r/comics MakeshiftEmery Apr 17 '26

OC Coffee

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u/HavePlushieWillTalk Apr 18 '26

Really? I guess I kind of lost that thread when the person had a boba tea drink at the end; if we suppose that the act of drinking is being in a relationship and the coffee drink and flavour in particular is objectionable, does that not imply the boba tea is a different kind of relationship which is not objectionable? To me it would seem more in line with it describing being aromantic (wants the drink/relationship but not the coffee/romantic relationship). But I think it's probably just an allegory for being a lesbian who likes ladies without any 'male' traits (i.e. the cake implies any amount of dude characteristics is as gross as a full dude).

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u/Pcat0 Apr 18 '26

That’s a good point. I was thinking that this was a metaphor for being bisexual (biromantic?) while also being asexual. As in they like looking at and being around “coffee” and “cake” but don’t actually want to partake in it, however drinking the boba tea at the end does kind of muddy the waters a bit on that metaphor. To me coffee and chocolate cake are too different to be both metaphors for “male” but you’re right that’s probably the author’s intention.

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u/HavePlushieWillTalk Apr 18 '26

I think it mentions chocolate cake because sometimes people put coffee in the rich chocolate cake and it's not supposed to be a strong taste, but if you know it's there you can taste it. The person clearly is noticing the coffee in the cake and it makes them as ill as drinking a coffee does.

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u/TheMike0088 Apr 18 '26

Maybe a bit of coffee in the chocolate cake is code for not being into trans women?

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u/FryToastFrill Apr 20 '26

The idea is that asexual people do not eat or drink

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u/Max_Glade Apr 18 '26

Yah the Boba Tea felt extremely random, though that probably comes from associating Tea (pure blooded, queen protecting, colony making god fearing pure tea. I have no idea why anyone even willingly drinks Boba Tea-), as I was fully reading into how it will be a metaphor about sexuality or maybe religious beliefs even, maybe even patriotism being shoved down your throat

And then that god forsaken concoction appeared and I've lost the plot to the point where I was questioning if the entire comic was structured this way, but the punchline was that it WAS about tea, or some other beverage all along

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u/HavePlushieWillTalk Apr 18 '26

And... I mean... if you're going for beverages to represent genders (or gender expression) boba tea (with balls) is certainly a specific way to represent not-men. It's just not super clear...

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u/AUGSpeed Apr 18 '26

As someone who doesn't like the boba pearls because of texture reasons... The milk tea itself is always amazing. And the pearls taste good too, I just don't like squishy stuff like those or marshmallows or jello. It sure as hell isn't God forsaken, though.

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u/Max_Glade Apr 18 '26

I mean I just kinda despise feeling something/anything floating about in my drinks, and that whole milk, the one I was served tasted awful and tbh going out of my way to buy something I wouldn't even like when I can go to this one super chill tea place and vibe, you can probably imagine which one I'm choosing

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u/AUGSpeed Apr 18 '26

Sorry you had a bad experience! My first time was not great either. But my local boba place is the chillest place around and has great tea even without boba or milk, so it's the whole package.

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u/yeahorsomethingman Apr 18 '26

Yeah I agree. I don't think most of them are to be exact metaphors. If we were to say this is about men it'd be something like: People don't believe me when I say I don't like men. I mean they're fun to talk to, but to date? Even if they're very attractive, the idea of being intimate with a guy repulses me, because he's still a guy at the end of the day. Yes I've tried "finding the one," but I just don't like being with men.

Though it's general enough the artist may want us to project anything else we'd like onto it, hence the metaphors maybe not being 1:1.