>>39498253The following text was posted long before 7th gen:
>The first real solid draft for XY's plotline had a strong paranormal bent, and was quite unlike anything seen in Pokemon, involving actual aliens. The main plot would involve Team Flare, whose appearance was originally intended to bring to mind classic "M.I.B."-type characters, aliens posing as weird, unorthodox humans, slowly overtaking Kalos society and plotting to destroy the Earth. Sycamore and Lysandre at one point were the same character, the former being a scientist who was exposed to a space rock, with the Lysandre-half being when the alien's leader takes control of him. Looker also had a bigger role, investigating the aliens during the main plot.>AZ was also intended to be one of these aliens, who had traveled to Earth in the past in order to destroy it due to the violent war that was occurring, but had a change of heart meeting Floette. Living in exile on Earth as a wanderer, as he aged slower than normal humans, the plot would've had Team Flare searching for him since he holds the key to the super-weapon that can destroy Earth, like in the final version, but in this version was the flower the special Floette holds, as the two were not separated in this version but remained friends.>This drafted plot was deemed a bit too weird, and the paranormal elements were rewrote into more mystical elements, which were then further scaled back due to development time ending up focused more so on the 3D models and other features as opposed to plot elements. For instance, right up until the end, the plot point of Lysandre being Sycamore's alter-ego (although simply a disguise as opposed to alien possession), as opposed to his college buddy, was still planned but they were eventually cut into two separate characters. 