The Point of the Unions

[Nilpaurion Felagund]

What made Tuor so special that he could become counted among the Elves, when Lúthien and Arwen had to become mortal? (Elianna)

I should just point out that being an Elf is not a reward, and being mortal is not punishment. In a world called Morgoth's Ring, is not Death, freedom from the Circles of a Fallen World, a prized gift, more so than immortality?

It seems Turgon let Tuor marry Idril mostly because he was the son of Huor, who had fought valiantly by Turgon's side in the Dagor Aglareb, and little because of Tuor's own greatness. And Tuor was favored by Ulmo; but why? (Elianna)

Too much Tuor-bashing in one paragraph—I can't take it.

Let's look at that moment when Tuor and Ulmo met:

. . . Ulmo spoke to Tuor of Valinor and its darkening, and the exile of the Noldor, and the Doom of Mandos and the hiding of the Blessed Realm. “But behold!” said he, “in the armour of Fate (as the Children of Earth name it) there is ever a rift, and in the walls of Doom a breach . . . Yet . . . now the Curse of Mandos hastens to its fulfilment, and all the works of the Noldor shall perish, and every hope which they build shall crumble. The last hope alone is left, the hope that they have not looked for and have not prepared. And that hope lieth in thee; for so I have chosen.”

UT I 1

Tuor asks the same question you did—why him?

[Ulmo: ]If I choose to send thee, Tuor son of Huor, then believe not that thy one sword is not worth the sending . . . But it is not for thy valour only that I send thee, but to bring into the world a hope beyond thy sight, and a light that shall pierce the darkness.

ibid

(Take that, anti-Special Freedom of Men people! But that is a topic for another thread.)

It was a plus for Tuor that he was the son of Huor, who was close to Turgon. But he was chosen primarily for being a Man, free from the chains of Fate.

Arwen was the last of the Noldor in ME. All the Noldor left with Elrond. Maybe the Noldor had a special ban or something considering the curse of Mandos. (daeron)

No. By the end of the First Age the Doom of Mandos had been lain to rest.

It seems that I need more resources (and thinking) to answer the other questions. So, again, later!