Perfectly Arranged Marriage: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

No one likes an [[Arranged Marriage]], especially those so betrothed. They'll rip their clothes, gnash their teeth and swear to... [[Slap Slap Kiss|was that them necking in the atrium?]]

Despite their initial opposition, the couple who have been betrothed discover they not only like each other, but ''love'' each other, and make it perfectly clear that even if they weren't in an arranged marriage they'd still choose to marry or at least start dating. Drama being what it is, you can expect their earlier attempts to undo the arranged marriage will mature and succeed, and their parents set them up with a new fiancée or fiancé that they ''do'' hate. Expect one or the other to be have to swallow their pride and [[Will They or Won't They?|come out and say]] they do love the other.

 

 

 

 

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* Albert and Eugenie's arranged marriage in ''[[Gankutsuou]]''. Within about a dozen episodes, the two are well and truly in love. {{spoiler|Too bad both got broken later.}}

* This is pretty much the entire premise for the popular [[Manhwa]] ''[[Goong]]''.

* In ''[[Maison Ikkoku]]'', Shun Mitaka is introduced to [[The Ojou|Asuna Kujou]] by way of an ''omiai'' arranged by his uncle. She is head over heels in love with him. He, on the other hand, objects strongly to the union at first, partially because he is in love with Kyouko, but also because of [[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?|her large number of dogs]], of which he is ''deathly'' afraid. However, after {{spoiler|accidentally proposing to her due to a [[Mistaken for Pregnant|misunderstanding]]}}, he warms up to the idea a bit more, and eventually falls in love and marries her.

* Yura Kawada and Makoto Onoda, the main couple in ''[[Futari Ecchi]]''. In a variation, the relationship is arranged via a matchmaking service.

* In ''[[Basilisk]]'', Gennosuke Koga and Iga-no-Oboro's betrothal is arranged in order to put an end to the long-standing war between their respective families. Conveniently, they both fall in [[Love At First Sight]] ([[Toy Ship|as kids]], in the anime; as adults, in the manga). [[It Got Worse|Later, of course, things go straight to hell]] {{spoiler|[[Downer Ending|And they end up]] [[Together in Death]].}}

** In a sort-of variation, it's mentioned in the manga that Gennosuke actually was ''not'' the first option for Oboro. Her grandmother Ogen had thought at first of engaging Oboro to [[The Lancer|her second-in-command]], Tenzen Yakushiji, but decided against it since she didn't fully trust him. {{spoiler|Considering that Tenzen turned out to be a ninja version of the [[Evil Chancellor]] ''and'' the series' [[Complete Monster|specially cruel and sadistic]] [[Big Bad]], [[Genre Savvy|she was right.]] Obviously, that didn't stop him from trying to [[I Have You Now, My Pretty|get Oboro as his puppet bride]] after Ogen's death}}.

* Played with in [[Vision of Escaflowne]], with Princess Millerna Sarah Aston and Prince Dryden Fassa. She and Dryden are a mild version of [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]] as Millerna's put off by his [[Rich Idiot With No Day Job]] facade and Dryden is a snarky [[Guile Hero]]. (Not to mention Milly has a huge crush on Allen). {{spoiler|They grow fond of each other as the series advances, and then they get married - but [[It Gets Worse]]. And when it's all solved, Dryden calls off the engagement: he cares for Millerna, and might be in love with her at that point, but he feels he still has to work hard to become truly worthy of marrying a girl like her.}}

* Played with in a story in ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]''. The ghost of a queen tells Count D about how she and her husband were betrothed as children, hated each other for much of their marriage, and cheated on each other constantly. She then fell deathly ill for a period of time and, when she recovered, found her husband at her side. That incident made them realize how much they cared for each other and they were faithful and loving to each other from that day onward.

 

* Crystal and Ronan the Accuser during ''[[War of Kings]]''. Kind of. Crystal starts off hating Ronan and eventually begins to admire him and understand that he's in basically the same situation that she is.

* [[Doctor Strange]]'s manservant Wong was betrothed as a child to a girl who wasn't even born yet. Nevertheless, he has no problem falling in love with Imei once they meet, though she dies before they can get married.

 

* The main characters of ''[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3403925/1/Terms_of_Engagement Terms Of Engagement]'' have this. [[Magnificent Bastard|Saito]] realizes how perfect the match is when he finds out his fiance Tokio has spent the fic {{spoiler|disguised as two different people, secretly terrorizing him and his best friend, running a spy ring and executing a [[Batman Gambit]]}}.

 

** It works with the princess herself as well. Aurora aka Briar Rose is understandably devastated when she finds out about her arranged marriage to Prince Phillip (not to mention, well, the poor girl has just found out ''that her whole life is a lie''), until she discovers that Prince Phillip and that nice guy she met in the forest are the same person.

* A sort-of example in ''[[The Lion King]]''. Simba and Nala both recoil a bit when they're told that they were betrothed when they're children, but neither makes much attempt to foil the marriage as Simba goes into self-imposed exile for unrelated reasons long before that becomes an issue. When they meet again as adults, however, they follow the rest of the trope to the letter.

* ''[[The Swan Princess]]'' toys with this. Prince Derek and Princess Odette, the heirs of two neighboring kingdoms, are betrothed to each other by her widowed father and his widowed mother, who are good friends and want to unite their realms. The arrangement annoys them because they're kids and hate each other. Then one day they meet each other after puberty, and it's [[Love At First Sight]]! Derek demands that the wedding be arranged, but when Odette asks him why, he replies that she's beautiful...and when she asks "What else?" he replies, "What else is there?" (cue the mass [[Face Palm]] from the guests) Odette promptly refuses to marry him until he is able to find a reason he loves her besides her looks; he does, and they are happily married in the end, so the trope is ultimately played straight.

** They're not actually stated to be betrothed, though; the arrangement is just that they'll spend the summer together. William, Uberta and the citizens of both kingdoms ''expect'' Derek and Odette will fall in love and get married, but there doesn't seem to be any legal agreement.

* The movie ''Lady Jane'' depicts this between Lady Jane Grey and Guildford Dudley. ''Not'' a case of [[Truth in Television]], unfortunately for the ill-fated Jane.

* In the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie ''Loving Leah'', Jake Lever (Andy Kaufman) seems to be trying less and less hard to get out of his levirate marriage to his late brother Benjamin's wife Leah as the film progresses. The fact that [[Hollywood Homely|she's played by]] [[Heroes Want Redheads|Lauren Ambrose]] might have something to with it...

* The first of the infamous ''Sisi'' movies with Romy Schneider and Karl Boehm describes Sisi and Franz's love deals as this, as the [[Lonely Rich Kid]] Emperor is fascinated by the [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]] lead female who comes as her [[Ojou]] sister ''and'' his betrothed's travel companion, so he plays a small [[Batman Gambit]] to get her engaged to him instead. In [[Real Life]] however, things weren't exactly that way.

* Emperor Pu Yi and Empress Wang Rong in ''[[The Last Emperor]]'', since Pu Yi's dream girl was "a modern wife who could follow the new dances and was educated outside China" and she fitted in perfectly. {{spoiler|It didn't last, though.}}

* Not exactly marriage, but in ''[[My Sassy Girl]]'' the male lead puts off his aunt's attempts to introduce him to her late son's former girlfriend because he is already interested in the female lead. The female lead meanwhile has been putting off meeting her dead boyfriend's cousin at his mother's request because of her budding interest in the male lead. At the end of the movie it's revealed that the male lead's aunt ''is'' the female lead's dead boyfriend's mother. This startling coincidence convinces the pair to give their romance another chance.

 

== Literature ==

* Endon and Sharn in ''[[Deltora Quest]]''.

* In ''[[The Riftwar Cycle]]'', Prince Arutha is head over heels over Princess Anita, and is extremely lucky that their marriage is also extremely politically beneficial for the Kingdom.

** Of course, in this case the marriage wasn't technically arranged. Their fathers had been considering arranging said marriage, but then the Riftwar broke out and they found themselves occupied with that and never got around to actually betrothing their children before they both died. Arutha proposed to Anita on his own initiative after the war ended.

** Another notable case happens in Polgara's backstory. In order to alleviate the Arendish civil wars, it was necessary to wed off two teenaged members of opposing houses, who naturally hated each other. Polgara's solution was to lock them in a room together and wait 'til the shouting stopped, after which things turned out all right.

* ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' does this for Liu Bei and Lady Sun (or Sun Shang Xiang in the period operas), despite the fact that it didn't turn out so well in actual history.

* ''Wielding A Red Sword'' in [[Piers Anthony]]'s ''[[Incarnations of Immortality]]'' series. Mym and Rapture (prince and princess in India) are put in an arranged marriage by their parents. After spending some time in a magical castle, they fall in love and agree to the marriage.

** This actually has to do with the nature of the magic castle; The most obvious thing is that in the castle, they can hear each other's thoughts and feel each other's feelings, meaning they can't help ''but'' get to know each other. So they stay in different parts of the castle, thinking that putting some distance between them will lessen the effect. Not only does that ''not'' work, but they soon find out that there is a spirit/demon/creature thing that will terrorize the princess if she's away from the prince, and due to the castle's first effect, he feels her fear. [[Sarcasm Mode|(Because, naturally,]] [[Unfortunate Implications|it just wouldn't work the other way around.)]] And worst of all, {{spoiler|by the time they finally come around and learn to love each other, the princess's nation falls out of favor with the prince's, and the prince's parents stick another princess in the castle with him so he can do it all over again. This time, he and princess #2 opt to escape.}}

* Machado de Assis wrote a short about a couple falling in love with each other while teaming up to prevent their own [[Arranged Marriage]].

* Not quite, but in the [[Star Wars Expanded Universe]], Mara comments on how her marriage to Luke seems like [[The Force]] arranged it. But the UST was all [[Defeat Means Friendship|much earlier]].

* In [[Warbreaker]], Siri and Susebron fall in love. This is particularly surprising, given that he originally seems like an [[Evil Overlord]] and she's been sent to keep him from invading her country.

* The comedy/satire ''Leonce and Lena'' by Georg Bachner.

* In ''The Swans War'' trilogy, a marriage is arranged between Lady Elise and Prince Michael by their evil relatives. Both of them like each other very much when they meet and agree to do everything they can to avoid being forced to marry. That is because an alliance of their houses will empower their evil relatives even more and can produce a heir to the mythical, non-existent throne of the country, ushering in a devastating war.

* Signe and Guibor de Barbentain, in [[A Song For Arbonne]] by [[Guy Gavriel Kay]]. An unusual example, in that it is not supposed to please modern sensitivitities - all nobles are in arranged marriages, most of them polite and civil, some downright unhappy. Signe and Guibor are introduced as a true exception, an arranged marriage that also happens to be a lovematch. Of course, when they are introduced, Guibor has been dead for a year, and Signe is an old woman left with happy memories.

* Llewelyn and Joanna in Sharon Kay Penman's ''Here Be Dragons''.

* Eddard "Ned" Stark and Catelyn Tully from ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. She was engaged to his older brother Brandon and he was (or at least was rumored to be) in love with a woman called Ashara Dayne. Brandon was killed as part of a mass execution that kicked off a war, and their marriage was hastily set up to keep a Stark-Tully alliance. They have five children and are still having good sex as the first book starts.

* In Victoria Ugryumova's ''Doppelganger for the Jester'', a political marriage between [[The Emperor]] and a [[Princess Classic]] turns out to be so happy for both parties that even his closest advisers wonder whether he is sick or something. His answer? "Gods, I can't believe I've fallen in love with my own wife." {{spoiler|It doesn't end well.}}

* [[Nightrunner|Lynn Flewelling's]] ''Tamir Triad'' offers us Duke Rhius and Princess Ariani (parents of the main character); as Rhius put it: "I was in love with Ariani and her brother was in love with my holdings.". Played straight since they deeply loved each other when they married. And also subverted when later Ariani turned mad {{spoiler|after her son was killed right after birth to save his twin sister}} and started hating her husband {{spoiler|since he knew and allowed}}.

"Nanny" : That's nice, then. }}

* In ''The Long-Nosed Princess'' by Patricia Hallowell the eponymous Princess Felicity is arranged to marry the very handsome prince of a neighboring country but he rejects her insultingly at first sight breaking her heart. Not because she's fallen in love but because he's destroyed her self image. Later while on his way to court another princess he is attacked by Felicity's animal friends and she nurses him back to health. Why does he find himself thinking of Felicity constantly while courting the incredibly beautiful princess? And what is he going to do about that grinning fool of a Prince Harry who thinks ''he's'' going to marry Felicity?

* King Kelson of [[Katherine Kurtz]] Deryni series has truly rotten luck with his brides. His first marriage is a politically important match to a princess of a rival house who, better still, has been raised to regard him as hellspawn. Needless to say Kelson is incredibly nervous but the girl is young and beautiful - and he is seventeen - so by the time the wedding day rolls around he's convinced he's falling in love and there are indications that the girl may be too. Unfortunately Kelson is widowed before the ceremony ends. In the next book he falls in love with a perfectly acceptable princess - who due to convolutions of plot is rendered politically impossible as his wife. It is she who arranges for Kelson to marry his final prospect, a cousin who is a really ideal match from the political point of view. At first Kelson, still desperately in love with the other lady, can hardly bear the thought of marrying elsewhere but as he gets to know Araxie better the marriage becomes less and less distasteful to him...

* ''[[1632]]'': Prince Ulrik of Denmark and Princess Kristina of Sweden are headed this way. They aren't in love yet (something to do with him being in his thirties and her being only nine), but they are very close.

* The book ''Heroics for Beginners'' has this with the main character and his love interest; they met and fell in love before her father started looking for a husband for her, and so she intentionally became cold and unpleasant to all other potential suitors to put them off. Mention is also made of another prince whose family refused to let him marry until he was thirty and then betrothed him to a six-year-old girl; ten years later, he is the most envied man on the continent.

* [[Arranged Marriage]] is the rule for the Political and Officer classes in W.C. Dietz's ''Crisis of Empire'' trilogy. Usually friendly enough but neither party minds much when circumstances require a divorce so one or both can make a better match. This is ''not'' the case with Allison Spencer and Bethany Windsor. They are in love and blissfully happy - until [[The Empire|Pact]] politics tear them appart giving Bethany to her Senator uncle's new military ally General Anson Merikur. At first she hates him - though she knows it wasn't his doing. Then she finds herself drawn to him...

 

* ''[[The Golden Girls]]'': Rose's cousin Sven is scheduled for an arranged marriage, but falls for Blanche instead. When the arranged bride shows up, she's a gorgeous Swedish girl, and he drops Blanche like a hot potato.

* Posca and Jocasta on ''[[Rome]]''. It's also implied that Vorenus and Niobe were an arranged match.

* On ''[[Angel]]'': Not exactly a marriage, but Cordelia's objections to her required ritual "com-shuk" with the "Groosalug" get a lot less strenuous once she gets a good look at him, and even less so once they start to talk. A very sweet (if eventually doomed) relationship results.

* In [[The Onedin Line]] James and Anne Onedin were their own matchmakers so to speak, having found it useful to marry each other to smooth out the legal details of a business alliance. As a bonus they happened [[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other|to fall in love with each other]]. [[She Is Not My Girlfriend|But don't tell anyone else]].

 

* In [[Tom Robbins]]' ''Jitterbug Perfume'', Kudra's first husband turns out to be awesomer than expected {{spoiler|and then promptly dies}}.

* ''[[The Swan Princess]]''. Although other complications happen.

* Arthur and Guenevere have a moment like this in ''Camelot,'' though given what happens later, it counts as dramatic irony.

* In ''The Game of Love and Chance (Le Jeu de l'amour et du hasard)'' by Marivaux, Silvia and Dorante are engaged without knowing each other. They disguise themselves as servants, meet and fall in love, without either one knowing that the other is their betrothed.

 

== Video Games ==

* The City Elf origin story in ''[[Dragon Age]]'' can be like this if you choose the right dialogue. Of course, then it all goes horribly wrong...

** [[Ascended Fanboy|Cailan]] and Anora appear to have been this as well...though that didn't end well either.

* Oichi and Azai Nagamasa in ''[[Sengoku Basara]]''. Unfortunately, Oichi's brother (who arranged the marriage in the first place) is the The Demon King, so all happiness went to hell, literally.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[The Simpsons]]'' had it happen with Apu. He spends the entirety of one episode trying to get out of his arranged marriage, but when he meets the woman (Manjula) at the wedding he's instantly charmed (And, she points out, if it doesn't work they can always divorce).

* ''[[Winx Club]]'' had this, although Layla's objection to being in an arranged marriage wasn't because she didn't like the guy (in fact, [[Two-Person Love Triangle|she didn't even know that he was her intended]]), but because she wanted to have the freedom to choose for herself. Once her parents stop making her be in an arranged marriage, it turns out the person she's chosen [[Broken Aesop|is actually arranged marriage guy]].

** {{spoiler|This relationship also didn't last: the writers did the unthinkable the following season. They got the guy [[Killed Off for Real]]! Poor Layla.}}

* According to [[All There in the Manual|supplementary materials,]] Ozai and Ursa in ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' had this, though they grew distant later on.

** [[Alternate Character Interpretation|Or]] she ''could'' have liked him, but disliked the rigid social system in the North Water Tribe and then wasn't happy that Pakku didn't seem to support her own interests. She ''did'' take the necklace he made for her and cary it as a heirloom, then passed it on Katara.

 

== Real Life ==

** And she had him buried so that she could see his tomb from her bedroom's window. Poor mad girl indeed. Phillip the Handsome's death would require a trope of its own.

* Speaking of Charles V, Joanna and Philip's son, the [[The Emperor|most powerful man in Europe]] at his time also had a surprisingly happy arranged marriage with Princess Isabella of Portugal, an intelligent and beautiful woman who [[Silk Hiding Steel|kept the entire Kingdom of Spain in line during her husband's absences]]. When she died, the Emperor never re-married and wore the mourning colors for the rest of his life.

*** Edward I's second marriage to the much-younger Marguerite of France seems to have been a great success, as well, although by no account did he have the same affection for Marguerite as Eleanor. Like his father, Edward I was never known to have taken a mistress.

** Richard II of England and Anne of Bohemia, to the extent that after Anne's premature death, Richard became notably unstable.

** The marriage between [[The House of Stuart|William III and Mary II]] didn't start out very well; Mary cried through their wedding, William was cold and neglectful towards her, and had an affair with one of her ladies-in-waiting. However, the relations between them improved very much, and when Mary died young of smallpox, William was devastated, saying that "from being the happiest" he was "now going to be the miserablest creature on earth".

** [[The House of Hanover|George III]] of Great Britain (yes ''[[The American Revolution|that]]'' George III) had quite a happy marriage to Sophia Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Although they first met on their wedding day (at which point George was already king), all indications are that it worked. He never took a [[The Mistress|mistress]] (unlike his father, grandfather, and sons) and their marriage was by all accounts quite the happy one. They had fifteen (''fifteen!'') children.

*** The possibility of him having that condition is debatable, as there's no record of the surgery to fix it and he frequently went horse riding during that time (which a surgery to the genitals would hamper). His brother, however, did record in his journal that half of Louis's difficulties was that he simply [[Anatomically-Impossible Sex|didn't understand the process]].

* Gilbert de Lafayette and Adrienne de Noailles. When the marriage was arranged, she was 15, he - 17. Just for money, of course (from her side - or the side of her parents, that is). You can guess how it went from there on, so just pointing out the more prominent parts. When Lafayette was imprisoned and she was about to be executed (revolution will not be civilised, after all) she was writing to the revolutionary tribune to save her husband, after the death penalty was substituted for imprisonment, she was released from custody and her only request was to be imprisoned in the same castle, as the Lafayette, and when she died, he wrote, that gone is the bigger and better part of him. If you wrote a book with such events now, one would undoubtedly be accused of sentimentalism in the terminal stage. Reality ensues, indeed...

* Another Roman, Tiberius Caesar, had more mixed luck. His first arranged marriage was to the daughter of the "vice-emperor" Agrippa, a woman named Vipsania, with whom he fell passionately in love. Then, inconveniently, Agrippa died... so Tiberius's step-father, the Emperor Augustus, forced him to marry Augustus's biological daughter Julia, who also happened to be Agrippa's widow... yep, Tiberius was forced to marry his ''mother in law.'' The good news was that Julia was the most beautiful woman in Rome. The bad news was that she was... [[Really Gets Around|a very, very sociable girl]] who ended up [[My Girl Is Not a Slut|causing such embarrassment to her husband and father that she was imprisoned on a small, desolate island for the rest of her life.]] The worse news was that Tiberius was still very much in love with Vipsania, and for the rest of his life, [[The Woobie|every time he caught sight of her in passing he burst into tears at the thought of what he'd lost]]. The worst news was that [[Trauma Conga Line|the shock of being forced to divorce Tiberius caused Vipsania to miscarry Tiberius's child.]] Tiberius later became [[Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds|Emperor himself]], and [[Laser-Guided Karma|found a reason to execute every single one of Augustus's descendents]]... [[The Caligula|with one exception.]]

* A study in India showed that on average, couples in arranged marriages report greater levels of love for each other than couples who chose their own partners after roughly the three-year mark in the marriage. Beyond that point, arranged marriages more or less level off while love marriages plummet.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Bollywood Tropes]]

[[Category:Marriage Tropes]]

[[Category:Wedding and Engagement Tropes]]