before I start I just wanna say if you don't ship amourshipping just move on trust me I don't care to read why YOU personally don't like this ship.
I understand that this isn't bold new opinion to have because I'm pretty sure its still the most popular Ash Ketchum ship in the Fandom,but I can't help it. Amourshipping is probably my favorite ship mostly because I'm not really that much of a hard-core shipper. I like certain ships but I wouldn't personally call myself a shipper,but for Amourshipping I'm rid or die.
So first I wanna discuss the role amourshipping plays is the Pokemon Xyz narrative and why it makes Serena's character so great and how I think it took a classic Shonen anime love trope and made it interesting.
What a lot people tend to either ignore or misunderstand is that amourshipping isn't just for funny gag moments or just for "shipping bait" its supposed to be an external representation of Serena's growth as a character. It also poses an interesting dynamic that we haven't really seen in the Pokemon anime which is taking a Shonen love trope and using it to explore how two characters grow and work off each other in one of Pokemon's most dynamic relationships. So to show what I mean with it being an outside representation of Serena's growth Im going to bring up some specific scenes.
So this scene from Ash and Serena's first date episode and within this specific scene Serena goes to hold Ashes hand but ultimately chickens out. This is showing Serena's starting point from which she has to grow from.
this scene is a later on where serena goes to grab ashes hand again but is still visibly nervous and uses both of her hands to grab his one hand. Showing she's made progress but isn't quite there yet.
The finial scene im showing is from the beginning of the kalos league and towards the later half of xyz. Ash is trying to battle this random trainer before the league starts and Serena shuts that down immediately by grabbing his arm with full confidence and scolding him for wasting time and keeping him in check. This shows the narrative using Serena's crush on ash as a visual way of showing how she has grown as a character.(also side point this scene is one of many examples that shows that serena isn't just this subservient robot that a lot of morons in the Fandom like to characterize her as) This paints clear progress from beginning ,middle to end.
Next I want to talk about Ash and Serena's actual relationship/dynamic and explain why I feel it works. So a common misconception in not just the general pokemon anime Fandom,but the amourshipping Fandom too is that serena from the start is deeply in love with ash. At the beginning of the story its very apparent that serena likes ash,but I wouldn’t say she's in love with him at least not at that point. For both Ash and Serena there appreciation for each other actively grows throughout the show. For one Ash gains more appreciation for serena within the first few episodes as it was her that allowed him to have the strength to win the bug badge at the beginning to which Ash invites her to be apart of the group which is the first time he's ever done that for a female traveling companion. Serena helps ash in various ways throughout the series examples being trying to help him learn how to copy tireno's dance battling style and giving him the wake up call he need which ultimately allows him to reconnect with greninja so they can master the ash greninja transformation. Serena gains more appreciation for him because at the start she has a crush on him but at that point it’s just a surface level,knight in shining armor type crush. But as Serena gets know ash and travels with him throughout the series,that surface level crush starts to turn into something more. Everything from getting advice to getting encouragement, and getting that same confidence boost that ash got in the beginning from her that allowed him to win his first badge. All of these things contribute to Serena’s growing love for ash. There bond grows even stronger after there fight in the forest,both admitting there wrong doings and there bond grows even stronger because of it. Personally I love there dynamic I honestly think it’s one of the best dynamics in the show,and it shows that even when using a very classic shonen anime love trope you can still make it believable and not forced which is why I think a ship like amourshipping works,but something like naruhina doesn’t.
The final thing narratively speaking I wanna talk about is the goodbye kiss and talk a little about the brief reunion they have in journeys. So the kiss scene not only gives us a pretty satisfying conclusion to this romance sub plot that been being built up since the beginning of the show,but it truly shows how far Serena has come character wise. There’s no more shy crushes or embarrassing moments,but Serena being completely honest about how she feels.
Also the very ambitious dialogue in the Japanese version makes this scene even better as they don’t outright confirm a relationship between the two but leave it open ended which admittedly is very “Pokemon anime thing”to do but still keeps the conversation about the relationship alive.(also there is an interview with the director of the Xyz anime in which he said that the audience is supposed to imagine that they got together later)
Now the reunion they have in journeys is very brief as they only interact for like less than a minute but I think within that scene the writers gave us some more subtle hints as the embarrassed blushing moments probably wouldn’t make the most sense seeing how much Serena has changed and grown since we last saw her. No this doesn’t mean she doesn’t like him anymore or has moved on It’s just a more subtle way of tackling the romance aspect to Ash and Serena’s relationship because I think they were afraid of backlash or something from fans which why they keep it less obvious than before.
Now something I wanna touch on briefly is the discourse/conversation around the amourshipping/serena fanbase as people seem to take this issue front and center when talking about Serena and amourshipping. Now Im not going to sit here and try and say that the amourshipping/serena fanbase is full of a bunch of saints that can never or will never do no wrongs because that’s obviously ridiculous,but it does bug me how the general fanbase seems to only focus on a small but loud minority of toxic fans. Like I understand at this point that people are naturally drawn towards more negative things/interpretations of things because let’s be real negativity and hate sell’s that’s why things like right winged grifting and rage baiting have been in style nowadays because at the end of the day hate clicks are still clicks. But I feel the general Pokemon fandom uses this very hasty generalization when it comes to amourshipping/serena fans where they take very anecdotal evidence or use a toxic minority of fans to try and judge the entire fandom,it just seems uncharitable and unfair to the rest of the fandom that are just trying to enjoy a ship/character.
So I guess to try and circle back to the beginning, I really like amourshipping it was one the first fandoms I ever engaged with as kid and it’s something that I enjoyed as a kid and still enjoy to this day. Discussions of will it ever become officially canon I’ve gone beyond that and honestly at this point it doesn’t really matter to me if it becomes canon or not as I enjoy for what is and it being canon or not doesn’t change that for me. Don’t get me wrong IF it ever were to become canon I would be very happy,but all Im saying is that it being canon doesn’t change how I feel about it. At the end of the day you should like something because YOU genuinely like it,so don’t let something as trivial as that ruin your fun/enjoyment of something so try not to harp on that too much because let’s not forget this is shipping,shipping is supposed to be fun and remember that a ship can only die if people stop caring,so people still showing love and support for amourshipping means that’s amourshipping isn’t dead,but is still as alive as ever,and hey Im here for it.
