Just Friends: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|'''[[Girl Next Door|Carly]]:''' ''I thought we talked about this. We can be buds, but you gotta get over this crush thing.''
'''[[Dogged Nice Guy|Freddie]]:''' ''I am over it! Seriously! I'm in love with you, you just want to be friends, and I'm totally cool living with that constant pain!''|''[[iCarly]]'', "i[[Pilot]]"}}
[[Ship Tease|Teasing]] at a [[Unresolved Sexual Tension|romantic relationship]] between two platonic friends. The central driving force of many whole series, or an undercurrent to a main plot. The force with which the two deny any feelings is always inversely proportional to the truth.
Alice's characterisations often include: [[All Girls Want Bad Boys]], [[First Girl Wins]], [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man]]. Often suffers from [[Oblivious to Love]].
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Bob's characterisations often include: [[Unlucky Childhood Friend]], [[Ridiculously Average Guy]], [[Dogged Nice Guy]], a [[Celibate Hero]], a [[Knight in Shining Armor]] for his friend-girl.
A tease used commonly in [[Sitcom|SitComs]], dramas with single characters as principals. ''[[Friends]]'' drove this one into the ground repeatedly. Quite popular in teen-centric series that involve a main cast of friends of both sexes split 1:2 or 2:3. A show with this ratio given enough seasons will often produce a
The [[Relationship Upgrade]] is used as a major plot point for a season [[Cliff Hanger]] or [[Grand Finale|series finale]]. An easy way to generate tension.
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See also:
* [[Official Couple]]:
* [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]]: Rarely used by a
* [[Better as Friends]] or [[I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship]]: Used to [[Ship Sinking|sink]] one of these ships, or used as the starting state of the romantic pairing before they develop romantic feelings.
* [[Like Brother and Sister]]: The characters literally think of each other as siblings despite lacking a blood relationship.
* [[Friends with Benefits]]: How some writers deal with their UST or sexual frustration, whilst not dealing with the relationship's emotional core (read: enabling them to continue drawing it out).
* [[Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other]], [[Will They or Won't They?]], [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man]], [[She Is Not My Girlfriend]], [[Everyone Can See It]], [[Last-Minute Hookup]] and [[Green-Eyed Monster]]: All potential aspects of the relationship as it is ongoing, but are not limited to the
* [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]: Which is often given this type of relationship in slash [[Fan Fiction]].
* [[Platonic Life Partners]]: When a man and a woman are the equivalent of [[Heterosexual Life Partners]]. They tend to be the closest relationship either of them has with anyone, but there is no sexual or romantic component to their relationship. In short, they really ''are'' just friends.
* [[Stupid Sexy Friend]]: Even when they agree they ''should'' just be friends, one (or each) can't get rid of his/her sexual thoughts about the other.
* [[Last Het Romance]]: In the event Alice or Bob discover they're gay once they start dating, they usually end up
It is also the title of a 2005 comedy film based pretty much entirely on the trope. It is now located at ''[[Just Friends (film)|Just Friends]]''.
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* ''[[Kaichou wa Maid-sama]]'': Poor Hinata. He tries so hard to be more than Just Friends with Misaki, but she's already deep in the throes of [[Belligerent Sexual Tension]] with Usui before Hinata even makes the scene.
* ''[[Sugar Sugar Rune]]'': Chocolat and her male school friend, Mimura.
* ''[[Yu Yu Hakusho]]'': Yuusuke actively denies that his relationship with Keiko is nothing more than friendship. However, it's assumed by everyone that the two are dating (including the mentioned pair,
** That's at the end of the series, when she already did for the very good reason that he's planning to leave for three years and fight demons in another dimension while she goes to high school. She winds up waiting for him, though.
** He stops protesting that after he comes back to life the first time, really, but it's a pretty strictly fighting manga, so they never discuss their relationship or interact much. It was established quite early on that neither has to even stop and think about dying for the other, though.
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** In the manga, Akane says this when Ranma's mirror clone tells Akane that Ranma likes her.
{{quote|'''Akane:''' Wha- No way! Ranma and I are just friends.}}
* ''[[5 Centimeters Per Second]]'': Takaki and Akari start as friends at a younger age, share their [[First Kiss]] at age 13, and go back to
** The 2nd part has Kanae end up with this by default, due to [[Cannot Spit It Out]] by her to Takaki as well as {{spoiler|Takaki's ongoing feelings for Akari closing his heart to anyone but Akari.}}
* ''[[Detective Conan]]'': Heiji and Kazuha believe they are
* In ''[[Nodame Cantabile]]'', [[Dirty Old Man|Stresemann]] and [[Grandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!|the Academy's director]] decided to stay this, after the director received an illness that stopped her from playing the piano again when she was younger, though they had the potential to become lovers if the illness hadn't struck, as noted by Stresemann's assistant.
* ''[[Madlax]]'' Madlax and Vanessa. Vanessa and Elenore in earlier episodes.
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== Comics ==
* ''[[X-Force]]'': Cable and Domino have a long history, during which they've been everything from genuinely just friends to teammates to [[Friends with Benefits]] to lovers.
* ''[[Yoko Tsuno]]'': Yoko and Vic, after being
* The ''[[Static (comics)|Static]]'' series has the title character, Virgil Hawkins, and Frieda having this type of relationship throughout the run. Although admittedly, Virgil was initially attracted to Frieda, but she wanted to keep their relationship at this level.
* An issue of the ''[[Gargoyles]]'' comics produced by SLG had Lexington ask a pair of gargoyles named Coco and Staghart if they're a mated pair. They both laughingly deny it, but assure him they're very good friends. This has been taken as a hint that Staghart might be "like a nine bob note" as they say in London. Many fans speculate that if the comic had shown more of Lexington's adventures in London, Staghart would've at least been his [[Closet Key]], perhaps someday a permanent mate.
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* In the early books of the [[Anne of Green Gables]] series, Anne is constantly telling people that she and her childhood-enemy-turned-friend Gilbert Blythe, are just friends. She's not in love with him, does not harbor any type of feelings for him other than friendship, etc. etc. etc. Anne really does have feelings for him, she is just unaware of them. This question is never posed to Gilbert, since the entire town already knows he's madly in love with Anne.
* Tre and Allie of ''[[Stuck]]''. The two of them are best friends, yes, but they both agree that they're better off that way.
* Lampshaded and averted in ''[[The War Against the Chtorr]]'' when the protagonist Jim McCarthy and his [[Colonel Badass]] girlfriend Liz Tirelli have a very loud breakup. When things quiet down, Liz half-heartedly suggests that maybe they could just be...whereupon Jim interrupts
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''(Awkward pause)''
'''Rory:''' I think he's talking about the possible alien incursion. }}
* ''[[Eureka]]'': In the later seasons, Jack and Allison's has had their friendship as the core of their romantic interaction. {{spoiler|After being sent to and back from 1947, they get in a [[Love Triangle]], that is eventually resolved when they [[Discussed Trope|discuss being]]
* ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'': Marty towards Rory in the later college seasons. These seasons were characterised by a heap of [[Relationship Writing Fumble]], the pairing got sunk, he got written out in exchange for the rich, bad boy Logan, and he came back a season later as a huge [[Jerkass]].
* ''[[Gossip Girl]]'': Vanessa and Dan. A strange version where they both apparently had some feelings for each other when they were younger, but it became [[Platonic Life Partners]] until they had a drunken threesome with Dan's current girlfriend. That threesome revealed previously hidden (even to the audience) feelings for Dan towards Vanessa. They got together shortly afterward, but being a drama/soapy show, it hasn't been straightforward.
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* ''[[Hannah Montana]]'': Lily and Oliver. Quite a weird example as they'd been friends since pre-school, but their friendship had evolved into a [[Platonic Life Partners]] type deal, then something of a bickering [[Slap Slap Kiss]] thing, until it had a very sudden, off-screen [[Relationship Upgrade]] and turned into a [[The Masochism Tango|Masochism Tango]].
* ''[[The Hour]]'': Freddie and Bel. It is implied that Freddie had feelings for Bel when they first met, but she did not reciprocate and now they're just friends with [[UST]].
* ''[[iCarly]]'': Freddie has had a crush on Carly for his entire adolescent life, being in [[Love At First Sight]]. Carly initially wants to stay as
** In Season 4 this ship gets frozen, not given any closure and the focus of the romance on the show shifts to the [[Slap Slap Kiss]] styled Sam/Freddie pairing. But since that arc's over, this has yet to return...
* ''[[JAG]]'': Harm and Mac, get forced into [[UST]] through
* ''[[Lizzie McGuire]]'': Gordo developing feelings for Lizzie, as Lizzie remains oblivious. Eventually, the [[Alpha Bitch]] points out that Gordo isn't trying to show off because he thinks he's better than Lizzie, but that he's trying to impress Lizzie because he likes her.
** Just as the series as a whole was something of a watershed and lead to multiple new shows that even if they were comedic, were also more serialized, dramatic and included developing romance arcs, it also paved the way for more
*** In a way ''Lizzie McGuire'' is the [[Trope Codifier]] to the
* ''[[Life with Derek]]'': This trope is the actual title of an episode which is devoted entirely to playing straight, subverting, deconstructing, and generally having fun with the trope.
* ''[[Numb3rs]]'': Charlie and Amita had to remain
* ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'': Ned and Moze. Complete with [[Last-Minute Hookup]].
* ''[[The Mighty Boosh]]'': According to [[Word of God]] (as if it wasn't already clear enough) this is what's going on with Howard and Vince. There's an obvious attraction between the two that's sometimes [[Lampshaded]], but the show is on Hiatus and they still aren't together
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* ''[[Reaper]]'': Andi wants to remain just friends with Sam, even when he wants more. Until she decides to be his girlfriend.
* ''[[Scrubs]]'': J.D. and Elliot went down this road for 7 seasons. They covered pretty much every variation of these tropes, the [[Will They or Won't They?]] getting [[Lampshaded]] on multiple occasions, becoming [[Friends with Benefits]], [[Everyone Can See It]], [[Near Kiss]], [[Better as Friends]]. It was torture. In the final season, the writers finally decided not to play games with the pairing anymore, hooked them up, and gave them only minor drama. [[And the Fandom Rejoiced]].
* ''[[Spaced]]'': Tim and Daisy became
* ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' did this with both Sheppard/Weir and Sheppard/Teyla, neither of which ever went anywhere, but both ships were definitely teased.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' had this with Carter and O'Neill, going so far as to have the characters admit that they do have feelings for each other, but never letting them get together ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_evV0kDWa5E well...])
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'''Robin:''' Oh no! No! No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! No! [[He Is Not My Boyfriend|Barney and I are not together.]]
'''Barney:''' Really? Sixteen 'no's? }}
* ''Mysterious Ways'' has a
** In one episode, the idea of "not being able to shake" your soul mate is posited. After Peggy and Miranda have called Declan's girlfriend's cell phone for the umpteenth time trying to reach him, said girlfriend says "Seems like you can't shake either one of them." That's about the strongest ship tease you get, though.
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* The song ''Friendly Duet'' but [[Flanders and Swann]] parodies this trope.
* ''Why Do All Girls Think They're Fat'' by [[Reel Big Fish]] is about a character who develops feelings for his friend but she refuses to let him go farther than being this trope.
* ''Love To Love You'' by [[The Corrs]] is just one of several songs that reference these type of relationships. [[The Corrs/WMG|The Corrs Wild Mass Guessing]] page shows that several of their songs put together portray a
* The song ''Friend Zone'' by [[Equals Three|Your Favorite Martian]], [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|obviously]].
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** Marigold and Angus. They get drunk. She puts his hands on her boobs. He shoots her down.
** Elliot towards Padma.
** During the [[In Space]] arc Marten's relationship with Hannelore is seen this way by Hannelore's father and Lt Potter. Marten responds to Potter's remark about them being together with the exact words ''We're
* This appears to be at the heart of Jack and Sam's relationship in ''[[The Space Between]]''.
* ''[[VG Cats]]'': This trope [[Applied Mathematics|plus]] the ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' {{spoiler|"Friendship" [[Finishing Move]]}} equals [http://www.vgcats.com/comics/?strip_id=295 funny!]
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'''Batman:''' Is it EVER the right thing to say?! }}
** Terry and Max are poster children for this trope. They're best friends, she's his only confidant (other than Bruce), they spend more time together than Terry and his ''actual'' girlfriend, they're both pretty attractive...and there is never any indication that either of them wants anything but friendship.
* [[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]: There's indications of this with Jack and Sally before their [[Relationship Upgrade]].
* After kissing in ''[[Total Drama Island]]'', LeShawna basically cancels her relationship with Harold, saying their just friends. Harold still pines for her though, {{spoiler|The feelings are mutual}}.
* ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' towards Sandy.
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