Pokemon Shipping Oneshots (Ash Ketchum Shippings Only)

Why I don't like Serena from the Pokemon Anime

I have always made it abundantly clear that Serena from the Pokemon Anime is my least favourite character as her actions and personality are not of my preference, and I usually do this by subtly humiliating her in stories.

I have received criticism on other platforms for my opinions on this character. I believe, as long as opinions don't include offensive stereotypes or are harmful or belittling, everyone is entitled to one.

Therefore, in these next few paragraphs I will explain to the best of my ability why I believe this character was a waste of what could've been a valuable protagonist.

If you already feel angry towards me and know that you won't like to read this, it would be easier if you don't read it at all.

 I have tried my best not to be controversial here and this took a lot of effort, but I apologise if I upset anyone who reads.

How she treats Ash

Now you may be thinking how absurd it is that Serena's treatment towards Ash is seen as a negative way. To my knowledge, most fans of the series have noted how 'sweet' and 'caring' she is. In all fairness, she is a good friend to which I agree to an extent, but there are certain things she has done at points in the anime which I think expose her toxic character.

First of all, we can see at the start of the anime that Serena recognises Ash on TV in the episode where he jumps off Prism Tower. She recognises him from a summer camp that she and Ash attended when they were younger. In her flashback we can see that Ash fixes her leg with a handkerchief that she still has.

Some, and probably a majority of fans see this as a love gesture. In my opinion, the fact that she kept a handkerchief after all those years is a little strange, especially for something so simple as a handkerchief. Then again, everyone has their sentiments.

My problem with this concept was that when she gave the handkerchief back when she met him again, she expected him to remember her immediately and was disappointed when he didn't. To be honest I find it quite unrealistic of her to expect so much out of such an insignificant memory. She acted as if he made some sort of promise to remember one person from one memory in his childhood. 

This brings me to my next point. From what I can gather from the anime, Serena tends to expect too much out of Ash and reacts unnecessarily when he doesn't meet these expectations. In this book, I have written a story where, in the episode where she attacks Ash with snowballs until he falls backward, that he actually hit his head and almost froze to death. You could say this is just me over exaggerating, but I believe that in reality this would be too possible.

In that time, Ash was depressed and frustrated. He needed time to himself to think. Ash is known for being optimistic and the one who always cheers the group up, but he's human and can't be expected to fill that role every second of his life. The fact that Serena thinks it's acceptable to throw a tantrum like she did seems entitled to me. 

I would like to point out that in the episode where Serena herself was frustrated and blew up at her Pokemon before running away, Aria had to come to her and tell her it was wrong. None of the group followed and attacked her like she did to Ash. Ash didn't even get angry at anyone before Serena kept pushing him instead of leaving him alone, he simply left on his own without saying a word. Serena on the other hand threw a tantrum and stormed off like a child.

A lot of people say that Serena was helping him in that case, but I think he could've regained his courage just as easily without that happening.

Another example of when she expects too much out of him is when she does things like sigh after he fails to notice hints of romance in any case. Ash might be dense when it comes to those things, but he isn't perfect and I think she has a hard time realising that. His naivety is a part of his personality, and there are a lot of suggestions as to why he is this way. For example one of my suggestions is because due to his parents' separation, he tries not to pay attention to relationship-related things because of how much he has suffered from his father's absence and perhaps doesn't want his mother's pain for himself.