Sorry this took me so long to respond to! My brain has been really mushy lately so I'll try to do my best to explain my thoughts but they're so many and Owen is so..... so much. He's so.

I think the "core" that makes Owen Owen is his child-like sense of wonder. That sounds really weird but hear me out.

From the beginning Owen has always liked talking about other people more than he's liked talking about himself. He asks prying questions, almost rapid-fire, as soon as they pop into his head. "What if I was your enemy? What if I was your lover? How would you react to this? How would that make you feel?" he's constantly trying to learn about other people. He's constantly taking cues from the world around him. The biggest problem is.... he's incredibly stunted, and for hundreds of years he took cues from animals and the North. Because people wouldn't teach him anything. Because people rejected him, and the only social interactions he received were negative ones because he's a wizard. Humans feared and reviled him, and wizards either saw him as competition or food.

But at his core Owen wants to believe in the goodness of people, which is why he's so drawn to Cain and the entire concept of knights, and why he's so upset when Cain wavers even though he says that he WANTS him to waver. He doesn't actually understand what he wants. And how could he? He's never had a solid sense of who he should be, what he CAN be, what he's allowed to be outside of "a wizard who is evil".

The childlike wonder isn't always positive though... or rather it's not always innocent. It can also manifest in the kind of behavior you'd expect from some kind of bully, or a kid with a magnifying glass. He wants reactions out of people, he wants them to pay attention to him, he wants to have an impact on them. He really loves people...... but he's really messed up about them. He can't accept this part of himself either because it goes against everything he's "supposed" to be. So it's frustrating and embarrassing like, how could he BE this needy? He's stated that he hates the part of himself that feels needy, or wants comfort. I think that's one of the reasons he really hates Kizu too. Kizu has no self control, Kizu will beg for comfort and demand attention. Kizu is the embodiment of neediness.

But I'm getting a little off-topic. The core is just his childishness, and I love him for it. I love that needy part of himself that told the Sage he doesn't have friends and implored them with "Don't leave me. Don't abandon the pathetic me." He played it off like he was just being a creep, but there was a truth to those words. Akira identified it, and so did Cain.