| “ | I am tired, Abby. I don’t want to fight over land that I don’t give a fuck about anymore.
―Owen talking to Abby Anderson[1]
|
” |
Owen Moore was a supporting character in Abby's story and an antagonist in Ellie's story in The Last of Us Part II. He was a member of the Washington Liberation Front (WLF) and a former member of the Fireflies stationed in Salt Lake City, Utah. He dated Abby before dating Mel.[2]
Biography[]
Background and early life[]
Before joining the Washington Liberation Front, he worked as a Firefly soldier at the Salt Lake City outpost commanded by Dr. Jerry Anderson. In order to stay on the surgeon's good side while he dated his daughter Abby, Owen would apparently act "extra nice" to Jerry, and get nervous when he had to give out orders. In his spare time, Owen honed his skills as an artist, even sketching his then-girlfriend Abby and giving the charcoal drawing to her as a gift.[1]
In late April 2034, Owen found Abby and her father Jerry in the woods trying to free a zebra stuck in barbed wire. At Jerry's insistence, Owen helped them reunite the zebra with her newborn foal before bringing Abby and Jerry up to speed on the situation at the Fireflies' hospital: the girl Marlene kept talking about had shown up in the tunnels with an old bite mark and no signs of the Cordyceps brain infection. Incredulous, Jerry led the two young people back to St. Mary's Hospital. A few hours later, Owen and Manny Alvarez discovered Jerry's dead body on the floor of the operating room. When Abby arrived on the scene, Owen tried in vain to stop her from seeing her father's bloodied body, holding her as she broke down in tears.[1]
In the aftermath of Joel's choice, the Fireflies disbanded and scattered to other factions. Owen ended up regrouping with Abby, Manny, Mel, and Nora Harris in search of a new group to join. They eventually made their way to Seattle, Washington, and joined the Washington Liberation Front, dubbed as the Salt Lake crew.[1]
Soon after joining the WLF, Owen discovered the Seattle Waterfront Aquarium, which he claimed as his own during an outing with Abby.[3] At some point, he broke up with Abby for unspecified reasons, and began dating Mel sometime later.[4]
Finding Joel[]
Around December 2037, almost four years after the Fireflies disbanded and a year after Owen began dating Mel, Abby learned that Joel's brother Tommy was living in a settlement in Wyoming. Finally armed with a lead on Joel, Abby came to Owen's hideout at the aquarium to ask him to come with her and their friends to Wyoming, hoping to finally avenge the Fireflies in Salt Lake City. While Owen was somewhat hesitant, he agreed to come with her, and the group left for Wyoming with Isaac's permission.[2]
Owen and the group eventually reached Wyoming in March 2038, staying in the abandoned Baldwin mansion outside of Jackson. Around this time, Mel informed Owen that she was pregnant with his child, which they kept secret from the others. While out scouting early one morning, Owen spotted Jackson in the distance and realized that the community was much larger and better equipped than their group had expected. He quickly showed this to Abby, knowing the group, like himself, would want to turn back. He also revealed that he had gotten Mel pregnant. Frustrated and hurt, Abby scolded him and headed towards a nearby lookout, leaving Owen to return to their group.[2]
A few hours later, Abby returned on horseback along with two men, and a horde of infected in close pursuit. Owen and the rest of the group rushed out to help, slamming the mansion's gates closed and using guns and Molotovs to kill the swarm of runners. As they all headed inside, the strangers introduced themselves as Tommy and Joel Miller.
After getting the drop on the two brothers and subduing them, Owen stood by as Abby exacted her revenge upon Joel, eventually killing him. However, when Manny, Jordan, and Mel wanted to also kill Tommy and the teenage girl who had come looking for them, Owen argued with them, saying that killing two innocents would make them no better than Joel was. Abby agreed, and the group packed up and left.
Return to Seattle[]
A few weeks later, Owen returned with the others to Seattle. He became distant from his friends, avoiding Abby in the dining hall and purposely avoiding seeing Mel at all.[1]
Later, he went out on patrol with a WLF soldier named Danny. When faced with an old Seraphite who appeared exhausted and ready to die, Owen showed mercy. Danny ordered Owen to shoot him but he refused, saying he was done with killing Scars. The two got into a scuffle, which ended with Owen accidentally shooting Danny, and then fleeing to hide from the WLF. Danny made it back to the WLF's forward operating base (FOB) and died after telling their leader, Isaac, what Owen had done.[1]
After hearing this news from Isaac, Abby defied orders and found Owen hidden away on a sailboat outside of the aquarium. Owen explained his encounter with Danny to Abby, and told her that he was done with the war against the Seraphites. He informed Abby about the "lead" that there were Fireflies regrouping around Santa Barbara, California, and his plans to leave Seattle to find them. Abby rejected the idea, resulting in a heated argument that turned physical. However, the fighting quickly gave way to sex.[1]
The next morning, Abby left Owen to help save two apostate Seraphite teenagers, Lev and Yara, who had helped her escape the Seraphites the previous night. Yara's arm had been shattered by a Seraphite's hammer, leaving her vulnerable. When Abby returned with the teenagers, she discovered Mel and Alice had arrived while she was gone. As Mel assessed Yara's shattered arm, she concluded that she had to amputate it. Abby offered to retrieve medical supplies from the WLF's hospital, but Owen remarked that she would not make it back in time. He suggested cauterizing the wound, but Abby argued that Yara would just die from infection. Lev suggested using the Seraphite bridges high up in the city's skyscrapers to reach the WLF's hospital, a shortcut which would take only two hours. Passing through the Seraphite-controlled area left Owen concerned, but Abby moved to go anyway. While trying to unlock the door, Owen stated he wanted to talk about the previous night. Abby showed no interest and left with Lev.[4]
Hours later, when Abby returned with the supplies, she and Owen talked about how Yara and Lev reminded them of how they had been years ago.
The next day, Owen found Abby and Yara inside the aquarium's gift shop, and jokingly said that they were not allowed to take "his stuff". After Yara left to look for an upset Lev, Owen asked Abby if she was going to come along for the journey to Santa Barbara. Abby explained that the conflict between her and Mel was too much to handle, but Owen insisted that they could figure out their love triangle. Their conversation was interrupted when Lev stole a boat to return to the Seraphite island to see his mother. Owen explained that it would still take a few more hours for him to fix the sailboat, so Abby and Yara decided to go on their own. Owen tried to leave with Abby, much to Mel's displeasure. Abby ordered Owen to stay put and work on the boat until she retrieved Lev.[5]
When nightfall drew and Abby hadn't returned, Owen wanted to go after her, but Mel disapproved, both out of anger toward Abby and fear of going to the island. Owen told Mel to just go back to the WLF if she really felt that way. Their argument was interrupted, however, when Ellie, the girl from Jackson, appeared in the room and held the two at gunpoint. Ellie asked about Abby's whereabouts. Mel wanted to know if Ellie would spare them, but Owen said that if they disclosed that information she would kill them both. Ellie decided to test them by asking them to each point to where Abby was located, using her map of Seattle. Mel agreed, causing a brief argument between her and Owen. He approached Ellie, telling her that she did not have to do this, but Ellie aimed her gun at him told him to stay back. When Ellie asked Mel for Abby's location a second time and then a third, to no avail, Ellie pointed her gun at Mel, causing Owen to panic and try to disarm Ellie. Ellie punched Owen, and then shot him in the chest. Mel tried to attack Ellie, as well, but was quickly disarmed and stabbed in the neck. In his final moments, Owen, choking on his own blood, informed Ellie that Mel was pregnant. Owen then bled out and died.[6]
Later, when Abby returned to the aquarium with Lev (Yara had died on the island), she found the bodies of Alice, Mel, and Owen. Abby, in distress, vomited and cried. Lev, however, found a map their killer had left behind, and the two embarked on a mission to find those responsible and avenge Owen's and Mel's deaths.[5]
Legacy[]
Abby and Lev chose to follow Owen's dream, and traveled in his sailboat to Santa Barbara to look for the Fireflies. Abby even took Owen's backpack to use as her own, having lost her other one on the Seraphite's island. Owen turned out to be correct; while the Fireflies had left Santa Barbara itself, they had begun regrouping and were stationed on Catalina Island. While journeying to Santa Barbara, Abby brought with her Owen's Firefly pendant, which was still on board her sailing boat when Ellie came across it.[7]
Personality and traits[]
Contrasting Abby's pessimism, Owen was an optimist. Having not succumbed to the horrors of the post-apocalyptic world, Owen was hopeful that he would find the remaining Fireflies in Santa Barbara, hoping to no longer fight the WLF's war since he saw it as "pointless."[1] He believed he could create a better life for him and his friends through means beyond fighting and dismissed ideas of accepting the violent order within the WLF.[3]
Owen avoided killing where possible, always seeking to only harm people in self-defense. Even with enemies like the Seraphites, Owen did not take pleasure in killing them if they chose not to fight back, demonstrated when he spared one elderly Seraphite and eventually abandoned the WLF to avoid participating in the war.[1] He also successfully argued in favor of sparing Ellie and Tommy, even though Manny, Jordan, and Mel insisted on killing them in Jackson.[2] He believed people could change and improve, insisting Abby was capable of bettering herself following her mistakes and remaining a good person despite how hardened years of fighting for the WLF had made her.[1]
However, Owen's optimism led him to continue hoping Abby would want to restart a romantic relationship with him despite him having formed a new relationship with Mel, which generated intense friction between the trio.[3] This culminated in him having an affair with Abby, which only worsened the strained relationship between the pair.[1] In spite of this, Owen still protected Mel when Ellie attacked them at the aquarium, though he was reckless, choosing to try to disarm Ellie rather than deescalate the situation by informing her of Mel's pregnancy, leading to his death.[6]
Owen is the only member of Abby's group in the lodge to have shown sympathy for his enemies, which makes him indirectly responsible for the deaths of Abby's group, including himself.[2] He convinced them to spare Ellie and Tommy, who would eventually kill the entire group, with the exception of Abby herself.[6][7]
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 "Seattle Day 1"
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 "Jackson"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Naughty Dog, The Art of The Last of Us Part II, (Oregon: Dark Horse Books, 2020)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Seattle Day 2"
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Seattle Day 3"
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 "Seattle Day 3"
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Santa Barbara"
