Leif

Leif, later known as Lily Plantar, is a major character of Amphibia, being the indirect catalyst of the series' events. She was an old friend of King Andrias and Barrel as well as the head gardener of Newtopia who, after foreseeing an apocalyptic future for Amphibia, stole the Calamity Box away from Newtopia and hid it on Earth, leading the ruling newts to begin the oppression of frogs which lasted for a millenium. After leaving the box on Earth, Leif returned to Amphibia, but knowing that she could not return to the kingdom with Andrias and Barrel, she decided to start a new life, changing her identity to Lily Plantar, founding Wartwood and living there, and marrying a native farmer, thus becoming the founder of the Plantar family.

In her later years, she watched her family and Wartwood grow and her husband die, but never forgot about her adventures with Andrias and Barrel. Before she died, she wrote a letter to Andrias, telling him what happened to her after their last meeting and asking him to open his heart to others instead of closing it. The letter would reach Andrias more than 1000 years later through Sprig Plantar, a distant descendant of Leif.

Appearance

Body

Leif was a female reddish frog with pink under color and orange hair.

Clothing

She had a light brown cowl and a darker brown-red dress and a leaf brooch on her hood.

Personality

Leif was a playful, sweet frog. She enjoyed the company of King Andrias and Barrel. She liked to playfully tease Andrias and have fun with her friends. Initially, Leif supported the idea of invading other worlds until she received a nightmarish vision upon touching the stones of the Calamity Box. After this and because of her status as a gardener, Leif's views changed. She came to believe that using the box to invade other worlds was upsetting the ecosystem of the multiverse. When King Aldrich and Andrias refused to take her warnings seriously, this ultimately led her to "betraying" her former friend Andrias by stealing the Calamity Box to save Amphibia. However, Leif ultimately regretted her action to take matters into her own hands as she knew Andrias was trying to live up to his ancestors' legacy while being under pressure of it.

Though Leif was guilty over breaking off and sacrificing her friendship with Andrias and Barrel, Leif did not let her sadness consume her and instead looked for new outcomes in life where she eventually got married and started a family. Leif even kept her positive memories of her friends as she lived her new life and by the time she was of old age, she wrote Andrias a letter to let him know she still loved him despite everything that happened between them. Unfortunately, her actions led to a self-fulfilling prophecy that nearly caused Amphibia's destruction. However, her actions also led to the Calamity Trio coming to Amphibia, ending the Leviathan family's tyranny for good, and one of the prophesied heroes, Anne Boonchuy, destroying the Core as well where Leif’s actions not only doomed her world, but eventually saved it in the end.

Background

Friendship with Andrias and Barrel

Leif spent most of her time with her friends, Prince Andrias and toad warrior Barrel the Brave while being the caretaker for Newtopia Castle's underground garden.^[3][4] One day, Andrias presented her and Barrel their official portrait to celebrate the latter being appointed as leader for the next invasion.^[3]

A warning from the Calamity Box

After Andrias discussed with his father about the impending invasion, he showed Barrel and Leif the chamber that held the Calamity Box. While playing around with the box, Leif eventually pressed all three gems, which gave her a vision of Amphibia's dark future, resulting in the destruction of Amphibia itself if Newtopia continued to misuse the power of the box. She then tried to convince King Aldrich to halt the invasion towards Earth, but failed to do so as the King stated that she was just as weak-willed as the Olms and stated that his people were destined to conquer.^[3]

Stealing the Calamity Box

Having had no choice, she stole the box and escaped from Newtopia to see the mother of Olms for guidance. After a while, she made her way to Earth and left the box there. She also left behind a record of the prophecy in an ancient vase, depicting her arrival and encounter with the Vikings to guide the three chosen ones to seek Mother Olm.^[3]

Starting a new life

After leaving the box on Earth, Leif decided to return to Amphibia, however, she knew that because of her actions she could never return to the kingdom with her old friends, this led her to start a new life. Leif changed her identity to a new one, calling herself Lily Plantar. Although she was afraid of change and found it hard to open her heart to others, she managed to do so, founding a small town called Wartwood, where she met a farmer with whom she would end up marrying and starting a new family, the Plantar family. Over the years she saw her small town and family grow, but she could never forget Andrias or Barrel, and instead remembered them fondly.^[5]

Last letter and death

Shortly before she died, she decided to write Andrias a letter, telling him everything that had happened to her after she left the box on Earth, and asking him not to close himself to others, but instead to open and follow his heart. After writing the letter, she hid it in her room, where it lay untouched for 1000 years.^[6][5] Leif died with the hope that her letter would one day reach Andrias.^[5]

Legacy

The Plantar family continued with new descendants, who even became scientists and warriors.^[7] From his part, Andrias was still waiting for the box to return to Amphibia as stipulated in a prophecy,^[3] in order to continue the conquest to other worlds, while working under the orders of the Core.^[4] Several years later, the box that had been hidden by herself on Earth was found in a thrift store by the human Marcy Wu, who alerted its presence to her friends Anne Boonchuy and Sasha Waybright,^[8][4] and the three were teleported to Amphibia via the box.^[9] Anne ended up in Wartwood, where she was taken in by her family, then consisting of Hop Pop Plantar, Sprig Plantar, and Polly Plantar,^[10] Sasha ended up in the Toad Tower,^[9] where the Toads continued the warrior legacy of her former friend Barrel,^[11] and Marcy ended up in her former home Newtopia, with her former friend and now king, Andrias,^[12][5] who upon learning of the arrival of the three girls, began the search for the box. Andrias managed to get the box back and when it was finally recharged, he began to execute his plan to conquer other worlds, leading to the fact that part of the prophecies that Leif saw began to come true.^{[4][13][14][5]}

After Andrias has started his invasion on Earth, and in the middle of a battle between him and Anne, Sprig delivers and reads Leif's letter to Andrias, which Sprig had found in Leif's old room in the Plantar Farm.^[6][5] After reading the letter, Andrias realized that she had never forgotten him and reflected on his actions.^[5]

Sightings

Behind the scenes

Voice

Leif is voiced by Cassandra Lee Morris.^[1][2]

Debut

Leif made her official debut in the third season episode "The Core & The King". Prior to this, she had a non-speaking appearance in flashbacks from the episode "True Colors", and was also partially seen in an old portrait from "The Sleepover to End All Sleepovers".

Foreign voice actors

Language version	Actors	Notes
Spanish (Castilian)	Cristal Álvarez
Japanese	Yui Ogura
Polish	Aleksandra Radwan

Gallery

Click here to view the gallery.

Trivia

• Her orange-red color gem in "True Colors" is later replaced by a green leaf.
• Prior to "All In", there were some hints about Leif being a Plantar, like fact that she performs the Plantar ritual dance or her resemblance to Sprig. "All In" confirmed that she is indeed a member of the Plantar family, and is in fact its founder.
• Although Leif had good intentions, her actions actually caused more harm than good, as she singlehandedly indirectly destroyed nearly all of Amphibia's advanced technology, caused newts, toads and frogs to become mostly segregated, caused her friends (especially Andrias) to become emotionally distant from everyone, and ironically caused the events she sought to prevent.
• On a family tree, she is approximately 40 generations from Sprig and Polly, making her their distant grandmother.
• It is unknown what her last name was before adopting the last name Plantar or if it was always her last name.

Notes

References