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.
