John Bradley on Sam Tarly’s intentions at the Citadel, his plans for Heartsbane, and more

According to Bradley, arriving at the Citadel means the world to Sam. The character was always “a latent academic,” but his father “shunned all of that on principle, believing you could solve all problems through violence, and academia had no practical application in the real world.” Things improved a bit for Sam at Castle Black, “because he had Jon. He found in Jon everything he was missing: a friend who cared for him, and a bit of a father figure as well.” Still, the Night’s Watch was still “a macho environment, with an emphasis placed on physical prowess, so he felt like a bit of a stranger there.”

But most everyone at the Citadel is “devoted to learning and devoted to knowledge.” This, finally, is a place where Sam Tarly’s gifts will be valued, and where he can find people with whom he shares a lot in common. “It feels like the beginning of the rest of his life,” Bradley said.

"When he arrives at the Citadel, we see Sam coming home. You have a sense that for the first time in his life, he feels comfortable. He feels like he’s in an environment where he can be accepted."

But let’s keep in mind that Sam is at the Citadel for a specific purpose: to become the maester for the Night’s Watch. Bradley doesn’t go into specifics, but does imply that he won’t be at the Citadel forever.

"It’s not that he wants to go to the Citadel to spend the rest of his life there and have a comfortable life. I think he genuinely feels he can make a difference, and he wants to, because he’s a very good and proactive character. He knows he can’t make a difference in the conventional way, or on the battlefield. But he can make a difference here…He feels there’s information here that can be applicable to the greater good. He feels he’s in charge of his own role within that structure. He found his role, and he knows now that he can effect things, rather than constantly being effected by things. He feels he’s at the point where he can change things for the better and change things for the greater good."

So far as we know, there are only two shortened seasons of the show left, so hopefully Sam learns what he needs to learn relatively soon, and sends the info north quickly enough to help Jon fight the army of the dead. I think we can all agree that it won’t be content to wait on the other side of the Wall for much longer, and the living will need to know how to fight it.

Finally, Bradley weighed in on something a lot of fans have noticed: that the astrolabe hanging in the Citadel’s library looks a lot like the one in the Game of Thrones opening credits. Bradley doesn’t think this is at all an accident, and is “a testament to [showrunner David Benioff and Dan Weiss’] foresight, that they can plan something that only comes to fruition much later on.”

"I think once that becomes apparent, that this is something we’ve seen every week, and now we’re finally having it explained to us at the end of season six, shows us how much control they have as writers and how in charge of the form and structure they are."

Like a good fan, Bradley theorizes that it might go deeper than that. Here’s his take on what’s really happening on Game of Thrones.

"One theory is that what we’re seeing now and how we’re experiencing Game of Thrones is Sam telling the story of Game of Thrones. If you take the logic of the story now, the story of Westeros and the story of the battle for the Iron Throne, it would be a book in that library. The visual motif of that is you’re about to be told a story — the sense of an idea of being told a story, and people gaining that knowledge, the way Sam is absorbing knowledge in the library."

So the entirety of the show may be adapted from a book Archmaester Samwell Tarly writes long after the events have transpired? Interesting.