Marry Them All

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
(Redirected from Harem Ending)
So, wait, did he hook up with the cat thing too?

Anime Tenchou: If you're a man, score all the heroines at once!
Hayate: Please hold on. "Score all the heroines at once"? Am I a rapist?
Maria: You don't like it?

—Hayate the Combat Butler

Joey: I got two words for you: threesome!
Chandler: Still got one more word, if you want to use it.

—Friends

In Love Triangles and more complicated situations, selecting just one suitor can prove to be a toughie. After all, the situation is there because he usually likes every girl to a degree and doesn't want to break anyone's heart or make them leave his company. Even if he likes one particular girl, there's little guarantee that the rest will be willing to accept his choice, especially in long-running harem series. This often happens when the love polygon devolves into True Companions and infatuations become close friendships instead.

So if First Girl Wins, Last Girl Wins, and/or Cleaning Up Romantic Loose Ends clearly aren't where the plot is going, there's another way to resolve the situation: Instead of choosing one girl, the protagonist simply marries them all and they all live as one large family.

The happiness of those involved depends on where on the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism the series is; the only way this kind of ending will not end in a perpetual warzone of a Dysfunctional Family with an emotionally-dead Henpecked Husband (Tenchi Muyo! GXP) or a bloodbath within the year (School Days) is if the wives are also close friends who love each-other like sisters (or something else).

In Real Life, such a thing is called polygamy (when it's one man and many women), polyandry (when it's one woman and many men), or polyamory (when there's more than one of each), and is frowned upon in many countries. Where legal, it may be used for producing continuations of the bloodline and having people to clean the house rather than love like above. Most countries (especially in the West) restrict marriage to a single partner, but cohabitation is generally not a problem, so a realistic Marry-Them-All ending in that case would be a single marriage and registered cohabitation for the other partners.

See also One True Threesome and Polyamory. Contrast Dump Them All, where none of the girls get him and/or chooses someone outside the circle and No Romantic Resolution where there is no conclusion between the love interest and the circle and he remains a Celibate Hero.

Examples of Marry Them All include:


Anime and Manga

  • Tenchi Muyo!: The discovery in the OVA that Juraians practice polygamy implies that Tenchi could hypothetically also go the other route if he wished, although he seems too old-fashioned to notice or consider the idea. In the original series, he tends towards No Romantic Resolution by remaining friendly with all of the girls but not favoring any of them.
    • Both the OVA and GXP justify this by stating that the marriages are political: Ayeka and Sasami are granddaughters to Seto, the most powerful noble in Jurai who bosses the King and Sasami herself is gradually merging with Tsunami, the patron goddess of Jurai and one of three known 11-dimensional entities named the Choushin (literally "super-deity"), into a singular being; Noike is adopted daughter of aforementioned Seto, female half of Kagato, which also means that she is Naja Akara clone and as result have same genetic makeup with Seto-no-onihime; Mihoshi is a member of the Kuramitsu family, one of the most powerful families in the universe; Washu is a Choushin and sister to the aforementioned patron deity of the Juraians as well as Mihoshi's ancestor; Tokimi eventually decides to live in Tenchi's house with her sisters, though she apparently doesn't have a romantic relation with him; Ryoko is technically Washu's daughter and therefore technically half-choushin; and Ryo-ohki is Ryoko's ship. As the third OAV quickly points out, Tenchi's household is potentially the single highest concentration of power, Physical, Political, and Supernatural in the universe.
    • In the tie-in doujinshi, it is clearly stated that he did eventually marry them all.
    • Tenchi Muyo! GXP spoilers: Tenchi's friend Seina, in a similar predicament with nine women (five main, four minor), has his problem solved for him by simply ordering him to "politically" marry his main five love interests. (The other four kidnap him just before the wedding and ravish him to get in on it; it apparently works out somehow -- see the page image.) Tenchi even attended the wedding.
  • Parallel Trouble Adventure Dual: At the end of episode 14, Kazuki is made to go alone into space, with both Mizukis, Yayoi, and D (all the girls in love with him) as his official staff, at the actual instigation of the all the major parental authority figures (the Sanada and Rara parents) in the series.
    • No big surprise, since it's from the same company that made Tenchi Muyo, and is in fact canonically considered to be connected to Tenchi Muyo! by The Multiverse concept.
  • El-Hazard: The Magnificent World: At the end of the last TV series set in the first continuity (EH:Wanderers was an Alternate Universe), EH: The Alternative World, it appears that Makoto may very well be destined to get together with all the other girls anyway (ala Shuffle), as well as getting back together with Ifurita.
    • After all, it's one of Pioneer's three harem romances, the other two being Tenchi and Dual. Roshtarian culture is also apparently inspired/derived from ancient Persia, where polygamy was a fact of life.
  • In Happy Lesson, all 5 of the hero's "mothers" decide that he's outgrown the need for a parental figure, so obviously what he needs next is wives.
  • The manga version of Magic Knight Rayearth, with Hikaru declaring she's going to marry both of her love interests. Though what Hikaru actually says is that she wants to be with the ones she loves forever (Which is how Eagle describes marriage), and then defines the ones she loves to be virtually entire cast.
  • In Mahou Sensei Negima, Nodoka worries about her best friend's crush on Negi. She gets even more embarrassed when the first thing her magic book (which she uses to read her own mind) subconsciously suggests is saishoudoukin, where a man has a wife and mistress on the side in the same house.
    • What makes it even funnier is the fact that the mind reading is accompanied by a little doodle of her, Negi, and Yue sharing a bed. Ye gods, girl.
      • Said doodle was actually pretty innocent. The image her imagination cooked up a second later was not.
  • Hazumu from Kashimashi: Girl Meets Girl tried this one, but it ended up completely collapsing into a quantum romance singularity.
  • Code Geass teases at this one in the second season. Kaguya, devoted fangirl and would-be wife of Zero/Lelouch, is perfectly okay with his supposedly eyeing other women like his bodyguard Kallen or his partner C.C., because as Kaguya puts it, "Heroes are known for loving many women", and comments that the three of them are united in their devotion to Zero. Not that he's been eyeing any woman at all, really, but Kaguya does like to play The Ditz now and then...
    • She's not completely wrong, either, though. Lelouch himself may be a Celibate Hero, but C.C. has been sleeping in his bed from the beginning, and is the only one he trusts implicitly, and Kallen is only behind because of her own racial identity issues and questions of Lelouch's morality. Lelouch's attempt to wriggle out of her marriage proposal was pretty much accepted by every viewer, as well as Kaguya, to mean "I belong to C.C.". In addition, the three of them disappear at the end of the Black Rebellion, and reappear together. That Kallen is the only one of the three who socializes with anybody other than each other, and their free access to Lelouch's room - which is apparently also C.C.'s room - is the final nail in the idea. There's very few other conclusions.
    • Her claim of them being "The Three Court Ladies" is so popular with the fandom that it's practically a meme.
      • And then if you add in the fact that his father had 108 wives (being Emperor) and that Lelouch eventually becomes emperor as well... the possibility of this multiplies. Extremely quickly. Except, of course, that dear Lulu is dead, fandom. Word of God says so.
    • In one of the sound episodes Shirley, while thinking about how to give Lelouch her concert tickets, keeps imagining how he will reject her. In her Imagine Spot she starts pairing him up with various people, and it all ends with Kallen, Milly, Nunnaly, Rivalz, Suzaku and Arthur deciding to share Lelouch between them and inviting Shirley to join in.
      • There are also hints that Milly is interested in Lelouch... which, combined with her supporting Shirley's desire to date Lelouch, makes you wonder if she gave up on him, only started feeling that way in season 2, or was planning to seduce Shirley and become a trio. She is the woman described as "like a dirty old man" by her best friend.
  • In a later episode of the Sorcerer Hunters anime, Tira and Chocolat have a heartfelt sisterly talk about their feelings for Carrot, and it's strongly hinted that not only don't they mind sharing, but Carrot wouldn't mind being shared (OT3 for the win!).
    • The manga version handles the triangle differently; Carrot and Tira become the Official Couple at the end, and Chocolat decides to wish them well... as long as she's the first to have "Darling"'s child. The Revival manga shows that she's accomplished her mission, with her as the mother of two children that she swears she can't remember the father of...
  • In the Maburaho anime, Kazuki uses his magic to create ten clones of himself, just so there's enough of him for the girls to share. This solves nothing whatsoever, as the Clingy Jealous Girl wants them ALL for herself.
  • In the Mega Man Star Force anime, Luna and Harp Note at one point try to make MegaMan choose between them. We don't see exactly what Geo says, but he goes for this solution.
    • In the original Japanese anime at least, Subaru (Geo) says "We're all just friends, right?" with which the girls are seemingly satisfied.
    • Can happen in the third game of the series as well, if the player wants. The player can either have Geo save Luna's things (and have an extra scene with her), Sonia's (and have an extra scene with her), or... Bud's, in which case there is no extra scene with the girls.
  • Iono the Fanatics. Queen Iono loves every single girl in her harem and they love her back. All 50,000+ of them.
  • Kanokon has an odd variation in which the guy in question doesn't even make the call; the last episode has Chizuru and Nozomu agreeing to share Kouta.
    • Also, whenever he tries to pick and just go for it, he is interrupted.
  • Umi no Misaki, by the author of Ai Yori Aoshi. A Tokyo teen moves to the southern island his late mother grew up on, and finds out that not only is he the prophesied reincarnated Dragon God of the local religious offshoot, the three hot girls that have been treating him badly are shrine maidens dedicated to serving him with their minds and bodies. Oh, and the Dragon God is supposed to give one (at least, it has not been clearly stated) his "favor". Of course, now the three maidens have fallen in love with him and trying their (non-violent) best to get the Dragon God to pick them, while the guy is attracted to and likes the three maidens as well . The story is working itself into a OT 4 ending, since this is really not a dark series, and having the guy pick only one girl would probably tear the other two to pieces.
  • In Ai Kora, Hachibei explicitly says he plans to do this. Though this becomes especially implausible after Tsubame-sensei gets a new boyfriend, and Kirino moves away after becoming an idol singer. He seems to have abandoned it completely in the final volume after realizing how much he loves Sakurako.
  • In Saber Marionette J, Otaru is shown to end up with all three of the girls—Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry.
    • Subverted in the second season, Saber Marionette J to X, in that Lime, Cherry, and Bloodberry end up getting turned into babies, and Otaru raises them as his daughters.
  • As seen in chapter 162 of To LOVE-Ru, Lala not only does not mind the possibility of both her and Haruna marrying Rito but is actively enthusiastic about it. Later, he accidentally says "I love you" to several of the other girls (even thought it was meant for Haruna, and Lala does not mind sharing him with them too. And it's implied that, by Deviluke law, he could take even more wives one he becomes king after officially marrying Lala. Hooray for the harem?
    • In the sequel To LOVE-Ru Darkness, Momo explicitly wants this outcome (with her in the harem of course) and knows that the biggest hurdle is Rito himself.
  • In Vision of Escaflowne, Hitomi jokingly suggests this when Milerna comes to her with an I Have This Friend Love Triangle dilemma regarding Dryden and Allen. Milerna rejects the idea out of hand ("But that's so immoral!"), much to the dismay of fanfic writers everywhere.
  • The protagonist of Sekirei are rapidly heading for Marry Them All. If they are not there already.
    • And at least one secondary character seems to have gone for Marry Them All already with his two Sekirei...
  • Despite the implications of the opening quote from Hayate the Combat Butler, it seems that he's probably going to take the Dump Them All route. Or at least take the next 40 years to clear his debt before he tries to choose anyone. Doubtful that any of the girls would be willing to wait until they're 50 for a conclusion.
    • Except for his true love (whoever that is)! So actually, its a pretty good plan.
    • Recent events in the manga make this...complicated. For starters, the debt issue is kinda-sorta handled by Nagi giving up her right to the inheritance to help Hayate save Athena. Hayate will likely be Nagi's butler forever simply because she means a lot to him and he wants to help her. In addition, another issue is solved in the way of Hayate getting over his guilt about his past with Athena so he may be open for the possibility of romance (at least more-so than he was). Time will tell exactly how this gets resolved but Nishizawa has already proposed that both she and Hinagiku marry him so the option is still technically on the table.
  • The idea of Marry Them All was actually raised in a recent Rosario + Vampire chapter. Pretty much all of Tsukune's harem except Moka were almost immediately in favor of the idea.
    • Of course they did and of course she wasn't. Moka actually stands the best chance to "win" all on her own, having Tsukune completely to herself (well, if you don't count her split personality) and leaving the others out. None of the other girls have much of a shot at winning individually, but as a harem, they can avoid losing entirely. Yukari deserves a special mention, as she was already aiming to achieve a One True Threesome with herself, Moka and Tsukune—a harem solution gets her that, even if she has to tolerate sharing with Kurumu and Mizore (and possibly Ruby).
    • Complicating things further is that the one he has already chosen isn't the real Moka -- it's technically a personality constructed by the rosary itself. So the rosary is a haremette.
  • At the end of the Photon OVA, our heroes have dispatched the Big Bad, and two of the three girls in Photon's Harem start bickering over who gets him. Photon promptly draws on each of their foreheads the same kana for Baka that's on his forehead (it's an in-universe cultural thing, apparently), and proudly declares "I'll protect all of you!"
  • In Bleach, Orihime suggests something close to this effect. Though her feelings for Ichigo are obvious from the beginning of the manga, she eventually asks Rukia point-blank if she has feelings for Ichigo. Rukia denies this, and Orihime is actually disappointed because she feels that if they both loved Ichigo, they could gang up on him and the "girls would win".
    • In the 23th anime ending, Shunsui is shown having a date with two girls: his lieutenant Nanao Ise and his ex-lieutenant Lisa Yadomaru from the Vaizards.
  • Brutally averted in the School Days anime: Things do not work out between the Love Triangle and it ends with Makoto being stabbed to death by Sekai, who just can't take it anymore. Kotonoha later kills Sekai with a cleaver, cuts her open to confirm she wasn't pregnant, and, apparently completely insane, leaves with Makoto's severed head in a gym bag.
    • Though it should be noticed that, in the Visual Novel, it's not THAT deconstructed. Not only there's the possibility of having Makoto, Kotonoha and Sekai engage in a three-way sex scene (with bonus Les Yay snowballing between the girls), but there is at least one ending in which Kotonoha and Sekai DO reach an agreement and decide to "share" Makoto's affections.
  • In SHUFFLE!, particularly the original H-Game/Visual Novel, no matter who Rin ends up with, Shin-ou reminds everyone that polygamy is legal in Shinkai.
    • In the sequel/expansion Shuffle! Essence+ this is explicitly the ending for Kareha that Rin agree to marry both her and her sister Tsubomi and more specifically in Tsubomi's end that she refuses to have a relationship with Rin unless he agree to marry EVERY girl who's in love with him as well.
  • In the hentai manga Tayu-Tayu by Yamatogawa, this option is forced on the Official Couple by, basically, all the other girls in the harem.

One of the girls: "Hey, Midori! We're stealing your man!"
Midori: (after being screwed into exhaustion) "Aw, hell... Do whatever you want..." (slides to the floor out-of-panel)

  • Happens in DearS by default, as Takeya ends up the only guy on a spaceship full of horny alien slavegirls in heat, which is going on a tour of the galaxy (two of them—Ren and Miu—were explicitly in love with him while still on Earth and two others—Nyu and China—have expressed attraction).
  • Implied in Macademi Wasshoi, as Takuto loves all three of them equally.
  • Often brutally averted/subverted in Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei, as every single one of his harem are Yanderes (ironically, except for the First Girl, who's actually the driving force for the harem), in addition to being psychologically "toxic" in some way. Even when they do agree to share him, their consensus concept of sharing is more often than not, literal physical division of the object of their affections.
  • Yomeiro Choice ends this way when the male lead gets over his indecisiveness and realizes that he loves his daughters from the future too much to allow any of them to vanish from the timestream. The series ends with the daughters now arguing about which one should be conceived first.
  • Asobi Ni Iku Yo this is how Eris suggests resolving the love triangle with herself, Aoi, and Manami over Kio. Since Earth doesn't have a law against mistresses it's ok to share Kio. The other girls are ok with it.
  • How NOT to Summon a Demon Lord; the love triangle between Diablo, Rem, and Shira ends in volume 8 of the Light Novel when he weds both of them. Although technically, there's a small snafu with the ring exchange which means Rem is married to Shira rather than Diablo, but that is fixed after two more volumes.
  • A High School DxD spin-off novel presents this as a Foregone Conclusion for Issei Hyoudo: Not only does he marry his truest love Rias Gremory, he marries every single girl that ever fell in love with him. In order: Rias, Akeno, Asia, Xenovia, Irina, Rossweise, Ingvild, Le Fay, Kuroka and Koneko. That's a total of ten wives. And to top it all off? He's got at least one child with each of his wives . To say his hornyness paid off is quite the understatement!

Fan Works

  • The concept of the OT3 (or OT4, OT5, etc.) in fanfiction is much like an OTP, but with three or more characters together rather than two. It's quite handy for reconciling opposing ships.
  • This is how Axis Powers Hetalia fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità ended. After spending months together in a polyamorous relationship, Italy proposed to both Germany and Japan in front of all the other countries during one of their World Meetings. Everyone cheered as Germany and Japan tackled Italy to the ground and showered him with kisses.
  • Played with in-universe in Shinji and Warhammer40K. Shinji's fan clubs are averse to the idea ("The four points star was not a valid option, dammit."), the Farseer in his head wants this and Rei is practically shoving the idea down his throat.
  • Played for comedy in DC Nation‍'‍s Heaven or Las Vegas [dead link]. The Zamaraons attempt to figure out what makes the Green Lanterns of Earth tick and refine the process behind the Star Sapphire rings. To do this, they take the Earth-based lanterns, and put them in a theme-park version of Las Vegas. While most of the Lanterns wake up in the surreal "test environment" with the woman they're currently dating, Hal wakes up in bed with Carol Ferris, Arisia, "Cowgirl Jill," and Zinda "Lady Blackhawk" Blake—ALL AT ONCE.
    • "theme-park version of Vegas?" How could you tell?
  • Possibly the only option for Rachel Summers in Marvel Nextgen. Current roster of young men courting her include a Shi'ar Imperial Prince, a Logan, and a non-mutant catboy. Franklin Richards is a recurring joke.
  • The Harry Potter Fanfic The Issue of Mine Enemy ends with Bellatrix, Marietta Edgecombe, Hermione, Ginny and Gabrielle Delacour all marrying Harry. Yes, it's on adultfanfiction.net.
    • This occurs in a large number of Harry Potter fanfics, due to so-called "Pureblood marriage contracts", and almost always to Harry. It even has a ship name: Harem!Harry.
  • The Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha one-shot Nanoha's Problem takes this trope to its logical extreme.
  • In Kyon: Big Damn Hero, the odd situation in Hinamizawa was resolved this way. This inspired Haruhi to start aiming for it herself, between all the girls in the SOS Brigade and Kyon.
    • This is actually deconstructed and then reconstructed in the same chapter. According to Rika, the romantic situation at the end of the Higurashi series turned into a No Romantic Resolution situation for several years until Rika was physically old enough to make her move on Keiichi, but the way she tried to catch Keiichi's notice nearly destroyed her and Keiichi's relationship with Mion and the rest of their friends (and considering that this is Higurashi, it's not hard to imagine how that might've played out). Disaster was only averted at the last moment when a Marry Them All solution was proposed by Rena and Satoko and accepted by the rest of the group. Even then, it's not an easy relationship to have; it only works because the whole group were iron-clad True Companions before they were a harem, and each of the girls has enough self-esteem and love for their partners to not worry about him ever abandoning them.
  • In Naruto there is something called the The Clan Restoration Act which forces the last member of a important family to marry many women just to increase the clan population. This is mainly done if Kekkei Genkai or special techniques are present in the clan. This is normally applied to Naruto, but occasionally with Sasuke.
  • The Total Drama Island fanfic Total Drama Luxury Tour is a Egregious example. It's a Continuation of the third season, centered on Cody. It had many and many moments of Ship Tease with the other female contestants, and the author even created a poll about which contestant you'd like to see Cody with. Then in the end he gets all five girls anyways: Gwen, Bridgette, Heather, Sierra, and Courtney. And Blaineley also likes him. Even more, the author planned doing the same thing with Noah or Ezekiel as a sequel, although problems with the harem settup in Cody, the author not wanting to break up two of the (three) Beta Couples, and what the remaining girls are like mostly prevent it.
  • Discussed in Rosario to Kiva - as Wataru is Fangire royalty, he can legally, by the laws of his people marry all the haremettes.
  • Done in BeastBoy's Catgirl, where in the end, BB has four girls who love him (Raven and three Furries). First, the guy has a date with each girl to decide whom he likes more, then he decides to make no decision at all. When he announces that, one of the girls announces she is pregnant. Skip a few years, all of the girls are moms. None are officially married, though.

Literature

  • In Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series, Rand al'Thor is bonded as a warder (i.e. more than married...) to all three of his love interests: Min, Elayne and Avienda. This makes for some awkward sexy times, as all three women can telepathically sense one another.
  • Happens at the end of M.A.R. Barker's The Man of Gold with Hársan, Eyil, and Tlayesha.

Live-Action TV

  • In Plain Sight: When a witness is caught out as a bigamist, he seems to want both of his families to merge into one big happy one. The wives and kids do not agree. Pretty much everyone agrees that they don't want to see the dad very much, if at all, but the end of the episode shows the moms letting the kids play together.

Video Games

Visual Novels

Web Comics

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