#these are the vows Roger and Bree used
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Outlander 7x01 Thoughts & Easter Eggs
Feel free to look below the cut, spoilers ahead!
First episodes are always interesting in that they have so much hype because the fans are starved for new episodes, but they rarely do more than set the table for the rest of the season. A hard thing to juggle and be able to hold peoples attention while also jamming a lot of context clues in there. I think overall this one served its purpose and I felt like it was a wise decision for there to not be a time jump between the last episode of season 6.
That said, we all need to keep in mind the parameters of season 7 going into the rest of the episodes of this first half. The first 4 episodes of season 7 were supposed to be a part of season 6. Then the rest of season 7 was filmed with the creators not knowing if they would be given a season 8, so they jammed 3 books worth of content into it. I don’t know about everyone else, but I certainly felt that pacing and quicker speed in this first episode. With a show and book series which historically takes forever for storylines and payoffs to come to fruition, it’s hard not to feel that change.
Opening scene and “vision” (? Or is it just a thought Jamie has?) of Claire being sentenced was impactful, excellent acting once again by Caitriona. I thought the internal monologue of Jamie knowing she’s not dead was lovely and a smart way to call back their vows. He does so twice in this episode.
Bree & Roger
Bree and Roger are such dweebs and their endless use of puns and 20th century references cracks me up. That said, if they keep it up I’ll get annoyed, sometimes it feels like a cop out for better dialogue and gives the impression that these two never share serious conversations between them. I understand their dynamic is different than Jamie and Claire’s, but there is a fear that the writers are solely using their conversations as the comedic relief points in the show.
Rogers preaching leads him to Indigo Donner (the actor is perfect, he’s a sneaky snake). The fact that Roger may likely have something to do with his escape is the ultimate irony. Especially given the time taken to find the date of the house burning in the future, and that he and Bree came back to try and avoid it.
Claire
Claire’s scenes in the jail cell are great, and the women in the jail were excellent character actors, especially Sadie. When Jamie and Young Ian finally reach the jail we see our first glimpse of vengeful Jamie and while I do sometimes get frustrated with Sam’s use of a furrowed brow, his anger and reactionary body langue is still in line with young Jamie. The continuity of the character has always been impressive to me, right down to his little finger movements and facial twitches.
Claire being a healer in action was so nice to see again, I feel like it’s been a while since she’s been actively healing others. Just like the books, her skills have granted her a literal get out of jail free card.
It may just be me, but I do feel like Claire is now capable of doing some bad things and has a bit more mischief in her eyes in her old age. Jamie is still a hot head willing to break every rule to protect Claire, and her moral compass is the only thing that keeps him in line. But the older she gets, the more Jamie’s willingness to bend the rules is rubbing off on her, and I really love that we don’t always know exactly how Claire is going to react anymore. She’s got a poker face now, and it makes her far more interesting to watch.
Major McDonald on board the ship is from the books but it’s also a great scene to help move the plot along. Governor Martin was a real historical figure and the actor who plays him is another great character actor. Forcing Jamie to gather men for the revolution and pick a side has been the trend of the last 3 seasons so it comes as no surprise that he’s once again being forced to swear loyalties to the crown (and finding a way out of it).
Tom Christie
Mark Lewis Jones as Tom Christie is a wonderful casting. He’s such a strong actor and his portrayal of Tom’s (very unfortunate) unrequited love is perfectly done. The scene where Tom tells Jamie his plan to free Claire was not shown in the books, just implied. Seeing that conversation was a perfect spot for Sam and Mark to wrap a bow around Tom Christie’s character and his relationship with Jamie. The callback of Jamie’s vow to Claire on their wedding night was also a very sweet bit of added dialogue. There are many moments where the show is able to add scenes and dialogue that seamlessly fit into the story, and this is one of them.
The way in which Tom was willing to lay his life aside for Claire was a beautiful thing. Jamie putting aside his pride to allow it was a big moment for him. I also loved the eulogy moment. Jamie giving Tom the eulogy he would have wanted and deserved was such a perfect way to close out their storyline.
The scene between Claire and Tom had so many lovely call backs to the books, and majority of the dialogue was straight from the text. The scene shed light on Tom’s brother, his wife, and the reasons Tom became the man he did. It also shed light on Malva’s upbringing and how that informed Tom’s shaping of his own motive.
Claire seeing through his lies actually reinforces why he fell in love with her. When he tells her that he loves her my heart broke for him, and for Claire. It’s not like she can do anything to persuade him, and she will never reciprocate. His life for hers is the ultimate sacrifice, and a debt she knows she cannot repay to him. I thought the acting of both Cait and Mark shined brightly in this scene.
Jamie
Jamie and Claire’s second reunion is cute, but this goes back to the timing issue I highlighted above. It feels off with all the abruptly cut scenes. In their first reunion, the two share a kiss and the scene immediately cuts to Jamie standing alone in the cabin with governor Martin. Then the second reunion, they meet on the docks and it immediately cuts to them laying in bed. You mean to tell me this man who just traveled for days and moved mountains to find his wife is given a literal peck of a reunion, then we skip their entire conversation and cut to them in bed hours later? It felt like they removed dialogue for the sake of run time and personally, I’d always prefer small talk with Claire and Jamie and a full two minutes of them staring into each others eyes than any B-Roll.
Third strange pacing and editing choice was when Jamie tells Claire to rest and she’s IMMEDIATELY asleep. It’s not even a minute later and he’s able to sneak out on her. At the very least they could have dimmed the lights and implied it has been an hour or so before he left.
But they redeemed themselves with the last scene between Jamie and Mr. Brown, that was great. Now that Jamie’s older and has greater responsibilities we see less of a fire in him. While his love for Claire is still strong, he’s not as reckless. But this scene shows the viewers that the fire is still very much alive in Jamie, along with his tactical mind. Having Ian go back to the ridge to implement his revenge was a great callback to young Jamie and his strengths. One of the best lines of dialogue in YEARS was:
“I’m also a violent man, any goodness that prevails in me is because of my wife. You tried to take her from me.”
THIS is what I hope we get loads of this season.
I’m optimistic after this first episode. Visually it was stunning as always, there was a lot of acting highlights for numerous characters, and the storyline and dialogue stayed true to the books when it needed to, and added more depth and context when necessary.
#outlander#outlanderedit#jamie x claire#jamie fraser#claire fraser#sam heughan#claire x jamie#jammf#caitriona balfe#james alexander malcolm mackenzie fraser#outlander 7x01#outlander spoilers#outlander review#outlander ep: A Life Well Lost
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Faith 's Journey Home Chapter 8
AO3
“Well that would certainly fix things. If you are certain, Faith?” They stand in her surgery. She smiles at her mama
“I am. He is sweet and kind. He understands me. We will work out well together.” Her mama nods. She has been impressed by Ian since she first meet him. He is all Faith said and more. But…
“And the other?”
“Once to seal the union. Enough times after to have a child or two. I believe I can handle that.” She wishes more then just her daughter having to handle the marriage bed it, there is no way for her to marry a lass so..
“Alright. Will you have a lover?” Faith had been glancing through the journal her mama keeps. She jerks her eyes up at this. “I may not completely understand what you feel but, I know what it is to be fully satisfied in a marriage bed. If you can’t find that in yours, I pray you can find it elsewhere.”
“Wow mama! I never expected to.. I am not sure. I mean, just finding a lass of that persuasion will be.. then there is Ian. I understand wedding vows and what forsaken all others means. So, I would have to make an arrangement with him. If I could even find a lass to…”
Claire nods. “Would you be my assistant? You have more medical knowledge then I will ever hope to have. I would love it if we could work together to keep our family and tenants safe.”
“Mama I would love to! I was going to ask you.” There are smiles and hugs.
“Wonderful, now when shall we make this wedding?”
“Roger, that experiment wasn’t proven to be true.” They are home. Jemmy plays in the next room as his parents discuss how to make this marriage easier on his auntie.
“We aren’t writing a paper on it. I just think it may help Faith relax a bit more around him. Never being with a lad before and never wishing, her wedding night might not be as easy as..”
“Ours?” she arches her crimson eyebrows.
“Well at least you desired me. That is the point. If she even desires him a bit.”
“It can’t hurt. And if it helps, even a bit.”
“My thoughts. You can measure her pulse?”
“Mama has taught me that much.”
Faith and Ian sit and talk. They have rode out to a quiet part of the estate and he helped her down from the horse and had laughed as she rubbed her bum.
“Hey, my bottom is used to soft car seats not hard horse’s backs.” He grins bolder as they take a seat in on the soft grass. He has spread a tartan out to protect her dress.
“It is hard to imagine such. Carriages pulled by motors and not horses.” She nods. She knows it is. They would never fully understand, not even her mama and Bree, what her time was like. Only Uncle Ray. Her face changes from teasing to grief. Her fiancé sees. “I am sorry Faith. I ken what it is like to grief those gone.”
“Your family?”
“Aye and Emily, our lost bairns.” She turns her full attention to him. “I told you I was married. I didn’t tell you of our bairns.” She shakes her head. “She couldn’t , no, my spirit combined with hers, wouldn’t stay. The bairns, they died inside her, again and again. I am not sure that my spirit will stay with yours, that we will be able to bear bairns.” As a highly trained nurse, she knows there are a lot of reasons that the children might have been lost. But how to explain that to him? Before she can start, he adds, “They took her away. Gave her to my best friend. They have a child.”
She decides the explanation can wait. She takes him into her arms, holding him close. He clings to his future wife and sobs out his grief. She whispers French words of comfort over him. When his sobs slow, she starts to talk.
“My lost love was Zoe. She was my first real lover. We were inseparable. Until Uncle Ray got sick. We had made plans to travel around the world together, working as healers. But, I couldn’t leave him. She couldn’t stay. Her dreams were to vast to be caged into one place. We made love one final time and she left.”
“Mo ghrá, mi cherí I am sorry.”
“Gracious, it would have never worked anyway, not with me heading here.”
“Aye but, it is heard to tell your heart thus.” She smiles through her tears.
“Ouí. My dear Ian, I think we shall do just fine together.”
“I agree, my darling Faith.” Resting against each other, they grow quiet.
“It is a good match but, are you sure Faith is alright with it? She doesn’t wish to choose her own groom.” Fergus says in response to his mama’s announcement of his sister’s engagement.
“Well, Faith is attracted to lasses.” Her eldest blinks hard. Marsali, behind him, crosses herself, mumbling a prayer.
“That is.. well I’ve seen such in the brothel. Some of the lasses preferred each other’s company.”
His wife closes her eyes before letting her breath out and walking up, placing her hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Was it more accepted in her time, Mother Claire?”
“It was. They were even married.”
She nods. If it was accepted them and since Claire accepted it, then she shall too. Faith was family, after all. “Then so be it. Ian is an excellent choice. His sweet accepting manner is perfect for her.”
“Ouí. So when shall the wedding be?”
“In a week.”
Marsali is curious. “Did she have a love, in her time?”
“She did. A lass named Zoe. When Raymond took sick, their paths diverted. She chose to stay with him and Zoe went on with the plans they had made.
Fergus tsks but Marsali was right furious with this lass who had rejected her heart sister. “She should be ashamed! Love doesn’t leave when time get hard. It stays and fights. Hmm, look at all Fergus and I have been through. Faith deserves better. We shall pray she finds it with Ian, even if he is a lad.”
Claire hugs her daughter close. “Thank you darling. Yes we shall.”
“Faith is marrying Ian.” Murtagh looks at Jamie. His brushy eyebrows are at his hair line.
“What dinna I ken about her?”
Jamie simply shakes his head. He should have known Murtagh would sense what wasn’t said. He would have told him anyway.
“She prefers the company of lasses.” His Godfather ‘s eyebrows seem to get even higher.
“As in.. bedmates?” Jamie nods. Murtagh makes a sound that could mean anything. “Ian kens this?”
“He does.” Murtagh shakes his head. “It was more accepted in her time. They could even be married.”
“Weel, the heart wants as it wants. The marriage will have to consummated. She kens this?”
“Aye. She believes she can, and have some bairns, as thanks to Ian and to keep her safe.”
“Aye, it will settle any talk. An unusual situation but, if both are accepting then, it could work out alright.”
“Aye, not sure how Jenny will react to her son marrying his cousin.”
Murtagh laughs. “It is a mighty good thing there be an ocean between she and you.”
“The study was continued in my time and discredited.”
Bree rolls her eyes. They are so sisters. She feels the weight of her husband’s glance on her back. He had, after all, heard basically the same argument from her. “I actually said the same.”
“I reminded her that we aren’t doing studies to publish a paper just to try to see if you have any attraction to the lads, no matter how latent.”
“Alright.. But I don’t. I can handle his touch because he is family and he has a gentle way about him.”
“Shall we see?” She nods at her brother -in-law. He fetches Ian.
“What are we doing?” He was just told it was a way to help his bride-to-be.
“We are exploring if she can handle your touch. Nothing to overt. Just run your hands over the parts you can touch in public.” Bree explains.
“Alright.” He sits in front of her, “My lady, may I touch you?”
“You may.”
He runs his hand over her face. She smiles as he moves over her lips. He moves up to her hair, running across her curls. He places his hand under them and lifts up the heft of it. When his knuckles graze her neck, she shivers. Her eyes are closed so she can focus so she misses the look exchanged between her sister and Roger.
He moves to her arms, running his fingertips up and down them.
Her breath catches as feelings she hasn’t felt since the last touch she had felt from Zoe, start to build in her. Her eyes open and she meets his. His brown/ gold eyes, autumn glazing at her, open wider at what he must be seeing in hers. He drinks her in as his hand finds hers. As their hands come together, she thinks, “Yeah, I can maybe stand a marriage to him.
Bree is holding her wrist. Her pulse is now pounding. She grins and her sister sees out of the corner of her eye.
“Petite merge suffisante.” Faith thinks to herself. ( Smug little shit)
The wedding is the next day and her papa sits with her in the dining room. He has something he wants to discuss with her. It is his fatherly duty. “Faith are you ready for tomorrow?”
“The dress is made. I have flowers and..” He stops her, his hand covering hers.
“Aye but I meant, in your heart?”
“Yes papa. I am. I never expected to be marrying a lad but, Ian and I, we have a connection. I have faith it will see us through.”
“I am happy to hear that. Your mama has told you what to expect tomorrow night?”
She blushes a bit. As sexually liberated as she is, she is still physically a virgin. “Yes she has. I am as ready as I can be for, all that.”
“The lad will be gentle and slow. I’ve talked with him about how to take a maidenhead.”
Her flush deepens. “You have such experience papa?”
Geneva. Trying to go slow and her wiggle not helping. Willie. His wonderful spoiled son. He sighs. Meaning to tell her, today might as well be it. “Aye. There was a lass at Helewater, while I was serving as a groom there..” He tells her about Geneva, her blackmail, the night Willie was conceived. “He was a shock. To find myself holding him. I was relieved he didn’t have red hair.”
“Papa, I am so sorry. “
He smiles sadly. “I stayed as long as I could. Until he started looking like me. It is better for him that he remains the Earl he is then, at the time, the bastard son of an indentured servant.”
“Do you ever see him?” His smile grows. Standing, he walks over to where the little portrait is. He walks back over and hands it to her. She takes it and studies him.
“Oh, I see it. He has our face.”
“Aye. John brings a new portrait as often as he can.”
“John, as in John Grey?”
He nods and explains about the turning over the raising of the lad. “Isobel passed away years ago, God rest her soul, but John is doing well with him.”
She laughs as she holds the tiny miniature of her brother. “I could have been the stepmom of my brother.” He laughs with her.
Her nerves show as her mama and sister help her into her wedding dress. At one time, she had imagined doing this with Zoe. Never, in her wildest dream had she imagined doing it with a man, her cousin, no less.
“It will be okay.” Bree assures her. “You couldn’t ask for better.”
“Oh Ian is wonderful. It is just, I never imagined it being a guy.”
Her mama brushes her hair out, down as befitting a maiden. She hugs her. “I am sorry that a lady isn’t an option. Truly my darling, I am.”
She smiles at her, reflected by the mirror they both face. “I know mama. Ian, he and I will get along fine.” A snort from Bree as she finishes buttoning up her dress.
“No doubt there.”
Jamie enters the room and stops dead at the sight of his daughter, the one he thought lost forever, dressed for her wedding. “You are so beautiful, Faith.”
“Thank you papa.” She will admit the dress is becoming on her. Off white with tiny blue flowers, it fits like a dream, lifting her breasts and showing off just enough of her shoulders and chest.
“I have something for you. Something your mama and sister both wore on their wedding day.” He walks up and places his mam’s pearls around her neck. She looks down and catches her breath. “They were your grandmother ‘s. As precious to me as you are, my Faith.” She stands and hugs him.
“Papa, they are perfect.”
“My darling, mon mighean, I haven’t had enough time with you. If I wasn’t given you to my own nephew, I am not sure I would be able to do this.”
She touches his face. “Papa, you and mama aren’t losing me. After all, Ian and I will be living just steps away.” They will be living in the croft house that Marsali and Fergus had started in. It quickly became to small with their growing family. It is perfect for the two of them though.
“Aye, thank the saints for that.”
She stands straight. “Will you escort me to my groom, papa?” His eyes smile through the wetness of his tears.
“An honor I never hoped to have.” She takes his arm.
They walk past their gathered family. Murtagh beams at the sight of her. Fergus and Marsali, balancing their four bairns, smile as they pass. Bree and Roger, holding tight to a squirming Jemmy, smile broadly at her. Then there is her groom.
He stands at the front of their gathered families. Dressed in a celebratory Mohawk way, he waits, hands clasped in front of him. Jamie nods to him before placing his daughter’s hand in his. “You will see to her?”
“With my life. I swear it” He kisses her cheek and then goes back to join his own bride.
“Do you promise to take Ian Murray as your husband. To be faithful only unto him, to give him honor and be obedient, in and out of bed?” She looks towards her mama and sister. They both nod.
“I do.”
“Do you take Faith Fraser to be your wife, to honor and love her, to look after her as the weaker vessel and be only ever true to her?”
“I do.”
He slips a ring on her finger and they are married. They kiss for the first time. She finds comfort and safety in it. It would surprise her to know that her own mama felt the same.
#my writing#outlander fanfic#faith's journey home#chapter 8#jamie and claire#cannon divergence#outlander fandom
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mod bonnie you're a monster with that cllif hanger. please oh please can we get the escape and the sex SOON!!
Hail Mary : Part IX
Premise: What if Jamie and Claire had 1) been more openly affectionate in those early days, and 2) not *had* to get married?
Part I Part II Part III Part IV Part V Part VI Part VII Part VIII
Jamie’s arm around my middle held me securely against his chest as he reigned up. His grip on me was strong, considerately preventing my lurching forward from inertia, but the added contact with his heaving chest showed he was just as exhausted as me.
“So, wh—” Lord, this might be Scotland, and the night air cool and moist, but my mouth was dry as the Sahara. I laughed a little and leaned my head back against Jamie’s shoulder as I tried to get enough moisture to rasp out, “Where are we, exactly?”
“‘Exactly’ where, I dinna ken, but w—” He was a bit short of breath himself, apparently. He gave me a squeeze and a sweaty kiss on the cheek before relinquishing me to Murtagh, who was reaching to help me down from the horse. “—We crossed out of MacKenzie lands as of the last glen, so for the moment, we’re—Whoa, lass—!”
My knees locked as I slipped off the horse, my feet juddering so hard onto the packed earth that I nearly toppled before Murtagh’s strong grip saved me. “Are ye alright, a nighean?”
I just stared at him.
Jamie shifted sharply in the saddle to check that I was alright. “Mo chridhe?”
“Fine,” I panted. I was fine; but the shock of hearing an endearment coming from the ever-dour Murtagh’s lips, his eyes warm with concern, even, had taken me considerably aback. A softy, underneath it all, eh? “Perfectly fine,” I said again, waving my hand in reassurance, “just tired.”
Jamie jumped down beside me and took the satchel from my hands. “Go have a bit of a rest, Sassenach, while we tend to the horses.”
I didn’t need telling twice. I found a grassy spot and stretched full length on my back, groaning in relief and draping my arm over my face against harsh moonlight.
We’d ridden for nearly twenty-four hours since our escape from Leoch, which had been no small feat in and of itself.
A guard had begun stalking Jamie scarce twenty minutes after the confrontation with Colum. The brute—hulking, even compared to Jamie, if it could be believed—had been a faithful, menacing shadow for the entire afternoon and evening, escorting Jamie firmly to his chamber when night fell, and neatly preventing any contact between Jamie and me.
Thankfully for all of us, Colum had not deemed it necessary to post a guard at MY door. All Jamie had had to do was wait for the dark of midnight, clamber out his fourth-floor window, and climb CAREFULLY up the stone wall of the keep. He’d had one near-fall, sending a shower of stone dust and mortar chips downward; but thankfully, attracted no attention as he clambered up to the roof, and entered the castle again through a garret window to make his way to my chamber.
Murtagh—with whom Jamie had had several vital minutes as he was leaving Colum’s tower—had not been assigned an obvious tail, and thus had been able to gather food and weapons for our flight. Jamie hadn’t dared risk having Murtagh speak to or otherwise get word to me, in case Colum had hidden eyes watching after all. They had, however, arranged for the torches between my chamber and the window to the east-wing roof to be prematurely extinguished, giving Jamie and me the cover of near-pitch-blackness in which to make our way to the roof. We’d had to dart hastily into an alcove as a pair of Grant retainers came down the hall, speaking of the next day’s ceremony and making bets on whether or not Edina Grant would faint (as, we were given to understand, she had a rather sickly constitution). But finally we made it to our escape hatch. Out the window we went, down a ten-foot drop to the roof of the wing below, a painstaking walk across the shadowed gable, and another drop to the yard below.
It all would have gone off without a hitch, if the ostensibly-convenient stack of crates we were climbing down hadn’t toppled, causing a ruckus that attracted first the guard dogs and then the guards themselves. Jamie had managed to knock the three men out, but we could hear the alarm being raised and the thundering of many booted feet as we sprinted for the outer door, where Murtagh was waiting just outside. He’d managed only two horses, but beggars and choosers, and all that; and we were galloping south with all due haste, leaving the walls of Leoch behind, and praying we could stay ahead of any of Colum’s men that would be dispatched to follow us….which, thank heaven, we had.
Jamie thudded onto the ground next to me and groaned as he stretched out onto his back, his boots a few inches from my elbow.
I rolled onto my stomach to give my aching rear end a break, laying my cheek on my crossed arms and feeling the night breeze ruffling through my hair. My head was spinning with the delirium of exhaustion, and I prayed this would be a LONG rest. The three or four respites we’d taken so far had been agonizingly short, time enough only to spare the horses keeling over. And if I was weary and aching, Jamie must be near to keeling over himself, having had the task of controlling the horse one-handed AND keeping a hold on me to keep me falling when I inevitably dozed off against his shoulder.
Sure enough, he groaned again, with an urgency and a Gaelic curse that spoke to a great deal of discomfort.
“Love?” I reached out a leaden hand to touch his foot, cursing that my medicine box had been (wisely) deemed too heavy to bring along, “Have you pulled something?”
“D’ye have any notion,” he said between gritted teeth, “of how your arse looks in those breeks?”
Fatigue be damned, this was WORTH IT. I came up on my arms and craned my neck around to grin at him. He was propped up on one arm, staring in definite distress at the item in question.
Jamie being Jamie, I had been rather startled that he had suggested trousers in the first place; but practicality, it seemed, had won out over propriety. It would have been a liability to all of us, to have me slowed by heavy skirts on our escape.
Apparently, the breeks were their own sort of liability, though. I spy, with my little eye, a not-so-little kilt tent.
“Good, is it?” I asked, trying my very hardest not to laugh….or ogle…and failing at both. Definitely not little.
“Jesus,” he said again, in what might have been considered a whimper.
You know, you *have* undressed me completely, before, lad,I thought about saying; but I couldn’t help feeling gratified at his apparent awe. It was a father fine arse, by all accounts. And,might as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb. I gave my rear end a rather lewd undulation and he swore so violently it scared the horses.
“Cuir stad, lad, you’ll wake the dead!” Murtagh scolded, emerging from the underbrush with our refilled canteens and turning his gimlet eye on me. “What in God’s name did ye DO to him?”
Jamie laughed and sat up. “All the right things, a charaid.”
I sat up too, gratefully accepting my replenished canteen, changing the subject as well as my posture to spare Jamie from squirming himself into an early grave. “So, we’re safe, now? The MacKenzies can’t pursue us outside their own lands?”
“Not wi’out exposing themselves to a great deal of risk,” Murtagh said, plunking down next to us. “Colum’s enraged, to be sure, but he’ll have enough on his hands wi’ the Grants to consider doing anythin’ to vex another clan in the process.”
“Lord, the poor Grants,” I laughed, groaning a bit. “They’ve gotten the short end of the stick, haven’t they?”
Jamie’s mouth tightened, an expression I’d come to know meant he was supremely uncomfortable. “I did leave a letter in my chamber, ken?”
“A letter?” Murtagh and I both said together.
“To Miss Grant,” he said, with a tight shrug. “Explaining that my flight had naught to do wi’ her, but only that my heart belonged to another.”
I smiled. “That was very considerate of you, darling.”
“Aye, and also hopefully t’will appease Malcolm Grant that Colum didna willfully seek to ensnare him and shame his daughter.”
“Do you think your uncles will ever let you come back to Leoch?”
“No.” It was Murtagh that answered, his voice grim. “Not if his mother’s case is to be our guide.”
Jamie nodded in agreement and dropped his eyes.
Ellen MacKenzie had never once received even a word from her enraged brothers after her scandalous elopement with Black Brian Fraser. Dougal had apparently visited Lallybroch a time or two after her death, and had eventually taken Jamie for his foster, but from the moment she left that castle, Ellen’s fate had been sealed: exiled and infamous.
It had been love for Ellen and Brian, Jamie said, real and deep and strong, and so she never had cause to regret her decision; and yet…
I scooted closer to her son and leaned in to kiss his shoulder. “I am sorry, you know—to be the cause of your entire life upending.”
Jamie raised his eyebrows, dubious.
“Well, it’s not as if I want you to cast me to the roadside, do I? But they are your family. I know they don’t mean nothing to you.”
“True…and thank you, Sassenach. But to the MacKenzies, family is obligation as much as affection. Heart, but with claws.” He pulled me close and kissed the top of my head. “Dinna fash: I dinna regret a thing.”
“Well, I know you don’t now, but—”
“They’re my blood, but my true family is Jenny. Murtagh.” He squeezed my hand hard. “You.”
The lump formed so suddenly in my throat, I could only whisper it back to him. “You.”
My only family.
He gently cupped my chin and kissed me, then drew back with purpose, catching his godfather’s eye. “I ken you’re as tired as we, a gostadh, but surely ye must be getting on your way if you’re to catch the post rider?”
The dour clansman nodded and got to his feet. “I’ll be off in ten minutes, as soon as the handfasting is done.”
Jamie was like a loosed arrow as he leapt to his feet, barking something at Murtagh in rapid Gaelic. Murtagh threw up his face and said something scornful back in the same language, and even my brief time amongst eighteenth-century highlanders had taught me the early warning signs of an all-out brawl.
“Jesus H. Christ, honestly!” I stepped neatly between them—getting a prodigious spray of spittle from both sides for my efforts—and held up my hands. “Will you both calm down and PLEASE explain to me what handfasting is?”
“Handfasting is—” Murtagh began.
“—nothing you need trouble yourself over, because it’s NOT HAPPENING,” Jamie finished, eyes flashing at Murtagh across my shoulder.
“—A CEREMONY OF MARRIAGE,” Murtagh persisted, “for when there’s no priest handy. Ye join hands, say the words, and you’re man and wife for a year and a day, until the union can be formally blessed.”
“And it’s real? A legitimate union, I mean, according to the church?”
“Aye,” he said, seeming surprised by my doubt. “Valid only for the year, but valid nonetheless. Common enough in the Highlands so as no’ to looked down upon.”
“We are not going to be handfasted,” Jamie growled, “and that’s all there—”
“But of course we should!” I said. “Jamie, you said it yourself at Leoch: being married as soon as possible is the next most important thing for our safety, yes?”
“Aye, but—” He shuffled uncomfortably. “It’s so—crude! Ye deserve a ring—a proper dress for—”
“I don’t bloody need all that!“ I said with such laughing scorn that he looked startled. “Jamie… I’ve been married before,” I said, far more gently. “The ring, the clothes—? Those things can be lovely, but they aren’t important to me. But if…” I searched his face, not wanting to be flippant. “Are they important to you?”
“Well, aye, in a way but—They’re only important insomuch as—” He was flustered, almost sheepish in his unease as he ran a hand backward through his hair. “I should never wish to give ye anything less than is due to ye. I want to honor ye, Sassenach.”
“You do honor me, Jamie, just by wanting to marry me. That’s all I need.”
He looked torn. “I ken you’re a practical woman, Claire, and ye wish to put a good face on things, but—”
“But I do mean it, my love. No, listen,” I pushed, as he began to interrupt. “If I had been Edina Grant, say, a stranger you were OBLIGED to marry…just think of how different the wedding would need to be. The ring, our clothing, the place—that all would be significant, because–”
“Because we wouldna be knowing each other?” Jamie said, his features relaxing.
I exhaled in relief at the understanding in his voice. “Exactly.”
“I’d be a stranger you were meeting at the altar,” he continued, nodding slowly.
“And so the protocol, the finery and beauty of it all,” I took up, “That would be what we’d remember about our wedding. We’d need that to hold on to, to make it a pleasant memory.”
“....Until we might come to love or respect one another, one day,” he finished.
“But you do know me, Jamie: you know me. And you know I want to marry you.” I touched his face, sweeping down the stubble of his jaw. “And so the love we share is what we’ll remember about tonight. Nothing else matters.”
“Nothing else,” he repeated, his eyes twinkling and his mouth turned up in a tender smile, “mo nighean donn.”
And so it truly didn’t matter that we were both sweaty and reeking of horse as I came into his arms; didn’t matter that I was dressed like a little boy, or that my hair had reached the size and texture of the average haystack. All that mattered was that he meant it when he whispered, hoarse with feeling, “I do love you, Claire.”
And that there was no reservation in my heart when I looked up into his eyes and said back to him, “And I love you.”
“And if ye’re both quite finished breathing into each other’s faces,” Murtagh said, belching, “we’ll get on wi’ it?”
It was fast; it was simple—with not a scrap of either pomp or circumstance. We simply knelt, clasped hands, and said the words with Murtagh as witness.
And yet, even so, a deep, silent peace descended around us, wrapping each syllable in a sweet solemnity that would mark this place, this night in our memories, always:
“I, Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp do take thee, James Alexander M—” He grinned, but I managed it, and the spell fell around us again. “—Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser, to be my lawful wedded husband. With my goods I thee endow, with my body I thee worship, in sickness and in health, in richness and in poverty, so long as we both shall live.”
His eyes blazed as he swore his life to me in return. “I, James Alexander Malcolm MacKenzie Fraser, do take thee, Claire Elizabeth Beauchamp, to be my lawful wedded wife. With my goods I thee endow, with my body I thee worship, in sickness and in health, in richness and in poverty, so long as we both shall live.”
And I kissed him, kissed him, kissed him, and felt the world slide, then click into place.
A pair.
A home.
Jamie didn’t let go of my hand for a moment during our toast (for not even a fugitive Scotsman travels without whisky), nor did either of us stop grinning like fools in love. Husband. Wife.
Not even Murtagh was unaffected. For all he tried to hide behind his gruff and scruff, I’d seen his eyes sparkling as he looked down at Jamie and me saying our vows; I’d felt the feeling behind the rough hug he’d given me; and I’d been floored by the hoarseness of his voice as he’d said in my ear, “You’re right for him, a nighean.” And that made me feel an absolute empress over my happiness. Right for him; right for me; right.
“We’ll stay the night here,” Jamie said with decision, reaching up for his saddlebag.
But Murtagh said something in rapid Gaelic as he swung up into his saddle, gesturing to the east. Jamie grinned, asked something back, and got an answer that seemed to both surprise and please him greatly before Murtagh was galloping off into the distance.
“What was that about?”
“Murtagh knows of a better place for us to spend the night.” He held out his hand. “Can ye bear to ride a bit longer, my wife?”
I accepted the boost up into the saddle. “If it’s worth it, darling husband.”
“Sounds as if it will be,” he said as he clambered up behind us and turned us east. “And it’s good it isna far.“
“Tired?”
“Aye. And…” He ran his fingers down my rib cage and my blood went hot as he breathed into my shoulder, “…I’d like to get started wi’ worshiping your body.”
[more to come]
#Anonymous#;mod bonnie#Hail Mary AU#next week i promise#the do gets done#had to get them hitched first#and give them a bit of a chance to rest up#I kind of liked doing a Fraser wedding without blood of my blood#just to change things up a bit#these are the vows Roger and Bree used
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Outlander Season 5 | TV Guide Cover Story
On the Scotland set of the Starz romance Outlander, Caitriona Balfe, as smart, outspoken surgeon Claire Fraser sits on the bed in an 18th-century cabin, lovingly tracing her finger across sketches of her family. When her strapping husband, Jamie (Sam Heughan), enters the room, she tries to hide a sentimental tear. He gently touches her hair and whispers, “Sassenach,” his nickname for the English woman, a former World War II nurse who fell through time to the Scottish Highlands and into his arms in the series’ 2014 premiere. They embrace and... sorry, fans, you will have to wait until Episode 9 of the new season for this tender scene — and what happens next. The good news for those missing that famous Fraser sexual chemistry: Exactly 10 minutes and 8 seconds into the drama’s February 16 return, they kiss.
“They might be the grandparents of the show now, but Claire and Jamie are still the sexiest couple — not Bree and Roger,” Heughan says with a laugh. The younger pair, Claire and Jamie’s daughter (Sophie Skelton) and her husband (Richard Rankin) — a 20th century engineer and academic, respectively — traveled back in time separately last season: she to to warn her parents that an archived obituary reports their impending death in a fire; he to find his love.
That friendly offscreen rivalry aside, the 12-episode fifth season, which picks up five months after we last saw everyone reunited in the colony of North Carolina, is all about family togetherness. Drawing from The Fiery Cross, the fifth book in Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling series of Outlander novels, it’s set mostly in the early 1770s against the simmering American Revolution. (As a treat for print fans, previously undramatized scenes from earlier books will be peppered in, returning us to the land of tartan and to 1960s Boston.)
We’ve tried to get back to the basics: emotional stories [that bring] great highs and gut-wrenching lows,” teases executive producer Matthew B. Roberts, “[Fans will have] both good cries and bad cries.”
The good cries begin straightaway with Brianna and Roger’s magical wedding at Fraser’s Ridge, Jamie’s 10,000-acre land grant in the backcountry courtesy of England’s King George III. Amid trees draped with Spanish moss and surrounded by the settlers who have joined them on the Ridge, the proud parents remember taking their own vows as the youngsters recite theirs. For the cast and crew, the cold three-day shoot, sometimes stretching till 4am, wasn’t always as blissful as it looks. “We must have said the vows about a hundred times,” Skelton recalls. “By the end, I was like, ‘Richard, I don’t want to marry Roger anymore. The romance is gone!’“
As the party continues, we see how all the show’s major couples spend the wedding night. Bree has a flash of PTSD remembering Stephen Bonnet (Ed Speleers), the psychopathic criminal who terrorized the family, raped her and may be the father of her infant. (Presumed dead after a jail explosion in Season 4, he actually survived.) “She’s trying to get through that trauma, be there for her baby and not let her past define her,” Skelton says. Roger, who has decided to raise the child as his own no matter what, comforts her — and their passion ignites.
Claire and Jamie, meanwhile, hump into bed too, although babysitting their grandson causes some interruptions. Jamie’s wealthy aunt Jocasta (Marie Doyle Kennedy) sneaks off for a roll in the hay with his godfather, Murtagh (Duncan Lacroix), a fugitive because of his involvement with early revolutionaries the Regulators who oppose Britain’s exorbitant taxes. And Jamie’s grown stepdaughter Marsali (Lauren Lyle) gives her husband, onetime Fraser ward Fergus (Cesar Domboy), the news that she’s pregnant again.
The Clan’s revelry is short-lived. Governor Tryon (Tim Downie) is still intent on catching Murtagh — and reminds Jamie that it’s his task to hunt and kill the wanted man. Tryon tells Jamie he must gather a militia and get the job done or risk the land he’s been granted by the crown. Mindful of both his loyalty to Murtagh and his responsibility to his tenants, Jamie is soon on the “search” with his men.
“For me, it’s the most fun and interesting storyline to see Jamie pitched against his godfather,” Heughan says. “Inside Jamie is still the Highland warrior — you see flashes of that — but he’s a military man now, so it’s a new style of fighting. There’s a cannon and muskets and pistols.”
By Jamie’s side is son-in-law Roger, undeniably out of his element as the action ramps up to combat the Regulators’ guerrilla warfare. “Roger is a captain of Jamie’s militia, a huge role, one he’s honored by but knows is beyond him,” explains Rankin, adding that Roger will receive marksmanship lessons from Bree. “He goes on an incredible journey, and in later episodes, he can handle himself.”
This being the 18th century, the women remain at home — at least initially. Claire keeps busy with her medical practice. Her new space is modeled after a modern hospital and includes an operating table, hand-blown glass beakers and tools like an amputation saw (eek!). She quickly has more patients than she can handle and trains seamstress Marsali to assist her.
The lengths Claire goes to in order to protect the health of her family and the community she loves will come back to haunt her, hints Balfe: “Claire sometimes forgets how superstitious and threatened certain people can be by a woman being so powerful or so assertive.”
Expect consequences of decisions Jamie has made to bring about another big turn of events by midseason. “Claire and Jamie have a lot of very scary moments,” Balfe says. “Their mortality, that notion of being separated by death, is very present and informs a lot of what they do. We’re going to see some really vulnerable moments.”
You never know when danger will arise. On set the next day, Bree and Roger are walking with Marsali and Fergus through thick woods when Skelton bumps her head on a branch and filming comes to an abrupt halt. The men gallantly pull out their knives and threaten the offending pine. “We were getting revenge on the tree for her,” Rankin jokes later. Her parents would approve.
(📷: SharonAcord on Twitter)
#Outlander#Outlander Season 5#Jamie x Claire#Jamie Fraser#Claire Fraser#Sam Heughan#Caitriona Balfe#Brianna Randall#Roger MacKenzie#Sophie Skelton#Rik Rankin#Murtagh#Jocasta#Marsali#Fergus#Outlander Spoilers#TFC Spoilers#TV Guide
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OUTLANDER FAN FICTION: Murtagh
Here is an enjoyably long list of stories featuring Outlander’s one and only Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser! If you have written or know of a Murtagh-centric story (or moment) that’s not on this list please DM or comment below - there‘s no such thing as too much fanfic to read! SANDS x
After Culloden by @phoenixflames12
Weakened by fever, Jamie struggles to come to terms with the loss of Claire and the child and the fact that despite his best efforts, he is still alive.
All It Takes by @lenny9987 for @imagineclaireandjamie
Prompt: Imagine the conversation in S4 between Jamie and Murtagh when he tells his godfather about his second marriage.
An Ardsmuir Man Found by @lenny9987 for @imagineclaireandjamie
Prompt: Would love to see Marsali and Fergus finding Murtagh and bring him and the baby home to Jamie and Claire. The old and the new x
An Extended Stay At River Run by cantletitgo
The moments immediately following the season 4 finale (if you haven’t watched it, there are spoilers in this work!)
Before Light by @westerhos
Murtagh comforts Jamie after Faith’s death.
Can’t Do it For Her by @lenny9987 for @imagineclaireandjamie
Prompt: Hiya! I was wondering if there could be any Murtagh POV from first book/season? Related to either Jamie’s, Claire’s or both’s actions or circumstances? Thanks!
Cross That Line by MooseDeEvita
While traveling from town to town to lure Jamie back to them, Murtagh and Claire turn to each other for physical comfort. After all, confessions of lost love go so well with an ocean view and a sky full of stars. A bit of a deleted scene in episode 14 “The Search” after they hug in the cave by the sea.
Every Breath by thatsoccercoach
“It was there with every breath.”
Explaining Geneva by @renee-writer
A missing scene from Blood of my Blood where Jamie explains what happened with Geneva to Murtagh.
Faith’s Story by Judybrandtner
Murtagh tells Faith the story of the night she was born.
For Love by @redstarfiction
Imagining a conversation between Murtagh and Jamie before the wedding when Murtagh realises his God-Son is in love with the Sassenach.
Guardian Scotsman by @writtenthroughtime
Prompt: What about a story about Claire as a child or a teenager and somehow gets raised by Murtagh?
Hold On by @abreathofsnowandwaffles
“Frank and Jamie are two very different men, but I can tell ye, they both loved ye. Jamie loved ye so much- he sent yer mam back to him, to see ye safe. He was willing to give up his life so ye stood a chance.”
Hope in Change by @lenny9987 for @imagineclaireandjamie
Prompt: Imagine that the first significant person Bree meets in the colonies is Murtagh. It is through Bree that Murtagh finds out that Claire and Jamie are also in the colonies. What if it was Murtagh rather than Lizzie who witnessed Roger being a bit rough with Bree through the window that day?
In This Together by Awilding
During their search to find Jamie, an untimely encounter compels Claire and Murtagh to return to the caves to seek refuge. Their pursuit interrupted, Claire and Murtagh’s companionship is put to the test as they must rely on each other to make it through several days of considerable challenges. Set within the 14th episode of Season 1, “The Search”.
Just the Same by @bonnie-wee-swordsman for @imagineclaireandjamie
A short Murtagh POV from 1x07 during the scene in the stables with Jamie.
Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door by @abreathofsnowandwaffles
Murtagh finds his way up to Fraser’s Ridge and is greeted by a family of *three* Frasers.
Laying Just Vengeance by @gotham-ruaidh for @imagineclaireandjamie
Imagine Murtagh’s thoughts as he saves Jamie at Culloden
Murtagh and Rebecca’ Fraser by @renee-writer
Murtagh and Rebecca’s courtship and marriage from the Marine universe. A sweet and fluff end to the story.
Murtagh on the Ridge AU by @lenny9987 for @imagineclaireandjamie
If Murtagh survived Culloden and wound up on the Ridge with Jamie and Claire and company.
Now You’re The Outlander by orphan_account
Reader travels back in time from 2016 to 1744 and is found by Claire, Jamie, Murtagh and Fergus. The Reader and Murtagh develop a relationship but it doesn’t start off very well…
Only Hope by @magnoliasinbloom
‘The dank prison cell rustled and heaved slightly with the coughs and snores and groans of its inmates. Jamie tugged the rough blanket tighter around his shoulders, turning to face the heat of the peat fire.’
Other Grandfather Tales by AbbyDebeaupre for @otheroutlandertales
OOT explores the fairy tales and Scottish stories for children Jamie Fraser may have used for Grandfather Tales.
Peace by @bonnie-wee-swordsman
A very, very short moment from Murtagh’s Death at Culloden.
Playing After Bedtime by thatsoccercoach
Faith gets up after bedtime to play with Murtagh.
Reborn by @xlisaleinx
“Ellen?“ he whispered. Her name sounded strange in his ears; he hadn’t uttered it out loud for many a decade, and yet his tongue still remembered the way to form the syllables, calling her picture to him until he could see her as clear as day, as if she was standing right in front of him.
Sir Prize by thatsoccercoach
Murtagh tells a story.
Sit Still by @lenny9987
Brianna wants to paint Murtagh’s portrait but it proves a more difficult task than she anticipated. Part of my Living It Up at Lallybroch AU series.
The Astronaut and the Lepidopterist by thatsoccercoach
Faith has a school project requiring her to find out what her family members wanted to be when they grew up.
The Gorilla Dance by Judybrandtner
Faith and Brianna Fraser have a new obsession and they want to share it with Murtagh.
The Horizon by @lenny9987
Gaps In Canon: The morning of the battle of Culloden finds Murtagh watching the horizon and waiting for Jamie to return from Craigh na Dun.
The Knife by @whiskynottea for @otheroutlandertales
Murtagh Fitzgibbons Fraser is asked to craft a knife and finds love in the new world.
The River Runs Again by @whiskynottea for @otheroutlandertales
After so many years with his life chained to another man’s fate, Murtagh was free again.
The Son He’d Never Have by @akb723
Anon asked: “I wonder what Murtagh was thinking when he was watching Jamie and Claire the first time saw each other in their wedding finery outside the church and during the vow?”
The Storyteller by @thewhitelady
A collection of shorts, taking place during Jamie’s youth.
The Truth of You by Devildream69
When two people who’ve learnt the hard way what life could do to a person, find each other again- the inevitable happens. The truth of them becomes the only thing that matters.
To Sway a Heart by @lenny9987 for @imagineclaireandjamie
Can you imagine: Jamie’s reaction straight after Claire teases him about kissing Laoghaire, maybe brooding on it by himself or talking about it in a roundabout way with Murtagh? Maybe him deciding to do something about it?
Two Red Hens by @written-rebellion
An open letter from Murtagh to his dearly departed… (aka the au where everything is okay and nothing went wrong ever)
White Roses of Scotland by behzaintfunny
December, 1754. Ardsmuir prison. James Fraser is constantly surrounded by hundreds of people, yet more alone than ever. There appears to only be a single light in the everlasting darkness, however faint it may be.
Whither Thou Goest by fardareismai for @imagineclaireandjamie
I was wondering I always thought it was sad that Murtagh never got to meet Brianna so maybe you could do a story about Murtagh being alive when Bree came to Fraser’s Ridge
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Drunj!Der Yells About Outlander
Thoughts on Ep. 501
We’re back again for another season of men never having to demonstrate any personal growth on screen because the writers don’t feel like that’s important to show and instead force the audience to just forget everything that previously happened because look! The characters, who aren’t real and are just what we write them to be, are all cool now so why aren’t you? #BadFans
As a standalone episode/series premiere of a new show, this episode was really good! I enjoyed it a lot, with some obvious exceptions. As the season five premiere of a show with a long history? What the actual fuck, why do you keep doing this, writers?
In season one, Jamie beats Claire, never actually apologizes for it, and we’re expected to be like oh lol it’s cool now. No worries.
In season two, Jamie takes his pants off with some prostitutes while his pregnant wife is at home, blames it on his “mission,” and we’re expected to be like oh lol it’s cool now. No worries.
In season three, Jamie is an asshole and a half to Claire when she gives up literally everything (including their daughter) to come find him and knowingly marries the woman who tried to have Claire killed because of one dance with random children at a holiday party, and we’re expected to be like oh lol it’s cool now. No worries.
In season four, Roger is a rancid garbage heap to Bree all season and is only begrudgingly down to stay with her as if *he’s* the one who’s been wronged by her, and Jamie literally sends a guy into what he thinks is like certain death/slavery without getting any real information, and we’re expected to be like oh lol it’s cool now. No worries.
So watching this premiere, I was not at all shocked that there was a convenient time jump where everything was so handily worked out off screen and we’re all super cool now, and Jamie thinking Roger isn’t good enough for Bree is played for a joke instead of being THE ABSOLUTE TRUTH. #BreeDeservesBetter
Anywho, onward under the cut because I’m back on my drunken bullshit.
Ooo, a rape warning before the episode, starting off very on brand for you I see, show.
Fuck them very much, again, for including that very unnecessary story line in the first place.
I miss Scotland, y’all. Also, young Murtz can get ittt.
So can old Murtz.
#TeamMurtz
This bit though with wee Jamie made me feel feelings. Jamie and Murtagh’s relationship is literally one of my favorite parts of this whole damn show and saving Murtagh was the best adaptive choice these fuckwads made.
Unpopular opinion alert, but I actually really like the new credits music. I will always like season one’s the best, but this one is up there.
Also, am I a giant weirdo for being happy that even though they change stuff in the credits all the time, they keep in the shot of Claire’s legs running from the pilot? Idk why, but I’m like sentimentally attached to that shot.
Also, that is a fucking microscope I see in the credits, are we gettING SCIENCE!JIZZ?!??!?!?!
SCIENCE!JIZZ! SCIENCE!JIZZ! SCIENCE!JIZZ!
“Careful, or ye’ll lose yer head.” And we’d all be definitely super sad if that happened. Yep, can’t have that. #TeamCutthroatRazor
Jamie threateningly shaving and insulting Roger is the fandom minus the stans who for some inconceivable reason still like that fucker.
Seriously, fuck Roger. Jamie is apparently the only one who hasn’t gotten amnesia about how terrible he is. I guess it’s because Jamie has been really fucking terrible many times and like recognizes like.
I fucking love that Murtz made Bree’s ring. Makes it more meaningful than the random trinket Roger picks up at the Gathering Without End in the book. Like Claire’s Lallybroch key ring was more meaningful than the book!ring. Fuck the show for ditching the Lallybroch key ring because tHe BoOk RiNg Is WhAt FaNs LiKe. No. Stop. Bad choice.
The aerial shot going over the big house makes me hopeful that this season won’t be as fucking claustrophobic as last year. Because seriously, we can all tell you’re still in Scotland. Doing a whole season in basically closeups doesn’t make it seem any more North Carolina-y.
CLAIRE MAKING BREE’S DRESS AND GETTING TO BE THERE FOR HER DAUGHTER’S WEDDING WHEN SHE DIDN’T THINK SHE’D BE ABLE TO GIVES ME ALL THE FEELINGS! CLAIRE DESERVES ALL THE GOOD THINGS! I JUST LOVE CLAIRE A LOT OK! SORRY NOT AT ALL EVER FUCKING SORRY! #BeauchampBrigade5Eva
Bree’s dress is fucking gorgeous. I lowkey like it better than Claire’s.
Da!Jamie on his something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue quest is fucking adorable. He also never thought he’d get to see this one of his kids’ wedding so yay for him too.
“And we’re giving her away to a man who loves her.” “Oh.” “What? You doubt his love?” “Um, I’m sorry, did you SEE all last season?! Did everyone else get amnesia?!”
Also, bullshit about Roger being terrible aside, this right here, with Jamie and Claire actually talking to each other in an adorable and snuggly way. Like being all close and cuddly and shit. THIS IS MY SHIT. When we all bitch about wanting more Jamie and Claire couple stuff and the writers are all like “but the sex doesn’t advance the story” it’s like no you fuckwits, we don’t always mean sex! Sometimes we mean sex, because sex is important in their relationship (and sex does not necessarily equal nudity), but most of the time we mean SHOW US THAT THESE PEOPLE LOVE EACH OTHER WITH THE SMALL CUTE STUFF LIKE THIS! I’m *rull* curious to see how much more of stuff like this we get this season now that Balfe and Heughan are producers. Balfe especially, considering how dirty they did Claire last season...
DA!JAMIE AND ANOTHER OF HIS KIDDOS! Da!Jamie being sappy and sentimental at his kids’ weddings is 100% my jam.
HIS FACE WHEN BREE SAYS JE SUIS PREST MAKES ME FEEL ALL THE FEELINGSSS.
MOM AND DAD ARE AT THEIR LIL GIRL’S WEDDING AND MY SKIN IS CLEAR AND MY CROPS ARE THRIVING. Except that one weed over there in the groom’s place that just won’t go away.
I am so fucking glad they did away with the Gathering Without End. I swear to fuck 17% of a book that’s just like camping and periods and breast milk is aggressively not my jam.
Unfortunately the groom being a douchenozzle is not a legal reason to object to a wedding. But it really should be.
Fersali being all snuggly and cute during the vows is fucking precious. I love Fersali. Protect Fersali at all costs.
I’m ok with playing Jamie and Claire’s music over Bree and Roger’s wedding because like, this is the culmination of all the shit that Jamie and Claire went through together and I’m all for making stuff just about them, haha. But otherwise, weird choice to not give Bree and Roger their own theme?
Also, I get that it’s a better choice to have a character we already know and have established stakes with be here to do the red coat stuff, but loool at the thought of the fucking governor coming to this random backcountry wedding. Tryon, buddy, I get that Murtz is your white whale, but you look obsessed in a bad way, bruh.
GERMAIN!!! I FUCKING LOVE GERMAIN! I FUCKING LOVE THAT JAMIE TALKS SHIT ABOUT PRESBYTERIANS TO GERMAIN! GIVE ME ALL THE SASSY SMOLS!
“Some of us like to think before we act.” Oh fuck all the way off, Roger. ALL THE WAY OFF.
“There was me thinking that you were just trying to shut me up for a minute.” I mean, that was an added bonus, Rog.
Sophie has really gotten so much better at acting. She’s always such a goddamn delight on press tours and I’m like *rull* glad to see her growing into the role.
Lizzo/Flute Lady from the Wedding Band 2020
I 100% wanna chill with JQM and Fersali. This squad of cool kids seems aggressively more fun than the dancers.
Oh Isiah Morton. If only you could keep it in your pants.
I LOVE FERGUS WITH MY WHOLE HEART.
I LOVE MARSALI POSSIBLY EVEN MORE.
GODDAMN IT I JUST LOVE FERSALI SO FUCKING HARD.
Seriously, the sass and theatricality and sarcasm of Marsali Fraser. I stan. I fucking stan.
Also I 100% kept reciting “To sit in solemn silence...” through that whole scene. Once a theater kid, always a theater kid.
Don’t be a buzzkill, LJG. I love that posh nerd. Except when he’s being a fucking creeper about Jamie to Claire.
“Mistress, can I dance with the guy I thought raped you because he was such a twatwaffle?” “Sure, Lizzie, go for it! Because we’re all friends now.”
We’re just leaning in on the dad stuff this episode. The hot dads of Riverdale should form a gang with the hot dads of the Ridge just for kicks.
Obligatory fuck the writers for including Bree’s rape. Since they did though, good on them for showing her PTSD. Although fuck them for including such a graphic flashback. Much like the choices they made in the season one finale, it centers the rapist and the act more than the survivor.
Can this please be the only Fred reference this season? Also love to lightly joke about an emotionally abusive asshole who treated Claire like shit and used Bree as a weapon against her. Claire, being the bigger person she’s always been, will obvs not speak ill of Fred to Bree (unlike how Freddy boy undermined Claire in front of Bree), but Bree is now aware of just how shitty Fred was. Even if he wasn’t overtly shitty to her, her still being all lovey about him, knowing what he did to her mother, is lowkey super fucked up. “Well I know he was shitty to other people, but he never did anything to me” is never a good look.
Bree hugging Jemmy, oh man, I just wanna give her a hug and tell her everything’s gonna be ok.
Jocasta is still trash (there’s no such thing as a benevolent slave owner) but this Murcasta scene is a goddamn delight.
OK BUT NOW I NEED FAN ART OF MURTZ AS A FAIRY KING!
Roger singing to Bree is cute and all, but then using the music for the whole montage is cheesy af and I don’t think I like it.
Is that Arch and Murdina I spy there in the crowd?
Marsali is literally the most fertile woman in the Colonies.
Grannie and Granda trying to get it on veryyy quietly so they don’t wake Jemmy is fucking adorable as shit and I lowkey love it.
Awww, poor LJG. I ship Lord John with someone who actually loves him.
Ok I get Murcasta having to break up because of his regulator stuff, randomly introducing Duncan Innes is a fucking weird choice.
Maria Doyle Kennedy really was the fucking perfect casting choice.
Oh hey, Josiah Beardsley. I was hoping they’d cut out the whole thing with the Beardsleys and Lizzie, but honestly, I’ll take that silliness over Emo!Roger any day.
Good on Jocasta for being a clever MacKenzie, but fuck Roger for only doing the right thing when he’s insulted into it. TL;DR: Fuck Roger.
Is Gerald Forbes going to randomly turn into Neil Forbes at some point like he does in the book?
DOCTOR CLAIRE FOR THE WIN GIVE ME ALL THE DOCTOR CLAIRE.
Srsly, I am here for Jamie shitting on Roger at literally every opportunity. Preach, Jamie. Preach.
“I’ll leave you to yer patients. And to wage war with your wee invisible beasties.” Seriously though, this is my jam. This playful banter. For so much of the series, it’s been like do these two even like each other? Because the writers kept trying to make the show into something it wasn’t. Politics, war, characterization flipflops and assholery FoR tHe DrAmA. It was so hard to see why Claire would ever pick this guy. I’m very cautiously optimistic that more shit like this will be peppered in this year because dammit, this is why we’re all fucking here.
“Then ye must find yerself a lieutenant.” Can it be Marsali? Please? Can Marsali be Claire’s lieutenant?! Because cutting the whole Malva bullshit would be ideal. And Fersali gets so sidelined in the later books that I’d fucking LOVE the writers to make changes so they can be more centered with the rest of the fam. And I am fucking obsessed with Claire and Marsali’s relationship. Marsali is the most Claire Jr. character in this whole damn show and I WANT THEM TOGETHER IN FRONT OF MY EYEBALLS.
Roger pricks his index finger but smudges the blood on Jemmy’s head with his thumb. Not the takeaway of this scene at all. But since I don’t like Roger, that’s my bullet for it.
Also I love that they switched the whole raise a militia thing to a hunt for Murtz & Squad rather than needing to do it because some randos are somewhere doing a thing and then lol jk they left so you can all go home like it is in the book.
Totally called it that they were going to combine the two bonfires and that this was when the kilt was gonna make its triumphant return.
Also I fucking love that it’s the music from Je Suis Prest during the scene when Jamie puts his kilt back on.
And thank fuck they didn’t put any dialogue/voiceover in this scene when Claire sees Jamie. It’s so much more powerful without it.
Aaand we’re burning a cross. At least they were smart enough not to burn a Roman cross, but they’re still burning a cross instead of just doing a bonfire. The scene could be just as powerful had it been adapted to not have a burning cross. Fuck them, tbh.
Remember that time that fuckwit Roberts tried to be like oh we’re not *really* burning a cross so we’re not racist but we’re not gonna address it directly because lol out fanbase is fucking wicked conservative and also a fucking cult who will yell at us for changing anything.
Because seriously that twatwaffle really tried to pretend like a celtic cross isn’t a religious symbol so they’re not having a KKK rally in this white supremacist hellscape. FUCK THAT GUY FOR BOTH HIS SHITTY DECISIONS AND ALSO FOR ACTING LIKE WE’RE ALL FUCKING IDIOTS.
BuT hIsToRy AnD tHe BoOk! Fuck that. Do. Not. Burn. Crosses. But they showed a lynching last year for the sole purpose of showing the shocked white people, so of course they fucking burned a cross.
Jamie being both himself and Colum from the Gathering in season one at the same time is a fucking sight to see.
The look on Knox’s face is *chef’s kiss*. Bruh you don’t even *know* who you’re dealing with.
Aaand in a move that is not at all shocking, Roger hesitates *again*, when Jamie extends his hand to him. Fuck, and I cannot stress this enough, that guy. I get that he’s untrained and scared or whatever, but buddy you deal with that shit tomorrow. You don’t fucking leave Jamie hanging when he’s doing this big theatrical thing in an effort to fucking save his land and tenants. Ugh.
FERGUS, SON OF HIS NAME AND HIS HEART! Jamie and Claire’s first kid getting the props he fucking deserves. ILY SO MUCH FERGS!
Marsali’s face when Fergus goes to give his oath. Just the pride and love there. I JUST LOVE THEM SO FUCKING MUCH OK.
I appreciate the commitment to the shitty green screen of that titular Ridge, haha.
That is a *rull* phallic rock in your circle, Murtz.
BUT...ALWAYS TAKE A MURTAGH! *cries*
This is a real gut punch of a scene, tbh. It’s 100% the right thing to do, but damn, right in the fucking feels.
This episode, with my selective amnesia activated per the above lol, has me more hopeful for how a season might be than I’ve been in a while. But this feeling has consistently been crushed in the past. Here’s to hoping the show finally stops doing us dirty!
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Thoughts on S05E01
Missed my recaps? Don’t answer that. This first episode is making my head spin hard and fast with thoughts, so let’s roll! If you wish to stay solely in “the greenest of grass” towards this episode, consider ignoring the following musings, because I’m bringing my lawn mower.
- Look, I might have to give back my OL fandom badge (I’ll be, however, taking my fanfic with me), but I didn’t really enjoy the leading up or the wedding itself. Most of it felt forced and soapy, and let me tell you why - the show didn’t bother to establish these relationships enough last season to make those moments meaningful. Jamie and Bree’s relationship was so strained by the end of S4 and the healing never really took place on camera, so the scenes between them felt unearned and gratuitous. His “wee girl” never really became his girl, did she? SHOW👏🏻DON’T👏🏻TELL can’t be ignored sometimes.
- Claire’s hairdo for the wedding is the worst, while her wigs are fluffy and beautiful for the rest of the episode. I get it, it’s classic wedding family album disaster, but yikes. Bree’s dress is incredible, and I don’t really watch this show for prime historical accuracy anyway, so yay!
- The throwback to JC’s S1 wedding vows seemed lazy and too much fan bad service to me. It’s like IN YOUR FACE FANDOM, while Sam and Cait don’t really need that visual aid, because they sell the memories with their faces alone.
- Fersali remain the cutest to ever cute. I mean, Lauren Lyle has the kind of spark I wish Sophie had at times.
- They are really going for a Roger’s Extreme Makeover The Ridge Edition, but I’m Arya Starking all over it and assuring you the fandom remembers. Jamie is our collective opinion when he reminds Claire that Roger doubted his love himself, which might as well be one of his lesser sins. I’ll serve it on a pie, if need be.
- THAT MONTAGE OF EVIL. I cannot stress enough how much it didn’t work for me. The song playing over it and the editing took away any meaning for the three couples. It was cartoonish and bizarre. “Here kids, take some fine pointers on the art of sexing on your wedding night from your parents and could-be-grandparents”, OH MY GOD NO. I fell on my back about just as hard as the Bear Grylls of Carolina next to LJG.
- Lizzie, your weirdness and vagina-teeth are showing.😂 After the Montage of Doom, I’m starting to warm up to impending twins-hochmagandy.
- Look, I’m about as surprised as you are as I write these words, but the Regulators storyline and Fiery Cross were probably my favourite parts of the episode. And the unspoken kilt scene between Jamie and Claire my highlight of the hour; they felt so complicit, so connected, hard as diamonds. Everything I missed in them for the majority of S4. A BIG, BIG, YAY.
- I can see the ways in which they tried to bring back the feel of Season 1. Some of it worked - more humour and lightness, Scottish traditions and vibe, slower pacing. But the cinematography just isn’t as stunning as it used to be back then, the camera work, the image colours, the shots. I appreciate the effort put into bringing the writing quality up and hope to see more of that throughout the season. There’s still work to be done.
Did I love this episode? No, I didn’t. It was the kind of meal that keeps me from starving, I don’t wince when I chew every bite (EXCEPT FOR THE SEX TO END ALL SEX IN A BAD WAY), but I wouldn’t want to see it on my table for my last supper.
Did it make me more hopeful for good things this season? Yes, for a good part of it. JC and the fantastic acting of Sam and Cait still have me believing.
Here’s to hoping!!
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A Happy Halloween Outlander Fan-Fiction Reading List
Trick or Treat! Here’s a Halloween reading list for your enjoyment!
Witches
Draco (chapter 12 of the Constellations Series) by @kalendraashtar
“Witches all to burn at the stake.”
The Evanora @bonniebird17
The full moon hung over me, giving me the strength to keep me going and I was heading east, leading the witch hunter further away from my home and my sisters.
Part 1
Part 2
An Leabhar Dìlseachd by @thetranquilteal
Claire Fraser had always known she was a witch. Her affinity for healing hinted at it and her ability to time travel confirmed it. What she didn’t know was that she would come into her full power the day she became a mother. Concerned with how her pregnancy is progressing, she's seeks the help of apothecary Master Raymond in the hope that he will be able to teach her how to utilise her newfound power and protect her family from disaster. A canon-divergent AU told through the pages of the Fraser Grimoire ‘The Book of Faith’.
Bewitched by @julesbeauchamp
Jamie and Claire Fraser are like any other young married couple, except for some tiny detail: he's a mortal human being and she's a witch, something which she does not divulge to him until after their wedding.
Jamie just wants them to live a simple, mortal life, to which Claire agrees, meaning no witchcraft and no telling any of their mortal friends and relatives of her being a witch. However, that no witchcraft vow is more difficult to maintain than Claire had expected.
Brujerìa by @julesbeauchamp
Being a witch was a detail Claire Beauchamp omitted to tell people. She was determined to live her life as normally as possible and she was doing a pretty good job of it. At least until her meeting with a stranger sent her life into a spiral and revealed secrets about her past she never suspected.
The Witch and the Red Man by @lady-o-ren
He was a man meant for a life of loneliness but was relentlessly hunted for the darkness lurking within.
To Kill a Witch by @owlish-peacock36
Jamie doesn’t know much about women. Even less about the strange Miss Beauchamp. Outlander AU. One-shot.
Three Witches by @westerhos
An AU where Claire, Jenny, and Geillis are three modern-day witches. A big ole house, a "No Men Allowed Policy", rituals in the woods - the usual witchy norm. When Jamie shows up, things go to hell in a hand basket.
Three Witches Stories by @westerhos
Little ficlets set in the Three Witches universe, where Claire, Jenny, and Geillis are modern day witch friends with hilarious love lives.
The Thief, the Whore, the Witch, and the Strange Woman by @westerhos
An Outlander AU in which a 22 year old Claire Beauchamp Randall travels back in time on August 1st (Lughnasadh), 1941/1739. Ellen and Brian Fraser, both alive, offer her shelter in exchange for help in aiding Ellen's recovery. The growing attraction between Claire and Jamie leaves Claire torn, while suspicions arise regarding her past...Soon, it becomes clear that the Frasers know more than they let on.
The White Witch's Gift by @sapphiresassenach
A Christmas gift is given to Jamie and Claire during their twenty-year separation. The gift of each other.
I am a Witch by wongirl
What if after the witch trial when Jamie asks Claire if she is a witch she says yes?
P.S. Don't take it too seriously it's just a bit of fun
This is a Harry Potter/Outlander crossover story.
Witches by @whiskynottea at @otheroutlandertales
1739 -Fort William has a new garrison commander - one who is decided to break the Scots’ spirit. Will Jenny and Claire be able to save the tenants of Lallybroch with their magical powers, while staying safe?
Red Jamie and the White Lady by @takemeawaytocamelot
Claire Beauchamp is dragged by her best friend and flatmate, Geillis Duncan, to go visit a powerful psychic to prove once and for all that true love exists. Claire is a practical woman and finds the idea of true love pointless. Jamie Fraser is a powerful psychic who can glimpse the future. When he meets Claire, something changes. Like they were destined to find each other.
Legend of the Faerie Wife by DiverseMediums
A legend from the written history of Clan Fraser.
While this is a stand alone story, it is intended to be a companion piece for takemeawayocamelot's Red Jamie and the White Lady. There are no spoilers, but it adds a bit of depth to the brilliance she's creating over there :)
The White Witch by BlackStarNYC
The Scottish matriarchal family—known as the "Thomson Witches"—have a long and forlorn history... As the youngest of the clan, Claire’s life turns to chaos at a young age due to the power she has inherited. Pulled into the 18th century, she becomes bound by love that is threatened to be torn apart by castle intrigue, a 100 year old clan feud, war and a man possessed by a spirit that has haunted her family for centuries.... what could go wrong?
This Life by @calliopemoonbeam
Claire is a healer from a very young age. She trains in the mystical arts around the world, as well as the traditional medical field. She finds herself in London as a surgical resident in the late 1980s and early 90s. She starts having dreams of a past life. Where will they lead her?
Philomene by @ianmuyrray
Jenny -- thought dead by the rest of the world -- has lived in quiet exile since her king brother betrayed their family by allying with Black Jack Randall, who is on a mission to weed out any and all women who possess magic. Execution now waits for any woman who shows herself to know and use magical powers, or any woman merely suspected of being magical - no matter her rank, her family, her influence, her children, or her own desire to live.
Jenny was supposed to be the first in the rising storm of murdered women, but, by some miracle, she survived. And has lived in hiding. But now she has been found.
Vampires
Exsanguinate by @owlish-peacock36
Exsanguinate: to drain of blood
No one ever asked for his name anymore. They gave him a wide berth, avoiding him at all costs. Whispers of rumors filled his ears, closer to the truth than they realized.
Monster. Incubus. Strigoi. Upyr.
No. His name was Jamie.
Step Into the Night by LadyRevolution
An Outlander AU where Claire didn't fall through the stones, she was on the run from the vampire coven that has been trying to enlist her for centuries. In her reprieve at Castle Leoch, it has been a challenge to both hide her vampirism and stay away from Jamie. He smells good, too good, and for a thousand year old vampire with steel control, that's worrying.
"Ye need blood, Claire, I can tell ye do," Jamie whispered, backing her into a wall, a hand on either side of her head. Breathing heavily, he leaned forward and exposed his neck, "so take it from me." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the moment Claire gave into her desires, her almost black eyes zeroing in on his neck.
Scottish Vampire in Boston by sunshineduckies
After Culloden, Jamie is turned by a vampire with a political agenda. Now he must find his way through his new life without Claire and his new burden, vampirism.
Post-Apocalyptic
Scalamandre by @futurelounging
An outbreak of a contagion causing violent psychoses across the globe sends the world into chaos and destruction. A scientist and a mountaineer meet in the wilds and join together to try to stop the men behind the madness.
Dawning in Dust by DiverseMediums
The Last War has ended. Civilization is no more. For Claire, solitary wandering is the only way of survival. What if it didn't have to be?
Ghosts
But I love you until the end of time. by @maybeimdoingsomethingright
With her husband constantly away not long after their marriage, Claire lives mostly alone in their house at the Scottish Highlands. However, she is not exactly alone and there is quite more to this house and her future -or is it her past?- than meets the eye.
Endless-loop theory and ghost!Jamie with a wee spin.
Reaching Through the Veil by @westerhos
Prompt: Imagine that Jamie somehow travels to Claire's time when Bree is still a baby and drops in on Claire randomly like she does in Voyager.
The Far and Distant Places by @westerhos
After fighting with Frank, Claire goes to a nearby church for a moment of peace. On her way home, she runs into a certain red-haired Scotsman...
The Haunting at Mrs. Baird's by @frasersridgeforever
The kindly hostess of a bed and breakfast notices some ghostly activity in her establishment, as the culprit sees his wife for the first and last time. A Halloween tale of Mrs. Baird and Jamie’s ghost as the Randalls arrive in Inverness for their second honeymoon.
Through the Magic Lantern by dielle
He didn't know how it worked, how he could float across the flow of the time and be there. - Ghost!Jamie, as seen in the first episode.
Purgatory by suspiciousteapot
Anonymous asked: what if because Claire's in the future Jamie as a ghost got to see her grow up or see bits and pieces of her life
Ghosts in the Daylight by @owlish-peacock36
"It's easier to dismiss ghosts in the daylight..." All Jamie wanted was quiet loneliness to work on his novel. But, are we ever truly alone? Ghost AU
Through the Door by @ianmuyrray
Proper Highland protocol held that the door must be opened at once after a death, to allow the soul to leave. - An Echo in the Bone, Chapter 2, "And Sometimes They Aren't"
Ghost!Jamie AU by Mod Eloise @imagineclaireandjamie
Story 1
Story 2
Other Magical/Fantastical/Horror Stories
Scotia by @kalendraashtar
An AU based in Myths and Legends. Written for the Tumblr 2017 Secret Santa challenge.
There Is More Beneath The Surface (Than We Can See) by @maybeimdoingsomethingright
When she was young, Claire saved a boy from drowning. Meeting again eleven years later, their worlds are forever changed. (Mermaid)
Thrush by @ianmuyrray
Roger goes sailing to meet mermaid Bree. (Mermaid)
A Fairy's Stone by @sapphiresassenach
Prompt: I was thinking if you could come up with a fanfic where what if Claire actually was Fae and revealed it to Jamie but stated that since she was bound to Jamie because they were soul mates and whatnot and thus she became fairly human when the deal was sealed and whatnot. If you get inspired maybe by this it would be cool to see what you come up with. (Fairy)
An Infinite Variety by orphan_account
Challenge on Infinite Earths, Outlander style
The Shape We Take by @westerhos
An AU inspired by Black Mirror's slightly dystopian "Hang the DJ," in which a dating app pairs you up until it finds your perfect match.
Just Happen During Halloween
A Costume Party by @sassenachpetals
Jamie and Claire ring in the Halloween holiday by attending a costume party. Claire has surprised Jamie with their couple costume idea and it's one that they'll never forget: Gomez and Morticia Addams…
Across The Hall by @thetranquilteal
Growing up in Scotland, one of Jamie Fraser’s all time favourite things to do was carve turnips on All Hallows Eve. Having recently relocated to the United States of America, Jamie assumes carving pumpkins on Halloween is no different and finds himself in a situation that he never expected.
The Doctor’s Companion by @theministerskat
After coming back through the stones, Roger and Bree get ready for a Halloween party.
Back To You Ficlet - Halloween by @balfeheughlywed
Set in the Back To You world, Jamie and Claire spend their first Halloween together at a costume party; smut ensues.
Halloween At the Ridge by @abbydebeaupreposts
Four Part Halloween Fluff set after MOBY imagining what traditions Jem and Mandy bring with them to Fraser’s Ridge
Halloween Through the Years by @takemeawaytocamelot
Claire and Jamie participate in a costume contest every Halloween.
Year One
Year Two
Year Three
Year Four
Year Six
Halloween, 1955 by @westerhos
Prompt: After [episode 305] with the making the 'batsuit' scene you should totally do a story about the first time Claire made some sort of costume for Bree.
****If an author whose work is listed is actually on Tumblr but is not tagged, please let me know.
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A small recap of 5x12
1- Years 60, a song and a letter loaded with meaning.
2- Claire battered. This is distressing. This time it was not as graphic but it felt the same.
3- The exchange between reality and her mind was puzzling at first, then it was necessary to disconnect me as she was doing.
4- Do you know who is Ringo Star?
5- Thinking about home. Welcome Bree and Roger. What a waste of time to insert this plot to return to the starting point.
6- The cross is burning, it begins to dawn. Is the time.
7- Where is the sound of the drum? And the Scottish war cries? Although I miss it, the fight scenes are always very good. Ian, Fergus, even Roger. Red Jamie in action is the best. And that slanted image of Jamie approaching Claire.
8- Kill them all. The subtle change of expression gives chills.
9- Wrapped in the plaid and in her husband's arms. I don't know why, it reminded me of a Pieta.
10- In the river and in the bedroom. Respecting her space, barely touching her and she, so broken. My heart shrinks for both of us. For her, for what has happened and for him because he knows what she is going through.
11- I killed a man ... And? Oh Roger, how well you were doing and now this.
12- How hard it is to keep the Hippocratic oath. Her pained expression on Faith appears again.
13- Marsali. Badass! She did not take the oath.
14- Disturbing message from the Browns.
15- I didn't expect Jamie to be the one to speak this time. Only in the name of love will he do what he has to do.
16- The final image is pure art. She so vulnerable, in a fetal position and the firm embrace of him, vowed to protect her with his body and once again he is doing it. Outside there is a storm but she feels safe.
Summarizing, a very good episode and season finale. The approach of the 60s has been surprising but, as I went along, I found it very consistent and much better than the graphic images. It was even more distressing because of what it implied. The happier he seemed to be in that corner of his mind, you knew that something terrible was happening at the time, especially since the rape in the book only makes it complete one man and here it is hinted that there were many more.
Slow dancing is one of the most beautiful images of this season. Of the many that have been given to us.
Lauren, I already lack praise, she is a very good actress and has been the great secondary character of this season. And Roger is again the complainer at the beginning. His mother-in-law recovering from the most traumatic experience of his life and his wife, who has been through the same, is the one who has to comfort him. What a way to spoil the evolution he had had.
Jamie. Red Jamie. They are subtle changes in his face but it gives chills to see him like that.
All Easter eggs, references, parallels with episodes from previous seasons. Brilliant
And the final image of them naked, with an intimacy that does not imply anything sexual but something deeper that only both know. I feel like a voyeur for contemplating this level of connection beyond time.
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Catch up on previous installments: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5
En Même Temps - Part 6
by @theministerskat
Outer Banks, North Carolina, January 29, 1971
Brianna gazed out the passenger window of her Mustang, the Outer Banks a green and blue blur of ocean and grass as the car sped down Highway 12.
The events of the last eleven days were a jumble, blending together with all the possibilities she envisioned for them beyond the stones. An obscure reel of thoughts with no clear focus.
Trying to calm the racing in her head, she stroked her thumb along the underside of her left finger, slowly twirling the ring that sat there in a circle. It was a new habit she had picked up, touching it, reminding herself it was still real, finding comfort in the small action in a way she couldn’t quite explain. It anchored her, more than anything, representing one thing - the only thing - certain in her life.
Turning away from the coastal scenery, she peered over at Roger. Softly, he sang along to a Stone’s song on the radio, his fingertips tapping the beat on the steering wheel. She smiled, recalling the image of him unconsciously twirling his fingers about in the pocket of his trousers, playing with the ring for all those weeks, and wondered if it had brought him the same kind of solace it now brought her.
She leaned her head back against the window, glancing out it again. The emerald stone was warm when she ran her finger over it, and tilting her hand slightly, she noticed how it lit from within when the sun struck it. Its dark green color transformed to a brilliant sparkling shade, reminding her of summer in the Highlands.
A small part of her ached to be back there now; driving along the tight country roads with Roger, him prattling on about local history and landmarks, both of them laughing together without a care in the world. Had things been different, perhaps they would have honeymooned in Scotland just as her parents had. The thought suddenly occurred to her: both of her mother's honeymoons had been there; and with that came a nervous anticipation of what might await her and Roger.
Trying to ignore the complicated feelings that surfaced whenever she thought on the subject, she reached for Roger’s restless hand. He noticed her movement and took his eyes off the road for just a moment to smile at her. His hand enveloped hers, and he lifted it to his mouth. She felt the warmth of his breath as he brushed his lips over the knuckles of her fingers. He planted a second kiss where her ring sat, and a flush radiated up her arm and through her body at his touch.
He had made that same gesture of love countless times since the night he proposed, but now she was reminded of how he had done it once they’d exchanged their vows.
The wedding had been perfect, despite how quickly it had been put together. Obtaining a marriage license on short notice had been easy, though Roger had insisted on at least trying to find a priest or minister who would be able to wed them. They eventually found a small Presbyterian church with a reverend who was free that very Saturday.
Upon their first meeting, she had noticed the older man eyeing her stomach every few minutes, as if trying to discern the slightest hint of a baby bump, an explanation for their haste. Brianna had shot daggers at him every time she caught him doing so, and Roger shook, trying to stifle his laughter at her indignation, breaking into a fit of coughs several times to cover himself.
She had worn a simple cream pantsuit, unable to find a dress that fit her properly on such short notice. Roger had donned himself in full Highland regalia - a questionable packing choice when they had left Oxford, Bree not seeing the necessity in bringing his MacKenzie tartan all the way to Boston only to be packed up in a box for storage.
But she had laughed with pure joy when he had tried it on the night before the ceremony, his face beaming with Scottish pride. Brianna had teased him over the fact that he would be the one wearing the dress at their wedding instead of her, which she quickly learned was a mistake. That comment had earned her a fifteen minute lecture on the benefits of wearing a kilt over trousers, which culminated in one of those benefits being demonstrated for her, much to her delight and pleasure.
Brianna had asked Joe to walk her down the aisle and stand in witness for them. The amount of joy and love that had exuded from him as he kissed her cheek at the altar made her heart swell for her mother’s oldest friend.
Their vows had been simple, traditional, the words hardly altered over hundreds of years. The speaking of them was like pulling a thread tenuously binding the past and present. They held that fragile thread between them now as they embarked on their journey. When the reverend had pronounced them husband and wife, Roger pulled her close, kissing her just a moment too long to be considered decent, and her head devoid of any thought beyond her new husband.
Joe and Gail had taken them out to dinner to celebrate. Joe regaled the small party with stories of Brianna as a child, drawing from the reservoir of tales Claire had shared with him over the years. It was an evening spent not with plans and preparations for the future, or past, but in the moment.
Her heart constricted as she remembered her last conversation with Joe before they parted that night.
Pulling her aside as they left the small restaurant, he wrapped her in a hug that made her feel small even as she stood two inches taller than him.
“You’re going after her, aren’t you?” Joe’s lowered voice permeated the fog of happiness Brianna was floating in, and it took her a second to process his words.
“She told you?” Brianna knew her mother had revealed the truth about Jamie Fraser to him, but she was breathless at being able to talk about it at last.
“She did.” He pulled back from her to look into her eyes, his brow creased in concern, and she didn’t try to hide the confirmation he would surely find there. “Are you sure it’s safe, Bree?”
She opened her mouth to assure him, but found no words of comfort, could not tell him the truth, even as she knew he sensed it.
“I understand why she had to do it.” A sad smile appeared on Joe’s face. “But you, you don’t have to. You know she’s happy, and you have a life here.”
“Joe.” Bree’s voice sounded desperate even to her own ears, willing him to understand. “Roger - he found something. I don’t want to worry you with the details, but I have to go.”
“And he’s going with you?”
She glanced over Joe’s shoulder and saw Roger standing beside Gail. She was chatting cheerily away in a congratulatory fashion, and he was nodding at every other word, though his eyes were focused on Brianna.
Confidence surged through her, and she realized that though they had made all these arrangements and planned for all of the situations they may face, she was still holding a sliver of doubt over what they were doing. But Roger had promised to make sure she had everything she needed to go back, and had fulfilled that promise. She felt a love for him beyond anything she had known before.
She nodded in response to Roger’s look, and Joe took it as an affirmative to his question.
“Would you have done this,” he gestured his hand about, and she understood his meaning, “If you weren’t facing a life or death decision?”
“Yes,” she said without any hesitation. “Yes.”
“Well, that makes me feel better. He looks at you like he’d be willing to take on anything to protect you. And where you’re going, you may need that.”
Brianna pulled him back into a tight embrace.
“Tell her I love her and miss her dearly.”
“I will.” Her voice cracked just a little as she unsuccessfully forced tears back. “Thank you, Joe.”
They’d left the next morning, her Mustang packed with only the things they needed for their journey. Roger made a few comments about proper weddings and decent honeymoons, but Brianna insisted that road trips made perfectly acceptable honeymoon vacations.
They drove down the Atlantic coast, taking their time, stopping in Edenton and New Bern - two possible ports they would reach after traveling through the stones. Then they made their way south to Wilmington, spending a couple of nights there to acquaint themselves with the area as much as they could, though they knew things would be different in the past. Those few days were spent in a relaxed state of mind, enjoying small touristy moments with Roger, and she was feeling more rested and at ease than she had expected as Imbolc approached.
But now they were on their way to Hatteras Island, the final stop before the stones. Roger squeezed her hand, and she turned to look at him.
“Not much further. What do ye think about just finding a place to stay and turning in early? Enough time to sort matters tomorrow.”
The sun was already starting to dip in the western sky though it was only mid-afternoon, and Bree realized how tired the car ride had made her.
“That sounds nice. I don’t think I’d be of much use to do anything else.”
He nodded, his fingers brushing over her knuckles once again. And a sudden realization swept over her.
“Roger! My ring!” Her voice was loud and panicked, causing him to snap his head down to look at her ring and then up to her face in confusion.
“What? What is it?”
“I can’t take it with me! It’ll be lost going through the stones.” She felt the tears roll down her cheeks before she even knew she was crying. The simple ring that had given her strength would be lost the moment she touched the stone.
Brianna tried to stop herself, but every worry and fear she had been trying to stamp down came flooding to the surface. She was terrified of all the things that could go wrong: not making it through, ending up in the wrong time, never being able to make it back . . . Weeks’ worth of worry released itself in a gush of emotion.
Roger let go of her hand, and she wiped furiously at the tears. He pulled the car off the road and shifted into park, and then extended his arms to pull her close to him. She let her body melt into his, thankful for the solid feel of him against her. He uttered soft Gaelic words into her hair until her cheeks were dry.
“Bree, Bree. I meant for this,” he held up her hand, indicating the ring. “I meant for this stone to be the one to see the safe through those stones.”
“You knew I wouldn’t be able to keep it?” Her voice was calmer than she expected it to be, though she felt a slight sense of betrayal on his part. “But Roger, it was your mother’s ring!”
“I know, but we need the gem to get through safely.”
“And what about you then?” It was the one she had forgotten to double check in their preparations, and she was upset but thankful that Roger had handled it.
“I have her locket for me.”
“So you’re fine with them being turned to dust?” she accused, perhaps more bitingly than she intended.
“I think she would be happy to know they were being used to see her son and his wife safe.” His mouth turned up into a sly smile when he said wife. “So, it’s fine, aye?”
She began to relax, her pulse slowing to its normal rate, and nodded in agreement.
“Yeah, okay.”
“So, let’s get to town and turn in for the night, sound good?”
“Okay.”
She stayed curled into his side the last mile of the trip, then fell into the lumpy mattress of their motel room, and finally let sleep carry her away from her worries.
#outlander fanfiction#otheroutlandertales#mod kat#pair: roger x bree#ch: roger#ch: bree#canon divergence#book: DOA#category: mf#en meme temps#oot#*
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#Outlander - "The Fiery Cross" S5, Ep1 Recap
#The Fiery Cross – Outlander S5, Ep2 Recap
Cheers to the end of “Droughtlander!” Let’s recap!
The episode begins with a young Jamie and Murtaugh. Jamie’s mother has just passed and Murtaugh makes a vow to Jamie that he will always be there for him. It’s a promise he has kept through good times and bad – and there have been some really bad times for Godfather and Godson!
Now, at Fraser’s Ridge, we see that Jamie and Claire have been busy! They have built a beautiful new home and have given Brianna and Roger their cabin. They’ve also got a growing number of tenants – families who have settled on the Ridge.
It’s Roger and Brianna’s wedding day and Roger is fumbling about trying to shave with a “cutthroat razor.” Jamie steps in to help. Roger shares with Jamie his fears about not having what it takes to be successful in this era. He’s a scholar – not a hunter or farmer – so what will his place in this new world be? He and Jamie are still awkward with each other, but Jamie has made a peace offering and presents Roger with a beautiful handmade, wedding band for him to place on Brianna’s finger. It’s a start but Jamie also has fears that Roger won’t be able to adapt to his new life.
Meanwhile, Claire is helping the bride dress. It’s a beautiful mother/daughter moment that Claire thought she would never have when she left her daughter behind to return to Jamie. How thankful she is to be able to share this day with Brianna.
While Claire prepares the bride, Jamie searches for items for Brianna’s something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue. With gifts in hand, Jamie finds his daughter and is speechless when he sees how beautiful Brianna is. Jamie presents her with his mother’s pearls, her bouquet, a shot of whiskey and a silver sixpence from Murtaugh who can’t be there because he’s in hiding. Bree dons the pearls, takes the bouquet, drinks the whiskey and puts the coin in her shoe. Like Claire, Jamie thought he would never have this day with his daughter and tells her how hard it is to give her away when he’s just found her (tissues please).
It’s time for the ceremony and a proud Jamie walks Bree down the aisle. Though, much to Jamie’s chagrin, the ceremony is to be performed by a protestant minister. Nevertheless, Jamie gives his daughter away, Brianna and Roger exchange their vows as Jamie and Claire remember their wedding day (and we get to enjoy the memories too).
Roger and Brianna are now man and wife so on to the party! At the receiving line, Governor Tyron congratulates the bride and groom and asks to speak with Jamie at a more appropriate time. Jamie, of course, knows what the Tyron wants to talk about – Murtaugh’s capture. Aunt Jocasta approaches the newlyweds and requests a private meeting with Roger.
The Fraser clan throws quite a party, and as Brianna and Roger cut their cake, they remark on how lovely the day has been. They “feed” each other cake and Roger makes a comment about having another ceremony when they go back to “their” time. From the look on Brianna’s face, it doesn’t appear that she is planning on going back. Clearly, she and Roger haven’t talked about it and if you remember last season, when Claire and Bree talked about her returning home, Claire was concerned about taking the baby through the stones.
As the party and dancing continues, Brianna is looking for a dance with Jamie. As she searches for Jamie, she overhears a conversation with between Jamie and Lord John as he tells Jamie that there have been reported sightings of Stephen Bonnet. Hearing Bonnet’s name and learning that he may be alive, brings back all the memories of that horrific night. Try as she might, it’s as if the floodgates have opened and the terror Brianna experienced at the hands of Bonnet, can no longer be suppressed.
As Brianna tries to push the memories aside, Roger serenades her and they have a beautiful wedding night. Afterwards though, as Roger sleeps beside her, the panic returns as do the flashbacks. Unaware of what is happening with their daughter, Jamie and Claire finally get their grandson to sleep and try to have their own “wedding night” without waking the baby. Also, did you catch the moment in the montage when Marsali appears to tell Fergus that she is having another baby by gently touching her stomach? It happened so quickly that I almost missed it.
In more wedding night shenanigans, with the festivities dying down, Jocasta is led back to her room and who is there to greet her? Murtaugh! Seems he got to catch a glimpse of the wedding after all! Jocasta and Murtaugh have their own romantic night but in the light of day, she tells him that Duncan Innes has proposed marriage, but she has not yet given him an answer. She is hoping that Murtaugh will tell her not to marry but how can he do that when his life is in danger? He tells Jocasta that he will not stand in the way of her happiness.
It’s time for Roger’s meeting with Jocasta. Jocasta tells Roger that she has changed her will to make Jeremiah her heir instead of Brianna. She tells Roger that if she left her fortune to Bree as she had originally intended, then her money would essentially belong to Roger. Jocasta feels that Roger may treat Jeremiah more favorably is he knows that Jem will inherit everything. Roger is pissed and tells Jocasta where she can put her money and storms off! Rather than being upset at Roger’s outburst, Jocasta just grins.
It seems this is the reaction she was hoping for from Roger. Roger returns to Bree and Jeremiah and pledges with a blood oath claiming that Jeremiah will be his son, now and forever – no matter what.
Back to Jamie and Claire, Jamie tells Claire that Governor Tyron is no longer satisfied with Jamie’s efforts to locate Murtaugh and demands Jamie honor the deal he made with the governor or lose Fraser’s Ridge. He orders Jamie to assemble his men and hunt down Murtaugh. He wants to see Murtaugh publicly hang as a lesson for all the Regulators. Jamie sees no way out of it. How can Jamie hunt and murder Murtaugh? But, as Fraser’s Ridge is now home to more than just his family, how can he risk losing his land when so many have made a home there?
The bigger problem facing Jamie and Claire is that they know the Revolutionary War is coming and Jamie needs to make sure his men are loyal to him and not to the Governor. Jamie goes to the chest containing his highlander garb. His kilt, tartan…all of it. It has all been hidden away since it was banned by the British after Culloden. Seeing Jamie in his kilt, is emotional for Jamie and Claire and for us too. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen Jamie in his kilt and it’s still a fabulous sight to behold!
As everyone assembles, Jamie lights the fiery cross. I’ve read a couple of other articles recapping this episode and some had a problem with the burning cross and the historically negative connotation that comes with it. Honestly, it didn’t strike me that way at all, I saw it as a celebration of Scottish tradition, but I’d interested to see how you felt about it. But I digress…back to the ceremony. As Jamie lights the cross, he explains the meaning of the ceremony as a call to war and asks the men to pledge their loyalty to him. He looks first to Roger, who it appears doesn’t get what Jamie is asking of him. But as Fergus and the men of Fraser’s Ridge step forward to pledge their loyalty to Jamie finally Roger does too.
Now to the final moments of “The Fiery Cross.” Jamie finds Murtaugh as he hides in the woods. Jamie warns Murtaugh that he must flee. Jamie can no longer hold off the demands of the Governor to hunt him down. An emotional Jamie releases Murtaugh from his vow and urges him to go somewhere where he can’t be found (more tissues please).
I thought it was a great episode. I have not read the books though (I’m working on it), but I’m told by those who have that the show’s creators did a great job of setting things up for what’s to come.
The next episode, entitled “Between Two Fires” airs on Sunday, February 23. Subscribe to www.sueboohscorner to see my recap and the recaps of all your favorite shows.
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Nopelander...revisting an old post
I still see sooo much Outlander stuff on my dash so I thought I’d share my thoughts on Season 4. I don’t have high hopes for S5 and even though I said I was done, I am still curious. Hanging around to see how it turns out is different than being a die hard fan, which I was. Its amazing to me that the built-in fan base and super hot chemistry between the 2 leads could fizzle out to a boring, flat, emotionless promotion.
The Fiery Cross is very focused on Roger and Brianna (with Jamie and Claire always watching an guiding which is a gift for those who crave a stable family life...and is too subtle and nuanced for these OL writers to grasp) so the magic of the show that was Jamie and Claire is no more.
Here is what I had to say about the S4 finale.
tl:dr OL used to be great, and instead of writing it as the romance-fantasy that it is, they subscribed to the theory that drama and plot are more interesting than nuanced intimacy and in doing so drained it of its charm and energy while at the same time bashed fans for not being happy about it.
Production ruined the magic that was Outlander in such a stumbling, amateurish, way. First off, they do not understand Jamie and Claire, who are soul mates, as well as best friends. They love making each other laugh and share many inside jokes. They know life is hard but as long as they can connect with each other, they’ll get through anything. In the show their relationship is tenuous and they never realistically comfort one another. Touching each other’s jaw line in lieu of good dialogue is just irritating.
2nd, the wigs take you out of the story, immediately. Why did that not concern anyone? Sam Heughan is a gorgeous man but I snort every time we see that alpaca hair. The only time I can take him seriously is when he is wearing a tri-corn. Claire’s hair looks passable from far away but up close it’s like, holy hairline! It really bothers me that this was not important to production. Jamie had shaggy hair in S1 because he was growing out a buzz cut he got at the Abbey, not because he liked having fringe. If they are trying to recreate S1 hair they have failed spectacularly.
Season Finale: Rescuing Dog Face. I want to care, but I don’t. Roger and Bree do not have an established or believable relationship. He showed up with his Paul McCartney hair in Boston and the writers decided he loved her and that’s all it’s based on. There is no chemistry between them but there isn’t any conversation, either. She is apathetic. We’ll never know how Sophie would deliver well written dialogue but with her somnolent, emotionless, delivery my guess is it wouldn’t have helped. Maybe they limited her dialogue because she couldn’t manage more than a few words at a time. Imagine the stirring ‘He’s real…I know’ or the riveting ‘You’re here’ with a modicum of energy. I know, it’s just as bad. She was miscast, obviously. They couldn’t have found a tall, American actress with dual UK/USA citizenship with an Equity card?
Hey Bree: In the show, Roger humiliated then abandoned you at the Clan gathering because you didn’t want to marry him. He then had a relationship with you --in his mind--, while you were living on your own and trying to keep your eyes from closing while you talked. Why do you love him?
Back to Roger. A group of people are going against their own tribe to rescue Dog Face and risk alienation from said tribe just to get a stone they could have just taken from Claire? Come on. The tribe had sentries posted when Jamie and Claire were approaching but everyone had the night off to gather around for the drumming circle? The one guy watching the idiot tent gets clubbed (is he dead? We don’t know) by Jamie and no one notices? Finally the jig is up and the resulting scramble to “reach the river” is so laughably amateurish that I imagined the camera guy laughing like you do when you’re filming your friends in the backyard trying to recreate the Aragorn/Nazgul fight scene from the LOTR. Thankfully, Claire was there to bring a sensible end to it all with a very effective “Its ovah”. Even the Mohawk warriors were impressed.
So did they all sleep in the idiot tent that night, or what?
And Roger isn’t totally amazed looking at Claire and Jamie, together? No? He just cowers in her clutches. At least he’s not wearing those absolutely ridiculous but completely historically accurate culottes anymore.
The Birth: Everyone complaining about this is correct. Claire would never have allowed her daughter to go through child birth in the 18th century without her. I don’t understand why the writers made this decision. That whole birthing chair thing was cringe worthy. Jocasta and her hand-made silk dress isn’t going to be assisting at a freaking birth. (I just kept seeing a thought bubble above Sophie that said “I should have stuck to dance”. I don’t think she’s enjoying Outlander that much.)
In the book, while Bree is asking Jamie to stay for the birth, he pleadingly looks to Claire like ‘what do I do’ because, while he’s heard a lot of birthing going on, he’s never been asked to assist. It shows their complete unison as a team, their trust in each other, and it’s cute to see Jamie out of his element a little.
More importantly, Jamie got to experience his grandchild with his heart burst wide open and he reveled in it. The dialogue in the book is touching and funny and it resonates because its tied to emotions that have long been been building. Jemmy is the catalyst for healing many of Jamie’s wounds regarding his children. He is the balm for his soul.
In the show, Jamie barely acknowledges the baby.
But here, blind Auntie --who in the show uses a cane-- you take the baby. Don’t hurt him with the giant brooch thing you are wearing. And don’t walk anywhere. Just stand there. Don’t you go dyin’ on me!
Here’s the other thing: Bree loves her baby from the start. She makes that decision early on. When Jemmy is born she is completely devoted to him and his care. She wouldn’t be sitting in a room by herself while her baby is hanging with a bunch of people who seem to be just standing around in a circle.
Back to the book for a second: When Roger finally shows up, Bree is not broken. She’s besotted with her son and enjoying the loving embrace of her family. She’s whole. I like that Bree. She’s got a good heart.
As much as I miss the humor between Jamie and Claire, I didn’t want to hear Sam call Claire “Granny” unless it was with a twinkle in his eye after he comes to the realization that this is the first time she’ll be called that, and it’s the first time he gets to say it. I hate book dialogue spoken with no depth or understanding of the moment. Intimacy is what DG gets so right in the books and I don’t like hearing actual lines unless it carries some weight, I’m looking at you “Turtle Soup” (cringe).
Murtagh: When he jumped off that wagon I was like…Duncan LaCroix is just loving the shit out of this. I don’t like the Regulator plot because they are shit stirrers who like to argue and ruin gatherings. Murtagh should be sticking to his vow, which was to protect Jamie. These are 18th century people, they took that shit seriously.
The fight with Jocasta was hilarious but when she said ‘let’s get breakfast’ and they pan over to Murtagh and he’s all laid out on the bed like ‘here’s your freakin’ breakfast, with sausage’ I laughed so hard I had to pause it, drink some water and pull myself together. I was dying. It wasn’t as funny the second time because I knew it was coming but the first time it was like I could see Duncan turning up that sexy vibe to 11 and it was both funny and ridiculous, and he knew it.
Rogers Choice: They should have made Roger a man of worth by having him immediately want to go to Bree. If you freaking love her so much it wouldn’t be an issue. What is she going to do, choose Bonnet over you? It should have been with no hesitation. It would have redeemed him, gave the search and rescue a satisfying conclusion, and saved us from yet another use of the two lovers running toward each other imagery. The music was so cliché I have to wonder if Bear is just picking stuff off a spotify muzak playlist.
It’s clear that the show has lapsed into soap opera territory. Sam’s face when he said he had to –takes off glasses-- kill Murtagh wasn’t full on Drake Ramoray, but it was teetering close to it.
Poor Outlander. You had the rare combination of chemistry, beauty, and talent combined with an eager and knowledgeable fan base and you reduced it to a strange wooden version of itself. Dedicated fans are leaving. I’m done. These writers are not smart or creative enough to chisel down The Fiery Cross. So much times passes during the gathering that surely Jamie will have outgrown his bangs, but of course he won’t. He just keeps hacking at them and I don’t want to stick around to watch.
Post Scriptum: Drinking game idea: Anytime anyone says Fraser’s Ridge. I mean, who talks like that? You’d say, ‘lets go home’. No one spouts the address when they reference home. ‘Where are you going?’ ‘123 State Street, where I live’.
Post, post Scriptum: You could also have a drinking game for every time Claire crosses her arms but you’d better have plenty of libations on hand.
post post post scriptum: Sam and Cait are tired of Outlander and can’t wait for it to be over.
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Prompt: Black diamond.
“What is it?”
“An adamant; a black diamond. The auld alchemists used them. The books say that to wear an adamant brings ye the knowledge of the joy in all things.”
-- Claire and Geillis (Duncan) Abernathy, Voyager
--
“You have the adamant,” I said, touching it gently...
“I have,” he said, but he was looking at me, not at the stone, a slight smile on his face. “What is it an adamant gives ye? The knowledge of joy in all things?”
“So I was told.” I lifted my hand to his face and stroked it lightly.
-- Claire and Jamie Fraser, Voyager
-----------------
It was a surprisingly quiet afternoon, crisp air on the cusp of autumn.
Claire Fraser, hunched over the desk in her surgery, set down her quill and stretched. Watching - and listening - as a wagon pulled into the dooryard and Ian materialized from the porch, wee Oggy strapped to his back, to take the horses.
Roger and Brianna hopped down from the wagon, no doubt grateful to be home after a three-week trip to Wilmington. Just in time for Jem and Mandy’s footsteps to thunder in the hallway and out into the dooryard to collide with their parents’ legs.
It was the longest that they had been separated since returning to the past just a few months before, and Claire’s heart soared to have her family whole again.
Now Jamie trudged over from the barn - still not quite finished - to greet them. He shook Roger’s hand and kissed Bree’s cheek. Claire couldn’t hear what they were discussing, but she knew Jamie would fill her in.
All would be shared, in good time. For time was what they had now.
She pushed back her chair, closed her ledger, stood, and went outside to greet them.
--
“I’ve a wee gift for ye.”
Claire set down her hairbrush and turned to face her husband - suddenly bashful in the doorway of their bedroom.
“Whatever for?”
Flushed, Jamie coughed uncomfortably. “Does a man need a reason to give a gift to his wife of thirty-five years?”
“No, of course not. Only - I’m surprised. And touched.”
Carefully he sat on the bed beside her.
“Hold out yer hand.”
She did - and he brought a fist from behind his back to drop something warm into it.
Blankly Claire stared at the long silver chain and the dark stone nestled among the links.
“It’s an adamant,” Jamie quietly explained. “We had one when we came to Georgia, do you recall?”
“I do. An adamant is meant to provide the knowledge of joy in all things.”
Softly, he took the chain from her and clasped it around her neck. The cabochon-cut gem settled at the midpoint of her breastbone - just below the neckline of her dresses.
“You have given me the knowledge of joy in all things, mo nighean donn, since the first day we met.” He caressed the wings of her collarbones with his thumb. “And I did once say that I wished to bedeck ye in laces and jewels.”
“And I did say then that such things are unnecessary.” She smiled. “Not that I’m not grateful, Jamie, but - why now? We can’t afford this, not when the house still has to be finished - ”
“We can afford it, Claire, and we will. We’ve the Frenchman’s gold.”
She pursed her lips. “But still. Why?”
He kissed her cheek. “Besides the fact that it looks bonny against your skin?”
She pulled back. “I mean it. Why?”
He met her eyes head-on. “It’s an insurance policy. If things were to get bad, too bad here. If I am to die before this war is over. You must use this to go back, Claire.”
“My place is here.”
“Your place is to be safe. I will protect ye with the last drop of blood in my body, Claire. But if I am no longer here to do that...” he shuddered. “It is only if ye had to. If I was dead. It’s no’ safe for you here, wi’out me.”
He took her hands. Imploring. “Please. Accept this.”
“I do,” she vowed. “Though I hope I’ll never have to use it.”
“Allow me to keep you safe in all ways that I can.”
She kissed him. “You are my adamant, too,” she whispered against his lips.
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Outlander: Getting to Know You
I was tagged by the lovely @phoenixflames12 and @sassenachwaffles and @jules-fraser!
1. How long have you been a fan of Outlander?
Since 2005. Binge-read the first book one weekend during my freshman year at college. The rest is history
2. Have you read the books? If so, which ones?
All of them. The novellas, too. Enough to remember quotes by heart.
3. Which is your favourite secondary character?
Murtagh
4. What is your least favourite storyline?
All the nonsense with Lord John Grey and Percy Beauchamp.
5. Favourite Episode (s)?
Season 1: Rent, The Watch
Season 2: La Dame Blanche, Je Suis Prest, Dragonfly in Amber
Season 3: Of Lost Things, Eye Of The Storm
6. The Episodes you skip?
Any scene with Frank
7. Be honest, how many times have you watched The Wedding?
8. Finish the sentence, Frank Randall is a…?
man who holds a grudge
9. What’s your Outlander watching ritual?
I’ll go weeks without watching an episode. Then randomly watch one.
10. Are you into shipping?
I ship @westerhos and Caitriona Balfe.
11. Do you read Outlander fanfiction? If so, what’s your favourites?
Yes. I write it, too. Special favorites are @notevenjokingfic @mybeautifuldecay
12. What Outlander merchandise do you own?
A “Vive Les Frasers” shirt from @mybeautifuldecay
13. Which was your favourite- Rupert or Angus?
Impossible to choose. So both.
14. True or False: Lt. Jeremy Foster is a delicious cinnamon bun.
I’m neutral
15. If you were to attend a “fucking bar-b-que” with Geillis Duncan what would you order?
Cole slaw
16. What areas of interest has Outlander sparked for you?
Outlander has helped me find my voice as a writer. Gotten me into the habit of writing, which is something I’d thought about for years but never acted on.
17. Biggest plot hole in the show?
How did Jamie’s jacket - which he left somewhere near Charles Stuart before joining the battle on Culloden Moor - resurface during his cave years? Kudos to @thesketchingwitch for pointing this out
18. Bree and Roger: Yay or Nay?
They have grown on me as the Books have progressed
19. Which JAAMF habit do you find most endearing?
How deeply he honors his vows
20. Finish the sentence: Claire Fraser is _______________.
A badass MOFO
21. Marry/Fuck/Kill: Dougal, Black Jack, Geneva.
Kill all of them
22. If you could change one thing about the show version of Outlander, what would it be?
Nobody cares about Frank in 01x08 “Both Sides Now”
23. Using one word for each, describe Season 1, Season 2 and Season 3:
Season 1: Backdrop
Season 2: Build
Season 3: Explore
24. What are some of your other favourite shows/movies?
The Walking Dead. Mad Men. The Sopranos.
25. Where are you from?
NYC
I tag anyone who wants to participate - but specifically, @thesketchingwitch @saint-hildegard-of-bingen @mybeautifuldecay @writtenthroughtime @just-a-kid-at-heart @missclairebelle @yellowfeather84
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I worry about how much roger and bree we are going to get this season i would much rather they have the 18th century stuff and the 60 stuff in every ep then to not get any 60 stuff until like ep 4 or 5 and then get 2 eps that are 60s heavy and than bam bree goes to the stones. Cuz the book is like 50/50 in tearms of jamie/claire and roger/bree. What do you think?
Hello anon!
I agree with you, I would love it if the episodes went back and forth between the 18th century with Jamie and Claire and the 20th century with Roger and Bree. Though in the books, the parts are broken up into pretty large chunks going back and forth between the two pairs, so I don’t know how the writers went about handling that challenge.
When the first six episode titles were leaked I discussed how I thought Roger and Bree would play into those episodes here. But since then the writers for each episode have been announced and after seeing the first episode at NYCC that whole speculation has pretty much gone out the window for me.
I’m going to put some of my speculation about the episodes below a cut because I’m going to talk about the first episode a bit and also the Roger and Bree clip that I saw at Paley Fest.
Those of you on mobile if you don’t want to see spoilers stop here and scroll!
Alright, it should be obvious to most people based on the episode 1 talk that has been going around that Roger and Bree weren’t in it. I had a feeling that would be the case because when the opening credits were posted earlier on Saturday, Richard and Sophie were not credited.
I of course was sad, but I also understand that we hadn’t seen either of them in the last half of season 3, so it may have been a bit much to jump right in with them in episode 1.
Since Saturday I have been doing a lot of thinking about when we will finally see Roger and Bree in season 4, trying to place their storyline amongst the episode titles and who wrote what episode that we have seen.
It’s pretty obvious to me that Jamie and Bree meet in episode 9, because Matt and Toni wrote it and it makes sense when you compare where that falls in the book and where the episode falls in the season.
That leaves us with episodes 2 through 8 to fit in a lot of Bree and Roger bits.
As a reminder, the episode titles are:
Episode 402, “Do No Harm”
Episode 403, “The False Bride”
Episode 404, “Common Ground”
Episode 405, “Savages”
Episode 406, “Blood of My Blood”
Episode 407 – Unknown
Episode 408 – Unknown
I have been trying to piece together how the titles would work for both Jamie and Claire’s story and Roger and Bree’s, because perhaps they will relate to more than just one thing.
There’s a few different scenarios we could look at and speculate on. Will they mix up the events of what happens in the books for Roger and Bree? Will they change them in anyway? Perhaps the order will be different?
“Do No Harm” is interesting to me because in Drums when Roger first finds the death notice he doesn’t want to tell Bree fearing it would hurt her. So maybe he finds it before his trip to the states and holds on to that information? We saw a phone call happen between the two of them and Bree is obviously upset, so maybe he does tell her. In terms of JC, this is also where they would be arriving at River Run and dealing with some situations with the slaves at Jocasta’s.
“The False Bride” is a title that could play on both JC’s story and RB’s. @abbydebeaupreposts did some awesome digging on where this may come from here. After her discovery on that, I think we will be seeing Strawberry Fields in this episode. For RB it could also be the Scottish Festival, because Roger does give Bree the photos from Frank and Claire’s wedding and “The False Bride” could allude to that.
“Common Ground” is really making me nervous because part of me thinks this may be the episode when we see Roger and Bree for the first time and I obviously do not want to wait that long to see them. But, alas, it would be a really good title for the Scottish Festival and Roger and Bree coming together in a moment where they both have ties to what is being celebrated. I just wish this was a little further up in the episode lineup. Could this be an entire Roger and Bree episode? Possibly, if the writers chose to go that route and not intermingle the two stories.
This could also be the episode where we see the “Minister’s Cat�� clip that was shown at Paley.
(And let me tell you I about died when this was the clip we were able to see at Paley because I named my blog in honor of this moment and this game that Roger and Bree play throughout the books! I don’t know if @futurelounging or @muykonos noticed me start shaking with excitement or not!)
For “Savages” I speculated that this could not only refer to the Native Americans that JC meet, but also to Stephen Bonnet. Roger has a run in with him when he’s on his way to the colonies, that most definitely shows him as a savage. Episode 1 definitely highlights that aspect of Bonnet.
I’ve been seeing a lot of talk in regards to “Blood of My Blood” referring to many different things. Could JC be renewing their vows? Could Willie and Lord John be visiting the Ridge? I kind of hope it is Roger and Bree’s hand fasting. I think it would be a great call back to Jamie and Claire’s wedding if they use some of the same vows, even though in the books RB’s vows are pretty standard.
This could also be when Bree arrives at Lallybroch and meets Jenny and her family. We would still have two episodes until Bree meets Jamie then, which would be a lot of filler seeing as those two moments are only about a week apart and we don’t see much of that week in the books.
“Blood of My Blood” could also be when Bree arrives at Lallybroch and meets Jenny and her family. And when we see Roger go through the stones after her.
That means we could quite possibly see #shedsex happening in episode 7 or 8. (After writing a lot of this out and coming back to it, this is starting to feel like the safest bet on my end of things.)
Can you see how there are so many things to speculate on when it comes to how the show is going to do the Roger and Bree story lines? It all depends on how prominent the writers decided to make them.
I will say one thing, and it’s not meant to be negative, but I don’t think Bree and Roger will be featured as much as they are in the books. The show has too much material to work from and trying to get in the 47% of Drums that is Roger and Bree would be too difficult when they know they have a pair that sells. Of course this breaks my heart, but I understand it and will be thankful with whatever we get!
Thanks for the great question anon, you got me to write down some of the ideas that have been hanging out in my brain for the last few days. There’s much more in there if you want to talk about anything else!
xo Kat
#outlander#outlander spoilers#outlander spoiler#outlander season 4#roger mackenzie#brianna mackenzie#roger x brianna#roger x bree#anon asks#kat answers#roger mac#bree#show talk#book talk
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Ep. 501 Recaps & Interviews
[Updating as new ones post.]
‘Outlander’ Team Says Season 5 Wedding is a ‘Big Family Party’ (Variety)
OUTLANDER SEASON 5 STARTS WITH A WEDDING, STARS TEASE BEST SEASON FINALE YET (Syfy Wire)
‘Outlander’ Review: A Season 5 Wedding Sets Up All Kinds of Family Drama (IndieWire)
'Outlander' Season 5 Premiere: Cast Reacts to Bree and Roger's Wedding and That Romance Montage! (ET)
Outlander's Sam Heughan Tees Up Jamie and Claire's Season 5 Joy, Warns of the Moment When 'Things Go South' (TVLine)
‘Outlander’ Exec Producer Ronald D. Moore Confirms He’s ‘In Talks’ for Spinoff (Variety)
Outlander Kicks Off Its New Season with Daddy Issues (Paste)
Outlander Season Premiere Recap: Take a Vow (Vulture)
‘Outlander’ Team Says Season 5 Wedding is a ‘Big Family Party’ (Yahoo)
Did the Outlander Premiere Finally Doom a Fan Favorite? (Vanity Fair)
The Outlander Cast Reacts to That Chilling Villainous Return (TV Guide)
‘Outlander’s’ Sophie Skelton on Brianna’s PTSD, Motherhood in Season 5 (Variety)
‘Outlander’ Season 5 Premiere Recap: Jamie and Murtagh Part Ways in ‘The Fiery Cross’ (Variety)
Outlander Cast Breaks Down Their Favorite Season 5 Episode 1 Moments (Syfy Wire)
The hot time-travelers are back: Richard Rankin on Outlander’s return (AV Club)
Is ‘Outlander’ Still Sexy After All These Years? (Decider)
Sam Heughan Talks ‘Outlander’ Season 5, What’s Next for the Frasers, and His ‘Bloodshot’ Role (Collider)
'Outlander' Stars Dive Into That Season 5 Wedding and Fiery Cross Scene (THR)
Outlander Premiere Recap: Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Brewing (TVLine)
Outlander star Tim Downie warns that Governor Tryon is 'the devil incarnate' (EW)
Outlander recap: Jamie gives us a fiery cross to bear (EW)
Outlander showrunner reveals why the Fraser house is so big (EW)
Outlander Is Back and Better Than Ever (Glamour)
‘Outlander’ Season 5 Premiere: I Will Never Get Over That Sex Montage Needle Drop (Decider)
‘Outlander’ Season 5 Review: Starz Drama Finds Its Footing in Knowing the Future (Collider)
OUTLANDER GIVES US THE STIRRINGS OF LOVE AND WAR IN 'THE FIERY CROSS' (Syfy Wire)
Outlander's Sophie Skelton Opens Up About Brianna and Roger's Wedding Day (Town & Country)
Outlander recap: The Ballad of Burning Loins (Go Fug Yourself)
Outlander's Sophie Skelton on Brianna's Love for Roger and her Fear of Stephen Bonnet (Parade)
Outlander Season 5 Episode 1 Review: The Fiery Cross (Den of Geek)
Outlander season 5 premiere review: A Fraser’s Ridge wedding (Culturess)
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