In defense of Laoghaire in Outlander Season 4

Laoghaire gets a lot of hate from the Outlander fandom. She’s not an outright villain and here’s a post in defense of the troubled young woman, a victim of the time.

There’s a lot of hate for Laoghaire MacKenzie in the Outlander fandom. Considering the fact that she’s just 16 or so in the first season, I’m surprised that people are okay with hating on the character so much. When she returned in Season 4, Episode 7, we got the chance to see another side to her character.

Laoghaire is a victim of the time. A woman in the 18th century was the property of her father and then her husband. A spinster without a father is in a dangerous position, whether she has money or not.

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It’s not surprising that Laoghaire wanted to find a good man. At 16, she would have been worried about the future. Her father wasn’t the nicest of men, wanted her ruined because of what be believed to be lewd behavior. She didn’t want a husband who would treat her badly and she knew that Jamie was a good man.

When we got to see the better side of Laoghaire, the kind and considerate side, it was clear that the situation had made her the woman she was. She honestly believed that Claire had bewitched her man.

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Jamie standing up for Laoghaire and the kisses in the hallway had led her on and, in a way, it was Jamie’s fault. He knew what he was doing and never outright told her that he wasn’t interested. Remember at the river bank when she made a pass and he suggested to her that he didn’t want to marry Claire but had to?

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We finally got to hear Laoghaire’s side of the story. It’s not surprising that she still holds something against Claire. She’s bitter and angry, lost that the man she believed loved her had gone off with another woman.

Even Claire had to admit that Laoghaire was a good mother to Marsali. It’s clear when she takes in Brianna and helps her at first that she is. But then the tide changed the minute Laoghaire found out that Brianna was Claire and Jamie’s daughter. She had that reminder in her house that Jamie wasn’t hers, that he didn’t love her.

I do think the deep hate that some have for this character is unjustified but I do get it. We hold characters to our own expectations and standards. Laoghaire is being held to the standard of a 21st-century adult, but she’s neither to start off with. She’s an 18th-century teenager.

Even as an adult, she’s in the 18th century with vastly different expectations. It’s important to put ourselves in that position — the position of a woman who believed that a man loved her and couldn’t accept that he never did.

Do you see another side to Laoghaire now after Outlander Season 4, Episode 7? Why do you hate her so much? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Outlander Season 4 continues on Sundays at 8/7c on STARZ.