The Moons of Iego: The Padmé Amidala & Anakin Skywalker Website

MISCELLANEOUS : PARALLEL COUPLES

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Couple: Aragorn and Arwen
From: Lord of the Rings
Site: N/A
Lucas might've borrowed straight from Tolkien in the foundations of this romance: a young man wandering in a lovely wood comes across the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. He thinks he's strayed into a dream, and thinks her the likeness of Lúthien (the most beautiful being to ever walk Middle-earth). He calls her as such; she is politely amused by the flatteries of one so young.
She is far older than he - a couple of thousand years! - but he is no less instantly in love with her. She finds him charming in an inexperienced sort of way, and certainly does not consider him as a romantic partner. Sound familiar? ;)
It is not forbidden, but it is extremely rare and frowned-upon in their world: a union between immortal Elf and mortal Man. To bind to a mortal would mean for Arwen to give up her immortality as well as her place in the sacred land of Valinor that Elvenkind go to instead of death.

After that first encounter, Aragorn dwells deeply and often on Arwen Undómiel, despite the warnings from his mother and her father that such a union is strongly unlikely. Arwen's father Elrond will not have her forsake her immortality for a mortal any less than the king of the lands of Gondor and Arnor. Aragorn spends many years traveling through Middle-earth and fighting in the cause against the evil lord Sauron, becoming the most skilled and able man in Middle-earth. One day when he has come of age Aragorn returns to the Elven woods of Lórien, and Arwen's grandmother Galadriel (queen of Lórien, who is fond of him) clads him in Elven clothing, making him so striking he looks almost an Elf-lord himself. This is the first time Arwen has seen him in ages, and when she sees him then "her choice was made and her doom appointed."
The two pledge themselves to one another despite that they are still forbidden to be with one another. For long years they are separated by war, Aragorn traveling through Middle-earth as part of a band of Men protecting it from Sauron's forces, seeing each other very infrequently. At last after Sauron's defeat he becomes King, and he and Arwen are wed and she becomes his Queen.
Unlike Padmé and Anakin, Aragorn and Arwen are blessed with a hundred and twenty happy years together, as well as several children. However, their ending is still a bittersweet one: by choosing a life with Aragorn, Arwen gave up the eternal happiness she would have had in the land of Valinor, and must one day face the pain and grief his mortality as well as her own. After their 120 years together Aragorn finally dies, and Arwen lays herself down on the hill where she and Aragorn first pledged to one another, and herself dies.
[The quote in the graphic is Arwen, regarding her forebearer Lúthien and the choice Lúthien herself made in joining with a mortal, Beren. Once I go back and look at The Silmarillion I might include a bit more on Beren and Lúthien here at some point, as Aragorn/Arwen is a deliberate mirroring of their romance. I do remember Beren lost his hand at some point, which is all too familiar a maiming for SW fans. ;-)]

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