Warning: This post contains spoilers for Game of Thrones season 7, episode 7.
We can probably all agree that Sunday's penultimate episode of Game of Thrones was completely "I'm wrecked" inducing. Between one of the dragons dying, and all the plot holes, it was just...a lot. And now our world has been even further rocked thanks to a fan theory that claims Cersei is secretly Gendry's mum. Which, at first is completely:
But, upon further reflection, could actually be pretty convincing.
The theory points out that in Game of Thrones' first season, Cersei tells Catelyn Stark about her "lost baby with Robert." Per Reddit, "She tells her he was black-haired. Afterwards, in the fourth episode, Ned finds out that Jon Arryn talked to Gendry before he died about his mother. Gendry says his mother was blond."
In the first-season scene, Cersei tells Catelyn, "I lost my first boy, a black-haired beauty...Robert was crazed, beat his hands bloody on the wall." Given the fact that all of Cersei's other children—conceived with Jaime—are blonde, the baby's black hair probably marked him as a true son of the dark-haired Robert Baratheon. "The boy looked just like him," Cersei says, before describing his body being taken away.
Fans are theorising that Cersei faked her son's death and sent him away so that the rightful heir to the Iron Throne wouldn't be Robert's son, but would be her and Jaime's first child—a.k.a. Joffrey. If this is the case, Gendry technically has a claim to the throne, and could be put in a slightly awkward position considering he's currently on Team Jon Snow. Good times.
However, as another astute Redditor pointed out, this secret-baby theory wouldn't sit well with the witch's prediction about Cersei—which predicted that she would have three children. Since many already take this prophecy seriously (because much of it has already come true), and even think it means that Cersei won't live to have the baby she's currently carrying (because it would make four children), it's worth keeping in mind. And just because Gendry's mother is blonde, that doesn't mean it was Cersei. However, very little happens on Game of Thrones for no reason, and if this theory is true, it would definitely make things interesting in the season finale.
