Littlefinger, Varys, and GRRM's Two Types of Writers

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]George R. Martin, author of A Song of Ice and Fire, has often stated in interviews that he views authors as falling into one of two camps. The first is the architect, someone who has every plot detail or at least most of the plot details in mind and outlined from the very start. And they are filling in details between them and overall building this story that there was a true plan for that is very much constructed within the lines of that original plan. The second type is the gardener. someone who organically sprinkles a bunch of seeds in the ground and just sees what grows from there.

[00:00:34]This can allow for characters and plot lines to grow and change organically rather than necessarily being planned beforehand and it can create arcs that are a bit more unexpected and do end up kind of following a more natural path.

[00:00:48]he falls in the second camp or so he says and I've always been interested in the way that manifests in his writing because I think two of his most crucial schemers in the series really embody these two types of writers and I think it is Martin kind of commenting on both ways of creating a work in Varys and Littlefinger the architect and the gardener it makes sense if any character is going to represent writers in a song of ice and fire it would be Varys and Littlefinger their job is pretty similar they are both creating these dramatic situations via their schemes and it is like a largecale thing that they are doing in order to bring about some desired end goal and they are two characters who are in many ways designed to be mirrors to one another. They both start out on the small council. Ned distrusts both of them initially. He ends up going more with Littlefinger and asking him to do more when he probably should have done uh you know thrown his lot in with Varys. But regardless of that, they are mirrored throughout and we do see their arcs change in different ways largely because of the ways they come up with and execute their plans or lack thereof.

[00:01:53]Littlefinger being a gardener is mostly defined by the ways in which he's different from Varys and his strengths as a schemer and a character. Varys's plans tend to be a lot more thought out and structured. That might sound like I'm calling Peter more disorganized or even dumber, but that really isn't the case. The real uh gift of Littlefinger is his ability to turn disadvantageous situations into a win somehow. And he works very quickly and instantly spots opportunities in order to make the best of any given circumstance for himself and his interest. Well, yes, he does have larger term schemes that are going on. Things like convincing Liza to both kill Jon Aaron and then blame the Lannisters for it. That's starting the war of the five kings. That is obviously a larger scheme on Littlefinger's behalf. But all of the ways it continues to escalate and improve on itself is Littlefinger effectively yes ending on his own circumstance like with the dagger given the fact that this was something that he did not think was going to go this way especially being confronted by cat with the dagger. It's interesting to see the way he kind of turns it to his advantage again. By contrast we see Varys with a vast interconnected network of schemes and spies and this grand design he is trying to wage on Westeros for a very long time. In the show, he simply says that he is an agent of the realm. In the books, that is also often echoed by Varys, but we know it did not necessarily be true. As of the epilogue chapter of Entangled Dragons, Varys's whole goal is to place Aegon the Six Targaryen, aka Young Griff, aka probably a Blackfire, on the Iron Throne, and he has been aiming for this goal for quite a while. We learn this in Arya's arc in Game of Thrones. I was a Dance of Dragons. That's not the right book. as she's in the basement of the Red Keep and she sees Varys and Yrio scheming and plotting in order to slow down the role of this war between the Starks and the Lannisters as they had planned on having the Targaryen invasion happen later.

[00:03:48]This is something that occurs again and again for Varys. There are a number of things that he needs to contend with that are different than it seems he intended his plan to be from the start.

[00:03:57]And this is one of a few things I will give the television show, and I think it's something that a lot of people give the television show. The scenes between Varys and Littlefinger are incredible, and we could not get them at all in the books because the books are locked to a viewpoint perspective. To get those scenes, we would need to either be in Varys's head or Littlefinger's head. And Martin really wouldn't want to do that because being in either of those perspectives would spoil the story quite a bit. But in the show, we don't have to, you know, hear their thoughts in order to see this scene. and seeing them spar and kind of contrast one another in their goals, motivations, and overall plans to achieve their ends is fantastic every single time it happens. I only wish it happened more, but I digress.

[00:04:38]Both of those characters do very much get character assassinated both in terms of, you know, character and then literally assassinated in later seasons, but the show did do them well in the earlier ones. Interrupt myself for a question of the day. Who do you prefer, Varys or Littlefinger, and why? I think I lean slightly towards Varys, but I do like both of them a lot. Let me know in the comments down below. While you're down there, leave a like and subscribe.

[00:05:00]I really appreciate it, and it does really help grow the channel. I'm almost at 100,000 subscribers, and any and all help is getting there is appreciated.

[00:05:06]And I do think Martin's preference is more reflected in the successes of these characters. Littlefinger seems to be achieving a lot more of his goals than Varys is. Varys seems on the back foot quite a bit more. He needs to go into hiding for all of A Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons. He does end up ultimately killing Kevin and Pycels and it does seem like Aegon is going to end up taking the throne, but not in a way that Varys wanted and in a way that he is probably going to get cast out of power relatively quickly. Whereas Littlefinger seems to still very much be going about his schemes and continuing to up the ante on himself. The difficulty there is Littlefinger doesn't seem to, at least in terms of what is communicated to the reader, have a concrete highest goal at this point. It seems as though he wants power. He wants to amass resources. He wants to marry Sansa maybe or just be with Sansa. It's unclear. But overall, I think that vagueness in his goal is part of why he is able to succeed as he is able to see situations for what they can bring to him and act accordingly. The story surrounding each of these characters also allows for some fun meta jokes about the state of the series generally.

[00:06:13]Specifically, there's one in reference to Littlefinger and one in reference to Varys in A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons specifically. In a feast for crows, Littlefinger thinks, "Oh, I thought I was going to have five more years to do all of this stuff, but Cersei is self-destructing at such a rapid pace." As obviously a reference to Martin's planned 5-year gap before it was ultimately scrapped. It's a funny reference because Santa and Littlefinger story in the veil is something that could have used more time in the oven.

[00:06:36]It could benefit from a time skip. And additionally, in uh the lost lord and the dance with dragons, we hear about the golden company grumbling on the fat man's plan that changes every time the moon turns, which is referencing not varys, but yo, though they are co-conspirators, and the fact that yo needs to keep amending this pre-written plan in order to fit in with the actual happenings of the series as they're carrying out. And it is kind of funny because for all of his talk of being a gardener, I think George R. Barton is somewhere between the two in terms of his overall writing structure. He's absolutely more of a gardener than an architect. There are so many characters and plot lines in A Song of Ice and Fire that have grown beyond their original bounds and have really, you know, been better for Ed. Martin has been able to naturally follow these trajectories of the characters he's created in really interesting directions that maybe wouldn't have been in an existing plan.

[00:07:31]But there are elements of an existing plan that he has stuck to. And I think that has ultimately been for the detriment of the series overall. Things like sticking to certain old ideas from the outlines or sticking with the idea that this is going to end in seven books, I think are probably responsible for some of the delays in the series as they currently stand. Because I do think if the winds of winter were not set as the penultimate, the second to last book in the series, there might be more wiggle room to have already published something and then maybe be continuing down the line. Because I think part of the reason why Wins is taking so long is the fact that he needs to fit everything in there in order for it to be the second to last volume of the book when we all know the series will probably need more than can be bound into that one single book. And I do think that these characters status as the proverbial players of the Game of Thrones does allow Martin to not only comment on things like types of writers through them, but allows him to use them as kind of mouthpieces for some of his thoughts on the world, as they are the reason for so much of what our characters are doing and going through.

[00:08:33]Pretty much all of the conflict in the series as it currently exists and the series as it will exist derives from one of these two individuals. Save for the White Walker stuff that's not really here nor there. Regardless of that, there is so much tie up in the idea of these individuals being schemers that I do think it amounts to them kind of being the authors of this series in world in a sense. I do find that fun in terms of Martin being able to comment on his own writing and the writing of others. little tangent to end on that I find interesting. When Conlith Hill was very early on in playing Varys, which he does excellently is one of my favorite performances in the show, he gets a text from George R. Martin telling him that fundamentally Varys is a good person, which I find really weird and interesting. And I think it speaks to who Martin thinks Varys is, and at least Martin's thoughts on Varys's ideals. And I do think it'll speak to the overall trajectory, success, and fate of this character going forward into the winds of winter and a dream of spring. I do just find that interesting because Varys is pretty objectively not a good person given, you know, the use of mute children as spies and messengers. But I digress. I thought it was interesting and I've never really talked about in a video, just on stream. So, I thought I'd throw that little curiosity in here.

[00:09:49]Thank you all so much for watching. If you enjoyed this video, be sure to leave a like and subscribe. We really appreciate it and it does really help grow the channel. I have many more videos for you in the very near future about Song of Ice and Fire, House of the Dragon, which season 3 is coming a lot sooner than expected. Uh, Night of the Seven Kingdoms and Game of Thrones, those are the other things I need to list. I really appreciate any and all support and I hope to see you soon.

[00:10:08]Thank you. Have a good day or night.