History Characters / ASongOfIceAndFireHouseFrey

House Frey is a relatively young noble house (~600 years old) who rose to their status through collecting bridge fares via their strategic location at the Green Fork, growing wealthy in the process. They have a considerable rivalry with [[Characters/ASongOfIceAndFireHouseReed the Crannogmen and House Reed of the Neck]], having tried to gnaw lands from them for centuries. Alongside the keeps of their vassals of Houses Erenford and Charlton, the Twins is the northernmost castle in the Riverlands.

* NouveauRiche: They've been around for about six centuries and are ''loaded'' thanks to their building and management of a bridge of great strategic importance. Still considered "new" (and very definitely ''crass'') by the bulk of the Seven Kingdoms' establishment, most of whom go back much further.

* LikeFatherLikeSon: His unnamed father also tried to support a rebellion against the Throne, [[spoiler:only to turn traitor halfway through and help put it down]].

* BrutalHonesty: Lord Walder isn't a pleasant fellow even at the best of times, so this isn't a shocker. When his granddaughter Walda secures an alliance for the family by marrying Roose Bolton, her father Merrett hopes to finally get some praise or recognition from Walder, his own father. Instead, Walder points out that Roose chose Walda because she was fatter than all her cousins and they'd promised him the weight of his chosen bride in silver as a dowry, complete with a barb about how they might have gotten the alliance for cheaper "if your little porkling put down her spoon from time to time."

* BrutalHonesty: Lord Walder isn't a pleasant fellow even at the best of times, so this isn't a shocker. When his granddaughter Walda secures an alliance for the family by marrying Roose Bolton, her father Merrett hopes to finally get some praise or recognition from Walder, his own father. Instead, Walder points out that Roose chose Walda because she was fatter than all her cousins and they'd promised him the weight of his chosen bride in silver as a dowry, complete with a barb about how they might have gotten the marriage for cheaper "if your little porkling put down her spoon from time to time."

* BrutalHonesty: Lord Walder isn't a pleasant fellow even at the best of times, so this isn't a shocker. When his granddaughter Walda secures an alliance for the family by marrying Roose Bolton, her father Merrett hopes that it means they're important. Walder shoots that down when he points out that they'd offered Roose the weight of his chosen bride in silver as a dowry, so he chose Walda because she was the fattest of the Frey girls and they might have gotten the marriage for cheaper "if your little porkling put down her spoon from time to time."

* InSeriesNickname: "Fair Walda".

* VillainousRescue: Stops Jaime from executing Edmure.

* BurningTheShips: House Frey since Walder has never been reliable and they are dodgy and non-commital. However, the Red Wedding decisively changed that. It was betrayal of such scale and infamous nature that no one in the Riverlands and the North will ever trust them (and their allies) again, putting the Freys permanently on the side of House Lannister-Baratheon of King's Landing.

* EvilIsPetty: Oh yes. The great majority of them can't stop themselves from acting dickish even at times when they are serious, when negociating with Robb Stark they can't help but bring news of Winterfell's destruction, one of their conditions for the marriage between Edmure Tully and Roslyn Frey is that Robb comes to publicly apologise to Walder and his daughters, they serve disgusting dishes just before [[spoiler: the Red Wedding, during which they sew Grey Wind's head on Robb's body and throw Catelyn's body in the river in a mockery of the Tullys' funeral ritual]], and have the gal to say that Robb breaking his oath to them is an excuse for the atrocities they did.
* FairWeatherFriend: The family became this under Walder's leadership. Despite being vassals of House Tully they refuse to bother doing their duties, and will only choose a side during a war when one side is in a clear position of strength or if they get huge benefits of it, such as a strong marriage betrothal or a castle. And even they'll prefer to jump ship if they find themselves in the losing side, as shown after the Battle of the Blackwater with the Freys at Harrenhal clearly considering abandonning the Starks' side, even before learning about[[spoiler: Robb's marriage to Jeyne Westerling.]] Even without that slight, they would have most surely turned on Robb anyway.

Lord of the Crossing during the Dance of the Dragons. He fought valiantly for the Blacks until being killed at the Fishfeed.

* TheChick: Very much. He's able to hold his own enough to avoid being TheLoad and isn't ''as'' hatefully egocentric as most members of his family, so can have a stab at this trope. He does try being this openly with Jaime and Brienne. It... goes iffily. Not for lack of trying, though.

* GoalInLife: He dreams of one day being the Lord of the Twins, even though he's close to the bottom of the barrel in terms of the Frey's inheritance hierarchy.

* ThickerThanWater: Averted, unsurprisingly due to how numerous and screwed-up most of them them are as individuals. While some of them have shown sincere care for their family, most of them aren't saddened when they hear about the death of one of them and rather wonder how this will affect the succession line. Some Freys are even implied or at least suspected to be willing to kill their own such as Black Walder Frey, who Edwyn suspects of having killed [[spoiler: their father, and is even suspected to have killed his grandfather Stevron,]] to become Lord of the Crossing and [[spoiler: Big Walder, who may have killed his cousin Little Walder because of what he was turning into]].

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: [[spoiler: With the Lannisters following the Red Wedding. The Lannisters don't trust them, and aren't particularly more respectful of them than the northmen and their fellow riverlanders were, with Jaime and Daven Lannister not even bothering to hide their disdain for their Frey allies at Riverrun save for, ironically, Perwyn who was one of the most sympathetic to the Starks in his family. The Freys also aren't pleased to learn that despite what they did for the Lannisters it's Littlefinger who was named Lord of the Trident in their stead by Tywin, and are even more dismayed when Jaime orders them to turn over all of their hostages to the Iron Throne.]]

** Walder Frey also suffers from this trope among the Tullys and other Riverlords. He arrived to the Battle of the Trident after the rebels had already won. His liege lord, Hoster Tully, nicknamed him the "Late Lord Frey."

* LaserGuidedKarma: [[spoiler: Because they violated SacredHospitality and killed their guests, many people in the North have declared open season on House Frey and thrown guest right out the window. And Wyman Manderly makes a point of killing Jared, Symond and Rhaegar ''after'' they left his home, with gifts that formally symbolize their parting...and then turns around and breaks guest right in a far more subtle and gruesome way by serving them up to their relatives in three massive pork pies.]]

* NeverMyFault: Walder and most of his descendant never acknowledge that it's their own weasely, dishonorable and self-serving attitude that largely cause them to be disliked and disrespected by most other houses, and after [[spoiler: the Red Wedding they refuse to acknowledge their atrocities, and put all the blame on Robb Stark for dishonoring them, even if the way they arranged the marriage pact with him wasn't honorable either and would most likely have betrayed him anyway if the war didn't go in his favor, and that it's a weak excuse for such an abominable action.]]

* PromotedToScapegoat: Though none of them seem aware of it, this is their "reward" for the [[spoiler: Red Wedding]]. The Lannisters are happy to let them take all the blame for it, while the Boltons use them to draw all the anger and ressentment their fellow northerners should have for them instead.

** Which is very much unrealistic: Tolls during the medieval times were serious business and it was the right of pretty much any landed nobles (except landed knights, if I remember correctly) to charge a fee for crossing a bridge, road or waterway located on their territory; it was one of the few reliable source of income afterall, and war isn't cheap...

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: [[spoiler: With the Lannisters following the Red Wedding. The Lannisters don't trust them, and aren't particulary more respectful of them than the northmen and their fellow riverlanders were, with Jaime and Daven Lannister not even bothering to hide their disdain for their Frey allies at Riverrun save for, ironically, Perwyn who was one of the most sympathetic to the Starks in his family. The Freys also aren't pleased to learn that despite what they did for the Lannisters it's Littlefinger who was named Lord of the Trident in their stead by Tywin, and are even more dismayed when Jaime orders them to turn over all of their hostages to the Iron Throne.]]

* BitchInSheepsClothing: He initially seems like one of the more dutiful and non-malicious Frey's and drinks with Marq Piper at Edmure's wedding.[[spoiler: Then it turns out he did so to get Marq drunk to take hostage and he is seen actively participating in his house's rule over the Riverlands]].

* YankTheDogsChain: He thought his branch of House Frey would finally gain some respect after his daughter Walda married Roose Bolton and helped secure the Bolton-Frey alliance. His father set him straight by pointing out that they'd offered the weight of Roose's chosen bride in silver as a dowry, and Roose chose Walda because was the fattest of the Frey girls.

The fourteen son of Lord Walder. He married to Sylwa Paege, with children Hoster and Merianne "Merry".

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: has a wife and two children, Della and Osmund.

* OutlivingOnesOffspring: [[spoiler: He outlives his son Petyr, hung by the Brotherhood without Banners]].

* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: He names his fourth child after his father, albeit the feminine form, and his first daughter is named after his wife.

* PromotedToScapegoat: Though none of them seem aware of it, this is their "reward" for the [[spoiler: Red Wedding]].

* TeethClenchedTeamwork: [[spoiler: With the Lannisters following the Red Wedding. The Lannisters don't trust them, and aren't particulary respectful of them,with Jaime and Daven Lannister not even bothering to hide their disdain for their Frey allies at Riverrun save for, ironically, Perwyn who was one of the most sympathetic to the Starks in his family. The Freys also aren't pleased to learn that despite what they did it's Littlefinger who was named Lord of the Trident in their stead by Tywin Lannister, and are even more dismayed when Jaime orders tem to turn over all of their hostages to the Iron Throne.]]

* TheEvilGenius: Well, he didn't see [[spoiler: the pie]] coming and isn't exactly in Littlefinger's league when it comes to the big picture. But, otherwise, yes. Rather than just sit back and think of EvilIsPetty schemes, he actually finds use for things like spy-networks, forward planning and trying to be proactive. [[spoiler: It's almost a pity we see him dead before we really get to know what he's capable of.]]

* TheEvilGenius: [[spoiler:He is the one who planned the details of the Red Wedding and assigned each member of his family a role during it that best fitted their skills]].

* AnAxeToGrind: Wields a longaxe in combat, notably during [[spoiler:the Red Wedding when he kills Dacey Mormont with one]].

* ArmourPiercingSlap: Receives one from Catelyn Stark after she discovers his chainmail.