Snowball scene Misconceptions
So I was scrolling on twitter as one does when looking for the most …intelligent takes, and people have been bringing up discourse around this scene again from XYZ of Serena throwing snowballs at Ash; and of course leave it to the fandom to misinterpret the hell out of this scene and then extrapolate from their botched interpretation they have and then come to conclusions that stray so far away from the original scenes intention. Im gonna try and debunk as many of these talking points as I can,just the main ones I see online at least.
So first the context behind this scene, Ash has lost against wolfric which by this point is about his third loss,greninja and Ash have both left the Pokemon center and have been gone for almost a day,and Serena worries obviously,and goes to look for him.
Serena then finds Ash in the forest and goes to comfort him by try to relate to him through their similar experiences with losing. Ash then lashes out at her for no reason and Serena retorts by asking Ash to talk to her and Ash just brushes her off and tells her to go away. In response to this Serena throws snowballs at him and tells Ash thats not the Ash she knows and reminds him of his core characteristics.
I think where people get caught up is the part where Serena tells Ash that he’s not acting like the Ash she knows and people have framing it as Serena gaslighting him on some level and telling him how he’s supposed to act because she has an "idealized" version of him in her mind that she expects him to always act like. The argument kinda hinges on the idea that Xy’s characterization of Ash being more heroic and less bratty and combative is not who Ash really is and that since this is the "first" time he’s been really down,so Serena has a "fake" idea of Ash. Whats flawed about this argument is that it’s a bit dishonest with its framing,like one of Ash and Serena’s first interactions is Ash at a weak spot mentally. At the beginning of Xy Ash has just lost to viola and is struggling with his training against Alexa and counting his recent loss in the unova league where he placed worse than before,so if you take all that into account Ash was having a hard time similar to this,it’s not the exact same situation as in the snowbelle arc but it’s very similar. Serena when first giving Ash his handkerchief back reminds Ash of there time in camp which reminds him of his core self. I think Serena was trying to go for a similar approach here by reminding Ash that he’s being uncharacteristically a wimp. Shes not saying that he NEEDS to act a certain way,but that he’s has the tools to bounce back from this loss in a more healthy way. Ash was pushing away all the people that care about him and isolating himself which is that exact opposite thing that gave him and greninja the ability to tap into the battle bond in the first place. Serena has seen him bounce back from losses and by reminding him of his core character he’ll be able to come back from this loss which in the end works.
I don’t like how some people online have tried to frame this scene as Serena being just as if not the only one in the wrong in this. People think that just cause she has a crush on him that she has formed a "fake/idealized" version of him that she’s basically gaslighting which as I just explained isn’t really the case. Sure Serena probably on some level sees Ash with rose tinted glasses,but I doubt it’s not the level people try and make it out to be,like it’s not like shes actively favoring Ash over like clemont or Bonnie,she just as a crush and thats fine😭. Serena’s opening line probably wasn’t the best as telling someone like in that state you now how they feel,even if it’s true it shifts the focus on her rather than Ash,but Ash’s equally cringe response was not warranted like at all either . I think a lot of these arguments also hinge on downplaying Serena’s POV and giving Ash all the benefits of doubt and then will act like there explanations are also justifications,but newsflash you can’t just treat people bad because you’re in a bad spot mentally.
Also how people throw around the term "depressed" to describe Ash is very misleading,Ash is not clinically depressed he’s just very upset. So when people try and use cringe arguments like,"well Serena shouldn’t have thrown snowballs at a depressed person" and it’s like relax y’all acting like they had rock in em and Ash has survived worst and was fine.
Another thing people look over is that Serena is explicitly sorry for anything she did. This shows that Serena was being accountable for any wrongdoing she might have done. This also proves that Serena doesn’t have an idealized version of Ash because if she did I doubt someone like that would have any remorse or accountability for what they may have said or did.
So to end this Ash is,by in large the one in the wrong,Serena doesn’t have an idealized version of him in her mind,and it worked out in the end,Ash and greninja reconnected and mastered the battle bond so you can thank Serena for that.
blakekathryn
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