No iteration of Star Wars ever claimed you had to be from a magical dynastic lineage to make a difference.

Littlefinger alluded to it when he meets Sansa and Arya in Season 1. He’s from a part of the Vale called the Fingers and he’s short of stature (not especially the case in the show), so he’s called “Littlefinger”.

Their fights occur in places that there’s no sign anybody can see, and particularly for the last one, in a place we know nobody can see because it’s a closed room.

Oh, I agree. Most directors are lucky to get even one great film. Almost Famous is his most personal film, too, so in a lot of ways that’s fitting as a capstone.

Yeah, there was an offscreen conversation between Sansa and Littlefinger’s private discussion in 707 and the trial scene where they resolved everything.  Hence, why Arya has the dagger back.

Littlefinger will be defeated by Sansa in the books (assuming they ever come out).  That was always the proper ending for Sansa’s story, in terms of thematics and character growth; and for him as well, as all his sins catch up in the end.  The show simply doesn’t execute it in a satisfying way.

Not that I would trust Littlefinger, but not trusting Arya this season is just good sense, because she spends 705 and 706 acting like a fucking psychopath.

Setting aside all the BTS stuff, including the scripts, that make clear they weren’t working together or setting Littlefinger up, the stuff they’re arguing about is precisely the stuff that Littlefinger wants them to fight over.  If they’ve seen through his plan, then they wouldn’t be doing this, because that…

Sansa knew for years that Littlefinger was a weasel. She’s been saying that since Season 4. So the show making “this untrustworthy guy who I keep saying is untrustworthy is untrustworthy!” into some big moment of revelation is quite silly. Particularly as Sansa is by that point basically the only person who seems…

That wouldn’t really be rectifying anything, from the writers’ POV, because the fights weren’t meant to be for Littlefinger’s benefit.

The scene was just Sansa going into Bran’s room, per WOTW sources, not a detailed explanation, and she had begun to suspect Littlefinger after their final conversation and the “Arya wants Winterfell” accusation. It was seemingly cut because the writers thought it would ruin the surprise of the trial scene, which was…

I don’t disagree that they’d be happy to get rid of Littlefinger (particularly since his reaction to being accused is to immediately confess, which is a great example of how this scene has him lose simply by making him stupid), but it should affect Sansa’s own standing that she lied — earlier in the season she was…

Almost Famous I consider to be close to a perfect movie.

That’s not really the word, that’s some people’s speculation based on them editing out a brief bit where Sansa goes to talk to Bran pretrial. Some were suggesting that the goal there was to make it look like it was a deception all along, but really that was just the writers not wanting to give any hints that Sansa…

They were really fighting right up until the trial scene.

Both the actresses and the script make it very clear that all the conflict was real. That people kept debating otherwise just shows how shoddy the execution was, but there really isn’t anything onscreen whereby you could conclude it was all an act.

It’s interesting how the pop culture memory of the boom box scene forgets that in the movie this gesture doesn’t work (indeed, I’ve seen parodies that seem to regard this not working as a subversion of the original).

The writers don’t do much to explain themselves. But, among other things, the scripts for this season leaked, and they make clear the fights are real. Same with, for instance, Maisie Williams’ interviews where she talks about how Arya doesn’t understand Sansa and is manipulated into fighting her.

Fire and Blood states that dragons won’t fly north of the Wall, so a book equivalent to this is unlikely.

Specifically denied by the actresses and writers.  It was all real.