What happened to Benjen Stark?

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[InDeepGeek]

This is an updated version of a video first published in August 2021

[striker]

Benjen epilogue in The Lands of Always Winter at the end of Winds of Winter would go so hard.

[curtisboyter]

Another possibility is that Benjen split up his party and sent Othor and Jafer back to the wall while he continued on. This would explain why he hasn’t been sending any messages back, he is under the impression that he did send back a message.

[axelminus]

A crazy reveal would be if suddenly a chapter starts with benjen as a pov character, and that is how we go further north than ever before

[gtr]

He’s alive in some form. George wouldn’t pass up the chance to describe the gruesome death of a named character.

[stevendorries]

Benjen is in a secluded valley that has volcanic hot springs, he is building a hot-house based farm there

[pigreat]

I've always been of the opinion that the means through which we'll see "further north than ever before" is with Benjen as the Epilogue PoV in TWoW. Jon's parentage will probably be confirmed at that point so there's no reason to keep him off-page anymore, and he's most likely so far north that reconvening with any PoV character is out of the question. Giving him an epilogue to both meaningfully confirm his ultimate fate and push the story forward with regards to Jon and the Others seems like a pretty efficient way to handle that particular dangling thread.

[COMMANDandConquer]

It's a crying shame we'll never have answers to all of the questions we have about this series.

[thelasonj]

I always thought Benjen was so interesting and I hope we'll get his POV chapters in the next books. I'd like to hear about his journeys, his training, and his sister. I think he's "alive". 😊

[Valkanna.Nublet]

I agree that even if he is still alive we won't see him for a long time because of what he knows.
And not just the parentage of Jon.
I think that Ned promised to protect Jon would mean not telling anyone, including his brother. But that didn't matter because Benjen already knew, or worked it out, because he knows a bigger secret. He know that the whole rebellion was built on a lie, Lyanna wasn't kidnapped, she ran off with Rhaegar voluntarily. He knows what really happened at the tourney of Harrenhall. This revelation would mean more than learning about Jon's parentage, or even that he's legitimate, it would mean uncovering the behind the scenes manipulation, Littlefinger, the Maesters, Rhaegar's plot, everything.

[KiefsChingdom]

The words of House Martin are “Winds of Winter is coming”

[GarrettPetersen]

In real history you often have these kinds of unanswered questions. GRRM is so good at creating a world with the same texture as real life. That's part of what makes it so compelling.

[AndrewK]

Great vid as always Robert. Personally i do think Benjen died or more accurately nearly died pursuing the facts around Waymar's disappearance and seemingly came across the Others & their wights in the process. At some point likely at the same time his companions were killed, i suspect Benjen was mortally wounded and saved with CotF / green magic & wighted to their side. Potentially was a tug of war (if thats possible) between competing magics as to wighting to their side. Perhaps the CotF magically wrestled him away while in process of being wighted by the Others or the CotF simply came across him as he was dying. 

And realistically venturing that far North (if he did) learning more about the Others and how to defeat them. Even someone as resourceful as Benjen -on his own, in such a cold, harsh, barren area ; one would basically have to be a wight to survive. I ultimately think like Coldhands, seemingly what Jon will become, possibly the original Night's Watch might have been wights (some of the mythos' language could be interpreted that way) ; Benjen would be yet another example of a wight on the side opposing the Others. And that such wights are absolutely vital in that fight ; they don't have to eat, drink or sleep and could survive harsh elements / weather. Even more vital if venturing to the extreme far North is part of the killing / defeating formula.

[k]

It has been over 13 years since the last release of book 5, A Dance of Dragons, and over 5 years since season 8 ended. I don't think George R. R. Martin will finish the series. He is an intelligent man; he can make far more profit with the spin-off series than from his book sales.
Winds of Winter may be released in a few years."May". I doubt if he will ever start a dream of spring. We will have to be content with the season 8 finale, despite its flaws, for closure on the series.
Many of the mysteries in the series will remain mysteries, and the theories will remain theories.

[BlondeBarbarian]

Just imagine: It's 2046 and you have Winds of Winter in your hands. You turn the page, and you just see "BENJEN" at the top of the page...

I would lose my shit.

[BLooDCoMPleX]

Benjen is certainly dead, but while the other companions of his were just wighted he was probably used for some other cause we do not know of by the Others because of his Stark blood. I think we will discover only when we discover what the relationship between the Starks and the Others.

My guess is that he has become one of the Others and will give us a window into seeing what they are and what they want.

[awesomehpt]

Instead of getting cold feet he got cold hands.

[TinfoilMaester]

I think he's in Bloodraven's cave. Basically, Benjen was Bloodraven before Bloodraven was Bloodraven.

The Great Bastards didn't exist until after ACOK was published. But Bran was already getting magic messages from a "crow." I basically think the CotF/Weirwood hive are using Benjen as a way to connect to Bran. Benjen disappears on his ranging, gets picked up by the CotF who open his third eye. Bran's first visit from the Crow comes *right* at the same time Benjen goes missing. When Jon gets word that Bran woke up, he at first thinks the news is going to be about Benjen's disappearance.

But then in 1999 George decided he wanted to have Bran train with the tree-puppet. So Bran coming face to face with his captive uncle and realizing the CotF are kinda horrifying had to wait. To forestall that reveal, he creates a new tree-puppet character to be Bran's teacher.

To ease this retcon, Brynden copy-pastes a lot of Benjen traits. A (former) First Ranger. From a magic Old Gods bloodline. Leads his Crows on an ill-fated ranging, which crosses paths with old magic beings. Even his name makes Bran think "Like my uncle!"

[andrewbolton]

One note - I’m not sure how much it matters, but I do think Benjen visited Craster, and Craster lies to Lord Commander Mormont about having seen him. When asked about Waymar and his company, Craster replies in the affirmative: he did see them, he didn’t like Waymar, but Gared was alright (for a crow). He also notes that the heard Gared got his head lopped off - but how could he know this?

News from the south isn’t likely to make it to Craster’s Keep, except by Nights Watchmen. As you mentioned, the three ranging parties sent to look for Benjen didn’t go to Craster’s, and we are given no information about any other rangings. So for Craster to know about Gared, it seems to me that he must have been told by Benjen and his party, since Benjen had just traveled south to Winterfell immediately after Gared’s death.

[bhlspph]

We will sadly never find out, I fear.