Gendry Vs. Robert

[MidnightAurora]

I am just reading ASOS and really starting to notice the differences and similarities between Robert and his bastard son Gendry. Gendry has the black hair and blue eyes of Robert and Robert's strength. Like his father Gendry really likes working with a hammer and I am pretty sure Gendry would have no problem wielding Robert's War Hammer. Although right now, Robert wielded the War Hammer and Gendry wields the hammer that forges such weapons. Good for Gendry it seems so that he was blessed with all his father's good qualities as well as the good qualities of his mother. So far, Gendry is unlike his father and seems to be a one woman guy and currently has his eyes set on Arya as it is seen in ASOS. Gendry knows she is a girl since before Harrenhal, but he finally "sees" her as a girl at Acorn Hill and cannot find words so he does what any stupid boy does and provokes her to fight. He defends Arya at the Peach and declines the girl at the Peach. It seems like Gendry got his father's strength, looks, but his mother's heart and he seems to be a true gentleman. I think his skills will play out later on in the series, but i have noticed other parallels/differences especially between the sons and fathers in the series.

I was just wondering if any body had any thoughts on the qualities we see in the parent (good or bad) versus the quality we see int heir children. How those qualities will play out in the books and how it will shape/define events.

[thefreefolk]

Well as far as physical qualities of course Gendry is basically a picture perfect Baratheon, Ned noticed as much in AGoT. But as far as other traits, he's clearly not a drunk stubborn fool like Robert was and we don't really know anything about his mother so we can't really say which traits Gendry got from her and which traits he didn't get from her but all in all I don't really think Gendry is too much like Robert at all.

This is the point that I mostly wanted to talk about: I don't really see Gendry and Arya's relationship as romantic (though I do ship it) I see it as a gender neutral sibling relationship, because, yes, Gendry has known that she was a girl since before Harrenhal but I don't think he ever really looks at her like a girl, even when she's dressed like one. I don't think he really reacted like a typical stupid boy with a crush or anything because Gendry doesn't really seem like a typical stupid boy. He's Arya's friend and he's teasing her about her wearing a dress because he knows the real Arya and the real Arya looks so unlike the real Arya in a dress. It's not one of those "he's teasing you because he likes you" type things (because those are the stupidest things ever), it's more of a "oh my gods i can't believe you're actually wearing that, that's hilarious, you're never living this down." because up until he sees her in the dress at Acorn Hill, she's been tough and rough and headstrong and all in all typically masculine traits, so it just seems so out of place that Arya would be wearing a dress, you know what I mean?

I also don't think Gendry really likes Arya like that because he wouldn't have stayed with the Brothers w/o Banners if he did, he'd have gone with her like she asked him to. If Gendry does like Arya he's probably given up on it the moment he realized it because as far as he knows, he's a lowborn bastard who would never be a fit suitor for Arya, because Arya is a highborn lady.

That being said, I think Gendry is very different from Robert, mostly and it's probably because of the way he was raised, but that can be taken to the whole psychological nature v. nurture thing. Gendry is just sort of naturally smart, considering the fact that he can't read and probably learned everything he knows on his own. He knows the way the world works and maybe that's the pessimistic view of "he's seen the worst of the world so he knows the worst in people" type thing. I don't know whether Robert was smart, he didn't seem that smart, Ned was more of the brains, but I can't really remember because I'm still reading and I have'nt reread AGoT yet

this is the worst post i've ever made it makes no sense. it's been forever since i've been on a proper forum.

[silentwanderer]

I already said this on the Arya & Gendry thread but if the converation is going to continue here:

So far, Gendry is unlike his father and seems to be a one woman guy and currently has his eyes set on Arya as it is seen in ASOS. Gendry knows she is a girl since before Harrenhal, but he finally "sees" her as a girl at Acorn Hill and cannot find words so he does what any stupid boy does and provokes her to fight. He defends Arya at the Peach and declines the girl at the Peach.

If anything, I think this is the main difference between son and father: Gendry would rather sulk and remain frustrated than to respond the advances of any girl other than Arya.

Robert's problems begin and end with his inability to remain faithful to Lyanna. It's not that he didn't love her - no one would remain sulking and bitter for that many years unless he actually had feelings for her - but I don't think he would've remained faithful should his wife would've been Lyanna instead of Cersei.

I think he would've had that many bastards and that many affairs even if Robert would've marry the Arya to his Gendry, and Lyanna cared about him enough to understand what a mistake that was. Gendry, on the other hand, would rather die childless if that's what the Lyanna to his Robert wants, which is yet another important difference between father and son.

[silentwanderer]

That being said, I think Gendry is very different from Robert, mostly and it's probably because of the way he was raised, but that can be taken to the whole psychological nature v. nurture thing. Gendry is just sort of naturally smart, considering the fact that he can't read and probably learned everything he knows on his own.

Then again, Gendry's father left his mother and he never met any of his siblings before he left Harrenhal with Arya, even then he didn't know those were his sisters and his brothers for he still doesn't know they share the same father.

Robert, on the other hand, grew up with a father and mother that stayed married until the day they died and the only two brothers he ever had.

That's bound to mark most of the differences between father and son.

[MidnightAurora]

Then again, Gendry's father left his mother and he never met any of his siblings before he left Harrenhal with Arya, even then he didn't know those were his sisters and his brothers for he still doesn't know they share the same father.

Robert, on the other hand, grew up with a father and mother that stayed married until the day they died and the only two brothers he ever had.

That's bound to mark most of the differences between father and son.

What brothers and sisters of Gendry were at Harrenhal? Gendry is the only bastard of Robert at Harrenhal even though no one knows it and I do not recall any other of Robert's bastards being there. The only one that was maybe a sibling was the girl at the Peach, but we never really get a clear answer if she is a sister. I know he hasn't met or know about Maya or Edric...

[silentwanderer]

Then again, Gendry's father left his mother and he never met any of his siblings before he left Harrenhal with Arya, even then he didn't know those were his sisters and his brothers for he still doesn't know they share the same father.

Robert, on the other hand, grew up with a father and mother that stayed married until the day they died and the only two brothers he ever had.

That's bound to mark most of the differences between father and son.

What brothers and sisters of Gendry were at Harrenhal?...

None, hence why he didn't meet any of them before he left Harrenhal: if Arya wouldn't have taken him with her, Gendry would have never met his half sister nor he would have a chance to meet his half brothers or half sisters outside King's Landing.

Robert not only met, grew up an kept a relationship with his brothers since he was born, he knew whom his father was and what became of him and his mother; the sheer certainty of an identity, a House and a family that his son Gendry has always lacked of.