Owen (Total Drama)
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Owen |
| Occupation: | |
| Relationships: | Noah (Total Drama) (friend) Izzy (Total Drama) (ex) Justin (Total Drama) (acquaintance; one-sided crush on Owen's end) |
| Fandom: | Total Drama |
| Other: |  Absolute Bi Unit by rhodochrosite-love |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Owen is a contestant on Total Drama. He is a prominent character within the series and popular with fans. As of October 2023, he is the ninth most fanwork'd character from Total Drama as a whole on Archive of Our Own. Other places where fandom lives place him on the same level of prominence.
Canon Overview
[characterization, story role, further important appearances]
TBA
Popular Tropes & Fanon
- Bisexual!Owen
All of the above are wrangled tags on Archive of Our Own. Other places where fandom lives may portray Owen with one or all of these attributes. Autistic!Owen is rare, though not unheard of.
Owen's Fanon Personal Name is often Waterflower. This comes from Total Drama Comeback, though Fannish Drift means much of Total Drama fandom do not know this is where the name came from. In Island of the Slaughtered, his last name is Burnham. In Total Roblox Drama, he is called Big-O. Fans may call him this outside of the Roblox fangame, though it should be noted that this is what Izzy also calls him throughout the series.
His appreciation days are January 11th (in Chefhatchet's Appreciation Calendar) and July 8th (in Ace-TD's Mega Character Appreciation List).
Subjects of Fannish Interest & Meta
"It was never discussed in the room. Ever."?
Terry McGurrin, a prominent writer for the Total Drama series, is noted as saying this on Twitter in response to a question regarding Owen[1]. Although this response confirmed Owen is not Bisexual, it may be cited in some Total Drama fan circles as proof that he is[2][3]. More than any other Total Drama character, Owen is commonly confused for being canonically Bisexual given his obvious attraction to Justin during Island[4]. In a poll on the Total Drama subreddit regarding his sexuality, often considered to lean less on queer headcanon as opposed to Tumblr and Archive of Our Own, 68% of respondents said he's Bisexual[5]. In responses, the options for "Straight" and "Pansexual" were practically tied. Straight interpretations may be disliked in some circles[6].
[Terry McGurrin @standupmonkey]
It was never discussed in the room. Ever. So, no. But I did reply to someone a few months ago on here[7] that thinking of Owen’s character as bi does feel right to me. He just seems like someone who wouldn’t let gender be a deciding factor in who he fell in love with.1:19 PM · Jun 3, 2023
[Twitter User #1]
I fully agree as someone who firmly headcanons that Owen is bi1:20 PM · Jun 3, 2023
Owen, the unlovable "Fart Monster"?
To put things simply, Owen's weight is often used for comedy in Total Drama. As his personality is more childlike than other prominent characters, such as Courtney and Duncan, there's less in-depth fanfiction and meta for him than other contestants. Fatphobia regarding his character in Fannish circles is not to be discredited. In Total Drama fan circles which skew young, such as TikTok, it's common for inflammatory fans to hate on his character. Example TikTok post:
This lack of fanfiction and meta for Owen extends to shipping. Aside from Noah and Izzy, Owen is rarely shipped with anyone. This has been the case since Total Drama debuted in 2007 and is still largely the case as of 2023. Some discussion may echo larger discussion surrounding potentially Autistic characters in fandom.
people like 3 years ago used to uwu-ify owen bc he’s fat but in the actual shows he’s literally a horny gremlin, always cracking sex jokes, lost two challenges bc he was making out with izzy, made a bet with cody getting gwen’s bra, he flirted with milfdred, always walking around bear (lol) naked i know he fucked that damn coconut[9]
Because Owen parodies a somewhat unique collection of attributes, (fat, possibly Autistic, possibly Bisexual,) he is well-liked by many fans despite falling into stereotypes regarding these sorts of characters in media.
...Ok, that's great and all, but doesn't Owen have his penis modeled for the show in Flash?
Yes.
my worst tweet yet; Owen from Total Drama Island actually has a penis asset drawn for him that was always hidden in the show. I discovered this by decompiling the Totally Interactive and Flight Simmerator games into FLA, finding this discovery[10]
Another fan documented themselves confirming that what CornmacOlive Tweeted was true on Tumblr[11]. This finding may be alluded to in some fan circles as forbidden Total Drama knowledge, and was even featured in Unironicduncanstan's Total Drama Iceberg in 2021.
Relationships
Very Rough Estimation of Relationships with Owen in Fanworks on FanFiction.Net as of April 17th, 2024.[Notes 1]
Relationships with Gwen in Fanworks on Archive of Our Own as of April 10th, 2024.[Notes 2]
This is purposefully an incomplete list.
| With... | Full Label | Type | Portmanteau | Information | % on FFN[Notes 3] | % on AO3[Notes 3] |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Noah | Noah/Owen | Slash | Nowen | (Seen on its page.) | 9.6 | 11.5 |
| Noah | Noah & Owen | Gen | n/a | Works may focus on their canonical friendship. Others are friends to lovers. | 26.0 | 17.1 |
| Izzy | Izzy/Owen | Het | Ozzy | (Seen on its page.) | 15.3 | 14.2 |
| Izzy | Izzy & Owen | Gen | n/a | n/a | 13.0 | 0.9 |
| Eva; Izzy; Noah | Team E-Scope + Owen | Gen | n/a | (Seen on its page) | 0 | 2.3 |
| Cody | Cody & Owen | Gen | n/a | n/a | 0 | 0.4 |
| Duncan | Duncan & Owen | Gen | n/a | n/a | 6.2 | 0.5 |
| Duncan | Duncan/Owen | Slash | Duncowen | n/a | 0 | 0.4 |
| Gwen | Gwen & Owen | Gen | n/a | Both were finalists of Island and shared a duet in World Tour after Izzy broke up with Owen. | 9.0 | 0 |
| Kitty | Kitty & Owen | Gen | n/a | n/a | 0 | 0.5 |
| Kitty | Kitty/Owen | Het | n/a | Pairing Emma's sister with Noah's best friend. A companion pairing to the canonical Emma/Noah. | 6.2 | 0 |
| Lindsay | Lindsay/Owen | Het | Owinsey | n/a | 0 | 0 |
| Alejandro | Alejandro & Owen | Gen | n/a | n/a | 0 | 0.7 |
| Justin | Justin/Owen | Slash | n/a | Owen canonically has a crush on Justin[Notes 4]. | 0 | 0 |
| Mr. Coconut | Mr. Coconut/Owen | Cargo | n/a | "Mr. Coconut" was a coconut Owen got very attached to during Island. | 0 | 0 |
Example/Notable Fanac
Fan Communities/Fan Events
- Owen and Lindsay ♥, Archived version, a community on Fanpop.
Fan Art
- Total Drama Pride Month Collab.
- day 27 - owen :-) by dailytd, Archived version, Owen drawn on a boat looking at the ocean.
Fan Fic
- An Ogwen Moment by The Lightning Knight, [Unable to archive] an English one-shot for Gwen/Owen on FanFiction.Net.
- Unexpected Reassurance by ewisko, [Unable to archive] an English one-shot for Gwen&Owen. Friendship fics are more common for Owen than other contestants.
- A Disney World Date With Kitten by NintenDolphin, [Unable to archive] a Kitty/Owen Double date fic at Disneyworld with Emma/Noah.
General Fanworks
Fan Vids
- You Reposted In The Wrong Owen by Alexa_TD, Archived version, a YTPMV featuring Owen clips.
Meta
- Unpopular opinion: Owen winning TDI actually has a valuable message that is overlooked by phantom_avenger, Archived version, a slideshow on Reddit.
Notes
- ^ Pie chart considers each relationship as if it was an individual fanwork. "Other" also appears smaller in percentage than in reality and may even list negative values. Results obtained by searching for both characters tagged either under the "romance" category or excluding the "romance" category for Gen stats. See here for more up-to-date information.
- ^ Pie chart considers each tagged relationship as if it was an individual fanwork. "Other" also appears smaller in percentage than in reality and may even list negative values. See here for more up-to-date information.
- ^ a b "0" does not necessarily mean the relationship is non-existent on the platform, just that it's not one of the character's top 20 tagged relationships/was otherwise not calculated.
- ^ Although this is not earnestly shipped by many fans, it's often brought up whenever discussing queer/LGBT content on the show itself and how the fandom discusses it.
References/Further Reading
- ^ It was never discussed in the room. Ever. So, no., Archived version
- ^ terry mcgurrin said (on twitter) that "owen would not let gender affect who he's attracted to" and "owen being bi just feels right to me" when asked if owen is bi. take that as you will, Archived version, submitted to real-total-drama-takes
- ^ I think Owen was confirmed bi on twitter, but other than him, Bowie, and Raj, I don’t think any other characters have a confirmed sexuality, so you can just do whatever with everyone else., Archived version, submitted to real-total-drama-takes
- ^ i hate that people forget that owen is canonically bi, Archived version, submitted to real-total-drama-takes
- ^ What do we think Owen sexuality is?, Archived version
- ^ Why i think we SHOULDN'T get confirmations on the older casts., Archived version
- ^ likely this, Archived version Tweet, directly archived here, Archived version
- ^ Owen is an annoying, fart monster, a wannabe, zesty, Archived version posted August 15th, 2023 to TikTok
- ^ people like 3 years ago used to uwu-ify owen bc he’s fat, Archived version posted August 6th, 2023 to real-total-drama-takes
- ^ my worst tweet yet, Archived version posted August 19th, 2019 to Twiter
- ^ owen total drama has an actual penis design. he has an actual penis. yes, i know this is a hard pill to swallow and believe, but it’s one you’ll have to accept., Archived version