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outlander_forum*** WARNING! This thread is for discussing deviations between episode 306 and the source material, the novel Voyager. If you have not read the book, please understand that the discussion will contain possible spoilers for the series moving forward (including possibly beyond the current season). However, if you have no intention of reading the book, or don't mind spoilers, or are simply curious to know how things differed, proceed at your own risk! ***
If you wish to discuss episode 306, please do so on the dedicated episode discussion thread.
There were a few notable changes from the source material in this episode. Do you think these will affect the story going forward? Did you like the changes? Did any annoy or upset you? Are there events from the book that were left out that you wish they'd included? Things they left out that you're glad they did?
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Date: 2017-10-23 12:38 pm (UTC)1. Jamie telling Claire about Willie right away. In the book, Claire does eventually find out about Willie, but much later in the story, and (initially) not from Jamie himself, but from Lord John. And she gets really, really upset. Moving this revelation to their reunion, and having Jamie tell her will have one important plot difference, I think. I think the show might change the Claire-Lord John dynamic, because, as book readers know, Claire ends up very resentful of him, not just in book three, but pretty much throughout the rest of the series. Which I always found a bit odd, so if it means this won't be the case, I'm OK with that. I know Claire's issues with Lord John weren't just because of the Willie revelation, but her jealousy always seemed so petty -- especially because she just never seemed to get over it (until maybe book 8).
2. Mr. Willoughby... Well, they certainly made him less... "chinee". Gone are the silk "pyjamas", and also the foot fetish? I have mixed feelings here. On the one hand, the way the character is written in Voyager made me uncomfortable -- because Diana Gabaldon rightly did not make the character "politically correct" -- he was viewed as people in the 18th century would have viewed someone that alien to them. I think the show has decided to tone that down -- maybe out of fear of some backlash because people today seem unable to put things in historical context? I don't know. We'll have to see going forward what happens with the character.
3. They condensed a lot of the Jamie-as-smuggler plot -- obviously due to time considerations -- by having Jamie meet Sir Perceval in the basement of the pub which allowed them to explain things more quickly and obviously to viewers.
4. I'm wondering if they're going to leave out the Edinburgh Fiend/Reverend and Margaret Campbell side plot. Didn't Claire initially meet him on the coach to Edinburg? We didn't see any of her coach journey. She could still meet him in the apothecary, as but given all the events that have to happen in ep. 307, I don't know if they'd have time for that. Ep. 308 is Jamie and Claire back at Lallybroch, so timing... If they leave that out, that will mean some fairly major plot changes down the road.
5. Related to point #1... Jamie came close a couple of times to telling Claire something, but was interrupted or lost his nerve. I won't say what that revelation was likely going to be, book readers know, but that combined with the news about Willie reminded me of something that seemed odd to me about their reunion in the book. If I'd not seen someone in 20 years, not just not seen, but had zero contact with, I think the first thing I'd want to do is talk. Just talk and talk and talk and find out everything that had happened to them during those 20 years. The fact that Claire (and Jamie) left so much unsaid in the books, which comes back to bite them in the ass later in the book and in some cases, in later books, is odd, to me. I know Diana has justified Jamie not telling Claire about certain things because he's afraid that she'd leave if she knew, but when she finds out by other means, the impact is even worse. I mean, if I were Claire, the first thing I would have wanted to know was if Jamie had someone else in his life after 20 effin' years apart. Jamie at least knew she'd gone back to Frank, and she tells him Frank died, but Claire just totally avoids the whole thing.
6. Related to point #5, Claire's reaction to the news about Willie is much more toned down than in the book (maybe because how she finds out). I liked that because I found book Claire's reactions to a lot of things in Voyager way over the top. Mostly because a lot of the time, it was her own fault for not asking fucking questions about what Jamie had been up to during the past 20 years.
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Date: 2017-10-23 01:13 pm (UTC)I mean. Why would Jamie be less nervous about telling Claire about Willie than the Other Thing? Sure, it's a big deal, but if TV!Jamie understand that he should probably outright say things, and Fergus fucking implied he should tell her, that logic is not going to stall out on him.
On the other hand, I appreciate that Claire's dress isn't destroyed, because I was always like, "But, her stuff!" in the book. Lame, but true. (They made Such a Big Deal about the dress in the book, and then barely a twitch at destroying it utterly.)
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Date: 2017-10-23 01:22 pm (UTC)Yeah, the dress in the book didn't make much sense. And Terry said that if she'd actually turned up in one of those creations (I forget the designer's name), she'd likely would have faced another witch trial.
They are definitely saving The Other Thing for ep. 308. I'm still not sure the impact will be as dramatic as it was in the book because of what they did in 208, but we'll see.
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Date: 2017-10-23 01:51 pm (UTC)Also: I'm pretty sure the Other Thing will still be as dramatic. Especially if Claire's thinking Jamie has told her everything, because he told her a whole damn lot, though the "Are you married" question never happened in the show, which was sort of a red flag. Yeah.
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Date: 2017-10-23 02:13 pm (UTC)Yeah, they skirt around it by having Claire ask "did you fall in love with someone else" or words to that effect. So of course Jamie can easily and truthfully answer "no" to that one!
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Date: 2017-10-23 02:32 pm (UTC)