Harem in a Nutshell

(Mostly from royalroad and tvtropes)

The forbidden fruit of fanfics. Everybody wants them. Yet, they are rotten to the core.

A fantasy every man dreamed at least once in their life.

Still, they are almost synonymous with bad writing, cringe, shallow characters, and straight-up nonsense. So much so that it becomes a virtual war over the right of its existence.

How did it come to this? What's the cause?

Many. And I'm going to compile each and every single one of them that the internet gods provided me through my google search and the souls who wrote them for me to copy and paste here. I highly suggest going to the disclaimer to check them out.

Let's start with the first one. What is [Harem]? Before answering that, let's define what is not.

1. Harem is not for your wish fulfillment.

If the MCs are weak, dense, pointless, indecisive, useless, beta-male, alpha tyrant, depressing, anti-social, nonsensical, temper-throwing, vengeful, abusive, antagonistic, sceptical, thinks-the-world-owes-him-something, chuninbyouu, NEET, arseholic, jerk-olic, rude, or even a pain to write about, then tell me, why would any woman fall in love with him? None. They might even be beside him, but not with him. If anything better shows up, they are gone.

The reason why harem is such a delicate genre to balance and many people hate it is because it doesn't make sense. If you are a soon-to-be write a story, think of it this way; Would you like your sister/female friends/best friend/mum/auntie/any female you know to be involved with such a character? If the answer is no, why should you even make a harem for that sort of MC?

2. Women in the harem are not stupid.

If you make a woman's character just to be part of the MC's collection of women, you are not writing about a harem. You are writing about... wash-downed version of a bawdy house. Each of them has dreams, free will, experiences, independence, character, emotions, and power.

3. Harem is not for you to have a wankfest.

If you want that, a harem is not for you. There are other places for you to have your own happy ending. Might as well create a character who is a womanizer that belongs to no one and go to strip clubs, still better, more reasonable, and real than a harem wankfest. Unless your MC has the power to make every female become a nymphomaniac in a radius around him, it will always ruin your fanfic.

4. OP MCs are not chick magnets.

So, just you think you wanted to create an OP MC, you can get away with a harem and girls flocking to your MC like he is the best thing since sliced bread? Heh, think again. One extreme from the other is a recipe for a harem-ic disaster.

What will happen when someone stronger shows around? Are they going to suddenly become absolutely loyal to the MC? No one is stronger than MC? Wow, really boring story you got there. The best OP MC fanfics focus on side characters, comedy, character development, and awkward moments.

Now, let's go back to the first question. What [Harem] is?

1. For an MC who believes in an open and polygamous relationship. And the setting that allows it.

Harem is a part of this world's culture and so it existed; China's dynasties emperors, the Middle Eastern civilization, the Asian cultures, and many more had harems in one way or another. It is still alive and well, first-world countries or not. The numbers are few, but believe me when I say it's not just a concept of some barbaric nonsense full of male pride.

So, if your story had a setting that does not allow a harem, why does your MC have to be in a harem? Think about it. Just because he is your MC and you think it's fun? Do you know what the readers think? It's bullshit and it's revolting.

For example, let's take a scene comparison.

4000 years ago, the China emperor, let called him Emperor Han the Fifth had an empress. He went out hunting and saw a beautiful girl collecting mushrooms. He liked that woman and using his eunuch as an aide, persuade the girl to become his concubine. The woman ended up being one of the 300 concubines the emperor had and her family now had risen in status. The concubine role was easy. She would entertain the emperor and do whatever he wishes.

Now, let's pan out to a modern man in the metropolis of New York. Here he is, God's greatest gift to womenkind. As he walks down the road, many women fall head over heels for him. With the flash of his smile, women throng him and spread themselves for him. As he holds the woman in his arms, he gives out a big laugh saying how much the Gods have favored him versus the other trashes of men that are looking at and envying his presence.

Notice any difference there?

What's even funnier is the sheer hypocrisy of it. A guy like that not only would not even bother wasting time reading or writing fanfics, but the author himself is almost sure to be one of those trashes of men. Copium at its finest.

Instead of this, why simply not change the setting, whether that be the time period, the country, culture, historic event, or even humanity as a race itself?

How about a plague released by a secret group of amazon-like women that killed most men in the world, or changed the men-female ratio from 1:1 to 1:5? You can even use this to create a woman dominant society, matriarchal where women oppress men and have privileges instead of the other way around.

How about natural selection, while we were still monkeys, humans simply came to have a higher female ratio. I don't know, maybe the environment pressure selected humans to have more women and subsequently more offspring. You can even play the natural selection card to a cataclysmic event, like a zombie plague where women have more resistance than men.

How about a world like MHA where everyone canonically has a power and unique needs and urges that come with them? An MC with a super body, and equally super libido, together with a partner who never could satisfy him and through a feeling of guilt at his/her incapacity or understanding of said circumstances, allow the partner to sleep around, maybe even find someone who can keep up with it? A society that has examples of superpowers leading to polyamorous relations and therefore not so taboo? Hell, why not make the president one of those examples and make the laws become much more friendly due to it?

You can make a more realistic setting where a fairly recent event caused a need for a polyamorous relationship, but since it is still fresh to the global society and its traditions and cultures, it leads to an awkward time where a must for polygamy clashes with the legacy of monogamy, where both men and women are indecisive of what they should do, creating a super realistic setting that comes as close to a real harem in modern western culture.

What about the parents of your harem members? They ought to have a reaction to this.

Use their personalities against them. Someone jealous might be lured to certain situations that can be developed from there. Any emotion and personality have something that can be explored.

As long as it makes reasonable sense, and comes naturally, possibly even backed up by the original cannon material, go wild!

2. Harem is about sharing and caring.

Pool the resources together. One woman might not be good at cooking, but the other will. One can be a better protector, and the other a nurturer. One could do the housekeeping and one could earn some money.

All in all, harem is about supporting the MC. And MC will do his best to support his women.

This is true especially when resources are scarce and everyone had to band together. If your MC happened to be OP, then pooling resources would be made easier. If your MC is weak (or as I had mentioned above), tell me, why do any women want to pool their resources with someone who can't even earn a dime on his own or someone who is a pain to be with?

3. Harem is for a MC that can handle real-life issues and grow with them. It spells as being an adult and maturity.

If your MC is wussy, prissy, hissy, pussy, wimpy, neet-y, chuunibyoou-y and the only way to lead his life is by rejecting everyone around him and treat others with distrust, why the feck women want his love and his genetic inheritance anyway? Because he is mysterious? Hell no.

Neither is a macho man that reeks of testosterone that thinks "Big Dick Energy" is a free pass to be a complete asshole and a magnet for women. He might attract women, just not the good kind. Not the type to be meaningful in a harem. At best a hook-up here and there.

Just imagine this as you wanted to create a MC with a harem. Would you allow this MC to date your sister/female friends? Would you vouch for him and be proud of him and would recommend a girl to date him if the MC ever needs one?

And one more thing. If the MC hated woman, distrust others, treat others as trashes, why would he get near women or anyone for that matter? Just because it's your story does not make it an excuse for women to throw themselves into the arms of a man whose whole existence was to be a pain to others.

4. Loves, romances, misunderstandings, heartaches, growth, and trials of pain and pleasure are part of a harem.

If your MC cannot deal with it, don't do harem. It's better to be el solo lobo. They are cliches, yes. Nevertheless, they push the harem forward, and this is one of the most natural ways to do so.

Now, let's move to the necessary tropes a harem needs to flourish. (tvtropes)

[Fanservice]: A Harem series is essentially a fanservice series. You need to make your characters very appealing both to the protagonist and to the audience. This includes specific Shout Outs to the audience. Naked Apron, Beach Episode, etc. However, it is possible to put in way too much Fanservice. Most of the harem only becomes fanservice…

[Love Dodecahedron]: You don't have a series without at least some relationship conflict. In most cases, this is at least 3 characters being in love with The Protagonist, who is unable to choose. If there are only 2 rivals for his affection, it's a Love Triangle. Jealousy, revenge disguised as "pranks", bitterness, anguish, frustration, loneliness (just try to have time for multiple women), fights, conflict of personalities and values, and much more, are all a part of a real harem.

Note that these do not necessarily have to be serious contenders. The situation could shake out to be an Official Couple or a Love Triangle situation, with the extra, "beta" characters being Pretty Freeloaders or genuinely interested — but not to the point of the "real" relationship interests.

Many Love Dodecahedron situations in harems turn out to have some of the beta characters having Hidden Depths in the form of outside relationships — a girl who initially seems to be pining for the guy may actually be suffering after losing her husband to illness, or be awaiting her fiancee's return from overseas.

[Status Quo Is God]: You don't have a series if he picks a girl and spits it out, so naturally he won't be able to. Well, you do have the potential for a Spin-Off series, though if you're writing it as a Mini Series.

[Accidental Pervert and many of the Mistaken for Index tropes]: Misunderstandings are going to move your plot forward, you should stop thinking about avoiding them and start thinking about how to do them well.

Here's another take on [Harem]. (royalroad)

First things first, you will need to figure out the level of harem-ness. Is it a protagonist with a large number of Pretty Freeloaders and a rapidly less understanding girlfriend? Is it a pair of Childhood Friends both realizing their feelings for The Protagonist at the same time he finally makes progress with the new exchange student? Is it a band manager trying to keep a group of diverse personalities from killing each other?

Does anything get resolved? Are certain characters destined for a bus? Is it Love at First Sight?

How bizarre the harem is? Surely you want some diversion and variety, but this is depending on your setting and the tone of the story. Handle it carefully, for having unusual girls can make the harem look more interesting, but they also add more questions you need to answer.

[Normal girls]: Childhood Friend, Tomboy Genki Girl, Tsundere Alpha Bitch, Kuudere Heir to the Dojo, Shrinking Violet Meganekko, Yamato Nadeshiko, etc. This is a basic group, that easily fits in any setting.

[Exotic but not unusual girls]: New Transfer Student, Princess, Idol Singer, The Stoic Student Council President, etc. Unlike the first group, to have these girls in a harem means this guy is indeed a special guy. Think of some good reason why they're in the harem. A simple handwave may be enough to justify one of these special girls being in the harem (hey, he may be just a really lucky guy to catch her attention in a time of need). But unless it's backed up by good writing, your harem hero can easily come off as a Marty Stu.

[Girls that you won't see in Real Life]: Cute Ghost Girl, Token Mini-Moe Cute Witch, Friendly Neighborhood Vampire, Magical Girl, Angel, Ridiculously Human Robot Girl, Succubus, Opposite-Sex Clone, Human Alien, etc. On the plus side, it's clear that you're writing fantasy here (Urban Fantasy if you can justify their presence in a modern setting), and the audience will question less about their reason to fall in love than group 2's. On the other hand, do not expect to keep audiences satisfied with just romance and drama, they expect something special from this harem.

With that aside, now for some Steps: (Mostly Deviant Art Yoshi 2.1 + My opinion)

Step 1: Character

One of the main keys to setting up a harem is portraying the primary object of affection, as in the guy who attracts the attention. It would be fair to give him a common, modern, and everyday appearance. In terms of physical build, it would be best not to overdo the musculature, you don't want him looking like a guy on steroids, that would ruin the flow a bit. Also, don't make him so handsome that girls would immediately get excited or blush at the sight of him, that's rushing things.

Unreasonably popular among women, all-out babe magnet or a handsome womanizer who can get any woman he wants with his looks and charms that automatically draws interest from women after just a few hours or minutes This is not only repetitive and overused, but I personally believe it reflects the author's bad writing skills and mediocre personality, plus his real-life insecurities as a whole. Don't think for a second that how you write a fanfic doesn't say anything about you. It does. And it does hard.

Step 2: Personality

And now onto the personality bit. This is more of an average guideline. The character's behavioral pattern should be more or less along the lines of a kind, modest, somewhat shy, calm, and collected, as well as occasionally excited or temperamental.

Now then, the one thing I cannot get past is how some fan fiction authors portray male characters as being extremely perverted without any boundaries (Examples include: peeking at, groping, and molesting women) it takes away from the joy of the harem. I know it's common in some anime of today, but there are limits to this concept. Closet perverts are often minor, so they don't count as much. DxD Issei is not a good comparison, since he had whole character arcs to flesh out his perversion into actual drive and source of power. Don't be too arrogant to think you can pull that off with an MC.

Girls are usually given a stable, well-mannered, but short-tempered personality, along with occasionally being seductive, loving, and a little playful when around a certain guy they like. That's normal, but try not to go overboard with the seduction, meaning don't make them overly sexual or lustful to the point where they scare the main character with their advances. Teasing is acceptable, but don't get carried away with it.

Step 3: Building a harem

The best way to conjure a harem is to create a scenario that starts it off. Every girl involved needs a reason to show interest in the guy. It could be either for his kindness, manners, formality, and so on. It doesn't always need to be something like because of his looks, charms, talent, or even physique. So, you should create scenarios that lead up to said girls developing an interest in this one guy

Also, try to keep the number of girls to a stable limit. To be honest, a huge harem of girls who all like one guy is going way too overboard. At least four or possibly five girls are enough. You have no idea how hard it is to make huge harems. Good ones at least

Step 4: Outcome

Now, this is an important part of a harem. There comes a time when the main character has to choose at least one of the girls, but it has to be a girl that he loves the most, not just any of them. He can't date all of them either, that's an unfair choice.

This type of scenario mainly occurs near the end of the story. In some cases, many fan fiction writers often create alternate endings to try and show how the outcome would be if one of the other girls were to be chosen.

Now, I want to give a more direct answer to why [Harems] are usually trash.

[1] Harems are hard, and most authors underestimate their difficulty.

[2] Most authors who made them are socially awkward people with delusional fantasies or children/teens filled with hormones who got into porn waaaay too soon and like dogs in heat can't stop themselves and write a fanfic about it, and fail miserably.

[3] Laziness. They never bothered doing the bare work.

[4] Inexperience. They didn't make a fanfic with one partner first but jumped right into harem as their first work.

And that's all I have to say and show, have a good one :D