For more than three seasons, one important book character had been missing from HBO's Game of Thrones: Coldhands. More than a few fans assumed the character who has helped both Sam and Bran in the books might not ever appear on the show, but appear he did on this week's Game of Thrones, and his real identity is exactly as fans predicted.
Spoilers for the latest episode of Game of Thrones below!
Fans have had more than a decade to piece together who exactly the mysterious Coldhands is underneath his hood. In the books the character is clearly dead, with blood congealing in his hands, resulting in the nickname "Coldhands." He's seen riding a massive elk while wearing the uniform of a brother of the Night's Watch. He hides his face from Bran and Sam (and thus from readers as well), yet is a powerful ally against the White Walkers.
It remains one of the book's biggest mysteries. The show, however, wasted little time in revealing the true identity of Coldhands. Just as fans have long predicted, the character is none other than a not-quite-dead Benjen Stark. Benjen hadn't been seen from the early episodes of the show's first season, when he ventured beyond the Wall as first ranger of the Night's Watch in search of White Walkers.
Sounds like he found them, as it's revealed that a White Walker plunged its sword of ice into Benjen's chest and left him for dead. It wouldn't be too long before a Child of the Forest found the barely alive Benjen, and using the same magic revealed to have created the White Walkers, managed to save his life by turning him into his current dead-like state.
Despite being not quite dead but not quite alive, Benjen proves to still be a capable fighter. On the show he arrives in the nick of time to defeat a group of wights closing in on an exhausted Bran and Meera. Using a flaming flail (along with a sickle and chain), Benjen easily defeats the zombies and reunites with his nephew.
It's a bit different from how Coldhands arrives in the books. He is first seen in A Storm of Swords helping Sam and Gilly flee the wights and White Walkers, helping them reach the southern side of the Wall and telling them to bring Bran north. Coldhands later unites with Bran, Meera and Jojen and escorts them to the lair of the Three-Eyed Raven, killing both wights and traitorous brothers in black along the way in order to keep Bran and company safe.
As mentioned, Coldhands in the book is fond of riding an elk, and there's no mention of the character ever using a weapon as attention-grabbing as a flaming flail. A flock of ravens is said to fly under his command.
Whether or not the book version of Coldhands is indeed Benjen Stark remains to be seen, as the show has now officially moved past George R.R. Martin's story line. A clue on the matter came in the form of a Dance of Dragons manuscript that appeared online last year, complete with notes from Martin's editors. One note asked Martin if Benjen and Coldhands were one and the same, with Martin scribbling in the margin a simple "no" in response.
It's possible that the book version of Coldhands could be a different character. Or Martin could simply be lying, not wanting one of the book's major reveals to be spoiled ahead of time. Of course, that was before Martin could have guessed the show would pass his book series, spoiling the surprise anyway.
Now that the Three-Eyed Raven is dead, it looks like Coldhands will become a bit of a mentor to Bran, who is still struggling to understand his newfound powers. It sounds like Bran will have an important role to play in the upcoming war against the White Walkers, a role Coldhands means to make sure Bran is ready for.
