‘Game of Thrones’ season 6: John Bradley on key Sam’s narrative

To us, it is pretty darn clear that Samwell had a pretty incredible season on “Game of Thrones” season 5. He lost his virginity to Gilly, he stood up for himself more, and at the end of the day, he has managed to get himself out of Castle Black and towards the Citadel. Granted, he never prepared for anything as terrible as seeing Jon Snow be stabbed repeatedly by his fellow brothers of the Night’s Watch, but you could not have predicted something akin to what we saw at Hardhome.

One of the key moments of the season still was Sam effectively setting it up so that he could someday head towards the Citadel to begin a new life, and there were many differences in how proactive he was in this on the show in comparison to the books. It was more entertaining to watch Sam’s arc because of this, just as it was also fascinating to see what series star John Bradley had to say on this particular subject in a new interview with Vulture following the season:

“Sam gave quite an impassioned speech about Jon Snow becoming Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, and if you look back on it in a way, you can see that was actually an acting performance by Sam. On the surface of it, he was putting Jon Snow forward because he believes he’s the best man, with the subtext being that if Jon is the Lord Commander, that’s the best chance Sam, Gilly, and baby Sam have to be happy. You can go all the way back and see when he was giving that speech, he was thinking about Jon, but he also had his own interests at heart there. It gives it a whole new level, a whole different edge to it, in retrospect. And it follows from the scene where Sam talks about if Ser Alliser Thorne becomes Lord Commander, how that would be bad for them because he hates wildlings, so he’ll hate Gilly and he’ll hate baby Sam, and from that moment on, Sam’s whole season is orchestrated in a way to get him and Gilly and the baby out of Castle Black. It’s a much more satisfying narrative arc of the season if it is Sam’s decision to go. And Sam’s always had this power of persuasion over people. It’s just in this season, he’s able to do it on a grander scale, using logic and pathos and persuasive language, almost political language, to get someone to try to change their mind.”

We do know that we want to see Sam survive now until the end of the series, given that if it was not for him, we don’t really know what we would feel about going through this whole journey. He is one of the few ways that Jon’s memory can be fully honored, and maybe he can use his smarts and strategy know-how to prepare people south of the Wall for what could be coming with the White Walkers. Let’s at least hope that his purpose is so grand.

If nothing else, we know from the ratings reports that are out that season 6 will most likely have a massive audience.

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