Thranduil simply does NOT get enough credit for his endurance (physical, mental, and emotional) against Sauron. Pretty much all the other kings and warriors across Middle-earth’s history and races who faced off against the Dark Lord lost and/or died or went insane and/or killed themselves.
Thranduil endured through Sauron’s harassment of Mirkwood from TA 1000 till TA 3019–for 2,000 years! He kept his kingdom, his throne, his sanity, and was still a benevolent ruler hosting feasts for his people and lending aid to Men in the thick of all that drama.
This isn’t even a headcanon; it is a pretty solid analysis of Tolkien’s canon that those with an interest in the character would bother to do. If only the good Professor had taken his writings of Thranduil and Mirkwood further, he would have come to the same logical conclusion: Thranduil was the biggest Elven badass of the Third Age, in essence the real heir of Gil-galad in the role of “King of Elves”. (Don’t be mad, Elrond stans, Elrond made it clear he didn’t even want the title. Galadriel and Celeborn were pretty much conservators.)
I will die on this hill and always shout it from the rooftops as hard as I can.
