>>51595686This theme of being with Ash as something dichotomous with Serena's true dream is shown in numerous instances, such as: the time when she lost her first showcase and Ash, instead of comforting her, thought best to leave her to handle the emotions on her own, which she did and became stronger as a result of her independently handling it, during the last showcase before the master class, after Bonnie says that Serena is having fun, Ash says that as long as she's having fun he is happy, later after Palermo asks if having fun is enough for her, to testing if Serena had the qualities of a Kalos Queen by seeing if she is satisfied by merely having fun or does she strive to do performances that will give smiles to others, to which Serena respond to that she had fun, what all of this points to is that what Ash finds fun and makes him happy is dichotomous with the qualities of a Kalos Queen, and that staying with and being influenced by him is gonna result in her not having what it takes to be at Aria, during the Wulfric arc when she tried to relate her feelings after they both lost at something (the master class for Serena and Gym battle for Ash) and Ash lashed out at her for attempting to equate her frivolous beauty pageants to just one of his Gym battles, notably during the ED "Doridori", the plot of which is Serena dreaming of achieving her goal of becoming a performer and Ash being nowhere in her dream, only revealed to be covering the sleeping Serena that is having the dream, showing that, while having a positive supportive role in Serena's life, Ash isn't present in Serena's dream, and most importantly, how Serena's character departs from the gang at the end of the XYZ series, by having a choice between Ash and further progressing her career, choosing the later and even giving her past crush a goodbye kiss that, as show in JN105, where she has completely matured past Ash, meant nothing more but closing one cheaper in her life and starting a new one. (2/3)
