Gendry is set to return for Season 7 of Game of Thrones

Is Gendry Cersei’s black-haired beauty?

Game of Thrones returns to our screens in July and there may be a new contender for the Iron Throne: Gendry Baratheon.

Gendry is set to return for Season 7. We last saw the blacksmith rowing from Dragonstone, having been released by Davos Seaworth before Melisandre could sacrifice him to R’hllor – the Lord of Light.

Melisandre made Gendry aware of his parentage before he escaped and told him:

‘You will make kings rise and fall.’

Now Gendry is the only living Baratheon – heir to both the Iron Throne and Storms End.

Any claims on a title would be tainted by his illegitimate birth, much like Jon Snow. Yet as the R+L=J raises the possibility of Jon not being a bastard, a scene between Cersei and Catelyn Stark in Season 1 could prove Gendry to be the first born son of Cersei and King Robert.

In episode two of Season 1(The Kingsroad) Cersei talks of her ‘black-haired beauty’ and how much he resembled Robert. This baby died of a fever and was taken away from her and she never saw him again. Season 1 is unique in the series as it sticks very closely to the source material if David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have added this scene it must be for a reason.

We have already seen Gendry assume the role of Edric Storm in the television show, now there is a good chance he is assuming the role of Aegon Targaryen from the books. Aegon was the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell, in the books he was believed to have been killed by the Mountain. Later it was revealed that he had been switched with a peasant baby by Varys and raised in secretly in Essos.

Varys is the only character capable of revealing the switch at this point. Images taken of filming show that Gendry is returning for Season 7 and appears to be wielding Robert’s war hammer. The images show Gendry in the company of Davos Seaworth and Tyrion Lannister and he appears to be attacking the gold cloaks of Kingslanding.

What does legitimizing Gendry do for the plot?

Tyrion and Varys are now both loyal servants of Danaerys Targaryen. If Danaerys has any obvious trait it is the need to minimize bloodshed before starting a conflict. This will be discussed in council and Cersei’s weaknesses discussed. They will point out her children (but they are all gone) and Varys will make the reveal.

As lord of Casterly Rock or Storms End, Gendry could be revealed to his mother. If Cersei agrees to surrender the iron throne peacefully and be pardoned. She would be immediately banished from King’s Landing but reunited with her only surviving child. The other option is to be at war with him.

Cersei’s love for her children is both her greatest strength and her greatest weakness. Benioff and Weiss have planted this seed for a reason, could Gendry be the key to Cersei surrendering the Seven Kingdoms peacefully.

A Gendry/Arya marriage also becomes a possibility if Gendry is the son of Cersei. This provides perfect balance at the end of A Song of Ice and Fire, Arya is meant to look exactly like her aunt Lyanna and Gendry is the double of a young Robert. In Season 3 Arya offers to be Gendry’s family, this could foreshadow the possible union to come. Their coupling combined with a Targaryen on the throne has everything returning to how it was before the tournament at Harrenhal.