Gabby-chan
Active member
We're doing the same thing here as in the last thread, comparing their personalities and their story-lines to figure out who's better as a character. We're not measuring their contribution to the main story-line or the impact they had on other characters, but simply the quality of their individual stories.
The purpose of this thread is to compare two characters objectively, from a narrative standpoint. It's not about who's your favorite.
TL;DR: I feel like Lee has a better personality and story-line than Sakura's, but Sakura's story-line is just more developed. Sakura has a deep and emotional personality, and her story-line as the girl bullied as a child and abandoned by the one she loved, made her a very interesting character with a lot of potential. But Lee's personality was a little more unique; it's a little reminiscent of the typical Shonen main protag' personality, but overall Lee is a lot more humble, competitive, compassionate, and tenacious then a lot of similar characters. His story-line as the kid who had to work extra hard to keep up in a world where he was born less capable than everyone else, made him a very interesting character with an extreme amount of potential. I mean, there's an entire anime with that exact premise called the Black Clover.
Bullied -
Sakura: bullied for her big forehead
Lee: bullied for not being able to use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, which everyone else could.
Rivalry -
Sakura: Rivaled with Ino over a lot of things, most notably Sasuke.
Lee: Rivaled with Neji due to conflicting philosophical ideology, contrasting talent with hard work.
Talent -
Sakura: Genius at Medic Ninjutsu, amongst other things
Lee: Genius at Taijutsu
Teammate loss -
Sakura: Loss Sasuke, got him back eventually.
Lee: Neji dead.
Motivations -
Sakura: Become strong enough that she doesn't have to depend on anyone
Lee: Become strong enough to prove the world wrong...
What do you guys think?
The purpose of this thread is to compare two characters objectively, from a narrative standpoint. It's not about who's your favorite.
This is a tough one for me, because Sakura's basically one of the main characters, as where Lee is more of a minor character. Sakura has been through a lot of development, and her life was an emotional roller coaster. Similar to Lee, she was bullied as a child....for her large forehead. It's not a very interesting thing to be bullied for but ya know, kids will pick at just about anything, so it IS realistic, and it did result in an interesting rivalry between Sakura and Ino. After this, Sakura had two main elements to her character; she wanted to become stronger so she wouldn't be left behind by her teammates, and she was abandoned by the love of her life, in a very abrupt manner, having her other teammate (who she beat a lot, but really cared for deeply) brought back to her half alive. The former, it's nothing new. It's something we see in a lot of Shinobi, everybody wants to become stronger. However, Sasuke abandoning her is her true moment in the spotlight. We really get to see a more deep and emotional side from Sakura after this, and this really drives her character to become...stronger *cough*, strong enough to bring Sasuke back. Sakura doesn't really come off as a funny character to me. I mean, her punches are iconic, but mostly she's a very emotional character. She's smart, rational, thoughtful and considerate, but she can also be dark too, like when she considered killing Sasuke.
Lee was in a similar situation to Sakura, as he also grew up being bullied. However, it seemed to me that Lee was being bullied more, and by a larger group of people, for a more serious reason. Lee couldn't use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu like everyone around him. He spent his entire childhood working relentlessly just to keep up with everyone. The entire world was his Naruto and Sasuke. His character has a very interesting personality, but it did seem kind of one-dimensional. You always knew what to expect from Lee. Nobility and fiery compassion. His relationship with Neji was where his character really shinned, as the contrast between them made Lee's fight all the more...worth while, or some shit, I don't know, I'm running out of words here. He has a strong student-teacher/father-son relationship with Might Gai, and a terribly undeveloped relationship with Tenten, cause Tenten don't do shit -_- and uh...I don't know, I'm sure you guys can think of more.
So. I think...I'm going to go with...Lee? It feels to me like Sakura has a one-dimensional story-line, and Lee has a one-dimensional personality. Sakura and Lee basically went through the same shit as kids, but Lee's situation carried a lot more weight because it was a lot more...prevalent. I mean, which story sounds better, the kid who trains relentlessly to prove everyone wrong, or the girl who cries because of her big forehead? Moving onto their pre-adolescent years, it still seems like Lee has a more interesting story, and even personality. Before Sasuke abandons Sakura, she's just the girl who always hits Naruto and is all over Sasuke. Lee on the other hand was a dark horse. His fight with Sasuke had people hyped for him. And then his fights in the Chunin Exams carried WAY MORE depth and gravity than Sakura's little feud with Ino. Because NEJI was so deep a character, Lee's contrasting relationship with him really benefited Lee's story-line and development. It made it really interesting to see such a heated clash of ideals coupled on one team. It was when Sasuke abandoned Sakura that her personality and story-line really flourished, as where Lee's sort of became stagnant. I call Lee's personality one-dimensional because while it is very interesting, how humble and passionate he can be, it doesn't really go anywhere, it doesn't change much or develop, he remains mostly the same person throughout the anime, as where Sakura's experience with Sasuke allows her a lot more development and depth. I call Sakura's story-line one-dimensional because there wasn't much...potential, aside from the predictable inevitability that she would marry Sasuke and become the best medic ninja. She had her shine when she beat Sasori, and then when she lied to Naruto about loving him and tried to kill Sasuke. But even then, it always seemed like she was just on a one-track road, Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. It feels like Lee had a lot more potential, though it wasn't really tapped into because Kishimoto. But at the same time, Lee's was kind of one-track too because all he had going for him was the Taijutsu thing....I don't know, I'm bad at analysis...
Lee was in a similar situation to Sakura, as he also grew up being bullied. However, it seemed to me that Lee was being bullied more, and by a larger group of people, for a more serious reason. Lee couldn't use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu like everyone around him. He spent his entire childhood working relentlessly just to keep up with everyone. The entire world was his Naruto and Sasuke. His character has a very interesting personality, but it did seem kind of one-dimensional. You always knew what to expect from Lee. Nobility and fiery compassion. His relationship with Neji was where his character really shinned, as the contrast between them made Lee's fight all the more...worth while, or some shit, I don't know, I'm running out of words here. He has a strong student-teacher/father-son relationship with Might Gai, and a terribly undeveloped relationship with Tenten, cause Tenten don't do shit -_- and uh...I don't know, I'm sure you guys can think of more.
So. I think...I'm going to go with...Lee? It feels to me like Sakura has a one-dimensional story-line, and Lee has a one-dimensional personality. Sakura and Lee basically went through the same shit as kids, but Lee's situation carried a lot more weight because it was a lot more...prevalent. I mean, which story sounds better, the kid who trains relentlessly to prove everyone wrong, or the girl who cries because of her big forehead? Moving onto their pre-adolescent years, it still seems like Lee has a more interesting story, and even personality. Before Sasuke abandons Sakura, she's just the girl who always hits Naruto and is all over Sasuke. Lee on the other hand was a dark horse. His fight with Sasuke had people hyped for him. And then his fights in the Chunin Exams carried WAY MORE depth and gravity than Sakura's little feud with Ino. Because NEJI was so deep a character, Lee's contrasting relationship with him really benefited Lee's story-line and development. It made it really interesting to see such a heated clash of ideals coupled on one team. It was when Sasuke abandoned Sakura that her personality and story-line really flourished, as where Lee's sort of became stagnant. I call Lee's personality one-dimensional because while it is very interesting, how humble and passionate he can be, it doesn't really go anywhere, it doesn't change much or develop, he remains mostly the same person throughout the anime, as where Sakura's experience with Sasuke allows her a lot more development and depth. I call Sakura's story-line one-dimensional because there wasn't much...potential, aside from the predictable inevitability that she would marry Sasuke and become the best medic ninja. She had her shine when she beat Sasori, and then when she lied to Naruto about loving him and tried to kill Sasuke. But even then, it always seemed like she was just on a one-track road, Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke. It feels like Lee had a lot more potential, though it wasn't really tapped into because Kishimoto. But at the same time, Lee's was kind of one-track too because all he had going for him was the Taijutsu thing....I don't know, I'm bad at analysis...
TL;DR: I feel like Lee has a better personality and story-line than Sakura's, but Sakura's story-line is just more developed. Sakura has a deep and emotional personality, and her story-line as the girl bullied as a child and abandoned by the one she loved, made her a very interesting character with a lot of potential. But Lee's personality was a little more unique; it's a little reminiscent of the typical Shonen main protag' personality, but overall Lee is a lot more humble, competitive, compassionate, and tenacious then a lot of similar characters. His story-line as the kid who had to work extra hard to keep up in a world where he was born less capable than everyone else, made him a very interesting character with an extreme amount of potential. I mean, there's an entire anime with that exact premise called the Black Clover.
Bullied -
Sakura: bullied for her big forehead
Lee: bullied for not being able to use Ninjutsu or Genjutsu, which everyone else could.
Rivalry -
Sakura: Rivaled with Ino over a lot of things, most notably Sasuke.
Lee: Rivaled with Neji due to conflicting philosophical ideology, contrasting talent with hard work.
Talent -
Sakura: Genius at Medic Ninjutsu, amongst other things
Lee: Genius at Taijutsu
Teammate loss -
Sakura: Loss Sasuke, got him back eventually.
Lee: Neji dead.
Motivations -
Sakura: Become strong enough that she doesn't have to depend on anyone
Lee: Become strong enough to prove the world wrong...
What do you guys think?
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