Rock Lee interpretation

[Rock Lee]

Yeah Bruce lee is dead, he and his son angered the anchient chinese who threatened to send demons after him and his son. Both died in very bizarre fashions.... Well as long as rock doesn't go teaching kung fu and Jeet Kun Do and anger the Hokage or whomever in the process im sure he'll do okay. Oh and GAI wtfpwned Kakashi, its pretty obious how, Gai is the Kakashi antithesis. Taijutsu beats the bejesus out of Sharingan due to kakashi being unable to keep up with Gai. As for the rock paper scissors they were trying to convey that both Rock and Gai were both Hot Blooded, and gai so much so that he kept track of menial things like game of bo wan po or whatever the japenese call paper rock scissors. Lastly you are all forgetting that Rock is a genious maybe not an obvious one but Gai and Kakashi both stated it as such. Sasuke is a genious and he lost to Lee i don't think the issue has to do with either sides of the scale. The metaphors used in the begining of this thread are poor because the reader probably hasn't read the manga and has a limited understand of writing because its pretty obvious that Lee will return. Hard work brings sucess but it does so slowly and sometimes at high costs.

As a side note its nice to see something besides the same old same old threads in repetition. Its actually interesting to read this thread.

[PuppetMaster Kankuro]

If you broke your back you would never be able to walk again, right? I thought Bruce Lee just got a strained disc in his back and as a result was confined to bed for like a month...

[Takuma]

One of the reason i love him is because he uses only taijutsu plus because he is the Beautiful Green Beast. I also think that since he lost to gara is just gonna show that hard work doesnt finish and he will probally become more powerful when he comes back from hard hospital training. I mean 199 onehanded pushups he is gonna have a lethal (right or left cant remember wich) fist.

[Rothman]

ok..back to the Rock Lee discussion. I say Rock Lee should be respected for his hardwork. His downfall, I think is just BAD LUCK. If during the preliminary matches Rock Lee was to fight against anyone except Garaa...Rock Lee will OWN ASS thanx gg!!!

PS. Rock Lee does have talent ..or else he wouldn't have been able to open the GATES!!

[Insomniac]

Gai didnt win that rock paper scissors, he claimed the win because he did the extra run after he lost remember?
Gai only says that he beats Kakashi because he imposes those extra rules on himself and claims the win afterwards, not because he actually won lol
i dont see how people miss that when he clearly states it along the lines of 'this extra self imposed rule is the key to victory even after defeat' or some crap like that.

its like someone losing to Jet Le then going off and doing 2000 pushups and then saying that they won the battle

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Taijutsu beats the bejesus out of Sharingan due to kakashi being unable to keep up with Gai. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> never happened? i think you&#39;re meaning Lee when he opens the gates but yeah he could follow him when he activated his sharigan

as for Taijutsu owning the sharigan its not completely true, sharigan can read Taijutsu like any other Jutsu, its the sharigan users body that has to keep up and we dont know Kakashi&#39;s speed so we cant make that call

btw i know we&#39;ve both read the manga so i&#39;ve kept this all current to the anime and made no spoils although i could make some good points

[TheAwesomeChow]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (aphextwinjunkie @ Dec 2 2003, 05:00 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> One thing I could never understand is why people like Rock Lee so much. From my interpretation Rock Lee symbolizes a hard working average American. He is not somebody who is talented, exceptional or special in any way but his drive. His credo is; through hard work and determination, I can advance myself. By basically maiming Rock Lee to the point of inability to perform as a ninja, the people responsible for the manga/anime are saying that hard work and determination will only get you so far, you need to be born talented/elite. This makes much sense since Japanese are very elitist (based purely on personal experience, no stereotyping intended). To me, anybody with interest in Rock Lee is celebrating the fact that the Japanese believe somebody must be born with talent to succeed in life. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
heh...correct me if i&#39;m wrong isn&#39;t basing things on personal experience, especially when generalizing a whole group of people, stereotyping. After all, your own personal view is pretty narrow when it comes to the broad spectrum of this world. But you do bring up a good point about what rock represents and that the story line has indeed crushed what he is, but let&#39;s not forget that lee is still alive and not out of the anime.

[Xeo]

Yup, it&#39;s definitely true that Rock has talent which came from hard work. Even Kakashi noted that opening so many gates at once isn&#39;t something that &quot;only&quot; hard work can accomplish.
But along the subject of hard work and one of the main themes of Rock Lee. It&#39;s true that hard work can take us to our potential (and we never know how high that potential is), but there are many factors that weight into how far we go. Hard work will take us so far, talent (much of which I find is confidence) and luck will do the rest.
Rock has the talent and work ethic to acheive his goal, but the person he ran into... Gaara had more talent and was &quot;worked&quot; hard in the ninja ways as well. If Rock had fought anyone else, he would be laughing his way into the 3rd exam. Now, his failure, brings up an IMPORTANT part of life. We may be great, but sometimes things just DON&#39;T work out. Now, in these situations, what are we going to do? Sit and accept it&#39;s done, we&#39;re out, there&#39;s nothing we can do? Or keep reinventing ourselves and working hard to accomplish our new goals.

It&#39;s Rock&#39;s resilience that stands out the most. He&#39;s down, but by the way he&#39;s keeps working, he&#39;ll surprise us all like Naruto While he might be a bit on the stubborn side, it&#39;s good to see someone like that. For a real life example, look no further than Christopher Reeves.

[SDShamshel]

The original poster does not seem to get the point of Rock Lee at all.

It&#39;s not &quot;hard work will get you so far.&quot;

The theme of Rock Lee is &quot;if you reach a set back, you just have to work harder.&quot;

Rock Lee works harder than any other Gennin right now, but he still suffered a terrible injury by Gaara. Is this saying &quot;this is all Rock Lee will ever get?&quot; No, it&#39;s saying that this is just another obstacle Rock Lee has to clear with the power of hard work.

If Rock Lee ended up as a head and a torso, he&#39;d still probably be a great ninja because he can overcome his limitations.

[uzuMaki_fox9]

Sory i havn&#39;t had the time to read all replies so I may be repeating some stuff. Firstly Rock Lee does have talent







(SPOILER SPOILERkakashi pointed it out as he opened the 5th gate)





Secondly the fact Rock Lee is inable to be a ninja presently is not due to the fact that the Japanese look down on hardwork and determinantion. Being a race that has succeeded through the hard work of its people (after the tragic hiroshima bomb), I find that actually Rock Lee is a symbol of how hard work can always prosper against the toughest challenges. I think that we have not seen the last of this special character and he will once agian prove everyone wrong.

[Insomniac]

yeah its not about hard work will get you anywhere, Lee wasnt all hard work either, he had the ability to remove the 5 gates and that was nothing to do with hard work.

i wouldnt read too much into it, yes he was good but most people like him because of how he fought against all odds it doesnt really matter about the outcome.
the journey is more important then the beginning or the end
also about Lee whincing when he was executing the move, there was no way he could have stopped that seeing as it was a side effect of the move, he came close but there wasnt a way he could win against Gaara unfortunatly
the moral is to try no matter what, even if you dont believe you can do it or even if you cant do it

[RamenNoodles]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>One thing I could never understand is why people like Rock Lee so much. From my interpretation Rock Lee symbolizes a hard working average American. He is not somebody who is talented, exceptional or special in any way but his drive. His credo is; through hard work and determination, I can advance myself. By basically maiming Rock Lee to the point of inability to perform as a ninja, the people responsible for the manga/anime are saying that hard work and determination will only get you so far, you need to be born talented/elite. This makes much sense since Japanese are very elitist (based purely on personal experience, no stereotyping intended). To me, anybody with interest in Rock Lee is celebrating the fact that the Japanese believe somebody must be born with talent to succeed in life. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>

I do disagree that this is indeed what Rock Lee represents. This is purely based upon my belief that the creators wouldn&#39;t stoop so low to drag some kind of stupid international insult into what is an excellent anime. I do however, believe that AphexTwinJunkie has a point that it is possible that Rock Lee could be a negative representation of America and just because you don&#39;t believe it to mean that however doesn&#39;t mean that it isn&#39;t a possibility.

[A77ALiSTiC]

the reason why i think rock lee is so popular, other than because his personality is cool, and would actually sacrifice his life to defend someone that as far as i know, could be just a crush, is mainly because he was able to do so much with hard work and determination. he started out with no talent at all.. but the hard work and determination got him this new talent that everyone must be afraid of now, being able to open the five gates... he is somewhat like naruto... nothin much was expected of him.. everyone thought that he would become a failure.. but he proved everyone wrong.
i guess what the writer is trying to deliver to us is that talent or no talent, to be able to get to ur goal or even be close to achieving it, u must be determined and hard working. naruto is an example of the talent and hard work (kyuubi being his talent) and rock lee is an example of hard work with no talent.
but hey, thats my opinion

[Rothman]

just to wrap things up ROCK LEE = OWNZ ASS

for those who don&#39;t like Rock Lee, u guys are just sadistic slackers who doesn&#39;t believe in hard work....i mean who is going to employ u guys???

PS nuthin too personal

[kyuubi]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Karasu @ Dec 3 2003, 05:25 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Why dont whoever like whatever they want instead sounds much better than analyzing what rock lee is. Lee represents a group of ppl that might not be born with a perticular talent but have a talent for working hard in getting good at something they put their mind too. We saw that Hard work didnt get Lee past gaara and thats the way it should be. But lee can only become better and better but at the same time the ppl lee so desperatly wants to reach will also evolve and become better and better. So a talent for something+training will almost for sure beat someone with moderate talent for something+trainingx20. </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
I kinda agree with what you are saying, but this whole thing about Hardwork and how it cant get you past someone who has talent and works hard is something I definately dont agree with. I look at Rock Lee and I see a person who works hard toward something he believes in. He achieved the goal he was after, all though he doesnt realize it. He definately surpassed Neji. Neji was fast when fighting with Naruto, but he was not hardly as fast as Rock Lee when he opened the life gates. The way I see it, the message is though you work hard, there is always someone better, so you must keep working to become stronger and stronger. Dont stop just because you reach a level you feel comfortable at. Once you achieve it, surpass it. And I hope that Lee realizes this and works hard to surpass Gaara, and anyone else who appears that is stronger than Gaara. Well...I hope that makes sense to somebody here... &lt;----I just love that smiley&#33;&#33;&#33;

[SirCharlesIII]

well, i like him cause....he&#39;s awesome? no, really, he&#39;s the most unique character, i feel, he&#39;s very naive, and thus endearing, and his earnest demeanor is like tha of a young child, he&#39;s easy to love as a result. also, he&#39;s funny as hell

[Beautiful Green Beast]

Yeah,Lee sure owns&#33; And he is one of the most important characters in the whole anime (and manga)&#33;

[SeGee]

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (SeGee @ Dec 3 2003, 03:38 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> hm I have never heard this paper rock sisors thing.. what episode was this? </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'>
still no ansswer

[supereyebrowplatonic]

dude, it has nothing to do with his hardwork, the orignal rock lee fans, as in when he first came out with his love for sakura, saw his awsomeness and said

&quot; that guy ownz&quot;

thank you


his personality &quot;rocks&quot;, he does thunbs up which i think is just too cool and only works in anime, and his teeth shine. that was awsome. and after he fought sasuke was he known to be a badass

so there

rock lee is too cool