#go tell the bees that i am gone

[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.

[cookie-de-baunilha]

Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone spoilers? - Richardson

So far I’ve only read some random scenes from Bees so let me get this straight…

Richardson is an abolitionist??

Is Diana Gabaldon for real? Writing the current big bad guy as an abolitionist??? How tf did she think this was a good idea??

Someone please tell me I’ve got it wrong. I haven’t read the whole book so I might be missing important things here.

[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

[awordwasthebeginning]

Me: *picks up book* where did I stop reading last time?

Book: Here's a chapter from William's POV!

Me: ...ah.

[rubadubdub3nunsinatub]

Bro I completely forgot about the Outlander Fandom Survey 2022!!!

Ok so I'm so keen to run this again. Same questions as last year but with a few more now that Bees is here. I will be running it from the 9th of July to the 16th of July.

I hope we can get more participants this year! I feel like my little Outlander fandom space here has for sure grown.

If you're curious about last year's results you can see them here

2021 OUTLANDER FANDOM SURVEY RESULTS

If you have any questions for me or any questions you want to see in the survey, feel free to comment/ask/message me!

[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. 🧡

[brotherhoodoftheblade]

So I’ve been thinking about Bees again (what else? lol) and the circumstances John and Percy found themselves in with Ezekiel Richardson, specifically about  Richardson’s declared intent to kill John. Am I the only one who thinks Richardson killing John makes no practical sense whatsoever? 

John is merely a means to an end - that end being leverage over Hal to prevent him from addressing the House of Lords and pushing for Britain to withdraw from the war. So how then would murdering John - Richardson’s only real leverage against Hal thus far - do anything to help him achieve his objective???

The only thing he’d have left to hold over Hal’s head would be the threat of public scandal (via the exposure of Neil Stapleton and Percy’s confessions) - and just how much weight would that hold with Hal if John was already dead? Hal would be more likely to be out for Richardson’s blood, if you ask me, given his temperament. lol 

Not to mention that Hal’s main motivation for convincing the British government to allow the Americans to win is so his son, Ben, won’t be captured and executed as a traitor. And a living son holds more weight than an already dead brother. Therefore John is of more value to Richardson alive for the foreseeable future, ie. until the war’s end. 

(Of course John and Percy understandably think Richardson is a madman for claiming to be from the future, and so have every reason to take his threat seriously even when actually carrying it out would (irrationally) undermine his ultimate objective. But we, the audience, know him to be quite sane, at least in so far as being a time traveler is concerned.) 

[gotham-ruaidh]

I am confused whether Bree and Roger's son from book 9 is unable to travel or not? It was not clear to me when i read the book. What you think of it?

Wee Davie MacKenzie isn't able to travel.

Meaning, that it's very unlikely that Brianna and Roger and Jem and Mandy will ever return to the 20th century

[cookie-de-baunilha]

My BOTB rereading actually got me curious about the John/Percy interactions in Bees, so I searched for Percy's name in the e-book and read their scenes.

First of all, I second everything @britishguyslover and @andrasta14 said in this post.

What a waste of potential.

Secondly, I'll read the whole book at some point, but after reading these (very few, might I add) scenes I have some considerations (and questions too, if anyone would be so kind as to answer them):

Their scenes were really weird

Don’t know if I feel like this because I haven’t read the whole book and I might be missing important details. So please, correct me if I’m wrong, but apart from the boat scenes, the rest felt like it went nowhere…?

In the first one, Percy says he is about to betray France. Asks John for a favor to help him with that.

I have to say it makes 0 sense for Percy to do this at this point, since he knows John is pissed at him. Why would Percy think John would help him?

But pushing that aside, nothing comes out of it. We never get to hear what exact favor Percy was hoping to get from John because John doesn’t even want to talk to him.

In their second scene, Percy asks for help so that he can talk to Fergus again. He blackmails John out of nowhere??? Again, it makes no sense for him to do this. Wasn’t he trying to turn his coat? Why would he piss off John even more? Also, what was he hoping to get from it exactly? How does Fergus fit into this mess? Is Richardson behind this? We don’t know because John leaves before the conversation goes somewhere.

And again, it leads to nothing apparently. Or does it? I haven’t read the whole book but Percy’s name doesn’t appear that much and I couldn’t find other scenes with him using the search tool.

Percy's nom de guerre

This is me being picky af, but back in Echo, John remembered the name Beauchamp from his years in the English Black Chamber. He knew Beauchamp was a spy from the French Black Chamber. So I was under the impression "Beauchamp" was the name Percy used in his official spy errands — which doesn't make sense, honestly. But in Bees Percy brings up John's alias (Buttercup... cute lol) and we find out Percy's was Monsieur Citròn. Which makes a lot more sense but... how did John know Beauchamp was a French spy then?

Because you see, Percy found out Buttercup was John after 6 months. But John seemed surprised to know Percy was Monsieur Citròn. And yet, he knew the name Beauchamp. So he never made the connection between those two? Tsk tsk John, you weren't doing your best job. Point still stands tho: how did he know Beauchamp was a spy? "One of the most active members" of the French spy network. Was Percy running his errands with both names? Using your real (married) name doesn't seem smart.

Honestly, it felt kinda off to be presented with this information at this point in the story. Shouldn't it have been brought up in their very first conversation back in Echo? 1) John could've not recognized the name Beauchamp; 2) then, Percy could've called him Buttercup and John would've realized Percy was Monsieur Citròn.

It was also a weird scene because John seemed more surprised at the fact that Percy was a French spy who already knew John had been his opposite… but hadn’t John deduced this already in Echo when he remembered the name Beauchamp?

I swear to God this woman forgets the things she writes.

Why the fuck did Richardson even allow Percy ashore?

It doesn't make any sense to me. He had Percy's written confession, but he still needed him for a personal testimony, I suppose? Why would he risk that? Because Percy could've just run away at any time. "Oh but Richardson knew he wouldn't leave John" then he must have known that Percy cared for/loved John enough to also pose a threat to his plan, since he could've found a way to contact William at any point. In fact, that's exactly what he did before dying. So congratulations, Richardson, you are really dumb.

I mean, did Richardson (like John) also underestimate Percy's courage and thought he wouldn’t go after William? Still not very convincing to me. Because if he considered him to be that much of a coward, he would also consider the possibility of Percy escaping.

And he would have good reason to do that. After all, with that written confession, couldn’t Percy be accused of sodomy too?

Percy's death scene was horrifying and weird and i’m very confused

Amaranthus knew the brandy was poisoned? I didn’t read the whole book so this poisoned brandy stuff is confusing to me. It wasn’t clear to me if the bottle on the floor was the same brandy Amaranthus was offering Percy moments before. Because when William tried to grab it she said “not that one”, so she knew (or thought) that was the poisoned one. Was that the same brandy she gave Percy then? lol

Buuut

Diana did imply that this brandy wasn’t actually the poisoned brandy in a post in the litforum… so how was Percy poisoned? It must have been before he got to John’s house, since it’s stated several times during his conversation with William that Percy did not look well.

I also read the scene with Percy, Fergus and Roger… The lawyer was Richardson?

This Fergus-Beauchamp plot is getting ridiculous atp. How many scenes like this didn’t we have already? Percy goes after John, Claire, Fergus, whatever, tells them Fergus is St. Germain’s child and nothing comes out of it. It’s like a dog running round in circles. For God’s sake, it’s been 3 books with this nonsense. One or two scenes like that would do, why have so many if the plot doesn’t go anywhere?

I’m mad

[popfishjr]

Someone should match book titles with characters like

[cesaray]

[pitofneverendingsarcasm]

“You’re looking well, John,” Percy said, ignoring this. “Blue velvet always suits you. You recall the suits we wore to our parents’ wedding?” The smile was real, deep in those soft brown eyes, and Grey was astonished and annoyed to feel it run straight down his backbone and tighten his balls. Yes, he bloody remembered that wedding and those suits. And—as Percy so clearly intended—he remembered standing beside Percy in church as his mother married Percy’s stepfather, his hand and Percy’s touching, hidden in full skirts of royal-blue velvet, fingers slowly entwining, the touch a promise.

One Percy had fucking broken."

Diana Gabaldon, Go Tell The Bees That I Am Gone.

[peachyfrills7]

Go Tell the Bees that I Am Gone did not just end on a cliff hanger. Diana Gaboldon you better write fast