AmourShipping

AmourShipping is the het ship between Ash and Serena from the Pokémon fandom.

Pre-Pokémon the Series: XY
Ash and Serena were childhood friends, first meeting at Professor Oak’s Summer Camp at the age of 5. The said meeting was formed after Serena found herself lost in a forest. Young Serena became startled by a Poliwag, falling over and injuring her knee. She then began to cry from her situation thinking she should've not come to camp. Suddenly, the bushes tumbled again, and Serena thinks it may be an even bigger Pokémon. It turned out to be Ash looking for the same Poliwag that scared Serena, with probably the intention of catching it. Noticing her injured knee, Ash pulled out a handkerchief and wrapped it around Serena’s knee, causing her to blush. Before helping her up, he stated that it was a “good-luck charm” and that it would help the pain go away. Serena struggles to stand as she was pulled to her feet, but Ash tells her “don’t give up until it’s over”, a line that would stick with her years from then. He then escorted her back to the camp’s center. Ever since that encounter, she kept the handkerchief until she met Ash again in Kalos.

They did not meet again until years later, as Serena left back to her home region of Kalos upon the camp’s completion.

Pokémon the Series: XY
It is not until partway through the season that Serena is introduced. She is seen firstly seen as she slumps to her sofa to watch TV after a Ryhorn racing session with her mother. As she watches, she sees a boy dangling from the top of Lumiose Tower in an attempt to calm a frantic Garchomp. She quickly recognizes it to be Ash and grows excited, but she was unsure whether it was really him or not. Then sets out on a journey to find him.

Upon entering Professor Sycamore’s lab, Serena asks him about the trainer she saw on TV and he confirms that it is Ash, to which Serena gets more excited.

Entering Santalune City, Serena is still eager to see Ash, heading to the gym there. Entering the gym, Serena runs towards him, but Alexa stops her, so she just watches the battle. When Ash was defeated by Viola’s Vivillon, Serena felt the same as Ash. When Serena wanted to talk to Ash as he was leaving the gym, shyness entered her and she could not do it. Serena noticed that Ash forgot his backpack so she saw this as an opportunity to talk to him. While Ash was lamenting his latest defeat, Serena finally appears to him, finally returning his backpack. After meeting Clemont and Bonnie, Serena and Ash introduce themselves. Later, at Alexa’s training, Ash is still losing self-confidence, when Serena returns the favour Ash had given her in her childhood. Serena tries to get Ash to remember her in those moments. At one point where they were in a restaurant, Serena stared at Ash for a few minutes. When Ash completed his training that night, Serena talks to Ash alone for a brief period of time, wishing him luck in his upcoming rematch against Viola.

After Ash finally gets his first Kalos medal, the group sets off for Cyllage City. Serena is perplexed and hesitant when Ash asks her what she will do next. In the midst of their doubts, Ash proposes to Serena that they would travel the entire Kalos region together, which she accepts. From there they set off for their next destination in the company of Clemont and Bonnie.

As they leave the city, Serena offers to return Ash’s scarf and finally gets him to remember those moments they both experienced as children. Later, Ash is encouraged to practice riding a Rhyhorn. After many unsuccessful attempts, he asks Serena alone for help, who reluctantly accepts.

In the evening of the next day, Serena offers Ash some biscuits for helping her as a child.

Later, in the episode “Kindergarten Chaos!”, Serena becomes jealous for the first time, as she becomes nervous when a certain Penelope tells Ash that if she won the two of them would go together. Unfortunately for Serena, Penelope’s Sylveon defeated Ash’s Froakie using a combination of Attract and Draining Kiss, but later, Ash would return with the group to resume their journey to Cyllage City.

In “An Appetite for Battle!”, Serena becomes nervous when Ash tells her they would camp out, perhaps because she thought she had a chance to do it together, but later she calms down when she hears that Clemont has all the necessary camping equipment. Late in the evening, when everyone begins to eat dinner, Serena decides to sit next to Ash. When Clemont serves the food, Ash and Serena enjoy eating dinner together. Since then, Serena always sits next to Ash most of the time in later episodes whenever they go for a meal, a habit that would be carried on throughout the XY series.

Later, when Bonnie’s Dedenne defeats Clemont’s Chespin, Serena and Ash are seen flirting with each other, even though they both do not want to say so. The next day, Chespin was lost at the home of an elderly couple, Carrie and Wyllie. Later, when Wyllie hurts his back in his Delphox’s battle with Chespin, Ash’s group is invited to eat at their house. As usual, Serena sits next to Ash once again to eat Wyllie’s apology cake.

In “A Conspiracy to Conquer!”, Serena decides to go with Ash alone while they face the problem of Madame X and her Malamar. After dealing with the problem, the group reunites again and continue on their way

In “A Pokévision of Things to Come!”, Serena dresses up in a Fennekin costume, which Ash finds very sexy. This finally made him agree to help her make her Pokévision videos.

In “An Undersea Place to Call Home!”, faced with an invention by Clemont to decide who would enter a submarine, Serena decides to choose the same as Ash. They both chose left and it turns out they both won. They enjoyed those experiences watching different water-type Pokémon until the tour under the sea was over and the group reunites again.

In “A Battle by Any Other Name!”, Serena and Ash watch as Clemont takes Bonnie far away simply because she dared to tell an older woman to take care of her brother and be his wife. Miette takes advantage of this and asks Ash if he has anyone to take care of him, to which Ash replies no. This upsets Serena. At the end of this episode, Miette provokes Serena by saying that if she does not propose in front of Ash, Miette would.

In “Battles in the Sky!”, Ash and Serena are dressed in a Sky Trainer suit. Then, together they climb into a flight simulator, where they were the only ones to stay in the air while Clemont easily loses control and falls. Ash and Serena stay in the air together until another Sky Trainer appears wanting to challenge Ash. When Team Rocket steals all the Pokémon, Serena comes flying in her Sky Trainer suit and has her Fennekin destroy the Meowth balloon with Flamethrower, for which Ash is grateful.

When Ash gets lost in Reflection Cave in “The Cave of Mirrors!”, he calls out for Serena first. When Ash exits Reflection Cave and comes across Mirror Serena, he could immediately sense a difference between her and the real Serena by the way she spoke. After Mirror Clemont finishes telling Ash and the others about the alternative worlds, Ash tells them that the Clemont, Serena, and Bonnie standing before him are not the same people that he knows, and while telling the group this he mentions Serena specifically while looking directly at Mirror Serena. When the Mirror Dimension is splitting apart, Ash makes a great leap across the chasm and grabs on to Serena’s hand instead of calling upon one of his Pokémon or using Clemont’s Aipom arm.

In “Day Three Blockbusters!”, when Serena sees a perfect area to make the Pokévision, Ash calls after her in a worried tone when she runs off by herself. When Serena begins to fall down a cliff, Ash runs after her and grabs her hand to try to stop her from falling, but ends up falling down with her in the process. After they both fall down the cliff, Ash asks Serena if she is okay. Ash returns Serena’s hat to her, he nervously chuckles and scratches his nose. When Serena sees that Ash has twisted his ankle and blames herself, he keeps reassuring her that he is okay. Serena nurses Ash’s foot with a wet cloth, he thanks her. As Serena admires Pikachu’s will to save Ash, Ash tells her that they always work together to overcome difficult situations while he nervously scratches his nose.

Pokémon the Series: XY Kalos Quest
Ash praises Serena in “A Race for Home!”, saying it was thanks to her he learned how to ride a Rhyhorn. They Both find Grace, who hopes that her daughter has had training at the races. Suddenly, wheh Grace is talking to Clemont, she brings Ash and Serena together and they look at each other with embarrassment, maybe because Grace sees them looking cute when they are together.

In “Under the Pledging Tree!”, Ash and Serena leave their Pokémon in the care of Clemont and Bonnie and then go off alone to look for presents. As Ash and Serena walk away from Bonnie and Clemont, Serena’s thoughts are voiced over as she quickly comes to the conclusion that she is on a date with Ash. While walking, Serena blushes and attempts to hold Ash’s hand. Her hand is visibly shaking and has turned red, possibly out of nervousness, and she is unable to grab his hand. Ash and Serena went to ride the monorail. Serena sees Ash looking happily out the window; this makes her smile and blush. When Serena sees gifts in the shops windowsills, she is very happy and invites Ash to see them. In some point, Ash goes on his own to look for presents for his Pokémon and Serena is visibly disappointed at being left alone. Later, when reunited in the afternoon, Serena and Ash before going back on the monorail, Ash wins a blue ribbon for being a significant number rider on the Coumarine Monorail. When Serena tells Ash that his Pokémon would be happy with anything he gives them because all of his Pokémon are similar to him, Serena moves very close to Ash. At the end of the episode, he gives it to Serena as his way of saying thanks for her help, scratching his nose nervously.

Serena loses her first Pokémon Showcase in Coumarine City in “A Showcase Debut!”. She goes off alone regretting her defeat and therefore decides to cut her hair short and completely change her image. Later, when the group sees Serena’s new hairstyle for the first time, Ash is the only one who has a positive reaction. Clemont asks what happened and Bonnie complains that she preferred Serena’s long hair. Ash comments that the blue ribbon he gave Serena in the previous episode looked great on her.

When everyone is introduced to Frank in the “Lights! Camera! Pika!” special episode, Pikachu’s film director, Serena returns to sit next to Ash. Then, when everyone is standing, she tries to stand next to him as best she can. So Ash and Serena decide to work with Bonnie as the Pikachu voice actors. When they all manage to finish the script for the Pikachu movie, Serena decides to go with Ash to talk to Jean, Frank’s granddaughter for the night.

Ash appears to be more excited in “Performing with Fiery Charm!”, when Serena appears on the stage and later greatly cheers her when she shows confidence in not losing the Showcase. When Ash, Clemont, and Bonnie are voting for Serena, Ash noticeably raises his PokéLume higher than the others.

In “Over the Mountain of Snow!”, Ash happily picks Serena to ride with him in a Mamoswine. When Serena volunteered to switch spots with Ash, he had high hopes for her to get up the slope. While crossing the bridge in the snowy mountains, a blast of icy wind frightens Serena, Ash holds on to her shoulders and comforts her. He then praises her once they are safely across the bridge. When the group splits up to find the herbs needed, Ash again quickly picks Serena to be his partner. Ash compliments Serena when she finds the herb that they were looking for.

Pokémon the Series: XYZ
In “Battling at Full Volume!”, Ash trains Pikachu and Greninja on a river. Serena throws a towel to Ash in the hope of not catching a cold. He catches said towel, assuring her that he will be fine, and sneezes. The next day, Serena asks Bonnie to wake Ash up. He comes out of his tent, and tiredly walks towards Serena. When he gets close to her, Serena feels some romantic tensions, then Ash says “Iron Tail, Pikachu!” and falls down. Serena checks his forehead, and says to Clemont and Bonnie that he has a fever. Back in Ash’s tent, Serena tries to cool his temperature with a washcloth but does little to lower his fever. Clemont and Bonnie go out to find some medicine, leaving her and Pikachu to take care of the young trainer. Meanwhile, another trainer named Jimmy is searching for Ash. Serena borrows Ash’s clothes to battle the punk-rock trainer in his place. Midway through the battle, Team Rocket kidnap Ash’s Pikachu and Jimmy’s Pikachu Spike, and blows Serena’s cover. A recovered Ash commands Greninja to stop their truck. Jimmy sees Serena as a trainer equal in spirit as Ash.

In “The First Day of the Rest of Your Life!”, Serena ponders on her next move after her loss. She, Ash, Clemont, Bonnie then watch the news of the Prism Tower lighting up once again. The next day, Serena leads the three to a park somewhere in Lumiose City, where she and two other Master Class finalists (Shauna and Jessilee) do their Showcase Performance exhibition. Shortly after, everyone joined in dancing along with the performers. Back in Clemont and Bonnie’s father’s apartment, Ash and Clemont offered Serena help in making dinner. The next morning, Ash, Serena, and their friends see Serena’s mother off, where the latter offers them a visit anytime to her home. Then they part with Tierno, Shauna, Trevor, and Sawyer. Clemont and Bonnie were about to return to the Lumiose Gym, and Ash allows Serena to “stay with [him]”. They went to the airport, where Ash affirms that it will open soon. Next, they walk around Lumiose City and eat one of their famous foods. Ash and Serena then have a Pokémon battle on the same battlefield from the first episode of the XY series, the latter admitting that she never had a proper battle. Serena lets out Braixen, and Ash commands his Pikachu. The battle is called off, with Ash admiring her Pokémon that support her and “always cheering [her] on and on”. This motivates Serena to turn down her mentor’s offer and decide to go on a Performance training journey.

In “Till We Compete Again!”, Serena decides to go to Hoenn to try her luck as a Pokémon Coordinator in addition to her career as a Pokémon Performer. Serena thanks everyone and especially Ash for travelling on the adventures together. She then goes down the escalator, but in the midst of this, Serena plucks up her courage and makes Ash wait for “[o]ne more thing”. When Ash is waiting for something, to everyone’s surprise Serena kisses Ash, showing her deep interest in him. After Serena kisses Ash, he is seen standing at the top of the escalator, momentarily stunned in awe and his eyes glimmering, but smiles afterwards and waves her goodbye. Serena’s dialogue also suggests Ash knew what Serena was doing and allowed it.

While Ash is on his plane back to Kanto he is shown to be remembering his adventures in Kalos, when thinking about his friends in Kalos most of his thoughts were primarily focused on Serena alone opposed to Clemont and Bonnie were mostly present in group moments rather than individually. One of the memories include when Ash was falling into her arms while he was sick and collapsing while still holding her hand. Interesting about this particular memory, Ash specifically remembers only Serena calling out to him in worry after he collapses, while in the actual episode Clemont and Bonnie did as well. Also interesting about this memory that Ash was supposed to be delirious from being sick in the episode but he vividly remembers what happened.

Pokémon Journeys: The Series
Before Chloe, who is being sent off by Serena, leaves on the ship, Ash and Goh catch up to her. Serena recognizes Ash as he runs past her, and calls out his name. Ash turns around in surprise, and exclaims her name before asking how she was doing since they last met. Serena follows up by flaunting her new outfit and stating that she was doing good, adding that Pikachu looked good too.

Chloe questions how they knew each other, and Ash takes initiative to inform her on their adventure in Kalos. The ship horn suddenly blows, alerting of its departure. As the ship begins to sail away, they exchange their future plans to each other; Ash tells Serena of his goal to become the ‘best battler’, and Serena tells him about her goal to become the ‘best performer’. They tell each other to do their best, and that they would be cheering for one another.”

Serena waves him and the others off until the ship is gone. She wears a look of reminiscence on her face, looking in the direction of the ship, before she and her Sylveon run off. A narration finishes with “Ash and Serena are both giving everything they have to try and make their dreams come true. Maybe someday Chloe will find her own dream too.”

Fanon
This ship is one of the most popular ships in the Pokémon anime. It is also one of the most popular ships between Ash and a female companion. The popularity of the shipping began during the first season of the XY series due to Serena being revealed to have known Ash in her childhood, and had a canonical crush on him. Additionally, in the season finale of Pokémon XYZ, before leaving for her flight to Hoenn, Serena went up the escalator and kissed Ash on the lips and leaves down the escalator as she goes to her plane and leaves for Hoenn. This made fans very excited and fanboying and fangirling that Serena managed to kiss Ash. Their fans think that Ash has implied feelings/crush on Serena, which could eventually lead to them ending up together. Even with their brief encounter in Journeys, their fans refuse to believe that their feelings for each other are gone.

Interestingly, Serena has a completely opposite personality to Ash, as she is not interested in science and technology unlike him, she can dance while Ash cannot, and she can do most things Ash cannot. Also, while Ash has to try many times to do something other than train Pokémon, Serena succeeds in few or one attempt. Their fans think it is beautiful to be so different in this way and thus complement each other better.

It is one of the shippings with the most fan-arts and fictions. Most of them have Ash travelling with Serena as boyfriend and girlfriend through other regions, and going on many new adventures. Most other ones have Ash and Serena living their bridal moments and even having a family. Fans argue that it would be nice if the anime writers could have Ash and Serena travel together for the rest of the seasons and have their possible child continue the lead role in the anime, as in the fanfics.

Meanwhile, anti-amourshippers usually criticize this ship from different points with different theories, such as Ash not having a crush on Serena in a one-sided ship, Ash not being interested in Serena in a kid series, or that Ash is oblivious for love, the "forced ship" theory.

This ship is usually ranked as top tier 1st in Japan when it comes to Pokémon ships, because it usually generates trends around Serena and her pairing with Ash on Twitter, but in the West, it is usually overwhelmed by one of the rival ships, placing it at about 3rd, as shown in AO3 fanfics quantity. In the shipping war, the fact that AmourShipping is getting closer and closer to becoming canon in the Pokémon anime makes it among one of the most beloved shippings of all, but it also made fans of all other Ash shippings, including het and slash ships, become anti-AmourShippers, to the point that they support PokéShipping, NegaiShipping, PoffleShipping (Ash x Miette) and JourneyShipping, its biggest opposing rivals.

On Serena’s side, it also rivals with GeekChicShipping (Serena×Clemont), VanivilleShipping (Serena×Trevor), LovelousShipping (Serena×Tierno) and XEvolutionShipping (Serena×Alain).

To counter, the AmourShippers pair all other Pokégirls and members from these rival shippings with other secondary characters and support het ships that "aren't in AmourShipping's way", such as OrangeShipping (Misty x Tracey), ContestShipping (May x Drew), PenguinShipping (Kenny x Dawn), WishfulShipping (Cilan x Iris). LaserbladeShipping (Clemont x Korrina) KalosRivalShipping (Tierno x Miette), TakenShipping (Hau x Lillie), NaheleAhiShipping (Kiawe x Mallow), SwordfishShipping (Gladion x Lana), VermillionShipping (Goh x Chloe) and other similar ships

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Ash/Serena tag on FanFiction.net
 * Ash/Serena tag on FanFiction.net

DEVIANTART
 * on DeviantArt
 * on DeviantArt
 * on DeviantArt
 * on DeviantArt
 * on DeviantArt
 * on DeviantArt

PIXIV

REDDIT
 * r/AmourShipping on Reddit

WIKIS
 * AmourShipping on Bulbapedia

Trivia

 * The ship name comes from the word amour which means “love” in French. It is because Serena is originally from Kalos, a region based on France in Pokémon X and Pokémon Y, and according to some fans she fell in love with Ash since childhood.
 * In the March 2014 issue of Onnanoko to Tame no Kuchikomi & Tōkō Magazine, there is a summary of Serena where among her character description it says that she has special feelings towards Ash. The aforementioned magazine also includes a poster with Ash and Serena surrounded by Pokémon and balloons. Serena is holding a heart balloon while looking up at Ash. This is used by The Pokémon Company to celebrate the Valentine’s Day.
 * “SatoSere”, the most-common Japanese name for this pairing, has been trending in Japan on Twitter at various times.
 * Serena is the only one of Ash’s female companions who has kissed him.
 * Serena is the only girl that Ash has travelled with to not deny her feelings for Ash.
 * Interestingly, in a Pikachu Short Meloetta's Moonlight Serenade, when Meowth imagines himself handing Melody Berries to Meloetta and falls in love with that Pokémon, the two strike a similar pose to when Ash gives Serena a blue ribbon. However, this short film was aired before the XY series and therefore, it could be said that they took reference from this short film.
 * Serena is seen wearing her blue ribbon around her left ankle when wearing her updated performance costume
 * Serena's cameo in Pokémon Journeys became a trending topic in Twitter (Japan)
 * The kiss between Ash and Serena was ranked 4th among the kiss scenes in anime for Kiss Day in Japan.

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