>>50151935I'm in the mood for elaborating, but the Serena pier scene is different from all the traditional goodbyes in that the object may be the same (people part ways), the theme and approach is not.
For starters: all the main goodbyes are exactly that: goodbyes. The focus is on the departure. The departure is previously known, even if some of the characters don't accept it (like Piplup or Dedenne). In the Pier Scene, the focus is on the MEETING. Ash and Serena finally, by chance, see each other again. But their meeting is starcrossed - the boat's horn soars as soon as they look at each other. This sets a different tone for the entire scene. In a goodbye, it's bittersweet but foreshadowed resignation; in the Pier Scene, it's joy but also urgency. They are not sad for having to leave each other: they are HAPPY that they got to see each other, no matter how briefly.
Then, the framing: first, there are objectively four people in that scene, but two of them immediately disappear as soon as Ash and Serena see each other. We literally don't SEE Goh and Koharu until Ash and Serena are done talking to each other, and even then they're silent. This is not so with the traditional goodbyes in which there is a more equal presence of all characters involved (Dawn, Ash and Brock; Ash, Misty and Brock; the Alola friends; Bonnie, Clemont, Serena, Ash). This is an Ash and Serena moment, and only Ash and Serena, to the deliberate exclusion of other characters - which is more marked because Serena just finished mentoring Koharu and thus there'd be a reason for Koharu to be considered "narratively important" to appear too to wave a final goodbye.
