The romance aspect of the Labyrinth is very apparent. Most times it seems as though this is what draws a lot of people to love this movie. You have the valiant heroine, and the seemingly evil villain. There is a lot of controversy surrounding Sarah and Jareth. I will discuss a few of these questions here. Feel free to e-mail me questions or your own points and I will definitely post them for everyone to see.

Did Jareth really love Sarah?

Moonshadow would give that a definite YES! Not only did Jareth take Toby away when Sarah wanted him to, but he attempted to live up to her expectations of what he was. He said to her in the final showdown of the movie, "...you coward before me, I was frightening." However, Jareth could not live within Sarah's every whim as he displays in the Escher room with his song titled "Within You".

On the flipside, even though I believe that Jareth loved Sarah, it is easy to see how she would mistake him as the archtypical villain. For one thing, he stole her brother (and hey, somehow that doesn't seem right). Secondly, he attempted to trap her in her own dream with the peach Hoggle gave her. And finally, he approached the whole 'stay with me' thing a little too much on the strong side ("Love me, fear me, do as I say...").

In conclusion, I would say that Jareth did indeed love Sarah, but he was not used to the ways of humans. Being a Goblin King that is understandable. He was used to wanting something and having it brought to him. In an interview David Bowie said about Jareth,

"Jareth is the Goblin King, one feels that he rather reluctantly inhereted that position, of being the Goblin King. As though he would really like to be..oh I don't know, down in Soho or something, But he's not, his thing in life is to be goblin king, and he runs the whole place as well as he can. And he's kind of spoiled, he get's everything he's ever wanted, he's a big kid."

What did Sarah feel for Jareth?

Well, I believe that Sarah felt for Jareth, but not quite the way Jareth felt for her. What I think Sarah felt for him was the kind of dangerous attraction that I'm sure almost everyone has felt for someone they weren't supposed to be attracted to. Jareth was older, sophisticated, and totally different than any other person Sarah had met. He took her out of her life that craved excitement and gave that excitement to her. But I don't believe that Sarah ever really felt love for Jareth, but felt a tremendous attraction to him.

That isn't saying that Sarah couldn't love Jareth. In an interview, Jim Henson stated that the dance sequence in the bubble was "Sarah's fantasy". I believe that had she gotten to know the Jareth and had really seen him for what he was and not just what she thought him to be, she could have very well gotten to love the Goblin King.