Littlefinger: what's Petyr Baelish up to?

In Game of Thrones / ASOIAF, what's Littlefinger up to? Why is he so creepy with Sansa Stark? And what does "chaos is a ladder" mean?

This video contains spoilers for Seasons 1-4 / Books 1-3. Basically, you can watch this video without having anything spoiled if you've watched Seasons 1-4 or read Books 1-3.

Created with Toon Boom Studio 8.1, a Wacom Intuos Pen Tablet, and a Blue Yeti microphone.
Game of Thrones images and video are the property of their respective owners. Pretty sure this counts as free use.

Thanks to +Cinescrat4d for the German captions, and +Maximiliano Blitzkrieg for the Spanish captions.

Errata:
0:35 The Baelish seat is located on the shortest of the Fingers, not the bit of land that the arrow is pointing at
1:41 It's actually questionable whether King Robert really is responsible for the indebtedness of the Crown

[Vanalovan]

"Lysa loved Petyr, Petyr loves Cat but Cat married Ned" *Edmure stares away, unloved*

[cuttlefish]

naked women: *making out and being sexy*
petyr: so anyway let me give an extended monologue about politics and the nature of power

[oak]

It's interesting to note that in the entire series so far throughout the 5 books, there are only two characters who have ended every single book better off than they started - Littlefinger and Bronn.

[petraleong]

I think the writers of the show saw this and went, "Oh, so the fans don't have theories for Littlefinger. So we can just kill him. Since our kill count this season is so low"

[Priyo]

They killed his story so badly.


Just like Stannis, Dorne, Barristan Selmy and the entire thing with S8.

[-cosmicrogue-]

This is why Petyr is one of my favorite characters.
His actions are always shrouded in mystery and every time a beloved character decides to trust him, i'm immediately on the edge of my seat. The cunning bastard makes the story so much more interesting, and perilous. 

[MarkArandjus]

Baelish is one of those odd characters whom the more evil he is, the more you like him. It's one of those "I'm not even mad, that's amazing" kind of things.

[TellEmRye]

Anyone else a big fan of Littlefinger? So many hate him but I think he's brilliant, one of my favourite characters.

[shintao]

I remember reading the books and having that little lightbulb go off..."Oh shit. This has been the Petyr Baelish show all along..."

[Bendz]

Been thinking: The greatest threat to Littlefinger is not Varys, Tyrion or even Sansa. It is Bran.

The reason Littlefinger succeeds is that nobody knows what he's really up to, or what he really wants. And so far he's been almost perfect at covering up his true allegiances and plots. Bran, however, could learn everything about Littlefinger. Like how he betrayed the Starks like times already. Which would ruin everything for Littlefinger (he would lose all support in the North and also in the Vale).

Littlefinger said in season 1 that "Knowledge is power". Bran is (or will soon be) the one with the most Knowledge.

[jakebishop]

house tully used splash.!but nothing happened!

[notbobby]

There is also implications that Little Finger is gaining a fourth base of power, besides the lands of the Vale, Riverlands, and the North, MONEY. As the Business Insider video on the economy of Game of Thrones noted, Little Finger's time as master of coin increased revenue, but the Iron Throne went from having tons of gold under the Mad King, to being millions in debt under Robert.

While Robert did spend a lot on pointless jousting competitions and whores, trying to remember the "good old days" when he wasn't drunk or fat, there is no way he could spend THAT much, particularly with the finical genius Little Finger managing the Iron Throne's finances. Unless, that finical genius is using his knowledge of coin to swindle the very money he is trying to manage. Your quotes note he has control over "the officers of all three mints." There are a few quotes suggesting Littlefinger is diluting the gold in the currency of the realm, as well as other quotes noting that the capital seems to be suffering from runaway inflation.

I am guessing Little Finger is taking the gold for himself. Even if he can't gain the loyalty of the realms he theoretically controls, he could take a page from the Lannisters and just buy an army.

[iMaradonaa]

“Chaos is a ladder”. Seasons 7 and 8 are unforgivable

[MsLm]

1:34 "friends in high places" that was subtle

[gavinmacbride]

Is that partially why Vary's helped Tyrion to escape?? By keeping him alive he prevents Sansa from remarrying, and therefore makes it more difficult for Littlefinger to gain control of the North. (As well as putting Tyrion on Daenery's council of course)

Probably spelt all those names horribly but...

[gaozhi]

What's he up to? Getting killed off by contrived lazy writing.

[KabooM]

I love how the arrow between Baelish and Sansa keeps the 'ew' every time it shows up xD. I love your humor style.

[RandomTXDude]

The sigils fighting at 2:43 made me laugh out loud. Bravo!

[Darkpara]

Varys and Baelish are some of the best and more complicated characters. They've both got a lot of depth to them that is yet to be revealed. 

I prefer Westeropoly to Westerosopoly though... 

[crocussativus]

I love Littlefinger. He's the only one who knows how to play the game.