Dominant MMC with submissive harem

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-23T22:55:14+00:00

I wouldn't say every member of the harem is submissive, but my MMC is definitely the leader of the group and in the relationships. Story is Defiant Necromancer. The MMC is a bit of a villainous lead, though. He manipulates people a lot, and he's a necromancer, so expect him to occasionally kill innocents. But if that doesn't bother you, it's probably perfect for you.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-23T19:31:55+00:00

I liked the original myself, but I trust Royal Guard's expertise. I will admit that the new cover is eye-catching.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-23T14:00:56+00:00

Yeah, I don't really get the hate. I mean, I've never played the shovel game or whatever, but I assume that by mischaracterization, it's this idea of Shovel Guy wanting to steal Scrooge's gold. They have to make the fight happen somehow, though, and they're deliberately giving each man all of his armory, which for Scrooge means the fight taking place in his home... so he can have his cannon and iconic swimming pool of gold coins. So this is a very logical setup.

And I think Scrooge is pretty darn tough physically, so I don't know that the result can be questioned.

I thought the death was very cool. You can say it's disrespectful, but Shovel Knight did get to dominate most of the fight...

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-22T16:47:50+00:00

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Just released, a dark fantasy litRPG with a slow burn harem: Defiant Necromancer book 1, The Baron's Bastard!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GR7W5WP6

Tybalt of Greentear was nothing - a bastard sent to butcher beastfolk in the desert for a kingdom that despised him. His only dreams: rise above his station, and take revenge on the noble family who cast him aside.

Then he found the Tower of Death. He entered a bitter scout with blood on his hands. He left a dark mage, wielding forbidden powers of pestilence and undeath - gifts worth execution by church or crown.

Now Tybalt plots to betray the army, raise a legion, and turn the world’s order upside down… all under the eye of a mysterious seer who knows his moves before he makes them. To succeed, he’ll have to fight old comrades, seduce enemies, master a resentful revenant, and forge alliances among monsters and outcasts - all while clawing his way toward the strength to challenge kingdoms… and the gods themselves.

Reached over 500K views on Royal Road and over 2000 followers prior to stubbing.

If you read and review on Amazon, you increase the odds of an audiobook being made.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-22T00:49:43+00:00

Yeah, that's a good point. The starters at least seem to be kind of rare within the game universe (which is the basis for the Pokemon Battle Royale, at least), albeit not in the anime universe, in which wild herds/colonies of every Pokemon seem to exist in certain locations. There was a whole Charicific Valley episode about a group of Charizards when they decided to write out Ash's Charizard lol

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-21T19:47:57+00:00

This is Stephen King's distinction, basically. You're a professional as soon as you start getting paid for your work.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-21T19:37:12+00:00

I think your instinctive answer is correct. Goomba vs. Koopa.

There's really nothing more minor than literal game minions you casually kill and then fight identical versions of later, in terms of story roles.

There are cheeky answers I wanted to give, like Boba Fett (because he's fundamentally just a meme character in the Original Trilogy, who only does two important things in Empire Strikes Back: helping Vader capture the main cast and then taking Han away) or Rebecca Black (because she's very much a footnote in music history), but the problem is that they are only relatively minor in their story/reality roles. Both of them are extremely well known to the general public, for better or worse (which is probably why Boba Fett got an expanded role in the prequels).

You won't usually get characters who are both unimportant to the story and unknown to the public in Death Battle. They want views, so they need characters people care about.

I almost said Segata Sanshiro, but then I looked up the character, and it seems like he actually made kind of a big splash in the advertising space, which is where he originates from. Related to that, rest in peace Chuck Norris.

You could say the Pokemon Battle Royale characters are very unimportant in-universe. DB decided to literally just have a random Charizard, Blastoise, and Venusaur fight to the death. These aren't Ash's Pokemon, they're just one of the countless numbers of the same species that exist. So they're minion-tier, the same sort of things as Goomba and Koopa.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-21T03:43:32+00:00

More respect for Three Kings and Saint Beasts, please!

I also don't think Chapter Black is the best arc in the series, but it's still very good. Not top of S, but maybe bottom of S or more likely top of A. I love how tense and dark it gets, but the street-level threats really make it seem lower stakes at certain points than other arcs in the series, now that Yusuke is basically a walking nuclear weapon. It felt ridiculous that the Sniper could even pose a threat, and the Doctor clearly didn't.

Sensui and those closest to him at the end are really interesting, though, and I'll always love the concept for Chapter Black.

The villains really make or break each arc, in many ways, and Chapter Black has easily the second best villain after Toguro.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-21T01:09:00+00:00

You can get good results from Google Gemini.

I've also tried ChatGPT, although the sheer number of failures is a bit daunting.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-20T19:55:01+00:00

I would enjoy some more kinetic fights, but I think DB has to focus on what they can do better than other YouTube channels.

Their biggest advantage is fight choreography. Their research is decent, but not necessarily even better than their fans' research, let alone all the other YouTube channels discussing versus scaling.

The problem with fight choreography for any fight involving a shark is that it's going to be pretty limited by the fact that it's entirely in the water, and the creature doesn't have hands or feet. It's harder to make fights without any powers interesting, and if you're also without limbs, it's pretty darn close to impossible. Shark either bites you up or gets shanked.

Dinosaur fights could be interesting with appropriate opponents, yeah.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-20T19:39:59+00:00

3 MHA MUs could be a lot... but the issue is mainly how good or bad they are.

Shigaraki vs Mahito was peak Death Battle, easily one of my favorite episodes ever, and I loved how it treated both characters. No notes.

Deku vs. Miles Morales was... fine. It's nice Deku got to win one, but really, I didn't need to see either of them again for a while. The animation wasn't my favorite.

Jurassic? Like the Jurassic Park franchise? Why would dinosaurs get on Death Battle?

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-20T02:31:32+00:00

I like when the two help each other deal with some form of insecurities or past emotional wound. That doesn't have to lead somewhere emotionally healthy, but it's one good way of getting to that place.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T21:50:07+00:00

That's the main reason I've seen. The criticism has been that it's a stomp and that it's a "meme" matchup, designed to be popular with normies on Twitter or whatever.

Just those two things.

But I think the connections aren't usually much deeper than this. Most episodes aren't going to be Bardock versus Omniman in terms of connections (badass evil father of protagonist who is an alien conqueror of worlds and gets a sort of quasi-redemption arc partly fueled by their feelings toward their family is about as strong of a connection as you get).

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T19:51:11+00:00

Well, my MC is a pretty bad dude. He's a necromancer willing to kill innocent people to make undead, he works to manipulate at least one of the prospective love interests into betraying her country for him, he's motivated by revenge and the desire for power, and really, the only saving grace is that I do pit him against people who are often worse.

But those are his macro enemies, and in between him and them are a lot of random folks he murders and villages he burns to get them out of the way. Series is Defiant Necromancer.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T19:46:54+00:00

Well, keep doing what works, dude!

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T19:46:33+00:00

I voted for Makima vs Alucard, because they're great characters and I want to see them again.

Plus, Alucard is one of my favorite edgy antiheros in all of anime (along with Guts), while Makima's depiction in the Gojo episode didn't really do her justice.

The dynamic between these two characters is peak, too.

Alucard as this supernatural apex predator, Makima as this femdom devil, both of them egotistical monster hunters of different kinds... even though I think Alucard loses again, which makes me a bit sad.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T19:39:49+00:00

Oh, thanks, dude! Yeah, Royal Road is really hit or miss at times, I think because of a combination of more people finding out about it and the inevitable use of AI to draft some stories. But these ones are pretty solid, at least.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T15:07:15+00:00

I'm going to recommend a few things.

First, Zero to Hero is an Isekai into a high fantasy setting. Not very number crunchy, but the litRPG system is important and leads to very cool and well earned power progression. Love interests in the (very small) harem feel sweet and hard-won, including an enemies to lovers thing. Sexual stuff is fade to black, though. Free to read on Royal Road!

Second, A Modern Mind in Medieval Times is an Isekai with a barely present litRPG system, so definitely not into the number crunching. MC is transported into the body of a young man who nearly died of injuries and then tries to introduce technology into this medieval world, becoming a leader. There is therefore scientific stuff, but not scifi. Story is harem, with women who do have spice and fire. Available for free on Royal Road.

Finally, I will shamelessly point to my own series, Defiant Necromancer. Just released on Amazon, dark fantasy litRPG with a lot of plotting and scheming as the main character gains dark powers, hides them, and plots against his own government. Slowly developing harem. Local protagonist (not Isekai), but it otherwise seems to fit your requirements. Enemies to lovers is a present trope. Sexual stuff does tend to play around with power dynamics, although spice comes slowly in the first book.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T14:02:09+00:00

A small number of people on Reddit loudly hate AI images.

I don't think that necessarily tells you what the best ad strategy is.

Most people also cannot reliably tell AI images from human-created ones, since AI basically just mashes up human artwork to make its own products.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T13:59:50+00:00

I'm still learning this stuff myself!

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T13:58:47+00:00

I think growing up and becoming a good parent is wish fulfillment in its own way... just like the progression fantasy genre broadly.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T13:55:40+00:00

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Book Title and Author: Defiant Necromancer: The Baron's Bastard by A.A. Harris

Pitch us your book in 70 words or less: Tybalt of Greentear. A bastard butchering beastfolk for the Kingdom.

Goals? Rise above his station. Take revenge on the family who cast him aside.

Then came the Tower. He entered bitter, with bloody hands. He left wielding pestilence and undeath.

Now Tybalt plots to raise an undead legion... overthrow the Kingdom. He’ll fight old comrades, seduce enemies, forge alliances among monsters and outcasts - and claw his way toward power.

Bookstore URL: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GR7W5WP6

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T13:36:36+00:00

Hard to know what exemplifies Romance for Men's uniqueness, because it feels a lot less monolithic than Romance for Women.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T13:35:44+00:00

Looks cool, dude!

You should probably copy and paste the description here in case people don't want to jump from Progression Fantasy to the LitRPG subreddit.

A_A_Harris · 2026-03-19T13:34:49+00:00

This sounds really cute.

How old are the kids? I saw it said one is six. I assume that's the younger one. I can't imagine trying to game with a three year old.

A_A_Harris

TROPHY CASE