We’ve all seen it. After seven seasons, finally Littlefinger, the brothel-owning Master of Coin and master manipulator dies. Most of us might not have realized the scale of his manipulation until the Stark children told us, a smaller portion of us might’ve seen it all along and marveled in how genius it was. Many of us loved to hate this character but liked the actor for doing such a good job and others absolutely loved his character and the part he had in the story.
The Trial of Petyr Baelish in season 7 has brought all of us emotion, ranging from tears to euphoria as we saw the man beg and plead, only to bleed out on the cold floor.
We may or may not have cheered for the growth in Sansa’s character and how she had learned to be better than her teacher. He died to a plot, a genius plot that was such a twist that no one expected.
It wasn’t a genius plot, not in the slightest. Let me explain.
TLDR: I explain why the set up for the trial is bs, why the trial is bs, how it could’ve been done otherwise, and why this happened.
First of all. Why? Littlefinger is a smart man, he’s the cause of the whole series, he knows what he’s doing. Why put the Stark girls against each other? It made no sense. You’d end up with one less Stark and Arya would always outperform Sansa because Arya is more of a fighter.
If Arya lives (she is the more agressive, murderous of the two and would get rid of Sansa as soon as she was convinced her sister would turn against her), the North stays loyal. Jon still has that alliance with Dany and the gang goes off to fight the Army of the Dead and the plot literally wouldn’t change. Not at all. If Sansa lives, which is the unlikely option (again, Arya most likely wouldn’t let it come to a trial and as soon as she’s captured would kill the guards and run), she might get pissed at Jon with the whole bending the knee and maybe split away from him. But all the banner-men are loyal to Jon and wanted him as King of the North. Aka, she’d remain powerless. Nothing would change the outcome all that much.
And as Littlefinger himself said, he thinks of every eventuality, every possible outcome. This has no significant change.
If he doesn’t want to die by Army of the Dead, they need to put up somewhat of a fight. Which is much easier when they are a united front as you’d have more numbers but its not necessarily required (it was Dany bringing the dragons to the North that caused one to die and end up burning the Wall) and without that the Wall would have stopped the Army of the Dead. Although, the battleplans made in the show are incredibly stupid but let’s not get into that.
Effectively, Baelish’s little plot has little sense or logic. Besides the nice quotes we get, which truly is refreshing beside all the boring things visible on screen, he is useless and his plot is nonsensical and without reason.
Even then, something more important. Bran. In the conversation Baelish had with Bran, the young man repeated Littlefinger’s words back to him. The words Baelish said to Varys back in King’s Landing several seasons ago. It should’ve been that point that Baelish knew to get out and don’t risk anything or...even worse...kill Bran right then and there. He wouldn’t be so stupid to stay in such a dangerous situation. Littlefinger is smarter than that, a whole lot smarter, if all the previous seasons are to judge. But the showwriters made him not think of any of this and thus we get to the much beloved scene...
Now...the whole trial was set up to lead the viewer into thinking Arya was on trial. She wasn’t but we had literally nothing to hint us at the fact the two sisters knew and had turned against Baelish. Nothing. Apparently, according to the showwriters, Sansa, Arya, and Bran spoke in between episodes about this and made this plan. Again, we have no hints of it in the slighest, while with words or actions or even something in the background, one can convey a lot of meaning. A rewatch - if the viewer didn’t catch it on the first time - should be able to give away the clues. There were none. Then comes the actual trial and once more Littlefinger forgets who he is.
Everything Sansa is saying, has been acquired by Bran. Now, most people don’t even know what this magic power is, let alone believe it, let alone know that Bran has it. Beside Bran, Sansa has no evidence of the crimes she claims Baelish commited. We know he did, she knows he did, but you can’t pretend to put someone on trial before other Lords and provide no evidence for most of it. And Littlefinger could’ve easily done away with the claims, he’s smart with words, he’s manipulative, he keeps a cool head.
First charge: Killing Lysa Arryn, proof, she saw it herself. Easy counter. Really. Back in The Vale, she covered for Baelish. There are men here, at the trial, who heard Sansa say those words. Littlefinger could’ve countered with “If what you say is true, why would you, Sansa Stark, cover up for me? Why would you lie to protect the murderer of your beloved Aunt? It makes one wonder if perchance you are lying now, attempting to pin her suicide on me because you are upset.” Him admitting Lysa’s murder is the screenwriters forgetting what kind of man Petyr is.
Second charge: Giving Lysa poison to poison Jon Arryn with. The counter given in the show is decent enough and one could build on this to ask for proof as to his involvement. Lysa could’ve gotten help from someone else or crafted the plan on her own, whatever it may be, no evidence given that he was involved. She just stated it as if it was a known fact, not a charge in a trial. (Which this is supposed to be)
Third charge: Baelish made Lysa sent the letter to the Starks, kicking the plot in motion. No proof. And this is effectively debunked with the previous point. If he wasn’t involved, he didn’t give the task to write this letter.
Fourth charge: Petyr conspired to have Ned killed. Now...this one is easy to explain and admit to. Effectively say something like this: “No one here liked Joffery, neither did I, but he was still our king. Ned wanted to seize the Iron Throne from Joffery and grant it to Stannis, who he believed to be the rightful ruler. All it would lead to was bloodshed and war. I told him this, advised him not to, and told him of my opinions on how to proceed with the matter. He did not listen. He would not have won that coup attempt, only a fool would think so, and thus I had to do what was best for the realm.” Or have him once again deny it based on lack of proof. Both work as technically Littlefinger would be following the law and do the ‘right thing’ in that dumb sense.
Now...he could’ve said a lot of things and Bran would turn on his console commands and beat Baelish because the showmakers wanted it. But at least Littlefinger would’ve stayed in character, which would make the end of him quite a bit better.
But no...that doesn’t happen and Baelish forgets he’s cunning and almost immediately starts trying to win by pulling on Sansa’s sympathies, which he should’ve remembered by now, she lost for him. When that doesn’t work, he falls to his knees and begs, only to get his throat cut not much later. Begging. They made the master manipulator of the show, the true player in the Game of Thrones, die due to a dumb plot that he’d never allow to get to this conclusion, so that he could stand in a sham trial (Sansa never actually passed a sentence and just let Arya kill him, effectively making this not a trial but a nice talk before killing him. Her father also would’ve disapproved of such a method, cuz he’s honorable) and completely forget what kind of person he is, only to fall to his knees and beg. He’s been held at knifepoint by Lannister guards, choked, twice, and been in rather dangerous situations and always kept his cool. But the mere idea of the chance he will die makes him break, it’s unlike him.
Don’t get me wrong, Littlefinger can die. I would have been completely fine with a death that was actually a good turn-against-him plot with a twist trial where you - maybe on a second rewatch - could see the clues as to what happened or one where they didn’t set up a trial, still uncovered his intentions, and got rid of him, or pretty much either more political or realistic. It didn’t have to be this season either, make him useful later on and have his death be different. It was character assassination combined with a nonsensical road to death.
And why did he die like this? Well, because the showwriters weren’t competent enough to write a character like Littlefinger (notice how he became utterly useless most of season 5, 6 and 7 despite being very cunning?) and the audience didn’t like him. Many of the people didn’t like him the moment he turned on Ned and wanted him dead. And to do that, the showwriters wanted to pretend that he died because of a smart plot and show how much Sansa has ‘grown’ and that she has become better than her ‘teacher’.
And thus Petyr ‘Littlefinger’ Baelish died in such a way. Kicked off the ladder by a young man who could fly.
Submitted October 16, 2020 at 10:36PM by Ahlyae https://ift.tt/3k6dvvP
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