10 Changes That Would Have Saved The Hobbit
9. Making Legolas A Three-Dimensional Character
Early on in the promotion for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Peter Jackson told us that we'll be shown the reason why Legolas initially had a grudge against Gimli in The Lord of the Rings. This spelled excitement. We were going to be shown a meaningful piece of character development that would be carried over to the original trilogy. This wouldn't just add depth to the character, but would have been a subtle and satisfying way to tie the two trilogies together.
The whole Tauriel/Kili Romance SHOULD have been that reason. If done correctly, Legolas should have initially been presented as sympathetic towards the dwarves, or at the very least ambivalent. His rejection by Tauriel and her interest in Kili would have then been the catalyst for him developing a grudge against them. But instead, he's shown to hate them from the start. What's more, the Tauriel/Kili romance doesn't really have any impact on his later actions.
Jackson had all the pieces to make this work, but he failed in the execution. If we wanted to have Legolas come full circle, we should have seen a change in his character, but we didn't, he was just used as a source of cheap tricks.