Chaos is a ladder and Aidan Gillen’s character is so good at climbing it.
“Don’t fight in the North or the South. Fight every battle everywhere, always, in your mind. Everyone is your enemy, everyone is your friend. Every possible series of events is happening all at once. Live that way and nothing will surprise you. Everything that happens will be something that you’ve seen before.” – Littlefinger to Sansa
If you ever fancied living in Westeros, Littlefinger’s advice is timely because when it comes to playing the game of thrones, very few characters can match Petyr Baelish.
Master of Coin, manipulator , schemer, brothel owner, spy, Lord Protector of the Vale, powerful, deceitful, treacherous, charismatic, wise, treasonous, elusive, saviour and sinner – he’s all of those things.
Unlike the majority of characters in Game of Thrones, he thrives in the uncertainty that exists with chaos and war.
Like catching smoke in the dark, his Machiavellian schemes are always two steps ahead of everyone else and he knows it.
This being said, one thing that’s predictable about his personality is fascination with the Stark family.
He plotted Ned Stark’s downfall, orchestrated the Stark-Lannister conflict, saved Sansa from King’s Landing, helped Jon Snow win the Battle of the Bastards, loved Catelyn and is currently conspiring to drive a wedge between Arya and Sansa Stark.
In his own words “always keep your foes confused, if they don’t know who you are or what you want, they don’t know what you plan to do next.”
Regarding his relationship with the Starks, Gillen thinks it all stems back from his unrequited love for Catelyn.
Speaking with The New York Times, he said that “There’s always something more to it when it involves the Starks, given his history with Catelyn Stark and that rejection, and that that’s what’s driving him. But I wouldn’t say the undermining of the Stark family has been a goal. It’s opportunistic. He couldn’t have foretold that Arya was going to show up again, and that Bran was going to show up again. He has played his part in the rise of the Starks, showing up last season with the Knights of the Vale, but he will also undermine it and exploit it. That’s what he’s doing — he’s trying to drive wedges between all of them,” he said.
Given the fact that his character has previously said that his envisioned a “picture of me on the Iron Throne and you (Sansa) by my side,” plenty of people have been curious about why he’s plotting against the Stark sisters.
Gillen thinks that particular speech to Sansa was one big lie.
“I don’t imagine that was to be taken literally. It was intended to be taken literally by Sansa. But with this character he’ll say something and mean something else. It wasn’t far off the mark. I’m not really playing a romantic interest there. I know that’s how it appears, but it’s something slightly different.” he said.
The Lady of Winterfell is clearly in Littlefinger’s mind and Gillen has elaborated on their relationship. It’s “kind of mentoring, in terms of schooling Sansa in the ways of manipulation, the ways to play the game, or the ways to survive. Of course there’s a certain lack of clarity in what he’s after, and I think that’s the way it should be. I don’t think I should have to say anything about it,” he said.
The next episode can’t come quickly enough.
