Game of Thrones: Petyr Baelish [ENTP]
OFFICIAL TYPING by Charity / the mod.
Extroverted Intuition (Ne): Lord Varys says of Littlefinger āhe would burn the world to the ground if he could be king of the ashes.ā His method is āchaos is a ladder,ā and he freely generates it, sometimes with precision (his decision to betray Ned started the war and he skillfully maneuvers his allies) and sometimes by overstepping himself (he leaps on a chance to insult Cersei and almost dies; he hands Sansa over to Ramsay Bolton before he has found out enough about him to secure her safety; he marries Lysanna and then kills her, he miscalculates his relationship with Jon Snow, etc) but always with total confidence in his ability to respond to any contingency. He warns Sansa to keep all possibilities present in her mind at all times, treating each as if it is the most likely outcome, so nothing will ever catch her off guard. Petyr thinks several steps ahead and is unafraid of abstract conversations. When Sansa asks what he wants from life, Petyr replies, āEverything.ā
Introverted Thinking (Ti): He operates on an understanding of how reality works and his intentions are to ābreak the rulesā ā since he is a lowborn, he creates his own house and sigil. Petyr is incredibly intelligent but alsoĀ over-estimates his intelligence. He swiftly assesses situations and takes advantage of them in ways he thinks are logical (he starts playing the Stark sisters against one another as soon as both arrive in Winterfell, fearful Arya may prove a threat to him), but he achieves no measurable successes from his tactics other than personal understanding or pleasure (each step advances him in his mind, but in reality, can take him further from his main goal to āruleā). He likes to toy with and treat people as his operatives, and finds it easy because he āunderstandsā their motives.
Extroverted Feeling Ā (Fe): Petyrās desperate need for approval flares up in his frequent ego-driven miscalculations; in his youth, boasting he slept with both Tully sisters revealed him as a social climber to outside parties; his taunt to Cersei almost gets him arrested and killed (he wants to impress and intimidate her by letting her know heās aware of the incest). That people look down on him for his low birth bothers him enough that he wants to prove his superior intelligence. He risks his relationship with Jon by hinting he loves Sansa, he felt insulted by Tyrion when Tyrion was the Hand, and lashed out at him emotionally; he enjoys getting a rise out of people (Rob, Catelyn, Ned, Jon) by taunting them with his relationship with Catelyn (and his affections for her, and reminding Jon she treated him badly). He often tries to establish a common goal (I love your sister, as I loved her mother; you can trust me) but usually miscalculates the impact his statements will have on the other person. Petyr seduces Sansa by trying to become invaluable to her, enjoying that she respects his intelligence, hoping she will share his mindset and his bed.
Introverted Sensing (Si): Why Catelyn Stark? Why cannot Peter get past a lost love? And why does he replace her with his daughter once she dies? Is it because Sansa looks like her mother or is it the family he always wanted to be part of? He seems to see in Sansa a second chance to recreate what he could never have with Catelyn, but on a much grander and ambitious scale (Ne). Petyr feels a simultaneous pull between wanting to fit into society, and changing society to reflect his desires from life (he tries to fit in, and mold some of his traits and his house after the great houses, but he is not content with thatā¦ he wants more ā Ne/Si). His failure to consider the details of his plans or to pick up on subtler hints (the mistake with Ramsay that turned Sansa against him, or Bran reading his mind and intentions) leads to his downfall.
Note: I have argued Petyr Baelish as an INTJ before, but it was a case of me forming an opinion of his type in the first season and not studying him further as the seasons progressed ā as time went on, his tendency to operate quickly and with fair degrees of adaptability should have shown me a dominant extroverted intuitive function. His ego-driven behavior also became more apparent, particularly in the last two seasons where he provoked people for no reason other than self-gratification (poor Fe). I could never quite figure out why he so often tips his handā¦ but itās to show off, and itās what killed him in the end. Forgive me, Iāll be mourning in the corner.
