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So we know that Renly Baratheon from Game of Thrones was young. But I'm having a hard time figuring out just how young.

He was young enough for Robert to question his manhood but was old enough to know Eddard Stark well, so I'm confused. I tried looking it up but got nothing. I know that Gethin Anthony is 33 but I have a hard time believing that Renly is this old.

Answers from the show are preferred over answers based on the books as there are massive age differences between the two.

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    In the books he is 21, in the show he's obviously supposed to be older (late twenties perhaps). Can you elaborate on the part with manhood questioning? I don't remember it. Perhaps Robert was questioning his manhood due to his homosexuality, not age?
    – Chanandler Bong
    Commented Jul 1, 2015 at 12:09
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    Also keep in mind that Robert was his older brother. Questioning his manhood is part of the gig.
    – Darrick Herwehe
    Commented Jul 1, 2015 at 12:20
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    There was a conversation between Renly and Robert that touched on what Renly did during the war which I think drops clues about how old he was at the time, don't remember it clearly though. Also I think the manhood-questioning was in the context of their very different attitudes to war - Robert lives for fighting, hunting and killing, Renly condemns such things as barbaric and is more of a society man, and both disapprove of each other
    – user56reinstatemonica8
    Commented Jul 1, 2015 at 20:25
  • @user568458 Thanks, it seems that it's this scene. According to the Renly's page on Wiki it's the only scene they had together. I don't see any age-related manhood questioning here. Maybe there was a different scene, where Robert was talking about Renly, without Renly present.
    – Chanandler Bong
    Commented Jul 2, 2015 at 10:00
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    @MatthewStevenson You mean this scene? Yes, Renly says that Robert "treats him like a spoiled child", but because he hasn't been to war, doesn't like fighting, etc., not because he is young.
    – Chanandler Bong
    Commented Jul 3, 2015 at 8:54

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Since answers started to show up I've decided to summarize my comments into one.

In the books Renly's age is known, he is 21. Based on the fact that the actor Gethin Anthony was 27 when the series begun we can assume that in the series he's older (in his late twenties).

Regarding the manhood questioning part, it seems that indeed there was some.

We can hear it directly from Robert in the only scene he had with Renly:

Robert Baratheon: You ever f*ck a Riverlands girl?

Renly Baratheon: Once. I think.

Robert Baratheon: You think? I think you'd remember. Back in our day, you weren't a real man until you'd f*cked one girl from each of the Seven Kingdoms and the Riverlands.

(source)

Renly also complains about it to Loras in this scene:

My brother thinks that anyone who hasn't been to war isn't a man. He treats me as if I'm a spoiled child.

(source)

Unlike Robert, Renly (in the series) doesn't like fighting, doesn't take part in the tournaments and sees war as a tragedy. He is homosexual, which is a kind of an open secret and Robert surely knew about it.

When Robert was questioning his manhood he was referring to the above facts, not his young age.

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  • I don't think the actor being older necessarily means the character's older (unless the actor's a lot older, which isn't the case here). Unless the show directly or indirectly says otherwise, I'd assume the character's the same age in the show as the books.
    – blm
    Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 19:59
  • @blm Valid point in general, but in this case I don't think it applies simply because he doesn't look 21 in any way :-)
    – Chanandler Bong
    Commented Jan 14, 2016 at 22:22

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