History Main / ArrangedMarriage

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyLegendII'', the New God Venus arranges the marriage between Nills (Julius in Japan) and Flora (Olivia), despite the latter's relationship with Leon (Anthony) whom Venus has banished from her city due to his damaged leg. It's up to the protagonists to stop the marriage from taking place.

* What kick starts the plot in ''Manga/EngagedToTheUnidentified'', where on her sixteenth birthday Kobeni suddenly finds out that apparently her long-departed grandfather set her up with the grandson of one of his old friends from the countryside... And said surprise fiancé suddenly moves into her family's house in the city, with his bratty younger sister in tow as a "chaperone".

* In ''Manga/FunTerritoryDefenseByTheOptimisticLord'', there are several directed at the protagonist Van Nei Fertio, who is 8-years-old and thus has a few years to get to know his "suitors" before he has to walk down the aisle. The first is a merfolk girl he meets whose tribe then moves into his territory. She describes herself as his fiancé and the chieftan, who is her father, makes it official, no matter how Van says "no." As a result of Van wiping out a legion of "armored dragon" beasts that the clan was fleeing from. The second to date is the "useless" daughter of a neighboring noble who fears an armed invasion, since Van's father is a famous {{Warhawk}}, and Van turned the village he was given into a viable fortress. The girl in quesion is actually a very shy and awkward 10-year-old who just wants somebody to acknowledge her existence. When Van ''actually praises'' her [Puppetry] magic talent, there is much in the way of ShipTease and she's ''ecstatic'', quickly getting on board with hoping she and he marry in the future when they're both of age.

* ''Anime/{{Gankutsuou}}'': Eugénie de Danglars is initially arranged to marry Albert de Morcerf, but after a scandal in the Morcerf house, her father breaks the arrangement and makes a new one with Andrea Cavalcanti, to her horror.

** ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'': We get to see Cagalli's fiancé from childhood, [[RomanticFalseLead Yuna Roma Seiran]]. [[ButtMonkey It doesn't work well for him]].
** In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'' features a more ''unique'' example. Due to the rules setup in the school, whoever is the number one duelist is officially the fiancé of Miorine, and it doesn’t matter what the person’s gender is. In the first episode, Guel is the Holder, but following his defeat in the first episode and subsequent defeat in the rematch in the third episode, the protagonist, Suletta Mercury, is officially declared the Holder and Miorine’s fiancé. In this case, Suletta had no idea that she would become Miorine’s fiancé. She only fought against Guel because she wanted him to apologize to Miorine for his abusive treatment towards her.

* ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'': Sayaka is trapped in an unhappy engagement that centers around [[MacGuffin a veil]] belonging to the other family; if Saint Tail steals it and returns it to Sayaka's fiancé, she'll be free to go. The only problem is that Sayaka has a tremendous crush on Asuka Jr. Meimi quickly helps the poor girl anyway, but the situation [[SlapSlapKiss muddles her feelings even more]].

* ''Manga/{{Moyashimon}}'': Haruka is the daughter of an executive and is in an arranged marriage, with the caveat that she won't have to marry until she is done with the university. Naturally, she intends never to graduate, and an attempt by her father to push matters leads to him and the fiancé [[FateWorseThanDeath exposed to point-blank]] [[ForeignQueasine Surstr?ng]].

* In ''Manga/PumpkinScissors'', Alice is engaged to be married to a high-ranking noble named Lionel Taylor. However, this went against her wishes to stay unmarried and continue working for Section III. She was even willing once to go as far as to try and get her fiancé to call off their engagement.

* ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'': Ryuunosuke has an Arranged Marriage made between her father and one of his own friends, and thus a fiancé named Nagisa she'd rather do without. In her case, she has to deal with a YamatoNadeshiko WholesomeCrossdresser rather than a CovertPervert {{Tsundere}}.

** In Chapter 30 when Luna reunites with Nike and Livius, she reveals she's just been put in an arranged marriage with the much older Marquis Claude Fortis. She decides to sabotage it by getting Nike to crossdress and pose as her fiancé. [[spoiler:He offers to drop it after he's done with his plan to save Luna's family, which depended on the engagement, but by that point the two have fallen for each other and so the engagement goes ahead.]]

* ''Manga/{{Yuureitou}}'': Reiko was engaged to a man by her adopted mother despite her huge disapproval. Reiko breaks off the engagement herself after telling him she [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} wants to live as a man]] but wants them to become [[HeterosexualLifePartners like brothers]]. It doesn't work out as she expected. [[spoiler:Tetsuo later [[OldFriendNewGender meets him]] again years later, with his ex-fiancée now being horribly disfigured. He doesn't seem to recognize his disfigurement but he also doesn't recognize Tetsuo is living as a man. Tetsuo plays along with his delusions even as he dies [[HeroicSacrifice to save him]].]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Hound|2014}}'': King Connor tasks Cú Cullan to escort Emer to marry him. Neither the king nor Emer has seen each other and the bride-to-be is unhappy that she is promised to a man older than her own father, and not by her will. Connor annuls the wedding when he catches Cú Cullan staying late with Emer, who has developed feelings for Cú Cullan.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Prince Gaston of Barania promises King Ersatz of Skizofrenia that he will get his nephew Philippe, heir to the Baranian throne, engaged to Ersatz's daughter. Philippe is completely uninterested and has already proposed to the woman he loves, which Gaston uses as his "proof" Philippe is losing his mind (as Philippe's fiancé is not royalty) in order for Gaston to imprison Philippe and take over Barania.

* ''Animation/GypsyTales'': In "Káló, the Gypsy Lad", the council of elders arranges for Káló and Gilze to marry. At first, Káló is unwilling but has a change of heart when Dimkárta reveals that Zurdána, the woman he falls in love with, "only toys with the lads of the dry land, making fools of them."

* Sara in ''Fanfic/TheSeerAndHisButterfly'' only came to the encanto to escape her Tía and Tío's attempts at marrying her off to a [[AgeGapRomance significantly older man]], her marriage to Bruno being a [[MarriageOfConvenience convenient]] way to ensure it doesn't happen.

* Happens as part of Nonon's backstory in ''Fanfic/NaturalSelection''. She was originally forced into a loveless marriage by her father. When her fiancé said he was planning to force her to give up her band conductor dreams, it proved to be the final straw for her after a long life of acting as her father's business proxy, leading to her running away from home and eventually joining Satsuki's crusade against REVOCS.

* Avoiding one is the main motivation for Alys Boleyn's actions in the early story of ''Fanfic/ForumOfThrones''. After her father betrothed her to Dante Karstark against her will, she ran away from home, leaving her father and her fiancé to try and follow her.

** ZigZagged with her daughters, Galaxia and Pulsaria. They were engaged to two Redbird brothers, Galaxia to the older Heron and Pulsaria to the younger Condor. However, each sister ended up falling for the other’s fiancé, and vice versa. So technically they both had a marriage with a Redbird as intended… just not the ones they were originally promised to.

** Also true for Merida parents who are still in love

** ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' had an Arranged Marriage between Princess Aurora and Prince Philip from different kingdoms. In contrast to the prevailing modern view of Arranged Marriages as loveless, Aurora falls in love with Philip before she discovers that he's her betrothed husband, making the Arranged Marriage one of true love. The main drama comes from Aurora telling Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather that she's fallen in love with Phillip and Phillip telling his father that he's fallen in love with Aurora. In both cases, however, neither of them know ''who'' it is that they've fallen in love with, leaving all adult parties to believe that they've fallen in love with a peasant.

** ''WesternAnimation/{{Mulan}}'' begins with her trip to a matchmaker in hopeful preparation for an advantageous marriage. Naturally, this ends in disaster, setting Mulan up nicely for TheCall which comes a few hours later (and for the love match that eventually results).
** In the direct-to-video sequel, ''WesternAnimation/MulanII'', she and her friends are given an EscortMission to conduct three princesses to their intendeds. At odds with Western ideals, the girls don't object to their arranged marriages, though they all end up in conventional romances and (presumably) marry for love.

** In ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'', the Sultan desperately tries to get Jasmine to marry. However, he does give her the option of choosing her husband herself and refuses to choose anyone she hates. [[spoiler: Later, Jafar enspells him into arranging her marriage to him, without her consent. This doesn't last.]] He even allows her to marry Aladdin, a commoner.
** Made the subject of a brief gag at the start of ''WesternAnimation/TheEmperorsNewGroove'': Emperor Kuzco is shown a lineup of potential bride-candidates, whom he casually insults and dismisses. After he has turned away, one of the gals [[FunnyBackgroundEvent can be seen]] being [[LetMeAtHim physically restrained]] from attacking him.
** ''WesternAnimation/{{Encanto}}'': Downplayed in that Isabela and Mariano are not presented in a traditional arranged marriage, but Alma strongly favoring Mariano as a potential husband, which puts a lot of pressure on Isabela to agree to the proposal to make the family proud regardless of her own feelings. The film ends with [[spoiler: Isabela breaking off the would-be engagement, and both she and Mirabel setting Mariano up with their cousin, Dolores, who does have feelings for him]].

* Pick a UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} movie. Any Bollywood movie. Arranged marriages have been common in India for centuries now, so the country's film industry reflects this. It's only recently that Indian parents are moving away from this, though most couples still need parental permission. And as in reality, some movies follow the "get married first, fall in love later" path arranged marriages are intended to follow, while others never quite manage the second part of the arrangement.

* In ''Film/{{Cinderella 2015}}'', the Duke tries to get Kit to marry the princess of a neighboring kingdom. The King wishes this, too, but eventually concedes to Kit's desire to marry someone he loves, regardless of class. [[spoiler:Lady Tremaine, in exchange for helping the Duke prevent Ella and Kit from meeting again and marrying, tells him she would like Drisella and Anastasia to have arranged marriages to wealthy men, and a higher position for herself.]]

* Many of the works of Creator/YasujiroOzu, considered to be one of the three undisputed masters of Japanese Cinema, deal with this, including his famed "Noriko" trilogy: ''Film/LateSpring'', ''Film/EarlySummer'', ''Film/TokyoStory''.

* ''Film/StealingHeaven'': Fulbert has this planned out for Héloïse with some rich young man in Paris.

* Mariko and Noburo for business purposes in ''Film/TheWolverine''.

* ''Series/AllMyChildren'''s An Li's mother wanted to take her back to their native China to force her into one of these. Her friend Brian offered to marry her himself so that she wouldn't have to leave the place she'd known for most of her life to marry a man she'd never met.

** Vir himself has an appointed fiancée who is beautiful and willing - and expresses pretty much every thought UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler ever had about Jews about the Narn, up to an including actively participating in genocide. And she considers Vir to be strange and troubled because he disagrees with her. The engagement is put on hold by their families when it's revealed Vir has been using an alias to smuggle Narns out of danger.

* In ''Series/DowntonAbbey'', when the series began, the eldest daughter Mary Crawley had been engaged for years to her second cousin Patrick Crawley despite it not being a love match (indeed, the middle sister Edith was more into him). This was because her father Robert, the Earl of Grantham, had no sons and Patrick would be his heir as the next male Crawley in line given the practice of HeirClubForMen among the British aristocracy, so the arranged marriage between Mary and Patrick would ensure the title and Downton Abbey stayed with Robert's descendants. This was also meant to appease a sense of fairness, given that the considerable dowry of Mary's mother Cora (an American heiress), which kept Downton Abbey afloat, had been bound up in the estate and if Patrick married someone else, it would essentially mean that Cora's money would go to a stranger instead of her own daughter. Unfortunately, the series opens with the news that Patrick drowned on the ''Titanic''.

* In one episode of ''Series/{{Father Brown}}'' Joan is the bookworm daughter of a millionaire, being pushed into an arranged marriage with a handsome but impoverished UpperClassTwit. At the start the engagement is treated very much like a business, with Robert casually giving Joan his grandmother's engagement ring saying that she can have it resized. As the story goes on we see Robert becoming impressed by Joan's intelligence, and later he is shown to be quite kindhearted. It doesn't hurt that the couple can commiserate about not meeting their parents' expectations. By the end, with the scandal that follows the affair at the center of the episode, Lady Malmort is resigned to the fact that the deal is dead but Joan clearly isn't going anywhere.

* The British miniseries ''Series/IClaudius'' has the hapless title character, a 48-year-old man, being forced to marry his teenage relative, Messalina. (This is at the behest of Claudius's EvilNephew, the insane Emperor UsefulNotes/{{Caligula}}, who thought it would make for a funny joke.) The marriage seemed happy at first, until Messalina started showing her true gold-digging, [[TheVamp nymphomaniac]] colors. She was eventually executed after a failed plot to depose Claudius and make one of her lovers ruler of Rome. As ''Series/IClaudius'' is actually based on the real-life Claudius, this is an example of TruthInTelevision.

* Season 3 of ''Series/{{Merlin|2008}}'' , when Uther attempts to coerce Arthur into marrying Princess Elena for political betterment.

* In one episode of ''Series/NightCourt'', a young, beautiful woman is brought in, who turns out to be a princess of a small island nation, who is desperately trying to get out of an arranged marriage. As she tells Harry, her fiancé is a hulking, ugly, violent brute who is known to eat children. (He thinks she's exaggerating, until she shows him a photograph of the guy; unfortunately, the viewers never see it, and we have to take her word for it.) Unfortunately, Harry isn't able to do anything as far as legalities are concerned, but when he finds out how superstitious their culture is, he's able to teach her a few tricks that make her convince them to annul the arranged marriage herself (and possibly even make advances for women's lib there in the process).

** Used in ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' by ''Series/JukenSentaiGekiranger'' a couple of years earlier. Ran/[=GekiYellow=] is taken to an ''omiai'' of the modern variety. Not wanting to break up the team (or lose the only female member in Ken's case) the guys attempt several [[ZanyScheme plans]] that backfire rather spectacularly. The situation is eventually resolved when Ran convinces her mother that her responsibility as [=GekiYellow=] is more important.

** Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries: Vulcans have a quite complicated marriage arrangement process. This often involves telepathically bonding the intended spouses in childhood, and breaking one's marriage commitment carries dire consequences (especially when one or both of them are in their ''pon farr'' mating cycle).
** In "The Paradise Syndrome," Miramanee, the daughter of the tribal chief, is betrothed to the medicine man of the tribe. When Kirk saves the life of a boy who nearly drowns, he is given the position, angering the previous holder Salish.

* Divya of ''Series/RoyalPains'' is drifting towards accepting her arranged marriage to a childhood friend. At the beginning, she tried to call it off, but when the engagement ceremony came around, she couldn't bring herself to do it. However, it's not like she ''couldn't'' call it off or she hates the guy (he's kind of clueless and cheerful, actually); she's simply not certain she should be ''married'' to him. Meanwhile, [[CasanovaWannabe Evan]] keeps hoping....
* Season 9 of ''Series/DegrassiTheNextGeneration'' introduced an Arranged Marriage plot for Sav Bhandari. His traditional Indian parents arrange a girl to come meet him from India, who competes with his white-Canadian girlfriend Anya. [[spoiler: Anya has sex with Sav in the limo to try and keep him, resulting in a teen-pregnancy-scare plot.]]

* ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'':
** Raj, upset with being the only member of the group still single and feeling increasingly alone (especially with his [[HeterosexualLifePartners heterosexual life partner]] getting married), decided to have his parents select an arranged marriage candidate for him [[spoiler:(in the first of two instances)]]. The date goes well, the girl is pretty, charming, has chemistry with him...and is also a lesbian who wanted to use him as her [[TheBeard beard]] (although in a twist she thought he was gay as well and it would be a mutual thing). The poor guy was feeling so lonely he actually considered going through with it, before his friends intervened and bought him a puppy.
*** [[spoiler:In Season 12, Raj again asks his dad to give him an arranged fiancée. But this time, he only agrees to an arranged marriage after he had gotten rid of his selective mutism and thus got to play the field but failed to find true love. And this is still in reaction to his male friends having wives or girlfriends, notably Sheldon getting married and Stuart dating his coworker.]]
** At one point, Raj tells his parents that he wants to marry for love, and his father tells him that only idiots do that--you'll end up unhappy either way; at least if it's arranged you'll end up in a beneficial arrangement. [[ImStandingRightHere His wife points out that they married for love]]. Raj's father [[VerbalBackspace quickly claims that they're the exception]]. [[spoiler:Also they divorced later on.]]
* In ''Series/{{Leonardo}}'', Lisa's backstory is escaping an arranged marriage. Lorenzo de'Medici is expected to marry the Duke of Pisa's daughter, Angelica. Since he's a HeManWomanHater and she's an IceQueen who only [[DefrostingIceQueen defrosts]] with LovableRogue Mac, he tries to tell his father that it's not going to happen.
-->'''Piero''': That's fine. I'll just explain to the Duke of Pisa that the wedding is cancelled. That the treaty between Pisa and Florence is to be abandoned because my son and his daughter ''don't love each other''.\\
'''Lorenzo''': Are you being sarcastic?
* Prince James and Princess Abigail in ''Series/OnceUponATime''. James (when he was a humble FarmBoy) had previously vowed that he would marry for love, not money (and his mother approved, even when it seemed like the only way to save the farm).
* Parodied in Series/GoodnessGraciousMe: parents compromise with their westernised Punjabi son by setting him up with an arranged ''shag''.
--> We put an advert in the paper .. We've had a lot of responses, but we think this girl is the easiest.
* The pilot of ''Series/NUMB3RS'' reveals that Amita's parents tried to set her up in one of these. Her "fiancé" is back in India, while Amita moved to the US when she was little. When asked if she plans to marry him, she replies that she won't, as she doesn't like the guy at all. In a later season, Amita and Charlie start dating. However, Amita admits to Charlie that the fact that he's not Indian will be a problem for her parents. At a dinner with her parents, an old friend of Amita's shows up at the invitation from her parents in an obvious attempt to set them up. Only one problem - the guy is gay. Also, they reveal that, after meeting Charlie face-to-face, they have warmed up to him.
* On ''{{Series/Salem}}'', Anne's parents plan to marry her off to Cotton Mather.
* The RealityTV series ''Series/MarriedAtFirstSight'' plays this straight, pairing couples who have never met before the bride walks down the aisle. The pairs are matched by experts, who are available throughout the experiment, and at the end of each season couples are given the option to divorce. Seeing as this is Reality TV, in the first season all three pairs have some good chemistry but also some issues (a pair who have great sexual chemistry but poor emotional intelligence; an UglyGuyHotWife match who are BirdsOfAFeather under the hood; a couple with a wife from a huge loving family and a husband who has walls up and an ailing mother). At the end of five weeks, the decisions were as follows: [[spoiler:get a divorce]], [[spoiler:stay together]] and [[spoiler:stay together]].
* In ''Series/NightAndDay'', Natalie Harper and Rachel Culgrin plot and scheme to bring about a marriage between Jane and Sam, their daughter and nephew respectively.
* ''Series/{{Arrow}}'': Ra's al Ghul forces his daughter Nyssa and Oliver Queen into one, much to the Nyssa's disdain (Oliver also flinched when it was announced, implying his discomfort). At the end of the next episode, Nyssa attempts to stab Oliver during the wedding. Although later events make it clear that they got the marriage annulled (if it was even valid in the first place), Nyssa occasionally snarks about it, such as greeting Oliver's sister as her sister-in-law.
* ''Series/{{Sense 8}}'': Subverted. Kala's marriage to a young, wealthy man who she is not in love with is not an arranged marriage. He genuinely loves her, and everyone thinks she loves him back. But it still carries most of the ArrangedMarriage tropes, as she's only going through with it because she knows he's a perfect match and doesn't want to disappoint her family.
* In ''Series/{{Shadowhunters}}'', [[spoiler:Shadowhunter families have been known to do this and the Lightwoods are planning one for Alec as a means of restoring the family power and honor. He gets to the altar before he decides he can't go through with it, instead making it publicly known that he's gay and in love with warlock Magnus Bane]].
* ''Series/Supergirl2015'': Rhea tries to force Mon-El and Lena into one of these to create an heir and legitimize her invasion of Earth. They both refuse initially, but go along with it once Rhea starts threatening hospitals. Fortunately, the ceremony gets interrupted and they team up to escape.
* ''Series/SunsetBeach'''s Rae's parents also wanted to do this. Though she tried to stand her ground, especially since she'd genuinely fallen in love with someone else, she caved in when they threatened to disown her, breaking her boyfriend's heart and [[AbortedArc nixing]] one of the show's first storylines.
* ''Series/NeverHaveIEver'': Kamala's family is trying to set her up with a husband. At first she's secretly very reluctant, as she has a boyfriend (who's not Indian, and they're also having sex, neither of which they'd like). However, after she meets her would-be groom, she's smitten by his good lucks and charm, dumping her boyfriend. After her past relationship is revealed, he actually expresses approval since it makes her more interesting. They both agree to not rush into marriage however.
* In ''Series/NewGirl'', Cece (who is Indian) decides to let her parents arrange a marriage for her after she finds out from a gynecologist she might not have long to conceive a child. She and Schmidt still have feelings for each other, and Schmidt and Winston work together to sabotage the wedding through pranks. When they go too big with the pranks and release a badger into the air vents, it stops the wedding right before the couple is declared man and wife. Luckily for Cece and Schmidt, it turns out her arranged fiancé Shivrang is also in love with someone else, takes this opportunity to run off with her, and the arrangement is called off.
* ''Series/ThePractice'': "Victim's Rights" has a Roma girl from Romania seek political asylum in the US to avoid arranged marriage with a boy chosen by her parents (she's twelve at the time). [[spoiler:She loses.]]
* The reality show ''Indian Matchmaking'' follows profesional matchmaker Seema Taparia in the process of arranging marriages for her clients. Several episodes open or close with interviews of long-term, HappilyMarried couples whose marriages were arranged, including Taparia herself. The show strongly averts any sort of ''forced'' marriage however, as [[spoiler:none of the couples matched by Seema actually end up getting married, despite some like Akshay facing strong social or family pressure to marry.]] Most clients turn down the matches Seema makes for them. They give her a list of traits they want in a spouse, but invariably the most important one is ''someone I'm attracted to'' -- a reasonable request, but not something Seema can predict or screen for. It's clearly frustrating and exhausting for her to endlessly play "bring me another rock" with her clients.

* ''Series/TheLawAccordingToLidiaPoet'': Lidia resisted one when she was younger, wanting only to marry a man who she'd chosen, though her mother rebuked her for her defiance. It's revealed her father had done this not for her benefit but a need for money as he was in debt. Enrico, her older brother, didn't know and is very upset to learn what he'd done. Her niece Marianna is having her marriage arranged too, but secretly wants another young man, and Lidia encourages her to pursue him.

* In the English folk ballad "The Tree They Grow So High", the young woman protagonist blames her father for marrying her to a mere boy half her age. She comes to love the boy afterward and bears his child, just before fate snatches her dear young husband from her.
* "Alice Childress" by Music/BenFolds Five. The couple has broken up because they have different ideas about how life works. Includes the line "An arranged marriage is not so good."

* OlderThanFeudalism: [[Myth/ClassicalMythology Zeus]] arranged the marriage between Aphrodite, the Goddess of love and beauty to the deformed Hephaestus-apparently to stop the other gods from squabbling about her. Although that did not stop Aphrodite from dallying around in any way...
** For that matter, Aphrodite arranged for Helen of Troy to fall in love with Paris, as reward for Paris giving a golden apple to her instead of to Hera or Pallas Athena. Of course, since Helen already ''was'' married, this led directly to the Trojan War (at which point Paris learned why it's generally a bad idea to slight Hera). This indicates how little Aphrodite cared about the idea of marriage in the first place.
** Aphrodite and Ares' (illegitimate) daughter Harmonia [[note]](who in other versions is the daughter of Zeus and Electra, one of the Pleiades)[[/note]] was given away in an arranged marriage to the mortal nobleman Cadmus, a distant descendant of Poseidon and founder of the Kingdom of Thebes. Apparently they were happy, [[RoyallyScrewedUp but what happened to their kids...]]!
* According to Christian martyrology, in order to escape an arranged marriage to a pagan king, a RebelliousPrincess named Wilgefortis pleaded to God to make her repulsive in appearance so she could remain unmarried and keep her vow of virginity. Soon she grew a beard, utterly repulsing the suitor who called the arrangement off, and for this her evil father had her crucified. With time, Wilgefortis was canonized and became the patron saint for women trapped in abusive marriages.

* ''Literature/AnnalsOfTheWesternShore'' has this common to its societies. The Uplands do it to manage their inherited magic powers in ''Gifts''. In ''Powers'', it's done for the standard political and financial reasons.

** In ''Theatre/PrincessIda'', Hiliarion was two years old and Ida one when they were betrothed. StrawFeminist Ida, now 21, wants no part of this arrangement; but if her father Gama fails to deliver his daughter as agreed, it will mean war.

** In ''Theatre/TheGrandDuke'', Grand Duke Rudolph was betrothed in infancy to the Princess of Monte Carlo, but the arrangement has a sunset provision he hopes to exploit.

** In ''Theatre/AllsWellThatEndsWell'', the king arranges a marriage between his ward Bertram and Helena. That ends better, once Bertram has been persuaded to accept it.
** ''Theatre/AMidsummerNightsDream'' features Hermia, who is betrothed to Demetrius despite being in love with another man, Lysander; matters are further complicated by the fact that Hermia's friend Helena is in love with Demetrius. He used to love and court her but dropped her for a better marriage to Hermia. The matter is finally resolved when Oberon and Puck enchant Demetrius to go back to Helena; when he cancels the previous arrangement, Hermia's father allows her to marry Lysander instead.

* ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof'', taking place in an early 20th-century Slavic Jewish community where Old Traditions (Arranged Marriage) were rapidly clashing with New Ideas (marrying for love), discusses this as a tradition; the original books suggested that it was a good idea, while the musical adaptation was more neutral on the subject. [[spoiler:Each of Tevye's teenage daughters ultimately ended up with the man she wanted, but each suffered the consequences: Tzeitel lives in abject poverty with Motel, rather than the relative comfort she would have had with Lazar Wolf; Hodel winds up in Siberia and Chava is disowned.]] The practice was to keep marriages within the Jewish community, but the musical points out that this is why the system fails.
** Tevye and Golde's duet "Do You Love Me?" addresses the belief that an arranged marriage can ripen into love, while "Matchmaker", sung by the daughters, addresses both the pros and cons of arranged marriages.
* ''Theatre/CyranoDeBergerac'':
** It's implied Count De Guiche married [[MagnificentBastard Cardenal]] [[ManBehindTheMan Richelieu’s]] niece only to improve his [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections connections]] at the [[DecadentCourt Court]].
** De Guiche tries to set up one for Roxane, as she says in Act II Scene VI:
--->'''Roxane:''' ''[who has unmasked]'' That dandy count,\\
Whom you checkmated in brave sword-play\\
Last night... he is the man whom a great lord,\\
Desirous of my favor...\\
'''Cyrano:''' Ha, De Guiche?\\
'''Roxane:''' ''[casting down her eyes]'' Sought to impose on me... for husband...
* While the CommediaDellArte had no fixed plot (it was rather a set of stock characters), generally whatever the day's plot was involved this. The parents were generally Pantalone, a rich old merchant, and Il Dottore, an old doctor; usually Il Dottore's daughter was engaged to Pantalone but in love with his son, but they occasionally swapped parents. The plots were made up mostly of these four and a variety of servants and acquaintances that could work for any of them trying to unite the lovers and either get rich or laid.
* In ''Theatre/TheLadysNotForBurning'', Alizon's parents have arranged for her to marry Humphrey, the mayor's nephew. When she arrives at the beginning of the play to prepare for the wedding, she mentions that she's only met Humphrey once. She finds a kindred spirit in Richard, the mayor's clerk, and she and Richard elope at the end of the play.
* ''Theatre/NaughtyMarietta'': The motivation for the heroine being in TheBigEasy.
* In ''Theatre/KnickerbockerHoliday'', Mynheer Tienhoven arranges for his daughter Tina to marry Governor Stuyvesant, though she remains in love with TheHero, Brom.
* ''Theatre/OnAClearDayYouCanSeeForever'' has Melinda Welles' family making elaborate preparations for her to marry Sir Hubert Insdale. She quashes the proposal simply by saying "no" to him.
* Parodied in ''Theatre/TheRivals''. Sir Anthony Absolute announces to his son Jack that he's arranged for him to be married to a wealthy heiress. Jack refuses to go along with the arrangement since he already loves Lydia. Then he finds out that Lydia is the wealthy heiress in question, and makes a show of allowing himself to be reluctantly persuaded.
* The ''Theatre/MrsHawking'' play series: In part one, ''[[https://vimeo.com/160544306 Mrs. Hawking]]'', the titular protagonist declares that her father "sold her like a sheep" to her husband the Colonel. In part four: ''Gilded Cages'', it's revealed that [[spoiler: her father, Governor Stanton, agreed to spare a starving village in Singapore from some oppressive policies if she consented to the wedding.]]

* Nagamasa and Oichi in all ''VideoGame/SamuraiWarriors'' which was forged to create an alliance between Nagamasa and Oichi, but does not end well.
* ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'':
** Go through Mitsuru's Social Link for enough time in ''VideoGame/Persona3'' and you'll discover that, to stabilize the Kirijo Group after [[spoiler:her father's death]], the board of directors has arranged for her to marry a much older man. She seems to have accepted it, but (judging by the proper answers to the dialogue prompts) the main character isn't fooled.
** In ''VideoGame/Persona5'', Haru, a party member and, like Mitsuru, [[TarotMotifs representative of the Empress arcana]], is forced into another such marriage and is somewhat more open about her dislike of it.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'', the Princess Ashelia B'nargin Dalmasca has an arranged marriage to Lord Rasler of Nabradia intended to promote an alliance. He dies soon after (not a spoiler since it happens in the opening tutorial). Also note that unlike most examples of this trope, they [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage were actually quite happy with each other]] after a little bit of friction.
-->'''Rasler:''' A marriage of convenience. A symbol of the alliance between Nabradia and Dalmasca. This is how they see our match.\\
'''Ashe:''' They do, do they?\\
'''Rasler:''' These roles we play. I must admit I find it... wearying.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'', Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum, heir to the Lucian throne, is betrothed to Lady Lunafreya Nox Fleuret of Tenebrae. While there is insufficient information to conclude that they [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage actually want to marry each other]], there is likely no friction due to them being ChildhoodFriends. Despite having been estranged due to Niflheim's invasion of Tenebrae and Lunafreya being held captive, both are said to cherish their childhood memories of each other.

* In ''VideoGame/StarOceanTheSecondStory'', the prince of Krosse and the princess of Lacuer have an arranged marriage. If you trigger a certain series of Private Actions in Krosse, however, you can stop the wedding so that one of them can be with their true love. However, it's implied that the ''other'' royal ''did'' actually have feelings for their arranged partner.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', The Chaos Heart can only be awakened to its full, [[ApocalypseHow reality-sundering]] power by the marriage of two individuals never meant to be together. Count Bleck invades Mario's reality to abduct Peach and Bowser for his attempt to engender a RealityBreakingParadox, and Nastasia is forced to [[MindControl take control of Peach]] to get the doom train out of the station (Peach, naturally, would never agree to wed Bowser).
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyLegendII'', the New God Venus arranges the marriage between Nills (Julius in Japan) and Flora (Olivia), despite the latter's relationship with Leon (Anthony) whom Venus has banished from her city due to his damaged leg. It's up to the protagonists to stop the marriage from taking place.
* In ''[[VideoGame/TheIdolmaster2 The iDOLM@STER 2]]'' the Takane route involves one.
* Both ''VideoGame/CrusaderKings'' games feature arranged marriages, as would be appropriate for a game based in the Middle Ages. The second one particularly focuses on the "contract between two families" aspect; since alliances are between relatives, the only way to ally with people outside [[TheClan your own dynasty]] is through intermarriage -- yourself or one of your close relatives to them or one of their relatives.
* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVIII'', Princess Medea and Prince Charmles have an arranged marriage. When the heroes (with Medea [[ForcedTransformation transformed into a horse]] pulling their cart) go on a mission with Charmles, she sees firsthand that his name [[PrinceCharmless may as well have an extra "S" at the end]]. [[spoiler: In the end, with her own father's blessing (and even ''Charmles's'' father going along with it, though how strongly depends on which ending you earned), Medea runs off with the hero instead. If the true ending is obtained, she is able to marry the hero with no obstacles, because [[LoopholeAbuse the agreement was for her to marry a prince of Argonia, not Charmles specifically]]. Turns out the hero's father was the king of Argonia's older brother.]]

* For what little the lore has, ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' gives us how the Queen of Freljord, Ashe, arranged it herself that she's married with Tryndamere the Barbarian King in order to represent Freljord as a nation and stabilize politics. Their marriage seems steady despite how any romantic feelings between the two are unknown (although {{Fanon}} would depict them as HappilyMarried).
** And then the Freljord event happened and proved the marriage had the ''exact opposite effect''. The union was all Ashe's rival Sejuani needed to convince every other clan to rebel in a concerted show of contempt for trying to use a coward's game of politics to take power over a land where the strong survive. And this happened just in time for the evil Ice Queen sealed in the coldest, least-habitable corner of the land to rear her head just when any chance of uniting against a common foe was completely off the table. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Great move, Ashe]].
* In ''[[VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic Might and Magic: Heroes VI]]'', Emperor Liam Falcon attempts to end the feud between the Wolf and Griffin Duchies by organising a wedding between Irina, daughter of Griffin Duke Slava, and Wolf Duke Gerhart.
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'': Optional follower Borgakh the Steel Heart is the daughter of the chieftain of the orc stronghold Mor Khazgur, and joins up with the Dragonborn to escape an eventual arranged marriage to another stronghold. This is accomplished either with a Speechcraft check, in which case she runs away with you, or by paying off her bride-price so the stronghold doesn't lose out on what they'd get for her.
* ''VideoGame/TheSpiritEngine2'' has Ferwin, caught in the traditional business-pact-marriage. It's complicated further by the fact that there's ''another'' woman who he does love and wants to marry her instead. This causes him to become a RunawayFiance.
* The fourth licensed ''Series/CSICrimeSceneInvestigation'' game has this as part of the overall mystery of the murder of an Indian doctor in his bed while his blind wife was sitting downstairs. [[spoiler: In fact, preventing it was the motive.]] The doctor was forcing his daughter into marrying a scumbag from the family's homeland - specifically the son of the doctor's old friend. The daughter kept refusing, even (rightfully) getting her fiancé charged for [[spoiler: stealing her father's credit card and supplies from their surgery]]. Her father was insistent on the marriage and even had the charges dropped (again, the fiancé [[spoiler: ''stole from him'']]). She also tried to get her father's medical license revoked for malpractice (also justified as he [[spoiler:performed a surgery he wasn't trained for on his own wife and blinded her [[HonorRelatedAbuse more out of a sense of pride than anything]]),]] but the charges never stuck because [[spoiler:the mother was willing to take the abuse to protect her daughter and her family's honor]]. Near the end, he made an ultimatum to the daughter: [[spoiler: go through with the marriage or be cut off from her mother. [[MamaBear Then it turns out that the mother isn't completely blind]]...]]
* Channing and Gloria of ''VideoGame/{{Lunarosse}}'' are caught in one since the beginning of the game due to business purposes. They don't like each other at all to start with, but the two can develop a genuine relationship depending on how the game plays out.
* ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon'':
** In ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife'', Celia is engaged to a man from outside of town. She is ambivalent and later outright throws it off, in part due to her feelings for you. She'll marry Marlin if you don't marry her. If you get all of Celia's heart events but marry ''another'' woman, Celia will appear at your house and [[WhatTheHellHero call you about]] about how you broke her heart and how she threw off her arranged marriage because of you only for you to betray her.
** In the Japanese version of ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonDS'', Muffy's parents try to arrange a marriage for their OldMaid of a daughter. Muffy refuses. The English version changes it into a blind date.
** In ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon2'', the mayor wants his daughter Maria to marry an unspecified man. Maria, however, doesn't want to. This leads to her staying at Sara's until her father convinces her to come home.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Miitopia}}'', the Princess of Greenhorne is in love with her childhood friend, the son of a besmirched noble, but she is meant to be married to the Prince of Nekdsor, who is a cowardly, disdainful and insufferable douchebag. [[spoiler:Though, when her face is stolen by the Dark Lord, the Prince runs away sobbing with fear while her friend bravely goes to save her without any hesitation, despite being hopelessly outmatched. The Princess's father saw it all, and realized that he was far better than the Prince of Neksdor, cancelling the engagement.]]
* ''VideoGame/Haven2020'': One of the reasons that Kay and Yu left the Apiary is because Kay was set up with a "Mate". He didn't even glance at her profile before they ran away, but Yu convinces him to at least take a look.

* ''VideoGame/OracleOfAskigaga'': The princess of Hachisuka is set by her father to marry the prince of Askigaga to bring peace, but [[RebelliousPrincess she doesn't like it]], wanting to personally mow down the opposing army instead.
* Two seasons into a new round of ''VideoGame/KingOfTheCastle'', the King is told (by the Queen Mother if they are at the beginning of a dynasty, by the Chancellor if they usurped the throne) that they must get married to secure their position on the throne. They are given a choice between the scions of noble families from each of the three regions, with political alliances emphasised over personal feelings, although the King can [[TakeAThirdOption take a fourth option]] by refusing to marry any of them in favour of either not getting married at all or getting married for love to a commoner or one of several [=NPCs=] (at risk of raising all three regions' Defiance).

* Ai and Forbesii in ''VisualNovel/TickTack'' are arranged to be married. Ai likes the idea, but Forbesii doesn't really care. He doesn't hate her, but he's fallen for his maid in the last year instead.

* Played very straight in ''VisualNovel/LongLiveTheQueen'', with the twist that you, the Crown Princess, get to arrange your ''own'' marriage. Nearly all of these marriages are purely political in nature, although you and your spouse may or may not end up developing mutual respect at the very least, depending on who you choose. However, if you do manage to make it to the end of the game without getting engaged, you have the option to instead wait for love, and this causes you to end up with an unnamed Earl who's good at baking. It's also possible to marry a guy and end up with a lovely lady on the side, or to outright refuse marriage and instead cycle through a bunch of lovers, discarding them whenever you get bored.
** The player also has an opportunity to arrange someone else's marriage in order to end a war. This can either go as well as can be hoped for or end up ''very badly'', depending on whether or not you pass the appropriate skill check.
* In ''VisualNovel/AkatsukiNoGoei'' this was mostly a thing with the previous generation. Genzou was engaged to a woman named Yuri [[spoiler:until Masaki eloped with her and took her to the prohibited district]] and Akiko married some random guy despite having a thing for [[spoiler:Kaito's dad as well.]] He died, though, so she likes flirting with her daughter's boyfriend.
* ''VideoGame/{{Guenevere}}'': The game opens on the day of Guenevere's arranged marriage to King Arthur - player choice can determine whether it is to be a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage or a nightmare.
** Morgana also had an arranged marriage to King Lot of Orkney prior to the beginning of the plot.
* ''VisualNovel/SevenKingdomsThePrincessProblem'' takes place during a political summit which is held every seven years to strengthen diplomatic ties between the eponymous Seven Kingdoms. One of the main goals of the summit (and the game) is to form a politically advantageous marriage arrangement that will ''not'' make the participants miserable.
* Hatsuhime from ''VisualNovel/YoJinBo'' was intended to be married to ''a ten-year-old'' by her retainer Yahei, because said ten-year-old was the only "suitable" match for a princess to be found in the entire clan.

** In the episode ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XedhgDieOko My sister plundered my fiancé! Now my arranged marriage partner is also plundered]]'' (sic), Ram and Nonoka's parents try to arrange a marriage between the former and the businessman Ikki-san. This is subverted when they find him with Nonoka, who demands to marry him instead of Ram. Their parents cave in and let her have him, to which Ram thanks her.

* In ''Webcomic/EonsAgo'', [[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Starscream]] was involved in one long ago on Cybertron. It was called off when his fiancé died.

* In ''Webcomic/TsunamiChannel'', YamatoNadeshiko Haruna arrives and stays because she has promised with the protagonist, or so she claims. [[spoiler:It's eventually discovered that she ''was'' in a tightly arranged promise before, made when she was still a child. However, she and her fiancé eventually fell in genuine love with each other, but the boy got a mortal disease and dissolved the promise a couple of days before his death. Obviously, she was devastated, until the professor Hasegawa showed her a photo of the protagonist who, coincidentally, was too similar to her dead fiancé. This [[TheReveal reveal]] is done by her ''new'' arranged fiancé who was a friend of the dead one.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'': Just in case you forgot that Mira Nova was a princess (and considering how ActionGirl she is, it's pretty easy), one episode has Mira finding out about an arranged marriage that has been set up for her. She tries to issue an EngagementChallenge--her foppish fiancé has to complete Star Command Basic Training--but to her horror, he passes with flying colors. Fortunately for her, he decides to become a Space Ranger rather than settle down.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily,'' Penny had a budding romance with a Chinese-American boy, only to discover that his parents had arranged for him to marry some girl whom he'd never met. The boy thinks it's no big deal since they wouldn't get married for years anyway, but Penny refuses to be "the other woman." The issue is resolved when the boy meets his fiancée; the two immediately hate each other so much that the whole thing gets called off.

* ''Roleplay/TheCaligulaEffectPlacebo'' has Natsuki and Eli, both members of upper-class families, whose marriage was arranged... very close to birth. As Eli put it, "They realized a Yuasa and a Minobe were pregnant around the same time and ran to sign the papers". However, both of them have since found people to actually love, even if they can't annul the marriage in Mobius.
* ''Fanfic/{{Camellias}}'' (based on a series of fanart) is a ''RWBY'' AlternateUniverseFic where Blake and Weiss are in an arranged marriage. Upon meeting at age ten, Weiss has a fit because Blake is a faunus girl, but things go along much smoother when they meet again several years later.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragon'' fanfic ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6670885/1/Crash_Courses_in_Marriage Crash Courses in Marriage]],'' Hiccup and Astrid are roped into an arranged marriage. To their parents' credit, they thought the kids wouldn't have any problem with this considering their big public smooch at the end of the first story. As it is, they are not enthusiastic at all at being forced but admit they are each other's best choice in better circumstances and decide to cooperate.
* In the ''Anime/CodeGeass'' Fanfic ''Fanfic/DauntlessAlloraGale'', [[spoiler: Lelouch is forced into one with a noble girl named Abigail after being discovered and brought back into the Royal Family.]] [[RichBitch Surprisingly]], she ends up turning into quite the EnsembleDarkHorse.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' fic ''Fanfic/DarknessBurning'', Anna ends up in an arranged marriage. Elsa is too scared to marry, so their parents have Anna get married instead. Both sisters are resistant at first but Anna goes along for Elsa's sake (and because her parents said that she only had a choice of a few suitors or else they'd stop trying to arrange a marriage). Anna ends up marrying Hans' brother Joachim with some nudging from her parents. They get along well and fall in love eventually, however they initially didn't get along and Anna admits to sometimes doubting whether they're a good match.
* Nav gets forced into one with Gilda in ''Fanfic/DiariesOfAMadman'', due to him causing a political scandal. Eventually, he finds a way out of it.
* ''Fanfic/ADragonsRoar'':
** Jaime is betrothed to Elia Martell, both to forge an alliance between the Westerlands and Dorne, and to spite Aerys for refusing to wed Rhaegar to Cersei (as he wanted Rhaegar to marry Elia instead). The fact that the pair are already interested in each other helps.
** Rhaegar tries to arrange a marriage between Daeron and Ashara Dayne, but the Lannisters are ultimately more successful in managing to tie him to Cersei, while Ashara gets married to Ned Stark.
** Brandon is arranged to marry Catelyn Tully, but he breaks the betrothal to elope with Barbrey Ryswell, causing trouble with House Tully, while Rickard Stark considers betrothing Lyanna to Edmure Tully. This ultimately doesn't happen, however, as Lyanna instead ends up betrothed to Robert.
** To secure the Greyjoys' loyalty to Daeron's faction, an agreement is made to wed Asha to Jaime and Elia's firstborn son.
** Daeron arranges for Viserys' betrothal to Arianne Martell.
** After the CivilWar, Cersei arranges for Tyrion to marry Ellyn Rowan when they're both of age in order to secure Tyrion's control of Goldengrove, which is given to him as a means of punishing the Rowans for siding with Rhaegar.
** Also after the war, Catelyn is betrothed to Stannis.
* In ''Fanfic/EmpathTheLuckiestSmurf'', Psyches are bonded to members of the same sex with the Psyche Master choosing the partners. Empath, as it turns out, has been bonded to Polaris Psyche.
* In the ''Manga/DeathNote'' [[AlternateUniverseFic AU]] DarkFic ''Fanfic/TheFacelessDisguiseOfCarnivorism'', Light's parents arranged it so that he would [[MealTicket marry Misa for her fortune]].
* Avoiding one is the main motivation for Alys Boleyn's actions in the early story of ''Fanfic/ForumOfThrones''. After her father betrothed her to Dante Karstark against her will, she ran away from home, leaving her father and her fiancé to try and follow her.
** Alisa Karstark's backstory holds a remarkable similarity, only that she ran away from home to avoid being married to a member of House Forrester.
** The marriage between Darren and Mileena Reyne is one of these. At least from her side, it is also a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage.

* ''Fanfic/AGrowingAffection'': Even though it is frowned upon and cannot be enforced in the Leaf Village, Hinata's grandfather seems to enjoy doing this. Hyouta arranges a groom for Hinata and [[spoiler: hand-picked Hiashi's second wife.]]
** Nyoko tries (and fails) to arrange her own marriage to Naruto, knowing her father will accept it and afraid she will get forced into a bad arrangement otherwise.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fanfiction:
** This is very popular and frequently used as a contrived device for hooking up two characters who wouldn't otherwise give each other the time of day. Usually, it takes the form of a Ministry decree that all purebloods must marry a muggle-born, causing either a) Lucius Malfoy to purchase Hermione Granger's contract for his son, or b) Severus Snape to do the same to "save" her from the previous.
** This is also used as the backstory for pureblood/pureblood marriages like Lucius and Narcissa's. One example of this is ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5316729/1/Honour_Amongst_Snakes Honour Amongst Snakes]]'', which turns into a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage.
** One variant twins this trope with the (equally [[FandomSpecificPlot popular]]) "Hermione is adopted and really a pureblood" fanfic trope.
** If a time limit is given for Hermione to find a pureblood husband, there is often a HandWave about why she can't just [[OfficialCouple marry Ron]], but very rarely will the possibility of her [[CitizenshipMarriage marrying Neville, Ernie, or some other pureblood]] even be considered.
** A non FandomSpecificPlot example, [[OriginalCharacter Marchosias Malfoy]] attempts to arrange a marriage between [[PeggySue Harry Potter]] and his sister Madeleine to protect Harry from the attentions of [[DepravedHomosexual Arcturus]] [[{{Yandere}} Black]] in ''Fanfic/IfThemsTheRules''.
* ''Fanfic/IrreversibleDamage'': Mr. and Mrs. Jefferson's marriage was essentially this. Mrs. Jefferson had originally been dating Greg's father when they were in school, but their parents forced her to break up with him and marry her current husband, despite his being ten years older than her, because Greg's father wasn't well-off enough for their liking.
-->'''Frank:''' I know I'm not as rich as Robert, but I love Linda and I know he doesn't!\\
'''Linda's father:''' Come back when you're rich and we'll discuss this again!
* Fanfic/KhaosOmega pulls a HeadsIWinTailsYouLose variant in "Fairy's Eclipse": Before meeting a reporter friend Anise visits Jude to arrange a marriage between her and Lucy. She specifically tells Jude she knows the identity of the woman who impregnated Lucy ([[spoiler:it's Anise herself, forced by Inextinguibili Raptus Mark III to do so]]), and will only reveal it if Jude agrees, otherwise any potential partners Jude comes up with will only see Lucy as "damaged goods" because of her earlier rape. Jude agrees [[spoiler:after correctly identifying her as the owner of the multiversal superstore 'Sky Relic Central', allowing him to keep his fortune should his current choice of industry focus suffer a total economic collapse.]]
** Another Lucy-and-Anise example happens during the second installment of the "Rogue Genesis" subset. This time around it's Lucy's punishment for allegedly setting three Celestial Spirits to butcher Bora and his crew. In actuality, though, the Spirits in question (Aquarius and Taurus, which Lucy did have at the time, and Aquarius' boyfriend Scorpio, then contracted with someone else) are actually from another multiverse (specifically that of the subset's first installment, where Erza was convicted for her part in building the Tower of Heaven - she had avoided a SadisticChoice that made up plans A and B for Sho and Simon to let Rogue Genesis get her, and an accidental murder that would've been plan C was outright negated in a ShoutOut to what allowed Anise to punish Fontina Evans and Michaela Martin at the end of her Los Santos vacation). On top of that, they had arrived on their own, not to mention being far more powerful - [[MisplacedRetribution the power boosts a corrupt Rogue Genesis court blamed on Virgo, still under contract with Everlue at the time, for which Leo's punishment via the Celestial Spirit King was transferred to her and her contract with Everlue transferred to Anise]]. To put the final nail in Lucy's proverbial coffin, Jude says four words (which is a ShoutOut to Fanfic/SuperRWBYSisters) that not only enables the Meme Storm tangent named "Fairy Gear" to realize its full multiversal potential, but also evolve Anise's Inextinguibili Raptus Mark III curse into Mark IV. Oh, and part of the situation for Lucy is that she has to wear long, formal dresses at all times (as part of why Virgo got dragged into the mess).
*** To further the above ShoutOut, when Rogue Genesis caught up to Weiss she too ended up on the receiving end of an arranged marriage to Anise as her punishment. Jacques made sure that Anise couldn't bring Weiss with her when she visits her teammate Natsume's own lesbian harem by invoking a limiter that made Weiss' businesswoman outfit require her Vale bolero in place of the outfit's usual blazer (which also makes Weiss unable to wear the bolero's associated wedge boots, noted to be a heel Anise especially loves with a heel type other than her normally-preferred stilettos, because a businesswoman's normal heels are pumps).
* Heavily implied by GratuitousJapanese and [[OneDialogueTwoConversations a conversation with a character's father]] in ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero''. [[spoiler:Between Kyon and Tsuruya.]] Confirmed later, and they're not too happy -- though this is less because they dislike each other, but because they both realize what will happen when [[spoiler:[[RealityWarper Haruhi]]]] finds out. Turns out, [[spoiler: Haruhi]] isn't near as angry as they thought she would be and [[spoiler: Kyon and Tsuruya]] come to terms with their engagement.
* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
** Some fanfics use the concept in various ways. Those who like the Link/Zelda pairing may use it to get them together, such as having him be the long-lost prince of another country or having him save her from an arranged marriage she doesn't want. Those who prefer other pairings may use it as a way of ensuring that Zelda is taken out of the pool of available persons.
** There are more than a few works that have Ganondorf and Zelda in an arranged marriage to either end a war or unite the Hylians and Gerudo.
* ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' fanfiction: This is very popular, especially to get a purity-lover together with Legolas, or to give her something to spunkily run away from... straight into Legolas' arms. Some fans tend to believe that the higher class Hobbit families (mainly Brandybuck and Took) marry through arrangements, which is a good way of adding fanfic drama. This belief seems to come from the fact that Merry is an only child, Pippin has three older sisters and no brothers, and only one child of his own (a son), which could suggest that the parents simply get separate bedrooms once an heir has been born. There is, however, no indication in Tolkien's work that this is actually the case.
* Since ''Fanfic/AManOfIron'' is based in [[Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire Westeros]], marriage is more about political gain than love.
** As in the source material, Robb ends up engaged to a Frey girl. Contrary to canon, Ned Stark intends to honour the betrothal, only asking to screen Lord Frey's daughters and granddaughters to find the most suitable one for his son. Walder Frey is ecstatic about it.
** In the past, Houses Martell and Stark sought to bring their families together via a marital pact, but it didn't go anywhere since Horard Stark's only offspring was male - Antony Stark. When Tony adopts and legitimizes Jon Snow as his heir, Oberyn Martell remembers the pact and presents his eldest daughter as a bride for the teen.
* ''[[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/66500/maternal-instinct Maternal Instinct]]'': Queen Chrysalis' daughter, Crown Princess Pupa, is arranged to be married to her first cousin, Prince Morphin. It is evidently a common practice in Changeling society, as well as [[KissingCousins marriage within the family]], although the latter is particularly attributed to the royal family and other nobility.

* ''Manga/{{Naruto}}''
** Fanfics tend to use this for Hinata, often to get her together with Neji (and potentially as a way of explaining why [[SingleTargetSexuality she is]] ''[[SingleTargetSexuality not]]'' [[SingleTargetSexuality with Naruto]]). It's often assumed the Hyuuga (and occasionally the Uchiha) don't encourage marriages with people outside of their clan, though the series itself doesn't allude to this [[spoiler:and no one batted an eye at Hinata marrying Naruto]].
** Many fics that pair Naruto and Temari together usually go this route as a part of Suna’s peace treaty in response to the failed Konoha Crush.
* Happens as part of Nonon's backstory in ''Fanfic/NaturalSelection''. She was originally forced into a loveless marriage by her father. When her fiancé said he was planning to force her to give up her band conductor dreams, it proved to be the final straw for her after a long life of acting as her father's business proxy, leading to her running away from home and eventually joining Satsuki's crusade against REVOCS.
* ''Fanfic/ANorthernDragoness'' revolves about fulfilling the Pact of Ice and Fire, which is giving a royal princess to marry the heir to the North. On Daena's side, this is a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage - because she's so desperate to escape her brother's madness she would marry ''anyone''. Jonnel has many more reservations about the matter.

* In ''Fanfic/OneYear'', Hitomi, one of [[VideoGame/Persona4 Yu's]] [[OriginalCharacter old friends]], is engaged to a somewhat older man, and will marry after she graduates from high school. Hitomi's fairly conflicted about this, since she knows that since [[BookDumb her grades are mediocre at best]], her job prospects aren't much better, but she also knows that she'll have little freedom and will most likely be strongly discouraged from seeing her friends again. As for the man himself, Hitomi knows that he [[NiceGuy is a kind person at heart]], but also that he's subservient to his family like she is to hers, and as such, does not love or fully trust him.
* A few of the ''Fanfic/QueensOfMewni'' end up in these, which is natural, since they are princesses living in a dimension where society resembles medieval-to-Victorian times.
** Averted with Festivia the Fun. Gold Stone offered to arrange a marriage between his nephew Quartz and Princess Festivia, but her mother refused, not wanting to force her daughter. However, Queen Febe had Quartz accompany young Festivia in hiding in the Silvan Kingdom during the Mud Dweller Rebellion, in the hope that they might fall in love naturally. [[spoiler:It worked, but not right away.]]
** After a STD rendered her infertile after the birth of her first and only child Etheria, Queen Asteria took it upon herself to match her daughter with a noble son without any serious issues in his family medical history. She chose Germain Fields. At first, [[TheMasochismTango they hated each other, but over time, they developed a sort of friendship, which eventually gave way to affection.]]
** Etheria continued the tradition of arranged marriages by betrothing her daughter Skywynne to Filbric Flowers. Luckily, it was a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage, as the two had met beforehand and become instantly smitten without knowing the other’s identity.
** Averted again with Skywynne’s daughter, Soupina the Strange. She was betrothed to Persian Waterson, who she actually liked a lot, but he died due to the sickness plaguing Mewni at the time. Soupina was devastated, but eventually found SecondLove with friend and commoner Osmond Cross.
** ZigZagged with her daughters, Galaxia and Pulsaria. They were engaged to two Redbird brothers, Galaxia to the older Heron and Pulsaria to the younger Condor. However, each sister ended up falling for the other’s fiancé, and vice versa. So technically they both had a marriage with a Redbird as intended… just not the ones they were originally promised to.
** One day, Queen Meteora the First walked in on her daughter Hekatia to give her supper. It’s never explicitly said what she saw Hekatia doing, but it was drastic enough that Meteora forbid her to choose her own husband and promised her to Edmund Cross. They would end up PlatonicLifePartners.
** Eclipsa was given some agency over her arranged marriage, by being given three options and choosing one. She chooses Edric Flowers after he saved her from a Pie Folk assassin (who had also been one of Eclipsa's options, and the one she nearly chose until he tried to kill her), and they would become a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage. After the [[spoiler: supposed]] death of her first husband and their only child, Eclipsa was forced to marry Spiderbite Prince Shastacan (who had been the last option) in the hopes of producing a new heir to replace the dead princess. Eclipsa hated Shastacan and mourned her husband and daughter. This is when she met and fell in love with Globgor.
** Heaven the Scared was betrothed to Sir Arthur [=McKnight=], partly to further strengthen the recently ennobled House [=McKnight=], but also because Arthur and his father were two of the few people Heaven actually trusted.
** Diana tried to betroth her second oldest daughter Etheria to Lancel [=McKnight=], but Lancel's mother would accept no less than the heiress, Sky. This match was also a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage [[spoiler:to the point that Sky died from DeathByChildbirth exacerbated by [[DeathByDespair despair]] after Lancel died.]]
* ''Fanfic/SashaAndTheFrogs'': Much like the main series, Sprig and Maddie are part of an arranged marriage. [[spoiler: However, it is broken much earlier.]]
* In the ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''/''Series/GameOfThrones'' fanfic ''Fanfic/ASongofIceFireAndHeart'', Robert Baratheon forcibly engages Roxas to his daughter, Myrcella. This is because he believes Roxas to be the son of Ventus, who happened to be one of Robert's best friends before the latter grew angry with him because his rebellion caused the deaths of innocents and ended their friendship. Despite what happened, Robert still saw Ventus as his friend and regrets the day he left, so he wants to make Roxas a prince because Robert believes he'll be making it up to Ventus.
* Sara in ''Fanfic/TheSeerAndHisButterfly'' only came to the encanto to escape her Tía and Tío's attempts at marrying her off to a [[AgeGapRomance significantly older man]], her marriage to Bruno being a [[MarriageOfConvenience convenient]] way to ensure it doesn't happen.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' {{Fanon}} has an arrangement called ''j'fallen'' in the Trill culture. The Symbiosis Board itself occasionally sets up two Joined Trills for marriage on the justification that their children will be of better stock and more likely to be among the Joined elite of the society. How well it works [[DependingOnTheWriter depends on the author]].
* In the backstory of ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13259895/1/A-Strange-Engagement A Strange Engagement]]'', [[ProfessionalGambler Stan Pines]] entered a [[AbsurdlyHighStakesGame High Stakes Poker Game]] involving [[WesternAnimation/GravityFalls Bill Cipher]], [[Franchise/ThePowerpuffGirls Him]], [[WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack Aku]], WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom, [[VideoGame/{{Darkstalkers}} Morrigan]], [[WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy Grim]], and [[Literature/HighSchoolDXD Sirzechs Lucifer]]. During the game, the topic of families came up, which eventually led to all of the [[AlcoholInducedIdiocy drunken]] players [[LostHimInACardGame betting marriage contacts involving their respective kids (and in Stan's case, his newly born great-niece and nephew)]]. [[DidYouJustScamCthulhu Stan won the contracts (among other riches)]], which force Dipper and Mabel in the present to enter a [[MagicallyBindingContract magically bound]] arranged marriage with several children of the Underworld.
* In ''Sweeney Todd'' fanfiction, Benjamin and Lucy Barker are sometimes said to have had an arranged marriage, which is odd as (a) arranged marriages were nearly kaput by the nineteenth century, (b) it seems unlikely that Lucy's parents would aim no higher than a barber, and (c) the way the man who used to be Benjamin remembers Lucy gives every indication of it having been a love match. The arranged marriage is often used to undermine their marriage in a case of DieForOurShip.
* In ''Fanfic/TheTaintedGrimoire'', this is part of the plot of the St. Galleria arc.
* There's a complicated example in ''Fanfic/ThroughALookingGlassDarkly'': [[spoiler: Jack was genuinely in love with Grace. Then his parents brainwashed her into being someone more suitable. By the time we catch up to them, he's given up on getting the girl he fell in love with back, and considers his engagement with her to be purely political and arranged by his parents.]]
* Played for laughs in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' fanfic ''Fanfic/WhatAboutWitchQueen'' when OriginalCharacter Kai learns that his father, an Arendellan baron, wants to marry him off to Queen Elsa. Kai is rather terrified of the possibility, as he's convinced this would be just a great catastrophe and that Elsa doesn't even notice him. His father consoles him that he'll wait until the end of war before pushing for the marriage.
* Aside of the aforementioned cases, several real-life country unions/pacts/colonizations/etc. are seen as this in ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers'' fandom. The most popular cases are: the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auld_Alliance Auld Alliance]] between Scotland (an OriginalCharacter at the moment) and France, the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalmar_union Kalmar Union]] between Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, either the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iberian_Union Iberian Union]] or [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Portuguese_Alliance the Anglo Portuguese Alliance]] for Portugal, etc.
* ''Fanfic/HarmonyTheory'': The griffons and changelings have eugenics programs. The Solar King also has the power to arrange this. [[spoiler: He uses this power to betroth Star Fall to his son]].
* ''Fanfic/TheMixedUpLifeOfBrad'': Marriages like this are rather common among pony nobility. Thanks to the talents of Princess Cadence, who can make ponies fall in (or out of) love as needed, they are happier than human arranged marriages.
* ZigZagged in ''Fanfic/WhatHathJoinedTogether''. Since marriage options [[FantasticCasteSystem depend on your social class]], one can either marry a few ponies or not marry at all, and as an alicorn, [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic Twilight Sparkle]] only has the high-ranking unicorn [[{{Jerkass}} Captain Ironhoof]] as a legitimate suitor. After being narrowed down, regular dating occurs, and ponies like [[LoveGoddess Princess Cadance]] play matchmaker to help those relationships go smoothly (though, Cadance doesn't exactly like the idea, even though she was fortunate enough to get a husband she adored).
* The plot of ''Fanfic/TheMarriageStone'', where Harry has to marry Snape in order to avoid the machinations of the Ministry, but before long the marriage may determine the fate of the world.
* {{Discussed}} in "Fanfic/ToAbsentFriends". Vulcans usually do arranged marriages but T'Var's parents thought it more logical to let her seek her own mate.
* From ''Fanfic/KiryuuinChronicles'', we apparently have this and a ShotgunWedding with [[spoiler: Ragyou's marriage to her abusive husband, while she was pregnant by someone else with Satsuki]] and she notes that her parents picked him for her, along with the fact that she wasn't really given a choice, aside from being disowned. Naturally, she hoped it'll work.
* In ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/2286363/chapters/5025897 A Most Sensible Idea]]'', [[Literature/TheLordOfTheRings Frodo]] is entered into an arranged marriage with [[Literature/TheHobbit Thorin]] in order to open up new trade routes with the Misty Mountain. At the end [[spoiler: he doesn't go through with it - Bilbo, who has been chaperoning him, falls in love with Thorin and marries the dwarf himself]].
* ''Fanfic/WearingRobertsCrown'': Unsurprisingly, very few of the marriages in the fic are anything but politically arranged. Cersei, in particular, protested hers loudly. Most of them seem to work out though.
* In ''Fanfic/WarOfTheBiju'', Fugaku Uchiha intended to arrange one between his youngest son Sasuke and the Hyuuga Clan's heiress, Hinata -- most likely to ensure the Hyuuga Clan's loyalty under the new regime should Uchiha Clan's coup succeed. He died before anything came of it.

* ''Fanfic/RobbReturns'' features a number of arranged marriages that weren't present in canon.
** After Domeric and Sansa fall in love, Ned and Roose sit down to discuss a marriage contract.
** As in canon, Robert plans to marry Sansa to his eldest son Joffrey. However, he finds out that Sansa is already betrothed to Domeric Bolton. Ned argues that such marriage is key in ensuring House Bolton's loyalty, and cancelling it would cause a huge rift between the Starks and Boltons, and the current situation with the Others demands a unified North. Fortunately, Robert decides to let the issue go without much fuss.
** King Robert suggests two other marriages between their respective children: Bran and Myrcella, and Arya and Tommen. Ned doesn't oppose these but warns Robert that for a KindheartedCatLover like Tommen, a tomboy wild girl like Arya might be too much to handle.
* ''Fanfic/TheMLPLoops'':
** Were a thing in 177.21. Applejack was with someone she thought might have been a pony version of Thorin Oakenshield (but didn't know whether he was Awake or not), Fluttershy was with Caramel, Rainbow Dash with her old bully Hoops, Octavia with Prince Blueblood, and Twilight was with Flash Sentry.
** In Loop 202.12, Filthy Rich's marriage to Spoiled Milk was an arranged one, but Filthy wound up having a one-night stand with Applejack, whom he admitted was the one he really wanted to marry, after being told. [[spoiler:She got pregnant, and Diamond Tiara - who was subsequently raised by Filthy and Spoiled, though with the promise that if she found out about her birth mom and wanted to rejoin her, she could - was the result.]]

* ''Fanfic/{{Restraint}}'': As kids, Zuko and Mai were arranged to be married. They did end up married, but for completely unrelated reasons. After Zuko was banished, Mai was engaged to Zuko's father Ozai. This is why [[spoiler:Mai was so ready to die at Boiling Rock]].
* ''Fanfic/StormCloudsAndGreySkies'': Leia's grandmother wants her to marry a merman of her choosing because she's worried about Leia's love life. Leia doesn't want to, but she also doesn't want to disrespect her grandmother by declining. Claire convinces her to speak up for herself.

* Fanfic/RealityChecksNyxverse: Attempted in ''Alicornundrum'', wherein Prince Blueblood's father gets Night Light, the father of Twilight Sparkle (who recently became an alicorn and was coronated as a Princess a few chapters earlier), drunk enough to sign a marriage contract between Twilight and Blueblood (in an attempt to [[DarwinistDesire sire a new unicorn heir to the throne]]) without Night Light realizing it until the next day. Twilight and her parents, of course, are [[DefiedTrope understandably outraged]] over this, and Twilight [[GroinAttack convinces]] Lord Blueblood to sign an annulment immediately afterward. Upon reviewing the marriage contract, Celestia declares it invalid, only for Lord Blueblood to attempt to take it to court... which [[RageBreakingPoint enrages Celestia so much]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes that she immediately proceeds to]] [[WhatTheHellHero verbally lay it onto him]] [[DidntThinkThisThrough as to just how illegal the contract is]], including such charges as statutory rape, pony trafficking, blackmail, and treason - to say nothing of the fact that ''Celestia herself'' imposed all of the laws against the above charges, thereby preventing such contracts from being implemented legally. Understandably, the [[OhCrap terrified]] Lord Blueblood [[KnowWhenToFoldEm immediately accepts the annulment]]. (WordOfGod was that this scene was intended as a rebuttal to another fanfic involving Twilight being married off to Blueblood, which the author hated due to everypony from Celestia to Twilight carrying a massive IdiotBall throughout the entire story.)
-->'''Celestia:''' '''''"I could not keep parents from [[AbusiveParents bullying their children into agreeing]], but I could hinder them from damning their children to a fate they never wanted before they were old enough to even object. In the end, thank the Maker, that little bit I did was more than enough to choke the practice out. [[UnstoppableRage DID YOU IMAGINE FOR A SECOND THAT I WOULD REFRAIN FROM BRINGING MY FULL POWER AND WRATH TO BEAR AGAINST ANYONE WHO TRIED SUCH A THING]] [[MamaBear WITH MY MOST BELOVED STUDENT?"]]'''''
** A later chapter reveals that the above incident was neither Celestia's nor Duke Blueblood's first rodeo as far as this trope was concerned. While being roped into his father's latest scheme, Prince Blueblood recalls a time when, to make an example of one of his cousins, his father convinced the mare's father, successfully, to marry her off to a wealthy but abusive stallion. [[spoiler:In response, Celestia [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident arranged for a fatal "accident" to befall the new groom during their honeymoon]], allowing said cousin to inherit his estate. The mare in question is heavily implied to be A.K. Yearling, a.k.a. Daring Do]].
* A similar arrangement to ''Alicornundrum'', above, happens in ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/41020/arranged-disaster Arranged Disaster]]'', although, after thinking it over, Twilight is willing to go through with it because she understands the [[InnocentInnuendo importance of leadership]]:
-->“Oh! I get it!” She smiled suddenly, and Celestia stared nervously.\\
“You do?” That wasn’t the reaction she’d been expecting.\\
“Of course! The parents put their brightest, most talented children together to keep their businesses strong and respect the honor of their families, as well as guide the non-nobles around them to a better future!” Twilight bobbed her head.\\
Celestia stared down at her for a good while, working her jaw. Shoot. Luna was so much better at not getting embarrassed about this. “Y-yes, of course Twilight, that’s exactly it.” Celestia nodded. She would find a… better way to explain this. “The Bluebloods will be expecting you to lead those around you to a better future.” ‘And have lots and lots of super-powered babies.’ Celestia groaned at the thought.\\
“Don’t worry Princess.” Twilight looked down at the street again, at the many citizens of Canterlot. “I promise I won’t let you down. Even… even if I don’t like this, I will fulfill my duties as a noble, and create a stronger next generation! Even if I have to dirty my own front hooves to do it!”\\
Celestia hid a laugh with a tiny snort, and bobbed her head. “O-of course Twilight! You will be an excellent leader.”\\
“And I will fulfill my duties no matter what. Even if it’s with Blueblood or any other pony.” Celestia did her very best to not grin. “I won’t take it lying down. I will be up on all four of my hooves fulfilling my duties, and not just in some fancy house! Blueblood and I shall strengthen the generation no matter where we are, in the castle, out on the streets, in the clouds- Princess?”\\
Celestia had suddenly collapsed, shaking with laughter.
* Yet another example involving Prince Blueblood happens in ''Fanfic/ThisPlatinumCrown'', due to Princess Celestia promising to reunite the Terre Rare and Blueblood family lines. As a result, Blueblood becomes engaged to Lady Antimony. This being the sequel to ''Fanfic/TheBestNightEver'', he and Rarity have become an item after his CharacterDevelopment in that fic, so she's understandably distraught upon finding out, and Antimony tries to soften the blow by saying she'd make a fine [[TheMistress first mistress]] for the prince in question. Ultimately, since Antimony wanted to marry Blueblood for the sole purpose of gaining political power, it's Rarity who wins out in the end, due to her own desired marriage with him being one of genuine love.
* ''Fanfic/SurprisingButterflies'': It's mentioned likely that Mion will likely be forced into an arranged marriage because she's her clan's heir. She realizes this but still wants to MarryForLove instead.
* ''Webcomic/TheArrangement'' is a webcomic where Ganondorf and Princess Zelda are arranged to be married. This is done in hopes that Ganondorf won't be tainted by Demise. The arrangement starts when Ganondorf is five (and Zelda is only a few years older than him), but they aren't due to get married until Ganondorf comes of age.
* According to the artist of ''Webcomic/RebuildOfPocketMonstersTheAnimation'', both Professor Oak and his son were in arranged marriages. However, arranged marriages aren't common in Ash's time.
* In ''Fanfic/IfICantBeEverythingToYouYoullBeNothingToMe'', Damian was first promised Cain's sister, Abele, as a bride, in an alliance between the Al Ghuls and Barnetts. After it was revealed that Damian was gay, Cain approached him and offered himself as a spouse instead. At first, Damian did not want anything to do with Cain, but after a series of events that make him feel alone, he agrees to marry Cain, [[IJustWantToBeLoved hoping that he and the Barnetts will fill the holes in his heart left behind by Jon and Bruce and the other Batkids]].
* In ''Fanfic/ThisBites'', to deal with the influx of strong pirates in their shared territory, the Accino family arrange a marriage between their youngest daughter Lil and the same-age Buratto of the Hiruno family, a far more ruthless and sadistic group of bounty hunters. It's clear that none of the Accino family are happy about it, with Don Accino only accepting it as a means of protecting his family, his children (sans Lil) asking the Straw Hats to sabotage the wedding while helping to set it up to get their flag back, and Lil admitting to Robin that while she likes Buratto as a childhood friend she can't bare her family working with their sadistic counterparts. [[spoiler: Thankfully, a third choice is brought to the Accinos by Vivi: disregard the wedding and join Alabasta as one of its guardians, defending the coast from both pirates and marines]].

* The main conflict of ''Fanfic/WedLocked'' is Marinette being forced into a marriage by her maternal family.
* In the ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/series/1473272 Bright Spots]]'', [[Franchise/{{Transformers}} Megatron]] is arranged to marry Crown Prince Starscream in order to strengthen the political bond between Vos and the Decepticons.
* ''Fanfic/WitchingHour'': Gaz's father King Membrane betroths her to Iggins, the son of Baron Jiggins, which she's not happy about since he cheated to beat her in a hunting competition, and is in general a chauvinistic JerkAss. However, before it can go through, Iggins mysteriously collapses and dies after Gaz punches him, [[MistakenForMurderer making it look like she killed him]] and lending further credence to the rumors that she is a witch. [[spoiler: In actuality, Zim killed him with an invisible death ray as part of his larger plan to frame Gaz.]]

* In the ForWantOfANail ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' fic ''Fanfic/DarknessBurning'', Anna ends up in an arranged marriage. Elsa is too scared to marry, so their parents have Anna get married instead. Both sisters are resistant at first but Anna goes along for Elsa's sake (and because her parents said that she only had a choice of a few suitors or else they'd stop trying to arrange a marriage). Anna ends up marrying Hans' brother Joachim with some nudging from her parents. They get along well and fall in love eventually, however they initially didn't get along and Anna admits to sometimes doubting whether they're a good match.

* In ''Manga/{{Basilisk}}'', [[YamatoNadeshiko Oboro Iga]] and [[WarriorPoet Gennosuke Koga]] were engaged since childhood as a part of the truce between the Iga and Koga clans. It certainly helped that they came to genuinely like the idea when they knew each other better.

* Kaoru Hanabishi and Aoi Sakuraba of ''Manga/AiYoriAoshi'' are matched in an arranged marriage as young children, to cement a relationship between their powerful corporate households. This is an odd example, however, in that like the previously mentioned ''Gankutsuoh'' example, the engagement is technically broken off (Kaoru left his family after being orphaned and then terribly abused by his grandfather): the series' drama results from the two main characters genuinely falling in love and ''still wanting'' to get married, but not being able to do so for the whole scandal it'd bring.

* Ciel and [[KissingCousins his cousin]] Elizabeth in ''Manga/BlackButler'' have been engaged since they were young. While they aren't going to actually marry anytime soon, it doesn't stop Elizabeth from pouring her affections onto Ciel [[spoiler: which in the manga includes a bold DeclarationOfProtection from [[LittleMissBadass Eliza]][[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend beth]] herself]], and he cares for her in his own way.

* Princess Veronica and Prince Eugene of ''Manga/BokuraNoKiseki'' are set up in a political marriage to help cement an alliance between their respective countries of Zerestria and Moswick. Though this doesn't stop Moswick from invading and killing everyone in Veronica's castle shortly afterwards.
* [[EvilMatriarch Domyoji Kaede]], the main antagonist of ''Manga/BoysOverFlowers'', arranges for both of her children to marry the children of wealthy entrepreneurs in order to acquire their companies for the family's vast corporate empire. When her children Tsubaki and Tsukasa prove to be unwilling, she resorts to [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney less than ethical]] means to browbeat them into it with mixed success.

* In ''Manga/{{Citrus}}'', StudentCouncilPresident Mei Aihara was initially engaged with a homeroom teacher named Amemiya, set up by her grandfather (and the Aihara Academy's chairman); however, this was called off when the main character and Mei's step-sister (and eventual love interest) Yuzu Aihara discovered and reported that Amemiya was marrying Mei for the status and money; he already had a girlfriend. [[spoiler:Eventually, it is revealed that arranged marriages are common practice for wealthier families to maintain financial stability; Himeko Momokino and Suzuran Shiraho say this is the case for them. Mei is then put into another arranged marriage, this time with Udagawa, Yuzu's manager at her job. This, too, is called off and Mei ultimately marries Yuzu.]]

* ''Manga/{{Claudine}}'': Instead of marrying for love, Claude's parent's marriage was arranged.

* In ''Anime/DiamondDaydreams'', the main point in Atsuki's story is her struggle against her looming Arranged Marriage.
* In the last episode of ''Manga/DokiDokiSchoolHours'' Mika-sensei attends an ''omiai'', which leads her students to fear losing her. [[spoiler:Without much reason, though]].
* What kick starts the plot in ''Manga/EngagedToTheUnidentified'', where on her sixteenth birthday Kobeni suddenly finds out that apparently her long-departed grandfather set her up with the grandson of one of his old friends from the countryside... And said surprise fiancé suddenly moves into her family's house in the city, with his bratty younger sister in tow as a "chaperone".

* In ''Manga/FunTerritoryDefenseByTheOptimisticLord'', there are several directed at the protagonist Van Nei Fertio, who is 8-years-old and thus has a few years to get to know his "suitors" before he has to walk down the aisle. The first is a merfolk girl he meets whose tribe then moves into his territory. She describes herself as his fiancé and the chieftan, who is her father, makes it official, no matter how Van says "no." As a result of Van wiping out a legion of "armored dragon" beasts that the clan was fleeing from. The second to date is the "useless" daughter of a neighboring noble who fears an armed invasion, since Van's father is a famous {{Warhawk}}, and Van turned the village he was given into a viable fortress. The girl in quesion is actually a very shy and awkward 10-year-old who just wants somebody to acknowledge her existence. When Van ''actually praises'' her [Puppetry] magic talent, there is much in the way of ShipTease and she's ''ecstatic'', quickly getting on board with hoping she and he marry in the future when they're both of age.
* In ''Manga/FutariEcchi'', main characters Makoto Onoda and Yura Kawada (later, Onoda) meet in an ''omiai''. They actually like each other so much that they end up HappilyMarried, and the manga follows them in their daily life and principally in their attempts to improve their sex life.
* Apparently, the parents of Miyabi "Professor" Oomichi of ''Manga/GAGeijutsukaArtDesignClass'' already arranged her a husband--despite she's only a tenth grader. A later chapter showed that she [[spoiler:was not particularly pleased with that, and was glad that the ''omiai'' was delayed]].

* Yomi and Noriyuki in ''Anime/GaReiZero''. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Noriyuki's father breaks off the engagement when Yomi's life starts to go downhill.]]
* ''Anime/{{Gankutsuou}}'': Eugénie de Danglars is initially arranged to marry Albert de Morcerf, but after a scandal in the Morcerf house, her father breaks the arrangement and makes a new one with Andrea Cavalcanti, to her horror.
* In ''Manga/{{Gravitation}}'', Eiri Yuki is engaged to a young girl named Ayaka Usami, who sincerely likes him and tries to go through the engagement. However, she ''does'' realize that it won't be the best option, so she pulls an IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy so Yuki can be with Shuichi. [[spoiler: After she gets better, Ayaka [[PairTheSpares starts dating]] Hiroshi Nakano, Shuichi's male UnluckyChildhoodFriend.]]
* In ''Manga/HaikaraSanGaTooru'', Benio and Shinobu were engaged since birth [[spoiler: to compensate for a love match that was annulled many years ago.]] They find out several years later: she's ''really'' not thrilled because she doesn't want to marry, he's kinda amused by the prospect, [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage and then things start rolling around...]]

* In ''Manga/HappyMarriage'' the plot revolves around this.
* In ''Happy Negative Marriage'', Keitaro is introduced facing company policies and customs that favor married employees, and is then forced into an ''omiai'' by his mother and his boss. Turns out the prospective bride is [[MsFanservice quite appealing to his tastes]].

* Discussed in Chapter 142 ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' when Shirogane misinterprets Kaguya asking him to hold her hand as he walks her home as her saying that her family is forcing her into an arranged marriage due to a combination of him having not gotten a good night's sleep for the past several days and her sending him a bunch of mixed signals. [[spoiler:In a subtle case of foreshadowing, that chapter also happens to feature the first onscreen appearance of Mikado Shijo, who she very nearly does end up forcibly engaged to near the end of the series.]]
* Sayaka in ''Manga/KaitouSaintTail'' is trapped in an unhappy engagement that centers around [[MacGuffin a veil]] belonging to the other family; if Saint Tail steals it and returns it to Sayaka's fiancé, she'll be free to go. The only problem is that Sayaka has a tremendous crush on Asuka Jr. Meimi quickly helps the poor girl anyway, but the situation [[SlapSlapKiss muddles her feelings even more]].
* One plot arc in ''Manga/KamisamaKiss'' involves Himemiko being in an arranged marriage with Nishiki despite the fact that she is in love with Kotarou. Things get violent before the situation is resolved.

* Koshiro from ''Manga/KoiKaze'' works at a marriage-arranging company and setting up omiais is part of his job. At one point his boss also arranges an omiai for Koshiro ''himself'', since clients would rather be assisted by someone who is married. [[spoiler:Koshiro blatantly refuses to attend it though, because he and his sister are [[BrotherSisterIncest hopelessly in love with each other]]. ]]

* One episode of ''Anime/MagicalProjectS'' revolves around a potential arranged marriage for one of the teachers.
* In ''Manga/MaisonIkkoku'' Shun Mitaka is introduced to [[spoiler:his eventual wife]] [[{{Ojou}} Asuna Kujou]] by way of an ''omiai'' arranged by his uncle. He objects strongly to the union, partially because he is in love with Kyouko, but also because of [[WhydidItHaveToBeSnakes her large number of dogs]], which he is ''deathly'' afraid of. [[spoiler:After accidentally proposing to her due to a [[MistakenForPregnant misunderstanding]], he warms up to the idea a bit more.]]

* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEED'', Lacus Clyne was in an arranged engagement with Kira's old friend Athrun Zala before falling for Kira. [[spoiler: After their break-up and getting together with Kira and Kira's twin sister Cagalli, respectively, they remain friends.]] At the same time, [[RichBitch Flay Alster]] was engaged to Kira's friend Sai Argyle, and she breaks off said engagement after [[spoiler: her father dies]] to pursue Kira. The PLANTS are also known to be enforcing arranged marriages among their population, in an attempt to counter their falling birthrates. It doesn't seem to be helping.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamSEEDDestiny'' we get to see Cagalli's fiancé from childhood, [[RomanticFalseLead Yuna Roma Seiran]]. [[ButtMonkey It doesn't work well for him]].
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamTheWitchFromMercury'' features a more ''unique'' example. Due to the rules setup in the school, whoever is the number one duelist is officially the fiancé of Miorine, and it doesn’t matter what the person’s gender is. In the first episode, Guel is the Holder, but following his defeat in the first episode and subsequent defeat in the rematch in the third episode, the protagonist, Suletta Mercury, is officially declared the Holder and Miorine’s fiancé. In this case, Suletta had no idea that she would become Miorine’s fiancé. She only fought against Guel because she wanted him to apologize to Miorine for his abusive treatment towards her.
* In ''Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing'', Wufei was involved in one of these with a girl from his colony named Meiran (who called herself "Nataku"). It wasn't always a happy marriage (indeed, they were bickering through their own wedding ceremony!), but at the same time, they did care deeply for one another. [[TheLostLenore Wufei still misses her]].

* Haruka in ''Manga/{{Moyashimon}}'' is the daughter of an executive and is in an arranged marriage, with the caveat that she won't have to marry until she is done with the university. Naturally, she intends never to graduate, and an attempt by her father to push matters leads to him and the fiancé [[FateWorseThanDeath exposed to point-blank]] [[ForeignQueasine Surstr?ng]].

* In ''Anime/OjamajoDoremi'', Aiko's divorced father goes to an ''omiai'' with the daughter of his boss, the sweet Midori, much to Aiko's distress since she still hopes to get her parents reunited. Ironically, Kenji wanted to marry Midori because he believed Aiko needed a motherly figure. [[spoiler: They don't go through it.]]
* In ''Manga/{{Ojojojo}}'', Haru's father gives her a week to choose from a list of suitors, and she accepts [[WellDoneSonGuy in an effort to make him happy]] despite having already fallen in love with Tsurezure. It's quickly canceled when she changes her mind and refuses, and her father accepts her decision without any hesitation. One of the suitors (a British noble named Chris), ends up becoming part of the main cast, [[spoiler:eventually [[BetaCouple ending up in a relationship]] with Haru's best friend Akane.]]

* In ''Manga/PumpkinScissors'', Alice is engaged to be married to a high-ranking noble named Lionel Taylor. However, this went against her wishes to stay unmarried and continue working for Section III. She was even willing once to go as far as to try and get her fiancé to call off their engagement.

** UsefulNotes/MarieAntoinette and Louis XVI wind up kiiiinda okay [[spoiler: but fall victim to the misfortune that everyone knows]]; little Charlotte... not so much [[spoiler: and commits suicide over her OldManMarryingAChild situation.]]

* In ''Manga/SakuraGari'', Viscount Kawamori ''really'' wants Souma to marry his daughter Kanako, as he desires to have a genius businessman like Souma as his right hand. [[spoiler: Souma at first refuses, later starts thinking it over... but then the series ends.]]
* In episode 7A of ''Manga/SakuraTrick'', it was revealed Kotone's rich parents already arranged to marry her off. She reacted by moving away from her BigFancyHouse to her cousin Shizuku's home. The existence of romance going on between Kotone and Shizuku does not help. Kotone's betrothed eventually appears [[spoiler:and is revealed to be a woman]].
* In ''Manga/SandChronicles'', Fuji's mother tries to get him to do an ''omiai'' to ensure he marries the most suitable girl for his wealthy status, to his chagrin since he wants to marry the woman he loves. He leaves before it begins.

* Featured between [[PrincelyYoungMan Nozomu]] and [[ImpoverishedPatrician Miu]] in ''Manga/SteppingOnRoses'' (''Hadashi de Bara wo Fume''), which is likely a source of their dysfunction. Since protagonist Sumi and male lead Soichiro both [[OnlyInItForTheMoney marry for money]], however, they're not that much better off to start with.

* ''Manga/UruseiYatsura'': Ryuunosuke has an Arranged Marriage made between her father and one of his own friends, and thus a fiancé named Nagisa she'd rather do without. In her case, she has to deal with a YamatoNadeshiko WholesomeCrossdresser rather than a CovertPervert {{Tsundere}}.

** In Chapter 30 when Luna reunites with Nike and Livius, she reveals she's just been put in an arranged marriage with the much older Marquis Claude Fortis. She decides to sabotage it by getting Nike to crossdress and pose as her fiancé. [[spoiler:He offers to drop it after he's done with his plan to save Luna's family, which depended on the engagement, but by that point the two have fallen for each other and so the engagement goes ahead.]]

* Reiko from ''Manga/{{Yuureitou}}'' was engaged to a man by her adopted mother despite her huge disapproval. Reiko breaks off the engagement herself after telling him she [[UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} wants to live as a man]] but wants them to become [[HeterosexualLifePartners like brothers]]. It doesn't work out as she expected. [[spoiler:Tetsuo later [[OldFriendNewGender meets him]] again years later, with his ex-fiancée now being horribly disfigured. He doesn't seem to recognize his disfigurement but he also doesn't recognize Tetsuo is living as a man. Tetsuo plays along with his delusions even as he dies [[HeroicSacrifice to save him]].]]

* ''ComicBook/{{Hound|2014}}'': King Connor tasks Cú Cullan to escort Emer to marry him. Neither the king nor Emer has seen each other and the bride-to-be is unhappy that she is promised to a man older than her own father, and not by her will. Connor annuls the wedding when he catches Cú Cullan staying late with Emer, who has developed feelings for Cú Cullan.

* ''Franchise/WonderWoman'' [[ComicBook/WonderWoman1942 Vol 1]]: Prince Gaston of Barania promises King Ersatz of Skizofrenia that he will get his nephew Philippe, heir to the Baranian throne, engaged to Ersatz's daughter. Philippe is completely uninterested and has already proposed to the woman he loves, which Gaston uses as his "proof" Philippe is losing his mind (as Philippe's fiancé is not royalty) in order for Gaston to imprison Philippe and take over Barania.

* ''Animation/GypsyTales'': In "Káló, the Gypsy Lad", the council of elders arranges for Káló and Gilze to marry. At first, Káló is unwilling but has a change of heart when Dimkárta reveals that Zurdána, the woman he falls in love with, "only toys with the lads of the dry land, making fools of them."

* Avoiding one is the main motivation for Alys Boleyn's actions in the early story of ''Fanfic/ForumOfThrones''. After her father betrothed her to Dante Karstark against her will, she ran away from home, leaving her father and her fiancé to try and follow her.

* Happens as part of Nonon's backstory in ''Fanfic/NaturalSelection''. She was originally forced into a loveless marriage by her father. When her fiancé said he was planning to force her to give up her band conductor dreams, it proved to be the final straw for her after a long life of acting as her father's business proxy, leading to her running away from home and eventually joining Satsuki's crusade against REVOCS.

** ZigZagged with her daughters, Galaxia and Pulsaria. They were engaged to two Redbird brothers, Galaxia to the older Heron and Pulsaria to the younger Condor. However, each sister ended up falling for the other’s fiancé, and vice versa. So technically they both had a marriage with a Redbird as intended… just not the ones they were originally promised to.

* Sara in ''Fanfic/TheSeerAndHisButterfly'' only came to the encanto to escape her Tía and Tío's attempts at marrying her off to a [[AgeGapRomance significantly older man]], her marriage to Bruno being a [[MarriageOfConvenience convenient]] way to ensure it doesn't happen.

* ''Film/StealingHeaven'': Fulbert has this planned out for Héloïse with some rich young man in Paris.

* The 2004 Czech film, ''Želary'', puts an interesting spin on this trope. The main character, [[CityMouse Eliska]], works for an [[LaResistance underground resistance movement]] in the Nazi-occupied city of Prague, Czechoslovakia. When her conspirators are captured, the resistance sends her to a remote mountain village with a new identity to hide from the Gestapo. To keep her under the radar, she is ordered to marry one of the local farmers to avoid attracting attention. She is understandably pissed off about this arrangement and acts coldly towards her intended. Of course, the man she marries is quiet, kind, and chivalrous, so there's only [[UndercoverAsLovers so many directions]] [[WillTheyOrWontThey that their relationship]] [[LoveEpiphany could go]].

** Vir himself has an appointed fiancée who is beautiful and willing - and expresses pretty much every thought UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler ever had about Jews about the Narn, up to an including actively participating in genocide. And she considers Vir to be strange and troubled because he disagrees with her. The engagement is put on hold by their families when it's revealed Vir has been using an alias to smuggle Narns out of danger.

* In one episode of ''Series/NightCourt'', a young, beautiful woman is brought in, who turns out to be a princess of a small island nation, who is desperately trying to get out of an arranged marriage. As she tells Harry, her fiancé is a hulking, ugly, violent brute who is known to eat children. (He thinks she's exaggerating, until she shows him a photograph of the guy; unfortunately, the viewers never see it, and we have to take her word for it.) Unfortunately, Harry isn't able to do anything as far as legalities are concerned, but when he finds out how superstitious their culture is, he's able to teach her a few tricks that make her convince them to annul the arranged marriage herself (and possibly even make advances for women's lib there in the process).

*** [[spoiler:In Season 12, Raj again asks his dad to give him an arranged fiancée. But this time, he only agrees to an arranged marriage after he had gotten rid of his selective mutism and thus got to play the field but failed to find true love. And this is still in reaction to his male friends having wives or girlfriends, notably Sheldon getting married and Stuart dating his coworker.]]

* The pilot of ''Series/NUMB3RS'' reveals that Amita's parents tried to set her up in one of these. Her "fiancé" is back in India, while Amita moved to the US when she was little. When asked if she plans to marry him, she replies that she won't, as she doesn't like the guy at all. In a later season, Amita and Charlie start dating. However, Amita admits to Charlie that the fact that he's not Indian will be a problem for her parents. At a dinner with her parents, an old friend of Amita's shows up at the invitation from her parents in an obvious attempt to set them up. Only one problem - the guy is gay. Also, they reveal that, after meeting Charlie face-to-face, they have warmed up to him.

* In ''Series/NewGirl'', Cece (who is Indian) decides to let her parents arrange a marriage for her after she finds out from a gynecologist she might not have long to conceive a child. She and Schmidt still have feelings for each other, and Schmidt and Winston work together to sabotage the wedding through pranks. When they go too big with the pranks and release a badger into the air vents, it stops the wedding right before the couple is declared man and wife. Luckily for Cece and Schmidt, it turns out her arranged fiancé Shivrang is also in love with someone else, takes this opportunity to run off with her, and the arrangement is called off.

* The fourth licensed ''Series/CSICrimeSceneInvestigation'' game has this as part of the overall mystery of the murder of an Indian doctor in his bed while his blind wife was sitting downstairs. [[spoiler: In fact, preventing it was the motive.]] The doctor was forcing his daughter into marrying a scumbag from the family's homeland - specifically the son of the doctor's old friend. The daughter kept refusing, even (rightfully) getting her fiancé charged for [[spoiler: stealing her father's credit card and supplies from their surgery]]. Her father was insistent on the marriage and even had the charges dropped (again, the fiancé [[spoiler: ''stole from him'']]). She also tried to get her father's medical license revoked for malpractice (also justified as he [[spoiler:performed a surgery he wasn't trained for on his own wife and blinded her [[HonorRelatedAbuse more out of a sense of pride than anything]]),]] but the charges never stuck because [[spoiler:the mother was willing to take the abuse to protect her daughter and her family's honor]]. Near the end, he made an ultimatum to the daughter: [[spoiler: go through with the marriage or be cut off from her mother. [[MamaBear Then it turns out that the mother isn't completely blind]]...]]

** In the episode ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XedhgDieOko My sister plundered my fiancé! Now my arranged marriage partner is also plundered]]'' (sic), Ram and Nonoka's parents try to arrange a marriage between the former and the businessman Ikki-san. This is subverted when they find him with Nonoka, who demands to marry him instead of Ram. Their parents cave in and let her have him, to which Ram thanks her.

* In ''Webcomic/EonsAgo'', [[WesternAnimation/TransformersPrime Starscream]] was involved in one long ago on Cybertron. It was called off when his fiancé died.

* In ''Webcomic/TsunamiChannel'', YamatoNadeshiko Haruna arrives and stays because she has promised with the protagonist, or so she claims. [[spoiler:It's eventually discovered that she ''was'' in a tightly arranged promise before, made when she was still a child. However, she and her fiancé eventually fell in genuine love with each other, but the boy got a mortal disease and dissolved the promise a couple of days before his death. Obviously, she was devastated, until the professor Hasegawa showed her a photo of the protagonist who, coincidentally, was too similar to her dead fiancé. This [[TheReveal reveal]] is done by her ''new'' arranged fiancé who was a friend of the dead one.]]

** Hephaestus and Aphrodite. Because of how powerful Aphrodite is, she was married off to one man who couldn’t challenge Zeus’ rule. In contrast to Hades and Persephone, they are both unhappy with this union. Faithfulness is not in Aphrodite’s nature and she doesn't feel much for Hephaestus, so she is having affairs left and right. Hephaestus himself is very much aware of this trait of his wife as well as the fact why he was chosen to be her mate, which he found to be more insulting than her affairs or bastard children.

* ''WesternAnimation/BuzzLightyearOfStarCommand'': Just in case you forgot that Mira Nova was a princess (and considering how ActionGirl she is, it's pretty easy), one episode has Mira finding out about an arranged marriage that has been set up for her. She tries to issue an EngagementChallenge--her foppish fiancé has to complete Star Command Basic Training--but to her horror, he passes with flying colors. Fortunately for her, he decides to become a Space Ranger rather than settle down.

* On ''WesternAnimation/TheProudFamily,'' Penny had a budding romance with a Chinese-American boy, only to discover that his parents had arranged for him to marry some girl whom he'd never met. The boy thinks it's no big deal since they wouldn't get married for years anyway, but Penny refuses to be "the other woman." The issue is resolved when the boy meets his fiancée; the two immediately hate each other so much that the whole thing gets called off.

* ''Webcomic/PrincessPrincess'': Amira's parents were trying to set her up with various princes whom she found boring (and, since she's only shown as attracted to Sadie, [[IncompatibleOrientation probably wouldn't work out regardless]]). She ran away to become a hero again.

* ''ComicBook/{{Convergence}}'': The ''Supergirl: Matrix'' tie-in establishes that Lord Volt and Lady Quark aren't happy together because they were forced to marry each other by their parents (and it's also implied that [[IncompatibleOrientation they're gay]]). This is [[SeriesContinuityError contradictory]] towards how ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'' consistently depicted Lady Quark as genuinely loving her husband and being upset about his death when she became her world's sole survivor after it was wiped out by the Anti-Monitor.

** If you're rich, then you'll probably be under the most pressure to marry well. A rich person wanting to marry someone poor or even relatively poor would face tremendous amounts of resistance from family. This is true of Indians, but it's also an age-old story that you see across many cultures and time periods, including present-day white Americans. And it may well be true that 90% of Indian marriages are arranged, but that doesn't mean they're all ''forced''. Many arranged marriages are consenting relationships. They're just done for more practical reasons than love because it's expected that you can grow to love just about anyone, so you may as well pick someone suitable and reliable to start with.
** Dinesh D'Souza (an Indian-American political commentator of Goan Catholic origin) describes his sister's "arranged marriage" as a process by which her parents vetted the prospects and made a shortlist who were then "invited to dinner with suspicious frequency" and left the final choice of groom to the girl. This general practice is common in India across religious and caste lines, and is also common throughout the Muslim World and in parts of East Asia (where similar practices fall under the broader categories of ''xiangqin'' in China and ''omiai'' in Japan).

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/TheBlackArrow'': Seeking to gain more control over his ward Richard "Dick" Shelton, as well as obtain guardianship over other young heir, Sir Daniel kidnaps Joanna Sedley to force her to marry Richard. Later, when Dick runs away after finding out that his "guardian" murdered his father to steal his inheritance, Sir Daniel tries to marry Joanna to some wealthy lord.
* In ''Literature/{{Caraval}}'', Scarlett's father has arranged for her to marry a count whom she has never met.
* ''Literature/TheDaevabadTrilogy'': King Ghassan pressures Prince Muntadhir and Nahri into a political marriage to unite their dynasties. They try to be professional about it, but it ruins their friendship; Muntadhir resents being separated from his [[SecretRelationship secret lover]] and Nahri is ''furious'' to be required to bear his children. By the end, [[spoiler:they're free to divorce and become AmicableExes.]]
* Katherine Kerr's Literature/{{Deverry}} Cycle features this for Deverrian nobles. It's extremely significant at several points across the books, although unusually it's presented as neither wholly good or bad. Both male and female characters comment on it, knowing full well that marriages are for political alliances, not love. There's even an in-universe saying about it: "Men like me marry to please our clans, not ourselves."
** Some of the arranged marriages turn out rather badly ([[spoiler: Maryn & Belyrra, Rhodry & Aedda]]), while others work out happily [[spoiler: Blaen of Cwm Pecl considers how lucky he was in his arranged wife at one point]].
** Those characters whose marriages are not arranged are also a mixed bag. Kerr doesn't treat arranged marriages as unambiguously good or bad in and of themselves - it's how the individuals respond to it that matters.
* Creator/JhumpaLahiri focuses on both arranged marriages and love marriages, while her subjects are mainly Bengalis (northeastern Indians). It's somewhat justified because Bengalis tend to be more liberal about marriage than other Indians.
** ''Literature/InterpreterOfMaladies'' has "The Third And Final Continent", which features an Indian couple who have had an arranged marriage slowly adjusting to life in America. Ultimately, they come together after the man's landlady formally accepts their marriage, signifying their inclusion into American culture. On the other hand, "This Blessed House" revolves around a couple who have had an arranged marriage and cannot properly communicate with one another, with the husband grudgingly acquiescing to his wife's eccentric needs.
** ''Literature/TheNamesake'' zig-zags this. While Gogol and Moushimi dated for a year before getting married, Moushimi feels as though she was pressured into the union by her family (since she is playing it safe by marrying an Indian man) and ultimately sees the marriage as arranged. She feels unfulfilled by Gogol's inability to relate to her superior Western education, and this leads to her [[spoiler: having an affair with an American man and eventually breaking off her marriage]].
* As noted in the Film folder, Buttercup and Prince Humperdinck in ''Literature/ThePrincessBride''. As in the film, she's more or less resigned to the whole thing because her true love is dead, but the circumstances and length of the engagement are somewhat different. It's a bit more complex in the book, since in order to be eligible to wed the prince, she has to be made a princess and sent to royalty school. The people have no idea that Buttercup is actually one of their own; they're simply told that Prince Humperdinck is betrothed to "Princess Buttercup of Hammersmith," with Hammersmith being a minor 'lump of land' attached to the kingdom of Florin.
* Jelka Tolonen in David Wingrove's ''Literature/ChungKuo'' series has been arranged to marry the son of her father's life-long friend
* In the ChivalricRomance ''Literature/HavelokTheDane'', the [[PrincessProtagonist Princess Goldborough]] is married off to a kitchen boy, because he is a strong, handsome, and impressive fellow, and her guardian had promised to marry her to the best man he could. Unfortunately for the guardian, he was also [[KingIncognito the rightful king of Denmark in hiding]]. Once he [[RightfulKingReturns claimed his throne]], he brought his army to claim hers, as well.
* In David Eddings' ''Literature/TheBelgariad'':
** The Accords of Vo Mimbre decree that an Imperial Princess of Tolnedra shall marry the [[TheChosenOne lost heir of Riva]] when he finally returns as prophesied, a prophecy the secular Tolnedrans don't believe in. Centuries later Princess Ce'Nedra finds out that she's going to get stuck with the bill, which just came due. In a rather moving explanation, she says essentially, "I'm an Imperial Princess, an asset of the House of Borune. I won't get to choose my husband, I'll be married where I can best serve the House. I've known this all my life." Fortunately, the two kids eventually fall in love anyway.
** The Belgariad plays with this trope a lot, probably because it focuses on the doings of kings and lords. Large portions of the prequel novel ''Belgarath the Sorcerer'' have him running around brokering arranged marriages in accordance with divine plan. But things generally work out for the couples because Destiny grants happiness to people who accept their fate.
* In Eddings' ''Literature/{{Elenium}}'', Queen Ehlana's parents were married as one of these; Sparhawk's father arranged for King Aldreas to marry a princess from the neighboring kingdom of Deiros in order to [[BrotherSisterIncest keep the king from trying to marry his own sister]]. Just prior to the beginning of the trilogy, the high-ranking churchman Annias tried to convince Ehlana to enter such a marriage with her cousin Lycheas, the son of the same aunt, but she refused - partly because she simply can't stand her cousin, but also because she fears that Lycheas is her half-brother through their parents' incestuous affair. [[spoiler: They aren't. The reason Annias was pushing for the union is because ''he'' is the father of Lycheas.]]
** In the sequel trilogy ''Literature/TheTamuli'', the Emperor of the Tamul empire has nine wives, one from each kingdom that makes up the empire. He and his first wife were married when they were children.
* ''Literature/TheEmpiriumTrilogy'': The royal and main noble House of Celderia have planned to marry Audric (royal) to Ludivine (noble); the two of them are already engaged by the start of the series. Audric and Ludivine have known each other since childhood and are close friends (and cousins), but neither of them are particularly eager to get married: Audric is in love with Rielle and Ludivine doesn't want to come between them. The arrangement eventually breaks down and Audric ends up marrying Rielle.
* In Creator/TeresaEdgerton's ''Literature/{{Celydonn}}'' series:
** ''Literature/TheGrailAndTheRing'': Princess Tinne was forced into marrying one of the Sons of the Boar (who faked an omen to pressure her into agreeing to it).
** ''Literature/TheMoonAndTheThorn'': Lord Macsen makes it a condition of his support that Mahaffy Guillyn marry his daughter Tiffanwy.
* In Creator/BarbaraHambly's ''Literature/CircleOfTheMoon'', it is mentioned that Raeshaldis (known simply as the Eldest Daughter in her own family), ran away from an Arranged Marriage to study FunctionalMagic. She is not happy to learn that one of her younger sisters -- ''much'' younger -- now looks like being forced into the match instead.
* In Creator/RobinHobb's ''Literature/RealmOfTheElderlings'' sequence:
** In the ''Farseer'' trilogy, Verity, the second son of the ruler of the Six Duchies, has an Arranged Marriage with the only daughter of the ruler of the Mountain Kingdom. The arrangement gets off to a very bad start.
** The sequel trilogy ''The Tawny Man'' features another Arranged Marriage [[spoiler: between Verity's son Dutiful and Elliania of the Outislands]].
*** Both of those marriages actually [[HappilyEverAfter turn out quite well]], actually. A more realistic instance is the web of custom relating to marriage-based alliances among the Bingtown and Rain Wild Traders, who often pressure their children to make advantageous matches. Though no main character is ever involved in one, several are threatened with the possibility on occasion.
* In Creator/DianaWynneJones's ''Literature/CastleInTheAir'', Prince Justin of Ingary ran away from such a marriage with the Princess Beatrice.
* In William King's TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} Literature/SpaceWolf novel ''Wolfblade'', Ragnar is told how the Navigators marry: to whom they are told to marry.
* In the ''Literature/LiadenUniverse'' books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller, aligned clans Korval and Erob trade off having members of their clans marry each other every other generation or so. Val Con was technically one of those promised to marry someone of Erob. However, he disappears for many years and ends up marrying on his own an [[ActionGirl ex-mercenary]] he meets on another world altogether. As it turned out, her grandmother is a lost member of Clan Erob, who shipwrecked while pregnant and never returned home. It's pointed out that had Val Con known he was doing what he was "supposed" to do, he certainly wouldn't have done it!
* ''Literature/HandsHeldInTheSnow'': One of the main characters, Emi L'Hime, is engaged against her will to a noblewoman from a foreign land, marking an extremely rare case of same-sex arranged marriage in fiction.
* In ''Literature/HisOnlyWife'' Afi's mother tells her that she will be marrying the wealthy Eliekem Ganyo and she feels the pressure of keeping both her own family and the Ganyos happy. She views this marriage as an opportunity to escape her life in her village of Ho, Ghana. She even tries to be OK with him not showing up for his own wedding. The marriage ceremony still happens though.
* In Creator/CSLewis's ''Literature/TheHorseAndHisBoy'', there are at least three cases:
** RebelliousPrincess Aravis's WickedStepmother had arranged a marriage for her to get rid of her ''and'' win power within Calormen (the fiancé was a high-ranked SmugSnake). She was at first DrivenToSuicide, but after her [[TalkingAnimal mare]] Hwin talks her out of it, her inner {{Tsundere}} kicks in and she and Hwin run away to Narnia.
** Queen Susan the Gentle and her younger brother King Edmund the Just travel to Tashbaan (the capital of Aravis's homeland of Calormen) to consider an offer of marriage to Susan from Crown Prince Rabadash. She ultimately doesn't want to marry the Prince, [[BitchInSheepsClothing having seen his true colors]], but Rabadash [[ScarpiaUltimatum plots to force her go through with it anyway]]. They escape back to Narnia, and when Rabadash attempts to seize her by force, he ends up failing [[HumiliationConga in the most humiliating way possible]].
** When Aravis ends up in Tashbaan she meets up with her best friend Lasaraleen who has already married a ''very'' wealthy nobleman and it's hinted it was an Arranged Marriage as well. Unlike Aravis, though, Lasaraleen doesn't seem to mind.
* This is par for the course for the nobility of ''Literature/TheReynardCycle''. [[spoiler: As a result of this, the Countess Persephone ends up marrying the man who (inadvertently) ''killed her father''. The union is surprisingly civil.]]
* Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' series includes several, as befits a fantasy series with somewhat higher pretensions to historical accuracy than the average. In fact, virtually every marriage between nobles (which the majority of the main characters are) is this trope by definition, although it ranges from finding a son or daughter a good political match that they also approve of, to outright forcing someone to marry. Traditionally, there is a not-insignificant period of betrothal before marriage, during which the young couple can get to know each other, but in times of war and backstabbing, like the current events of the series, there are quite a few speed-marriages.
** ''Literature/AGameOfThrones'' devotes much effort to contrasting the marriage of Lord Ned Stark and Lady Catelyn Tully with that of King Robert Baratheon and Queen Cersei Lannister; while both were arranged to form political alliances, the former grew to love each other and build one of the least dysfunctional families of the series, while the latter shared a mutually abusive and adulterous relationship. Somewhere in between we find the marriage of Princess Daenerys Targaryen and the barbarian warlord Khal Drogo, which grows from something terrifying if not outright abusive into mutual respect and considerable passion. The series being [[CrapsackWorld what it is]], however, there's a good chance for any relationship to come to an unhappy ending. [[spoiler:All three men are dead by the end of the first book, for various reasons.]]
** The backstory of the series involved a failed ArrangedMarriage between Lord Robert Baratheon and Lady Lyanna Stark, whose betrothal was derailed when Lyanna was [[{{AmbiguousSituation}} kidnapped by and/or ran off with]] Prince Rhaegar (who broke his own arranged marriage to his wife Elia Martell in the process). The nature of Robert and Lyanna's match is also complicated; Robert believed himself to be genuinely in love with her, but Lyanna doubted they'd be happy together because of his unfaithfulness, and in present day her brother Ned acknowledges that Robert didn't truly know her.
** Another one in the backstory involved a betrothal between Ned's elder brother Brandon and Catelyn Tully. Sadly, that betrothal failed when Brandon was executed on the orders of the Mad King, which led into the above arranged wartime marriage between Ned and Catelyn.
** The series itself starts with the betrothal of Lady Sansa (Ned and Catelyn's daughter) and Prince Joffrey (Robert and Cersei's son) to try and "redo" the failed Robert and Lyanna match. Sansa is initially besotted with Joffrey and believes it to be a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage, not realizing Joffrey is a sadistic psychopath. [[spoiler: By the time she figures out his true colours ''and'' that he's not even Robert's proper son, she's forced to remain betrothed to him while a prisoner at his court in a much darker version of this trope. Ironically, at the same time Sansa's going through this, her sister Arya is on the run with Robert Baratheon's illegitimate but actual biological son Gendry, and they develop a genuine Stark-Baratheon bond in a vastly different way than anyone expected, with an organic friendship and ShipTease totally removed from arrangements between noble houses and without even knowing Gendry is a Baratheon.]]
** [[spoiler: Sansa's betrothal to Joffrey is eventually dissolved and she's forced into ''different'' arranged marriage with Tyrion Lannister, a deformed dwarf who is old enough to be her father. (He isn't happy about the situation either.) This marriage actually goes ahead, although thankfully Tyrion doesn't force her to consummate it and is actually one of the kindest people at court.]]
** [[spoiler: Sansa gets hit with yet ''another'' arrangement after escaping King's Landing, and she's betrothed to Harry Hardying, second in line to Lord of the Vale, while masquerading as Petyr Baelish's bastard daughter.]]
** [[spoiler: Robb Stark is a speedily-arranged-marriage-due-to-war case, as he agrees to marry one of Lord Frey's daughters in exchange for access to their bridge during his battle campaign. He later breaks the agreement to marry another girl, trading his uncle, Edmure Tully, to marry Roslin Frey instead... which leads to the Freys massacring him and most of his family.]]
** [[spoiler: As part of the same agreement Arya, his little sister, is promised to Elmar Frey. This is a rather dubious example, however, as Arya is on the run at the time and no one involved in negotiating the match even knows if she's still alive to fulfill the deal. Robb also wryly comments that "Arya won't like that [the marriage] one bit" and her other brother Bran says outright that [[{{RebelliousPrincess}} she'll never go along with it]]. Ironically, Arya (still disguised as a commoner) later runs into her betrothed and is unimpressed by his wallowing over his "lost Princess" and tells him she hopes she dies.]]
** [[spoiler: Later, most of Westeros believes that Arya has been forced into a - horrifically abusive - arranged marriage with Ramsay Bolton, who has taken over her family's lordship of the North. However, this "Arya" is actually impostor Jeyne Poole, whom the Boltons forced into pretending to be Arya. Arya is yet again unaware of the match, having left the country altogether.]]
** Lady Margaery Tyrell is a much more proactive and willing example, as she helps organize multiple arranged marriages for herself - first to Renly Baratheon, [[spoiler: then to Joffrey Lannister, and finally to his younger brother Tommen - in order to secure her Queenship. She's incredibly pragmatic about the whole thing - including not minding that Renly is gay, Joffrey is sadistic, and Tommen is half her age - and capable of manipulating all three of them. The only problem is [[CartwrightCurse they keep dying on her]] (except for Tommen, for the time being).]]
** Princess Myrcella Baratheon and Trystane Martell are a more conventional arranged-as-children case and are given several years to get to know each other when Myrcella is sent to his family court in Dorne. In a miraculously happy example, they actually develop mutual affection for each other and seem happy with the match.
** Variant with the Valyrians prior to the Conquest, where there was a standardised policy of arranging a marriage between...[[BrotherSisterIncest the oldest son and daughter of the same family]]. Aegon the Conqueror tried to have it both ways by marrying his older sister out of duty and his younger out of love, although apart from Maegor I all the Targaryen kings descended from the younger.
** King Aegon V arranged betrothals for his five children, but all but one broke them off in favor of love matches (one married a commoner, two married ''each other'' in defiance of their father's desire to phase out the family incest tradition, and [[IncompatibleOrientation one just wanted to spend time with his boyfriend]]). As he himself had been able to marry for love before becoming king (due mostly to having been so far down the line of succession that getting him a politically-advantageous match hadn't been a priority), Aegon reluctantly accepted their choices, [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome though it majorly ticked off the noble families to whom he had promised them, impeding the implementation of his reforms and in one case even resulting in a brief rebellion]].
** Daenerys' parents, Aerys II and Rhaella, were forced to marry each other by their parents, because of a prophecy stating that a messianic figure would be born by their union. Aerys originally wanted to marry Joanna Lannister, while Rhaella wanted to marry Bonifer Hasty. The marriage started out peachy, but gradually turned toxic as Aerys became madder.
** It should be noted that ''any'' marriage agreement given focus in this series, instigated for any reason whatsoever, will find a path to lead directly to bloodshed. Backing out and sending the other party into a tiff, calling the heirs' legitimacy into question through sneaking around, sitting next to your wife just in time for the GambitRoulette wheel to clunk into place. The only exception is Ned and Catelyn... except for the little fact that Catelyn's other suitor was [[MagnificentBastard Petyr Baelish]]. It is actually noted in the story that relationships built on love have caused quite a bit of suffering and sorrow for the realm, and even then, you could probably count the amount of love-based relationships on one hand, perhaps two.
* In Creator/PatriciaAMcKillip's ''Literature/TheBellAtSealeyHead'', [[PrincessProtagonist Princess]] Ysabo is told she will marry a knight, and when she asks why she must, the knight hits her. Her servant is distraught -- that she would question it.
* Rhian's proposed marriage to Lord Rolf in Karen Miller's ''Literature/GodspeakerTrilogy'', which just allows the High Priest Marlan to run the kingdom by proxy. Rhian, of course, [[RunawayFiance has other ideas]].
* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/WitchWorld'' series, {{Arranged Marriage}}s are the norm for the nobles of High Hallack. The parties are married by proxy when one or both are young children; they may not meet until it is time for them to begin living together, usually when the younger member of the pair is about sixteen.
** The short story "Amber Out of Quayth": Ysmay's marriage is arranged as part of a deal with an amber trader, as her dowry is an amber mine that her family hasn't got the resources to exploit. She accepts the arrangement because it isn't very different from what she could have expected if a war hadn't resulted in a glut of unmarried women on the market.
** ''The Crystal Gryphon'': Kerovan's marriage with Joisan is arranged at the beginning of the book, when they are both children; his father wants to safeguard Kerovan's position and make it clear that his son ''will'' be his heir, while her family has received a prophecy that the wedding is necessary for Joisan's future. Incidentally, it is made clear, after one of Joisan's cousins falls in love with her when she is grown, that while the right of bride refusal exists (so that Joisan could refuse to complete the contract), that exercising such a right invariably brings about a blood feud between the families involved, so in practice it is not used. Joisan is very angry when accused of encouraging the cousin.
** ''Year of the Unicorn'': the terms of the Were Riders' treaty with the Dalesmen in the Invaders' War was that in exchange for their help, they would receive thirteen brides of noble birth, to be delivered at the beginning of the Year of the Unicorn. One of the girls volunteered, since various powerful lords would be obligated to help her family afterward, but none of the other girls had a choice.
* Many of Creator/EllisPeters' ''Literature/BrotherCadfael'' novels have this as an element of their romantic B-plots, reasonably enough, considering they're set in a time and place when arranged marriages were closer to the norm than the exception for anyone in the merchant class or higher.
** ''The Devil's Novice'': Meriet Aspley's elder brother is about to conclude an Arranged Marriage contract with a neighbouring landowner's daughter, with the ceremony taking place late in the book (since it provides an excellent means of putting all the suspects in one place). Fortunately, Meriet's brother and the girl are in love.
** ''An Excellent Mystery'': Brother Humilis arranged a marriage for himself with a very young girl prior to going on Crusade, since he knew he'd be gone for years and wanted to have children. However, when he returned, he entered a monastery rather than completing the contract. She then supposedly entered a convent; the plot is set in motion when it is realized that she never arrived at the convent.
** ''The Hermit of Eyton Forest'': The boy's grandmother is trying to force him into an Arranged Marriage with the grown daughter of a neighbouring landowner. Neither potential spouse is keen on this.
** ''One Corpse Too Many'': Hugh Beringar and his betrothed are on opposite sides of a civil war; she is trying to escape from Shropshire and the marriage, while he is trying to find her. Slighty played with - Hugh believes it is his responsibility to make sure she is safe, and is more than happy to let her escape with her suitor.
** ''Dead Man's Ransom'': The young Welsh hostage Hugh hopes to exchange for a captive Sheriff Prescott has been betrothed to a girl 'who is very well indeed and if I must, she'll do.' from childhood. Then he meets the Sheriff's beautiful daughter....
** ''The Leper of St. Giles'': A beautiful young heiress has been forcibly betrothed to a much older baron by her abusive guardians. They know about the handsome young squire who loves her, but they don't know that her long-lost grandfather is hovering nearby, determined to see his grandchild happy.
** ''Summer of the Danes'': Heledd has been betrothed to a man she's never seen by Owain Gwynedd. She, however, is determined to take her fate into her own hands and that includes marrying a man of ''her'' choice.
* In Jennifer Roberson's ''Literature/ChroniclesOfTheCheysuli'', the protagonists are attempting to fulfill a prophecy that requires a child with certain bloodlines. Consequently there's, on average, about one arranged marriage per book, some of which work out and some of which...really don't.
* Meghan Sayres' ''Literature/AnahitasWovenRiddle'' is about an Iranian girl who defies a traditional arranged marriage by declaring that she will only marry the one who solves the riddle she weaves in her carpet. [[spoiler:The winner is the [[FirstGirlWins first man she meets]] other than her UnluckyChildhoodFriend.]]
* This is played around with in ''Literature/WarAndPeace'', given that the financial future of the Rostovs seems to depend on whom their children marry. There is a short-lived conflict between Nikolai and his parents when he chooses to marry the nice (but technically poor) Sonya, but he had to do a lot of "should I go for personal happiness or the happiness of my family" soul-searching first.
** The fact that Nikolai ends up with the wealthy Maria would indicate that he ultimately chose the latter; however, there ''was'' an attraction between them from their first meeting, and the DistantFinale portrays him as honestly in love with her. It is of course perfectly possible to fall in love with a 'Good' match.
* ''Literature/AnnaKarenina'' plays with this trope. It, much like the Jane Austen books below, was written during a period in which the wealthy were moving from arranged marriages to marriages by choice. It dedicates an entire chapter to the confusion this creates for Kitty's poor mother, as it's unfashionable to flat-out arrange a marriage, but it's lower class to allow her daughter to choose on her own. She has no idea what her role is, and while her situation PlayedForLaughs (much like that of ''Pride and Prejudice's'' Mrs. Bennett), it's at least given some thought.
* All the female characters in ''Literature/MomentInPeking'' ended up in arranged marriages. Since this was the norm for their time and place, they simply learned to deal with it.
* In Creator/PatriciaCWrede's ''Literature/EnchantedForestChronicles'', this pops up twice. First, in ''Dealing With Dragons'', Princess Cimorene's parents try to pawn off their difficult daughter on the braindead Prince Therandil and tell her she has no choice; Cimorene runs away instead. In the next book, ''Searching for Dragons'', King Mendanbar of the Enchanted Forest finds himself eternally arguing with his steward, who pressures him to get married to ensure an heir. [[spoiler: Three guesses who ends up married to whom, and the first two don't count.]]
* In Creator/PatriciaCWrede's ''Literature/TheSevenTowers'', Prince Eltiron's domineering father betroths him to Princess Crystalorn from a neighboring kingdom. Both characters are horrified by the idea, but once they meet and survive the book's plot together, they rapidly slide into a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage.
* In Creator/EdgarRiceBurroughs's ''[[Literature/JohnCarterOfMars A Princess of Mars]]'', having captured Dejah Thoris, the Jeddak of Zodanga insists on her marrying his son as the price of peace with Helium. Her grandfather rejects it.
* In Colleen [=McCullough's=] ''Literature/MastersOfRome'' series it is several times explained that elite women are expected to marry where suits their menfolk's interests without complaint. Some of these marriages are disastrous, others work out quite well. Nor are the girl's feelings invariably ignored.
** One of UsefulNotes/JuliusCaesar's reasons for breaking his Julia's engagement to Brutus is he's become aware that she does not love him, and happily she does have a crush on Pompey who's an even better political match. Years later young [[UsefulNotes/{{Augustus}} Octavius]] includes his sister's liking for the man on his list of reasons for accepting the suit - admittedly after the political and financial qualifications have been considered.
* Somewhat averted in the ''Literature/JudgeDee'' series. Though arranged marriages were the rule in Ancient China the Judge encounters a truly amazing number of couples making love matches - sometimes with his assistance. "I'd better resign as a magistrate and set up business as a professional matchmaker!" he grumbles in ''The Haunted Monastery''. In all fairness genuine Chinese literature shows that love matches were not out of the question, providing one had the good sense and good taste to fall in love with a suitable person. This cultural ambiguity is [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] by Judge Dee's own household. His marriage to his First Lady was arranged; his marriages to his Second and Third were not.
* The book ''Literature/ServingCrazyWithCurry'' presents two more modern approaches to this trope- a) the protagonist's older sister asks her parents to arrange a match when she becomes disenchanted with dating (the resulting match is less than successful), and b) the protagonist's grandmother decides to help her by finding some appropriate Indian men to present to her.
* Creator/JaneAusten's books are full of references to this trope. The older generation usually sees it as the norm, with the younger generation preferring to MarryForLove. RealLife society was undergoing a similar transition at the time.
** ''Literature/SenseAndSensibility'': Edward's mother arranges a marriage for him with the rich Miss Morton. He refuses, so he is disowned, and an Arranged Marriage between Miss Morton and his brother Robert is put on the table. The heroine Elinor wonders, to her brother's disbelief, if Miss Morton gets a say in this. Colonel Brandon's BackStory also includes him and his first love being separated by an arranged marriage.
** ''Literature/PrideAndPrejudice'': Lady Catherine claims she and her sister privately arranged a marriage between her daughter Anne and her nephew Mr. Darcy. Elizabeth supposes that this is the reason for Darcy's indifference to Caroline Bingley... until Darcy proposes to ''her'' halfway through the book, which makes it clear he doesn't consider himself bound by any such arrangement.
*** Also from P&P: Mrs. Bennet tries to force Elizabeth to marry Mr. Collins against her will. This is only prevented when Mr. Bennet makes it clear he sides with Elizabeth in disliking Mr. Collins, in one of the best lines in the book:
---->'''Mr. Bennet''': Very well. We have now come to the point. Your mother insists upon your accepting it. Is it not so, Mrs. Bennet?
---->'''Mrs. Bennet''': Yes, or I will never see her again.
---->'''Mr. Bennet''': An unhappy alternative is before you, Elizabeth. From this day, you must be a stranger to one of your parents. - Your mother will never see you again if you do ''not'' marry Mr. Collins, and I will never see you again if you ''do.''
** The clash between the old and new attitudes towards this trope is best shown in ''Literature/MansfieldPark'': Maria Bertram's {{Jerkass}} aunt arranges a marriage for her with the rich but [[TheDitz ditzy]] Mr. Rushworth. Her father, although satisfied with the match himself, later offers to break it off in the engagement phase because he can see she doesn't love him; Maria chooses to go through with the loveless arranged marriage. The tragic irony is that Sir Thomas Bertram later (unsuccessfully) tries to convince the heroine, his niece Fanny Price, to marry a man she doesn't love. Guilt and misery ensue for all.
** In ''Literature/LoveAndFreindship'', the proposed bridegroom's rejection is a satire.
--->''My Father, seduced by the false glare of Fortune and the Deluding Pomp of Title, insisted on my giving my hand to Lady Dorothea. 'No, never,' exclaimed I. 'Lady Dorothea is lovely and Engaging; I prefer no woman to her; but know, Sir, that I scorn to marry her in compliance with your Wishes. No! Never shall it be said that I obliged my Father.[='=]''
* The protagonist of Creator/JasperFforde's ''Literature/ShadesOfGrey'' finds himself first promised to marry Constance Oxblood, and later to [[spoiler:Violet deMauve]].
* The financially-motivated version is brought up on some occasions in ''Literature/TheDeathOfTheVazirMukhtar'', as it was pretty popular mong European nobility in general and in early 19th century Russia in particular. Some characters refer to the main character's marriage with Princess Nina Chavchavadze as this, but note that the couple itself has been in love for quite some time prior to this.
* The Sandarians in Michael [=McCollum's=] ''Literature/{{Antares}}'' series practice arranged marriages, befitting a monarchic society like theirs. Crown Prince Philip was betrothed at the age of three. Fortunately, he and his fiancée have fallen in love by this point.
* The overarching plot of ''Literature/ThePillarsOfTheEarth'' is set off by a broken Arranged Marriage, which becomes a major local scandal.
* Rare non-period Western example: In ''Literature/TheWestingGame'', Angela Wexler and [[spoiler:Violet Westing]] are pressured into de facto arranged marriages by their social-climbing mothers, who care more about bagging a son-in-law with an impressive title (doctor or senator) than about their daughters' happiness. Neither bride-to-be copes well with the situation....
** Author Ellen Raskin is making a point. The book was written in the early 1970s, and the Violet Westing story took place about 25 years earlier. Back then, women were ''supposed'' to care more about the social status, and earning ability, of their prospective husbands, than about companionability or character, although times were changing. This is why [[spoiler: Violet was doomed, but Angela manages to scramble out at the 11th hour]]. Not to mention that Angela's mother had bucked the system and married for love herself [[spoiler: and didn't think it had turned out so well]].
* The twelve-year-old Rindi, from the Morris Gleitzman book ''Literature/{{Bumface}}'', is the child of a Middle Eastern ex-pat family living in Australia, who is being heavily pressured into an arranged marriage with a much older man by her family. Much of the plot of the book consists of her and Angus coming up with {{Zany Scheme}}s to get her out of it.
* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
** There's an unusual take on this in the ''Literature/XWingSeries'', that also crosses into the HighClassCallGirl trope. The Kuat system of planets apparently uses an unusual form of marriage, to prevent inbreeding in the nobility, where middle-class families may choose to raise one of their children as ''Telbun'', wherein they receive advanced training in academics, athletics, and social behavior. At the end of the training the Telbun are required to take a retinue of tests to determine their standing in terms of intelligence, health, genetics and social behaviors. The noble families then bid on a Telbun to act as a consort (and servant) for a member of the family. In the event of a child, the Telbun helps raise it, though the Telbun is not considered part of the family him or herself. The main reason this crosses into the high class call girl trope is that the Telbun's original family is compensated for the Telbun's services (TruthInTelevision: buying concubines was an established custom in many polygamous cultures).
** One of the ''Adventures'' novellas had one of these be arranged between two groups. Neither one of the [[SarcasmMode happy couple]] took it well, and instead began spending time on a space station, where they met a mechanic and a woman that lived on the space station. Eventually, following an attempt to take over the station by a Hutt, the two royals both found out that the people they had met on the station were actually alter egos of each other, leading for it to be a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage.
* A hilarious example is found in Georgette Heyer's ''Literature/ALadyOfQuality''. The lady of the title encounters a young couple whose parents are pressuring them into such a match. The girl, desperate, resolves to run away - with the assistance of the boy! This becomes less peculiar when it is revealed that they have been best friends from childhood, which also explains the total lack of romantic chemistry between them. Never-the-less another character predicts that they will eventually fall in love, once they mature a little and learn to see one another as an attractive man/woman rather than the kid they've known all their lives.
* Judith, the teenage protagonist of the young adult novel ''Literature/TheMinstrelsTale'', is forced into one of these by her stepfather. Not only is she deeply put off by her bridegroom, who is at least thirty years her senior, but on the night of their betrothal dinner she falls in love with the young minstrel who comes to play and sing for them. So she [[RunawayFiance runs away]].
* ''Literature/VorkosiganSaga'': Aral Vorkosigan's first marriage, mentioned a few times in the books, was arranged. It did not turn out well.
** Barrayar has an interesting twist on the arranged marriage as, while being most common among the Vor elite, some of its mechanics were in common use among the lower classes as well. In particular, the concept of the Baba, a respected 3rd party that acts as a go-between. Even if the marriage isn't arranged by anyone other than the particulars, the bloke might have his family send a baba to the woman's family, who then asks the woman. It is a kind of crutch for the socially awkward, as the woman doesn't need to reject the man to his face, and the man doesn't have to ask her directly.
* In Creator/RobertEHoward's "Literature/ThePeopleOfTheBlackCircle", Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian laughs at Yasmina's offer of reward.
-->''"Would you make me your king?" he asked sardonically.\\
"Well, there are customs-" she stammered, and he interrupted her with a hard laugh.\\
"Yes, civilized customs that won't let you do as you wish. You'll marry some withered old king of the plains, and I can go my way with only the memory of a few kisses snatched from your lips. Ha!"''
** In "Literature/ShadowsInTheMoonlight" Olivia was MadeASlave for refusing this.
* In ''[[Literature/TheAlienSeries Alien Tango]]'' Kitty learns Martini is betrothed in one of these, not that he or his arranged bride ever agreed.
* Shows up in ''Literature/{{Buddenbrooks}}'', with Jean and Tony's first marriage
* The novel ''Franchise/StarCraft Ghost: Nova'' reveals that the Old Families of the [[TheEmpire Terran Confederacy]] were, pretty much, aristocracy. Nova's parents had no love for each other and married only because their families wished to merge their fortunes. The marriage contract allowed each partner to have a live-in lover, as long as no children were produced out-of-wedlock. In fact, Nova treated her father's mistress almost like a big sister and she was on good terms with her mother's jig. Other contract clauses include the distribution of power and responsibility. Nova's father is in charge of all business decisions, while his wife controls anything related to the family. Attempts by either party to infringe into the other's "area of influence" is grounds for divorce.
* In the ''Literature/DragonJousters'' series by Creator/MercedesLackey, arranged marriage is common among nobles, but required for Altan monarchs -- the oldest pair of male twins among the royal clans ''must'' marry the oldest set of female twins among the royal clans. Kaleth and Marit fall deeply in love with each other, but Toreth and Nofret... well, Toreth states openly that he would never interfere with Nofret seeking pleasure elsewhere, and sees no reason why she would interfere with his pleasures. Part of the Magis' plans to take over Alta involve establishing themselves as a fake royal clan, declaring two of their members twins, and forcing a marriage between them and Marit/Nofret once Toreth is murdered and Kaleth disgraced.
* In ''Literature/{{Emperor}}: The Field of Swords'', Julius Caesar has to promise his daughter's hand in marriage to Pompey in order to secure the latter's support in his bid for consul.
* In the Literature/StarTrekNovelVerse, this is the foundation of Andorian culture, a result of their low birth rate and general infertility. Having four sexes and a thin window of opportunity for successful births, they need to get their young adults making babies as soon as possible. Quads are brought together after genetic mapping to determine likely success in breeding. Andorians are taught to revere the four-way marriage bond above all else: One alone cannot be Whole, nor two, nor three. The social implications are explored in the Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch in particular.
* This is the entire concept of the book ''Literature/{{Matched}}''. The government chooses your job and who you marry, and you're not allowed to refuse.
* In the ''Literature/HexHall'' series a witch is betrothed on her thirteenth birthday. Sophie's father arranged her engagement without ever having met her and without telling her that she was engaged never mind who to. However, it's established that it's done more out of tradition than anything else as either party can say no.
* In ''Literature/DreamOfTheRedChamber'' Lin Daiyu and Jia Baoyu slowly form a very close relationship, but in the end, Baoyu's mother and aunts decide whom he gets to marry, with dramatic results.
* Used somewhat oddly in ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfAmber'', where Corwin's brother Random is forced to marry a woman in punishment for having seduced and eloped with Queen Moire's daughter, who later committed suicide. Moire explains that the girl, being blind, has no suitors, and would gain great rank from marrying a Prince of Amber...and would eventually recover from whatever harm he did her. To everyone's surprise, it turns out to be a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage instead.
* In Creator/CharlesDickens' last novel ''Literature/TheMysteryOfEdwinDrood'', Rosa Bud and Mr Drood are to enter into a marriage arranged by their late fathers.
* Elizabeth Bathory and Ferencz Nadasdy in ''Literature/CountAndCountess'', as was the norm for that time period.
* Camille and his cousin Thérèse in ''Literature/ThereseRaquin''. It was his mother's idea, and Mme. Raquin is the only one who's particularly happy about her brilliant plan.
* In Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/BerenAndLuthien'', the villainous forced version almost happens to Lúthien, the princess of Doriath. She and Beren are in the middle of their quest to try to fulfill her father's ironic, impossible EngagementChallenge: steal a Silmaril from [[{{Hell}} Angband]]. Celegorm and Curufin, ruthless elven princes determined to get the Silmarils for themselves at any cost, kidnap Lúthien and try to force her father to "give" her to Celegorm. Fortunately, [[spoiler:Celegorm's awesome dog, Huan, helps her escape.]]
* ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'':
** In the first book of the ''Literature/CollegiumChronicles'', Healer-Trainee Bear is betrothed without his consent (or even awareness) by his parents, whose only criteria seems to have been the odds that any resulting children would have the [[HealingHands Healer's Gift]]. Bear refuses to cooperate but has to have his father violently thrashed to get the rejection to stick.
** The reasons and political maneuvering behind the various forms of arranged marriage among the nobility are a theme of ''Closer to Home''. Many of the young ladies (and, more to the point, their parents) are hoping to land [[NobilityMarriesMoney wealthy merchants]] who will parade them at social functions, instead of older nobles merely looking for someone to provide an [[SpareToTheThrone heir and a spare]]. The DoubleStandard between ladies, who are expected to be faithful at least until the aforementioned heirs are produced, and young men, for whom mistresses and visits to brothels are winked at, is explored. The main characters, members of the more sexually liberated Heralds, decide that something ought to be done about a culture that raises girls to aspire to no more than a good match.
** In the first published ''Valdemar'' novel, ''Arrows of the Queen'', Talia gets told on her thirteenth birthday by her father's wives that she is old enough for marriage and that one will be arranged for her from the offers her father received. This prompts her to declare that she doesn't want to be married and would rather be a Herald, and then she runs out of the house, to be Chosen shortly after. Later, the Queen has to send Heralds down to the Holderkin to inform them that their kids ''do'' have the right to refuse arranged marriages (though such children will be disowned by the Holderkin).
* In ''Literature/{{Altraterra}}'' series by Yvonne Pioch, Anne, a 14-year-old girl, is forced by the Magical Academy to marry Miraz, her brother's teacher. Notably because unlike many other works, which relegate the consequences to FridgeHorror territory, here it is explicitly stated that the sole purpose of said marriage is to produce a male heir, and as soon as possible. Since Anne has a crush on Miraz, she willingly agrees. [[spoiler: then her brother, who made a FaceHeelTurn, intervenes...]]
* In ''Literature/EnchantressFromTheStars'', Evrek is clearly Elana's designated fiancé. The chemistry between them is... less than stellar.
* Every marriage in Pentexore is arranged via the Abir in ''Literature/DirgeForPresterJohn'', though the people feel free to make that work or not, and take lovers whether they are happy or not with their spouse.
* The reader learns this in passing about a magistrate in Creator/CharlesDickens' ''Literature/BarnabyRudge''.
-->''He mistrusted the honesty of all poor people who could read and write, and had a secret jealousy of his own wife (a young lady whom he had married for what his friends called "the good old English reason," that her father's property adjoined his own) for possessing these accomplishments in greater degree than himself.''
* Pretty much how things work in the world of ''Literature/ABrothersPrice''. Men are rare and valuable, traded either for other men or for great sums of money, and these marriages are chosen by the women of the family, with sisters having the loudest voice in the proceedings. Eldest Whistler does want to be sure that her brother will be happy in whatever marriage he ends up a part of.
* In Kingsbury's ''Literature/CourtshipRite'', more-or-less the core of the story is the reluctance of the maran-Kaiel five-family to comply with the arranged marriage to Oelita the Gentle Heretic, ordered by the Kaiel clan's Prime Predictor. The five are in love with another woman, Kathein, and had planned to marry her, so they are outraged by the order, and decide to revive the ancient Death Rite, used to test heretics for their fitness to live, and use that to "court" Oelita. During the course of the rite, though, they start to fall in love with Oelita, complicating matters immensely, especially since Oelita is not exactly feeling wooed by these attempts on her life. Did we mention that everyone except Oelita is a cannibal? It's an odd story.
* In ''[[Literature/TalesOfTheBranionRealm The Stone Prince]]'', the eponymous prince has been pretty much beaten by his mother into being unable to express his feelings (hence the title), and his only current relationship (which is gay) happens to be one he fought a civil war to preserve when his mother disapproved. By the start of the novel, she thinks it's time for him to get married -- to a member of the kingdom's most powerful noble family, which hints at rebellion if their candidate doesn't become his consort. Complicated further by the fact that the bride-to-be's brother is the prince's former lover, the noble family was split down the middle by the prince's rebellion, and the ruler has a nasty habit of slaughtering her enemies.
* In ''{{Literature/Apollos Grove}}'', the Oracle of Delphi dies and is replaced by a woman named Lyssa, who comes from a formerly wealthy family that's willing to let her leave because she no longer has value as a marriage asset. Her father forcibly takes her back when he regains his wealth and Lyssa once again becomes an option for an arranged marriage.
* Creator/MargaretWeis and Tracy Hickman's ''Literature/TheDeathGateCycle'' plays with this trope. King Stephen and Queen Anne are involved in a political marriage that fused their long-warring nations together, and they hate each other and are constantly bickering in public. In private, [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage they love each other dearly]], and use appearances to keep control of the kingdom(s), particularly those courtiers who actually ''do'' bear the old hatreds. It's also a good chance for them to yell at each other.
* Literature/WhateleyUniverse: After [[GenderBender his/her]] Drow transformation, Jobe is initially disowned by her father, the EmperorScientist Gizmatic, on the grounds that, biologically, she [[TheSocialDarwinist wasn't his child any more]]; however, he then forces her into a LeonineContract by which she would be recognized as the heir to the throne of [[BananaRepublic Karedonia]], but only if she ''[[RoyalInbreeding marries back into her own family]]''. As of October 2022, we have yet to learn whom she is to marry, though the prevailing theory in-universe is that it will be a clone of Jobe's original body.
* The Psi Lords of Takis have an unusual variation of this going on in the ''Literature/WildCards'' series. As they are running a SuperBreedingProgram, arranged marriages for eugenic (and sometimes political) purposes are the norm. However, monogamy is not an expected aspect of the deal. The only real restriction is that Psi Lords are only supposed to procreate as specified by the breeding plan. Otherwise, both male and female Psi Lords indulge in affairs and employ concubines. Takis in general has a [[FreeLoveFuture distinctly relaxed attitude about sexuality]], largely driven by the fact that the Psi Lord ruling class has culturally divorced love, marriage, procreation, and sex into different things.
* ''Literature/PaladinOfShadows'': The traditional setup for the Keldara is to have marriages arranged by the Fathers and Mothers (leaders, pretty much) of the Keldaran families.
* In Creator/AndreNorton's ''Literature/IceCrown'', Nelis casually mentions that his sister was "ringed" young to the son of his father's best friend.
* In ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices'', Tessa was going to be forced to marry the Magister had she not been rescued by Will. She was obviously not very happy about it.
* In ''Literature/SummersAtCastleAuburn'', Elisandra Halsing has been engaged to Bryan since they were infants. The royal family traditionally takes brides from the Halsing family.
* ''Literature/TheApprenticeRogue'': The premise of the plot; a princess from a neighboring kingdom has been engaged to the local king and needs an escort to the ceremony and her new home.
* Averted in theory, but Millicent's marriage to Mr. Hattersley looks like one in practice in ''Literature/TheTenantOfWildfellHall''. She writes to Helen that she only said "maybe," but her mother has already started the wedding planning and it's too late now...
* In Erin Morgenstern's ''Literature/TheNightCircus'', Isobel is in London because she fled such a match. She had to sell her engagement ring for the money.
* In Stephanie Burgis's ''[[Literature/KatIncorrigible A Most Improper Magick]]'', their stepmother is trying to arrange one for Elissa, so they can keep their brother out of debtors' prison. Angeline observes that the worst part is that the WrongGenreSavvy Elissa finds it romantic.
* Oberon and Titania's marriage in ''Literature/TerraMirumChronicles'' brought some balance between the Seelie and Unseelie fae courts.
* In Debra Doyle and James [=MacDonald=]'s ''Literature/KnightsWyrd'', Will has an arranged marriage, a betrothal to Isobel -- arranged when they were both three. When he hears that he will meet death before the year is out, and his brother will inherit (so she won't have a child), he has misgivings.
* ''Literature/ElementalMasters'' series:
** Arranged marriages are common in the series among upper-class mages. The reasoning is that it's best to marry someone you won't have to hide your Elemental magic from, and if you get along well with him/her that's a bonus.
** The generations-long pact between the Prothero family and the [[SelkiesAndWereseals Selch]] in ''Literature/HomeFromTheSea'' makes each Prothero part of an arranged marriage.
* In L. Jagi Lamplighter's ''The Unexpected Enlightenment of Literature/RachelGriffin'', Nastasia expects one. She calmly says if her father marries her off to someone obnoxious, it would only be because the kingdom needed her to marry him, and if she and her husband dedicate themselves to their marriage, they will grow to love each other. Besides, were arranged marriages so much more unhappy than love matches?
* Creator/SimonaAhrnstedt seems to love this trope!
** Exaggerated/deconstructed example: Beatrice Löwenström in ''Literature/{{Overenskommelser}}'' is forced by [[EvilUncle her uncle]] into marriage with a man, who's like forty years older than her and treats women like dirt under his shoes. [[spoiler: And it does NOT end well for her! She was lucky to survive the wedding night and that the old creep died only a couple of days afterwards...]]
** Reconstructed example: Illiana and Markus in "Betvingade" are forced to marry each other, but it turns out [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage well enough]].
** Subverted/defied example: Gabriel Gripklo in "De skandalösa" makes a promise to his mother that he will marry a girl from the aristocracy. But he [[spoiler: falls in love with Magdalena, the story's female protagonist, and has to break that promise.]]
* Swedish writer Elisabet Nemert has a reconstructed example in her novel "Ödets hav". Aurora, the story's female protagonist, is forced into marriage with her uncle's friend's son, but it turns out [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage well enough]].
* In Creator/SarahAHoyt's ''Literature/DarkshipThieves'', Thena tells Kit she's always been expecting this. Despite the immense pressure her father would bring to bear.
* Standard practice in ''Literature/AnnalsOfTheWesternShore''. In the Uplands, marriages are arranged to preserve the gift of each family's lineage and bring beneficial gifts into the family. Ogge Drum deliberately insults the Caspros in ''Gifts'' by offering a mentally disabled niece as Orrec's bride. In the lowland city-states, marriages between great families are arranged for the usual land/money/political purposes.
* ''Literature/AgeOfFire'': [[EvilMatriarch Tighlia]] forces [=RuGaard=] to mate with her granddaughter Halaflora in order to both solidify his adopted position in the Imperial Line and to pair off the two most unwanted members of the family. [=RuGaard=] isn't happy about this, since he'd already made plans to mate with his long-time LoveInterest Nilrasha (whose reaction to the news implies Tighlia threatened her into accepting), but he [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage learns to love Halaflora's gentle nature]]. [[spoiler: And then she dies in an incident that may or may not have been Nilrasha [[MurderTheHypotenuse eliminating the competition]]]].
* Princess Sophia is married to a Swedish duke at the beginning of ''Literature/KingdomOfLittleWounds''. She's barely twelve at the time, but her father needs the marriage and the alliance desperately.
* ''Literature/TheGoblinEmperor'': Maia's future empress is decided by a vote in parliament. Almost all marriages between nobility are arranged for political reasons.
* In Literature/TheRedVixenAdventures Lady Sallivera is initially pleased with her parents arranging for her to be married to their countess' heir, the Viscount Kevinaugh Highglider. It wasn't until afterward that she realized what a [[DomesticAbuse monster]] he was.
* In Steven Erikson's ''Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' prequel, the ''Literature/KharkanasTrilogy'', this gets deconstructed together with RunawayFiance. Faror Hend, daughter of a noble house that's been decimated in the war just past, gets betrothed to an accidental war hero in order to elevate him to nobility and create a new Great House. Several characters go out of their way to pity her and comment on how there's no way for young Faror Hend [[MarriageBeforeRomance to come to love]] the almost twice her age [[ShellShockedVeteran Kagamandra]] [[EmptyShell Tulas]], so she joins the military and gets herself posted as far away from the capital as possible, only to get the news that [[OhCrap he's on his way to see her]], and immediately jumps to conclusions and bolts for it ''again''. [[FluffyTamer Kagamandra Tulas]], on the other hand, feels guilty for ruining the life of his young betrothed by being saddled with him and all he wants to do is tell her he would be [[NeverBeHurtAgain content enough]] with her doing whatever she wants, as long as she's happy and safe. [[TheSnarkKnight Sharenas Ankhadu]] points out how ''both'' of them are self-absorbed idiots and seriously need to talk to ''each other''.
* In ''[[Literature/TheChemicalGardenTrilogy Wither]]'', Rhine is kidnapped and forced to marry Linden.
* SOP on ''Literature/{{Darkover}}'' for both political and genetic reasons. When Rohanna Aillard is married to Gabriel Ardais both realize they are going to have done some work if they want a successful and happy marriage. When we see them again decades later it is clear they have put in the necessary labor.
** A couple of generations later potential marriage partners are introduced and the match conditional on their liking each other. It is also implied that the council elders will rearrange their breeding plans to permit love matches provided both partners are Comyn.
* In ''Literature/ChildrenOfTheBlackSun'', Mira, daughter of the leader of the Wolf Clan, has an arranged marriage to Duke Osebian, a relative of the semi-foreign King. She's sour about it, and her clan is taking no chances of that sourness being upgraded to disobedience — she gets drugged and shipped off involuntarily ''just in case'' she kicks up a fuss. It still doesn't work, though.
* In ''Literature/ApparatusInfernum'', Ritsuko wasn't set up with one specific partner but was given a list of choices who would not be unacceptable to her family. As of the start of the series, she has just given up on the last of them, which is within her rights but has left her family Very Disappointed to the point of ostracism.
* The ''Literature/SanoIchiro'' series takes place during Japan's [[JidaiGeki Edo Period]] when arranged marriages were common as ways of establishing power among the ''daimayo''. ''Miai'', or a meeting between families to arrange a marriage plays an important role in several books. The main character is no exception; Sano undergoes a ''miai'' and is wed in the fourth book to Reiko, an Edo magistrate's daughter. It takes some time for them to get used to each other. They finally bond over the mystery Sano is working on and eventually turn into HappilyMarried.
* In Creator/LSpragueDeCamp's ''Literature/ViagensInterplanetarias'' setting, arranged marriages are the norm on the planet Krishna, a fact that upsets the occasional human who falls in love with a Krishnan. However, in nearly all cases the Krishnans themselves are totally unbothered by arranged marriage, as they consider marriage to be an important lifetime social and financial arrangement too important to be dictated by something as fickle and ephemeral as love. Several characters even express horror of the very idea of marrying for love.
* In ''[[Literature/HomecomingWalsh Homecoming]]'' by [[Creator/AnneBWalsh Anne B Walsh]] Vani and King Malak are prophesied to marry.
* Marriages of state are common in ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'', due to its dynastic culture. Cayleb Ahrmahk uses several to solidify the bonds of the Empire of Charis. He offers to marry Sharleyan unite their respective kingdoms of Charis and Chisolm into the foundation for the Empire. He arranges similar marriages for his younger brother and adopted son in order to secure the princedoms of Emerald and Corisande. Several other marriages are noted over the course of the books, and a good number of them are also {{Perfectly Arranged Marriage}}s. In the case of his son Hektor and Princess Irys of Corisande, the marriage was only "arranged" after the two were already in love.
* Fiyero from ''Literature/{{Wicked}}'' was betrothed to a girl from a neighboring tribe as a child. They were married at seven but unable to even meet until age twenty. He is married to her and has several children with her, but rarely sees her and instead prefers being with Elphaba, [[spoiler:who he even has a son with]].
* ''Literature/WordsOfRadiance'' (second book of ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive''):
** Jasnah begins the process of arranging one between Jasnah's cousin Adolin and her ward Shallan. She's initially worried that Shallan will be upset she was not consulted about this, but Shallan is actually surprisingly amenable. She always expected to have her husband chosen by her father, and the one time ''she'' chose a suitor, he turned out to be an assassin. The fact that Adolin is a prince certainly doesn't hurt.
** For his own part, Adolin finds the idea of having someone else pick a wife for him kind of relaxing, given that his own efforts have led to him offending every single eligible woman in camp.
** [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage And when they finally do meet, both of them]] [[SickeninglySweethearts fall head over heels for each other]]. Sanderson [[{{Literature/Elantris}} seems to like]] [[{{Literature/Warbreaker}} this trope a lot]]. Justified in that Shallan has a DarkAndTroubledPast with a fear of being locked away and a dislike of the idea of a fawning noblewoman, and Adolin is a BookDumb soldier who has somehow managed to offend ''every single unmarried woman'' in the warcamp, largely by not treating them like objects of worship (but also by being a little forgetful of minor things like names). Adolin falls for Shallan's different attitude and refusal to stay away from dirty places or hard tasks, and Shallan loves the fact that Adolin is a literal KnightInShiningArmor who doesn't treat her like a fragile toy to be kept safe from danger.
* In the novella ''Literature/ATasteOfHoney'', Aqib has made his peace with the idea that his father will choose his future wife, as the latter married for love and brought down the family's standing, making it Aqib's duty to better it again through a properly arranged marriage. This is exactly what happens when a proposal from the Sovereign House arrives and Aqib marries the Blessèd Femysade, [[spoiler: even though he has to be beaten by the Corporal into agreeing to the marriage]]. While not a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage, Aqib arranges himself with his fate and loves Femysade in a way, eventually.
* A childhood marriage contract is a key plot point in ''Literature/WayOfChoices'' where Xu Yourong's grandfather promised her hand to the disciple of a Taoist who saved his life. Various characters have various reactions to this, her parents are horrified while she's more ambivalent.
* These are common among noble society in ''Literature/TheYoungAncients'' though virtually no one in the story winds up with the person they were originally engaged to.
* ''Literature/SurvivorDogs'': Moon's parents wanted her to be mates with a dog named Hunter. After Moon's pack caught a sickness, Hunter ran off and didn't come back until after the sickness had gone. Moon chased him off for his disloyalty.
* In ''Literature/TheBlindAssassin'', Iris's father arranges her marriage to Richard in the hopes that it will save the family company and ensure a better future for at least one of his daughters.
* In ''Literature/TheLongPriceQuartet'', one is arranged between Ana Dasin of Galt and Danat, Otah's son and heir.
* ''Literature/TheMiniaturist'': A couple months before the beginning of the story, Nella was married to merchant Johannes. The marriage was arranged by Nella's mother in order to get her out of their country home and into an affluent household.
* ''Literature/XandriCorelel'' spends six months living on Karrckchak, working as an attoaong, or matchmaker. Every Ongkoarrat who isn't sex-repulsed is required by law to find someone to reproduce with. Attoaongs create partnerships of all kinds, from lovers to friends to business associates and in groups from two to twenty, but Xandri only works with romantic couples.
* By the time Prince Hans is an adult in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'' tie-in book ''Literature/AFrozenHeart'', all of his 12 older brothers [[AltarDiplomacy married off]] so that his homeland, the Southern Isles, can secure better trade deals with neighboring kingdoms.
* Ariane, the heroine of the medieval RomanceNovel ''Enchanted'', is forced into this by her father, who considers her DefiledForever after her rape (even worse, he doesn't believe she was raped and that it's she who seduced her assailant). Either way, her original intended wants nothing more to do with her and so he forces her into another marriage so that he can look like a father sending his daughter off with her husband rather than exiling her. Fortunately, it turns into a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage.
* In ''Literature/TheArtsOfDarkAndLight'', young noblewoman Severa ends up in an arranged marriage to shore up her family's relations with another noble house as a civil war draws nigh. Fortunately, it turns out that her husband is not that much older than herself, and they get along rather well once they get to know each other.
* A recurring plot point in ''The Castle of Llyr'', the third novel of ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfPrydain'', is that King Rhuddlum and Queen Teleria of the isle of Mona hope to forge one of these between their son, Prince Rhun, and Princess Eilonwy. The actual outcome is left open-ended until the very end of the book, when [[spoiler:Eilonwy assures Taran that she has zero intention of going along with such a thing, noting that "there's a limit to letting people make up your mind for you".]]
* Jenny Doolittle of ''Literature/BodaciousSpacePirates'' is set up in an arranged marriage, as much to prevent her from gaining control of her family's shipping firm as to solidify an alliance. [[RunawayBride She shoots her way out of it]], then hires the ''Bentenmaru'' to get her to safety.
* In ''Literature/CriersWar'', Dinara is raised up by two women:[[spoiler: Red Hand Reyka and her human lover.]]
* ''Literature/ForestKingdom'': In Book 1 (''Blue Moon Rising''), Julia has one with Prince Harald. She has no intention of actually fulfilling it though, and leaves the kingdom with Prince Rupert in the end.
* In ''Literature/RobRoy'', Diana Vernon was betrothed to one of the sons of Sir Hildebrand Osbaldistone because of an agreement between him and Sir Frederick Vernon to solve a matter of expropriated lands. When Sir Hildebrand's nephew Frank learns about it, he sadly ponders such arrangements treat both parties as livestock.
* ''Literature/TheGirlWithTheLoudingVoice'' follows the story of fourteen-year-old Adunni, who lives in a small village in Nigeria where young girls are often forced into marriages, regardless of what they want or their preexisting relationships. Adunni's world is forever changed when her father tells her that she will be marrying the much older Morofu, already wedded twice.
* ''Literature/TheGhostOfPhilinnion'': Philinnion dies shortly after her wedding to Craterus (a historical Macedonian general). The fact that later, as a revenant, she seduces Machates, and also that she returns to her old room in the house of her parents (as opposed to Craterus' house), strongly suggests that she did not love Craterus, and that the marriage to him was decided by others against her own wish.
* ''Literature/InCryptid'':
** Some cryptid species arrange marriages for their children, particularly the endangered ones. This is to ensure that their species is able to survive and continue.
** The Covenant arranges marriages as part of a breeding program; Dominic is the result of such a marriage.
* ''Literature/GodsAndWarriors'':
** In ''The Outsiders'', Pirra is promised by her mother, the High Priestess of Keftiu, to Telamon, the son of Lykonia's chieftain, as part of a bargain between the High Priestess and Telamon's father. This leads to her escaping after she fails to put an end to it by scarring her face. When she's caught at the end of the book, however, Telamon, disliking Pirra as much as she dislikes him, calls the whole thing off.
** In ''The Burning Shadow'', Pirra escapes from her mother again when she's about to be sent to be wed to an Arzawan chieftain in a couple of days.
* In ''Literature/TheFiresStone'', Chandra and Darvish have a marriaged arranged by AltarDiplomacy and are trying to get out of it.
* ''Literature/WintersOrbit'': Iskat alliances are sealed through political marriages between the parties involved. The story begins when Count Jainan of Thea and Prince Kiem of Iskat are wrapped in a really rushed one to show The Resolution that the treaty between the planets still stand after Jainan's previous partner dies.
* A primary topic in Huda Fahmy's ''That Can Be Arranged: A Muslim Love Story'', a cartoony story based on how Fahmy married her husband Gehad.
* ''Literature/BazilBroketail'': Serena was supposed to marry the winner of a magical competition. Which wouldn't be that bad if Gadjung of Batooj hadn't come around. Luckily, Prince Evander is out there to save her from it.
* ''Literature/UntilWeMeetAgain'': Ned reveals late in the book that he's having Lawrence marry Fay by the end of the summer. [[spoiler:It's his way of getting Lawrence to become the lawyer of the Cartelli family so they'll help Ned with his gambling debts.]]
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Bellatrix and Rodolphus Lestrange were married off to each other solely by virtue of them being respectable purebloods. Although they both joined the Death Eaters, the marriage is loveless and probably sexless, as they conceive no children. Bellatrix's love has always been Voldemort, and the marriage doesn't stop her from showing it. They aren't unique: the fanatical pure-blood families of Wizarding Britain had a habit of arranging marriages into approved families, with Bellatrix's sister Narcissa marrying into the Malfoy family (though they have a child and actually do love each other) and their other sister Andromeda being disowned for marrying a Muggle-born.
* ''Literature/TheLoveAndLiesOfRukhsanaAli'': A feature of the Bengali Muslim community. Rukhsana, a lesbian, is keen to avoid this, though even straight people can fall afoul of it when matched with people whom they have no feelings for.
* ''Literature/TheGuinevereDeception'': Justified. Arthur and Guinevere are married only so she can more easily protect him, and they don't consider it a proper marriage emotionally.
* ''Literature/TheMysteriousDisappearanceOfLeonIMeanNoel'': When Mrs. Carillon was five and Leon was seven, their parents founded a company called Mrs. Carillon's Pomato Soup. They had a preacher marry their kids to solidify their partnership. Then Leon was sent OffToBoardingSchool, so he and his wife didn't see each other for the rest of their childhood.
* ''Literature/HowARealistHeroRebuiltTheKingdom'' has a bunch of these because of its MedievalEuropeanFantasy setting and focus on powerful, important people. Souma, the main character, has three of his five wives from arranged marriages that he didn't really have the chance to say no to. He's also not above doing his for some of his subjects when it's useful, but he tries to find a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage whenever possible.
* The main plot of ''Literature/KakuriyoBedAndBreakfastForSpirits'' is that Aoi Tsubaki's grandfather ran up a massive bill at the inn Tenjin'ya and offered his grandaughter up as colleteral to the inn keeper. The story then follows Aoi's attempts to pay off said debt and get out of the marriage contract.
* ''Literature/EndoAndKobayashiLive The Latest on Tsundere Villainess Lieselotte'': Like any other works of the [[RebornAsVillainessStory same subgenre]], this is very common.
** Lieselotte and Siegwald were engaged since they were children, and that was nearly the simplest case.
** Bruno allows Baldur to choose one of Lieselotte's younger sisters to marry, in exchange for Baldur being Bruno's heir. This is not dissimilar to the ''Mukoyoshi'' arrangement that's common in Japan.
** PlayedForDrama in one backstory. [[spoiler:Bruno Riefenstahl's brother August was originally engaged to Elizabeth Marschner, and they [[PerfectlyArrangedMarriage do love each other]]. But at the time they could marry, August was clearly dying from a lifelong SoapOperaDisease. The Marschner house attempted to dissolve the engagement and try to get Elizabeth marry Bruno, and as Bruno decided to hastily marry his betrothed Josephine to avoid further troubles, the Marschners attempted to sue the Riefenstahls BreachOfPromiseOfMarriage. In the meantime, Elizabeth and August decided "to the hell with the formalities" and consummate their relationship while August is still alive, causing Elizabeth to [[SomeoneToRememberHimBy bear August's child]]--[[PlayerCharacter Fiene]].]]
* ''Almost'' happens to Rudeus and Eris in ''Literature/MushokuTenseiJoblessReincarnation''. Eris' father (and Rudeus' employer/distant uncle) Philip had ulterior motives in that he planned to use Rudeus for a political power grab, but he does see that they are growing close during their time together. Before Rudeus' 10th birthday, Philip contacts the boy's father Paul to set up the betrothal, but before it becomes official or even announced, [[spoiler:the Mana Catastrophe strikes, which teleports all the characters involved to various parts of the world.]]
* Sachiko and Suguru have an arranged marriage in ''Literature/MariaWatchesOverUs''. Given that they're both cousins, and their family is incredibly rich, the marriage is to ensure the family business remains in the family. [[spoiler:It's eventually called off.]]
* In ''Literature/FullMetalPanic'', Melissa Mao reveals that she joined the Marine Corps after becoming a RunawayBride from an Arranged Marriage.
* In ''Literature/SwordArtOnline'', Kirito finds out in the second arc that his girlfriend/in-game wife, Asuna, is a rich girl who is technically engaged to the current BigBad, Sugou. Sugou is all set to marry Asuna and inherit her father's company while Asuna is still in a coma due to being trapped in VR (and it says something about him that this is pretty low on his list of misdeeds). Asuna hates him, but her parents aren't aware of her feelings; Sugou notes that if her father understood how she felt about him, he'd call the marriage off in a heartbeat. Later books show that Asuna's family have been setting up ''omiai'' between her and some other wealthy suitors, but Asuna makes it pretty clear she has zero intention of going along with this. When her mother tries to force the issue and says that Asuna should respect their choices, Asuna reminds her of the fact that she chose Sugou as well, and look how well ''that'' went. Her mother points out that Asuna's free to reject the suitors, but makes it clear that [[ParentalMarriageVeto she won't stand for Asuna getting together with Kirito]].
* In ''Literature/TheBrideOfAdarshan'', Prince Alexid and Princess Eustinia are arranged by their countries to be wed as part of an alliance treaty. Awkwardly for Alexid, who is 20, his bride-to-be is half his age. They eventually get married for real though but act more like each other's moral support, opting to wait until Eustinia is a bit older.
* This forms the basis of the second arc of ''Literature/HighSchoolDXD''. StarterVillain Raiser Phenex has a marriage arranged with the unwilling Rias Gremory, using the excuse of depleted number of pure-blooded Devils to make her family (who are normally entirely supportive of Rias' independence) agree. It's obvious to everyone he's just playing the system and wants a MsFanservice like Rias to himself. [[spoiler:It ends with Issei crashing the engagement party and loudly declaring before the assembled upper escelons of hell that Rias's virginity belongs to him, followed by issuing an EngagementChallenge that gives Issei his first chance to shine as the badass he is.]]
* In ''Literature/MyNextLifeAsAVillainessAllRoutesLeadToDoom'', nobles in Sorcier are expected to get engaged when they are teens. Keith and Nicol show disinterest in it (due to both crushing on [[CluelessDudeMagnet Catarina]]) is noted to be very unusual.
** Catarina accidentally gets engaged to the charming third Prince Gerald, which should have been exciting since the first time they met she fell in love at first sight. However, when she sees him again she's ([[PastLifeMemories mentally]]) aged nearly twenty years and, worse, recognizes him as an otome-game love interest who is secretly a bored asshole, so she wants out of it. But she can't call the engagement off.
** Later, her best friend Mary gets engaged to Gerald's brother Alan and by the game's script ''should'' have fallen in love with him, but falls for Catarina instead after Catarina accidentally steals one of his lines. And by the time Alan realized he's in love with Catarina, he tries to break his engagement with Mary just to discover that Mary is unwilling to break the engagement and let him have a free reign to pursue a woman ''she'' loves.
** Geoffrey, the first prince, is engaged to Suzanna Randall. However, both of them agree that the engagement is only out of convenience; they have little interest in romance and only use the engagement to avoid their parents bugging them for it.
** Ian, the second prince, is engaged to Selena Berg. However, because Ian wants to maintain some level of propriety between them, he refuses to be openly affectionate towards Selena. This makes the nobles, in general, see them as very distant, and Selena, because of her self-image, thought Ian didn't love her, despite [[PoorCommunicationKills this being very much not the case]].
** A story in the fifth novel, animated in [=S2E08=], is about Nicol trying through an entire ''omiai'' process to try to forget Catarina. And yes, other than the clothing and the decor, [[CreatorsCultureCarryover they're animating the Japanese way of doing it]].
** The backstories of Catarina's parents, as well as Nicol's parents, indicate that there are still some wriggling room for the men involved: in both cases, the future fathers proposed to the future mothers' ''fathers'' to arrange a marriage between them. And even so, in the Claes' case, the couple [[PoorCommunicationKills doesn't know they love each other]] until at least their daughter is eight years old, and in the original timeline, ''never'' at all.
* Krulcifer in ''Literature/UndefeatedBahamutChronicle'' faces the threat of this from her family and so [[TheBeard makes Lux pretend to be her boyfriend for a week]] to at least temporarily hold them off. This proves insufficient when her family's butler plans for Krulcifer to marry Barzeride, a high-ranking nobleman. Krulcifer proposes that they settle things with a two-on-two duel. Lux and Krulcifer win, but Barzeride calls in his private army intending to kill Lux and pretend to be the actual victor. This in turn is interrupted when Lux's other friends defeat said army and record Barzeride's wrongdoing. With Barzeride disgraced and imprisoned, the engagement is called off... and Lux is considered an acceptable suitor instead.
* ''Literature/MyLittleSisterStoleMyFiance'': Eliana is set to marry Prince Alvin at the beginning, though she later is replaced by her younger sister, Luna.
* ''Literature/OfFireAndStars'': Princess Dennaleia from Havemont has been betrothed to Prince Thandilimon of Mynaria, with the plot beginning as she goes there. She's dutiful, having known it's expected from her since childhood, but it becomes increasingly clear Dennaleia's [[IncompatibleOrientation a lesbian]], becoming attracted to his tomboy sister Mare instead. In fact, the marriage had been arranged when she was just ''six''.
* ''Literature/TheLadyGraceMysteries'': Grace has a variation in ''Assassin''. Queen Elizabeth I promised her parents that she would arrange Grace's betrothal when she turned thirteen (though she won't actually get married until she's sixteen) and Grace reluctantly accepts this, though Elizabeth does allow her to choose from one of three suitors she believes would make a good husband for Grace, so she ''does'' have some say. Due to the events of the novel, none of the suitors end up being suitable for Grace and Elizabeth decides to hold off on the betrothal, much to Grace's relief.
* ''Literature/TheVillainessLivesAgain'':
** Artezia manipulated Saintess Lisia into accepting a marriage between her and Artezia's brother, Laurence, to give his rule the legitimacy he lacked. Played with in that while she may have forced Lisia, Lisia herself is the one who willingly accepted the match as she hoped to change Laurence. Ironically, while Artezia came to regret the decision due to befriending Lisia, it's clear that Lisia ended up falling for Laurence for real and genuinely tried to make the relationship work, but rather than being the good influence she hoped to be to him, he instead grew obsessed. [[spoiler:Laurence's own obsession with her in the new timeline proves to be his undoing as he tries to fully own her, but instead gets him caught and killed by Lisia herself.]]
** Lisia was engaged to Cedric before Artezia intervened. Artezia thinks the two were in love with each other, but it's heavily implied Cedric arranged the engagement to protect Lisia, his ChildhoodFriend with a low barony background, which is supported by their interactions being more akin to siblings. [[spoiler:Cedric eventually confirms this after regaining his memories and revealing himself to Artezia]].
* In ''Literature/TheCoralIsland'', tribal chief Tararo has betrothed his adopted daughter Avatea to another chief she doesn't love. She wants to marry a different chief, who has converted to Christianity, but Tararo tells her that if she doesn't agree to go to her betrothed to be married, he'll send her to him to be eaten.
* ''Literature/TheChroniclesOfDorsa'':
** At the start of the story Tasia's father Andreth is pushing her to marry, and had given her a choice in suitors. Because she'd rejected them all, he instead promises he'll decide on this himself then. Her lover Mylla too is having her marriage arranged.
** Tasia later arranges her and her sister's marriages too for political purposes, feeling guilty about doing so as she had rebelled herself in the past from this, but seeing no other way to get needed support.
* In ''Literature/MermaidMoon'', the landish witch Thyrla betrothes her son Peder to the seavish witch Sanna so their children will have powerful magic. Thyrla plans to either [[ImmortalitySeeker steal her grandchildren's remaining lives to prolong her own]], or use them for some other purpose.
* ''Literature/{{Dragonvarld}}'': Marcus returns home after his adventures and finds that his parents have agreed to his marriage with a young noblewoman, whom he hasn't met for years, when they were both children. Knowing that a prince's marriage isn't his to decide, Marcus is resigned after hearing this. [[spoiler:The reveal that she's really a dragon in disguise, who's later killed, obviously ends this. The woman whom he falls for afterward however is very approved by his parents though.]]
[[/folder]]

** In Chapter 30 when Luna reunites with Nike and Livius, she reveals she's just been put in an arranged marriage with the much older Marquis Claude Fortis. She decides to sabotage it by getting Nike to crossdress and [[TheBeard pose as her fiancé]]. [[spoiler:He offers to drop it after he's done with his plan to save Luna's family, which depended on the engagement, but by that point the two have fallen for each other and so the engagement goes ahead.]]

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia'': This is what happened to Prince Hardin of Aurelis and Princess Nyna of Archanea, for lineage-preservation and political reasons. While [[TheLancer Hardin]] [[BodyguardCrush loved]] [[BrokenBird Nyna]], she thought well of him but didn't ''romantically'' love him and actually was in love with [[BlackKnight Camus]], and she agreed to marry Hardin because of her counselors' pressure on her and the desperate need to save Archanea. It's easy to guess who exploits Hardin's bad feelings over the whole matter and turns him into a major villain in ''Mystery of the Emblem''... ''[[spoiler:It's [[ManipulativeBastard Gharnef]].]]'' At the end [[spoiler: Nyna goes to one horribly BreakTheCutie process, Hardin only comes to his senses as he ''dies'' in Marth's arms, and after briefly seeing that Camus was NotQuiteDead (under the identity of Sirius), Nyna hands Archanea to Marth and Caeda, [[ButNowIMustGo then gets the Hell away of everything]].]]

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brave}}'':
** The firstborn sons of the three lords compete to the Highland Games to win Merida's hand for marriage. Merida does ''not'' want to be married right now and wants her freedom so she actively sabotages their chances by entering the archery contest (As she was "the firstborn of a Lord", she was ''[[ExactWords technically]]'' perfectly allowed to compete). And at the end of the movie, [[spoiler: the three sons reveal ''they'' weren't exactly thrilled either at the idea of getting married just yet, only keeping quiet out of loyalty or respect for their fathers.]]
** Also true for Merida parents who are still in love
* In ''WesternAnimation/AlphaAndOmega'', Kate is to be married to Garth, to prevent war between rival packs. That plan is disrupted when she and her omega friend, Humphrey, are darted and relocated to a distant American park. As the pair struggle to get back to Jasper, Garth inadvertently falls for Kate's omega sister Lily and thus both are in an awkward situation when Kate returns. Even though both confess their true feelings with Lily perfectly willing to substitute for Kate, the packs don't accept this and go to war that sparks a caribou stampede that threatens the pack leaders, but Kate and Humphrey's rescue of them convince them to change their minds.
* In ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'': It's heavily implied that this was the case for Princess Fiona and Prince Charming. But rather than being about politics, it was how the king was going to pay back the Fairy Godmother for turning him into a human so he can marry Lillian, by having Charming marry Fiona and eventually become king of Far Far Away. However, their plans are foiled when Fiona falls in love with Shrek and marries him instead. Harold attempts to break them up (even putting a hit on Shrek) but eventually he changes his mind when he sees how genuine Fiona's feelings are for Shrek and how much she despises Charming, though it costs him greatly.
* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooInArabianNights'': The Prince in the gender-flipped version of Aladdin was supposed to marry the Princess of Serendibe but she disappeared back when she was a little girl. [[spoiler:PerfectlyArrangedMarriage: Aliyah-Din was revealed in the end to be the Princess of Serendibe]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBookOfLife'', although there's no official agreement, General Posada is clearly planning to have Maria marry Joaquin. [[spoiler:Joaquin genuinely did want to marry Maria, but not if she had to be forced; and they end up not marrying after all.]]

* The movie ''Film/{{Arranged}}'' is about two school teachers, one Jewish and other Muslim, who become friends by sharing the highs and lows as their families arrange their marriages.

* In ''Film/The Cocoanuts'', Mrs. Potter arranges for her daughter Polly to marry another man after Polly's beau is arrested under suspicion of stealing a valuable necklace.
* This trope is the entire driving force behind the plot of Creator/EddieMurphy comedy ''Film/ComingToAmerica''. Finding that his parents have arranged for him to marry a hopelessly servile young woman who has been trained all her life to mindlessly obey him, Prince Akeem devises a scheme to travel to the United States (under the pretense of "sowing his royal oats") and find a bride who will love him for who he is and not for his royal status.

* ''Film/GetYourMan'' starts with the betrothal of a young boy and an infant girl. It's PlayedForLaughs because the boy is obviously annoyed and the girl is, well, just a baby. The movie then {{timeskip}}s to the two being reunited again as adults.
* ''Film/StealingHeaven'': Fulbert has this planned out for Héloïse with some rich young man in Paris.
* In ''Film/FaithfulHeart'', Marie's abusive foster parents force her to marry Petit Paul. Why are they so keen on their adoptive daughter marrying an unemployed drunken lout? ForTheEvulz, apparently. If they just wanted to get rid of her, they could have let her marry Jean.
* In ''Film/SantaGirl'', Cassandra Claus, the daughter of Santa Claus, is engaged to marry the son of Jack Frost to merge the family businesses. She hasn't actually even seen Jack Jr. since she was a baby, and would much rather go to college in the real world than be forced to run the business. When Cassie complains to her dad, he points out that he and her late mother were also arranged to be married: his family owned the only flying reindeer farm in the world, and she was the daughter of Chris Kringle.
* In ''Film/SallahShabati'', Sallah wants to sell his daughter to a bus driver for 350 Israeli shekels. Then, a kibbutznik (who has no money) falls in love with her. HilarityEnsues.
* ''Film/CarmenYLola'': Both the title characters are facing these, as its the custom in the Roma community. However, they have the final word on whether to accept a match or not.
* ''Film/IndiaSweetsAndSpices'': These are common in the Indian community. It turns out that Alia's mother married her father because her family wanted her far away because she'd "disgraced" them with her activism, and he was going to the US. They married and left very quickly when her father arranged it.
* ''Film/{{The Princess|2022}}'': The princess was engaged to Julius without consent by her father, but she flatly refuses to go along with it. A good thing too, as Julius turns out to be a horrible man.
* Caroline and Christian have one at the beginning of ''Film/ARoyalAffair'', as they did in real life. [[PlayedForDrama It turns out to be a disaster from day one]]. They have nothing in common and Christian's mental illness contributes to him behaving erratically and frequently humiliating Caroline. He finds her boring and much prefers the company of prostitutes, while Caroline finds him to be an insufferable manchild who is either oblivious or callous towards her unhappiness. To make matters worse, Caroline feels extremely out-of-place at the repressive and power-hungry Danish court, and has few friends and allies until Struensee comes along, with Caroline beginning an affair with him.

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]

* ''Manga/ABridesStory'' starts with one between the two main characters. They get along pretty well despite the fact she's from another culture, making her a tomboy compared to the other women, and there being an 8 year age gap between them (she's 20, he's 12).

** Fire Lord Ozai and Princess Ursa were also an arranged marriage. Since she is Avatar Roku’s granddaughter, Ozai and his father wanted to marry the two bloodlines. Ursa was actually engaged to another man when he proposed. This might hint that Zuko and Mai may have been arranged for each other early on as well, although they're so genuinely in love with each other (even blushing around each other as children) that it doesn't really matter anyway.

* ''WesternAnimation/BoJackHorseman'': Happened with Beatrice Horseman in her youth when father heavily pushed her to accept Corbin Creamerman since their families could profit from a sugar-cream alliance to make a profitable ice cream empire. It's implied that it would've been a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage when they started to get to know each other better. [[ForegoneConclusion Then she got pregnant with [=BoJack=] from Butterscotch.]]

* ''Literature/{{Dragonvarld}}'': Marcus returns home after his adventures and finds that his parents have agreed to his marriage with a young noblewoman, whom he hasn't met for years, when they were both children. Knowing that a prince's marriage isn't his to decide, Marcus is resigned after hearing this. [[spoiler:The reveal that she's really a dragon in disguise, who's later killedd, obviously ends this. The woman whom he falls for afterward however is very approved by his parents though.]]

* These are a common [[AltarDiplomacy political tool]] in ''Series/GameOfThrones'' and ''Series/HouseOfTheDragon'' among the nobility of Westeros. Some are happy, such as Ned and Catelyn, and others are not, such as Robert and Cersei. Many are against the will of one or both parties, such as Daenerys and Drogo or Tyrion and Sansa. The political consequences also make breaking a marriage pact SeriousBusiness.

** Arranged marriages happen to Sansa so often that she's basically pimped out to unconsummated marriages. First, there is Joffrey, which she views as a PerfectlyArrangedMarriage until he shows his true colours. After Joffrey repudiates her, the Tyrells plan to marry Sansa to Loras for her claim to Winterfell. When Tywin finds out, he declares that she shall marry Tyrion instead, which she does, as mentioned above, unwillingly. Tywin orders Tyrion to impregnate Sansa. He chooses not to impregnate her yet, but when she is ready. Seeing as the both of them are soon on the run and neither had bothered to consummate the marriage, no one in Westeros seems to really acknowledge or care as to whether or not she is still married to him. When Tyrion is in serious danger of being executed, Sansa's Aunt Lysa begins to plan a marriage with Robin Arryn. Later, Lord Baelish and Lord Bolton marry her to Ramsay after the bastard is made heir to Winterfell. It goes exactly as one would expect, with him treating her cruelly until she finally snaps and escapes with Theon's help.
** Fat Walda with Roose Bolton, although he did get to choose which wife he wanted. It was more 'arranged' from her point of view than his. In the books, Fat Walda was actually ecstatic about the arranged marriage, and fully aware that he chose her to get her weight in silver as a dowry - she was outright ''proud'' that being overweight actually helped her for once. She knows it wasn't a marriage for love, but few marriages ''are'' in Westeros, not even Eddard and Catelyn. The arranged marriage meant that she went from being an overweight and put-upon minor granddaughter of Walder Frey to being the wife of the new ruler of the North, head lady of a new Great House. As a result she is very grateful to Roose. For his part, Roose seems to like her - at least as much as he's capable of "liking" anyone.

** Tywin commands Cersei to marry Ser Loras. She's not amused, but this one falls through as Tywin is not there to enforce it, what with his terminal bowel problems.

** Daenerys to Khal Drogo, as mentioned above, to secure an army for her brother. Later, she arranges her own second marriage to Hizdahr zo Loraq, showing how much she and her circumstances have changed.

** Renly Baratheon is in an Arranged Marriage to Margaery Tyrell. An amiable one, although largely sexless for [[IncompatibleOrientation obvious reasons]].
** As part of the negotiations that produced the arranged marriage Robb failed to actually have, Catelyn also promised her younger daughter Arya to Walder Frey's son. However, Arya never finds out about this arrangement and with everyone who ''was'' aware now dead, it's a moot point.

** Tommen is betrothed to Margaery after Joffrey's death, and she quickly sneaks into his bedroom to suss him out before Cersei has the chance to alienate the relationship. Tommen ends up falling for her hard, though with Margaery it's always unclear how sincere she is on her part given that she's definitelt an ambitious political actor, though not a malicious one like several others in the series.

** Tommen is betrothed to Margaery after Joffrey's death, and she quickly sneaks into his bedroom to suss him out before Cersei has the chance to alienate the relationship.