Question Would you?

Would you bear the pain of watching/reading a bad harem unfolding but in the other hand the story is decent or good enough?

Recently i just read a story where the MC is capable enough in other aspect such as politic, military and stuff. But he will be push around by girls and hugging every other girl with tears hanging on their eyes. Totally a pushover in front of the girls, which kinda..urghh..
And the reason why the girls like him is quite shallow too.(well he's the MC duh!)

E.g:
girl 1: oops i almost kill you, too bad i missed it. Why i did it? Idk no strong reason.
The MC: ahahaha..my fault..sorry..i will try to not move next time.


Im still at the beginning of the story and starts to considering whether i should proceed or not due to this reason

You?

 

cut it loose... a bad harem will only become more convoluted later on...

 

Cut it like the Cancer it is. Harem themselves r Not the problem but stories like u just described r the Reason they have a Bad Rep. Down the line it just destroys whatever good is in the story

 

Naa bad harem romance is.one of the factors that makes me drop a novel.

 

Yeahh!!! It really is, i do support harem if the reason behind it is good like the MC have a good reason to like them not just because she has boobs and kitty. And the girl also has self respect to not love without using their brains.

 

There’s a lot of hate out there for Harems. Personally I give each story a chance and not dismiss it all together just because of what people say. I agree Harems can be detrimental to a story, but it’s not universal. My advice is to not treat a book by its cover. A writer spent hours and hours of his/her life so you can enjoy something they cherish. Give it a chance. No one said you had to finish it.

 

No I would not. Since harem = character interactions and if the interactions are shit, why should I suffer through reading it?

 

+1

To OP's question...

If it's a benign shitty harem, i could probably tolerate it if the rest of the story is great. If it's a super shitty harem then i probably would give it a try but give up eventually

 

you can try giving it a chance, but it'll snowball into something bad.
characters are the lifeblood of a story, and if you stopped caring for them, even a good plot would render everything unbearable as the story will always focus on characters.

the eight deadly words for every story: "i don't care what happens to these people."

thats why harem gets lots of flak. crap mc, bad characters. do u really wanna read about these people? u end up getting so sick of them. if i met them in real life i *wouldn't stand near them even with two-ft pole.

 

Hmmmm.... I'd probably read a couple more chapters maybe 10-20 depending on how the progress goes. I mean its kinda hard to tell if this is a rom-com, or something serious. But from your explanation of this I'll assume its like a romance comedy.

There's more criteria involved when I read a story, harem can be on the bottom of my totem pole, as long as the story goes somewhere.

 

Depends on how bad it is. Harem on the level of "My Isekai Cheat Power Is Enslaving Lolis By Raping Them" or "I'm Being Tortured by Huge-Breasted Girls Day and Night" will get dropped. But any harem that doesn't make me feel like the MC is the villain of the story or is too miserable to live, is okay as long as the storyline is good.
Well, you might have noticed, but I do like harems overall, and don't mind if the MC is weak to girls. Every main character should have a weakness, right?

 

Depend on how deeply integrated the harem member to the stories. If they only show up here and there and skippable, I’ll continue it. Its not like I never skip some chapter before

 

...i prefer not to read bad harem myself...one where the MC is doormat? Dropped it like i got fire

 

Honestly, I don't know how people who hate harem and actively avoid it have anything to read. Not a fan of harem myself, but I've long since given up trying to avoid it. If the story/worldbuilding is interesting then I just try to overlook the ecchi/harem/romcom nonsense and focus on the parts of the story I actually like.

 

Truth!

 

Agreed.
I can deal with bad harem, as long as the good stuff is still in there.
It's when the bad harem totally takes over the story, and the things you liked about the MC or plot or setting are all twisted and deformed or just plain thrown away to suit and cater to the bad harem part of the story, that's true tragedy right there....

I used to bear with it, until I saw that seeing a story you saw alot of potential in get twisted is very painful. To the point where I'd almost rather see it get axed and at least keep my beautiful memories of what it could have been...
So, I'd bear the pain happily if the bad harem doesn't look dangerous. But if there are red flags I'll run away, I don't want to see another tragedy again...

 

The rest of the plot would have to be godly. But I've seen romantic plot tumors fester until they've ruined the story, so I guess tread with caution if harem isn't the main focus?

 

I agree. 100%

 

Let it go. The sooner you let it go the lesser it will hurt. Save yourself from pain, fam.

 

If he gave each harem story a chance, it would be like light trying to reach the end of the universe. The universe expands faster than the speed of light, if the reader is light and the harem novels are like the expansion of the universe, then it will never end.