Hoothoot and Noctowl

We've seen our early-game mammal, and now we come to the early-game bird! Hoothoot actually has my favorite design of any normal/flying pokemon, if not my favorite design of almost any bird pokemon, and I think we can owe most of that to its kickass red eyes, surrounded by those cog-like black markings and clock-hand-looking feather tufts. Coupled with the spherical body, tiny wings and the single foot it stands on (canonically, it does have another that it tucks into its feathers), Hoothoot is an extremely stylish, iconic and memorable cartoon owl with just a hint of Halloween spookiness, perfect for a witchy sorcery-themed team.

We're gonna give Hoothoot itself a nice fat four!

...But then, Hoothoot evolves, and all the fun gets sucked out of it. Noctowl is a competent design if you want a realistic, menacing owl pokemon, but it's just not what we sign up for when we start training Hoothoot, is it? What happened to the gothic clock-owl aesthetic? That was awesome! I'd have absolutely loved to see an expansion on that!

You're a good owl, Noctowl, but you're just no Hoothoot.

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