Aquacorde said:
It's not about getting violent at all though. Battling isn't even relevant here. Bravery is about facing danger and your own fear. And Serena doesn't do that. She runs off, stays in the background, has to be rescued. She hasn't shown much courage- the only times she's done so is when she's been protecting Bonnie. And that's more instinctual than brave.
On the whole subject of whether or not Serena can be called brave, I would argue that she's about as brave as Citron and Eureka are. She (as well as the aforementioned two) has been perfectly willing to rush after danger in order to solve whatever the problems of the episode are - helping (or
attempting to help, in the latter case) to rescue either Satoshi or Platane-Hakase from the Rocket-dan, joining everyone else in tracking down Daz, willing to help Citron re-take his Gym from the Citroid. That all but one of those problems have been solved by someone else doesn't change the fact that she was willing to do whatever she could to help in the first place. She's no "scale a tall building to save an insane, rampaging Gaburias" Satoshi, but most characters aren't.
That she's been unable to really do anything can be put down to a couple of reasons. The first, and most problematic, is that the show hasn't been very good about giving Serena chances where she - and only she and her Pokemon - can solve a problem. I personally think XY007 was a big missed opportunity in that regard. The Rocket-dan have kidnapped the Sihorn and Pikachu while Satoshi, the usual hero in these things, and the other racers are in trouble and unable to do anything about it. It was a Serena-focused episode and she and Fokko alone should have been the ones to drive the Rockets off and fix everything. Serena rescuing Satoshi from the Rocket-dan would have been a nice reversal from the scene we had seen earlier in that episode, where Satoshi "saved" Serena at the camp. But instead the action in that scene is split between Serena and Fokko, Citron and Horubee, Eureka, and the Sihorn so her part there became diluted. It's noticeable that Serena couldn't be the center of attention in the climax of her own focus episode when the show will willingly have all the other characters sit on the sidelines whenever Satoshi or Citron need to be in the limelight.
The other reason is that Serena is a rookie trainer and, as such, her capabilities are understandably pretty limited. She's not very knowledgable like Citron is, nor does she have the advantage of having been at it for awhile like Satoshi. And honestly, if an episode needs a main character to be a kidnapped by the Rocket-dan I would rather see Serena in trouble than someone like Satoshi and be left wondering why he can't handle himself after he's been shown to be able to before (I hated
Best Wishes for pulling stuff like that). But in the end, this is another fault of the
XY anime's handling of the character in that she's never seen taking any steps to rectify the situation. All the training that we see is done by Satoshi and his Pokemon and/or Citron and his. In XY015 Serena remained on the sidelines again while Citron and Harimaron had two practice battles with Satoshi and Keromatsu and Eureka and Dedenne. We might have gotten a practice battle with Serena and Fokko, too, but unfortunately not.
But in and of itself I don't think that's a bad thing. We know Serena doesn't really know what she wants to do on her journey, which was only initiated in the first place because she saw a boy she once met years ago on television. That's actually a pretty interesting flaw to give a character on this show, and it would understandably translate into a general inactivity with Pokemon. I could actually get behind a story that develops Serena from that into someone more independent by the end of the anime, who has her own goal in mind (this would set up her inevitable departure from the anime) - a goal that
she decides to do because it's something
she likes. I would love for someone to ask her point blank just why she's on a journey with Pokemon in the first place, and to see what her answer would be. But unfortunately, even if that's the intention there's should have been some indication by now that that's where they're taking Serena as a character. There's been no indication where they're going with Serena at all, and we're 18 - soon to be 19 (and we already know there's no chance for Serena to take on a big role there) - episodes in now. All the major arcs should have been set up already.
I like Serena's personality and I think she can be entertaining when she's doing something, so I have nothing against the character herself. I don't even care that she doesn't have a goal. I just wish the show would give us a sense of how this journey is affecting her and where she's headed on it. XY021, if nothing else, should at least be able to show us that much.
