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

7×05 and 7×06: “Eastwatch” and “Beyond the Wall”

These two episodes are directly connected, so I’m going to treat them as one. Knowing Arya is following him around the castle, Littlefinger continues his quest to wedge himself between the Stark sisters. Petyr reaches an all-time low when he asks Maester Wolkan for the letter Sansa sent asking Rob to swear fealty to the Lannisters. Arya is standing in the shadows and eventually finds the letter he “hides”.

He knows that since Arya has been on her own for years, she’ll have no idea what actually happened. The letter is the perfect thing to turn sister against sister. At this point, there is no display of “love” from Littlefinger — this is clear and unbridled manipulation. It’s another quest to put Sansa in a horrible position — “look how much better you are than your family!” — and get her on his side, perhaps permanently, and perhaps with a marriage. He probably won’t get everything he wants, but it’s obviously his intention.

In “Beyond the Wall,” Arya confronts Sansa about the letter she found, and Sansa finds Arya’s bag of faces. Littlefinger gets what he wanted. The girls are at each other’s throat, and very close to turning on each other.

Season 7 has reinforced that Littlefinger is a pretty deplorable character. Yet he’s also been successful at what he does. He’s able to read people and get exactly what he wants with only a couple of conversations. Knowing what makes people tick — and therefore how to manipulate them — is his greatest strength. And he doesn’t have to worry about people sharing his plans because he doesn’t tell anyone; or at least, he doesn’t tell them the full extent of what he’s up to. He’s done his best to make sure he has to share information with as few people as possible — even Varys’ little birds could let slip something to the wrong person.

How much further will Littlefinger’s cunning take him? We’ll find out more in the season 7 finale, which airs tomorrow!

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