@@dumbassdude8372 thats true, but Oda doesn't really try to be serious and I have reason to be angry with Hito Hito no Mi bullshit and Kubo actually has a far better record with consistency over Oda and Kishimoto
@@dumbassdude8372 not really cause I started one piece when I was a 18 so I don't think I'm nostalgic of it. I was actually skeptical of starting it cause I wasn't a fan of the art but when I read it I never stopped since so I can definitely say it's a great in my OPINION.
@@slavchansidorov32 I agree I'm not much a fan of the Hito hito no mi reveal but other than that I love the new reveals. I'm not really a fan of bleach though and I finished bleach. I just finished it just to say I read it before judging it
Shino really came in as a creepy, mysterious bug man, did fuck all, and then basically became a completely different character as his one trait of creepy mysterious bug man was shaved off for instead being a bootleg x-man member
Rock Lee is the perfect summary of the core theme behind Naruto. Hard work and practice is never going to measure up to innate talent and biological superiority.
Yeah, the idea that effort > talent is a theme kishimoto seemed to want to push but his desperate desire to overpower everyone, especially the mc who was supposed to be the "underdog" makes it so fuckin stupid Kishimoto made it so neji was 100% right and I don't even know if he realized it.
I agree Kishimoto failed here, but I don’t think that ultimately was the theme of Naruto. It’s about the will of fire, caring for others like family, passing things on to the next generation, breaking the cycle of hatred For example how Indra and Asura’s descendants were supposed to fight on for eternity, but Naruto and Sasuke broke that. I do agree that the narrative choices they picked with the innate powers and stuff sucked though. 😅
@@Janon743 will of fire failing shoudlnt be the message though... and breaking the cycle of hate isnt even how they beat the big bad. Its there for little stories there but in the end its destiny and violence.
@@Janon743the theme of Naruto established in the beginning was an untalented goofy ninja with dreams and hardwork,the underdog can go on to do amazing things. Everything else came after.
I had Rock Lee as my lockscreen not because he's my fav character in the series but simply a reminder that i dont want to waste all my potential just like how Kishimoto did to Lee.
There’s a phrase that comes to mind, “hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard.” And the story of rock Lee perfectly encapsulates what happens if talent does work hard
I think you over looked one major point in rock lee's character and that is he lost, he lost to garaa, naruto isnt about just hard work, but breaking fate and lee failed in that, same with guy who also failed, he failed to kill madara. Naruto world is about the a world stuck in a cycle.
@@jeffjeff9484 but they didn’t fail. Lees ultimate goal was to become a splendid Ninja and he did that. Might Guy was the only person other than Hashirama that Madara acknowledged. They had no talent and was laughed at. But hardwork has gotten them the highest praise. They didn’t get the W but they got the respect and that alone is a W. Kakashi who is considered talent said Guy surpassed him. And Lee took out the main characters
@@shadowlee02 Yes but they didnt win that's what i mean they still weren't able to overcome there fate, naruto's show is about a world who's people are stuck to there fate. they tired to overcome it but cant that's why they lose that's what i mean
@jeff jeff naruto is also about being stronger together/unity, and that message shines through because without characters like guy and rock Lee's contribution to that naruto/Asura would fail. Indra/madara Cursed the Uchihas with the curse of hate which made characters like Sasuke, itachi and other Uchihas believe that they needed to literally kill their closest friends to become stronger. Naruto is a amalgamation of others strength even a demons, rock Lee is just a peice of that total unit of strength just like naruto.
@@jeffjeff9484 Lee's fate was to become a farmer, as was Guy's. Neither could use jutsu and they both rose to be among the greatest ninja of their generation. You're smoking dicks. Not even convinced you've read the manga.
Another detail: in the fight between Sasuke and Gaara in the chunnin exam, Sasuke showed that he mastered the same speed as Lee in WEEKS, and Lee trained for YEARS. That's another point for natural talent.
That was just pure bs tbh. No explanation was given for it and Sasuke didn’t maintain the same speed later on. Just an excuse for Sasuke, someone who literally knew almost no jutsu and who hadn’t had much training by that point, to force Gaara the unstoppable jinchuuriki on the run. Would’ve made much more thematic sense for it to have been Naruto vs Gaara right there in the Arena. Gaara would go crazy because Shukaku would want to fight Kurama’s vessel. If Kishimoto really wanted to force Sasuke to fight Gaara, he could’ve went the Genjutsu route, as we know that he Sharingan can calm the Tailed Beast and influence it (at Sasuke’s level, that’s all he could’ve hoped for).
I mean, his entire "hard work that surpasses genius" schtick was complete bullshi*t to start with, since the geniuses he was stacking himself up against were also completely obsessed with hard work, head much stronger motivation than just proving their own worth, and couldn't afford to concentrate 100% of their time on taijutsu (which Rock explicitly had no natural talent at, unlike at least Neji and Sasuke) because they actually had the ability to use ninjutsu and genjutsu and ignoring those avenues of training would have been suicidal for professional magic assassins. I kinda want to see an extra scene where Neji and Ten Ten interrupt Rock Lee talking about how he plans to surpass genius with hard work to ask him if he's saying that they don't work hard, and point out that he's only really relevant anymore because he's a genius at going Super Saiyan, unlike them.
@@lnsflare1 But it is stated that his talent is actually 'working hard', whatever that means. It may just be non sense, as it is never properly explained. But at least at those dramatic moments in the show, the point is that Lee can 'tolerate' working harder than any other people because it is his talent. Of course it could be bull shit because whole concept is abandoned after the writer milked the emotion out of people, and when they want to show how other character trains, of course they also make them 'work hard'. So it is kind of the writers fault hooking people with those dramatic point and dialog and never follow through.
I'm pretty sure that booth Neji and Tenten understood that someone who lacked any Ninjutsu and Genjutsu would try extra hard. Gai encourages it as he basicly was Lee. Tenten im sure appreciates his motivation and effort. And Neji belived in destiny, so he was always,beneeth hin in his mind. Rock Lees talent of hard work isn't just focusing on one thing only. It is how much time he out into training, and how much he pushes his limits. He is essencially the fusion of Rocky Ballboa and Bruce Lee. A no good that pushes himself and "supposedly" ovetcomes champions, but instead of boxing he embodies alot of traditional martial arts. His only problem was the lack of love from the author. An easy fix is letting Lee push Shukaku out of Gaara, or let him defeat Kimmimaru. Not nessesarily by being better, but keeping up long enough so he dies as he saves Gaara. From there on give him more unique taijutsu moves and in late shippuden/Boruto methods to overcome the limitations of the Gates and keep up with Otsutsuki. What if you have him learn the Hundred healing seal? To store tge chakra of hundtets of shinobi to burn wich means 100 8 gates at once etc. Or you invent any other creative taijitsu techniques on the spiritual side. Literary all it came down to was Kishimoto having no plan for him and therfor he and Neji got the shit they ended with.
I mostly agree with the video, mainly because the Konoha 12 was PRESENT for every major arc, just not UTILIZED as well as they could have been. So lets add this single thing before I go into how I would rewrite them: Kara having the 'Outers' is interesting, so lets do something similar with the Akatsuki and give them the 'Mercenaries'. They wear black cloaks with only a single red cloud on their back. ______________________________ 1. Kazekage Rescue arc- Team Guy was in the arc but didn't do much. Let's change that. A portion of The Mercenaries attack the Hidden Sand Village to cover Sasori and Deidara's escape. Neji, Lee, and the rest of the Sand ninja confront them head-on. Temari takes over a commanding position over her fellow ninja to fight this threat, while Neji and Lee take on the two strongest foes in the Mercenaries there(they are both A-rank ninja). Neji fights a user of the explosion release(I believe that release is canon), pitting his ultimate defense against this guy's ultimate offensive close combat syle. It is later revealed that this guy can cause a delayed explosion to happen to whatever he touched before, giving him the advantage. Things get especially bad when an entire street is primed to blow, but Neji counters with an air palm that dessimates the chakra in the area while simultaneously defeating his enemy. Lee fights a guy that uses the first 5 breathes of the 7 heavenly breathes(non canon? But I like it, so lets bring it over). Lee could only use the first 3 gates pre timeskip (1st gate- Hidden Lotus, 2nd gate- Rejuvenation, 3rd gate- Red Skin), so he learned another 3 after the timeskip ended(I did this because only learning 1 gate in 2 years was awful). The enemy uses the heavenly breathes to strengthen ninjutsu instead of taijutsu(kinda wanna see what that would look like) to further emphasize that taijutsu can be equal to ninjutsu as long as one trains hard enough. Lee uses the 4th gate to activate the Reverse Lotus, 5th gate for the green chakra hue, and ends the battle using the Morning Peacock in his 6th gate. The sand Village has trouble protecting its citizens until a recovering Kankoro shows up, controlling his puppets to play support at a safe distance. I'm gonna increase the range of his chakra strings to encompass the whole village. The group attempting to rescue Gaara is intercepted by Itachi and Kisame(the real ones), sent by Pain to help Deidara and Sasori, as all Akatsuki members are weakened after siphoning Gaara's chakra. Kakashi and Guy stay back to stall these two. Kakashi notices that when chakra goes into one of Itachi's eyes, the Tsukiyomi is activated. Kakashi resist this now that he is using the Mangekyo as well. Kakashi also notices that the Amaterasu is activated when chakra goes into Itachi's other eye, he counters this with Kamui. By the end of their fight, Itachi's chakra turns red as he prepares to use his Susano'o, but leaves when he hears that Sasori died. Guy immediately goes 6th gate, showing us what Lee would look like if he maximized his potential. Kisame fights with Samehada fully awakened. The fight ends when Kisame begins to transform, and we see Guy call out the 7th Gate, but neither happens as news of Sasori's death reaches them. Sakura and Chiyo vs Sasori is great. No changes needed. Naruto fights Deidara with... Tenten?! Yes. Her throwing weapons would be a great counter to Deidara's bombs. Im also going to give her a great sword with seals at the bottom that allows it to fly(in principle, it works like Gaara's magnet release that allows him to fly in much the same way), because im drawing a comparsion between Tenten and famouse martial artist in chinese novels that travel on flying swords. Her greatsword also has a seal on the bottom of its pommel that shoots flames so that she can gain momentum. Naruto follows the two from below, hopping from one tree to another. When Tenten pins Deidara down from time to time, Naruto uses the 9 Tails chakra(he can control up to three tails) for a massive leap to deal massive damage via the Rasengan Series. This includes: The Rasengan(doesnt need clones), the Giant Rasengan(needs 1 clone for more power), the Mini Rasengan(acts as an armor piercer(needs 1 clone for control)), and the Rasenshuriken(needs 2 clones to make). Deidara escapes by substituting himself with a clay clone that takes the full force of the Rasenshuriken. 2. Orochimaru Hideout arc- plays the same, but the fight against Sasuke is more inline with the storm 2 game since im pushing for a more competent Naruto and Sakura. 3. Immortal Duo arc- Plays out the same without Naruto showing up to help. Instead, it cuts between the action, and Naruto training to upgrade his Rasenshuriken, finally perfecting the jutsu the 4th Hokage made to counter(what we will know later to be) the Kirin. Choji can use all of his abilities without the Akamichi clan pills(except his butterfly wing mode that doesnt make an appearance here). Ino can form a chakra construct of herself during the mind transfer jutsu that heals others through contact(taking a page from Shinobi Strikers). Ino's base abilities are support based, so im making her a purely long range support type character. Kakashi kills Kakazu in the end with Kamui. 4. Im taking the liberty of renaming the "Search for Itachi" arc into the "Akatsuki Search and Destroy" arc. This will have Sasuke forming team Hebi and killing Deidara, while the new team 7 pairs up with team 8 to destroy a Mercenary hideout while fighting Obito. The two teams fights a giant group of Mercenaries, revealing new abilities. Shino fights with two types of bugs, the first are his usual while the second attaches to his body, making a sturdy rhinoceros beetle exoskeleton with fly wings made out of chakra. Hinata can use the 64 palms, palm guard(making it canon) instead of rotation, and air palm. Kiba can fuse with Akamaru to make a giant two-headed wolf(Im making it so that he could only make a giant wolf with one head pre-timeskip). The fight is going well until Obito and Zetsu show up(fresh after Deidara's death). His intangibility is a bitch, but team 8 was able to find a work around this. Shino would spread his bugs over a wide range, making Obito disappear into his Kamui dimension, Hinata would immediately find his location when he reappears using her Byakugan, and Kiba would hit him with a fang over fang by his two headed wolf form before Obito could gain his bearings. This single attack would cause him to retreat and end the mission. The arc would end with Sasuke vs Itachi and Jiraiya vs Pain. 5. The Pain arc would mostly play the same. ALL of the Konoha 12 that are in the village needs to fight at least 1 of the path of pain. Naruto's new Rasenshuriken that can be thrown can be done in base with 2 clones, but by himself in Sage mode. But the biggest change would be Hinata. When she attempts to save Naruto, she unlocks the Tenseigan, BUT IM GOING TO BE REVAMPING THIS EYE COMPLETELY(I've always hated its abilities)! As we know, the base sharingan has 3 abilities(time perception, copying abilities, and casting genjustu), while the Mangekyo adds another 3(right eye ability, left eye ability, Susano'o), and the Rinnegan switches out the Sharingan's six abilities for a new six(im not counting Izanami/Izanagi or the seventh path). The Byakugan has 3 abilities(360 vision, x-ray vision, and kaleidoscope vision), so the Tenseigan will add another 3: Night vision, Heat vision, and purple chakra(Hamura's chakra). Hinata does a better job because of this, but still gets blasted. Pain remarks that the Rinnegan and Tenseigan are the Six Paths version of the Sharingan and Byakugan(the Sharingan is more suited for combat while the Byakugan is more suited for scouting with combat aspects), and the fights carries on as normal. 6. Kage Summit- Mostly remains the same, but Sasuke takes out Danzo without throwing Karin aside(he still loses his mind though). I made this change so that Sakura, Kiba, Lee, and Sai could fight Karin, Jugo, Sasuke, and Suigetsu. The fight ends when Obito saves Sasuke and the team who are tired from their fights at the Summit when they are about to lose(Naruto and Kakashi can still pop up in the end for a team 7 reunion when Obito attacks Sakura who didnt notice him appear before the retreat, but that's only if you care for that sort of thing). 7. War arc. Cut down on the flash backs and it fixes half of the issues. Allow Kaguya to appear AFTER team 7 takes down Madara and the other half is fixed(she appears when Madara loses control of the 10 Tailes after his defeat). I personally, would take away Kakashi's DMS, and instead have all of Konoha 12 appear to fight Kaguya(still 12 because Sai is replacing Neji who died protecting Naruto, and not Hinata). The rest of the cast gets a new ability(which we see them use during the war) to be on par with Sakura and not slow Naruto and Sasuke down. Shino fuses his two bug types with the poison bugs Torune had(he took them) into a giant fly exoskeleton he wears called Beelzebub. Hinata fuses her purple chakra with the twin lion fist. Akamaru had a pup before the war arc started, and together with Kiba, the three transorm into a giant three headed dog named Cerberus(one spits flames, another air, and the final lightning to release giant pillars of fire). Lee gains the 7th Gate. Tenten uses and keeps the Sage's divine tools. Sai can make an army of ink animals. Shikamaru contorts his shadow into a giant pool of darkness that shoots shadow tendrils and spikes. Choji can use his giant butterfly wing state. And Ino can make 12 chakra avatars of herself during her mind transfer jutsu to heal allies, take over multiple enemy bodies, or a mixture of both. Having the Konoha 12 take part in the final battle instead of just team 7 would do wonders in closing them off. The final fight, of course, would still be just between Naruto and Sasuke.
I'd argue that Naruto had substantial help from Kurama in his fight against Neji. Meaning that fight wasn't really about hardwork overcoming genius cause having a backup generator in the form of a Demon Fox is something no one can achieve through "hard work". Without Kurama in the mix, Neji would have won that fight
Precisely. In that fight Neji blocked all chakra points of Naruto. This means no chakra use. Unless you are Rock Lee who doesn't really need chakra and can also force open those points - you would loose. Naruto should loose then. He didn't only, because he had demigod living in his behind. Having essentially infinite amount of chakra is ridiculous advantage. The fact that Neji considered this proof of being able to fight destiny was hilarious. None was more destined for greatness than Naruto...
@@radosawowczarzak3132 I know right. If only Neji knew he was fighting the reincarnation of ninja Jesus. He would have realized that no only was he right in that moment, but Naruto would go above and beyond to live up to his philosophy 😂😂😂
@@MrREAPERsz Naruto's regeneration is fuelled by his Chakra. Neji was able to "switch off" all of Naruto's Chakra points with his 8 Triagrams 64 Palms, basically leaving Naruto powerless. Naruto in that instance, was lucky he was a jinchuuriki and thus had a secondary power source in Kurama. Without him, Naruto would have lost to Neji. A much better showing of "hardwork beats genius" would have been if Rock Lee fought and defeated Neji, because not only does Rock Lee truly come from nothing and made something of himself, but his ultimate move, "the Eight Gates" is the perfect counter to the Eight Triagrams primarily because it allows the user to have full control of their Chakra points in order to open them and it can only be gained and mastered through intense training and hardwork. It's a skill anyone can learn. But not everyone can be a jinchuuriki, you have to literally be born with the compatibility to be one
I will never stop advocating for Rock Lee vs Madara over Might Guy vs Madara. As amazing as that battle was, both cinematically and thematically, Lee absolutely should have been set up to take Madara on in that fight, and fulfill his dream of being titled the Strongest.
I don’t really agree with that. Lee was still the apprentice. They couldn’t show him to have better taijutsu prowess than Might Guy. Guy was just factually a better taijutsu master than Lee at the time. It makes more sense for his sensei to make the sacrifice in order for Lee to live on
I think Guy vs Madara was the perfect matchup. However, I think that Guy should have won the fight. Nothing would have really changed in the series after that point regarding character power levels. But Guy damaging Madara so much that Kaguya could come out would have been the perfect final battle for Guy, a mutual KO against an opponent whose skill Madara respected.
@@snailmix I should probably clarify; I don't mean that Lee should have fought Madara at the level he was at during the 4th Ninja War. What I mean is that he should have been *_set up_* throughout the series to eventually face off against Madara. I believe a lot of fans would feel more fulfilled if Lee was given a better power progression throughout the story, to where he eventually masters the 8th Gate by the War Arc. Unfortunately, by the War Arc, Lee unfortunately just wasn't strong enough to fight at that level. Just like Fizzy said, practically every member of the Konoha 13 surpassed their masters by the 4th Great Ninja War (Kurenai's team had easily passed her - I believe even Kiba would have been able to beat her in a fight at that point, Ino-Shika-Cho were given a final showdown with Asuma, and Team 7 are self explanatory), it's a shame that Team Guy were not given the same treatment.
Every time I see an episode of boruto I’m just hit with disappointment. Kiba was my favorite character as a kid then he became a influencer instead of a Ninja hero. And Lee. Oh my gosh the waste of Lee.
Might Guy’s team and Kakashi’s team should of had a friendly rivalry, I feel like that would encourage the creator to make rock lee more important in the story
They should of went for that the rivalry would of been so fitting guy and kakashi being rivals both teams having hard working underdogs, edgy powerhouse with a doujutsu and a useless girl
YES, i could just imagine Naruto and neji, lee and Sakura training together in taijustu and tenten uses her weapon to help sasuke with his sharigan training.
You hit the nail on the head at the very end: Naruto WAS about hard work overcoming talent in the BEGINNING, until it became about bloodlines and being reincarnated gods throughout the series.
Rock Lee's life is the perfect origin for a villain. Someone that spent years achieving what he had, yet those born with potential could surpass him in a matter of weeks. When he was needed most, he was robbed of being able to do what counts. Most people in such a position would mentally break under such a situation.
Hot take: Rock Lee should have been the one to use 8 Gates against Madara. 1) His story arc of wanting to be recognised as a strong and worthy shinobi comes full circle when Madara, who wiped the entire Shinobi alliance and the Kage, recognises Rock Lee as "The Strongest Shinobi." 2) Despite it making more sense for Guy, who was already at his peak and had a younger successor to pass on the 8 Gates to do this, it would follow with what Guy said at the Chuunin exams, about giving Rock Lee the tools to achieve his dream, even if it would result in his potential death. 3) It would have been awesome to see the reactions of Lee and the crowd when Madara recognises Lee. 4) It fulfills the "Hard work beats talent" idea more than Guy since we see Lee's growth throughout the series, and how he's built himself up despite everyone else belittling him for his dream, a lot like Naruto. 5) It would have been heartbreaking to see Lee permanently injured, but it would have also given an opportunity to show his unyielding spirit, and to see the entire village treat him as an honored legendary shinobi.
Agreed. If rock Lee did what Guy has done to Madara,he would've been completed as a character,his dream to become a great ninja using only taijutsu would've been accomplished (seeing how Madara acknowledged Guy's strength,he would've done the same to Lee as well).
I wish Lee had his own moveset after the fifth gate and I would've liked if there were characters from other villages that had their own versions of the eight gates like Shira from the sand village even though he's a filler character
had it was kinda dumb how taijustu was utilized you'd think everybody would learn the 8th gates to a degree right? but they didn't despite it being accessible to everyone, rock Lee/might guy having to utilize the 8th gates to be relevant in the first place and then not just dog walking everybody in taijustu? also why didn't they just use weapons with 8 gates with one of the best crafted weapons in the world wish the 8th gates wasn't real or wasn't classified like a special technique could've simply just be pushing your body to the limits and behind with obvious hues of adrenaline and breathing techniques and the fact rock Lee and might trained to do it so well.
@@axz647 well I think you would have to focus all of your training towards taijutsu to go that far with the eight gates because while someone like Kakashi could open a gate, he was a well rounded ninja
@@axz647might guy had access to ninjustsu he just chose to not use it in honor of his dad who couldn't hense why he taught rock Lee who also couldn't like his father
I'd say Lee's story is less about hard work achieves your dreams, and more a lesson in perseverance. He loses perpetually, and he has doubts about the surgery. Yet he continues to perservere throughout all his struggles.
@@phlpcockrell right. That's why it's about perseverance and not hard work. He did succeed in splitting a big old meteor with the suicide corps. And... Sasuke finished the job. 🤣
@@kmartinquadeuce 😂 yeah kinda. And if Lee's dream was to get a bunch of his buddies together and half-save people from a meteor while someone better cleans up the rest it would be a great lesson.
The huge tone shift of thinking about Rock Lee and Neji dying that early. Guy held his students back in participating in the chunin exam to help ensure they survive. And then they both die before anyone else.
I feel like outside of team 7, Rock Lee and Neji were the only members of the original Konoha 12 that had actual character arcs, which makes them being waised even more tragic.
I know it isn't shown much, but Rock Lee losing to Kimimaru is somewhat symbolic too. as you mentioned, he JUST got out of a life threatening surgery. not only that, he wasn't even cleared yet. you can work as hard as you want, rest and relaxing are just as important. and this case, was an extreme example of what could happen if that equilibrium is unbalanced, or better said, extremely one sided
This is an underrated point imo. Rock Lee could have been written as a cautionary tale about neglecting your own health and needs and burning yourself out. Kakashi makes this point very explicitly when comforting Naruto after the Lee v Gaara fight. “He gave up EVERYTHING trying to achieve that goal. And in doing so, he destroyed himself. Now that goal is unattainable.” It’s an interesting balance of pushing yourself past your limits vs knowing your limits and thinking about long term progress over short term success - it’s one of the most interesting moments in the whole show.
Tbh Rock Lee vs Kimimaro seemed out of place. Like, he shouldn't even be there. He went from being bed ridden to catching up to Naruto 2 days into chasing the sound 5? Then the actual fight felt like filler. To me Lee fulfilled his purpose when he lost to Gaara and sent 2 deep messages simultaneously to the audience. And forcing Lee into the story kinda voided out those messages in exchange for a character that didnt do anything of importance.
Tenten is also wasted potential, if only for the fact that bukijutsu is rarely shown outside of swords. It would have been amazing to see her actually use her weapons instead of throwing them. And I would say Shino was wasted, but I guess you need to have characters struggle against an enemy, so I understand why he was in very few fights.
I mostly agree with the video, mainly because the Konoha 12 was PRESENT for every major arc, just not UTILIZED as well as they could have been. So lets add this single thing before I go into how I would rewrite them: Kara having the 'Outers' is interesting, so lets do something similar with the Akatsuki and give them the 'Mercenaries'. They wear black cloaks with only a single red cloud on their back. ______________________________ 1. Kazekage Rescue arc- Team Guy was in the arc but didn't do much. Let's change that. A portion of The Mercenaries attack the Hidden Sand Village to cover Sasori and Deidara's escape. Neji, Lee, and the rest of the Sand ninja confront them head-on. Temari takes over a commanding position over her fellow ninja to fight this threat, while Neji and Lee take on the two strongest foes in the Mercenaries there(they are both A-rank ninja). Neji fights a user of the explosion release(I believe that release is canon), pitting his ultimate defense against this guy's ultimate offensive close combat syle. It is later revealed that this guy can cause a delayed explosion to happen to whatever he touched before, giving him the advantage. Things get especially bad when an entire street is primed to blow, but Neji counters with an air palm that dessimates the chakra in the area while simultaneously defeating his enemy. Lee fights a guy that uses the first 5 breathes of the 7 heavenly breathes(non canon? But I like it, so lets bring it over). Lee could only use the first 3 gates pre timeskip (1st gate- Hidden Lotus, 2nd gate- Rejuvenation, 3rd gate- Red Skin), so he learned another 3 after the timeskip ended(I did this because only learning 1 gate in 2 years was awful). The enemy uses the heavenly breathes to strengthen ninjutsu instead of taijutsu(kinda wanna see what that would look like) to further emphasize that taijutsu can be equal to ninjutsu as long as one trains hard enough. Lee uses the 4th gate to activate the Reverse Lotus, 5th gate for the green chakra hue, and ends the battle using the Morning Peacock in his 6th gate. The sand Village has trouble protecting its citizens until a recovering Kankoro shows up, controlling his puppets to play support at a safe distance. I'm gonna increase the range of his chakra strings to encompass the whole village. The group attempting to rescue Gaara is intercepted by Itachi and Kisame(the real ones), sent by Pain to help Deidara and Sasori, as all Akatsuki members are weakened after siphoning Gaara's chakra. Kakashi and Guy stay back to stall these two. Kakashi notices that when chakra goes into one of Itachi's eyes, the Tsukiyomi is activated. Kakashi resist this now that he is using the Mangekyo as well. Kakashi also notices that the Amaterasu is activated when chakra goes into Itachi's other eye, he counters this with Kamui. By the end of their fight, Itachi's chakra turns red as he prepares to use his Susano'o, but leaves when he hears that Sasori died. Guy immediately goes 6th gate, showing us what Lee would look like if he maximized his potential. Kisame fights with Samehada fully awakened. The fight ends when Kisame begins to transform, and we see Guy call out the 7th Gate, but neither happens as news of Sasori's death reaches them. Sakura and Chiyo vs Sasori is great. No changes needed. Naruto fights Deidara with... Tenten?! Yes. Her throwing weapons would be a great counter to Deidara's bombs. Im also going to give her a great sword with seals at the bottom that allows it to fly(in principle, it works like Gaara's magnet release that allows him to fly in much the same way), because im drawing a comparsion between Tenten and famouse martial artist in chinese novels that travel on flying swords. Her greatsword also has a seal on the bottom of its pommel that shoots flames so that she can gain momentum. Naruto follows the two from below, hopping from one tree to another. When Tenten pins Deidara down from time to time, Naruto uses the 9 Tails chakra(he can control up to three tails) for a massive leap to deal massive damage via the Rasengan Series. This includes: The Rasengan(doesnt need clones), the Giant Rasengan(needs 1 clone for more power), the Mini Rasengan(acts as an armor piercer(needs 1 clone for control)), and the Rasenshuriken(needs 2 clones to make). Deidara escapes by substituting himself with a clay clone that takes the full force of the Rasenshuriken. 2. Orochimaru Hideout arc- plays the same, but the fight against Sasuke is more inline with the storm 2 game since im pushing for a more competent Naruto and Sakura. 3. Immortal Duo arc- Plays out the same without Naruto showing up to help. Instead, it cuts between the action, and Naruto training to upgrade his Rasenshuriken, finally perfecting the jutsu the 4th Hokage made to counter(what we will know later to be) the Kirin. Choji can use all of his abilities without the Akamichi clan pills(except his butterfly wing mode that doesnt make an appearance here). Ino can form a chakra construct of herself during the mind transfer jutsu that heals others through contact(taking a page from Shinobi Strikers). Ino's base abilities are support based, so im making her a purely long range support type character. Kakashi kills Kakazu in the end with Kamui. 4. Im taking the liberty of renaming the "Search for Itachi" arc into the "Akatsuki Search and Destroy" arc. This will have Sasuke forming team Hebi and killing Deidara, while the new team 7 pairs up with team 8 to destroy a Mercenary hideout while fighting Obito. The two teams fights a giant group of Mercenaries, revealing new abilities. Shino fights with two types of bugs, the first are his usual while the second attaches to his body, making a sturdy rhinoceros beetle exoskeleton with fly wings made out of chakra. Hinata can use the 64 palms, palm guard(making it canon) instead of rotation, and air palm. Kiba can fuse with Akamaru to make a giant two-headed wolf(Im making it so that he could only make a giant wolf with one head pre-timeskip). The fight is going well until Obito and Zetsu show up(fresh after Deidara's death). His intangibility is a bitch, but team 8 was able to find a work around this. Shino would spread his bugs over a wide range, making Obito disappear into his Kamui dimension, Hinata would immediately find his location when he reappears using her Byakugan, and Kiba would hit him with a fang over fang by his two headed wolf form before Obito could gain his bearings. This single attack would cause him to retreat and end the mission. The arc would end with Sasuke vs Itachi and Jiraiya vs Pain. 5. The Pain arc would mostly play the same. ALL of the Konoha 12 that are in the village needs to fight at least 1 of the path of pain. Naruto's new Rasenshuriken that can be thrown can be done in base with 2 clones, but by himself in Sage mode. But the biggest change would be Hinata. When she attempts to save Naruto, she unlocks the Tenseigan, BUT IM GOING TO BE REVAMPING THIS EYE COMPLETELY(I've always hated its abilities)! As we know, the base sharingan has 3 abilities(time perception, copying abilities, and casting genjustu), while the Mangekyo adds another 3(right eye ability, left eye ability, Susano'o), and the Rinnegan switches out the Sharingan's six abilities for a new six(im not counting Izanami/Izanagi or the seventh path). The Byakugan has 3 abilities(360 vision, x-ray vision, and kaleidoscope vision), so the Tenseigan will add another 3: Night vision, Heat vision, and purple chakra(Hamura's chakra). Hinata does a better job because of this, but still gets blasted. Pain remarks that the Rinnegan and Tenseigan are the Six Paths version of the Sharingan and Byakugan(the Sharingan is more suited for combat while the Byakugan is more suited for scouting with combat aspects), and the fights carries on as normal. 6. Kage Summit- Mostly remains the same, but Sasuke takes out Danzo without throwing Karin aside(he still loses his mind though). I made this change so that Sakura, Kiba, Lee, and Sai could fight Karin, Jugo, Sasuke, and Suigetsu. The fight ends when Obito saves Sasuke and the team who are tired from their fights at the Summit when they are about to lose(Naruto and Kakashi can still pop up in the end for a team 7 reunion when Obito attacks Sakura who didnt notice him appear before the retreat, but that's only if you care for that sort of thing). 7. War arc. Cut down on the flash backs and it fixes half of the issues. Allow Kaguya to appear AFTER team 7 takes down Madara and the other half is fixed(she appears when Madara loses control of the 10 Tailes after his defeat). I personally, would take away Kakashi's DMS, and instead have all of Konoha 12 appear to fight Kaguya(still 12 because Sai is replacing Neji who died protecting Naruto, and not Hinata). The rest of the cast gets a new ability(which we see them use during the war) to be on par with Sakura and not slow Naruto and Sasuke down. Shino fuses his two bug types with the poison bugs Torune had(he took them) into a giant fly exoskeleton he wears called Beelzebub. Hinata fuses her purple chakra with the twin lion fist. Akamaru had a pup before the war arc started, and together with Kiba, the three transorm into a giant three headed dog named Cerberus(one spits flames, another air, and the final lightning to release giant pillars of fire). Lee gains the 7th Gate. Tenten uses and keeps the Sage's divine tools. Sai can make an army of ink animals. Shikamaru contorts his shadow into a giant pool of darkness that shoots shadow tendrils and spikes. Choji can use his giant butterfly wing state. And Ino can make 12 chakra avatars of herself during her mind transfer jutsu to heal allies, take over multiple enemy bodies, or a mixture of both. Having the Konoha 12 take part in the final battle instead of just team 7 would do wonders in closing them off. The final fight, of course, would still be just between Naruto and Sasuke.
Fighting someone who can switch weapons in an instant would be so hard, changing the reach, speed, weight, shape would throw off people so much, even more if we take into account that they have chakra infused weapons with special abilities in the show, Ten Ten had that potential but it was never used.
Tenten was in a slightly different universe like Ninja Scroll she's impressive as hell when it come to her skill set. That's the problem when you have ninjas versus plot driven wizards, gods, robots.
Holy shit, imagine Neji, Rock Lee's best friend, dying in OG Naruto while Rock Lee was resting one extra day to recover from his shattered bones. My poor boy would have imploded from sheer frustration at himself.
He’s literally Naruto’s true MC no buffs, no ancestral powers. Just straight up fists in a world of space-time manipulation fireballs, lightning hands, and mind-controlling eyeballs.
"Hard work trumps talent" was the central theme for the chunin exams and the goal Lee aspires to. "Overcoming Hatred(the cycle of hatred)" is the overarching theme of the series as well as something Naruto needed to do. Almost every arc in the series had its own theme to follow, but as stated above, the main theme of the series definitely isn't about hard work trumping talent. It's about overcoming hatred. And if you thought the MC was going to follow what is essentially Lee's theme when he has the 9 Tails, I don't know what to tell you. We will get to Neji when we talk about the chunin exams, but first, let's talk about the land of waves. Haku grew up in a situation similar to Naruto, being hated for the power he possessed. Instead of choosing the path of vengeance, Haku fought because he loved Zabuza, and paired with Zabuza's final actions, Naruto became inspired to model his ninja way after them. Haku set the precedent of introducing characters that would reflect Naruto himself, not based on talent but instead how far into hatred they had fallen. There is a reason why Haku, who didn't fall to hatred, was such an inspiration to Naruto. Next, let's talk about the chunin exams, specifically Neji. I would talk about Lee, but my first paragraph should be enough to know where he stands in relation to both Naruto and the story. So I'll leave it with this: While it is true that Naruto never had to train as hard as Lee PHYSICALLY, that was never the point(once again, he has the 9 Tails to make things easier on that front). While Lee has to struggle with the physical, Naruto has to struggle with the mental aspects of his character, to not fall into the cycle that is the main theme of the show, hatred(of course there will be physical aspects, its shounen. But a story following the mental aspects of a character can be just as inspiring). But I'll continue this bit later. Neji talks about destiny and how everyone has a predetermined fate. Naruto disagrees with this and explains that destiny shouldn't be used as a crutch to be a jerk, like Neji is when attempting to murder Hinata or talking down to Naruto himself. So was Neji right? Everyone seems to think so, but why? Is it because Naruto is the child of prophecy? Well, it was stated that the child of prophecy would either bring peace to the world OR destroy it. I find this interesting because it takes the age-old formula of a character fulfilling one goal, one destiny, and flips it on its head by placing a 50% chance in Naruto actually becoming the villain. The simple fact that Naruto has both agency and a choice in the outcome already puts Neji's values on shaky ground(though Neji was right about his own destiny). BUT! You still disagree with me. Why? Because Naruto is the reincarnation of Ashura? Well, that's funny because, as Ashura's reincarnation, Naruto is destined to meet and battle with Indra's reincarnation, Sasuke. Now Ashura did hope that a future incarnation of himself could resolve things peacefully, but his intention doesn't matter as his actions contributed to a cycle that the Sage of Six Paths feared would continue when Sasuke wanted to have his final battle with Naruto. DESTINY ITSELF, the concept Neji spoke about, ordained that Naruto(as Ashura's reincarnation) would do battle with Sasuke(Indra's reincarnation), and continue the cycle of hatred. This path where the two could potentially kill each other might have very well been the catalyst that pushed Naruto to fulfill the evil side of his prophecy in destroying the world, made even more evident with the treatment he received growing up as a Jinchuriki, and the antagonist that reflected his character challenging his views. Now I can, somewhat, understand why one would think that the overarching theme of the series is "Hard work trumping talent" instead of "Overcoming the cycle of hatred." Unless you believe that there can be multiple overarching themes to a series instead of one, I'll compare and contrast the two with every arc, starting with: 1. The prologue - We see Naruto's position within the village and how he's treated. I believe his interaction with Mizuki and Iruka is a perfect example of one overcoming hatred to see the good in someone while the other falls deeper into it to the point that they take drastic action. Overcoming talent wasn't even a point here. 2. The Land of Waves - I believe the above point about Haku can also be used here, so instead, I'll talk about the theme of overcoming talent. There isn't one. Naruto uses the 9 Tails power(which many of you believe goes against the theme of the Chuunin exams) by this point to take down a genius, not his own power 3. The main theme of the Chunin exams is overcoming talent with hard work, but overcoming hatred is also present here. Gaara is a representation of what Naruto could have been if he fell into the cycle, and Naruto began to fear him after that. I believe that it was this arc that Naruto also expressed the hatred HE used to have for the village in the past(something we later figure out he still has with the waterfall of truth) 4. Sand Invasion arc(do people consider this a separate arc to the Chuunin exams?) - Much of the same thing with the parallels between Naruto and Gaara, but with the addition of Naruto using the 9 Tails power to summon Gamabunta to fight Shukaku. I don't believe hard work trumping talent was really reinforced here 5. Tsunade arc - Naruto learned the Rasengan WAY faster than Jiraiya or Minato(could he be a genius?). He worked hard just to fail but succeeded in the end due to thinking outside of the box. Meanwhile, Orochimaru felt hatred towards the Leaf and wanted to heal his hands to continue his path of destruction, yet was taken down with the help of Tsunade, who overcame her hatred via loss of her loved ones due to Naruto simply being there for her in her time of need 6. Sasuke retrieval arc - Naruto had two main fights, one with Kimimaru and one with Sasuke. For both fights, he used the 9 Tails to try and gain the upper hand(though Lee came in to represent hard work, so there you go, I guess). The main point of the arc was a parallel between Naruto and Sasuke, as the latter is falling into hatred for his vengeance Now, many believe that the cycle of hatred only rose to prominence as the main theme in Shippuden, spitting on everything that OG Naruto set up regarding overcoming talent with hardwork, but that is not the case. I could go over the shippuden arcs like I did here with the OG arcs, but seeing as overcoming talent with hard work is RARELY seen there in comparison to hatred, which is much more pronounced at that point, I'm simply going to move on. In conclusion, If this was a true underdog story about obtaining strength to overcome those with talent, then having the 9 Tails and the soul of Ashura would have been detrimental to the story, but it's not about that. Instead, seeing as the story is about overcoming hatred, having both the living embodiment of hatred and the soul of one who continues the cycle within you is somewhat brilliant. And while some plot points aren't as fleshed out as others, the story IS flawed in some places. I believe the story became mainstream for a reason. In my opinion, Naruto is a flawed but wonderful story of a boy that, even though he had the embodiment of hatred within him and a soul that preordained he would continue the cycle of hatred(you could even call it destiny), was able to rise above those and his past to become a great man that promotes unity instead of sowing chaos and dysfunction. A message that is not only beautiful, but necessary in times like this where it seems as though the world is falling apart.
the theme of naruto isn't about hard work to over come anything, it about the cycle of pain from beginning to end. zabuza, garaa , pain , obito, madara all show this theme and why naruto uses talk no justu. I think your misunderstanding naruto by only focusing on certain parts not the whole story
@@jeffjeff9484 Well yes, and no. The Naruto series is a mixture of many stories and themes that can all be interpreted into whatever you think it is. But notice how all the characters you mentioned aren't main characters? Because they're staples to why Naruto lived up to becoming Hokage, the highest status that people said he couldn't reach, but he did. The cycle of pain isn't Naruto's main theme, they're his obstacles. It's how Naruto grows from each foe, mentally, to ready himself to become Hokage which is similar to most Shonen themes. Achieving the impossible through perseverance, which is what Might Guy tells Lee. "You have the gift of perseverance." To never give up is Naruto's ninja way, and Rock Lee fits that bill more than Naruto ever could.
@@baruchbelmont5821 tbh i could name the man characters look at both sasuke and Naruto, probably one of the most important decisions that they had to make was in the pain arc, one choose peace(naruto) and the other choice hatred(sasuke). I do think part 1 was more about never giving up with a bit of the cycle of pain but part 2 of naruto is the cycle of pain with a bit of never giving up.
What I dont get about rock lee is how his work eithic has propelled him to unlocking 4 of the 8 gates when he was a GENIN, but at the end of Shippuden he is only able to unlock the 6th gate? Forget about wasted potential, Rock Lee was CUCKED by kishimoto and his love story to Sasuke and Naruto.
@Blesson Franklin I can agree with this but guy was 25 at the start of the series and already most likely masters the 7th and 8th so I think what your saying is valid
Rock Lee is the first run of Naruto literally was throwing hands at a descendent of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself(Kimimaro) and was soloing a one tail Gaara until Gaara decided it was more advantageous to break is limbs and kill him yet Rock Lee got up and was still ready fight with a shattered leg AND arm. Rock Lee is the example of waisted potential.
I think the reason they basically scrapped Rock Lee is because Shonen Jump noticed the popularity of Lee vs Gaara and thought "we really hit something big here with this boy compensating for a disability though hard work idea, but this concept is way too good to be wasted on some weird bug-eyed side character like this. what we need to do is subtly pretend that this character never happened and reuse this idea for the main character in future series" and that's how we got My Hero Academia, Black Clover, Mashle: Magic and Muscles etc
@Blesson Franklin we have never seen guy use hidden lotus in shippuden, we’ve only seen a genin version of lee use it how about a much stronger lee using it in the 6th gate, kid lee destroyed the ground while running even in the moves his moves were extremely fast and powerful Naruto or sasuke wouldn’t be able to rest to them. However lee was shafted and never showed any moves in the gates in shippuden all he did was throw a kunai. If they explored him more then just what he did in the chunin exams he’d be a complete speedy powerhouse
@Blesson Franklin 7th gate guy is too fast for them both tbh when they got that wack ass pull power up they still as a team didn’t do better then guy, they go is shooting air cannons they wouldn’t even survive one hit from him cause they don’t have the healing like madara do
I think you over looked one major point in rock lee's character and that is he lost, he lost to garaa, naruto isnt about just hard work, but breaking fate and lee failed in that, same with guy who also failed, he failed to kill madara. Naruto world is about the a world stuck in a cycle.
@@obscure-edits sry i didnt mean u i mean nchammer, he overlooked the fact that naruto is more about how people are stuck to there fate and not just hard work, thats why they both still lost
@@jeffjeff9484 so what, breaking fate is just something that randomly happens? I mean yeah Naruto isn't about hard work really, but what does breaking fate mean if you never had the chance to do so? ...well, actually, that is a pretty interesting theme come to think of it. Rock Lee failed, but he also never had the chance. Some people are born with the capacity to escape their fate and others are just doomed. That's a sad message but an interesting one.
I feel like at this point the show kinds of end up saying "yeah actually you gotta be born special to get anywhere that matters." and it flipped at some point from "hard work by itself can do anything" to "Without genius you cant move the needle"
Rock Lee with Guy supporting him gave Lee the power to fight and threaten Gaara who at the time was a big deal. Imagine if he had the hearts of the entire village? They wasted that young boy, Rock deserves a statue to remind everyone to never give up, even unconscious Rock would still fight on
I argue Naruto is a representation of an idealism based world view vs Rock Lee's semi grounded treatment in a case of "Ideally: True effort and determination can overcome natural talent" where Rock Lee is "Effort and Will can still be overcome by external assistance, natural talent, and overwhelming support structures that basically wear you down by sheer advantage."
For years I have said the show shouldve been about Rock Lee. All these super powered characters don't fit the theme of overcoming impossible odds through hard work.
Even in the war arc lee is like “I’ve never cursed my own lack of power more than I do now” like kishimoto should’ve done something interesting with lee it would’ve been insane
i think about this topic when it comes to naruto basically all the time. its such a massive and potent betrayal of one of the core themes of the story. and its CONSTANTLY happening. rock lee, sakura, tenten, kiba and hinata all work super hard to overcome their limitations and mediocrity but rarely get to do anything besides get their butts kicked, get saved by more talented people that were handed their powers and get relegated to playing support for not being lucky enough to be born with some godly power. guys crowning achievement is getting a compliment from a naturally born super genius that has spent the most part of his life unlocking abilities from his genetics and stealing the talents and power of other people to get ahead. its so lame.
The core theme of the story is somebody who is nobody, no power, no parents, no hope. Turns out to be one of the most privileged person in the world, with the whole world literally center within him by his inherited powers, with the biggest power battery sealed inside him to boost by the grand design of his father. It is kind of a shitty message anyway.
Mannnnnnnn, I've been saying that Naruto forgot what it was about for so long. It was about hard work can overcome talent and make your dreams come true but was thrown away with Naruto literally being a reincarnation of a god, having goated parents, and being born with a massive chakra reserve on top of massive chakra reserve.
There's a reason I dropped Naruto long before the Zombie Apocalypse arc (I refuse to call it anything else, bunch of dead ninja come back through ninja necromancy, enough said.) I just found the side-characters far more interesting than the main ones, and said side characters didn't show up enough to keep me invested. A show about ninja and the main characters have the LEAST INTERESTING powers. Naruto had his Kurama chakra crutch as early as the Chuunin exams as well...
i agree with the concept of the character having a ton of wasted writing potential, but I don't know if I've ever agreed with the idea that naruto, at some point in its past, was meant to be about hard work overcoming raw talent. From the very beginning the concept of that is kinda lost when we see the nine tails chakra help team 7 win the bridge fight. Heck from the very first episode we see naruto win by having a natural talent for shadow clones. I think the main theme is about how outlook affects character. Some characters take their talents for granted, or hold a cynical worldview that causes them to use those talents for evil, while other characters learn to find a more positive purpose, and are able to hone their talents through the hard work of not only themselves, but those they've touched with their positive outlook. characters that pursue solitude, misanthropy, cynicism, or control stand and fall on their own powers and ideals, wheras characters that seek friendship, solidarity, empathy, and cooperation often find themselves stronger from the help those connections have given them.
Personally, I never saw Rock Lee’s character arc as “hard work can overcome talent/genius” I always saw Lee as having the arc of “life will keep trying to knock you down. But you always have the choice to get back up and keep fighting” Not the “work hard” story, but the “never give up”. Which naruto does kinda embody too, but not to the level Lee does, since Naruto often needed pushes from others to do so, whereas Lee did it on his own.
His keep fighting never goes anywhere though. Dying protecting his friends even if he loses would have made more sense to that theme but we dont even get that. The message ends up being, get knocked down, get up again, but you will get weaker and weaker each time until youre basically irrelevant. But hey you have some good times of almost doing something.
If you look at only Rock Lee that would work, but Narutos fight against Neji proves different, because not only do they explicitly spell out that the theme is that hard work overcomes fate, when Naruto literally says that to Nejis face, but Neji later on even outright reflects on how watching Lee fight Gaara using his eight gates showed him that just being born superior wasn't everything. And that's the whole idea behind Naruto and Sasukes rivalry. Naruto being a nobody who through sheer hard work wants to overcome animosity, and Sasuke who was just born into the strongest ninja clan, so he is the strongest. So if you see Rock Lee in a vacuum then you might be right. But if you look at the surroudning stories, the theme is definitely that hard work overcomes genius. And then in Shippuuden it just does a sudden 180.
I love Naruto but the themes in it were not handled well especially the hard work beats talent theme. Idk how so many people are refusing to even acknowledge that this was a theme when the characters literally give speeches about it. You can love something and still acknowledge it’s flaws people!
"Naruto beating Neji proves that hard work can overcome genius" Are we just going to forget that Naruto only beat Neiji with the power of the nine-tails. A power he was quite literally born with! Where's the hard work? Also Naruto learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu, an S class jutsu in *one night*. Plus he struggled to learn Rasengan until he used the Shadow Clone Jutsu to cheat the process. Sasuke spent more time learning the Fireball Jutsu and Chidori then Naruto did learning Shadow Clone and Ransengan. Also did Naruto really work that hard? At least compared to every other ninja? I'm pretty Sasuke worked harder than Naruto did. Like what did Naruto really work hard to achieve? Most of his power comes from the nine-tails and Uzumaki chalkra which he was literally born with. Naruto was NEVER the symbol of hard work. He starts succeeding the minute he tries anything. He just never had a chance until he learns the Shadow Clone Jutsu through very contrived circumstances. Neiji did have a point that a person's potential is largely decided from birth, at least as far as the Naruto world is concerned. After all, the Naruto world uses the clan system and a person learns the vast amount of their techniques from the family they were born in.
he was given some powers but did have to work hard for most of them, but hard work isnt the main theme of naruto. I think you over looked one major point in rock lee's character and that is he lost, he lost to garaa, naruto isnt about just hard work, but breaking fate and lee failed in that, same with guy who also failed, he failed to kill madara. Naruto world is about the a world stuck in a cycle.
@@jeffjeff9484 I more or less agree with that. I think that Kishimoto tried to write an underdog story but pretty much gave up at the beginning. I'm not saying that Naruto didn't work hard, but I am saying he didn't work harder than anybody else. Like I said, Sasuke worked harder than Naruto despite being supposed to symbolize natural talent. I don't think Naruto tried harder than the average ninja although I'm open to counterexamples. I agree with the breaking fate part but what lesson is there when comparing Naruto and Lee? What did they do differently? Because it seems like the biggest difference between them is just plot. Naruto really didn't deserve to beat Neiji there even with nine-tails and pretty much won through plot.
Rock Lee is a character that would be less wasted if he was, well, literally wasted. Seriously, I wanna see more Drunken Fist (Oops, I mean "Loopy Fist") fights, the choreography of his fight with Kimimaro was beautifully done.
I mostly agree with the video, mainly because the Konoha 12 was PRESENT for every major arc, just not UTILIZED as well as they could have been. So lets add this single thing before I go into how I would rewrite them: Kara having the 'Outers' is interesting, so lets do something similar with the Akatsuki and give them the 'Mercenaries'. They wear black cloaks with only a single red cloud on their back. ______________________________ 1. Kazekage Rescue arc- Team Guy was in the arc but didn't do much. Let's change that. A portion of The Mercenaries attack the Hidden Sand Village to cover Sasori and Deidara's escape. Neji, Lee, and the rest of the Sand ninja confront them head-on. Temari takes over a commanding position over her fellow ninja to fight this threat, while Neji and Lee take on the two strongest foes in the Mercenaries there(they are both A-rank ninja). Neji fights a user of the explosion release(I believe that release is canon), pitting his ultimate defense against this guy's ultimate offensive close combat syle. It is later revealed that this guy can cause a delayed explosion to happen to whatever he touched before, giving him the advantage. Things get especially bad when an entire street is primed to blow, but Neji counters with an air palm that dessimates the chakra in the area while simultaneously defeating his enemy. Lee fights a guy that uses the first 5 breathes of the 7 heavenly breathes(non canon? But I like it, so lets bring it over). Lee could only use the first 3 gates pre timeskip (1st gate- Hidden Lotus, 2nd gate- Rejuvenation, 3rd gate- Red Skin), so he learned another 3 after the timeskip ended(I did this because only learning 1 gate in 2 years was awful). The enemy uses the heavenly breathes to strengthen ninjutsu instead of taijutsu(kinda wanna see what that would look like) to further emphasize that taijutsu can be equal to ninjutsu as long as one trains hard enough. Lee uses the 4th gate to activate the Reverse Lotus, 5th gate for the green chakra hue, and ends the battle using the Morning Peacock in his 6th gate. The sand Village has trouble protecting its citizens until a recovering Kankoro shows up, controlling his puppets to play support at a safe distance. I'm gonna increase the range of his chakra strings to encompass the whole village. The group attempting to rescue Gaara is intercepted by Itachi and Kisame(the real ones), sent by Pain to help Deidara and Sasori, as all Akatsuki members are weakened after siphoning Gaara's chakra. Kakashi and Guy stay back to stall these two. Kakashi notices that when chakra goes into one of Itachi's eyes, the Tsukiyomi is activated. Kakashi resist this now that he is using the Mangekyo as well. Kakashi also notices that the Amaterasu is activated when chakra goes into Itachi's other eye, he counters this with Kamui. By the end of their fight, Itachi's chakra turns red as he prepares to use his Susano'o, but leaves when he hears that Sasori died. Guy immediately goes 6th gate, showing us what Lee would look like if he maximized his potential. Kisame fights with Samehada fully awakened. The fight ends when Kisame begins to transform, and we see Guy call out the 7th Gate, but neither happens as news of Sasori's death reaches them. Sakura and Chiyo vs Sasori is great. No changes needed. Naruto fights Deidara with... Tenten?! Yes. Her throwing weapons would be a great counter to Deidara's bombs. Im also going to give her a great sword with seals at the bottom that allows it to fly(in principle, it works like Gaara's magnet release that allows him to fly in much the same way), because im drawing a comparsion between Tenten and famouse martial artist in chinese novels that travel on flying swords. Her greatsword also has a seal on the bottom of its pommel that shoots flames so that she can gain momentum. Naruto follows the two from below, hopping from one tree to another. When Tenten pins Deidara down from time to time, Naruto uses the 9 Tails chakra(he can control up to three tails) for a massive leap to deal massive damage via the Rasengan Series. This includes: The Rasengan(doesnt need clones), the Giant Rasengan(needs 1 clone for more power), the Mini Rasengan(acts as an armor piercer(needs 1 clone for control)), and the Rasenshuriken(needs 2 clones to make). Deidara escapes by substituting himself with a clay clone that takes the full force of the Rasenshuriken. 2. Orochimaru Hideout arc- plays the same, but the fight against Sasuke is more inline with the storm 2 game since im pushing for a more competent Naruto and Sakura. 3. Immortal Duo arc- Plays out the same without Naruto showing up to help. Instead, it cuts between the action, and Naruto training to upgrade his Rasenshuriken, finally perfecting the jutsu the 4th Hokage made to counter(what we will know later to be) the Kirin. Choji can use all of his abilities without the Akamichi clan pills(except his butterfly wing mode that doesnt make an appearance here). Ino can form a chakra construct of herself during the mind transfer jutsu that heals others through contact(taking a page from Shinobi Strikers). Ino's base abilities are support based, so im making her a purely long range support type character. Kakashi kills Kakazu in the end with Kamui. 4. Im taking the liberty of renaming the "Search for Itachi" arc into the "Akatsuki Search and Destroy" arc. This will have Sasuke forming team Hebi and killing Deidara, while the new team 7 pairs up with team 8 to destroy a Mercenary hideout while fighting Obito. The two teams fights a giant group of Mercenaries, revealing new abilities. Shino fights with two types of bugs, the first are his usual while the second attaches to his body, making a sturdy rhinoceros beetle exoskeleton with fly wings made out of chakra. Hinata can use the 64 palms, palm guard(making it canon) instead of rotation, and air palm. Kiba can fuse with Akamaru to make a giant two-headed wolf(Im making it so that he could only make a giant wolf with one head pre-timeskip). The fight is going well until Obito and Zetsu show up(fresh after Deidara's death). His intangibility is a bitch, but team 8 was able to find a work around this. Shino would spread his bugs over a wide range, making Obito disappear into his Kamui dimension, Hinata would immediately find his location when he reappears using her Byakugan, and Kiba would hit him with a fang over fang by his two headed wolf form before Obito could gain his bearings. This single attack would cause him to retreat and end the mission. The arc would end with Sasuke vs Itachi and Jiraiya vs Pain. 5. The Pain arc would mostly play the same. ALL of the Konoha 12 that are in the village needs to fight at least 1 of the path of pain. Naruto's new Rasenshuriken that can be thrown can be done in base with 2 clones, but by himself in Sage mode. But the biggest change would be Hinata. When she attempts to save Naruto, she unlocks the Tenseigan, BUT IM GOING TO BE REVAMPING THIS EYE COMPLETELY(I've always hated its abilities)! As we know, the base sharingan has 3 abilities(time perception, copying abilities, and casting genjustu), while the Mangekyo adds another 3(right eye ability, left eye ability, Susano'o), and the Rinnegan switches out the Sharingan's six abilities for a new six(im not counting Izanami/Izanagi or the seventh path). The Byakugan has 3 abilities(360 vision, x-ray vision, and kaleidoscope vision), so the Tenseigan will add another 3: Night vision, Heat vision, and purple chakra(Hamura's chakra). Hinata does a better job because of this, but still gets blasted. Pain remarks that the Rinnegan and Tenseigan are the Six Paths version of the Sharingan and Byakugan(the Sharingan is more suited for combat while the Byakugan is more suited for scouting with combat aspects), and the fights carries on as normal. 6. Kage Summit- Mostly remains the same, but Sasuke takes out Danzo without throwing Karin aside(he still loses his mind though). I made this change so that Sakura, Kiba, Lee, and Sai could fight Karin, Jugo, Sasuke, and Suigetsu. The fight ends when Obito saves Sasuke and the team who are tired from their fights at the Summit when they are about to lose(Naruto and Kakashi can still pop up in the end for a team 7 reunion when Obito attacks Sakura who didnt notice him appear before the retreat, but that's only if you care for that sort of thing). 7. War arc. Cut down on the flash backs and it fixes half of the issues. Allow Kaguya to appear AFTER team 7 takes down Madara and the other half is fixed(she appears when Madara loses control of the 10 Tailes after his defeat). I personally, would take away Kakashi's DMS, and instead have all of Konoha 12 appear to fight Kaguya(still 12 because Sai is replacing Neji who died protecting Naruto, and not Hinata). The rest of the cast gets a new ability(which we see them use during the war) to be on par with Sakura and not slow Naruto and Sasuke down. Shino fuses his two bug types with the poison bugs Torune had(he took them) into a giant fly exoskeleton he wears called Beelzebub. Hinata fuses her purple chakra with the twin lion fist. Akamaru had a pup before the war arc started, and together with Kiba, the three transorm into a giant three headed dog named Cerberus(one spits flames, another air, and the final lightning to release giant pillars of fire). Lee gains the 7th Gate. Tenten uses and keeps the Sage's divine tools. Sai can make an army of ink animals. Shikamaru contorts his shadow into a giant pool of darkness that shoots shadow tendrils and spikes. Choji can use his giant butterfly wing state. And Ino can make 12 chakra avatars of herself during her mind transfer jutsu to heal allies, take over multiple enemy bodies, or a mixture of both. Having the Konoha 12 take part in the final battle instead of just team 7 would do wonders in closing them off. The final fight, of course, would still be just between Naruto and Sasuke.
To be fair, Rock Lee was no where near healed when he jetted off to join in the fight against Kimimaru. Let’s say he was 100% ready to fight. I think he could’ve beaten Kimimaru or come close to it. If he wasn’t injured he would’ve used his eight gates and I believe that would give him the edge over Kimimaru’s bone Kekkei Genkai
If only Gaara didn't break Lee's bones maybe we would have been able to see Lee destroy Kimimaru with his hidden lotus. Idk why sometimes we just can't have good character do cool things. Kimimaru wasn't even the main villain, of that arc,that was Sasuke,and Naruto was gonna fight him. Instead what we got was Gaara stealing the spotlight,once again,to Lee.
Naruto's journey as an underdog wasn't about his strength- not only was he the ninetails jinchuriki and the 4th hokage's son, he was also half Uzumaki and he pretty much had everything baked into him to become the strongest character there is (He's Boruto if Boruto were an orphan who didn't know his heritage) but about his social and emotional journey. In that respect he was an underdog- hated by everyone, isolated and mistreated, unloved and expected to fail. But he worked until he overcame all of that and became the most beloved ninja in the world, because all that strength would mean nothing if everyone hated you.
Yeah o think it’s a little more about community and upholding others, fostering the people around you to be the best people they can be. All the villains were people who either abandoned their people or the idea of community.
i always thought that Lee should've been the one to kick the truth seeking orb that was meant to kill Guy, take him and escape. The man himself was reduced to be just a ref for the chunin exams, not even a mention of his presence when ninjutsu became obsolete, some shite like "hey Naruto, Lee said he is near your house, wait for him" when Jigen pulled up to Naruto's house. I hope that now that the leaf lost Naruto and Sasuke they give him some shine (it ain't gonna happen). Killing Neji and wasting Lee are things that i will never let slide, how are you going to waste the Kakashi and Guy duo of the new gen for absolutely no reason?
Rock Lee and Naruto shows that you should have the overall general plot of the story you are want to write. Not everyone has Oda's great retconning skills.
the theme of naruto isn't about hard work to over come anything, it about the cycle of pain from beginning to end. zabuza, garaa , pain , obito, madara all show this theme and why naruto uses talk no justu. I think your misunderstanding naruto by only focusing on certain parts not the whole story. So it makes sense that rock lee has a small part to play in the story, he doesnt fit the theme
I mostly agree with the video, mainly because the Konoha 12 was PRESENT for every major arc, just not UTILIZED as well as they could have been. So lets add this single thing before I go into how I would rewrite them: Kara having the 'Outers' is interesting, so lets do something similar with the Akatsuki and give them the 'Mercenaries'. They wear black cloaks with only a single red cloud on their back. ______________________________ 1. Kazekage Rescue arc- Team Guy was in the arc but didn't do much. Let's change that. A portion of The Mercenaries attack the Hidden Sand Village to cover Sasori and Deidara's escape. Neji, Lee, and the rest of the Sand ninja confront them head-on. Temari takes over a commanding position over her fellow ninja to fight this threat, while Neji and Lee take on the two strongest foes in the Mercenaries there(they are both A-rank ninja). Neji fights a user of the explosion release(I believe that release is canon), pitting his ultimate defense against this guy's ultimate offensive close combat syle. It is later revealed that this guy can cause a delayed explosion to happen to whatever he touched before, giving him the advantage. Things get especially bad when an entire street is primed to blow, but Neji counters with an air palm that dessimates the chakra in the area while simultaneously defeating his enemy. Lee fights a guy that uses the first 5 breathes of the 7 heavenly breathes(non canon? But I like it, so lets bring it over). Lee could only use the first 3 gates pre timeskip (1st gate- Hidden Lotus, 2nd gate- Rejuvenation, 3rd gate- Red Skin), so he learned another 3 after the timeskip ended(I did this because only learning 1 gate in 2 years was awful). The enemy uses the heavenly breathes to strengthen ninjutsu instead of taijutsu(kinda wanna see what that would look like) to further emphasize that taijutsu can be equal to ninjutsu as long as one trains hard enough. Lee uses the 4th gate to activate the Reverse Lotus, 5th gate for the green chakra hue, and ends the battle using the Morning Peacock in his 6th gate. The sand Village has trouble protecting its citizens until a recovering Kankoro shows up, controlling his puppets to play support at a safe distance. I'm gonna increase the range of his chakra strings to encompass the whole village. The group attempting to rescue Gaara is intercepted by Itachi and Kisame(the real ones), sent by Pain to help Deidara and Sasori, as all Akatsuki members are weakened after siphoning Gaara's chakra. Kakashi and Guy stay back to stall these two. Kakashi notices that when chakra goes into one of Itachi's eyes, the Tsukiyomi is activated. Kakashi resist this now that he is using the Mangekyo as well. Kakashi also notices that the Amaterasu is activated when chakra goes into Itachi's other eye, he counters this with Kamui. By the end of their fight, Itachi's chakra turns red as he prepares to use his Susano'o, but leaves when he hears that Sasori died. Guy immediately goes 6th gate, showing us what Lee would look like if he maximized his potential. Kisame fights with Samehada fully awakened. The fight ends when Kisame begins to transform, and we see Guy call out the 7th Gate, but neither happens as news of Sasori's death reaches them. Sakura and Chiyo vs Sasori is great. No changes needed. Naruto fights Deidara with... Tenten?! Yes. Her throwing weapons would be a great counter to Deidara's bombs. Im also going to give her a great sword with seals at the bottom that allows it to fly(in principle, it works like Gaara's magnet release that allows him to fly in much the same way), because im drawing a comparsion between Tenten and famouse martial artist in chinese novels that travel on flying swords. Her greatsword also has a seal on the bottom of its pommel that shoots flames so that she can gain momentum. Naruto follows the two from below, hopping from one tree to another. When Tenten pins Deidara down from time to time, Naruto uses the 9 Tails chakra(he can control up to three tails) for a massive leap to deal massive damage via the Rasengan Series. This includes: The Rasengan(doesnt need clones), the Giant Rasengan(needs 1 clone for more power), the Mini Rasengan(acts as an armor piercer(needs 1 clone for control)), and the Rasenshuriken(needs 2 clones to make). Deidara escapes by substituting himself with a clay clone that takes the full force of the Rasenshuriken. 2. Orochimaru Hideout arc- plays the same, but the fight against Sasuke is more inline with the storm 2 game since im pushing for a more competent Naruto and Sakura. 3. Immortal Duo arc- Plays out the same without Naruto showing up to help. Instead, it cuts between the action, and Naruto training to upgrade his Rasenshuriken, finally perfecting the jutsu the 4th Hokage made to counter(what we will know later to be) the Kirin. Choji can use all of his abilities without the Akamichi clan pills(except his butterfly wing mode that doesnt make an appearance here). Ino can form a chakra construct of herself during the mind transfer jutsu that heals others through contact(taking a page from Shinobi Strikers). Ino's base abilities are support based, so im making her a purely long range support type character. Kakashi kills Kakazu in the end with Kamui. 4. Im taking the liberty of renaming the "Search for Itachi" arc into the "Akatsuki Search and Destroy" arc. This will have Sasuke forming team Hebi and killing Deidara, while the new team 7 pairs up with team 8 to destroy a Mercenary hideout while fighting Obito. The two teams fights a giant group of Mercenaries, revealing new abilities. Shino fights with two types of bugs, the first are his usual while the second attaches to his body, making a sturdy rhinoceros beetle exoskeleton with fly wings made out of chakra. Hinata can use the 64 palms, palm guard(making it canon) instead of rotation, and air palm. Kiba can fuse with Akamaru to make a giant two-headed wolf(Im making it so that he could only make a giant wolf with one head pre-timeskip). The fight is going well until Obito and Zetsu show up(fresh after Deidara's death). His intangibility is a bitch, but team 8 was able to find a work around this. Shino would spread his bugs over a wide range, making Obito disappear into his Kamui dimension, Hinata would immediately find his location when he reappears using her Byakugan, and Kiba would hit him with a fang over fang by his two headed wolf form before Obito could gain his bearings. This single attack would cause him to retreat and end the mission. The arc would end with Sasuke vs Itachi and Jiraiya vs Pain. 5. The Pain arc would mostly play the same. ALL of the Konoha 12 that are in the village needs to fight at least 1 of the path of pain. Naruto's new Rasenshuriken that can be thrown can be done in base with 2 clones, but by himself in Sage mode. But the biggest change would be Hinata. When she attempts to save Naruto, she unlocks the Tenseigan, BUT IM GOING TO BE REVAMPING THIS EYE COMPLETELY(I've always hated its abilities)! As we know, the base sharingan has 3 abilities(time perception, copying abilities, and casting genjustu), while the Mangekyo adds another 3(right eye ability, left eye ability, Susano'o), and the Rinnegan switches out the Sharingan's six abilities for a new six(im not counting Izanami/Izanagi or the seventh path). The Byakugan has 3 abilities(360 vision, x-ray vision, and kaleidoscope vision), so the Tenseigan will add another 3: Night vision, Heat vision, and purple chakra(Hamura's chakra). Hinata does a better job because of this, but still gets blasted. Pain remarks that the Rinnegan and Tenseigan are the Six Paths version of the Sharingan and Byakugan(the Sharingan is more suited for combat while the Byakugan is more suited for scouting with combat aspects), and the fights carries on as normal. 6. Kage Summit- Mostly remains the same, but Sasuke takes out Danzo without throwing Karin aside(he still loses his mind though). I made this change so that Sakura, Kiba, Lee, and Sai could fight Karin, Jugo, Sasuke, and Suigetsu. The fight ends when Obito saves Sasuke and the team who are tired from their fights at the Summit when they are about to lose(Naruto and Kakashi can still pop up in the end for a team 7 reunion when Obito attacks Sakura who didnt notice him appear before the retreat, but that's only if you care for that sort of thing). 7. War arc. Cut down on the flash backs and it fixes half of the issues. Allow Kaguya to appear AFTER team 7 takes down Madara and the other half is fixed(she appears when Madara loses control of the 10 Tailes after his defeat). I personally, would take away Kakashi's DMS, and instead have all of Konoha 12 appear to fight Kaguya(still 12 because Sai is replacing Neji who died protecting Naruto, and not Hinata). The rest of the cast gets a new ability(which we see them use during the war) to be on par with Sakura and not slow Naruto and Sasuke down. Shino fuses his two bug types with the poison bugs Torune had(he took them) into a giant fly exoskeleton he wears called Beelzebub. Hinata fuses her purple chakra with the twin lion fist. Akamaru had a pup before the war arc started, and together with Kiba, the three transorm into a giant three headed dog named Cerberus(one spits flames, another air, and the final lightning to release giant pillars of fire). Lee gains the 7th Gate. Tenten uses and keeps the Sage's divine tools. Sai can make an army of ink animals. Shikamaru contorts his shadow into a giant pool of darkness that shoots shadow tendrils and spikes. Choji can use his giant butterfly wing state. And Ino can make 12 chakra avatars of herself during her mind transfer jutsu to heal allies, take over multiple enemy bodies, or a mixture of both. Having the Konoha 12 take part in the final battle instead of just team 7 would do wonders in closing them off. The final fight, of course, would still be just between Naruto and Sasuke.
It'll never fail to crack me up that Neji with his philosophy and blathering about innate talent vs. hard work and your destiny was proven right time and time again. Naruto was imo a genuinely good series at first. I don't know how Kishi managed to just absolutely, royally fucked up so hard later.
Talking about the wasted potential of Rock Lee and Neji. Forgets to talk about the wasted potential of Tenten. Basically Team Guy was a complete waste.
That moment was such nonsense since he could go 5 gates in part 1. One more Lee fight during the war would have been nice, but Lee also would have been better without that sentence. Bare minimum he should have had 7 gates at that point or maybe even 8. Lee going 7th gate, and maybe improving on Guy's usage of it somehow, then providing backup in that fight would have been amazing. It's not like he does different stuff in 7 gates versus 6, it just wouldn't have trashed his character.
@Blesson Franklin He had 5 gates with 2 years of training. The series itself spans 5 years or so, and Lee had another year before that meaning he had between 5.5 and 6 years of training by his war arc moment. In The Last which is 2 years after the end of the war, Lee does have 7 gates, but at that point we're talking 5 gates with at most 2 years of training, another gate with 3-4 additional years of training, and another gate with 2 more years of training beyond that. The gaps don't make sense, but really the issue is just that Kishi made Lee put himself down, and not give him a good moment.
If the thesis of Naruto was *supposed* to be that hard work can overcome any obstacle or natural talent or whatever, then Kishimoto is the most incompetent writer to ever have a mainstream success, because the body of work he produced runs completely and utterly counter to that idea.
12:40 you know, this moment in Naruto was the realest moment in anime I had ever watched. As a kid it taught me the most important lesson I ever learned about life. That is, sometimes things just do NOT work out no matter what you do. And sometimes, it is a real and major setback and hindrance that is going to absolutely suck and destroy you (sometimes in multiple ways). In those moments, that’s when you truly achieve self-awareness. Because that’s when you see what and who you are at your worst. You will see just what you will do in hardship. And seeing this as a kid, I realized then that it’s not always so pretty or easy.
Usually those stories end in triumph (like Ash in pokemon for example) but yeah I guess sometimes the lesson is just hopelessness. Get up as many times as you want, life will just always knock some people back down
I feel like Lee and Sakura should’ve become a couple. Not because of power or whatever, but they have way more in common. Two characters with no natural advantages besides their determination and desire to improve, who worked hard to inherit the skills of and surpass their teachers. All the strength they have is gained through hard work, while their team boasts a prodigy from a historic clan.
I think Naruto transitions from being a symbol of hard work in part 1 to a symbol of hope in part 2. That is to say that if part 1 is about him gaining the confidence and skills to be a great ninja and a hero then part 2 is the realization and I think unfortunately Lee and others are just around to give Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura a benchmark to ultimately pass.
i disagree that symbol of hard work was just a minor theme for about 3 arcs, the theme of naruto as a whole was about the cycle of hatred and breaking fate
@@jeffjeff9484 Don't forget "people only become strong when they're protecting someone else" One of the big themes in the Zabuza Arc. The final boss of the chunin exam arc is gaara, and that was the theme of his fight too. Fighting for onself or fighting to protect others. It's so weird that people take that Neji fight and call it Naruto's whole theme. When the Neji fight isn't even about "hardwork vs talent". Naruto ended so many years ago, I think the fans just forgot everything about it and form their opinions from negative youtube essays.
Sakura is probably the best example of hard work overcoming special abilities in the series if you consider just how powerful she becomes through determination. As for Kimimaro his sheer strength was justified especially when you consider his performance during the war being 1 of the few who went unsealed, still it would have been so good to see Rock Lee defeat him in a rematch. While Neji dying was obvious, I had no idea that Rock Lee was ever considered for dying during Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Speaking of which remember how Sasuke was originally killed off by Haku, yet saved because he was too popular? You have to wonder how different the series would have been if Sasuke died in the Land of Waves? Do you think Naruto as a series would have still been anywhere near as long, would Neji or Rock Lee have been replacements for Sasuke?
Sakura however was talented or atleast supposedly to be talented unlike Rock lee. After all, she was the first one who mastered chakra control before Sasuke who was labled as a prodigy.
If Sasuke died the entire series basically falls apart. Despite the name of the show, most of the plot actually revolves around Sasuke. The entire back half of the OG series is about Sasuke leaving the leaf and the entire first half of Shippuden is also about Sasuke. The entire Itachi storyline also falls apart. It's actually weird how much attention the Uchiha get when an Uzumaki is the MC.
It would've been awesome if Rock Lee & Gaara fought TOGETHER against Kimimaro instead, just think about it bro the combos would've been insane. I can just imagine Gaara setting up some badass Taijutsu combo, tossing Kimimaro into the air before prepping a lotus Kimimaro does something idk to dodge midair, but a sand tendril grips his ankle stopping him so Lee could grab him, performing the sweet ass lotus
Pure hard work was Rock Lee’s “ninja way”. I’d argue that the Neji vs. Naruto bout wasn’t really about hard work vs. talent. It was about destiny, or fate, and whether a person can work against it and change the path of your own life.
For a bit I thought Hinata was one of the ones who got wasted, but her personality makes her perfectly suited to be a stay at home mom if you think about it.
Naruto will always hold a dear piece of my heart but we have to admit that Kishi ruined any “hard work vs talent/genius” once we got introduced to Indra and Asura. It was claimed Naruto had no talent/special bloodline but by the end of the story we now know: His dad was the hokage His mom was from a chakra HOARDING clan He is a reincarnation (of a man that is always destined to become strong) He’s the antithesis of the whole theme. I still love it. I still love Naruto as a character but at this point, if the message was supposed to be about hard work, it seems like Lee should have been the main character to make that point.
Somewhere along the way Lee's goal shifted from being strong through hard work to being an exact copy of Gai. With alittle thought Lee would have picked up a weapon (and not the joke that are nunchaks). He doesn't need his hands for handsigns and has a walking armory as a teammate. Teach him to use those weapons Tenten throws around and you have a walking shredder.
The Rock Lee and Gaara fight was the reason I started watching Naruto in the first place. At least they did our boy some justice and gave him the only only spin-off that Naruto had, Boruto not included.
Just imagine at the end Garra vs Kimimaro, Rock Lee sacrificed himself to save Garra because Lee saw that Garra had changed and he would be able to do more in the future.
Rock Lee essentially peaked in the Chunin Exams, and it breaks my heart.
Tbh, the entire series did.
The big three is overrated if we were critiquing it without the nostalgia bias
@@dumbassdude8372 thats true, but Oda doesn't really try to be serious and I have reason to be angry with Hito Hito no Mi bullshit and Kubo actually has a far better record with consistency over Oda and Kishimoto
@@dumbassdude8372 not really cause I started one piece when I was a 18 so I don't think I'm nostalgic of it. I was actually skeptical of starting it cause I wasn't a fan of the art but when I read it I never stopped since so I can definitely say it's a great in my OPINION.
@@slavchansidorov32 I agree I'm not much a fan of the Hito hito no mi reveal but other than that I love the new reveals. I'm not really a fan of bleach though and I finished bleach. I just finished it just to say I read it before judging it
If we're talking about wasted potential in Naruto, I feel like Shino is right up there in the conversation
Factsssss!!
Definitely
Shino really came in as a creepy, mysterious bug man, did fuck all, and then basically became a completely different character as his one trait of creepy mysterious bug man was shaved off for instead being a bootleg x-man member
He never lost a fight, though.
I 100% agree with you
Rock Lee is the perfect summary of the core theme behind Naruto. Hard work and practice is never going to measure up to innate talent and biological superiority.
Yeah, the idea that effort > talent is a theme kishimoto seemed to want to push but his desperate desire to overpower everyone, especially the mc who was supposed to be the "underdog" makes it so fuckin stupid
Kishimoto made it so neji was 100% right and I don't even know if he realized it.
I agree Kishimoto failed here, but I don’t think that ultimately was the theme of Naruto.
It’s about the will of fire, caring for others like family, passing things on to the next generation, breaking the cycle of hatred
For example how Indra and Asura’s descendants were supposed to fight on for eternity, but Naruto and Sasuke broke that.
I do agree that the narrative choices they picked with the innate powers and stuff sucked though. 😅
I think the core theme is more hardwork _and_ talent together is unbeatable.
@@Janon743 will of fire failing shoudlnt be the message though... and breaking the cycle of hate isnt even how they beat the big bad. Its there for little stories there but in the end its destiny and violence.
@@Janon743the theme of Naruto established in the beginning was an untalented goofy ninja with dreams and hardwork,the underdog can go on to do amazing things. Everything else came after.
I had Rock Lee as my lockscreen not because he's my fav character in the series but simply a reminder that i dont want to waste all my potential just like how Kishimoto did to Lee.
💀💀💀
Huh how poetic
Bruh
Damn😮💨
He has Morning Chicken
There’s a phrase that comes to mind, “hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard.” And the story of rock Lee perfectly encapsulates what happens if talent does work hard
I think you over looked one major point in rock lee's character and that is he lost, he lost to garaa, naruto isnt about just hard work, but breaking fate and lee failed in that, same with guy who also failed, he failed to kill madara. Naruto world is about the a world stuck in a cycle.
@@jeffjeff9484 but they didn’t fail. Lees ultimate goal was to become a splendid Ninja and he did that. Might Guy was the only person other than Hashirama that Madara acknowledged. They had no talent and was laughed at. But hardwork has gotten them the highest praise. They didn’t get the W but they got the respect and that alone is a W. Kakashi who is considered talent said Guy surpassed him. And Lee took out the main characters
@@shadowlee02 Yes but they didnt win that's what i mean they still weren't able to overcome there fate, naruto's show is about a world who's people are stuck to there fate. they tired to overcome it but cant that's why they lose that's what i mean
@jeff jeff naruto is also about being stronger together/unity, and that message shines through because without characters like guy and rock Lee's contribution to that naruto/Asura would fail. Indra/madara Cursed the Uchihas with the curse of hate which made characters like Sasuke, itachi and other Uchihas believe that they needed to literally kill their closest friends to become stronger. Naruto is a amalgamation of others strength even a demons, rock Lee is just a peice of that total unit of strength just like naruto.
@@jeffjeff9484 Lee's fate was to become a farmer, as was Guy's. Neither could use jutsu and they both rose to be among the greatest ninja of their generation. You're smoking dicks. Not even convinced you've read the manga.
Another detail: in the fight between Sasuke and Gaara in the chunnin exam, Sasuke showed that he mastered the same speed as Lee in WEEKS, and Lee trained for YEARS.
That's another point for natural talent.
That was just pure bs tbh. No explanation was given for it and Sasuke didn’t maintain the same speed later on.
Just an excuse for Sasuke, someone who literally knew almost no jutsu and who hadn’t had much training by that point, to force Gaara the unstoppable jinchuuriki on the run.
Would’ve made much more thematic sense for it to have been Naruto vs Gaara right there in the Arena. Gaara would go crazy because Shukaku would want to fight Kurama’s vessel.
If Kishimoto really wanted to force Sasuke to fight Gaara, he could’ve went the Genjutsu route, as we know that he Sharingan can calm the Tailed Beast and influence it (at Sasuke’s level, that’s all he could’ve hoped for).
I mean, his entire "hard work that surpasses genius" schtick was complete bullshi*t to start with, since the geniuses he was stacking himself up against were also completely obsessed with hard work, head much stronger motivation than just proving their own worth, and couldn't afford to concentrate 100% of their time on taijutsu (which Rock explicitly had no natural talent at, unlike at least Neji and Sasuke) because they actually had the ability to use ninjutsu and genjutsu and ignoring those avenues of training would have been suicidal for professional magic assassins.
I kinda want to see an extra scene where Neji and Ten Ten interrupt Rock Lee talking about how he plans to surpass genius with hard work to ask him if he's saying that they don't work hard, and point out that he's only really relevant anymore because he's a genius at going Super Saiyan, unlike them.
Just another asspull for Sasuke . The author was giving him and Naruto absurd power ups throughout the series that we ended with a ninja Jesus
@@lnsflare1 But it is stated that his talent is actually 'working hard', whatever that means. It may just be non sense, as it is never properly explained. But at least at those dramatic moments in the show, the point is that Lee can 'tolerate' working harder than any other people because it is his talent. Of course it could be bull shit because whole concept is abandoned after the writer milked the emotion out of people, and when they want to show how other character trains, of course they also make them 'work hard'. So it is kind of the writers fault hooking people with those dramatic point and dialog and never follow through.
I'm pretty sure that booth Neji and Tenten understood that someone who lacked any Ninjutsu and Genjutsu would try extra hard.
Gai encourages it as he basicly was Lee.
Tenten im sure appreciates his motivation and effort.
And Neji belived in destiny, so he was always,beneeth hin in his mind.
Rock Lees talent of hard work isn't just focusing on one thing only. It is how much time he out into training, and how much he pushes his limits. He is essencially the fusion of Rocky Ballboa and Bruce Lee.
A no good that pushes himself and "supposedly" ovetcomes champions, but instead of boxing he embodies alot of traditional martial arts.
His only problem was the lack of love from the author.
An easy fix is letting Lee push Shukaku out of Gaara, or let him defeat Kimmimaru. Not nessesarily by being better, but keeping up long enough so he dies as he saves Gaara.
From there on give him more unique taijutsu moves and in late shippuden/Boruto methods to overcome the limitations of the Gates and keep up with Otsutsuki.
What if you have him learn the Hundred healing seal? To store tge chakra of hundtets of shinobi to burn wich means 100 8 gates at once etc.
Or you invent any other creative taijitsu techniques on the spiritual side.
Literary all it came down to was Kishimoto having no plan for him and therfor he and Neji got the shit they ended with.
If Rock Lee died, we never wouldve gotten the masterpiece known as Rock Lee and his ninja pals. Thank you Kishimoto’s editors🫶
Rock Lee should be the last person they kill off imo
I want to see a 90 year old rock Lee as hokage, still flexing on his generations grand children, with the spirit of youth!
What sucks about it, is that side anime did more justice to those characters then the actual source material.,
The what..?
You know who was wasted? Tenten. Even screentime has more screentime than Tenten.
Fr, she doesn't even have a last name lmao
@@TheChicagoJunkie she tactically don't even got a name ,just numbers 😢10 10
I mostly agree with the video, mainly because the Konoha 12 was PRESENT for every major arc, just not UTILIZED as well as they could have been.
So lets add this single thing before I go into how I would rewrite them:
Kara having the 'Outers' is interesting, so lets do something similar with the Akatsuki and give them the 'Mercenaries'. They wear black cloaks with only a single red cloud on their back.
______________________________
1. Kazekage Rescue arc- Team Guy was in the arc but didn't do much. Let's change that.
A portion of The Mercenaries attack the Hidden Sand Village to cover Sasori and Deidara's escape. Neji, Lee, and the rest of the Sand ninja confront them head-on. Temari takes over a commanding position over her fellow ninja to fight this threat, while Neji and Lee take on the two strongest foes in the Mercenaries there(they are both A-rank ninja).
Neji fights a user of the explosion release(I believe that release is canon), pitting his ultimate defense against this guy's ultimate offensive close combat syle. It is later revealed that this guy can cause a delayed explosion to happen to whatever he touched before, giving him the advantage. Things get especially bad when an entire street is primed to blow, but Neji counters with an air palm that dessimates the chakra in the area while simultaneously defeating his enemy.
Lee fights a guy that uses the first 5 breathes of the 7 heavenly breathes(non canon? But I like it, so lets bring it over). Lee could only use the first 3 gates pre timeskip (1st gate- Hidden Lotus, 2nd gate- Rejuvenation, 3rd gate- Red Skin), so he learned another 3 after the timeskip ended(I did this because only learning 1 gate in 2 years was awful). The enemy uses the heavenly breathes to strengthen ninjutsu instead of taijutsu(kinda wanna see what that would look like) to further emphasize that taijutsu can be equal to ninjutsu as long as one trains hard enough. Lee uses the 4th gate to activate the Reverse Lotus, 5th gate for the green chakra hue, and ends the battle using the Morning Peacock in his 6th gate.
The sand Village has trouble protecting its citizens until a recovering Kankoro shows up, controlling his puppets to play support at a safe distance. I'm gonna increase the range of his chakra strings to encompass the whole village.
The group attempting to rescue Gaara is intercepted by Itachi and Kisame(the real ones), sent by Pain to help Deidara and Sasori, as all Akatsuki members are weakened after siphoning Gaara's chakra. Kakashi and Guy stay back to stall these two.
Kakashi notices that when chakra goes into one of Itachi's eyes, the Tsukiyomi is activated. Kakashi resist this now that he is using the Mangekyo as well. Kakashi also notices that the Amaterasu is activated when chakra goes into Itachi's other eye, he counters this with Kamui. By the end of their fight, Itachi's chakra turns red as he prepares to use his Susano'o, but leaves when he hears that Sasori died.
Guy immediately goes 6th gate, showing us what Lee would look like if he maximized his potential. Kisame fights with Samehada fully awakened. The fight ends when Kisame begins to transform, and we see Guy call out the 7th Gate, but neither happens as news of Sasori's death reaches them.
Sakura and Chiyo vs Sasori is great. No changes needed.
Naruto fights Deidara with... Tenten?! Yes. Her throwing weapons would be a great counter to Deidara's bombs. Im also going to give her a great sword with seals at the bottom that allows it to fly(in principle, it works like Gaara's magnet release that allows him to fly in much the same way), because im drawing a comparsion between Tenten and famouse martial artist in chinese novels that travel on flying swords. Her greatsword also has a seal on the bottom of its pommel that shoots flames so that she can gain momentum. Naruto follows the two from below, hopping from one tree to another. When Tenten pins Deidara down from time to time, Naruto uses the 9 Tails chakra(he can control up to three tails) for a massive leap to deal massive damage via the Rasengan Series. This includes: The Rasengan(doesnt need clones), the Giant Rasengan(needs 1 clone for more power), the Mini Rasengan(acts as an armor piercer(needs 1 clone for control)), and the Rasenshuriken(needs 2 clones to make). Deidara escapes by substituting himself with a clay clone that takes the full force of the Rasenshuriken.
2. Orochimaru Hideout arc- plays the same, but the fight against Sasuke is more inline with the storm 2 game since im pushing for a more competent Naruto and Sakura.
3. Immortal Duo arc- Plays out the same without Naruto showing up to help. Instead, it cuts between the action, and Naruto training to upgrade his Rasenshuriken, finally perfecting the jutsu the 4th Hokage made to counter(what we will know later to be) the Kirin. Choji can use all of his abilities without the Akamichi clan pills(except his butterfly wing mode that doesnt make an appearance here). Ino can form a chakra construct of herself during the mind transfer jutsu that heals others through contact(taking a page from Shinobi Strikers). Ino's base abilities are support based, so im making her a purely long range support type character. Kakashi kills Kakazu in the end with Kamui.
4. Im taking the liberty of renaming the "Search for Itachi" arc into the "Akatsuki Search and Destroy" arc. This will have Sasuke forming team Hebi and killing Deidara, while the new team 7 pairs up with team 8 to destroy a Mercenary hideout while fighting Obito.
The two teams fights a giant group of Mercenaries, revealing new abilities. Shino fights with two types of bugs, the first are his usual while the second attaches to his body, making a sturdy rhinoceros beetle exoskeleton with fly wings made out of chakra. Hinata can use the 64 palms, palm guard(making it canon) instead of rotation, and air palm. Kiba can fuse with Akamaru to make a giant two-headed wolf(Im making it so that he could only make a giant wolf with one head pre-timeskip). The fight is going well until Obito and Zetsu show up(fresh after Deidara's death).
His intangibility is a bitch, but team 8 was able to find a work around this. Shino would spread his bugs over a wide range, making Obito disappear into his Kamui dimension, Hinata would immediately find his location when he reappears using her Byakugan, and Kiba would hit him with a fang over fang by his two headed wolf form before Obito could gain his bearings. This single attack would cause him to retreat and end the mission.
The arc would end with Sasuke vs Itachi and Jiraiya vs Pain.
5. The Pain arc would mostly play the same.
ALL of the Konoha 12 that are in the village needs to fight at least 1 of the path of pain. Naruto's new Rasenshuriken that can be thrown can be done in base with 2 clones, but by himself in Sage mode. But the biggest change would be Hinata. When she attempts to save Naruto, she unlocks the Tenseigan, BUT IM GOING TO BE REVAMPING THIS EYE COMPLETELY(I've always hated its abilities)!
As we know, the base sharingan has 3 abilities(time perception, copying abilities, and casting genjustu), while the Mangekyo adds another 3(right eye ability, left eye ability, Susano'o), and the Rinnegan switches out the Sharingan's six abilities for a new six(im not counting Izanami/Izanagi or the seventh path). The Byakugan has 3 abilities(360 vision, x-ray vision, and kaleidoscope vision), so the Tenseigan will add another 3: Night vision, Heat vision, and purple chakra(Hamura's chakra).
Hinata does a better job because of this, but still gets blasted. Pain remarks that the Rinnegan and Tenseigan are the Six Paths version of the Sharingan and Byakugan(the Sharingan is more suited for combat while the Byakugan is more suited for scouting with combat aspects), and the fights carries on as normal.
6. Kage Summit- Mostly remains the same, but Sasuke takes out Danzo without throwing Karin aside(he still loses his mind though). I made this change so that Sakura, Kiba, Lee, and Sai could fight Karin, Jugo, Sasuke, and Suigetsu. The fight ends when Obito saves Sasuke and the team who are tired from their fights at the Summit when they are about to lose(Naruto and Kakashi can still pop up in the end for a team 7 reunion when Obito attacks Sakura who didnt notice him appear before the retreat, but that's only if you care for that sort of thing).
7. War arc. Cut down on the flash backs and it fixes half of the issues. Allow Kaguya to appear AFTER team 7 takes down Madara and the other half is fixed(she appears when Madara loses control of the 10 Tailes after his defeat).
I personally, would take away Kakashi's DMS, and instead have all of Konoha 12 appear to fight Kaguya(still 12 because Sai is replacing Neji who died protecting Naruto, and not Hinata).
The rest of the cast gets a new ability(which we see them use during the war) to be on par with Sakura and not slow Naruto and Sasuke down.
Shino fuses his two bug types with the poison bugs Torune had(he took them) into a giant fly exoskeleton he wears called Beelzebub. Hinata fuses her purple chakra with the twin lion fist. Akamaru had a pup before the war arc started, and together with Kiba, the three transorm into a giant three headed dog named Cerberus(one spits flames, another air, and the final lightning to release giant pillars of fire).
Lee gains the 7th Gate. Tenten uses and keeps the Sage's divine tools. Sai can make an army of ink animals.
Shikamaru contorts his shadow into a giant pool of darkness that shoots shadow tendrils and spikes. Choji can use his giant butterfly wing state. And Ino can make 12 chakra avatars of herself during her mind transfer jutsu to heal allies, take over multiple enemy bodies, or a mixture of both.
Having the Konoha 12 take part in the final battle instead of just team 7 would do wonders in closing them off. The final fight, of course, would still be just between Naruto and Sasuke.
Ten tennis the fastest Shinobi. She moves so fast you don't see her
@@Randomaccount9470 She's not even a 10.
I'd argue that Naruto had substantial help from Kurama in his fight against Neji. Meaning that fight wasn't really about hardwork overcoming genius cause having a backup generator in the form of a Demon Fox is something no one can achieve through "hard work". Without Kurama in the mix, Neji would have won that fight
Precisely. In that fight Neji blocked all chakra points of Naruto. This means no chakra use. Unless you are Rock Lee who doesn't really need chakra and can also force open those points - you would loose. Naruto should loose then. He didn't only, because he had demigod living in his behind. Having essentially infinite amount of chakra is ridiculous advantage. The fact that Neji considered this proof of being able to fight destiny was hilarious. None was more destined for greatness than Naruto...
@@radosawowczarzak3132 I know right. If only Neji knew he was fighting the reincarnation of ninja Jesus. He would have realized that no only was he right in that moment, but Naruto would go above and beyond to live up to his philosophy 😂😂😂
Plot armor~ just ignore it
It was more plot armor than kurama. Naruto can regenerate too. TBH nobody could've beaten Naruto at that point because of his regeneration.
@@MrREAPERsz Naruto's regeneration is fuelled by his Chakra. Neji was able to "switch off" all of Naruto's Chakra points with his 8 Triagrams 64 Palms, basically leaving Naruto powerless. Naruto in that instance, was lucky he was a jinchuuriki and thus had a secondary power source in Kurama. Without him, Naruto would have lost to Neji. A much better showing of "hardwork beats genius" would have been if Rock Lee fought and defeated Neji, because not only does Rock Lee truly come from nothing and made something of himself, but his ultimate move, "the Eight Gates" is the perfect counter to the Eight Triagrams primarily because it allows the user to have full control of their Chakra points in order to open them and it can only be gained and mastered through intense training and hardwork. It's a skill anyone can learn. But not everyone can be a jinchuuriki, you have to literally be born with the compatibility to be one
I will never stop advocating for Rock Lee vs Madara over Might Guy vs Madara.
As amazing as that battle was, both cinematically and thematically, Lee absolutely should have been set up to take Madara on in that fight, and fulfill his dream of being titled the Strongest.
I don’t really agree with that. Lee was still the apprentice. They couldn’t show him to have better taijutsu prowess than Might Guy. Guy was just factually a better taijutsu master than Lee at the time. It makes more sense for his sensei to make the sacrifice in order for Lee to live on
@@snailmix not really. We saw every other ninja pass their sensei. Except for tenten and Lee. Lee never surpassed Guy which is disappointing
I think Guy vs Madara was the perfect matchup. However, I think that Guy should have won the fight. Nothing would have really changed in the series after that point regarding character power levels. But Guy damaging Madara so much that Kaguya could come out would have been the perfect final battle for Guy, a mutual KO against an opponent whose skill Madara respected.
@@snailmix I should probably clarify; I don't mean that Lee should have fought Madara at the level he was at during the 4th Ninja War.
What I mean is that he should have been *_set up_* throughout the series to eventually face off against Madara. I believe a lot of fans would feel more fulfilled if Lee was given a better power progression throughout the story, to where he eventually masters the 8th Gate by the War Arc. Unfortunately, by the War Arc, Lee unfortunately just wasn't strong enough to fight at that level.
Just like Fizzy said, practically every member of the Konoha 13 surpassed their masters by the 4th Great Ninja War (Kurenai's team had easily passed her - I believe even Kiba would have been able to beat her in a fight at that point, Ino-Shika-Cho were given a final showdown with Asuma, and Team 7 are self explanatory), it's a shame that Team Guy were not given the same treatment.
@@koelee nah
I kid you not, I think about his wasted potential every day it’s so disappointing
Yes, every single day
Every day? Bro.. get a Life.. and Love on. This is ridiculously stupid
.
Yo it really is that disappointing though
Every time I see an episode of boruto I’m just hit with disappointment. Kiba was my favorite character as a kid then he became a influencer instead of a Ninja hero. And Lee. Oh my gosh the waste of Lee.
I really do too
Might Guy’s team and Kakashi’s team should of had a friendly rivalry, I feel like that would encourage the creator to make rock lee more important in the story
Sadly kishi was just building up for a kaiju clash in the end anyway sadge
They should of went for that the rivalry would of been so fitting guy and kakashi being rivals both teams having hard working underdogs, edgy powerhouse with a doujutsu and a useless girl
YES, i could just imagine Naruto and neji, lee and Sakura training together in taijustu and tenten uses her weapon to help sasuke with his sharigan training.
You hit the nail on the head at the very end: Naruto WAS about hard work overcoming talent in the BEGINNING, until it became about bloodlines and being reincarnated gods throughout the series.
Rock Lee's life is the perfect origin for a villain. Someone that spent years achieving what he had, yet those born with potential could surpass him in a matter of weeks. When he was needed most, he was robbed of being able to do what counts.
Most people in such a position would mentally break under such a situation.
"You don't need protection, if you don't show up" "(You) can't be killed, if you're not on screen"
HIT SO HARD 🤣🤣
Hot take: Rock Lee should have been the one to use 8 Gates against Madara.
1) His story arc of wanting to be recognised as a strong and worthy shinobi comes full circle when Madara, who wiped the entire Shinobi alliance and the Kage, recognises Rock Lee as "The Strongest Shinobi."
2) Despite it making more sense for Guy, who was already at his peak and had a younger successor to pass on the 8 Gates to do this, it would follow with what Guy said at the Chuunin exams, about giving Rock Lee the tools to achieve his dream, even if it would result in his potential death.
3) It would have been awesome to see the reactions of Lee and the crowd when Madara recognises Lee.
4) It fulfills the "Hard work beats talent" idea more than Guy since we see Lee's growth throughout the series, and how he's built himself up despite everyone else belittling him for his dream, a lot like Naruto.
5) It would have been heartbreaking to see Lee permanently injured, but it would have also given an opportunity to show his unyielding spirit, and to see the entire village treat him as an honored legendary shinobi.
Would have been a phenomenal conclusion to his character
Agreed. If rock Lee did what Guy has done to Madara,he would've been completed as a character,his dream to become a great ninja using only taijutsu would've been accomplished (seeing how Madara acknowledged Guy's strength,he would've done the same to Lee as well).
But hard work doesn't beat talent - that's reality. A hard truth, but an important one.
I wish Lee had his own moveset after the fifth gate and I would've liked if there were characters from other villages that had their own versions of the eight gates like Shira from the sand village even though he's a filler character
had it was kinda dumb how taijustu was utilized you'd think everybody would learn the 8th gates to a degree right?
but they didn't despite it being accessible to everyone,
rock Lee/might guy having to utilize the 8th gates to be relevant in the first place and then not just dog walking everybody in taijustu? also why didn't they just use weapons with 8 gates with one of the best crafted weapons in the world
wish the 8th gates wasn't real or wasn't classified like a special technique could've simply just be pushing your body to the limits and behind with obvious hues of adrenaline and breathing techniques and the fact rock Lee and might trained to do it so well.
@@axz647 well I think you would have to focus all of your training towards taijutsu to go that far with the eight gates because while someone like Kakashi could open a gate, he was a well rounded ninja
@@axz647might guy had access to ninjustsu he just chose to not use it in honor of his dad who couldn't hense why he taught rock Lee who also couldn't like his father
@@tinyduece4177 not exactly. Might guy also has really low chakra control, which is why he can only do the summoning jutsu.
@@Kyngte1 still has access to it in an aspect where his father and Lee dont
At one point rock lee was so popular after that gaara fight he got his own spin-off. his fight was one of most popular fights of the early 2000s
Oh hell yeah it was. I still remember this badass AMV of Rock Lee vs Gaara to Attack by 30 Seconds to Mars. Those were the gold ol' days of TH-cam
Spin-off fight?
@@ADragonNerd I loved that wake me up inside Amv I think from 2006
@@Milfuelle100 series
@@Milfuelle100no lmao
I'd say Lee's story is less about hard work achieves your dreams, and more a lesson in perseverance. He loses perpetually, and he has doubts about the surgery. Yet he continues to perservere throughout all his struggles.
And never ever succeeds.
@@phlpcockrell right. That's why it's about perseverance and not hard work. He did succeed in splitting a big old meteor with the suicide corps. And... Sasuke finished the job. 🤣
@@kmartinquadeuce 😂 yeah kinda. And if Lee's dream was to get a bunch of his buddies together and half-save people from a meteor while someone better cleans up the rest it would be a great lesson.
@Phil I mean, I'd say he's a splendid ninja without using ninjutsu or genjutsu 😆
The huge tone shift of thinking about Rock Lee and Neji dying that early. Guy held his students back in participating in the chunin exam to help ensure they survive. And then they both die before anyone else.
Dang, imagine if Lee died when kishimoto had planned, thatd be so sad for Guy
Imagine Gaara outright murdering him in the Chuunin exam fight, people would hate Gaara forever lol
@@qwirkt they would. And I'd hate Guy if he didn't IMMEDIATELY end that arc early and kill Gaara.
I feel like outside of team 7, Rock Lee and Neji were the only members of the original Konoha 12 that had actual character arcs, which makes them being waised even more tragic.
I know it isn't shown much, but Rock Lee losing to Kimimaru is somewhat symbolic too. as you mentioned, he JUST got out of a life threatening surgery. not only that, he wasn't even cleared yet. you can work as hard as you want, rest and relaxing are just as important. and this case, was an extreme example of what could happen if that equilibrium is unbalanced, or better said, extremely one sided
This is an underrated point imo. Rock Lee could have been written as a cautionary tale about neglecting your own health and needs and burning yourself out.
Kakashi makes this point very explicitly when comforting Naruto after the Lee v Gaara fight. “He gave up EVERYTHING trying to achieve that goal. And in doing so, he destroyed himself. Now that goal is unattainable.”
It’s an interesting balance of pushing yourself past your limits vs knowing your limits and thinking about long term progress over short term success - it’s one of the most interesting moments in the whole show.
Tbh Rock Lee vs Kimimaro seemed out of place. Like, he shouldn't even be there. He went from being bed ridden to catching up to Naruto 2 days into chasing the sound 5? Then the actual fight felt like filler. To me Lee fulfilled his purpose when he lost to Gaara and sent 2 deep messages simultaneously to the audience. And forcing Lee into the story kinda voided out those messages in exchange for a character that didnt do anything of importance.
Tenten is also wasted potential, if only for the fact that bukijutsu is rarely shown outside of swords. It would have been amazing to see her actually use her weapons instead of throwing them.
And I would say Shino was wasted, but I guess you need to have characters struggle against an enemy, so I understand why he was in very few fights.
If this was a Shaw Bros production, she would have been one of the most OP characters.
I never got why Tenten never tried to master Monkey King Enma.
I mostly agree with the video, mainly because the Konoha 12 was PRESENT for every major arc, just not UTILIZED as well as they could have been.
So lets add this single thing before I go into how I would rewrite them:
Kara having the 'Outers' is interesting, so lets do something similar with the Akatsuki and give them the 'Mercenaries'. They wear black cloaks with only a single red cloud on their back.
______________________________
1. Kazekage Rescue arc- Team Guy was in the arc but didn't do much. Let's change that.
A portion of The Mercenaries attack the Hidden Sand Village to cover Sasori and Deidara's escape. Neji, Lee, and the rest of the Sand ninja confront them head-on. Temari takes over a commanding position over her fellow ninja to fight this threat, while Neji and Lee take on the two strongest foes in the Mercenaries there(they are both A-rank ninja).
Neji fights a user of the explosion release(I believe that release is canon), pitting his ultimate defense against this guy's ultimate offensive close combat syle. It is later revealed that this guy can cause a delayed explosion to happen to whatever he touched before, giving him the advantage. Things get especially bad when an entire street is primed to blow, but Neji counters with an air palm that dessimates the chakra in the area while simultaneously defeating his enemy.
Lee fights a guy that uses the first 5 breathes of the 7 heavenly breathes(non canon? But I like it, so lets bring it over). Lee could only use the first 3 gates pre timeskip (1st gate- Hidden Lotus, 2nd gate- Rejuvenation, 3rd gate- Red Skin), so he learned another 3 after the timeskip ended(I did this because only learning 1 gate in 2 years was awful). The enemy uses the heavenly breathes to strengthen ninjutsu instead of taijutsu(kinda wanna see what that would look like) to further emphasize that taijutsu can be equal to ninjutsu as long as one trains hard enough. Lee uses the 4th gate to activate the Reverse Lotus, 5th gate for the green chakra hue, and ends the battle using the Morning Peacock in his 6th gate.
The sand Village has trouble protecting its citizens until a recovering Kankoro shows up, controlling his puppets to play support at a safe distance. I'm gonna increase the range of his chakra strings to encompass the whole village.
The group attempting to rescue Gaara is intercepted by Itachi and Kisame(the real ones), sent by Pain to help Deidara and Sasori, as all Akatsuki members are weakened after siphoning Gaara's chakra. Kakashi and Guy stay back to stall these two.
Kakashi notices that when chakra goes into one of Itachi's eyes, the Tsukiyomi is activated. Kakashi resist this now that he is using the Mangekyo as well. Kakashi also notices that the Amaterasu is activated when chakra goes into Itachi's other eye, he counters this with Kamui. By the end of their fight, Itachi's chakra turns red as he prepares to use his Susano'o, but leaves when he hears that Sasori died.
Guy immediately goes 6th gate, showing us what Lee would look like if he maximized his potential. Kisame fights with Samehada fully awakened. The fight ends when Kisame begins to transform, and we see Guy call out the 7th Gate, but neither happens as news of Sasori's death reaches them.
Sakura and Chiyo vs Sasori is great. No changes needed.
Naruto fights Deidara with... Tenten?! Yes. Her throwing weapons would be a great counter to Deidara's bombs. Im also going to give her a great sword with seals at the bottom that allows it to fly(in principle, it works like Gaara's magnet release that allows him to fly in much the same way), because im drawing a comparsion between Tenten and famouse martial artist in chinese novels that travel on flying swords. Her greatsword also has a seal on the bottom of its pommel that shoots flames so that she can gain momentum. Naruto follows the two from below, hopping from one tree to another. When Tenten pins Deidara down from time to time, Naruto uses the 9 Tails chakra(he can control up to three tails) for a massive leap to deal massive damage via the Rasengan Series. This includes: The Rasengan(doesnt need clones), the Giant Rasengan(needs 1 clone for more power), the Mini Rasengan(acts as an armor piercer(needs 1 clone for control)), and the Rasenshuriken(needs 2 clones to make). Deidara escapes by substituting himself with a clay clone that takes the full force of the Rasenshuriken.
2. Orochimaru Hideout arc- plays the same, but the fight against Sasuke is more inline with the storm 2 game since im pushing for a more competent Naruto and Sakura.
3. Immortal Duo arc- Plays out the same without Naruto showing up to help. Instead, it cuts between the action, and Naruto training to upgrade his Rasenshuriken, finally perfecting the jutsu the 4th Hokage made to counter(what we will know later to be) the Kirin. Choji can use all of his abilities without the Akamichi clan pills(except his butterfly wing mode that doesnt make an appearance here). Ino can form a chakra construct of herself during the mind transfer jutsu that heals others through contact(taking a page from Shinobi Strikers). Ino's base abilities are support based, so im making her a purely long range support type character. Kakashi kills Kakazu in the end with Kamui.
4. Im taking the liberty of renaming the "Search for Itachi" arc into the "Akatsuki Search and Destroy" arc. This will have Sasuke forming team Hebi and killing Deidara, while the new team 7 pairs up with team 8 to destroy a Mercenary hideout while fighting Obito.
The two teams fights a giant group of Mercenaries, revealing new abilities. Shino fights with two types of bugs, the first are his usual while the second attaches to his body, making a sturdy rhinoceros beetle exoskeleton with fly wings made out of chakra. Hinata can use the 64 palms, palm guard(making it canon) instead of rotation, and air palm. Kiba can fuse with Akamaru to make a giant two-headed wolf(Im making it so that he could only make a giant wolf with one head pre-timeskip). The fight is going well until Obito and Zetsu show up(fresh after Deidara's death).
His intangibility is a bitch, but team 8 was able to find a work around this. Shino would spread his bugs over a wide range, making Obito disappear into his Kamui dimension, Hinata would immediately find his location when he reappears using her Byakugan, and Kiba would hit him with a fang over fang by his two headed wolf form before Obito could gain his bearings. This single attack would cause him to retreat and end the mission.
The arc would end with Sasuke vs Itachi and Jiraiya vs Pain.
5. The Pain arc would mostly play the same.
ALL of the Konoha 12 that are in the village needs to fight at least 1 of the path of pain. Naruto's new Rasenshuriken that can be thrown can be done in base with 2 clones, but by himself in Sage mode. But the biggest change would be Hinata. When she attempts to save Naruto, she unlocks the Tenseigan, BUT IM GOING TO BE REVAMPING THIS EYE COMPLETELY(I've always hated its abilities)!
As we know, the base sharingan has 3 abilities(time perception, copying abilities, and casting genjustu), while the Mangekyo adds another 3(right eye ability, left eye ability, Susano'o), and the Rinnegan switches out the Sharingan's six abilities for a new six(im not counting Izanami/Izanagi or the seventh path). The Byakugan has 3 abilities(360 vision, x-ray vision, and kaleidoscope vision), so the Tenseigan will add another 3: Night vision, Heat vision, and purple chakra(Hamura's chakra).
Hinata does a better job because of this, but still gets blasted. Pain remarks that the Rinnegan and Tenseigan are the Six Paths version of the Sharingan and Byakugan(the Sharingan is more suited for combat while the Byakugan is more suited for scouting with combat aspects), and the fights carries on as normal.
6. Kage Summit- Mostly remains the same, but Sasuke takes out Danzo without throwing Karin aside(he still loses his mind though). I made this change so that Sakura, Kiba, Lee, and Sai could fight Karin, Jugo, Sasuke, and Suigetsu. The fight ends when Obito saves Sasuke and the team who are tired from their fights at the Summit when they are about to lose(Naruto and Kakashi can still pop up in the end for a team 7 reunion when Obito attacks Sakura who didnt notice him appear before the retreat, but that's only if you care for that sort of thing).
7. War arc. Cut down on the flash backs and it fixes half of the issues. Allow Kaguya to appear AFTER team 7 takes down Madara and the other half is fixed(she appears when Madara loses control of the 10 Tailes after his defeat).
I personally, would take away Kakashi's DMS, and instead have all of Konoha 12 appear to fight Kaguya(still 12 because Sai is replacing Neji who died protecting Naruto, and not Hinata).
The rest of the cast gets a new ability(which we see them use during the war) to be on par with Sakura and not slow Naruto and Sasuke down.
Shino fuses his two bug types with the poison bugs Torune had(he took them) into a giant fly exoskeleton he wears called Beelzebub. Hinata fuses her purple chakra with the twin lion fist. Akamaru had a pup before the war arc started, and together with Kiba, the three transorm into a giant three headed dog named Cerberus(one spits flames, another air, and the final lightning to release giant pillars of fire).
Lee gains the 7th Gate. Tenten uses and keeps the Sage's divine tools. Sai can make an army of ink animals.
Shikamaru contorts his shadow into a giant pool of darkness that shoots shadow tendrils and spikes. Choji can use his giant butterfly wing state. And Ino can make 12 chakra avatars of herself during her mind transfer jutsu to heal allies, take over multiple enemy bodies, or a mixture of both.
Having the Konoha 12 take part in the final battle instead of just team 7 would do wonders in closing them off. The final fight, of course, would still be just between Naruto and Sasuke.
Fighting someone who can switch weapons in an instant would be so hard, changing the reach, speed, weight, shape would throw off people so much, even more if we take into account that they have chakra infused weapons with special abilities in the show, Ten Ten had that potential but it was never used.
Tenten was in a slightly different universe like Ninja Scroll she's impressive as hell when it come to her skill set. That's the problem when you have ninjas versus plot driven wizards, gods, robots.
Holy shit, imagine Neji, Rock Lee's best friend, dying in OG Naruto while Rock Lee was resting one extra day to recover from his shattered bones.
My poor boy would have imploded from sheer frustration at himself.
He’s literally Naruto’s true MC no buffs, no ancestral powers. Just straight up fists in a world of space-time manipulation fireballs, lightning hands, and mind-controlling eyeballs.
Lee and Sakura were great examples of hard work but Kishimoto dropped the ball so hard with many many characters.
"Hard work trumps talent" was the central theme for the chunin exams and the goal Lee aspires to. "Overcoming Hatred(the cycle of hatred)" is the overarching theme of the series as well as something Naruto needed to do. Almost every arc in the series had its own theme to follow, but as stated above, the main theme of the series definitely isn't about hard work trumping talent. It's about overcoming hatred. And if you thought the MC was going to follow what is essentially Lee's theme when he has the 9 Tails, I don't know what to tell you.
We will get to Neji when we talk about the chunin exams, but first, let's talk about the land of waves.
Haku grew up in a situation similar to Naruto, being hated for the power he possessed. Instead of choosing the path of vengeance, Haku fought because he loved Zabuza, and paired with Zabuza's final actions, Naruto became inspired to model his ninja way after them.
Haku set the precedent of introducing characters that would reflect Naruto himself, not based on talent but instead how far into hatred they had fallen. There is a reason why Haku, who didn't fall to hatred, was such an inspiration to Naruto.
Next, let's talk about the chunin exams, specifically Neji. I would talk about Lee, but my first paragraph should be enough to know where he stands in relation to both Naruto and the story. So I'll leave it with this: While it is true that Naruto never had to train as hard as Lee PHYSICALLY, that was never the point(once again, he has the 9 Tails to make things easier on that front). While Lee has to struggle with the physical, Naruto has to struggle with the mental aspects of his character, to not fall into the cycle that is the main theme of the show, hatred(of course there will be physical aspects, its shounen. But a story following the mental aspects of a character can be just as inspiring). But I'll continue this bit later.
Neji talks about destiny and how everyone has a predetermined fate. Naruto disagrees with this and explains that destiny shouldn't be used as a crutch to be a jerk, like Neji is when attempting to murder Hinata or talking down to Naruto himself.
So was Neji right? Everyone seems to think so, but why? Is it because Naruto is the child of prophecy? Well, it was stated that the child of prophecy would either bring peace to the world OR destroy it. I find this interesting because it takes the age-old formula of a character fulfilling one goal, one destiny, and flips it on its head by placing a 50% chance in Naruto actually becoming the villain. The simple fact that Naruto has both agency and a choice in the outcome already puts Neji's values on shaky ground(though Neji was right about his own destiny).
BUT! You still disagree with me. Why? Because Naruto is the reincarnation of Ashura? Well, that's funny because, as Ashura's reincarnation, Naruto is destined to meet and battle with Indra's reincarnation, Sasuke. Now Ashura did hope that a future incarnation of himself could resolve things peacefully, but his intention doesn't matter as his actions contributed to a cycle that the Sage of Six Paths feared would continue when Sasuke wanted to have his final battle with Naruto.
DESTINY ITSELF, the concept Neji spoke about, ordained that Naruto(as Ashura's reincarnation) would do battle with Sasuke(Indra's reincarnation), and continue the cycle of hatred. This path where the two could potentially kill each other might have very well been the catalyst that pushed Naruto to fulfill the evil side of his prophecy in destroying the world, made even more evident with the treatment he received growing up as a Jinchuriki, and the antagonist that reflected his character challenging his views.
Now I can, somewhat, understand why one would think that the overarching theme of the series is "Hard work trumping talent" instead of "Overcoming the cycle of hatred." Unless you believe that there can be multiple overarching themes to a series instead of one, I'll compare and contrast the two with every arc, starting with:
1. The prologue - We see Naruto's position within the village and how he's treated. I believe his interaction with Mizuki and Iruka is a perfect example of one overcoming hatred to see the good in someone while the other falls deeper into it to the point that they take drastic action. Overcoming talent wasn't even a point here.
2. The Land of Waves - I believe the above point about Haku can also be used here, so instead, I'll talk about the theme of overcoming talent. There isn't one. Naruto uses the 9 Tails power(which many of you believe goes against the theme of the Chuunin exams) by this point to take down a genius, not his own power
3. The main theme of the Chunin exams is overcoming talent with hard work, but overcoming hatred is also present here. Gaara is a representation of what Naruto could have been if he fell into the cycle, and Naruto began to fear him after that. I believe that it was this arc that Naruto also expressed the hatred HE used to have for the village in the past(something we later figure out he still has with the waterfall of truth)
4. Sand Invasion arc(do people consider this a separate arc to the Chuunin exams?) - Much of the same thing with the parallels between Naruto and Gaara, but with the addition of Naruto using the 9 Tails power to summon Gamabunta to fight Shukaku. I don't believe hard work trumping talent was really reinforced here
5. Tsunade arc - Naruto learned the Rasengan WAY faster than Jiraiya or Minato(could he be a genius?). He worked hard just to fail but succeeded in the end due to thinking outside of the box. Meanwhile, Orochimaru felt hatred towards the Leaf and wanted to heal his hands to continue his path of destruction, yet was taken down with the help of Tsunade, who overcame her hatred via loss of her loved ones due to Naruto simply being there for her in her time of need
6. Sasuke retrieval arc - Naruto had two main fights, one with Kimimaru and one with Sasuke. For both fights, he used the 9 Tails to try and gain the upper hand(though Lee came in to represent hard work, so there you go, I guess). The main point of the arc was a parallel between Naruto and Sasuke, as the latter is falling into hatred for his vengeance
Now, many believe that the cycle of hatred only rose to prominence as the main theme in Shippuden, spitting on everything that OG Naruto set up regarding overcoming talent with hardwork, but that is not the case.
I could go over the shippuden arcs like I did here with the OG arcs, but seeing as overcoming talent with hard work is RARELY seen there in comparison to hatred, which is much more pronounced at that point, I'm simply going to move on.
In conclusion, If this was a true underdog story about obtaining strength to overcome those with talent, then having the 9 Tails and the soul of Ashura would have been detrimental to the story, but it's not about that. Instead, seeing as the story is about overcoming hatred, having both the living embodiment of hatred and the soul of one who continues the cycle within you is somewhat brilliant. And while some plot points aren't as fleshed out as others, the story IS flawed in some places. I believe the story became mainstream for a reason.
In my opinion, Naruto is a flawed but wonderful story of a boy that, even though he had the embodiment of hatred within him and a soul that preordained he would continue the cycle of hatred(you could even call it destiny), was able to rise above those and his past to become a great man that promotes unity instead of sowing chaos and dysfunction.
A message that is not only beautiful, but necessary in times like this where it seems as though the world is falling apart.
the theme of naruto isn't about hard work to over come anything, it about the cycle of pain from beginning to end. zabuza, garaa , pain , obito, madara all show this theme and why naruto uses talk no justu. I think your misunderstanding naruto by only focusing on certain parts not the whole story
@@jeffjeff9484 Well yes, and no. The Naruto series is a mixture of many stories and themes that can all be interpreted into whatever you think it is. But notice how all the characters you mentioned aren't main characters? Because they're staples to why Naruto lived up to becoming Hokage, the highest status that people said he couldn't reach, but he did. The cycle of pain isn't Naruto's main theme, they're his obstacles. It's how Naruto grows from each foe, mentally, to ready himself to become Hokage which is similar to most Shonen themes. Achieving the impossible through perseverance, which is what Might Guy tells Lee. "You have the gift of perseverance." To never give up is Naruto's ninja way, and Rock Lee fits that bill more than Naruto ever could.
@@baruchbelmont5821 tbh i could name the man characters look at both sasuke and Naruto, probably one of the most important decisions that they had to make was in the pain arc, one choose peace(naruto) and the other choice hatred(sasuke). I do think part 1 was more about never giving up with a bit of the cycle of pain but part 2 of naruto is the cycle of pain with a bit of never giving up.
What I dont get about rock lee is how his work eithic has propelled him to unlocking 4 of the 8 gates when he was a GENIN, but at the end of Shippuden he is only able to unlock the 6th gate? Forget about wasted potential, Rock Lee was CUCKED by kishimoto and his love story to Sasuke and Naruto.
I said the same shit he should’ve catapulted specially since he is always training
@Blesson Franklin I can agree with this but guy was 25 at the start of the series and already most likely masters the 7th and 8th so I think what your saying is valid
Rock Lee is the first run of Naruto literally was throwing hands at a descendent of Kaguya Ōtsutsuki herself(Kimimaro) and was soloing a one tail Gaara until Gaara decided it was more advantageous to break is limbs and kill him yet Rock Lee got up and was still ready fight with a shattered leg AND arm. Rock Lee is the example of waisted potential.
Yo Nick I know this is more of TheWeebCommander thing but you could do a whole series on this concept of wasted potential in a bunch of series.
I’m all for this
Orihime Bleach
Lemillion MHA
Vanessa BC
Megumi JJK
Gohan DB
Scar FMA
Gon HxH - at least for now
Sonic OPM
my .02 off the top of my head
I think the reason they basically scrapped Rock Lee is because Shonen Jump noticed the popularity of Lee vs Gaara and thought "we really hit something big here with this boy compensating for a disability though hard work idea, but this concept is way too good to be wasted on some weird bug-eyed side character like this. what we need to do is subtly pretend that this character never happened and reuse this idea for the main character in future series" and that's how we got My Hero Academia, Black Clover, Mashle: Magic and Muscles etc
Yeah I honestly believe lees move set being explored more would make him a threat to Naruto and sasuke
@Blesson Franklin dead ass
@Blesson Franklin we have never seen guy use hidden lotus in shippuden, we’ve only seen a genin version of lee use it how about a much stronger lee using it in the 6th gate, kid lee destroyed the ground while running even in the moves his moves were extremely fast and powerful Naruto or sasuke wouldn’t be able to rest to them. However lee was shafted and never showed any moves in the gates in shippuden all he did was throw a kunai. If they explored him more then just what he did in the chunin exams he’d be a complete speedy powerhouse
@Blesson Franklin 7th gate guy is too fast for them both tbh when they got that wack ass pull power up they still as a team didn’t do better then guy, they go is shooting air cannons they wouldn’t even survive one hit from him cause they don’t have the healing like madara do
Ty for being Rock Lee's champion.
“Can’t be killed if you’re not on screen”
One piece has entered the chat
Favorite character in Naruto and he got sidelined pretty hard.
14:02 Bruh, did your dog just walk up like "Hey you wanna... oh nvm, he workin." 😂 Thats a good doggo right there
I always loved that he worked so hard and had such intense will but apparently not enough will to do anything for the leaf
I think you over looked one major point in rock lee's character and that is he lost, he lost to garaa, naruto isnt about just hard work, but breaking fate and lee failed in that, same with guy who also failed, he failed to kill madara. Naruto world is about the a world stuck in a cycle.
@@jeffjeff9484 yeah thats what the video said, what did i overlook?
@@obscure-edits sry i didnt mean u i mean nchammer, he overlooked the fact that naruto is more about how people are stuck to there fate and not just hard work, thats why they both still lost
@@jeffjeff9484 oh well this is my reply section
@@jeffjeff9484 so what, breaking fate is just something that randomly happens?
I mean yeah Naruto isn't about hard work really, but what does breaking fate mean if you never had the chance to do so?
...well, actually, that is a pretty interesting theme come to think of it. Rock Lee failed, but he also never had the chance. Some people are born with the capacity to escape their fate and others are just doomed. That's a sad message but an interesting one.
Rock Lee deserves a spin-off that isn’t chibi
If Naruto was about Rock Lee we would've gotten way more Taijutsu and way less power creep and I want to see that series.
I feel like at this point the show kinds of end up saying "yeah actually you gotta be born special to get anywhere that matters." and it flipped at some point from "hard work by itself can do anything" to "Without genius you cant move the needle"
lee and neji could've been the new kakashi and guy
The lesson of Rock Lee is that hard work has limits. It's a harsh lesson, but an important one.
Rock Lee with Guy supporting him gave Lee the power to fight and threaten Gaara who at the time was a big deal. Imagine if he had the hearts of the entire village? They wasted that young boy, Rock deserves a statue to remind everyone to never give up, even unconscious Rock would still fight on
I argue Naruto is a representation of an idealism based world view vs Rock Lee's semi grounded treatment in a case of "Ideally: True effort and determination can overcome natural talent" where Rock Lee is "Effort and Will can still be overcome by external assistance, natural talent, and overwhelming support structures that basically wear you down by sheer advantage."
Imagine if Rock Lee learned Medical Ninjutsu.
Sadly he can't mold his chacra, if not Sakura with the gates would be op
I always feel bad for Shino :/
Why the guy never lost a fight his only down side is screen time
Sad thing rock lee potential lost in the wind.... He was so promising...
Neji too...
And shino
For years I have said the show shouldve been about Rock Lee. All these super powered characters don't fit the theme of overcoming impossible odds through hard work.
Even in the war arc lee is like “I’ve never cursed my own lack of power more than I do now” like kishimoto should’ve done something interesting with lee it would’ve been insane
i think about this topic when it comes to naruto basically all the time. its such a massive and potent betrayal of one of the core themes of the story. and its CONSTANTLY happening. rock lee, sakura, tenten, kiba and hinata all work super hard to overcome their limitations and mediocrity but rarely get to do anything besides get their butts kicked, get saved by more talented people that were handed their powers and get relegated to playing support for not being lucky enough to be born with some godly power. guys crowning achievement is getting a compliment from a naturally born super genius that has spent the most part of his life unlocking abilities from his genetics and stealing the talents and power of other people to get ahead. its so lame.
Facts
The core theme of the story is somebody who is nobody, no power, no parents, no hope.
Turns out to be one of the most privileged person in the world, with the whole world literally center within him by his inherited powers, with the biggest power battery sealed inside him to boost by the grand design of his father.
It is kind of a shitty message anyway.
Mannnnnnnn, I've been saying that Naruto forgot what it was about for so long. It was about hard work can overcome talent and make your dreams come true but was thrown away with Naruto literally being a reincarnation of a god, having goated parents, and being born with a massive chakra reserve on top of massive chakra reserve.
There's a reason I dropped Naruto long before the Zombie Apocalypse arc (I refuse to call it anything else, bunch of dead ninja come back through ninja necromancy, enough said.) I just found the side-characters far more interesting than the main ones, and said side characters didn't show up enough to keep me invested. A show about ninja and the main characters have the LEAST INTERESTING powers. Naruto had his Kurama chakra crutch as early as the Chuunin exams as well...
i agree with the concept of the character having a ton of wasted writing potential, but I don't know if I've ever agreed with the idea that naruto, at some point in its past, was meant to be about hard work overcoming raw talent. From the very beginning the concept of that is kinda lost when we see the nine tails chakra help team 7 win the bridge fight. Heck from the very first episode we see naruto win by having a natural talent for shadow clones. I think the main theme is about how outlook affects character. Some characters take their talents for granted, or hold a cynical worldview that causes them to use those talents for evil, while other characters learn to find a more positive purpose, and are able to hone their talents through the hard work of not only themselves, but those they've touched with their positive outlook. characters that pursue solitude, misanthropy, cynicism, or control stand and fall on their own powers and ideals, wheras characters that seek friendship, solidarity, empathy, and cooperation often find themselves stronger from the help those connections have given them.
This video reminded me why I love reading Rock Lee fanfic more than revisiting his manga scenes.
Personally, I never saw Rock Lee’s character arc as “hard work can overcome talent/genius”
I always saw Lee as having the arc of “life will keep trying to knock you down. But you always have the choice to get back up and keep fighting”
Not the “work hard” story, but the “never give up”. Which naruto does kinda embody too, but not to the level Lee does, since Naruto often needed pushes from others to do so, whereas Lee did it on his own.
His keep fighting never goes anywhere though. Dying protecting his friends even if he loses would have made more sense to that theme but we dont even get that. The message ends up being, get knocked down, get up again, but you will get weaker and weaker each time until youre basically irrelevant. But hey you have some good times of almost doing something.
If you look at only Rock Lee that would work, but Narutos fight against Neji proves different, because not only do they explicitly spell out that the theme is that hard work overcomes fate, when Naruto literally says that to Nejis face, but Neji later on even outright reflects on how watching Lee fight Gaara using his eight gates showed him that just being born superior wasn't everything. And that's the whole idea behind Naruto and Sasukes rivalry. Naruto being a nobody who through sheer hard work wants to overcome animosity, and Sasuke who was just born into the strongest ninja clan, so he is the strongest. So if you see Rock Lee in a vacuum then you might be right. But if you look at the surroudning stories, the theme is definitely that hard work overcomes genius.
And then in Shippuuden it just does a sudden 180.
I love Naruto but the themes in it were not handled well especially the hard work beats talent theme. Idk how so many people are refusing to even acknowledge that this was a theme when the characters literally give speeches about it. You can love something and still acknowledge it’s flaws people!
Rock Lee is the leader of the "i could've been the coolest character in the show but the writers did me dirty" squad 😭
"Naruto beating Neji proves that hard work can overcome genius"
Are we just going to forget that Naruto only beat Neiji with the power of the nine-tails. A power he was quite literally born with! Where's the hard work?
Also Naruto learned the Shadow Clone Jutsu, an S class jutsu in *one night*. Plus he struggled to learn Rasengan until he used the Shadow Clone Jutsu to cheat the process. Sasuke spent more time learning the Fireball Jutsu and Chidori then Naruto did learning Shadow Clone and Ransengan.
Also did Naruto really work that hard? At least compared to every other ninja? I'm pretty Sasuke worked harder than Naruto did. Like what did Naruto really work hard to achieve? Most of his power comes from the nine-tails and Uzumaki chalkra which he was literally born with.
Naruto was NEVER the symbol of hard work. He starts succeeding the minute he tries anything. He just never had a chance until he learns the Shadow Clone Jutsu through very contrived circumstances.
Neiji did have a point that a person's potential is largely decided from birth, at least as far as the Naruto world is concerned. After all, the Naruto world uses the clan system and a person learns the vast amount of their techniques from the family they were born in.
he was given some powers but did have to work hard for most of them, but hard work isnt the main theme of naruto. I think you over looked one major point in rock lee's character and that is he lost, he lost to garaa, naruto isnt about just hard work, but breaking fate and lee failed in that, same with guy who also failed, he failed to kill madara. Naruto world is about the a world stuck in a cycle.
@@jeffjeff9484 I more or less agree with that. I think that Kishimoto tried to write an underdog story but pretty much gave up at the beginning.
I'm not saying that Naruto didn't work hard, but I am saying he didn't work harder than anybody else. Like I said, Sasuke worked harder than Naruto despite being supposed to symbolize natural talent.
I don't think Naruto tried harder than the average ninja although I'm open to counterexamples.
I agree with the breaking fate part but what lesson is there when comparing Naruto and Lee? What did they do differently?
Because it seems like the biggest difference between them is just plot. Naruto really didn't deserve to beat Neiji there even with nine-tails and pretty much won through plot.
Moral of the story…. Hard work can’t overcome not being the main character
Rock Lee is a character that would be less wasted if he was, well, literally wasted. Seriously, I wanna see more Drunken Fist (Oops, I mean "Loopy Fist") fights, the choreography of his fight with Kimimaro was beautifully done.
I was hoping a teen Gohan v Cell moment when Guy went against Madara. It's the only thing that would've made sense.
I also think Shino was wasted potential I think he had one of the sweetest justu in the anime and wanted to see more of it
I mostly agree with the video, mainly because the Konoha 12 was PRESENT for every major arc, just not UTILIZED as well as they could have been.
So lets add this single thing before I go into how I would rewrite them:
Kara having the 'Outers' is interesting, so lets do something similar with the Akatsuki and give them the 'Mercenaries'. They wear black cloaks with only a single red cloud on their back.
______________________________
1. Kazekage Rescue arc- Team Guy was in the arc but didn't do much. Let's change that.
A portion of The Mercenaries attack the Hidden Sand Village to cover Sasori and Deidara's escape. Neji, Lee, and the rest of the Sand ninja confront them head-on. Temari takes over a commanding position over her fellow ninja to fight this threat, while Neji and Lee take on the two strongest foes in the Mercenaries there(they are both A-rank ninja).
Neji fights a user of the explosion release(I believe that release is canon), pitting his ultimate defense against this guy's ultimate offensive close combat syle. It is later revealed that this guy can cause a delayed explosion to happen to whatever he touched before, giving him the advantage. Things get especially bad when an entire street is primed to blow, but Neji counters with an air palm that dessimates the chakra in the area while simultaneously defeating his enemy.
Lee fights a guy that uses the first 5 breathes of the 7 heavenly breathes(non canon? But I like it, so lets bring it over). Lee could only use the first 3 gates pre timeskip (1st gate- Hidden Lotus, 2nd gate- Rejuvenation, 3rd gate- Red Skin), so he learned another 3 after the timeskip ended(I did this because only learning 1 gate in 2 years was awful). The enemy uses the heavenly breathes to strengthen ninjutsu instead of taijutsu(kinda wanna see what that would look like) to further emphasize that taijutsu can be equal to ninjutsu as long as one trains hard enough. Lee uses the 4th gate to activate the Reverse Lotus, 5th gate for the green chakra hue, and ends the battle using the Morning Peacock in his 6th gate.
The sand Village has trouble protecting its citizens until a recovering Kankoro shows up, controlling his puppets to play support at a safe distance. I'm gonna increase the range of his chakra strings to encompass the whole village.
The group attempting to rescue Gaara is intercepted by Itachi and Kisame(the real ones), sent by Pain to help Deidara and Sasori, as all Akatsuki members are weakened after siphoning Gaara's chakra. Kakashi and Guy stay back to stall these two.
Kakashi notices that when chakra goes into one of Itachi's eyes, the Tsukiyomi is activated. Kakashi resist this now that he is using the Mangekyo as well. Kakashi also notices that the Amaterasu is activated when chakra goes into Itachi's other eye, he counters this with Kamui. By the end of their fight, Itachi's chakra turns red as he prepares to use his Susano'o, but leaves when he hears that Sasori died.
Guy immediately goes 6th gate, showing us what Lee would look like if he maximized his potential. Kisame fights with Samehada fully awakened. The fight ends when Kisame begins to transform, and we see Guy call out the 7th Gate, but neither happens as news of Sasori's death reaches them.
Sakura and Chiyo vs Sasori is great. No changes needed.
Naruto fights Deidara with... Tenten?! Yes. Her throwing weapons would be a great counter to Deidara's bombs. Im also going to give her a great sword with seals at the bottom that allows it to fly(in principle, it works like Gaara's magnet release that allows him to fly in much the same way), because im drawing a comparsion between Tenten and famouse martial artist in chinese novels that travel on flying swords. Her greatsword also has a seal on the bottom of its pommel that shoots flames so that she can gain momentum. Naruto follows the two from below, hopping from one tree to another. When Tenten pins Deidara down from time to time, Naruto uses the 9 Tails chakra(he can control up to three tails) for a massive leap to deal massive damage via the Rasengan Series. This includes: The Rasengan(doesnt need clones), the Giant Rasengan(needs 1 clone for more power), the Mini Rasengan(acts as an armor piercer(needs 1 clone for control)), and the Rasenshuriken(needs 2 clones to make). Deidara escapes by substituting himself with a clay clone that takes the full force of the Rasenshuriken.
2. Orochimaru Hideout arc- plays the same, but the fight against Sasuke is more inline with the storm 2 game since im pushing for a more competent Naruto and Sakura.
3. Immortal Duo arc- Plays out the same without Naruto showing up to help. Instead, it cuts between the action, and Naruto training to upgrade his Rasenshuriken, finally perfecting the jutsu the 4th Hokage made to counter(what we will know later to be) the Kirin. Choji can use all of his abilities without the Akamichi clan pills(except his butterfly wing mode that doesnt make an appearance here). Ino can form a chakra construct of herself during the mind transfer jutsu that heals others through contact(taking a page from Shinobi Strikers). Ino's base abilities are support based, so im making her a purely long range support type character. Kakashi kills Kakazu in the end with Kamui.
4. Im taking the liberty of renaming the "Search for Itachi" arc into the "Akatsuki Search and Destroy" arc. This will have Sasuke forming team Hebi and killing Deidara, while the new team 7 pairs up with team 8 to destroy a Mercenary hideout while fighting Obito.
The two teams fights a giant group of Mercenaries, revealing new abilities. Shino fights with two types of bugs, the first are his usual while the second attaches to his body, making a sturdy rhinoceros beetle exoskeleton with fly wings made out of chakra. Hinata can use the 64 palms, palm guard(making it canon) instead of rotation, and air palm. Kiba can fuse with Akamaru to make a giant two-headed wolf(Im making it so that he could only make a giant wolf with one head pre-timeskip). The fight is going well until Obito and Zetsu show up(fresh after Deidara's death).
His intangibility is a bitch, but team 8 was able to find a work around this. Shino would spread his bugs over a wide range, making Obito disappear into his Kamui dimension, Hinata would immediately find his location when he reappears using her Byakugan, and Kiba would hit him with a fang over fang by his two headed wolf form before Obito could gain his bearings. This single attack would cause him to retreat and end the mission.
The arc would end with Sasuke vs Itachi and Jiraiya vs Pain.
5. The Pain arc would mostly play the same.
ALL of the Konoha 12 that are in the village needs to fight at least 1 of the path of pain. Naruto's new Rasenshuriken that can be thrown can be done in base with 2 clones, but by himself in Sage mode. But the biggest change would be Hinata. When she attempts to save Naruto, she unlocks the Tenseigan, BUT IM GOING TO BE REVAMPING THIS EYE COMPLETELY(I've always hated its abilities)!
As we know, the base sharingan has 3 abilities(time perception, copying abilities, and casting genjustu), while the Mangekyo adds another 3(right eye ability, left eye ability, Susano'o), and the Rinnegan switches out the Sharingan's six abilities for a new six(im not counting Izanami/Izanagi or the seventh path). The Byakugan has 3 abilities(360 vision, x-ray vision, and kaleidoscope vision), so the Tenseigan will add another 3: Night vision, Heat vision, and purple chakra(Hamura's chakra).
Hinata does a better job because of this, but still gets blasted. Pain remarks that the Rinnegan and Tenseigan are the Six Paths version of the Sharingan and Byakugan(the Sharingan is more suited for combat while the Byakugan is more suited for scouting with combat aspects), and the fights carries on as normal.
6. Kage Summit- Mostly remains the same, but Sasuke takes out Danzo without throwing Karin aside(he still loses his mind though). I made this change so that Sakura, Kiba, Lee, and Sai could fight Karin, Jugo, Sasuke, and Suigetsu. The fight ends when Obito saves Sasuke and the team who are tired from their fights at the Summit when they are about to lose(Naruto and Kakashi can still pop up in the end for a team 7 reunion when Obito attacks Sakura who didnt notice him appear before the retreat, but that's only if you care for that sort of thing).
7. War arc. Cut down on the flash backs and it fixes half of the issues. Allow Kaguya to appear AFTER team 7 takes down Madara and the other half is fixed(she appears when Madara loses control of the 10 Tailes after his defeat).
I personally, would take away Kakashi's DMS, and instead have all of Konoha 12 appear to fight Kaguya(still 12 because Sai is replacing Neji who died protecting Naruto, and not Hinata).
The rest of the cast gets a new ability(which we see them use during the war) to be on par with Sakura and not slow Naruto and Sasuke down.
Shino fuses his two bug types with the poison bugs Torune had(he took them) into a giant fly exoskeleton he wears called Beelzebub. Hinata fuses her purple chakra with the twin lion fist. Akamaru had a pup before the war arc started, and together with Kiba, the three transorm into a giant three headed dog named Cerberus(one spits flames, another air, and the final lightning to release giant pillars of fire).
Lee gains the 7th Gate. Tenten uses and keeps the Sage's divine tools. Sai can make an army of ink animals.
Shikamaru contorts his shadow into a giant pool of darkness that shoots shadow tendrils and spikes. Choji can use his giant butterfly wing state. And Ino can make 12 chakra avatars of herself during her mind transfer jutsu to heal allies, take over multiple enemy bodies, or a mixture of both.
Having the Konoha 12 take part in the final battle instead of just team 7 would do wonders in closing them off. The final fight, of course, would still be just between Naruto and Sasuke.
To be fair, Rock Lee was no where near healed when he jetted off to join in the fight against Kimimaru. Let’s say he was 100% ready to fight. I think he could’ve beaten Kimimaru or come close to it. If he wasn’t injured he would’ve used his eight gates and I believe that would give him the edge over Kimimaru’s bone Kekkei Genkai
If only Gaara didn't break Lee's bones maybe we would have been able to see Lee destroy Kimimaru with his hidden lotus. Idk why sometimes we just can't have good character do cool things. Kimimaru wasn't even the main villain, of that arc,that was Sasuke,and Naruto was gonna fight him. Instead what we got was Gaara stealing the spotlight,once again,to Lee.
Naruto's journey as an underdog wasn't about his strength- not only was he the ninetails jinchuriki and the 4th hokage's son, he was also half Uzumaki and he pretty much had everything baked into him to become the strongest character there is (He's Boruto if Boruto were an orphan who didn't know his heritage) but about his social and emotional journey. In that respect he was an underdog- hated by everyone, isolated and mistreated, unloved and expected to fail. But he worked until he overcame all of that and became the most beloved ninja in the world, because all that strength would mean nothing if everyone hated you.
Yeah o think it’s a little more about community and upholding others, fostering the people around you to be the best people they can be. All the villains were people who either abandoned their people or the idea of community.
14:02 Dog Was Like
“Aw You Doing The Video Thing Again, I’ll Come Back Later” 😂
I remember loving Lee in og Naruto and expecting a huge power scale in Shippuden
📯 Wamp wamp
Rock lee got his get back being reincarnated as Deku lol
Rock Lee showed that hard work meant nothing in the face of pure talent and natural gifts
Wich is just so damn sad honestly
14:04 Nick's dog realizing he's filming and deciding not to bother him😂
i always thought that Lee should've been the one to kick the truth seeking orb that was meant to kill Guy, take him and escape. The man himself was reduced to be just a ref for the chunin exams, not even a mention of his presence when ninjutsu became obsolete, some shite like "hey Naruto, Lee said he is near your house, wait for him" when Jigen pulled up to Naruto's house. I hope that now that the leaf lost Naruto and Sasuke they give him some shine (it ain't gonna happen). Killing Neji and wasting Lee are things that i will never let slide, how are you going to waste the Kakashi and Guy duo of the new gen for absolutely no reason?
Never forgot how Anko was done so dirty 😂😢
It's like she was adopted into Choji's family.
I’d almost say Naruto and Rock Lee are the same side of the same coin.
Rock Lee and Naruto shows that you should have the overall general plot of the story you are want to write.
Not everyone has Oda's great retconning skills.
the theme of naruto isn't about hard work to over come anything, it about the cycle of pain from beginning to end. zabuza, garaa , pain , obito, madara all show this theme and why naruto uses talk no justu. I think your misunderstanding naruto by only focusing on certain parts not the whole story. So it makes sense that rock lee has a small part to play in the story, he doesnt fit the theme
I mostly agree with the video, mainly because the Konoha 12 was PRESENT for every major arc, just not UTILIZED as well as they could have been.
So lets add this single thing before I go into how I would rewrite them:
Kara having the 'Outers' is interesting, so lets do something similar with the Akatsuki and give them the 'Mercenaries'. They wear black cloaks with only a single red cloud on their back.
______________________________
1. Kazekage Rescue arc- Team Guy was in the arc but didn't do much. Let's change that.
A portion of The Mercenaries attack the Hidden Sand Village to cover Sasori and Deidara's escape. Neji, Lee, and the rest of the Sand ninja confront them head-on. Temari takes over a commanding position over her fellow ninja to fight this threat, while Neji and Lee take on the two strongest foes in the Mercenaries there(they are both A-rank ninja).
Neji fights a user of the explosion release(I believe that release is canon), pitting his ultimate defense against this guy's ultimate offensive close combat syle. It is later revealed that this guy can cause a delayed explosion to happen to whatever he touched before, giving him the advantage. Things get especially bad when an entire street is primed to blow, but Neji counters with an air palm that dessimates the chakra in the area while simultaneously defeating his enemy.
Lee fights a guy that uses the first 5 breathes of the 7 heavenly breathes(non canon? But I like it, so lets bring it over). Lee could only use the first 3 gates pre timeskip (1st gate- Hidden Lotus, 2nd gate- Rejuvenation, 3rd gate- Red Skin), so he learned another 3 after the timeskip ended(I did this because only learning 1 gate in 2 years was awful). The enemy uses the heavenly breathes to strengthen ninjutsu instead of taijutsu(kinda wanna see what that would look like) to further emphasize that taijutsu can be equal to ninjutsu as long as one trains hard enough. Lee uses the 4th gate to activate the Reverse Lotus, 5th gate for the green chakra hue, and ends the battle using the Morning Peacock in his 6th gate.
The sand Village has trouble protecting its citizens until a recovering Kankoro shows up, controlling his puppets to play support at a safe distance. I'm gonna increase the range of his chakra strings to encompass the whole village.
The group attempting to rescue Gaara is intercepted by Itachi and Kisame(the real ones), sent by Pain to help Deidara and Sasori, as all Akatsuki members are weakened after siphoning Gaara's chakra. Kakashi and Guy stay back to stall these two.
Kakashi notices that when chakra goes into one of Itachi's eyes, the Tsukiyomi is activated. Kakashi resist this now that he is using the Mangekyo as well. Kakashi also notices that the Amaterasu is activated when chakra goes into Itachi's other eye, he counters this with Kamui. By the end of their fight, Itachi's chakra turns red as he prepares to use his Susano'o, but leaves when he hears that Sasori died.
Guy immediately goes 6th gate, showing us what Lee would look like if he maximized his potential. Kisame fights with Samehada fully awakened. The fight ends when Kisame begins to transform, and we see Guy call out the 7th Gate, but neither happens as news of Sasori's death reaches them.
Sakura and Chiyo vs Sasori is great. No changes needed.
Naruto fights Deidara with... Tenten?! Yes. Her throwing weapons would be a great counter to Deidara's bombs. Im also going to give her a great sword with seals at the bottom that allows it to fly(in principle, it works like Gaara's magnet release that allows him to fly in much the same way), because im drawing a comparsion between Tenten and famouse martial artist in chinese novels that travel on flying swords. Her greatsword also has a seal on the bottom of its pommel that shoots flames so that she can gain momentum. Naruto follows the two from below, hopping from one tree to another. When Tenten pins Deidara down from time to time, Naruto uses the 9 Tails chakra(he can control up to three tails) for a massive leap to deal massive damage via the Rasengan Series. This includes: The Rasengan(doesnt need clones), the Giant Rasengan(needs 1 clone for more power), the Mini Rasengan(acts as an armor piercer(needs 1 clone for control)), and the Rasenshuriken(needs 2 clones to make). Deidara escapes by substituting himself with a clay clone that takes the full force of the Rasenshuriken.
2. Orochimaru Hideout arc- plays the same, but the fight against Sasuke is more inline with the storm 2 game since im pushing for a more competent Naruto and Sakura.
3. Immortal Duo arc- Plays out the same without Naruto showing up to help. Instead, it cuts between the action, and Naruto training to upgrade his Rasenshuriken, finally perfecting the jutsu the 4th Hokage made to counter(what we will know later to be) the Kirin. Choji can use all of his abilities without the Akamichi clan pills(except his butterfly wing mode that doesnt make an appearance here). Ino can form a chakra construct of herself during the mind transfer jutsu that heals others through contact(taking a page from Shinobi Strikers). Ino's base abilities are support based, so im making her a purely long range support type character. Kakashi kills Kakazu in the end with Kamui.
4. Im taking the liberty of renaming the "Search for Itachi" arc into the "Akatsuki Search and Destroy" arc. This will have Sasuke forming team Hebi and killing Deidara, while the new team 7 pairs up with team 8 to destroy a Mercenary hideout while fighting Obito.
The two teams fights a giant group of Mercenaries, revealing new abilities. Shino fights with two types of bugs, the first are his usual while the second attaches to his body, making a sturdy rhinoceros beetle exoskeleton with fly wings made out of chakra. Hinata can use the 64 palms, palm guard(making it canon) instead of rotation, and air palm. Kiba can fuse with Akamaru to make a giant two-headed wolf(Im making it so that he could only make a giant wolf with one head pre-timeskip). The fight is going well until Obito and Zetsu show up(fresh after Deidara's death).
His intangibility is a bitch, but team 8 was able to find a work around this. Shino would spread his bugs over a wide range, making Obito disappear into his Kamui dimension, Hinata would immediately find his location when he reappears using her Byakugan, and Kiba would hit him with a fang over fang by his two headed wolf form before Obito could gain his bearings. This single attack would cause him to retreat and end the mission.
The arc would end with Sasuke vs Itachi and Jiraiya vs Pain.
5. The Pain arc would mostly play the same.
ALL of the Konoha 12 that are in the village needs to fight at least 1 of the path of pain. Naruto's new Rasenshuriken that can be thrown can be done in base with 2 clones, but by himself in Sage mode. But the biggest change would be Hinata. When she attempts to save Naruto, she unlocks the Tenseigan, BUT IM GOING TO BE REVAMPING THIS EYE COMPLETELY(I've always hated its abilities)!
As we know, the base sharingan has 3 abilities(time perception, copying abilities, and casting genjustu), while the Mangekyo adds another 3(right eye ability, left eye ability, Susano'o), and the Rinnegan switches out the Sharingan's six abilities for a new six(im not counting Izanami/Izanagi or the seventh path). The Byakugan has 3 abilities(360 vision, x-ray vision, and kaleidoscope vision), so the Tenseigan will add another 3: Night vision, Heat vision, and purple chakra(Hamura's chakra).
Hinata does a better job because of this, but still gets blasted. Pain remarks that the Rinnegan and Tenseigan are the Six Paths version of the Sharingan and Byakugan(the Sharingan is more suited for combat while the Byakugan is more suited for scouting with combat aspects), and the fights carries on as normal.
6. Kage Summit- Mostly remains the same, but Sasuke takes out Danzo without throwing Karin aside(he still loses his mind though). I made this change so that Sakura, Kiba, Lee, and Sai could fight Karin, Jugo, Sasuke, and Suigetsu. The fight ends when Obito saves Sasuke and the team who are tired from their fights at the Summit when they are about to lose(Naruto and Kakashi can still pop up in the end for a team 7 reunion when Obito attacks Sakura who didnt notice him appear before the retreat, but that's only if you care for that sort of thing).
7. War arc. Cut down on the flash backs and it fixes half of the issues. Allow Kaguya to appear AFTER team 7 takes down Madara and the other half is fixed(she appears when Madara loses control of the 10 Tailes after his defeat).
I personally, would take away Kakashi's DMS, and instead have all of Konoha 12 appear to fight Kaguya(still 12 because Sai is replacing Neji who died protecting Naruto, and not Hinata).
The rest of the cast gets a new ability(which we see them use during the war) to be on par with Sakura and not slow Naruto and Sasuke down.
Shino fuses his two bug types with the poison bugs Torune had(he took them) into a giant fly exoskeleton he wears called Beelzebub. Hinata fuses her purple chakra with the twin lion fist. Akamaru had a pup before the war arc started, and together with Kiba, the three transorm into a giant three headed dog named Cerberus(one spits flames, another air, and the final lightning to release giant pillars of fire).
Lee gains the 7th Gate. Tenten uses and keeps the Sage's divine tools. Sai can make an army of ink animals.
Shikamaru contorts his shadow into a giant pool of darkness that shoots shadow tendrils and spikes. Choji can use his giant butterfly wing state. And Ino can make 12 chakra avatars of herself during her mind transfer jutsu to heal allies, take over multiple enemy bodies, or a mixture of both.
Having the Konoha 12 take part in the final battle instead of just team 7 would do wonders in closing them off. The final fight, of course, would still be just between Naruto and Sasuke.
3:05 He and I. If you remove the other person from the sentence, does it make more sense with "I" or "Me". C'mon Nick, you're a professional yapper.
It'll never fail to crack me up that Neji with his philosophy and blathering about innate talent vs. hard work and your destiny was proven right time and time again.
Naruto was imo a genuinely good series at first. I don't know how Kishi managed to just absolutely, royally fucked up so hard later.
My boy rock lee..... Deserved so much better
14:02 did the dog really go " OH nickjs making a video ama just return when hes done" ?
Talking about the wasted potential of Rock Lee and Neji. Forgets to talk about the wasted potential of Tenten. Basically Team Guy was a complete waste.
Rock Lee to this day is one of the most done dirty characters in all of anime.
TO THIS DAY. TO THIS DAYYYYY i still rock with lee
Rock Lee is live. Torune is my mine
14:02 the dog is like "ayoo what's up.. oh shi-.. sorry *backs out* dint no u wur recording 🙄🙄"
20:00 Lee literally stated that he could only use the sixth gate during the war arc. He stated this right after Guy went to the eighth gate.
That moment was such nonsense since he could go 5 gates in part 1. One more Lee fight during the war would have been nice, but Lee also would have been better without that sentence. Bare minimum he should have had 7 gates at that point or maybe even 8. Lee going 7th gate, and maybe improving on Guy's usage of it somehow, then providing backup in that fight would have been amazing. It's not like he does different stuff in 7 gates versus 6, it just wouldn't have trashed his character.
@Blesson Franklin He had 5 gates with 2 years of training. The series itself spans 5 years or so, and Lee had another year before that meaning he had between 5.5 and 6 years of training by his war arc moment. In The Last which is 2 years after the end of the war, Lee does have 7 gates, but at that point we're talking 5 gates with at most 2 years of training, another gate with 3-4 additional years of training, and another gate with 2 more years of training beyond that.
The gaps don't make sense, but really the issue is just that Kishi made Lee put himself down, and not give him a good moment.
@@phonyalias7574 facts
If the thesis of Naruto was *supposed* to be that hard work can overcome any obstacle or natural talent or whatever, then Kishimoto is the most incompetent writer to ever have a mainstream success, because the body of work he produced runs completely and utterly counter to that idea.
12:40 you know, this moment in Naruto was the realest moment in anime I had ever watched. As a kid it taught me the most important lesson I ever learned about life.
That is, sometimes things just do NOT work out no matter what you do. And sometimes, it is a real and major setback and hindrance that is going to absolutely suck and destroy you (sometimes in multiple ways). In those moments, that’s when you truly achieve self-awareness. Because that’s when you see what and who you are at your worst. You will see just what you will do in hardship.
And seeing this as a kid, I realized then that it’s not always so pretty or easy.
Usually those stories end in triumph (like Ash in pokemon for example) but yeah I guess sometimes the lesson is just hopelessness. Get up as many times as you want, life will just always knock some people back down
I love how your dog immediately knew u we’re filming a vid and turned around ❤😂 14:04
I feel like Lee and Sakura should’ve become a couple. Not because of power or whatever, but they have way more in common.
Two characters with no natural advantages besides their determination and desire to improve, who worked hard to inherit the skills of and surpass their teachers. All the strength they have is gained through hard work, while their team boasts a prodigy from a historic clan.
Rock Lee and Might Guy are my favorites because they highlight hidden disabilities and overcoming them.
I think Naruto transitions from being a symbol of hard work in part 1 to a symbol of hope in part 2. That is to say that if part 1 is about him gaining the confidence and skills to be a great ninja and a hero then part 2 is the realization and I think unfortunately Lee and others are just around to give Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura a benchmark to ultimately pass.
I don't think so, all of naruto is based around hatred and redemption of all elements
i disagree that symbol of hard work was just a minor theme for about 3 arcs, the theme of naruto as a whole was about the cycle of hatred and breaking fate
@@jeffjeff9484 Don't forget "people only become strong when they're protecting someone else"
One of the big themes in the Zabuza Arc.
The final boss of the chunin exam arc is gaara, and that was the theme of his fight too.
Fighting for onself or fighting to protect others.
It's so weird that people take that Neji fight and call it Naruto's whole theme. When the Neji fight isn't even about "hardwork vs talent".
Naruto ended so many years ago, I think the fans just forgot everything about it and form their opinions from negative youtube essays.
14:03-Dog walks in "what's dad do-oh sh** he's working!!". . .
Sakura is probably the best example of hard work overcoming special abilities in the series if you consider just how powerful she becomes through determination. As for Kimimaro his sheer strength was justified especially when you consider his performance during the war being 1 of the few who went unsealed, still it would have been so good to see Rock Lee defeat him in a rematch. While Neji dying was obvious, I had no idea that Rock Lee was ever considered for dying during Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Speaking of which remember how Sasuke was originally killed off by Haku, yet saved because he was too popular? You have to wonder how different the series would have been if Sasuke died in the Land of Waves? Do you think Naruto as a series would have still been anywhere near as long, would Neji or Rock Lee have been replacements for Sasuke?
Sakura however was talented or atleast supposedly to be talented unlike Rock lee. After all, she was the first one who mastered chakra control before Sasuke who was labled as a prodigy.
If Sasuke died the entire series basically falls apart. Despite the name of the show, most of the plot actually revolves around Sasuke. The entire back half of the OG series is about Sasuke leaving the leaf and the entire first half of Shippuden is also about Sasuke. The entire Itachi storyline also falls apart.
It's actually weird how much attention the Uchiha get when an Uzumaki is the MC.
@@LSgaming201 Yeah in modern gaming terms, the Sharingan eyes get so much p2w 5 stars skins while the Byakugan are stuck with 4 stars basic skin.
Sakura is not the best example of hard work, Rock lee is better and he worked more hard than her, autor nerfed him because he was too strong
It would've been awesome if Rock Lee & Gaara fought TOGETHER against Kimimaro instead, just think about it bro the combos would've been insane.
I can just imagine Gaara setting up some badass Taijutsu combo, tossing Kimimaro into the air before prepping a lotus
Kimimaro does something idk to dodge midair, but a sand tendril grips his ankle stopping him so Lee could grab him, performing the sweet ass lotus
Pure hard work was Rock Lee’s “ninja way”. I’d argue that the Neji vs. Naruto bout wasn’t really about hard work vs. talent. It was about destiny, or fate, and whether a person can work against it and change the path of your own life.
Said child of prophecy, having 9 tails inside,son of 4th hokage, trained by legendary sanin😂
It turns out neji was right
Naruto used Kurama's chakra to beat Neji. Neji had Naruto beat if Kurama didn't bail him out.
For a bit I thought Hinata was one of the ones who got wasted, but her personality makes her perfectly suited to be a stay at home mom if you think about it.
Naruto will always hold a dear piece of my heart but we have to admit that Kishi ruined any “hard work vs talent/genius” once we got introduced to Indra and Asura. It was claimed Naruto had no talent/special bloodline but by the end of the story we now know:
His dad was the hokage
His mom was from a chakra HOARDING clan
He is a reincarnation (of a man that is always destined to become strong)
He’s the antithesis of the whole theme. I still love it. I still love Naruto as a character but at this point, if the message was supposed to be about hard work, it seems like Lee should have been the main character to make that point.
I’ve always wondered why he didn’t master weapons with his speed that would be a deadly combination
Rock Lee is even more “wasted” potential as his Suiken was never brought up or used again
Somewhere along the way Lee's goal shifted from being strong through hard work to being an exact copy of Gai. With alittle thought Lee would have picked up a weapon (and not the joke that are nunchaks). He doesn't need his hands for handsigns and has a walking armory as a teammate. Teach him to use those weapons Tenten throws around and you have a walking shredder.
The Rock Lee and Gaara fight was the reason I started watching Naruto in the first place. At least they did our boy some justice and gave him the only only spin-off that Naruto had, Boruto not included.
NChammer23 always has the best naruto topics
I have NOTHING to add, you said it ALL! Thabk you for channeling the inner turmoil of so many weebs.
Just imagine at the end Garra vs Kimimaro, Rock Lee sacrificed himself to save Garra because Lee saw that Garra had changed and he would be able to do more in the future.
Naruto didn't win through hard work. He won through tailed-beast powers, just like Gaara