MBTI: Game of Thrones’ Littlefinger- INTJ or ENTP?
Spoilers! You’ve been warned!
Written in part by Rebecca Shortman
Blast you, Littlefinger! As unpredictable and mysterious as he is in the show goes double for viewers in real life. While many have typed Petyr Baelish as INTJ, in a recent article I’ve typed him as ENTP. Though through an INFP’s argument (Rebecca!), the case was presented convincingly enough to merit a discussion of Lord Baelish’s Ni or Ne preferences.
So is he the Mastermind behind many of the shows biggest events? Or the Inventor of the chaos hoping to be the last man standing when the smoke clears? A little bit of both from the way I just worded it, but let’s go into more detail.
That’s sick, even for you Finger.
Baelish’s “Mastermind” persona is quite obvious from the first few scenes including him. Aside from keeping a low snarl of a voice speaking as though he’s always in a library, his influence on those around him invokes that idea of a guy that manipulates everyone like puppets as INTJs are known to do, specifically throughout fiction. They set the dominoes up, push one down, and sit back as they all fall.
A good example of this would be when he sent Jorah’s pardon to Danaerys in order to divide her counsel and weaken her position. Baelish’s involvement with Lysa Arryn, his betrayal against Ned Stark, or Joffrey’s assassination as any different. As clever as leading Ne users are, they are not typically master strategists, as INTJs are.
These guys are like the opposite of the “See No Evil” monkeys.
The INTP and ENTP strong points are more in line with problem solvers as Tyrion is, being able to draw upon a series of seemingly unrelated connections in order to come up with possibilities, which eventually culminate into a “Ah-Ha!” moment which hides just out of reach until just the right visual or audio cue finalizes the connection for an answer.
Baelish doesn’t appear to work that way. It could be argued that he’s not drawing connections outside of himself together in order to allow answers to come to him. He internally comes up with connections himself, from nowhere other than the dark recesses of his mind. Like an elaborate game of chess, no one else but Baelish would have thought to create the circumstances that would lead to X, Y, Z.
Baelish doesn’t just observe chaos and use the chaos that’s already there to his advantage. Baelish creates chaos artificially. He interrupts the status quo and throws people off their natural orbit with deliberate intent. He’s a mastermind at predicting circumstances because the best way to predict the future is to create it so basically, he can’t be wrong.
The INTJ’s dominant function being Ni plans far into the future with its inferior function of Se acting in the here and now. This would allow Baelish to make movements in the present that will work in favor of the potential long range plan he has, whatever that plan might actually be leading toward.
On the other side of that coin is ENTP. In an effort to not repeat previous posts, it could also be said that Baelish’s entire way of operating is based under the pretense that everything around him is already in such disarray, he only needs to reach out and prick it with a balloon to make things go the way he wants them to.
Ne connects what seems unconnected as opposed to Ni which ; such as the dagger found in the attempt on Ned’s son Bran’s life. When presented with the dagger that happens to be the one Baelish had lost to Robert Baratheon, he “reveals” that it belongs to Tyrion Lannister, thus having Tyrion taken captive by Catelyn Stark. It would almost seem too coincidental that Catelyn, an obsession from Baelish’s youth, is the centerpiece for this scheme. This, and that her husband happens to play quite the role in King Robert’s council.
Baelish’s seemingly new “crush” on Catelyn’s daughter Sansa might also suggest the ENTP’s ties to its past with inferior Si, which acts something as the stake in the ground to the ENTP’s lead function of Ne which could be compared to a hot air balloon. Ne’s new and exciting ideas connect with Si’s previously experienced details to give them a notion of what will and won’t work. In this case, Baelish’s more recent affections for Sansa are much in part due to Baelish’s former affections for Sansa’s mother, a woman he grew up with in Riverrun and had always had feelings for.
But Baelish’s ultimate goal?
“Always keep your foes confused. If they are never certain who you are or what you want, they cannot know what you are like to do next. Sometimes the best way to baffle them is to make moves that have no purpose, or even seem to work against you. Remember that, Sansa, when you come to play the game.”
“Mm, girl, you smell just like you mama di- I mean, uh…You smell great.”
While Ni is a master planner, Baelish’s plans don’t seem to have much more to them past getting rid of anything or anyone that could be an obstacle to him. And what makes an obstacle? It seems to simply be anything that takes away from him.
While power may be his goal, his movements and motives also seem too improvisational to be the work of a lead Ni user that works their entire plan over in their mind before making a single step. Especially when the steps involve doing things that, at times, don’t make sense to anyone and have no purpose.
The real question, which remains to be seen (at least in the show), are what Baelish’s endgame is. Does he simply want the personal power INTJs crave? Or are each of his moves meant to attain the freedom that comes from that power as ENTPs desire?
What we CAN confirm is that Stark should have probably just finished doing this.
Rebecca Shortman, who contributed to much of the writing and the idea itself of this post, runs her own site at lifeasauaastudent.blogspot.com where she regularly rants about life as an INFP and all the douchebags you’ll meet in your everyday life.
Zombies Ruin Everything 
10/14/2014 at 7:41 am
This is same problem, as with Death note. Evrybody thought that Light is INTJ, until Near apeared. So I suggest to compare Littlefinger to someone who heavily use Ni and is rationals. In fact, the best would be to compare him to someone in Games of thrones who is INTJ. But who is truly INTJ? Who is cold, determined, future minded and doesn´t care what others think unless they prove themself? Two words. Stannis Baratheon. As a prove I suggest to read “A Complete Analysis of Stannis Baratheon as a Military Commander” and “Hollow Crowns and Deadly Thrones Part IV Two brothers, Two Visions of Monarchy.” Although both this analysis are based on books you don´t need to be afraid of spoilers exept the last part of the Military analysis which is about Stannis in North.
Just reameber
“Stannis will fight to the bitter end and then some. ”
Tywin Lannister
10/14/2014 at 4:25 pm
I’ve always thought of Stannis as an ISTJ due to the strong Si compulsion to uphold tradition, whatever the cost.
10/14/2014 at 7:57 pm
I’ve always seen him as an unhealthy INFJ, in the show at least, he has no Te, he’s always soft spoken in a manner that forces others to reflect on what he says ( red flag: emotional content), never commanding or blunt unless emotionally necessary, ie Lysa and Sansa, in which case when he had attention he returned to soft spoken. His choice of words, I always found, were in the realm of Fe. He also can consistently say what would unbalance other, in an emotional sense ( joke to renly, cersei etc) this also implies Ni – Fe – Ti in some order.
he has no Si ( past with cat is emotional, not an idea of how things should be), nor is he a Ne-dom. Always trying to see how the parts can be used to to fit his vision, and you can’t plan for everything, so when something unexpected occurs, his second weapon is people manipulation, this to me says Ni-Fe.
once thing i’ve noticed with Ni-Te vs Ni-Fe, is that Ni-Te draws lines themselves( command) to manipulate the system, but Ni-Fe manipulates people to draw those lines for them, baelish most certainly uses the latter
10/16/2014 at 4:21 am
Infjs think everyone and their dead moms are infj. There are 15 other types as well ya know
10/16/2014 at 7:47 am
To gauge my type from that is a massive assumption, nor relevant. And while it’s true there are 15 others, Baelish can only fit into a limited amount, but he is also fictional and therefore his psyche could fit equally into more than one category.
Baelish seems devoid of dom or aux Si or Se, meaning he cannot be a xSxJ or xSxP type,
He has no Te, in the show there is little evidence that he has it, so he cannot be a xxTJ or xxFP.
Leaving, ENTP, INTP, INFJ or ENFJ.
he’s not Ti or Fe dom, so only INFJ or ENTP
so Ne-dom or Ni-dom? evidence for both really, but a constant theme about his character is his incessant scheming and involvement in very long term plots coming to fruition, so Ni > Ne. which is why i say INFJ.
This also fits in that a massive motivator for him is validation from Cat, and if not her then a spectre of the same, Sansa. He gave Sansa what she wanted, i way out, but simultaneously she had to rely on him completely, so much so that even in the face of an authority that would separate and protect her, she would not, could not let him go. That is highly emotionally manipulative, and I daresay stereotypical of an unhealthy INFJ. There are other parallels, ” … with a major talent for befriending powerful men, and women”( Varys to Baelish), that’s a historical parallel to Grigori Rasputin, a highly suspected, and unhealthy, INFJ.
10/16/2014 at 9:39 pm
Rasputin was an estp con artist. Maybe after he finally died his ashes became infj. Once again, not everyone is a special and unique intuitive idealist. But hey, you guys still have Gandhi!
10/17/2014 at 9:18 pm
I’ve seen little to suggest ESTP for Rasputin, what leads you to that conclusion? Again, you mistype me, I’m not an INFJ.
10/18/2014 at 9:46 am
See little? Are we talking about the same person then? Raging alcoholic, raging sex addict who used parlor tricks to get close to the royal family for personal gain. He thrived in a cesspool of corruption and lies, everyone was oh to his deceitful ways except the people that could have actually done something about it. Sounds more charlatan than monk.
10/18/2014 at 4:37 pm
Apparently i can’t respond to your last comment directly.
OK, so he had out of control sensory indulgence and he lied to a great many people. How does that make him an ESTP? If anything, it is easily the vice of lower order Se, hence the lack of control of it.
His hallmark was emotional manipulation, that’s how he got in with the Czar’s family, by “healing” their hemophiliactic son, thus exploiting an emotional weakness to Alexandra for his own gain, and through her, having control over the Czar.
You have the right functions, but not order. He was not an impulsive man, he lacks the impulsion of an Se-dom, or the nature of an extrovert in general. Even before the Czar’s family, he was a known cult leader, some say “holy man”, that’s not impulsion, that’s calculation. Emotional manipulation with a plan, while simultaneously maintaining a facade to his followers, this screams Ni and Fe.
INFJ =/= saint, that’s just a positive stereotype they have.
10/18/2014 at 8:51 pm
So all alcoholics are types with inferior se? Also your accounts about his life before he met the royal family are speculations. Anyway, my point before this became a discussion about a rapist con artist wanna be holy man was that not every double single freaking interesting character is an infj. Everywhere you go where the is an mbti discussion there is an “infj” with his/her head up their ass with paragraphs long explanations as to why the tree in guardians of the galaxy or the joker is an infj. Bleh
10/19/2014 at 12:35 am
No, it depends on the specific reasons why they drink or any sensory indulgence in general.
Regardless, I come to the conclusion of INFJ for Baelish because i see evidence for it, which i have laid out, not because of some idealistic vision or projection that I have. You’re grouping me with others who blatantly cannot type correctly, absent reasons, and dismissing my position out of nothing more than sentiment, since you haven’t defeated my argument.
To humour you, Groot, from the film, can’t really be typed, normally quiet, a follower and emotionally supportive, but from such a small sample, means that ISFJ is the best looking, but only weakly so.
The joker is either an unhealthy ENTP, or another type that is so damaged that he can’t be anything other than an ENTP ( it’s shadow).
10/19/2014 at 8:56 am
Sensory indulgence?
I am grouping you with every other infj who can’t type because their deemed special and unique intuitive idealist self view gets in the way of them properly typing a character. you’re projecting said things onto baelish. I’m not gonna bother explaining why he isn’t a feeler first and foremost since this site itself has TWO bloody articles on why. People like yourself need to take a step back and see characters more so for what they are. Don’t take mbti so literal. Such and such character plans hence he’s intuitive, this one’s boring and unimaginative so definitely a sensor. Eh, doesn’t quite work that way person.
10/19/2014 at 4:45 pm
So you willingly admit you can’t and won’t prove me wrong? The only thing that has come from this discussion is your projections onto me, blindly asserted and lacking in merit, i’m not so naive to believe a S can’t plan or a N can’t be concrete, but unless you can point out where i’m wrong or what aspects I’ve blatantly missed about Baelish as he is in the show, I’ve wasted far too much of my time here.
10/20/2014 at 8:09 pm
I won’t waste my time proving you wrong when once again, I agree with the author of the site that baelish is entp. You arguing or “humoring” me that baelish, groot and Rasputin are infj proves that you are one of those who just sit around thinking about how every protagonist or interesting historical figure is or can be infj. Stormborn is infj, I don’t see any similarities between her and littlefinger that says either of them are the same type.
01/28/2015 at 4:37 pm
He’s INTJ, he creates chaos like the Joker (ENTP) but the difference is, the chaos is just a means for him to succeed as for the joker, chaos was the goal and purpose. Baelish is a strategist, he evaluated the system and his place in it, and is now acting out what needs to be done to rise up the ladder. he is not an f because he doesn’t make decisions emotionally, he’s a rational. INTJ’s have feelings we just don’t use them to make 99% of our decisions.
07/06/2016 at 12:02 pm
He’s a gambler rather than a planner, and I’d argue that he is very emotional at heart. Everything he does stems from humiliation he suffered as a boy. What he ultimately wants is safety from that humiliation. That means he needs to be the most respected man in Westeros, which is the King. He’s also very good at befriending people, at least in the books. In that regard he is more of an ENTP.
Also in the books there are two personalities to him, Littlefinger his calculating mask and Petyr the little boy who uses the LF mask to protect himself. So in a way he could be both an ENTP and a INTJ.
03/24/2017 at 1:48 pm
Hi, if it can help, Baelish doesn’t love Sansa because Si or something like that. In fact, he love Sansa because he failed with her mother in his youngness. It’s more like a fail he can’t accept. He live with a big goal : obtaining Catelyn. It is not a souvenir of the past, the preference of what he lived and know, but a goal which guides him for his entire life. And anything that seems like that is good enough. I can’t have the mother ? I will obtain the daughter ! It is like he uses the defense mecanism of enneatype 7 to transform reality to not see what hurts. But, it is probably an enneatype 3 who can’t accept failure and does everything to fill his goals.
Baelish is really a introverted Tywin.
Tywin is powerfull in the world, Baelish has a lot of secrets. Tywin has a good intuition to help his need of ordered and powerfull actions. Baelish has a good capacity of action and ordering things to help his intuition to be real.
11/19/2017 at 2:18 am
As an ENTP I totally can relate to Tyrion, but not at all to Baelish. Baelish is short-sighted i.t.o. many things and he has cold-hearted plans in which people are just pawns. Tyrion can truly see what will happen, he can make decent plans and has a heart for people. The 2 characters’ way of treating Sanza is a good indication of this difference. All other sites with this discussion have Baelish as NOT ENTP.