A lot of great things that happened during the Game of Thrones Season 7 finale, titled ‘The Dragons and the Wolf’, and one of the best ones was a major character death, an event that hadn’t happened in a while, and a character that almost everybody hated : Littlefinger.
We saw him depart in a scene that had an amazing twist to the tone set around Littlefinger this season, and we got to see Arya Stark slice his throat with the same Valyrian Steel dagger that he had used as an instrument to create the chaos that started the events of Game of Thrones. Poetic justice, indeed. Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss recently discussed the death in a new interview. Read on!
David and Dan spoke to EW about killing off Littlefinger a.k.a. Petyr Baelish. They seemed to have a lot of praise for Aiden Gillen, who plays the role of Littlefinger. David said :
“We had been huge fans of Aidan’s work on The Wire and other movies and TV shows. He’s just one of those guys you know is going to give you something good. And with Aidan you don’t know what he’s going to give you. He’s able to change things in ways that are strange and beguiling, yet to the betterment of the character and the show.”
“Littlefinger is a much different character than we initially imagined, and the bulk of the credit for that goes to Aidan. He’s just a phenomenal actor and a great one to spend time with. We loved having Littlefinger along for the ride, but he f—ed with the wrong girls.”
Dan agreed, and went on to say :
“He almost turns Littlefinger into a mystical embodiment of will-to-power and thriving on chaos. There’s something impenetrable to everything he does. It’s like you keep peeling away the skins and there’s never an end to the masks. He’s been such a pleasure to work with and so consistently elevates everything he does.”
David said that the decision to kill Littlefinger was a tough one :
“Relatively speaking, he’s a minor character if you look at his screen time. The fact that Littlefinger looms so large when people talk about the show, and when we think about the show, it’s really a credit to Aidan. Every scene he’s in manages to make you think about Littlefinger.”
“And when he’s at the center of a scene — like his final scene in the finale — he’s completely mesmerizing. We’ve had a lot of death scenes on this show and this is one of the great ones. Diana Rigg [as Olenna Tyrell] was so true to her character in the end, and Littlefinger was so true to his character — in his own cowardly, horrible way.”
How did you like the way Littlefinger kicked the bucket? Tell us in the comments, down below!
