The presence of Legolas, son of Thranduil in Jackson's Hobbit films is one of the most contentious changes made to the films. The character never appears in Tolkien's book and while his presence makes sense in terms of age and the fact that his father plays a prominent role throughout the story of the Hobbit, Jackson's decision to bring the character back added very little to the overall narrative. Perhaps it was a decision made by Jackson to further tie-in the events of the Hobbit films with the Rings trilogy, but if that was the case, then the director was perhaps better leaving him out of the story. The elven warrior is really just 'there' in certain scenes of the films, playing an unimportant role in every scene he's present in due to the fact that he was never meant to be there in the first place. Sure, he he's part of the weird love triangle between himself, Tauriel and Killi, but it's a sub-plot that's entirely unnecessary and could just as easily have been filled by a generic elf character if at all.