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Serena shows how femininity can be a strength

Something I think Serena or just xy in general doesn’t get enough credit for is the way it treats Serena’s femininity as a positive and never like some burden or weakness. I feel as though a lot of time stories tend to characterize or associate strong female characters with typically masculine traits that leaves no room for feminine qualities and or treats them like they’re mutually exclusive things. To be clear I don’t think there’s anything wrong inherently with female characters that are more masculine,but the one thing I will say is that I do think it perpetuates the idea that masculinity is the only way to be “strong” or “tough”.

I think Serena is a very good representation of how being “strong” and feminine don’t have to be mutually exclusive. It’s pretty obvious that Serena is very girly but shes also competitive,(kinda)sassy,and not afraid to speak her mind which is something that becomes more apparent as the show goes on. The story almost never makes Serena choose to be one or the other she’s allowed to do both.

Something else that represents this well is Serena’s choice to do showcases. The showcases obviously are very feminine from the presentation to the competitions themselves. With the showcases being more traditionally feminine Serena gets to keep all the feminine aspects of her while still being able to growing as a character. The showcases are also never treated as this completely frivolous thing that doesn’t matter,but are presented as real competitions that are treated with the similar levels of respect as the gym battles.

An important distinction to make is that my point isn’t that xy as a whole deviates from gender norms/stereotypes,but rather to explain how Serena’s femininity or just femininity in general doesn’t have to be at odds with being assertive,strong,or whatever and personally I think Serena in particular represents this idea very well.

u/Empty_Departure2046 — 10 days ago
▲ 44 r/AmourShipping

Support during Training

We all know how much Ash and Serena support each other, and that would include support during any training or rehearsal they do as well. So let’s talk about a couple moments of that shown on-screen during the episode “Championing a Research Battle”.

At the beginning of this episode, Ash and Greninja are training on how to stay in sync to better control the Bond Phenomenon (not that they know what that is yet) and their method this time is to run the same obstacle course through the trees in a nearby forest. The idea is to keep the same pace and make the same movements as each other.

While they’re busy with that, Serena is the one holding Pikachu. And it’s always nice to see a display of how well Pikachu and Serena get along. Serena does show some concern that Ash might be overdoing things however. Acknowledging that it’s important to train hard, but still hoping Ash doesn’t go overboard.

Even so, she encourages Ash to do his best. Even though it’s not supposed to be a race, Greninja ends up reaching the goal before Ash does and poor Ash is exhausted. Serena shouts to Ash that he can do it and that the goal is just a little farther. He makes it to the goal, but then collapses right after.

But he is offered a water bottle by none other than Serena. Something he is definitely appreciative of and he makes that fact known by directly saying thank you to Serena. Training for battles is a big part of how Ash works hard to achieve his goals. And since one of the best things about Amourshipping is how much Ash and Serena support each other, it’s nice to have an on-screen display of that support for each other's passions. There are other examples of this throughout the show, like when Serena tried to help Ash learn how to dance for Tierno’s battle style. These are just the examples from Championing a Research Battle specifically.

u/psb123am — 10 days ago