People are killing me with the OTT reaction the Arya/Gendry scene. Let me lay down some cold hard facts here:
- Maisie Williams and Joe Dempsie are only 9/10 years apart in age.
- Yes, when they first worked together, she was in her early teens, but as Joe said himself–because he is near-perfection among men and stan-worthy beyond compare:
It’s obviously slightly strange for me because I’ve known Maisie since she was 11, 12 years old. At the same time, I don’t want to be patronizing toward Maisie — she’s a 20-year-old woman. *
- Let’s repeat that again… Maisie Williams was 20 years old when she filmed this scene. Like, she was LITERALLY out of her teens when she filmed this not even at all sexually graphic sex scene.
- Maisie Williams was given COMPLETE agency in how much nudity she wanted to show of herself.
Williams says the showrunners let her decide precisely how much to show. “David and Dan were like: ‘You can show as much or as little as you want…’“ *
- Everyone on set worked to make her comfortable. Maisie was in control.
[Per producer/writer Bryan Cogman] “ We were very careful to make sure Maisie [Williams] was comfortable and everything was on her terms. “ **
- Arya Stark is 18 years old on the show. HBO made sure to make that pretty clear. At least HBO_UK did per this tweet. Note the time and date.
- Arya made the decision to have sex.
- Arya, just like Maisie, was in complete control.
- Oh, and by the way, since Gendry had been a victim of sexual assault himself–because, yeah, Melisandre did rape him–the show also gave him his own agency by specifically having Arya tell him to take off his own damn pants… which he did willingly. Full consent by both parties.
This sex scene was a completely legal, mutual, consensual sexual experience between two characters–played by two perfectly legal (and hot) actors–who were friends first with a foundation built on trust and a strong bond who have a healthy, sexual attraction now that they have reunited as adults.
So pretty please, do kindly get the fuck over it, people.
So in my last post I said I wanted to rant a little about how I hate the ending of Arya and Gendry’s story is Game of Thrones and that is what I’m going to do now…. Spoilers I guess (it’s been two years so whatever)
Ok so I’m going to talk about each character as individual to explain why I didn’t/ don’t understand their finals decisions. (Also this is strictly based on the tv show not the books)
Let’s start with Gendry. Where in the whole of the series does Gendry express a great desire to be a Lord of Westeros??? The only time I can think of that he thought his low birth status was an issue was when Arya said she could “be his family” and he was sad because he knew that was not possible, other than that it was never something that seemed to be of great importance in his life. Now, after he was legitimized and given a title I understand he would be excited because he wouldn’t be seen as a bastard anymore, which is great but in the scene where he proposes to Arya he says “ none of it will be worth anything if you’re not with me” so why does he stay then after she says no to his proposal because it wasn’t that Arya didn’t want Gendry is that she didn’t want the life he was offering her, being a lady. He could have walked away from it all, especially after everything went to shit and they had to basically start the government over again. There was nothing really tying him to Westeros anymore just the new title he had and again he didn’t really seem to care about it even after he found out he was Roberts son… it made no sense to me!!!
And now Arya… now I understand that she never wanted to be a lady and she never wanted to be submissive to a husband and all that ( although let’s me serious, Gendry would be the sub I their relationship) but what really annoyed me was that they made it into a “one night stand” kind of situation from Arya’s perspective (in my opinion). Gendry was someone Arya cared about for years! She was shown to have some kind of feelings for him when she was young and she would check him out, she traveled with him for years, he was her friend and she trusted him! Trusted him enough that even though they had not seen each other for years, she still went to him to lose her virginity! Arya! Who is a trained assassin, literally doesn’t trust anyone, trusted Gendry enough to be vulnerable in front of him and after all of that when he proposes all she can say is “that’s not me” ………,,,, no! She could have said “it’s not our time” or “I’ll come back to you but I need to live my life first” they could have left it open ended and it would have been better than what we got. They had a great chance to really show the Stark sisters doing a 180 from the beginning of the series to the end but nope they fucked it up. Sansa started as a young girl who thought she had to get married to her Prince Charming and have kids and that’s how she would be queen and she ended it realizing that she could be powerful and rule without a man. And I’m not saying Arya needs to have a man but maybe she could have learned that being in love and having a partner in life doesn’t mean she has to be submissive to a husband, that being in love is ok and it could be part of the reason her life is happy. Especially for Arya that spend so much of the series separated from literally everyone from her old life, she could have been free and in love but nope, the show runners really said “this 18/19 year old, who had been through so much, is going to think the same way as her 12 year old self”. I made a post about how I loved the episode “The Long Night” because they showed that even Arya can get scared and she is human and she isn’t just a killing machine and then what do they do with her?? They made her seem heartless and like sleeping with Gendry was just an experience she wanted to have and not something she did with a man she cared/loved!
Anyway I done ranting. Sorry for any grammatical errors I didn’t proof read. Also it’s ok if you disagree with me this is just my opinion about these two characters
Just read some post abt how the ones who defends GOT writing and makes theories/tries to find explanation is dumbasses.
Welp
I’ve always knew that I was dumb, ‘cause I think writing is ok and I think the show is fine and I like trying to find some explanations to things I want to seek explanation for.
