#was going to say dont ask me about the drug dealer but sure ill bite

[figgymoto]

Bestie, no. You can make him worse.

Actually, scratch that – that boy needs no help being worse. He can do bad life decisions on his own. Ash Ketchum needs no help in being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He's the equivalent of one of those haunted dolls your grandmother buys at a garage sale – the one that haunts your home for generations to come and looks smug as fuck while doing it.

But this isn't about him, not right now. I'll get to him. I'll be living up to my equal opportunity hater M.O. don't worry. His time will come — depending on who you ask, his time has already happened. Cough cough -- learn how to write your character's journeys linearly pokeani -- cough cough

No, this is about Serena and how she got jipped by the anime. I'm not much of an anime watcher, haven't really seen much beyond the first ten episodes of DP – before you come here with, "oh, figgy, you don't know anything about XY."

Listen, figgy knows shit. Maybe not a lot of shit about the anime, but figgy knows their shit about the games. And XY are still some of my favorite games in the series. I like the story, the villain, the ending. And I fucking love Serena in these games.

She's a strong female character. Not much unlike Misty in the os. She has a path already set up for her – mother a Ryhorn racer – she has a PATH. And yet, she defies it. She doesn't want to be a Ryborn racer, she doesn't know what she wants to be.

But, she learns.

Game Serena has her friends to help, her friends to be her rivals -- she has growth. She grows. Sure, anime Serena has growth in the Pokémon Showcases, those are sexist af and make the horrors that are Hoenn look like a fucking sanctuary.

And then pokespe Serena. Oh, Yvonne Gabena. My dear.

Yvonne would have kicked Ash's ass if he ever made her feel like a glorified coat rack. She chooses violence. As she should, honestly.

Yvonne outright goes against her mother's wish for her to follow in her footsteps — she becomes a flying trainer on her own, of her own volition. She makes and carves her own path without the pressure of outside forces. Does she have her friends by her side? Yeah. Do they help her to see her wishes come to life? Yes. Do they outright change her trajectory or make her be something Yvonne is not? No.

And that is how a strong, female heroine should be. This is the Serena that we should have seen in the XY anime — the strong, female lead who makes her own story.

Also.

If the drug dealer knows you fucked up, you know you fucked up.

Serena should have thrown that backpack and jacket right back at Ash, then gone to kick that trainer's ass just to prove a fucking point.

Listen, all I'm saying is that if pokeani weren't such fucking COWARDS, we could've had another badass female character who was in control of her own story – not just a stepping stone for the haunted victorian child to get another notch in his uber haunted belt.

XY should've been a series that looked at Serena, even Clemont or Bonnie, and said – haha, get haunted, idiot. It's a massive disservice to both the Pokémon company and to the fans who have gotten them this far.

Anyway, that's all for now. Figgy out.