Why doesnt Serena get a special episode?

[AznKei]

I sadly have to say, not so much. Serena really needed more than just shipping fanservice to push her as a character. She needed more interactions with other characters, more rivals, more friends, more family drama, conflicts with Ash and the other companions, some quirks, her own running gag, just something so that she could stood out a bit more from the crowd.

I said it before, but I'm saying it again, writing a special episode for such a passiv character is actually kinda hard. With out the shipping Serena is really one of the most forgettable characters of he whole anime series.

...Or maybe reduce the spotlights from Ash in favor to her, along with Clemont & Bonnie. I'm pretty sure strengthening her character & goal wouldn't be that hard. The question was more if the producers/writers were more willing to put more effort on her, which I would say no. They rather put more effort on Ash because he's the mascot of the show, is going to stay, along with Pikachu, for every series and it's easy to work on him since he's already established for a long time.

 

[Pokegirl Fan~]

I can understand, why people like Serena so much, as much as I can understand the people who dislike her.
I personally found her a very boring character, because she was a very, very passiv character. I would even say that she is one of the least memorable characters of this show. The only real thing that people will remember her, is of course, the shipping. The shipping is it, what mad her so popular in the first place. But besides that.... what else is there?

I sadly have to say, not so much. Serena really needed more than just shipping fanservice to push her as a character. She needed more interactions with other characters, more rivals, more friends, more family drama, conflicts with Ash and the other companions, some quirks, her own running gag, just something so that she could stood out a bit more from the crowd.

I said it before, but I'm saying it again, writing a special episode for such a passiv character is actually kinda hard. With out the shipping Serena is really one of the most forgettable characters of he whole anime series.

Honestly the part of her character that focused on anything other than her crush was the best part of her character and more memorable to me. The episodes that focused the least on her crush and more on her actual character were the better episodes of the series; episodes like XY53, 60, and 64 and when she won her first showcase competition. Any episodes that focuses on her crush were easily among the worst of the series imo, like that rocker Pikachu, date, dance, and the Rhyhorn racing episodes.

Anyways I'd rather see something like a special that focuses on her character without Ash's involvement in any way. If she does return to the main series though, I can easily see her having interesting and entertaining character interactions with the rest of the group. That's pretty much what happened with Dawn in BW.

 

[Slapstick-Olivia]

They rather put more effort on Ash because he's the mascot of the show, is going to stay, along with Pikachu, for every series and it's easy to work on him since he's already established for a long time.

Sure, but can you really blame the writers for this. After all, Ash is the main character of your show, and as a main character he kinda has to be in the spotlight. Spongebob Squarepants for example is also the main character of his show and their for he has to be the focus. But that doesn't mean, that side characters can't also have their spotlight. Serena actually had more focused of her own compare to Misty, believe it or not, but still Misty actually could offer more as a character. Not much, but still more than Serena.

That's pretty much what happened with Dawn in BW.

Sure, but Dawn was already a very layered character. Seeing her interacting so good with Iris was actually not that surprising, at least for me. Seeing Serena on the other hand interacting on the same level like Iris and Dawn is kinda hard for me to believe, because Serena was written as a very shy and restrained character.

I actually can't see her interacting with some one like May, Dawn, Brock, Lillie and especially not with someone who is a huge contrast to her like with Misty and Iris. If they wold do that, than Serena will fill like a completely new character for some people. And if this is the case, do we really need to have a Serena Special? I mean, we can try... but... I'm not 100% if this could work.

 

[Satomine Night]

I can understand, why people like Serena so much, as much as I can understand the people who dislike her.
I personally found her a very boring character, because she was a very, very passiv character. I would even say that she is one of the least memorable characters of this show. The only real thing that people will remember her, is of course, the shipping. The shipping is it, what mad her so popular in the first place. But besides that.... what else is there?

I sadly have to say, not so much. Serena really needed more than just shipping fanservice to push her as a character. She needed more interactions with other characters, more rivals, more friends, more family drama, conflicts with Ash and the other companions, some quirks, her own running gag, just something so that she could stood out a bit more from the crowd.

I said it before, but I'm saying it again, writing a special episode for such a passiv character is actually kinda hard. With out the shipping Serena is really one of the most forgettable characters of he whole anime series.

The shipping might have helped Serena's popularity, but there is a lot more to her than that. Serena was the first leading female character who started out on her journey truly having no idea what she wanted to do. (May might not have started out knowing she wanted to be a Coordinator, but she still had a goal—to travel and see the world.) Serena left home to escape. Part of her character growth was discovering what she wanted to do. IMHO, that not only made her memorable, but also made her relatable, as there are a lot of people out there who go on a journey (literally or metaphorically) to discover their passions.

You can't really ding Serena for her lack of conflict with the other characters when there was so little conflict among the main cast. If you are going to ding her for the lack of conflict, then you are going to have to ding Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie, too.

 

[AshxSatoshi]

The shipping might have helped Serena's popularity, but there is a lot more to her than that. Serena was the first leading female character who started out on her journey truly having no idea what she wanted to do. (May might not have started out knowing she wanted to be a Coordinator, but she still had a goal—to travel and see the world.) Serena left home to escape. Part of her character growth was discovering what she wanted to do. IMHO, that not only made her memorable, but also made her relatable, as there are a lot of people out there who go on a journey (literally or metaphorically) to discover their passions.

You can't really ding Serena for her lack of conflict with the other characters when there was so little conflict among the main cast. If you are going to ding her for the lack of conflict, then you are going to have to ding Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie, too.

In my opinion if you’re going to consider May wanting to travel and see the world as a goal, you might as well consider Serena journeying to give Ash his rag back and getting out the house as goals as well. It’s not like Serena just left just to discover herself, she left with the intent of meeting Ash.

 

[Satomine Night]

In my opinion if you’re going to consider May wanting to travel and see the world as a goal, you might as well consider Serena journeying to give Ash his rag back and getting out the house as goals as well. It’s not like Serena just left just to discover herself, she left with the intent of meeting Ash.

Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word "goal" when talking about May. May left home knowing what she wanted to do. Aside from meeting Ash, Serena had no idea what she wanted to do, even though she went through the trouble of visiting Professor Sycamore and choosing her starter Pokémon. My point was that Serena ventured on a journey to find her goal, and that made her memorable and relatable.

 

[AshxSatoshi]

Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word "goal" when talking about May. May left home knowing what she wanted to do. Aside from meeting Ash, Serena had no idea what she wanted to do, even though she went through the trouble of visiting Professor Sycamore and choosing her starter Pokémon. My point was that Serena ventured on a journey to find her goal, and that made her memorable and relatable.

Okay understood.

 

[Leonhart]

...Or maybe reduce the spotlights from Ash in favor to her, along with Clemont & Bonnie. I'm pretty sure strengthening her character & goal wouldn't be that hard. The question was more if the producers/writers were more willing to put more effort on her, which I would say no. They rather put more effort on Ash because he's the mascot of the show, is going to stay, along with Pikachu, for every series and it's easy to work on him since he's already established for a long time.

She definitely could've received more proper development if Satoshi's screen-time during XY hadn't been so excessive, which is what worries me about her plausibly appearing in SM; she might suffer the same fate given how much attention Satoshi still gets.

 

[AznKei]

Sure, but can you really blame the writers for this. After all, Ash is the main character of your show, and as a main character he kinda has to be in the spotlight. Spongebob Squarepants for example is also the main character of his show and their for he has to be the focus. But that doesn't mean, that side characters can't also have their spotlight. Serena actually had more focused of her own compare to Misty, believe it or not, but still Misty actually could offer more as a character. Not much, but still more than Serena.

Yes! I can blame the producers/writers for this. Pokemon is right now the most profitable franchise in the world, so the way they market it changed compared when it came out. Seeing Ash in the recent movies, without the SM companions, despite being in the alternate universe, are pretty telling to me which character they wanted to priotize the most. And unlike other main characters from other franchises, I'm not interested to get invested to a character where he's certain he's going to lose in every series. I might be more forgiving about him on OS, because he was a noob trying to improve himself, unlike how he was depicted in XY(Z).

I'm sorry to have such sentiment, but ever since XY(Z) ended, it was clear to me that they were going to reinforce the "status quo" further than before and carrying it over to SM as well, just like people were complaining why the classmates weren't doing much. So I made a fan project, to show that we can make her goal interesting without Ash influence. It didn't matter to me whether it was canon or not, I was pretty much done to the producers/writers BS excuses whenever there's issues on how they wrote her. To make clear to the thread question, yes I would like to see her getting a special episode as long it's focused on her professional goals more than Ash. But if they can't do it, that's too bad I guess. I was already happy & proud of my fan project, so I'm not really bothered what they were going to do to her and moved on.

 

[Jeal]

Can we stop talking about as if the Serena's little screentime was because the focus in Ash? The writers had a lot of episodes to focus in both. 140 episodes. Several fillers could have been episodes focused on the development of Serena. They just did not want to focus on her for some reason, that's all.

XY047- first capture
XY060 - first showcase. Loss
XY-63 - second capture
XY071 - second showcase. Win
XY072 - third capture
XY084 - third showcase. Loss
XY096 - fourth showcase. Loss
XY0108 - fifth showcase. Win
XY115- sixth showcase. Win
XY120-122 - Master Class

 

[Slapstick-Olivia]

Wait... she only got twelve focused episodes for her own? I always thought there where more. At least 20. Well, at least she had some episodes and doesn't ended up like Mallow. Oh, poor, sweet little Mallow.... the writers really have no idea what to do with you...

 

[Jeal]

Wait... she only got twelve focused for her own? I always thought it was more. At least 20. Well, at least she had some episodes and doesn't ended up like Mallow. Oh, poor, sweet little Mallow.... the writers really have no idea what to do with you...

No, my post shows how they could have focused more on her. Making her lose more showcases and giving her more pokémon. I think Serena's treatment is worse because she is the female player character.

 

[Epicocity]

Wait... she only got twelve focused for her own? I always thought it was more. At least 20. Well, at least she had some episodes and doesn't ended up like Mallow. Oh, poor, sweet little Mallow.... the writers really have no idea what to do with you...

Outside of the fact that the first 2-3 episodes were pretty evenly split between Serena and Ash's group (and the same can apply to the Flare arc), Serena received no less than 21 focus episodes. That's 1/7 of the series.

 

[AshxSatoshi]

No, my post shows how they could have focused more on her. Making her lose more showcases and giving her more pokémon. I think Serena's treatment is worse because she is the female player character.

Not to say she was only introduced for the crush but I truly believe Showcases were a side thought and wasn’t the writers original plan. And you can tell by how rushed it all was.

 

[Jangobadass]

She definitely could've received more proper development if Satoshi's screen-time during XY hadn't been so excessive, which is what worries me about her plausibly appearing in SM; she might suffer the same fate given how much attention Satoshi still gets.

And heck, we still have the same problem with the current companions. It even feels a little worse this time...<_<

 

[Jeal]

Not to say she was only introduced for the crush but I truly believe Showcases were a side thought and wasn’t the writers original plan. And you can tell by how rushed it all was.

I think they did not know what to do with her, because of the lack of something like the contests in XY. Even so, the way they treated her after she became a performer shows they did not want to focus on her like May and Dawn. The least they should have done was to have given her one more Pokemon and more episodes on showcases.

 

[DatsRight]

To tell you the truth, Ash wasn't really that developed as a character in XY, most of his focus episodes focused more on his Pokemon or his actual progression. His TEAM were the most dynamic but not Ash himself. In that sense it's hard to really say Ash stole the show outside the action/battle area, and even there usually at least TWO of the twerps were battling (and what importance do you really steal taking over for some TR filler battle anyway?).

SM Ash has more personality focus, but even then, a lot of episodes aren't actually focused around him specifically, just his team, again, is more dynamic. Ash consistently makes better use of the screen time, however small, to develop his Pokemon.

In both XY and SM there was plenty of non-Ash screen time to focus and develop the other characters that usually just ended up filler.

 

[Jeal]

One of the biggest problems of this anime is that the writers don't know use the amount of episodes of a saga. So many fillers that could be plot episodes. How wonderful would be a league of 10-12 episodes? Gym battles/contests/showcases of 2 episodes? Arcs like tournaments of 4 episodes? Villain team arcs finales of 7-9 episodes?

 

[horrahforyou]

What if Serena learns Mega Evolution plus one or two Pokemon who is capable of Mega Evolving?
This would be a plus for her

 

[AznKei]

What if Serena learns Mega Evolution plus one or two Pokemon who is capable of Mega Evolving?
This would be a plus for her

I would have prefered the Z-moves more, as they give them more flexibilities for flashy moves shown in the Pokemon Showcases/Contests, without being forced to have specific mega evolved enable Pokemons.