Is Serena being portrayed as a pastiche of Ash/Pokémon fangirls and shipping?

[Gamzee Makara]

Is Serena being portrayed as a pastiche of Ash/Pokémon fangirls and shipping?

Every time she speaks and every word she says makes me feel like the writers are making fun of fangirls, Ash Shipppers and their associated tropes.

She worships Ash, believes every word he says, has no discernible goal on her life's journey but to seemingly be Ash's biggest fan, has a fox which eventually becomes Renamon a fursona a anthropomorphic animal who acts like a fanfiction depiction of how one of its kind would act if femal and owned by a OC Mary Sue, changes her voice every 2 seconds, is stubborn, laxy and sick of her parent(s)' interference, obsesses over a boy she met an undisclosed number of years ago and did not see till recently(and acts like a stalker, even!), keeps a filthy memento of her one-sided crush until she returns it to him years later, he doesn't recognize either her or the object, she pouts constantly(not acting her age in the process), wears clothing that doesn't fit her personality and body type...need I go on?


So...yes she is a pastiche of fangirls and shipping, or no, because there is no "objective" evidence(AKA a nonexistent text message written by a hypothetically extant episode writer that will NEVER exist or, even if it did, would be found)?

 

[Janovy]

A majority of things you've said are really untrue.

Did Serena go to a journey to meet Ash?
Yes.

Does she obsess over Ash every second of the day?
No.

Is Amourshipping shoved in our faces in every episode?
No.

Does she lack a definitive goal?
Yes.


The thing is, people seem to have a problem with Ash/Serena shipping and her non-existent obsession with Ash when they should be concerned about more valid things like the lack of direction of her character. And even that has been improving as of recent episodes and next episode is even featuring Serena's first rival. People should just ignore the whole Ash/Serena thing because it really is not as big of a deal as people make it out to be.

 

[PokemonNation2000]

"I'm too objective to care..." = BS option! Just saying, guys. This is all subjective!

 

[OfCorsola]

I feel like Serena is full of potential, but she's not showing it. She can be enjoyable, but she's boring me. I want a female lead that actually gets out there and does something. Not some companion being there for liking Ash or being really pretty.

I've seen Serena battle, it's cool, that means they need to give her a goal, she can do it.

So far, I'm not liking what I'm seeing so far.

 

[Navin]

This is what I wrote before about her and I'm pasting it here again:

Here is how I would describe Serena:

Serena is sweet, polite, friendly, and generally upbeat and enthusiastic. She likes fashion and cooking over stuff like science. She's a bit shallow in that she cares a lot about appearance and being cute. She seems sheltered and doesn't seem like she has been out much from the confines of home, considering she doesn't know how to battle, camp, fish, and was less tolerant of the cold. She had an irritable and sassy persona at home that just toned down/has been nonexistent since she left on her journey. She has a goal to find a goal. She developed a crush on Ash years ago when he chivalrously led her back to camp after she was lost alone in the woods. Since she rejoined him, she continues to admire his determination and kindness deeply. She blushes a lot around him and seeks his approval. In general, she probably views him as her shining white knight. She gets immediately worried at the possibility of Ash with another girl.

The issue with her has been that:
1.) She has been more in background and overshadowed by the others and there were plenty of opportunities for her to try something out.
2.) Amourshipping has basically defined her character. In fact, Amourshipping was introduced and established (and the degree with which it was established with those blitzkrieg of hints from E01-E07) more so than her own personality, and with her tendency to be in the background, it comes across as her defining feature.
3.) This has been started to be voiced by others online, but I'll repeat it: the show just forces this ship down upon the audience and expects people to like it for the sake of romance: "Serena is cute. Her crush on Ash is cute. Ergo, you must like it." This is exacerbated with her being in the background and letting her crush be her signature feature. Also, the writers haven't made us have any reason to support it because of the complete one-sided nature of it and the lack of Ash/Serena interactions. In fact, Serena's very personality doesn't seem like it can bring out the best interactions with Ash.

 

[chalkus]

I think it is still too early to tell definitively, but as of right now, I would say yes. I believe the anime has handled its female characters well thus far. They have not been treated as being inferior to their male counterparts and have beaten Ash and won tournaments without any shame being attributed to it. Which is nice.

And then we have Serena.

She doesn't do anything except follow Ash and provide shipping hints. That's it. She's barely even competent as a trainer. It amazes me what they are doing, or rather, not doing with her character. They've basically turned her into Tea from Yugioh, which is a very bad thing.

But then I thought about it. Iris was a badass trainer from the get go and had the least amount of shipping hints. Serena is a weak trainer with the most amount of hints since Misty. Iris is hated while Serena is adored. It tells me that the writers realize that western fans, for the most part, don't care about Pokemon battles and are infatuated with pairings and romance despite the fact that there is practically no romance in pokemon, especially where Ash is concerned. Therefore Serena can do next to nothing and still have a huge following.

I don't like this at all. I don't think Serena has to be as tough as Iris was, but female characters should be competent and independent, not just spending their time blushing in some dude's shadow that doesn't reciprocate her feelings. I hope this is just as aberration because I do not want female main characters to be as marginalized in pokemon as they were in Yugioh or Naruto.

 

[PokemonNation2000]

I don't like this at all. I don't think Serena has to be as tough as Iris was, but female characters should be competent and independent, not just spending their time blushing in some dude's shadow that doesn't reciprocate her feelings. I hope this is just as aberration because I do not want female main characters to be as marginalized in pokemon as they were in Yugioh or Naruto.

While I agree with you here, have you forgotten Akiza Izinski/Aki Izayoi from Yu-Gi-Oh 5D's? Yeah, I thought so.

 

[chalkus]

I don't think I saw more than 10 eps of 5 Ds. I was referring specifically to the original Yugioh anime series with Tea, Joey and Tristan.

 

[Nodame]

Serena has so much potential, but the anime writers are doing absolutely nothing with her. Has she even gotten into an actual battle with her Fennekin? What's her goal? The only thing she has is a crush on Ash, which isn't a new thing. The Amour plot is cute and all, but why should a character's only purpose is to be a love interest? I mean, it's not as if they're actually going to do anything with her and Ash anyway. Serena so far is a one dimensional, fan service character. If I could sum up her whole character it would be "Satoshi-Kun"

I do not want female main characters to be as marginalized in pokemon as they were in Naruto.

Umm.. if you mean Sakura, then your absolutely wrong. She definitely changed a lot in late part 1 and Shippuden and she's an awesome character now. Watch the whole series first before judging her. Anyways this is not a Naruto thread but I had to reply lol.

 

[CyberCubed]

Serena is written as a shoujo waifu character that you see in harem anime's.

The problem is Pokemon isn't a romance anime. So seeing a character like that in Pokemon feels strange. Not to mention we know Serena's crush on Ash won't go anywhere anyway. She's also designed for fanservice because she's a cute blonde with long flowing hair who wears skimpy outfits, bakes sweets like cupcakes, and takes care of Bonnie.

 

[chalkus]

Serena is written as a shoujo waifu character that you see in harem anime's.

The problem is Pokemon isn't a romance anime. So seeing a character like that in Pokemon feels strange. Not to mention we know Serena's crush on Ash won't go anywhere anyway. She's also designed for fanservice because she's a cute blonde with long flowing hair who wears skimpy outfits, bakes sweets like cupcakes, and takes care of Bonnie.

I didn't mention this in my last post but I have noticed that there are a lot of inappropriate closeups of Serena's legs and skirt. Even one time during that rhyhorn competition in the first couple eps where they did a close up of her that I swear I was going to see something I didn't want to. They're really laying it thick with this one.

 

[CyberCubed]

I didn't mention this in my last post but I have noticed that there are a lot of inappropriate closeups of Serena's legs and skirt. Even one time during that rhyhorn competition in the first couple eps where they did a close up of her that I swear I was going to see something I didn't want to. They're really laying it thick with this one.

But they did the same thing with Dawn's skirt, and since Dawn's skirt was much shorter you saw most of her legs. There's a reason why whenever Dawn was jumping or climbing they had to always have her arm covering herself.

 

[Emperor Empoleon]

There's issues, but I think fans talk more about her crush in particular than the show does itself

I haven't really seen that much Amour since she joined. And there are aspects of her character outside of it. Her relationship with her ma, her personal interests in fashion or cooking, wanting to find a passion, and she can be pretty resourceful.

Problem to me is the slower pace of her growth than everyone else, and the "Pokemon" side of things with her isn't all that big. She feels more like Brock than past girls, in terms of her presence.

 

[CyberCubed]

There's issues, but I think fans talk more about her crush in particular than the show does itself

I haven't really seen that much Amour since she joined. And there are aspects of her character outside of it. Her relationship with her ma, her personal interests in fashion or cooking, wanting to find a passion, and she can be pretty resourceful.

Problem to me is the slower pace of her growth, and the "Pokemon" side of things with her isn't all that big. She feels more like Brock than past girls, in terms of her presence.

Virtually every episode centered around her was about shipping or her crush on Ash. In fact the very next episode is about Serena blushing and getting flustered about that rival girl getting Ash's attention.

And the Pokemon side of things for her is ridiculous. We're now 24 episodes into XY and she only has one pokemon and has not been in a single "real" battle aside from a TR skirmish.

 

[Lord Trollbias]

Virtually every episode centered around her was about shipping or her crush on Ash. In fact the very next episode is about Serena blushing and getting flustered about that rival girl getting Ash's attention.

And the Pokemon side of things for her is ridiculous. We're now 24 episodes into XY and she only has one pokemon and has not been in a single "real" battle aside from a TR skirmish.

Really? Because she's had very few episodes centered around her (I think only 2 really so far). And the Poke-Vision episode definitely wasn't centered around it.

 

[chalkus]

Umm.. if you mean Sakura, then your absolutely wrong. She definitely changed a lot in late part 1 and Shippuden and she's an awesome character now. Watch the whole series first before judging her. Anyways this is not a Naruto thread but I had to reply lol.

Sakura was a horrible character and an even more horrible person. Ino was absurd and near useless, Tenten was ignored to the point that she might as well not have been there. The one with potential was Hinata but it's clear her character isn't going to develop much either. However, this isn't a Naruto thread so I won't go into it. Maybe one day I will address this in another thread, though I am sure the Sakura and Ino fangirls will be seeing red.

@CyberCubed: I believe in another thread I said that Dawn wasn't used for fan service. Looking back, I see that I was wrong. I believe she even had at least two panty shots...and she's a ten year old (shudders).

At least Dawn was a character with goals that was used for fan service unlike Serena who seems to exist for them.

 

[OfCorsola]

I didn't mention this in my last post but I have noticed that there are a lot of inappropriate closeups of Serena's legs and skirt. Even one time during that rhyhorn competition in the first couple eps where they did a close up of her that I swear I was going to see something I didn't want to. They're really laying it thick with this one.

You have got to be kidding me. Do you have a problem with every girls outfits? They're all skimpy-It's Japan, deal with it.

 

[chalkus]

You have got to be kidding me. Do you have a problem with every girls outfits? They're all skimpy-It's Japan, deal with it.

There's nothing wrong with her clothing so I don't know why you mentioned it. I am talking about camera angles. Perhaps it's because I have seen a lot of anime that I notice stuff like this, but there is a clear difference in some of the camera angles used for Serena as opposed to May or Iris. This doesn't make Serena is a bad character, however, just something I noticed that I wish wouldn't.