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The reverse handgrip Thranduil does on his left-hand sword when we got the quick flash of his left-hand when he was cutting orcs down in the teaser is very interesting to me.


A closeup


It seems to be how Thranduil usually holds that sword and not a fluke since it's the same grip in the earlier scene when he was walking through the carnage.


Closeup


My thoughts

I guess more learned folks would say it's not a practical or feasible grip for combat, but I think for a good all-round defense-offense in a one-against-horde situation that grip complements the conventional grip on his right-hand sword. Plus this is an ELF with both the reputation and the cred of a swordsman! I think employing the different grips for his twin-sword fighting style make perfect sense. Of course it helps that he works it like the best pros!

That’s a hold that I imagine would be better suited to a stabbing downward / chopping motion – like you might hold a dagger for a fatal stab. He must be – and of course he is – marvelously ambidextrous and with such strong flexible wrists to wield it that way in full fight.
My comparison I did in my earlier post with Jadis – she is holding both the swords the same way, and performing almost mirror-image movements, or swipes that reflect each other. Imagine having the supreme fighting ability to wield two swords in different ways, as needed. Game changer indeed.

The mirror movement thingy is the typical twin-sword fighting style I believe. Again, I'm no expert but I reckon I've watched enough kungfu stuff growing up to earn some armchair critic cred. It dawned on me that twin-sword fighting is quite a limiting style (mirror moves leave a lot of potential openings for attackers too and is just limiting in the wielder's reach) and probably more stylised and suited for one-to-one action or in a tournament kind of thing. Plus, that mirror-style can look a bit too oriental (and for some strange reason it tends to be heroines who do twin-swords, twin-something else is more common for the guys), which would have been odd on HIS MAGNIFICENCE. So I am chuffed to see him in action and looking like nothing from kungfu movies or conventional fight styles That reverse grip is the sword-grip equivalent of the sideway pistol hold that gets flaked for being unrealistic and for show only. It does require a lot more power and control to wield this grip well (I got a bit of a primer on it when I visited a forum discussing the villians, incidentally silver-haired bishies, in the animation movie Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, a long way back...) and if it was the grip on a single sword, or the main one in a twin-sword style, I'd say meh (logically only and just momentarily of course because there is no meh where our ELF is concerned) but as the secondary sword, I do believe it works, and effectively and realistically complements the conventional main-sword grip. Plus it removes the element of anticipatory offence by his attackers if they can't take advantage of the repetitive conventional style. And as you say, the flexibility of the different gripes is ability supremo, not to mention cool and absolute badass. No one can touch him

(in ref to conventional twin-sword fighting styles) Hmm, yes, quite stylised, thinking of the very few female fighters I have seen. And yeah, it's more 'pose-y' than gritty and real - the kind of fight where attackers are waiting in a line or circle for their 'turn'.

The conventional sword-fighter would usually be holding a shield in left hand. Thranduil raises the bar on that - his defence arm is also an attacking arm. It's either one opponent has to look out for two attacking swords (deadly!) or two opponents have to look out for this one attacker (even more deadly) - and each sword with a 'mind of its own'."

In action

One other detail
Those trailing bits from his armour we see in that first backview doesn't seem to serve any function except flap around don't they? But I'm wondering if the slightly dragonny motif on the shape and the fabric might be a sort of resonance re his desire for treasure and just his formidable reputation as a game changing swordsman and isolation aka let sleeping dragons lie but when they waken, watch out?