Our resistance, 'The Forest Owls', will be forever known in the pages of Timber's independence! Exciting, huh? It all started when we got a hold of top-secret info from Galbadia.
Zone
The Forest Owls are a resistance group trying to free the small nation Timber from the tyranny of the Galbadian Republic in Final Fantasy VIII. Run by a group of teenagers, their headquarters is a yellow train in Timber. While there are six members seen in the game, the Owls are primarily led by Zone. Watts acts as a second-in-command, and Rinoa Heartilly is a top strategist, nicknamed the "Princess".
The Forest Owls cooperate with two other resistance groups, the Forest Fox, led by an elderly woman, and The Forest Duck, with only one member.
Story[]
As newly-appointed SeeDs, Squall, Selphie, and Zell's first contract is to assist the Forest Owls "until Timber gains its independence". With the inclusion of the SeeD members, the group plans to capture the Galbadian President Vinzer Deling with a risky train-swapping mission. After having switched trains, and replacing the president's car with their own with a fake Deling, they discover the President they've captured is a body double.
With the Galbadian army now searching for them the members split up, with Zone and Watts pairing off together and Rinoa going with the SeeDs. Rinoa wants them to hijack the newly-activated Timber TV Station to broadcast a message of sedition, and the SeeDs reluctantly go along, but once it becomes clear the area is heavily-guarded the plan is abandoned. The Forest Owls' train headquarters is destroyed by the Galbadian army, and the members go into hiding. Rinoa leaves with the SeeDs and Watts and Zone end up on the White SeeD Ship. What becomes of the Forest Owls after this is unknown.
Musical themes[]
"Timber Owls" is the song for the Forest Owls resistance group.
Behind the scenes[]
If the player gives the wrong password when getting off the train, Watts will almost get hit by the Forest Owls' train and fall over, and Zone will yell at him for standing in front of the train. Squall and his party run over Watts and board the train, Watts moves and is left behind when the train leaves, running after it.
The player can give "But the moogles are still around" as the wrong password. This is one of three instances in the game where moogles are mentioned in dialogue in Final Fantasy VIII, other ones being Selphie's encounter with a chef in Balamb harbor later on, and one of the basketball team names in Trabia.