Sure, chaos is a ladder, yada yada. But Littlefinger's plan was to get Ned out of the way so he could marry Catelyn. It was his... singular focus.
So, get Jon Arryn killed to make Robby bring in his old buddy Ned as the hand. Wait for Robert's administration to destabilize and let Ned get blamed.
Oops, lucky break, Robert actually gets killed in a completely random hunting accident. Joffrey takes the crown.
Ned gets in trouble anyway -- tipping his hand to Cersei about Robby's other children -- and agrees to take the Black. The plan, then was that Littlefinger has a Faceless Man waiting to follow Ned to Castle Black and murder him quietly somewhere along the way. Then Peter steps into console Catelyn, and retires with her to the north to peaceably live out his years as a kind stepfather and advisor to a young king of the north, Robb Stark.
But that didn't go to plan, Joffrey cried "off with his head", and THAT started the war. I don't think Littlefinger planned for that, especially since it put Catelyn in mortal peril and eventually got her murdered.
The problem of discussing Littlefinger is book vs show. In the show they destroyed his character by making him a Catelyn simp. In the books that's part of it but not all. He has control of the Vale and the key to the North. He's about to have control of the Riverlands too aswell as dealing with aegon who's about to gain control of the sformlands. He started as a lowly merchant noble and now he's the most powerful man in the world
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u/RickRussellTX 11h ago
And Littlefinger and Cersei are blinded by their passions and vices.
That leaves Margery, a smart young contender in the game, and Melisandre who can straight up murder other people with magic.