Outlander Book Club: Drums of Autumn Chapter 15 breakdown

Foreshadowing in the Outlander chapter

Most of the foreshadowing in this chapter comes from the bear attack and the tribe members finding out what Jamie did. We will get to see a friendship and an understanding between the eventual neighbors, but the bear killing is going to lead to something bigger.

He’ll gain a name from this. He gains greater respect from the Tuscarora tribe, which helps to lead to peace between them.

Adapting the Drums of Autumn chapter

While the chapter was partly used in the TV series, it wasn’t in the same way. The show opted not to have an actual bear attack. Instead, we got a storyline that connected more to Native American culture and lore than the book offered. And it’s because of this that I loved the adaptation much more.

There are a few reasons the show opted to change the bear attack. It was much safer having a man dressed as a bear. CGI just wouldn’t have looked right for the big fight either. It was hard enough just to make the bison attack in Outlander Season 5 look realistic, and that was much briefer than the bear attack.

Sam Heughan was happy with the change for various reasons, and it didn’t change too much fundamentally.

The downside to changing the bear storyline was losing the Tuscarora men finding Claire and Jamie. Sadly, the TV show just didn’t have enough time to see that relationship between the Frasers and the Cherokee (as they were in the show) neighbors really blossom, but there was enough understanding from two episodes that it was there. I would have loved to have seen it play out more, but I don’t begrudge the inability when it was all a matter of time.

What did you spot while reading Drums of Autumn Chapter 15? Let us know in the comments below.

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