The The There are a fair amount of villainous houses in Westeros, houses that are hated by other houses or by readers and or by readers, I should

say. House Frey is near to, or at the top of that list. They are the main party responsible for

the most infamous event in all the story so far, the Red Wedding. They are simultaneously numerous,

insular and prone to infighting. Lord

Walder is like a mafia boss running a huge family, literally, that he intimidates into working together,

but despite that, they fight each other as much as they fight other houses. A common descriptor

of House Frey is that they are upstarts.

They are new blood, rich but uncouth.

They're frequently disrespected despite their wealth and power because of this new status that they have.

It's like they're members of the country club, but few of the other members actually want to be seen golfing with them. And when they do, it's because they were paid, right? There was some sort of arrangement,

not that they're bribing them to golf with them, but because they've come to some arrangement,

some sort of deal. Basically, the money is flowing one way. Think how Ruse Bolton chose to

marry the heaviest fray girl because Walder offered a dowry in silver that matched her way. Think how Ruse Bolton chose to marry the heaviest fray girl because Walder offered a dowry in

silver that matched her weight. Dowries on are in common, but that story is, and it serves to show

us that the frays are buying their way into high society. They haven't been accepted yet, or maybe ever, and it is expensive, but they

can afford it. This is an overarching undercurrent of House Frey. They've been trying to fit in

since they were first founded, which was only, quote, only 600 years ago, which by Westorussie

Noble standards isn't that long. Of course, in real life,

that's extremely long, but hey, you know, cultures work differently there. There's nothing they

can do to fast forward that, right? The years just have to tick away, but they sure have tried

to fast forward that. They've done a lot of different things to move up and it's had mixed

results. A pattern will go over today is how the phrase have repeatedly tried to climb the power ladder.

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