Let’s Talk About Legend’s Behrad

and how with his death comes a lot of missed potential.

Update to future readers (15-5-2020)
It has been confirmed that Shayan Shobian will return in Season 6 as a main cast member.

The legends just don't seem to be able to catch a break. The departure of Ray and Nora is still being felt and now the Legends have lost yet another team-member: Behrad. In last week's episode we finally get to meet Charlie's sisters, the other 2 members of the sisters of fate, who are after the pieces of the loom Charlie broke. One of them manages to infiltrate the Waverider to get the piece stored there and when Behrad tries to stop her, his 'string of life' is taken from his body and cut, killing him.

Introduced in the 3rd season of the show, Behrad was Zari's younger brother and original bearer of the air-totem living in a rather dark future were meta-humans and any other similar concepts like magic were outlawed and hunted down. He, alongside most of his family, was killed before the Legend runs into Zari and the totem was passed to her. The death of Zari's family, and his, in particular, is Zari's motivation for joining the Legends and the impact it has is defining aspect of her character. With the Legends changing the future at the end of season 4, Behrad's fate got rewritten and he ended up joining the Legends in Zari's stead, with the dark future averted. This is where we find him at the beginning of the current season, with Behrad a full-fledged member of the team and Zari nowhere to be seen. I, like many others, I was very apprehensive toward Behrad. It seemed obvious that he wouldn't stick around for long but due to a charming performance by Shayan Sobhian and good writing and his interaction with the new version of Zari especially helped to flesh out both characters. Which is what makes Behrads death not just sad, but also results in a lot of lost potential.

With Ray's departure, the Legends have not only lost a valued friend but also their tech expert and most important of all, a storm of positive energy. Even in the first season of Legends, which had quite a few problems, Ray stood out characters in large part due to his big heart. Ray is the kind of guy that always tries to see the best in people and believe in their inherent goodness without falling in the pitfall of being obliviously naïve. Behrad has characteristic that could fill both aspects. He's tech-savvy, being the Waverider's mechanic and hacker, he has a laid-back and positive attitude and has enough characteristics to still be his own person. It was also interesting to see how his character would have developed over time and see him interact with others more. We got to see him interact with Zari of course, and a fair bit with Charlie as well, but not with the rest. Seeing him react to the knowledge of the previous timeline, his and his families death, would have been interesting as well.

So when he died in the most recent episode, I didn't like it. Maisie Richardson-Sellers, who portrays Charlie on the show, has stated in an interview that Behrads was killed at the benefit of both Charlie and Zari. As they were both very close to Behrad, his death would motivate both characters moving forward. Zari is his sister and judging from the final scene of the episode, her intention is to use the completed loom of fate to bring her brother back. It also seems Zari has gotten her old-self-determination and her desire to bring her brother could lead her to some dark paths and move her away from the diva she has been this season. Charlie was Behrads best friend and one-time hook-up. Him dying at the hands of one of her sisters helps her overcome her fear of them and makes her conflict with them all the more personal. It's kind of the reverse of the 'fridging' trope in superhero-related properties. Killing of a male character to further the development of female characters instead of the other way around.

..........

It wasn't like his Behrad's death came out of nowhere, Shayan Sobhian was only credited as a guest star and Zari was still obviously the most important of the two siblings, but his death is none the less sad due to the potential the character could have had. His death is used to motivate the rest of the Legends, Zari and Charlie in particular, but he could have filled the void left by Ray and his character could have been fleshed out more to form a much more unique character to add to the already great line-up the show has. In the end, his death isn't a total waste as the show does handle it with the right amount of weight, uses it to develop its other character further, ups the stakes and even gives a potential way for him to return but the show might have been able to more if they had allowed for him to keep on living.

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