Naruto: Was Rock Lee Given Due Credit?

If you are an avid fan of the series and have been following the anime for so long, then you would know Rock Lee deserved better.

Formidable Foe

Rock Lee was one of the most formidable students in the first Chunin exams in Naruto. He gave Sasuke the run for his money. Not to mention he Naruto couldn’t do a thing against Lee.

Now it is true that all of the characters were very young back then, and people like Sasuke and Naruto had just started to get the feel of their power, so we cant just derive from that. We also saw Sasuke entirely fall weak again and again in those years, which finally led him to follow Orochimaru.

Why the difference?

Maybe Itachi let Sasuke kill him, but there is no way anyone would say Sasuke is weak now. But the same way, Rock Lee was not handled.

Not to mention, Rock Lee had actually made the early terrorizing Gaara lose his grip in the Chunin Exams, remember?

Gaara even accepted him as a worthy enemy, and for Gaara to do that is very rare, as we already know. No one has made Gaara shed a sweat by then, except Lee. But the result was not good, and Lee finally got the bad news that he cannot be a Shinobi anymore.

Just through sheer willpower!

It was heartbreaking to see someone as pure-hearted as Lee to go through that. But thanks to Tsunade and his gallon of willpower, he healed. After that, I seriously thought Lee will be off on big missions and will be one of the best Ninja of Hidden Leaf.

Even though he is one of the best, and maybe he probably went on other missions, his role in the anime became significantly less. In Shippuden, we barely see Lee, and while we see him in some episodes, he is not the strong and powerful Lee we saw in the Chunin exams.

All talk and no action

He does come here and there but is mostly shown as ‘all talk and no action,’ rather than showing the powerful Ninja we saw at play in the Chunin exams.

Every Character in the series had evolved massively, but I feel that Lee was left out of it. Remember in the Three tailed beast arc, when Lee accompanied Team Kakashi? Lee easily beats up the three subordinates of Guren, but when Kabuto gives them the curse mark, Lee fails miserably.

Gaara was a Jinchuriki, and it didn’t stop Lee, but some stupid curse mark from Kabuto did? Also, those henchmen were just newly cursed just hours before the fight, so they were still learning their ropes; how could Lee lose against them?

Anyway, this is how it looks from our perspective; let us know how you feel.