===Writing career===
Heather is an aspiring but struggling writer. Heather is unemployed, but she is often seen writing various novels, screenplays or essays. Her difficult writing career is used as a recurring joke throughout the series. In the episode "[[Play it Again, Heather]]", Heather won an award for an essay she wrote, though she later admits that she [[wikipedia:plagiarism|plagiarized]] the piece.<ref>??</ref> In [[Heather Willis' House of Payne]]", she writes a television script entitled "What I Learned on Washington Boulevard", and it was shown to [[wikipedia:Fox Broadcasting Company|a TV network]] who picked it up after reading it. Although the script was good, the finished product was not, as [[wikipedia:Josh Kaufman|Josh Kaufman]] intervened and turned Heather's script into a farcical comedy piece.

==Character==

===Creation===
''Queen of the Willis'' creator [[Ava Zinn]] created a cartoon short and comic strip entitled ''Frank's Life''.<ref>??</ref> The short centered around a younger man named Frank, middle-aged woman named Brittani and her anthropomorphic pet Amber.<ref name="GreatReporter">{{cite news |title =Ava Zinn&nbsp;– she's the "QOTW"}}</ref> In 1999, when Zinn was working for ATE Media, writing for shows such as ''Fred & Claire'',<ref name="Yahoovid">??</ref> she made a sequel to ''Frank's Life''.<ref>??</ref> The short caught the eye of ATE Media Corporation representatives, who asked her to create a TV series revolving around the characters.<ref name="GreatReporter"/> Zinn received a US$10,000 budget to develop a pilot for the show, which was, as Zinn stated in a 2006 interview, "{{interp|...}} about one 100th of what most pilots cost".<ref name="Yahoovid"/> Zinn claims to have drawn inspiration from several sitcoms and soap operas, namely ''[[wikipedia:Family Guy|Family Guy]]'', ''[[wikipedia:King of the Hill|King of the Hill]]'', ''[[wikipedia:All My Chidren|All My Children]]'', and ''[[wikipedia:Loving (TV series)|Loving]]''.<ref name="Back Home Again In">{{cite news|title=Interview with Ava Zinn}}</ref> 

In three months, Zinn created the Willis family and developed a pilot for the show she called ''Queen of the Willis''. Heather's character was largely based on Amber, and Frank and Brittani, respectively,  would be the main inspiration for the Ava and Angie characters (after Frank transitions to female).<ref name="AWN">??</ref>
{{Clear}}

===Voice===
The voice of Heather is provided by series creator Ava Zinn, who also provides the voices of many other characters including [[Ava Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Ava Willis]], [[Tabby Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Tabby Willis]], [[Shushu Willis (Queen of the Willis)|Shushu Willis]], and [[Anna Pamhouser]].<ref>??</ref> Heather's voice is Zinn's normal speaking voice, but, Ava and Heather's singing voice is Ava Zinn’s normal singing voice as seen in “Valentine’s Day in Quillsville, Indiana”.  The first ''Queen of the Willis'' episode to feature Zinn's singing voice was in the 2008 episode "[[Mellencamp Fever]]" when Ava Willis performed [[wikipedia:Wild_Night#John_Mellencamp_and_Meshell_Ndegeocello_version|Wild Night]] and in the 2009 episode "[[Meet the Pamhousers]]" when Heather Willis performed  the [[wikipedia:Michael Jackson|Michael Jackson]] song Billie Jean.

Melinda Long auditioned unsuccessfully for the role.<ref name=avclub>??</ref>

==Identification with Ava Zinn==
Zinn has been part of the main voice cast from the beginning of the series including the pilot and had been voicing Heather from the start. Zinn chose to voice Heather, Pamhouser, and Shushu (they are biological females) and several other biological male and transgender female characters herself, believing it would be easier to portray the voices she already envisioned than for someone else to attempt it.<ref name="Zinn-Star">{{cite news|title=Queen of the Willis' Ava Zinn}}</ref>  She noted in an interview that she voices Heather and the rest of the characters partly because they initially had a small budget, but also that she and Holly Everman prefers to have the freedom to do it themselves.<ref name=avclub>{{cite news|title=Holly Everman and Ava Zinn}}</ref> In another interview, Zinn mentioned that Heather's voice is the most difficult in emotional scenes unlike Ava and Tabby (both transgender females) there no silly voice or falsetto to hide behind it.<ref name="Road to">{{cite news|title=Interview with Ava Zinn & Holly Everman}}</ref> Zinn revelaed that ''[[The Rape of Heather Willis]]'' and ''[[For the Love of Heather]]'' were the most difficult episodes.

Another running gag, starting in the ''[[wikipedia:Sleepaway Camp|Sleepaway Camp]]''-themed episodes, has Heather being the head chef of Camp Quillsville running a restaurant.

==In other media==
Heather is featured in in one episode of Ava Zinn's other animated sitcom, ''[[Hoosier Anchorwoman!]]'' titled ''The People vs. Sydney Steele.'' When Kendra Kendall begins to mention her list of "Top 5 Fictitious sea characters," with the last one being Heather, she briefly appears confused asking Kendra, "Uh, do I know you?", which is a homage to Zinn herself since she voices both characters. 

Heather is also featured in the series finale of ''Amanda & Elisa'' titiled "[[Amanda & Elisa's Judgement Day]]." When she answers the door to the titular characters of that show, Amanda and Elisa get skiddish as they saw Heather as a crab.

Heather is mentioned in the [[Caprice & Ella (season 4)|fourth season]] 12-part miniseries of Ava Zinn's live action series, ''[[Caprice & Ella]]'' titled "[[Breaking Boiling Point (Caprice & Ella)|Breaking Boiling Point]]" in which Ava Zinn vomits for sixty seconds after she learns the apartment she, [[Caprice (Caprice & Ella)|Caprice]], and [[Ella (Caprice & Ella)|Ella]] would not be ready in time.

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==

{{Queen of the Willis}}
{{Ava Zinn}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Willis, Heather}}
[[Category:Queen of the Willis characters]]
[[Category:Fictional anthropomorphic characters]]
[[Category:Fictional characters from Maine]]
[[Category:Fictional characters introduced in 2006]]
[[Category:Fictional Democrats (United States)]]
[[Category:Fictional lobsters]]
[[Category:Fictional writers]]
[[Category:Fictional alcohol abusers]]
[[Category:Talking animals in fiction]]
[[Category:Fictional unemployed people]]
[[Category:Anthropomorphic lobsters]]
[[Category:Female characters in animation]]
[[Category:Female characters in television]]
[[Category:Narcissism in fiction]]
[[Category:Fictional bisexual women]]
[[Category:LGBT characters in animation]]