Harem or No Harem Team?

[Cipiteca396]

And yeah, Polyamory usually devolves into tying people up. Bondage becomes very popular.

Oof, I walked into that one. Fair enough.

I mean, they brag, yet, at the same time have no self-esteem.

This is part of the problem, at least. They aren't in it for the actual relationship, just the thrill of the 'taboo'. You aren't wrong about them being unstable people to begin with.
That example with Karma ironically sounds closer to polyamory, despite the obvious problem with deliberately targeting straight girls.

I should write a book about all the fucked up shit I witnessed in College.

Actually, yes. This is an Author's site, after all. Just change the names and stuff it into an Isekai for privacy.

 

[T.K._Paradox]

Seriously? Have you ever seen 4 people have a relationship before? Oh god, the fuckin' drama. Back them I just liked hanging out with artsy freaks. Stable people form bonded pairs. That's just how it works. Unstable people just wind up in strange power dynamics that just explode in fireballs visible from orbit. The only relationships that lasted more than a month were the ones where the guy was a manipulative SoB. Me? I was that "nice guy" who everyone came to complain to about how bad things were.

I swear to god, people in 3+ people relationships just LOVE talking about how they are fucking multiple people at once. I mean, they brag, yet, at the same time have no self-esteem. When you have multiple in the same social circle, it just becomes insane. Like, they try and divide everyone up as allies as the two groups 'fight' each other, because if they don't have an enemy to hold their fuck group together, they fall apart. I should write a book about all the fucked up shit I witnessed in College.

Although, now that I think about it, Karma and her squad of lesbians that followed her around was a stable group for over a year, but the 'harem' seemed to have a rotating stable. It was basically a core of three who just liked seducing straight girls.

And yeah, Polyamory usually devolves into tying people up. Bondage becomes very popular.

Got to flex on those that aren't sexually active like rabbits, 'STD GANG!!!!!'

 

[LilTV1155]

Vote for No unless you put literal politics and bloodbath in harem. That meant girls poisoning each other and trying to kill the rest of beta MC's kids for power and love.

 

[Sabruness]

Yeah I do feel so. I guess it's because it's not the actual romantic developments I look after but the "fight alongside you" and "open up my problems to you" relationship beats between the guy and the girls fawning over him. But not quite to the point of taking it to the next step if you get what I mean.

That's possible in a show that's not 6:1 female:male ratio and all, but I rather spend my time seeing more sexy teenage girls on my screen haha. And buying those swimsuit/wedding gown/bunny girl merchandise. I'm a guy, after all.

You know, i have to agree with you there. If pseudo-harems just ditched the 'will-they-wont-they-who-will-he-choose' epic class baiting, i figure a lot of them could probably turn out pretty good, sort of like cliche shounen but instead of a bunch of meatheads, it's a bunch of sexy teenage girls. Would probably also lead to more peaceful shipping rather than the (often tacitly author-encouraged) toxic ship wars that tend to happen with a lot of major pseudo-harems.

 

[GlitchZetsumei]

Depends, if I am reading hentai manga or playing vn, yes.
But manga, novel or anime, no.

 

[Cipiteca396]

Would probably also lead to more peaceful shipping rather than the (often tacitly author-encouraged) toxic ship wars that tend to happen with a lot of major pseudo-harems.

That's highly doubtful, lol. People ship characters that have shown zero romantic interest in anybody, let alone the people they're shipping.
Oddly enough, it seems like things get more toxic if you try to be subtle or don't bother with baiting. With no clear direction, they just make everything up and get salty when they're wrong.

I think you're still right though, personally. I'd rather read about close friends helping each other than clingy jealous girls fighting over a guy for no clear reason.

 

[BlackKnightX]

Harem is a genre of anime where the protagonist has multiple heroines as his lovers. Harem MC is mainly male while the counterpart is Reverse Harem. What do you guys think about it?
This is gonna cause some controversy so please no fighting. This is just for people's opinion.

I love harem mainly because I don’t like it when the mc just has to choose only one girl and then break the other girls’ hearts.

In harem, all girls love him so he just has to choose all of them and live their lives happily ever after...

I know it’s unrealistic. It doesn’t always work like that in real life, and more than that it’s not fair for girls.

But that’s the point of harem. There’s nothing fair about it, and it doesn’t intent to be fair in the first place.

It’s just a guy with a lot of lovers who love him very much and are willing to share him with other members—not just any girls, only harem members.

If it’s all consensual and everyone is happy, then it’s all good isn’t it? Why bother fussing about it, right?

 

[SternenklarenRitter]

I have mixed feelings about harem genre. I really dislike when it all boils down to a script from "the bachelor," for example with "bluer than indigo." Other than that, a lot of harem type stories seem to have every character hit with a permanent -10% int debuff every time someone confesses to the male lead, for example "lv1 sage with infinite magic" does this in a really bad way, and by the time the church's oracle is introduced, most of the characters have as much intelligence as there is nutrition in a bag of granulated sugar. I personally find it frustrating when relationships with only the lead are developed; "Arifureta" in contrast has the male lead go harem route, but the dynamics between all of the 'wives' are explored wonderfully (for example the arc where Kaori and Yue get stuck in the demon king's VR game). I certainly would appreciate harems more if it wasn't so frequently only one character who had multiple lovers. I forget the actual name, but here on scribblehub there's a story about the DLP, the "demonic lesbian polycule" who are a group (slowly increasing in number) each in a relationship with every member. It was refreshing to read after all of the "many ladies affectionate with not even each other just the one dude" stories that exist everywhere.
On the other hand, some of my favorite stories are harem genre. Arifureta, for example, has excellent comedy (after you get past the first 30 or so chapters that are way too dark for my liking, although most reviews instead say the opposite).

 

[BearlyAlive]

Anti-harem front. They're just unrealistic. Nobody ever writes about the logistical problems of a harem or how most of them would end in bloody murder or how the harem-ist would need to ensure that none of their harem-ees feel more or less loved than others.

Harem is just fetishized communism if you think about it: Shared property, everyone is happy with much less than they could have. Nobody owns anything but everyone is oh so happy with it.

(I have nothing against communism, I would love to see it work, but what fits fits)

 

[SternenklarenRitter]

Harem is just fetishized communism if you think about it

It's true, communism is a fetish of mine. I might not want to see that much of it in reality, but it is a sexy philosophy.

 

[Gryphon]

The only reason I have a harem in my story is because of the subject matter my story goes over. Otherwise they'd be more akin to just a dude with a lot of sex friends and one actual girl he'll pair up with in the end. Or maybe not because my type of stories are ones where they exist to give you an apple pie with happiness written on the top, then I'll take it away at the end and give you a cherry pie. Sounds good, right? Different, but good. Well, no whats written on it is depression. Good luck feeling good about yourselves tonight.