What do you think of Aredhel and Tar-Miriel?

[Urwen]

Aredhel and Tar-Miriel are my favourite characters. What do you think of them?

they are my favourite characters too.

[Pitchwife]

Originally Posted by Urwen

Aredhel and Tar-Miriel are my favourite characters

Hadn't noticed that!
To me, Aredhel is by far the more interesting character: an independent or at the very least independence-seeking woman who clearly had a head of her own (much like Éowyn, in a way; or in a different key, Erendis). Too bad her attempt to escape from confinement in Gondolin only led her to confinement in Nan Elmoth, and back to Gondolin and death. If you'd like to read more thoughts about her, look over there.
Compared to Aredhel, Tar-Miriel is a rather pale figure - we're not really told that much about her, apart from her forced marriage to Ar-Pharazon. The only thing that stuck in my mind is her belated attempt to reach the top of Meneltarma (to plead with Eru?) when the tsunami hit Númenor (there's a nice picture of this scene by Ted Nasmith, IIRC).
Forced marriage to men of dubious character is, of course, the common denominator linking these two (which makes it a little disturbing that they're your favourite characters...) - although in Aredhel's case, Tolkien suggested she may not have been altogether unwilling, and I vaguely remember him saying somewhere that Miri wasn't completely unattracted to Pharazon either, but can't for the life of me remember where it was (first thought was UT, but if it's in there, I can't find it). Which, if we accept it, raises the question why some women seem to be prone to falling for mean guys, in Middle-earth as in real life...