#also i have such big thoughts on the legal/boys home/foster/custody/court part if anyone wants to hear lmfaoo it’s all so interesting to me

[qprpbj]

No please pleeeease expand on your Darrel/Dallas parallels!! there are so many, especially connected to their protectiveness over Johnny and Pony.

theeeee never married yet somehow divorced coparents of their kids who have never agreed on anything ever in their lives tbh!

darry who takes care of pony physically but not emotionally, dally who takes care of johnny emotionally but not physically, them both thinking they’re doing right - or at least better than the other - by their respective “kid”. darry who KNOWS he’s doing a pretty shit job of taking care of ponyboy but at least he’s trying his fucking best (and he can’t take care of ponyboy at ALL, not physically or mentally, if pony gets taken away by the state for not feeding him bc they don’t have money to feed him or letting him skip school or whatever else - i have SOO many thoughts on all that too but that’s not for this post lol) which is something dally’s clearly never done a day in his life. him getting obviously so pissed when dally has the audacity to claim he’s more of a brother to pony than darry even is bc was dally the one dropping outta college and working full time to keep a roof over pony’s head? no. is he the one taking on dozens of responsibilities he can’t shoulder alone but somehow does it anyway? no. is he the one staying outta jail and being a good influence despite the fact that all he wants to do is be a stupid fucking kid again?? no.

but dally IS the one who acts like a brother, has fun with pony and spends actual time with him, because he doesn’t HAVE to be stuck between being learning how to be a mom and a dad and the brother he grew up with all at the same time like darry does, which gets darry so fucking badly bc he WANTS to go back to being pony’s brother and only his brother. that’s literally all he’s ever wanted to be. he didn’t wanna be these kids guardian or their dad!!! they HAD a dad!!! and he died!!!!!! but dally somehow deserves to parade in here calling himself more of a brother to these boys than darry is??

all that plussssss the whole. darry’s only doing this because pony (and soda) are blood. would he have dropped out if it was some universe where Weren’t his blood brothers but gang nonetheless?? if it were johnny or steve who became orphaned?? highly likely not because he didn’t have blood obligation to them. but dally chooses to stick around and brother johnny because johnny needs it, even if they’re not blood, which is exactly how dally feels about pony. pony needs dally’s guidance bc darry’s not able to provide it and he sees johnny who’s pretty self sufficient, can’t wrap his head around why darry’s gotta run the damn house like the navy for these kids!!!??

idk just. them disagreeing on everything and both thinking they’re in the right yet somehow both think they’re in the wrong - clearly or else they wouldn’t argue the way they do - and have such different outlooks and aspirations and dreams and lives and expectations and the johnny&dally / darry&pony parallels and who thinks who’s doing better and who’s failing the kid they’re in charge of worse and. ugh idk they’re just sooooooo. clearly i have no thoughts at all here