like…they’re the respective rulers of laketown/dale and the woodland realm, whose ties of alliance go way back before the battle of the five armies, so they’d almost certainly keep regular and direct correspondence with one another. they also have a lot in common: they’re both fiercely protective of their people and families (though they express it in different ways, which is why bard has a close relationship with his children whilst thranduil and legolas are practically estranged); while neither of them are cowards, and both are capable of great and noble feats when necessary, they’re both more pragmatic and level-headed than foolishly brave; and they have a fair amount of shared trauma, having both lost a loved one and suffered the wrath and destructive power of a dragon - which is not that i’m trying trying to romanticise trauma, but having someone to discuss it with who can empathise on a personal level can be a catalyst for developing a close bond, and sharing your experiences can be a good way to heal from them. they also have a surprisingly healthy foundation on which to build a relationship, despite their difference in status and species: bard does not defer to thranduil, but nor is he threatened by him; he expresses his opinions honestly but without disrespect. likewise, while thranduil clearly recognises the limitations of men in comparison to elves and doesn’t completely abandon the casual arrogance he embodies throughout both dos and botfa, he never belittles or humiliates bard during their interactions.

tl;dr barduil is a good ship y’all are just mean and not reading into gay subtext where it doesn’t exist hard enough and this is the hill i’ve chosen unwisely but necessarily to die on. thx 4 coming 2 my TED talk.