Starting its epic run in 2014, Outlander has been a really good plot that has only gotten better over the past four seasons, and with two more seasons to come, the story isn’t over yet. It can be kind of hard to pick out a favorite character, but so easy to find ones to hate. In today’s list, we will be going over some of the worst things that Claire has done in the seasons that we have seen her in. Be warned, there are massive spoilers in this list, so if you haven’t seen it, you may want to hold off.
She Rape-Shamed Jamie
Starting off this list is one of the most heinous things she’s done and what really helped show her true colors. After Jamie reveals a very dark moment to her, in pure confidence when she could help him, she did the exact opposite and made him feel even worse about a situation that was nowhere near his fault. She even forces him to relive the moment by asking him what happened, even after she knew what happened. You think she would be a little bit more understanding of the situation after almost being raped herself but she just makes it worse.
She doesn’t kill Charles
They had the leader of the rebellion right there in Jaime’s house, and at the oddest hours you could possibly imagine. That, paired with the fact that literally no one knows where Charles is, and she just passes up on that chance to kill the dude. With as much pain and suffering, Charles has caused Jaime and Claire, you’d think that maybe she would show the incentive to kill the bad dude, and stop the growing problems for a lot of people while doing it. But of course, the show’s Claire is a very easily despicable character.
She Just Won’t Listen
She doesn’t listen to anyone at all, and this is by far one of her more frustrating personality traits. Granted, she is a strong-headed WWII vet who was blasted back to the past, but her ability to respectfully listen to other people’s opinions is lacking to the extreme. Its as if she can’t realize that this isn’t her world anymore, this is 200 years before that, and she doesn’t know jack about what’s really going on. However, she acts and treats everyone else like she’s smarter than them, and consistently goes against her own support groups wise, experienced advice.
Her Words Can Sting
She’s also very spiteful when you think of it. Take the instance where Jaime is about to extract his long-wanted revenge, and all she could do was talk about sleeping with Frank. Like really? Not only is the man you love about to potentially die, but you have to drag on and on about how you slept with someone? There is a right place and time, and this really makes us think about how detached from situations she is at times. What in her mind would make her think that was the best time to talk about her promiscuous sex-life?
She Leaves Her Family Behind
Another huge hit to the pretentious Claire’s character is the fact that she left her only daughter to go back in the past to have some juicy, under the sheet tango time with Jamie, and that’s only in the second season. What type of person would be thrown into the past, be able to go back to her loving home and family, and still think its a good idea to leave the man you used to love. Her role as a parent may have been put aside for the first accidental time travel incident, but willingly leaving people that love you?
She Stops Growing
Her emotional growth over the 20 years that we have seen her don’t really make that much of a stride in the show as they do in the books. Yes, she becomes a doctor in her new timeline after all her experience as a nurse for WWII vets, but she still remains somewhat cold and selfish and refuses to accept that the world around her is different than the one she came from. She often gets people like Frank in trouble for not heeding his warning of what’s going on, and consistently has to play “Mrs. Superior” to literally everyone.
She Slaps Laoghaire
Of course, everyone has the right to be angry sometimes, but to take it out on someone that wasn’t really supposed to be involved in the first place is a bad move on Claire’s part. Not only is she older than her, but she should have tried a bit harder to control her anger because someone had a differing viewpoint. How many times do you think Claire herself would have been slapped for her opinions, especially when it’s a time period where women have little to no rights at all. Some mutual understanding on her part would’ve worked.
She Makes Her Husband’s Well-Being About Her
This is one part of the show that really made us very uncomfortable, and showed a good bit of narcissism in the show’s version of Claire. With her husband being badly wounded, Claire began going off on another self-absorbed rant about how he needs to get better because he is HER husband, making his healing process revolve around her. This was a serious glimpse on how different versions of Claire are represented, with the book Claire still holding some bad traits, but who also showed warmth and care a considerable amount more for those that were affected by her often brash choices.
She Made an Entire Town Mad
It’s a very good thing to stand up against slavery, and for that we kinda have to give props to Claire, despite her really not deserving it sometimes. There is the time when five minutes after she found out about the slave. It’s one thing to not like slavery, but to insult the dude that’s responsible for giving you almost everything you now own, you kinda got keep some opinions to yourself. She took it upon herself to save the slave, and would not accept that she couldn’t do anything about it, ignoring the potential problems caused for the people that her actions would affect.
She Broke Alex’s Heart
Claire has a consistent knack for ruining things for everybody except for herself. Take the time when she had Alex freed because she sent Mary’s letters to the Bastille. Going good so far, but when he comes to thank her, she immediately tells him how a convict like him could never make someone like Mary happy. Why even help the guy go free if you’re going to insult him and take away the main reason he wanted freedom. She claims it really broke her heart to ruin their happiness, but made no attempt whatsoever to fix the damage she intentionally delivered.
