A bearded schemer in a dark doublet turns to a bald man in long robes in a candlelit stone hall, a moonlit city beyond the arches, in black and white.

Original artwork, not a still

Petyr Baelish

Chaos isn't a pit. Chaos is a ladder.

— Game of Thrones • 2011

Behind the line

What it means

Our interpretation.

It is Littlefinger's whole creed in two sentences: where Varys sees a disaster to be prevented, he sees an opening to be used. The flip from pit to ladder made it the most quoted line of his career, and it works as an insight and as a warning, since the man who says it is the one climbing over everyone else.

Context reviewed

In context

Spoilers for Game of ThronesShow the scene

In "The Climb" (Game of Thrones, season 3, episode 6, aired May 5, 2013; written by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss), Petyr Baelish is about to leave King's Landing by ship and talks with Varys. Baelish tells Varys he gave Ros to a friend, in fact Joffrey, to kill for his pleasure. Varys protests that he did what he did for the good of the realm, and says that without the realm there is only chaos, a pit waiting to swallow everyone. Baelish answers with the line and a speech about ambition. The episode's title comes partly from this dialogue.

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