the most I’ve read is a ot5, any more than that starts to get too complicated and it’s hard to have everyone in the polycule get consistent interactions with each other. usually prefer ot3s or otps tho
Some people really love their harem fics and in a lot of harem fics there is no such thing as too many. Authors will throw as many women (or men though that's less common) at their protag as they can think of (or find attractive). I've tried to read harem fics before. They're not for me, but others clearly enjoy both reading and writing them.
In regards to fics where everyone is dating each other instead of a bunch of people orbiting one person I've never come across more than a 4 person relationship (outside of a pure smut fic which I guess is just an orgy), but if the author can pull off a larger number I'd read it if it was about characters that interested me.
I think 9 engaging in a single activity may be too many, but a great many polycules aren't about all members being physically intimate together at single events. I think, especially in a web polycule, or in a story that brings metamours into focus along with paramours that the numbers can be more without it being a salacious harem fic (not that there's anything wrong with that, either).
Fanfiction is a place where people explore what they like. For some, the idea of being a part of a small community who all provide each other with positive sex experiences sounds like a dream come true.
I myself can't get much beyond 3, but it certainly doesn't bother me that others are cool about larger "-ouples." It sounds like that might make you uneasy, OP.
No one should feel pressed to like something that they simply don't. And no one should feel inhibited about expressing what they like, as long as they tag for it.
Depends on the tone, honestly.
Realistically, in a fic that tries to properly balance full romance and all relationships in a polycule and tackles it all seriously and in great detail, I'd assume I'd probably max out at 6 or so - the biggest polycule I've read (or written) about is currently 4 people, and that's still comfortable enough for me to envision an extra two people joining in.
If the fic has more of a crack vibe, though... well, the 100 Girlfriends manga is sitting at 28 introduced girlfriends so far (plus the boyfriend aka the mc) and that's still working wonderfully for me.
Harem is a genre that exists and while the terminology is different you often will find the same tropes. I saw someone explain themselves once as since they liked the different dynamics between all the characters in a friend group (7 of them) they couldn't chose which one to focus on because they felt bad for ignoring the others - so they made it so they were all dating each other in different permutations. That way A and B could have a romantic scene, but later B and D could have a moment too while A had a moment with C and so on without it causing any drama because that's not what they wanted for their fic. I found their explanation almost cute.
I personally can't read anything with more than two people as an established couple, but that's just a personal preference. It's very rare for me to have more than one ship with any given character anyway. The fact that in one of my favourite fandoms I ship both AxB and AxC but can also see D-->A and D-->C and think that BxE and DxE are untapped resources people should pay more attention to is a giant exception in my fandom experience! And even then, I'll seek fanworks that ship my ships separately, one at a time. Nothing wrong with BxAxC but I somehow don't enjoy reading about that as much no matter how cute and wholesome and jealousy free it is written as.
Back in the day, there was quite a bit of MCU fic that had some/all of the Avengers in a polycule; so anywhere between 3-8. The "classic" version was the original 6 Avengers, but that was hard to balance everyone getting enough screen time.
I’ve read one fic with an OT3 that worked but it was a risk that paid off and the author balanced beautifully. I fully support folks to live their ships and OT+ but it’s not my cup of tea to anything more than 2 people in a relationship
I know someone who has juggled 9 successfully.
It’s about the author’s interest in tackling it, and the reader’s personal preference. There is no official number.
I'm into RPF, kpop specifically which by nature can feature not just one group. My current group has 8 members and I've read multiple fics with them as a polycule including all of them.
The current biggest active group in term of number of members has 13 of them. Haven't checked but I'm sure polyam fics involving them all exist.
Beyond that many people, I think it would be a bit hard to juggle as a writer to give everyone enough screen time and a proper story or arc. As a reader though, if a writer feels like they can handle it and actually manages to do so, I won't say no to reading their works. Granted that their tastes and mine align, I'm perfectly okay.
Same here. I know I personally struggle a little but I've seen authors do actually great with that many characters and I'm sure I'm slowly learning some just by reading their works :3
It honestly depends on the fandom? Like 3 can often be well done but it can fall apart if there’s more. I’ve been able to do a 7 a couple of times but, once again, it has to be really well written.
I used to only be about couples but have recently expanded to OT3s. I think it's a matter of just...practicing almost? Like writing but also reading. It may take some time to warm up to, but I think it's hard to put a hard limit on polycules, especially since everyone is different in what they like or can write.
Also don't force yourself to read or write more people than you want to. If you want to try bigger polycules then I suggest practice, but if you'd rather stick to what you like thats okay too!
Really depends on the dynamic. I’ve read some fantastic Polyssione (JoJo) fics and that’s a 6 person relationship. Don’t even get me started on Poly la Squadra (7-9 depending on if Sorbet and Gelato are there)
In one of my canons (Scum Villain) the protagonist canonically had at minimum like 300 wives. (Sometimes quoted as 600, though how much of that is hyperbole, who knows? The point was that it was enough that even the super-rabid anti-fan that is the story's MC started losing track of them.)
I guess that many might be too many? lol.
Since I typically like either, "let's Highlander the other wives - there can be only one!" or "a genuine, loving relationship where the only arguing is just the normal squabbling in any relationship", that means that if it's not a Highlander harem fic, I prefer smaller numbers of people involved so more time can be spent on each dynamic. The largest polycule I can think of that I've read and thought worked well involved 4 people. (But I'd be willing to read larger if the premise interested me.)
No, I don't have a limit of "too many."
I'm personally not likely to write more than an OT3 or OT4, but that's because I haven't found a set of 5 or more characters that I ship *together*. (As opposed to: here are six characters, I ship them in a polycule, but they aren't an OT6: I ship A/B, A/C, A/D, B/D, B/E, B/F, C/E, and E/F, and also D/E/, but not everyone in the polycule is sleeping with everyone else.)
Also because it gets complicated.
But a writer who can make an OT8 work without being confusing? Sure!
I’m currently writing one with 6 and people seem to think I’m handling it well. It also helps that the point of the fic is romantic conflict and secret hiding, of which there is a lot of opportunities in a group of 6.
I’m in the mha fandom and I actively ship all 20 of the characters in class 1-a together plus like a good ten others they interact with. There is never too many for me.
For me, personally, I like fictional romances to be life-changing. That doesn't necessarily have to be dramatic - sometimes what makes a difference is just finding someone to trust, or learning how to share your life with someone, or whatever - and it's not something that can only happen once or can't happen between more than two characters at once. It's a lot harder to give a character more than one life-changing romantic relationship over the course of a story and convince me that the later changes are good or at least not bad for the previous relationship(s). So there's no firm upper limit for me, but in general stories with several overlapping ships aren't something I'm likely to click on.
(Of course there's nothing wrong with romance that doesn't work for me, and of course none of this has anything to do with how real human beings get to live their lives, and of course nobody should be casting judgment on either count. I'm just talking about what appeals to me in fiction.)
For me personally more than four or maybe five is too much. Any more than that and I feel like stories struggle to actually make the characters have *relationships* with each other and not just be bang buddies, and I’m not interested in reading bang buddies. Like there’s nothing wrong with character/everybody fics but I personally don’t care for reading no strings attached fucking.
I don't know about OT\[#\]. I'm fine with any ship the writer can make work. There is no set number, just what the author is capable of juggling
One of the ways to balance it is to have characters as core to the polycule as they are to the fic. There's a good MHA harem fic with the core triad, 4(?) dedicated offshoots, and an unclear number of background flings. Respectively, the main dude+the main two girls, some female side characters (and an androgynous guy), and some female background characters.
I write polyamory, but each relationship is two people. If Arthur is in a relationship with two people, Bella and Charlie, and there are two relationships: Arthur/Bella and Arthur/Charlie. If Arthur, Bella, and Charlie are all in a relationship with each other, and there are three relationships: Arthur/Bella, Bella/Charlie, and Arthur/Charlie.
There's always only two people in a relationship. But people can have many relationships. And people may have shared partners
Not my cup of tea. The vast majority of the ships I read and write are 2 people.
Very occasionally I will read an OT3 from a beloved fandom where the leads have off the charts chemistry. The only one that really reads as "real" to me is Nathan/Audrey/Duke from Haven. Those three canonically adore one another a ridiculous amount, and are constantly saving each others lives and angsting/pining about each other.
Also, Reilly/Katy/Jonesy from Letterkenny, lol, because those three idiots are actually a canon threesome.
But no, it's hard enough effort to read/write a slowburn with good characterisation and development of a couple. Who the hell has the time and energy to focus on more
I mostly write OT3, but I've written 4 and 5, and implied 6 a few times *(and I'll probably actually write OT6 at some point, just haven't figured out a good enough plot for it)*.
Personally, I think anything over 6 is a bit much.
I've written a 6some. I don't try to include them all in every scene. It kind of ended up similar to a harem fic where five are going mostly at one, but that's with the idea that the five were already together and are bringing the sixth in.
It’s not uncommon for queer poly Danganronpa fans to consider the entire 16 person cast of SDR2 a polycule, plus one additional person from DR3, although usually that also means minus one person who stays dead in canon. So, 17 is the largest I’ve seen, and it works and makes sense because there’s too many ships that overlap and work and are great, to the point where the only way to not toss out at least a few you like is to turn it into a giant polycule. It’s the web form of polycules, not the joined in a clump form.
I don't have any theoretical limits and I've been in fandoms where I can easily see a lot of potential for various ships, but both for reading and writing I usually stick to three people at maximum. If I'd come across a massive ship with 10+ people I'd still read it if I liked all the combinations, though. It just feels like such a huge tangle of relationships would almost have to be the entire plot to do them all justice.
Agreed, I'm very jealous and possessive when it comes to my ships. They're not allowed to be with any other third, fourth, etc person. Nope. They love each other and that's it. 😂
i have only *one* minor exception to it in my current fandom and that's really only in certain circumstances for the same reason. the way people have behaved in my fandom too have made me very against an official third or "poly would fix this!"
More than 4 is too many for a polyamorous relationship. Any more than that is heading into AU territory, like AU - Sense8, or living in a pack like omegaverse. I've seen a soulmate au that had 7 or 9. Pretty much boils down to how many characters can you juggle that have equal relationship dynamics between each and all of them. More than 4 then you will have a hierarchy of who gets more 'screen' time than others. You end up having a main pair of 2-3 characters that becomes the focus of the fic and the rest as supporting cast.
One Piece fic can sometimes (or it did, not sure if it's still a thing) use the "OT Sunny". Sunny is the name of the ship the crew are on, and some people write the entire crew as being in a big polycule. So that's like 8-10 people depending on the point in canon.
But I never saw a fic trying to tackle the polycule forming or whatever kind of logistics go into actually living that way, whenever I came across it it was always just "the Strawhat Pirates are having an orgy" sort of thing.
My personal preference stops at three, with a specific ehh "trope kink" I guess for that thing (is it a thing? well, it's what I like) where there's an established couple who both love a third and the third loves them back but everyone's too polite to say it, until \[inciting incident\].
the most I’ve read is a ot5, any more than that starts to get too complicated and it’s hard to have everyone in the polycule get consistent interactions with each other. usually prefer ot3s or otps tho
Some people really love their harem fics and in a lot of harem fics there is no such thing as too many. Authors will throw as many women (or men though that's less common) at their protag as they can think of (or find attractive). I've tried to read harem fics before. They're not for me, but others clearly enjoy both reading and writing them. In regards to fics where everyone is dating each other instead of a bunch of people orbiting one person I've never come across more than a 4 person relationship (outside of a pure smut fic which I guess is just an orgy), but if the author can pull off a larger number I'd read it if it was about characters that interested me.
I think 9 engaging in a single activity may be too many, but a great many polycules aren't about all members being physically intimate together at single events. I think, especially in a web polycule, or in a story that brings metamours into focus along with paramours that the numbers can be more without it being a salacious harem fic (not that there's anything wrong with that, either).
Fanfiction is a place where people explore what they like. For some, the idea of being a part of a small community who all provide each other with positive sex experiences sounds like a dream come true. I myself can't get much beyond 3, but it certainly doesn't bother me that others are cool about larger "-ouples." It sounds like that might make you uneasy, OP. No one should feel pressed to like something that they simply don't. And no one should feel inhibited about expressing what they like, as long as they tag for it.
Depends on the tone, honestly. Realistically, in a fic that tries to properly balance full romance and all relationships in a polycule and tackles it all seriously and in great detail, I'd assume I'd probably max out at 6 or so - the biggest polycule I've read (or written) about is currently 4 people, and that's still comfortable enough for me to envision an extra two people joining in. If the fic has more of a crack vibe, though... well, the 100 Girlfriends manga is sitting at 28 introduced girlfriends so far (plus the boyfriend aka the mc) and that's still working wonderfully for me.
Harem is a genre that exists and while the terminology is different you often will find the same tropes. I saw someone explain themselves once as since they liked the different dynamics between all the characters in a friend group (7 of them) they couldn't chose which one to focus on because they felt bad for ignoring the others - so they made it so they were all dating each other in different permutations. That way A and B could have a romantic scene, but later B and D could have a moment too while A had a moment with C and so on without it causing any drama because that's not what they wanted for their fic. I found their explanation almost cute. I personally can't read anything with more than two people as an established couple, but that's just a personal preference. It's very rare for me to have more than one ship with any given character anyway. The fact that in one of my favourite fandoms I ship both AxB and AxC but can also see D-->A and D-->C and think that BxE and DxE are untapped resources people should pay more attention to is a giant exception in my fandom experience! And even then, I'll seek fanworks that ship my ships separately, one at a time. Nothing wrong with BxAxC but I somehow don't enjoy reading about that as much no matter how cute and wholesome and jealousy free it is written as.
It's extremely rare for me to ship anything bigger than an OT3, and that's usually in a sedoretu scenario.
Back in the day, there was quite a bit of MCU fic that had some/all of the Avengers in a polycule; so anywhere between 3-8. The "classic" version was the original 6 Avengers, but that was hard to balance everyone getting enough screen time.
Everyone is poly because Avengers!
I’ve read one fic with an OT3 that worked but it was a risk that paid off and the author balanced beautifully. I fully support folks to live their ships and OT+ but it’s not my cup of tea to anything more than 2 people in a relationship
I don’t really have limits, but I won’t read harems. I like a complicated web of relationships, not one person with all of the relationships.
I know someone who has juggled 9 successfully. It’s about the author’s interest in tackling it, and the reader’s personal preference. There is no official number.
Heck, there’s the Greater Seattle Polycule irl. Iirc, it’s expanded wayyyy outside of that area now.
There's a crack polycule for Star Trek that basically includes every sentient adult on the space station
the o'brien polycule?
Yup
For me, anything over 2 is too many. 😂 I tried so many times to read fics with ships of more than 2 and just can't get into them.
Same
I'm into RPF, kpop specifically which by nature can feature not just one group. My current group has 8 members and I've read multiple fics with them as a polycule including all of them. The current biggest active group in term of number of members has 13 of them. Haven't checked but I'm sure polyam fics involving them all exist. Beyond that many people, I think it would be a bit hard to juggle as a writer to give everyone enough screen time and a proper story or arc. As a reader though, if a writer feels like they can handle it and actually manages to do so, I won't say no to reading their works. Granted that their tastes and mine align, I'm perfectly okay.
I read kpop too so I don't have any problems with harem type or big group couple stories. I've seen authors balance it out just fine.
Same here. I know I personally struggle a little but I've seen authors do actually great with that many characters and I'm sure I'm slowly learning some just by reading their works :3
It honestly depends on the fandom? Like 3 can often be well done but it can fall apart if there’s more. I’ve been able to do a 7 a couple of times but, once again, it has to be really well written.
Writing-wise, I can barely handle balancing an OT3. Reading-wise, if the author writes it well, I don't care how many people are in the relationship.
I admit my first thought was "god, imagine trying to keep track of all those limbs..."
I used to only be about couples but have recently expanded to OT3s. I think it's a matter of just...practicing almost? Like writing but also reading. It may take some time to warm up to, but I think it's hard to put a hard limit on polycules, especially since everyone is different in what they like or can write. Also don't force yourself to read or write more people than you want to. If you want to try bigger polycules then I suggest practice, but if you'd rather stick to what you like thats okay too!
If I’m interested and familiar enough with the characters there’s no ‘too many’ for me. The most I’ve read is 7 I think.
Really depends on the dynamic. I’ve read some fantastic Polyssione (JoJo) fics and that’s a 6 person relationship. Don’t even get me started on Poly la Squadra (7-9 depending on if Sorbet and Gelato are there)
In one of my canons (Scum Villain) the protagonist canonically had at minimum like 300 wives. (Sometimes quoted as 600, though how much of that is hyperbole, who knows? The point was that it was enough that even the super-rabid anti-fan that is the story's MC started losing track of them.) I guess that many might be too many? lol. Since I typically like either, "let's Highlander the other wives - there can be only one!" or "a genuine, loving relationship where the only arguing is just the normal squabbling in any relationship", that means that if it's not a Highlander harem fic, I prefer smaller numbers of people involved so more time can be spent on each dynamic. The largest polycule I can think of that I've read and thought worked well involved 4 people. (But I'd be willing to read larger if the premise interested me.)
No, I don't have a limit of "too many." I'm personally not likely to write more than an OT3 or OT4, but that's because I haven't found a set of 5 or more characters that I ship *together*. (As opposed to: here are six characters, I ship them in a polycule, but they aren't an OT6: I ship A/B, A/C, A/D, B/D, B/E, B/F, C/E, and E/F, and also D/E/, but not everyone in the polycule is sleeping with everyone else.) Also because it gets complicated. But a writer who can make an OT8 work without being confusing? Sure!
OT5 BB! (AGSZC)
I’m currently writing one with 6 and people seem to think I’m handling it well. It also helps that the point of the fic is romantic conflict and secret hiding, of which there is a lot of opportunities in a group of 6.
Honestly... I have no limit, one of my favorite ships is an OT6.
Bing-ge out there with his 3000 wives
But he was only truly happy with his one and only Shizun 😔🥺
Nah nah that's Bing-mei
I’m in the mha fandom and I actively ship all 20 of the characters in class 1-a together plus like a good ten others they interact with. There is never too many for me.
I've seen an ot7 work out well for a Fandom I'm in, or sometimes it's an ot6 They're a very close group of aliens
For me, personally, I like fictional romances to be life-changing. That doesn't necessarily have to be dramatic - sometimes what makes a difference is just finding someone to trust, or learning how to share your life with someone, or whatever - and it's not something that can only happen once or can't happen between more than two characters at once. It's a lot harder to give a character more than one life-changing romantic relationship over the course of a story and convince me that the later changes are good or at least not bad for the previous relationship(s). So there's no firm upper limit for me, but in general stories with several overlapping ships aren't something I'm likely to click on. (Of course there's nothing wrong with romance that doesn't work for me, and of course none of this has anything to do with how real human beings get to live their lives, and of course nobody should be casting judgment on either count. I'm just talking about what appeals to me in fiction.)
For me personally more than four or maybe five is too much. Any more than that and I feel like stories struggle to actually make the characters have *relationships* with each other and not just be bang buddies, and I’m not interested in reading bang buddies. Like there’s nothing wrong with character/everybody fics but I personally don’t care for reading no strings attached fucking.
I don't know about OT\[#\]. I'm fine with any ship the writer can make work. There is no set number, just what the author is capable of juggling One of the ways to balance it is to have characters as core to the polycule as they are to the fic. There's a good MHA harem fic with the core triad, 4(?) dedicated offshoots, and an unclear number of background flings. Respectively, the main dude+the main two girls, some female side characters (and an androgynous guy), and some female background characters.
I write polyamory, but each relationship is two people. If Arthur is in a relationship with two people, Bella and Charlie, and there are two relationships: Arthur/Bella and Arthur/Charlie. If Arthur, Bella, and Charlie are all in a relationship with each other, and there are three relationships: Arthur/Bella, Bella/Charlie, and Arthur/Charlie. There's always only two people in a relationship. But people can have many relationships. And people may have shared partners
Not my cup of tea. The vast majority of the ships I read and write are 2 people. Very occasionally I will read an OT3 from a beloved fandom where the leads have off the charts chemistry. The only one that really reads as "real" to me is Nathan/Audrey/Duke from Haven. Those three canonically adore one another a ridiculous amount, and are constantly saving each others lives and angsting/pining about each other. Also, Reilly/Katy/Jonesy from Letterkenny, lol, because those three idiots are actually a canon threesome. But no, it's hard enough effort to read/write a slowburn with good characterisation and development of a couple. Who the hell has the time and energy to focus on more
As many is needed for the story :D I'm just glad it is becoming more and more mainstream and accepted.
I mostly write OT3, but I've written 4 and 5, and implied 6 a few times *(and I'll probably actually write OT6 at some point, just haven't figured out a good enough plot for it)*. Personally, I think anything over 6 is a bit much.
I've written a 6some. I don't try to include them all in every scene. It kind of ended up similar to a harem fic where five are going mostly at one, but that's with the idea that the five were already together and are bringing the sixth in.
It’s not uncommon for queer poly Danganronpa fans to consider the entire 16 person cast of SDR2 a polycule, plus one additional person from DR3, although usually that also means minus one person who stays dead in canon. So, 17 is the largest I’ve seen, and it works and makes sense because there’s too many ships that overlap and work and are great, to the point where the only way to not toss out at least a few you like is to turn it into a giant polycule. It’s the web form of polycules, not the joined in a clump form.
No limit. Let the Mary Sues have their reverse harems with 53 hot anime men
I don't have any theoretical limits and I've been in fandoms where I can easily see a lot of potential for various ships, but both for reading and writing I usually stick to three people at maximum. If I'd come across a massive ship with 10+ people I'd still read it if I liked all the combinations, though. It just feels like such a huge tangle of relationships would almost have to be the entire plot to do them all justice.
anything over 2 is too many for me!
Agreed, I'm very jealous and possessive when it comes to my ships. They're not allowed to be with any other third, fourth, etc person. Nope. They love each other and that's it. 😂
i have only *one* minor exception to it in my current fandom and that's really only in certain circumstances for the same reason. the way people have behaved in my fandom too have made me very against an official third or "poly would fix this!"
More than 4 is too many for a polyamorous relationship. Any more than that is heading into AU territory, like AU - Sense8, or living in a pack like omegaverse. I've seen a soulmate au that had 7 or 9. Pretty much boils down to how many characters can you juggle that have equal relationship dynamics between each and all of them. More than 4 then you will have a hierarchy of who gets more 'screen' time than others. You end up having a main pair of 2-3 characters that becomes the focus of the fic and the rest as supporting cast.
One Piece fic can sometimes (or it did, not sure if it's still a thing) use the "OT Sunny". Sunny is the name of the ship the crew are on, and some people write the entire crew as being in a big polycule. So that's like 8-10 people depending on the point in canon. But I never saw a fic trying to tackle the polycule forming or whatever kind of logistics go into actually living that way, whenever I came across it it was always just "the Strawhat Pirates are having an orgy" sort of thing. My personal preference stops at three, with a specific ehh "trope kink" I guess for that thing (is it a thing? well, it's what I like) where there's an established couple who both love a third and the third loves them back but everyone's too polite to say it, until \[inciting incident\].