8 Game of Thrones characters who overstayed their welcome

4. Petyr Baelish

Petyr Baelish (Aiden Gillen) is one of the most conniving characters on Game of Thrones. Littlefinger, who just wanted to be loved back by Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley), was pulling the strings on many of the terrible things that happened in the Seven Kingdoms, particularly to the Stark family. His scheming in pursuit of power was only matched by Varys, Tywin Lannister, and a few others throughout the series.

When we first meet Petyr Baelish in season 1, he’s the Master of Coin on Robert Baratheon’s Small Council, and he’s very good at it. But we know Petyr has much bigger plans for himself and the realm. Arguably, Littlefinger caused more chaos in Westeros than any other Game of Thrones character. He then used this chaos as his “ladder” — his words, not mine — to climb as high as possible. His dedication to sowing discord would almost be admirable if wasn’t so terrible.

Ultimately, Littlefinger’s charade catches up with him in season 7 when Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright), also known as The Three-Eyed Raven, reveals Littlefinger’s crimes to Sansa (Sophie Turner). Arya then kills Littlefinger. So justice is served, but far too late.

Similar to Varys, it’s hard to imagine the powers that be in Westeros allowing Littlefinger to live for as long as he did. It’s almost unbelievable, with all of the things Littlefinger did, that it took the omniscient Three-Eyed Raven for his crimes to be brought to light.