Gendry is the young prince Aegon Targaryen

[TheWallFrost]

I saw the topic speculating that Gendry was Cersei Lannister's child because of his memory that his mother had long blond hair and sang to him.  I believe Cersei is a bit of a stretch just due to her age at the time.  However, who else do we know of that has long blond hair and sang to his children?  Prince Rhaegar.  "I will sing for him a song of ice and fire" from Daenerys's visions in the House of the Undying.  Although Targaryens often have their referred to as silver-gold, or platinum, I think we can take into account the age of Gendry/Aegon at the time in identifying it as blonde.  Eddard Stark at first sight assumed that Gendry was King Robert's bastard.  Robert Baratheon had a Targaryen grandmother and it can be assumed that he might have certain traits in common with the Targaryens.  The shape of the jaw, ice blue (maybe a darker shade of violet? a Targaryen eye color) eyes are those traits that Eddard Stark noted.   And Ned Stark has never been the best at determing lineage (i.e. the Baratheon/Lannister kids), so I'm not putting much stock in his assessment.  It is mentioned that he is totally at ease at the hot forges in the blacksmith shops.  A Targaryen can tolerate more heat than most.  A natural cover for a young Targaryen to hide his identity.  He also about the right age for Aegon Targaryen at this time.

Varys has an interest in the boy, which would also infer his identity is somehow Targaryen-related and more important than one of King Robert's bastards which he has never shown any interest in.  With Varys's sympathy for the small folk, it would be natural if he hid the young prince among them in King's Landing after deceiving everyone of the baby's death at the hands of the Mountain.  He could keep an eye on him and safeguard him there versus hiding him away overseas.  He would also keep his true identity from him for safety.  Another clue is that the Red Witch magics attempted with Gendry's blood, true "King's Blood", actually worked with the deaths of Robb Stark, King Joeffrey and Balon Greyjoy.  Other blood magic spells in the books and show have not been as successful.  With the revelation that young Griff was only a pretender, I believe that he is the strongest contender for the young prince Aegon if you look at it from this perspective.  

Now, not only is Gendry a secret Targaryen, he is also the Prince That Was Promised from prophecy.  Again from Daenerys's vision of Prince Rhaegar "He is the Prince that was Promised".  However, if you take a literal meaning of this in Westeros, Prince means Martell blood.  In Dorn, they rule as Prince and Princesses, not Kings and Queens.  So it could have been the Hero that was Promised, the King that was Promised, the whatever that was Promised; however, it is the Prince that was Promised.  This is a clue that the PTWP must have Martell blood.  Another clue to this is Prince Rhaegar's dumping of Cersei Lannister for Elena Martell in marriage.  Prince Rhaegar studied the prophecies, and although marrying Cersei Lannister might have saved his life and his family and made a much stronger alliance, he wanted to be instrumental in bringing the Prince that was Promised to be and dumped Cersei.

This also infers that the Prince that was Promised and Azur Ahai are separate and not the same as concluded by many people.  Daenerys Targaryen is Azur Ahai in this theory. 

[Humble Maester]

3 hours ago, TheWallFrost said:

I saw the topic speculating that Gendry was Cersei Lannister's child because of his memory that his mother had long blond hair and sang to him.  I believe Cersei is a bit of a stretch just due to her age at the time.  However, who else do we know of that has long blond hair and sang to his children?  Prince Rhaegar.  "I will sing for him a song of ice and fire" from Daenerys's visions in the House of the Undying.  Although Targaryens often have their referred to as silver-gold, or platinum, I think we can take into account the age of Gendry/Aegon at the time in identifying it as blonde.  Eddard Stark at first sight assumed that Gendry was King Robert's bastard.  Robert Baratheon had a Targaryen grandmother and it can be assumed that he might have certain traits in common with the Targaryens.  The shape of the jaw, ice blue (maybe a darker shade of violet? a Targaryen eye color) eyes are those traits that Eddard Stark noted.   And Ned Stark has never been the best at determing lineage (i.e. the Baratheon/Lannister kids), so I'm not putting much stock in his assessment.  It is mentioned that he is totally at ease at the hot forges in the blacksmith shops.  A Targaryen can tolerate more heat than most.  A natural cover for a young Targaryen to hide his identity.  He also about the right age for Aegon Targaryen at this time.

Varys has an interest in the boy, which would also infer his identity is somehow Targaryen-related and more important than one of King Robert's bastards which he has never shown any interest in.  With Varys's sympathy for the small folk, it would be natural if he hid the young prince among them in King's Landing after deceiving everyone of the baby's death at the hands of the Mountain.  He could keep an eye on him and safeguard him there versus hiding him away overseas.  He would also keep his true identity from him for safety.  Another clue is that the Red Witch magics attempted with Gendry's blood, true "King's Blood", actually worked with the deaths of Robb Stark, King Joeffrey and Balon Greyjoy.  Other blood magic spells in the books and show have not been as successful.  With the revelation that young Griff was only a pretender, I believe that he is the strongest contender for the young prince Aegon if you look at it from this perspective.  

Now, not only is Gendry a secret Targaryen, he is also the Prince That Was Promised from prophecy.  Again from Daenerys's vision of Prince Rhaegar "He is the Prince that was Promised".  However, if you take a literal meaning of this in Westeros, Prince means Martell blood.  In Dorn, they rule as Prince and Princesses, not Kings and Queens.  So it could have been the Hero that was Promised, the King that was Promised, the whatever that was Promised; however, it is the Prince that was Promised.  This is a clue that the PTWP must have Martell blood.  Another clue to this is Prince Rhaegar's dumping of Cersei Lannister for Elena Martell in marriage.  Prince Rhaegar studied the prophecies, and although marrying Cersei Lannister might have saved his life and his family and made a much stronger alliance, he wanted to be instrumental in bringing the Prince that was Promised to be and dumped Cersei.

This also infers that the Prince that was Promised and Azur Ahai are separate and not the same as concluded by many people.  Daenerys Targaryen is Azur Ahai in this theory. 

Gendry has Baratheon coloring, (dead) Prince Aegon had Targaryen coloring. So, nope.

 

Also I think you are seriously misjudging Varys' personality if you buy into any of his "good of the realm" crap.

[delspark]

3 hours ago, TheWallFrost said:

 "I will sing for him a song of ice and fire" from Daenerys's visions in the House of the Undying.   He also about the right age for Aegon Targaryen at this time.

With the revelation that young Griff was only a pretender, I believe that he is the strongest contender for the young prince Aegon if you look at it from this perspective.  

This also infers that the Prince that was Promised and Azur Ahai are separate and not the same as concluded by many people.  Daenerys Targaryen is Azur Ahai in this theory. 

Gendry was born after Aegon. You can argue saying they are almost of equal age. In that case every other chracters age should also be  judged.

Young Griff identity as imposter is not yet confirmed. 

So there is going to be two battles for dawn? One in westeros and another in Asshai? 

Since Gendry could withstand the heat while forging does it make him a Targ? Its like saying Melisandre is a Targ since she always has a warm body and kindles fire wherever she goes.

[John Doe]

Eddard thought he resembled Robert. 

[Ferocious Veldt Roarer]

7 hours ago, TheWallFrost said:

I saw the topic speculating that Gendry was Cersei Lannister's child because of his memory that his mother had long blond hair and sang to him.  I believe Cersei is a bit of a stretch just due to her age at the time.  However, who else do we know of that has long blond hair and sang to his children?  Prince Rhaegar.

A perfect fit. But since Rhaegar is Gendry's mother, who's the father?

 

 

[daccu65]

I always thought he came just close enough to the AA prophecy to be interesting.  Of course, I'm probably wrong about the whole thing.

 

[Maxxine]

I really want Gendry to be important but this doesn't work. He's clearly a Baratheon. Even if you don't want to take Ned's word for it, Brienne mistakes Gendry for Renly. That's how much he looks like a Baratheon. 

[FrostyDornishman]

10 hours ago, TheWallFrost said:

Another clue is that the Red Witch magics attempted with Gendry's blood, true "King's Blood", actually worked with the deaths of Robb Stark, King Joeffrey and Balon Greyjoy.  Other blood magic spells in the books and show have not been as successful.  With the revelation that young Griff was only a pretender, I believe that he is the strongest contender for the young prince Aegon if you look at it from this perspective.

Do you mean Edric Storm's blood?  Mel leeched blood from Edric and supposedly used that to seal the deaths of the three remaining rival kings.  She uses Edric's blood because he's Robert's bastard, not because he's a secret Targ.  The same would be true of Gendry's blood, if ever it was used for a similar sorcery (which it never has).  Besides, as has been discussed in other threads, there's no definitive proof that the blood magic caused the death of the three kings.  It seems to line up, sure, but they were all high-profile political rivals that had already made a lot of enemies.  Leeches or not, death was close at hand for them.

I have to agree with the above posts.  The coloring is wrong, the age is wrong, and everyone who's met Gendry so far has said the same thing: "OMG you look exactly like Robert, who looks exactly like all of his bastards!"  The "Prince" part could be considered a little curious, but on its own I don't think it's very compelling. 

[Ferocious Veldt Roarer]

9 hours ago, TheWallFrost said:

Now, not only is Gendry a secret Targaryen, he is also the Prince That Was Promised from prophecy.  Again from Daenerys's vision of Prince Rhaegar "He is the Prince that was Promised".  However, if you take a literal meaning of this in Westeros, Prince means Martell blood.  In Dorn, they rule as Prince and Princesses, not Kings and Queens.  So it could have been the Hero that was Promised, the King that was Promised, the whatever that was Promised; however, it is the Prince that was Promised.  This is a clue that the PTWP must have Martell blood.  

Oh, I only spotted this bit.

Nope, you're wrong. There's nothing uniquely Dornish about the word "prince", it runs within every royal family. There was a crapload of Targ princes, when the Targs held the Iron Throne. Bob's children were styled Prince Joffrey, Prince Tommen, Princess Myrcella. When Robb crowned himself, suddenly Bran and Rickon became princes, and Arya a princess. It has nothing to do with Martell blood.

 

 

[Blade of Sunlight]

Ned, who knew Robert when he was just a boy, clearly thinks this boy looks like Roberts son, so I would take his word for it. He may have mistaken the bastard Lanister children, but it's a normal mistake, they look like their mother (which is to be expected), only after looking at thousands of records can one come to the conclusion that Baratheon look+ Lannister look = Baratheon look all the time (which makes no sense to me, but it's a major plot point).

Then there's Brienne, who likely has Renly etched to the back of eyelids considering the love she had for him, who clearly think Gendry looks like Renly, which means like Robert, which means like a Baratheon and not a Targ. Gendry is clearly Bob's son.

Plus, no matter how young he is, Gendry mistaking a singing woman with bond hair with a singing man with silver hair seems very unlikely.

[Humble Maester]

Also Gendry and Aegeon (the son of Rheagar) looked nothing alike.

I think I already mentioned that.

[TheDrunkenDornishman]

Gendry is actually a bit too young to be Aegon.

He and Melisandre never met in the books. 

Varys also showed interest in Edric Storm,  another of Robert's bastards. Not just Gendry. 

I would assume, as already mentioned,  that even a child would not mistake a silver haired man for a blonde woman. Especially since he specifically mentioned that she had yellow hair, which sounds more stereotypically blonde, rather than pale blonde/silver-gold. 

Rhaegar certainly never dumped Cersei for anyone. They were never involved with each other romantically,  intimately, or otherwise. In any case,  it wasn't even Rhaegar's decision. Tywin proposed a betrothal between Cersei and Rhaegar to Aerys, who promptly refused.

Did I miss anything? 

[Melisandre's White Pubes]

14 hours ago, Ferocious Veldt Roarer said:

A perfect fit. But since Rhaegar is Gendry's mother, who's the father?

 

 

I do remember a theory that Rhaegar was actually a girl raised as a boy because Aerys had no male heirs.  This is why she had a connection to Lyanna, they were both tomboys.  In this case, Rhaegar may have been impregnated by Robert Baratheon - maybe he was drunk, who was convinced it was Lyanna after the fact.

[Daecon Dayne]

Don't forget: Howland Reed is a long-lost Jogos Nhai. OP spot on as per. 

[Raisin' Bran]

Should I now launch into one of those Gendry is really Joff, who is really Jaime, who is really Daario, who is really Benjen,.. rants?

[Light a wight tonight]

Gendry looks so much like a Baratheon that Brienne mistook him for Renly. No Targ looks at all. 

As to a Varys connection, why would Varys educate Young Griff as a potential King and apprentice Gendry to a master armorer if Gendry was the real prince?

[HexMachina]

14 hours ago, Ferocious Veldt Roarer said:

A perfect fit. But since Rhaegar is Gendry's mother, who's the father?

 

 

Why, cousin Robert of course

[Nami]

4 hours ago, Raisin(g) Bran 2 Greenseer said:

Should I now launch into one of those Gendry is really Joff, who is really Jaime, who is really Daario, who is really Benjen,.. rants?

Everyone is a secret someone else.

[Melisandre's White Pubes]

If Rhaegar was really a woman, and was impregnated by a drunken young Robert, that would make Robert's hated of Rhaegar even more tragic.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

Oh, the possibilities... maybe Jon is the son of Rhaegar and Ned, after all... that's why he didn't tell.