I was desperately hoping they’d have Gendry comment on Arya’s nifty new Valyrian steel dagger and he’d ask her where she stole it. Arya would say it was a gift and nicely highlight how both of her surviving brothers have given her a weapon: Jon when he left her and Bran when they reunited.
So it threw me a bit when instead of joking that Arya stole it, Gendry said that he “always knew [she was] just another rich girl.”
But damn, on a bit of reflection, it’s brilliant.
In season 1 when they first meet, Gendry assumes Arya is a thief and tries to reassure her that, “It don’t matter now. Where we’re going they don’t care what you’ve done. They’ve got rapers, pickpockets, highwaymen… murderers.”
In season 2, Gendry is the only one to realize she’s a girl. Arya decides to trust him and tells him who she really is. When Gendry learns that she’s high born, he wants to change the way he treats her– “I should be calling you m’lady.” But Arya is annoyed and embarrassed and Gendry is able to tease her a bit and laugh about it. Their friendship doesn’t change for the most part.
…Until season 3 when it looks like there’s a good chance Arya will be reunited with Cat and Robb. Gendry doesn’t want to go with her because she’d be “m’lady.” Shortly after that, Gendry learns that he’s Robert’s son.
For years, we’ve joked that one of the first things Gendry would do when he saw Arya again was to let her know that he’s the bastard son of a king. A king who was BFFs with Ned. It was the first thing Gendry blurted to Jon when they met.
It makes sense that being Robert’s gave Gendry a bit of pride– he’s no longer on the very bottom, shit covered rung of the ladder and given how comparatively stable things were while Robert was alive, there was probably a good deal of romanticizing his reign among smallfolk.
But after joining up with Jon, doing something important because he wants to– and because someone like Jon has faith in him—and not because he was dropped into it or kidnapped or whatever, Gendry gains confidence on his own merit.
So he follows Jon to Winterfell, where it doesn’t matter what you are. Where they’ve got Starks, Targs, Lannisters, Wildlings, the last members of Team Stannis and Team Renly. Kings and queens, bastards, ex-smugglers, old men, eunuchs, and little girls.
And when Gendry sees Arya again, he doesn’t rush to tell her about Robert. He makes comments about how she’s a lady and she’s wealthy and he smiles and laughs when he says these things. It doesn’t bother him anymore. Because it doesn’t matter anymore.
And Arya? Thanks to Brienne and Sansa, Arya no longer thinks of being a Lady as simply being a dutiful wife and baby factory. She’s happy with who she is and when Gendry tries to poke fun at her station, she dishes it out right back: “You don’t know any other rich girls.”
We’ve also seen that at least for now, Arya hides certain parts of herself depending on who she is talking to. She tells Hot Pie she’s baked “one or two” pies and Jon that she’s used Needle “once or twice.” With the Hound, she’s standoffish and coolly admits to robbing him before leaving him to die.
But she laughs and flirts with Gendry and she also shows off her weapons and asks him to make her another one. She lets him hear her talk “all scary” to the Hound, too.
She still trusts Gendry with who she is, both as a warrior and as a maiden (of the tree) and Gendry still accepts her.
PS. Okay, maybe not quite as overt as this, BUT I STILL SAY I FUCKING CALLED IT:
Hot Pie: I can’t believe I thought you were a boy… You’re pretty!
Gendry: You look good. […] I always knew you were just another rich girl.
