Waffles & Pancakes

Men and Women Can Be Friends— It's All About Communication

Stupid bitches. I love them.

Waffles & Pancakes is one of my all-time favorite webcomics off of Webtoon by DT Saranya. It’s a quirky and stupid and irreverent slice-of-life about two college friends who are absolute idiots together. Separately, they’re brilliant in their own ways. Together, they’re chaos incarnate.

The 500th and final episode was published around this time last year and it was a long awaited but satisfying end to Aiden and Kaia’s miscellaneous adventures in college.

Each episode is short, a handful of funky panels slapped together that don’t necessarily have a beginning, middle, and end, but rather a setup and a punchline (sometimes not even revealing the full gag of the joke until a later episode).

Like most series that start out as light-hearted comedies, W&P slowly built up momentum and began delving into longer storylines and actual character arcs for our ragtag bunch of mischievous friends as the episodic style slowly morphed into, but never fully acclimated to, a serial format.

I agree with Aiden. But in reality I’m Kaia.

Each episode is bite-sized and fun. One could realistically power through all 500 episodes in a week. I think it can be done in a day 👀 and if anyone were to ever, say, rise to that challenge, I’d love to be acquainted with said person.

Aiden has a hard time focusing and is revealed to have some form of high-functioning ADHD. Kaia is an introvert and hates people, but Aiden is one of the few in her life who manages to break her out of that shell and get her to smile.

While this series mostly focuses on comedic and silly events, the candid moments of humanity the characters experience feel that more real and relatable. Aiden’s wild imagination and inability to sit still makes him feel lesser than his peers, especially in a collegiate setting where grades=worth.

Kaia reminds him that he’s not actually stupid, just different. And that’s fine.

Aiden reminds her that she’s a good person, no matter how others perceive her. And that is also fine.

Platonic love is still love. I will die on that hill.

There is miscommunication, shenanigans, mistakes, and cursed images to haunt you in your waking hours. Like. This seems like a really light-hearted comic. But there are some things Aiden thinks up that is so fucking weird that DT Saranya illustrates for us to see that should be made into a horror movie.

But besides that, it’s a feels good little splurge on some gags you wish you could’ve experienced with friends.

If anything, it shows a healthy, nontoxic relationship between friends and what it takes to keep, and ultimately, maintain.

Friendship

Their relationship is so wholesome but for real if anyone ever did that to me, they’d never see the light of day.

Friendship should not be complicated. It’s two people, sometimes more, who are on relatively good terms with each other and share a mutual bond of affection (thanks Webster).

But for some reason, this entire relationship has been tainted by media giants and theatrical releases that proclaim from every pointy rooftop, that men and women cannot, under any circumstance, in any shape or form, be friends.

Which I think is bullshit.

This relationship is colorized by the temptation of sex. A business contract, if you will, an exchange of services for the expected release of pleasure. It prioritizes people’s basest desires instead of characterizing them by any other possible defining personality trait.

Which, of course, is a staple in Hollywood because sex sells.

Now, sex between friends is a coveted thing as the dreaded wasteland of the “Friendzone” is nigh inescapable.

Ooh. So spooky.

But films are the land of dreams and possibility and what better way to explore this mythical land than in a place where you can make it happen even if it’s not warranted.

Despite this glamorization (or perhaps bastardization) of friends-to-lovers, I still stand by the idea that boys can have friends that are girls and vice versa. Men can have friends that are women and vice versa.

It comes down to communication and intention.

There will always be exceptions to this and I will be the first to admit that a relationship built off a friendship sounds more appetizing than a Tinder match built off a one night stand (but hey, love is love. You do you boo).

But caring for someone and wanting the best for them and supporting them in a platonic way is just as important as in a romantic way. Wanting someone to shine and lifting them up when they’re down or offering a shoulder when they’re tired should not be wrapped up in so much red tape.

Why police that kind of pure love and affection?

Kaia and Aiden are best friends. Completely complementary to each other’s strengths and weaknesses and it seems like a fairy-tale ending to have them end up as the final romcom couple.

This is their relationship. In a single shitty little pixelated panel.

They don’t end up as the final romom couple. At all. But they stay best friends. And that’s a fairytale charm in itself.

What are your thoughts on this?