History Main / ParentalMarriageVeto

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* Mr. Pewterschmidt of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' hates Peter. When Peter brought up the idea of marrying Lois, Mr. Pewterschmidt tried to bribe Peter with a check for one million dollars to leave Lois alone forever. Peter, in his own awkward way, refused, tearing up the check.
** Peter's dad wasn't exactly thrilled with Lois either, [[TheFundamentalist due to her being a Protestant.]] [[spoiler: Of course, he wasn't his dad....]]

* ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' has the titular Heap family being at defiant odds with the gatekeeping Gringe family, which causes problems when Simon Heap and Lucy Gringe meet in dance class and fall in love. Their ''first'' attempt at getting married in ''Magyk'' goes sour courtesy of the BigBad's current rule over the Castle. Simon ends up [[IHaveNoSon disowned by his family]] for reasons entirely unrelated to the romance[[labelnote:*]]read: Apprenticeship to the aforesaid BigBad[[/labelnote]], but [[LoveRedeems continues to try to court Lucy]]. Come the end of ''Darke'', both families had accepted the relationship and Simon has been redeemed, so ''Fyre'' opens up with the wedding.

* This is a common trope in old literature from the former Jugoslavia, generally a highly patriarchal area where ArrangedMarriage was very common in places until relatively recently.[[note]]and may still occur today in places, particularly in Gypsy and Muslim communities[[/note]] Two iconic literary examples are found in:


* "Literature/TalmaGordon": Capt. Gordon vehemently opposed the idea of Talma marrying Edward Turner. [[spoiler:At first it seems like it was because he was a poor nobody, but when the truth about Talma's mother Isabel Franklin is revealed, it's apparent that her ancestry was the reason.]]

* ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'':
** {{Defied}} in ''[[Literature/XWingSeries X-Wing: The Bacta War]]''. Corran Horn and Mirax Terrik know that her father Booster would be totally against them getting married ([[DatingCatwoman he's an ex-cop and she's a smuggler]], and furthermore Corran's father sent Booster to the PenalColony on Kessel), so they don't give him the chance to offer an opinion: [[spoiler:they have Corran's CO Wedge Antilles marry them in secret right before they ship out for the book's final battle. Booster is furious, but is mollified when they agree to hold a second, more public ceremony that all their friends can attend.]]
** {{Exploited}} in ''Literature/IJedi''. Corran, undercover with the Invids SpacePirates as "Jenos Idanian" to look for the missing Mirax, is queried by a squadmate about his missing lover. He quickly makes up a story about wanting to destroy a starliner company because his lover is the heiress and her cousin, the owner, forbade them to be together. So "Jenos Idanian" plans to rob the company of everything and then retire with his lady love on the spoils.
* Zakaria from ''Literature/TheKeyToCharlotte'' used to be in a relationship with a woman named Rachel, but their relationship was ruined by her meddling father, who she still listened to even though she was an adult.
* A variation in ''Literature/SirNigel'': Edith (the sister of Nigel's beloved Mary) has fallen into the clutches of the DepravedDwarf Paul de la Fosse. Strangely, the father isn't so much averse to the union (as de la Fosse is rich and of a well-regarded family), the problem is that de la Fosse is a serial seducer, taking pride in wooing young women with promises of marriage and backing out on them, leaving the women DefiledForever (Edith is of course persuaded that these are all lies). Nigel sets out with a priest to inform de la Fosse that he either marries Edith tonight or dies, and only when de la Fosse accept at swordpoint does Edith understand she's been played for a fool.
* In ''Literature/TheSleepingBeautyKiller'', Jeames made it crystal clear to his eldest son Hunter that he didn't approve of his romantic partner Casey and was appalled when he proposed to her. James felt that Casey was far too coarse, outspoken and opinionated to be a good politician's wife, not to mention Casey came from more of a working class background and had a career in the arts, a far cry from the wealthy political dynasty Hunter was born into. It's also implied that the more conservative James disapproved of Casey's liberal political opinions. James [[BreakUpDemand insisted]] that Hunter break up with Casey and find a more suitable wife, with Hunter's brother Andrew even believing it might've resulted in Hunter distancing himself from the family if he hadn't been killed. After Casey was arrested for Hunter's murder, James was instantly convinced of her guilt.
* ''Literature/TheSunneInSplendour'': Richard and Anne are moving toward a HappilyArrangedMarriage when her father switches political sides and breaks off her betrothal. Anne and Richard are heartbroken, especially as her father marries her off to his political enemy, Edward of Westminster. Similarly, their siblings Isabel and George wish to marry and the king vetoes it, but with the help of Anne and Isabel's father, they marry anyway, infuriating the king. It's only after Anne's father dies and she's widowed that Anne and Richard can reunite. These same historical events are portrayed in a LighterAndSofter novel, ''Literature/TheVirginWidow'' and in Literature/TheCousinsWarSeries with all the authors imaging the feelings of these young people caught up in historical events.
* In ''Literature/AMangoShapedSpace'', Mia's mom is estranged from her parents because they disapprove of her marrying beneath her station and living in rural Illinois.

* ''Series/TenMilesOfPeachBlossoms'': The Heavenly Lord doesn't approve of Sang Ji's love for Shao Xin, so he has Shao Xin locked up and refuses to let Sang Ji see her.
* ''Series/TheRiseOfPhoenixes'': Ming Ying forces Zhi Wei to promise she'll never marry Ning Yi.

* One plotline of ''Series/That70sShow'' had Eric and Donna planning to get married just after high school. Eric's very stern father Red is completely opposed to the idea and does everything in his power to dissuade Eric from going through with it, including threatening to not pay for Eric's college education and convincing others of not hiring Eric in part-time jobs. Eric persists and says that he's going to marry Donna no matter what Red does. [[spoiler: Eventually Red gives his blessing and reveals that his obstruction was actually a SecretTestOfCharacter for Eric, as he wanted to see if he was serious enough about all of this.]]
* In ''Series/WaterlooRoad'', Tom is unhappy that Chlo wants to marry Donte. When she goes off to a registry office in secret to do it, he arrives, does the IObject thing (at the right time) then discovers he can't stop the marriage. He is not her legal guardian, her absent father has agreed to it (she's under 18, so he has to under UK law) and her mother is too dead to object, by virtue of having been murdered at the end of the previous season. Tom has now accepted the whole thing and the couple (having gone through a brief break-up) now intend to do the proper WhiteWedding thing.

* The same plot was used on an episode of ''Series/MyNameIsEarl''.
* In ''Series/MorkAndMindy'', Mindy's father is dead set against Mindy marrying Mork from Ork, citing practical considerations such as how Orkans age backwards. Eventually, he comes around and gives his blessing.

* More or less every KoreanDrama ever:
** ''Series/WinterSonata'': Sanghyuk's mother objects to Yuujin. Yuujin's mother objects to Joonsang.
** ''Series/BoysBeforeFlowers'': Goo Jun Pyo's mother towards Guem Jan Di, to the extent of forcing an ArrangedMarriage with a suitable bride. Comes from the original ''Manga/BoysOverFlowers'', where Tsukasa's mother Kaede does exactly the same to him and Tsukushi.
* ''Series/EverybodyLovesRaymond'': When Robert decides to propose to Amy, he first goes to her parents and asks their permission out of respect. Given he's just doing this as a formality, he's shocked when they say "No." ("But thanks for asking!") When he goes ahead with the proposal anyway, which is very romantic and gets an enthusiastic "yes" from the bride-to-be, he's slightly distraught when she asks, "Can you ask my father for my hand? It would mean so much to them."
* ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'':
** In the 6th season opener, Cory and Topanga want to get married after she proposed to him at their high school graduation. Everyone thinks they have eloped, though they didn't actually go through with it. Their families try to fake being happy for them until Cory's mother reveals that she's completely against it ("This is a mistake, and I do not support it. Why couldn't you [Topanga] have just gone to Yale?") This leads to awkwardness when they reveal they hadn't gone through with it, and wish to know why exactly it would have been a mistake.
** Parodied when Eric tries to use the same speech (complete with telling Topanga she should have just gone to Yale at the end) to stop Mr. Feeney from retiring and moving away. It doesn't work. [[StatusQuoIsGod But he's still back the next season anyway, now teaching at the same college the main cast is all attending.]]
* On ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'', one of Kelly's "loves" asks Al for "his hand in daughter-marriage". Al responds with a one-punch veto.

* A bit of a retroactive one on ''Series/{{CSI}}'', with Betty Grissom upset because Gil didn't marry Julia and did marry Sara and because of their LongDistanceRelationship.
* ''Series/DerryGirls'': Granda Joe never stops hating his son-in-law Gerry.
-->'''Joe:''' Why don't you just leave my Mary alone?\\
'''Gerry:''' Because we've been married for 17 years, Joe.
* In ''Series/OnceUponATime'': A young Regina saved the life of Snow White, and [[StandardHeroReward her father proposed to her over it]]. Regina had no desire to marry him, as she was in love with her stable boy Daniel. Her mother decides that marrying the king is the best thing for Regina, or more accurately for ''her'', and to decides to force the issue [[spoiler: by murdering Daniel. Right in front of Regina]].
* ''Series/StargateSG1'': Teal'c tries to prevent his son Rya'c from marrying too young. This is resolved by the end of the episode with Teal'c realizing how much Rya'c and Kar'yn love each other
* In ''Series/{{Empire}}'', Lucious disapproves of all three of his sons' relationships: Andre is married to a [[MalignedMixedMarriage white woman]], Jamal is gay, and Hakeem is dating a woman [[LikesOlderWomen twice his age]]. Lucious didn't stop Andre from marrying Rhonda, but he isn't shy about his opinion of her. However, he did force Jamal at 18 to marry a woman, and when that didn't last, threatened to cut him off if he came out, and he attempted to bribe Hakeem's girlfriend Camilla to leave him, since he (incorrectly) thinks she's a con artist. The boys' estranged mother, Cookie, takes a more moderate stance once she re-enters their lives. She has her own opinions about her sons' lovers that she makes known, but she respects them enough not to interfere with their lives.

* ''Series/BabylonFive'': As Delenn's relationship with Sheridan progresses, her clan calls her back to Minbar to explain herself. Neither of her parents are present, but the clan patriarch Callenn threatens to put a stop to it if she can't explain it to his satisfaction. [[spoiler:After she finds out that as a descendant of Valen, who was actually Jeffrey Sinclair, she's always been partially human, Callenn allows her to go forward just to keep her quiet about it.]]
* ''Series/TheFlash2014'': Joe West refused to give Eddie Thawne his blessing to ask his daughter Iris to marry him. It's not that there was anything wrong or untoward about Eddie (the man was Joe's ''partner'') -- it's because Joe knew their relationship was a case of WrongGuyFirst, and believed that no matter how much Iris loved Eddie, she loved her best friend Barry Allen more, even if she didn't realize yet. Joe also believed that once she did, she and Eddie would realize the marriage was a mistake and get hurt because of it. Considering an earlier episode in the season all but confirmed this to be the case, complete with TheBigDamnKiss between Barry and Iris (and the only reason why no one except Barry remembers the events of that episode is due to TimeTravel shenanigans), Joe may have had a point. While Eddie and Iris got engaged anyway, Eddie died before the marriage could happen, so we'll never really know if Joe was right.

* The narrator of Music/TheWho's "The Kids Are Alright" says he "had things planned but her folks wouldn't let her".

* The narrator of Music/JustinBieber's "Love Yourself" has come to understand why his mother didn't approve of his lover.
-->''"Maybe you should know that\\
My mama don't like you and she likes everyone."''

* ''Theatre/TheFantasticks'' is the story of two neighboring families trying to [[ArrangedMarriage arrange a marriage]] between their children by building a wall between them and faking this trope. Their BatmanGambit works.
* ''Theatre/TheImportanceOfBeingEarnest'': Gwendolen's mother said that "to lose one parent is unfortunate, to lose two is careless" and refused to allow Gwendolen to marry Jack until he had found his parents again. Jack later turns the tables on Lady Bracknell by refusing to give permission for his ward, Cecily, to marry Algernon, who is also Bracknell's nephew, unless she relents and lets him marry Gwendolen.
* In ''Theatre/FiddlerOnTheRoof'', Tevye finds himself increasingly tested by his daughters' choices of husbands. For each daughter, he weighs the value of the tradition each of them is flouting against the love each feels for his daughters. He eventually agrees to let eldest daughter Tzeitel marry her {{childhood friend|romance}} Motel rather than have an ArrangedMarriage, and later to let second daughter Hodel marry activist Perchick even though his ideals often contradict Tevye's traditional mindset. But when third daughter Chava falls in love with Fyedka, a non-Jew, he decides that's a bridge too far, and disowns her when he learns that she's gone behind his back to marry Fyedka.
-->"If I bend that far, I'll break. But on the other hand -- No! There is no other hand!"

* In the backstory of ''Theatre/TheMerryWidow'', Hanna and Danilo were in love, but Danilo's uncle put an end to it because Hanna had no money. Residual feeling from this causes complications when Hanna reappears in Danilo's life as a widow with a large inheritance.
* In ''Theatre/{{Oklahoma}}'', Andrew Carnes' won't give his consent to Will marrying his daughter Ado Annie unless Will can prove that her can earn, and hang on to, $50 ($1,400 in today's money).

* In John Woo's ''VideoGame/{{Stranglehold}}'', the major contributor to the game's emotional drama is the fact that [[BigBad Mr. Wong's]] daughter Billie is in love with maverick cop Tequila. Wong despises Tequila both because he is a cop and because back in the movie ''Hard-Boiled'', [[spoiler: Tequila killed Johnny Wong, whom it turns out is Mr. Wong's son]]. Eighteen years ago, Wong intimidated Billie, who was pregnant with Tequila's daughter Teko, into breaking up with Tequila so that Wong wouldn't kill them all, and when Wong had to entrust Tequila with the task of rescuing Billie and Teko from the Zakarovs, Wong [[spoiler: [[OffingTheOffspring had Billie killed]] by Tequila's own partner Jerry, both to protect his syndicate (Zakarov had threatened to make her reveal everyone connected to Dragon Claw in a court of law to protect Teko's life) and to deny her to Tequila forever in a nasty KickTheDog moment]].
* In ''VideoGame/RhapsodyAMusicalAdventure'', the King of the Frogs doesn't approve of Princess Caroline's relationship with Michael, a commoner. After catching Michael inside the castle, he almost has him executed on the spot, but then claims that Michael can only earn his respect if he helps Cornet retrieve the Earthstone. [[spoiler: After they succeed, he then promptly declares that now Michael must be executed for breaking into the castle ''and'' defeating the guardian, and has him killed on the spot. This solves nothing, leading to Caroline and Michael being TogetherInDeath.]]

* ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'' had Blumiere's father banishing Timpani to [[AndIMustScream wander all dimensions forever]] because she was of a different race and he didn't want Blumiere to break their tribe's taboo against marriage outside of them. [[ApocalypseHow Didn't]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt work]] [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom out]] [[OmnicidalManiac for]] [[LoveMakesYouEvil him]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Tekken}} 6'' has [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Miguel Caballero Rojo]] planning on killing his sister's boyfriend, but eventually declines [[IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy to make her happy]]. [[spoiler: And then the wedding is ''brutally'' crashed and smashed by the Mishima Zaibatsu, and the poor girl becomes a ''dead little sister''.]]
* In the DatingSim ''VideoGame/AlwaysRememberMe'', the protagonist can't seem to get approval from her {{high school sweetheart|s}}'s father; instead, his father seems to think that the NewOldFlame[=/=]BitchInSheepsClothing would be a better fit.
* In ''Videogame/SecretOfMana'', this is the reason Purim's father has the king of Pandora send her soldier boyfriend Dyluck on a SuicideMission to the witch's castle.
* In ''[[VideoGame/{{Shiver}} Shiver: Poltergeist]]'', Henry Kangale disapproves of his son and heir Richard's wish to marry Brenda, a household servant. He eventually permits it, though, much to the chagrin of [[spoiler:James the butler]], who will stop at nothing to preserve the "purity" of the Kangale bloodline.
* In ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', specifically the ''Battle for Azeroth'' expansion, [[spoiler:Lady Meredith Waycrest]] went as far as ''hiring an assassin'' to stop her daughter [[spoiler:Lucille Waycrest]] from marrying a "lowly" merchant.

[[folder:Web Comics]]
* In ''Webcomic/RedString'' it's been recently revealed [[spoiler:Miharu and Kazuo's ArrangedMarriage, which has developed into love anyway, was all his mother's idea in order to give him a chance not to be married to be a snotty society girl. This is against his father's wishes, who wants it called off. When he tells Kazuo to do so (Kazuo having overheard the details already a day before) it doesn't go down well.]]
* In ''Webcomic/PvP'', Brent and Jade's wedding reservation was canceled by Jade's mother due to them arranging the wedding in a way she didn't like, fortunately Robbie allowed them to have it at his mansion.