The Unbound discussion

Did Owen deserve his fate?

I do not blame him for trying to bring his sister back, or for trying to change the Archive. It is corrupted, yes, but the way he went about trying to change it, to take it down like that, the callous cruelty he inflicted upon innocent people, was wrong. I cannot say he was undeserving in what happened to him.

Do you think that was the only way that he knew how to fix the system? There really is so much left unsaid about Owen. I don't think that he believed that he was doing anything that was wrong. He saw himself as a savior. Do you think that he may have had legit feelings for Mackenzie despite how sickening that they may have been? He was stuck on being partners with her after all. Why not choose someone willing to be at his disposal if he didn't care about her at all? Why not just kill her? If he was given a novella in his POV I wonder how differently readers would perceive him. I'm not defending him. I'm analyzing him. Readers really don't know what his mentality is. We don't know his background or what he's been through. If his plan had succeeded, how would he be looked at? How differently would readers look at him if he had been the protagonist?

He is a clever person, I am sure he could have thought of another way. He was trying to destroy the Archive, not really save it, and he was doing it out of selfishness, not the desire to save or help others. I think that readers would have had more sympathy for him if he was the protagonist, but he is still a selfish, cruel person. That does not change.

He was cruel but only because He was avenging his sister. He didn't want anymore histories to go crazy. He wanted a world where the living and the dead could coexist or at least where the living could visit the dead. Yeah, that totally unhealthy but he clearly was beyond reason. He didn't want anyone else to suffer like he did because of his sister's fate. The same fate that happens to everyone in the world of this series. Yeah, he went about things the wrong way but I just don't see him as selfish. He was trying to save the histories and help the suffering living. He was very misguided and delusional though. He saw what he did as the greater good. I agree that the end doesnt justify the means. Yes, there were other ways the handle the Archive but he saw himself as the lesser of two evils so he believed in his own self-righteousness. He was the vigilante against the Archive which plays God. I don't agree with the way that he went about it though.

I think Owen is clever enough that he could have found a better way. A much better way! And so, yes I think he got what he deserved. And I never believed he ever really cared for MacKenzie; he just wanted her to believe that so he could carry out his scheme.

True we don't really know a lot about him and other things he's been through, but still...He's better than that, being how smart he is even if he was evil. He's no dummy.