For me, a perfect harem would be where the protagonist doesn't pick girls like cabbages and accepts them easily. Personality and relationship are really important. The protagonist just can't save the person then the person just fell in love with him. Afterall, for me saving a person just added some good will against the protagonist however that actually isn't an actual reason for the protagonist and the harem member to be together. Just point out how they fell in love and how they got in love to the point that sharing their lover is okay. I think a perfect harem party is actually limited to 7 just not double digits because I think it will crumble the harem. (My opinion though) I also think that having a girl/boy who actually despise sharing their lover to others, broke their relationship and ended up single alone/ married to another is quite interesting. Like if their relationship isn't that strong or not as strong as the protagonist and other's relationship, I would actually think this is quite interesting. (My opinion) To be fair, I usually avoid some harem tags because of how badly they are written. I read some harem like World Apocalypse Online and I liked it in my book.
it depends , do you want a generic novel ? or do you want to make something unique while I appreciate the answers before most of them are generic will make you novel mundane , if you want my advice there are 2 types of harem infighting harem united harem -------------------------------------------- the infighting harem will get you to write more chapters but most of the times it'll get boring fast as most of the time it would just keep repeating itself ------------------------------------------- united harem usually because they have the same goal while harder to write will give you a better story , also make the harem members in the harem not due to interest in the mc but because of a certain goal , I don't know like they want the mc to leave the party a memorable story was one where the mc is trying to kill his harem members while they are trying to kill the mc too but at the end of the day they all survive and the mc is till stuck with them -nearly the chinese version of konosuba- ----------------------------------------------- don't add harem members and then forget about them each member would have to have an active role in the story or appears from time to time
Honesty is the golden trait of a story If you are making a harem... just do a harem, and then write the rest of the story Thats it, the harem should be a part of the story, but not all of it, the world must still exist outside the intended goal of the story Mushoku Tensei is the perfect harem, because the author decided it would be a harem, and then developed the rest of the world and the plot,
Xian Piete, thank you Polyamory is the way to go to have respectful and fulling pluriel relationships Food for thoughts ? If you care to read, here’s a bit of real world sociology and biology polygamy seldom exist in history, it mostly polygyny and it’s truly pretty miserable For a starter, it is a way to accumulate reproductive power - it leaves women as tools for politics (alliance/hostages ) and reproduction (key worl : tool, not human being with right) - Women in this type of systems are basically mistreated : they are subordinate and inferiors and their social position is that of minors : they belong and obey to fathers/brothers /husbands and have no power to decide ( they can only hope to be free if they are widows with a good son : it’s not too healthy for the relationship to the children either !!) - the structure of these toxic assemblies also destroy solidarity between women who only lives well when they are in favor with a single party - If you think it’s better for males then think twice, even with a ratio of 1male per female, if there’s a culture in which one guy can have multiple wives, for each wife added, there’s a man who will never have a partner - it the top number of partner is 4 or 7 - it mean for one man with a harem , there will be 3 or 6 men without any single prospect available The poor boys will have to steal or fight to gather enough ressources to be able to afford a partner - now you might understand why some terrorist group offer a wedding partner as a way to recruit (real fact ) Harem are a recognized as an important cause of war and conflicts …up to these days ! (Btw, in 2017, there were 65,998,630 more men than women on earth, so basically nearly 66 million male without the possibility to have a female partner - and that’s without harem systems) - Be mindful that the monopoly of reproductive power and the lack of partner is also an hindrance for the many sons of the harem owner, and that the new generation will be forced into competition against both siblings and father (as if healthy family relationships had ever been possible) - As far as biology goes, « harems « in animals are only possible because there’s an important rotation of the male leader (true intrinsic peak performance is needed to challenge or resist the new blood) - it’s a very strong reason for infanticide (it’s all about reproduction, nursing female are not eager to reproduce, hence a new male will destroy the previous genitor pups , it accounts to up to 37% of pups mortality in some species) As always, it’s just one of the many models of survival strategy : which means genetic mix is a priority (it’s even a priority in trees !) Hence harem are only possible because the dominant male change very often ( mortality is very much higher in males too) - As for humans, they have never been harem material : male balls are on the small side - the long lasting structure without regular replacements of the dominant male is also proven to be a genetic disaster (consanguinity anyone ?)
"Okay, touching difficult topics here, I believe there is a way to make a Harem that even a Harem hater cannot spit in contempt. 1. number of harem's members? 2. Unclear main heroine? 3. Personality?" When writing a good harem story, the first thing is you want to have as few heroines as possible. The more heroines you have, the more you will end up finding their personalities are either all the same, or simply tropes. With fewer heroines, you are able to characterise them as individuals, rather than as trophies that the protagonist collects. Arguably, a clear main heroine could be either a detriment to the story or beneficial. A clear or unclear main heroine is not as important as how well they are all characterized. It is also important to note that the protagonist personality is a major element in making a harem story enjoyable. In many harems, a huge issue is that the protagonist is either a self-insert character or incredibly overpowered, with no other endearing traits, causing the story to be either unrealistic or simply unentertaining.
Have you ever been in a committed relationship? The thing that people hate about the harem concept is that they can see themselves in the position of the one being cheated. Imagine your dad came home one day with a new beautiful woman he said was his wife. You see your heartbroken mom trying to smile and pass it off like it's wonderful but you can see in her eyes the hate for this new woman and the betrayal that your dad has just committed. It wouldn't matter to your mom that this new woman is a tsundere or some other anime trope. That's why it doesn't matter to the harem hater how many wives the douchebag has or what tropes they are wearing. They just hate that the dude betrayed the original ship so blatantly.
Personally, I don't dislike harems for these particular reasons. It's mainly about infighting between harem members that give me a migraine. If the MC doesn't proactively organize the harem members and is just a selfish twit not caring about anyone else's feelings then it can get old, quick. So I guess it is sort of about the personality (of the MC that is).
Why not just make your protagonist a Casanova type? Rather than lugging around a cumbersome harem, let the protag be more casual. Unless the setting of your novel demands your protag take in political marriages and concubines. First of all, the whole concept of travelling/adventuring with a gaggle of women always struck me as odd as a man. Why is this trope beloved by Asian web novelists? You dont have to marry every woman you have sex with in real life let alone in what is supposed to be a fantasy. You can have a new love interest every arc and find circumstances that prevent the relationship from going anywhere. If you must have a heroine who gets romantically involved with the protag, make her initially disgusted by his playboy antics and slowly warm up to him(redeemable qualities). Making your protagonist an unserious seducer is an alternative to the classic harem setup. As for how to make harems work....I've got nothing. If they are apart of the hero's party just give them a role. Otherwise if the protag is collecting wives like pokemon, sequester them in the castle.