#go tell the bees that i am gone

[brian-in-finance]

Photos: Screen Rant

⚠️ This post is ridiculously long. It includes three passages from Bees that relate to Season 7’s surprising cliffhanger ending, and an explanation from Diana Gabaldon on what put that crazy idea in the scriptwriter/showrunner heads.

From “the book”

"This is all I have," she said, her voice hoarse as a young toad's. "Just this and her wock — locket."

"This?" Jamie stirred the little pile gently with a big forefinger and withdrew a small brass oval, dangling on a chain. "Is it a miniature of Jane, then, or maybe a lock of her hair?"

Fanny shook her head, taking the locket from him.

"No," she said. "It's a picture of our muv — mother." She slid a thumbnail into the side of the locket and flicked it open. I bent forward to look, but the miniature inside was hard to see, shadowed as it was by Jamie's body.

"May I?"

Fanny handed me the locket and I turned to hold it close to the candle. The woman inside had dark, softly curly hair like Fanny's — and I thought I could make out a resemblance to Jane in the nose and set of the chin, though it wasn't a particularly skillful rendering.

Behind me, I heard Jamie say, quite casually, "Frances, no man will ever take ye against your will, while I live."

There was a startled silence, and I turned round to see Fanny staring up at him. He touched her hand, very gently.

"D'ye believe me, Frances?" he said quietly.

"Yes," she whispered, after a long moment, and all the tension left her body in a sigh like the east wind.

Jemmy leaned against me, head pressing my elbow, and I realized that I was just standing there, my eyes full of tears. I blotted them hastily on my sleeve and pressed the locket closed. Or tried to; it slipped in my fingers and I saw that there was a name inscribed inside it, opposite the miniature.

Faith, it said.

…

Faith. Our mother, Fanny had said. I'd looked more than once at the miniature in the locket — but it was too small to show anything more than a young woman with dark hair, maybe naturally curly, maybe curled and dressed in the fashion of the times.

No. It can't be. I rolled over for the dozenth time, settling on my stomach and burying my face in the pillow, in hopes of losing myself in the scent of clean linen and goose down.

"It can't be what, Sassenach?" Jamie's voice spoke in my ear, sleepily resigned. “And if it can't, can it not wait 'til dawn?"

I rolled onto my side in a rustle of bedding, facing him.

"I'm sorry," I said, and touched him apologetically. His hand took mine automatically, warm and firm. "I didn't realize I'd said it out loud. I was... just thinking about Fanny's locket."

Faith.

"Ach," he said, and stretched himself a little, groaning. "Ye mean the name. Faith?"

"Well... yes. I mean — it can't possibly... have anything to do with—”

"It's no an uncommon name, Sassenach." His thumb rubbed gently over my knuckles. "Of course ye'd... feel it. I did, too."

"Did you?" I said softly. I cleared my throat a little. "I — I don't really do it anymore, but for a time, just—just every now and then — I'd think of her, of our Faith — out of nowhere. I'd imagine I could feel her near me."

"Imagine what she might look like — grown?" His voice was soft, too. "I did that, sometimes. In prison, mostly; too much time to think, in the nights. Alone."

I made a small sound and hitched closer, laying my head in the curve of his shoulder, and his arm came round me. We lay still, silent, listening to the night and the house around us. Full of our family— but with one small angel hovering in the calm sweet air, peaceful as rising smoke.

"The locket," I said at last. "It can't possibly have anything whatever to do with—”

"No, it can't," he said, a cautious note in his voice. "But what are ye thinking, Sassenach? Because ye're no thinking what ye just said, and I ken that fine."

That was true, and a spasm of guilt at being found out tightened my body.

"It can't be," I said, and swallowed. "It's only…” My words died away and his hand rubbed between my shoulder blades.

"Well, ye'd best tell me, Sassenach," he said. "Nay matter how foolish it is, neither one of us will sleep until ye do."

"Well... you know what Roger told me, about the doctor he met in the Highlands, and the blue light?"

"I do. What…"

"Roger asked me if I'd ever seen blue light like that — when I was healing people."

The hand on my back stilled.

"Have ye?" He sounded guarded, though I didn't know whether he was afraid of finding out something he didn't want to know, or just finding out that I was losing my mind.

"No," I said. "Or not — well, no. But... I have seen it. Felt it. Twice. Just a flash, when Malva's baby died." Died in my hands, covered with his mother's blood. “But when Faith was born, when I was so ill. I was dying — really dying, I felt it — and Master Raymond came."

"Ye told me that much," he said. "Is there more?"

"I don't know," I said honestly. "But this is what I thought happened." And I told him, about seeing my bones glow blue through the flesh of my arms, the feeling of the light spreading through my body and the infection dying, leaving me limp, but whole and healing.

"So... um... I know this is nothing but pure fantasy, the sort of thing you think in the middle of the night when you can't sleep..."

He made a low noise, indicating that I should stop apologizing and get on with it. So I took a deep breath and did, whispering the words into his chest.

"Master Raymond was there. What if — if he found... Faith... and was able to... somehow bring her… back?"

Dead silence. I swallowed and went on.

"People… aren't always dead, even though it looks like it. Look at old Mrs. Wilson! Every doctor knows — or has heard — about people who've been declared dead and wake up later in the morgue."

"Or in a coffin." He sounded grim, and a shudder went over me. "Aye, I've heard stories like that. But — a wee babe and one born too soon — how…”

"I don't know how!" I burst out. "I said it's complete fantasy, it can't be true! But — but —" My throat thickened and my voice squeaked.

"But ye wish it were?" His hand cupped the back of my head and his voice was quiet again. "Aye. But... if it was, mo chridhe, why would he not have told ye? Ye saw him again, no? After he'd healed ye, I mean."

"Yes." I shuddered, momentarily feeling the King of France's Star Chamber close around me, the smell of the King's perfume, of dragon's blood and wine in the air — and two men before me, awaiting my sentence of death.

"Yes, I know. But — when the Comte died, Raymond was banished, and they took him away. He couldn't have told me then, and he might not have been able to come back before we left Paris."

It sounded insane, even to me. But I could — just — see it: Master Raymond, stealing out of L'Hôpital des Anges after leaving me, perhaps ducking aside to avoid notice, hiding in the place where the nuns had, perhaps, laid Faith on a shelf, wrapped in her swaddling clothes.

He would have known her, as he'd known me...

Everyone has a color about them, he said simply. All around them, like a cloud. Yours is blue, madonna. Like the Virgin's cloak. Like my own.

One of his. The thought came out of nowhere, and I stiffened.

"Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ." What if — all right, I was insane, but too late for that to make a difference.

"What if he — if I, we — what if Master Raymond is — was — somehow related to me?"

Jamie said nothing, but I felt his hand move, under my hair. His middle finger folded down and the outer ones stood up straight, making the sign of the horns, against evil.

"And what if he's not?" he said dryly. He rolled me off him and turned toward me so we were face-to-face. The darkness was slowly fading and I could see his face, drawn with tiredness, touched with sorrow and tenderness, but still determined.

"Even if everything ye've made yourself think was somehow true — and it's not, Sassenach; ye ken it's not — but if it were somehow true, it wouldna make any difference. The woman in Frances's locket is dead now, and so is our Faith."

His words touched the raw place in my heart, and I nodded, tears welling.

"I know," I whispered.

"I know, too," he whispered, and held me while I wept.

— Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, Chapter 24, Alarms By Night

"Ian — I wanted to ask you a favor." One eyebrow went up.

"Name it, Auntie."

"Well... Jamie said that you plan to stop in Philadelphia. I wondered.." I felt myself blushing, much to my annoyance. His other eyebrow rose.

"Whatever it is, Auntie, I'll do it," he said, one side of his mouth curling. "I promise."

"Well... I, um, want you to go to a brothel."

The eyebrows came down and he stared hard at me, obviously thinking he hadn't heard aright.

"A brothel," I repeated, somewhat louder. "In Elfreth's Alley."

He stood motionless for a moment, then turned and put the cheese back on the shelf, and glanced down at the clear brown water of the creek rushing past our feet.

"This might take a bit of time to explain, aye? Let's go out into the sun."

— Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, Chapter 59, Special Requests

IAN CAME BACK from his visit to Elfreth's Alley in something of a brown study, oblivious to the shouts of dairymaids and beer sellers.

He'd thought he might have to expend considerable time and money in order to get the inhabitants of the brothel to talk, but the mere mention of Jane Pocock's name had opened floodgates of gossip, and he felt as one might after being washed overboard from a ship and carried ashore in a flurry of foam and sharp deb-ris.

Now he wished he had paid more attention to Fanny's drawing of her sister.

The loudly stated opinion of Mrs. Abbott, the madam, was that Jane Pocock had been strange, plainly very strange, demented and probably a practitioner of Strange Arts, and how it was that neither she nor any of her girls had been murdered in their beds, she did not know. Ian wondered why a young woman with such skills would have been working as a whore, but didn't say so, under the circumstances.

It took some time for the talk about the murder of Captain Harkness to die down, but Ian Murray did ken his way around a brothel, and when the flow diminished, he at once ordered two more extortionately priced bottles of champagne.

This altered the air of accommodation to something more focused but less vituperative, and within half an hour, Mrs. Abbott had retreated to her sanctum and the whores had reached their own silent accommodation amongst themselves. He found himself on the red velvet sofa common to such establishments, with Meg on one side and Trixabella on the other.

"Trix was friends with Arabella — Jane, I mean," Meg explained. Trix nodded, doleful.

"Wish I hadn't been," she said. "That girl hadn't any luck at all, and that kind of thing can brush off on you, you know. What are those things on your face?"

"Can it?" lan touched his cheekbone. “It's a Mohawk tattoo."

"Ooh," said Trix, with slightly more interest. "Was you captured by Indians?" She giggled at the thought.

"Nay, I went of my own accord," he said equably.

"Well, me too," Trix said, with an uptilted chin and a wave of the hand presumably meant to draw his attention to the relatively luxurious nature of her place of employment. "Not Arabella, though. Mrs. Abbott got her and her sister off a sea captain what didn't have the scratch to pay his bill. Those girls were indentures."

"Aye? And how long ago was that? Ye canna have been here more than a year or two yourself." In fact, she looked to have been in the trade for a decade, at least, but minor gallantries were part of the expected pourparlers, and she laughed and batted her eyes at him in a practiced manner.

"Reckon it would have been six — maybe seven — years ago. Time flies when you're havin' fun, or so they say."

"Tempus fugit." Ian filled her glass and clinked his against it, smiling. She dimpled professionally, drank, and went on.

"Mind, I wasn't but two years older than Jane..." Bat-bat. "Mrs. Abbott wouldn't've bothered with them, save they were pretty, both of 'em, and Jane was just about old enough to... um... start."

Ian was counting back; six years ago, Jane would have been about the age Fanny was now. Old enough...

After a few accounts of harrowing initial experiences in the trade, he managed to drag the conversation back to Jane and Fanny.

"Ye said a sea captain sold the girls to Mrs. Abbott. Do either of ye by chance recall his name?"

Meg shook her head.

“I wasn't here," she said. "Trix...?" She lifted a brow at her friend, who frowned a little and pressed her lips together.

"Has he come back here — since?" Ian asked, watching her closely. She looked startled.

"I — well... yes. I only saw him twice, mind, and it's been a long while, so I maybe don't recall his name for sure."

Ian sighed, gave her a direct look, and handed her a golden guinea.

"Vaskwez"" she said without hesitation. "Sebastian Vaskwez."

"Vas — was he a Spaniard?" lan asked, his mind having smoothly transmuted her rendering to "Sebastiàn Vasquez."

"I don't know," Trix said frankly. "I've never had a Spaniard — knowin'-like, I mean-wouldn't know what they sound like."

"They all sound the same in bed," Meg said, giving Ian an eye. Trix gave her friend a withering look.

"He sounded foreign-like, no doubt about that. And no talking through his nose or that gwaw-gwaw sort of thing Frenchies do. I've had three Frenchmen," she explained to Ian, with a small showing of pride. "Was a few of'em in Philadelphia while the British army was here."

"When was the last time Vasquez came here?" he asked.

"Two... no, maybe close to three years ago."

"Did he go with Jane then?" Ian asked.

"No," Trix said unexpectedly. "He went with me." She made a face. "He stank of gunpowder — like an artilleryman. He wasn't one, though; they've all got it ground into their skin and their hands are black with it, but he was clean, though he smelled like a fired pistol."

A thought occurred to Ian — though thinking was becoming difficult. He wasn't bothered by the fact that his body was taking strong notice of the girls, but arousal seldom did much for the mental faculties.

"Could ye tell if he was still a sea captain?" he asked. Both girls looked blank.

"I mean — did he mention his ship, or maybe say he was taking on crew, anything like that? Did he smell of the sea, or — or —fish?"

That made them both laugh.

"No, just gunpowder," Trix said, recovering.

"Mother Abbott called him 'Captain, though," Trix added. "And 'twas clear enough he weren't a soldier."

A few more questions emptied both bottles, and it was clear that the girls had told him all they knew, little as it was. At least he had a name. There were sounds in the house, opening doors, heavy footsteps, men's voices and women's greetings; it was just past teatime and the cullies were beginning to come in.

He rose, arranged himself without shame, and bowed to them, thanking them for their kind assistance.

— Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone, Chapter 80, A Word For That

From “the author”

“They actually did get the (general) idea from me, though,” she admits. “When chatting with [showrunner] Matt [Roberts] about All Things plot wise, I mentioned that if I had written a second graphic novel (I didn't, for assorted reasons), I would have shown what actually happened after Faith's presumed death at the Hopital des Anges, and how/why Master Raymond resuscitated and nurtured the baby secretly, but wasn't able to come back with her before Claire and Jamie left France. So, they liked that idea and ran with it.” — Diana Gabaldon, Parade

Remember… Claire is only one of more than a dozen time-travellers in the story… Brianna was conceived in 1746 and born in 1948… Family Beardsley is a threesome… it’s Outlander, anything can happen.

@marian4456 @saint-hildegard-of-bingen @kiaora45 @dlansing53 @young2evans @gotraveltheworldluv @krisrose16 @frenchyses @bcacstuff @pinkblizzardgladiator @thetruthwilloutsworld @its-moopoint @stellarpuffin @outlanderfandomfollies @loveisloveislove76 @castlemaine123 @dragonflydreams47

[gotham-ruaidh]

In 7x16 William goes to both of his fathers, asking them to help in the best way they can.

He goes to Lord John for some diplomacy.

When that doesn't work, he goes to Jamie Fraser for a commando raid.

That he is asking them to help a whore who killed a man, does not matter. For both of William's fathers love him dearly.

Though, to quote his sister in "Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone":

“Poor William. He’s such a good guy, but my God! How does anyone that young manage to have such a complicated life?"

[elasticmonk]

This is my go to 7 hour (and growing) Outlander playlist. Everything from soundtrack, to traditional Celtic, to songs I thought fit the vibe of both the Frasers and the playlist.

Tell me if you have a song in mind or come across one that’s off-putting. 😊

[cookie-de-baunilha]

What bothers me the most about the cynical interpretation a lot of people have of Percy’s character and his feelings for John is that, besides cheapening the story (like I said in this post), it can’t be backed up by canon.

Like, I profoundly hate the utterly tragic, broken beyond repair path that Diana decided to make for him in Bees, but at least I can acknowledge that the point she was making was “he loves John but he is too weak”. But people go to great lengths to interpret everything he does in the most cynical way, so for them it’s like Percy is an evil mustache-twirling villain.

Except any attempt to say that his feelings for John aren’t sincere (e.g. people who believe he was just guilt tripping John by telling him that he loved him in that gaol scene in order to get John to save his ass) falls flat because Percy keeps showing that his feelings for John are the most genuine thing about him:

when he was incarcerated in BOTB and sent that letter to John that started like this:

“I will leave you to imagine, if you will, what the writing of this letter costs me, for that ultimate cost is up to you. I have been in perturbation of mind for days, debating whether I shall write it, and now, having written, whether to send it. The end of my deliberations, though, is the point from which I began: that to speak may mean my life; not to speak may mean yours. If you are reading these words, you will know which I have chosen.”

when he warned John about Richardson and told him William was in danger (people love to conveniently forget that this scene exists when trashing Percy)

when, defying John’s judgment of him, he went after William and told him John had been kidnapped by Richardson even though he was afraid of what Richardson could do to him

non-canon bonus: in the draft of the scene of their conversation that takes place when John is being held hostage by Richardson (the one that got discarded by Diana and got swapped by… that ship scene from Bees), Percy purposefully omits from John that his own life is at risk too, so that John could make the decision only for himself (when he finds out about that, John even thinks that Percy is braver than he — Percy — thinks)

But sure, his love for John isn’t real or pure and he must be a selfish insincere coward, right? 🙄

He is constantly choosing to leave his fears aside for John. He is constantly proving himself to be selfless and courageous when it comes to John, even by putting John’s life above his own. He finds his strength in the love that he feels for John and that, my friends, is powerful, beautiful and genuine. At least I think so.

[farnwedel]

Jahresrückblick/book rec 2024

Ein frohes neues Jahr, loves. Lasst uns jede Gelegenheit nutzen, es zu einem guten zu machen. <3

In diesem Rückblick: Lizenz zum Beißen, Maurice, Mr. & Mr. (Sammelband), Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone, Unlearn Patriarchy, Das verborgene Kind, Winterland und Todland.

Lizenz zum Beißen

Autor*in: Kerrelyn Sparks

Inhalt & Kommentar: hier

Empfehlenswert für: Fans der Reihe, sonst fehlt einiges an Kontext und Hintergrundwissen für Nebenfiguren; ansonsten ist es ein sehr unhinged, bizarres Leseereignis.

Maurice

Autor*in: E. M. Forster

Inhalt: Maurice entdeckt in einer Zeit, in der das den gesellschaftlichen Ruin bedeuten kann, seine Homosexualität und verliebt sich in seinen Kommilitonen Clive.

Kommentar: Ich weiß nicht, ob es an der Jahreszeit liegt, in der ich diese Bücher lese, oder an ihrer Haptik, aber sie haben immer etwas Deprimierendes und die nervlichen Zusammenbrüche der Hauptfiguren scheinen ein wiederkehrendes Thema zu sein. Aber immerhin endet dieses Buch hoffnungsvoll.

Empfehlenswert für: Freund*innen empfindsamer Literatur und Connoisseurs des "Hopeful Ending"-Tags auf AO3

Mr. & Mr. (Sammelband)

Autor*innen: Lorena Morrissen, Zoe Larsen, Sienna Miles

Inhalt & Kommentar: hier, hier und hier

Empfehlenswert für: seichte, queere Unterhaltung auf 'ner mittellangen Busfahrt durch die Pampa ohne genug Mobilfunk für den T-Tag auf AO3

Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone

Autor*in: Diana Gabaldon

Inhalt: Claire, Jamie und alle irgendwie verwandten, verfeindeten, alliierten Personen leben im aufkommenden amerikanischen Unabhängigkeitskrieg.

Kommentar: Let it end.

Empfehlenswert für: Fans der Reihe, die den immer gleichen Plot, die immer gleichen Konflikte und die immer gleichen Figuren noch nicht über sind, I guess.

Unlearn Patriarchy

Autor*innen: Kübra Gümüşay, Linus Giese, Emilia Roig, Lena Marbacher, Friederike Otto, Laura Gehlhaar, Teresa Bücker, Madeleine Alizadeh, Olaolu Fajembola, Tebogo Nimindé-Dundadengar, Margret Rasfeld, Lisa Jaspers, Kristina Lunz, Ise Bosch, Kenza Ait Si Abbou, Naomi Ryland

Inhalt: Feministische Perspektiven auf Themen von Sprache über Arbeit, Rassismus, Familie, Politik bis hin zu Geld

Kommentar: Durchaus kurzweilig, bietet neue Sichtweisen, erweitert den Begriff von "Feminismus" um einige Dimensionen und Aspekte

Empfehlenswert für: alle, allerdings ist ein gewisses linkes Grundverständnis von Gesellschaft und Gender eine ratsame Grundvoraussetzung

Das verborgene Kind

Autor*in: Marcia Willett

Inhalt: Im Nachlass seiner Mutter entdeckt der Schriftsteller Matt Llewellyn Fotos von sich selbst als Kind, die ihm seltsam vorkommen, da er sich an die Kleidung oder Gegenstände darin nicht erinnern kann. Auf der Suche nach Antworten und sich selbst zieht er aufs Land zu seiner (Ersatz-)Familie, die alle mit ihren eigenen Dämonen kämpfen.

Kommentar: Ich hätte mir eine Fortsetzung sehr gewünscht, da ich erst am Ende des Buches das Gefühl hatte, jetzt mit der Exposition durch zu sein. Die sehr gut geschrieben war und mich mit allen Charakteren und deren persönlichen Geschichten, Beweggründen etc. vertraut gemacht hat! Ich hätte nur gern mehr von ihnen gelesen - und auch mehr Zusammenhängendes statt fünf parallel laufende Einzelschicksale.

Empfehlenswert für: Zugfahrten oder andere ruhige Stunden, in denen man nicht viele Kapazitäten zum Nachdenken hat und trotzdem angenehm unterhalten werden möchte.

Winterland

Autor*innen: Kim Faber, Janni Pedersen

Inhalt: In Kopenhagen sterben 21 Menschen bei einem Terroranschlag auf dem Weihnachtsmarkt. Gleichzeitig werden in einem Kaff in der dänischen Pampa zwei Menschen brutal ermordet. Kommissarin Signe Kristiansen und Kommissar Martin "Juncker" Junckersen ermitteln - zunächst in den jeweiligen Fällen getrennt.

Kommentar: ...hmpf. Die beiden Autoren sind TV-Moderatorin/Kriminalreporterin (Pedersen) bzw. Architekt/Journalist (Faber) und das merkt man. Ich möchte zu gern wissen, wer von den beiden für welchen Teil zuständig war, denn die leicht belehrende/herablassende Erzählweise (inkl. Anspielungen auf Dinge, die man als Dän*in in gut informierten und bezahlten Kreisen weiß, aber nicht als Deutsche, die einen Krimi liest) kann ich mir noch erklären, nicht aber den konstant bevormundenden bis sexualisierenden Unterton gegenüber ausnahmslos jeder weiblichen Figur in diesem Buch.

Empfehlenswert für: Fabers und Pedersens social circle, schätze ich.

Todland

Autor*innen: Kim Faber, Janni Pedersen

Inhalt: Junckers demnächst geschiedene Frau Charlotte erhält ein halbes Jahr nach dem Anschlag aus dem ersten Band einen Hinweis darauf, dass bei der Aufklärung Dinge vertuscht wurden. Sie geht den Hinweisen nach und begegnet Signes Mordermittlung. Juncker arbeitet derweil an der Aufklärung eines Mordes des ehemaligen Kollegen seines Vaters und hat Besuch von seiner Tochter.

Kommentar: In der ersten Hälfte sowohl zäh als auch unangenehm nah an den Ermittler*innen (ich muss echt nichts über Junckers altersbedingte Schwierigkeiten beim Pinkeln wissen, danke vielmals) und verfängt sich wieder in einigen seltsamen Beobachtungen/Beschreibungen von Figuren sowie in der permanenten horniness der Hauptfiguren; in der zweiten Hälfte nimmt das Buch jedoch mehr Fahrt auf und führt die Stränge zufriedenstellender zusammen, als das im ersten Band der Fall war. Insgesamt sehr leicht und schnell zu lesen.

Empfehlenswert für: einen Krimi zwischendurch, am besten bei kühleren Temperaturen, sonst schwitzt man mit.

[bookishfreedom]

go tell the fur babies that i am gone…

[lucasbarr]

Just finished Bees and yet again the Bree + Roger subplots are the least interesting to me but I’m glad we got more of William and of Ian and Rachel! It kinda dragged on a bit with the day-to-day monotony of the Ridge (which I usually like but this was a lot) but overall I enjoyed the book!

Major Spoilers under Read More

John Cinnamon is my new favorite character! He is such a sweet young man and I think I’m going to go back and read the Lord John series now too! Because it felt like I was missing something with the whole Percy subplot in MOBY + this book having not read it.

Like lowkey why is everyone other than Jaime and Claire’s immediate offspring (sans Willie) more interesting? Idk how Diana managed to create such an unlikeable little family unit with Brianna, Roger, and their kids (tho I do like Jeremiah, not so much Amanda) but such a rich supporting cast!

Also why give Brianna a heart condition if it’s just magically going to be fixed by her being pregnant?!

I will say though it’s interesting that Davy isn’t a time traveller like his siblings. Makes you wonder if Fergus (who I am also choosing to believe is La Comte’s son) is a traveller or not and what this means for Claire and her family. Also makes one wonder if Percy’s family that he married into or even Fergus himself might be one of her ancestors 👀

The Richardson subplot is…😬 Why would you make an abolitionist the main villian! Not to mention he has African American ancestry! Diana WTF? Your racism is showing in this book 🤦‍♀️ Not to mention the plot with Ulysses/Joseph Stevens… like Diana why???

I am also choosing to believe that Totis is Ian’s son! He is such a sweet addition to the household, even if the reasons were a bit strenuous in the book. Though I am also intrigued by the Jenny/Joseph Brant’s Uncle romance. Though I don’t know why Claire didn’t tell Jenny that the war would be over in a matter of months? 🤔

Makes me wonder why she’s decided to kill off Percy and what this means for the Percy & Fergus storyline.

And why in hell Hal want to see Ben! Like I was under the impression that Amaranthus was in cahoots with Ben and then she went to see him and saw him with a other woman which came out of nowhere. Honestly it would have been more interesting if she’d known and went be with him and left Trevor with the Willie and Lord John. Bye maybe the whole widow thing is a ruse and she lied about the other woman and maybe she is in on it?

Though it makes me wonder if Hal made the poison to poison Ben…

Like I wonder if William will take Amatanthus up on her offer and pass off his title and estates to their kid. Like obviously that’s what Ben did with her and why I thought that Amarantus was more involved with the plan than we saw (esp with her reaction when she went to see him) though I’m dubious about whether her account of the events is true or not.

I mean the way she brazenly suggested the plan that Ben had gone through with seemed suspicious to me!

I think Richardson is involved with Rob Cameron in some way and that the gold is going to come into play. Again, weird choice of villain with Richardson being an abolitionist but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.

And also WTF happen to Ulysses? Is he dead? I know Duncan was one of his men but like why didn’t you just tell him she was in Nova Scotia? Just be vague and then he might not have tried to ya know oust Jaime and that whole skirmish!

Like I want to see less filler (or just more with beloved characters like Lizzie!) and more streamlining from the editor on the major plot points!

Also WTF happened to Buck!

[beasanfi1997]

Outlander will end with season eight based in Written in My Own Heart's Blood but Diana Gabaldon had Just wrote go tell the bees that i am gone and now She Is going to write the tenth book and It means that they will transform in the movies the Last two books as they did It with Downtown Abbey

[inlovewithquotes]

When ye ha' barins, there's that wee time when ye really are all they need. And then they leave your arms and ye're scairt all over again, because now ye ken all the things that could harm them, and you not able to keep them from it.

-Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone

[ladywynneoutlander]

I remember once, goin’ into the chapel of Saint Sebastian in the wee hours of the morning, long before dawn--almost all the candles were burnt out--and hearin’ someone playing a guitar, singing.  Very soft, not playing to be heard, ken.  Just…singing before God.”

Something odd moved in his eyes at the recollection, but then he smiled at her again, a rueful smile.

“I think that may be the last music I remember really hearing.”

She’d never before seen a look on his face as she did when he called back that song for her, but quite suddenly she felt what he had felt in the depth of that distant night, and understood why he found peace in silent spaces.

~Excerpt "Jamie Reflects" from Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon

⬆️ The "Ave Maria" we hear in the trailers for season seven reminds me of this sweet passage. I had the thought, what if it were Roger he heard that night? I don't know why he would have been there, but part of me hopes it was him. 🧡

[popfishjr]

Someone should match book titles with characters like

[gotham-ruaidh]

Hey Gotham. Was reading Bees and came to Claire and Jamie's argument in chapter 37. What do you think Jamie means when he says this about picturing someone else in bed: “I don’t.” He gulped air, and took me by the arms. “I don’t, Claire. It’s only that I’m afraid I might.”

I think he's afraid of his own mind and body. He has good reason to be afraid that he'd see someone else:

He did achieve climax during the ordeal at Wentworth (as a purely physical reaction, not because he wanted to) and feels so much shame about it

As we know, his brain was very muddled in the months after Wentworth (we know this from Jamie's dream early in Season 2 which shifts quickly from him smiling with Claire in bed to having Randall in bed)

There's a scene in one of the later books (following a scene where they're talking about Laoghaire) where a sleeping Jamie touches Claire in bed in a very business-like manner and Claire realizes that Jamie thinks he's touching Laoghaire

So to me, this fear is very well-grounded. He's open with Claire about it - he has many reasons for it - and while none of them are deliberate, that doesn't make it any less scary or painful for him.

[epicnessunfolds]

Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone is the title and somehow I did not imagine Claire actually talking to the bees 😵‍💫

[beefsteakclub]

For those of you who read go tell the bees I am gone:

[cookie-de-baunilha]

Tbh the more I think about how Diana handled Percy in Bees, the more I wonder why she decided to write him into the main series in the first place. What was the point, really?

Everything he did could be achieved through a brand new character. Let’s say, Claude Beauchamp himself. Claude could be the one looking for Fergus. He could be the French spy that was once John’s opposite in the Black Chamber. John wouldn’t trust him anyway.

It just makes no sense to me, from a narrative standpoint, to bring a character from the LJG series, who shares a complicated history with John, and not have their relationship further developed/dealt with in any meaningful way to the characters.

Percy is connected to the main series through John, mostly, but they never had a single conversation about them that actually did something to further develop their dynamic (no, that brief conversation they had in the end of Bees added nothing new to their dynamic).

And this is not me saying that they necessarily had to get back together, mind you (even though I’d like that very much), just that they needed… to talk. About them. About what happened 20 years before. Unresolved things. And from there Diana could’ve gone anywhere really, writing them getting back together or not.

The thing is, the ending of BOTB — sad and tragic as it is — could pass as a satisfying closure to their relationship. So one could assume that bringing Percy back meant dealing with unfinished business between them, right? But Diana doesn’t even make an effort to do that.

So what was the point of Percy specifically? If we could easily have a different character doing the exact same things (with some adjustments)? It just screams bad writing to me, and, if I had to bet, that’s also part of the reason why so many readers struggle to care about Percy’s storyline in the main series.

Because, yeah, most of them haven’t read the spin-off series, so they get pretty confused when they hit the first chapters of Echo. And what Percy brings to the table is essentially a political side plot with some mystery surrounding Fergus — so, unless you get really interested in Fergus’ parentage storyline, Percy’s plot and overall presence becomes a big “ok… so what?” (add that to the fact that 2 huge books later and the Fergus storyline still hasn’t gone anywhere, so even if you like that plot, which I do btw, you are gonna be frustrated by the lack of development).

What about Percy’s relationship with John? Well, that is not dealt with in any way, shape or form besides “something happened between them in the past, John doesn’t trust him”. So much so that the readers who haven’t read the LJG series have to either accept the vague informations that are given to them or search more about it online. There’s no emotional investment by the readers whatsoever because Diana doesn’t make them care at all.

Actually, that’s a problem that also exists within John’s plot as a whole in the main series and the reason why so many readers struggle with his storyline in the later books (something something *John not having a character development in the main series* something something)… but I’m gonna leave that conversation for another post because this one is already too long.

[uasal]

I did not think of this but now that you’ve said it I think you’re really on to something

Bees stuff

Please tell me I’m not the only one who thinks a relationship with John Cinnamon would suit William waaaaaaayy better than a relationship with Aramanthus?