We love our cast sightings here at Watchers on the Wall, and hot on the heels of Sophie and Maisie’s big day out in Belfast, we have news of two other cast members in town. These sightings are more of the spoiler variety than the Stark girls’ tattoos-and-shopping fest, however.
WotW reader Marcus tells us that earlier today in Northern Ireland’s Belfast City Airport, they spotted two Game of Thrones actors arriving.
We’ll tuck the rest below the cut!
According to our reader, they saw Iain Glen, which isn’t too shocking since Glen was spotted back in July heading to Belfast on a flight along with Gwendoline Christie. Seeing Glen again, with shooting having begun, serves as further confirmation that we haven’t seen the last of Jorah Mormont.
The second sighting at the airport today is more exciting: Joe Dempsie, who played Gendry for the first three seasons of Game of Thrones. The fan spotted him and snapped a photo of the actor:
As far as we can tell, the actor has no other projects at the moment that would require his presence in the city. There were rumors floating around social media back in August that Dempsie had been spotted in Belfast, but there was no actual proof to back it up.
Hopefully we can go ahead and put this meme to rest now.
And the “Still rowin’…” thing. Seriously, Gendry must have arms like the Mountain by now.
Well, what do you think of the newest sightings, readers?
Gendry!
He’s gonna be fucking ripped when he steps off that row boat
Well that just made this Gendrya shippers night, lol.
OMG!!!!! Gendry is FINALLY going to be found!!! Wooohooo!!!!
OMG! YES! I love it! A lot of people wanted Ned and Roberts pack to come true! “I have a son you have a daughter, we’ll join our houses”
I hope Gendry is the one that brings Arya back to her roots, that or the Hound. But Gendry will be better!
AHHHHHH I’m so excited by this!
It looks like he finally left …… http://i265.photobucket.com/albums/ii202/J4103V/gnis.jpg
I really hope he is back for the finale to this just pure bad ass show.
GENDRY!!!! Oh, this news makes me happier than Kit Harrington sightings last year…Missed this adorable bastard (literally n metaphorically). I think I can die peacefully now that all the missing Thrones members are accounted for
GENDRYYYYY!
That news makes me really, inexplicably, irrationally, disproportionately, exaggeratedly happy. (Or is it just that I got past another week’s deadline?) Anyway, here’s something with a bit of tequila in it to celebrate… ¡Salúd!
Omg Gendry!!
Well now, this is interesting. I’ve never been one who’s clamored for Gendry’s return – I’m okay assuming he made it to land and is living a quiet life somewhere. But I’m also not opposed to seeing him again and giving him and his fans closure. And if Gendry returns, is there any doubt it would be in the Riverlands?
Hell yeah!! Gendry! Getting even more excited now! 😀
Fantastic news! I will never not be mystified by D&D’s decision to write Dempsie out immediately after promoting him to main cast for season 3. But I hoped we’d see him again eventually. How much do you want to bet Arya, Melisandre, Gendry, and the Brotherhood (and the Hound of course) all end up together again by season’s end?
Had no doubt about Iain since he let it slip in an interview about filming later this year before that was common knowledge. Love my Jorah. ❤
Wheeeeee Gendry! Finally!!!
Why everyone is so obsessed with Gendry?! Honest question, I never understood the fuss around him, hes a very minor character, and even if he ended up being the head of house baratheon, for instance, what relevance does he have to the story at this point?
Nymeria is still missing!
I might be wrong, but I think Mel is the only one who knows Gendry’s secret.
Davos knows too.
Iain Glenn with a fan in Belfast.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BKTy3gbAkJx/
Glóin the Dark,
Lol, so is Lord Harold Karstark…Hope we see him again joing the Northern cause this season
I’m disappointed. I really hoped that Gendry would be out of the show. He had a good ending.
O M GENDRY
MY HEART
Joe is a fox.
Maybe Gendry will meet his 3rd cousin Jon, or his second cousin once removed Daenerys, or reunite with his distant cousin Arya.
Ellie,
He might be able to help Arya keep some of her humanity, rather than Arya eventually turning into the next Ramsay?
I mean, if Arya keeps on her current path, you gotta think she’s gonna end up killing someone we like sooner or later. A long time ago I made a random prediction that Arya might kill Tyrion.
Jorah! 😀 😀 😀
Gendry! Not forgotten, yay!
These two cast sightings make me quite happy! I wonder why and where, Gendry will appear.
I always knew he will return, just like every one else.
He was a likeable character and a reasonably important part of Arya’s storyline for two seasons (and after that, was for a while the only series regular to drop out of the narrative for reasons other than their death; as of Season 6, a couple of others seem to have done that, though it remains to be seen).
1) The actor is adorable.
2) The character is one of Arya’s very few surviving friends. They have a bond of shared hardship and danger, loyalty and a sort of sibling-like affection that could blossom into something more if they were to meet again, now that Arya is a woman grown. He may represent her best chance at a normal life after the war.
3) He is one of only a very few surviving Baratheons – in the show, the only known bastard of Robert’s not to be massacred.
4) He learned to make armor from one of the top armorers in King’s Landing, which could prove significantly useful to Team Stark.
Gendry!!!
If this truly is what what it seems, and we’re really getting Gendry back, well, I’m just so glad I didn’t listen to all those who said to give it up on ever seeing Gendry, again (not that I would have listened, anyway, I’m too stubborn…hahaha).
Well, he might not float your boat, but apparently he was able to float his own. To his fans, that’s all that matters! ; )
Up thread, Tarth Vader asked who knows about Gendry’s parentage, and it got me wondering: how did Stannis first figure out Gendry was Robert’s bastard?? It’s been a while since I watched S1, and I remember how Ned (and Jon Arryn) figured it out but was it ever stated how Stannis knew? Was it Mel who told him?
Sooooooooo happy at this spoiler.
Its the one I have been hanging for!
I want no more spoilers now, wont be reading below the cut again.
THANK YOU LOVE YOUR WORK, I JUST WANT THE SURPRISE NOW.
bring on season 7.
West of moon,
Yes, that second spoiler did make this Gendry fan’s night! (This is my first comment here after years of lurking… best filming news since last year’s spoilers about Kit, the BatB, and the man-bun.)
BunBunStark,
On the show, Mel used her magic to locate him, and Stannis then visually recognized him as clearly Robert’s child.
Thank you WotW! When I saw “big spoiler” in the title, I did not expect a good news like this (I came braced for a major character dying or getting injured). Joe Dempsey is sporting his “Gendry hair” (dark), so I’m sure the last Baratheon (at least in blood) is returing to the show in S7. Hope he ends up better than Rickon, Osha and Blackfish.
Can people really see Gendry reappearing in the Riverlands? And running into the Brotherhood alongside Arya again? Sounds a bit repetitive.
Would he head back to the Riverlands, knowing that he could run into the Brotherhood again? A group of the few people in Westeros who may know his real identity (did Mel tell Thoros and Beric who he was and why she wanted him?). Bit risky when he could head literally anywhere else on the continent where he won’t be recognised.
He was meant to be heading back to King’s Landing, so perhaps it’s there that he will reappear in an encounter with Arya? Act as her conscience and manage to convince her to get out of Dodge before the Mad Queen or dragon fire razes the city to the ground.
Or, alternatively, he could have made it up to the North in some roundabout way (picked up adrift by a merchant ship heading for White Harbor, perhaps?) and end up running into Davos.
The last remaining person with Baratheon blood, who could potentially help rally the Stormlands to Jon’s cause, could be quite a convenient find.
It’s been a long time since I’ve watched Season 1, but in the scene where Ned questions Gendry at Tobho Mott’s armory, doesn’t Gendry tell him that Stannis accompanied Jon Arryn when he paid a visit there? Or maybe Littlefinger brings it up? I believe there was some implication of a connection between that discovery and Stannis’ flight to Dragonstone shortly thereafter. I could be misremembering…or maybe it’s in the books.
Love this news. I always suspected that Gendry would return. D&D seem to enjoy giving popular characters a “curtain call” of sorts. With the reappearance of Beric, Thoros, Blackfish and Edmure, it only seems right that our favorite blacksmith returns as well.
Firannion,
You might be thinking of the books, because in the show there was no mention of Stannis at the blacksmith’s. Only Jon Arryn.
As Sean C says above, Melisandre found out about his whereabouts presumably in a vision and went and fetched him from the Riverlands.
Stannis agreed that he resembled Robert, “half Robert, half lowborn” I think were his words.
Of course it proves little (if it is him) even if he is spotted ON set (i.e. Sibel). Still, the possibility is just a hair stronger today. It would be very easy to write him in… and it’s also very possible that GRRM has a plan for him as well. He was alive and well after all the last time he was a part of the books in AFfC working as a smith at the Inn at the Crossroads.
It’s also easy to come up with a number of reasons why he could become an important character as the story moves toward the end. A few would be:
1. He apprenticed, learned to smith, under Tobho Mott and learned well. Tobho is/was known to be one of the few in the world that can work Valyrian steel. It can be assumed that Gendry was taught this art. He could be a great asset with this ability and possibly assist Sam as some have suggested.
2. He is one of the very few people that Arya truly trusts. She’s probably going to need a person like that moving forward. Hot Pie definitely isn’t strong enough for that which just leaves Jon, Gendry and to a much lesser extent, Sandor.
3. The Baratheon line is essentially extinct on the show and probably headed that way in the books. While I don’t think he’s in for some charge for the thrown, becoming Lord Paramount of the Stormlands is a possibility.
4. Back to the Arya point… If she does indeed live through the finale I can’t think of a better “ever after” for her than traveling the world with Gendry. That is if #3 doesn’t come into it. Even then, maybe she’ll change her mind and decide she can be a Lady… or tomboy lady.
Brienne and Pod will pass him on the river, exchanging a subtle nod and a wave… and that will be the one and only scene of Gendry.
Wow! I think she will encounter him during her travels home & we may see a little whirlwind Arya-Gendry romance… then she will break his heart when she leaves in the middle of the night w/Needle instead of him. Something along those lines, anyway- just much better! 😉 why would they show us Arya checkin’ out/admiring Gendry without his shirt on a couple seasons ago if they were not going to pursue it later?
A Man Grown:
Arya’s humanity began to thaw when her heart was touched by Lady Crane. Arya actually reclaimed it when she defied the Faceless Men by not fulfilling the UNjust contract on her friend. Certainly killing Walder Frey and his Stark-murdering sons was a boon to mankind. In fact, except for her reflex-action, semi-accidental stabbing of the stable boy in Baelor, all of her ‘kills’ have been either in self-defense or to avenge wrongs, deaths, etc. IMO Arya is a vigilante or Zorro-figure rather than a true assassin.
That said, Gendry’s return will probably be good for her and may indeed presage a romance. Even more important for the Wars to Come, Gendry and his talents may be crucial for the end game. First, he’s the Last Baratheon. Second, who’s going to create the weaponry needed for the final fight against the Others? Thanks to Sam, we already know the magical efficacy of dragon glass and Valyrian steel. Sam’s future discoveries should reveal more. For example, if a mere shard of Valyrian steel embedded in a sword pommel makes it a bane to the Walkers, Gendry has the expertise to fabricate the hybrid result.
Mayhap this is part of what Maisie meant when, after reading Season 7 scripts, she tweeted that “Shit gets real.” I wonder if that tattoo she probably got today says “Gendry”.
Is it just me, or did GRRM get a little inspiration from this old show…
MaryAnne=Ayra – the cute tomboy, with level common sense, who was quick to lend a hand and never minded getting her hands dirty.
Ginger=Sansa – the stunning starlet obsessed with beauty, sort of self-absorbed but when push comes to shove, could be convinced to be more active in group activities, especially when escape or rescue was involved.
idk, when looking at that picture the two reminded me of the Stark Sisters (a very benign, less violent version of them 🙂
Thanks. Now I remember the scene on the beach on Dragonstone when Mel mysteriously left to go look for Gendry.
Wouldn’t that be something: Rhaegar’s son and Robert’s son working together.
I just hope poor Gendry doesn’t turn up in King’s Landing just in time for Cersei and/or dragons to burn it to the ground.
Stark Raven’ Rad,
Yes! When he was with the brotherhood without banners they showed him saying “nothing tricky about it, just need some good steel” when the archer was asking him to make the arrowheads. SO CLEARLY he’s skilled 🙂 Maybe he’s BEEN back with the brotherhood and has BEEN making special weaponry. The brotherhood already knows about the walkers in the north. And Thoros of Myr spent time in Kings Landing, I’m sure he knows about the dragonglass on Dragonstone.
If Arya runs into him and the brotherhood AND then Mel, I don’t think she’ll let Mel take Gendry a second time 🙂 “We will meet again”…. AHHHH I hope they ALL run into eachother!!! Arya, Gendry, Mel, the Hound, the Brotherhood! AND THEN RALLY BEHIND THE KING IN THE NORTH! I can’t wait until Arya hears that news >:)
Literally screamed with joy and slammed down my hands down on my desk, twirled my chair around with the biggest grin on my face!!!
GENDRY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, I’m just not a fan of facile ‘last heir to a house’ and ‘Arya’s conscience/boyfriend’ plotlines. I much prefer a democratic revolution for the first, and Arya keeping her conscience and agency to herself!
And I also hope none of the last 13 hours of a show will be wasted on shipping. That’s much better left to fanfic.
LizStargaryen,
Welcome to the wall
My biggest concern is that they’ll just bring him back to kill him (ala Osha, Rickon, Blackfish, Freys)
The only really big news coming from the GOT sets would be a sighting of Kit and Emilia together on set. Hope if it happens, we hear about it. I don’t mind spoilers at all.
Oh sweet Gendry ! Now, that’s properly excellent news ^^
I struggle a bit to see what big role he could have in the future : the “last of the Baratheons” angle feels a teeny bit trite to my untrained eyes. While it would fit neatly the ongoing trend of only “cripples, bastards and broken things” remaining after the legitimate, male, archetypally heroic heirs all killed one another, Gendry’s most endearing and unique trait, in my highly subjective opinion, has always been his hitherto lack of interest for the game of thrones. A bit like Jon, except that Jon is a bastard to two Great Houses and very obviously has a destiny to fulfil.
Gendry having been taught by Tobho could of course mean he knows his way around Valyrian steel which would help for the Battle of the Dawn, as many mentioned. Assuming he has not improved on his master’s technique and can only rework said steel and not forge it “from scratch”, all he would be able to do is transform preexisting Valyrian weapons but that’s already something ! Turning massive swords into many arrowheads could improve White Walkers-killing efficiency by quite an impressive factor ^^
However, I have to confess I still prefer the idea of him living a simple and nice life somewhere, the embodiment of what all the other main characters have had to forfeit in order to survive the ongoing battle royal. Gendry, untouched by chaos 😉
Were Arya to see him from afar… She would witness a lifestyle that is, ultimately, incompatible with hers, have to make a conscious decision in regards to what she wants to do and mourn whichever option she does not select. It would fit the bittersweet theme…
A Man Grown,
The play did introduce such a possibility, I agree wholeheartedly. While Arya knows for a fact all the events depicted in the theatrical production were not accurate (Ned’s actions, etc), she would not necessarily be able to determine which are correct and which are not. And Tyrion was presented as the villain of the piece, who not only organised the whole thing but also raped Sansa.
The most interesting aspect of Arya’s kill list, in my eternally disputable opinion, is that it is based on her (at times imperfect and always subjective) understanding and appreciation of events. For example, she wants to kill Cersei as punishment for her participation in Ned’s death when the newly crowned Queen had no active role in his demise; if anything, Cersei was very much against the execution. Now, that is not to say Queenie does not deserve to be loathed for a multitude of reasons but Ned’s murder is not one of them ! The same thing could be said of Ilyn Payne who was just doing his job by obeying his King.
Who knows ? Had Lady Crane been cranky or unpleasant (as it happens to all of us, from time to time) on the day Arya had planned to poison her or had she been a terrible actress who couldn’t emote her way out of a paperbag, maybe the younger Stark sister would have gone through with the assassination, thinking “What a talentless bitch ! She deserves it”.
Perhaps bad acting and / or occasional bouts of temper should not be punishable by death 😉
Sophie’s in town. I’d like some sightings of the Northern arc’s characters. Where’s Jon, Davos, Tormund, Lyanna? I hope they’re not getting reduced screentime in favour of Sansa/Littlefinger and Cersei/Daenerys. Has Emilia been spotted yet?
Well that, or Michelle Fairley in zombie makeup, tbh …. which is now never gonna happen no matter how hard somebody will troll the possibility at some point in the next 6 months of filming.
Ellie,
Yeah, same here. I just don’t get the hype at all.
Gendry will be needed to make the valyrian steel swords. That is after Sam discovers you need to melt the stone people with dragon fire and add it to the mix.
I’ve been waiting for this.
For.
So.
Long.
icequinn,
I hope Gendry’s not being brought back for the chop. I read somewhere that GRRM plans in the (unpublished) books or one of them at least for Robert’s surviving bastards (if you’re a book-reader you’ll know there’s a couple more in the books than in the show at least so far) to have something to do with the end game. Although seeing how Dorne was changed from the books to the show anybody’s guess is as good as mine.
Changing the subject, YouTuber, Secrets of the Citadel (who I don’t know – I’ve just watched some of her videos) posted a couple about unanswered questions at the end of Season 6 – I thought they were quite funny, though of course the one that really worries me is who is feeding Ser Pounce – it was bad enough he never even got a nomination for an Emmy the season he was in the show.
I tried to post the links to the two videos in question but made a complete pig’s breakfast of it (or is that an insult to pigs?) I sometimes wonder if we insult female dogs comparing them to Cersei?
Good news. I was satisfied with the end of Gendry’s story but since he is back, I hope he doesn’t get the Osha & Rickon treatment and reunites with Arya.
OT I saw on Twitter that GRRM will be at the Emmys on Sunday! Hopefully the purists saying he hates the show will shut up.
I have to admit, I quite like the idea that Gendry could somehow have made his way to the North, and perhaps set up shop in White Harbor. It is the closest thing the North has to a city, and has a port – it would not be impossible for Gendry to have ended up there and set himself up as a blacksmith. And, conveniently, Wyman Manderly – lord of White Harbor – has just declared Jon King in the North. He could send for a White Harbor blacksmith to discuss weaponry.
Alternatively, it might be interesting for Gendry to turn up in Oldtown as someone that Sam encounters. Again, Oldtown is a city with a port and therefore Gendry would have opportunities to work as a blacksmith. Lots of opportunities for his reappearance. Given that the Brotherhood sold him, I am not sure that I see him heading back to the Riverlands, but you never know.
Rhaenys Stark,
Well he might hate the show but he loves the Emmys.Just kidding I know he doesn’t hate the show lol.
And this is fantastic news.I was postitve that Gendry would come back but now I’m even more.Him and Arya deserve a reunion and I can’t wait to see it!!
Jon + Gendry
Team “Bastards United”
They will grow their hair and start the revolution of ’68. Casual sex for everyone
Finally Gendry! Yess! I think we will see him in the riverlands, that was where he was last seen in the books too. Agree with others, I hope he isn’t brought back just to be killed off.
Rhaenys Stark,
Doesn’t he attend the Emmy’s normally?
There are so many people who know GRRM’s mind better that he does himself 🙂 .
icequinn,
Sue said Kit Harington was in LA a few days ago.
And atleast one person has said that she met him in Belfast yesterday with other members of the cast, at Lavery’s.
https://twitter.com/RachTweetsStuff/status/775969381868302336
Idk, if this is true, he’s certainly been travelling around.
Jenny,
Haha well it is kinda curious that he hasn’t commented on the show for a long time and has said nothing about S6. Maybe he hasn’t watched it yet because he is trying to finish book 6? Anyway, I can’t wait to see them all together on Sunday!
Stark Raven’ Rad,
You could be right, but it seems to me they took extra care to show how much Arya *enjoyed* killing Walder Frey. Not to mention dismembering his sons. If she keeps that up Dexter could be the best case scenario.
ACME,
Yeah I was thinking about the play last night too. I originally made my “Arya kills Tyrion” prediction years ago, but the depiction of him in the play could help foreshadow it. This just seems like something GRRM would do.
I can’t wait to see Lord Friendzone’s reaction when he finds out Dany kicked out Daario from her squad.
I’m hoping this doesn’t end with Arya and Gendry walking off into the sunset together – YUK!
I’m happy for Gendry to meet Arya and trigger somehow a long-lasting positive change and happiness in Arya, though it would be better if this is a change she inspires in herself somehow IMO.
I can’t imagine GRRM doing something so treacly and I hope the show writers don’t either.
Is no show, however bleak, free of the horror of “shipping”!
Given the fate of other returning characters I think it’s more likely that we’ll get two scenes.
One scene of him working happily in a Village Forge.
The second scene would be Mel turning up and burning him to gain more powers for herself.
Is it delusional that I am still hoping for a Arya/Gendry happy ending? I mean, this show is one big misery-fest and I am still shipping them? Well, one can dream.
icequinn,
Maybe she already went to Belfast and we don’t know lol she is very good at hiding 🙂 But she is already in LA with her mom for the Emmys.
Flayed Potatoes,
He’ll worship her even more 🙂 . If that’s possible.
Not if it wants to realistically portray actual human emotions. Because it’s not “treacly” or “shipping” you know, it’s called real life and love and romance and sex. It happens. For real. All the time. With real people. Just because in the early ’90’s fans of The X-Files and Mulder and Scully decided to put a name on their liking of that television pairing and the media and fandom thereafter ran with it doesn’t make two people hooking up and sometimes taking it further and falling in love unrealistic, or “treacly.”
Love, lust and everything in between is part of life. If it’s not included in a television show with lots and lots of characters… it’s not even remotely going to satisfy an attempt at accurately portraying those characters realistically.
I rather have Nymeria back than Gendry tbh, but I don’t mind he is back, I don’t get the hype though
Agora só falta o senhor Wilko Johson como Iyn payne
Maybe just let people enjoy a thing they like?
As for Kit, yeah he was in LA a few days ago, but he could have flown over to Belfast for a few days work before the Emmys.
Well Gendry learned to forge Valyrian steel as an apprentice so he could be coming back in regards to weapons used to kill the Night King and his merry band of men..I know he was a friend to Arya, but I’m not sure about that being his reason for coming back, but I well could be wrong. Maybe it’s a combination of both.
I liked the character and get he is the bastard of Robert and probably the last person in Westeros with Baratheon blood, but I don’t see that being part of his story arc…again, I could be wrong.
I too, (don’t hate on me) would rather have Nymeria back than Gendry. Nothing against his character or the storyline, but there are only two wolves left alive, Ghost and her. Really hoping D&D will unite Arya and her wolf. I can see that going a long way to anchor Arya on her way home.
JenniferH,
“If you think this has a happy ending, you haven’t been paying attention” 😉
I like this show and the books because it has a very cynical outlook on all that romantic fairy tale nonsense. May it remain so until the end. and not get mawkish..
Ellie,
i just don’t hope HBO don’t bring him just for the pleasure of fanservice just like they did for sandor or benjen and i also don’t hope he is just a troll like rickon and osha….if gendry have a real influence next season like becoming lord of the stomrland…and bring more troop to help jon in the war for the dawn…otherwise if it is just for saying “hey arya!” i would find it cute but still a fanservice for me…
Hah! I called this! I knew they’d bring him back.
Battle of the Bastards 2.0
Another person spotted kit in belfast at the hatfield bar.
https://twitter.com/RJ_Coleman/status/776040454622109696
https://twitter.com/RJ_Coleman/status/776041159705653248
My theory is that Gendry and Sam will play a big role in the end game. Sam will discover something about making Valerian steel at the Citadel and Gendry, a smith by training, will make it happen. There needs to be more Valerian steel swords to kill the Walkers, since they are apparently immune to fire – i.e. Daney and the dragons can’t defeat them alone.
“Romantic fairy tale nonsense” is not the same thing as “romance”. Jon/Ygritte was a very straightforward tragic love story in both the books and the show, nothing cynical about it (other than Ygritte herself, at times). Ned and Catelyn had a functional and deeply loving relationship.
Characters having positive romantic relationships is not something remotely foreign ot the series. These things are just not simple, or automatically fated to go well.
Sean C.,
I was thinking more of early Sansa, her ideals on her marriage and how it was wrecked!
I guess I went to the Sandor Clegane School of Inter-Personal Relationships 🙂
As for the Arya / Gendry thing here, Arya is still about 14 and Gendry, what over 20? That would be paedophilia in real life – just sayin’ !
JenniferH,
Thank you! Because relegating that side of human relationships to just the commercialized depictions on the show would be depressing and creepy. People are capable of relationships beyond prostitution and arranged marriages.
“not… automatically fated to go well” is an understatement. I think that’s one of the reasons why I like watching Missandei and Grey Worm together. They seem to love each other and might have a chance at happiness (yeah, who am I kidding) What a weird show, when the longest lasting romantic relationship seems to be Cersei and Jaime. People have thought for years there was going to be a huge break up, but so far they are still going, proclaiming their love for each other. Well, up until that piercing glance Jaime gave Cersei as he watched her being crowned. But who knows? He may be surprised but proud of her. We wont know for another year.
Anyway, regarding Gendry, the first thing I thought of was that scene in Season 3 when Gendry tells Arya he’s joining the BWB because they’re a “family” and he’s never had a family. “I can be your family,” pleads Arya. “You wouldn’t be my family,” he replies, “You’d be M’lady.” If someone gives Gendry a title and some lands, considering his blood, would they not be equals then? As someone else said, I sure hope they don’t bring him back just to kill him off. I’d hate that. I hope he does have an important role to play towards the defeat of the WW. Anyway, good news that it looks like he’s back, at least in some part.
In the books Gendry is 5 years older than Arya and still a teenager himself, more than an adequately aged suitor for that world. In our world as well when compared to an equal era in our history. They rarely mention ages on the show anymore anyway, and with Maisie turning 20 between the seasons here she’s definitely old enough to be seen as properly aged.
If one doesn’t enjoy talk of romance, dancing and suitors in their sci-fi/fantasy stories it looks like it may be wise to skip some Sansa chapters in TWoW as the sample chapter at least is stuffed with it.
——————–
People need to simmer on the “bittersweet” word used by GRRM before he’s even close to completing his series. Some seem to take it so far that most of the story ends tragically. Nobody knows what was on his mind when he used that word. He could have been thinking of one specific fan favorite character at the time that does something heroic but fatal in the end.
Ron P,
That is my theory too. Gendry may be working as a smith in Oldtown and encounter Sam.
I’m delighted with this news whatever the path he takes. Yay!!! The return of the last Baratheon! ?
Love Joe Dempsie. I’ve just watched him in a crime drama, One Of Us here in the UK. The actress who played Lysa Arryn was also in the show. Quite took me back lol.
Clob,
I’m old and bitter and I know I’m in a minority of one in wishing all the characters to die lonely, miserable and horribly – thereby comes the sweet 😉
Or is that too dystopian even for GRRM? 😀
Thronetender,
I always took that Gendry quote to have double meaning: “You’d be M’Lady”, but also, “You’d be my lady.”
Or maybe I just heard what I wanted to hear. 🙂
This photo of Joe Dempsie actually kind of reminds me of the famous still image of “Bigfoot” in the Patterson-Gimlin footage. 😛
JenniferH,
Thank you for this.Romance is not a dirty word and it has its place even in a show like Game of Thrones.There is plenty of misery for other people to enjoy themselves lol.It’s not about shipping it’s about human emotions.
Fan service or not, I have been expecting it. Not that I was Gendry’s fan, but I do believe his arc will be linked to Sam’s and eventually to the war against the WW. If he happens to come across Arya in between and have a kind of romance, I wouldn’t complain. Romance and love happen in real life, as others have stated. And I am certain that if they go that way, it will be a couple of scenes involving a look or a touch, not long scenes with Gendry reciting love poetry. So, no fret.
Actually, I am persuaded no corny romantic scene will ever appear on this show. Could be Arya and Gendry looking at each other, Sam and Gilly hugging their child or Jaime dying in the arms of the woman he loves, and that’s it.
And, by the way: Arya may be supposed to be 14 but is not really 14. Plus in the Middle Ages 14 year old girls already had like two kids. So lets keep things in proportion.
Heh, given all the sexual/romantic subtext in his interactions with Sansa in the books, that’s kind of ironic. 😉
Clob,
Ha ha, indeed! Let’s if this is more real than Bigfoot – it could be HBO trolling us like with Shae last year.
lord of blogfell,
Sandor and Benjen weren’t fanservice.They needed Coldhands to save Bran and they had a perfect opportunity with Benjen and we don’t even know if it’s the last time we have seen him.And Sandor clearly is not done with in the books he has a role to play.Osha and Rickon were not trolls.He played a role,got Jon to join the battle and was the reason said battle started.I’m sorry but did people expect more from him??He has never been an important character neither show or books.And Osha had to go she was just a tertiary character.At least they gave her an onscreen death
Can we just address this whole Gendry forging Valyrian steel business.
On the show Valyrian steel has never been mentioned in reference to the blacksmith Gendry trained under.
The only reference to people being capable of re-forging Valyrian steel was when Tywin had Ice reforged and he mentioned that there were “three living smiths who know how to rework Valyrian steel. The finest of them was in Volantis. He came here to King’s Landing at my invitation”.
Now, I guess it’s possible that Gendry’s former master was one of the other two, but I find it highly tenuous.
The idea of Gendry miraculously being capable of forging or reforging Valyrian steel, and Sam just happening to stumble across him in Oldtown or wherever, having also been the only person in Westeros in centuries to stumble across the key to making Valyrian steel in the Citadel library, would be a terribly cheap plot device which I really hope they don’t go for.
Maybe in the books such a possibility has already been established, but on the show it would just feel like cheap storytelling.
Personally, I don’t see any need in terms of the plot for more Valyrian steel swords to be forged.
They already have four available. And if they want the rank and file soldiers to kill White Walkers then Sam already knows the solution to that problem. He knows dragonglass kills them and Stannis told him there’s a ton of it on Dragonstone.
We’ve only seen a handful of White Walkers so far. We don’t know how many of them there will be in their army. It will add to the tension and drama of the final battles if only Jon, Brienne and whoever ends up carrying Heartsbane and Widow’s Wail can go toe to toe with them. If every soldier is kitted out with a Valyrian steel sword then what’s the point?
If they want the soldiers to be capable of killing the White Walkers then they need merely kit them out with dragonglass blades and arrowheads, which won’t serve to completely undermine the special nature of Valyrian steel swords or our heroes who will be carrying them.
I have always thought Gendry would return, so it’s not a surprise for me. I don’t think he will be king or that he will be Arya’s husband. But I do think he still has a role to play in this story. Maybe he will reforge Ice or he will forge swords necessary to defeat the white walkers?
Rhaenys Stark,
I seem to recall him expressing his joy at the tsunami of nominations the show received for its sixth season, which was very nice of him.
However, I believe you are absolutely right. He has not communicated directly about the season itself. But the man is a busy bee, he has better things to do (hopefully ^^)
JenniferH,
It would be pointless and inaccurate, I think, to even argue that the relationship between Arya and Gendry is not based on love. And there is nothing even remotely trite about it. They cared for, trusted and respected each other tremendously and they had each other’s back.
I suppose the main question is : was it the romantic / sexual kind of love or more the family / group sort ?
In my profoundly subjective opinion, it iwas more the latter. Gendry, being an orphan, and Arya, being a direwolf in desperate need of a “pack”, created a semblance of the family they viscerally craved (along with Hot Pie). This may be what made their separation so heartbreaking : Arya was again forced to be on her own, separated from the familial haven she had cobbled together with Gendry who, in many ways, was a Jon substitute. As for Robert’s son, he ended up being betrayed and sold by the very “family” he had chosen.
Could they meet again ? Sure !
Would it be interesting ? Come what may, it is bound to be.
Could they end up together, in any capacity ? I am not certain. We know how much Arya has changed over the intervening years. Would she and Gendry still “fit” ? It remains to be seen. 😉
Ser Not Appearing in this Series,
I would not call ASOIAF “cynical” per se. Perhaps just disenchanted. The series is permeated with the notion that being good / kind / right is not enough, so to speak. Kindness and mutual love certainly feature heavily in George RR Martin’s world but they do not guarantee a happy ending. Life is unfair on Planetos.
In the songs Sansa used to love, the nice guys are always rewarded and the villains punished for their crimes while in George RR Martin’s work, it is more fluid for injustice exists. Oh so very much ^^
As the last Baratheon, wouldn’t Gendry be the heir to Dragonstone? Isn’t that where we know there is lots of dragonglass? That could be incredibly important to the end game whether or not Gendry uses his smithing skills. However, I can’t believe GRRM would make that character a smith for no reason. The Sam link will be that Sam will learn how to make Valeryan steel at the Citadel. Gendry could still be the right smith to forge it.
Any way that he fits in, I’m glad Gendry is back! I loved the dynamic between him and Arya. It would be wonderful for them to find each other, romantically or not!
In the span of about 20 days Kit has flown from Montreal > NYC > Belfast > London > LA > back to Belfast > and then back to LA by this weekend. Good lord, that sounds exhausting – and he hasn’t even started filming yet.
Yep, your interpretation sounds good to me, too! I take it you mean as foreshadowing a future relationship. We can dream, can’t we?
A Man Grown,
I honestly believe that Arya will kill Melissandre. Can’t say I’ll shed too many tears if she does.
Even if the ending of the Jaime/Cersei pairing does turn out to be the most obvious fulfillment of the Valonqar Prophecy, there are still plenty of interesting possible interactions that they could have en route. I for one would like to see a big blowout argument in which they vent all their hidden resentments of each other, instead of that ‘you and me against the world’ stuff, which is getting old. I want to hear Cersei admit how much she always envied her twin for getting to do all the things that she wanted to do, simply because he was the boy. And I want to hear Jaime make her face the fact that none of their three children would have died the way they did if not for her manipulations.
An alternate route to their final train wreck would be Jaime trying to hide his growing disenchantment with Cersei and failing – perhaps suddenly losing his physical enthusiasm for her in one of their inappropriately located trysts, which would probably turn her contemptuous and vindictive. He might have to get out of Dodge just to save his own neck from the Mad Queen.
Got to wonder, too, how much he blames himself for this monster that he helped to create. They’re such an extreme textbook case of codependency!
Can’t forget that years ago GRRM told a fan at a book signing that Arya and Gendry would meet again down the line. This is well-known and a reliable source.
GRRM used that term as part of a larger discussion in which he professed admiration for the way that Tolkien ended LotR: The Shire has suffered oppressive leadership and environmental degradation and needs to be ‘scoured.’ The High Elves need to leave Middle Earth with the last three Rings of Power, and many of their fairest works will fade and vanish. Frodo’s wounds never fully heal; he tells Samwise that their world has been saved, ‘but not for me.’ There is victory, but also great loss.
I think GRRM made it pretty clear that by ‘bittersweet’ he meant that kind of a mixed bag. In Tolkien’s famous essay ‘On Fairy-Stories’ he writes about fantasy lit having to deliver four things: Fantasy, Recovery, Escape and Consolation. Some valuable things must be recovered and some characters consoled by the end – certainly not all, but some. A few characters finding some sort of love or happiness will not overromanticize the author’s often-bleak vision.
Ramsay's 20th Good Man,
You have made some good points, but I can’t agree with all of them.
1) Yes, we have seen only a small number of White Walkers so far, but it was also implied that there may be many more. We saw them taking and converting Craster’s babies and we can guess that Craster was not the only one to make such sacrifices. So, the total number of White Walkers can be hundreds and I assume we will see their real might in S7.
2) Equipping the living with dragonglass weapons sounds reasonable, but there are two major problems. First of all, the Dragonstone is under Cersey’s control at present. Davos could sneak in end get some dragonglass – I can see him doing that, but accessibility of the Dragonstone is a complication nonetheless. Secondly, even if Jon and co. acquires dragonglass, I don’t think that throwing raw pieces of dragonglass into White Walkers will do them much harm. They will have to make dragonglass weapons – spearheads and arrowheads, and that’s not an easy task. Trust me, I have tried to work with flint and I can say with full responsibility that shaping spearheads and especially arrowheads requires extraordinary skills. People of Westeros hardly have them: they are living in the Iron Age, not in the Stone Age, after all. And fighting with dragonglass weapons might be slightly different, too. Therefore, if there is a choice, Valyrian steel sounds like a better idea, than dragonglass.
2) Sam’s interest in Valyrian steel was pretty much established last season. He may already have some ideas: for instance, that dragonglass may be the required ingredient. Deciphering the Valyrian steel formula may also involve identification of some spelling errors – importance of spelling was foreshadowed as well (see/sea). So, you can call Sam stumbling across the key to making Valyrian steel in the Citadel library a terribly cheap plot device but it would make sense more that anything, and Sam will definitely need to consult a smith in his research, and Gendry is young and skillful and can be talked into a challenging experiment, presumably. Besides that, if they figure out the technology but find out that some key ingredient (for instance, dragon fire) is not available that won’t be that cheap and move the story forwards.
3) I do agree that it will add to the tension and drama of the final battles, if only Jon, Brienne, and whoever ends up carrying Heartsbane and Widow’s Wail can go toe to toe with White Walkers, but that can be promoted easily. I’m sure that White Walkers will breach the Wall before Sam and Gendry (?) are able to arrange mass production and that there will be a decent fight with a few Valyrian swords until the new ones arrive together with dragons. And in general the war for dawn has to end with some major technological advancement, just like any other war in the real history of mankind.
This is cool. Perhaps the sole surviving Baratheon will be the one to bring Arya back from near madness. Perhaps he’ll swing a warhammer in the battle for the dawn.
Awesome. Love it when they tie up the loose ends.
Firannion,
My prediction is that Jamie will confront Cersey in Ep1 of S7. I can totally see him trying to choke her (it has been pretty much established that he can lose control and do something mad). However, as soon as all the nerds aware of the Valonquar prophecy jump from their seats, the Frankenmountain will switch Jamie off and afterwards he will open his eyes in the black cell and listen to Unella’s screams (I have this feeling based on the In Production teaser, especially on that reflection of Jamie’s face on the table – that was the one from S2 or S3 when he was held captive).
Lol, he must be racking up the frequent flier miles.
We don’t really know that they have not started filming. Sophie might be using a wig this time.
I’m confused. When was it established that Jaime can lose control and do something mad? Pretty much his every move since being captured by Robb Stark has been controlled, culminating in his speech of pure manipulation to Edmure. (removing the ever controversial sept scene from this discussion)
Old Nan’s Pie,
yeah, where did karstark go?
HotPinkLipstick,
I had in mind that infamous twincest rape next to Joeffrey’s dead body. IMO, if Jamie was capable of something like that, he is capable of anything.
Inga,
I’m afraid I can’t agree with that.
The idea of Sam being the only person, out of thousands of maesters that must have gone through training at the Citadel and used the library, to discover the key to creating Valyrian steel is a cheap plot device.
Shoehorning Gendry in there makes it even more contrived.
What would make sense is for Sam to use the knowledge that he already has about dragonglass to ensure that the good guys are appropriately armed for the oncoming war.
If a few brothers of the Night’s Watch can manage to form daggers and arrowheads out of dragonglass beyond the Wall then surely the armourers of Westeros can manage it. And Sam has already killed one White Walker with a dragonglass dagger and Meera killed one with a dragonglass tipped spear last season. We know how effective it can be.
And for all we know, Daenerys could capture Dragonstone (her birthplace and the Targaryens’ ancestral seat) fairly early in her conquest, meaning that mining more dragonglass could begin as early as possible.
Although they do seem to have built up Sam’s interest in Valyrian steel in the last couple of seasons, I still think that they can avoid this Valyrian steel plot device by having Sam possess Heartsbane simply as a means for it to end up in the right hands (e.g. Daenerys’) and having him pass on his knowledge of dragonglass instead.
Finally, I don’t see what the point of bringing Gendry back would be just to have him hammering away at an anvil in his efforts to create Valyrian steel at Sam’s behest. I think his lineage and his relationships with Arya and Davos are more worthy uses of his screen time.
Finally, everybody being armed with the means of killing White Walkers really would just render them the most useless antagonists in fiction.
All the build up over 6/7 seasons of this terrible threat coming from beyond the Wall and then by the time they turn up there are dragons ready to toast their wight infantry and an abundance of Valyrian steel to kill every White Walker with a single stroke of a blade.
I think they risk undermining all drama and threat that the White Walkers present if they go down the route of uncovering the secret to making Valyrian steel.
Inga,
The problem with using that scene to define character is that both actors, Lena and Nikolaj, the director and the showrunners didn’t intend it to be rape. In fact, Lena said at a Comic Con that she was playing it as if Cersei wanted Jaime. So, no matter what the scene looked like or how you felt about it, it can’t be used to define Jaime’s character. It can be used as an example of shitty acting, bad direction, horrific lighting and bad camera work. That works.
Will Snow,
Better be careful though, would hate for him to be reintroduced only to fall off the boat and drown
HotPinkLipstick,
Well, I haven’t seen any bad acting or horrific lighting in that scene and I was shocked by the amount of criticism that scene received. It looked like the USA turned into the USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). But all that aside, I think we can agree that having sex by the coffin – whether by force or by mutual consent – is a crazy thing (to say the least). And if Jamie was crazy enough to initiate that (and rather violently), we can expect him getting violent again. That’s all I want to say.
While I agree wholeheartedly with you on the first part (it certainly has always seemed that Cersei grew to resent her condition as a woman -not entirely unjustifiedly so- and does not so much love Jaime as she wants to be him), I am torn about the second half…
Can Cersei truly be held responsible for her children’s deaths ?
Joffrey died because Olenna wanted to prevent him from hurting Margaery. Now, one can reasonably argue that Joffrey’s taste for cruelty was rooted in the sense of entitlement and omnipotence his mother had hammered into him; there definitely appeared to be a correlation. However, Robert cannot be entirely excused. Joffrey worshipped his alleged father’s reputation for “heroic” violence but lacked the physical strength or martial skills to pull it off so he diverted to the next best thing : petty, lamentable, cowardly sadism.
As for Myrcella, well… The Sands (or anyone for that matter) killing her to avenge Oberyn made little to no sense. There was nothing untowards in Cersei’s choice of the Mountain as her champion and Oberyn was aware he would face Clegane. The Red Viper lost, fair and square. There was, technically speaking, nothing to avenge and Myrcella was certainly not the right target.
In Tommen’s case conversely, there is definitely a causal link. She took away the one “person” looking over him (the Mountain) to satiate her thirst for revenge. Thus unsupervised, Tommen committed suicide.
However, on a broader point, I do agree with you completely : the twins are in for a break-up. Their double act is not as convincing as it used to be.
Paradoxically enough, I would guess the decision to part ways, at least symbolically, will be Cersei’s.
“She needs me”, Jaime told Edmure. The attack on the Sept proved him wrong. She defeated her enemies and seized the power for herself, without his support be it emotional or material. She got her heart’s desire, the one thing her sex was supposed to prevent her from achieving. She does not require a living, breathing (disapproving) penis substitute now that she has the crown ! And if / when Euron enters the picture, oh boy !
Ramsay’s 20th Good Man,
Well, regarding technology. As a historian, I have some experience with archaeological reconstruction and I know a lot of people involved. I know one or two blacksmiths able to forge the so called damascus steel swords, but I know that none of them would be able to make a flint spearhead. Metalwork and stonework requires completely different skills. Therefore, I also assume that dragonglass spearheads/daggers Sam found at the Fist were made not by some brothers of the Night’s Watch, but by Children of the Forest (who were still using Stone Age technologies).
And regarding Dragonstone, of cause, it would be very good, if Dany could take it, but so far she knows nothing about it’s strategic importance and her landing plans are different as the In Production teaser implies. One way or another, acquiring dragonglass will be problematic, because making dragonglass abundant and available for armament would render the White Walkers the most useless antagonists in fiction as much as availability of Valyrian steel.
Inga,
Regardless of matters of historical or technological accuracy I don’t think it would be too much of a stretch in the realms of fiction for the combined minds of Westerosi smiths and armourers to manufacture some makeshift dragonglass daggers and spearheads.
Who knows when Daenerys will take Dragonstone, but I’m just saying that if the producers wanted to avoid the Valyrian steel plot device they could have Daenerys capture Dragonstone early enough to make the mining of the dragonglass possible.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s where she was born and the ancestral seat of her House. So, much like capturing the home of the Usurper, Robert Baratheon, it would be a symbolic achievement and one that she would naturally desire. It would, of course, also allow her to blockade King’s Landing.
As for dragonglass rendering the White Walkers useless, I don’t think it’d be to the same extent as arming soldiers with Valyrian steel.
So far we’ve seen only dragonglass daggers, spearheads and arrowheads. A soldier carrying a Valyrian steel dagger as a secondary weapon would not undermine the White Walker threat to the same extent that carrying a Valyrian steel sword as their primary weapon would.
Also, we saw in 6×05 (The Door) one of the Children failed to penetrate a White Walker’s armour with a dragonglass spear, whereas Longclaw penetrated a White Walker’s armour easily. This adds an extra level of skill required to kill a White Walker with a weapon that can’t penetrate their armour; so not just any old conscript with a sword could kill one, but only skilled soldiers.
If they armed a few units of archers with dragonglass arrows, the producers could plot to have the archers overwhelmed by wights or have the Night King whip up a snow storm to undermine their effectiveness.
Essentially, I think there is more drama to be achieved from limiting the ability of the average person/soldier to kill a White Walker and limiting the availability of Valyrian steel to our main characters.
I also just feel it’s a more credible and less contrived way for the plot to develop than using Sam in a sorcerer’s apprentice cliche and clumsily roping Gendry into the equation too.
Although, I’m saying all this despite expecting the producers to go down the Valyrian steel route. But, a man can hope.
HotPinkLipstick,
There was plenty wrong with that scene, but the acting most definitely wasn’t one of them.
I’ll bet real money that Joe Dempsie has an inflatable boat in his duffel bag in case of emergencies.
That wasn’t years ago; it was just in the last few months. He said it only recently after having giving only “we’ll see” kinda answers previously when asked about the possibility. But having said it just very recently as he’s finally working on the books again is very hopeful.
Ellie,
For Arya.
Idem. 🙁
Because in the Games of Thrones, there are rarely genuinely innocent and good people, people without an agenda.
And given his age and description of dear mama, I suspect he may also tie up some loose ends.
And he’s hot. 🙂
Ramsay's 20th Good Man,
Though GoT is a fiction, it is realistic in the sense that nothing is easy and neither Valyrian steel, nor dragonglass fall from the sky.
I just just don’t understand your antagonism to technological progress. You pointed it yourself: dragonglass has many shortcommings; it can’t pearce the armour of WW (armour is their techological progress); their ice swords would easily beat spesrs and daggers, dragonglass is not efficient against the wights, etc. Valyrian steel is better. But don’t worry: they won’t be making it in decent quantities until late S8.
First Episode of the season 7, Gendry is killed.
See you later guys, bye bye. budget restrictions.
Ellie,
My hope/guess is he somehow ended up in Asshai or something and learned how to forge Valyrian steel.
Okay, this is interesting… The Minnesota Vikings host their first regular season game in their new stadium (US Bank Stadium) Sunday night. According to an article in the Minneapolis paper:
Who are they going to have from GoT that will be there instead of the Emmy Awards? Minor character? Former (dead) character?
Clob,
A follow up to my post above… I’m hearing that it’s Hafþór Björnsson just there via video leading a cheer.
Inga,
You’re right, neither Valyrian steel nor dragonglass fall from the sky.
But as far as I’m concerned, our protagonists attempting to craft weapons out of the substance that they already know kills White Walkers is far more credible than Sam miraculously being the only person in thousands of years to discover the secret formula for creating the magic swords that can kill White Walkers and tasking a long-lost character to craft them just in time for the climactic battles.
I’ve already fully outlined my reasons for not wishing to see them go down the Valyrian steel route: 1) The means by which they would have to discover such a technological advance is not much more than a clumsy, cliched plot device; 2) I think that there is more dramatic potential in going down the route of a less effective weapon, which does not completely and utterly undermine the threat posed by the show’s ultimate antagonists; and 3) it would undermine the exclusive nature of Valyrian steel and the added heroism it bestows on our protagonists who carry it.
Will Snow,
but look at those skinny legs to go with his unusually large head?
GENDRY!!!!!
I knew it! And he’s not dying off in the first episode. He’s connected to BWB, Davos and Mel, the last show Baratheon, bastard or not AND he’s the show’s only blacksmith.
Plus…Arya’s back in town and he always softened her-he’s still a part of her story.
So so excited. Only Howland Reed or Syrio Forel could top that lmao (maybe not even them-because I really have missed that bastard boy from Flea Bottom)
I hope he doesn’t come back just to be killed like Osha. I was so disappointed at the way she died since she was one of my favorite characters and I was rooting for her to survived but even if she had to die I would have liked it if she had a bit more to do. Crossing my fingers for Gendry.
I have an alternate theory to offer… What if Gendry hears that Jon is running things at Winterfell with his Stark sister, and Gendry heads there thinking that the sister must be Arya? After all, he may not know that there are multiple Stark girls. Gendry arrives at Winterfell and realizes that it is Sansa, not Arya, but sticks around to help Jon with the forging steel business. And then Sansa and Gendry have an age appropriate romance, and Arya returns and is super excited about her new brother in law. 😉
Dear God, I hope not. Arya already feels inadequate next to her traditionally pretty older sister Sansa; the worst thing ever would be for her first crush to end up with her.
GRRM’s all but confirmed there’s something between Arya and Gendry. Maisie’s of age now in real life, and Arya’s almost there in show canon. There’s nothing preventing them from being together save for the storytelling. Martin may have other plans, but I doubt they include Gendry with Sansa or Daenerys (I’ve seen that idea bandied about as well).
I’ve noticed that Sansa fans tend to place her with every man imaginable in the series. So my preferred endgame for her is an Elizabeth I scenario. I want Sansa to be politically powerful, but single, engaging with lovers on her own terms.
It doesn’t really subvert fantasy or fairy tale tropes to make Sansa “the girl.” It does subvert them if Arya lands a nontraditional romance. Both Stark sisters getting what the other initially wanted? Bittersweet indeed.
Ellie,
He is from skins.