burn book | character rants

Serena (iii)

Let's be honest here, while I do acknowledge that Serena had a decent character development, Pokemon Performances can't be compared to Pokemon contests because Pokemon contests are not just about performance but also Pokemon battles which made it much harder for Dawn and May throughout DP and AG. They trained with their Pokemon very often to make them better in both performance and battle which Serena did not go through at all.

That's why I really find it unfair when people say that both Performances and Contests are not much different which is not true. Dawn's rivals may not be well written, I agree, but they were still decent compared to Serena's rivals who were a joke for sure.

In my opinion, May had the hardest and best rivals. Drew was amazing and Harley was also not bad, and he was kinda funny to watch.

And choosing the winner of the performances is so biased. I mean Ash, Clemont and Bonnie will vote for Serena only; Tierno and Trev will vote for Shauna and James will only vote for Jessie. People vote based on who they are friends with, and not who they thought did best. See what I mean by biased?

Also in the episode 'Master Class Choices' Amelia had her whole home town voting for her. But in Pokemon Contests, it's literally unpredictable which Pokemon they have to battle with in the second round. They have to come up with strategies on the battlefields itself whereas in performances it's planned and they just have to do the same thing.

In Pokemon XY, Serena is already a perfect performer without having any former experience. She only lost her 1st and 3rd showcase (the only ones she lost) because her Pokemon TRIPPED and FELL. How is it that no other Pokemon performer can beat her except the Kalos Queen? Like pls, Serena is not that perfect. She is just a Mary Sue. That is not good writing.

May and Dawn on the other hand had to enter at least 10 contests just to win their 5 ribbons and enter the grand festival. Serena had the worst development from a shy barbie doll to a perfect Mary Sue, and cannot be compared to Pokegirls with amazing development such as May and Dawn.

Looking about all the pokegirls and analyzing their relationship with Ash, Serena is the worst out of all of them. Iris is unlikable on the anime, but I'd even pick her over Serena. She kinda makes me remember Hinata from Naruto.

She doesn't even have any reason why she must join Ash. Everything about that girl's mind is Ash and nothing else. Their romance is so one-sided; Ash doesn't even show any inkling to him giving two shits about Serena or her feelings. He just wants to become a Pokemon Master GODDAMMIT.

Everytime her fan base tries to defend her, I hate her even more. Before XY, there were no fights between Pearlshipping and Pokeshipping or Pokeshipping and Advanceshipping. But after Serena and Amourshipping came, there were so many toxic fights that I just left the fandom.

All in all, Serena is the worst pokegirl. Her relationship with Ash is one-sided and he isn't even interested in her. Her poketeam sucks, like she only has two Pokemon throughout the entire series. She is so obsessed with Ash just because he helped her once. She changed her whole look just to impress him and she gets jealous super easily.

My problem with her is that, like I mentioned before, that her entire character arc is based around her crush on Ash. Her entire personality is that. That, and she is the cliche girly feminine girl. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with being girly, but why is she the only Pokemon Performer? Because it's for girly girls?

Plus it's a little creepy to obsess over a boy you met five years ago and give him back his napkin (ew).

And I'm sorry for bringing this up again, but the cut of hair troupe wasn't written well. An example of the way that trope was written well is in 'One of us is Lying' by Karen McMans who did it with Addy Prentiss. Her last line was literally that she wanted to come back and look prettier for Ash. Now that is not 'Role Model' thing. In all my time in this fandom I have yet to see a respectful Serena stan.