Board Thread:TV Show Discussion/@comment-1031724-20170916044647

When you think about it, he's the one who set the events of the show in motion. Aside from the White Walkers, the Wildlings, and outside of Daenerys's story, he is kinda behind all the biggest villains of the series (though their actions were completely their own, his actions just put them in their antagonistic positions).

It all started when he had Lysa poison Jon Arryn, which caused Robert to meet with Ned and make him Hand of the King. Which in turn caused two events to occur: First, with Cersei and Jaime at Winterfell, Bran discovered their secret and Jaime almost killed him, twice, to which Littlefinger framed Tyrion by saying the assassin's dagger was his. Second, he and Lysa framed the Lannisters for poisoning Arryn so that Ned thought Cersei killed him to cover up her relationship with Jaime.

This, of course, led to Ned discovering that Joffrey was Jaime and Cersei's bastard, and not Robert's son. Once Ned confronted her with this and said he'd tell Robert, I can't remember but I think this caused Cersei to get Robert killed on his hunt, causing Joffrey to become king. All this led to Joffrey having Ned killed (likely Littlefinger's goal here seeing as how he was infatuated with Catelyn), which in turn started the War of the Five Kings. For starters, once Stannis knew of Joffrey's true parentage he realized he had legal claim to the throne and planned to take it, enlisting Melisandre's help to which she twisted him to the dark side.

And of course, once Joffrey became king and killed Ned, he became Robb's main enemy, causing Theon to seek Balon's help but instead Balon persuaded him to fight the Starks, causing him to take over Winterfell and do many bad things there. (For this reason I consider Theon a main villain of Season 2, and Balon a Bigger Bad) Not only did Roose Bolton have Ramsay capture Theon, but soon after Robb and Catelyn were killed at the Red Wedding after Robb broke part of his deal with Walder Frey during a failed attempt to form an alliance with him against Joffrey. Roose betrayed and killed Robb. Of course, Littlefinger probably didn't intend Catelyn killed, but that's what happens when you orchestrate chaos. Ultimately, both Theon and Robb's stories in the war led to Roose taking over Winterfell, becoming one of the powerful antagonists of the show.

Then, Littlefinger had Olenna poison Joffrey. We were all satisfied with this, but we're sure he didn't do it out of the goodness of his heart. Soon after he killed Dontos, who helped him with this, reminding us of his ruthlessness. We're not sure if he intended Tyrion to be blamed for Joffrey's death (after all, Olenna had her own reasons to go along with his plan) but as he tried to frame him once before it must have been satisfying to him all the same, and definitely took suspicion off him. Thus, set Tywin after Tyrion for the whole season, though it ended with Tywin's death and Tyrion joining Daenerys.

And of course, with Joffrey's death Tommen became king, and I can't remember but I think it was Cersei losing control over Tommen due to Margaery that caused her to put the High Sparrow in a position of power, with him replacing Tywin as the most powerful villain in King's Landing for two seasons. Eventually ending with Cersei blowing up the High Sparrow and his gang along with Margaery and many others, causing Tommen to commit suicide and Cersei to become queen.

Meanwhile, while Roose ruled over Winterfell, Ramsay is equally considered the villain of Season 5 not only because he is more evil than his father and has more screentime, but also his torture of Sansa, and by the way Littlefinger's the one who set her up with him. Also Roose is Stannis's main enemy in Season 5, causing Stannis and Melisandre to sacrifice Shireen in a vain attempt to beat him. And eventually Ramsay kills Roose and usurps both House Bolton and Winterfell from him, becoming Jon's main enemy in Season 6. There is of course the flipside that Littlefinger is instrumental in Ramsay's defeat, but again, for his own reasons.

Following the deaths of Ramsay and the High Sparrow, as of Season 7 the biggest villains left are Cersei and the Night King. But Littlefinger plays his own personal antagonistic role by trying to play Sansa and Arya against each other, with the endgame being for Sansa to kill Arya for trying to kill her to take over Winterfell. But, for once he is outwitted, and the sneakiest villain of the show finally meets his downfall.

So, while he might not have been directly involved in a lot of the stuff that happened later, or specifically intended much of it, his assassination of Jon Arryn knocked over a domino and started a chain reaction. Right now Cersei being queen is the last remnant of that chain reaction. 