Oct 13th: XY&Z045 - One Last Battle with Ash! Serena's Choice!!

[DatsRight]

The fandom already are like win, win, win.

Just look at Kalos league.

In fairness that's the one thing Ash always proved he was capable of losing in.

 

[satopi]

The whole fact that the other opponents found themselves ineffective against Serena even when the odds should have been in their favour only added to the idea they were all her underdog. I don't really get what they insisted on this approach, maybe for a few odd episodes and characters, sure, but to make Serena the undefeatable all the time took out the ability to root for her progression throughout the tournament.

I find it incredibly baffling on how a rookie, first timer only lost due to tripping but kept winning without fail despite the others most likely performing/training much longer than her and with unique Performances (like Jessie's) but she won even though she kept doing the same thing with nearly the same costume on. Is it because she's prettier than all of them or does the audience just prefer that one Performance and costume?? Serena must feel like this is the only way she'll win... like her battling ironically.

 

[Nerdy McNerdface]

In fairness that's the one thing Ash always proved he was capable of losing in.

Yeah XD

The writers can be a bit weird sometimes.

 

[DatsRight]

I find it incredibly baffling on how a rookie, first timer only lost due to tripping but kept winning without fail despite the others most likely performing/training much longer than her and with unique Performances (like Jessie's) but she won even though she kept doing the same thing with nearly the same costume on. Is it because she's prettier than all of them or does the audience just prefer that one Performance and costume?? Serena must feel like this is the only way she'll win... like her battling ironically.

I kinda feel like this would have good meaning if she stayed another series with a similar arc, like a big high before reality hits I suppose. Audience approval can be fickle, and if she went to Alola her reception could be different. Hell, even in Kalos another hopeful newcomer could steal her thunder or she could even end up suffering 'John Cena Syndrome' and start getting booed from fatigue (especially from her winning streak and repetition). It would also have clear reasoning why they took such a steady pace giving her this quest to begin with, making her development slow but intricate to last more than one series, as well as why they half assed her battling which could also be the focus of improvement (and they are just sugarcoating it for now so she doesn't come off too unaccomplished to those who won't stay into Sun/Moon).

From the looks of things however, I doubt Serena is actually continuing her story onscreen in Alola, and this was legitimately meant to be a complete proper character arc.

 

[janejane6178]

The problem with Serena's performances is that they were too repetitive. I liked Jessie's more

 

[DatsRight]

Having Jessie was bound to steal appeal from Serena, because, much like when she is with Team Rocket, she was far more vibrant and underdog-ish and due to previous endeavours, had more experience to justify her winning more than Serena. The ways she slowly climbed the ladder and became a good performer were clever and played on the team's past abilities (eg. Meowth's culinary Fury Swipes). She felt a more developed and human competitor than Serena, especially in how she bowed out during the Master Class. And let's face it, everyone cheers when Team Rocket get to be competent at something.

They had a decent idea of having Jessie win one and having her absent in the episode after so the sympathetic focus could be all on Serena, but not only did they make Serena's loss spurious, but they just added another frustrated undeserved underdog in Jessie's position with Amelia.

 

[Janovy]

The problem with Serena's performances is that they were too repetitive. I liked Jessie's more

This is true lol.

Serena's performances were largely Flamethrower + Dark Pulse = sparkles -> dance in the sparkles.

 

[345ash-greninja]

Not having iris (the best girl) come back at all was more heartbreaking.

She was the worst female companion if you compare to the other ones. No disrespect to her, but the other female companions were much better than her.

 

[satopi]

She was the worst female companion if you compare to the other ones. No disrespect to her, but the other female companions were much better than her.

Your comment is the epitome of disrespect to her character. No disrespect to you but your opinion is nonsense if you compare to the other posters whose reasoning are much better than yours.

 

[mystic9899]

everything is opinionated. your "worst character" is someone else's best character, and vice versa.

 

[DatsRight]

Iris' arc at least deconstructed the whole 'powerful conveniently acquired Pokemon' + 'dumb luck' = 'competent trainer' scenario. She was made to earn the power of her Pokemon and stature as a trainer. As stated in one situation, she didn't win a battle if her own skill wasn't put into the victory, her Pokemon did. Being tossed off her undeserved high horse like that allowed her to be way more sympathetic.

 

[satopi]

Iris' arc at least deconstructed the whole 'powerful conveniently acquired Pokemon' + 'dumb luck' = 'competent trainer' scenario. She was made to earn the power of her Pokemon and stature as a trainer. As stated in one situation, she didn't win a battle if her own skill wasn't put into the victory, her Pokemon did. Being tossed off her undeserved high horse like that allowed her to be way more sympathetic.

Why am I thinking of Dragonite when I read this comment lol.

 

[Daniel31]

The problem with Serena's performances is that they were too repetitive. I liked Jessie's more

I'm sure if we saw Shauna's or Jessie's performances the same amount of times we seen Serena's, they all would've looked repetitive, think about it. You see 1 person give a performance over and over with subtle changes in the delivery, they all are going to look repetitive. When you see someone else with different moves/Pokemon only once or twice it's going to feel like a refreshing change, but if they had the same amount of screen time, they're eventually all going to look repetitive.

 

[satopi]

I'm sure if we saw Shauna's or Jessie's performances the same amount of times we seen Serena's, they all would've looked repetitive, think about it. You see 1 person give a performance over and over with subtle changes in the delivery, they all are going to look repetitive. When you see someone else with different moves/Pokemon only once or twice it's going to feel like a refreshing change, but if they had the same amount of screen time, they're eventually all going to look repetitive.

I wouldn't quite say that. Serena and other competitors could've switched out their Pokémon and showcased their different moves. But to Serena's credit, she only had 3 Pokémon. Had she caught more than her Performances would've been more dazzling!!

 

[DatsRight]

I think the problem was that Serena's general choreography involved her Pokemon doing the same moves over and over with little alteration or interaction. Only her Master Class performances really switched things up a bit.

Jessie was shown performing almost as often as Serena, but the difference was she tried having different combinations and them utilising their abilities to different gimmicks (eg. Wobbuffet Mirror Coating Meowth like a circus trampoline, or Gourgeist using herself like a dramatic stage light). It maybe helped that, being Team Rocket, they were much quirkier than the other teams.

It actually seemed rather odd how vanilla Serena ended up, considering how fashion mad and eccentric she could be in some early episodes (eg. the Fennekin suit scene).

 

[Frozocrone]

Well there's only so much you can do with Flamethrower/Fire Blast, Dark Pulse, Stone Edge (and later Fairy Wind/Swift).

I don't recall Braixen using Hidden Power in performances despite using it in the triple battle.

I liked what we did see of Aria's performance though, where she was flying with Villion. Something like that could have given Serena more variety in her performances without requiring her to change movesets/catch more Pokemon (although catching more Pokemon would have been better IMO, rotation is always nice to see). I think we only just started to see what she could do without moves come the Master Class.

 

[DatsRight]

Meowth only had Fury Swipes and still played that stage for all it was worth.

 

[Frozocrone]

Does it seriously not use any other moves?! Well I got nothing then.

 

[DatsRight]

The thing is Meowth can perform as much as just spam attacks.

It was actually inevitable he'd end up in the zone in the showcases, which borderline as battle-less contests.

 

[Satomine Night]

I wouldn't quite say that. Serena and other competitors could've switched out their Pokémon and showcased their different moves. But to Serena's credit, she only had 3 Pokémon. Had she caught more than her Performances would've been more dazzling!!

Or if her Pokémon had all evolved. I really wanted to see sunglasses-clad Pangoro performing alongside Braixen (or Delphox) and Sylveon. Not only would that have spiced up her performances a bit, but it could have potentially been absolutely hilarious (for us, the audience) to watch.