Transgender male character Lev was the unlikely hero in The Last of Us Part II. Will he return as the protagonist in the sequel?
There was a lot of speculation that Abby was trans and that she’d be taking over as the new protagonist in The Last of Us, but as it turns out the leaks were actually about Lev… and he might actually be the protagonist in the next sequel.
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Remember the leaks that mentioned a trans male character and a homophobic religious cult? Well, naturally, due to Abby’s buff physique a lot of people, including us, naturally assumed that she’d be the trans character, but, oh boy, were we wrong.
However, the leaks weren’t entirely wrong. The initial leak was re-written from memory after it appeared on Reddit before being taken down by Sony for a DMCA notice. It was then re-written by memory and posted on 4chan where it went viral.
Subvert your expectation and invert the reality: Lev is the new Ellie and Abby is the new Joel.
The leak got so many things right including the ending and some of the game’s biggest twists. It also mentioned that the new protagonist was trans and escaped from a homophobic religious cult.
Despite Neil Druckmann claiming this is false, anybody that has now played the game from beginning to end can confirm that there is indeed a trans male character who had to escape from a bigoted cult… it just wasn’t Abby.
Lev is a trans male character who was about to get quartered by his former gang, a bigoted cult called the Seraphites, for shaving his head and identifying as a male. What a lot of people don’t know is that Lev plays a much bigger role in the game than Abby. He might actually be the next protagonist and the new Ellie in The Last of Us Part III.
Lev the Golden Child
There is something special about Lev that makes Abby abandon everything; her friends, family, gang, and even her own mission. The second she meets Lev, Abby immediately transforms and her primary goal becomes to keep him alive, no matter the cost.
Even Ellie, Dina, and their child all owe their lives to Lev. If it wasn’t for him demanding that Abby show them mercy, she would have slit Dina’s throat and smashed Ellie’s face to pieces.
Furthermore, it remains a complete mystery why both Lev and Abby were caught in the end. What is clear, though, is that Ellie’s failed revenge plot truly serves as their Dues Ex Machina which allowed for the continuation of their story. If Ellie hadn’t have showed up and cut them down and ultimately spared Abby they would have died.
Lev is like The Golden child and might be the main protagonist (a la Ellie) in The Last of Us Part III.
Lev, in a sense, is the Golden Child of The Last of Us Part II.
As the Joel ad Ellie story came to a sad and tragic end with Ellie seemingly giving up on avenging her surrogate father, it leaves the a new story and new relationship to be explored… the one between Lev and Abby.
It really seems as Naughty Dog was trying to create the inverse of the Joel and Ellie story and that The Last of Us Part II was to create the origin story of a new surrogate mother/son relationship with Abby and Lev.
Would you be excited to play The Last of Us Part III if Lev was the main new protagonist of the series? Let us know in the comments below.