Question Poll: Harem or No harem?

Consider that the novel should be the good kind and not the trash kind.
Super Simple, Just curious which one would win.
Just one Rule: BE HONEST
Answer in the poll... For a novel, you want Harem or no harem?. All other tags or genres dont matter

 

Honestly, harem doesn't matter to me as long as the characters in the harem are not so 2d that it detracts from the story. I don't prefer harem novels, but I don't necessarily dislike them either.

 

If it’s a good story then the harem will be good. It’s all about the execution

 

...........Hmmmm...........if the harem is true harem, the MC is passable(this is actually pretty hard to do for authors) and the main heroine isn't garbage(tsundere like Louise) then i will read it. The plot can be sloppy but not too much, for me at least.

 

Depends on the quality of the novel.

 

I think 2 girls is acceptable 3 is is the absolute limit but if we're talking female protagonist 1 guy and no more

 

Harem, as long as the girls are not like pokemon you can expect some character development, when there's one girl things get too dramatic for my tastes and so I'd rather have harem or no girls, you know like a novel about an MC having and adventure alone or with monster companions.

 

I feel like most good novels don’t have any romance period simply because of how difficult it is to write a single love interest that satisfies everybody.
But regarding my personal policy on harems, if one person is going to be polyamorous then all consenting parties should also have the right to love more than one person. No double standards. Real polyamorous couples usually don’t work out unless they’re all in a relationship because there is always inevitable favoritism if the relationship is centered on one person. It’s pretty obvious it will get ugly since jealousy is easier to manifest.
On the other hand, I am okay if harems exist in an imperial setting. I’m also curious how a Greek or Egyptian harem would be written, but it probably wouldn’t be interesting enough to sustain readers.

 

Harem doesn't make a novel trash, it simply makes the novel far worse.

I mean look at it this way, on one side you either waste little time on the harem members making them all 2D, or you try to develop them completely derailing the plot.

So the only way a harem can barely work is if each character actually contributes the the plot and is interesting enough that you'd be willing to read an entire book about that character alone without the MC.

And since that isn't gonna happen, especially in a web novel format. Harem just makes things worse.

 

Harem Ftw!
But yeah sometimes i would rather not have a harem in the novel if it's poorly executed like your generic cn novels. Still, there are some hidden gems from time to time.

 

Yuri harem anyone?

 

Depends on the novel. I don't want every story to have a harem but also I am a degenerate and like having harems in stories. As long as it is not horribly mishandled I like them.

 

I personally don’t like nor enjoy harems. They hinder character development, the reason why they fell in love in the first place doesn’t make sense (they fall in love way too easily in my opinion), they usually don’t have any significance in the story besides just having a few scenes of characters that you recognize by only one trait lusting over the protagonist, etc. Also harems are also sometimes put in the story to satisfy the romance department but there is nothing romantic about 3-5 people fighting and lusting over the protagonist for almost no reason. To be honest if you actually think about it the things they do are creepy and borderline sexual assault. There is also sometimes no definite ending to the harem (who the protagonist picks isn’t shown sometimes which is just annoying and even when they do the people in the harem won’t accept it). Any way there are more reasons but I just don’t like harems in general.

 

NARRATIVE

IF THE CHARAS ARE BLAND ASF making it a harem is like eating oatmeal ur there for the food not the flavor

IF THE STORY is good charas are well developed AND THE MC HAS A REASON THEN WHY THE FK NOT

 

I’m sorry but the harem tag is like a tramp stamp, it’s an automatic mark of trash.

Maybe there are some classy ones out there but I’m not about to get herpes finding out.

 

At the end of the day, harems only really work with "nakama" plots where they interact as a team in certain genre types. And you can't get individual character development without sacrificing actual plot time or whole harem time, and if the harem's not all interacting together, what's the point? That said, I don't like the hate the genre gets. People need to understand it can't be read for the romance. Whatever is there is just icing on the plot cake.

 

Harems must be destroyed.
They are irrational....the vast majority of women do NOT share a man amicably.....that's just some virgin's fantasy.

 

While I will read either one, if we're talking two well written stories with the only difference being that one has a harem, I would go for the one without a harem. Monogamist protagonist just seem to have way more sincere love stories. Harem only really work if you suspend your disbelief. The second you start to think about it you just realize you're a total hypocrite for enjoying it. Cause lets all be honest we're totally cool with a protagonist having a whole harem of beautiful women, but if one of those women decided to start her own harem on the side we'd flip shit.

Spoiler: Suspending Disbelief Definition

Suspension of disbelief, sometimes called willing suspension of disbelief, is the intentional avoidance of critical thinking or logic in examining something surreal, such as a work of speculative fiction, in order to believe it for the sake of enjoyment. source Google

Spoiler: Catgirl Harem?

Interesting little bit of trivia, when cats are in heat they can be impregnated multiple times. By more than one partner, so it is common for them to give birth to litters of half siblings. Now in humans polygyny (multiple wives) is favored because otherwise there would be a ton of competition to pass on your genes. If catgirls were a thing though they could birth litters containing the progeny of multiple romantic partners simultaneously. They're basically designed for polyandry (multiple husbands). Write a harem story about that.

 

It is possible for Harems to be written well, I'll agree with that. But rarely do people read a book for the harem.

The most Important thing is that a harem can easily spoil an amazing book if it's even slightly badly executed but not having a harem never did any harm to any book.

 

No harem
although I read few harem novel, I prefer no harem