@Kylopod said:

I know he was clearly a bad guy who richly deserved his fate, but it didn't create the same sense of satisfaction as the demise of characters like Joffrey or Ramsay or Myranda. For one thing, he was one of the smartest characters on the entire series, and I always felt that part of the show's pragmatic, cynical philosophy was that people like him are the ones most likely to survive in the GoT universe. In a way I thought of him as Martin's ideal vision of the character with the best understanding of how to "play the game of thrones." Ironically, a lot of the things he says are very good advice; he's like the Yoda of sociopaths.

I wonder if it was ever Martin's plan for him to die in the book series.

I like your take but LF got to point where his duplicity caught up to him, and part of GOT's philosophy is that even the best players aren't immune to digging their own grave.He definitely was one of the smartest characters and his "Chaos is a ladder " monologue might be the most important one on the show in terms of defining a single character. LF crossed too many people and eventually a growing web of lies and deciet has to unravel.

The minute Sansa said his name in that room he knew it was over.

Littlefinger was very clever, but he couldn't be a mind-reader. His big mistake was to make that "worst case scenario" speech just after Arya had surrendered her knife to Sansa as proof of her loyalty.

Well, he was a great character. Not the best but yes, he had the brains to survive till the season finale of GoT season 7. If I'm to sum his entire journey in the show, till his death, I'd love to quote the lyrics of this Coldplay song,

_ "I used to roll the dice, feel the fear in my enemies eyes. Listen as the crowd would sing, "Now the old king is dead, long live the king. One minute I held the key, next the walls were closed on me. And I discovered that my castles stand, upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand!"_

I thought one of the cleverest ideas was to have TWO contrasted schemers, Littlefinger and Varys. And it turns out in the end that while Littlefinger was always out for himself, Varys did have an idealistic streak, looking for the best ruler

Incidentally, I was playing back some old commentaries on the DVDs. In one, Sophie and Maisie (still kids at the time) chat about what a fun villain Littlefinger was. At that point probably nobody had thought of the idea that they would be the ones who catch up with him..

@johnash95 said:

Well, he was a great character. Not the best but yes, he had the brains to survive till the season finale of GoT season 7. If I'm to sum his entire journey in the show, till his death, I'd love to quote the lyrics of this Coldplay song,

_ "I used to roll the dice, feel the fear in my enemies eyes. Listen as the crowd would sing, "Now the old king is dead, long live the king. One minute I held the key, next the walls were closed on me. And I discovered that my castles stand, upon pillars of salt and pillars of sand!"_

Its crazy how much that song fits the narrative of Game Thrones. I think Chris Martin wrote it about the French Revolution. Not 100% sure but that's the interpretation I heard most back when Coldplay released it; that absolute power corrupts absolutely , it certainly ties in.