Gendry Baratheon

"Name's Gendry, Your Grace. I'm Robert Baratheon's son. Bastard son."

- Gendry introduces himself to Jon Snow.

Gendry is a skilled blacksmith and an unacknowledged bastard son of King Robert Baratheon. After escaping from the island of Dragonstone with help from Ser Davos Seaworth, he returns to King's Landing, remaining in hiding until Davos returns for him, and accompanies Davos and Jon Snow north in their mission to capture a wight to use as proof at the Parley in King's Landing.

After the death of Robert, massacre of Robert's other bastards, and the deaths of Robert's brothers Renly, Stannis, and Stannis's daughter Shireen, Gendry is the last known living person of House Baratheon's bloodline.

Background
Gendry is the last living bastard son of King Robert Baratheon, who throughout his childhood was unaware of his lineage. Gendry did not receive the bastard surname used in the Crownlands (Waters) because, like the rest of his half-siblings, he was not openly acknowledged by Robert.

Gendry spent his whole life in King's Landing. His mother was a tavern wench that King Robert had sex with once, and apparently Robert never even knew of his existence. Gendry grew up in the slums of Flea Bottom, surviving on bowls of brown stew that contained meat which was allegedly chicken (though he knew full well it wasn't). Gendry's mother 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 then took up work as an apprentice blacksmith under Tobho Mott, a master weaponsmith from Qohor, forging high-end armor and weapons for the nobility. Gendry became very skilled in his own right, and the heavy manual labor built him up into a strong young man - ironically, swinging a heavy blacksmith's hammer much as his biological father Robert once swung his war hammer. Gendry worked under Tobho Mott for 10 years.

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. He then takes a close look at the boy, and realizes that Gendry is the bastard son of King Robert Baratheon (whom Eddard knew when they were both Gendry's age). Eddard is at a loss as to why Jon Arryn was trying to track down Robert's bastards.

After King Robert dies, Mott has Gendry leave his smithy, presumably to escape the coming purge of Robert's bastards, though who tipped them off in advance is not stated. Gendry decides to join the Night's Watch, and is one of the latest batch of Yoren's recruits that leave for the Wall. Among the group he meets Lord Eddard's daughter 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
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. Gendry is embarrassed for talking so crudely to a highborn member of a noble House, though the tomboyish Arya is herself embarrassed at his deference to her as a "Lady". The goldcloaks return with Ser Amory Lorch and a force of Lannister soldiers. They attack the group and 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 that Gendry made.

The prisoners are then 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 chastises his men that the prisoners are more useful alive. To prove his point, Tywin asks Gendry if he has a trade, and when Gendry says that he is in fact a trained blacksmith, Tywin shoots a stern look at Gregor's men.

Due to his experience as a blacksmith, 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 lead his army on the march (though rather than heading west to fight Robb Stark, he in fact races back south to fight Stannis in the Battle of the Blackwater). Before they leave, Arya arranges for Jaqen H'ghar to help them to escape the castle. It turns out Arya was right to make their escape attempt then, as when the Lannister army withdrew soon afterwards, it massacred every remaining prisoner at Harrenhal.

Season 3
After escaping Harrenhal with Arya and Hot Pie, they attempt to head north to Riverrun, across the Red Fork of the Trident, which is ruled by Arya's mother's family (House Tully). It is slow going on foot through the front lines of the war, however, and in the forest they run into the partisan group known as the Brotherhood without Banners. They recognize them as the group the Lannister torturers were asking about at Harrenhal. Their leader Thoros of Myr seems a friendly sort, and they make the children come with them. They later give them food and drink at the Crossroads Inn. Gendry says he used to work as a smith in King's Landing for Tobho Mott, whom Thoros recognizes but says he charged double what the other smiths did; Gendry counters that's because it was double the quality. Arya insists that she knows how to use a sword despite Thoros's disbelief, but when she tries to mock-fence with him he quickly disarms her. Other members of the Brotherhood return to the inn with a captive: Sandor "The Hound" Clegane. As Thoros trades insults with Sandor, Arya tries to leave, but the Hound stops her in astonishment and asks what in seven hells they're doing with "the Stark bitch", revealing her identity to all.

​While they are with the Brotherhood, Gendry helps them out by fixing some armor. Hot Pie decides to stay behind at the inn, as this dangerous life of adventuring in the war isn't really for him (that, and as a skilled baker, the Brotherhood told the innkeeper he would stay as payment for all their free meals). Happy with his new job, Hot Pie bids farewell to them both.

The Brotherhood takes the children and Sandor back to their hideout in a cave, where Thoros introduces them to the Brotherhood's main leader, Beric Dondarrion. He explains that they are a resistance group whose goal is to fight to defend the commoners, no matter which side in the war is harassing them, as the fighting between the great lords is causing widespread suffering among them.

Gendry continues to work as a blacksmith for the Brotherhood. Beric and Thoros later explain that instead of simply letting Arya go, they intend to ransom her back to the Starks, as they badly need the gold to fund their resistance group. While she is safe from the Lannisters in their company, she is not amused by this. Arya is then distressed to learn that Gendry does not intend to come with her back to the Starks, and confronts him about it. 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 of their class differences which would reassert once they are back behind friendly lines: she's still the daughter of a great house, while he's just one of the smallfolk: she wouldn't be his family, she'd be "My Lady".

Arya and Gendry are doing some archery training with the Brotherhood when Melisandre arrives, with some of Stannis Baratheon's soldiers. Arya grumbles about the presence of the red priestess, asking what all the fuss is about. 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. This is why she has sought him out, and is taking him to Robert's younger brother Stannis Baratheon - his uncle - on Dragonstone island. Upon arriving at Dragonstone, Stannis briefly looks over Gendry and confirms that he is clearly Robert's son (looking just like he did at that age). Outside of Gendry's presence, Stannis's advisors debate what to do with him: Melisandre actually wants to kill Gendry as a magical sacrifice, as there is power in a king's blood (from Robert). Davos Seaworth, however, implores Stannis not to kill his own nephew like this. Stannis bitterly remarks that he's already a kinslayer for killing his own brother Renly, but Davos counters that Renly brought that on himself by trying to usurp Stannis's claim to the throne - but his nephew Gendry is just an innocent boy, and they don't even know if Melisandre's claims will work. He manages to argue Stannis down to the point that he has Melisandre agree to do a test first, which won't actually kill Gendry. Melisandre puts Gendry up in a lavish chamber and seduces him, but the situation quickly turns dark when she ties him to the bed and proceeding to leech his blood for a ritual. Stannis throws the leeches containing his blood into a fire, praying for the deaths of the three usurper-kings still in the realm: Joffrey Baratheon, Balon Greyjoy, and Robb Stark.

Following the incident, Gendry is relegated to a cell beneath the castle. After Robb Stark was betrayed and killed at the Red Wedding, Stannis is convinced that Melisandre's test must have worked, and that they must kill Gendry as a sacrifice to summon an even greater magical power to reclaim the realm. Stannis isn't pleased by this, but he weighs that the death of one boy (much like Davos's own son Matthos Seaworth) is a small price to pay compared to the many thousands who will die as long as the war drags on.

Upset, Davos comes to visit him, and the pair discuss the hardships of growing up as poor commoners in Flea Bottom. Davos asks why Gendry trusted Melisandre, to which the blacksmith admits he's never been with a beautiful naked woman, so he was overwhelmed and wasn't thinking. Davos then 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. Davos gives him a stash of supplies and tells him to just keep sailing west for several days, to avoid patrols from either the Lannisters or Stannis.

Season 5
When Stannis's army becomes snowbound on the march to Winterfell, Melisandre suggests that they sacrifice more king's blood to the Lord of Light, and Stannis initially believes she is referring to Gendry before he realizes she is referring to his own daughter, Shireen Baratheon.

With the deaths of Shireen and Stannis, House Baratheon becomes virtually extinct, and Gendry is left as the last known living person of the Baratheon bloodline.

Season 6
With the death of Tommen Baratheon, the last of Cersei's three children by incest with Jaime that she passed off as Robert's, "House Baratheon of King's Landing" becomes extinct - and with it, even the pretense that Cersei and the Lannisters were ruling through Robert's children, making House Baratheon officially extinct.

Season 7
After smuggling Tyrion Lannister into King's Landing near the Red Keep to meet with his brother Jaime, Ser Davos Seaworth, now a principal advisor to the King in the North Jon Snow, finds Gendry in a forge on the Street of Steel. Already fed up with serving the family who murdered his father, Gendry readily agrees to come with him, bringing a war hammer with a stag sigil carved into it before leaving. As they prepare to leave, two Gold Cloaks arrive to inspect Davos's boat, and Gendry remains on guard while Davos bribes them into leaving. When the guards return after noticing Tyrion, Gendry kills them with his hammer, allowing the trio to escape.

Upon returning to Dragonstone, Davos urges Gendry to keep his identity a secret and go under the alias of Clovis, but Gendry immediately introduces himself to Jon Snow as Robert Baratheon's bastard son. He notes how their fathers - Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark (Jon's true parentage still being unknown to all) - trusted each other, were good friends, and fought together. Jon and Gendry talk about their fathers and get along well. Gendry offers to accompany Jon on his expedition beyond the Wall and Jon accepts his help.

At Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, Gendry warns Jon not to trust the Brotherhood, having been sold to Melisandre by them. Nevertheless, he accompanies the party north of the Wall to confront the army of the dead. North of the wall, Jon asks if Gendry has ever been so far north. Gendry responds by saying he has never even seen snow before. He wonders how the wildlings even survived north of the Wall, to which Tormund jokingly gives him three options: walking, fighting and fucking.

Later, Thoros of Myr asks Gendry if he is still mad with the Brotherhood without Banners, for selling him to Melisandre instead of letting him join them. Gendry angrily responds he does, stating that she stripped him of his clothes and tied him up to a bed. Sander "The Hound" Clegane tells him that sounds pretty good to him, and tells Gendry to stop whinging, explaining that Beric Dondarrion has been resurrected six times and never complained once. Beric himself admits that they were at war, and needed money to keep waging it.

Some time later, Gendry and the rest of the company get caught in a blizzard. Suddenly, they spot a massive polar bear in the distance. The bear also notices the group, and stares at them. Gendry sees its eyes and asks if bears have blue eyes. The bear charges at the group, taking out a wildling that accompanied them. Realizing they were about to fight an undead bear, the group huddles up and gets ready for combat. The bear attacks, wounds Thoros and kills some more wildlings until Jorah Mormont is able to stab him to his death. After patching Thoros up, the group continues on their Wight Hunt.

Eventually, the group stumbles upon a small faction of wights, led by a white walker. Gendry aids the group in their trap, taking down some Wights with his hammer. Eventually, Jon Snow is able to kill the White Walker, and all of the wights except for one perish on the spot. They succesfully capture the wight, but not before he could scream for help. Jon realizes the army of the dead is coming, and orders Gendry to run back to Eastwatch to send a raven to Daenerys Targaryen, asking for aid. Tormund convinces Gendry to leave his hammer behind, as he would be faster without it. After lending his hammer to Sandor, Gendry leaves.

Some time later, Gendry arrives at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea. Having run the entire time, he is exhausted and stumbles in the ice. He tries to get back up, but doesn't find the power to do so. However, it turns out Gendry fell right before the entrance to Eastwatch, and is saved by Ser Davos, who asks what has happened to the others. Exhausted, Gendry tells them to send a raven to Daenerys, completing his mission.

Personality
King Robert's actual son Gendry is everything that his alleged son and heir Joffrey Baratheon was not - beyond simply his physical appearance, but also his character and temperament. Joffrey was an arrogant, sadistic fop, with a massive sense of entitlement. He was not skilled at anything - particularly not at combat, in which he was also a coward when faced with real danger. Joffrey's one real claim to importance was that he was Robert's son - which was itself a lie. Gendry, in contrast, is his exact opposite: a generally humble and polite working-class blacksmith who didn't grow up rich in a castle, and a brave and capable fighter when his friends are in danger. He also needlessly defends the boy "Arry" when he sees the other recruits picking on (what he thinks is) a smaller boy. Unlike Joffrey, who thought the throne was his by right but was utterly unsuited to rule, Gendry has many qualities which would make a fine king, but doesn't even know he has a potential claim to it. Growing up having to work for a living, at Mott's smithy, Gendry also grew up disciplined, and doesn't have any of his father Robert's negative qualities of self-indulgence (in food, drink, and women).

Gendry is notably an extremely pragmatic and practical young man, as evidenced by his ability to understand how social standing benefits people unlike him: he understood that if he returned to Riverrun with Arya, she would be his 'lady' rather than his friend. This sets him further apart from Joffrey, who outright fell back on social standing and had massive delusions of grandeur where his own position was concerned. Joffrey accentuated his title as king to be the reason that he should get his way, whereas Gendry fought and survived for other people and was not as arrogant or temperamental as Joffrey. Also, he was surprisingly self-reproachful about his own actions, shown prominently in the aftermath of Melisandre seducing him; Joffrey was not the slightest bit self-reproachful, never blaming himself for anything even if he were the central catalyst for an incident. Joffrey would brutalize women at court, taking out his frustrations by having his guards publicly beat Sansa Stark and citing his authority as king when Tyrion Lannister confronted him about it. In a direct parallel, Gendry is polite and deferential to her sister Arya Stark when he learns who she is, worried at his behavior and insisting on addressing her with formal titles.

Gendry is still somewhat self-conscious about being a commoner, with a commoner's lot in life. Like many of them, he is terrified and subservient when he encounters members of the nobility, while somewhat resenting the great lords for oppressing the lower classes and tearing Westeros apart with their bloody wars. Nevertheless, he readily agrees to help the King in the North Jon Snow, both for his mutual dislike of the Lannisters and his father's past alliance with the Starks.

Though he has no formal combat training, Gendry is remarkably skilled with a hammer, both as a weapon and a tool. While escaping from King's Landing, he effortlessly killed two curious Gold Cloaks with a war hammer, having inherited his father's incredible strength. This strength has been a prevalent factor throughout his life, as he commented to Hot Pie that when he strikes steel with a hammer it 'sings'. A glaring difference between him and his father is that Gendry does not love fighting, whereas Robert Baratheon absolutely lived for fighting.

Gendry seems now to take some pride in his Baratheon blood, hating the Lannisters for killing his father Robert and immediately informing Jon Snow that he is Robert's bastard son, knowing his father and Jon's (adoptive) father were best friends.

Quotes

 * Spoken by Gendry

"Oh, you like picking on the little ones, do you? You know, I've been hammering an anvil these past ten years. When I hit that steel it sings. You gonna sing when I hit you?"

- Gendry to Hot Pie


 * Spoken about Gendry

"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 in his youth so closely that it is blatantly obvious to anyone who knew Robert that he is Robert's son - i.e., Eddard Stark recognizes Gendry is Robert's son the minute he lays eyes on him (in both the novels and TV series). 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. Brienne of Tarth notices this in A Feast for Crows, briefly believing that Renly has returned from the grave (as she has been badly wounded in a fight and is losing consciousness).

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".

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. In the books, Stannis already knew what Gendry looked like, but didn't seek him out because he already had Edric (though either way, Stannis realized that he was clearly Robert's son as soon as he saw 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 he even bothered 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. In the TV version, Gendry appears to be Robert's only surviving bastard, as Edric and Mya were never introduced.

Gendry formally asked to join the Brotherhood Without Banners in the novels, providing his services as a smith, and in response Lord Beric not only agreed but decided to knight him. Any knight can dub another man a knight, no matter his standing, albeit it is considered more prestigious to be dubbed by a famous knight or a king. Lowly hedge knights can dub other men as knights, but they would not be very well respected (Martin has compared it to the difference between receiving a diploma from a major university like Oxford or Harvard, and getting a diploma from a local community college - both are technically "diplomas"). Beric is not a lowly minor knight, however, but the Lord of House Dondarrion, and though some may point out that he has turned outlaw leader during he war, that falls more into matters of opinion: swearing the vows with Lord Beric technically makes Gendry a knight. This didn't happen in the TV version, however, because Gendry was sent away with Melisandre.

In the books there are no hints of romance between Arya and Gendry. In fact, Arya at first 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. She is surprised that he is instead polite and deferential to 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. Later on in the novels, Gendry encounters Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne during their search through the Riverlands for Sansa and Arya. Brienne mistakes Gendry for his uncle, Renly Baratheon. Gendry later saves Brienne from Biter by stabbing him from behind with a spear.

Through his father Robert, Gendry has some Targaryen blood: Rhaelle Targaryen was the aunt of the "Mad King" Aerys II, and her son, Steffon Baratheon, was the father of Robert, Stannis, and Renly. The three Baratheon brothers were therefore second cousins to the Targaryen siblings - Rhaegar, Viserys, and Daenerys - making Gendry a 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 - called "born of dragonseed" or "Dragonseeds" - 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.

The revelation in the Season 6 finale that Jon Snow is actually Rhaegar Targaryen's son with Ned's sister Lyanna Stark means that Jon is actually Daenerys's nephew, and that Jon and Gendry are also blood relatives as well (as are Jon and Edric Storm). Given that Rhaegar and Robert were second cousins in the novels, this makes Jon Snow and Gendry third cousins (though again, the TV version apparently condensed this, which would make TV-Gendry a closer relative to both Jon and Daenerys).