Considering that the language of the Pokemon world appears to be universal save for a few gratuitous phrases throughout the series, I highly doubt they would have any challenges at all. I mean, it's not like Ash ran into Serena and was all, "Do you speak Kantonese?" before he helped her. He just asked her and she understood. Just my opinion there.
Awkward moment when I read "Kantonese" as "Cantonese", which is the native language that I spoke prior to learning English.
See, I gotta disagree when it comes to where the story is going. The episode is building up this big decision Serena has to make: staying with Ash and going to Alola, or following her own dream. The teasers have been hinting that she's going to choose her own dream, and if that's what happens... Then having her return in Alola as a main character would render that choice totally meaningless. I really feel that Serena's main character arc is about figuring out her own dream and becoming more independent. Rather than just supporting someone else, she finds something she wants to do for herself.
Sure, in real life, people are disappointed by how things turn out, change their minds... and that happens in stories sometimes, too. But! When it happens in a story, it's a subversion of that trope. You have to look at the kind of story being told, whether it skews toward realism, optimism, pessimism, whatever. And Pokemon is the kind of show where characters follow their dreams and are satisfied by that. You're right that it's not great writing to leave things unresolved for Serena, either... Maybe they won't, maybe she'll at least get to confess. But even if she doesn't, I still feel like it would be a step backward for her character development to choose Ash over her own dream. And that would be worse than leaving things unresolved, as far as story-telling goes. You don't want to contradict what you've been building up to, unless your point is that personal development isn't a linear progression, we don't always stick with our convictions, and/or we tend to take the path of least resistance. And like I said, Pokemon has never been that kind of story.
I mean, they might still decide to change something later; we know the writers' aren't exactly committed to artistic vision. But yeah, as it stands now, I mean.
1. I agree with this, though I would like to make the argument that if Serena's dream is to become Kalos Queen on her own terms, and those terms include travelling to new regions in order to study different dance forms and help people along the way (and get to stay close to Ash as a side effect), then I'd say that it's not going to be a bad choice.
2. Oh, definitely. I just got disappointed with my first midterm grade, because I fully expected to get an A, but ended up with a B+. Not complaining though, because that course is hard as f***. But I still think that having Serena follow along with Ash might be a blessing in disguise because there's a lot of dance-related material in Alola that she could pick up and use in her Kalos-based performances. Just my $0.02 (and probably the same $0.02 that Omegaz is gonna give).
3. The writers are always surprising us, be it good or bad.