The author himself visualizes Legolas as "as tall as a young tree, lithe, immensely strong", and "resistant to hurt." The films make an attempt to describe these traits as much as possible, but the fact that he could, in theory, defeat the likes of Aragorn and Gimli in single-combat is glossed over entirely.
Son of the Elvenking Thranduil of Mirkwood, Legolas was Mirkwood's prince, a messenger, and a master archer. With his keen eyesight, sensitive hearing, and excellent bowmanship, Legolas was valuable to the Fellowship in their journey across Middle-earth.
In addition to his keen eyesight and endurance, Legolas is a cunning warrior. During The Fellowship of the Ring, he carries a longbow made by the Silvan Elves of Mirkwood. Upon leaving Lorien, Galadriel gifts him a bow of the Galadhrim, which he uses throughout the rest of the book.
In LOTR, Legolas' eyes are brown, yet in Hobbit, they are blue. Why? Because Orlando sometimes forgot to put in his contact and nobody on LotR noticed because they were all busy as hell.
The name "Legolas Greenleaf" appeared first in "The Fall of Gondolin" in The Book of Lost Tales, applied to a character who guided some survivors of the sack of the city to safety.
It is later mentioned that Tauriel is a talented warrior and was therefore made leader of the Mirkwood border guards. Legolas, the son of Mirkwood's Elven king Thranduil, is indicated to be attracted to her, but as she is a lowly Silvan Elf, she does not believe herself worthy of him.
Although the color of Legolas' hair is not brought up in the Lord of the Rings book, and he does not appear at all in the book The Hobbit, it is assumed that Legolas has golden hair which he inherited from his father, Thranduil who is said to have golden hair.
Tolkien writes, "He [Legolas] could sleep, if sleep it could be called by Men, resting his mind in the strange paths of Elvish dreams, even as he walked open-eyed in the light of this world." Elves do, therefore, get tired to some extent, but because they can recover whilst awake, outsiders might assume they never grow ...
Most importantly, he's exquisitely, effeminately beautiful: He has long, silver-blonde hair, China-blue eyes, and a lithe, slim body. It's an androgynous sort of beauty that foretold my adult tastes.
Yet Legolas' most prominent weapon was always his bow. The Bow of Mirkwood served him well and helped him become one of Middle-earth's most deadly archers, but he was even more profound after receiving the Bow of the Galadhrim from Galadriel.
Legolas is an elf and therefore immortal. He would live in Aman with the Valar and his Elven kin pretty much until the end of time. Except Legolas, there are no other elf parts in the final battle in Return of the King.
One such power is his incredible eye-sight, something that all Elves are gifted with. In The Two Towers, Legolas is able to track the Orcs while being 20 kilometers away from them, as well as know that "The White Wizard" is coming long before Aragorn and Gimli can. His "Elf-eyes" are basically binoculars.
Summary. Legolas' proficiency with the bow and arrow can be attributed to his Elven abilities, including enhanced eyesight, attunement to the environment, and centuries of experience as a hunter.
Legolas doesn't appear to have any hesitation in his actions throughout the films, but it's clear that his blood runs cold when a Balrog appears in the Mines of Moria. Their connection with the ancient foe known as Morgoth makes Balrogs far more fearsome than other enemies in the eyes of Elves.
At the end of the contest, Gimli is blackout drunk and Legolas feels only a slight tingle in his fingertips, and is completely sober, as if he has never experienced alcohol and it has hardly any effect on him. Cut to The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug.
"What a great adventure it shall be," Legolas replied, ushering Aragorn to the head of the ship, never letting go of his hands, kissing him softly on the lips. "I could not have picked a better person to adventure with than you Aragorn." "Let us go home Legolas," Aragorn said, staring off beyond the horizon.
Legolas eyes were always blue, which was achieved via contact lenses. At one point, they scratched Orlando Bloom's corneae, and so they had to colourize them in post-production. Due to lack of oversight, a few shots across all three films were left with Orlando's natural eye colour.
The combination of using both the actor and a CGI stand-in for certain scenes (such as his fight with Bolg) made the contrast starker, especially when compared to his more agile self in the Lord of the Rings films.
Loving Tauriel was a particularly harrowing event for Legolas. So much so, in fact, that he never shows any interest in romance ever again. He never even talks about romance in The Lord of The Rings trilogy.
