#definitely a challenge on the timeframe I had since I do not practice art very much but I am so grateful for the opportunity to create

[regrettable-username]

Hi Caspian, I'm your sibuna secret santa 🥳

Thank you so much for your patience with this! My original art was ruined when my cat tipped over my tea (on the day before the deadline too 🙃) but never fear, everything happens for a reason! This is inspired by that moment in s2 when they're training for the fear tunnels, and Fabian tells Amber to pretend the cockroach is just a little Alfie. My original was two drawings of Amber: one of her holding a cockroach with the most disgusted face I could muster, and one of her holding a Little AlfieTM and a wide smile! To save time, I came up the idea of combining them in the most Alfie way—if there WAS a Little AlfieTM, he would definitely be riding that cockroach cowboy style. Amber is still a bit grossed out by the cockroach, but imagining Little Alfie definitely makes it easier.

I also used markers for color originally, but since those bled with the tea I didn't want to take any chances this time! This is made with colored pencils and watercolor (luckily no mishaps this time, but it would've been easier to blot out just in case).

[foreveralegend]

42 CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT QUESTIONS!

17. Are they more shaped by nature or nurture — who they are, or what has happened to them? How have these shaped who they’ve become as a person?

This one is a tough one in some ways. There are certain things about who he is that I think were in his nature, or he never would’ve survived the ‘nurture’ in his childhood. His determination, his loyalty, his protectiveness for those he cares, a self-sacrificing side that he’s made himself not show in later years. On the other hand, he was definitely ‘nurtured’ into not trusting 99.99999% of the people he meets. He was ‘nurtured’ into a life of crime. I mean, he does bear responsibility for that, but also consider that when his environment changed even once he was older, he began to change again. The first instance is when Barry gives him an out to drop the killing––“if you’re really as good as you say, then you don’t have to kill anyone to get what you want”––then with joining the Legends. Anyone who’s watched the show can see the vast amount of change he undergoes, while still remaining who he is. He’s still primarily cold and standoffish, but the protective and almost brotherly side of who he is comes out again, even if only here and there. So, I would have to say that it’s definitely a heavy combination of the two. Had he been in a better environment early on––just as he ended up in later––who knows? His better qualities might have flourished and some of his worst qualities may not have even manifested. I mean, in Earth-2 (at least by fan consensus) he’s a mayor who’s fighting to take his city back from a lunatic. I’d say he turned out to be a pretty stand up guy there.

25. What do they need and want out of relationships, and how do they go about getting it?

Snart is, primarily, anti-relationship of any sort beyond practical working relationship, with the exception of his sister and (sometimes) Mick, who earned his trust and friendship’ when he was still young.

In work relationships/business partnerships, Snart demands discipline and loyalty. He needs to be able to trust that his ‘team’ is going to get done what needs to get done as quickly and as efficiently as possible. He needs to be able to trust that if he gives them a plan and a timeframe that they can follow it. He needs to be able to trust that if one of them gets caught, they won’t blab everything they know to the police. As I said, this is something he demands of people and he makes that clear as the consequences for being disloyal or undisciplined can be deadly.

Now, in other relationships, one of the things that Snart absolutely needs is still loyalty. If someone he considers to be close to him betrays him, it’s difficult to earn back his trust. It’s either going to take time or something extraordinary that renews his faith in someone. As with business relationships, until someone manages to get past some of the walls, this will continue to be a demand of sorts. You see this to some extent with Snart and Mick’s relationship. Something that’s not required but is nice bonus for him is someone that can challenge him. Verbal/mental sparring is something he especially enjoys. It helps to keep him on his toes. That is not so much something he can demand as that he tests the waters. He throws verbal barbs at people, jabs at them, and then sees if they turn it around on him. This is seen primarily with Cisco, Barry, Sara, and Jax, though to some extent even with the way he interacts with the rest of the Waverider crew. He treats all of them roughly the same way in this manner (and, yes, in part that’s just who he is), but Sara and ‘the Kid’ are really the only two that engage in a way that doesn’t (always) boil down to, well you’re just a criminal, and they earn his respect as a result. The same with Barry and Cisco.

[ Though, sidenote, I’ll add that he also respects Barry and Cisco because 1) Barry made him up his game and raise his level of thinking about ‘the job’ and 2) Neither of them backdown (y’know, short of Snart freezing Cisco’s brother’s fingers and threatening to kill him if he didn’t share the identity of the Flash. 3) Barry and Cisco were both willing and went out of their way to help him and his sister even after they’d only recently semi-betrayed Team Flash. Snart respects that they were willing to do so much for him, despite everything. ]

I think, Barry, Sara, and Jax also further earn his respect because (at different junctures) they both came to the conclusion that he wasn’t just a criminal. For Sara, that realization must have come pretty early on because she spends a lot of time with him and places trust in his opinions, enough so that in episode four of Legends, she allows him to talk her down from doing something. With Jax, the realization comes a little later when Snart had a chance to kill him and didn’t (though Snart had already grown fond of the Kid before then).

With all that said, I think part of what he needs, even if he doesn’t know or even really want that, is for people to see potential in him, to call him on his act and not put up with his BS. He needs people that keep him in line the same way that he used to(?) keep Mick in line.

Now, I’m a hardcore Captain Canary shipper, so I’m going to say that romantically, all of those fundamentals remain unchanged. BUT! He also needs someone who is willing to let him set the pace (or with whom he is comfortable with setting the pace). Because, as seen with Sara, he is an irredeemable flirt, BUT it takes time for him to actually warm up to the idea of something serious and when he does, it takes time for him to come right out and say it. Beyond that, I feel like it would take time for him to warm up to certain aspects of a romantic relationship. For example, physical contact. We see in the show that Sara is one of the few people he allows it from, or that he really even allows to get very close to him. Openness is another matter that he has to get used to. He has to be completely comfortable with the other person if he’s going to be open and honest with them, and even then, it takes time and effort on the part of both parties.

So, as rambling as all of that was, basically, I’d say that what he wants/needs in a relationships boils down to loyalty, trust, respect, but also accountability.

37. Have they had any special education or training that colors their means of learning about or understanding the world? Conversely, do they lack some kind of education considered essential in their world? What kind of impact has this addition or lack had on them?

The only ‘special education’ Snart got was definitely not official or traditional education, but he practically got a PhD from the School of Hard Knocks.

He had it quite literally beaten into him that people as a whole are terrible because if someone’s dad can treat them the way that his treated him and his mother and sister, then what hope was there for the rest of the world?

He was educated in the art forms of wiring, lock-picking, safe-cracking, and all manner of other illegal practices under constant criticism and under threat of beatings if he couldn’t get it right.

He learned to both pride himself on his skills and make himself seem confident while simultaneously not actually having the best opinion of himself. Because when you hear the words ‘worthless’ and ‘good for nothing’ often enough, they never quite go away, but you have to put on a front if you want to be taken seriously, if you want to fight back against the words. He also learned this from teachers and police officers, that he’d never make anything respectable of himself because he was too stupid and too much of a crook, and he listened. He gave up, dropped out of school and did whatever he could to provide for his younger sister.

[ As a result of his treatment by teachers, to this day, he operates under the assumption (until proven otherwise) that smart people are going to be arrogant and talk down to him if they know that he doesn’t understand something. Sometimes, he simply tries to gather the best concept he can and run with it, other times he uses his sharp humor to turn it around on them, demand explanations, make it seem that maybe they’re the stupid ones since they can’t understand ‘simple explanation’ or ‘in English.’ He hates to be talked down to and has little to no tolerance for it as treats with contempt anyone who does that to him (assuming he chooses not to ice them). ]