Outlander, currently being produced by Sony and Starz, has always had one thing that many other series lack — a strong fan base on their side.

Outlander fans, whether they are relative newbies or if they have been following the series for two decades, have one thing in common: a passionate love for the saga of Jamie and Claire.

The series attracts men and women alike, it’s fairly hard to define. It’s part historical fiction, part romance, part paranormal, and probably part several other things as well. In the end, what it means is that it is a well crafted tale that doesn’t cubby-hole itself in to a box. Just recently author Diana Gabaldon weighed in on Twitter with her take on her undefinable series, “I don’t write romances — though Outlander has the basic structure, none of the other books do.” She then continued at a later date, “A romance novel is a courtship story, period. Outlander books are story of a marriage.”

What do the die-hard fans of this series think about the Starz adaptations that returns on April 4? Starz has taken great pains to include fans in events from day one, and the behind-the-scenes staff regularly engage fans on Twitter. We’ve seen fans passionately react to news of licensed merchandise, and upcoming teasers.

In a two-part series we have decided to ask fans who have taken their passion to the next level, and have a noticeable web presence related to the series, what has the series gotten right so far, and what are they anticipating when season 1, part 2 comes back in just under two weeks. So here is part one of our superfans sounding off.

Roxy From The Ridge

Roxy has one of the most popular Twitter accounts @RoxfromtheRidge. Believe me when I tell you there are plenty of those, but hers stands out as one that consistently makes me laugh. Her current twitter name is a reference to several books in the future. Her previous moniker was @OutlandishMemes. Below is one of my favorites of her work.

When asked how she got her start, Roxy stated, “I just stumbled on it [Outlander] one day surfing around iTunes as I do. The image of Claire reaching out to someone appealed to me so I watched the trailer and downloaded the first episode. I loved it immediately.” She then dipped her toe in the meme waters, not knowing how fans would react. “After the first couple of episodes I started as a bit of a joke, and one got retweeted by Diana Gabaldon. It was such a buzz I was hooked from then on. I searched for every meme on Outlander I could find and started doing them regularly.”

All joking aside, Roxy loves what the series is doing. She rates it an eight on a scale of one to 10. She says, “I read the books as a uni student about 20 years ago, so I was very pleased with the adaptation. I loved the casting. I thought it was spot on.” She cites as one of her favorite scenes, “The urchin with his ear nailed to the post. Jamie and Claire working together to free him. Loved the humour and cheekiness.”

As for any changes she’d make as the armchair director, “That’s tough, they’ve all done such a marvelous job. I can’t think of anything, other than a shorter mid-season hiatus, hahaha.”

Check out the next page for Donas, and My Outlander Purgatory!

Donas

Another of the prolific Twitter accounts is that of @DonasTheHorse. We haven’t yet been properly introduced to Donas on the show yet, but Donas is Jamie’s horse, and Donas regularly tweets in character from his unique perspective on all things Outlander.

Here’s what both Sue (the human behind the account, who rates the series a nine out of 10), and Donas had to say about their experience with the series thus far.

Sue writes, “I’ve had horses all my life and when you read a book with horses, inevitably they are written poorly. Diana Gabaldon writes horses, as well as human characters, extremely well, and won me over with that. Donas happened one night when I thought how much fun it would be to have an anonymous account that I could be totally obnoxious with. Then I thought about how Donas would act, and decided he’d be highly confidant, have a big ego, and be a taunting/teasing goofball. Soon I started getting more and more followers. Some of them thought Donas was Sam at one point! Then Sam started following Donas as his #666. Then Diana, Outander/Starz, as well as Cait. Donas’ Twitter account numbers exploded and I believe he’s somewhere around 7200 followers now, which is insane. He’s got a big head to begin with but now he’s literally a pain to live with.”

Donas replies to Sue and me, “Well, I’m in Outlander, so you know… I don’t know what the girl is talking about. I’m real! They should’ve brought me in sooner. The viewing demographics would’ve been through the roof. I’m getting tired of Sam getting all the praise. If it wasn’t for me there would be no Claire and Jamie. No future story. Just 50 Shades of Bad Hay…”

As for favorite scenes thus far, Donas is keen on scenes with Brimstone, while Sue loves anything to do with Rupert and Angus. Sue also loves the wedding. On the other hand there are some things she wished were different, “The only reason I didn’t give my rating as a 10 is because I’m perplexed by the ring change. Why do the key? What about the inscription? I guess I am a purist, and I really wanted to see that.”

Both are in agreement that “Droughtlander” could have been shorter. Donas pleads, “Maybe not taunt the humans with such a long wait for season 1, part 2? They are fragile creatures you know… Starz has a bit of BJR in them.”

My Outlander Purgatory

Now, in case anyone thought Outlander love was limited to Twitter, think again. There are a multitude websites and even a Compuserve Forum (that I was personally stunned to know still existed). One of the websites that stands out is My Outlander Purgatory, which is run by co-owners Carol and Tracey.

Believe it or not, the roots of their website can be traced back to Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series. Tracey explains, “About five and a half years ago, I had just finished the Twilight series and was going through serious withdrawal. My friend Emily suggested her own favorite book, Outlander. As Emily said, ‘You think you liked Edward Cullen? Just wait until you meet Jamie Fraser!’ I’m not the biggest fantasy/time travel/science fiction reader, which is what the book sounded like, so it sat on my nightstand for several months, and when I finally opened it, I almost didn’t get through the first 50 pages. I brought the book on vacation, kept reading, and around page 200… forget about it. Hooked. I got back home, emailed Carol, and said, ‘YOU. MUST. READ. THIS. BOOK!'”

Carol then adds, “I started the My Outlander Purgatory blog on November 1, 2009. I have this need to “talk about it” whenever I read a good series, but I run the risk of driving my friends and family insane. Blogging was a no-brainer. I was able to “get it all out,” AND avoid annoying pretty much everyone I know.”

Both Carol and Tracey give the adaptation high marks. Carol joked that it should be 100 on a scale of one to 10. Her favorite scene was one not exactly in the books. “I have to admit it was the slight tweaking of the book scene where Claire escapes and runs back to the stones. I thought it was borderline genius to simultaneously show Frank on his side of the stones in the 20th century, and Claire on hers in the 18th. I will never get over them yelling for each other, or his realization that the most minuscule part of him might actually be buying into Mrs. Graham’s notion that Claire has traveled through time.”

Tracey chimes in, “If I have to pick one favorite, it’s probably the entire sequence with Claire and Black Jack in episode 6 — honestly, that was just a master class in acting. So well done.” She does have one series suggestion, she’d love more than the allotted number of episodes.

Move on to the next page for ‘Outlander Podcast,’ and Je Suis Prest!

‘Outlander Podcast’

Outlander is a multi-media experience. Hypable and That’s Normal team up for post episode Google Hangout called Hangoutlander. There’s also a terrific, regular podcast entitled simply, Outlander Podcast. You can catch episodes, 83 and counting, on iTunes and right on their website which is run by co-owners Summer and Ginger. Both rate the Starz’s adaptation as over a 10 on the one to 10 scale.

Theirs was an interesting road to podcasting. Summer writes, “I accidentally started the series at book 4, Drums of Autumn. Though I quickly realized it wasn’t the first book in the series, I couldn’t put it down. After I finished, I had to find all the other books and start from the beginning.”

Ginger, on the other hand, took a more traditional route. She says,”Summer introduced me to the Outlander series in the 90’s. But I’d had the first book (in German) on my shelf for at least a few years. Embarrassing, really. When we heard that the series was finally, for real for real going to be adapted, we knew we wanted to be part of something. I thought a podcast would be fun, and original, and, with a little trepidation, approached Summer.”

As for favorite scenes, both recognize that the series is an adaption. Ginger states, “…completely separate from the book series, and though my reader’s heart recognizes what may be changed or left out, ‘adaptation’ means change. The two media are very different.” Summer added, “There have been more additions than subtractions in the course of the series, but everything they’ve added has served the source material, and has taken nothing away from the experience.”

As for their favorite parts, Ginger loves the scene openers, but especially, “Episode six, ‘The Garrison Commander,’ all scenes between Caitriona Balfe and Tobias Menzies. Simultaneously beautiful and appalling.” Summer, not unlike many fans, said, “The wedding night… take from that what you will.”

As for what they would change, they both agree, that it wouldn’t be much. Summer cheekily suggested, “They would have cast me as Claire. Just kidding. I probably wouldn’t have had a six-month hiatus.”

Je Suis Prest

Rounding out our superfans is @JeSuisPrestNow who hails from Scotland, right near where they are filming the series. Sinéad, who runs the account named after the Fraser family motto, has been a fan for about a decade and rates the series highly.

Her Twitter account’s number of followers came as something as a surprise to her. She currently has almost 11K followers. She writes, “When Sam was announced on 9 July 2014 he only had a Twitter page, and was so interactive with all his new followers, fans couldn’t believe that were actually interacting with Jamie Fraser. I came up with the idea of setting up an Outlander twitter account where I could tweet Outlander all I wanted and wouldn’t bother anyone else. Je Suis Prest, I thought, was a good name to pick as only Outlander fans would get the reference. Sam and Diana were having fun tweeting each other. It was named by fans ‘The Sam and Diana Show’. Some fans were new to Twitter and found it hard to follow. I started re-tweeting all the main interesting tweets that were sent out so if someone just looked at my twitter feed they would find news of that day.”

As for why her Twitter is so popular she says, “I don’t blog, and I don’t do fanart, but I’m happy to share another fans hard work with a retweet. I think this is how I have so many followers, it’s all about sharing Outlander news. I’m also very lucky as I live in Inverness, Scotland where the books are set. Because of the online community I met other fans who live in Inverness. We meet up for a coffee and an Outlander chat every few weeks. We set up an Inverness twitter account, @inverOutlanders, where we share news and photos from Inverness.”

As for her favorite parts so far, she’s seen the series in Ireland where she also resides, “I have a few but it’s probably the scene with Dougal and Claire at St. Ninian’s Spring, love this scene, I love Graham MacTavish playing Dougal.”

As for changing things, she’s pretty happy, but she would love the U.K. fans to get the series on par with other countries in the future.

Outlander returns on Starz on April 4 at 9:00pm ET/PT.

Come back tomorrow when our superfans sound off on what they are most looking forward to when Outlander returns.