Arya Stark turned down Gendry’s proposal in the final season of Game of Thrones, but star Joe Dempsie thinks it was for the best.
Joe Dempsie played Gendry Baratheon for the first few years of Game of Thrones before taking a three-season break. That time away gave him perspective, but it didn’t making saying goodbye to the series any less emotional, although he originally thought it would.
“I guess because I had those three seasons out in the middle of the show, it felt like I’d already got used to life without it when the call came back that they wanted me to come back for seasons 7 and 8,” Dempsie told Digital Spy. “It hadn’t defined my life for that decade as it has for so many of the others. But I found that I was actually really quite sad. It had been a big chapter in everyone’s lives.”
"I was sad to say goodbye…[Game of Thrones] was one of the best things I’ve done in [his] life, and probably one of the best things [he] ever will”."
At least Dempsie is one of the few Game of Thrones stars who can actually say his character got a somewhat happy ending. Sure, Arya Stark may have turned down his marriage proposal, but he survived the White Walkers, got legitimized and ended things the ruler of Storm’s End.
About that proposal, Dempsie thinks Arya turning Gendry down was probably for the best. “I think Gendry just lost his head a bit, didn’t he?” he said. “He’s so drunk on legitimacy and popped the question!”
"I know that Gendry’s not often been the brightest or the sharpest tool in the drawer, but I think he’s smart enough to know. I think he’s perceptive enough to know that. It never would have worked."
And why not? According to Dempsie, Gendry’s newfound enthusiasm for his legitimacy — and all the institutional power that came with it — was exactly why Arya wouldn’t want to be with him. She was always more of a free spirit, something she proved when she sailed away from Westeros in the series finale, seemingly for good. Ironically, that’s what drew Gendry to her in the first place. “I think I’ve always thought that, actually, as wounded as he might have been in the aftermath, as soon as Gendry has time to sit down and think properly about it and rationalize everything, it’ll be pretty clear to him that probably the very reason he loved Arya was the exact reason she could never be with him,” Dempsie explained.
Poor Gendry just didn’t stand a chance. As least he’s got a castle — and hopefully some wine — to ease that heartbreak. Better luck next giant battle.
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