(no subject)

I just did a search about cloaks
that came up as second link
"how to have a Game of Thrones style wedding"

...
... I... I would not... what do they think...
...

no? thank you?

Economics and marriage

I was just thinking that I read a bazillion romances, and a fair few of them involve a marriage proposal or even a wedding, and a great many are set in worlds or societies significantly different than our own

but I very seldom read the characters defining marriage
or discussing the economic implications thereof.

Sometimes there's a marriage required before someone can inherit and the whole fic is Shenanigans of the fake married real feelings variety. But otherwise it doesn't come up.

And like, some of these people are deities from other realms. Several are aliens. Many are American, but not all of them, and not from the same states.

Where are the legal and definitional differences going to trip them?



I lack all the specific knowledge that could make this a good topic
but I'm sure there's layers.



I mean I've read from eras where it was just taken for granted and assumed the reader would know that only one partner in a marriage had financial control and the other didn't have so much as pocket money, all their everything belonged to their husband now. Even if they left, all their everything would legally speaking continue to belong to him. No escape.

And now the assumption has none of that in it

even for characters that were alive through that era.



It just seems like there's many and varied ways to put characters through hell with this.

Or just say something interesting about what happens when romance collides with tax and benefit law.