IN THIS HOUSE WE LOVE AND APPRECIATE STEVE RANDLE

all fandoms walk a notoriously fine line with trauma survivors and i feel like johnny cade is a good example of that. specifically, the often-seen portrayals of traumatized characters in ways that either romanticize their experiences or completely ignore their experiences (the latter of which is often done to favor another character’s journey).

i feel like the outsiders fandom (book, movie, and musical are lumped together here) at times leans heavily into the second one (minimization of trauma). now. i understand the fandom reversal of johnny’s role as being like. Not Innocent (and while i partially agree and think it’s a based take sometimes) i feel like some people do kind of turn him into a character he’s not by instilling a kind of confidence in him that he never had the opportunity to get. people tend to brush past the fact that he is, canonically, by far the quietest of the gang and RARELY talks. he is also, quote, “the gang’s pet.” (while pony IS an unreliable narrator, many of his descriptions of johnny, especially toward the beginning, are just descriptions of his physical reactions to his surroundings as well as past events like johnny getting jumped.)

He gets nervous around strangers. he’s hyper vigilant—two-bit surprises him at the drive-in and he pretty much has a panic attack. he’s 16 and has been borderline homeless for years. he has ptsd from a life of simultaneous abuse and neglect. he’s afraid to take up space because his life is so inconsistent he never knows what his existence will be met with—will it be ignored completely, or will it be met with an unforgiving hand? so he listens, and he watches, and he does hang around dally and the gang, but a big part of who he is comes from his upbringing - he tries as hard as possible to Not be noticed at all, because when he does, it’s bad. i think he would like to be a more confident, “normal” version of himself, but that person isn’t someone who he ever really had a chance to be.

Hey, here’s a concept. What if we stopped saying “but autistic people CAN do all those things” (erasing high support needs) and instead started saying “not being able to do those things doesn’t impact someone’s value as a person nor does it make it okay to commit eugenics”.

i’m so sorry but two bit would make those “me after discovering girls get period cramps (i’m a 6’7’’ feminist btw)” posts on tiktok/instagram

Something Ponyboy loves to do is make it sound like Darry is absolutely evil in front of other people who don't really know him.

Like, one of his track buddies will ask him if he wants to go to a party or something, and Ponyboy will be like "Sorry, I can't. If Darry finds out he's gonna fill the tub to the top with water and lock me in the bathroom until I drink it all. Again."

Obviously he's not dumb and he's careful who he does it around because he's not looking for social services to come knocking. Plus, most people already know that he's just joking based on how absurd the stuff he says is.

However, one night Darry burst into Pony's room and was like "Why the fuck are you telling people that I made you handwrite the entire Bible word-for-word because you didn't say grace before eating???"

I dunno if i posted this yet but Emily!!!

POV: you wake up from a mouse bite induced coma

A guy who smokes weed for chronic joint pain has found a dealer that sells customers pre-rolled blunts, but due to the pain he never makes it to the goods before the dealer has sold all the good ones off the top, so he's left with the crappy ones - the dealer knows that he'll buy them anyway because even if it doesn't stop the pain, it's still easier to deal with that when he smokes. It also helps with the lack of appetite he has because it's not fun to eat when you're in pain. He can't really cook either, anyhow, so most of the time the best he can do is trying to choose between the two utterly dogshit cheap fast food places that are within reasonable distance of his house. Which are not good, nor good for him, but better than nothing.

All his life's problems are caused by - and consist of - shitty fucking joints.

real (my friend is a 10 min walk away from my house)

having long distance friends is so fucked. do you wanna come over to my house and play (it will cost us 1 william dollars)

This is the realest thing ever bc I will NEVER understand the Cherry haters bc I feel like it's misogyny and SUPER forces

cherry is such an interesting character to me. she knows bob gets violent and stays with him. she hates dallas winston but is scared to fall in love with him. she's too busy to watch sunsets. ponyboy can't tell apart when she's mad from when she's scared. she'll yell at the guy harrassing her and seem like she doesn’t care but then admit she was scared to a couple of kids she doesn’t know. she's too private a person to say what she means by "things are rough all over" to a random kid. she managed to actually care about her boyfriend's murderer.

cherry valance ily they could never make me hate you