[M] Backdated a bit

Alysanne Roote - 12th month, 134 AC

Throughout her life, Alysanne had never had any particular fondness for her inevitable wedding. Largely because she had assumed as a child that she would not get to choose who her husband ended up being, as was the case for many girls she knew. Nor was she a girl to dream of lavish weddings. All the same, with all that had happened, it turned out that she did end up choosing her husband, more or less, and the wedding was impressive enough. Benjen was no knight in shining armour - nor was he even a knight given his own faith - but was a better husband then she had expected. He was not some foolishly, overly gallant knight at the very least, which she did not think she would have been able to tolerate. On top of that he had a presence to him. Not as great as his cousins, but the Stark name was a powerful one. Her children, the future rulers of Lord Harroway’s Town would not only be descended from Rivermen, but also Northern Kings.

For now though, she focused on the wedding proceedings, smiling and greeting those who congratulated the couple and enjoying herself for once. Her father had even recovered, and while Lord Roote was no longer the image of a young, fierce knight, he still carried a presence in the town and she was glad to have him for a while longer, if the gods were good.

Most of the rest of her family was present. Her cousin was the notable absence - a new Kingsguard, if what everyone said was true - but Lyonel wouldn’t be particularly missed anyway. The absence of her late mother and brothers was noted, but there was no reason to dwell on it too much, today was for celebration after all.

8th month, 134 AC

> Lords and Ladies of the Riverlands,

> In the 12th month of this year the Lady Alysanne Roote, heir to Lord Harroway’s Town, will wed Benjen Stark at Lord Harroway’s Town. This will also coincide with the final reconstructions of our town since the end of the war.

> Melee, joust and archery competitions will all be held in celebration followed by a feast. All are welcome.

> Lord Desmond Roote, Lord of Lord Harroway’s Town

So I have been thinking about this question a lot, why did Ben join the watch?

I mean at that time the only Starks left were Ned, Benjen, Robb and Jon ( Yeah he is a bastard, but he can be legitimized easily considering Robert was king). So technically house Stark was at the brink of extension, and what does Ben do? Join the damn watch, where he can't father children to continue the Stark line.

I heard a theory, the theory is that Ben knew of Jon's parentage and didn't approve on Ned's decision so he was sent to the watch to shut up. Well in my opinion it is unlikely, Ned would never do that to his brother. Considering they were the last two adult Starks.

My personal theory is that maybe Ben knew of Lyanna and Rhaegar's fling but didn't say anything about it to anyone. And seeing the amount of death and destruction his silence caused, he choose the watch to redeem himself and redeem his "sins".

But still, by him joining the watch he fucked up the Starks, because as we all know, the Starks are already very little family and by him joining the watch , he made it even smaller. Like imagine if Ben fathered a son or a daughter before joining the watch, then Robb would have at least another Stark with him in his war or after the red wedding they could led the stark forces.

Anyhow, Benjen Stark is a very interesting character, we don't know why he joined the night's watch and where the hell is he at right now. I hope we see him in the future or at least know about his death from like Bran or Jon.

As the children of the Forrest are saving Bran by bringing him into their cave, Bran frets they will kill cold hands. The (child of the forest)? says no, they killed him ‘long ago’. Now no way the children of the forest consider a few years past (when Benjen went missing) ‘long ago’. And if we can’t trust their word then I’m lost.

https://preview.redd.it/p69vigx32zw71.png?width=500&format=png&auto=webp&s=c86de1d83203ae7226fb9ded67083f05367ed651

I feel so bad for benjen. no one really thinks about him as best as I can remember. people like sansa and arya i dont think ever even mention him it makes me feel so sorry for him because they are his family yet no one seems to care about him. I havent read the books in a while so I might be wrong.

He might be cold hands so that's somehting at least but other than that, that's it.

Any fanfics with Benjen Stark as the main character? I’ve been looking for fics with Uncle Ben but can’t find anything 😞.

Thanks

Needed another syllable for it to roll off your tongue like Carmen San Diego (iykyk). That said, the title is pretty self-explanatory. Just looking into the current whereabouts of our favorite missing Stark.

>The Lord Commander took no notice of the irritating bird. "Gared was near as old as I am and longer on the Wall," he went on, "yet it would seem he forswore himself and fled. I should never have believed it, not of him, but Lord Eddard sent me his head from Winterfell. Of Royce, there is no word. One deserter and two men lost, and now Ben Stark too has gone missing." He sighed deeply. "Who am I to send searching after him? -AGOT, Tyrion III

and:

>"The cold winds are rising. Mormont feared as much. Benjen Stark felt it as well. Dead men walk and the trees have eyes again. Why should we balk at wargs and giants?" -ACOK, Jon VII

Benjen Stark: Where is He?

If interested: Benjen Stark joining the Night's Watch

Background

Shortly after Jon and Tyrion reach the Wall, Benjen Stark goes out ranging. He is one of numerous rangers who have gone missing recently.

>"We're all scared. We'd be fools if we weren't." Too many rangers had been lost the past two years, even Benjen Stark, Jon's uncle. They had found two of his uncle's men in the wood, slain, but the corpses had risen in the chill of night. Jon's burnt fingers twitched as he remembered. He still saw the wight in his dreams, dead Othor with the burning blue eyes and the cold black hands -ACOK, Jon I

It should be noted that Benjen Stark is well suited to be a ranger:

>*I was wondering if you would comment on Benjen Stark's fighting ability. Is he on a level with Brandon, or is he more like Ned?*Depends on the kind of fight you had in mind.Brandon was the best of the Starks with sword in hand, and the best jouster as well. But Benjen has other skills that serve him well as a ranger... and Ned was likely the best battle commander. -SSM, About Benjen Stark: 16 December 2000

Jon's Dream

As Benjen leaves, Jon wishes/visions Benjen as dead:

>As he watched his uncle lead his horse into the tunnel, Jon had remembered the things that Tyrion Lannister told him on the kingsroad, and in his mind's eye he saw Ben Stark lying dead, his blood red on the snow. The thought made him sick. What was he becom

Painted or unpainted fine. Wanted to finish up collecting the Stark Family, don't want to have spend $90 on the Nights Watch starter.

We are in the middle of a game. My opponent played a duplicate on his Benjen Stark.

( Interrupt: When Benjen Stark is killed gain 2 power for your faction. Then shuffle him back into your deck instead of placing him in your dead pile. )

After losing a marshall challenge he removed the duplicate and we are not sure if this counts as a death with all the consequences the card states. So does he get 2 power and does he shuffle the duplicate back into his deck?

Let me explain. In AGOT when we first meet Benjen he seems like a cool guy. He treats Jon nicely and with respect. For the most part he acts like he has Jon's best interests in mind. Then when we get to the wall we have about one scene with him and Jon. He basically tells Jon to fuck off because Jon has not earned any respect at the wall. He then leaves. Jon spends pretty much every chapter in AGOT thinking of Benjen's fate. I mean he does tell Jon anything to help him on the wall other than "a man gets what he earns" okay thanks Benjen, Jon is only throwing his whole life away there.

At least show Benjen stands with him at the top of the wall when he first goes on top. Show Benjen is also around for much longer and speaks many more times, which does give us a little bit more with his character.

Like Waymar Royce after him, Benjen Stark is a third son who joins the Night's Watch. Unlike Benjen, though Waymar's family is still alive. Benjen Stark joins the Night's Watch after his father/brother/sister all die, leaving only one Stark.

Thoughts on Benjen Stark Joining the Night's Watch

The first mention (from a timeline standpoint) mentioning Benjen/The Night's Watch occurs at the Tourney of Harrenhal:

>She was not easy to refuse, this wolf maid, so he let the young pup find him garb suitable to a king's feast, and went up to the great castle.
>
>"Under Harren's roof he ate and drank with the wolves, and many of their sworn swords besides, barrowdown men and moose and bears and mermen. The dragon prince sang a song so sad it made the wolf maid sniffle, but when her pup brother teased her for crying she poured wine over his head. A black brother spoke, asking the knights to join the Night's Watch. -ASOS, Bran II

Note: The semi-canon app states that Benjen took the black brother's plea "to heart" at the Tourney of Harrenhal. I tend to disagree, mainly bc I think comments like this would be weird, if the big reveal was on the app:

>[Why did Benjen join the Night's Watch?]
>
>Good question. One day you will get an answer. But it will not be today. -SSM, Asshai.com Forum Chat: 27 July 2008

GRRM on when Benjen joined the Watch:

>When, specifically, did Benjen join the NW? Was it a couple of years after Ned returned, or immediately?
>
>It was within a few months of Ned's returning. The reason being that there always was a Stark at Winterfell, so he stayed there until Ned returned. GRRM refused to say the reason why Benjen had to join the NW. -SSM, ConQuest, KC: 28 May 2005

and:

>This one is probably trivial, but when did Benjen join the Watch? Right after the war against the Targaryens, more or less?
>
>Pretty much, yes. Probably around about the time Ned returned from the south and Catelyn and Robb and Jon took up residence. -SSM, The Butcher's Boy and Benjen Stark: 14 June 2000

It should be noted that Benjen Stark is well suited to be a ranger:

>*I was wondering if you would comment on Benjen Stark's fighting ability. Is he o

So yeah, another benjen stark's fate post yeeei /s

So, i'm running an ASOIAF dungeons and dragons campaing, and next session my guys are going beyond the wall to explore the missing rangers, my plans are for them to eventually find Blood Raven's cave, and then they get out cause of the others with Bran and the gang, and i'm really torn between incluiding Benjen or not, a part of me believes he should make an appearence to tell Jon 'bout his parents (supposing he knew about R+L=J) but then i have a problem cause he's been beyond the wall for 2 years. I don't buy the theory that he's a prisioner of the Others, seem's too weak of a thing for me, but then again ¿what else could he'd been up too if he isn't dead? ¿Working with BR? I dunno

Any ideas? Sorry for eye bleeding i speak spanish :p

Why does Benjen Stark join the Night's Watch? This is one of the questions I most ardently want answered in future books. I'll share my thoughts below.

I've been collecting string on this for a while, but was inspired to put this post together by u/jackmanorishe's post on Benjen, which started a great conversation about Benjen's odd behavior towards Jon before his disappearance. I'll keep this post limited to Benjen's motivations, and do a Part II on where he is now and where I think he'll end up.

First, let me respond to the most obvious objection to theorizing about this: that Benjen takes the black for no particular reason, or simply because he's a younger son. To the contrary, I think there has to be an important reason Ben Stark joined the Night's Watch. Martin himself was asked why Benjen joined the NW. He replied, "Good question. One day you will get an answer. But it will not be today." So it seems unlikely that the Starks are simply friends to the Watch.

And it can't just be that Benjen was a younger son without better prospects; remember, by the time he joins, the original four Stark children are down to only two: Ben and Ned. Ben's going to the Wall leaves Ned alone; and in this world, the lone wolf dies (as indeed, Ned does). Just think how useful little bro Ben would have been to Ned had he married into another Northern house; served as a bannerman during the Greyjoy Rebellion; or been able to act as castellan when Ned went south to be Hand.

Some readers think that Ned compelled Ben to take the black, but for these reasons and others (which we'll get into below), I also don't find that idea convincing either.

Benjen seems to regret joining the Watch

Based on Benjen's reaction to Jon wanting to join the Watch, I think Ben himself -- much like Jon -- made the decision freely in a fit of teenage angst. He now wishes someone older and wiser had talked him out of it, which is why he tries to convince Jon not to go. His regret implies it was his choice; he's notably not bitter about it (the way that Dareon is, for example, feeling it's unfair he was forced to the Wall).

Let's revisit the feast. At first, they're just having a great time:

>His uncle was sharp-featured and gaunt as a mountain

Normally I try to stick close to the text, but so little is known of Benjen Stark after he leaves the Wall that in this post I will be polishing my tinfoil toward the end.

(This is Part II; Part I looks at why Benjen joined the Watch and why he seems to regret it.)

Benjen's location at his disappearance

>"They were looking for Ser Waymar Royce, his father is bannerman to Lord Arryn. Uncle Benjen said they might search as far as the Shadow Tower. That's all the way up in the mountains."

If Ben was making for the Shadow Tower, he was heading west. That would take him away from Craster's Keep, which is slightly east of Castle Black -- and remember, Craster says he never saw Ben Stark. (Although u/BryndenBFish has argued persuasively that Craster is lying.)

We can guess that he got as far as the Fist of the First Men, where I think he's likely the person who buried the arrowheads and other dragonglass objects -- along with Chekhov's broken horn -- in his cloak. Remember, while the dragonglass and horn seem old, the cloak isn't:

>The cloak he had found beneath the Fist could well have belonged to his uncle or one of his men, even the Old Bear admitted as much.

This seems to be not that far from where the last signs of Ben Stark were found, leading north:

>Ser Jaremy Rykker had led two sweeps, and Quorin Halfhand had gone forth from the Shadow Tower, but they'd found nothing aside from a few blazes in the trees that his uncle had left to mark his way. In the stony highlands to the northwest, the marks stopped abruptly and all trace of Ben Stark vanished.

We can guess, then, that somewhere between the Halfhand's ranging zone and the Fist, Ben learned something that made him abandon the scouting mission he was on and start collecting dragonglass. It's likely that this was a run-in with wights or Others, given that some of his fellow rangers end up as wights.

We don't know why he doesn't return to the Wall, or what's preventing him; any theories here would be wild conjecture. But a not-too-tinfoily theory is that he simply decides to venture further and further north searching for more information.

Where does Ben go from here?

Think of the area where Ben Stark was last seen as a kind of rectangle, with the Shadow Tower at southwest corn

I've posted this on the Brazilian subreddit (/r/Valiria/), but I felt someone here would be interested too.

(english is not my first language, so sorry in advance for the grammatical errors).

Premise

When Jon meets Mance for the first time, he reports on the activities of the Night Patrol full of half-truths. Among the facts reported, Mance and Jon hold the following dialogue:

>Still... a boy from Castle Black with rangers from the Shadow Tower? How did that come to be?”
>
>Jon had his lie all ready. “The Lord Commander sent me to the Halfhand for seasoning, so he took me on his ranging.”
>
>Styr the Magnar frowned at that. “Ranging, you call it... why would crows come ranging up the Skirling Pass?”
>
>“The villages were deserted,” Jon said, truthfully. “It was as if all the free folk had vanished.”
>
>*“Vanished, aye,” said Mance Rayder. “*And not just the free folk. Who told you where we were, Jon Snow?”
>
>Tormund snorted. “It were Craster, or I’m a blushing maid. I told you, Mance, that creature needs to be shorter by a head.”
>
>The king gave the older man an irritated look. “Tormund, someday try thinking before you speak. I know it was Craster. I asked Jon to see if he would tell it true.”
>
>(ASOS, Jon I)

Styr reacts to Jon telling it was a ranging because Quorin’s band was too far off Shadow Tower territory. Then he immediately asks for the reason that brought them to Skirling Pass (where Rattleshirt had captured Jon).

When Jon answers the deserted villages rose their alert, Mance starts to suspect they had paid Craster a visit (a detail we became of aware because of Tormund’s bluntness). But before he began to test Jon’s honesty, he responds Jon report with “And not just the Free Folk”.

Mance could be referring to giants, CoTF, animals, etc, but his intervention only fits like a glove if he is telling Jon, a deserter, of vanished NW men, especially the First Ranger, Benjen Stark, Jon’s uncle. Mance mused why Jon was there, and as Styr’s frown showed, a range that far from Shadow Tower was unusual. So, what better reason than looking for Benjen?

Despite Mance and Benjen never met (“Your uncle did not know me by sight, so I had no fear from that quarter”), Benjen’s disappearance is something that Mance would have known. Note, he knew when Robert was coming to Winterfell and that Benjen was coming to the

I was thinking about the whole "The Night's Watch is gone" debacle. The most popular theory is that the Night's Watch will be disbanded and the wildlings will be integrated with the wildlings of North of the Wall. If that's the case, then it seems like it would also be possible that Benjen is dead.

I think it is completely reasonable that he was captured and sold into slavery by the Others. This would explain why he was in the crypts of the crypts of Winterfell for so long, his body being a slave and his soul not knowing what to do with him.

Also, I think it's also possible that he was sold into slavery because he was a former wildling and the Others were trying to integrate the wildlings of the North and the wildling north of the wall with the wildlings of the Others.

The obvious parallel between the two is that they both end up missing mysteriously. But I found an other parallel between the Stark and Lannister's favorite uncles.

Tyrion and Gerion

>"The stone roads of Valyria were one of Longstrider's nine. The fifth, I [Haldon Halfmaester] believe."
>
>"The fourth," said Tyrion, who had committed all sixteen of the wonders to memory as a boy. His uncle Gerion liked to set him on the table during feasts and make him recite them.
>
>A Dance with Dragons, Tyrion III

Bran and Benjen

>Maester Luwin had once made Bran learn the names of every one of the forts along the Wall. That had been hard; there were nineteen of them all told, though no more than seventeen had ever been manned at any one time. At the feast in honor of King Robert's visit to Winterfell, Bran had recited the names for his uncle Benjen, east to west and then west to east. Benjen Stark had laughed and said, "You know them better than I do, Bran. Perhaps you should be First Ranger. I'll stay here in your place."

It's nice when GRRM explore familial bonds other than siblings and parent-children relationship.

• Catelyn Tully and Brynden Tully
• Jaime Lannister and Genna Lannister
• Asha Greyjoy and Rodrik Harlaw
• ...

Some other potential good ones we could learn about in the future:

Garlan Tyrell and Baelor Hightower

• They both have a splendid reputation reflected by their nickname: Garlan the Gallant and Baelor Brightsmile.
• They both have an unfortunate incident in their youth: plumpness and the fart in front of Elia Martell.
• They are both married and have no children.

With the Ironborn invasions threatening the Reach, I wonder if we will see parallels between how those two take command of their army in The Winds of Winter.

Samwell Tarly and Alekyne Florent

We know next to nothing about Alekyne's personality but we know that when Garlan was preparing an army to claim Brightwater, Alekyne sought refuge at the Hightower, where his sister Rhea is married to Lord Leyton Hightower. This decision hint to either:

1. Cowardice. He was afraid of what the Tyrell would do to him and abandoned Brightwater letting his uncle Ser Colin take charge of the Florents in his place.

or 2) Political sense. He went to Oldtown thinking he could sway his brother-in-law to take his side and support his claim over Leyton's own grandson.

Either way I can see Alekyne and Samwell getting along just fine

I only wonder cuz if he told anyone wouldn't it be his only surviving immediate family outside of the kids and Cat who he's understandably trying to to protect but Lyanna was Benjen's sister too... If anyone knows any good essays on the matter it'd be much appreciated if you could point me in the right direction. Thanks!

I'm on a re-read on ACOK and I realize Ghost is ten times the ranger Jon Snow is. He finds the dead rangers from Benjen's party, saves the Lord Commander from the wights, and uncovers the recently buried stash of dragonglass at the Fist of the First Men. Is it possible Benjen is a warg and has been inhabiting Ghost the whole time? Could it be Ghost knew where the dragonglass was because Benjen buried it when he was alive? And has he been guiding his nephew the only way he still can? I tried searching to see if any other posts on this existed and couldn't find anything. The only prevalent theory about Benjen is him being Coldhands, but both the books and GRRM have stated that's not the case.

When you think about it, it's possible that 5 of the 6 Stark children are wargs, or at least have some abilities along those lines. The only one without is Sansa, who "lost her wolf"; if Lady had lived, maybe Sansa would've been a warg as well. So how common are wargs in the Stark bloodline? Ned doesn't show any signs in his chapters but what about his brothers and sister?

If he is in Ghost, and if Jon did warg into him at the end of ADWD, perhaps it is Benjen who helps Jon retain his sanity inside the wolf. Not sure if that's how it works, I believe only one mind can inhabit a body or something like that as evidenced by Varamyr. And to my knowledge, Jon hasn't sensed Benjen in any of his wolf dreams, although I'm now keeping eye out for any details that might hint at this.

Thoughts?

Anyone else dislike the images of him on the wiki? They're pretty inaccurate. (Obviously they are great images in terms of artwork) but they aren't how I imagined him at all, except for the Amok one. The rest are all pretty poor interpretations of him in my opinion.

Setup: fairly simple. Go to one day after the death of Rickard and Brandon Stark, your brother, and press "die" in the console. You will go from Ned to Benjen.

Intro: Your name is Benjen Stark of Winterfell, last surviving son of Rickard Stark. After the news that both your brothers have been savagely killed by the Mad King, you rise as Lord of Winterfell...and plot your revenge against the Targaryens. House Targaryen has inflicted a great insult and the kings of Winter do not forgive...or forget. We shall drive Ice through their necks once and for all.

Goals: Rebuild House Stark as it is on the brink of collapse.

Raise your banners and become King in Da Norf, donning the ancient crown of your ancestors.

Destroy the Mad King and take justice for your father and brothers.

Rules: you may not marry into the houses that historically declared for Targs, such as Tyrells and Martells.

You may not support a Targaryen for the throne, not even Rhaenys.

I just stared rewatching the show and wondered why and when Benjen joined the Night’s Watch? I don’t think it’s ever been addressed in the books.

If he took the black before Robert’s Rebellion, that makes sense. He was the third son, so he wouldn’t have been expected to inherit Winterfell. The Starks have always had close ties to the Night’s Watch and have a keen sense of honor, so it makes sense that he might have wanted to join.

However, I always assumed that he was the Stark in Winterfell during Robert’s Rebellion, so he wouldn’t have joined until after the war. He would have been fairly young when the war started, so he might not have chosen to join the Watch yet. Rickard and Brandon Stark died during the war, and he wouldn’t have taken the black until afterwards, in case Ned also died fighting. Afterwards, he would have been second in line until Robb was born, and even so, Robb was very young. If anything happened to Ned and/or Robb, which isn’t an unreasonable risk in the North, Benjen would have been the last Stark, or the only adult Stark, and probably would have stood in until Robb came of age.

Is there an explanation for it that I missed?

I watched season 7 with some friends and we got pretty annoyed with Benjen Stark dying pointlessly after rescuing Jon Snow. He appears at the perfect time which is kind of cheesy but that is fine. Why didn't he just go on the horse with Jon Snow? Instead he gets off the horse, puts Jon Snow on it, says there is no time, walks over a good distance and then just gets killed.

Weight could not have been an issue. Earlier on the horse was carrying three people: Benjen, Bran, and Meera. And even if so, why not just ride it for some time and then get off of it. They both had plenty of time. How cool would it have been to see Jon Snow and Benjen Stark have some nice long dialogue which seems to be missing in some of the season 7 episodes.

It's safe to say that Benjen Stark is one of the most overlooked characters in the entire A Song of Ice and Fire series. We don't really know much about his past and personality, and other characters (aside from Jon) very rarely do as much as mention him. However, we tend to forget his role during the Robert's Rebellion, and ignore how much may he actually know and how many similarities he shares with some of are favorite characters. (This isn't no theory, just my loose essay).

The broken boy

We don't know the precise date of Ben's birth, callculations indicate that he was born at the earliest in 267 AC, meaning that he was 15 or even younger when his father and brother were murdered, and his other brother raised the banners against their King in 282 AC, around the same age when Robb, his nephew, marched against Joffrey and eventually lost his father and two brothers (or so he thought) in 298/299 AC. So here is our first similarity to one of the main characters. We also don't know how close was he to his siblings, but juding by overall fondness between the Stark chidlren I guess it's fair to say that Ben was no exception. So here we have a fifteen year old who in an instant lost his father, brother and his sister was abudected. That's pretty much to handle allready, but it wasn't the end for our poor Benjen, for he was forced to take great responsibility, the same situation as one with our POV characters.

The Lord of Winterfell

"There must always be a Stark at Winterfell" the old Stark maxim states, and most likely Robert's Rebellion was no exception. Again, we have no clear evidence about what was Benjen doing during the Rebellion, it is a possibility that Ben went south with Ned as his squire, but it's much more probable that he was left behind to perform the duties of Lord of Winterfell during Eddard absence, the same situation as with Eddard leaving Robb, Robb leaving Bran, Roose leaving Ramsay etc. And with one of these characters Benjen shares another similarity. It isn't Robb this time, though, as first, Eddard left him behind during the period of peace, second, Robb was Ned's firstborn, always ment to rule for whom this duties were more of a practice then burden. But who was left behind during the war, and who was never meant to rule, same as thirdborn Benjen? Bran of course. And however Benjen hadn't have to deal with Ironborn

Would it have made any difference to the plot as it is now? He's pretty much a wasted character I feel.

Title basically. Benjen doesn't go to the wall maybe raises jon and then becomes the stark in winterfell when robb goes south. Just wondering if any decent fics along this line

Since we know that Benjen is not cold hands, as confirmed by GRRM, where is Ben, and what is he up to. Is he with the others or is he just dead.

Been reading the books and watching the series for a third time and this hypothetical has been on my mind too much: did Benjen Stark know Ned’s secret about you know who? I know Ned would never reveal any secrets but Benjen seems like the man who would never tell any secrets told to him, especially since it would be his brother’s secret. What are your guys’ thoughts?

What are the theories regarding Benjen? Since he’s confirmed to not be cold hands by GRRM, where is he/what is he doing. Is he dead or not?

I’m curious to know anybody’s take on his disappearance and what happened to him. (I know GRRM hasn’t provided an official answer.)

In an interview, GRRM was asked why Benjen joined the Night's Watch.

His reply was: "Good question. One day you will get an answer. But it will not be today."

Why is it a good question?

What answer could we get?

Source: http://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/2997/

This might be the only thing that all theories about Jon have in common: Benjen is the only contemporary person related to Jon whose exact relation to Jon is clear - he is his uncle.

I have yet to see a theory where neither Brandon, nor Eddard nor Lyanna are Jon's parent. Does anyone know any?

Edit: My point is that this is the only thing we know about Jon, not the fact that Benjen is his uncle.