History Main / Outlander

* ''Film/{{Outlander}}'', a 2008 sci-fi film.
* ''{{Fanfic/Outlander}}'', a ''Franchise/DragonAge'' fanfic.
* ''VideoGame/{{Outlander}}'', a 1992 post-apocalyptic video game.

* ''{{FanFic/Outlander}}, a Franchise/DragonAge fanfic.

* ''{{FanFic/Outlander}}, a ''DragonAge'' fanfic.

!!If you're looking for the 2008 sci-fi film, see [[{{Film/Outlander}} here]].

A series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. Claire Beauchamp Randall is taken back in time from 1946 to 1743, where she marries and begins a passionate love affair with Jamie Fraser, a Scottish Highlander. They face many dangers and political intrigues as they attempt to prevent the tragic battle of Culloden from happening. And that's more or less just the first two books. The later books span more than 20 years, expanding the focus of the novels beyond just the main couple to their families, their {{nakama}}, and the historical situation in general. Depending on who you ask, they're [[RomanceNovel romance novels]] of the upper 10% under SturgeonsLaw or HistoricalFiction - or a bit of both. Absolutely nothing to do with [[Film/{{Outlander}} that film.]] Also not to be confused with Johji Manabe's manga series from the 80's (and the subsequent anime adaptation) titled 'Outlanders'.

[[AC:The books in order: ]]

* ''Outlander'' (published as ''Cross Stitch'' in the UK)
* ''Dragonfly in Amber''
* ''Voyager''
* ''Drums of Autumn''
* ''The Fiery Cross''
* ''A Breath of Snow and Ashes''
* ''An Echo in the Bone''

The main series has a spinoff of sorts, the Lord John series, focusing on the life of a secondary character featured in the latter four books, OfficerAndAGentleman (and StraightGay) Lord John Grey. Recently, there have been mentions that a film of the books has been optioned, though YourMileageMayVary on how good any film version would be.

----
!!Tropes Used:

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder - In their 20 years apart, neither Jamie nor Claire is exactly celibate. But their hearts never truly stray (Aww.)
* TheAmericanRevolution - The later books begin to overlap with this time period. The Battle of Saratoga and the occupation of Philidelphia are covered in some detail.
* {{Awesome McCoolname}} - James Alexander Malcolm [=McKenzie=] Fraser.
* BabiesEverAfter - Later books have elements of this, paired with BadassFamily.
* BadassFamily
* BadassPreacher - Roger.
* TheBaroness - Geilis Duncan (or Mrs. Abernathy, or whatever she's calling herself in this decade) has some traits of this trope: fervent militarism, strange sexual habits.
* BetaCouple - Bree and Roger. Marsali and [[spoiler:Fergus]]. Everyone and everyone else. There's a lot of marrying.
* BigInJapan - The books are very popular in Germany, for some reason.
* {{Bishonen}} - Lord John. Mention is made on how pretty and petite he is (being blonde and around five foot six).
* {{Blackmail}}
* BlackWidow - Geilis Duncan.
* ColdBloodedTorture - Randall in Wentworth Prison, Jamie's shattered hand. Claire is somewhat upset, in later books, with [[spoiler: Jamie's manipulative interrogation of a sixteen-year-old John Grey; she's inclined to take pity on John due to his age and innocence, despite him having made a credible attempt to kill her husband.]] Jamie, however, does not see this as anything but fair play during wartime.
* CoversAlwaysLie - Overlapping with ContemptibleCover in some printings.
* ChekhovsGun - The body in the beginning of ''Voyager'', among others.
* CliffHanger - too many to count. The most egregious ones are at the end of An Echo in the Bone: [[spoiler: Jem is kidnapped, Roger on his way back in time to get him, William just found out he's Jamie's bastard and is off to do something rash, Jamie has kidnapped Lord John and John just confessed he slept with Claire]]
* CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming - One per book, at least.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance - Period attitudes are captured quite fairly. Even the {{time travel}}lers aren't magically enlightened.
* DepravedBisexual - Jack Randall is an equal opportunity rapist.
* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch - Mostly averted. Gabaldon ''did''. And then some. However, only after the first couple of books did she acquire the help of a Gaelic speaker, so there were some early problems in that area, as noted by her in ''The Outlandish Companion''.
** This troper, whose mother tongue is French, would like to add that some of her French sentences do have some problems as well. I especially think about "Reste d'retour! Oui, le tout!" in ''A Breath of Snow and Ashes'', chapter 56, which doesn't mean "Stay back, all of you!" as Gabaldon mentions (and simply doesn't make sense ''at all'', in French).
* DidNotDoTheResearch - In the second book ''Dragonfly in Amber'', Claire has an instance of Sex Ed fail. When [[spoiler: Mary]], after being raped, asks Claire if she might have a baby because of it, Claire tells her she won't, because the rapist didn't ejaculate. Claire goes on to think that if the male doesn't ejaculate, the chances of a woman getting pregnant would be like a freak accident. Especially crazy considering that Claire is supposed to be a doctor. Any doctor worth their weight should probably know that, yes, a woman can get pregnant if she has unprotected sex with a man. Even if the man doesn't ejaculate.
* DistressBall - Claire's attempt to escape to Craigh na Dun and the 20th century, Brianna's ill-advised visit to Stephen Bonnet's boat.
* DomesticAbuse - Jamie beats Claire in a memorable scene in the first book. Their different values concerning this issue cause several subsequent arguments. Since Claire's a doctor, cases of severe {{domestic abuse}} occasionally come to her attention elsewhere, and she usually does her best to stop it, with Jamie's backing. (An in-universe example of ValuesDissonance occurs with this - when Claire speaks of beating one's wife, as it's used in her time, Jamie sees nothing unusual with it, but the thought of a man using his fists on his wife is disturbing and alien to him.)
* DoorStopper - Don't drop any of the hardcover copies on your foot. Especially not ''A Breath of Snow and Ashes''.
* DownerEnding - ''Dragonfly in Amber'', as well as ''A Breath of Snow And Ashes'', do not have especially happy endings.
* EyeScream - ''A Breath of Snow and Ashes'' has someone getting a needle jabbed in their eye to remove pressure from built-up fluid. Fun times. Also, in ''Voyager'', Claire ... assists a young man with a parasite that keeps moving back and forth between his eyes.
* EstrogenBrigadeBait - Uh, [[RedheadedHero Jamie.]] And [[DeadpanSnarker Lord John.]] And [[EveryoneLooksSexierIfFrench Fergus.]]
* EveryoneIsRelated - Even across centuries.
* {{Fingore}} - [[spoiler:Jamie's ''hand'' post-Randall.]]
* FishOutOfTemporalWater
* FutureSlang - (Played with, in that the one doing the swearing is Claire, a 20th century woman. She manages to baffle those around her with her anachronistic, and so confusing, use of "fucking", "sadist" and in what becomes a plot point at least once, "Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!")
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex - Do they ever.
** And sometimes, they have less-than-good sex, though Jamie does usually feel bad about it.
* HappilyMarried - Jamie and Claire seem to be settling down into this, despite a ''lot'' of conflict going on around them.
* HookHand - Fergus.
* HotDad - Lord John. Jamie, of course.
* IdenticalGrandson - Roger's eyes and Geilis Duncan, his great-great-great-great grandmother. Also, hello, Frank Randall and ... all of the ancestral Randalls, it would seem. Jack Randall's physical resemblance to her spouse makes Claire very disturbed at multiple points.
* IDidntMeanToTurnYouOn - [[spoiler: Jo and Kezzie with Lizzie, Phaedre with Duncan, and Jamie himself with Lord John.]]
* IHaveYouNowMyPretty
* IOweYouMyLife - Slight (and serious) example of this between Lord John and Jamie.
* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters
* LonelyTogether
* LongDistanceRelationship - Brianna and Roger, for a while. Jamie and Claire kind of redefine the trope too. Two centuries is quite a long distance indeed.
* ManInAKilt - Well, duh.
* TheMedic - Claire, WorldWarII nurse who became an MD in [[TheFifties the 1950s]] and took penicillin back to 1765 with her.
* MistakenForCheating
* MistakenForMurderer
* MultipleDemographicAppeal - Gabaldon mentions several times on her podcast that this is the case - she used to be able to pitch the book to absolutely anyone she encountered at promotional appearances. It's a romance novel. No, it's a straight-up historical. No, it's {{time travel}}, and therefore {{science fiction}}! It's military history! (It apparently has some following among people actually in the military - in no small part due to the fact that the books are very, very long and very, very detailed, which can be convenient for those deployed and bored.)
* NarrativeProfanityFilter - Claire sometimes does this, especially with Gaelic curses, although she more frequently reports curses (and says them herself) without any filter.
* NatureAdoresAVirgin - Jamie was a virgin on his wedding night. Claire wasn't. Not that either of them really seemed to mind.
** Subverted in ''Voyager'' when Jamie beds a young girl, under coercion. She resists and cries out in pain, and Jamie wonders aloud why anyone would ever want to sleep with a virgin.
* NightmareFuelUnleaded - Contains more than a little, no surprise. High points include the lovely medical scenes.
* NobodyOver50IsGay - The entire cast is getting quite old, so Lord John may still avert this. Of course, there's the Duke of Sandringham, but his age is unstated.
* NotQuiteDead - [[spoiler: Jamie after Culloden. Randall, after the first book. Geillie, after her supposed burning.]] This happens so often, it's best to assume nobody is dead until Claire has examined the corpse.
* OntologicalInertia - The reason Claire and Jamie can neither prevent the Battle of Culloden from happening, nor help the Scots to win. Fear of this not being true is part of why Claire attempts to keep Jamie from killing Randall outright - he's an ancestor of her husband from her own century, and she fears all kind of disturbing time paradoxes.
* OverprotectiveDad - Jamie [[spoiler: beats up Roger and sends him to be Indians' slave because he thinks he raped Brianna. (He's mistaken, but his reaction is sort of justified because Brianna had really been raped.)]] Lord John as well, in some regards in ''Echo In The Bone''.
* {{Polyamory}} - [[spoiler: Lizzie and both Beardsley twins.]]
* PortalToThePast - The rocks at Craigh na Dun, and implicitly at least one similar place in America.
* PrisonRape
* RapeAsDrama - There's quite a lot of rape, mostly threatened for female characters but executed fairly even-handedly among the genders. [[spoiler:Jamie, Fergus, an attempt on Jenny, [[ScarpiaUltimatum Brianna]], Claire herself, and in backstory, Lord John, come to mind.]]
* RedheadedStepchild - Literally. Redhead Brianna, raised lovingly by Frank, who was 200 years too late to the party to be her biological father, [[spoiler:(not to mention infertile)]]. Also Brianna's son Jemmy, whose paternity was questionable [[spoiler: due to her rape by Stephen Bonnet]], although Roger raises him as his own.
* RedheadedHero - Jamie, naturally.
* SaintlyChurch - They pop up, here and there, at a contrast with some of the truly rabid and unkind believers Claire encounters.
* ScarpiaUltimatum - This one happens at least twice, allowing Jamie and Claire each to make the SadisticChoice. When Jamie is held captive in Wentworth Prison by Jack Randall, Claire tries to rescue him and is caught by Randall. Jamie offers to let Randall torture him in whatever way he wants - including rape/coerced sex--for Claire's freedom. Later in the story, when Jamie is in a French prison for dueling (with Randall of course) Claire makes a bargain with the king, exchanging sex for her husband's release. (A third, variant version occurs with Bree and Stephen Bonnet-- for the sake of a plot-important wedding ring.)
* ScarsAreForever - Notably, Jamie's whipping, but injuries and their repercussions are played out in glorious full.
* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong - This drives the plots of several of the books.
* ShoutOut - Jamie is named after [[Series/DoctorWho Jamie McCrimmon]], who was played by ''Frazer'' Hines.
* ShownTheirWork - It's a very well-researched series, and it shows. There are several details that seem to have been added simply because Gabaldon discovered them and thought they were cool.
* ShotgunWedding - Mostly in the parts of the novels set in rural America.
* SomeoneToRememberHimBy - Claire leaves Jamie at the end of ''Dragonfly In Amber'', and goes back to the 20th century pregnant with Brianna. Of course, once she figures out he's still alive, she comes back.
* SpySpeak - Or rather, {{time travel}}ler speak. Whistling the tune to ''Yellow Submarine'', at one point, and the name "Ringo Starr" at another.
* StableTimeLoop
* StockNessMonster - The plesiosaur version, encountered by Claire.
* StreetUrchin - Young Fergus.
* ThatOldTimePrescription - Claire Beauchamp demonstrates even more knowledge when she comments that willow bark tea can make bleeding take longer to stop while discussing the healing properties of herbs with the keeper of Castle Leoch's herb garden.
* TriangRelations - Jamie, Claire, and Laoghaire form a type 4 triangle, with Laoghaire as Alice and Jamie as Bob. [[spoiler: Later, Lord John takes up the mantle as a much less bitchy Alice.]]
* VirginityMakesYouStupid - The 18th century isn't treated as a more innocent time, but there are a few young and exceptionally sheltered female characters.
* WarriorPoet - Jamie shows a tendency towards this.
* WoodenShipsAndIronMen - Setting of Voyager.
* UncannyFamilyResemblance - The Frasers seem to have particularly strong genes ...
* YouCantFightFate

<<|{{Literature}}|>>
<<|SpeculativeFictionSeries|>>

A series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. Claire Beauchamp Randall is taken back in time from 1946 to 1743, where she marries and begins a passionate love affair with Jamie Fraser, a Scottish Highlander. They face many dangers and political intrigues as they attempt to prevent the tragic battle of Culloden from happening. And that's more or less just the first two books. The later books span more than 20 years, expanding the focus of the novels beyond just the main couple to their families, their {{nakama}}, and the historical situation in general. Depending on who you ask, they're [[RomanceNovel romance novels]] of the upper 10% under SturgeonsLaw or HistoricalFiction-- or a bit of both. Absolutely nothing to do with [[Film/{{Outlander}} that film.]] Also not to be confused with Johji Manabe's manga series from the 80's (and the subsequent anime adaptation) titled 'Outlanders'.

* AbsenceMakesTheHeartGoYonder -- in their 20 years apart, neither Jamie nor Claire is exactly celibate. But their hearts never truly stray (Aww.)
* TheAmericanRevolution - the later books begin to overlap with this time period. The Battle of Saratoga and the occupation of Philidelphia are covered in some detail.

* TheBaroness - Geilis Duncan (or Mrs. Abernathy, or whatever she's calling herself in this decade) has some traits of this trope: fervent militarism, strange sexual habits

* BlackWidow - Geilis Duncan
* ColdBloodedTorture -- Randall in Wentworth Prison, Jamie's shattered hand. Claire is somewhat upset, in later books, with [[spoiler: Jamie's manipulative interrogation of a sixteen-year-old John Grey; she's inclined to take pity on John due to his age and innocence, despite him having made a credible attempt to kill her husband.]] Jamie, however, does not see this as anything but fair play during wartime.
* CoversAlwaysLie -- Overlapping with ContemptibleCover in some printings.
* ChekhovsGun -- the body in the beginning of ''Voyager'', among others

* DepravedBisexual -- Jack Randall is an equal opportunity rapist.

* DomesticAbuse - Jamie beats Claire in a memorable scene in the first book. Their different values concerning this issue cause several subsequent arguments. Since Claire's a doctor, cases of severe {{domestic abuse}} occasionally come to her attention elsewhere, and she usually does her best to stop it, with Jamie's backing. (An in-universe example of ValuesDissonance occurs with this-- when Claire speaks of beating one's wife, as it's used in her time, Jamie sees nothing unusual with it, but the thought of a man using his fists on his wife is disturbing and alien to him.)

* EyeScream - ''A Breath of Snow and Ashes'' has someone getting a needle jabbed in their eye to remove pressure from built-up fluid. Fun times. Also, in ''Voyager'', Claire... assists a young man with a parasite that keeps moving back and forth between his eyes.

* EveryoneIsRelated - even across centuries.

* FutureSlang -- (Played with, in that the one doing the swearing is Claire, a 20th century woman. She manages to baffle those around her with her anachronistic, and so confusing, use of "fucking", "sadist" and in what becomes a plot point at least once, "Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ!")
* GoodPeopleHaveGoodSex - do they ever.

* HappilyMarried -- Jamie and Claire seem to be settling down into this, despite a ''lot'' of conflict going on around them.
* HookHand - Fergus

* IdenticalGrandson - Roger's eyes and Geilis Duncan, his great-great-great-great grandmother. Also, hello, Frank Randall and... all of the ancestral Randalls, it would seem. Jack Randall's physical resemblance to her spouse makes Claire very disturbed at multiple points.

* MultipleDemographicAppeal - Gabaldon mentions several times on her podcast that this is the case-- she used to be able to pitch the book to absolutely anyone she encountered at promotional appearances. It's a romance novel. No, it's a straight-up historical. No, it's {{time travel}}, and therefore {{science fiction}}! It's military history! (It apparently has some following among people actually in the military-- due in no small part due to the fact that the books are very, very long and very, very detailed, which can be convenient for those deployed and bored.)
* NarrativeProfanityFilter -- Claire sometimes does this, especially with Gaelic curses, although she more frequently reports curses (and says them herself) without any filter.
* NatureAdoresAVirgin -- Jamie was a virgin on his wedding night. Claire wasn't. Not that either of them really seemed to mind.

* OntologicalInertia -- the reason Claire and Jamie can neither prevent the Battle of Culloden from happening, nor help the Scots to win. Fear of this not being true is part of why Claire attempts to keep Jamie from killing Randall outright-- he's an ancestor of her husband from her own century, and she fears all kind of disturbing time paradoxes.
* OverprotectiveDad -- Jamie [[spoiler: beats up Roger and sends him to be Indians' slave because he thinks he raped Brianna. (He's mistaken, but his reaction is sort of justified because Brianna had really been raped.)]] Lord John as well, in some regards in ''Echo In The Bone''.
* {{Polyamory}} -- [[spoiler: Lizzie and both Beardsley twins]]
* PortalToThePast -- the rocks at Craigh na Dun, and implicitly at least one similar place in America.

* RedheadedStepchild -- Literally. Redhead Brianna, raised lovingly by Frank, who was 200 years too late to the party to be her biological father [[spoiler:(not to mention infertile)]]. Also Brianna's son Jemmy, whose paternity was questionable [[spoiler: due to her rape by Stephen Bonnet]], although Roger raises him as his own.
* RedheadedHero -- Jamie, naturally.

* ScarpiaUltimatum -- This one happens at least twice, allowing Jamie and Claire each to make the SadisticChoice. When Jamie is held captive in Wentworth Prison by Jack Randall, Claire tries to rescue him and is caught by Randall. Jamie offers to let Randall torture him in whatever way he wants--including rape/coerced sex--for Claire's freedom. Later in the story, when Jamie is in a French prison for dueling (with Randall of course) Claire makes a bargain with the king, exchanging sex for her husband's release. (A third, variant version occurs with Bree and Stephen Bonnet-- for the sake of a plot-important wedding ring.)

* SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong -- This drives the plots of several of the books.
* ShoutOut -- Jamie is named after [[Series/DoctorWho Jamie McCrimmon]], who was played by ''Frazer'' Hines.
* ShownTheirWork -- It's a very well-researched series, and it shows. There are several details that seem to have been added simply because Gabaldon discovered them and thought they were cool.

* StreetUrchin - young Fergus.

* WoodenShipsAndIronMen -- setting of Voyager.
* UncannyFamilyResemblance -- the Frasers seem to have particularly strong genes...

* InnocenceVirginOnStupidity - The 18th century isn't treated as a more innocent time, but there are a few young and exceptionally sheltered female characters.

* ShoutOut -- Jamie is named after [[DoctorWho Jamie McCrimmon]], who was played by ''Frazer'' Hines.

** This troper, whose mother tongue is French, would like to add that some of her French sentences do have some problems as well. I especially think about "Reste d'retour! Oui, le tout!" in A Breath of Snow and Ashes, chapter 56, which doesn't mean "Stay back, all of you!" as Gabaldon mentions (and simply doesn't make sense at all, in French).

* RedheadedStepchild -- Brianna, raised lovingly by Frank, who was 200 years too late to the party to be her biological father [[spoiler:(not to mention infertile)]]. Also Brianna's son Jemmy, whose paternity was questionable [[spoiler: due to her rape by Stephen Bonnet]], although Roger raises him as his own.

* BrokenBase - After the author's [[http://voyagesoftheartemis.blogspot.com/2010/05/fan-fiction-and-moral-conundrums.html rant]] about how much she hates and is disgusted by all fanfics and fanfiction writers, there has been in-fighting among fans of the books about it, including accusations that fanfic writers and readers are not 'true fans' of the series.
** Particularly ironic in that her romantic hero is a [[CaptainErsatz rather thinly disguised version]] of early ''DoctorWho'' companion '''Jamie''' [=McCrimmon=], played by actor '''Frazer''' Hines.

* {{Bishonen}} - Lord John. Mention is made on how pretty and petite he is (being around five foot siz).

A series of novels by Diana Gabaldon. Claire Beauchamp Randall is taken back in time from 1947 to 1743, where she marries and begins a passionate love affair with Jamie Fraser, a Scottish Highlander. They face many dangers and political intrigues as they attempt to prevent the tragic battle of Culloden from happening. And that's more or less just the first two books. The later books span more than 20 years, expanding the focus of the novels beyond just the main couple to their families, their {{nakama}}, and the historical situation in general. Depending on who you ask, they're [[RomanceNovel romance novels]] of the upper 10% under SturgeonsLaw or HistoricalFiction-- or a bit of both. Absolutely nothing to do with [[Film/{{Outlander}} that film.]] Also not to be confused with Johji Manabe's manga series from the 80's (and the subsequent anime adaptation) titled 'Outlanders'.

* ''Cross Stitch'' (published as ''Outlander'' in the US)

** She deleted the rant, but [[http://kate-nepveu.livejournal.com/483239.html the internet doesn't forget]].

* ColdBloodedTorture -- Randall in Wentworth Prison, Jamie's shattered hand. Claire is somewhat upset, in later books, with [[spoiler: Jamie's manipulative interrogation of a sixteen-year-old John Gray; she's inclined to take pity on John due to his age and innocence, despite him having made a credible attempt to kill her husband.]] Jamie, however, does not see this as anything but fair play during wartime.

*** When you make that assertion, I hope you're going on something more than a couple of common names in a culture known for reusing common names.