>>27582721I've said this before, but Serena/Calem should have joined Team Flare.
Have them continue to get depressed and disheartened after you get them for the megastone, then about 2/3s of the way through the game they just vanish. Shauna and co mention their absence, you get a call from Sycamore asking if you've seen them, play it up a bit. Then the next time you run into Team Flare, they're there, sporting the orange and packing a Mega Ring of their own, a gift from Lysandre who "saw their potential", but actually saw an emotionally vulnerable dupe who might slow down the protagonist that's been disrupting their operations.
Let the rival go Mega on you for a few battles, then (because this is a pokemon game after all) have them come to realise they're being used in the climax and turn on Lysandre, maybe holding up the Admins or something while you defeat the big boss.
It wouldn't be an award winning story by any means, but it'd be new to pokemon and 100 times better than "Wow, you keep beating me. I'm sad."
But honestly, all of the XY supporting cast was wasted potential (with the possible exception of Shauna) and could have been something great.
