Gendry Baratheon

"You wouldn't be my family. You'd be my lady."

- Gendry to Arya Stark

Gendry is a major character in the third season. He initially appeared as a recurring character in the first and second seasons. He is played by starring cast member Joe Dempsie and debuts in "Cripples, Bastards and Broken Things." Gendry is an unacknowledged bastard son of King Robert Baratheon. He is a skilled blacksmith who was traveling with Yoren to the Wall to join the Night's Watch when he was taken prisoner at Harrenhal. He later escaped with Arya and Hot Pie. After meeting with the Brotherhood Without Banners, Gendry decides to stay with the outlaw group until the red priestess Melisandre arrives to bring him to Dragonstone.

Background
Gendry is a bastard son of King Robert Baratheon, but is unacknowledged and unaware of his lineage. Gendry did not receive the bastard surname used in the Crownlands (Waters) because he was not openly acknowledged by Robert.

His mother worked in a tavern and died when he was very young. When he was old enough, an unknown lord paid his apprentice fee so he could learn to be a blacksmith. He spent his whole life in the capital city of King's Landing working as an apprentice blacksmith under his master, Tobho Mott, to forge armor and weapons for the nobility.

Season 1
Investigating the death of Jon Arryn, Lord Eddard Stark learns that he was seen visiting Tobho Mott's smithy in the city shortly before his death. Eddard also inspects the smithy. Mott tells him that Jon Arryn came to ask about new armor, but he also wanted to talk to the young man, Gendry. Eddard admires a helm that Gendry has made. Mott offers to sell it to him, but Gendry insists that it is not for sale as he made it for himself. Eddard learns that Jon wanted to know about Gendry's mother and realizes that Gendry is the bastard son of King Robert Baratheon. Eddard is at a loss as to why Jon Arryn was trying to track down Robert's bastards.

After King Robert died, the secret payments to Mott stopped so he kicked Gendry out. With no other options, Gendry decides to join the Night's Watch, and is one of the latest batch of Yoren's recruits for the Wall. He meets Arya Stark (disguised as the boy "Arry") when some of the other boys harass her about her sword. When Hot Pie bumps into him, he scares the boys off saying "When I hit that steel it sings, are you gonna sing when I hit you?"

Season 2

 * Main: Gendry Season 2

Gendry travels north on the Kingsroad with Yoren and his recruits, befriending Arya on the journey. He is targeted by the City Watch of King's Landing because of his status as a bastard of King Robert Baratheon but remains unaware of his lineage. Yoren intimidates a pair of goldcloaks who come looking for Gendry into leaving empty handed. Gendry sees through Arya's disguise and recognizes her as a girl. She confides her identity and swears him to secrecy. The goldcloaks return with Ser Amory Lorch and a force of Lannister soldiers. They kill Yoren and capture Arya and Gendry. Arya manages to convince them that Lommy Greenhands was Gendry because he was carrying the bull's head helm Gendry made.

The prisoners are taken to Harrenhal. They are brutally tortured by Ser Gregor Clegane's men while being questioned by the Tickler. Gendry is selected as his next victim but is saved when Lord Tywin Lannister arrives and asserts that the prisoners are more useful alive.

Gendry is put to work at the castle's forge. Both the Tickler and Ser Amory are killed in suspicious circumstances. The deaths prompt Tywin to launch an investigation and he ultimately blames the Brotherhood Without Banners. Tywin leaves Harrenhal to march on the Westerlands. Arya arranges for Jaqen H'ghar to help them to escape the castle.

Season 3
After escaping Harrenhal with Arya and Hot Pie they are all captured by the Brotherhood without Banners.

​While they are with the Brotherhood he helps them out by fixing some armor.

Upon learning of Gendry's desire to remain with the Brotherhood, Arya is distressed, and confronts him about it, as she had intended to bring him with her back to the Starks. Gendry explains that the Brotherhood is the closest thing he's had to a family. When Arya states that she could be his family, he reminds her that she's still the daughter of a great house and he's one of the smallfolk: she wouldn't be his family, she'd be his lady.

Gendry is out and about with Arya and members of the Brotherhood when Melisandre arrives. Arya grumbles about the presence of the red priestess, asking what all the fuss is about; Gendry quips that Arya doesn't see because she's a girl. Gendry is shocked when the Brotherhood turns him over to Melisandre in exchange for two bags of gold.

As he and Melisandre quietly traverse Blackwater Bay, she finally reveals the truth of his heritage to him by pointing out the Red Keep and identifying it as his father's house. Upon arriving at Dragonstone, Melisandre puts Gendry up in a lavish chamber and seduces him. She quickly turns the tables, tying him to the bed and proceeding to leech his blood for a ritual.

Following the incident, Gendry is relegated to a cell beneath the castle. Davos Seaworth visits him and the pair discuss the hardships of growing up in Flea Bottom. Davos asks why Gendry trusted Melisandre, to which the blacksmith admits he's never been with a woman, so although the trap was quite obvious, he took a chance. Later on, Ser Davos frees Gendry and sends him back to King's Landing in a rowboat, the only way to discreetly leave Dragonstone, although Gendry admits he doesn't know how to swim and has never been in a rowboat before.

Quotes
"You've heard the awful rumors about my brother and sister?...I suppose people who do believe that filth consider Robert's bastards to be better claimants to the throne than Cersei's children."

- Tyrion Lannister

In the books
In the A Song of Ice and Fire novels Gendry is also apprenticed to master blacksmith Tobho Mott. Gendry's mother worked at an alehouse and died when he was very young.

The books haven't specified if Gendry lived in the slums of Flea Bottom before he came to work for Tobho Mott. Logically, though, as the son of a tavern girl he probably wasn't living in good conditions before he began to work for Mott as a teenager.

In the books, Gendry is said to resemble King Robert so closely that it is blatantly obvious to anyone who knew Robert that he is Robert's son. Due to the fact that Renly Baratheon is also said to greatly resemble his older brother Robert in his youth, Gendry also bears a striking resemblance to Renly.

An unknown person - presumably Varys - paid for his apprenticeship to Mott. Gendry is in his mid-teens, a powerfully-built and strong lad who shows great promise as a blacksmith. He knows very little about his mother; she worked in an alehouse and died when he was little. She had yellow hair, and sometimes she used to sing to him. He doesn't bear the bastard surname of Waters, traditionally employed in the Crownlands, because he was not openly acknowledged by Robert.

So far, Gendry has no idea who is his father. He once told Arya: "I don't even know my father's name. Some smelly drunk, I'd wager, like the others my mother dragged home from the alehouse. Whenever she got mad at me, she'd say, 'If your father was here, he’d beat you bloody'. That's all I know of him".

The books clearly explain that it was actually Varys who arranged Gendry's escape from King's Landing in Yoren's caravan, in order to save him from the eventual purge ordered by Queen Cersei in which baby Barra was killed (it is not mentioned whether any of Robert's other bastards were killed too). When discussing Barra's death, Varys tells Tyrion "There was another bastard, a boy, older. I took steps to see him removed from harm's way" - without specifying what steps he took, or why did he even bother to save Gendry. Yoren told Arya "I was set to leave, wagons bought and loaded, and a man comes with a boy for me, and a purse of coin, and a message, never mind who it's from. Lord Eddard's to take the black, he says to me, wait, he'll be going with you. Why d'you think I was there? Only something went queer". Gendry had no idea why he was sent away from the city, and why the Gold Cloaks were looking for him. He told the other kids "I never did nothing to no queen...I was s'posed to be an armorer, and one day Master Tobho says I got to join the Night's Watch, that's all I know". Gendry thought Yoren knew the reason, but Yoren never told him.

In the books, Gendry stays with the Brotherhood Without Banners after Arya runs away and is captured by Sandor Clegane. Season 3 condensed several subplots from the books by combining Gendry's storyline with that of King Robert's only acknowledged bastard, Edric Storm. Edric was raised at Storm's End but was taken by Stannis to Dragonstone because Melisandre wanted to sacrifice him to the Lord of Light to ensure victory in the war, but Davos helped him escape. This subplot was instead given to Gendry in the TV series. Robert actually had multiple bastard children in the books, but only Barra is specifically mentioned to be killed after his death. The other two confirmed surviving bastards are Edric Storm and Mya Stone, a girl slightly older than Gendry whom Robert fathered in the Vale of Arryn a few years before the rebellion against the Targaryens. So far in the books, Gendry remains unaware of his parentage.

Gendry was one of the bastards whom Jon Arryn and Stannis Baratheon inquired about. When asked by Eddard Stark, Gendry mentions that Arryn came to see him, and asked him about his work and his mother. He also remembers that Stannis accompanied Arryn, but did not ask him any questions, only glared at him. In the TV series, Gendry mentions only Arryn. Because Stannis's involvement in Jon Arryn's search for Robert's bastards was cut from the TV series, he never met Gendry - thus when the TV series condensed Gendry with the Edric Storm subplot, Stannis met Gendry for the first time on Dragonstone, when he gruffly grabbed his face and confirmed that he looks just like Robert. The irony is therefore that in the books, Stannis already knew what Gendry looked like (though either way, he realized that he was clearly Robert's son as soon as he saw him).

In the books there are no hints of romance between Arya and Gendry. In fact, Arya intends to kill Gendry once he discovers she is a girl, and the only reason she does not is that Gendry is armed and stronger than her. The TV series didn't overtly play up a full-fledged "romance" between the two, though Gendry becomes one of Arya's few friends and she is pained when he chooses to stay behind with the Brotherhood.

Through his father Robert, Gendry has some Targaryen blood. Steffon Baratheon, father of Robert, Stannis, and Renly, was the son of King Aerys II Targaryen's aunt Rhaelle Targaryen, thus he was Aerys's first cousin. Robert, Stannis, and Renly are actually second cousins to Rhaegar Targaryen as well as Daenerys Targaryen. Thus Gendry is the second cousin once removed of Daenerys. This might be moved around somewhat in the TV continuity, which removed Aerys II's father Jaehaerys II, who had a brief rule and died young - to simplify his relationship with Aemon Targaryen. Centuries of heavy inbreeding resulted in every other Targaryen suffering from insanity, but apparently also preserved the ability in their bloodline to interact with dragons and to experience prophetic visions and dreams. Even Targaryen bastards were sometimes able to bond with dragons. So far in the books, Gendry hasn't mentioned having prophetic dreams, nor has he had the opportunity to interact with Daenerys's dragons.