Gendry is constantly referred to as a boy!!!
One reason I will never feel guilty for shipping gendrya is that every time gendry is referred to in the show, he is called a boy and grouped in the same age bracket as arya and hotpie, especially when the brotherhood (thoros in particular) keep calling them children. The only time this differs is when he refers to himself as a man when he reveals to Arya that he wants to join the brother hood and says that “they need good men”, to which Arya replies “Robb need good men to. Him referring to himself as man has everything to do with his physical capabilities and not his age.
Here are some examples of the many times he was described as a boy by those around him:
Scene ~ Arya, Gendry and Hotpie meet The Brotherhood WIthout Banners for the first time
Thoros: Three young ones on the run, carrying castle forged steel
(Extra dialogue in between)
Thoros: Now come along. I wanna hear how two boys and a very dangerous girl escaped harrenhall
Thoros: How did three children
Arya: We're not children
Thoros: How did three young persons such as yourselves, untrained in the art of war escape harrenhall
Scene ~ Gendry is sold to Melisandre
Arya: He wants to be one of you... he wants to join the brotherhood, stop them
Beric: We serve the lord of light, and the lord of light needs this boy
Scene ~ Gendry meets Stannis
Melisandre: Show the boy to his chambers... have the maids draw him a bath and find him some decent clothes
Even melisandre who later ends up taking him to bed to do all sorts, is referring to him as a boy.
Scene ~ Stannis and Davos discuss Gendry’s fate
Davos: This boy’s done you no harm... he's an innocent
Stannis: How many boys live in westoros? How many girls, how many men, how many women?
(Some extra dialogue in between)
What's one bastard boy against a kingdom?
Here stannis lists different groups of people that will be affected if he doesn't fulfil his prophecy. Gendry did not make it into the category of men because he was called and considered a boy by davos and a bastard boy by stannis. If stannis thought of him as an adult or a man he would have just called him a bastard and left the boy part out.
Scene ~ Ned meets Gendry (his future son in law)
Ned: What did lord aryn want
Master mock: Well he came to see the boy
Ned: I'd like to see him aswell
Master mock: As you wish my lord...Gendry! Here he is, strong for his age
Here not only does master mock call him a boy but he also says that he is strong for his age which parallels tywins conversation with arya in which he says that she is too small for her age.
Scene ~ Twin invites Arya to eat with him
Tywin: Eat..... You're small for your age, I suppose you've been under fed your whole life
Arya: I eat alot, I just don't grow
I think the producers are trying to show that their differences are more to do with stature and physical appearance rather than age, therefore opening up the possibility that they can be together. I am not saying that they are exactly the same age but I believe that the 5 year age gap from the books has been kept the same in the TV show.
Scene ~ The Hound arrives at the inn
Also when Arya was trying to get out of the inn so she wouldn’t be noticed by the hound, she kind of ushered Gendry and hottie to the door ahead of her so that they wouldn’t be left behind in her attempt to get away. The fact that Arya physically ushers Gendry shows that their relationship is not one where Gendry has some sort of superiority over Arya because he’s a few years older.
In season 7 episode 6 members of the the group that assembled to capture a white Walker are teasing him teasing and schooling him as if he is the considerably younger than them. First when he is having a conversation with John and tormund then when he is talking to the brotherhood and the hound tells him to stop complaining. The hound telling gendry off kinda remained me of how he was with arya in the sense that he would be blunt but truthful so that she could learn.
I also noticed that both arya and gendry were being portrayed as quite whiney that episode.
Let’s address this real quick too
The person playing Gendry was always going to have to be older considering they needed to appear strong, look strikingly like Robert and act well. Gendry’s physique and strength is mentioned quite a bit in the books and they needed to translate that well in the show, especially because of his line of work. I mean he’s supposed to be a smith for goodness sake. If Gendry were to be as small as Arya, working with heavy and hot equipment day in and day out it would be very impracticable. Gendry has to have a lot of build for this reason as well as the fact that he is King Roberts son and he was notorious for being incredibly strong. So you see they couldn’t just settle for any little boy at casting, there had to be a certain look.
Just something to think about, because as far as I'm concerned the age thing has never been a good enough excuse to why they can’t end up together.
