Tragic and Doomed

[deird_lj]

I think I've finally figured out why I don't like Aragorn and Arwen ending up together:

They're Buffy and Angel.


Seriously!

They're a couple who meet as teenagers well, when one of them is a teenager and the other one is already really old but immortal and seemingly young, and who promptly fall into an epic love story even though they're two completely different species, and get to stand around looking all tragic and doomed and heartbroken because they will forever be parted...

...and then they get married and live happily ever after.


Is it me, or is that sort of missing the point?


Buffy/Angel? Love it. Mostly. But the whole big idea behind their relationship is that it's tragic and doomed and heartbreaking, and they'll never end up together, and it's so beautiful and doomed and... doomed...


Aragorn and Arwen have a clear purpose - to be the Buffy-and-Angel, and look longingly into each other's eyes for a while before they go off and live their respective lives. That's how it's supposed to work! Having them end up together just doesn't fit.


(Which is all a long drawn-out way of saying: Aragorn/Eowyn 4eva! Woo!)

Comments

[snickfic]

Is this a commentary on A/A in the books in the movies? 'Cuz in the books they're played much less for the tragedy than in the movies; actually, they're played much less, period. I find them just impossibly irritating in the movies for all the reasons you mention.

Also, I'd argue that emotionally, they're much nearer being equals than B/A. Arwen is thousands of years old, yes, but Aragorn is also an adult. Besides, unlike Buffy and Angel they spent years getting to know each other really well (didn't Elrond raise Aragorn?). And unlike B/A, there's no indication of any fundamental personality conflicts (which isn't to say that there aren't any, but they're not in evidence).

So while I could see not being very excited about A/A, just because there's very little story of them together to be excited about, they don't annoy me at all the way B/A do.

Which is not to say, mind, that Eowyn isn't the awesomest warrior-woman type in all of high fantasy.

[deird1]

Mostly the movies - just because I've been watching them recently. And also, in the books it's ignorable, for the most part.

Good points on the age thing...

[snickfic]

About A/A in the movies, I say: Bleah. I usually fast-forward through that awful and completely gratuitous bit of flashback/dream sequence/whatever in the middle of The Two Towers, just because it is so annoying. As a friend said, "I'm not watching these movies so I can see the King of Men necking!"

[deird1]

...whereas I usually end up yelling "Choose Eowyn, you fool!"

:)

[stormwreath.livejournal.com]

But wouldn't Aragorn himself be Angel, from Éowyn's point of view? The mysterious handsome stranger who's four times her own age, and seems to offer wild romance and an escape from practical reality?

[deird1]

No, no, that'd be if he was twelve times her age...


(And yes - possibly. But she's still more interesting, and less likely to just stand around looking soulful and tragic. They're active people, and make a much more interesting couple.)