Aa-ronpa - Aaaaaroooonnnn-par

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Maisie Williams’s cute “date” to the Emmys (x)

I don’t know how to be lord of anything. I hardly know how to use a fork. All I know is that you’re beautiful, and I love you, and none of it will be worth anything if you’re not with me. So be with me. Be my wife. Be the Lady of Storm’s End.

Me, watching that last Arya scene: WHEN THE RED STAR (RED KEEP) BLEEDS AND THE DARKNESS GATHERS. BORN AMIDST SALT AND SMOKE. AZOR AHAI.

Gendry’s arc this season isn’t about being a Lord. It’s about Arya.

I fully realise this week has aged us all by about a hundred years, so sanity went out the window for a few days, BUT, now we’ve all calmed down somewhat I would just like to point something out. 

Gendry’s rejection has a lot of people saying the only reason he was brought back was to make him a Lord, and that’s his arc this season. But that’s just wilfully choosing to ignore the actual way Gendry has been presented to us this season and is another reason why Gendrya is far from over yet. 

Every single one of Gendry’s scenes thus far in S8 are either shared with Arya or about Arya - the exception to this is literally just the Battle for Winterfell, where, interestingly, he is placed side by side with Sandor, who consistently keeps showing up next to these two characters. I ELABORATE.

GENDRY’S SCENES THIS SEASON:

1) Gendry arriving alongside Jon and Dany and the royal parade. Who’s perspective are we seeing his arrival from? Arya’s. What does Arya do upon seeing him again? Smiles happily. 

2) Gendry in the forges, scene opens with him giving Sandor an axe he’s made for him. Sandor being presented as this interesting ‘Light vs Dark’ juxtaposition against Gendry for Arya that we keep seeing. Sandor leaves, and this leads into his reunion with Arya, where jokes are made referencing their previous dynamic as children, she requests a weapon, and a flirtation and attraction is established.

3) Arya seeking Gendry out in the forges. She is eyeing him up, and he is flirting back with her. Asks him about her weapon, “It’s strong enough” flirtation. But alongside the flirtation is Gendry being the first one to actually show genuine care for Arya, knowing she’s not afraid, but wanting her to be safe. She responds by throwing the knives at the wall, and Gendry at this point is clearly very very attracted to her, staring at her in awe. 

4) Gendry seeks out Arya to give her the weapon she asked him to make for her. Stands in the shadows somewhat in awe of her archery skills now (as obviously he knew her when she was still learning with Anguy) before revealing himself. They have a conversation where Gendry reveals he’s Robert’s bastard, says what happened with Melisandre (a site of trauma for him), and opens up about how many sexual partners he’s had. All personal stuff.

5) Arya and Gendry sleep together, and it’s very obvious from the way Gendry looks up at her that this physical attraction he now has for her, blended with the trust and care they had established as kids, has turned into him being very very much in love with her now.

6) Gendry appears at the front lines of the Battle, arriving late - ha - with Sandor. The juxtaposition of Sandor with these characters continues. We then have the rest of the Battle of Winterfell. 

7) Gendry is looking around the Dinner Hall trying to spot Arya. Is sat with Sandor, again (for someone who claims to dislike Gendry so much, Sandor doesn’t half enjoy turning up around him all the time) and Gendry awkwardly takes a drink and asks Sandor if he’s seen Arya. Sandor looks at him with borderline despair-judgement, sees through this facade immediately “That’s where your head’s at” “I just want to thank her -” “I’M SURE YOU DO.” implying he knows something’s going on with them; and he lowkey approves of it.

8) Gendry gets up to start to actively look for Arya - and en route is accidentally legitimised. Yes, that’s a sentence we can actually say. ‘Accidentally legitimised’. This legitimisation finally gives him a sense of place. But the legitimisation itself isn’t what is important, it’s what he immediately does after.

9) Gendry frantically charging around the courtyard, pushing people aside. He was already off to go and find Arya, and now he needs to find her.

10) Gendry finds Arya, tells her he has been legitimised and kisses her. He then tells her she’s beautiful, and he loves her, and proposes marriage to her. He hasn’t grown up in the higher classes. He doesn’t understand what the term ‘Lady’ means. He has never viewed Arya as anything lesser than him - if anything, he views his Lordship as finally making the two of them equal. And Arya knows this, but has unfinished business, the system still scares her, and so she rejects the proposal; but kisses him as gently as she can, as reassuringly as she can. She doesn’t reject him, she rejects the structure he’s asking her to marry into.

Every. Single. Scene. Has been about or with Arya.

That to me is not an arc finished, and it’s also not an arc to me that shouts ‘THE WHOLE POINT OF THIS IS GENDRY BECOMING A LORD’. It’s an arc about two people who haven’t seen each other in years, have reconnected, and are in the process of falling in love with one another. Gendry is in the next two episodes. Arya’s with Sandor right now, who has been presented as somewhat of a contrast mediator in this dynamic. This arc is not over yet. Because if it was, it would render Gendry in the final two episodes entirely useless. This is a new arc which began this season. If it wasn’t important they wouldn’t have made his entire storyline be about it.

Oh and additionally - Joe literally said that Gendry’s storyline this season is very much about reconnecting with Arya, and that the only thing about the Lordship that matters is the place on hierarchy it finally gives him. Those comments are very in line with Gendry’s arc not being tied up with the Lordship, but being tied up with Arya.