| NOTE: This page is only about his TV incarnation as the original book incarnation of Petyr Baelish was not voted Pure Evil, and thus only HBO's version of Petyr Baelish's info and crimes should be put here. |
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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder. Many who try to climb it fail and never get to try it again. The fall breaks them. And some are given a chance to climb. They refuse. They cling to the realm or the gods or love. Illusions. Only the ladder is real. The climb is all there is. | „ |
| ~ Littlefinger's viewpoint on the world - also his most famous quote. |
| “ | I did warn you not to trust me. | „ |
| ~ Littlefinger upon betraying Ned Stark. |
Lord Petyr Baelish, also known as Littlefinger, is one of the main antagonists of the TV series Game of Thrones.
A former member of the Small Council who served as the Master of Coin for the Seven Kingdoms under both kings Robert I and Joffrey Baratheon respectively, he is the central cause of the events leading to the absolute chaos and war in the realm.
He was portrayed by Aiden Gillen, who also played Miles Jackson in 12 Rounds.
What Makes Him Pure Evil?[]
- He is most responsible for instigating the War of Five Kings, personally orchestrating numerous conflicts and provocations between Houses Baratheon, Stark, and Lannister and ultimately dragging the Tullys in the hopes that he will come out on top of it all and finally sit on the Iron Throne, which caused the death and/or suffering of tens of thousands of people across Westeros because of said war. These events include:
- Seducing Lysa Arryn, into poisoning her husband and Hand of the King, Jon Arryn, and framing it on the Lannisters with a letter.
- He also manipulates Lysa into controlling the Vale of Arryn, including withholding military aid to her sister, Catelyn Stark, to which he confesses in the discussion with Tywin that this is his plan.
- Withholding the army from aiding the Tullys and the Starks was one of the causes of the fall of Robb's army at the Red Wedding. It is not clear how much it is his fault, but he caused a certain rivalry between Lysa and Catelyn over the latter's attitude towards her relationship with him.
- Yet he continued to manipulate Lysa to act against her own family, House Tully, and indirectly sparking the War of the Five Kings with no regrets about it, not to mention being directly responsible for Lysa's fall into villainy.
- Withholding the army from aiding the Tullys and the Starks was one of the causes of the fall of Robb's army at the Red Wedding. It is not clear how much it is his fault, but he caused a certain rivalry between Lysa and Catelyn over the latter's attitude towards her relationship with him.
- He also manipulates Lysa into controlling the Vale of Arryn, including withholding military aid to her sister, Catelyn Stark, to which he confesses in the discussion with Tywin that this is his plan.
- Sending a catspaw assassin to murder the now-crippled 10-year-old Bran Stark in his sleep and framing it on Tyrion, which consequently triggers the armed conflict between the joint Stark-Tully forces and the Lannisters after Tyrion is captured.
- Betraying Ned Stark, which led to public execution at the behest of King Joffrey, killing several of Ned's bannermen as well.
- Even worse, Littlefinger can actually be spotted smiling at Varys from a distance right before Ned gets decapitated, thus disclosing that Littlefinger is completely apathetic to the consequences of Joffrey's outrageous decision-making.
- It is heavily implied that he cajoled Slynt into betraying Eddard Stark and killing his men through bribery.
- Seducing Lysa Arryn, into poisoning her husband and Hand of the King, Jon Arryn, and framing it on the Lannisters with a letter.
- He spies in King's Landing against its inhabitants, especially in the confrontations between him and Varys, who is aware of him.
- He is a cruel pimp who runs a brothel, providing all sorts of clients with very young boys, amputees, and fresh cadavers.
- Any of his prostitutes who don't work well enough are punished with a vague "transformation" in order to mitigate his losses, which doesn't count as offscreen villainy because he literally hands Ros over to be tortured to death by Joffrey, which he does by using her as target practice with a crossbow.
- He tries his best to stop his rival, Varys, even while threatening to hand him over to King Robert for his conspirationist meeting with Illyrio Mopatis, which could have ended in the latter's execution (although Varys was really a spy working against the realm's peace and stability).
- He has no problem supporting King Robert's plan to poison the pregnant Daenerys.
- He threatens Cersei by telling her that he knows about her infidelity against Jaime, suggesting to her that "knowledge is power" so that she will shy away from him. However, in response, she almost executes him.
- He willingly aided Joffrey's brutal reign, even aiding in destroying Stannis' rebellion by encouraging House Tyrell to ally with the Lannisters. Indirectly, this also caused the destruction of House Tyrell.
- He also ruined Varys' attempt to help Sansa escape King's Landing by marrying Loras Tyrell and even caused the death of his whore, who betrayed him and tried to act for Varys to do so, which left Sansa imprisoned by the Lannisters.
- He helped Olenna Tyrell orchestrate the assassination of Joffrey and frames Tyrion and Sansa for it afterwards. Although Joffrey deserved it, Tyrion and Sansa absolutely did not deserve to become Littlefinger's scapegoats.
- Plus, Littlefinger did this for pragmatic reasons, as Joffrey had outlived his usefulness by that point.
- He arranged for Ser Dontos Hollard, who helped Sansa escape with his help, to be killed.
- He throws his own wife, Lysa Arryn, out the Moon Door, killing her.
- While she deserved it for trying to kill Sansa in the same way, Littlefinger only did it to take the power of The Vale. Sansa even called him out on this during his last moments.
- He manipulates Robin Erin to his advantage, threatening his rivals in the valley with execution by his hands.
- After the Sparrows take over King's Landing, he sends one of his employees to testify against Loras, which results in his and Margaery's arrest.
- After Olanna is furious with him, he gets Lancel to make him testify against Cersei, and she is also arrested and later gets a very humiliating march.
- When Brienne of Tarth attempts to reunite with Sansa along the way, he blames her for Renly's death, prompting her and Podrick to flee for their lives.
- He arranges Sansa's marriage to Ramsay Bolton as part of a grand scheme to overthrow Houses Baratheon and Bolton and thus secure his own power over the North.
- During the marriage, Ramsay repeatedly abused Sansa, both physically and sexually, to the point of raping her on certain occasions. This was something Littlefinger never genuinely apologised for in the end.
- He tries to manipulate Sansa to seize command against her adopted brother, who is the legitimate king of the north, and later into killing Arya, her own sister, by leaving a note for the latter to find written by the former (back when she was still a child under duress thanks to Cersei), telling their brother Robb to swear loyalty to Joffrey.
- When the Stark girls corner him in a manipulative trial, he lies about his involvement and then cowardly begs for his life when it becomes clear to him that Sansa does not believe him.
- So much so that he vainly orders the men of the Vale to escort him to safety to no avail, as well as trying to get Sansa to speak with him in private as the extent of his ambitions are exposed, before he is finally killed by Arya herself.
- Although he claims to have been in love with Catelyn Stark since childhood, deep down, that "love" is merely a superficial, perverted obsession. He deliberately provokes the War of the Five Kings just to gain more power for himself (including the prevention of military aid from the people of the valley to Rob's army), ultimately causing the deaths of Catelyn herself, her husband, and two of her sons (Robb and Rickon), and overall, he never actually visibly mourns Catelyn's death in any way.
- The only times he even brings her up after the Red Wedding are to demean Lysa Arryn before pushing her to her death, as well as a feeble attempt to save his own skin when near death.
- He even says it himself that he prefers Sansa, and that relationship is far from mitigating too since he frames her for regicide, forces kisses on her while she's still a teenager, tries to manipulate her into committing sororicide, and even gives her to Ramsay to be abused and raped, again all just for his own personal power. If Littlefinger ever truly loved anyone, it was himself.
- The only times he even brings her up after the Red Wedding are to demean Lysa Arryn before pushing her to her death, as well as a feeble attempt to save his own skin when near death.
- He does do a number of admirable deeds, but they were done for pragmatic reasons, and although he could have chosen to atone for his past after the battle of the bastards, he only continued his actions to cause more chaos.
- Despite coming from a very minor and impoverished noble house, it doesn't give him any sympathy points, at all, because by the time the story starts, he is already very rich and is even a member of the Small Council.
- In general, Varys describes him as a man with great ambition and no morals who'd gladly see a whole country burn if he could be king of the ashes, and judging from Littlefinger's "chaos is a ladder" speech (as well as just his overall personality), it's fairly difficult to call that an exaggeration. He is a backstabbing sociopath and is ultimately proud of it.
Trivia[]
- Only the TV version of Littlefinger is Pure Evil, while his book version isn't - since he's more protective of Sansa (even giving Jeyne Poole to Ramsay instead).
External Links[]
- Littlefinger on the Villains Wiki
- Littlefinger on the Game of Thrones Wiki
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 Pure Evils
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