by Jared Allen
contributor
I am by no means a Game of Thrones aficionado. In fact, I’ve seen maybe two episodes in their entirety. So when approached about writing this article, I grabbed a handful of suggestions and spent the afternoon researching (which included calling an alumni at 2 a.m.) which has culminated in the following.
House: Lambda Chi Alpha
Game of Thrones Comparison: House Frey
House Words: Sworn to Chop Nation
The history of House Frey of the Crossing really stuck out. While it wasn’t necessarily a major house, it achieved great success and prosperity through the Freys’ leadership and strategic prowess. I saw this as comparable to Lambda Chi in the sense that our numbers have been small recently, but we’ve sought excellence on the fields of battle, having brothers succeed on various athletic teams as well as in the classroom and outside the walls of Millsaps, working in the community through our various philanthropies over the years.
Such achievement comes with its equal amounts of envy. Despite their prosperities, other houses looked down on the Freys, and they had their fair share of rivalries and hostilities. House Lambda Chi’s associate member program (an alternative to the pledgeship of the other houses on the row) comes to mind here. For whatever reason, the “legitimacy” of the program has faced criticisms (sometimes uninformed). Gossip aside, we choose to let our actions speak for themselves—no Red Weddings to assert dominance here (besides, we’re not exactly the biggest or scrappiest on the row).
Speaking of Red Weddings, the Freys were pretty cunning bunch, stealthily plotting against their opposition to get what they want. We’re a pretty cunning group of guys, and in the past, we’ve stretched the limit to get what we wanted. It got us in trouble last year, from which we’re still attempting to recover from. Losing our bid day last year due to our actions was very difficult for us, and we know we’ve got a long way to go to regain the image we had before. We’re going to have to step up big to get out of this pit.
The Freys weren’t all kicking ass and taking names. They had their problems. The one that really stuck out—and that I found pretty funny—was their problems with the ladies and with marriages between other houses in general. One of the Freys was called “Fool Frey” after unsuccessfully asking for the hand of a lady of another house. Our house comes with a bit of quirkiness and we know we have our share of fools. Our sociability and general visibility around campus could use a bit of work and has been our downfall a number of times. Hopefully we won’t be like the Freys in this aspect. However, we try to embrace the quirkiness and roll with it, so let’s get weird.