I remember GRRM saying Arya and Gendry have different destinies, what is your interpretation of that quote? I know Arya will live because she's a favorite of GRRM and one of the main five, but what about Gendry? I know some ppl will say it would be subversive if the Baratheon guy gets the girl if Gendry is in a love triangle with Arya and Jon or Aegon, but what if Gendry lets her go unlike Robert with Lyanna. Or would that be too ooc for Gendry?
With show!Gendry, they did a lot of sansa-ing (yeah, it's a verb in this context because nothing explains it better), by giving him someone else's storyline (Edric Storm and his involvement with Stannis' crew), and taking him to Winterfell in ways that didn't make canonical sense (what does Canon!Gendry have to do with Davos?).
There is no ‘being Robert’s bastard’ complications ahead for Gendry, and least of all ‘inheriting Storm’s End’ which, again, make more sense for Edric Storm, who is the only one of (allegedly 16) bastards who was ACKNOWLEDGED/RECOGNIZED, which is a big social clue in the event of the rest of Baratheons dying out, particularly coupled with the fact that his mother was also a known noblewoman.
I do believe they will meet again, but it is very likely it will not last, that they will go separate ways, and have different perspectives in life. I think Gendry will continue to appreciate having left behind regimented servitude without allowance to ask questions, but Arya is beyond dreams of living in the woods and leaving it all behind, especially due to feeling a lack of acceptance in the world (no matter how much certain fans dream of getting rid of her that way; she also had her taste of travel and knowing the world, but she’s gravitating towards home and being Arya Stark again).
But as I said in the past, Arya has had a taste of leadership, and of wanting the kind of viable power of helping the less fortunate. She’s witnessed womanhood in many different forms, and admires them all. She’s growing beyond the idea that being a demure daughter existing to birth sons is all there is to ‘being Arya Stark’.
While I don’t have much of a belief of them ‘getting together’ as an endgame, I do think Gendrya is a recall to the fallout of Robert/Lyanna, but in making exactly the point that the issue with them was always Robert’s failures of character, which makes Gendry, even in his semblance to him, stand out instead.
All his life, Robert has been a pampered, entitled brat, looking for anything that would give him pleasure, complete disregard to anything else, closing his eyes to anything that might give him second thoughts, basking in others’ attention and admiration, and getting all riled up at any sign of disagreement or criticism.
Gendry is not like that. Gendry could never afford to be like that. There was no one to pamper him when he became an orphan. He had to learn his own bread since childhood, and even that he’s supposed to thank for as an opportunity, instead of starving in the street. His mother had worked in an industry where she would get lecherous looks and hands up her skirt at all times as a pretty, young woman (it’s not like Robert would look at someone old and ugly), and she could say nothing, nor could she say ‘no’ to a higher ranked man wanting her. He would not so easily see women as commodities. He is also a bastard, he is a commoner. He lived being looked down on and mistreated for nothing but that. He is not an entitled brat who everyone coddled from birth to middle age and never grew past the ‘why can’t I have my candy’ mentality like Robert. He EARNED his pride, and is not misguided in it.
It is also a fact that he KNOWS Arya, unlike Robert, that he admires and respects who she is instead of prize to appease his wants alone. It would make sense for them to be a ‘could have been, but we actually care and want the best for each other’.