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What are your thoughts on Serena?
- Thread starter mindado
- Start date
- Status
Pokegirl Fan~
Liko>>>>>Ash
Great character that's affected negatively by horrible writing and the lack of screentime.
Xenon Blue
No Hard Feelings
I think she is meh. She's not terrible, but she's not great. Her whole character is built on Amourshipping, and it's a problem that all she does is crush on Ash. Her development is lackluster, and showcases a.k.a sexist contests were terribly executed. Her not having a goal for the first 40 episodes followed by a rushed ending of her side of the story didn't help either. Feels like wasted potential to me, but I dunno a lot of people here are Serena fans...
How do I think of Serena? I don't particularly care for her as a character. I think her entire character has been too focused on this silly crush of hers. Showcases, honestly, are like really boring contests. She hasn't even had the chance to develop into a good character. The most that I've seen that I was quite impressed with was when her Eevee evolved into Sylveon, they did a great job executing that. I hope that they do either decide to develop her character a lot more within the next region or scrap her character entirely and have her an Iris no show. Okay, Iris was a bit worse than Serena. I'll give her that. I do feel that Iris still deserves an appearance, despite how much I dislike her. That's a whole different story though.
Serena should had been really given more opportunity to grow and develop a lot sooner.
Serena should had been really given more opportunity to grow and develop a lot sooner.
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Satoshi & Touko
Peanuts aren't just a nut.
She's currently my second favorite character thus far next to Dawn. She's so cute and sweet and awesome and the one Pokegirl who I wish existed in the real world <3
Alexander18
Dragon Pokemon fan
One of the two female companions that I wasn't comfortable with. If they ditch the crush thing and have her concentrate on the showcases then she would perfect.
Soniman
Break the Limit
I like her more then Iris.... And that's about it lol.
Not that that's a outright bad thing, I think she's written better then Iris in some areas, and she actually had solid, consistent development with nice a climax to her arc as opposed to just kind fizzling out. I love her Team and her relationships with Bonnie and Shauna
Buuut showcases are not very interesting, her rivalries are naff, I don't care about amourshipping (but people who are still saying that's all/most her character is about are kinda wrong tbh) , her first 40 episodes stunk and outside of focus episodes episodes her personality is kinda just there
So.. I like her, she's in my top 10 for favorite characters in the anime, she's just not without problems. I don't think all of her writing was bad, in fact a lot of it was quite good (which no one wants to admit but whatever)
Not that that's a outright bad thing, I think she's written better then Iris in some areas, and she actually had solid, consistent development with nice a climax to her arc as opposed to just kind fizzling out. I love her Team and her relationships with Bonnie and Shauna
Buuut showcases are not very interesting, her rivalries are naff, I don't care about amourshipping (but people who are still saying that's all/most her character is about are kinda wrong tbh) , her first 40 episodes stunk and outside of focus episodes episodes her personality is kinda just there
So.. I like her, she's in my top 10 for favorite characters in the anime, she's just not without problems. I don't think all of her writing was bad, in fact a lot of it was quite good (which no one wants to admit but whatever)
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Favorite female character. Only one close to her is May in my opinion. She's way more unique than the other characters and amourshipping is truly beautiful. The fact that she gets hate is pretty stupid, but hey to each their own opinion. With Misty gone, she is the female face of the franchise and her popularity will soon be unmatched.
Navin
MALDREAD
After Episode 1 and 2, I thought Serena would be sassy and welcomed the future banter with Ash. Especially after the heavy, early ship tease. Instead, Serena ended up getting relegated to the sidelines for much of year one, and was honestly fairly boring. She didn't have much presence outside of her focus episodes, and that's still an issue, though to a lesser extent, to this day.
Episode 60 was one of the best episodes in the series, and I thought her goal arc would pick up after that platform. However, Showcases became a more boring Contest - somehow the less exciting bit of Contests (Appeals) ended up being the more exciting bit of Showcases (Free Performances). That should tell you enough.
And this post from several months back (before the Master Class) still remains largely true:
She's basically depicted as top waifu material and love interest for Ash. Unfortunately, these writers seem to have forgotten how to write semi-decent romantic subplots from back in the day with Ash/Misty and May/Drew. They rushed to status quo by episode 7. Even after Millefui 'threatened' Serena in episode 26, she still hasn't made any moves. Everything from Ash's side can be just-as-easily interpreted as him being appreciative and kind, as a friend. At this point, if they decide to 'canonize' SatoSere, it's going to be forced no matter what. Oh yeah, you can make a drinking game out of the number of times she's been fixated on "Never Give Up Till the End."
Despite the flaws, Serena is still a likeable character and I wouldn't mind if she went along to Alola as long as she did something other than Waifu Wars. She definitely has some emotional depth to her character. The river scene during the camp arc and the snowball scene with Ash were some of the best genuine human interactions in XY. Her Pokémon are likeable, though a bit overpowered.
I'd say she ranks:
1. May
2. Misty = Dawn
3. Serena
4. Iris
Episode 60 was one of the best episodes in the series, and I thought her goal arc would pick up after that platform. However, Showcases became a more boring Contest - somehow the less exciting bit of Contests (Appeals) ended up being the more exciting bit of Showcases (Free Performances). That should tell you enough.
And this post from several months back (before the Master Class) still remains largely true:
She's basically depicted as top waifu material and love interest for Ash. Unfortunately, these writers seem to have forgotten how to write semi-decent romantic subplots from back in the day with Ash/Misty and May/Drew. They rushed to status quo by episode 7. Even after Millefui 'threatened' Serena in episode 26, she still hasn't made any moves. Everything from Ash's side can be just-as-easily interpreted as him being appreciative and kind, as a friend. At this point, if they decide to 'canonize' SatoSere, it's going to be forced no matter what. Oh yeah, you can make a drinking game out of the number of times she's been fixated on "Never Give Up Till the End."
Despite the flaws, Serena is still a likeable character and I wouldn't mind if she went along to Alola as long as she did something other than Waifu Wars. She definitely has some emotional depth to her character. The river scene during the camp arc and the snowball scene with Ash were some of the best genuine human interactions in XY. Her Pokémon are likeable, though a bit overpowered.
I'd say she ranks:
1. May
2. Misty = Dawn
3. Serena
4. Iris
XY Rules
Pokemon Master
I'm cool with her for the most part. But the fact that she took forever to find a goal or even catch a Pokemon was pretty annoying and is the main reason I had initially dropped the show. She's a bit too nice as well. Like, going off of what I've seen I don't think she's really fought with anyone, even when she should. They also do focus on the crush thing a little too much. Still way better than Misty and Iris though. I just don't want her to go to Alola because I like seeing new girls, haha.
Girl ranking wise, Dawn>May>>Serena>>>>>Misty=Iris.
Girl ranking wise, Dawn>May>>Serena>>>>>Misty=Iris.
Pikachu979
Sinnoh Champion
She is my least favorite of the 5 Main pokegirls but I still like her.
Platinum fan.
RetiredPokemonMaster
More or less this. I like Serena. If she had been in a AG or DP style environment I have no doubt her goal, screentime, character dynamic would have been something special. That's not the case. I have said it before and I'll keep saying it until XY is over, Serena deserved better. It's too bad her legacy will mostly be negative things, because there were some truly good things about Serena that get horribly overlooked because her bad frankly outweighs her good now. Serena I will always view as the character who never touched her full potential. A shame.
Navin
MALDREAD
What? Her "legacy" will be having had a blatant crush on Ash. I mean, unless you consider that as a negative, although that's what makes her popular to many people...
Platinum fan.
RetiredPokemonMaster
I was talking about her goal and how it took 40 plus episodes to get there, and never winning battles. Serena's notoriously infamous for those things. But if we're talking about the crush it was just more Ash glorification in season that was nothing but Ash glorification. Ultimately I'd even consider it negative since it's too big a focus on the character rather then Pokemon related achievements.
I actually didn't mind them, I like having a non-battle focused quest, and while some of the categories were a bit bland and stereotypical, the cartoony Pokemon antics made it at least partially entertaining (especially with the likes of Pancham and Jessie's squad).
The problem with Serena is that, while she is likeable, she doesn't seem like a girl whose had to work against the odds a single day in her life. While her personality improved, her competence level was static. She has remained forever a glass cannon and never won a battle that wasn't a TR curb stomp (even if her Pokemon got their DEM evolution so could at least grant her power), even odd moments she could prove her competence were always interrupted. As mentioned she was never bested fair and square in showcases, if her Pokemon didn't fall to a fluke mistake on stage she likely would have had a perfect run doing the same performance over and over.
She's a character that's nice and endearing and in more incidental moments can be very fun to watch, but undergoing a quest isn't all that gripping because she's always got an easy path. And that's keeping in mind plot armour is already a plague to many characters in the series as it is.
Satoshi & Touko
Peanuts aren't just a nut.
I certainly don't like Showcases more than contests. They're battle-less, so they don't feel to me as appropriate for a main girl's goal.
To get that on topic, at the same time Showcases are a perfect goal for someone like Cutesy-rena (not an insult to her)
Soniman
Break the Limit
I feel like the good/bad ratio is about 60/40 honestly but you're probably a bigger Serena fan then me so you probably know better. I think stuff like the haircut scene, snowball scene, #teamSerena, the stuff with Yaisho and Aria, Serena/Bonnie, her relationship with mom, and her capture/development episodes out weight the crap like 'the first 40', amourshipping, bad rivalries, showcases, and cases of plot armor by a decent margin
Platinum fan.
RetiredPokemonMaster
You forgot her lack of battling. This really hurt her. I say the bad outweighs the good because other then amourshipping which can go either way, when most talk about Serena it's mostly on the bad stuff. But like I said, Serena has a lot of good stuff that gets overshadowed by her bad stuff. When she leaves the cast time well tell if she's fondly remembered or not. Serena gets almost as much flak as Iris did.
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