What do you consider a small harem?

[LesserCodex]

This is a simple question but one that demands extra thought if needed and it's simple what number do you consider a small harem? I believe anything between more than three is a small large harem, as there is no conventional standard for medium-sized harems, just a big or a small one.

So how many members would you consider a small haren three, fourth, or five? I'd say anything past five is pushing it personally.

 

[LilRora]

If two counts as harem, then two and three, if not then just three. Past that, so four or more, would be large or medium, depending on whether we include the medium or not.

 

[SRB]

Huh? Did you open two threads? Anyway, I think that a small harem - a manageble harem - can't be over three people. Anything over that and the MC has to create clones and that's just sad.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

2

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Small is 3 or 4. 2 looks more like a love triangle rather than harem. Although it makes more sense to only have two, I'm not reading a novel where humans ride dragons and throw fireballs at each other for common sense.

 

[LesserCodex]

Huh? Did you open two threads? Anyway, I think that a small harem - a manageble harem - can't be over three people. Anything over that and the MC has to create clones and that's just sad.

Yeah I wasn't sure where to post this and decided to get a reader and author perspective.

 

[Tempokai]

1 is pure romance, 2 is love triangle, 3 is "small" harem, 4 is "standard" harem, past than that is just clown world

 

[xuduxixi]

2 is for weak, 3 is for master, 4 is for lord, 5 is god, 6 is for damn what the hell, 7 is for save some for us, 8 is for take them all..... 100 is for *gets depressed*

 

[greyblob]

2 is small 3 is ideal

 

[RepresentingCaution]

It depends on who the person at the center of everything is. For a monarch, anything less than 15 would be small.

For an ordinary person, the number would depend on their culture.

In this book, which I've read cover-to-cover, there was some discussion about the ideal number of husbands in Nyinba culture. If I recall correctly, it was three, due to a legend about the founders of their villages. You'd have to read it yourself to confirm, though. I'm too exhausted to find the book, let alone flip through it.

Amazon.com

 

[Cipiteca396]

 

[aattss]

Imo 3-4 would be a small harem.

 

[Sabruness]

3-6. anything less than that isnt a harem really, but more of a throuple. anything more and it become pokemon-esque as well as completely impractical if they;re to be treated equally.

 

[Thraben]

3

2 is just a poly relationship the author is lying about,

but 3 is a proper harem.

 

[Deleted member 166076]

You should see the numbers in beastworld stories. It's a trope of the genre to have most females have ~30 mates if they're a popular female and half a dozen or more for even the least popular. Of course, they do a bunch of sl*t shaming and make the female lead difficult about adjusting to the new world's norms, constantly insisting the modern way of monogamy is best only to end up in a harem with 4-6 men. Of course, they're always the most powerful, most attractive men possible that always have some tragic backstory or the people of the world are prejudiced against their beast type in order to justify why they're still single. I've had people tell me the harem in my story is small at 7 male leads, but people were already having a hard time remembering who was who at 3 male leads.

 

[MatchaChocolate69]

Let’s say hypothetically you fall in love with someone, and also hypothetically this person has two or more other alter-egos or personalities, and all these personalities love you in their own way.

Technically, this is a very small harem composed of one person with multiple alter-egos.

 

[owotrucked]

Let’s say hypothetically you fall in love with someone, and also hypothetically this person has two or more other alter-egos or personalities, and all these personalities love you in their own way.

Technically, this is a very small harem composed of one person with multiple alter-egos.

That's why BPD schizo gf is so hot on internet nowadays

You can also experience getting NTR'ed by one of your gf alter ego, but it's alright because her main still loves you

 

[MatchaChocolate69]

You can also experience getting NTR'ed by one of your gf alter ego, but it's alright because her main still loves you

 

[prognastat]

Anything under 3 isn’t harem imo. I would say 3-4 is small. 5-7 is medium. Over 7 is large.

From a literary perspective when it goes beyond 7 it really tends to become much less interesting to me, because it’s just not possible to entertain the MC, the harem members, side characters and a plot and give all of them the time they need/deserve. Like either the romantic interests become cardboard cutouts with two dimensional personalities that only exist to be conquered and disappear into the harem where their personality goes from 2D to 1D. If the author instead does flesh them out it usually means the plot either doesn’t exist or moves way too slow due to all the time spent on the love interests. It tends to just become wank where the relationships aren’t actually what the story is selling, but purely the idea of a harem itself.

Then there’s the harem palaces where MC has dozens or even hundreds of love interests none of whose are fleshed out and are just there to pad a number to show just how “awesome” MC is.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

Whatever is not enough to bring you the necessary political weight to take power