mopingmelancholy replied to your post: Ugh the Brianna/Roger relationship is so...
She should be alone and single and focus on her parents and getting to know her dad.
I don’t even mind her not being single, but it should have been for the right reasons and in accordance with the ideals of her time. She’s a 68er! From a time when feminism was on the rise and ‘free love’ was propagated by her generation. She should not have been pressured into marrying a dude who can’t even get his head out of his own arse enough to fucking accept she, never having seriously dated anyone, did not want to get married instantly.
Roger is so possessive and making decisions on her behalf, which proves that he belongs into the time he’s travelling more than the 20th century. Brianna should have put him in his place and either told him to fuck off for good or make him see that he has to respect and accept her agency.
That aside, I absolutely don’t see the chemistry between them. At first, yes, but later, everything between them just felt forced and boring. They’re two people who simply do NOT match, yet Gabaldon forced them together, and it’s not working. Brianna, who decided to become an engineer despite that not being all that common for girls in her time, should not have been reduced to a wife and mother who suddenly acts like everything in the 18th century is all dandy and good.
Ugh. I just really hate that entire storyline.
I mean, Jamie, who fucking grew UP with 18th-century values and gender roles is more open towards emancipation than Roger. He’s done a few things we’d consider going against that in our time, but he also learned so much through Claire and has at least always been open to seeing a different angle.
Roger, on the other hand, sees Brianna as his prize, who has to be the way he wants her to be or not at all. It’s also shown in how he doesn’t even want to see her side after the “I knew about your parents supposed death” fight. Sure, he had his (good) reasons for not telling her, but if he respected her in the slightest, he’d at least allow her time to fume and let it settle and then talk about it in the morning instead of being all “ok, you’re angry and are sending me away? Good, I’ll better go then.” That’s not how you build a functioning relationship, and you don’t save it by doing some heroic shit or something, you save it by mutually respecting each other and talking about your issues and admitting a mistake.