Lee Ping

"It was ONE lousy C, mom, in gym! That's not even a subject, it's like, some guy's name!"

- Lee Ping

Lee Ping is the main protagonist of Detentionaire. He is a tenth grader attending A. Nigma High, and unaffiliated with any particular clique.

On the first day of tenth grade Lee is framed for pulling the "biggest prank in high school history." The search for the real prank mastermind has led Lee to eventually solve his school's mystery, including ancient pyramids, brainwashing, shady councils, the wildest conspiracy theory of all time, - and his own family's secrets.

Prior to series
Lee was the second son born to the Ping family in 1997. He apparently was born in Korea and moved to Canada with his parents Sue and Alfred as a child, although he himself believed he was born in Canada. Lee was born with the Mark of His Eminence on his left arm as inherited from his father and grandfather, but it was tattooed over with trigram; Alfred presumably did it in order to protect his son from "them", MWF.

Lee and Camillio Martinez first met in third grade when Camillio had first moved into town. Camillio couldn't speak a word of English but knew how to flirt and made the mistake of flirting with a girl Steve had a crush on. Lee was able to calm the latter down, and Lee has been friends with Cam ever since. Lee has been friends with Tina Kwee since 5th Grade and has secretly had a crush on her for just as long. At the age of ten Lee had to switch schools, making him the "new kid" to everyone. Lee is also a violin prodigy, as he was able to put on a recital that same year.

He invited Camillio and the three future members of the Outcasts clique to his 10th birthday party; the latter group was invited because they were popular at the time. The famed hypnotist The Amazing Finnwich was hired as entertainment and hypnotized Camillio into thinking he was a chicken, ballerina, and monkey.

9th grade was when he and Cam first met Holger Holgaart. The two defended him from a crowd of his tormentors led by Irwin, and the trio has been inseparable ever since. This event appears to have led to the rift in Lee's and Irwin's friendship and Lee's ejection from the Mathletes, although it should be noted that he was forced to join them in the first place.

Lee has been taught how to fight by his father, and the birthmark he's inherited connects him to The Pyramid underneath the school.[1] He has always had above-average intelligence, as he has apparently gotten straight As every year in every class, with the notable exception of the gym.

Season 1
On the first day of 10th grade, Lee is framed for The Prank while he is in the bathroom, receives one full year of detention, and is grounded for a year as punishment. Since then he has spent every day trying to find out who set him up and why. He has become one of the most popular students in school as a result of The Prank, but he neither wants to nor has the time to enjoy the popularity.

Lee has found friends including but not limited to: the Jocks, the Dudes of Darkness, the Skaters, and the techno-savvy bully Biffy Goldstein. Lee has also made enemies, notably the Down with Lee Club and Principal General Barrage, as a Detentionaire, but continues to try and clear his name despite their opposition.

Lee discovered the email address of the person who set him up, Radcircles@Anigmahigh.ca, which he learned belonged to ex-Principal Wurst. He deduced that Wurst did not do the prank based on the fact that he hasn't seen him around the school since he disappeared one year earlier. Lee also discovered a series of underground tunnels beneath the school, which appear to be abandoned subway tunnels renovated into a massive underground lab.

Lee also discovers that the song used in the prank has the ability to brainwash people and that this song is one of the research projects of the underground labs. Thanks to Chaz's stolen news footage of day one, Lee is led to believe that he has discovered who Radcircles really is when he sees Camillio switch his bag with a bag that sets off the prank. This, combined with how Holger has already found further evidence of Camillio's involvement, leads him to believe that Camillio and Radcircles are one and the same.

Season 2
Lee soon figured out that his friend Camillio had been brainwashed during the Prank in order to set him up as a red herring. For this reason, Lee began the process of hunting down the person who originally brainwashed Camillio, The Amazing Finnwich. Lee was able to find him eventually, though mostly out of luck rather than through the merits of his investigation, and learned that he had nothing to do with the Prank. Lee's popularity takes some hits in this season due to the actions of Ruby Kwee. First, Ruby takes the credit for the Prank, leading the student body to believe that Lee took the credit for the prank for his own gain. Second, after Ruby admitted she didn't do the prank the student body believes that Lee framed her just to get out of detention. Despite this, Lee also proves himself to his classmates: during the berserk cleaner incident, Lee risked his life to defend his classmates, lead them to safety and finally defeat the Cleaners.

Unfortunately, as a direct consequence of his investigation, Lee is expelled from school by Inspector Blompkins. Lee also discovers the true identity of Radcircles: the school's IT technician Lynch Webber, who was acting on the orders of Vice-Principal Victoria. Both of them had been using the school and its students as lab rats to perfect the brainwashing song in a bid for world domination. Lee was able to stop Victoria at the School's dance by proving to Victoria's colleagues in The Council that the song is ineffective for world domination: if the small minority immune to the brainwashing process can snap their peers out of the trance brought on by the song, then the song (while still retaining potential) is utterly useless. With the conspiracy seemingly resolved Lee is finally able to ask out his longtime crush, Tina Kwee.

Season 3
Lee is narrowly able to avoid being shipped off to Alaska by his mother thanks to the intervention of an unknown benefactor, who instructs the new principal, Blompkins, to un-expel Lee. Also thanks to Lee's actions, Blompkins is fired as principal, reinstating Barrage in the process. During The annual fencing match, it is discovered that Lee is deeply connected to a mysterious/mystical pyramid underneath the school.

Also, thanks to the Outcasts, Lee discovers a book detailing information about the Tazelwurms and the Pyramid. Unfortunately, it's written in some kind of ancient language, rendering it unreadable by him. As a direct consequence of his investigations, Lee's family is put under threat by the council. Lee later reunites with Finnwich and Lynch and learns that both they and the Council are after the Pyramid. When it's finally time to open the Pyramid, Finnwich offers Lee the chance to open it with him and together they open it using the keys.

Season 4
Although the Pyramid is finally opened Lee cannot make sense of the strange writing even with Finnwich's cipher. Having finally learned the information he's been seeking for well over a hundred years, Finnwich destroys the Pyramid lest its secrets fall into the hands of the Council. Finnwich is then captured and sent to Coral Grove, so Lee attempts a rescue mission alongside Biffy and Holger.

The mission fails, and instead, Lee ends up in the fight of his life against the mysterious Serpent. Although the superior fighter nearly kills Lee he can both save himself and push the fight into his favor using the Serpent's allergy to fish to partially blind him, followed up by his escape with his friends. Lee is also finally able to admit his feelings for his long-time crush Tina Kwee. Sadly a tearful Tina was not able to reciprocate Lee's feelings lest she compromises her newfound friendship with Jenny Jergens (having formed a pact to not date him). Lee, alongside Biffy, also begins to suspect a conspiracy to clone the teaching staff of A Nigma high, which they later learn to be true leading Lee to fear that his mother is also a clone.

Lee faces off against the Serpent on and off again, the first time during a lockdown of the school where he's collecting DNA samples of the Ping family and unfortunately gets away scot-free. The Second time occurs when he kidnaps Jenny for the Book and threatens Holger's life. This time however Lee can outwit him with a fish stuffed pizza Holger had ordered.

Finally, Lee learns that the Serpent is his older brother, who then kidnapped a hospitalized Alfred Ping, their mutual father. Later that day Lee was in for a second major shock/discovery concerning his family: his mom, Sue Ping, had also been cloned like her fellow teachers. Unable to do anything about it at the time Lee and Biffy made their escape.

The next day Lee rescues his friends Holger, Camillio, and Biffy when they are captured by the Council. In a plot twist, the four-team up with the Serpent, who is seeking revenge against the Council for the suffering they have inflicted upon him. Upon learning that Tina and Jenny are already in Coral Grove, the group makes a plan to sneak onto the submarine to get there, but are forced to leave Camillio behind as a distraction.

Sadly, despite surviving the numerous perils of Coral Grove, the group is captured at the last minute and sent to Tina's cell when the prison goes into lockdown. At around dinner time, the group can escape when they jump their guard (a disguised Lynch) and hijack a submarine, which Lynch unfortunately remotely pilots back to Coral Grove. However, he was able to secure the group's cooperation by revealing that Lee's real mother was being held captive at the base.

The group works with Lynch to save Lee's mother and afterward goes to see Finnwich, who tries to kill Lee and himself to keep the Pyramid from being opened again. Lee is saved by the arrival of His Eminence, the true mastermind behind the conspiracy, and in turn, saved from the prehistoric lizard creature by the arrival of Cassandra McAdams, and finally saved from her by her daughter Kimmie.

Having finally run out of people trying to kill them, the characters have a group hug to celebrate the newly formed romantic relationships and the apparent end to the conspiracy. Lee finally sees the end of a long, exciting path, and probably hopes to return to normal life once more.

Appearances
As the series' main protagonist, Lee appears in every full length episode of the series.

Personality
Lee Ping is an individualistic kid who doesn't associate himself with any school clique. Being a loner most of the time made him somewhat of a loser in the eyes of other students. But "going solo" has actually built his character up in the best way, bringing such traits as non-judgemental, rational self-perception, and, most of all, peacefulness. If there is a dispute or a drama of any kind Lee prefers to step aside and never interferes unless something calls.

Lee's pacific outlook on life is what draws people to him even if he doesn't appear "cool" or "in touch" with society. He is extremely patient and resourceful which makes him such a great investigator, but excessive curiosity sometimes gets in a way of his carefulness. Despite the insatiate thirst for exploring the conspiracy surrounding him and his school, Lee is alert and cautious enough not to mess with the wrong people, although it proves impossible once he gets the attention of the Council. The conspiracy consumed his personal life to such an extent that Lee constantly feels being watched or followed which resulted in paranoia and a tendency to jump to conclusions looking at just one part of the puzzle. He tends to focus on one thing at a time making him lose sight of the rest and ignore the details, or noticing the details only and ignoring what's right in front of him.

Although Lee's observation tends to vary regarding the surroundings and circumstances, he is ever determined to get the truth whatever the cost. Once something grabs him, Lee just won't quit before he gets to the bottom of the secret. He is willing to put himself in danger if he believes that the risk is worth the reward, and is usually right in his assessment. Though normally easy-going by nature, Lee is frequently bewildered by all the weirdness he encounters at A Nigma High but fiercely and unflinchingly determined to unravel the mysteries he gets involved in.

Although he is said to have previously been something of a loner before the start of the school year, Lee seems to have a knack for making friends. Lee is as much a loyal friend as he is a patient and understanding person. During the course of his investigation, he has ended up helping many students and several cliques, including the Jocks, the Skaters, the Outcasts, the 15th Graders, and the Genius Club. These cliques have become his trusty allies as a result. The dislike of stereotypically-based cliques is justified by the fact that Lee appreciates people who stay themselves in any situation and aren't afraid of being unique or even 'weird'. Lee's patience and the ability to put up with much weirdness is probably what drew his two friends, Cam and Holger, to him in the first place. He would even risk his own safety to help his friends because he knows that they would do the same for him.

Lee is often snarky and sarcastic with everything going on around him but, interestingly enough, lets people push him around. He appears so laid-back he actually doesn't mind occasionally 'going with the flow' as far as he doesn't feel manipulated or tricked. Lee is often too nice about everything and can't bring himself to hurt anyone's feelings, letting people do whatever they want with him for the most part. Lee simply rolls with whatever's going on, consumed by the conspiracy and his own family secrets, which results in him being too distracted to do anything about his push-overness. Despite all the good character traits, Lee is by no means perfect. As noted by his friends and family, Lee is usually in a bad mood as a result of his determination to clear his name, and the stress it causes. This stress and justified paranoia have at times led him to jump to conclusions based on incomplete evidence, even going so far as to accuse his friends when suspicion falls on them. Lee can also be very persuasive, verging on manipulative at times. He manipulated Holger into taking off Cam's shoes to match shoe prints, [1] stopped Steve from ratting him out, [2] manipulated jocks into taking his place as pumps to the school's equipment, [1] and even tricked Barrage into breaking the prank song's effect. [3]

Abilities
Lee Ping is well-rounded in terms of his abilities. He is highly intelligent and capable of getting good grades, perceptive enough to figure out the clues to the prank, and open-minded enough to not turn down a clue, although his single-minded determination has led him to ignore the evidence. He is mathematically intellectual and strategically skilled, but his downfall usually comes in athleticism (in earlier episodes).

Despite only getting a C in the gym the prior year, Lee is physically fit enough to match the football team in tryouts. In Blitzkrieg Bop'd Lee shows he is agile enough with a skateboard to skid across a pool and land on the other side, and durable enough to emerge from this trick unharmed.[1] In childhood, Lee received some light training in fencing from his father, which still doesn't account for his exceptional swordsmanship, demonstrated in the yearly fencing match. Lee's unnatural fighting skills are believed to be due to his connection to the pyramid underneath the school via his birthmark.

Lee is immune to the prank song and other forms of hypnotism due to a genetic oddity. However it is unknown from where he got this trait because in "The Dance Part 2" Lee's mom is hypnotized and in "Finding Finnwich" his father claims to be affected by Finnwich's hypnotism, making him not immune if he was being truthful. Lee may have inherited this trait through a recessive gene (as noted by the Red Tazelwurm), from environmental factors, or through a "simple" mutation.

Quotes

 * "Why didn't anyone tell me the first day of tenth grade was gonna be the worst day of my life?" - Blitzkrieg Bop'd
 * "It was one. Lousy. C, mom. In gym! That's not even a subject, it's like, some guy's name!" - Blitzkrieg Bop'd
 * "Yeah, but if we join some clique, we gotta follow their rules, and personally, I don't want to wear guyliner." - Blitzkrieg Bop'd
 * "Come on! People know us. We went to grade school with most of these guys." - Blitzkrieg Bop'd
 * "Whatever. What kinda loser gets detention on the first day?" - Blitzkrieg Bop'd
 * "Hey. Welcome back. I'm screwed!" - Blitzkrieg Bop'd
 * "Detention's let out at 4:15. Trouble is, I'm nowhere near detention right now." - the most frequently used phrase
 * "4:00! I got to be back in detention before Barrage!" - Blitzkrieg Bop'd
 * "I'm in need of a Barrage distraction, got anything?"
 * "Man, Tina hates me. I ruined everything."
 * "I've met squirrels with longer attention span!" - "Skate Or Die"
 * "It's not every day that you get expelled, and then have to sneak into school just to go to your own dance! But if one thing's for sure, there's just no such thing as a typical day at A. Nigma High." - "Return of the Ping"
 * "I'll take that as... a completely useless answer. Thanks." - "Fight or Flight"
 * "Okay ready? Knock-knock. Who's there? Lee. Lee who? Lee Ping, and Lee Ping says THIS WAY!" - "Date With Destiny"
 * “Once, it was all about being framed for the biggest prank in high school history. But that was nothing. Since then, I’ve battled robots, brainwashing, brainwashed robots, ninjas, evil geniuses, evil not-so-geniuses, and brilliant eccentric dudes who use machines and plastic surgery to try and cheat death.” - "Follow That Finnwich"
 * "Oh you know, traffic, hazmats and maybe my whole life falling apart!" - "Game of Clones"
 * "So... where am I in all this?"
 * "A knock-knock joke? What are you, five?"
 * "This whole school is a little weird!"

Profile
"Lee Ping is that mysterious cool guy who seems to breeze through school. But he's no overachiever! And he certainly has no interest in being in any clique. He's his own guy and fiercely loyal to the same two friends he's had for years. All that changes, though, when he's framed for the biggest prank in high school history. Now he needs to apply all of his numerous mental and physical talents to fully navigate every aspect of school life and beyond as "the Detentionaire!""

- Teletoon.com profile

Disguises & Aliases

 * Number 77 - During football try-outs Lee donned the persona of a rather skilled football player known to Barrage only as Number 77, whom was able to outwit Barrage's many tests by combining IT support, intellect, and sheer determination..
 * El Beardo - In order to hide from Barrage during auditions for the school play Lee dressed up as Alexander Nigma. Barrage, not realizing it was Lee, asked him to read some lines from the script. Barrage found Lee's awkward performance fitting for the play, despite the fact that he's really not a good actor, and cast him as Alexander.
 * Unnamed DOD member - During the yearly battle of the bands competition Lee's friends disguised him as a British styled rocker which allowed him to participate in the battle of the bands alongside the Dudes of Darkness on the violin.
 * Brad Von Chillstein - When Brad was making moves on Greta Von Hoffman and Brandy Silver, Lee agreed to take his place during the annual fencing match in exchange for him to stop "flirting" with Greta Von Hoffman and Brandy Silver, using Brad's signature flame printed fencing uniform to complete the disguise.
 * Manifestum - The Amazing Finnwich's nickname for Lee. Finnwich claimed he based the name on the fact that Lee cannot be hypnotized, as a prophecy Finnwich was told off by his master names such an individual Manifestum. However Finnwich was lying about the name, as its shown that "Manifestum" is connected to The Pyramid in the season 3 finale.

Relationships
"'Now I gotta go it solo'"

Trivia

 * Lee has the same shoulder tattoo as his father.
 * It is eventually revealed that both Lee and his father had birth marks tattooed over as infants in order to protect them from the Council.
 * Lee's tattoo (☲) is a trigram, or Bagua, an Asian symbol that represents a fundamental principle of reality. It in particular resembles a trigram called 離 (Lí), which means ‘fire’. This trigram represents fame, popularity, and everything related to reputation, which is basically Lee’s main story conflict. Li.png


 * Lee Ping is often called "leaping" by others either as a form of insult or through language oversight.
 * Lee's name means "reason, logic" and comes from Chinese 理 (lǐ), with "Lee" being the romanized version of "Li".
 * Few people suspect that Lee dyes his hair red.
 * This is referred to by Chaz who asked Tina if that is Lee's natural hair color.
 * However, Lee's hair is shown as red even in flashbacks where he is shown as a young child, so it's possible that his hair color is natural.
 * He is one of the few known people immune to the brainwashing song[1]
 * The Red Tazelwurm explains that this trait is a biological predisposition[1].
 * Lee is one of two people who weren't covered in paint during and after the prank. The other person was Vice-Principal Victoria[2].
 * The early concept art of Lee revealed that he was supposed to be shorter, no mixed hair color, and wearing shades.
 * Lee has dark brown eyes with gold flecks, as noted by Brandy[3].
 * On rainy days his eyes tend to have a slight hazel tint[3].
 * Lee's favorite dish is sloppy joes[4], and his favorite dessert is triple chunk brownies[3].
 * Lee Ping inherited the mark of His Eminence on his left arm, which is covered up by the three-line tattoo (trigram). Notably, his brother the Serpent doesn't have the tattoo.

Gallery
See Lee Ping's image gallery