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Farther north we've seen before: Jon finds Benjen


Hagorn Icebeard

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I was just re-reading Game of thrones when I found out something. It is the chapter of Tyrion, a night before he leaves the Wall. Jon and Tyrion are watching the Haunted forest and talking about Benjen. In their dialogue Jon says: "If he [benjen] doesn't come back, Ghost and I will go and find him."

I think this is quite foreshadowing. (Let's assume Benjen and Jon are still alive) Benjen is somewhere in the real north (duh), and Jon is going to look for him. GRRM has already promised that the Winds of Winter will take us farther north than we have yet seen. Who would be better character to go in the Lands of always winter than Jon? Even though a Benjen POV would be great. Jon goes, finds Benjen, then + (I have no idea. Insert your own predictions here).

What does this sound like? Might be a little bit crack-pottery, but there is damn more foreshadowing peaces of text in aSoIaF.

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I wouldn't mind a Benjen chapter (maybe prologue/epilogue assuming he doesn't die at the end of it.) It would be just a nice subtle reveal rather than Jon spending all this time travelling north and then "HOLY SHIT HES ALIVE" type of thing. A chapter with the name "The Lost Ranger" or something (like they did for Aerys/Areo/Asha etc) so you're not entirely sure who it is for a few pages.

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It could also be illustrating Jon's naĂŻvete regarding the Far North, before he experiences it firsthand. It's an area bigger than most countries, with rough terrain and hostile... everyhing, and simply "going and finding" somebody there is not as easy a task as it might seem to a sixteen-year-old who's never been further north of the Wall than an hour's walk or so. Jon's overconfident and inexperienced.


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I had reasoned Benjen's disappearance as going deeper into The Others' territory, to keep tabs on movements.


Jon's arc does seem to have a journey going further north. Meeting Benjen or discovering what happened to him, seems like something GRRM's held back on. (GRRM own 'rule' applies - we haven't 'seen' the body.)



Maybe Benjen's discovered something important about The Others. Perhaps it changes everything where Jon's concerned as well.


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BenJen's disappearance leaves a lot of room for speculation and some interesting and some tinfoiled theories.

I think what gets me is that even before Mormont's great ranging, a number of the NW Rangers have looked for Benjen. There's nothing obviously told to Jon when the Wildlings are brought through the wall or when Jon is with them. Which leads me to think, is there such a lack of information on Benjen's whereabouts that he has avoided any signs of people on his journey to the unknown North (and logistically, how does that work) or that by the absence of a trail or sightings or anything else, that he isn't and cannot be North of the Wall.

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I am guessing our view of the far north will be given to us by Bran who is both a Warg and a Greenseer and has already proven capable of seeing the Lands of Always winter.

As for Jon going North to find Benjen and taking Ghost with him, that has already happened, it was the great ranging. Where they went north to locate Benjen.

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BenJen's disappearance leaves a lot of room for speculation and some interesting and some tinfoiled theories.

I think what gets me is that even before Mormont's great ranging, a number of the NW Rangers have looked for Benjen. There's nothing obviously told to Jon when the Wildlings are brought through the wall or when Jon is with them. Which leads me to think, is there such a lack of information on Benjen's whereabouts that he has avoided any signs of people on his journey to the unknown North (and logistically, how does that work) or that by the absence of a trail or sightings or anything else, that he isn't and cannot be North of the Wall.

It definitely begs the question if he intentionally bypassed the wildlings to range further north for some purpose.

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Why do you people care about Benjen?

I never found him that interesting. He just seemed a generic "older role model figure" to me. Not even that good of one being he didn't even bother to tell his nephew his romanticized notions of the Night's Watch were utter BS before joining. I guess it's just the notion of not knowing that bothers people since he was mentioned in every other paragraph in Jon's earlier POVs. I just don't buy the wild ideas floating around that he's spent the last couple years "scouting the new threat" or something. That's abandonment of your post if you've screwed around that long. I'm thinking if we see him again, it's as a wight just for a freak Jon out moment.

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While I would appreciate a Benjen chapter in the far north GRRM better damn explain how he survived there. Bran and Company, including the wolves, all had a hard time finding anything to eat on their way to the last greenseer alone. Even the wolves started to slowly starve, because they could rarely find any animal at all.


Also, it is called the lands of allways winter, so it is probably just like antarctica. A continent at a pole gets MUCH colder than an ocean, so it won't be like the north pole, but like the southpole connected to Westeros over a landbrige. The only thing protecting Westeros from the bitter cold there are the numerous mountain ranges orthogonal the the way the cold air would travel, and yet it sometimes snows in the north even in their prolonged summer (even if that could just be the 'normal' seasons, which might be weaker than in RL or just not so significant compared to what they think of as winter. I mean, they still count years, so I expect there to be SOMETHING of a regular pattern where they count their year length from).


Beyond where the Thenns live, there is probably nothing but snow and ice. There is no water like at the north pole, so no polar bears or seals, and you wouldn't find any penguins anywhere but at the coast if it were like antarctica, but since they were not even mentioned in any way, I suspect that there aren't any of those either. So in the heart of winter, far away from any coast, with no way to resupply, in a bitter cold at least as bad as at the south pole, with worse equipment than most of the RL adventurers that froze to death there? Also, the 'real' winter is comming, so temperatures and food variety are not likely to improve much either.



There would have to be a good explanation for all of that. I don't think he went all the way to the heart of the others. Maybe well into their domain, but not all the way.


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It just crossed my mind that Jon may go further north looking for Benjen while he's warging Ghost (assuming he indeed warged Ghost after the stabbing). He may even find Bran in the cave while he's doing it. What do you guys think?

That's what I am thinking too.

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It just crossed my mind that Jon may go further north looking for Benjen while he's warging Ghost (assuming he indeed warged Ghost after the stabbing). He may even find Bran in the cave while he's doing it. What do you guys think?

"Ghost and I will go look for him", yep.

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Why do you people care about Benjen?

I care about him because I think he knows more about Jon's true identity and I think if he ever comes back in to the story, whether it's a POV or not, it will give is some insight.

And as for him lying to Jon about the NW or at least hiding certain aspects from him, perhaps the whole reason Jon goes to the wall in the first place is a plan made by Ned and Benjen to protect him and keep him far away from everything? Again this could be another big reveal if we do actually find Benjen.

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I care about him because I think he knows more about Jon's true identity and I think if he ever comes back in to the story, whether it's a POV or not, it will give is some insight.

And as for him lying to Jon about the NW or at least hiding certain aspects from him, perhaps the whole reason Jon goes to the wall in the first place is a plan made by Ned and Benjen to protect him and keep him far away from everything? Again this could be another big reveal if we do actually find Benjen.

If I remember right, it was maester Luwin's idea to send Jon to the Wall. Eddard and Benjen didn't like the idea but there was nothing else to do.
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