Woah, how tough is this comp? They're all lovely! In the end, however, I went with Beriadanwen's. There was something about it.... anyway, these are my top three:
Beriadanwen--I loved the colours, they work perfectly with the colour of Arwen's hood, and fading Arwen into the purple was nice to see. I also liked the 'flashes', or stars, that you put on, they're a lovely touch and work perfectly with the banner. Normally when people put stars/whatever onto people's faces it makes them a bit 'grrrr' (well, it does with me, anyway), but your's works because it's not too sharp in focus. I like that. And the text--the choice of text, although a little common, works well with the banner, and the effect as well--I myself couldn't have gotten the text to match that perfectly.
smeagollum--As I've said already, I'm a big fan of your graphics  what I liked about this one was the individuality. Most people would have put Arwen's eyes to the left or right, and merge the bench into that on the side, but you've done it differently--and it works very very well. The higher contrast of colours is a nice touch which I think always works well, and the darknesss of it--it's very fitting for such a dark, moving scene, to make it lighter/brighter would not have looked quite right. The text effect is lovely too!
LOTRfreak13--I can say for this one firstly that this is a pefect use of brushes without them, the banner might've looked very plain, very ordinary--but with them it gives it an edge, which I like. The higher brightness/contrast, particularly on Arwen's face, is very nice indeed, and the blending is very well done. The only thing I'd change is the text--it matches perfectly with the banner, so nothing in that respect, but I noticed that the text has a slight grinding edge to it--I don't know how else to explain it--but it's a little too sharp. Applying a slight gaussian blur to that layer would've given a softer feel to the banner, as text is the first thing people look for on a graphic. You're more than welcome to completely ignore what I've just said, as it's only my opinion
Everyone else's had different things that stood out to me, making them all wonderful--good job, everyone! 
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Such beautiful banners. Well done everyone!
I've looked at them both and opened different windows and switched back and forth definitely more than 10 times and I sitll havn't chosen...great job! I will tell you when I finally make up my mind...
