Samwell Tarly
The plump, bookish, self-described craven eldest son of a hard father, packed off to the Night's Watch ÔÇö where his wits and his reading prove worth more than any sword arm.
A soul born at Horn Hill, sworn to The Night's Watch, House Tarly.
The fuller tale
Season One
Samwell Tarly arrives at the Wall, and Jon makes the bullies stand down.
Where they stand. Castle Black.
Season Two
In Valar Morghulis ÔÇö Three horn blasts. There is no fourth.
Where they stand. Craster's Keep and Fist of the First Men.
Season Three
In And Now His Watch Is Ended ÔÇö Runs into the night with Gilly and her newborn son. In Second Sons ÔÇö Sam the Slayer, though no one will believe it.
Where they stand. Craster's Keep and Castle Black.
Season Four
In Breaker of Chains ÔÇö Moves Gilly to Mole's Town and regrets it immediately. In The Watchers on the Wall ÔÇö Kills a Thenn and finds his courage isn't missing after all.
Season Six
In Blood of My Blood ÔÇö Took Heartsbane off the wall. His father can come and get it.
Season Seven
In Stormborn ÔÇö Peels a knight like an onion because he knew his father. In Eastwatch ÔÇö Leaves the Citadel with its books and without its blessing.
Season Eight
In Winterfell ÔÇö Tells the hardest truth in the crypts, by candlelight.
Where they stand. Winterfell and King's Landing.
How it ends for them
The chronicle records no death for this soul ÔÇö they are living when the tale leaves them, or their ending is a page the maesters have yet to turn.
Their chapters, book by book
A Game of Thrones 1 chapter that name them
A Storm of Swords 5 chapters of their own
A Feast for Crows 5 chapters of their own
Where the page and the screen part
The books leave Sam earlier on the same road, and give the road more weight. His voyage to Oldtown is an odyssey ÔÇö Braavos, storms, grief ÔÇö undertaken with Gilly, Aemon, and a secret cargo of sorrow: Jon has swapped GillyÔÇÖs baby for Mance RayderÔÇÖs to keep the king-beyond-the-WallÔÇÖs son from MelisandreÔÇÖs fires, and GillyÔÇÖs grief shadows every league. Aemon dies at sea deciphering prophecy; Sam arrives at the Citadel to find a novice who is not what he seems and a war for knowledge already quietly underway. None of the showÔÇÖs later inventions ÔÇö Heartsbane taken from Horn Hill, the greyscale cure, the parentage revelation, the Grand MaesterÔÇÖs chain ÔÇö exist yet on the page.
The tellings also weigh his family differently. The show stages the Horn Hill dinner and gives Randyll Tarly a face and a firing squad of insults, then has Daenerys burn father and brother alike ÔÇö handing Sam a grief the books have not dealt him. Book-Randyll remains a distant, dreaded fact rather than a scene partner. And the screenÔÇÖs Sam is braver sooner; the books keep his terror closer to the surface for longer, which makes each act of courage ÔÇö the Other, the wights at the weirwood grove, the election scheming ÔÇö cost visibly more.
Their journey
Where the two tellings send them to the same place the road runs whole; where they part, the screen keeps the left and the books the right.