>>54840480The change wasn't about making him look 'better' - it was about changing Blaine in general once his motif was removed. The original Blaine was supposed to be some sort of resistance leader - his gym was going to be filled with holes from where he would supposedly have been setting off mines and shit, and he was going to be a bit of a psychotic pyromaniac. When they got rid of his military motif, they used the scrapped Silph Co. Chief sprite for him instead and mellowed him out a bit.
>>54840572>And it ties nicely to the fact he used to be a scientist who worked on the now abandoned lab, secret identity and all that.That didn't get added until FireRed and Leafgreen - in the original games, there's nothing at all to indicate he had any involvement with Mewtwo or that he was ever a scientist at all beyond his sprite (which, as we know, wasn't originally planned to be his). Him being a scientist didn't become a thing until almost 8 years after the fact, and was retconned in specifically BECASUE he was now using a scientist's sprite. It was never part of his planned backstory until then.
