Mr. Berns

Great analysis Pallas!! I think you have described Littlefinger's motivations perfectly.. the "bullies" where the starks and tullys and that is why he brought them down first... Besides I had no idea about his sigil's history! I hope this season we get more backstory on Littlefinger, he is becoming much more relevant in the show... i think something big is coming to the Vale... Lysa is one of the last Tully's standing... maybe she's next :D Either way I just love how we keep getting more interesting villains each time.. Joffrey was great to hate, but characters such as Littlefinger and Varys are the most dangerous of all.

I don't think Varys knew the hatching of dragons was even possible until dany came along.. Still he does hate magic, and as Targeryen used to be a family actively involved in magic in the past, maybe his grudge comes from the fact that Dany's ancestors did something to his ansestors. Game of Thrones is like a big history show based on even bigger "history" books, things that happened in the past come back bitting everyones butt. Oberyn and his sister's revenge is an example, up until season 4 I didn't even know the people from Dorne hated Robert or the Lannisters. The past is important, and we have had glimpses of Varys's past for a reason. But you make a good point, the eastern cities may be involved in some kind of conspiracy, I find no other reason of why a very rich man from the east such as Illyrio could actually care about the Iron Throne. And I still think a Dothraki army is NOT a good gift for Dany, he could've hired a sellsword company for them such as Stannis is doing. Illyrio is a man that just "gives away" three dragon eggs, he certainly has the money to help Dany and her brother with ships and an army, and I mean a true army fit to fight the west, where they use armour, and chainmail and big fortresses... no matter how many Dothraki attack the west they will never be able to conquer it just with their horses.. You might say they would have raided every village and gained enough gold for ships, but they are not sailors, they know nothing about marine strategy of even war strategy.. they just use strenght and raid small villages that have no way of defending themselves..

But why does he want everything? why does he want so much power? every character has a motivation and a reason for that: Dany: wants to free slaves because she felt like one when she was sold to Drogo for an army Cercei: hated Robert because she felt spurned in their wedding night, besides she resents her sex because she feels entitled to Casterly Rock or to the Throne but she will never have any of that. This is clear by how she reacts when Tyrion send Myrcella off to marry in Dorne to form an alliance and with her marriage to Loras. I think the show portrays very deep characters and Littlefinger doesn't just want power because... He wants it due to the fact that he was always told he was never good enough to marry Cat, this was his motivation for it. They gave her to another man. He always felt "little" and now wants everything, he started the war because of it. Otherwise he would have never involved the Starks, he could have just told Robert the truth about Cercei, and created chaos from that.

Maybe Varys and Illyrio were working together in insuring the extinction of the targaryen line. Illyrio kept them close, but he wouldn´t be responsible for their murder. He brokered Dany's marriage and gave the Iron Thorne an excuse to have them both killed. He knew the news of the Dothraki army would reach King Robert's ears and they would send an assasin. Varys was in the counsil promoting this assesination. It might seem like an elaborate plan, but if we have learned something from game of thrones is that these type of plans are all around, no one wants to have blood on their hands or be shunned as a murderer: Cercei killing Robert by insuring he gets drunk during his hunt, little finger and olenna killing joffrey via sansa and dontos + framing tyrion, littlefinger killing jon aryn via Lysa and framing the lannisters, tywin being the master mind of the red wedding making the realm believe the freys were just avenging Rob's lack of honor, etc. I still can't figure out why Varys and Illyrio would want the targaryens all dead... But if they had them conspiring early on the show I think we are in for a surprise... as was the surprise of the murder of lysa's husband.. I never thought I would hear from that again and now three seasons later it comes back as a game changer. Littlefinger is a real player of the game now, he has been moving strings from season one, and it only makes sense that Varys has been moving these string but maybe not focusing in the Stark family but in the Targaryens. I believe everything Littlefinger did was for revenge from the starks (they took Cathelyn away) so maybe Varys and Illyrio have some grudge for the Targaryens, and have been working on their extintion since the Mad King Targaryen.