Gendryxarya - Tumblr Posts

Dunk looked from one lady to the other. "You are the Red Widow?" he heard himself blurt out. "But you're too—"

"Young?" The girl tossed her longbow to the lanky lad he'd seen her shooting with. "I am five-and-twenty, as it happens. Or was it small you meant to say?"

"—pretty. It was pretty ." Dunk did not know where that came from, but he was glad it came. He liked her nose, and the strawberry-blond color of her hair, and the small but well-shaped breasts beneath her leather jerkin. "I thought that you'd be . . . I mean . . . they said you were four times a widow, so . . ."

This is a except from the novella The Sworn Sword, by GRRM. The dynamics between Rohanne Webber and Dunk remind me of Arya Stark and Gendry, so I created this reunion fic head-canon: Arya commands the brotherhood without banners now, under the alias Wolf. Gendry was isolated at the inn at the crossroads and has no ideia she's made it back to Westeros. They meet, the following scene ensues.

He looked from her eyes to the blade in her hand and to her eyes again. “You are the Wolf?” he heard himself blurt out “But you’re –”

“Young?” Arya said it with the hint of a chuckle, as she handed the dagger hilt first to the pretty young lord Edric Dayne who was still by her side. “I’m four-and-ten, as it happens. A woman grown, of an age with Robb Stark when he was King in the North. Or was it female you meant to say?”

Was she mocking him now? Words escaped him for a moment.

“–alive. It was alive.” Gendry did not know where that came from, but he was glad it came. The last to command the brotherhood had been less than that. “I thought that you’d be… I mean… we thought you died at the hands of the Hound. Then we thought you murdered at your uncle’s wedding. Last we thought you gone at the raid on Saltpans. They said you were three times as dead, so…”

I'm just gonna put this out there: someone needs to write a gendrya Dirty Dancing AU. It's just perfect!

Obviously Frances Houseman is Arya and Johnny Castle is Gendry. Jeniffer Grey and Parick Swayze. We've got:

Class issues

Rich girl who is really bothered by social injustice and mingles with people from different backgrounds

Frances and Johnny aren't afraid to call each other out on their bullshit, just like Arya and Gendry

They banter

The chemistry! Lots of hot dancing!

Throught the story they really learn to trust each other

Arya is tickly and Gendry is annoyed! This is from the wikipedia article on the movie:

Some of the scenes in the film are improvised. For example, the scene where Grey was to stand in front of Swayze with her back to him and put her arm up behind his head while he trailed his fingers down her arm. Grey was exhausted at the time and found the move ticklish, and could not stop giggling each time Swayze tried it, and he became annoyed. The footage was found in the editing room and the producers decided the scene worked as it was and put it into the film, complete with Grey's giggling and Swayze's annoyed expression. It became one of the most famous scenes in the movie, turning out, as choreographer Kenny Ortega put it, "as one of the most delicate and honest moments in the film."

Sansa is the pretty older sister (Lisa in the movie). She can sing and dance. Headcanon: she has recently broken up with Joffrey and she is hoping this vacation will be the best thing to get over all he's done to her

Harry Hardyng as Robbie, waiter at the hotel and Ivy Leage student trying to win over Sansa (and succeding), but actually a total prick

Bella as Penny, Gendry's half-sister and dance partner. At first, Arya doesn't get it and jealous of them, but they become friends

Daddy Ned is super proud of his younger daughter and absolutely trusts her. Ned is often in politics in modern AUs, but he could totally be an affluent doctor too. He's a good guy and helps Bella out when her abortion goes terribly, but he reads the situation wrong and blames Gendry. Dr. Houseman and Baby feel a lot like Ned and Arys, just look at this exchange:

"You always told me if someone was in trouble, I should help. Could you lend me $250"

"Are you all right? Are you in trouble?"

"No, it's not me. Could you loan it to me?"

"That's a lot of money. What's it for?"

"I can't tell you. It's hard for me to say that to you, but I can't."

"You always said you could tell me anything."

"I can't tell you this."

"It's not illegal, is it?"

"No, Daddy."

"That was a stupid thing to ask. Forgive me. I'll have it for you before dinner."

Arya befriends Mycah, or maybe Anguy, who in turn takes Arya to the staff-only party where Gendry confronts her for being a rich girl (the part of Billy, Johnny's cousin in the movie)

Edric Dayne as the hotel owner's grandson Neil who dances with Arya and tries to score a date with her. She goes but she is totally uninterested because she is thinking about Gendry the whole time

Things that could be different:

Of course, like Baby, Arya can't dance at first. But she's very atletic, she was in the fencing team in the fancy school she attended. She doesn't dance because she believes she can't be good at girly things (that also makes it more believable that she becomes good at it in such little time)

"Nobody puts Baby in the corner" can't happen is this story. Arya asserts herself as soon as Gendry walks in that room, please. She doesn't need a saviour!

Actually Arya would never have been okay with people calling her Baby. She should be a little more assentive than Frances from the get go

Gendrya headcanon: nicknames and pet names

So let’s go pick some fights. I think I get it... I think. Pet names signal intimacy between characters, a way of referring to each other that is exclusive to a pair and very meaningful. Nicknames can become almost like pet names sometimes, depending on the context (i.e. “he was the only one who called her that”).

In modern AU I can abide it, usually. More often then not, though, I cringe every time a fanfic writer has Gendry calling Arya "Arry"... In the books Arry is not a nickname, it's a false identity Arya was forced to take up and resents. And Gendry knows it! 

I can’t see it ever becoming a term of endearment between them. The awesome thing about Gendry is that Arya chooses to confide in him who she really is. And immediately after she does, he never ever calls her Arry again - but that’s not all, no, he doesn't call her Weasel or Nan either. Actually, there are a few passages I think are relevant to this topic. Arya's name is so important, it's the name (and not her absent cock) what does it for her to finally acknowledge she has to yield to Gendry: 

A Clash of Kings, Arya V

"I would if I knew, Arry . . . is that really what you're called, or do you have some girl's name?"

Arya glared at the gnarled root by her feet. She realized that the pretense was done. Gendry knew, and she had nothing in her pants to convince him otherwise. She could draw Needle and kill him where he stood, or else trust him. She wasn't certain she'd be able to kill him, even if she tried; he had his own sword, and he was a lot stronger. All that was left was the truth. "Lommy and Hot Pie can't know," she said.

Now of course, right here, Arya could just have said she was called Arya and be done with it, and he'd probably start calling her Arya. But she chooses to tell him who she really is, share her true identity with him: Arya, of House Stark. And never again does Gendry call her by her name, not untill they are somewhere safe. Before that he used to call her Arry all the time, from this point on, he barely ever uses any vocative when talking to her. 

Hot Pie, on the other hand, keeps calling her Arry untill they part

A Storm of Swords, Arya II

"I am not in the habit of serving ale to children, but the cider's run out, there's no cows for milk, and the river water tastes of war, with all the dead men drifting downstream. If I served you a cup of soup full of dead flies, would you drink it?"

"Arry would," said Hot Pie. "I mean, Squab."

And like is to be expected, people around pick up on it: 

Tom sat down across from her. "Squab," he said, "or Arry, or whatever your true name might be, this is for you." He placed a dirty scrap of parchment on the wooden tabletop between them.

This is just Hot Pie being Hot Pie.

A Clash of Kings, Arya VII

"Arya took her meals at a trestle table in the undercroft with Weese and his other charges, but sometimes she would be chosen to help fetch their food, and she and Hot Pie could steal a moment to talk. He could never remember that she was now Weasel and kept calling her Arry, even though he knew she was a girl."

Arya is bothered that Hot Pie keeps calling her Arry even though she's shed that identity already. Arya really resents the 'Arry' identity and for the rest of the books she reacts with indignation every time someone takes her for a boy.

Now, check this out:

A Clash of Kings, Arya IX

Arya slithered through the window and leapt down to the floor beside him.He did not seem surprised to see her. 

"You should be abed, girl." The breastplate hissed like a cat as he dipped it in the cold water. "What was all that noise?"

The vocative Gendry chooses for her is "girl". In that choice he reiterates that unlike Hot Pie he knows that she's a girl. He doesn't call her Arya: he won't let that slip, he'll hold her secret thight (I feel like this is usually downplayed, but Gendry could immensely benefit if he chose to go over to the Lannisters and tell of who Arya actually is). In choosing “girl” he also makes clear that he knows ‘Weasel’ is just a pretense, an alias she's taken for herself momentarily and not who she really is. Now this is not just some quirk, it's intentional. Before Gendry learns the 'Arry' is Arya Stark, he had no problem calling "him" by his name: 

A Clash of Kings, Arya II

Behind the hedge, the Bull shook his head doubtfully. "Why would the queen want you, Arry?"

She punched his shoulder. "Be quiet!"

A Clash of Kings, Arya IV

Look with your eyes, Arya wanted to shout at the men below. "Can't they see we're no lords or knights?" she whispered.

"I don't think they care, Arry," Gendry whispered back.

A Clash of Kings, Arya V

"If we see any leg potion, we'll bring it," Gendry said. "Arry, let's go, I want to get near before the sun is down. Hot Pie, you keep Weasel here, I don't want her following."

Now, here is another thing that is important. When Arya is saying her goodbyes to Hot Pie, she claims to be Arry. Hot Pie has just found out the girl Arry is actually a highborn lady, this ensues:

A Storm os Swords, Arya III

"You broke Lem's too." Hot Pie grinned. "That was good."

"Lem didn't think so," Arya said glumly. Then it was time to go. When Hot Pie asked if he might kiss milady's hand, she punched his shoulder. "Don't call me that. You're Hot Pie, and I'm Arry."

"I'm not Hot Pie here. Sharna just calls me Boy. The same as she calls the other boy. It's going to be confusing."

Okay so what GRRM is saying to us readers through Hot Pie is that Arya isn't Arry. This is done and over. She can’t cling to it.

Now you wanna know the first time and only time Gendry calls Arya by her name on page? It's in A Storm of Swords, Arya IV. They are alone: 

A Storm of Swords, Arya IV

Arya stalked away angry, and would have slammed the door if it hadn't been so heavy. Darkness had settled over Acorn Hall. A few torches burned along the walls, but that was all. The gates of the little castle were closed and barred. She had promised Harwin that she would not try and run away again, she knew, but that was before they started telling lies about her mother.

"Arya?" Gendry had followed her out. "Lady Smallwood said there's a smithy. Want to have a look?"

"If you want." 

This, folks, is the beginning of the forge tickling scene. It’s one of the most genuine and intimate scenes between Gendry and Arya as friends and children and it reeks of puppy love. It’s here that something else important happens: Gendry’s awareness of the class difference between him and Arya becomes an issue starting here, when she talks about him making swords in Riverrun - something he is now evasive about and will later turn down. Now, all of this to say that Arya’s name matters and it matters that Gendry is one of the few people who call her by her own name. Actually, even though a few people (Harwin and the kindly man) say Arya’s name, they don’t use it as a vocative in their interactions with her - Gendry is the only one to ever do it after Arya leaves the Red Keep in A Game of Thrones. 

Now, that’s why I cringe every time people have Gendry calling Arya Arry - it’s not cute, you all!  

Six Sentence Sundey

I wish I had more time to work on About Oaths and Wolves than I currently do. It's really fun, though, and I cherish every minute I get to spend with this story.

Harwin. Arya seemed to trust the northman, but the last time he had trusted Gendry was before the hangwoman was risen. That night the older man had wanted nothing more than to leave already, but still stopped to help Gendry cinch a saddle around the palfrey when his own hands turned stiff and clumsy with dread. Autumn rain was heavy upon them when they went into the woods, raising their voices to call her name. Lord Beric shouted in his commanding manner, Tom Sevenstrings called with his far-reaching cries, Thoros screamed his booming roar, but despair was most evident in their voices, his and Harwin’s. When they didn’t find Arya, theirs had been the worst anguish, but they never found it in each other to suffer together. Gendry had lost his only true friend, the fearless leader of their pack... he had been a boy then, and Harwin a grown man, he had no clue what the northman had lost in Arya Stark.

Book!canon reunion fic, y'all. Read from the beginning here

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be hosting Book Gendrya Week from the 5th to the 12th of August 2024. Like with last year’s month this event is for their book relationship, plotlines and the characters themselves. I want to thank my contributors who helped with prompts: @laurellerual & @daceytheshebear. I hope you all will enjoy making gifs, fanfics, meta’s, art, etc. I would ask people participating to not use the show actors.

Please use #bookgendryaweek2024tag so I can find your work :)

Prompts -

Day 1: Contrasting Beginnings

Day 2: Protection

Day 3: Roles

Day4: Memory

Day 5: Found Family

Day 6: 5 Year Skip Proceeds Au

Day 7: Future Speculation or Au