Would Jamie have still been a Jacobite if Claire wasn't there in Outlander?

Jamie Fraser has never really been all that interested in politics. And yet, he has found himself involved throughout Outlander.

By the end of the second season, Jamie found himself on the losing side of the Jacobites. This wasn’t the initial plan, though. Claire had knowledge of what was to come, and she wanted to prevent the Jacobite Rebellion from happening. When that failed, she and Jamie wanted to do everything they could to allow the Jacobites to win.

Again, it all failed. Jamie became a prisoner and Claire went back to her own time, leading to the two of them being separated for 20 years. Would this have happened had Claire and Jamie never met, though?

Jamie could have ended up avoiding everything in Outlander

If Claire hadn’t come through the stones, Jamie wouldn’t have learned about things that were going to happen. He wouldn’t have known that the Jacobite rebellion was going to fail, and he wouldn’t have attempted to prevent it happening in the first place.

This could have allowed him to stay out of it. While Dougal MacKenzie used Jamie as a way to grow support for the Jacobites, Colum MacKenzie wasn’t interested in this fight. He knew that it wasn’t a good cause to back. Dougal would have probably still gone off with his men, but that doesn’t mean that Jamie would have followed.

However, the Jacobite rebellion would have still failed. Everything that did happen in Scotland would have still happened. The only difference for Jamie is that he wouldn’t have been a prisoner at Ardsmuir. Nor would he have signed over Lallybroch to his nephew. He would have still been laird, but he would have had to figure out the best thing for the tenants. This could have been devastating, though, as Jenny wouldn’t have known to plant potatoes to deal with the famine that happened after Culloden.

So while Jamie wouldn’t have likely joined the Jacobite cause, that’s not to say life would have been better for him or the Fraser/Murray families had Claire not come through the stones in Outlander.