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What changed on screen
What changed on screen, title by title: 25 in total. Tap a cover to open it. Titles you haven't marked as read stay locked so nothing gets spoiled.
- Referencenod to comics or other movies
- Cameoa familiar face shows up
- Setupplanted now, pays off later
- Behind the scenesproduction trivia
- ChangeFrank's side of the story
The book is narrated entirely by Claire. S1 adds an episode, Both Sides Now, that follows Frank searching for her in 1946.
source ↗ - ChangeA reworked opening
Ronald D. Moore said the pilot's first 30 to 40 minutes include material that isn't in the book or that combines scenes from it.
source ↗ - ChangeThe wedding in flashback
The book tells the wedding in order. The episode The Wedding opens on the wedding night and jumps back to show how it all came together.
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- ChangeThe 1968 frame
The book opens in 1968, with Claire and Brianna in Scotland. S2 opens in 1948 and saves 1968 for the end of the season.
source ↗ - ChangeRoger and Brianna saved for last
Richard Rankin and Sophie Skelton appear in just one S2 episode. In the book, both are there from the first pages.
source ↗ - ChangeNot a literal adaptation
Moore said a literal adaptation wasn't possible because of the novel's complicated structure, but that all the major characters and scenes are there.
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- ChangeMurtagh is still alive
In the books, Murtagh dies at Culloden. On the show he survives, shares Ardsmuir prison with Jamie and stays in the story for several seasons.
source ↗ - ChangeTwo lives side by side
In the book, Claire's 20 years in Boston come through as memories. S3 cuts back and forth between her life with Frank and Jamie's life in Scotland.
source ↗ - ChangeA huge book in 13 hours
That's over a thousand pages squeezed into 13 episodes. The sea voyage and the Jamaica stretch get much shorter on screen.
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- ChangeMurtagh with the Regulators
Murtagh isn't part of this stretch of the books. In S4 he resurfaces in North Carolina and joins the Regulators.
source ↗ - ChangeFrank barely there
By this point in the story, Frank is dead and lives only in Claire's and Brianna's memories. On the show, Tobias Menzies stays in the main cast and appears in one S4 episode.
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- ChangeMurtagh's end
Since the show kept Murtagh alive, S5 gives him his own fate at the Battle of Alamance, something the book doesn't have.
source ↗ - ChangeBonnet's end comes early
Brianna's reckoning with Stephen Bonnet happens in the next book. The show moves it up to S5.
source ↗ - ChangeTwo books in one season
S5 adapts The Fiery Cross and already starts pulling from the next book, A Breath of Snow and Ashes.
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- ChangeOne book, three seasons
The sixth book gets spread out on screen: its start goes to the end of S5, the middle becomes S6 and the ending opens S7.
source ↗ - ChangeJust eight episodes
Because of the pandemic, S6 dropped to eight episodes, not much for a book this size.
source ↗ - ChangeBonnet already handled
In the book, Stephen Bonnet's fate is settled here. On the show, that already happened in S5.
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- ChangeThree books in one season
S7 combines the end of the sixth book, this one and the eighth, with touches of the ninth.
source ↗ - ChangeDougal returns
Dougal MacKenzie has no place in this book. Even so, Graham McTavish comes back as a guest in S7.
source ↗ - ChangeGeillis too
Lotte Verbeek makes a guest appearance as Geillis, another character who isn't in this book.
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- ChangeNo season of its own
The eighth book didn't get a season to itself. It became the back half of S7.
source ↗ - ChangeNow an episode title
The book's title became the name of S7 episode 15, the Battle of Monmouth episode.
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- ChangeThe show outruns the books
S8 adapts this book plus parts of the tenth, A Blessing for a Warrior Going Out, which Gabaldon hasn't published yet.
source ↗ - ChangeA piece already in S7
Some elements of this book already show up in S7, before the final season.
source ↗ - ChangeFaith and Fanny
The show creates a link between young Fanny and Faith, the daughter Claire lost in Paris. Master Raymond plays a part in it.
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