I knew I shouldn’t have said that.
Hoothoot and Noctowl? Well, I love that they were trying. An owl is a bird with enough nice symbolic associations and cultural backstory that they don’t just come across as “oh, look, another Pidgeotto” which is what they could so easily have been. The strong connection with time and timekeeping is a nice addition to the traditional ‘wisdom’ thing that owls have going, although other than that they’re basically just owls who happen to have a few minor Psychic abilities. As design goes, I’ve seen much worse.
It’s just a shame they’re so terrible. I suppose if you focus heavily on Noctowl’s special defence, and then give him Reflect to cover him from Physical attacks, he’s pretty tough, and then you can muck around with all those nice support moves he gets, like Hypnosis and Tailwind. It’s cool that he can get Nightshade as an egg move, so he doesn’t have to rely on his… depressing offensive stats. Noctowl could really use a few more points in physical defence, and some more thematically appropriate support moves… think we could get away with Will’o’Wisp?
Pokémaniacal 