I do. I personally subscribe to the theory that Harry needs all the girls for himself. What about you?

 

I don't.

 

In theory I don't have a problem with them. In practice however, it's almost impossible to write a good story that revolves around a harem. This is because if you're having Harry shag 5+ girls that means that you've got at least 6 main characters to write and at least 5 relationships to write (more if the girls also like each other). On top of this you've also got to write an actual story with a good plot that makes sense and isn't too contrived.

If by some miracle you manage all of this then you're left with a story that will inevitably be very bloated and take far too long for stuff to happen. The best example of this is Dodging Prison and Stealing Witches by LeadVonE which has only just started second year and is already 440k words long.

Of coarse if it's just a smut story then all of that stuff doesn't really matter as smut stories don't need a plot as that's not why people read them.

 

No. Romance is one of those instances where 'less is more'.

 

Harems were more common/popular in Asian cultures, I don't think it works if Harry is still in Britain.

 

I like fics that focus on an actual plot, as opposed to juvenile sex scenes every 5 minutes, so no, I'm not a fan of harems. As most of them are basically an excuse to do that and fuck every girl in the HPverse.

 

Harems are objectively cancer unless they're being parodied. And if they're being parodied, it's because they're cancer.

 

Harems are gei. Real men aren't afraid to let their balls touch.

 

I've never seen a story that was improved with the addition of a Harem. So, pretty much every time you see that tag, it's a good sign to not ever bother opening the story unless that's specifically what you're looking for.

 

I (kind of) liked the Firebird Trilogy, and you can argue the harem added a layer of complexion to the story.

 

No. However, I don't hate them so much that I'm unable to read them. Especially as harem is basically the only way to read Harry/Susan.

 

I think another reason I like it is because male characters other than Harry aren't good enough for any of our beloved girls. I don't particularly like Ron, Neville is boring, Draco is an idiot, Remus is old, Bill is scarred, and so I'd rather Harry get them all instead of Ron/Hermione, Bill/Fleur, Remus/Tonks etc.

 

No. I never read them.

 

I'm going to quote the holiest of scriptures as I weigh in on this subject:

Harems and their polygamous brethren are tools of the virgin fanboy.

 

I think TWT said it best.

 

"Wheel of Time" worked despite the harem, not because of it. Most fanfics don't even accomplish that much.

 

I dearly love the Wheel of Time, but the harem aspect was one of the weakest/worst things in the entire series. Even Jordan couldn't avoid the difficulties of developing multiple romances, and Rand ended up spending almost no time with Elayne. It should have been either Aviendha or Min, Aviendha as part of the Aiel positioning themselves to manipulate him into caring about them more, and Min for her influence on his character development.

 

Yeah, it's very hard to fit multiple reasonably compelling romances into a single story. Heck, a lot of stories can't even fit one good romantic sub-plot into the main story.

From what I've seen, the only ways to make any sort of poly/harem setup work are if you're writing a full-on relationship/character drama, or if you're doing a ridiculous absurdist romp.

 

Harem to me immediately implies domination which implicitly leads to weak willed and poorly fleshed out characters. The only time I could see it working is if its entirely in the background like in many historical narratives, like hey Genghis Khan's banging a lot of bitches, or Cao Cao and his weird collection of wives from all the lords he defeated.

Multi fics however I could see working, where everyone in the relationship has equal power and actual agency.

 

Yeah, that.

There is very little a harem can add to a story that would actually improve it rather than drag it down by siphoning time and space away from other plot points.

Additionally and, in the spirit of the question, perhaps most importantly, I detest the underlying concept and stereotypical motivations for a harem fic to such a degree that it would be virtually impossible for me to enjoy the reading experience. I tried it a couple of times in the past, but not since probably 2015.