Elucien / Outlander: Parallels (Spoilers Below)
Through the years, SJM has made it known how much she loves Outlander and specifically Jamie.
For example in this interview, she discusses how:
- She has two “pocket” Jamies
- Sam Heughan is Jamie Fraser and is a flawless human being
- If she had to choose a favorite a book / character, who would she choose? She chose Claire specifically because of Jamie. Sorry to her husband!
She also mentions Sam Heughan in her ACOTAR Acknowledgments, so clearly she loves him and by extension the Outlander series.
So all that being said: it is established and makes sense that SJM would use a beloved series and its characters for inspiration within her own series. As other posters have discussed, Jamie/Lucien and Claire/Elain do have several parallels. I won’t get into that here, but I did want to point out a tidbit from the first Outlander book than feels extremely Elucien-coded to me. >!Jamie and Claire have just returned to Castle Leoch, and he presents to her a ring he bought within the hour of returning to Leoch:!<
>!“Will ye wear it, Claire?” His voice was gentle now, and his use of my name, mostly reserved for occasions of formality or tenderness, nearly made me break down again.!<
>!“You needna do so,” he said, looking at me seriously over his cupped palm. “The marriage contract between us is satisfied—it’s legal. You’re protected, safe from anything much save a warrant, and even from that, so long as you’re at Leoch. If ye wish, we may live apart—if that’s what ye were trying to say wi’ all yon rubbish about Laoghaire. You need have little more to do wi’ me, if that’s your honest choice.” He sat motionless, waiting, holding the tiny circlet near his heart.!<
>!So he was giving me the choice I had started out to give him. Forced on me by circumstance, he would force himself on me no longer, if I chose to reject him. And there was the alternative, of course: to accept the ring, and all that went with it.!<
Forced upon circumstances, he would force himself upon me no longer, if I chose to reject him. 🤔 Who does that sound like?
What do you all think?