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Gendry, also known as The Bull and Ser Gendry of the Hollow Hill, is a supporting character in the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series and its television adaptation Game of Thrones. Gendry is a bastard son of King Robert I Baratheon, the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and a common woman or girl who worked in an alehouse, (typically known as tavern wench). He served as an apprentice of the blacksmith and armorer Tobho Mott in King's Landing until his father's death.
Currently, in the novels Gendry serves as an outlaw of the Brotherhood Without Banners, initially under the leadership of Lord Beric Dondarrion and now under Lady Stoneheart. He renounced the Seven Gods and fully converted to the faith of R'hllor, the Lord of Light. In the eight season of the TV series, Gendry rose to become nobility and was legitimized by his relative, Queen Daenerys Targaryen, as Gendry Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End, Lord Paramount of the Stormlands, and head of the revived House Baratheon.
He was portrayed by Joe Dempsie.
Appearance[]
Gendry is a young man in his teens. He is either fourteen or fifteen years old during the first novel and currently around sixteen. According to Eddard Stark and Brienne of Tarth, his appearance instantly and entirely marks him as a Baratheon: he has his father's blue eyes and thick black hair, which are typical of House Baratheon in general. Always like his father and Baratheons in general, he is tall and very muscular. He fully inherited his paternal appearance, while his mother was blond. When Gendry neglects to shave, his beard is also thick and black like those of the Baratheons. Gendry is noted to look identical to his father Robert in his prime. Brienne also noted how strongly he looks like a young Renly Baratheon, albeit Gendry has a squarer jaw, bushier brows, and tangled hair, with an unsmiling mouth, in contrast to Renly's constantly easy smile and neat hair. According to Eddard, he has the look of a warrior, as Robert did. According to Arya Stark, Gendry in his armor looks almost like a fully grown man, and dangerous.
Personality[]
Gendry has poor manners and can be rude, behaving and speaking like a typical common Kingslander of very humble birth. He is known for his stubborness, which along with his strength earns him the nickname "The Bull". He is a smart boy, but sullen, and suspicious. He is also easily confused. Arya instead does not think of him as smart and thinks he is stupid and that he looks in pain whenever he tries to think. He can be shy around women. He dislikes and resents nobles for their treatment of the smallfolk like himself. He is not a good horseman.
Early life[]
Gendry was born around 284 AC to King Robert I Baratheon, the recently crowned ruler of the Seven Kingdoms of the continent of Westeros. His mother was a blond-haired commoner who worked at an alehouse in King's Landing, the capital of the Seven Kingdoms, and Gendry was born in the city. Robert was a hedonistic womanizer, and Gendry was one of many unacknowledged bastards of the king. Though he assumed he was a bastard, Gendry never learned the identity of his father. Gendry was raised by his mother in King's Landing, who sometimes sung to him, until she died when he was still a young boy.
Gendry's own father, King Robert once nearly rode him down while he was drunk, when Gendry, as a child, was playing near the Mud Gate. Gendry, who never knew (and in the novels still doesn't know) Robert was his father, never interacted with the King, and the only other times he saw him were from afar at tourneys and once at the Great Sept of Baelor.
After the death of Gendry's mother, Varys the Spider, King Robert's spymaster, took it upon himself to find a new haven for the King's bastard. Disguised in hooded cloak and fake beard to conceal his true identity, Varys handsomely paid the Qohorik Tobho Mott, a foreign master blacksmith and armorer, to take on Gendry as an apprentice in his shop. Mott was aware of Gendry's true lineage, but kept the boy's secret due in part to a bribe from Varys. The master blacksmith owned the premium shop on the Street of Steel, a street in King's Landing primarily consisting of blacksmith and armorer shops. Due to his youth at the time of his enrolment, Gendry barely remembered his mother and didn't remember the man who had paid his apprenticeship fee at all. However, he does remember she had blond hair and some things she taught him.
During the year 297, whilst working at Master Mott's shop, Gendry was visited by the Hand of the King and Lord of the Eyrie, Jon Arryn, and the master of ships and Lord of Dragonstone, Stannis Baratheon. Both men were investigating the legitimacy of King Robert's trueborn heirs. While Jon asked Gendry several questions, Stannis remained silent and studied Gendry's face as he glared at him.
A Game of Thrones[]
During 298, months after Jon Arryn's death, Mott's shop was visited by the Hand of the King's successor Lord Eddard Stark. Stark was investigating the mystery surrounding Arryn's death, and as such was following the trail of his predecessor's investigation into Robert's children. Like with Arryn, Mott introduced Stark to Gendry. Lord Stark was impressed by Gendry's helm and offered to purchase it, though, much to Mott's chagrin, the apprentice told him it wasn't for sale. Like Jon Arryn, Lord Stark inquired into Gendry's lineage. Gendry offered the same answers he had given the previous Hand, and Lord Stark went on his way.
A Clash of Kings[]
After Eddard Stark's execution, Gendry is taken by Yoren to join the Night's Watch. Unbeknownst to Gendry, this is done to protect him from Queen Cersei, who is in the process of having all of Robert's bastards murdered. Gendry travels North in a retinue with several other prisoners, among them a disguised Arya Stark; Ned Stark's daughter.
Queen Cersei's men hunt Yoren down however, and demand that he turn Gendry over. Yoren refuses, and with the help of his recruits manage to drive the men away. Gendry and Arya become friends, after Gendry deduces that she's a girl, and a highborn one at that.
The recruits are eventually captured by the Mountain's men, who take them to Harrenhal, where Gendry works as a smith. After the castle falls to Robb Stark's army, Gendry becomes a retainer of House Bolton. Eventually, Arya begins to form a plan to escape Harrenhal, and convinces Gendry and Hot Pie to come with her.
A Storm of Swords[]
When travelling towards Riverrun, the home of Arya's mother's family; the Tulleys, the trio are ambushed and captured by the Brotherhood Without Banners. Gendry is impressed with the Brotherhood's ideals, since they fight to protect the common folk who cannot defend themselves in times of war. Despite Arya's attempt to get him to flee with her, Gendry joins the Brotherhood and is knighted by Ser Beric Dondarrion himself, becoming Ser Gendry of the Hollow Hill.
A Feast for Crows[]
While on a quest to find Sansa Stark, Brienne encounters Gendry working as a smith at the Crossroads Inn. She is shocked by his striking resemblence to Renly Baratheon (King Robert's younger brother), but before the two can have words she is attacked by Rorge and Biter. She slays Rorge, only to be overpowered by Biter, and is eventually saved by Gendry, who kills Biter with a spear through the neck.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the novels, Gendry and his uncle, Stannis Baratheon, are the only Baratheons (by blood, as Gendry isn't legally a Baratheon) who converted to the foreign religion of the Lord of Light. However, Stannis isn't really a believer and is only interested in the magic powers related to R'hllor, while he has an agnostic and nearly atheist behavior toward religions. Gendry on the other hand, is fully devoted to R'hllor and shows annoyance when characters pray to other gods, such as when he left a room when people were praying to the Seven.
- Coincidentally, in the books both Gendry and Stannis are the least friendly and most unsmiling of their family. They're also both uncomfortable and socially awkward around women, utterly unlike Robert Baratheon.
- In the TV series on the other hand, Gendry's conversion to the Lord of Light was never adapted, while his uncle Stannis was turned into an actual and aggressive believer in said god.
- In Season 3 of the TV series, Gendry was used to replace his younger half-brother Edric Storm in Stannis and Davos' storyline at Dragonstone, while Edric himself was cut from the show entirely and his name was given to one of Stannis's stillborn children. Gendry's role in the Brotherhood and his storyline from A Feast for Crows were entirely omitted in the show. However, he still ended up reuniting with Beric Dondarrion and Thoros of Myr in Season 7.
- Although Gendry replaces his younger half-brother, Edric Storm, in Season 3 of the TV show, the two are complete opposites:
- While Gendry is rather uncouth, poor, lowborn, serious, and poorly dressed, Edric is extremely charismatic and popular around everyone, easily charming anyone he meets at his young age, spoiled, highborn, and always wearing fine clothes whereas Gendry lacks all these traits. Unlike Gendry, Edric—who was raised as Renly's ward at Storm's End—is vain and proud, likes to brag about himself and his father Robert, and believes in the Seven, especially the Warrior. Also, unlike Gendry, Edric is known and liked by the nobility of the Stormlands.
- In the TV series adaptation the last living members of House Baratheon, Stannis and Shireen, died in the fifth season. In the show the Baratheon bastard Edric Storm has been cut, and there's no mention of the other bastards of Robert, such as Mya Stone and Bella. Therefore in the TV series Gendry might be the last living person with Baratheon blood in his veins.
- In the TV series' eighth season, he was mistakenly referred to as "Gendry Rivers", by Daenerys Targaryen when she's legitimizing him as a Baratheon and naming him Lord of Storm's End, despite the fact that Gendry wasn' even born in the Riverlands. This is presumably a mistake of the screenwriters of the show, rather than a mistake of the character Daenerys.
- Gendry legally never had a last name, as the 9 bastard Westerosi surnames (Snow, Stone, Rivers, Pyke, Hill, Waters, Storm, Flowers, Sand) can only be given to children with at least one highborn parent from nobility (or at least must be granted by a noble to any bastard), which is Gendry's case but was never made public knowledge. To have said surnames, the highborn parent of the bastard child must officially acknowledge them as their own issue. Smallfolk illegitimate children usually have only one name, or get whatever surname of their own.
- Had Robert Baratheon ever acknowledged Gendry as his son, Gendry's correct last name would have been "Gendry Waters", as he was born in the Crownlands, having been raised by his mother in King's Landing until her death.
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