Benjen Stark's eye colour

[Brynden's Raven]

Of the four Stark siblings (Brandon, Eddard, Lyanna and Benjen), he seems the only one to be described with blue eyes.

Lyanna and Eddard are both described as having grey eyes.

We do not know Brandon's eye colour but we assume he had grey eyes too

Why does Benjen have blue eyes when none of his siblings appears to have them?

Might this be related to Lord Rickard's wife, the mother of the four Stark siblings?

[Rickeen Baratheon]

I believe the 'grey' eyes are a really light shade of blue. But if his are darker, could be from his mother aye!

[KingMaekarWasHere]

The blue eyes could have come from Skagos, not many know what the Skagos natives look like and there are several theories that Rickard's wife was at least half Skagosi.

[LordStoneheart]

Its foreshadowing of him becoming an Other

[Castellan]

What does your avatar foreshadow?

[LordStoneheart]

What does your avatar foreshadow?

That Hot Pie = Azor Ahai Reborn

[Brynden's Raven]

The blue eyes could have come from Skagos, not many know what the Skagos natives look like and there are several theories that Rickard's wife was at least half Skagosi.

Hm, interesting.

Grey eyes seem to be pretty common in the north and the Starks. The only evidence that points that grey eyes are a different colour from blue is the fact that both Jon and Arya are said to take after Ned, with grey eyes while the rest of the siblings follow Cat with auburn hair and blue eyes.

This also points out that different eye colours in the Stark are often from foreign marriages.

Do we know how long ago did the Skagosi rebel?

[Lady Isobel]

That Hot Pie = Azor Ahai Reborn

:cheers: It is known!

[Bushido]

I believe the 'grey' eyes are a really light shade of blue. But if his are darker, could be from his mother aye!

Grey eyes are indeed a part of blue eyes family,but one would never confuse dark grey for a variant of blue.

I believe GRRM said Roose's "pale" eyes are a very light shade of grey. So, I think Starks sport a mid-dark, smoke grey, a distinctive colour.

[Tyrion's Third Wife]

My kids have three different eye colors - green, blue and hazel.

There is only two colors from their parents - blue or hazel.

This must mean something! My eldest must be secretly evil.

[Frey family reunion]

Well technically his eyes are described as blue-grey:

His uncle was sharp-featured and gaunt as a mountain-crag, but there was always a hint of laughter in his blue-grey eyes.

Other characters with blue-grey eyes are Ygritte and the Mallisters.

[A Bastard King]

My kids have three different eye colors - green, blue and hazel.

There is only two colors from their parents - blue or hazel.

This must mean something! My eldest must be secretly evil.

Your kids have three eyes? wow!

[Arthur Dayne's Honor]

If it was up to Dr. Pepper, Benjen would have evil colored eyes with evil colored hair.

[Blueberry Stark]

My kids have three different eye colors - green, blue and hazel.

There is only two colors from their parents - blue or hazel.

This must mean something! My eldest must be secretly evil.

Ha!

This same type of question came up before with Val; Martin describes her as having gray eyes a few times, but when she returns with Tormund she's described as having blue eyes. My eyes are blue-gray, and depending on lighting, what colors I'm wearing, etc they sometimes appear more one shade than the other. Because the Others are described as having ice blue eyes, it seems like people view these shade changes as evidence that a character is an Other, will become an Other, is a wight, etc.

Well, I'd like to go on record, as someone with blue-gray eyes, and state that yes, it is evidence that someone is evil and in league with the Others. Val and Benjen are either already in allegiance with the Great Other, or they will be soon enough!!

In all seriousness, I think Benjen just has blue-gray eyes. Gray eyes, in all their various hues, are prevalent in northerners.

[Crowford]

Come on people. Yes, I know, genetics in the ASoIaF world are a bit weird. Mostly concerning that supposedly all-dominating-Baratheon-black. But just because Martin took that step to make the plot of Joffreys parentage solveable doesn't mean everyone now has to assume that this weirdness holds true for everyone in the series. These threads about "this character has different genetic features than his siblings, they must be special!" have to stop.

Benjen just has blue eyes. You know, I even think the only reason they are explicitely described as blue is because even Martin himself thought it was silly that all Stark siblings have the same eye color. Because, you know, that would actually be pretty unlikely, by real-world-genetic standards. Maybe their mother had blue eyes. Maybe their great-grandfather did. That's just how genetics roll.

[EstEst]

May be just usual Mendelian inheritance. Usually "Blue eyes" is a recessive phenotype and "Grey eyes" is a dominant one; suppose, two grey-eyed parents were heterozygotes ("Blue-Grey"), then they would have 3 children with dominant phenotype (grey-eyed) and 1 child with recessive one (blue-eyed).

Sorry Crowford, just saw your post - that's execlty what I meant. Common genetics.

[KingMaekarWasHere]

Hm, interesting.

Grey eyes seem to be pretty common in the north and the Starks. The only evidence that points that grey eyes are a different colour from blue is the fact that both Jon and Arya are said to take after Ned, with grey eyes while the rest of the siblings follow Cat with auburn hair and blue eyes.

This also points out that different eye colours in the Stark are often from foreign marriages.

Do we know how long ago did the Skagosi rebel?

Hey Brynden's Raven,

I believe Skagos rebelled around the same time as the Blackfyres took up their original rebellion, but I'm not exactly sure. It would explain why the north could not help the Targs though, they had their hands full it might seem.

[KingMaekarWasHere]

On a separate note the Skagossi could be part Andal like the Iron Born, so by that alone, Skagos natives could have a bunch of people with blue eyes.

[Brynden's Raven]

I believe the Skagossi are more wild northerners, akin to the wildlings.
They mostly represent the most untamed region of the north.

We might be dealing with a simple case of common genetics with the blue eyes gene being introduced in the family by some wedding long ago, but I find the possibility of a Skagossi recent relative (mother or grandmother depending on how long ago did Skagos rebel) due to the implications that might have with Rickon's reception there.

[KingMaekarWasHere]

I believe the Skagossi are more wild northerners, akin to the wildlings.

They mostly represent the most untamed region of the north.

We might be dealing with a simple case of common genetics with the blue eyes gene being introduced in the family by some wedding long ago, but I find the possibility of a Skagossi recent relative (mother or grandmother depending on how long ago did Skagos rebel) due to the implications that might have with Rickon's reception there.

In that case, the Skagos grandmother could have been Rickard's mother. And since we know that Ned's maternal grandmother was likely a Flint, we are just missing Ned's maternal grandfather. Some think that it could have been one of Egg's sons that Barristan mentioned, who married for love.