Snowflakes

A webcomic created in 2009 by James Ashby, Chris Jones and Zach Weiner. Snowflakes takes place in an orphanage located in the Andes mountains, where children wait to be picked by families every Christmas. However, it gets boring waiting around for that, so the children spend their days engaging in political power battles against each other.

Notable for having extremely strong characterization right out of the gate. Check out the character sheet for more info.

Currently on its second arc, as well as a third storyline written for the American Heart Association that is available on a separate part of the archive.

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Tropes used in Snowflakes include:

• Absurdly Powerful Student Council: Played with. While the election has taken up much of the second arc, no winner has been decided yet and it's unclear as to how much they would actually be able to influence if they won. It just gets really boring waiting around an orphanage all day.
• Adventurer Archaeologist: Greg's father, though he might have just been a standard treasure hunter considering that he left Greg at the orphanage just so he could carry more gold.
• Badass Bookworm: While she doesn't fit this trope in the physical sense, Sloan can be pretty damn awesome sometimes.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Greg does it here.
• Character Development: While the characterization is strong to begin with, it's fascinating to watch how the goals of each character change as the comic goes on.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Glory.
• Comedic Sociopath: Wray.
• Deadpan Snarker: Sloan.
• Description Cut: Here.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: In the very first comic, no less.

Lu: I wish I looked like Colette Hintz. She would've gotten picked. Look how big her pigtails are!
Priti: Pfft. Those are fake.

• Good Angel, Bad Angel: Played with. Enzo has two devils because, according to one of them, "You're a five year old."
• Green-Eyed Monster: Enzo is very envious of Greg, to the point of insanity.
• MacGuffin: The ring from the first arc.
• Magnificent Bastard: Wray is lovable for her intensity, and Priti performs her evil with such style that you can't help but root for her sometimes.
• Manipulative Bastard: Priti's main strength, though it's been coming back to haunt her recently.
• Only Sane Man: Sloan gets put in this position a lot, though she's not without her own neuroses.
• Seven Deadly Sins: Each of the seven main characters is modeled after one of the sins: Greg is Greed, Enzo is Envy, Glory is Gluttony, Lu is Lust, Priti is Pride, Sloan is Sloth, and Wray is Wrath. Their names are too similar to each of the sins for this to be a coincidence.
• Stalker with a Crush: Enzo takes this to levels that are truly frightening.
• Theme Naming: See Seven Deadly Sins.
• This Is Sparta: "There. Are. Vikings. And. I. Will. Find. Them. With. Swords."