Serena never finishing a battle

[k6666]

let's be honest , character goal with lack of pokemon battle is boring , because the main selling for pokemon is pokemon battle itself , look how Serena , Alolan Girls and Goh goals go , it really hurt their character imo , i wish the don tournament is main series thing not just A BW thing , BW is disaster but Don Tournamnet really help some character and make them interesting at least for me

 

[Epicocity]

I don't mind Pancham not evolving, final forms aren't everything in this anime.
I wish Serena caught at least one more Pokemon though. Her team was too small imo.

I would argue the size was what helped it feel tight-knit like family rather than just a bunch of Pokemon she swapped out whenever she wanted.

 

[Sham]

Did Sylveon have memorable interactions with the other two, let alone Braxien?

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Did Sylveon have memorable interactions with the other two, let alone Bracken?

Nevah.

 

[Epicocity]

Did Sylveon have memorable interactions with the other two, let alone Braxien?

Before Showcases or the night before? Yes. If you're asking specifically for one-on-one? No, but neither do most Pokemon in all the series cause that's a logistical nightmare. But there are a great many moments of team bonding throughout the series that you don't even need to dig for. I don't need specific people interacting all the time to know they're close.

 

[horrahforyou]

I wish she had caught a Meowstic (Female), it would be fit for her showcases and Mudkip during the promotion of ORAS as her additional team member.

 

[Applecorp]

You guys...do all realize that Pancham can only evolve if the trainer has a Dark type in their party, right?

Duh. That's why people a few pages back were suggesting that she could've gotten another Dark type mon in Kalos for the purpose of evolving Pancham.

 

[Epicocity]

Duh. That's why people a few pages back were suggesting that she could've gotten another Dark type mon in Kalos for the purpose of evolving Pancham.

What Dark type would she catch, though? Let's remember that Luxray was and remains the odd man out of XY marketing, and other than that, the only Dark type Pokemon introduced in Gen 6 were Inkay and Yveltal, the latter of which was out of the question and the former of which was owned by James.

It just screams to me as people criticizing a character for not doing things they think she should have done rather than what the plan ever was for her. It's bad faith criticism, in other words (specifically about Pangoro, I mean).

 

[DatsRight]

I think Pancham was fine unevolved, the bigger problem was that they typecast his unevolved role into just being the repetitive running gag character with Chespin.

 

[Leonhart]

I did bring up the possibility that Serena could've captured an Absol, both as a means of evolving Yancham and for the sake of having a Pokemon that could Mega Evolve. But there were a few other Dark-types that I thought could've suited her Kalos team, like Blacky in place of Nymphia for example or Pochiena as an OR/AS tie-in. I'm actually still a bit shocked that the writers didn't give her a Houen Starter for the sake of promoting the Houen remakes.

let's be honest , character goal with lack of pokemon battle is boring , because the main selling for pokemon is pokemon battle itself

I would argue that collecting is arguably the biggest selling point of the franchise given that filling the Zukan is something that most players of the games strive for, while battling is more of a game mechanic by default. In the case of Serena, I don't think that her having a goal that didn't involve battling was a bad thing, it's just that she was hardly given a chance to have proper battles aside from against the Rocket-dan.

 

[DatsRight]

I think it's also that the showcases weren't really considered fleshed out enough to compensate, they just weren't as interesting as battles or contests and they didn't really force out a gripping agency for Serena, they were mostly just a pivot for internal development.

I feel like Serena would have in fact worked better in a slice of life series like the more recent ones, where she would be allowed more quiet introspective plots. XY had the problem of still sticking to a formula despite having some of the basic ideas of those series, so Serena's character couldn't really sit still and shine, always needing to be in at least some superficial form of action. She still had to battle or take part in competitions, even if they were half baked boring ones her character couldn't salvage.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I think it's also that the showcases weren't really considered fleshed out enough to compensate, they just weren't as interesting as battles or contests and they didn't really force out a gripping agency for Serena, they were mostly just a pivot for internal development.

I feel like Serena would have in fact worked better in a slice of life series like the more recent ones, where she would be allowed more quiet introspective plots. XY had the problem of still sticking to a formula despite having some of the basic ideas of those series, so Serena's character couldn't really sit still and shine, always needing to be in at least some superficial form of action. She still had to battle or take part in competitions, even if they were half baked boring ones her character couldn't salvage.

Serena probably would have worked best in SM imo. I feel like she would thrive in a sol series especially since she would have more interactions since the size of the cast was huge. I feel like she would have worked better than Mallow did anyways

 

[AznKei]

let's be honest , character goal with lack of pokemon battle is boring , because the main selling for pokemon is pokemon battle itself , look how Serena , Alolan Girls and Goh goals go , it really hurt their character imo , i wish the don tournament is main series thing not just A BW thing , BW is disaster but Don Tournamnet really help some character and make them interesting at least for me

But the producers don't want them to get more battling spotlights because this is Ash's speciality and they might hurt his. Sure, BW did it but that series was like a decade ago, lots of things happened since then so it's not easy to go back like what it was before.

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

You could tell they couldn't care much about Trip when freaking Bianca beat him much earlier than Ash did.

Point for the hyper chick for beating the assumed regional rival. No other girl has that honor.

 

[Leonhart]

I feel like Serena would have in fact worked better in a slice of life series like the more recent ones, where she would be allowed more quiet introspective plots. XY had the problem of still sticking to a formula despite having some of the basic ideas of those series, so Serena's character couldn't really sit still and shine, always needing to be in at least some superficial form of action. She still had to battle or take part in competitions, even if they were half baked boring ones her character couldn't salvage.

I don't think I would've wanted Serena to be in the SM saga instead of the XY saga, however. Since one of the biggest complaints about her is that she took too long to find a hobby, I feel that a laid back saga like SM would've only made things worse for her and her Pokemon since she probably wouldn't have found her own calling in SM whatsoever.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

at least try evolving her freaking Pancham

Please, no.

Pancham was so much better as he was.

I just wished we had gotten more wholesome scenes of him riding on Serena's shoulder.

Dear writers, when you give the cutie a cute panda, you have one job. ONE!

 

[AuraChannelerChris]

Please, no.

Pancham was so much better as he was.

I just wished we had gotten more wholesome scenes of him riding on Serena's shoulder.

Dear writers, when you give the cutie a cute panda, you have one job. ONE!

But.

Dude.

Giant, acrobatic, glasses-wearing panda.

It's so silly it can work.

 

[EmeraldArcanine]

...Besides, don't you all dare to tell me you don't want to see a freaking giant panda doing crazy maneuvers during showcases.

Showcases are biased towards the cutesy (As we've seen with how doing anything different screwed Jessie over for going by Coorinator rules of bringing out her ghost 'mons best aspect than following Showcase bias the first time). So while it WOULD be amusing to see a giant mean looking panda doing tricks on stage, it wouldn't give Serena any extra points or anything to have one in the first place because of how those Showcases work. u.u

It's unfortunate, because I would've loved to see such a girly trainer like Serena with a mean fighter looking 'mon for the sake of just juxtaposition really. It's what made Bonnie and Zygarde fun to watch in its later stages tbh, because that's a literal child with a 'mon that can straight up destroy you at her command and at the end of the day it was still like a beloved pet to her.... look I like juxtaposition when it works okay shh.

 

[Spider-Phoenix]

But.

Dude.

Giant, acrobatic, glasses-wearing panda.

It's so silly it can work.

No. Just no. Let Pancham remain being the stand in Serena hugs thinking it's Ash. He's probably happier this way

 

[Leonhart]

Showcases are biased towards the cutesy (As we've seen with how doing anything different screwed Jessie over for going by Coorinator rules of bringing out her ghost 'mons best aspect than following Showcase bias the first time). So while it WOULD be amusing to see a giant mean looking panda doing tricks on stage, it wouldn't give Serena any extra points or anything to have one in the first place because of how those Showcases work. u.u

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.