Serena never finishing a battle

[DatsRight]

My biggest concern is that if Pancham evolved it would have lost all its personality and limelight like Sylveon did the instant it evolved.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

My biggest concern is that if Pancham evolved it would have lost all its personality and limelight like Sylveon did the instant it evolved.

That's because the writers very rarely give an endearing personality to a fully evolved Pokemon other than "badass quiet joykiller."

 

[Leonhart]

My biggest concern is that if Pancham evolved it would have lost all its personality and limelight like Sylveon did the instant it evolved.

It's possible, although if I'm being honest with myself, I never liked Yancham's personality much. His constant fights with Harimaron weren't amusing to me, so I would've wanted an end to that one way or another.

 

[DatsRight]

It's possible, although if I'm being honest with myself, I never liked Yancham's personality much. His constant fights with Harimaron weren't amusing to me, so I would've wanted an end to that one way or another.

Or even worse they would have kept going, but now completely one sided due to power difference, risking making Pangoro look like the "bully" of the rivalry.

 

[SerenaRulez]

My biggest concern is that if Pancham evolved it would have lost all its personality and limelight like Sylveon did the instant it evolved.

You mean Sylveon losing interest in dancing?

By the way I always wanted Serena to have a different Eeveelution because I didn't like Sylveon that much and I think she should have evolved Eevee into Umbreon and caught a Spritzee or Flabebe.

 

[Epicocity]

Sylveon's defining personality traits were her shyness and her niceness and her love of dancing. She lost precisely one of these as she went through character development, you know, which is the act of her getting over her shyness, and even after evolution there were still numerous moments where she was concerned about her stage fright acting up again. She hardly lost her personality. If anyone in XY truly lost personality it was Talonflame and Luxray, and even they had moments during the performance in Lumiose.

 

[EmeraldArcanine]

I don't deny that Goronda probably wouldn't have been very suitable for TryPokaron competitions, but the writers could've simply evolved Yancham towards the end of XY&Z after Master Class had ended since by then Serena having a Goronda wouldn't have affected her goal.

True true, especially given Serena's gone off to Hoenn which would mean she would be touching on Contests instead of Showcases more likely. NGL I'd love to see her style expand given Contests are a lot more "open" in that regard, which means her having Pancham go Pangoro wouldn't be too much of a hinderance there. (Imagine if the next time we see her she has a giant panda with her instead of a Pancham, still with his sunglasses and everything lol)

 

[Leonhart]

By the way I always wanted Serena to have a different Eeveelution because I didn't like Sylveon that much and I think she should have evolved Eevee into Umbreon and caught a Spritzee or Flabebe.

My favorite Eievui evolution is Showers, so I would've wanted her Eievui to become that instead of Nymphia, although it was rather obvious the moment that she captured Eievui that it would evolve into Nymphia since it was extremely popular back then [and even to this day according to the recent poll]. I do think that she should've captured at least one more Pokemon however, and Shushupu/Frefuwan would've been a natural counterpart to Millefeui's Peroream.

 

[Blastmaster]

"Nice" is the single most generic trait you can give a good guy, especially a female cutemon. And love of dancing is not a personality trait at all. Otherwise Tierno from the games wouldn't be half as infamous as he is.

Like, you can have Pokemon mature and not have them ditch their main trait entirely. Bayleef matured, but still had an obvious crush on Ash and an occasional jealous streak. Gliscor matured, but still had goofy habits and a need for Ash's approval. It's true for even Pokemon that change their character with evolution. Charizard and Infernape became fierce and feisty compared to their sweeter, more childish pre-evos. The former stayed hotheaded even after obeying Ash again, while the latter had lasting emotional issues about Paul up till the very end. If anything, I think it shows more depth if a character retains hints of their previous flaws even after an arc.

 

[DatsRight]

I think it's also the fact that Sylveon stopped appearing much outside necessary scenes and rarely interacted with anyone besides her trainer, something that brought down a lot of other evolved Pokemon. SM for example avoided this issue because the evolved Pokemon were frequently out of their ball as often as the unevolved ones and kept their old chemistries, and sometimes even gained new ones (eg. Lycanroc becoming Torracat's friendly rival).

Sylveon's personality defining interactions with her team mates, as well as other key Pokemon such as Bunnelby and Chespin were almost never shown again after she evolved, and I think that is what led her to feel more like a plot device than a character. Even Braixen was at least still shown bickering with Pancham like a bratty sibling odd times.

 

[Leonhart]

I think it's also the fact that Sylveon stopped appearing much outside necessary scenes and rarely interacted with anyone besides her trainer, something that brought down a lot of other evolved Pokemon.

It's actually rather strange now that you point that out, because you'd think that Nymphia being so popular would've been reason enough for the writers to showcase her more often during interaction scenes with the other Pokemon.

 

[Power Up]

Phew, avoiding this thread for as long as I did was a smart idea since like all threads that revolve around topics like Serena, they veer off-topic almost immediately and devolve into the standard affair

 

[Applecorp]

I think it's also the fact that Sylveon stopped appearing much outside necessary scenes and rarely interacted with anyone besides her trainer, something that brought down a lot of other evolved Pokemon. SM for example avoided this issue because the evolved Pokemon were frequently out of their ball as often as the unevolved ones and kept their old chemistries, and sometimes even gained new ones (eg. Lycanroc becoming Torracat's friendly rival).

Sylveon's personality defining interactions with her team mates, as well as other key Pokemon such as Bunnelby and Chespin were almost never shown again after she evolved, and I think that is what led her to feel more like a plot device than a character. Even Braixen was at least still shown bickering with Pancham like a bratty sibling odd times.

I think personality is over rated when it comes to the Pokemon belonging to characters that aren't Ash. What the writers should've done with Sylveon is had her battle more instead of having her sit there with that creepy blank expression on her face.

 

[Leonhart]

I think personality is over rated when it comes to the Pokemon belonging to characters that aren't Ash. What the writers should've done with Sylveon is had her battle more instead of having her sit there with that creepy blank expression on her face.

This is as case of them being able to do both if they had tried hard enough. Nymphia could've become Serena's main battler instead of Tairenar, but the writers seemed content with just having her stand in the background as some sort of marketing prop.

 

[SerGoldenhandtheJust]

In short, Serena was a mess

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

In short, Serena was a mess

She didn't even have anything noteworthy in the TF arc. Even freakin' Clemont had something in it with Clembot.

 

[SerenaRulez]

I think personality is over rated when it comes to the Pokemon belonging to characters that aren't Ash. What the writers should've done with Sylveon is had her battle more instead of having her sit there with that creepy blank expression on her face.

They also should have given Sylveon more attacks that did damage because she only knew Fairy Wind and Swift as damaging moves.

She didn't need Protect so that attack should have been replaced by Moonblast or anything else that deals damage.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

She didn't even have anything noteworthy in the TF arc. Even freakin' Clemont had something in it with Clembot.

I would have liked for her to contribute more. Oh well, too late now I guess.

 

[Leonhart]

They also should have given Sylveon more attacks that did damage because she only knew Fairy Wind and Swift as damaging moves.

She didn't need Protect so that attack should have been replaced by Moonblast or anything else that deals damage.

Protect seemed a bit pointless to me since Nymphia wasn't involved in that many battles, so her having a defensive move seemed needless. I would've replaced Fairy Wind with Moonblast, and given her Shadow Ball in place of Protect since Shadow Ball's a very simple move that could've been useful in TryPokaron.

 

[DatsRight]

Protect seemed a bit pointless to me since Nymphia wasn't involved in that many battles, so her having a defensive move seemed needless. I would've replaced Fairy Wind with Moonblast, and given her Shadow Ball in place of Protect since Shadow Ball's a very simple move that could've been useful in TryPokaron.

Serena was seldom in a battle she took a hit, whenever it looked like she would that was usually the sign it was gonna end prematurely. It's also why Braixen having a fluent defensive battle style in her last battle felt weird.

Again I don't think the lack of battling is a problem, but more that Serena didn't get a great agency besides these 'phony battles'. They could have used her character to try some more diverse plots to ease into SM's format, quieter more character driven episodes that didn't try to force in a half-battle or Team Rocket faceoff that took away focus. I would have been fine with some episodes that didn't have any sort of competitive interruption and just let her work as a character standalone.

Even just making Serena a more advanced 'utility mon' trainer could have worked out, especially since, unlike the SM students, she wasn't limited to one typing.