Game Of Thrones: Is Gendry Really Cersei Lannister's Son?

3. It Won't Happen In The Books, And The Changes To Robert & Cersei's Relationship

In the books, Cersei loathes Robert far more than she does in the show. What's more, when it comes to the child of his that she lost, it wasn't a miscarriage, but an abortion, or at least the Westeros equivalent, sending Jaime to find a woman to cleanse her, and taking steps from then on to make damn sure Robert never impregnated her again.

That means Gendry, in the books, almost certainly can't be Cersei's son. The whole point of Gendry being Cersei's son would be that it had some impact on the endgame, and while the show is going in its own direction, that's a big plot point to leave out. Again, not impossible, and the series has made plenty of other deviations from the source material, but it does cast more doubt over it.

So too does the fact she has a slightly better relationship with Robert in the show. One of the very best scenes of the first season comes between the pair as they discuss their marriage, where she says: "I felt something for you once, you know? Even after we lost our first boy. For quite a while, actually."

The common thinking is that Cersei gave her child away because of her hatred of Robert, but here she explains she still felt something for him long after they lost their son, meaning the birth happened before she truly despised him. There's also the fact that, going back to her conversation with Catelyn in The Kingsroad, she says:

"Such a little thing. A bird without feathers. They came to take his body away and Robert held me. I screamed and I battled, but he held me."

If Robert was indeed there when they took the body away, then that would surely mean he saw the dead child. Again, it IS possible that Cersei had swapped her baby out for a dead child by the time Robert returned home, and that's what he then saw being taken away. It's also possible Cersei is making this up to comfort Catelyn. But it's a lot of 'what ifs'.