George RR Martin on How the Show Changed Littlefinger

I think some of the most Machiavellian characters in Game of Thrones are those who aren't born to the great families a character like Petyr Baelish Littlefinger who is the treasurer or master of coin as we call it of the realm when the books open he's although he's born to a noble house it's a very weak noble house his lands are a few acres and a kind of run-down tower house and he has a lot of sheep and sheep pellets that's his an irritants but he has his mind and he has subtlety and he he climbs and he maneuvers and he he has great skill with finances which is something that a lot of the higher born Nobles consider beneath them worrying about money and stuff like that so he's able to accumulate more and more money and more and more power and befriending everyone he's everybody's friend he's always very helpful and people find them very useful to their schemes and as a result he gets everybody's ear he gets involved in all these plots he's probably the most Machiavellian character in the game of Thrones but book Littlefinger and television show Littlefinger are very different characters they're probably the character that's that's most different from the from the book to the television show there was there was a line in a recent episode of the the show where he's not even present but two people were talking about him and and someone said well no one trusts Littlefinger and Littlefinger has no friends and that's true television show Littlefinger but it's certainly not true a book Littlefinger if book Littlefinger in the book everybody trusts him everybody trusts him because he seems powerless and he's very friendly and he's very helpful he helps Ned Stark when he comes to town he helps Tyrion you know he helps the Lannisters he's always ready to help to raise money you know he helps Robert Robert depends on him to finance all of his his banquets and tournaments and his other Follies because Littlefinger could always raise money so he's everybody's friend but of course there's the Machiavellian thing he's you know everybody trusts him everybody depends him he's not a threat he's just this helpful funny guy who you can you know call upon to do whatever you want and to raise money and he ingratiate himself with people when rises higher and higher as a result it's tough to be a ruler whether in Machiavelli's time or today or in the Middle Ages or any time in-between I wanted to reflect some of this this realistic thing at the show people facing very difficult choices where it's not enough just to say I will be good and wise and do the right thing what is the right thing that's the question but in fact the right thing often in the case of your characters and Game of Thrones is vicious and appalling and an address come in terms of removing your enemies sometimes yes it is yes it is because otherwise they may come back for revenge but not always I mean there's a there's a level of complexity in Game of Thrones - I mean I think you can argue I think very convincingly that Joffrey the teenage boy king in an effort to show how strong he was and how you defied him at your peril execute Eddard Stark at the end of the first book and this is a colossal mistake you know the the deal that was set up where Ned was going to plead guilty take the black go to the wall would have removed him from the board as a political threat and yet not cause the entire North to rise in revolt and would have been a much better solution but Joffrey being like 14 years old and a book made a very childish decision so the harshest decision is not always the wisest but sometimes it is

Channel: Aegon Targaryen

Views: 3,155,201

Keywords: stephen king, season 8, jrr tolkien, episode 5, preview, trailer, spoilers, leaks, books, dan and dave, dany, jon snow, euron greyjoy, cersei lannister, jamie, iron throne, bronn, bran, red wedding, fan fiction, winds of winter, 2019, new, tyrion, lord of light, religion, varys, death, reaction, theory, alive, lysa, sansa, ned stark, petyr baelish

Id: 489a-bzKhgc

Length: 4min 21sec (261 seconds)

Published: Thu May 09 2019