Hey, Amourians.
I haven't seen the episode yet but judging by the comments earlier, I suppose we didn't had much amour moments but Ash displayed another heroism and him and Serena got separated on purpose. With regards to Tierno, I think you guys shouldn't worry about him since he was simply fanboying over Serena's new looks but that's it. I mean if he were head over heeels to her, he would have suggested to stay with Serena during the separation and he should have been more affectionate towards her.
Now for the blushing thing. Personally, I don't take it too seriously. For me, the only blushes that counted as affections so far are as follows:
XY7: Serena's blushing when Ash finally remembers her and when she gave Ash cookies.
XY26: When Miette Threatens Serena
XY60: When she confirms the ribbon that she's using was the ribbon Ash gave her.
The rest are merely due to her excitement, shyness, concern, etc. Thus, why I give her the nickname, "Tomato girl". Anyway, Tomato girl just simply loves to blush a lot of times. Since I haven't seen today's episode, I can't tell what kind of blush she had when she talked to Ash or when Tierno kneeled down in front of her, though I am assuming it was simply because of what she and Ash were talking about that made her blush and I think it's normal for a girl to blush like that when a boy does an awkward thing such as kneeling down. My point here is that maybe you guys should be careful on picking which blush determines which. She does have a crush on Ash so it's perfectly normal for her to blush but it wouldn't mean that she'll always blush due her affection, there can always be time when she'll blush whenever she's excited or happy of whatever they were talking about. The same goes for the others, it wouldn't always mean affection from Tomato girl. There can always be a reason behind it. The same goes for the rest of what you guys so called subtle hints or animator's hints.
As for this:
[img139]https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CBBBzxiUYAAXeQP.jpg[/img139]
I don't know about you guys but it looked more like Ash is simply in his battle stance rather than protecting Tomato girl. The camera angle just made it looked like he does. Though again, I can be wrong here since I haven't seen the episode itself, it would help at the very least if someone can provide a gif for us to see how it actually looked like.
One last thing, I know Clemont fanboys/fangirls would hate me for saying this but I really enjoy his temporary absence in the show. I don't know but that's how I feel, I enjoy seeing Ash, Serena and Bonnie on their own. It's just.....Perfect, at least for me. Possibly since Clemont wouldn't be hugging more moments and screentime. I kinda wish that Clemont leaves permanently but that's just wishful thinking. Oh man, I feel and sounded like a horrible person for saying that, lol but that's just how I really feel.
Well, that's all for now. Sayonara!