Originally Posted By: Randomizer
Arwen is the great romance that happens off stage.
Yes, and Eowyn is the incredibly poorly written romance that happens on stage, much to everyone's dismay. I really think that makes her a much less interesting character than Galadriel: here she is doing all this General Jinjur type stuff, but in the end she's only happy when she gets her man.
Galadriel on the other hand overshadows her male counterparts from the start of her tale. Like Eowyn, she is the "only female to stand tall in those days" but unlike Eowyn, she does not later shrink, certainly not in comparison with her mate. She's in the interesting and fairly unique position of not participating in the kinslaying but nonetheless refusing the pardon of the Valar. She more or less inherited the powers and role of a Maia, which no male elf can claim; she distrusted Sauron in his guise as Annatar when Celebrimbor and the other elves did not; and it was she, not Elrond, who had tried to have Gandalf, and not Saruman, made the head of the White Council. She also gets by far the best ring-temptation passage, particularly in light of her refusal of the Valar's pardon.