Worst idea or best idea?

[sholio]

Looking through the justmarriedexchange tags and prompts, especially the ones to do with things like "Marrying someone so they can't testify against you", gave me the absolute worst idea for an Iron Fist season one AU, and it is this:

Harold forces Ward to marry Danny to get hold of Danny's 51% of the company.

I love it because it is PRECISELY the kind of absolutely bonkers thing that Harold would do. It makes no sense, but neither do 90% of Harold's evil master plans anyway, and Ward would hate it and absolutely want nothing to do with it, but when has that ever mattered? All Harold has to do is tell him he has no choice and threaten to make Joy do it instead.

Getting Danny to go along with it is something I'm a little less sure about, but maybe if it was presented to him as basically a formality to reconcile the two families and legally unify control of the company ...?

And therefore, then, as of mid-S1 or so, Danny is actually living with Ward and therefore a lot more clued into what's going on with Ward at that point in the series (the abuse, the drug addiction, etc), whether he wants to be or not ...

Whether it actually ends up romantic is ... well ... the sibling thing makes them kind of a NOTP for me, though this was a lot less true in season one (I did actually read the pairing a bit in the S1 and immediate post-S1 time period). I could more easily get on board with viewing it romantically if it starts at square one and they never really get a chance to settle into thinking of each other as brothers, maybe a Colleen/Danny/Ward OT3 sort of thing. But I also kinda like the idea that it's only ever platonic and is mostly "forced cohabiting" more than "forced romance", with the two of them having to fake it for the media and being terrible at it and trying to figure out how long they have to put up with this before they can get a divorce without it being too much of a big deal.

But mainly I just like it because it is hilarious and bonkers and so completely a Harold thing to do (the one way in which he hasn't fucked over Ward is making him marry someone against his will!) and would also get Danny and Colleen way more involved in the Ward storyline in S1 rather than being off doing their own thing most of the time.

Comments

[recessional]

...I am distracted but they know that means they can't be SUBPOENAED to testify or as a witness, NOT that the spouse can't DECIDE to testify, right?

[sholio]

Technically the tag is "getting married so you can't testify against each other in court", but I think the answer is basically "because fanfic."

The idea of someone marrying their archenemy because they think it'll stop them from testifying and then the archenemy is just like 'NOPE, GONNA TESTIFY ANYWAY AND NOW I GET ACCESS TO ALL YOUR ASSETS' amuses me quite a lot, though.

[recessional]

For serious. XD

[longmagpieroads]

*chinhands*

[sholio]

:DDDD

[booksarelife]

I’m not in this fandom except for some fics from certain people and I love this idea

[rheasilvia]

Seconding this! I love the "marriage/relationship of convenience turns into real love" trope.

[sholio]

Everyone loves a good forced wedding. :D (I know I do!)

[sholio]

Hahaha, excellent. \o/

[lilacsigil]

Harold would 100% do this, he really would. He'd even make sure it was a nice ceremony.

[sholio]

He'd even make sure it was a nice ceremony.

oh god. Yes. Yes, he would. He would probably delegate poor Kyle to pick out nice place settings and hire a horse and carriage, or something ridiculous like that.

[yalumesse]

You can totally make it work. Go for it!

It would also be a nice change to use the trope in a non-shippy way, and it could make for even more laughs if you want it to.

[sholio]

I really want to write a platonic arranged-marriage fic at some point. I have also thought about this with Peggy and Jack.

[rachelmanija]

Harold would totally do that.

[sholio]

Right?? It's exactly his particularly style of batshit planning.