| NOTE: This page is only about his novel incarnation as the show incarnation of Petyr Baelish was voted Pure Evil, and thus only the novel version of Petyr Baelish's info and crimes should be put here. |
 |
"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | In the game of thrones, even the humblest pieces can have wills of their own. Sometimes they refuse to make the moves you've planned for them. Mark that well, Alayne. It's a lesson that Cersei Lannister still has yet to learn. | „ |
| ~ Littlefinger to "Alayne Stone". |
| “ | [smiling apologetically] I did warn you not to trust me, you know. | „ |
| ~ Littlefinger upon betraying Ned Stark. |
Lord Petyr Baelish, also known as Littlefinger, is one of the main antagonists of the A Song of Ice and Fire novel series.
He served on The Small Council as the Master of Coins for the Seven Kingdoms. Overall, Baelish can be the considered the one responsible for starting the events of the story, as he was behind the warring of the Starks, Baratheons, and Lannisters.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- Despite coming from a very minor and impoverished noble house, it doesn't give him any sympathy points, at all, because by the time story starts, he is already rich, owns several different businesses, and even a member of the Small Council.
- Although he might've had a past tragedy revolving around his teenage unrequited love for Catelyn, it seemingly does no longer hold up to the present, as there's nothing indicating that Petyr's actions are affected by what happened during his final few years in Riverrun:
- He was rejected by his childhood love interest, Catelyn, who once pushed him away laughing when he tried to kiss her, wounding Petyr with such ill-mannered rejection, resulting in him getting sad and drunk and Lysa taking advantage of him by "comforting" him with sex.
- Although he was date-raped by Lysa whilst he was drunk, causing to mistake her for Catelyn, he wasn't affected by this at all and he doesn't see it as a tragedy, having bragged about it as an adult to the small council and Tyrion for years and to Sansa as well, wrongly and proudly claiming to have taken Catelyn's virginity, when it was actually Lysa. Petyr would only find out the truth during his adulthood, in the third book, during Lysa's drunken breakdown.
- He was critically wounded and almost killed by Brandon Stark while fighting for a girl who didn't love him (Catelyn).
- Troughout his convalescence, Catelyn refused to visit him, while Lysa stood by his side and took care of him, resulting in the two having sex a second time, but with Petyr's consent and awareness it was Lysa.
- However, Petyr and Lysa were discovered by Lord Hoster Tully, who abruptly ended Petyr's fosterage in Riverrun and sent him away back to the Fingers, separating him from House Tully. Catelyn never said goobye to him.
- Troughout his convalescence, Catelyn refused to visit him, while Lysa stood by his side and took care of him, resulting in the two having sex a second time, but with Petyr's consent and awareness it was Lysa.
- Sometime after the death of Brandon, he wrote a letter for Catelyn, only for her to burn it without reading it and sending no reply, while he cut ties with his old friend Edmure Tully for having squired for Brandon instead of him in the duel.
- The duel with Brandon and Catelyn's subsequent marriage into House Stark resulted in Petyr imagining Winterfell in his dreams as a dark and foreboding place.
- He was rejected by his childhood love interest, Catelyn, who once pushed him away laughing when he tried to kiss her, wounding Petyr with such ill-mannered rejection, resulting in him getting sad and drunk and Lysa taking advantage of him by "comforting" him with sex.
- Nothing in the story indicated that Petyr's villainy and ambitions for power are related to anything that happened in his youth to begin with, and as an adult he's extremely wealthy, well-respected and liked, and charismatic, highly influential at court, held the office of Master of Coin in the King's council and owns several successful businesses, making his vile actions more inexcusable and unsympathetic.
- He has, amongst other things; ravaged an entire continent of people who had nothing to do with anything that happened to him; sold women and young girls - notably the preteen Jeyne Poole - into sexual slavery to be repeatedly raped and even provides boys for the paedophiliac Ser Lyn Corbray, which are just a few of the atrocities we are given insight to, making his tragedy and any sympathy exceedingly and thoroughly subverted.
- He enabled King Robert into beggaring the realm with heavy debt, by behaving dismissive about the Crown's constant heavy expenses and regularly assuring Robert he would be able to borrow money from Casterly Rock, Highgarden, the Iron Bank of Braavos, the Faith, and Oldtown.
- It is also implied he is the main reason why the realm became bankrupted so drastically, which is publicly entirely blamed on the late King Robert, as Tyrion observed how the records and counts in Petyr's ledger books, managed by his underling treasurers and accountants, are all suspicious. It is believed that Petyr embezzled a significant portion of the Crown's treasury, redirecting all the money to his own house and personal resources. Although Robert had started beggaring the realm before Petyr came to office, Petyr is the one who started borrowing large sums of money around and somehow even finding enormous amounts of coin for the Crown, claiming that all his own wealth came from his successful businesses and trading activities.
- Stannis Baratheon, recalling Janos Slynt's corruption and how several witnesses died, remembered how Robert dismissed the matter which Stannis cites as being Littlefinger's influence.
- Stannis, which Ser Barristan independently concurs with, notes that alongside Varys, Littlefinger was responsible for causing corruption to flourish throughout the court.
- Varys believes he is the one who whispered to Stannis's ear about his brother Robert's bastards not resembling Cersei's children at all, in order to put suspicions into Stannis and initiate his investigations to put discord within House Baratheon and plant the first seeds of war, leading to Jon Arryn's involvement and Stannis's sudden self-imposed isolation to Dragonstone, while seizing nearly all the royal fleet with himself.
- However, Varys' theory is unconfirmed, as Stannis never brought up Petyr's involvement in his investigation of Robert's children, and while speaking to Catelyn about it he only tells her he was the one who was already suspecting Cersei's children's true parentage.
- He convinces Lysa Arryn to poison her husband Jon Arryn, lying to her by claiming he cares for her son Robert, and that Jon needed to die to prevent the boy from becoming Stannis's ward at Dragonstone.
- He persuades Lysa to send a letter to her sister Catelyn falsely claiming that the Lannisters poisoned her husband to increase tensions between the Starks and Lannisters.
- He's lying to Catelyn that the dagger the killer attacked Bran with belongs to Tyrion Lannister. After Catelyn captures Tyrion, his father Tywin attacks the Riverlands in retaliation and kills or damages thousands of rivermen, common and nobles alike, destroying towns and besieging or burning castles. This further escalates the poor relations between the Starks and Lannisters, and drags the Tullys into the conflict, who become the first scapegoat among the nine Great Houses.
- Although it's believed by both Tyrion and Jaime that the catspaw who was sent to murder Bran with the Valyrian steel dagger was actually Joffrey Baratheon, Petyr capitalises on this by admitting to Catelyn that the dagger used to belong to him, but then lies that he lost it to Tyrion in a bet, when in truth he had actually lost it to King Robert.
- He pretends to be friends with Ned Stark and does everything in his power to make Ned aware that Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen are actually children of Queen Cersei Lannister and her brother Jaime and don't belong to Robert Baratheon.
- This causes Ned to try and arrest Cersei. Littlefinger pretends to help Ned by bribing the City Watch, but instead he pays them to fight on Cersei's side and he puts a knife to Ned's neck which leads to Ned's arrest and Ned's execution as well as the deaths of many Stark loyalists who were killed by the City Watch.
- He does all this just to create tensions between Stark and Lannister and to devastate the Seven Kingdoms with a civil war which is why tens of thousands of people died, giving him one of the biggest kill counts in the novel series.
- Because of his actions, the Starks wrongly think that the Lannisters had poisoned Jon Arryn, they wrongly think that the Lannisters were the ones who sent the man with the dagger to kill Bran which causes Catelyn to arrest Tyrion and try to execute him which in turn causes Tywin Lannister to invade the Riverlands and because of Littlefinger's actions, Ned Stark becomes a Hand to Robert Baratheon and gets executed while most of his men are killed which causes Robb Stark to declare war on House Lannister.
- He writes a letter to Lysa Arryn where he tells her that she should keep her entire army inside the Vale and not help her nephew Robb Stark, even after the latter asks her for help. As a result, the Starks lose the war against the Lannisters and some of them are slaughtered, just as Littlefinger had predicted.
- He conspires with Olenna Tyrell to poison Joffrey, although at first, it seems like a redeeming quality, he only does it to further his ambitions and he doesn't need Joffrey anymore.
- He hired Dontos Hollard to assist in Joffrey's murder and rescue Sansa Stark from King's Landing, and then killed him to ensure his silence.
- He makes sure that Tyrion (beside Sansa) is framed for Joffrey’s murder and sentenced to death.
- After marrying Lysa Arryn, he manipulates her and pretends to love her, when in fact, he only married her to gain control of the Vale. As soon as he's offered a chance, he pushes her down the Moon's Door and she dies.
- Although Lysa's murder isn't truly heinous owing to her own murderous and twisted nature, and collaborating to cause the War of the Five Kings, he did this to seize power (as well as possibly revenge his own rape) as opposed to moral standards.
- He takes 12-year-old Jeyne Poole to forcibly turn her into a prostitute into one of his brothels, where the working staff whips her, also allowing his clients to rape her. He later offers to Tywin Lannister that he should present her as Arya Stark and give her to the Boltons to marry Ramsay which makes the two of them indirectly responsible for the torture and abuse Ramsay puts her through. It's implied that he allows the staffs of his brothels to treat the rest of his prostitutes in a similar manner.
- He frames an innocent singer, Marillion, for killing Lysa, then has the gaoler Mord blind him, rip off several of his fingers, and they later execute him.
- When he wants to win over one of the lords of Vale, knowing Ser Lyn Corbray a pedophile, he plans to offer him little boys for sex in exchange of Lyn's collaboration to spy on his political rivals.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He loves Catelyn, and later Sansa Stark to some extent.
- But his love is an unhealthy obsession and it is not very deep, as well as it being a perverted projection of his twisted feelings for Lady Catelyn, so it's a minor prevention.
Trivia[]
- His TV version is Pure Evil because his care for Sansa (and by extension Catelyn) is subverted when he sold Sansa to Ramsay Bolton and had her raped. An act that the series's author George R.R Martin has been vocal to say that Book Petyr Baelish would never do.
External Links[]
- Petyr Baelish on the Villains Wiki
- Petyr Baelish on the Entertainingly Detestable Wiki
- Petyr Baelish on the ASOIAF Wiki
- Petyr Baelish on the Wikipedia
[]
 Near Pure Evils
| ||
|
Novels Television | ||