Man With a Plan: What game has Littlefinger been playing in Game of Thrones season 7?

Episode 7×01: “Dragonstone”

In the first episode of the season, Sansa is at Winterfell and Jon is King in the North. At one point, Littlefinger walks over and asks whether she’s safe and happy. “What do you want that you do not have?” he asks. “At the moment, peace and quiet,” Sansa sasses back. Note that he seems more concerned with her being happy than safe.

On one level, Littlefinger could be sincere here: he wants to keep Sansa safe and happy because of his love for her and her mother. It’s my belief that no one is completely evil, and I have a small sliver of hope that part of that is true. Beyond what Littlefinger wants and dreams for himself, he may be worried about Sansa, even if it’s just a little bit, and never enough to overcome his concern for himself.

In this episode, Littlefinger comes on too strong. He has a plan that he wants to put into motion. For most people, even Cersei, he can use his pseudo trust and nice face (?) to comfort people into letting him “help” them. However, Sansa is unlike any woman he’s ever met with everything she’s been through.

He tries manipulation here, and it works — to a point. That left over manipulation from after the Battle of the Bastards is still there, brewing in Sansa’s stomach. Especially as Jon rules. But as for anything new, you can only look at it from the point that once the manipulation tactic didn’t work, he switched to wanting to “care” for Sansa.

He’ll always fall back on that, partly because it is true.