Lois and Clark wait 7 years to marry?

[actaeon]

They are not legally married

Disagree. Royal wedding that just happened, Kate and William. William did not get ring. Are they not married?

Common law marriage: legal precedent going back centuries. No rings, no ceremony, no certificate, no signatures. Legal standard is two people cohabitating in an exclusive, committed, extended manner. That this is still a current binding legal principle is proven by court-enforced "palimony" settlements.

Reverse of the legal argument. Citizen "marries" non-citizen. Proof of marriage: they exchanged rings, they have a signed marriage certificate. Is that adequate proof of real marriage? Nope. ICE can still deport non-citizen "spouse". Sole legal standard is cohabitation in committed, long term intimate relationship.

Clark and Lois stood up before witnesses and declared their intention. That's the essence of marriage; always has been. Rings are a nice bit of the ceremony, and these days it's expected. It isn't what makes a marriage.

What makes a marriage is the public declaration. Clark and Lois did that.

[Estro-gen X]

Disagree. Royal wedding that just happened, Kate and William. William did not get ring. Are they not married?

Common law marriage: legal precedent going back centuries. No rings, no ceremony, no certificate, no signatures. Legal standard is two people cohabitating in an exclusive, committed, extended manner. That this is still a current binding legal principle is proven by court-enforced "palimony" settlements.

Reverse of the legal argument. Citizen "marries" non-citizen. Proof of marriage: they exchanged rings, they have a signed marriage certificate. Is that adequate proof of real marriage? Nope. ICE can still deport non-citizen "spouse". Sole legal standard is cohabitation in committed, long term intimate relationship.

Clark and Lois stood up before witnesses and declared their intention. That's the essence of marriage; always has been. Rings are a nice bit of the ceremony, and these days it's expected. It isn't what makes a marriage.

What makes a marriage is the public declaration. Clark and Lois did that.

Kate and William completed their vows and she got a ring spiritually binding them together. They then went and signed the register with witnesses to make it legally binding.

Common law is trumped by written law. Marriage is written law, decided by government. Common law is decided in the courts via precedent.

I'm English though, in America it might be different. Most of our legal system is based on Common law and I remember Colbert making fun of that on his show because we don't 'write it down'

[Darth Pipes]

I don't see why they have such a desire to match everything up with "the mythos." They went away from the mythos long ago. You might as well enjoy the Superman world that you created.

I really didn't care about seeing the wedding. I didn't consider that important because I thought it would happen sometime after the show. But the fact that they wasted the first hour of the finale on it and then seven years later they still weren't married was a complete joke. How didn't they marry after the finale? I could see it being at least a year as Clark settled into being Superman and Lois became a star reporter but seven years?

Waste of time...

[RobynBug]

Disagree. Royal wedding that just happened, Kate and William. William did not get ring. Are they not married?

Rings have nothing to do with a legal marriage. Marriage license and certificate do. Lois and Clark never signed a marriage license because that is completed after the ceremony. I doubt the officiant signed the license before they did the ceremony. So they are not legally married.

You don't have to do a single thing other than get a marriage license, fill it out at the courthouse, have a judge witness and sign, sign the license afterwards and file it to be legally married. Rings, vows, ceremony are all extras.

[Borealis]

If this was done to "line up with the mythos" then it was pretty silly, IMHO. The show has always had its own mythos. The guests at the wedding would have expected them to reschedule the wedding. But the writers couldn't resist putting things in to "line up with the mythos".

Actually, I would have assumed, until I saw this scene, that they would have had the marriage certificate signed shortly after things settled down. The just needed to have the preacher and some witnesses be present.

I sort of took it as a joke that Clark was hesitant to put on a gold wedding ring, seeing how he almost lost his powers permanently the first time.

That's the thing I liked least about this season, the lining up with the incessant desire to match up with the mythos. Even worse were some of the silly shoe-horned in homages.

They gave Clark an engaging new best friend, an intriguing and likeable partner in Oliver Queen and the most complex and engaging Lex Luthor ever, they earned the right to take a few liberties with Kal-El's story.

----- Added 4 Minutes later -----

Disagree. Royal wedding that just happened, Kate and William. William did not get ring. Are they not married?

Common law marriage: legal precedent going back centuries. No rings, no ceremony, no certificate, no signatures. Legal standard is two people cohabitating in an exclusive, committed, extended manner. That this is still a current binding legal principle is proven by court-enforced "palimony" settlements.

Reverse of the legal argument. Citizen "marries" non-citizen. Proof of marriage: they exchanged rings, they have a signed marriage certificate. Is that adequate proof of real marriage? Nope. ICE can still deport non-citizen "spouse". Sole legal standard is cohabitation in committed, long term intimate relationship.

Clark and Lois stood up before witnesses and declared their intention. That's the essence of marriage; always has been. Rings are a nice bit of the ceremony, and these days it's expected. It isn't what makes a marriage.

What makes a marriage is the public declaration. Clark and Lois did that.

So, if I go to Walmart grab a bullhorn and the lady behind me and I state we are married, we are?

[closetclana]

Well, I think it's like my dad always used to tell me...

Why buy the cow when you're getting the milk for free.

(that's just the saying, In no way am I calling ED fat or anything. It's just what my dad always used to say about couples living together)

[Leviathan]

I'm going to go with the most hated and most truthful explanation: LIFE HAPPENS. He became Superman and things got busy. But as we can see, they DO end up tying the knot, even if its not on screen.

[MissLaneKent]

Even though I would have preferred them getting married, I absolutely loved the final part with Clark telling Lois to tell the minister he may be a few minutes late. lol It was just so classic Superman. LOVED IT!

[Blue85]

I don't understand the 7 year delay or the public "Miss Lane" thing. Calling her "Miss Lane" in private, I do understand; it's cute and playful.

They should have been married (offscreenville is fine) and perhaps the dramatic element on the stairs could have simply been that he was going to be "a few minutes late" to dinner with his mother, their anniversary dinner, Chloe & Oliver's son's birthday party, etc.

On a separate note, I wonder how they explained the commotion in the church to the guests!

[Exedore]

Never notice but Clark did met Lios 7 years ago and he marries her 7 years from now. I wonder why it was push back so far.

Pon Farr.

[actaeon]

Rings have nothing to do with a legal marriage. Marriage license and certificate do.

Kansas is a Common Law Marriage state. No license, no certificate necessary.

[morrigan01]

The one and only fanwank I accept - aside from them just being very busy during the first year Clark was Superman and Lois getting her big break from interviewing the President and stuff - is the Death of Superman event. I'm pretty sure that event happened in the SV Universe given the trouble the show went to to bury Doomsday in the exact same place he was at the start of that famous story.

So I'm pretty sure, somewhere in those seven years, Clark died in a fight to the death with Doomsday, and then came back again. But still, IMO, all of that should have only delayed things three or four years at most, not seven.

[Exedore]

The one and only fanwank I accept - aside from them just being very busy during the first year Clark was Superman and Lois getting her big break from interviewing the President and stuff - is the Death of Superman event. I'm pretty sure that event happened in the SV Universe given the trouble the show went to to bury Doomsday in the exact same place he was at the start of that famous story.

So I'm pretty sure, somewhere in those seven years, Clark died in a fight to the death with Doomsday, and then came back again. But still, IMO, all of that should have only delayed things three or four years at most, not seven.

Maybe in SV-verse that happened a few weeks after his debut - and it took him around 6 years to return.

[stealcat]

I just wish that one of the darn PTB would give us some kind of explanation as to why the 7 years but we'd probably get some lame excuse even if they were to answer that question. I just accept the fact that Lois and Clark may not have been legally married until then but they were married at heart and deeply committed to one another. That is one thing that the finale did explicitly show through their vows and I guess that's just going to have to suffice...

Still, I am a little aggravated at how they handled the whole thing at the end. They even made it look like Clark was still working in the basement, and that doesn't make a darn bit of sense considering what we saw in Homecoming...

"I'm so confused!"

[Exedore]

Still, I am a little aggravated at how they handled the whole thing at the end. They even made it look like Clark was still working in the basement, and that doesn't make a darn bit of sense considering what we saw in Homecoming...

"I'm so confused!"

He was demoted sometime after the future events seen in Homecoming?