Sometimes the villain (commonly a Lawful Evil villain) may attempt to "arrange" a marriage between himself and the heroine/the hero's love interest.This custom also exists among Ashkenazi Orthodox Jews (non-Ashkenazi ones are generally culturally Middle Eastern in the first place), although going through a matchmaker is more common. Also different from omiai is that it is not a formal introduction, since the families are frequently friends, and occasionally even relatives (an old saying in the Middle East to a woman who has been having trouble getting married is, "well, there's always your cousin"). The hope is that the prospects will like each other anyway, but occasionally the intended courters can feel pressure if circumstances (money, family honor, social standing, in some cases politics, or the embarrassment of having an unmarried child-especially a daughter-that age) get in the way. In the Middle East and South Asia, a more relaxed form of omiai is practiced: the parents' expectation that their children marry is more hinted at than stated, as it is generally disguised as simply inviting "a nice family" or "a good young lady/man from a good family" over for tea or lunch/dinner.(Needless to say, many Anime series will milk this sort of thing for all it's dramatic and/or comic worth.) There is little the prospective bride and groom can do to get out of such arrangements without causing considerable embarrassment and social turmoil in their own family. In modern times, the heads of rich, high-class corporation-owning families can choose to bind their children to each other in a similarly restrictive way to form powerful economic alliances. (Needless to say, such meetings can be a source of tremendous tension for all involved participants.) In pre-war Japan, arranged marriages were common, a lot more restrictive as far as choice was concerned, and popular among the Samurai Class as a way of cementing familial alliances. Meetings between potential mates are often stiff, formal affairs conducted in expensive tea shops or hotels with the parents of the couple present. In Japan, the ancient custom of omiai is a means by which suitable couples are formally introduced to each other by their parents, who sometimes employ a professional matchmaker.These kinds of "no-strings" arrangements are far more popular in Western nations, although those who use dating services may not want to freely admit doing so, since the stereotype is that only workaholics or the socially inept would actually have a need to do so. Voluntarily, one can hire a matchmaker (or sign up for an online matchmaking service), which will pair the prospective bride or groom with a large list of potential suitors with whom they can freely choose to pursue relationships.In less restrictive traditional arranged marriages, parents may choose their children's respective spouse with input from said children and without the caveat that they have to accept a potential match unconditionally-although the children may be heavily pressured to do so if such a match is especially favorable.In others (such as Christian Europe), the marriage required the consent of both parties-but in lands where fathers had near-unlimited power over their children (especially their daughters), it was easy enough to force such "consent". In some cultures, the marriage could go through without the bride's consent.Generally the more important the alliance, the less opportunity either of the prospective partners was given to say no. Historically, though, many marriages were arranged, although in most Western societies the groom, or his parents, arranged the marriage with the bride's parents - and whether the bride had any choice in the matter or not depended on them. These are not very common in Western nations today, where an individual's right to happiness outweighs the social and economic interests of the family who might benefit from such a marriage. Gets even worse when the groom believes in the custom of Marital Rape License and/or the bride is a child. If the child refuses, she may be punished or even killed. In a forced marriage, parents choose their child's future spouse with little or no input from the child and expect them to follow through with it. The choosing process can work in several different ways: An Arranged Marriage is, quite simply, the idea that someone is going to choose your spouse for you.
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