A lot of people tend to think that AZ and his Floette are incomplete because AZ's Floette never fell into our hands. It has never made an official release to the player in any mainline Pokemon game. This was despite data for Floette-Eternal existing throughout all of the 3DS titles, Eternal Floette receiving a dex entry for USUM, and it having a unique signature move with visible updates in USUM. I'm here to claim that Gamefreak's failure to release AZ's Eternal Floette was a great thing that shows Gamefreak caring about the Pokemon lore at least somewhat.
Let me explain:
AZ was gifted a Floette from his mother when he was young. He loved this Floette very much and wanted to cherish it for the rest of his life. As far as we know, there was never any disconnection between AZ and his Floette during this time period. Unfortunately Kalos was in a war and Floette was forcibly taken by AZ's own soldiers to fight off in it. In the matter of years, AZ's Floette had died in that war. AZ was immensely overwhelmed with grief. He held upmost passion and love for the Pokemon while it was alive. He was willing to do anything he could just to be with it again... From there, he had an idea. AZ built a machine and used special stones around him to steal the life energy of countless Pokemon surrounding it. That load of life energy was then used to power-up the machine and restore Floette back to life. The exposure to excess life energy in the process made AZ and his undead Floette immortal. AZ was relieved of the revival, but the grief he felt for his most beloved Pokemon did not end. He wanted vengeance on all the people and Pokemon responsible for Floette's death. AZ transformed the machine into a weapon and used the remaining life energy to fire off a large beam into the world, effectively ending the war.
AZ's Floette must have figured out that the lives of many Pokemon had to be taken in order for its own life to be restored. It felt disgusted by how AZ would mistreat so many Pokemon like this, even if it were for the sake of itself. As a result, Floette made the decision to leave AZ and never return until the very day AZ learned to care for Pokemon as a whole again.
AZ immediately felt longing regret for firing his weapon and had it buried with the hopes that nobody would ever try to use it again. He then went on a 3000-year journey in search for the lost Floette. Based on AZ's character, Bulbapedia believes he was based off the
Wandering Jew legend. If we take from this, we can presume that AZ primarily spent the next 3000 years wandering around the world, searching anywhere for his Floette. In XY, that Floette was mostly all he could ever think about, and he was still going after all of these years. He was immensely dedicated to searching for the beloved Floette he revived, but he was also a mere shell of a man by this point. AZ looks and acts as if like he gave up on everything in life a while back and is just wallowing about in pure misery. All he wanted in life was that Floette back. No other Floette could he accept. Nothing more off life he could accept. Just that one single Floette. Maybe some day... AZ could find it again.
The events of XY were pretty strange for AZ's life. Apparently this time there exists a person who acknowledges the weapon and has the scientific tools he needs to gather resources for its reawakening. This person is the long descendent of AZ's brother, who helped AZ build the weapon 3000 back. They were given the name Lysandre. Lysandre was about to force AZ to witness events he wished would never reoccur, and he was left wandering helplessly until the player and their group of friends stopped them. It wasn't just that they stopped Lysandre, but that they used special bonds they've made with their own Pokemon through battle in order to do so. AZ watched to realize how five random kids used their committed ties to various Pokemon in order to accomplish saving the world. AZ soon learned that these kids would call themselves Pokemon Trainers and the source of their strong bonds were battles their Pokemon would participate with them in. He also learned that these Pokemon would be placed in Poke Balls whenever they were not being used and that those Poke Balls were their home. I speculate that sometime after the event of XY's climax, AZ went out to find three distinct Pokemon and catch them. He would then befriend those Pokemon all the way and possibly even train them for battle. By the time he was done, the player already became Champion of Kalos.
A ceremony was held for you and your friends for saving the entire world. In that ceremony, AZ himself arrived, and he challenged you to a battle. This was the first Pokemon battle he has ever had against a trainer. He wants to know what a Pokemon Trainer is and how they work. He has three Pokemon on his team, all knowing the move Return, to indicate high-friendship and AZ's complete change in character. Through battle, the player shows him how being a Pokemon trainer works, and AZ
finally starts caring for Pokemon as a whole again. He feels completely relieved from his grief, and the part of him that fired the ultimate weapon in the first place. From there, his Floette made a very sudden return, for reasons unexplained through dialogue but visually pointed out in blatant levels. All Floette wanted was for AZ to care for Pokemon, not just itself. They were both very happily reunited and the plot of XY ends here.
Why did I write all of this?
I need to greatly emphasize that the level of dedication this man had for his Floette is unparalleled and unmatched by ANY other we have seen in the entire series. AZ's product even accidentally created Mega Evolution, a mechanic that emphasizes even further on having significant ties to Pokemon. Eternal Floette to fall into our hands after this entire event ruins the entire point of AZ's redemption and the value of AZ's bond with his Floette. It would have massively disrespected the entire Kalos lore and given a middle finger to all of its most important aspects. AZ was essentially a folklore that gave others an example of what to and not to do with Pokemon, and we can see him as a good role model for this.
The only reason we want this Pokemon is because it's a unique forme of a good design that was left in the game's data. There's not even a reason for us to have it. Xerneas overshadows Eternal Floette in many ways, Magearna-Original was created as a piece directly inspired by Kalos lore, and Florges is a viable evolution of regular Floette with BST scaled specifically to be higher than Eternal Floette's. Eternal Floette's signature move is also incredibly risky and would lead it to being meh in competitive compared to Florges.
I get we're greedy and want everything we possibly could for ourselves when it comes to Pokemon, even when there's no real reason or merit to having something, but us obtaining this Floette devalues the entire lore behind Kalos and redemptions AZ made in order to reunite with his beloved. It's like ripping Cynthia from her Garchomp for no reason, but millions of times worse. We haven't truly done anything to warrant breaking the connection between him and his Floette, nor have we made any specific bonds with said Floette. Floette still deeply cared for AZ based on the timing of its return, it just wanted to see him change back into his old, caring self.
