Spoilers--Bold Prediction/WAG Re: Bran's Salvation

[Forlong the Fat]

Assume for a moment that a man on horseback will save Bran and Meera whilst wielding an awesome fire-on-a-chain type weapon.  Assume further that said man on horseback is Benjen Stark.  These are educated guesses, but neither bold nor wild-assed.

Now query how Benjen got there?  Query, further, why he wound up in the Night's Watch to begin with, when House Stark had no abundance of heirs and Benjen could have had a very nice life serving his family.  

My bold and wild-assed guess is that we will find that Benjen was influenced to join the Night's Watch by BR (or less likely, Bran), perhaps in an incident similar or related to the "Hold the Door" incident (at which Benjen was present) and that he is north of the Wall, at BR's behest, specifically to aid Bran.

 

[Aedam Targaryen]

I was thinking along those same lines. I wondered if immediately after the 'hold the door' seizure, young Benjen enters the scene and Bran somehow puts joining the nights watch into Benjens head. I don't think that's very likely because of how young Benjen was, but who knows. 

I've also thought Benjen might have been visited in his dreams by the 3EC similar to how he communicated with Bran early on. 

But it definitely seems like for Benjen to be on some secret mission north of the wall without including any of his NW brothers in on the plan, he HAD to know something that no one else knows. 

[Khal Marx]

We were talking about this in the other Benjen topic.

[Sir Matthis Light]

Meeras trying to pull Bran away and from the E6 shots we get in the promo she makes its to a Forrest, but she doesn't make it far. Then they get saved by a hooded man that everyone thinks is Benjen, me to.

Since I don't think Meera and Bran get far, and they get saved by the hooded man, he( HoodedMan ) had to have know the 3EC and Children were close by. Thus the hooded man had to have been on an errand for the 3EC, at least that what I think.

I think the 3EC original plan was to train and impart the knowledge to stop the WW to Bran. Then when the time came for him to leave, he would have surprised Bran with the return of his uncle to help them get back south of the wall. But because Bran f**k up there was no more time.

[Smoke317]

I think Benjen has been marked just like Bran has been. Maybe even killed and because of his Stark blood, BR was able to "Coldhands" him. Under either scenario, he couldn't return to the watch and can't cross the wall. Plus with the mark, the wights or Walkers won't kill him. They want/need him to cross the wall. Now the difficult part is, will Bran cross the wall knowing that by doing so, the Nights King will be able to as well...???  Or will Meera unknowingly (because Bran is still warging) take him through the wall...???

[hiemal]

On 5/26/2016 at 4:42 PM, Forlong the Fat said:

Assume for a moment that a man on horseback will save Bran and Meera whilst wielding an awesome fire-on-a-chain type weapon.  Assume further that said man on horseback is Benjen Stark.  These are educated guesses, but neither bold nor wild-assed.

Now query how Benjen got there?  Query, further, why he wound up in the Night's Watch to begin with, when House Stark had no abundance of heirs and Benjen could have had a very nice life serving his family.  

My bold and wild-assed guess is that we will find that Benjen was influenced to join the Night's Watch by BR (or less likely, Bran), perhaps in an incident similar or related to the "Hold the Door" incident (at which Benjen was present) and that he is north of the Wall, at BR's behest, specifically to aid Bran.

 

 I think that BR would definitely have contacts beyond Mormont's raven in the NW and a Stark seems a likely choice, although I don't know I'd go so far as to say that BR would arrange to have one sent to him. Whatever he is doing beyond the Wall would have to be pretty important that he would allow his nephew to make his way to BR's hill without him, though. The journey cost Jojen his life, and could easily have claimed all of them.

[tmug]

On 5/26/2016 at 1:42 PM, Forlong the Fat said:

Assume for a moment that a man on horseback will save Bran and Meera whilst wielding an awesome fire-on-a-chain type weapon.  Assume further that said man on horseback is Benjen Stark.  These are educated guesses, but neither bold nor wild-assed.

Now query how Benjen got there?  Query, further, why he wound up in the Night's Watch to begin with, when House Stark had no abundance of heirs and Benjen could have had a very nice life serving his family.  

My bold and wild-assed guess is that we will find that Benjen was influenced to join the Night's Watch by BR (or less likely, Bran), perhaps in an incident similar or related to the "Hold the Door" incident (at which Benjen was present) and that he is north of the Wall, at BR's behest, specifically to aid Bran.

 

 

12 hours ago, Aedam Targaryen said:

I was thinking along those same lines. I wondered if immediately after the 'hold the door' seizure, young Benjen enters the scene and Bran somehow puts joining the nights watch into Benjens head. I don't think that's very likely because of how young Benjen was, but who knows. 

I've also thought Benjen might have been visited in his dreams by the 3EC similar to how he communicated with Bran early on. 

But it definitely seems like for Benjen to be on some secret mission north of the wall without including any of his NW brothers in on the plan, he HAD to know something that no one else knows. 

That scene had me thinking along the same lines as you guys. When these film guys create these shots, they are rigorously thought out and planned ahead of time with story boards/sketches of how each frame will look for composition and for writing the script. They have introduced us to young Benjen to us for a reason. It makes sense to all RLJ'ers the purpose of introducing Lyanna and Ned, but add Benjen to the mix as well. Why?

Look at the shot where Hodor begins to Hodor,young Benjen is noticeably visible in the scene as well. Perhaps just looking at Hodor put it in young Benjen's head these future events and he would be near Hodor when he dies, kind of like a 'deja vu' moment. We all have had them, you can swear that this event has happened before like in a dream or something. I always thought of that as timetravel sort of. 

This would make sense as an indirect cascading effect of future Bran's actions and not necessarily "speaking" to Benjen directly. Benjen probably grows up knowing that he wants in on the NW, not because he saw Hodor do his thing but because he was destined to do all of these things in order to save Bran at this particular moment. It's Benjen's destiny, nothing he could have done would change that.

That is if this hooded figure is indeed Benjen of course.

 

[Morgana Lannister]

On 5/28/2016 at 3:17 AM, Smoke317 said:

I think Benjen has been marked just like Bran has been. Maybe even killed and because of his Stark blood, BR was able to "Coldhands" him. Under either scenario, he couldn't return to the watch and can't cross the wall. Plus with the mark, the wights or Walkers won't kill him. They want/need him to cross the wall. Now the difficult part is, will Bran cross the wall knowing that by doing so, the Nights King will be able to as well...???  Or will Meera unknowingly (because Bran is still warging) take him through the wall...???

Scary prospect to say the least...

[Mehmet Eren]

On 28.05.2016 at 5:17 AM, Smoke317 said:

I think Benjen has been marked just like Bran has been. Maybe even killed and because of his Stark blood, BR was able to "Coldhands" him. Under either scenario, he couldn't return to the watch and can't cross the wall. Plus with the mark, the wights or Walkers won't kill him. They want/need him to cross the wall. Now the difficult part is, will Bran cross the wall knowing that by doing so, the Nights King will be able to as well...???  Or will Meera unknowingly (because Bran is still warging) take him through the wall...???

This very interesting This might be reason in the book also Benjen might also have Warg vs skinchanger maybe he is looking cure against mark of night kings mark can have more effect in the books I really like the idea also In the show it seems to me they are going to merge to ch benjen and coldhands in a similar method they usually use in the tv show

[elbucho3]

A stupid question for a non book reader ... if there's magic that keeps the wights from passing South, then why is there a physical wall? 

[Red Tiger]

1 hour ago, elbucho3 said:

A stupid question for a non book reader ... if there's magic that keeps the wights from passing South, then why is there a physical wall? 

Not a stupid question at all.

Nobody knows exactly how that Wall was made, some say it was raised by magic, others giants and then you have a thousand other stories.

[House Cambodia]

On 28/05/2016 at 9:17 AM, Smoke317 said:

I think Benjen has been marked just like Bran has been. Maybe even killed and because of his Stark blood, BR was able to "Coldhands" him. Under either scenario, he couldn't return to the watch and can't cross the wall. Plus with the mark, the wights or Walkers won't kill him. They want/need him to cross the wall. Now the difficult part is, will Bran cross the wall knowing that by doing so, the Nights King will be able to as well...???  Or will Meera unknowingly (because Bran is still warging) take him through the wall...???

Right, that's great thinking. This is why Benjen, alive, never returned to Castle Black. I'm convinced.

[House Cambodia]

1 hour ago, elbucho3 said:

A stupid question for a non book reader ... if there's magic that keeps the wights from passing South, then why is there a physical wall? 

Perfectly good and pertinent question that no one knows the answer to - neither us readers n viewers, nor the characters in the story.

 

One thought might be the magic keeps out the Others/WWs. Maybe the Children didn't know about their necromantic powers, i.e. the Wall keeps the wights back.

Another thought posited by some - history is written by the winners and the Wall went up in Westerosi prehistory. The suggestion is the /wall was actually built to keep the Men out, to stop them encroaching any further north after they'd usurped the rest of the continent.

[Mat92]

13 hours ago, House Cambodia said:

Perfectly good and pertinent question that no one knows the answer to - neither us readers n viewers, nor the characters in the story.

 

One thought might be the magic keeps out the Others/WWs. Maybe the Children didn't know about their necromantic powers, i.e. the Wall keeps the wights back.

Another thought posited by some - history is written by the winners and the Wall went up in Westerosi prehistory. The suggestion is the /wall was actually built to keep the Men out, to stop them encroaching any further north after they'd usurped the rest of the continent.

I think that there's also another possibility that we should keep in mind. Everyone is assuming that the wall going up and the magic upon it were implemented by the same people. I think it's more likely that the WW put the wall up themselves (makes it easier if you can control ice....) however someone else put spells upon the wall to keep them from passing as a future safe guard. 

I don't think I've seen anyone posit this theory before - although I'm sure someone has at some point.

[aryagonnakill#2]

On May 28, 2016 at 10:17 PM, Smoke317 said:

I think Benjen has been marked just like Bran has been. Maybe even killed and because of his Stark blood, BR was able to "Coldhands" him. Under either scenario, he couldn't return to the watch and can't cross the wall. Plus with the mark, the wights or Walkers won't kill him. They want/need him to cross the wall. Now the difficult part is, will Bran cross the wall knowing that by doing so, the Nights King will be able to as well...???  Or will Meera unknowingly (because Bran is still warging) take him through the wall...???

We don't even know that, it's still just a theory, I personally think that if that were going to be the mechanics of how it go's down, that when Bran woke up he should have looked at the mark, seeing as how we weren't reminded of it I am less inclined to believe thats what happens.

[Smoke317]

9 hours ago, aryagonnakill#2 said:

We don't even know that, it's still just a theory, I personally think that if that were going to be the mechanics of how it go's down, that when Bran woke up he should have looked at the mark, seeing as how we weren't reminded of it I am less inclined to believe thats what happens.

Well Bran woke up so it definitely doesn't look like the nights King mark will be what brings down the wall. Benjen said something to the effect that "however" the nights King reaches the world of men Bran will be there waiting for him. So your guess is as good as mine as to what happens next. 

[House Cambodia]

56 minutes ago, Smoke317 said:

Well Bran woke up so it definitely doesn't look like the nights King mark will be what brings down the wall. Benjen said something to the effect that "however" the nights King reaches the world of men Bran will be there waiting for him. So your guess is as good as mine as to what happens next. 

Bran being awake doesn't affect the reliability of the NK's homing device. He must have been awake while the NK's forces were assembling outside the cave.

[Smoke317]

11 hours ago, House Cambodia said:

Bran being awake doesn't affect the reliability of the NK's homing device. He must have been awake while the NK's forces were assembling outside the cave.

I was only saying that Bran still warging and being taken through the wall removes him having to make that choice. But now if the mark is what brings down the wall will Bran still knowingly cross and allow the NK to cross?

[CrypticWeirwood]

On May 29, 2016 at 5:34 AM, elbucho3 said:

A stupid question for a non book reader ... if there's magic that keeps the wights from passing South, then why is there a physical wall? 

Your question isn't a stupid one.  It's a very good one. 

The answer is that we don't know.  We know that the Wall and Winterfell were both built by Bran the Builder, reportedly relying on magical help.

It's been theorized that the two structures are somehow linked.  Perhaps there are caverns connecting them.  Perhaps there is some kind of magic.  And perhaps the saying that “There must always be a Stark in Winterfell” is related to the magic of the Wall.

But we don't know.