Bees is usually tied with ABOSAA for me but it depends on the day.

William can hold my interest if he has scenes with his dads and/or Claire, they probably should have had him come back with Bree and the others to see Fanny and not bothered with Amaranthus to any significant degree.

Yeah, I think tins season we should have seen William in the first episode, then skipped almost everything with him until Bree arrives, and probably not introduced Ben Grey at all unless he’s how William gives up his title (by fighting in the Revolution on Ben’s side) and reconciles with his dads.

And in mostly adapting what’s there they gave themselves way less space to do the Faith storyline, which most fans have real opinions and emotions about, unlike William, whose angst bores the shit out of me and every reviewer I’ve read.

I think one core issue is that Bees is a hot mess of a book where William mostly has more story space than Jamie and Claire. And instead of intelligently deviating from that (the way they did with the meandering parts of TFC and ABOSAA for S5), they just…adapted what’s there.

You are always such a generous reader. If it helps at all, I wrecked myself a bit too.😭

“He doesn’t stay tied anywhere. Her fast, cheeky, beloved boy “ is perfect. I injured myself along the same lines for mine this week. Definitely not resigned to this.
😭

When Claire struggles with sleep. Jamie sits with her. Sometimes, they seek out Marsali, each taking one of her hands. She can’t bring herself to ask Jamie if he’s awake to avoid dreaming. When she sleeps, she sees nothing, but it hasn’t made her own grief more rational. She’s taken to imagining Fergus can still hear her. Going too far from them would be so unlike their son. “I can’t believe I’ll never hear you call me ‘Milady’ again,” she says. Her words echo in empty rooms, never outside. Because telling the bees would mean she’s ready to say goodbye.

For today’s #Wednesday100, I went straight up sad with Claire missing Fergus.

Jamie will still be mortally wounded and brought back, but Buck’s death will be the one Frank actually recorded.

Evening speculation: I think I figured out why they brought Buck back. OL has always been about the limits of written history (like the obituary). I’m willing to bet now Buck actually dies in a way Claire can’t fix, and they have his body recorded as Jamie’s, either intentionally or accidentally.

When I’m outlining potential fic I watch episodes on loop so the voices stay in my head and so do mannerisms. Current result: I have a bunch of the music from the 6x08 “I’m so scared” love scene stuck in my head while watching Jeopardy. I am ridiculous. 😂

You write a Frank I adore loathing and a Claire who is so brave and loving even when she’s exhausted. 😍 Therefore I forgive the cliffhanger ending. 😂

No begging required! I just need to figure out an actual plot to hang this on…

Juuuust a little. 😂

My first TV memory is watching TNG with my dad at 3 or 4. I discovered fic through X-Files, though. Beverly Crusher+Scully as a doctor who also kicks ass totally explains why I said “hello Claire I love you” when I found the OL books in the early aughts.

I am “have been watching Ron Moore stuff since he was on the writing staff for Star Trek: TNG years old” so I’m optimistic.

A few weeks ago Tumblr thought I really needed a close reading of what was supposedly Sam’s phone lockscreen and I cannot express how much I did not need that. At all. It’s been nice to have people find my fics, especially toward the end of posting the long AU I just wrapped up, but also yikes.

There could be Only One Bed because there are renovations to half the creepy house but everyone’s snowbound! If I set it in the 2020s C can text J “I know you’re in the hall, you can’t sleep out there, something could literally fall on your head.” The potential is there, apparently.

I’ll be over here pretending that this is about 50
minutes of the episode, if anyone needs me. The rest can be J/C dialogue, the camera panning over some other characters, and more people hugging Marsali.

“Write a modern AU where
Leoch is a creepy mansion and Claire is Colum’s PT and Jamie comes by a lot to help his uncle with the horses” popped into my brain yesterday. Naturally all of this would involve a lot of Gothic tropes before the happy ending. Why am I like this? I don’t write modern AUs!

If after this week of OL canon you need an “Eventually Everyone lived Happily Ever in Scotland” AU fanfic, I recently added a standalone set in the world of my already-finished multichapter, Not Time’s Fool. J/C romance and Fraser/Murray Family shenanigans abound.

I had a Lallybroch interlude that didn’t quite fit into Chapter 18 of Not Time’s Fool, so I just decided to post it as a standalone in the series. Brianna learns about dreams, and does some math with Marsali. Jamie and Claire are up to their usual. archiveofourown.org/works/83349706

Usually, the choice is Claire’s alone: does she take Jamie back after he beats her, does she choose Jamie or Frank. Can she forgive Jamie for Laoghaire. Paris is where they both had to choose. Whether the resolution lives up to that emotional heft, who knows. But I’m interested.

I’m mostly neutral about the Faith storyline until we know the end and here’s why: I find it compelling to watch J and C revisiting Paris, the moment of their marriage when they *both* had reasons to walk away, but didn’t. It’s almost the only canon moment like that.

I like to imagine either H-C or Germain or both are going to grow up to be printers. And Granny Claire and Marsali will make damn sure the girls learn if they want to. 😭😭😭

This is a season about marriage, spousal loss, parents, and children. Even fucking Amaranthus ties into that. Jamie and Claire’s entire arc is about that. They opted for a way to bring the theme home before King’s Mountain because that’s how narratives work sometimes.

Would I have preferred everyone survive the fire? Probably. But that’s not the sort of rewrite I expect by now and considering the source material they had they took a horror show and made it a tragedy with actual character weight.

I know by now OL doesn’t usually remove Fraser family storylines, just gives them to other characters. And Fergus *valued himself and his life* when he saved his sons. His internalized ableism was a huge issue before and in his death it isn’t. That’s not a senseless death at all. H-C’a was.

And specifically to have a disabled child die because of his disability and his sibling feels responsible for his death and thinks his mother hates him for it. Yes, skipping that is just being chicken. 😡🙄

I said this on my own page yesterday but I’ll repeat it here too: I’m petty and think she’s annoyed because she was considering killing off Fergus in Book 10 (since in Bees they send the kids to the Ridge without them due to danger), and now if she does it will look like the show influenced her.