Post by stdaga on Jan 25, 2018 15:54:55 GMT
I would think there must have been some worry on their parts about Arya. After all, the Lannister's mentioned Sansa by name, but never Arya, and it was only Sansa who sent a letter. It was only Sansa who was seen at court. I think there was some real worry that something had happened to Arya. Even if the Lannister's could not control Arya, they would parade her about every now and then just to show the world they had her, and since they did not, I would think that would cause people to suspect that something had happened to Arya. I would assume that people might think she could have been killed by accident. It's very much in Arya's nature to fight back, and that's what can get your hurt. I am (dangerously) assuming all of that, too!
So if Arya is the child of Ben by Cat, she saw some duty. Maybe she was trying to manipulate Ben or to buy some favor from him with sex. Maybe she wanted to have his child to have a claim on his loyalty. Maybe she knew that seducing him would drive him from Winterfell and drive a wedge between him and Ned, and she wanted that. Given the success rate of her plotting, it is just a likely that she was trying to accomplish something that didn't work out.
Or maybe it is connected with Stark blood, with the thing that drives the Stark mysteries. Maybe she (or her father) wanted a version of what Drogo seemed to want from Dany. Ned did not seem to be producing prophecy babies, so maybe Ben would. Maybe Ned was part of that plan, maybe not. Not sure what she would have been looking for in the baby; eyes like sapphires maybe? Or maybe she got her prophecy baby but missed the signs because it was a girl.
I don't quite understand how Cat's loyalty would be divided between Ned and Benjen, if she was torn between making a decision with the two of them, but I suppose she could have been spiteful about the Jon situation and wanted to prick Ned back. Now, I could also see Cat being threatened by Benjen, and what he could represent if he married and had heirs, and I do think it's possible she connived to have him sent to the wall. So perhaps she was purposefully caught in a compromising position with Benjen, so that Ned then felt duty bound to send him to the wall. Still, Ned and Cat talk about Benjen pretty casually in Cat I, about sending him a message, and neither of them seems awkward or uncomfortable in discussing Benjen. Although it is Cat who mentions Benjen, and later in Jon I, it is Benjen that looks up toward the dais at Jon's mention of Lady Stark. Maybe there is some history there. It leads me to think if something happened between Cat and Benjen, then Ned doesn't know.
The idea of Benjen is interesting, and it could be true. But it would really ruffle my feathers if Benjen is casually talking to Jon about getting some bastards, while Benjen's own bastard is with his brother's wife. What a dick! And for the first time that makes me really not like Benjen Stark. All the rest of it I could accept, a seduction on either part, but not that casualness in Benjen cuckholding his brother. But I don't have to like these characters and GRRM is creating a complicated story.
Maybe Benjen needed to have a child, as you say, to fulfill some type of prophecy. Cat just doesn't seem like a person trying to produce a prophecy babe, either. I could see that if Ned and Cat had difficult marriage for some years, and Cat turned to another Stark, because Benjen would have been a high ranking enough person to have an affair with. I think she is snobbish enough not to be messing with the stable boys. And she is pretty proper and duty bound, so it would have to be kept a secret, unless she didn't want it to be.
We have no idea when Benjen took the black, only a vague SSM from GRRM saying it wasn't long after the rebellion ended, but I think there is more to it than that. I have thought it's possible that Benjen hasn't been a member of the nights watch for as long as people seem to think, maybe even not until Ned had a second legitimate male heir in Bran, so possible only maybe 7ish years, or as long as 14.
Maybe wives are communal family property in the north, and everyone get's a go? Eesh! But it would be interesting if Benjen did plant an important seed but I am going to let you work out the details.