Steven Xue Asks: Why are there still men fighting for the Freys?

Given that after the Red Wedding, the Freys made themselves the most reviled family in all of Westeros with just about every house in the Riverlands and the North wanting a piece of them. How is it that they still have an army consisting of 4000 men loyal to them (half of which are up North with the Boltons)?

I suppose two motivating factors for their levies to remain under their banner is that they are currently a very powerful house and perhaps the pay is very good. But on the flip side we know that even the lowliest of peasants wouldn’t dream of marrying into this wretched family. We have people condemning the Freys as a cursed clan for breaking guest rights, and yet this doesn’t seem to bother the soldiers who should know they are serving such despised masters.

Also it’s not like being a Frey guardsman is smooth sailing seeing how we have Lady Stoneheart and her band of merry men lynching the Freys and those associated with them whenever they can. We’ve also got Nymeria and her super pack devouring any Frey coming their way. I would have thought that with the bad rap they’ve got coupled with the real dangers of being associated with House Frey that most of their men (especially those with a conscious) should have second thoughts about continuing to fight for them and gotten out of dodge by now.

So yeah are there really a good reasons besides just making a living for the men in the Frey army to stay loyal to them?

I think there’s a couple main factors. First is something of a sunk cost/TINA issue – they’re already Frey men, their swords are already tainted by the Red Wedding, so to the extent that they care about the curse they’re already screwed. Second, the Freys are a House on the rise – they were already wealthy and powerful, and now they are the de-facto Lords Paramount of the Riverlands with control over Riverrun, Seagard, Darry, and the Twins. So ambitious and unscrupulous men (who are the kind of men Walder would have cultivated over decades of ruling the Twins) are probably going to put their money on the Freys.