Love on ScreenWhat do we talk about when we talk about love? Perfect, sickeningly sweet, often unhealthy couples in film, TV, and other media who set up impossible standards to which our real-world flesh & blood relationships will never live up. Let's dissect 'em.
Updated December 9, 2019 3.6K votes 940 voters 40.5K views
Over 900 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of The Most Memorable Fictional Romances Between Regular People And Immortal Beings
Voting Rules
Vote up the romances between immortals and mere mortals that are truly timeless.
Among total nerds, human and supernatural relationships have always been fascinating. From Bram Stoker’s Dracula, where Dracula seduces Mina Harker because he thinks she is a reincarnation of his wife to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, where the monster seeks a companion so he would no longer be alone, immortal/mortal love stories both speak of the forbidden and of finding a love greater than what is possible between two humans. These stories, which got their start in mythology, have since come to be staples in books, movies, TV, and plays.
Not all immortal/mortal relationships are poetic, though. Some, like the relationship between Claudia and Louis in Interview with the Vampire, speak more to societal norms and the burden of perpetual youth than to actual love. Claudia is discovered by the vampire Lestat when she's 5 years old. Given to Louis as a reason to stay, Lestat turns her into a vampire. As vampires cannot physically age, Claudia would never have anything but the body of a 5-year-old, even though mentally she matures. While Louis sees Claudia as his child, Claudia sees Louis as her lover and companion.Â
The best immortal/mortal romances from mythology, movies, and books also tend to be the most memorable. Vote up the relationships that are truly timeless.Â
Latest additions: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
When Aragorn, the 16th Chieftain of the Dúnedain of the North, visited Lórien and met Arwen for a second time, the two pledged their love to one another. Arwen, born to to Lord Elrond and Lady Celebrían of Rivendell, was granted the right to choose between immortality and mortality due to her half-elven lineage. When she inevitably pledged herself to Aragorn, Arwen chose mortality. In the third installment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, TheReturn of the King, Aragorn is crowned king of Gondor and the couple marries. Arwen leaves her people and moves to Middle Earth to live out the rest of Aragorn's life as his wife.
An unpublished letter from JRR Tolkien to his publisher Rayner Unwin in 1955 was uncovered in 2014 and reveals that one of Tolkien's contemporaries expressed his dissatisfaction with Aragorn and Arwen's relationship. The letter states that the poet WH Auden, "thinks Aragorn-Arwen unnecessary & perfunctory." Tolkien hoped "the fragment of the 'saga' [would] cure him" because he "still [found the relationship] poignant: an allegory of hope."
Luckily, Unwin agreed to keep Aragorn and Arwen's love affair in the story.
For everyone familiar with the comic book version of Deadpool, Vanessa Carlysle is the shape-shifting mutant Copycat who is dumped by Deadpool after learning he has cancer. She later starts a relationship with Cable, attempts to end her former lover, and essentially serves as a hindrance to any of Wade Wilson's romantic connections.
In the 2016 film, however, Vanessa and Deadpool's relationship is more legitimate. The sole motivation for undergoing the treatment that ultimately mutates him, Vanessa is the all-too-mortal love interest for whom Wade would give his own immortal life.
In the 2018 sequel, Vanessa and Deadpool are in a committed relationship and talking about starting a family. Their bond following her untimely demise guides him throughout the rest of the film.
Depending on which way you come down on the Superman vs. Wonder Woman debate, and which version of the canon you embrace, Princess Diana of Themyscira may be the most powerful superhero in the DC Universe. Made of clay by Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons, and brought to life by the gods, Diana is blessed with godly powers and magical protections that make her undefeatable by man, unless she willingly submits to him.
While Steve Trevor appears in the comic book canon of Wonder Woman, the two are not romantically linked. Instead, Trevor serves as Diana's introduction into "man world," her government liaison, and her close confidant. In the 2017 movie, however, their relationship is upgraded to an unrequited love affair. While Diana's disillusionment about Erich Ludendorff's demise plays heavily in the finale, it is Trevor's self-sacrifice that triggers her rage and later convinces her that mankind is truly evil.
There is something about the one you can't have. While the idea of a vampire and a vampire slayer hooking up is somehow both charming and cliche, the on-screen romance of Buffy and Angel on the CW's Buffy the Vampire Slayer is endearing.
Falling in love with Buffy from the first moment he sees her, Angel moves to Sunnydale, where Buffy would eventually also move. Even though she attempts to end him for allegedly taking out her mother, they would later reconcile and admit their feelings for each other. With the arrival of fellow vampire Spike, the love affair becomes a messy love triangle, marked by Buffy casting Angel into hell, Angel's chaotic return, and Angel and Buffy having to fight a rogue slayer. Eventually, Angel leaves Sunnydale for Los Angeles.
Despite the distance, Angel would hold on to his flame for the Slayer, even after her demise, resurrection, and eventual commitment to Spike. Despite this, he offers a parting thought about Buffy and Spike's relationship: "It won't last."
In the movie Age of Adaline, Adaline Bowman is a 29-year-old widow and single mother who perishes when her car drives off the road during a snowstorm. By a stroke of coincidence, a bolt of lightning hits her car, reviving her and freezing her physical age at 29. As she is afraid of being discovered and taken away for experimentation, she lives her life on the run, continuously moving and changing identities while having no long-term relationships, aside from her relationship with her daughter.
By happenstance, she meets Ellis Jones at a party. The two hit it off, but Adaline is resistant to forming a relationship because of her condition. As it turns out, Ellis is the son of a man who previously intended to propose to Adaline. Adaline runs off when she notices the engagement ring, leaving him heartbroken.
When Ellis's father recognizes Adaline's telltale scar, he confronts her, prompting her to run again. This time, though, she has a change of heart and decides she wants to live her life. Unfortunately, a tow truck collides with her car, leaving her to her demise, once again. Saved by ordinary methods this time, Adaline admits to Ellis that she loves him, but that she is also 107 years old. Luckily, one year later, the pair is still together, and Adaline discovers a gray hair, signifying the fact that she's become mortal once again.
In Edgar Rice Burroughs's Barsoom series, "Barsoom" is the native Martian word for Mars. The books - adapted by Disney in the 2012 film titled John Carter - transcribe the adventures of John Carter, a former Confederate soldier who finds himself transported to Mars; Dejah Thoris, a Princess of Helium who is both the love interest and damsel in distress to Carter; and their children and grandchildren.
Thoris, the princess of the Red Martian city of Helium, is fiercely proud of her heritage and her people, as well as courageous and highly competent. While Carter is assumed to have only stayed on Mars for 10 years, their relationship is the catalysis for even more adventure, including Carter being named Warlord of Mars. Though Carter is not explicitly described as immortal, he appears to remain forever young and is difficult to get rid of.
