With the Droughtlander in full swing, die-hard fans of the historical drama series Outlander are delving back into earlier seasons, particularly intrigued by Claire Fraser’s (portrayed by CaitrÃona Balfe) attempts to change history.
In the show’s second run, Claire convinces her other half Jamie (Sam Heughan) to venture off to Paris with the goal of thwarting the catastrophic Battle of Culloden.
The sophomore season sees the duo aiming to sway Bonnie Prince Charlie (played by Andrew Gower) and halt the carnage and consequential battle that would ultimately redefine Scotland’s future.
Claire was determined to avert the uprising against the English rather than just achieve victory over them.
Speaking on the Outlander podcast, showrunner Ronald D. Moore recounted having to overhaul the scene completely, reports the Daily Record.
Regarding Claire’s intention, he remarked: “Stopping the war as opposed to trying to win the war.”
Moore further detailed the extensive rewriting process for the scene that showcases Claire’s desire to alter the course of time.
He revealed: “A kind of whole different take on it in the first draft, where Claire made this whole analogy about she’d seen two World Wars really.”
This included an elaborate speech by Claire on the First World War, where “She went on this extended speech about World War I and how that had happened and it happened and everyone thought it was going to be over quick and easy and it ended up taking four years and costing millions of lives.
“She was doing it to illustrate once a war starts, there was no way to predict how it was going to go.
“So the best way to stop this disaster from befalling the Scots was not to have the Jacobite Rebellion happen at all.”
The very first episode of Outlander even showed Claire covered in blood on the battlefield with news breaking about the end of World War II.
So, it’s clear Claire had seen much death and destruction during her time at the military field hospital tending to wounded soldiers.
Moore elaborated further about how he scripted the moment Claire revealed her motives for wanting to stop the Jacobite Rebellion.
He said: “It was sort of one of those writerly speeches that you fall in love with on the page as you’re writing. You’re like, ‘I love these words, it’s flowing so beautifully.’
“Then people read it and go, ‘This is just a long speech about World War I. What does this have to do with f***ing anything?'” He added: “Then you go, ‘Maybe it doesn’t really work.'”.
Sadly, Jamie and Claire failed to alter the course of history, and the Battle of Culloden went ahead with the time traveller forced to return to her own era.
This isn’t the first time people have tried to change the course of history in Outlander, Geillis Duncan (Lotte Verbeek) also wanted to put Bonnie Prince Charlie on the throne, but again this didn’t happen.
Additionally, Otter Tooth or Robert Springer (Trevor Carroll) attempted to prevent the recent extermination of Native Americans, but his pleas were ignored by the tribes.
Furthermore, Roger MacKenzie (Richard Rankin) endeavoured to rescue his father Jerry (Nicholas Ralph) after he unintentionally travelled through the stones, but once again, it was not meant to be.
Outlander season 7 is available to buy now on Digital and is streaming on MGM+ via Prime Video now