House of the Dragon has once again pushed audiences into a world of intrigue, political maneuvering, and whispers, but if we want to really capture the essence of Game of Thrones — at least its first three seasons — we still need one more element to join the fold.
Luckily, the fans have managed to single out the best candidate for the role that Littlefinger played in the original series. While you can scantily find things connecting Petyr Baelish to Ser Otto Hightower, Hand of the King to Viserys I, the veterans seem to think they have pretty similar machinations and goals. As for his namesake, someone has come up with the perfect title; Meet Otto “Middlefinger” Hightower, Littlefinger’s great, great grandpa.
More so than the joke, House of the Dragon fans are infatuated with Rhys Ifans in this role. But, to be perfectly honest, it’s rather difficult to maintain that you’re watching a drama series with real-life actors portraying fantasy characters when Ifans is in the frame with all of his scene-stealing splendor.
The intense rivalry between Otto and Daemon Targaryen hasn’t gone unnoticed either, so naturally, fans are having a field day with all the memeing opportunities here.
Then again, and as mentioned earlier, there aren’t a lot of similarities between Otto and Littlefinger. If anything, the character actually reminds everyone of Tywin Lannister, but perhaps with less of an air of superiority around him.
But for argument’s sake, all we now need is for Otto to deliver an ominous speech about how ambitious men can thrive in this grimdark world, preferably something that has to do with “chaos” and “ladders.”