Navigating Time During a Droughtlander

While us fans wait for our beloved characters to grace our screens once more; we are stuck in what we call a Droughtlander. The inevitable waiting period that begins once the season finale comes and we long for more adventure to come to life with the next season. Until then we watch and rewatch what we have.

Imagine being transported to another place in history. You’ve not only read or studied certain events in that time but you also memorized historical figures for who they were and could picture them and their attributes in your mind. Suddenly you are in the middle of those events and meeting the people you feel like you know but you are the outsider.

If you’ve ever watched the series Outlander or read the amazing novels that started it all by Diana Gabaldon, then you have indeed longed for Jamie Fraser to call you his Sassenach.

Not only is the protagonist, Claire Randall, an English woman and nurse from the twentieth century but she falls through time and finds herself in eighteenth century Scotland in the years leading up to a bloody war between the two countries. Hence: she is an outsider, outlander, or the Scottish word of equivalence, a sassenach.

Upon falling through the stones into an unknown era, Claire immediately meets a clan of Scotsmen who don’t trust her yet also protect her at the same time. One of these Scotsmen is the highland warrior us Outlander fans have fallen in love with.

After being whisked away by Clan McKenzie, Claire longs to return to her time but obstacles present themselves. Her one constant always remained.

James Alexander Malcolm McKenzie Fraser

While unable to escape the clan, she can’t help but tend to Jamie Fraser's wounds each time he ends up being battered and broken and they begin to form a bond and a love that transcends time. Their love creates a world where the reader, or viewer, becomes engulfed in their adventure and romance. When the pair are forced to marry to protect her from the evils of Black Jack Randall (her twentieth century husband’s ancestor) Claire becomes a Scot and although still an outsider, she becomes trusted by the clan and in a way: free.

Claire faces struggles on her quest to return home to and as a fan of the series, you can’t help but care for her and root for her in her journey. At first you want her to find her way back home and to escape Clan McKenzie. Then slowly throughout the course of the first book, or first season, Claire seems to be more protected and loved by Jamie than she ever could have been in the twentieth century.

This fandom is better than any other because of the bond created between two very different people, the unraveling of an unpredictable and truly genuine love story for the ages. Every fan that has fallen through time with Claire knows that Diana Gabaldon has created a world, right within history, that we all wish to find love and happiness in.

This story takes you on an emotional and adventurous ride that you do not want to get off of. From Scotland, to France and eventually to the colonies prior to the American revolution; you can’t help but want to be right in the middle of what the history books say things were like in those times. However, with the spin Outlander brings on it, history can change and we full-heartedly follow that journey with our beloved characters as our tour guides.