Will Benjen Stark be killed in this Ep?

[Rex2G]

Though it probably wouldn't serve any purpose other than pure fanservice, I would love to see the Rhaegar vs. Robert deathmatch 

[JonisHenryTudor]

2 hours ago, sj4iy said:

I don't think we see the tourney...we already know that information, it would do no good to rehash it.  I think we will only see the Tower of Joy.

That would be pretty great!!

[Ser Mint]

10 hours ago, Ser Gareth said:

I read that too.  But he also said that Catelyn Stark is dead and Lady Stoneheart isn't really Catelyn Stark from before.  So he may have just been messing with everyone as Benjen = Coldhands seems to obvious.

I actually hope that they find Benjen dead.  Because there is no logical explanation, other than imprisonment, why Benjen would intentionally stay away from the Wall.  He isn't stupid and wouldn't go it alone or try and be a hero.

True - well, apart from this one - i.e. he was killed, magically resurrected, and has been serving the 3ER and CoTF since then (also, cannot go past the Wall, like Coldhands). So in the show it makes total sense, but I agree, he's probably dead in the books, because if he's not Coldhands in the books then there's no other satisfactory explanation for him deciding to spend a few years hiding in the woods. I kind of feel like this episode has confirmed that Benjen in the books is dead, and we may never even see his body. Otherwise, if Benjen was Coldhands in the books, surely Bran would have recognised him? Or Hodor? Hodor had known Benjen since childhood. I believe George was telling the truth. 

[Umber's Ale]

Does anyone have any kind of guess what Benjen is now?  He's dead right, not resurrected like Jon?  Like a wight that isn't controlled by anyone?

[Charles Stuart]

Probably an old God version of the r'hllor undead like Beric and Jon.

[CrypticWeirwood]

4 hours ago, Umber's Ale said:

Does anyone have any kind of guess what Benjen is now?  He's dead right, not resurrected like Jon?  Like a wight that isn't controlled by anyone?

No, he's not dead. The animated dead corpses that men call wights are dead, but the Others are “something else”, in Martin’s words.

They were living men changed into Others using the magic of the Children of the Forest. The Others make wights out of dead men, not living ones.

Benjen said that a White Walker's sword of ice had pierced his stomach, and they had left him to die so that they could animate his corpse into an undead wight.  He said that the Children saved him from that fate by using the same magic they’d used to create the White Walkers in the first place.  That’s a magic used on living men, not on dead ones like the Others use.

But he was obviously expected to die, and he seems to be on some sort of magical life support, just like Jon and Beric and Catelyn.  His eyes did not turn ice-blue any more than his resurrected nephew Jon’s eyes did — which Dolorous Edd checked for to make sure Jon hadn't become a wight.

We don't know what all these non-blue-eyed resurrectees really are, but they do not serve the Others. Just as guest right isn't what it used to be, neither is death.

[CrypticWeirwood]

4 hours ago, Ser Mint said:

True - well, apart from this one - i.e. he was killed, magically resurrected, and has been serving the 3ER and CoTF since then (also, cannot go past the Wall, like Coldhands). So in the show it makes total sense, but I agree, he's probably dead in the books, because if he's not Coldhands in the books then there's no other satisfactory explanation for him deciding to spend a few years hiding in the woods. I kind of feel like this episode has confirmed that Benjen in the books is dead, and we may never even see his body. Otherwise, if Benjen was Coldhands in the books, surely Bran would have recognised him? Or Hodor? Hodor had known Benjen since childhood. I believe George was telling the truth. 

I don’t believe that the Coldhands of the books is actually Benjen, because Martin would not lie to his editor.

But I believe that the circumstances of the show mean that the Children used the same magic earlier are whoever Coldhands was that they would later use to save Benjen. Rather than foreshadowing that as the books did, the show just showed the resulting Benjen.  But they couldn't do that until we had learned how the Others came to be, or before Jon was brought back.

[HellasLEAF]

I'm already liking this character a lot.  They really got the look right first of all.    

He's a Stark.  We need more Starks, not less. 

[Olorin81]

11 hours ago, CrypticWeirwood said:

I don’t believe that the Coldhands of the books is actually Benjen, because Martin would not lie to his editor.

But I believe that the circumstances of the show mean that the Children used the same magic earlier are whoever Coldhands was that they would later use to save Benjen. Rather than foreshadowing that as the books did, the show just showed the resulting Benjen.  But they couldn't do that until we had learned how the Others came to be, or before Jon was brought back.

I don't think the show and the books go hand in hand like this. The whole "children made the whitewalkers with dragonglass" thing may just be an invention of the show and may never be part of the books. Just because they used this as the explanation for what happened to Benjen in the show doesn't mean it will be in the books. What is clear is that they are using the Coldhands character in the show now, and they revealed him to be Benjen Stark, whereas the Coldhands character is not Benjen in the books. Only now, instead of him helping Bran and them get from the wall to the 3ER like he did in the books, he's helping them get back to the Wall in the show.