⚜ GENDRY. ≻ ❪ joe dempsie. cis-male. he/him. ❫ the sound of metal hitting metal & calloused hands. is that the bastard from flea bottom ? they haven’t aged a day. i can’t believe they’re only twenty four years old and already so stubborn and proud. it seems they’ve sworn their allegiance to the people. gods have mercy on the blacksmith’s soul.
When he worked, nothing existed for him but metal, bellows, fire. The hammer was like a part of his arm.
– A Clash of Kings, Arya IX.
HEADCANONS:
Gendry doesn’t know about his Baratheon heritage but he does look a lot like his uncle, Renly who looks a lot like his brother Robert. I feel like people -especially does who knew Robert in his youth, like Ned Stark- might get suspicious fairly quickly upon meeting the boy
His mother worked as a tavern wench at an alehouse and she died from an unknown illness when he was still a young boy. He doesn’t remember much about him other than the fact that she had blond hair. So Gendry was alone as a child, having to look after himself after his mother’s death and having grown up with that mentality he is convinced that he doesn’t need anyone else and is quite suspicious and untrusting of the people he meets.
When he was old enough, an unknown lord paid his apprentice fee so he could learn to be a blacksmith. He then took up work as an apprentice blacksmith under Tobho Mott, a master weaponsmith from Qohor, forging high-end armor and weapons for the nobility.
Growing up having to work for a living, at Mott's smithy, Gendry became disciplined and doesn't have any of his father Robert's negative qualities of self-indulgence in food, drink, and women.
Gendry is from the slums Flea Bottom, the poorest part of Kings Landing. He has spent many long, hungry nights in a cold cottage, not knowing if he’d survive the week while the lords and ladies of the land sat in their extravagant castles with their golds and silvers. So he dislikes highborns quite a bit. He deeply resents the great lords for oppressing the lower classes and tearing Westeros apart with their bloody wars.
