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For merch, audiobooks, and all things In Deep Geek, explore my website - www.indeepgeek.com
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This video was brought to you with support from my amazing Patreon community.
Affiliate Links - (buying books from our Bookshop.org shop supports this channel and local bookshops at no extra cost to you.)
Books for fans of A Song of Ice and Fire:
https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/a-song-of-ice-and-fire
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Thanks for watching! (All pictures are used under fair use copyright laws or with the express permission of the artist.)
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TVTranscript
00:00Littlefinger creates chaos and sees that as a ladder to more power, but he also has a plan.
00:07What is it, and what does that mean we can expect him to be doing next in A Song of Ice and Fire?
00:13Hi everyone, this is Robert. Welcome to InDeepGeek.
00:16On this channel we do deep dives, lore explainers and breakdowns into the greatest fantasy worlds ever.
00:22A Song of Ice and Fire, The Lord of the Rings, The Witcher and more.
00:25By the time we meet Peter Baelish in A Song of Ice and Fire, he has already climbed a long way.
00:32He was born the son of a very minor lord, very minor.
00:36The Baelish's lands were little more than a few acres of rocky outcrop on the far north-eastern corner of the Vale,
00:42but when we meet him, he is master of coin for the entire realm, with huge personal wealth,
00:48a spy network, business interests and a seat on the small council.
00:52He also had an ongoing secret relationship with Lysa Arryn, the wife of the Hand of the King.
00:58When her husband, John Arryn, tries to send her son Robert to be fostered elsewhere,
01:03Littlefinger provides the poison that she uses to kill him.
01:07While Lysa's motivations here appear to be about attachment to her young son and obsessive love for Littlefinger,
01:13Littlefinger himself was playing a more complex game.
01:16The situation in King's Landing at the time was getting quite fraught.
01:21Varys was secretly planning a coup.
01:24I'll do a video on his masterplan at some point, too.
01:27And John Arryn and Stannis were on the verge of discovering the truth about Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen's parentage.
01:34Added to which, Littlefinger had a few scores of his own to settle.
01:38Ned Stark for being married to Catelyn, the woman Peter loved,
01:41and the Tullys more broadly.
01:43Hoster Tully had forced Lysa to abort her child with Littlefinger years earlier
01:48and thrown him out of Riverrun in disgrace.
01:50So the first phase of Littlefinger's plan was to make a little chaos
01:55while getting some revenge for perceived past slights,
01:59and hopefully use that chaos to seize some opportunities for his own advantage.
02:04At the heart of this lies Littlefinger's central modus operandi.
02:07When the realm was in chaos, he backed himself to make the best of the opportunities that would present themselves.
02:14So he often defaults to sowing a little lie here and there,
02:18to create that chaos and climb that ladder.
02:22Climb the ladder to what, though, is a good question.
02:25Basically, it is to more power, winning the Game of Thrones and the personal life he wants,
02:31which is shorthand for having Catelyn Stark or Tully to himself.
02:35He was obsessed with her.
02:37Basically, all the things he didn't have as a child.
02:41Although he quickly transferred his seedy obsession to Sansa,
02:44who reminded him of her when she was younger.
02:47So, phase one.
02:49Murder Jon Arryn and get Lysa to tell her sister that the Lannisters did it.
02:54Frame Tyrion for the assassination attempt on Bran,
02:57and show Ned the evidence about Jaime and Cersei.
03:01Cat capturing Tyrion was an unexpected twist,
03:04but Littlefinger knew that the Honourable Ned would have to stand up for what was right,
03:09at which point he could betray him and whisper in Joffrey's ear the idea that Ned should be beheaded.
03:15Before you knew it, the Lannisters and the Starks were at each other's throats.
03:19The subsequent civil war obviously offered lots of opportunities for advancement.
03:24He led a diplomatic mission to Highgarden to negotiate an alliance between the Lannisters and the Tyrells,
03:30who had, let's not forget, the largest army in Westeros,
03:33and brought them back to King's Landing, linking up with Tywin.
03:36It was this army that arrived just in time to turn the tide in the Battle of the Blackwater.
03:42His reward was to be made Lord of Harrenhal and Lord Paramount of the Trident.
03:47The Riverlands were a complete mess at the time, and as far as we know,
03:51Littlefinger never even went to Harrenhal.
03:53But suddenly he was at the High Table by right of nobility,
03:57one of the most senior nobles in the realm.
04:00Not just because his ability with money earned him a seat on the small council.
04:04So we have to say that phase one of Littlefinger's plan undoubtedly worked.
04:09He had advanced hugely in social standing.
04:11His rival Ned Stark was dead.
04:14He may have lost Cat, not that he ever really had her, of course,
04:18but Sansa was by his side and he had the trust of the Lannisters,
04:22who were in control of King's Landing.
04:25At which point we move on to phase two.
04:28Littlefinger now has the social standing to suggest the thing he had been denied as a child,
04:33marriage to Loysa Arryn.
04:35She is now available, of course, now her husband is dead.
04:38It's not that he particularly wants to marry her, per se,
04:41but it would right a childhood wrong in his mind and bring more power.
04:46Being the stepfather of the child Lord of the Vale and husband to the Lady Regent brings power of its own.
04:52But what he does want now is Sansa.
04:55He has been obsessed with her since he first met her.
04:58But how to get her?
05:00Well, he had a few problems to overcome.
05:02First, she was married now to Tyrion.
05:05And second, she remained an important bargaining tool for the Lannisters.
05:09They would never let her leave King's Landing while the kingdom remained in such turmoil.
05:13So Peter Baelish launched a complex plan that, again, went almost exactly to plan.
05:19It was launching chaos once more, but knowing exactly what he wanted from it.
05:24Joffrey and Margaery's wedding was at hand,
05:27and he knew that Elenna Tyrell, the Queen of Thorns,
05:29would never allow her granddaughter to marry someone like Joffrey.
05:32So he hatched a plot with her to assassinate Joffrey on his wedding day.
05:37The Purple Wedding, as it became known.
05:40But first, he persuaded Tywin to send him to the Vale to attempt to woo Lysa Arryn.
05:45The Vale had been noticeably absent from the war so far,
05:48and Tywin needed to get them to bend the knee.
05:51And Littlefinger, as we've seen,
05:53has shown an apparently unimpeachable track record of loyalty to the Lannisters,
05:58betraying the Starks and bringing the Tyrells on board.
06:00But Peter doesn't leave immediately, he only pretends to.
06:05Instead, he arranges for a troop of dwarves to perform at the wedding feast,
06:10knowing it would annoy Tyrion and force a public confrontation with Joffrey, who would love it.
06:15Meanwhile, Elenna poisoned Joffrey with the poison smuggled in on Sansa's hairnet.
06:20This immediately made Tyrion the prime suspect for Joffrey's murder,
06:25certainly in Cersei's eyes, and Sansa was implicated too.
06:28Ser Dontos, who Littlefinger had been manipulating to befriend Sansa,
06:33hinting at ways to escape King's Landing,
06:36persuaded her to come with him to Littlefinger's ship while everything was still in uproar,
06:40and Littlefinger set sail for the Vale with Sansa.
06:44Ser Dontos was killed.
06:46Sansa was by his side, her husband implicated for murder,
06:50and Baelish himself had the full support of the crown to marry Lysa Arryn,
06:54who would definitely say yes and claim power there.
06:58That final part of the plan happens quickly, perhaps even quicker than Littlefinger was wanting.
07:03Lysa Arryn married him and declared him Lord Protector of the Vale, de facto ruler.
07:10So let's take stock of where Peter has got to at the end of his second phase.
07:15He is now the de facto ruler of the Vale and Lord Paramount of the Riverlands,
07:19indisputably one of the most powerful men in the realm,
07:23and he not only has Lysa Arryn doting on him,
07:26but also Sansa close at hand and entirely reliant on him.
07:30She is now installed in the Vale as Elaine Stone, his bastard daughter.
07:35Where can he go from here?
07:37Well, more power and closer to Sansa.
07:40That's the plan.
07:41That's always the plan.
07:43Perhaps at this point he does, however, get a little ahead of himself.
07:48He kisses Sansa, and Lysa sees him do it.
07:51She is jealous and tries to throw Sansa out of the Moondor.
07:55Littlefinger intervenes, and Lysa ends up being thrown out of the Moondor.
07:59I have a feeling that what transpires here will be quite important later on.
08:03Before she dies, Lysa basically tells Sansa all of Littlefinger's lies from the first half of Book One,
08:09and if she was ever unsure whether Peter Baelish really had betrayed her family,
08:13she now knows everything.
08:15And surely, when she's not in his control, and is perhaps back in the safety of her family,
08:21she will use that.
08:22Anyway, that's for the future.
08:24Because although he may not have planned it,
08:27Peter Baelish has once more got the chaos he so loves.
08:30He manages to frame the murder of Lysa itself on Merillion, a minstrel,
08:35but is soon confronted by six powerful lords of the Vale,
08:38naming themselves the Lord's Declarant,
08:41who oppose him basically assuming full power after Lysa's death.
08:45Which brings us to phase three, securing his hold over the Vale.
08:49It would take a whole other video here to go through all the intricacies of Vale politics
08:53that Littlefinger is exploiting,
08:55and at the point we are at in the books, he's still only partway through this process,
08:59but basically he is trying to peel off the six Lords' Declarants one by one.
09:05He starts by getting a loyalist, Lynne Corbray,
09:07to force the Lord's Declarants to give him a year's grace.
09:11Then he buys up the debts of House Wainwood,
09:13and persuades Lady Wainwood to match Harry Harding,
09:17her ward and the heir apparent to Robert Arryn,
09:20to Sansa, who everyone thinks is Littlefinger's bastard daughter.
09:24Baelish then mutters darkly about how Lord Redfort is old and near death,
09:30and Lord Hunter may soon be murdered by his own brothers,
09:34so both of them are probably not long for this world.
09:37Lord Nestor Royce is granted hereditary rights over the gates of the moon,
09:41seemingly as a bribe, and gifted some rather splendid tapestries.
09:46And Lords Belmore and Grafton seem to be conspiring with Littlefinger to stockpile grain
09:51and aggressively target the other part of House Royce,
09:55Bronze Yon himself.
09:56Surely, within the year, all the Lord's Declarant will accept Littlefinger's absolute rule,
10:03with perhaps only Yon Royce doing so grudgingly,
10:06another one to watch for the future story.
10:09Which brings us to what happens in the winds of winter and a dream of spring.
10:13Well, Littlefinger does tell Sansa what his plan is,
10:17right at the end of a feast for crows.
10:19We obviously shouldn't always take him at his word,
10:21but given his infatuation with her, there's no reason to think that what he tells her is not true here,
10:28even if there are other elements he isn't revealing.
10:31This is what he says, talking about Harry Harding, Robert Arryn's heir apparent.
10:35Sansa is speaking first.
10:37Harry is Robert's heir.
10:39If Robert were to die...
10:42Peter arched an eyebrow.
10:44When Robert dies...
10:46Our poor, brave, sweet Robin is such a sickly boy.
10:50It is only a matter of time.
10:52When Robert dies...
10:53Harry the heir becomes Lord Harold,
10:56Defender of the Vale and Lord of the Eyrie.
10:59John Arryn's bannermen will never love me,
11:02nor our silly, shaking Robert,
11:03but they will love their young falcon.
11:06And when they come together for his wedding,
11:08and you come out with your long, auburn hair,
11:11clad in a maiden's cloak of white and grey,
11:14with a direwolf emblazoned on the back,
11:16why, every knight in the Vale will pledge his sword
11:20to win you back your birthright.
11:22So, those are your gifts from me, my sweet Sansa,
11:27Harry the Eyrie and Winterfell.
11:32Sansa's birthright that Littlefinger says
11:34every knight in the Vale will pledge themselves for recovering
11:37is being the Lady of Winterfell.
11:40At this moment in time, as far as everyone is aware,
11:43Robb was killed at the Red Wedding.
11:45John is still a bastard son, so not in the line of succession.
11:49Bran and Rickon are both dead,
11:51killed by Theon, so it is thought.
11:52And Arya, well, Arya herself is missing.
11:55The person everyone thinks is Arya is actually Jane Poole.
11:59Littlefinger married her to Ramsay Bolton in the books
12:02rather than Sansa.
12:03So the only Stark left standing is Sansa.
12:07Littlefinger is planning on taking the knights of the Vale,
12:11who have stayed out of all of the conflicts in this war so far,
12:14to the North, to install Sansa as Lady there.
12:18Personally, I can't see Harry Harding surviving long past his wedding,
12:23and I can definitely see Littlefinger overstepping the mark with Sansa
12:26in a way that he will regret when she is safe back home,
12:30and all of the Starks everyone thinks are dead suddenly start appearing by her side,
12:34and in powered-up versions of themselves, like Bran and Arya will be, for example.
12:39But in his mind, where we currently are at in the story,
12:43phase four of Littlefinger's plan will be surely the last.
12:47Claim the Vale through Sansa's marriage to Harry the heir,
12:50then win the North in Sansa's name,
12:53and through her being a tully and his claim as Lord Panamount,
12:56rule over the Riverlands, too.
12:59That would be three of the Seven Kingdoms,
13:01the North, the Vale of Arryn, and the Riverlands.
13:04An astonishing rise in just a few short years for a very, very minor lord.
13:10But ultimately, I suspect that his lies will catch up with him.
13:15Sansa is learning the Game of Thrones all the time,
13:18and she now knows so many of his secrets.
13:20When she is Lady of Winterfell, if she becomes Lady of Winterfell,
13:24I expect Jon to be back by her side,
13:27and Bran will return from the far north,
13:29and probably even Arya return from Braavos.
13:32In King's Landing, and even in the Vale,
13:34Littlefinger was in his own element.
13:36He could play one person off against another,
13:39lie to one person to provoke a reaction in another,
13:42but in Winterfell, as winter falls,
13:45he will be as out of his element as Ned Stark was in King's Landing.
13:49Littlefinger rose to power on lies, duplicity, and double-crossing.
13:54His downfall will be brought about by truth, honesty, and loyalty.
14:01If you would like to see more videos
14:03unpacking the story behind the story of A Song of Ice and Fire,
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14:17That's all for this time.
14:18Thanks for watching.
14:19I'll see you again soon.
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