Benjen Stark - plot purpose - and realistic explanation - of his absence...

[dotheknifefight]

so the coins were never minted. and anyway, did you think the iron throne was just going to say "oh, you want to be autonomous? go for it!"?

he called himself the king in the north but he wasn't. what he did start was the idea that the north should rule themselves. the northmen would probably rally to the same call should it be made behind rickon, but he was no more a king than stannis is. or renly was.

[The Raging Bull]

Remember what Ygritte said about the many networks of caves in the north. It could be that he is somewhere down there. Or he could be dead? Or with the Cotf.

but I have a theory.

What if when Benjen went north he discovered the wights and his men died trying to escape them and make it back to the wall. So Benjen headed to Hardhome in desperation where he found a ship/ boat/ raft with a view to make it to Eastwatch. But then a storm sent him to Skagos where he has been captured by its inhabitants and could now be with Rickon.

I know it sounds far fetched but is it any more far fetched than him surviving in the north on his own this whole time?

[Ser Underline]

I'd personally go with Ser Creighton's Corn code theory where the raven says "Ben Jen" three times with the name being broken in half, saame thing happened with Dragonglass-> Dragon glass. Person known as "Benjen" is no more, he has been broken, and now he is neither dead nor alive. A brief search throughout the Googles tell us that "Jen" means WHITE-FAIR-SMOOTH. Why would Martin deliberately break the word BenJen in half? to gain his nickname "Ben" and some meaningless word "Jen". Did Benjen go to Japan and needs more Jens? Doubt it.

And why would Coldhands be hiding his face all the time? Is the semi-wight-other guy riding a giant elk a really shy person?

Aand he was a former member of the NW, because he knew about the Night's fort gate thingy.

Might be another deviation by the show's directors, but the actor playing Benjen Stark has been seen in Iceland during the shootings for S4. He was not officially presented or announced, but kind of secretly smuggled.

[shearstone]

so the coins were never minted. and anyway, did you think the iron throne was just going to say "oh, you want to be autonomous? go for it!"?

he called himself the king in the north but he wasn't. what he did start was the idea that the north should rule themselves. the northmen would probably rally to the same call should it be made behind rickon, but he was no more a king than stannis is. or renly was.

They weren't minted because Robb's reign was tragically cut short.

Robb was more a king than the other two because he didn't call himself a king. His bannermen did. Even Davos calls Robb a king and he's Stannis's number 1 fan. Is your whole point that Robb's not a king because the IT still wanted the North and the Riverlands for themselves? As you know they thought a war over it and yes Robb lost but he never gave up his crown like Torhen did he was brutally murdered and had Winterfell still stood at the time the war would have gone on with Bran as KiTN.

[Illyrio Mo'Parties]

If he's alive he's been ranging North of the Wall.

They've made a clear mention of how badass of a Ranger he is.

That's absurd.

Absurdly awesome, that is.

And I'd love it if Benjen is our first POV in the Land of Always Winter. Which is VERY plausible and would be so BADASS.

Double awesome!

However:

In a Bildungsroman like ASOIAF, parental figures have to disappear, finally.

Jon needs to lose all his father figures to become his own man, same with Bran.

But!

The Benjen thread has been left dangling quite conspicuously, especially in the first book, when Martin thought he was writing a trilogy. So there's a pretty good chance he's alive.

In conclusion, I have no idea. What a waste of a post.

I actually don't think Benjen is dead. Only Othor and Flowers returned from Benjen's party of 7; Benjen and 4 other riders are still missing.

...

Benjen's party had originally been sent out to find Waymar Royce's party from the Prologue. We know that the 3 in Royce's party has passed through Craster's, but Craster tell us that he hasn't seen Benjen in over 3 years as of aCoK. We know that from Craster's Keep the Royce party was in the haunted forest, 8-9 days out (I estimate 400-450 miles out from the Wall based on a pace of 50 miles/ day). It strikes me as odd that Benjen would not have made a stop at Craster's if he was truly seeking Royce's party, considering this was the main outpost for NW members. I think Benjen had a different purpose in mind from the outset and that chasing down the Royce party was a cover of sorts.

I think your estimates of the distance travelled is too optimistic, given the terrain and the probable need for stealth. But I like where this is going.

We get something interesting from Mance in aSoS. Mance tells Jon about his last trip to Winterfell when Robert showed up. He says: "I wanted to see this Robert with my own eyes, king to king, and get the measure of your uncle Benjen as well. He was First Ranger by then, and the bane of all my people. So I saddled my fleetest horse, and rode.” I think Mance has more knowledge of the winter situation than he lets on, and I think it's possible that Mance may have spoken with Benjen more directly than he lets on to Jon. Mance and Tormund take the position of there being a common enemy to both wildlings and the NW, and I find it plausible that Mance could have approached Benjen about something.

What did Mance say to Jon? "There is more trade between the Night's Watch and the free folk than you now..." I always thought that line was fairly portentous.

oh, I nearly forgot. One more issue that may support the idea that Benjen may have been on a covert OPs from the get-go (under the cover of searching for Royce's party), is the fact that Gared was beheaded by Ned for deserting just prior to Benjen's visit. Benjen may not have needed to stop at Craster's to inquire about Royce's party, because there's a chance Benjen already knew where to look from Ned, who had questioned Gared before executing him (in Bran's POV, Bran notes that questions were asked and answered, but that he doesn't recall what was said).

I like this theory. What could this covert operation have been then? And why keep it from Mormont?

I find myself thinking about what is written below but then dismissing it, rinse and repeat

Anyone think that Mance wasn't really a turncloak? Benjen's plan to infiltrait the wildlings to keep a close eye on them, but like Jon Snow he started feeling for the free folk. When Mance finds out about the others he organizes to take away a large number of potential undead soldiers from the others, like Jon Snow did when admitting them to the relm. Halfhand would have known and let Jon Snow kill him to let Mance know he could trust him. Mance had to know his attack would fail, and why would he send Jon over the wall the tactical advantage is outwayed by the chance of betrayal. The safe move would be to keep Jon close unless he wanted the attack to fail. Could Benjen have ranged far north and be back in time to slip past the wall as a wildling? He probably would be noticed by his brothers but who knows?

I'm not sure about the specifics here, but I guess it's not implausible that elements within the Night's Watch mightn't see the wildlings as the enemy. It goes back to Mance's line to Jon above. But the question again becomes why didn't Mormont know?