As Outlander fanatics endure the hiatus known as Droughtlander, they’re diving back into older episodes of the beloved Starz historical drama, particularly zealous in understanding why Claire Fraser (portrayed by Caitríona Balfe) sought to meddle with historical events.
During the show’s second season, Claire enticed her other half Jamie (played by Sam Heughan) to embark on a journey to Paris, aiming to foil the catastrophic Battle of Culloden.
This season followed the pair as they endeavoured to worm their way into the Royal court and sway Bonnie Prince Charlie (actor Andrew Gower) from unleashing a conflict that would eternally alter Scotland’s destiny.
Her endeavour was to avert the insurrection against the British rather than striving for victory in the confrontation.
Outlander’s executive producer Ronald D. Moore reflected on the narrative while addressing the official podcast for the series, confessing that the pivot in Claire’s motives’ depiction necessitated a significant rewrite, reports the Daily Record.
Claire Fraser had served as a nurse tending to wounded soldiers (Image: STARZ)
About Claire’s intentions, he illustrated: “Stopping the war as opposed to trying to win the war.”
Moreover, Moore delved into the modifications made to the scene where Claire attempts temporal tampering, indicating it underwent multiple revisions in the script-writing phase.
According to Moore: “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.”
He relayed Claire’s rationale: “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.
Claire Fraser had witnessed much bloodshed during WWII (Image: STARZ)
“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.
Claire Fraser knew the human cost of war (Image: STARZ)
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.
Claire Fraser tried to change history in Outlander (Image: STARZ)
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.
Otter Tooth, also known as Robert Springer (played by Trevor Carroll), attempted to prevent the recent extermination of Native Americans, but his warnings were ignored by the tribes.
In addition, Roger MacKenzie (portrayed by Richard Rankin) made an effort 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