By the way, I know in the dub version (Orange Islands arc?) Rudy tells Misty that Ash is a "lucky guy" and he'll "find out one day." But clearly he didn't, at least not in the time since then -- unless that whole comment by Rudy was a dub edit? If it's NOT a dub edit I wonder if this time with Ash and Serena will be different. The subplot has gone so deep, but the writers have teased before that Ash will find out about love one of these days and in the show's 17 ish years it still has yet to happen. Supposedly in the Diancie movie, Serena
lovingly spies on her man gazes from a tent at Ash and Diancie talking about making a wish on shooting stars. Then in the end credits, Serena sees a shooting star and is shown to make a wish. I think it's pretty clear what she's wishing for, but is this just another example of a false promise to us of Ash finding out about or experiencing love "someday" is what I'm saying.
The whole Miette episode where Ash/Satoshi tells her "What? Of course not" makes me wonder if that's the writers way of saying he has no plans for any of the girls
prior to Serena or for
ALL of the girls including Serena. Seems a bit ambiguous. Then again it happened so early in the XY series and he still had yet to really get to know Serena, so maybe I'm just overanalyzing yet again.
Clemontic Amourshipping Overanalyzing Whicket Whacker Wonk, ON!
Anyhow, the ship is sailing smoothly, and its passenger manifest's page count keeps growing! My only bone to pick has been Serena's lack of character development outside of Amour, but it sounds like the writers are finally addressing that, and I hope they do it properly, perhaps using Amour and her character development to reinforce each other. Regardless, the whole childhood backstory and all the cute Serena shippy moments are just omg, I can't even, SQUEEEEE
I grew up watching the first handful of seasons after AG started because the show got kinda repetitive and I started getting into my teens...I recently started watching it again just for the heck of it after I heard the show was still on....I just happened to be lucky enough to start watching at XY's first episode. The rest was history. I finally have some reason to hope that something new and interesting will happen here. Not only because it would be adorable, but becuase I, having grown up myself, also want Ash to change, to mature, to finally grow up, to
experience love,
to live.
My ultimate hope, sort of wishful thinking and I don't think the writers will push it that far, is that Serena helps Ash
Captain Oblivious Ketchum shed his denseness and helps him at least get some taste of love, the most powerful emotion life has to offer, and this empowerment gives him the push he needs to finally get over the top and achieve his ultimate goal -- to win a league and become a Pokemon master
60 years from now when he's still 10, his Pikachu is level 2,000,000,000 and yet he's managed to lose 25 leagues straight. It's kinda asking a bit too much
because this is a kids show, the next generation by ritual needs a new female character, and Ash isn't supposed to win a league for whatever reason, however, I just have seen this subplot grow too much to think it won't result in some sort of meaningful change in Ash's character/accomplishments. The writers are kinda
absolutely playing with fire here; tradition holds that a new girl traveling companion comes around every generation and thus Serena will go the way of every other female character and Amourshipping will never get anywhere beyond Serena just fawning over Ash. However the S.S. Amour Subplot has already sailed so far due to its semi-canonicity that how would they ever bring the ship back to port (ie, abandon the subplot w/out any resolution one way or the other) without the passengers -- the show's viewers -- bringing mutiny?
Hope you're right. I didn't really watch much of AG beyond the first 30 or 40 episodes and virtually none of D&P, but even though they've taught him I haven't really seen many instances where he's put that learning to use. Sure, he's gentler and more of a gentleman with Serena than previous companions, and he did get a bit suspicious at Serena's "Ash, you really are amazing!" comment, but it still seems like Captain Oblivious more or less operates on a one-track mind (win all eight gym badges with his level 100,000,000 Pikachu and become a Pokemon master
but then lose every league when his Pikachu gets magically replaced with a wild level 5 Pikachu).
Rant complete.
Clemontic Amour Overanalyzer blows up, leaving all forum readers with Ash-fros and covered head to toe with soot. To the new passenger on the S.S. Amour, welcome!
Pardon the pessimism I've sprinkled in here, this is just one of those ships where it's tough to stay optimistic at times due to all that we know about the show's history, and I'm sure many folks can identify with that.