my theory about stockholm syndrome and it’s darker than expected meaning- a thread

let’s start off with the year 2014, when the song was most likely written, obviously along with recorded and released. 1d won a TON of awards that year, along with 2013. according to an article released by “the mirror” in 2014, they were making approximately $280k a DAY.

my point here is 2013/2014 seemed to be the time 1d’s music and the boys themselves were gaining a lot of publicity coming from awards they won and because of what a big hit midnight memories was. now let’s get to where this ties to the dark part.

ok so for the lyrics- obviously the whole entire song is about being held by someone and not having freedom, but weirdly being okay with it after a certain point because you’ve “fallen” for whoever is holding you/who you’re being held with.

obviously, the boys had very little freedom bc of modest and were being “held” by them. the song talks ab being told they’re “never gonna get away” and “they’ll be coming to find me soon, but i’m getting used to being held by you”.

this seems to fit with what the boys thought of themselves; that they were never gonna break up, never gonna get away. but they became used to what they were going through. as i said this is a dark theory so idk

but basically, they say “together we’re alone and there’s no other place i’d ever wanna go” and this could be referring to how they have each other, and because of that the pain is worth it and they would never want to leave.

unfortunately it’s a bit ironic because zayn obviously left the year afterwards but harry was the only member to write on this song so it might just be how he individually was feeling at the time.

also the lyric “used to sing about being free but now he’s changed his mind”. four seems to have less songs about freedom than mm does. mm has songs like alive, strong, and dfwyb that reference to secrecy and fame, and i’m not sure four has any specifically besides ready to run.

basically stockholm syndrome is just harry saying “my friends are worth it, my fans are worth it, the pain is worth it”. he’s “fell” for that pain because it’s given him a whole new life, even if it has some very negative parts.

in the end he says “baby look what you’ve done to me”, like certain things in his life have been ruined. which again, is true, but he’s saying throughout the song that somehow it’s worth it. so basically he has mixed feelings about his life but he’s willing to fight for it.

i know it’s kind of a reach but i just couldn’t figure out why harry would write about having stockholm syndrome when clearly the literal meaning of the song is more of a fantasy, made up scenario type thing and harry almost never writes NOT from real experiences, as we know.

phew ok kudos to u if u read through all that i just wanted to share! feel free to share opinions in the replies :)

also if this flops i’m gonna cry