Serena's contribution to Ash's character development

hannie I believe your friend is referring to the most recent episode. I haven't watched it yet but Serena has shown major concern for Ash's final gym battle like she did for his second and third gym battle. People have also referred to Greninja-Ash as the Hero form, what I'm assuming is based on the folklore of the Ninja boy's hometown. However, the Hero form is a hard form to maintain as Ash has fainted previously from using it. He also has some crystal that has something to do with it. In the most recent episode, there's a scene where Ash watches Greninja rest, most assumably recovering, then Ash decides to go for a walk outside and two things are noticeable: the first is that when his friends talked to him before leaving, he was back was shown the entire time. The second thing is that he didn't even want Pikachu to come with him (was Pikachu with him when he had his big lost to Paul?). There's a screenshot of Serena finding him in a snowy forest and another with Ash expressing doubt (or he was blinking).

It's similar to what Ash did for Dawn when Dawn was depressed. Ash in XY is basically Dawn, a lot of Japanese pearlshippers pointed this out. He uses her catchphrase from time to time and even does a high five with Serena. And Serena's crush on Ash is like how Ash admires Dawn.

Like I said, it seems that I'm playing devil's advocate but Serena in the series was a prerequisite for Dawn's return.

I didn't like Serena initially but she grew on me. It was then I realized that the real enemy of Pearlshipping isn't Amourshipping but something else.