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Is Benjen John snows father?


Sir Dunk

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I searched for any topic like this but couldn't find one. Sorry if it has been covered.

Could benjen be his father?

Barristan talks about a stark making a child with one of Elia's handmades and she has a stillborn child and throughs herself out of a tower.

Could she have really had a boy that she had to give up? Could it have been John?

I know it says it was a girl but maybe that is just a story.

Is that why benjen took the black. Because of his honor and fathering a bastard?

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Because the handmaid was a targ. Selmy says she looked just like dany. He said she could be her daughter they looked so much alike.

The handmaid was Ashara Dayne. That's "Dayne", not "Targaryen."

In any case, it's highly unlikely Benjen is Jon's father, as the latter was born a few months into the war somewhere in the south, during which time Benjen was in Winterfell.

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Because the handmaid was a targ. Selmy says she looked just like dany. He said she could be her daughter they looked so much alike.

She wasn't a Targaryen. She was Ashara Dayne of Starfall, the sister of Arthur Dayne. Ned is rumored to have had a crush on her, but he was so shy that his older brother Brandon had to go talk her into dancing with Ned. After Ned left the Tower of Joy, where he killed Arthur Dayne and Lyanna died, he brought Ashara Arthur's sword, Dawn. After that, Ashara gave birth to a still-born daughter and threw herself from a tower. At least, this is what happened, according to what we've been told by characters in the story.

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Just because her name is dayne doesn't mean there isn't targ blood.?

I guess I should have put a ? after targ.

Are you saying the Daynes in general have Targ blood, or that Ashara specifically had Targ blood? Because if it's the former, then this still doesn't explain why Ned would keep the whole thing a secret. Robert has let all the other Daynes live, so Ned would have no reason to fear that he'd harm a child of Ashara's.

Anyway, this whole argument is pointless, because the timeline rules the whole thing out.

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I sometimes think Benjen wished Jon had been his son. But, I think he does that because one, Jon has stressed Ned's marriage, and two, Benjen explicitly tells Jon that he does not know what he (Jon) will be giving up to join the Watch.

Benjen has had years to reflect on not having a family of his own. Perhaps, he regrets not having kids?

At one point, Cat says that Jon should go to the Wall because it will give Benjen the son he never had.

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This has been discussed a little on Jon parentage threads. The thing is, as people have said, Benjen was the Stark in WF while Ned was in the south and Rickard and Brandon were dead, and Jon was born in the south, and there would be no reason for Ned/Benjen to hide Jon's parentage or for Ned not to just ask Robert to legitimize him.

With regards to Benjen taking the black, he was the youngest brother of a great house, even with the eldest brother dead he really had no role to play. Either he would have just had to marry someone and become a relatively minor Lord, become a knight (unlikely in the north,) or to take the black, which we're told the Starks have always seen as a noble, honorable and important thing to do.

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There are a lot of theories about what happened to Ashara and her baby, and about who the father of her baby was. Personally, I think it's more likely to be Brandon than Ned, because Ned does have his Westeros-reknowned honor, while Brandon was pretty wild. And I think it's more likely to have been Ned than Benjen, because I think Benjen was probably a little too young, but I'm not the timeline expert that a lot of other posters are, so I can't rule it out.

I was surprised to realize while reading aDwD that violet eyes are much more common than I had thought, though! :)

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I think it unlikely but i suppose not impossible.

My real question is why did Benjen go to the wall. I know Starks sometimes would as a point of honor.....I wouldn't think one would so young. Especially when his father, older brother and older sister had been killed so he would become the next in succession. This has always bothered me and perhaps ties to your theory.

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I think it unlikely but i suppose not impossible.

My real question is why did Benjen go to the wall. I know Starks sometimes would as a point of honor.....I wouldn't think one would so young. Especially when his father, older brother and older sister had been killed so he would become the next in succession. This has always bothered me and perhaps ties to your theory.

Do we know if Benjen joined the NW before or after Ned arrived back at WF? I've always assumed it was after,but in any case, Ned is Lord of Winterfell, and he already has a son, because Robb was born before Ned went to war, so Benjen would still have been third in line. If they had lost the rebellion they would all have been executed anyway.

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I had a pet theory that Benjen had fathered Jon while already a sworn brother of the Night Watch, and Ned would had adopted Jon to protect the family's honor (since fathering a bastard would be far, far more dishonorable for a member the of the Night Watch), but it seems that Benjen was 12 years old when Jon was born, and he wouldn't join the NW until after Robert's Rebellion.

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I searched for any topic like this but couldn't find one. Sorry if it has been covered.

Could benjen be his father?

Barristan talks about a stark making a child with one of Elia's handmades and she has a stillborn child and throughs herself out of a tower.

Could she have really had a boy that she had to give up? Could it have been John?

I know it says it was a girl but maybe that is just a story.

Is that why benjen took the black. Because of his honor and fathering a bastard?

Pretty sure I read in the Jon's parentage theories pages theres a quote SSM that benjen was in the north during the war and wouldn't have been in the south to be Jons father.

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