Petyr Baelish, known as Littlefinger, is one
of the most intriguing characters in Game of Thrones. He's quietly powerful, a clever
manipulator, sharp-tongued and more than slightly creepy. Littlefinger has said that he tries
to keep his foes confused by his actions, and watching Game of Thrones, you may be pretty
confused yourself. Petyr has betrayed Ned, snogged Sansa, killed Lysa, and been competing
with Varys in a dramatic stare competition for four seasons now. What's he trying to
achieve? Who is this guy? Unlike most of the major players of the Game
of Thrones, Littlefinger comes from a small and unimportant noble family which holds a
piece of land here, at the Fingers – one of the little ones. Because of his father's friendship
with Hoster Tully, Petyr was lucky enough to be raised at Riverrun, growing up with
Edmure, Lysa and Catelyn. Lysa loved Littlefinger, but Littlefinger only had eyes for Cat. When
Catelyn was to be married to Brandon Stark, young Petyr went so far as to challenge Brandon
to a spectacularly unsucessful duel which left him scarred in more ways than one. In
any case, Brandon got himself killed by the Mad King, Catelyn ended up with his brother
Ned, and Littlefinger never won the love of his dear Cat.
These events shaped Petyr as a man. "You know what I learnt losing that duel? I learnt that
I'll never win. Not that way. That's their game, their rules. I'm not going to fight
them – I'm going to fuck them". He learned that to get what he wants he has to
be indirect and strategic using tools more subtle that the sword. So it was his political
and financial brilliance – and his friends in high places – that drove his rapid rise
up the ranks to the position of Master of Coin – basically the treasurer – for King
Robert, who managed to spend the Throne into debt despire the huge amount of money Petyr
was bringing in. Petyr used his power carefully, buying up property and businesses, like brothels,
establishing a network of spies, and placing men loyal to him in useful places.
And then Season 1 begins, with the death of the Hand of the King, Jon Arryn.
We find out in Season 4 that the killer of Jon Arryn was his wife, Lysa. Littlefinger
got Lysa, his childhood friend and the woman who's still devoted to him, to poison Jon
and then tell her sister Catelyn that the Lannisters did it.
When Catelyn comes to King's Landing to tell Ned about the attempted killing of Bran (which
was possibly ordered by Joffrey but we don't know), Littlefinger lies and tells Catelyn
that the dagger used was Tyrion's, leading Cat to capture and wrongly accuse the dwarf.
Meanwhile, Petyr helps Ned uncover Jamie and Cersei's incestuous secret, but when Eddard
confronts the Lannisters, Petyr betrays him, and soon Ned's dead.
All three of these moves were deliberate attempts by Littlefinger to create conflict between
the Lannisters and the Starks. And it works. Petyr Baelish – indirectly, without implicating himself – started the War of the Five Kings. But why? Petyr says that "chaos is a ladder". Littlefinger is using the chaos of war to gain power. For example, in Season 2, Littlefinger negotiates an alliance with the Tyrells. This alliance
saves the Lannisters in the Battle of Blackwater, so Littlefinger is rewarded with the castle
of Harrenhal, and rule of the Riverlands. With this higher status, and again because
of the war, Littlefinger is sent to marry Lysa, in order to secure the military support
of the Vale, just about the only region untouched by the war. So he goes and marries the woman
who loves him. And then he kills her. With Lysa gone, and Jon Arryn already dead, Robert
Arryn is the only thing standing between Littlefinger and control of the Vale. Wouldn't be terrible
if sick, frail Sweetrobin somehow had an accident? On his way out of King's Landing, Petyr does
two things – he helps kill King Joffrey, and he takes Sansa Stark. He helped kill Joffrey
presumably to create more of the chaos that he's been doing so well out of but possibly
also to gain favour with the Tyrells, now one of the most powerful houses. But why did
he take Sansa? It's obvious that he's attracted to her, and whether you want to call that
love or some kind of creepy-ass paedo shit it seems to be related to Littlefinger's love
of Cat. He's projecting his love of the dead mother onto the daughter – yeah it's really more this
isn't it. So that's one reason Petyr takes Sansa. But
there's another – as the last known living Stark, Sansa is the "key to the North". Whoever
marries her becomes the Lord of Winterfell, and has some claim on the North. Of course,
Sansa is already married, so her current husband Tyrion would have to die for her to marry
again, but how could the brother of the Queen possibly die? Ah. Littlefinger, by the way,
was the one to arrange this little entertainment, which succeeded in creating public conflict
between Tyrion and Joffrey just before the King died, helping to frame Tyrion for the
murder and be sentenced to death, freeing Sansa up for marriage – or, it would've if
Tyrion didn't escape. Anyway. So at the start of Season 1, Petyr
Baelish was Master of Coin at King's Landing, with this little nowhere as his official seat.
Now, he's sitting in the Eyrie, probably the safest place in Westeros, with control of
the Vale, of the Riverlands, potentially of the North, and with the embodiment of dead
woman he loves in an obsessive Gatsby-esque kind of a way. Without lifting a sword, he
has won the two things he desires – power and Catelyn. Of course, both of those things
come with fairly large asterisks. He has Catelyn only in the form of her daughter, and his
control of these regions is doubtful. I mean, he has no army, no sworn lords backing him,
no love from the smallfolk, and a ruin for a castle. But he does have the crown backing
his claim, at least on the Riverlands, so that's gotta count for something. In any case he's
a long way from where he was before and he did it by creating and exploiting the chaos
of the War of the Five Kings. The question now is – what next? It's hard to say. We've
never had a Littlefinger point of view chapter and we only really see his actions indirectly.
Maybe he'll settle down. Or maybe on a ladder the only way to go is up.
Thanks for watching this video. If there's interest, similar videos on other characters
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