Sam’s life at the Citadel was fairly crap.
Every single Game of Thrones fan must absolutely love Samwell Tarly because he embodies those attributes that we rarely see in Westeros, decency and bravery.
When he isn’t defying his father, looking after Gilly, killing a White Walker or rallying his brothers in the Night’s Watch to fight, Sam is usually found in the library and thank God for that.
As we now know, Sam’s recent discovery about the plentiful supply of dragon glass beneath Dragonstone is a potential game changer in the upcoming war against the White Walkers.
This pursuit of knowledge has come at a cost to Sam’s sense of smell though because his training at the Citadel in Oldtown will undoubtedly be remembered as one of the most disgusting montages in the show’s history.
That’s really saying something. He needs a hug.
Granted, every film and TV show loves a good montage which shows the protege learning their trade, but not every highlight reel will feature an endless supply of crap, piss and stew. In that order.
We really hope that Sam washes his hands.
After the show aired, the absolutely charming John Bradley appeared on a live Game of Thrones Q&A session.
Naturally, the issue of Sam’s training came up and he revealed a few more details on *that* scene.
Bradley says that the montage took “longer than you can ever imagine” and that “it took a surprisingly long amount of time, it took about 10 days. 10 days of scrubbing and retching and rhythmically putting books on shelves. It was a strange experience because our cast is so huge and even though we do get to work with a few people, I was completely alone on the set – aside form the director and crew. It was a tough one. Of course, we had to film all of these separate beats. At the time, it was an incredibly frustrating experience.”
Things got even worse for the actor because while he was filming this scene, his co-stars and friends were off enjoying themselves.
“I was just reminded last night by one of our producers that when I was shooting that scene, the rest of the cast and crew were at the Emmys! Yeah, everyone else was in LA picking up awards in tuxedos and here I am struggling to pick up excrement!”
https://twitter.com/b_cogman/status/886817757643329536
As for the million dollar question, what was in those bedpans? You’ll be delighted to know that the producers used wet fruitcake.
After enduring all of that suffering, we really hope that Sam is made a Maester soon.
In Game of Thrones parlance, he can’t be a number two for much longer.
