Why doesn't Tyrion imprison Littlefinger when he becomes Hand

[Sneak]

I think he delayed in questioning him because of the war at first. Then Tywin comes and claims the position of Hand of the King, so a lot of Tyrions power is removed. He does try to tell Tywin that Littlefinger is dangerous, but Tywin just brushes him off and completely underestimates LF. I don't know why Tyrion didn't tell Tywin about the dagger and that Littlefinger lied, and after this he seems to just forget about it. Maybe it becomes unimportant as their stories move forward; Tywin dies, Tyrion goes on the run to Essos and LF ends up in the Vale.

[lyvyathan]

For a big life changing event, I thought it was a big error on GRRM's part not to cause Tyrion not to dwell on it.

[jarl the climber]

Petyr is kind of like Varys, in order to keep his head on his shoulder he has to find a new way to make himself useful to people every day. Tyrion did contemplate removing Petyr but he thought that it was not something he could do in one stroke like someone mentioned earlier. Also remember he tried to set traps for Pycelle, Varys and Petyr when he made offers to them to see if they would betray him to his sister but only Pycelle was stupid enough to fall into it.

After the war, he got Harrenhal and he might have just faded into irrelavence but he held the key to the Vale between his legs and kept himself in the game by going to the Vale to marry Lysa. LF is dangerous because he can not count on his families name and prestige to make him relevant, he has to constantly be coming up with new schemes and ideas.

[Hill]

Petyr is kind of like Varys, in order to keep his head on his shoulder he has to find a new way to make himself useful to people every day. Tyrion did contemplate removing Petyr but he thought that it was not something he could do in one stroke like someone mentioned earlier. Also remember he tried to set traps for Pycelle, Varys and Petyr when he made offers to them to see if they would betray him to his sister but only Pycelle was stupid enough to fall into it.

After the war, he got Harrenhal and he might have just faded into irrelavence but he held the key to the Vale between his legs and kept himself in the game by going to the Vale to marry Lysa. LF is dangerous because he can not count on his families name and prestige to make him relevant, he has to constantly be coming up with new schemes and ideas.

Exactly.

[Lord Liam DarkStark]

How is he supposed to use him if he imprisons him?

Littlefinger may have upset tyrion with the slander. But it doesn't mean tyrion didn't need LF as master of coin. And then to broker matches.

[Khal GoGo]

How is he supposed to use him if he imprisons him?

Littlefinger may have upset tyrion with the slander. But it doesn't mean tyrion didn't need LF as master of coin. And then to broker matches.

Upset is a slight understatement. He framed him for multiple murders/attempted murders, got him arrested, and very nearly killed.

[reverendsteveiii]

It seems like sending Baelish to the vale was half to get rid of him and half to get the Eyrie to declare for the Lannisters. LF is very useful, even if he is a bastard and, having not finished ADWD yet, it seemed like a very smart play at the time. Get rid of one enemy and make one friend. Two birds...

[R'hllor's Bastard]

What could he have done? Wouldnt there have to be a trial if he tried to arrest him? Tyrion had no evidence, just hearsay. Sure, he could try to confront LF to his face, but not like LF would confess anything.

[Fitzochris]

I struggle with LF's motivations in AGOT. He tries to stitch up Tyrion with the Starks, to what end I'm not sure I ever understood. As, when Ned tells him he will declare for Stannis upon Robert's death, LF advises him to side with the Lannisters and ensure Joffrey takes the crown.

Makes little sense.

[seppuku]

I struggle with LF's motivations in AGOT. He tries to stitch up Tyrion with the Starks, to what end I'm not sure I ever understood. As, when Ned tells him he will declare for Stannis upon Robert's death, LF advises him to side with the Lannisters and ensure Joffrey takes the crown.

Makes little sense.

Uh, not really.

LF offered the Renly scheme to Ned and they needed to sieze Joff and use him as a hostage (or just murder him) to make that work. Which would have been the best thing for Ned and the North. Nobody wanted to see a guy like Stannis take the throne, hence LF's betrayal after Ned got dumb and stubborn. .

[raybeas]

What exactly are you (we) accusing LF of?

*If Bran should happen to fall off the tower when he sees Jaime and Cersei doin it, use this knife to finish him*

This is a red herring, which may cause Tyrion to have ill feeelings towards LF later. but has nothing to do with anything right now.

[Hill]

This is a flipping good question you know. I had imagined that he needed Little Finger to get access to cash, but thinking about it, it was mostly Lannister gold he borrowed anyway. Apart from the issue with the banks I suppose.

[AdXRoss]

My own re-read of these chapters did give me the impression that Tyrion was seriously thinking about moving himself into a position to take down LF, but upon his initial arrival there were a couple of things holding him back.

Firstly, Tyrion seemed to be very aware of the dangerous nature of being the Hand, noting that although he'd brought his Mountain friends with him and had moved to take control of Goldcloaks through Bywater whilst having Bronn hire sellswords, Ned Stark and Jon Arryn probably had similar feelings about being secure. His early actions are very much ones of establishing a power base and back-up and of trying to de-claw his immediate opponents, most notably Cersei. I think he simply isn't confident enough to move against LF at this point. Whilst he goes after Slynt and Pycell, they are more pawns than players in their own right and both creatures of his sister, of whom Tyrion already has a good measure.

This leads into the second point, that LF is very much an unknown for Tyrion. He becomes aware quite quickly that he has his own people and spies in almost all of the most prominent positions around the city, and with Tyrion's lack of confidence in his own people, including Bronn whom he has brought from outside the city, he is very suspicious of the extent of LF's influence. Without having a full knowledge of exactly how far LF's influence extends, Tyrion is reluctant to move against him and it seems that he is anxious about such a move backfiring, particularly at that point since combating Cersei's influence is his main agenda - there is an underlying fear that like Ned Stark, he may pick a fight that he cannot win. A connected point here also is that LF is a very good Master of Coin, and the war demands a good stream of revenue coming in. Taking down LF could have a particularly disruptive influence and with the threat of both Baratheon brothers still present at that point, it's a risk Tyrion isn't willing to take.

Finally, he isn't really aware of the full extent of LF's machinations. Had he been aware of how truly dangerous LF was, or the extent of LF's malice toward himself and the Lannisters in generally, he may well have changed his priorities and took the risk of going after LF directly. However, at that point, he tends to dismiss LF as a particularly good social climber, rather than a man whose intention (so it seems to me) is to burn the world of the Westerosi aristocracy down.

[AdXRoss]

This is a flipping good question you know. I had imagined that he needed Little Finger to get access to cash, but thinking about it, it was mostly Lannister gold he borrowed anyway. Apart from the issue with the banks I suppose.

Tyrion does note in these chapters that LF has established his own revenue streams, so although a lot of the gold he's used is Lannister gold, by doing things like taxing entrants to the city and taking control of grain distribution, he's created a massive capital income of his own.

[Casey Siren]

What exactly are you (we) accusing LF of?

*If Bran should happen to fall off the tower when he sees Jaime and Cersei doin it, use this knife to finish him*

This is a red herring, which may cause Tyrion to have ill feeelings towards LF later. but has nothing to do with anything right now.

I don't think LF had a direct plan to "hire" the knife, or influence who ever may have *cough cough* (he didn't plan on having Cersei and Jamie toss Bran out the window), but I think he saw it as an opportunity to acheive some of his end goals. A very convenient coincidence.

[greensleeves]

In ACoK, Tyrion didn't yet fully understand how dangerous Littlefinger was. As time went on, there was nothing he could do with all the war going on and more immediate threats within King's Landing.

When Tywin returned to the city, Tyrion harshly warned him against giving LF too much power, someting Tywin disregarded, and it will probably be his family's undoing. I think Tywin places a premiumon strength: he knows Littlefinger was cunning, rich, and had a lot of potential, but believed no legitimate, formidable force would follow him.

In retrospect you'd think that Tywin would be more aware of how dangerous a man in LittleFinger's position could be. It seems as though he had acted as the unofficial bank of the Iron Throne for many years and it is well known that the Iron bank is more than capable of deposing rulers... why not the one-man bank of Westeros?

Tywin has a few blindspots though and I think that this must be one of them.

Maybe Tyrion just thought that because the dangerous impact on him was in the past - Tyrion doesn't seem to waste time on resentments.

I feel like wasting time on resentments is Tyrion's number one hobby.

[Odon]

There's also the fact that Tyrion has no proof against LF, only Cat's word which Lord Tywin is hardly going to accept. Tyrion should still have told his father though, but their whole relationship involves them not communicating with each other. He didn't tell Tywin about a member of the Kingsguard trying to kill him, because Tyrion assumed that Cersei was behind it and so thinks he needs evidence before bringing it to Father. It never occurs to Tyrion to tell Father and let Lord Tywin use his resources and power to get answers. They just don't have that level of trust.

[wandering]

Because its a plot hole.

[Casey Siren]

And you're a butt hole.

If you don't have anything useful to say, then stow it.

Odon, you make a good point.