Sold To One Direction

[@STRANGEONS]

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[@IngridNixie]

hello! this feels very weird but i usually click through to sponsor links and jsyk yours is page-not-found-ing rn! idk if there's any way to fix that etc but thought you should know

[@littlewolfgirl8707]

Orsoni’s future

[@Critter-xo9cr]

btw at a restaurant called sonic thay have furbys in the kids meals!

[@remipsum3466]

I'm glad that the One Direction fandom collectively agreed "Yeah, I could see them engaging in human trafficking."

[@planetaryray7119]

LMAOOOO

[@joeldrzycimski1629]

well, they do have british members.

[@petradegroot3578]

⁠​⁠@@joeldrzycimski1629insert british museum memes here 😂👍🏼

[@countessspiritclaws5465]

what’s so funny to me is that “1D would engage in human trafficking” wasn’t even considered a slanderous idea in the fandom…it was something that genuine fans agreed on and viewed positively??? 2010s fandoms were really out here assigning the most deranged, comically evil headcanons to their favs and just considering them to be endearing interpretations 😭

[@noranizaazmi6523]

@@countessspiritclaws5465skinfic. I’m sorry.

[@TheAirBear2000]

"My name is Indigo Charisma. You sold me to One Direction. Prepare to die."

[@tropezando]

Inconceivable!

[@nathanwilliams1865]

I love you both

[@maddieb.4282]

UNDENIABLY the best comment

[@TunnelDragon44]

Damn, I need to re-watch princess bride.

[@Nikki-dh7lz]

Perfect conversational skills

[@melonlord4889]

Do you ever just put your long blonde hair in a messy bun as you stare at your aqua orbs and then you throw on a hoodie and go downstairs and your alcoholic mother tells you she sold you to one direction to fund her drinking habit and then you stare into Harry’s amethyst orbs and I have no clue what happens after that

[@nuclearfurbyy1341]

that's every other weekend for me. day after day and night after night my alcholic mother sells me. it's a new mom every week because the band keeps regifting me. (I am not wanted )

[@chokapiki]

And when the 'sex' scene is "you know what happend next 😖😳"

[@666kittycat666]

Ponder the orbs 🔮👄🔮

[@prageruwu69]

ugh so #relatable

[@AeonKnigh432]

Don't forget she put on her "meeting one direction" outfit

[@juniperrodley9843]

"My name is Indigo Charisma" broke every rib in my torso on impact, killing me instantly and sending me straight to the part of hell where all the sexiest girls and gays are

[@realmcarthy]

Me with Harmony Davenport. Why do these all sound like drag queen names???

[@notahumanbeing6892]

i was wondering if anybody was as affected by that as me 😭

[@juniperrodley9843]

@@notahumanbeing6892 Everywhere I go I see Ebony's face 😭

[@Reed5016]

And I was over here thinking Indigo was a non-binary name.

[@juniperrodley9843]

@@Reed5016 tbf, any name can (and SHOULD) be for any gender

[@tanjamartinsbur9283]

I am completely sure that the first "Sold to XYZ" fanfiction predates the internet. There was absolutely some poor, repressed 19th century boy who picked up his quill and wrote a story about a faceless self-insert slave being sold to Heracles or some other mythological hero instead of doing his Latin homework. Sadly, these works probably have not survived to the present day but I'm keeping my eyes open whenever reading old manuscripts. If looking at old texts has taught me one thing, it is that people have always been the same.

[@littlemsterious991]

what i would give to read young sir Walter's _Sold To Heracles_ that he wrote when he was meant to be learning how to manage his father's estate, but I have a feeling I've already read it many times

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

Dante Alighieri's "Sold to Virgil".

[@atanvardecunambiel8917]

There was probably quite a bit of “betrothed to Franz Liszt” fic in the 1840s.

[@justabitofamug6989]

Dick Turpin fan fic in the 1800s

[@paperst4rz]

​​@@justabitofamug6989theres probably some of that now considering every british girl had a thing for mat baynton playing him in horrible histories

[@atomikaya]

The sold / kidnapped trope does predate the internet by a loong while. I remember my *grandma* having a lot of old "trashy" romance novels and the mean male lead that kidnaps you is *at least* a 20th century thing.

[@Era1113]

Yessss this. I read so many of these in my pre-internet days

[@THB192]

The Sheik was a massively popular romance novel in 1919 that got turned into a movie and did this trope. There are almost certainly many older examples but I can't name any.

[@dado__]

This was what I was thinking, the sold/kidnapped trope is positively a dinosaur. Literate women could read titillating fiction as long as the heroine was being forced and/or kidnapped, since it maintained the illusion of social propriety.

[@cherylrosbak4092]

I was wondering about that. It seems like a very Harlequin trope.

[@Pazuzu4All]

Hades kidnapping Persephone... Yeah, it's pretty old.

[@vulomkaaz]

I saw this and immediately thought of that tumblr post that's like "one direction didn't want me so my mom sold me to oingo boingo" "why would oingo boingo want you" "I shred on the trumpet. They need me"

[@acousticeel9695]

I thought of the tumblr post that said “You think being sold to one direction is tough? My mom sold me to RUSH and Neil added me to his drum kit.” Same energy

[@Dappis]

peak post

[@atlassolid5946]

there's definitely a fic somewhere out there about someone becoming the 10th member of Slipknot

[@murlocchieftain9862]

Calling the trope "Asshole Harry" and not "Harry Asshole" is such a miss tbh

[@tiarnajayne3051]

I don't think we talk about the cultural impact of sold to 1D fics. It was insane

[@theunbearablejuan]

I also need to mention this, but why were they all so... Rapey?

[@yasmineh.1333]

I was very surprised to go back to Wattpad in 2019 and to find out that the EXACT SAME FICS were now being written about K-Pop idols. Everythinghad changed but everything was the same at the same time

[@tiarnajayne3051]

@@yasmineh.1333 as I kpop Stan I vividly remember the rise in sold to idol fics

[@ateliermink6340]

I remember hearing about sold to 1D fics, then continually stumbling onto Sold to BTS fics on tumblr. Apparently its been a semi popular story beat for years beforehand in Japanese BL works. The internet is wild.

[@croissant2882]

Theres literally a bestseller wattpad book series doing rounds in Poland, about a 14 year old UK girl whose mother died and she was whisked away accross the ocean with no questions to her never before known brothers who seem to be into some shady stuff You might think "croissant, but what does this have to do with being sold to 1D?" Well the 5 brothers are clearly 1D inserts "But croissant how is she sold if its her family?" you probably didn't expect me to say that later in the books it is revealed that their father has put Haley in his will AS A HERITAGE to the oldest brother (Zayn Malik) There was no investigation to find the next of kin! There were no adoption papers! Little Haley was given in her fathers will like a property! Mom just died and the officials went, oops, you're supposed to be shipped to USA, sorry child. They almost put her in a cardboard box. And she's treated bad too, they all just yell at her and forbid her from doing things theyre doing themselves, she might as well be a slave. Its a clusterfuck, the series is absolutely at the front display of every bookstore, Polish booktok is obsessed with mildly-to-advancely abusive criminal brothers, its "365 days" all over again

[@pobblie]

"I've personally never read RPF except the sold to One Direction stories" sir you've read RPF about YOURSELF i think that counts!!

[@BigmanDogs]

I also think all these kinda "bought by" or "kidnapped by" tropes are a way to make the OC more invisible and passive in the story. Thus broadening the appeal.

[@AeonKnigh432]

Literally that's the entire appeal of 50 Shades, probably the most popular modern erotic story.

[@zygoncommander1239]

I think also that young girls feel a lot of shame about having sexual desires, and the fictional situation not being something the main character wanted or caused alleviates some of that shame for both the writer and the reader.

[@flawlix]

@@zygoncommander1239 no lie, this is my theory about why I’m into some of the things I’m into as an adult. Lots of shaming around anything sex-related in my youth

[@BigmanDogs]

@@zygoncommander1239 There is more than one reason for it. The reason I gave has more to do with writing. How do I put the OC in an intimate situation with X character in a way that involves the OC as little as humanly possible. The reason you give is valid too, but it's more psychological. It's even present in content straight men men consume, enslavement and yandere tropes are super common in erotic audio for men. Both for the reason that it might provide the feeling of being desired or having the agency of your desires taken from you. But also because it's a very good narrative trick of making the situation as broadly appealing as possible, because you basically have to provide 0 information about the main character.

[@Wohlfe]

It's also a massive writing shortcut, you don't have to justify/explain why the MC is in the situation they're just The Chosen One.

[@memoriam.victoriam]

the idea of sitting at a typewriter and writing led zeppelin fanfiction has me screaming

[@Setashi]

Imagine how powerful a nepo baby who was raised by all of One Direction would be though.

[@Soyboyanarchy]

Probably also the person with the weirdest moral compass ever Imagine being raised by a group of teenage boys

[@marianafaguntes2762]

OH MY GOD THATS SO FUNNY

[@squeenx]

i dont think the SOLD writer has anything to worry about career-wise when cassandra clare is out here thriving

[@mj2208]

As someone who was ACTUALLY sold to One Direction, I appreciate you making this video

[@chud-dot-us-dot-gov]

"as" 😂

[@grandpa_the_kid]

Laycee???

[@fossilfighters101]

indigo charisma??

[@fizzyjam]

im cry laughing

[@tomoko7584]

whatre you up to now…

[@peyoteranchuk741]

"My name is Indigo Charisma" is immediately iconic

[@shillinhite3911]

"you killed my father, prepare to die!' xD

[@deadfr0g]

@@shillinhite3911Oh my god 😂

[@chaeburger]

Not gonna lie, Indigo Charisma would be an excellent drag name.

[@kirstynquinn6602]

Indigo Charisma Uniqueness Nerve and Talent

[@geekgirl_luv4262]

You are so right

[@Bigcatthief]

Whenever the main characters have regular names you know it’s either dedicated to a friend or about the author themself

[@WinterPains]

Not every cringe teen writer used cringe names. Myself for example

[@EllaMBV]

​@@WinterPainsmost if them did

[@present_for_things6751]

Im not like other girls, i was sold to one direction by my mom 💔

[@AeonKnigh432]

Come on, every girl gets sold to One Direction. Basic. Smh my head.

[@CiCodiCadno]

I'm not like other boys, I was sold to my mum by One Direction 😢

[@user-ow1bc4sx2r]

lucky, I was just rented by Mcfly

[@present_for_things6751]

@@user-ow1bc4sx2r rented 😭

[@nowherels64]

i want you to know this is the funniest comment on this video @@user-ow1bc4sx2r

[@lizziegraceless]

RPF started when Dante wrote about going to hell with his favorite writer and ended up creating the entirety of christian hell theology

[@becauseimafan]

This!!!! 😂😂😂

[@Kelseybeee]

Yes yes yes

[@sadqueermess]

My favorite fanfic, Dante was truly ahead of his time. I also love how he classified homosexuality as worse than murder while constantly crushing on Virgil throughout the story.

[@wynterpage3797]

See? You get it.

[@TheBooklover1848]

What's fascinating is that stories about imperilled heroines being sold/captive was also a huge trope in romance novels in the 1970s and 80s. The explanation for the trope's popularity at the time was, like "sold to 1D" RPFs, it was a way to write about women's sexual desires and experiences without making them active protagonists pursuing sex. This is all the more interesting given that culturally it was a turning point for women with the advent of feminism and the sexual revolution.

[@sagecolvard9644]

It's been a trope since at least 1919, with the publishing of The Sheik.

[@petrichorbones]

i definitely read a christian romance novel (way too young but apparently it was ok bc it was christian) that was about being kidnapped and sold into marriage to pay a debt. i dont think it was a super old book but it was def separate from the fanfiction world haha

[@user-ow1bc4sx2r]

I wonder if this is sort of a natural adaptation for a younger audience. Making the danger factor more palatable by turning the kidnapper into a cute mostly non-threatening boy. Its an implied disclaimer that no real physical harm will come to the heroine. You could also see it as a less sexually focused exploration of power dynamics, exploring teen relationships in the same non-active way you describe

[@deadfr0g]

POV: Mysterious pirate captain kidnaps u for a jolly rodgering 🏴‍☠️

[@Beelzebubby91]

@@sagecolvard9644I read that as “The Shrek” and was very confused for a moment

[@amandad8922]

The only two things I remember from this side of Wattpad. No saying the word eyes or kiss. Eyes are always orbs and it's always "our lips collided" "he smashed his lips into mine" "our lips pressed together." Honestly I love it, we all have to learn that it's okay to say said sometimes.

[@koboldcatgirl]

, they advised.

[@anastaciyaknoll]

smashing lips is my personal pet peeve. it’s everywhere i hate it

[@clownvictim]

"Their tongues fought for dominance" is one that I personally cannot stand

[@d_alistair-years]

@@clownvictim Forever funny how that phrase was old enough to buy alcohol by the time Wattpad got its hands on it 😆

[@tiacat11]

Things I have seen referred to as "orbs" in fanfic: 1. Eyes (most common) 2. Ass cheeks 3. Testes 4. Breasts 5. Actual like scrying crystals and shit Not to shame young writers who are just experimenting and learning but I REALLY feel like we gotta pick one and stick with it here

[@nuclearfurbyy1341]

devastating reality than many with caramel brown hair and bright blue orbs are subjected too 😔😔😔😔😔

[@disappointingperson9162]

I have caramel brown hair so my mom sold half of me 😢

[@nuclearfurbyy1341]

​@@disappointingperson9162my little sister was actually personally targeted by this video. :(

[@ten1982]

literally why do so many self-insert female characters have that hair and eye color? like even in eastern media it’s still the same. shit’s universal fr, truly transcending borders and cultures

[@penina8438]

One of my friends in high school wrote a fanfic about being sold to green day, truly ahead of her time tbh

[@deadfr0g]

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go So make the best of this test, and don't ask why It's not a question, but a lesson learned in time It's something unpredictable But in the end, it's right I hope you had the time of your life 😨

[@shinyskunk]

The name "Harmony Davenport" is KILLING me because Davenport is the name of a big drag dynasty, so now I'm going to imagine every one of these stories being reenacted by drag queens. It's great everyone should do it.

[@orsolyafekete7485]

My first thought was "omg, that's the most Mary Sue name ever, I love it" (and then a few seconds later I was immediately proven wrong when the words "Indigo Charisma" showed up on screen, but that's besides the point), but this extra information made it a thousand times better, so thank you

[@realmcarthy]

LITERALLY. INDIGO CHARISMA?? HARMONY DAVENPORT?? THESE ARE DRAG NAMES!!

[@shinyskunk]

@@orsolyafekete7485 Indigo Charisma would also be an INCREDIBLE drag name

[@oranges7706]

My first thought was that it was the ship name for Harry/Hermione, and I was just imagining the two of them being chained together and sold to 1D 😭

[@anonymoussaga8723]

@@oranges7706 People actually did used to call really vocal or annoying Harry/Hermione shippers Harmonians

[@fennelfool]

Thanks so much for reaching out to me to include my input/POV and to help dig up internet lore! Wait, sorry, I have to put my hair in a messy bun and go downstairs...I think my mum is calling me...

[@tiacat11]

Ayyyy thanks for the input! I really like hearing it from the mouth of people who were there, y'know? Hope writing your book goes well!

[@fennelfool]

​@@tiacat11thanks so much! Crossing my fingers that the book gets picked up my a publisher next year!

[@alisdraws]

Wow a true legend! Most of us write fanfic not a lot of us end up as a meme about it. I'm glad you could take credit in your own terms

[@valorzard]

how did you go from doing fanfic to writing original stuff? I'm always scared of doing fan content and then being typecast as the fan content guy

[@fennelfool]

@@valorzard to be honest that's why I was apprehensive about coming forward because I was worried that people would look down on me in the publishing world for having come from fanfiction. I think things are a lot different than they used to be though and fanfiction and fandom is becoming more widely recognized and even respected. One of the creators of Ao3 is a published author! (Naomi Novik).

[@lauracortes7720]

your videos about fandom history are so comforting it's like hanging out with a friend from that era

[@Keyndoriel]

Honestly. It's hard to find people in real life who were part of this exact culture aside from my single friend who ticks all the boxes lol

[@LordVader1094]

Parasocial moment lol

[@planetnymph8430]

Honestly. It’s hard to find people in real life who were part of this exact culture aside from my single friend who ticks all the boxes lol

[@Keyndoriel]

I'm feeling bullied LMFAO

[@bowchickabowwowthatswhatmy3219]

I remember my mum talking about an author she hated, going “all those stories are of a sweet innocent girl being sold as a slave to some rich people” and i was like oh boy history repeats itself

[@kaisepher]

same pfp no way

[@bowchickabowwowthatswhatmy3219]

@@kaisepher holy shit

[@noranizaazmi6523]

YIPPEEE!!!!! 🎉🎊🎉

[@Thomaas551]

​@@bowchickabowwowthatswhatmy3219 Not anymore

[@p3p1jnlol]

rpf history is so cool to me. my grandma wrote beatles rpf in the 60s in class. she’d write them in class and insert her friends into it when they’d ask

[@planetaryray7119]

That’s so cool!! I love how throughout time, lots of culture things remain the same, but just with different people/circumstances.

[@saladman420]

I remember seeing something about a history of fanfic tropes and the origins also came from Star Trek fanfics in the 60s

[@bug6141]

as a Beatles fan in the 2020s there is still Beatles rpf being written in some small circles of the fandom

[@Anindeterminateamountofbees]

That’s HILARIOUS people rlly never change lol

[@noranizaazmi6523]

@@saladman420such as mlm or its other name…yaoi.

[@krissylin]

I'm old enough to confirm that girls were being sold to the New Kids on the Block back in the late 80s.

[@rx500android]

Strange needs to see this omg

[@TacticusPrime]

In Roaring Spring spiral notebooks?

[@tortis6342]

Wait, seriously? No joke?

[@Callthemstarchild]

As someone who maladaptive daydreamed as a kid, I can kinda understand and empathize where this trope comes from. I grew up in a shitty home. For me a common fantasy was being whisked away to be a princess, a lot of my childhood stories/ imagined storylines with my toys involved adoption or orphans, also hospitals, kidnapping, and boarding schools. A way to imagine a life separate from the people in my real life treating me horribly. While this probably wasn’t the case of all of them, I’m sure there were a few people who wrote sold to one direction as a way to imagine a situation better than the one they were in. A way to escape and be treated better. I was never into one direction at that age. But if I was I could very much see myself roleplaying a world where I was sold to them to escape my shitty home life.

[@idk49779]

Oh... I didnt need therapy in the youtube comments today...

[@delusion5867]

@notville_ ?

[@piss7610]

It's kinda giving Matilda asking her family to let her be adopted by Ms Honey almost.

[@elliotmydude]

oh yeah I have maladaptive daydreaming too and could totally understand how this could be an MD escapist fantasy. As a kid I always had the fantasy of being 'saved' usually in some crazy dramatic way.

[@Callthemstarchild]

@@piss7610 dude I stg if I had a miss honey as a kid I would’ve been a completely different person. But yeah Matilda was my SHIT, and the fantasy of wanting someone to come and save u from an abusive household is so real lol. See also: Annie

[@loki_is_tired]

I always like it when Strange in particular talks about these kinds of topics, because she tends to be more empathetic towards the fans who write this kind of stuff. Like, for as many “sold to one direction” jokes as I appreciate, there are so, so many other people who are downright cruel about it, when these are clearly just written by pre-teen or young teenage girls (and a few boys, let’s be honest) who are exploring their sexuality for the first time through fanfiction, and who want to be found attractive by someone, so they make a reader-insert or OC so they can do that. I don’t like it when people shame fandom practices like that, because like, it’s just a part of growing up, really. You may consider it “cringe”, but you too have been cringe at one point. Especially as a teenager, because of not only hormones but the way society treats teenagers. You’re too old for your favourite games, you’re too young for the new games you want to try, you’re too old for hugs, you’re too young to be alone, you’re too old to play with toys, you’re too young to do “adult things” on the computer. It goes on and on; adolescence is an awkward in between state. It’s the state of transition between child and adult, and people are scared of change. Anyway, my point is, teenagers do things we think are silly, stupid, dangerous, or just cringe all the time. And it really upsets me how people always shame them for just,,, being teenagers. Being grown children discovering themselves and their maturity for the first time. Anyway thanks for coming to my TED-ex talk sorry for my random pseudo-philosophical rambling lmao.

[@amittesukku]

THIS!! It's also why I'm not a fan of negativity towards engaging with RPF in general - whether it's shipping a self-insert with the celebrity you like, or two celebrities who aren't together with each other, you may be surprised with how it impacted you when you look back at it years later. I also can't help but think of fictosexuality - I'm hoping this isn't as big of an issue in the community as I heard it might have been (I'm not great at engaging with communities, really), but some younger people who discover themselves to be ficto may be freaked out by the concept of it, because their fictional other is too young/a villain/not conventionally attractive, etc., etc. It's one thing to not be understood by your relatives if you try being open about it, but it's another thing when you don't allow yourself to grow into it and experience the joy of it, or even worse, if you feel like the community is shunning you for some reason.

[@spagheleton]

i understand your argument but rpf definitely negatively impacts the celebrities it's about. one of the most glaring examples is how tje relationship between harry styles and louis tomlinson was permanently impacted due to people shipping them. it's a nuanced issue for sure but it's cruel to the celebrities whose lives are negatively impacted by this stuff

[@loki_is_tired]

@@spagheleton Oh I absolutely agree. I think we should absolutely talk about the morality of it, but I wasn’t just talking about this. I meant that a lot of things like this - take the very concept of a mary sue, for example - are just teenagers exploring themselves. Morally I absolutely do not agree with RPF in general, and beyond the morality and its effect on the real people in question, it also just squicks me out personally. My comment was supposed to be discussing more of fanfiction and fandom as a whole, and the way they’re treated.

[@bogwife7942]

well said. It makes me laugh a little to see people saying kids writing jeff the killer fanfic and kidnapped by nial horan fanfic need psychological help. naw man, that's just being a tween. when I was 13 my favourite band was a sexed up, gory, kinky, rob-zombie-meets-rocky-horror metal band. kids are just starting to understand and explore dark themes at that age. it's nothing new

[@swimmyswim417]

Jenny Nicholson has a fun video about One Direction during the Purge that’s poking fun a little bit, but mostly good spirited and empathetic about the writers and readers who enjoy this stuff. Honestly, the “sold to One Direction” fic genre seems like a modern, very niche evolution of old-timey harem dramas, which is a genre that’s existed for a really long time. It doesn’t seem as weird or “cringe” taking those other tropes and storytelling influences into consideration.

[@Dermenscha]

I remember getting a "fanfic rec" from a friend back in the day that she insisted was a beautifully crafted love story based on mutual attraction in the middle of trauma and it was porn. It was so porn-y I genuinely had to stop reading it and I messaged her asking if I had found the right story. Anyway it was a 1D slave story.

[@tiacat11]

See, I'm a firm believer in checking comfort levels for that reason. I believe that a story can be a fantastic romance about mutual attraction in the middle of trauma AND also be extremely smutty, but if I found a fic that good I would ask the person "hey how comfortable are you with NSFW stuff? How comfortable are you with dubcon/slave stuff?" etc. I know trigger warnings got memed to hell and back for a little bit but I still am a firm proponent of CWing shit. It's just good practice.

[@darkstarr984]

Yeah that’s messed up. I am often really awkward about sharing things I make because they often are very smutty so I just share selective stuff or try to feel out how okay someone is with it. Because it’s not good to drop something like that on someone who isn’t okay with it.

[@bishielurfer]

​@@darkstarr984I used to have a friend who was incredibly open about reading and writing lots of fanfic and who had no problem with things getting weird and smutty. It was great to have someone I could share the more bizarre or more explicit stories I found with. We also both wrote so would send each other things we had written to look over and provide feedback. The things we wrote were generally pretty standard original stories with zero smut, but it was still great to know her feedback was going to be about the quality of the writing and whether things made sense rather than having to worry how she'd judge the content itself. If you don't have someone like that you know IRL, it might be beneficial to find some online spaces where you can find someone willing to read your works without judgment. If you genuinely want to improve your writing or storytelling skills, feedback is incredibly important so it can be really beneficial to have someone to share it with.

[@minanathans6005]

Of course it was -_-

[@MilesPlaysPriv]

I need non-tumblrinas to understand that these stories and weird posts and historic events are so brain chemistry altering that we still think about them daily.

[@mmsjjdjdh]

it’s our roman empire …..

[@mayz1223]

Does anyone else remember the PTV period fanfic? Just me?😂

[@Mooinator3000]

I was never a tumblr user, but me and some friends would just read the goofiest sold to one direction fan fics during classes. None of us were fans of the band, but it was a fascinating (and kinda funny genre)

[@rileywakeford8773]

My favourite fun fact about the After series is that the author tried to invite Harry himself to the premiere of the first movie and she pestered him so many times that he eventually got a restraining order against her

[@user-ow1bc4sx2r]

funny but not true unfortunately

[@rileywakeford8773]

@@user-ow1bc4sx2r not true? I could have sworn I heard it was true?

[@thewitchbasket]

@@rileywakeford8773 I did some digging and it looks like the only source for that is a TikTok from 2020. The author seems to be adamant that she wouldn't want to barge into his life and I couldn't find anything from Harry Styles himself aside from a fragment of an interview where he seemed to know nothing about the series aside from its name. It looks like it's just a rumor.

[@noranizaazmi6523]

My rice-frying shrimp told me this too!

[@delcanfisher8496]

"Hello friends, I have some very exciting news, I-" and immediately my brain filled in "have been sold to 1d"

[@alexandrapedersen829]

The "beautiful woman sold to bad boy" trope goes way back. The earliest I can think of is the 1782 Mozart opera "Die Entführung aus dem Serail" where Konstanze, a Spanish noblewoman, is kidnapped and sold to Pasha Selim (Pasha was a high rank within the Ottoman political and military system). Konstanze's English maid, Blonde, (which is a fantastic name) is kidnapped alongside her and sold to Selim's servant Osmin. Konstanze's betrothed, Belmonte, and his servant, Pedrillo, who is incidentally betrothed to Blonde, mount a daring rescue while Konstanze and Blonde withstand their captors' romantic ouvertures by simply not agreeing to sleep with them. The rescue ends up being discovered, and Belmonte and Pedrillo are captured by Selim. Belmonte tries to negotiate with Selim, saying that his father, the governor of Oran, will pay a big ransom for them, but it turns out that Selim and Belmonte's father are enemies. For a minute, Konstanze, Belmonte, Blonde and Pedrillo think they'll be tortured to death, but Selim decides that the best way to get one over on Belmonte's father is by showing them mercy, so he lets them go. ~The end~

[@key37raminus]

Omg this looks like it was written by a CHILD... I knew Mozart was a kid prodigy, but still... People, please don't let teenagers write operas...

[@seraphinasullivan4849]

I would love to hear your thoughts on Puccini's cowboy opera that he claimed to be the most important thing he'd ever written. Or anything by Puccini. I hear he was considered the silly pop music of his day

[@alexandrapedersen829]

​@@key37raminus Mozart was 26 when this premiered, though he only composed the music. The libretto (opera for script) was written by Gottlieb Stephanie (who was 34) and based on a play which premiered the previous year, so don't worry about insulting Mozart's genious. His music for it is pretty good; I quite like Matern aller Arten, the song Konstanze sings to make Selim back off, especially Edda Moser's version.

[@deadfr0g]

I’m really loving the “I’m a kidnapper, not a rapist!” energy we‘re getting from the villains here. 💀

[@mikakestudios5891]

​@@seraphinasullivan4849 Puccini is indeed best enjoyed while not thinking about the lyrics

[@mikomiko.]

i'm very proud and not at all ashamed to say that i read exclusively self insert fanfiction. why WOULDN'T i want to be cool and hot and pretty and have all my favorite characters in love with me. i read it on ao3, but i go on wattpad to write it because, to be honest, i love the community there. it's so unserious.

[@bogwife7942]

never touched the stuff in my life, but godspeed to you 🫡

[@tiacat11]

You're so real and valid for this

[@Hotsingesl]

finally a kindred spirit

[@nicolasnamed]

This is so real, I'm a firm believer that self-insert fanfic CAN be good, it's just there's a lot to wade through.

[@bewilderbeastie8899]

Cannot relate, I am here to be a spectator, maybe a director at best. I want these two other characters to do stuff, I refuse to be involved. I am intangible vapour that happens to watch.

[@bunnyfrosting1744]

Soon I’m going on my first queer date in years, and I just found out she also loves one direction. So excited to use this video as conversation material

[@bunnyfrosting1744]

This is the most strange æons fan comment ever

[@MackenzieNerdyEMT]

I hope it goes well!! If it were me id certainly be thrilled with the conversation haha

[@TheElf_Online]

Good luck on the date!

[@user-ow1bc4sx2r]

Please be careful it may be traumatic for them to recall the time they were sold to one direction

[@jillybean4247]

This just unlocked a memory of writing a fic where the hotter, better version of myself was sold to the Backstreet Boys back in like 1998. Actually, I had several but I remember them all following a similar theme of being sent off to live with the band for various reasons mostly involving somehow "working" for them. >__>

[@haleysmith1501]

I just saw a tumblr post recently discussing how sold to/captured by stories were ways for writers/readers to explore concepts that might normally be taboo (maybe due to purity culture/homophibia) without feeling as much guilt in exploring those thoughts.

[@TheElf_Online]

That’s genuinely one of the reason why so many women have cnc or non-consensual fantasies. Partially because female sexuality is often shamed in puritanical culture.

[@goldegreen]

Finally, someone who uses the phrase "purity culture" correctly.

[@bogwife7942]

was it the one about labyrinth? I think I've read it too

[@haleysmith1501]

@@bogwife7942 it was about a few different once the main example they gave was a closed man using an abducted by big strong werewolf though.

[@friday13thirteen]

i have to imagine a lot of it is also the sort of presexual fantasies a lot of kinky people talk about having when they were too young to know about bdsm. like oh nooooo it would be sooo scary to be tied up and enslaved by a sexy villain, i better lie in bed and think about it for three hours 👀

[@i.7525]

i just KNOW girls were writing "sold to the beatles" fanfiction in the 60s but there was nowhere to publish that. i wanna read it so bad

[@castielnovak2900]

Reminds me of the time I got caught reading Sold To One Direction fics on wattpad when I was 11 and got my phone taken away for an entire year

[@planetaryray7119]

Mood. I was reading 1D slash and had all my electronics taken away and tumblr account deleted 😅

[@serendipanni7064]

Same! My parents confiscated my phone and removed all access to the internet after they found me reading one direction smut on quotev

[@littlemsterious991]

how did i never realise how dark this trope is? i guess it kind of makes sense, when you think about that meme about how companies expect little girls to play with dolls vs how they actually do. this really isnt all that different from the storylines i made up with my barbies as a kid.

[@meganginter176]

your mom selling you to one direction and your reaction being “omg my mom is such a biatch” is WILD

[@oregano-gremlin]

A friend and I were obsessed with hatereading 1D fanfiction for all of middle school, so I have pretty strong opinions on the topic, lol. It's very funny how Harry was always the bad boy when the one who the producers usually gave the bad boy aesthetic was Zayn.

[@shinyskunk]

I always thought the same thing! Especially in light of his first solo song which seemed entirely based around him saying the word "fucking" and nothing else. (Also in light of the domestic abuse stuff 😬)

[@averysinisterspoon]

​@@shinyskunkin light of the what??

[@DefyReality-ll2cg]

@@averysinisterspoon Zayn physical assaulted Yolanda Hadid the mother of Gigi Hadid his girlfriend at the time.

[@averysinisterspoon]

@@DefyReality-ll2cg o h damn i did not know that part, thanks for telling me!

[@thecuriocabinet]

It was super funny, too, because I always think of the like... I'm not sure what to call them, they weren't quite imagines, but those like aesthetic collages where it'd be like "tattoos for each 1D boy" and it was like... what tattoo (or other item) you'd get based on which 1D boy you liked. In those, which were purely fan-created, there was also a trend of an edgier aesthetic associated with Zayn, so it was also present in the fans, too. I think part of it comes from Harry being the most popular of the bunch and so the one more people wanted to self-insert ship with and thus apply these tropes to.

[@Alyx-xo1wg]

in high school i read *alot* of "demi lovato adopts a self-insert character from an abusive home" fanfic, which means i definitely read some sold to 1D fanfic that also featured demi. for me it wasnt a desire to be romantically involved with them (i was actually pretty turned off by fics that featured that) but a big desire to be whisked away from my abusive home by this very kind and cool person that understands what its like to be abused and mentally ill

[@rutapendragon8441]

my favorite 1D fanfic trope will forever be the teen pregnancy au, especially if it features taking the usually couple month to a year old child to a concert and then plopping them down on the meet and great table and going like "here's your baby!"

[@rutapendragon8441]

i also once read a fanfic where asteroids started falling from the sky and somehow 1D had a shelter that could with stand that (impossible) and somehow they decided to save this random girl and her sister. and through out the story we would find out that the sister was actually the mother of the baby, but she had a car accident right before giving birth and when she woke up she conveniently forgot the whole teen pregnancy thing and her parents didn't have the heart to break the news to her, so they just raised the baby like it was theirs and actually the dad was harry all along.

[@CommanderWiggins]

​@@rutapendragon8441This is one of those comments where you gotta stop and comprehend what you just read.

[@rutapendragon8441]

@@CommanderWiggins and the best part it wasn't a parody. i read it sometimes around 2012-13 and i know for a fact it was an earnest attempt from a child to write apocalyptic fiction because the author and i moved in the same fandom circles back then.

[@wHat-tHe...]

I always just assumed that fanfiction like this was so popular and appealing to tween girls because they just find tragedy and dark topics incredibly fascinating. Every little girl played executioner and hostage scenarios with her barbies, we all loved to play pretend being starving single mothers on the streets, i quiet literally did kidnap/slavery/torture scenarios with my friends and cousins when we were not even like 10 years old lmao Little girls just love that shit, so sold to xy/kidnapped by xy stories are pretty tame compared to that in my humble opinion lol its just the little girl brain doing gods unholy work and actually i think that is what makes it beautiful

[@MirandaSour]

Lol. I didnt do this. Usually just play mother with a million kids so all the stuffed animals and toys were involved.

[@eugeniabukhman8533]

So real, I definitely played "capture, imprisonment, torture, execution, and sometimes escape" with my toys and friends when I was little lol

[@GeographyPal]

⁠​⁠@@eugeniabukhman8533 former young man here, but I totally did the same. My parents were really cool with their two boys playing with Barbie dolls, and other ‘girl’ toys, so we would use our G.I. Joes and Barbies to make a weirdly gender inclusive special ops team. Some of them would always get captured and undergo interrogation. I guess I never i’ll grew out of that fascination because I went on to do extensive research on war crimes, prisoners of war in contemporary U.S. foreign conflicts (Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib…), genocide, torture and so on in a post 9/11 Middle East context so… I guess I have bizarre childhood games to blame for that.

[@cup_of_tea755]

I was doing full on eugenics and medical mutilations with my Lego friends sets, I stg they put something in little kid's water to make them so twisted.

[@petiolereads]

I participated in N*SYNC RPF communities in the late 90s. I don't remember any specific stories (sad), but my favorite thing was that people would put out casting calls to fill in other Mary Sues for their stories. You would fill out a long application to fill the role of Lance Bass' girlfriend (lol). I loved these so much, and in true ADHD fashion, I would regularly put out casting calls and spend many hours pouring through other 12-year-old girls' applications and crafting the perfect balance of personalities and tensions, and then spend many zeroes of hours writing.

[@hellaradusername]

I love these physical copies of fanfiction from the 70's and 80's where they had to go to Kinkos and make photocopies of it, and have it spiral bound if they're feeling fancy. There's a level of bravery to do that

[@dommiesgrl]

It's funny, I actually think these tropes were inspired by popular movies of the time. Pop Culture Detective has a really great video on "Abduction as Romance", which really traces the roots of this in 80s/90s/00s cinema. The sensationalism and logical improbability of these Wattpad plotlines written by tweens are fun to clown on, but their ideas about romance are learned from various pieces of media which portrayed the "toxic bad boy who stalks and/or controls you for your own protection" or "dangerous, violent kidnapper/slave owner who is made soft by falling in love with his captive" as if those are things which will lead to a happily ever after.

[@mchjsosde]

Really great point

[@Kelseybeee]

It’s giving Hades and Persephone

[@planetaryray7119]

Yes, I remember lots of popular YA books at the time involved the male character controlling or kidnapping the female character. It was very normal

[@monochromesunsets]

"the earliest rpf we have is-" me, nodding sagely: dante's inferno "-from startrek" .....oh

[@tnasty1081]

Or the symposium by Plato 😂😂

[@svarakissoon1189]

recently a friend of mine was describing a fic she read and it involved mafia and abortions and like twelve plot twists and i was like 'oh?' because she didn't strike me as the type to read fanfiction. turns out it was some variation of 1d x reader on wattpad. i asked if it was good (genuinely, cause it really isn't my thing) and she strongly recommend it. it was over 30k words though so i really didn't want to (as someone who isn't into 1d or has opened wattpad in years) so instead she said 'okay try this' and it was also a 1d fic, this time not x reader, but just straight up porn. 'hey i think you'll like this' and it's porn; no lead up, no intro, first sentence in and they're already horizontal. thinking about converting her to ao3 just for better quality works.

[@bethanybrookes8479]

A couple of years ago, I was sifting through the stationary owned by the guide unit I helped out at and found some unopened packets of one direction themed pencils. I exclaimed in surprise, these pencils must have been sitting unopened in that cupboard for at least 6 years by that point, seeing as they all featured Zayne's face along with the other boys. Some of the girls came over concerned, asking what was wrong. I showed them, astonishment showing on my face, these unopened one direction pencils. One of the girls asked "one direction? What's that?" I felt myself die inside a little. "You know Harry Styles, don't you?" "Yes, my mum listens to his songs all the time" one of the girls replied. "I really like his music," another added. That was a relief, at least I didn't have to explain who Harry was to them. "One direction is the band he was in before he started making songs all by himself." I explained. "Harry styles used to be in a band?!" One of the girls exclaimed. That was the first time I, who at the time was only the tender age of 18, first truly felt old.

[@kate_m.]

As per usual, learning about late 2000s-2010s fan fiction culture has clarified A Lot about self-published romance novels of the here and now.

[@the.official.dorkasaurus]

ok being totally honest i love writing my own ocs into fandoms like not even as a self insert (though thats probably a subconscious part of it) but like sometimes I just really want to watch certain random scenarios play out and the fandom its in doesn't have any characters that could execute that, so i make my own. like excuse me for wanting the main character of my favorite series to get a hot girlfriend when none of her male love interests fit and all the other female characters are just really straight like cmon i have needs. i like reading about zuko getting a mother figure who cares for him and helps him heal from his trauma its not my fault i have mommy issues

[@laurensimendinger8887]

Yeah! I love OCs, I have like twenty PJO ones lol. I definitely think that they can be cringey sometimes, but honestly that's part of the fun! Fiction is for escape. Plus it helps you deal with your own trauma. Every single one of my ocs deals with something I'm going through in my own life.

[@bogwife7942]

I feel you. sometimes female OCs are the only way you can have femslash, which there's still a huge shortage of in fandom. personally I'm planning a fic about a character with one line in canon that I've latched on to getting a hot deranged gf

[@apeacebone6499]

In my experience, fandom has become a LOT more accepting of OCs in the last, say, twenty years. I suspect a part of this has to do with the rise of video games as a narrative medium and subsequently the rise of video games with a customizable player character--basically an OC at that point. And the acceptance of that specific kind of OC has sort of filtered out by osmosis.

[@fivehourhowl]

I accidentally found catboy fanart of my own uncle once and while i fully respect the artist and their talent, it was also hilarious.

[@fantasyshadows3207]

WHAT

[@fivehourhowl]

yeah i had the same response, thankfully it was cute and not horny bc that would have been Trauma lol

[@tillychee]

is your uncle famous or something

[@zoe_astra]

My mum used to write fanfic about The Beatles when she was a kid, she was very young and it was very innocent but I still find it hilarious 😂

[@cryptidferrets]

i have fond memories of helping my best friend in the 8th grade proofread her 1D fanfics, and i cant help but wonder if she ever was one of these popular wattpad authors. like every time she hung out at my house she would hand me her old iphone and ask me to check for spelling mistakes on her notes app fanfics and that was my only exposure to them because i didnt have much access to the internet at the time to know her online handles. so shoutout to chloe i hope youre a famous author now and i wanna think i was the "thnx to raven" of your 1D fanfic authors notes.

[@mikakestudios5891]

I love how meme content like Sold to One Direction seems so modern amd niche, but it's older than The Sheik by E.M. Hull in 1919. This is something deep in our species that we will be grappling with for centuries to come.

[@quantumphysics7008]

without having watched the video yet i came to say- sold to one direction fics are the modern evolution of those old kidnap romance novels. the allure of being wanted that badly by someone desirable, the fantasy of being whisked away by them in such a way that sheds all social norms and barriers. sold to 1d fics are what your grandma would be reading instead of "kidnapped by pirates/ect" if 1d had been around.

[@isabelalopesjordao8222]

i love how the goblin child just magically appears on her shoulder (it's not the editing it's his ancient powers)

[@caitm4138]

I find your discussions of fandom stuff like this really interesting. You've got a nice combination of, like, detached academic interest, while not just being snarky and mean to the people that took it seriously. I was in college during the height of this, and even though I write fan fic of a generally frowned upon nature, it's not RPF. I was aware of the Sold to One Direction trope via Quotev and Internet Osmosis, but never actually looked at it twice. So thank you for sharing your thoughts on this subject. As for the Question being a Spider-Man character, hey, one of the original Spider-Man creators created the Question, so it's not that crazy a mistake a make.

[@maroon_mammoth6294]

I think part of the appeal of fan fictions like these are the escapist fantasy, kids who grew up in unsafe homes dreaming of somehow getting out of it and getting to live this fantasy where the people they idolize are their friends and they never have to return to their parents

[@GillKaulitz]

indigo charisma feels like a name straight out of a colleen hoover book

[@alece]

this is my favorite bit of fandom lore thanks for covering it

[@theletters9623]

Part of the appeal of kidnapping/selling trope to me when I was like twelve was just Not Wanting To Be Where I Was because I was going through some shit both at home and at school and the idea of a Hot Werewolf Bad Boy or a Popular Band scooping me up and taking me Anywhere Else was some real tastey escapism. Also oh my god QUOTEV I remember quotev. I only really took the quizzes as opposed to reading fics but my god That Webbed Site

[@sillypplproductions2]

Can confirm that kidnapping/being sold is a way of, ironically, regaining control by taking it away from a self insert. You have no way of escaping your circumstances yourself (depression, loneliness, etc), so by writing another character/person suddenly taking you away, you have an out. Someone wants you, even if the intentions aren't good at first (if ever). Also, rpf isnt just limited to celebrities, bc i basically wrote down my daydreams of what i wished would happen after my ex broke up with me in middle school lol although those were just like "i hope dances with me at the school dance" and that sort of thing. And i only wrote like...two lmao

[@amrys_argent]

When I was a kid, I'd read a book about an average girl who is acquaintances with a rich girl from a famous family, and who gets taken as well when the rich girl is kidnapped for ransom by her kooky psychiatrist. (Yes, this was a real published YA novel, "The Kidnapping of Courtney Van Allen and What's Her Name.") This inspired me to write, for my 6th-grade creative writing assignment, a story in which I was kidnapped alongside my favorite famous people of the moment ... New Kids on the Block. (Gah, just typing that ... I'd have been less embarrassed to tell you about my Darkwing Duck self-insert story from a couple years later.) Anyway, it's kidnapped ~with~ a boy band rather than kidnapped ~by~ a boy band, but if it's of interest to your research, this would have been 1989-90. Though I had a huge crush on Joe McIntyre, I didn't make it a romance because the age difference would have made it creepy. (How sheltered we were pre-internet.) So instead it was an escape story. (Oh, shit, now I'm remembering another book I read as a kid, "Prisoners at the Kitchen Table," in which ANOTHER kid who is hanging out with his rich [but not famous this time] friend gets kidnapped alongside her. "One and a half" is how one of the kidnappers describes the kids, knowing they won't get much if any ransom for the boy. Moral of the story, don't hang around with rich kids. Anyway, the story of how the kids escape probably informed my fanfic.)

[@GradyDP]

14:08 Wrong. The earliest example of RPF was Inferno by Dante Alighieri, in which he shipped himself with this girl he had a crush on and also had his favorite philosopher be best buddies with him.

[@ouijacorn]

Not even joking: Harmony Davenport is an A+ OC name. (OKAY I like to think I'm hard to shock but I did a double take at "sold to Saruman". I mean....get it, girl.)

[@justdirt]

I've been subbed since the first onion boy book review and even when I'm not watching every vid, popping in to see how she changed her hair is always a source of joy for me.

[@threeleggedcat]

As someone who got my start in reading and writing fanfiction in 2012/13 and was a fan of One Direction, I can tell you I read at least one of these, and I specifically remember it being honestly kind of sweet and basically an adoption story

[@planetaryray7119]

Found family fr!!

[@AnnoyingOrange420]

I still cannot believe that in middle school someone told me that Wattpad was a website for free books. I went on there and was flabbergasted, but luckily saved myself and left after finding the first werewolf fanfic

[@aerithszelda]

early 2010s quotev was genuinely a very insane place, the drama on there got really intense . i imagine one of these days a youtuber will discover the goldmine of untapped video essay potential that lies there. niche quotev micro celebrities, their rise, and subsequent downfalls.

[@ThePrincessUmbrella]

YES exactly!! I met all of my closest friends (and even my roommate) through Quotev as a teenager, yet it feels like no one has heard of it. It's crazy and I'd love to see someone explore it so I don't feel like I'm insane for remembering things that no one else has heard of 😆

[@SnoConeWars]

Incredible that the debate over rpf has been ongoing for over 40 years

[@TacticusPrime]

And it's never been ethical.

[@tereziamarkova2822]

21:55 - My guess when it comes to the originator of this trope would be The Sheik, the late great grandaddy of the late great bodice ripper genre. These days, openly rapey heroes are much more taboo in romance novels, but back then the owners of said bodices need not have consented to their ripping. The Sheik was about a, well, sheik that kidnapped and "tamed" the heroine. From our modern standpoint, it's an extremely fucked up little story that includes a straight-up Stockholm syndrome, but the 20's housewives loved it so much it was adapted into a famous silent picture.

[@salem-01]

Finding out 25 minutes in that the origin of sold to one direction was on quotev was like being shot in the chest. When I was younger I was never on wattpad or ao3, just quotev. I joined in role play groups and posted art in those fanart pages people would make, I even joined in the whole “CEO of (blank)” craze when it reached me. What I didn’t know was that when I joined the community it was already dying. I never actually read much on there, only like a handful of fics which I never finished and one original work. Honestly? Probably the happiest I’ve ever been.

[@TS-kj8og]

Seeing a fellow ex Quotev user in these comments is wild omg, I also spent all my time on there back in the day. I remember people would treat the homepage like it was Twitter and I remember all the Quotev “celebrities” and all the friends I made. Man those were beautiful times, I miss that site

[@flawlix]

RPF wasn’t my thing, but there were similar tropes in other fandoms, and I absolutely drank up stuff like this as a kinky teen.

[@wynterpage3797]

RPF does date back to Dante's Inferno. Man wrote about getting to meet his favourite poet and see real-life people he disliked for whatever reason suffer in hell. And it's considered a literary masterpiece. So, you know...at least we know he didn't originate with Star Trek -this- time.

[@evelynallen5777]

I actually am wearing you “the fool shirt” as I watch! I work in an all cat hospital and on fridays we get to wear cat related shirts so I have both of your kitties and love wearing them! The first day I wore the Star I got a complement! Also I adore hearing about weird fandom history because I know I am also a weird fandom person. I adore how you come from a place of understanding and don’t just go “lol that’s weird what freaks.” I mean you do and that’s fair but it’s affectionate and not dismissive or cruel. Love your content and I hope you keep it up! Give your kitties some scratches from me!!

[@jonathanaarhus224]

Historical fiction is technically a form of RPF, but in most cases historical fiction only involves no longer living people, which is an important distinction to RPF involving still living people.

[@ianbean1631]

Example of the proliferation of rpf and its effect on young people: in middle school, my friends and I wrote several hundred pages of fanfic about our friend and his crush (with his consent!) and my theory is that we thought it was okay because most of us were in the Dan and Phil fandom and read lots of rpf. Looking back, it’s one of the craziest and worst things I’ve done but at the time it felt like the most normal thing in the world.

[@nicolebee3283]

One of the most iconic self insert fanfic genres

[@choochoo852]

idk how to express how thankful i am for your videos cause im doing my ba thesis on fandom culture and parasocial relationships and you save me from reading countless studies from 60yos who havent experienced the glory of directioners

[@realmcarthy]

well now you GOTTA give us updates on ur fandom thesis???

[@saladman420]

@@realmcarthyYEAH I AGREE

[@saqhorov]

In the 8th grade my friend used one of these for her book report. Megan I hope you are well

[@ASmidgeOfPidge]

This video unearthed an ancient memory of mine of a writing site I used to belong to called Movellas. I can't speak to the density vs something like Wattpad which I never used, but I swear it felt like every second story on there was 1D based. One of the most notorious ones (I just checked and it's still the 2nd most popular story ever hosted there, behind another 1D fic) was called Auction, which was a sort of spin on the "sold to 1D" trope where it's a school dating auction instead of actual black market slavery. Apparently the author also self-published the whole trilogy on Amazon, which I remember being a huge deal at the time.

[@prageruwu69]

truly one of the fanfiction tropes of all time

[@Natakupl]

I've definitely read Xena fics from the 90s on various fansites all about Gabrielle being sold/kidnapped/enslaved/imprisoned to an evil conqueror Xena. I dunno if that's anything.

[@kontters]

you and draco (im sorry i forgot your girlfriend's name again) are literally such couple goals

[@iceteeize]

I don’t read rpf and I don’t really care for it, but I DO really like that Beatles fan girls wrote fanfics about them. Just shows that no matter the time and love fan girls are the same ❤️

[@pipersparrow7547]

I was in the bandom RPF scene way back when! There was definitely a solid fanbase for "sold to Pete Wentz" self-inserts, too. Frankly, there were a lot of stories about other people in the music scene being sold to Pete Wentz. Most of them were on Quizilla so I'm not sure how many have survived

[@xyzzyx4839]

as a quotev kid (a resident of that hell from ages 11 - 17. i still have my account [i'm 21 now] and occasionally post there when i have something to say but don't want to put it on, like, fucking twitter) i was both shocked and utterly, miserably resigned to our fate as being the origin of the sold to 1d trope. of course the trope predates the fandom of 1d, but the combination is so iconic (said in the most derogatory way possible, frankly) that for it to come from the quiet toxic hell that traumatized me and gifted me with many friends (some of whom i still have, and one of whom i'm even going to meet later this year) is just... i've been staring, trying to figure out how to finish that sentence, at my own comment, for several minutes, and can't come up with anything. and i think that summarizes it better than anything else could.

[@KyleRayner12]

My favorite thing about Strange is that when I see a title like "Sold to One Direction," I have to click to know whether she's talking about fandom spaces, a highly-specific scandal, or something she's doing when reacting to a music video or something,

[@neivilde.1242]

because i pretty much exclusively use ao3, i hadn't realized that wattpad was still being actively used by a lot of people. i was on tiktok looking at ship edits for a minor ship from teen wolf, and i was surprised to find that the fandom was still very active, especially in making fanfic edits and just writing fics in general. and a lot of the samefics were being named as being great, and i was like oh fun let me check them out, only for me to realize they were all on wattpad??? i was like what? people still use it? and enjoy it??? unironically????

[@sketchingingreen]

The most dangerous gang in town having the name "One Direction" is such a funny concept to me. Maybe it's because I already associate that name with a teen boy band that girls obsessed over, but I just can't see that being the name for a gang

[@iamtheplague5879]

Okay hear me out: Dante's inferno was the first RPF

[@strawb3r_]

as cringey as it was, reading that quotev fanfiction was one of the only things that I had energy for during my severe depression as a young teenager. It was very entertaining.