Tuesday, September 12, 2017

I hate the Littlefinger death arc




I’m not a big fan of fantasy literature.  I’ve never read/seen Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings… so in 2017 that would make me a bit of an outlier especially since I love books and movies.  Fantasy just isn’t my thing unless you make it naughty and then it’s right up my alley.  HEY NOW!  Just never been attracted to fantasy.  Like blondes… I understand the appeal… it’s just not my cup of tea. 

Anyway… friends over the last couple of years have begged me to binge Game of Thrones.  I’d say okay, and then never follow through.  It had started to become an annual ritual.  The premier date of the new season would get released and I’d start getting calls and texts.  This year the calls and texts stopped and of course that’s when I made up my mind to catch-up.  I was all stealthy like… never mentioned it to anyone… just started one day in April.  And OMG… I was hooked from episode 1.  SPOILER ALERT…at the end of episode 1 a grown man pushes a boy from a tower window because he witnessed said grown man having K-9 monkey-sex with his very own TWIN SISTER. 

Game of Thrones is not just fantasy.  The show is excellent, very well written, and a visual feast.  The characters are so rich.  If watching intently one can’t help but have favorites.  Of course being a sociopath (high functioning) I’m drawn to the more dark sinister characters.  I always feel they are more honest and interesting.  This character of Lord Petyr Baelish aka “Littlefinger” caught my eye on several occasions as a scene stealer and then as a personal avatar for how I’d play the game. The title Game of Thrones elicits thoughts of chess, and of all the characters he is by far the grandmaster.  Born of little renown he rose to prominence by sheer force of will and determination.  On the board I envision him as a Knight that was moving towards being a Rook. Littlefinger became my guy.  I rooted for him although I know him sitting on the Iron Throne is the longest of long shots. 

So I caught up one week before the season 7 premier.  I was so happy.  I started making calls and texting friends.  When I told them I was Team Littlefinger… let’s just say I found no teammates.  They were all Jon Snow or Dany Targaryen bots.  Not sure why people root so hard for the high-borns but I digress. 

As season 7 started to progress I got the feeling that my guy wasn’t long for this earth and that he’d be shedding his mortal coil sooner than later.  After episode 4 I had reconciled that Littlefinger probably wouldn’t make it to season 8 and that Arya would be the kill instrument.  I was okay with this.  Arya is a major character and in this world Littlefinger deserved a proper death.  Arya killing him would be quite proper.  Keep in mind it was Littlefingers opening salvo that started the Game of Thrones in the first place.

I needed Littlefinger’s death to be brilliant, and done masterfully.  When Bran parroted Littlefinger’s life motto “CHAO IS A LADDER” in episode 4 I said “OH SHIT game on.” I was so looking forward to how this would develop over the next 3 episodes, but what I got was an elaborate game of 3 Card Monte that made the eventual kill unsatisfying.  When I tell people this, they think I’m just hurt because my guy is gone, but that’s not the case.  I knew all along that this was a Jon/Dany story, but there is something to say for how a great story arrives at its denouement. 

Three weeks and one re-watch later and I still feel like we could have been given better. 

Imagine after the Littlefinger/Bran scene in episode 4, Littlefinger being freaked-out by Brans knowledge of a private conversation that happened between he and Varys 4 years prior goes to Sansa and says something like… “Hey your brother is weird…I’m taking my army back to the Vail.”  Sansa needing him to stay because A. she needs his army, and B. she needs him at Winterfell so she can have him killed, uses her feminine wiles to keep him thirsty.  She touches his arm, and says something like “Petyr we need your army here… I need you here.”  He’d stay and then we’d think A. Sansa is going down her 3rd awful road or B. Sansa is spinning a web. We’d be invested in both equally. 

Then in episode 5 when Arya is following Littlefinger around we could have been shown those same conversation but with Sansa information hunting.  And still we’d be none the wiser but still very invested.  Instead we got fake drama between Arya and Sansa that is untrue to their natures.  For heaven sake they had just reconnected after being astranged for 6+ years, and we’re supposed to expect them to be on the verge of murder in 2 episodes.  Not plausible. 

We also could have been given a scene where Arya speaks to Bran and says something like… “I’m worried about Sansa being played by Littlefinger” and Bran could say” I’d be more worried for Littlefinger”… again giving us a little of the truth but not enough to convince us. 

My biggest gripe is that Littlefinger died on a very small part of the board.  I would have loved to see a scene like…

The morning of his execution Littlefinger is shaving... looking in the mirror…“Walking on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves is playing in the background… and he’s seeing the entire board, he’s already removed Arya (so he thinks), and he’s thinking 2-3-4 moves ahead to Jon/Dany/Cersei.  What is his next move? He’s playing the game EVERYWHERE as he’s been apt to say.  Then how great would the Winterfell Hall scene had been when the tables were turned by Sansa and Arya? 

If these 4 scenes had been added and the Sansa finding Arya’s faces scene had been cut we still would have had a very satisfying result, and the lead-up would have been more attractive to the Littlefinger haters and lovers.  If played out this way Sansa would have been elevated as a real player.  As it turns out now we have no idea if Sansa was the catalyst or Arya or even Bran.

Lord Petyr Baelish you deserved so much better. Hopefully when George R.R. Martin completes “Winds of Winter” he will give you the KING OF THE ASHES death that you deserved.

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