15 BEST Game Of Thrones Season 8 Theories

14. Gendry Sits On The Iron Throne

Game of Thrones Gendry
HBO

When Gendry is first introduced in Season 8, it’s because of one very specific, very important reason: he’s Robert Baratheon’s bastard son. And, after the savage murder of all of Bobby B’s other illegitimate children, he’s the last remaining link to the former King of the Seven Kingdoms - and he knows it.

Gendry’s journey took him far away from the Iron Throne: he left to take the black, forging a clone bond with Arya along the way, before deciding to join the Brotherhood Without Banners, getting sold off to Melisandre for his King’s Blood, and then spent four years ‘still rowing’. He ended up back in Flea Bottom, in the shadow of the Red Keep and the people who killed his father, before going North, and he’ll be at Winterfell in Season 8.

His return in Season 7 has to have some real purpose, beyond his skill with a hammer or ability to work metal. It’s not for nothing that he very pointedly introduces himself as Robert’s son. Gendry hasn’t forgotten his lineage, and nor should we. He may be a bastard, but so too is Jon Snow, and he’s King in the North. Cersei didn’t have a particularly strong claim to the Iron Throne, she simply took it for herself.

Now that she is, effectively, the Mad Queen, the people of Westeros are going to be looking for another option. At present, the only others are Jon or Daenerys, either of which would be a restoration of the Targaryen line that most recently ended with the Mad King. Is going back to the Baratheons such a bad idea? A Song of Ice and Fire has a love for cripples, bastards, and broken things. Those who aren’t destined to rule, and don’t show a desire for power, end up doing so. All Gendry has wanted us to find a place where he belongs, and people he can call a family. He likely wouldn’t want the Iron Throne, but that adds to the bittersweet feeling of him getting it. There’s also a pattern of things coming full circle. This all started with Robert Baratheon on the Iron Throne; it’d be fitting to end with one too.

[James Hunt]

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